A letter to Todd, by Cary Kelly
A letter to Todd
I was invincible... until 2009. I ate chips and ice cream for dinner, I was thin as a rail and never sick. Then poor health caught up to me. I woke up on my 40th birthday with the most excruciating back pain and I could barely walk or put my pants on. I went to the ER, got some meds and made an appt with a specialist.
I had x-rays taken and the specialist said I had osteoarthritis, likely instigated by a car accident I was in 15 years earlier. He told me the back pain would only get worse unless I had surgery and mine wasn't bad enough for surgery. He said I would have to just learn to live with it and ready myself for lots of physical therapy.
For the next 8 years, I went thru life and work as gingerly as I could. I ate NSAIDs like Tic Tacs (6 per day on average) and I went to the chiropractor twice a week and sometimes more to try and find relief. I continued to eat poorly and I gained 6-7 pounds a year which made matters worse.
I tried counting calories and eating mostly fruit and veg but that just made me constantly hungry and solved nothing. I stayed fat. I had digestion problems, sinus problems, allergies, depression and all sorts of minor issues that I filled my medicine cabinet with remedies for.
By the time I was 48, I was nearly defeated. I honestly didn't want to live to be 50 because I couldn't imagine being able to continue my career in the restaurant industry because being on my feet for just 3-4 hours made me ache to the bone. How could I live if I couldn't work and support myself? I was tired of being tired and I just wanted relief from everything.
And then an angel walked into my life. He was a manager in a Virginia Beach restaurant who was shipped off to help the store I was in get back on track. His name was Todd and he told me about keto and how it helped him lose 60 pounds in a year and changed his life. I thought, "Ok, this guy is crazy. He eats mayo and butter and got healthy. Yeah, right!"
Todd went back to Virginia and about a month later, I was walking home, up a fairly steep hill on a hot summer day. I was sweating donuts when I felt my right arm going numb. I seriously thought I was having a stroke and it scared me like nothing else ever had. I knew something had to change or I would be dead soon and I wouldn't have to worry about being 50.
And then I remembered Todd and I decided to try a week of low carb.
My third day in, I woke up and 95% of the inflammation that had been a part of my every day for 8 years was gone. It truly felt like after raining every day for nearly a decade inside my body, it stopped and the sun came out. I knew there was no turning back at that point. That was 5.5 years ago.
I never got a chance to tell Todd thank you.
I stayed keto for about 2 years and then began to just eat intuitively and I gravitated towards mostly meat and fewer and fewer vegetables.
Today, MEDS is 98% of my diet. After 5.5 years of sustained low carb.
Written by Cary Kelly
Published January 20th, 2023
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