Semi-Retired Bob Transcript
Summary
Bob talks about being a diabetic and how shortly after starting a carnivore diet his swollen feeling in his feet (a sign of diabetic neuropathy) disappeared. He discusses his 35 year-long gout problem and how 23 months of carnivore has stopped the gout attacks in their tracks! Not forgetting his Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and how he was initially told to give up meat, which he did! But it did nothing except see his uric acid levels going extremely high, this was despite being vegetarian. He also describes his other health improvements including curing fatty liver and arthritis.
Bob became carnivore because he had health problems for over 35 years. As mentioned, gout was the biggest issue, Type 2 diabetes was not controlled, and arthritis was so bad it stopped him being able to stand for just a few minutes. He was following a high-carb, low-fat diet, and was on over 20 medications. After researching the carnivore diet online and watching videos by Dr. Ken Berry, he decided to give carnivore a try. Within two years, he has lost 150 pounds, reversed his type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and chronic kidney disease and more!
Transcription
U1
0:01
Hi there and welcome to another interview. Today I've got the fabulous semi-retired Bob with me, and I'm going to ask Bob the same question. Ask absolutely everybody. Hey, Bob, why did you become carnivore?
U2
0:13
Well, to truly understand my carnivore journey, we have to go back to the year 1983. That's the year I was discharged from the United States military because I had gout. 1s And. 1s The Army doctor gave me a handout on what I should eat to control the gout. 1s When I got home and went back to my civilian doctor, he gave me the same basic handout. So that's what I did. It was lots of fruits, lots of vegetables. Don't eat fatty red meat or pork. If you're going to have meat, have chicken or fish and just a palm sized piece about two ounces a couple of times a week, but avoid meat at all costs because that's what causes gout. So I go on with my life. I'm slowly getting bigger and bigger because. 2s Now I know it's because of the diet, but I thought it was because I would have gout attacks and I kept getting more and more medications for the attacks, but nothing seemed to work. So over the next 35 years or so, I just sort of put up with it. But I knew I was getting bigger and bigger because I was getting bigger and bigger. But every, you know, we knew it as fact at the time that all you had to do to lose weight was to eat less and move more. 1s So every time I tried this though, the I would eat less, but then I'd try to do a move more an exercise kind of program, but then I'd have a gout flare, and I'd be laid up for a couple of weeks and couldn't do anything. So of course, it just slowly piled up over the next 35 years or so. And then what that led to was I was diagnosed with type two diabetes. 1s And the nutritionist at my doctor's office gave me such wonderful advice. I can say now, the only thing she said that I still follow is cheating. Once in a while is okay, as long as you don't let the cheat become the habit. Which was a very good piece of advice. Unfortunately, everything else was ridiculous because she had me on what she called a carb controlled diet. The carb control diet says that you should have between 60 and 75 carbs her meal. 1s Three meals a day, and then you should have 315 to 20 carbs snacks in between. So not only if she had me eating, what does that add up to? Like 250g of carbs a day? 1s Had me eating six times a day, and the idea was if you spread the carbs out, it will help your diabetes. And to give them credit, if you did, lower it a little bit. I went from an A onesie of 10.3 down to an agency, usually hovering around nine.
U1
3:32
And all of this advice just led to six and a half years ago. I had a triple bypass surgery. I was 100% blocked in two arteries and the other one was 99% blocked. All leading to the same area of the heart. So I was literally 1% away from just falling over dead. 2s My doctor. My cardiologist still can't believe that I walked into his office that day. But I did. This is just the way it was. So I had my triple bypass surgery and I did get a little better, obviously, because I'm now getting blood to the heart again. That's going to have some improvements. But I still had gout, I still had diabetes and all the arthritis and all of the other problems that I had. 2s Kept me from getting a lot healthier. 1s Now, I was sitting in my trailer because I have a little camper trailer that I've converted out of a five by ten cargo trailer, and in the winter time I leave Omaha, Nebraska because it's not nice here in the winter. So I was sitting. 1s About 30 minutes from one of the most beautiful beaches in North Carolina.
U2
4:59
And I was there for six months and never saw the beach because I couldn't get out of my trailer. I was literally sitting around surviving from day to day, waiting to not wake up the next morning. That was really my hope was that this is just all going to end because everything was so bad. 2s Then, as I'm getting ready to come back to Omaha, I was sitting in my trailer watching YouTube videos.
U1
5:33
And I have no idea. 1s Why YouTube decided to show this to me. Because I have always been, uh uh vanlife camping, travel, tourism, photography, kind of a YouTube user, and I truly believe that God reached into my computer and said, this is the video you need to see. And it was a video by Dante Ferrigno called the 125 days on the Lion Diet. 1s I didn't know what the heck the lion die was, but I thought, okay, I'll click on it. So I clicked on it and very quickly. 1s Realized that this lion diet was just a more extreme version of a ketogenic diet, a high fat. 1s Protein rich, meat based diet. And of course, I can't do those because I have gout. And we knew. As fact I know as fact for 40 years that meat causes gout. 1s But because I'd watched his video the next time I turned on YouTube, it came up with this country doctor that talks real funny from the middle of Tennessee named Doctor Ken Bear. 2s And I saw. I know that it must have been a Monday, because I saw that he was going right in just a couple of hours. So I set the alarm on my phone and went into his life and thought to myself, oh my goodness, I'm never going to get a question answered because there's already 2000 people here waiting for this live stream, and it hasn't even started yet. But because I was there, I typed my question in I have gout and cannot eat meat. Is there a version of this diet I can do? 2s If I know it's going to be so successful, I would have written the girls name down at the time. I know it was either Mitzi or Payola, because those were the two female moderators that he had at the top, but I can't remember which one of those. But one of them sent me back a message that said meat does not cause gout. You should go to Doctor Barry's video library and look at his lips.
U2
7:45
So I did that. And my first thought was, well, this guy is absolutely insane because I've known as fact for 40 years that meat causes gout. But I watched a few more of his videos and I that's the point where I decided, okay. 1s The worst that can happen is this kills me. And at this point, that wouldn't be such a bad idea. So. 1s I was on my way to visit my sister and mom in Ohio, and I didn't think it would be fair to. Call up my sister and say, well, you have to go back to the commissary and go grocery shopping all over again because I'm going to change my diet today. 1s So I was scheduled to get home on May the 8th. So I got home on May the 8th and then on and went shopping. Or just Carnivore Foods. 1s On May the 9th, the day before my 59th birthday. 1s I went full on carnival. Now, as I know now, that's not a great idea. You should transition gradually into it. I'm one of the lucky ones that didn't have any problems so far. I am almost two years into it now, but. 2s That as they say, the rest is history. Before Carnival, this was about the best fist I can make with my hands. Be so locked up with arthritis. And now, as you can see, they work just fine. My type two diabetes is gone. It is cured. I went from a onesie of around nine at the time. My agency is now 4.8. 3s My fatty liver disease is gone. My chronic kidney disease is gone. 2s The doctor that I go to. You can see your past lab results in the computer. Now it only goes back five years, so I can't see what it was ten years ago or 20 years ago. But I can tell you that my kidney markers and my liver markers are better than they have been in recent history.
U1
10:03
Um. 1s The main cause of all of my problems. Yeah, that started it all. I have not had a single gout attack. 1s In the 23 months I have been on the Carnival diet. Not one. Not even a twinge. Um, I have spinal stenosis. I can still tell I have spinal stenosis. But instead of the debilitating pain. 3s I don't have any pain unless I jump up and down really vigorously in an exercise. I can still feel my back hitting a little bit there, but.
U2
10:45
Blood pressure. I was on three blood pressure medicines. And even with the three blood pressure medicines, my blood pressure would average between 140 and 150 over 95 to 100 somewhere in that range. And. I did not take it this morning, but I didn't take it just yesterday morning for my 23 month video that I made, and it was 116 over 68 with zero medications. Speaking of medications. I was taking.
U1
11:20
13. Prescription medications in the morning. And nine at night. Of course, pain kills throughout the day. 1s And now I take nothing. This last spring, I lost my last medication. I was doing really good early on, but my cardiologist wanted to keep me on my blood thinner through that first winter. 1s So I just got off of that about a year ago now when I got back from North Carolina and he said, you're doing great. When I had first gotten out of the hospital. And had my first follow up visit with my cardiologist. He said, okay, now we're going to see each other every six months until one of us dies.
U2
12:04
And at last visit, he said, you're doing great. I'll see you in a year. So that's going pretty well. Oh, and in case anybody wants to know, as a side effect, in the first year I lost £150. 3s And that is basically my carnivore journey.
U1
12:28
Well that's amazing. That's absolutely amazing. And we spoke before about, um, making sure that it's nice pauses in between so you could tell your whole story. And I was literally speechless and writing all this down because
U2
12:41
that is a list type two diabetes going down your A1. Incidentally, you know, halving actually getting down to 4.8 was amazing. Fatty liver going, chronic kidney disease gone and getting off well over 20 medications. It's it's incredible isn't it. And then at the end you mentioned £150 weight loss. And what I really like about the way you've been talking, Bob, is you're interested in health. And this is a thing that keeps happening in my videos where, you know, I can do a picture of someone wearing their trousers or pants, as you call it, in America, and pulling them out because the ones I used to wear, you get two of you into them, and that does get a lot of use. That really does get people interested. Sad. See
U1
13:28
that long list of health improvements just doesn't get the clicks. You know, you have to you have to talk about weight loss. But this way of eating the weight loss is incidental. The health comes first. And the reason I'm over in this particular section is because when I get people coming on board.
U2
13:50
And they don't lose weight as quick as they like, but they talk about all these other health benefits. I have to reframe it for them and say, look, how do you feel? I feel great, how are you sleeping? I feel so good on my blood pressure. Oh, that's that's great. That's much lower than it was. Look, forget the weight loss from the moment. Just forget that it will happen. Just get yourself fit and healthy. And one of the things that I like about your story and you as a person, by the way, is how clear you are about the gout. You know, you said, um, that you've not had a single gout attack in 23 months, which
U1
14:25
is amazing because you actually started the conversation with 35 years. You had to put up with it 35 years. So for people that think this way of eating is not good for you,
U2
14:36
there's just too many people out there with this sort of story. I've got over 150 of videos of this sort of story and over a thousand reviews, this sort of story, and it breaks my heart when you tell me about the carb controlled diet,
U1
14:51
the volume of carbs and the frequency. How that is good for you is
U2
14:56
just beyond me. Why anyone ever thought that? And that's actually what I was told when I started my diabetic training. And it's just so obviously not right. And I queried it from day one because it doesn't make any sense now. Um,
U1
15:11
cane berries. Moderators. You're right. You can doff your cap to them because these unsung people that do this sort of thing normally for free are really valuable. And Ken Berry is a particularly good influencer, and I'm looking forward to hopefully meeting him in May at the PHC conference here in London. Next, uh, in my. Yeah. So, um, do
U2
15:35
you feel. 1s Any
U1
15:38
bitterness towards all the people that gave you this terrible advice or or you just look back and think, well, they were doing their best. How do you
U2
15:46
view it? 2s Well. I understand where this question comes from. Everybody, you know that has told me all of the things that led me to this journey. It would be very easy to be bitter and angry about. Basically an entire life wasted. But. I also believe that everything that happens to us in our life leads to the point where we are now, and where I am now is sharing my journey. 1s With other people and hopefully getting through to some people so that they don't have to go through what I went through. So. If you want to call me a carnivore evangelist, that's perfectly fine. But I believe everything that happens in our life to that point creates who we are. And being bitter about where we were or what we've done in the past is counterproductive and does not help anybody. I can only continue to look forward and try to come up with better ways to get this message out to people, that it is never too late to change your life, and I believe I'm a pretty good example of that. 1s You are a fantastic example of that. Just a little aside, just talking about getting the message out there. Um, I would like people to subscribe to Bob's channel because, you know, he's got some great videos and lots to say. He's a very polite, lovely guy with a really interesting story. And we were saying beforehand how difficult it is to get YouTube
U1
17:37
to push videos about carnivore out. So the only way to do that is to keep liking them, keep watching them and, uh, just
U2
17:44
make.
U1
17:45
YouTube, unable to ignore the message because in the end, the advertisers want people watching the screens. And if there's people out there clicking on Bob's videos, um, then YouTube can't ignore us. So we've just got to keep getting that message out. I know you have fabulous guests on there, and I've saw you on, um, Barclays Channel as well. So, um, I'll put a link in the description to, to Bob's channel to make sure that, uh, you get to see that as well and obviously subscribe to mine if you can. That would be pretty handy. Um.
U2
18:18
What? I want to talk to you about something we have in common as well, which is, um, stem enhance. Now, I heard you talk about the fact that you take Stem enhance is one of the things I take. I attribute most of my success in my health to carnivore diet, but I always have to do the full transparency bit and say, I do take one supplement. And, um, I had a bit of a financial crisis when we moved into a new house and the roof leaked to a room, and we had to put tons of money into it that we weren't expecting. So I had to stop taking the stem enhance. And I noticed a little dip,
U1
18:55
uh, in my health. And then when I was
U2
18:57
able to get it back on my feet with the budget, I went back on it and and felt optimal again. Um, and for those people saying, yeah, but you were stressed. No wonder you
U1
19:08
tanked to the orbit because, you know, the roof leaked and all that.
U2
19:11
Well, you
U1
19:13
know, that wasn't the case before that happened. And I took to enhance and sort of step up. So, um, what's been your experience with it? 2s Okay, I do have to preface this by saying that this is not a cause and effect relationship. The FDA does not allow me to say certain things, but I will tell it. 1s Is that to understand this story, you have to understand that, you know, I went from not being able to walk to where I, while I was in North Carolina, was hiking on a trail out in the woods pretty much every day. Um, I got up to about a 15 mile daily hike down there, but that's neither here nor there one day.
U2
19:54
And there's a video that shows this footage on my channel. On January the 4th of 2023. I was hiking and I fell. I tripped over a route and my my hiking pole did not bite. And I went down about a 15 foot banked and landed on my right shoulder. And. 3s Carnivore did heal it to about 85% of where it was, and it took about three months to get there. 1s But it always had this clicking and popping in it as I moved my shoulder. Then I started taking stimulants. 2s And within the first month I noticed that my shoulder was getting better.
U1
20:45
So I had talked to professor K and he said stem enhance was the most important thing. And then we decided that I should be taking the psychoactive joint. 2s But. 1s Push comes to shove, I just couldn't afford things. But because the stimulants had done such a good job, and when I started to get benefits from the PSI active joint, I just found a way to rearrange my budget to where now I'm taking steam enhanced the PSI active and the plasma flow, 1s as well as the collagen active. And what I can tell you there. Again, this is not a cause and effect claim. This is just my personal experience. Having been a diabetic. 1s My feet always felt swollen. Even though you look at them, they look just fine. But when you try to curl your toes. I had that swollen feeling, which I now know was some diabetic neuropathy starting to set in. 2s Since taking the starting the stem enhanced products from several. 1s I've been taking them for almost a year now. And the swollen diabetic neuropathy feeling in my feet is now gone. And I still had it after a year of quarantine. So. 2s Was it the stem enhancer? Was it just another year of carnival? I can't say for sure, but it seems rather odd that I started taking all of the school products, and a problem that I had had for a decade went away. 2s Yeah. And and that's it. It's personal experience. It's my personal experience and experience of people that I've coached. So although it was an interesting story, I didn't get you on just specifically to talk about that. I was much more interested in your type two diabetes and and gout story because that, um, particularly gout, because I think most people in the street, if you stop them and said, you know, if you had gout. What do you think would be the best thing to do? They would say, well, I think it's giving up meat. And that really is there's no proof to that. Also, um, just on the phlebotomy side, this might interest you. I don't know, might not. Um, I often found that people with low levels of uric acid when I was doing my private blood tests could have quite bad gout, and people with high levels of uric acid had none. So I didn't find in thousands of blood tests. I didn't find that there was any compelling evidence that high uric acid correlated with gout attacks, to be honest. So I don't know if your uric acid was being measured, whether you got anything you want to add to
U2
23:34
that. 1s Uh, yeah, well, my uric acid was extremely high, but. I also had, you know, all of the other problems that we didn't know about at the time, but the it is an inflammatory condition. It just it's and it's caused by just like every other inflammatory condition in the human body. It's caused by sugar. 1s Plain and simple. 1s You're eating too much sugar. It causes inflammation somewhere. 1s So the gout that I had that they put me on was basically just making it worse. But we didn't know that at the time because, you know, I'm 60 years old. I'll be 61 next month. And as you can attest to, because you're about the same age I am, 1s when we were kids, we didn't question our doctors because, well, first of all, we'd have gotten spanked if we questioned our doctors and then we didn't have the internet with people sharing ideas. I mean, it was in its infancy. When I was in high school, we had a single computer in the high school. 1s And it belonged to the math teacher who brought it in with him on Fridays to teach his advanced math students a little bit of basic programming. 2s The university I attended when I got back from the Army. 1s Had the room full mainframe with the vacuum tubes and all that stuff. I learned programming on a card reader and hole punch. 1s We never had any terms to use, but. 1s Where was I? Oh, yeah. We'll go. You just. 1s It's. We didn't question our doctors. We didn't know to question our doctors. This whole question, everything is fairly new. 2s And the ability to have all of this information at our fingertips is such an amazing thing. That, you know, we couldn't have even imagined it. Even in my late 20s, early 30s, I would have never imagined having in my pocket of film that I can access basically every thought that has ever been thought in the world. 1s Is available through my phone yet. Of course, the primary use for one of these is to look at silly cat videos and argue with people we don't know. 2s Absolutely.
U1
26:20
So, um, the final couple of things I want to talk about because like I say, I got you one because of the gout and type two diabetes. There's two other major things. Fatty liver.
U2
26:30
And that's gone.
U1
26:31
Could you just talk a little bit about that and then we'll move on to the arthritis?
U2
26:37
Yeah, well, the fatty liver I knew I was having some pains in my side. Had been having pains in my side for quite some time. 1s And the last time I went to the doctor before starting the carnivore diet, he's like, it was actually right as I was starting the carnivore diet when I got home. But he my liver markers were way out of whack and he's like, oh, we got to get you in for a scan and figure out what we're going to do with this. I said, well, I've just started a new way of eating. It's supposed to help that a little bit. Can we wait three months and try it again? And he said, okay. Yeah. I mean, you've been getting worse all this time. Another three months is probably not going to kill you. So come back in three months and we'll check it out. 1s And that's why that was the last time I went to my primary care physician for anything. Because. 1s He did the all of the blood works again and my liver markers were normal, my kidney markers were normal, everything had gotten better. And in that three month time, I forget exactly what it was. I'd lost like £80. Without doing any exercise yet. And. 1s All he wanted to talk about was how evil I was because I stopped taking my statin medication. 2s And. 1s I'm like, well, you obviously are not really a doctor. You are a drug pusher. Please package up my records. I will be finding a new physician. I haven't found one yet because I don't feel the need for a physician. Unless something changes color or looks like it's about to fall off or I have pain. What do I need to go to a doctor for it? Yeah. It's it's. Yeah. Beggars
U1
28:39
belief doesn't that. What what are your friends. What is your family and friends? Your circle of people around you. Think of this way of eating because of all these miraculous changes. Surely they're all on board and think you're doing the right thing.
U2
28:51
Oh no. They're all sure I'm going to keel over next week from a heart attack. Um. 1s A friend of mine has. While he's not going all the way in, he has been cutting his carbs out. You know, he's gotten to the point where he he he still eats his pretzel sticks and his other bad things, but he puts them in a bowl on a scale and measures them now, which is a good first step, if you ask me. But. 1s Most of them now. My sisters. My sister Judy, who is a marathon runner. Um, she's been in and out of the keto lifestyle her entire life. 1s You mean my sister Janet, who is a retired general from the United States services. Um, in her usual way, doesn't really give an opinion about whether she thinks it's a good idea or a bad idea. But when I first took on this journey, she asked me many questions that told her I had actually looked into it and done the research. I wasn't just jumping into something that I saw on the internet after three minutes, and that's the way she approaches things like that. Yeah.
U1
30:12
It's crazy, though, that your miraculous return to health doesn't convince them. It just shows how deeply indoctrinated people are. So yeah, last question I did say because people will pick me up if I don't follow up on the arthritis. Was there anything else you wanted to add about that? Because, um, you just throw in that very simple thing about your hand was locked up and that's gone. Was that something that you didn't expect to get better, or was it was
U2
30:38
it
U1
30:39
debilitating? What was it
U2
30:41
like? Yeah. Well, when I, before I started, kind of were the whole reason why I decided I wanted to do this. I was originally looking for a little bit of pain relief because, as I said, I'd taken I was taking the maximum amount of Lyrica and I was also taking tramadol in between the liver. But because just to get through the day and I was just, I had heard and I it was in one of the Doctor Barre videos that it would cause, it would create a little bit of pain, redness, and that's all I was really looking for. Because I couldn't even stand for two minutes. And at the time I had told Doctor Barry, I will consider this a success. If I can stand for three minutes, that will give me a lot more mobility to go do some things. If I can stand for 3 minutes or 4 minutes without sitting back down. Um. 2s And everything has changed. So I was just looking for a little pain relief. I sat down in front of my computer to record. I think it was the £29 and 29 days video that I put out on my channel, but I had left my note sheet too far over there on my desk and normally before kind of word that would have required me to turn and lean forward and grab it and come back. And I was just going, getting ready to start recording. So I just reached over, grabbed it, and was looking at it. 1s And then I realized. Did I really just do that? And then I started moving my joints and it's like. 1s Holy crap. I didn't expect any of this. I was just looking to stand a little longer, and now I can move all of my joints again. They still hurt at that point, but I couldn't move them. 2s Amazing. So Bob, all your all your links will be in the description for people that want to check out your £29 and 28 days. I mean, that's £29 of weight loss in 29 days, which sounds an amazing video. And they'll know know now know that background story as well, that there might be able to spot in your eyes that you're so happy that you did that and got the notes without being in pain. So I'll put those links in the description. And just for the English people who
U1
33:05
know the term semi-retired, as in someone that's retired but only sort of halfway done it, that isn't what semi-retired means in America. The trucks that are in two parts are called semis. Uh, so you used to drive a semi, didn't you? And now you don't do that anymore. So I know people in the comments will say, why didn't you ask him about the semi retired? I think I've got that right. Is that correct?
U2
33:28
That is correct. I wasn't Over-the-road truck driver for many, many years after my heart surgery. My sternum deformed so I could not get re qualified to drive my truck. And one of my clever cousins, of which I have a lot of. We can get into that another day if you like. But she said, well, since you had to get rid of your truck and you can't drive it, I mean, does that makes me semi-retired? 2s And it kind of stuck. And I thought, you know, that's kind of clever. I'm going to go ahead and go with that for my channel name. And that's where semi-retired Bob comes from. 1s Semi-retired. Bob, thank you so much for your time. 1s Thanks for having me, Steve. And it's been fun.