My Story
10. January, 1984. Tuesday. Around 11am. Somebody slapped me and I started crying. It was cold and very bright. 'I fancy to be treated more gently' I grumbled. But alas, it was time. And the nurses didn't understand what I was saying.
I was born as a second child. 5 kg and 200 grams. Almost 2 kg heavier than usual babies born at the right time, just a tad after 9 months.
For the first two days I was separated from my Mom (usual practice at that time). My Mom later told me that babies don't eat for a day or two after being born (?)
But it got better and for the next six months I enjoyed the luxury of breast-feeding incorporated with vegetable puree (boiled and sieved carrots, beetroots, parsley). The veg drink was necessary (sic) because I was very big for my age and had developed anemia (not enough iron and red blood cells).
After 6 months because I started to nibble her nipples and mainly because my Grandma told so, my Mom stopped breast-feeding me. I had to start eating vegetable blends only. But luckily (?) I was given some un-pasteurized grass-fed cow's milk as well.
During her pregnancy and breast-feeding my Mom ate mostly dairy products (pasteurized) and other common foods. Her parents (especially my grandfather) forced her to eat lot of meat when she was a child and she developed a dislike for meats. Hence we didn't eat much meat in our family. Instead we ate loads of vegetables that were grown without chemicals, much coming from my grandfather's country house.
My Mom had one huge cook-book where all our dinners came from. As in every other norhtern European country our diet was heavy in grains. For breakfast we usually had some kind of porridge (oatmeal mostly) with knob of butter and black bread was eaten with everything. For supper we usually had soups, mash and veg with little meat/fish and/or pastry based foods. My favourite food during my toddler hood was mashed apples with egg whites and milk all whipped up.
Everything changed during the summer time when we always stayed at my grandparent's country house. There we consumed loads of unpasteurized milk, fish and quite a bit of meat. Grandpa loved to make his own burgers and they were truly tasty. Fresh berries, veg and fruit (all organic) were consumed in great volumes as well.
I have vivid memories of being very happy and joyful during the summers and then suffering from illnesses back home in the winter time.
I probably suffered from every possible children disease (chickenpox, fifth disease, measles, mumps, mononucleosis) during my childhood. And I always developed very high temperatures when I was ill. I remember how I would wake up during the night having illusions and/or terrible nightmares. When I was 1.5 years old I had my first surgery with narcosis. I had swallowed a raw pea that somehow ended up in my lung.
My first encounter with raw foods, apart from fruit and veg, was a drink made of whipped egg yolks and sugar. I also remember my grandma eating bits of raw meat mince while she was preparing meat balls, but my Mom warned me about parasites so I never tried it meself. And oh yes, milkshakes made of unpasteurized milk and unheated honey!
Although me and my elder brother (3 years older than me) had been best buddies before age of six or so, after he started attending school we became mortal enemies. It was probably because he was badly bullied all the time and he needed to release his tension on me. For the next 6 years or so hardly a day passed when we didn't have a fight. I truly hated going home and hanged out with my mates as long as possible, usually waiting till my Mom returned home from work. But that didn't change much as my parents were completely knackered after work and probably though that fighting for several hours a day was a good exercise. But it wasn't. I became emotionally very unstable, sometimes wishing to kill myself, but most often my dear brother.
When I was 8 or so I hit my leg through a glass door during our fight and the broken glass sliced a big chunk of my heel off that was sewn back. Luckily my Achilles tendon wasn't cut through and I could walk normally after 8 months again.
Fast forward: 1998. Age of 14. I became don't-give-a-f*ck teenager. Started drinking litres of vodka, did some drugs and smoked regularly. Luckily I still tried to keep up with my training which probably kept me from completely losing my health. But I became much more violent, swapped judo for kick-boxing and enjoyed beating other kids up. Our fights with my brother stopped, probably because he became afraid of me.
At the age of 19 I developed angina because I was working mad hours building my businesses up and ate whenever and whatever (mostly rubbish).
The same year as my health was deteriorating rapidly I decided to take some action and became energized by Anthony Robbins and Food Combining. Don't mix protein and carbs; don't eat before noon, except fruit; eat lot of fresh veg and fruit; sell your car and buy a juicer!
Before that I had never really thought about what I was eating. I ate what my Mom or Gran cooked and later on after starting to live on my own, I just copied them. In 2004, at the age of 20, I made some big changes in my diet and for 3 months I was all about Fit For Life (Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, basically an 'advanced' version of Robbins' diet, eliminating most of the meat). I lost weight (heaps) and felt very energetic, although looked like a skeleton. My acne disappeared and I was elated.
My main motivation at that time to pay attention what I was eating came from my dying father. He was a person who had always been eating what most people would consider healthy and when I heard about his cancer, I just couldn't believe it. Just couple of weeks before he passed away I read Aajonus' book and cause I started to experience (well, actually stopped lying to myself and became conscious about) the negative side effects from Fit For Life - lethargy, impotence, extreme weight loss, feeling very irritable - I decided to give Primal Diet a try.
16. August 2004 I ate first time in my life raw salmon (farmed) and drank a raw smoothie made of 4 eggs (non-organic), piece of pineapple and 4 tbls of unheated honey. I felt much much better already in a week. Unfortunately my Dad passed away on 8. September, so I never had the chance to try out if Aajonus' cancer curing methods work.
My younger brother and my best mate joined for the ride after couple of weeks. My friend quit after 1 month after constantly throwing up. My bro lasted for almost a year, sleeping most of the time. For the first year I was sleeping all the time as well. But because I could afford to (I didn't have to work from 9-5 or do much else), I happily did so. Sometimes I slept 16 hours a day.
My Daily Diet from Aug '04 till Sept '05:
2-3 litres of unpasteurized milk (not organic)
(I used to order enough milk for a week which meant that by day nr. 4 I was drinking kefir already)
1 kg non-organic supermarket lean either pork or beef muscle meat
100 - 200 ml fresh celery/parsley juice (not organic)
10 - 20 tbls unheated honey (bees were sugar-fed probably though)
Almost no fruit at all except tomatoes now and then.
I followed Aajonus' daily plan he describes in his Recipe book alternating meat, milk and veggie juice. I also ate one marble sized high beef every other week for 2 months from October.
Slept alot, 12 hours minimum including a nap in the afternoon. Gained lot of fat (by December I was already 90 kg from 60-odd kg in August), but felt and looked very strong as I was doing weight training regularly (once a week, brutally hard training). Had some very nasty 'detoxes'. In January for example what looked like a common cold lasted for 2.5 weeks with constant headache and fever. Also very painful stomach cramps day or two after eating high meat. But rest of the time felt very calm, relaxed, happy and at peace.
My Daily Diet From Sept '05 till May '06:
I switched completely to non-organic supermarket pork with extra lard (not heated). Everything else remained the same with occasional oysters/little fish and one goose or chicken egg every day (free range semi-organic). Stopped drinking veggie juice.
Slept less, felt very strong, but occasionally irritable. But still very calm and enjoying ease and joy of living most of the time.
My Daily Diet From June '06 till Nov '06:
Stopped drinking milk. Started eating supermarket beef with pork lard and un-pasteurized organic butter. Loads of tomatoes and cucumbers, very little water although living in very hot country.
Dropped some 10-15 kg of body weight (from 92 kg). And felt much more energetic, but less calm.
My Daily Diet From Nov '06 till present:
Started eating much more different types of meat including organ meats and fish. Stopped drinking milk in March '07. Basically stopped eating by Aajonus' rules and switched to what is called 'Paleo' or 'Old Stone Age' diet. Stuff that I eat is listed under 'What I Eat (2007)' and 'What I Eat (2008)'. Everything I eat now is organic.
Feel much better compared to the first two years on Primal Diet. I'm still recovering from a nasty car accident in August '06 so I'm not yet sure if some pain and discomfort is caused by current diet or broken bits in my body ;-)
In brief I eat now once a day around 6pm (and midnight on some days). I start out eating as much suet or bone marrow as I feel like. Then have 15 minute break and follow up with some meat (1 kg max e.g. whole ox tongue). 3-4 hours later I have some fruit (when I have my dinner @ 12am I eat some fruit couple of hours before). The rest of the day I just sip some water, I rarely drink more than 0.5 litres per day. Simple as that.
