Making our way back from disaster

9/11 100m away

Most people who were alive at the time know where they were on September 11, 2001.

Jules and I were 100m away from the two towers when they were hit.

We were working on Wall Street at the time.  I was building Credit Risk analytic software, and she was developing internal CRM systems – we’d both made partner in a spin-off organization built from the risk management team at J.P. Morgan and the data team at Reuters.

What we didn’t realise at the time was no matter how messed up the world was at that particular time, both of us inside were really quite sick, and we just didn’t have a clue – and our doctors didn’t have a clue at the time either.

jules 2001
RAM 2001

That was 15 years ago, on September 11, 2001.  I took that photo of Julie after the first tower was hit and before the second tower – right in front of the stock exchange.

We walked out of downtown with a million other office workers.  We were heading to our home in Brooklyn.

Julie took the photo of me in Chinatown after the first building had collapsed almost directly over our heads, and before the second building fell.

At that time in 2001 both of us had passed recent company physicals.  I was not yet Diabetic … but it’s pretty clear if you know what to look for that we were both making a *LOT* of insulin.

That centrally stored body fat, is all fat around our internal organs – Human foie gras if you will.

Eventually 3 years later in 2004 my pancreas would start to give up keeping up with the demand for more and more insulin – and I first leaned that Diabetes was my future.

Julie’s pancreas kept on delivering and she never quite reached the levels of blood glucose that might cause a Doctor to say “Oh you might be starting to become diabetic” … but of course both of us had been on that trajectory for decades and had been making heart disease causing amounts of insulin for decades.

Jules 2013ram2013

The tipping point at which we finally started to do something about this was in 2014 when we both started a ketogenic diet.

By total coincidence in September 11, 2013 we took photos at what might be our most obviously sickest point – with giant novelty bars of chocolate, as you do.

We didn’t realise until afterwards that that was September 11 .. but at that time in our lives both of us were trying not to remember that date.  So some Costco hijinks with some novelty chocolate bars were just the ticket.

Jules 2016RAM 2016

Now  3 years later and both of us have been eating a low carb high fat diet now for over 2 and a half years.  Both of us are as healthy as we have ever been, certainly fitter than we’ve been since we were teenagers.

It is September 11, 2016.  We both just cycled around the lake at the center of Canberra together  … just for fun … because apparently we are now people who like to exercise for fun.

We both still have lingering effects of PTSD from our experiences during the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 … but that metabolic syndrome that was lurking inside us at the time and which we really didn’t know that we had – that has gone.

For both of us.

Completely.

Thanks to us just ignoring the dietary guidelines and eating a ketogenic diet.

5 Responses to “Making our way back from disaster

  • Theresa Evans
    8 years ago

    Gotta love the evidence !!!!! Tee Cee

  • Hi, congratulations for the change, but are the Cadbury Chocolates real ?

    I can write a very long message regarding that day of September was a long late night in Melbourne & very hard to sleep.

    Regarding your last sentence I can only say “THANKS TO THE INTERNET” the dietary guidelines and many other bad advice from governments can be smashed or ignored today.

    You mention “Thanks to us just ignoring the dietary guidelines and eating a ketogenic diet”

    But before the internet very few people new about the ketogenic diet and was a secret for many decades, did you ever explore here
    http://bit.ly/2cxy5BR

    Did you ever watch the related video of Meryl Streep where she introduces the ketogenic diet in 1993
    http://bit.ly/2dntXpL

    Or this piece of NBC news from October 1994
    https://youtu.be/q7d5gQrpdfo?t=21

    A few years later (1997) Meryl Streep did a movie (First do no harm) where if I am not wrong she didn’t get a dollar for her work and make a point about the diet and the problem of fighting against the medical establishment and their advice against fat and in favour of carbs/sugars.

    I have a copy of the DVD purchased from the UK thanks to the internet and eBay and very cheap, but a low quality version of the movie is available in YouTube, the link starts at the point where she goes to the hospital to mention about the diet, but you can enjoy the whole movie if you desire https://youtu.be/HyeC9IiFKpw?t=3605

    Just yesterday I have 6th edition of the book “The Ketogenic and Modified Atkins Diets Treatments for Epilepsy and Other Disorders” not needed but will be a good read.

    In the Charlie Foundation they have a lot of material as well, as you can see not only people with T2D or overweight will get better, but many other disorders , like the brain will improve their well-being if they drops just the sugarS as a starting point, and then tuning the level of fat, protein depending of the individual or medical condition and I just remember this video http://bit.ly/1gPa8bU of Dr. Terry Wahls, but there many more.

    Regards Camilo

    • Yes we diabetics owe a great debt to the epilepsy community in the 20’s for proving that this ketogenic diet is safe and can be tolerated for the long term. Without that evidence, I suspect no doctor could advise a diabetic to try this diet to control their blood sugar.

  • Brenda Zorn
    7 years ago

    Great write up. I definately read this a year ago.
    My daughter had pretty severe PTSD from combat, and I know the symptoms were the same for you. It’s horrific. Glad you guys took such good care of yourselves. True ketogenic success stories. Proud to call you guys my friends.

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