#65 Robert Calvo – Lost 65 lbs & Gained a Spartan Race

Meet Robert

Robert is a contractor, husband, father and recovering drug addict with many years clean. He was looking at knee replacement as the to help his chronic knee pain.  Robert started Keto in May of 2018 and dropped 65 lbs. He dropped his A1C from 6.2 to 5.4 and started CrossFit to train for a Spartan race that his sister talked him into. His Keto journey has been a major life changing event. So powerful, in so many ways, and now he wants to share this life changing message with others.

ABOUT ROBERT

• I am a 55-year-old contractor and I have 3 sisters
• Most of my family is athletic
• I am kind of the black sheep of the family
• But I am totally different from a year ago
• In the beginning of 2018, I have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in the knees
• I have been working with an orthopedic doctor and we have tried shots and pain medication and nothing was working
• The only next step was knee surgery which requires time off and probably a lot of cash in the bank to be able to do that
• And I was ready to quit my business and go get a job
• Maybe managing people and doing less physical stuff
• I was at my heaviest weight, roughly around 250 pounds
• I was really frustrated and thought life was over
• I have been yo-yo dieting
• Today, it’s way different
• In 2018, I was 247 pounds
• I have lost about 65 pounds and my knees are 95% better
• I felt that relief within 3 days starting Keto
• If this is the only benefit I get from this, sign me up

HOW DID YOU FIND KETO

• My wife kept mentioning Keto
• I sent my sisters a text message about a year and a half ago and they did not really have a response back then
• My sisters, together with my wife, started talking about keto this year and I watched my friends being successful with it, so I decided to give it a shot
• I used MyFitnessPal and just started diligently tracking things
• I have played with figuring out my macros and I have friends helping me
• But I did not like the numbers they gave me because they were going more on building muscles and working out with big weights
• I count total carbs and I really did not try to eat carbs
• In the beginning, it was mainly bacon and eggs
• I spent time on the weekend cooking up a bunch of alternative
• My wife got really creative in making delicious recipes for dinner
• What I noticed during this process is that I ended up less hungry and so the amount of food that I eat has really dropped significantly
• What it looks like today is I just drink a fatty coffee, and I don’t pack lunch but I keep stiff in my truck just for emergency, like macadamia nuts and stuff like that
• I pretty much don’t eat all day now
• I just drink my coffee, and my nasty salt water apple cider vinegar mix
• And pretty much work through the day and eat dinner when I get home
• My nasty salt water apple cider vinegar mix is 40 ounces of water and I put in a heaping teaspoon of salt Redmond’s real salt in it, dump a shot or 2 shot apple cider vinegar, a shot of real lemon juice and that’s what I drink
• That keeps me from getting the Keto flu which I never had, so it must be working
• I started Keto in May
• So, there was a period where I dropped 20 pounds in the beginning of the year and gained 10 pounds back
• But when I started Keto, I dropped 50 pounds
• I think one of the biggest things was being in a state of feeling defeated and I could not happily love life anymore because how I felt physically
• Now, I do CrossFit 3 times and a week and I did the Spartan race in the beginning of December
• I am just grateful to find out that everything that I like, I can eat

FAVORITE MEAL

• Ribeye
• I prefer to barbecue
• The other day, I received an email from the CrossFit gym and they address it to athletes and I was looking at it and like, “I am an athlete”
• I can remember being downtown and having to run a street and if you can see me running across the street, it was ridiculous
• Life is just so much different now
• I spent a lot of years the being the black sheep of the family
• I got out of drug addiction and I ended up getting clean at some point about 16 years ago
• I equate this as powerful as getting clean was
• My mission now is to share the power of this with other people
• And so, I am constantly listening to podcast and watching YouTube videos
• Me and my wife created a Facebook page called Addicted to Keto
• For me, this has been a life changing experience

ADVICE

• Salt and research
• I think research is really important
• I really love podcasts that are less scientific and more on people’s experiences
  
• If I did not start, I wouldn’t have confidence and I wouldn’t have plans and goals

FAVORITE RECIPES

• My wife does make some cool stuff with the fat head dough
• And one of the things she makes is empanadas

FAVORITE QUOTE

• Keep me out of yesterday, keep me out of tomorrow and keep me in the present
• This too shall pass

MOST GRATEFUL FOR

• Being clean

GUILTY PLEASURE

• Ice cream with chips in it

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU

• I am past my original goal
• I went to get a scan just to see what’s going on
• A year and a half ago I was in a hospital and my A1C was 6.2
• I did a blood check in June or July and it had dropped to 5.8
• And a month ago it dropped to 5.4
•  I am out of pre-diabetic state
• The fasting blood sugar numbers went to 120-130 to 80 something

WORDS OF WISDOM

• Research and take control of your health
• Change your life for the better

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