Transformation Through LCHF (Banting): A Story of Health and Liberation

We were relatively skinny as kids. I did boxing as a sport, gym, squash, etc. Petro was also active and doing athletics, Netball, etc. At age 17 I went to the army weighing in at 68kg. After my time in the army, I was still exercising, going to the gym, and enjoying squash. After we got married we moved to a town where there were no sports facilities and we stopped all exercising and eating whatever we wanted. We started picking up weight, gram by gram.

When Petro was pregnant with our first child she craved Coke and Crunchies like crazy and sometimes I would join her in eating whatever we liked.  After our first child was born we realized that we picked up weight and started dieting. For 20 years we tried a lot of Fad diets, Meal Replacement Shakes, Supplements, Soup diets, Hunger suppressant pills or drops, etc. We tried exercising. Nothing worked.  We would drop a few kgs, then plateau, and then pick all the weight up plus some extra. After three children Petro picked up 35 kgs. Through the years I picked up 45.

I was struggling with migraine headaches, high blood pressure (140-170/95-107), prostate problems, yo-yo blood sugar (now it is high and the next moment very low), breathing problems, water retention, feeling bloated, sore joints, heartburn, allergies, snoring, and no energy. I started getting problems with my knees due to the weight combined with climbing a lot of stairs at work. Petro suffered from low blood pressure(95/62), feeling bloated, sore joints, heartburn, allergies, and no energy.

Our turning point came when we went to a mall to buy Petro a dress. We had to look for a shop that sold oversized clothes, we could not buy at normal clothes stores. We got to this shop where there were mirrors on all the walls, I mean all the walls. It was the first time that we actually saw how much weight we gained through the years. I did not like what I saw and went out and waited outside till Petro was finished. since then we hated mirrors.

The next month my daughter took a photo of us in our swimsuits on the beach. We wanted to delete the photo. We knew we had to do something. We heard about LCHF (Banting) and bought The Real Meal Revolution book and eventually bought our own book. I studied the book from cover to cover and we decided to try it.

When we started on LCHF(Banting) in May 2016 we didn’t expect it to work (just another diet). I did not even want to take photos, weigh in, or measure. After two weeks we weighed in and I found that I was 5 kg lighter than the last time I weighed in at my yearly medical I had to do at work. Petro was also 5 kg lighter. Then we started measuring ourselves weekly. After 6 weeks on my 50th birthday, we were both 10 kg down. We felt great.

Within six weeks I dropped all medication for blood pressure, prostate, water retention, acid reflux, etc (I just did not renew the prescriptions). We read about the positive effects of the LCHF/Keto lifestyle on people with epilepsy. We introduced our 17-year-old daughter, Ronel, to this lifestyle. We could see the difference in her condition changing from 1-2 seizures a week to maybe only one a month.

Ten months into this lifestyle I went for a complete medical examination, EKG, and blood tests and everything was in order. After 11 months I reached my goal weight by dropping 40kg and 85cm on my chest, middle, and hips. Petro dropped 25kg and 45cm. After 2 years we are maintaining our weight and health. I’m still on 40kgs down and Petro dropped another 15kgs thus also 40kgs down. Ronel may get an epileptic seizure one or two times a year.

 

Thanks to Tim Noakes who started this in South Africa, this is now our lifestyle. We don’t want to go back. We are healthy, we don’t use any medication. We have energy and feel like new people.

 

Gerhard & Petro Minnaar

 

 

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