Success Story: This Went Better Than Expected!

I’m coming to you today with a Success Story from Mark’s Daily Apple reader Gerhard. Gerhard started Primal with one goal in mind, only to unlock a host of life-changing benefits. Love when that happens. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community, please . Thank you for reading!

Dear Mark,

We’ve never met, but you’ve had a profound impact on my life. I never knew when would be the right time to send you a success story. But over the years I’ve come to realize it’s a process and not an end destination. So here’s my story so far.

As I’m writing this it’s been exactly six years to the day that I started my “30 day primal experiment.” For several years I’d had eczema around my eyes. It came and went, but I was done with it. So after reading The Primal Blueprint and many success stories on your website I decided to “try this primal thing” for a month to see what would happen.

At the time I didn’t even know what brain fog was, let alone that I had it, but within three days of starting the experiment, it lifted. I remember having the thought “Is this how easy thinking is for everyone else?” The eczema took a bit longer, but after it was gone it never returned. Turns out I’m quite sensitive to gluten.

You see, I’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder about seven years prior to going primal. I thought taking a pill every day was just how life was going to be for me. But the mental clarity I’d gained gave me the confidence to taper off of the medication (with the help of my doctor by using tapering strips). About a month ago I celebrated three years of being medication-free!

Since starting the medication I’d gained about 20 kilograms of weight (44 lbs) and I had already managed to lose half of that by eating less and moving more. Within the first ten weeks of going primal I lost the other 10 kilograms! This put me pretty much at my college weight.

So what started with trying to get rid of eczema did exactly that, but it ended up doing so much more. I feel the decision to go primal was a pivotal moment in my life.

Some other noteworthy things I’ve done in the last six years are running a half marathon and raising money for cancer research by riding my road bike up French Alpe d’Huez six times in one day. That’s a total elevation gain of about 6.350 metres (20.800 ft). This is something I didn’t think I’d be able to do, but thanks to training based on the method laid out in your book Primal Endurance, I did it.

I’ve done calisthenics exercises for a few years and recently I decided to take “lift heavy things” in another direction by starting a 5×5 barbell program. I’m curious to find out where this will take me.

There’s a lot more I could say, but the bottom line is: I’d advise anyone also considering ‘trying this primal thing’ to give it a (solid) go for a month. You have nothing to lose, but you may have a lot to gain. I know I have.

Thank you Mark, from the bottom of my heart.

Kind regards,
Gerhard

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