My experience and a question at the end

My actual question is in the last paragraph but I provided a lot of background info to give context. I am going on 7 months ZCA few years ago I had several mild health issues that included constant gas, low energy (took a nap after work everyday), a white scab on the top of my ear that never went away (it would flake off and grow back), a freckle that would get darker and harder then fall off when picked at and then slowly grow back, dished toenails, severe dry eyes right on waking, violent leg twitches in the middle of the night, and my hair was graying a little faster than family members my age or older. My diet was extremely poor (3 sodas/day, lots of candy, dairy, and processed food). I didn’t view these as serious problems and blamed them on aging. I had been taught growing up not to be a hypochondriac. At that point I consulted Dr. Google and it seemed that I probably had several nutrient deficiencies and possibly a candida overgrowth in my gut. At that time I bought several supplements, a pricey probiotic, cut soda, cut candy, cut anything with added sugar, opted for whole grain wheat products, chose brown rice over white, and generally tried to make better food choices. This helped a lot with the constant gas, low energy, and the dished toenails. The leg twitch went away but I don’t have a good idea on what actually fixed it. My dry eyes were immediately cured when I started a fish oil supplement.Fast forward about a year. All improvements are still there but my gas would comeback any time I cheated with a significant amount of carbs (candy or pizza usually). I then decided to try try the candida diet in case I did actually have overgrowth. This attempt turned into a meat, eggs, greens, and peppers diet with an occasional cheat when I went to lunch with coworkers. I saw further improvement with my gas and energy. I hadn’t been to the doctor for anything other than an occasional cold since before I was 16. So I went to a doctor for a check up and relayed my experience up till then and asked him if he could do some blood tests looking for nutrient levels and other health markers related to diet so I could get an idea how I should modify my diet according to his advice. He listened to my heart and lungs, looked down my throat, and had me pee in a cup. The he told me I was in perfect health and to come back if anything changes. No blood tests or anything related to nutrition were even addressed. I think I offended him when I requested the tests related to diet. I then paid my $70 copay and got a statement the next month showing where my insurance had paid his clinic over $400. I was not impressed and again put my faith in Dr. Google. I kept eating that not-so-candida diet.After about six months of that I had been convinced by a few documentaries, books, and web pages that Paleo was the way to go. I started tracking my nutrient intake with Cronometer and tried to supplement only when my diet fell short of the RDA’s. At this time my standard meal consisted of meat or fish, sweet potatoes, greens, peppers, 3 eggs at breakfast, and 2-3 pieces of fruit per day. I’d guess I averaged about one lb of meat per day not counting eggs or the 1/8 lb of liver I included most days. I would cheat once a month on average with SAD food when socializing. At this time I felt even better and the ear scab went away and the freckle stopped getting hard and falling off. It started to cross my mind that I might have a low to moderate autoimmune condition. It should have crossed my mind earlier because I have several family members that have been diagnosed with various AI conditions and take many immune system impairing drugs. All the reading I had done up to this point makes me wonder if my families AI issues are genetic or caused by diet and environment. One of my family that has been diagnosed with AI did not improve with drugs and then tried a keto diet under the guidance of a nutritionist. Their AI is still there but barely, I’m talking MASSIVE improvement!At this time I gave the candida diet another try and cut out fruit and potatoes but kept greens and peppers. I didn’t cheat at all. Within a month there was a drastic change in my gut. By looking at my stools I had definitely changed something and I stopped farting altogether. This totally convinced me that I actually had had fermentation in the gut. My energy went through the roof and I started working out. I achieved military fitness standards in about three months by doing pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups, air squats, and calve raises every morning. After about a month of this I started to find white hairs that were colored at the root. Mostly in my beard but I found a few on my head and body. I kept a count of the ones I found on my beard and stopped after I reached 100, this was kind of like evidence that what I was doing was working and helped a lot with discipline. That 100 hair count was about 3 months after I had noticed the change. I had also dropped dairy during this period. After the improvement I intended to stay low carb but I added dairy back in. Milk does a body good right? It was a mistake. I found out that dairy caused me severe constipation and inflammation in the rectal area. I had noticed the inflammation all of my life but never knew what it was and what caused it, there is a two day delay from the time I drink milk till the inflammation starts. I tested this several times to be sure. I think the constipation started because I didn’t have the grain products and other carbs countering the cork effect of the milk.So at this point I’m extremely excited about an “optimal nutrient dense diet” and spent many hours keeping my google machine heated up to full operating temperature. This is when I stumbled across zero carb. I tried it on a lark because I didn’t really feel like I had anything left to improve. I just wanted to see what happened. At four months of ZC I had an improvement. I had a thumb that I couldn’t bend all the way in towards my palm. It was tender, sore, and stiff like I had jammed it. I had had this for at least 10 years and blamed it on aging or an injury that I had ignored years before. I could massage my palm/thumb muscle and my thumb would free up for a few minutes. At four months of ZC I just randomly noticed my thumb had full range of motion an zero pain. I am now really excited about this diet. I started shooting for 3 lb per day of varied meat and include 3-4 eggs and 1/8 lb of liver every day. Two pounds is easy for me to hit but 3 is an effort.Other things that have improved over low carb paleo:I no longer get hunger pangs and the urgency to eat every 4-6 hours isn’t there. I don’t crave carbs at allI believe my mood and focus are much more steadyMy energy level is roughly what it was when I was on low carb paleoFreckles on my back that appeared after a sunburn over ten years ago have started going away. (I don’t know if this is related or considered an improvement but the timing is suspect).I no longer get tartar on my teeth. It used to be quite bad and I would have a cleaning every 3 months. Now It’s been six months since the last cleaning an none is visible to me in the mirror.​Now here’s my questionFor the last three months I have noticed a very low grade body ache (similar to a very light fever ache) and reduced flexibility. I can’t touch my toes anymore. I have cheated three times so far. Once at Thanksgiving with a spoonful of dressing, some sweet potatoes, and three homemade gluten free sugar cookies. Once at Christmas that compares to the Thanksgiving cheat. And I cheated heavy last weekend at a family function with some grapes, chocolate chip cookies, several homemade pastries (bleached wheat flour), and caramel corn. The Christmas and Thanksgiving cheats didn’t seem to effect me good or bad. The cheat last weekend produced some positive effects and some negative ones. The negative effects were some stomach discomforts which I expected. The positive effects were increased flexibility. After two days of 200g+ of carbs I could almost put my palms on the floor while trying to touch my toes standing up with straight legs. Now a week later my stomach is back to normal and my increased flexibility is gone. Have any of you had the flexibility and/or the body ache issue? If so, were you able to correct it while staying ZC? I believe my improvements from ZC are from the high nutrient and protein intake allowing my body to heal itself rather than “just get by” or actually going backwards. I would love to continue ZC to see if I can squeak out more improvements but the decreased flexibility and body ache thing makes me wonder if I would be better off adding some clean, nutrient dense carbs back in. I would like to address the issues with a ZC diet and possibly a supplement rather than adding carbs back. Hopefully one of you has had similar experiences and knows how to address them without plants/carbs. Any thoughts appreciated!​​

from Zero Carb Zebras http://bit.ly/2FOliOo
via IFTTT