I get asked all of the time:
Brent, how did you get involved in the Metabolic Health movement, and why did you create Metabolic Me? I don’t see any miraculous Before/After weight loss pics of you like every other nutrition program out there have. What’s your story?”
Oh, I do have Before and After pictures. But they’re not your typical outer transformation shocker. My Before and After pictures look more like this:
That’s right. I was sick on the inside. I was told “Nothing’s wrong with you, it’s all in your head,” but knew deep down something did NOT feel right. I tried every diet and exercise program out there but nothing worked. And as my health got progressively worse, I went through a divorce, almost lost my 2 young children, and had to quit my full time job. But there’s a silver lining, isn’t there?
Of course. Health issues always start on the inside. The real transformation begins and ends right there. And what I discovered through all of my searching is closer than you might think.
You are not alone.
“You Only Have X Time to Live”
When the 13th doctor I consulted with told me this, I was both relieved and terrified.
I was relieved because I had spent the past 6 years going to countless specialists all over the world, both medical and alternative, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Here were their Top 5 assessments:
- Your blood work looks fine.
- You LOOK healthy. After all, you were a collegiate athlete.
- It’s probably just allergies.
- It’s all in your head.
- Come back in 6 months…
That can’t be right. Twice I had randomly passed out and woken up on the floor with my head cracked open (not cool!). But mostly, it was the little things that were adding up. What started as small every day symptoms started turning up in volume to the point I could no longer ignore or resist them.
What did that look like for me? 
Well, hitting the snooze alarm a few extra times turned into not getting out of bed until 11am some days. I stopped seeing results in the gym regardless of how hard I worked out. I didn’t have the energy to play with my kids. My occasional memory loss started to become embarrassing. My tolerance for alcohol became non-existent. Sometimes my hand would shake. Focusing at work was a joke.
“Maybe you should try this…”
I tried everything.
“Maybe it’s you…”
Depression set in.
“You’re just not trying hard enough…”
Hopelessness was my reality.
But I kept searching for answers anyway. When the 13th doctor finally confirmed my long searched for diagnosis, I was relieved, even though I had only X time to live. Finally, this was something tangible. Finally, it wasn’t just “in my head.”
Wait! You call this being relieved?!?! X time to live? Sounds like a death sentence! And what does X mean anyway?”
Tick Tock…
I had X time to live because I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Complicated is an understatement, and the overall ignorance involved in this kind of diagnosis is shocking. X time to live meant that I might have 2-5 years, or I might have 10-20 years (I was only 29). They still don’t know enough about this disease yet. They say most people end up in a wheelchair as their nervous system quickly shuts down.
But what exactly is Lyme Disease?”
In a nutshell, I was bitten by a tick while trail-running in Pensacola, FL 7 years earlier. I went from being the top collegiate scholar athlete at LSU to feeling lazy, dumb, and unlovable in just 4 short years. Lyme Disease is a serious debilitating illness caused by a bacterial infection from a tick bite that can go stealth and chronic if not treated right away.
After my diagnosis, I stepped back and looked at my whole situation. I started asking: Why did it take so long to find out why I was suffering? Why is it that most people (myself included) care about being healthy only after we lose our health? And how can I overcome my situation, beat the odds, and reclaim my life?
That’s when I realized how confusing overcoming health challenges can be. I saw first hand how many contradictory diet, exercise, and health advice there is out there. But I also realized that it doesn’t have to be this way. Transforming health for the better can be easier if we just had the right information at the right time. So I made a recipe…
The Recipe for Change
The Recipe for Change has 3 ingredients: Desire, Resistance, and Ignorance…
Simply put: we tend to resist change until the Desire component supersedes our own Resistance, and the Ignorance is replaced with better insights of what’s really going on and what to do next.
The Desire was there. No question about it. Pain is a surprising motivator. But it can also come in the form of a family member who is suffering or a dear friend. Our wake up calls come from many sources.
The Resistance was challenging, both internally and externally. I lacked support from my friends and family for a long time since nothing “looked” wrong with me. It wasn’t cancer. There was no chemo-hair-fallout. It was just me. And loneliness can put up some serious walls. But my desire to be a better parent was bigger.
The Ignorance proved to be the most dangerous ingredient for me, and what should have been just a pinch of ignorance turned out to be a 50 gallon drum. Even though I went to a doctor right after I was bitten by the tick, it wasn’t treated properly because Lyme Disease training for doctors is extremely poor and outdated. And unfortunately, the few doctors that are trying to treat it are losing their medical licenses… not a very promising situation for anyone who is lucky enough to get a correct diagnosis.
This perfectly sums up the stone cold reality I was facing…
And to make matters worse, I learned of growing evidence by Lyme experts that Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, ALS, Lupus, and all of those other “strange” neurological conditions with unknown causes could possibly be undiagnosed chronic long-term Lyme Disease.
Healing from the Inside Out
I turned the biggest corner when I learned that restoring my health is more than just fighting the symptoms and battling the illness. It’s more than just trying every new fad diet and health program on the market. The key is to support the body in its innate healing process. It began with understanding how my individual body works, discovering the root cause of the symptoms, and determining which foods either help promote the healing process or act as roadblocks for me.
What I also discovered is that this healing process applies to every health issue and concern out there whether you are fighting obesity, infertility, or just need want energy and a better sex drive. It’s so fundamental and foundational that it takes root at the deepest level in the body and allows the body to participate in the healing process, which can be as powerful as any drug we can take.
And since I was sick on the inside, and the healing starts from the inside, I healed from the inside out.”
Now I have the energy again to be fully present with my 2 awesome kids who are no longer begging me to get up from the couch. My brain works. And I’m not “just lazy” or a stupid “$#@!&” (yes, that was yet another misdiagnosis).
My goal now is to give back, replace ignorance with better insights and knowledge, and give hope so when you’re told you have X time to live, YOU can be the one who says what that X is going to be.
Learn More About Lyme Disease
You can learn more about Lyme Disease at the following websites.
Many experts believe it’s one of the largest hidden epidemics in the world right now.
And the best way to beat it is to replace Ignorance with Knowledge.
Lyme Less Live More!
Under Our Skin: Lyme Disease Documentary
CDC Says Lyme Disease Is 10x Higher Than Previous Estimates
Living Lyme Blog
Lyme Healing Blog
Lyme Disease Association
ILADS: International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society
Lyme Less Live More Event!
Please share this message and invitation to anyone you may know who could benefit from this.
Thank you!
Brent Martin