I’m 60 years old, and it took me over 30 years to learn the health lessons I’m about to share with you. I’ve been through some serious health crises in my past, and along the way, I made some massive mistakes—mistakes I see people making every single day. At the time, you couldn’t have convinced me I was wrong. I was stuck in a mindset where I thought I knew it all. I hope you’re more receptive than I was because learning from my blunders could save you years of misery and frustration.
This isn’t about pointing fingers; it’s about sharing hard-won wisdom. I can relate to so many people’s health struggles because I’ve had nearly every symptom my patients have described, from chronic fatigue and severe insomnia to arthritis and digestive nightmares. My journey has been a long and winding road, but it’s taught me what truly works and what is a complete waste of time and money. I want to pull back the curtain and show you the seven biggest mistakes I made on my path to wellness and, more importantly, what I should have done instead. (Based on the insights of Dr. Eric Berg)
Key Takeaways
- Diet is King: Vitamins and supplements are useless and can’t fix a poor diet. Focus on nutrient-dense, whole foods first.
- Avoid Aggressive Detoxes: Harsh cleanses and detoxes can disrupt your gut microbiome, deplete electrolytes, and make you sick without addressing the root cause.
- Don’t Procrastinate: Your health won’t wait. The sooner you adopt a healthy lifestyle, the better your brain and body will function, saving you from future problems.
- Investigate Root Causes: Pain and symptoms are often signals from a different part of the body. Don’t just treat the symptom; find and address the underlying issue.
- Embrace Intermittent Fasting: Reducing your eating frequency is a powerful tool for controlling insulin, burning fat, and reducing inflammation.
- More Isn’t Always Better: Even healthy foods like kale can cause problems in excess. Listen to your body and aim for moderation, not extremes.
- Mind Your Minerals: Deficiencies in critical minerals like magnesium are incredibly common and can lead to a wide range of issues, including poor sleep, muscle cramps, and even kidney stones.
1. Trying to Out-Supplement a Bad Diet
There was a point in my life when I was taking over 100 vitamins a day. Yes, you read that right. I had a warehouse of bottles, each one a new hope for curing my chronic fatigue, severe insomnia, and arthritis. I’d drive to the health food store and come out with bags full of more pills, desperate for a natural solution. I didn’t want to take drugs, so I thought this was the answer. The problem? It was all for nothing.
What I didn’t understand then is that supplements only work if your diet is already good. And my diet was terrible. I was a vegan at the time, struggling to get enough protein from plants and never feeling satisfied. I was missing the fundamental building blocks my body needed. If I could go back, I would have completely ignored the supplement aisle and gone straight to the butcher. I should have focused on fatty animal meat. The purpose of protein is to repair your body, and the energy we need should come from healthy fats, not carbohydrates. Starting the day with quality animal protein would have been a game-changer.
2. Falling for the “Detox” and “Cleanse” Hype
Detoxes were all the rage, and I tried them all. I did colon detoxes that flushed out all my good bacteria along with the bad, leaving my electrolytes dangerously low and my digestion a wreck. I did juice cleanses, but the constant intake of fruit juice (like apple juice) kept me from ever entering ketosis, the state where your body burns fat for fuel. Instead, I was just hungry and miserable, running on tiny bursts of sugar.
I even did the infamous Master Cleanse with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup. It was a terrible idea. Then there were the herbal detoxes that were so powerful they would trigger an immune reaction, leaving me sick in bed for two weeks. The most frightening was a gallbladder cleanse where I drank 12 ounces of olive oil and nearly choked. It was all a complete waste of time. What I should have done was simply get on the right eating plan. A diet rich in animal protein, vegetables, healthy fats, and fermented foods like cheese and sauerkraut would have solved my digestive problems naturally, without the dangerous and ineffective cleanses.
3. Saying “I’ll Eat Healthy Later”
In college, my motto was, “I’ll eat healthy when I graduate.” I lived on carbohydrates and strong coffee, constantly battling fatigue and struggling to study. If I had only known then what I know now, I would have prioritized my nutrition. It wouldn’t have even been expensive—a few eggs or a can of sardines would have fueled my brain far better than the junk I was eating. That fatigue I felt wasn’t normal; it was the result of constant blood sugar spikes and crashes.
And did I start eating healthy after I graduated? Of course not. The procrastination continued. I became a vegan, thinking it was the ultimate healthy path, but the beans and so-called “clean protein” inflamed my gut and sent my health spiraling downward even faster. It wasn’t until I discovered the healthy version of the ketogenic diet that I finally began to turn things around. Don’t make the same mistake. Don’t wait for a health crisis or for when you’re “older.” The damage you do now will catch up with you. Start today. I promise your future self will thank you.
4. Chasing the Symptom, Not the Cause
For years, I was plagued by a persistent pain in my right shoulder. I was convinced it was a muscular or skeletal issue. I went to every chiropractor, massage therapist, and physical therapist I could find to work on my shoulder, but nothing provided lasting relief. Alongside the shoulder pain, I had a permanent tightness under my right rib cage. I just lived with it, not knowing what it was.
It turns out, the shoulder pain was a classic case of referred pain. The problem wasn’t my shoulder at all; it was my gallbladder and liver. My bile had become thick and sludgy, causing inflammation and pressure in that area, which in turn sent a pain signal up to my right shoulder. It was a red light indicator, and I was trying to fix the light instead of the engine. This was a huge lesson: always question if you’re treating the real cause or just chasing a symptom. Your body is interconnected in ways you might not expect.
5. Underestimating the Power of Intermittent Fasting
When I first heard about intermittent fasting, I dismissed it. “That’s nothing,” I thought. It wasn’t until I actually tried it and understood the science that I realized it was a monumental game-changer. For years, I was a grazer, a snacker. I believed we needed to eat frequently to keep our energy up. I was completely wrong. Every single time you eat, you raise the hormone insulin. It’s this frequent eating, especially snacking on carbs and eating late at night, that creates so many health problems.
Our bodies were not designed to graze like cattle. As soon as I gave up snacking and adopted a two-meal-a-day schedule, the results were astounding. I dropped from 211 pounds to 185. The chronic puffiness and swelling around my eyes, which was a sign of insulin resistance and fluid retention, completely vanished. That feeling you think is hunger between meals is often just low blood sugar from a carb-dependent metabolism. Intermittent fasting trains your body to switch over to burning its own fat for fuel, so you can go from one meal to the next without being hungry, tired, or irritable.
6. Going Overboard with “Healthy” Kale Shakes
I went through a major kale shake phase. I still have videos online about them. I was operating under the mindset that we needed a tremendous amount of fiber, so I was downing huge, blended concoctions of kale. While I seemed to get away with it for a while, I now know that for many people, overloading the gut with that much raw fiber, especially from goitrogenic vegetables like kale, can lead to significant bloating, gas, and inflammation.
Furthermore, to make these shakes palatable, you have to add sweeteners. I was using pineapple and blueberries, which just added more sugar and carbohydrates to my diet. Starting your day with a sweet, carb-heavy shake is a recipe for hunger and cravings later in the day. If I could go back, I would have been much more moderate. I’m not against plants, but I now recommend a much smaller amount, perhaps five cups of salad a day, and I often switch it up with fermented vegetables like sauerkraut. A protein-focused breakfast is always a better choice than a sugary shake.
7. Ignoring a Critical Mineral Deficiency
My final major mistake was being severely deficient in magnesium. I found this out the hard way when I developed a kidney stone. One of the best ways to prevent calcium oxalate stones—the most common type of kidney stone—is to have adequate magnesium. It binds to oxalates and prevents them from forming into painful stones.
But that wasn’t my only symptom. I had terrible muscle spasms, charlie horses, and cramps for years. Magnesium is an electrolyte that governs muscle relaxation; without enough of it, calcium can dominate and cause constant contraction and tightness. I also suffered from terrible insomnia and fatigue, both classic signs of magnesium deficiency. A big reason for this widespread deficiency is that our modern water supply, especially city water, is often stripped of the magnesium our ancestors would have gotten from well water. Taking magnesium was a game-changer for my sleep, my muscles, and for preventing future kidney stones.
Source: Dr. Eric Berg