Alexandra lives in France and has struggled with “emotional eating” for the last twenty-three years. Alexandra describes trying many diets, usually constricting her calories, losing weight only to gain it back. During her time of yo-yo dieting, Alexandra also gave birth to two children, and she said her pregnancies only worsened her weight gain.
Alexandra says she has a twin sister who does not struggle with emotional eating. Alexandra has spent her life wishing she could look like her sister but could not sustain weight loss. Alexandra got married in August 2020 and decided she needed to make a serious change. She began to take her health seriously the week after her wedding.
Initially, Alexandra began her weight loss journey by intermittent fasting. She says for her, intermittent fasting was a significant first step. It helped Alexandra learn to listen to her body and its hunger cues. It also helped her fight through cravings. From intermittent fasting, she added the ketogenic diet. She said, again, the diet helped, but she still struggled with sugar cravings and felt like the keto diet made her sugar addiction harder to fight. She also found counting macros not entirely sustainable for her lifestyle.
Alexandra first heard of the carnivore diet after finding Kelly Hogan online. From there, she also began to listen to Dr. Ken Berry and Dr. Shawn Baker. Alexandra said at first, she felt like the carnivore way of eating went “too far” and was too restrictive. However, one day while still following the keto diet, she found she only ate meat. Just that one day of eating only meat, she felt improvement in her body and her cravings and decided to try the carnivore diet.
Alexandra says she struggled with severe constipation when she first transitioned to the carnivore diet from keto. She went an entire three weeks without hardly having a bowel movement. She has since learned her body needs ox bile, a laxative that is much gentler on the body than other laxatives.
After struggling with transition issues for the first few weeks, Alexandra’s body responded much more positively. She lost sixty pounds in five months and said she met her goal of “looking like my sister.” Beyond weight loss, Alexandra has also noticed she no longer struggles with eczema and bloating and describes feeling like a “ball of energy.” She says the carnivore way of eating has changed her moods, making her feel much more positive and cheers her up daily.
Alexandra says, in France, doctors do not understand or advocate for the carnivore diet. She has been told she needs to eat fruit and vegetables. However, her family has been very supportive of her new lifestyle. Though she came to the carnivore way of eating for weight loss, Alexandra says the lifestyle is much more for her. She never realized she could improve her health so dramatically. Alexandra says her new lifestyle is “not just a physical goal, but a health goal”– something she never realized possible until she found the carnivore way of eating.
