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Rick overcame high blood pressure and poor metabolic health on a carnivore diet

May 23, 2023 No Comments

On a July day in 2015 then 58 year old Rick found himself in the emergency room with super high blood pressure. He survived, but this was just the early days of paying for years of poor metabolic health. This was also the beginning of the pharmaceutical intervention train as he was put on two blood pressure pills and a statin.

Four years later, while still on drugs for hypertension and but also with climbing HBA1c, Rick was diagnosed with very aggressive prostate cancer. He underwent a radical prostatectomy on his 60th birthday.

While free from cancer, Ricks metabolic health continued to worsen. His A1c reached over 6.5 and his ALT and fasting glucose were elevated. He struggled with gout and developed lactose intolerance. HIs weight was nearing 270, near an all time high.

When Rick met with his primary care physician, (PCP), he was told he needed to take medications to control his high glucose levels . Rick’s family has a history of hypertension and diabetes. Many close to him have suffered from these conditions. He asked the doctor to give him three months to bring the blood glucose under control.

One of One of Rick’s sons has been very successful at gaining control of his body weight over the previous year so Rick followed him in reducing his intake of processed foods. Initially he focused on removing sugar and gluten from his diet. There was no intention of entering into ketosis but over the next few weeks he moved into a very low carb, ketogenic diet. The weight decreased rapidly over the next three months.

Rick met with his PCP every month. He was very impressed with Ricks progress. He had to lower his blood pressure pharmaceutical dosage quickly. The doctor had Rick stop taking all the blood pressure meds, and after a CAC test, he also took him off the statin. His gout was gone and he was no longer lactose intolerant. It was not the primary goal, but over the first 9 months, Rick lost 85 pounds.

Over time, Rick slowly reduced his intake of non-animal products. At first it was justs the veggies, then fruits. The last thing to go was the 100% dark chocolate. He has been nearly 100% carnivore for more than 3 ½ years and very strict keto for months before that. Not only was he able to stop taking various medications, but he prior to this he was lactose intolerant, suffered from joint pain in his knees, suffered from gout .. all of issues resolved.

Rick has been dedicated strength training since 1995. You really can’t outrun or out lift your fork. Stress and sleep habits are other factors that Rick really struggled with over the years, but diet was a major factor in Ricks declining heath for many years.

In those first months on Keto, Rick would eat OMAD or 2MAD. His focus was on higher fat, moderate protein, and very low carb. Over time, as his weight dropped well below his target, he realized that he was getting cold all the time. His metabolism had slowed significantly. Rick now eats 3 to 4 times a day with a focus on protein. He eats mostly bison, beef, lamb some elk and a lot of eggs. He eats the fats that come with his protein. His blood pressure and glucose are in the good range, and he test for cancer twice each year.

Life is so much better when you eat only animal products and drink only water.

Results are not typical. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program.

Holly and Matt’s autistic son improves on a carnivore diet

April 25, 2023 2 Comments

Holly and Matt have a 19-year-old autistic son who’s been eating carnivore for a year. Wyatt was diagnosed with autism at two. Wyatt does not speak, so communication was very challenging. At 15, he was able to use a letterboard to communicate, which his parents say was “life-changing.”

Holly became interested in the carnivore diet after gaining weight. At first, she was skeptical. She started in 2021, and soon after, her years-long eczema cleared up and she lost weight. Holly never considered modifying her son’s diet prior to learning about the carnivore diet’s potential benefits for autism.

Wyatt ate mostly carbohydrates. When Holly asked Wyatt if he wanted to try the carnivore diet, he agreed. On March 30, 2022, he weighed 187 pounds at 5’10”. Two weeks later, he had lost 35 pounds.

By the end of May, he began to experience other changes. On his letterboard, Wyatt communicated to his parents that he was happier than he’d ever been and that he was no longer depressed.

At first, Wyatt’s diet was more keto, with blueberries, bacon, hot dogs, and lots of meat.

As he progressed on the carnivore diet, Holly asked Wyatt about removing blueberries, and again he agreed. Cutting out blueberries made a big difference.

Wyatt began going to church with his family and was able to attend his grandfather’s memorial service. These things were not possible for him before. Wyatt said, “Thank you for allowing me to go.” And he noticed that ”I’m able to handle so much more because of this diet.”

Because Wyatt did so well removing blueberries, Holly asked him about removing pork. He was reluctant because he ate a pound of bacon every morning, and he really liked it. Wyatt reasoned that if it could help him get better, he would do it. Wyatt says he used to “perseverate on idiotic things.” Since he stopped eating blueberries and pork, he no longer does.

Wyatt craves fat, so Holly adds butter to meat and makes crispy beef fat. Wyatt says the fat “makes my brain feel so good and calm.” After years of trying to quiet his mind, he says, “It feels good to have a calm brain.”

Holly and Matt explain that using a letterboard to communicate “unlocked” Wyatt. “It was the first opportunity to get to know our son,” says Matt. They learned many things about Wyatt that they didn’t know.

They discovered he is extremely articulate, intelligent, and has a photographic memory. He taught himself to read and loves biographies. This summer, he plans to read more than ever before.

Holly and Matt also learned that he has double vision and that his eyes cannot track objects. Since starting eye therapy, he has had stronger eye muscles and, consequently, better eye muscle control.

Wyatt expressed his love of music and is now involved in the orchestra at school. Holly is teaching him beginner piano because Wyatt’s fine motor skills have improved so much that he can move each finger independently.

The school has reported much better behavior from Wyatt since last year—no more outbursts. Teachers also observe that he is much better able than before to handle non-routine situations.

Although Wyatt’s progress has not been linear—there have been ups and downs—Matt says if he had not witnessed the changes in Wyatt, he wouldn’t have believed it was possible. Holly adds that we’ve seen “noticeable, generous, and measurable changes” since he began a carnivore diet.

Rachel’s autistic daughter improves speech and communication on the carnivore diet

April 25, 2023 No Comments

Rachel began the carnivore diet in March 2022. She is 30 years old and has a daughter who was diagnosed with autism when she was three.

Rachel had a stressful marriage that led to depression. Eating made her happy—at least at first—but afterward, she would feel awful. She ate lots of carbs; pasta, bread, Oreos, and sweets were the primary drivers of her weight gain. Her knees and hips were often sore because of her weight. At 5’ 9”, she weighed 236 pounds.

Rachel was medicated for years for her depression and suffered from frequent panic attacks. She had severe heartburn; even a sip of water would set it off. She experienced bloating and bowel problems.

Rachel’s parents lovingly confronted her about taking better care of herself. She knew they were right—she had to be healthy for her daughter. Rachel was inspired by the success of her dad’s carnivore diet.

Rachel’s daughter, now 7, has difficulty expressing herself—she understands the meaning of what is said but can’t always articulate her feelings. She has echolalia and often repeats phrases over and over. Also, her daughter had delayed potty training, mostly from her inability to tell her mom she had to “go.”

Rachel noticed improvements six months after putting her daughter on a “ketovore” diet. Her daughter’s episodes of echolalia have improved; they happen less frequently, and she can “snap out of them” easily.

Also, her daughter took a huge leap in expressing herself. One night, while getting ready for bed, her daughter announced, “No more pull-ups. Only panties now.”

Her daughter continues to follow a “ketovore” diet, and Rachel notices that if she strays from it with sugar or carbs, her mood is less stable and she gets irritable.

During Rachel’s first month on the diet, she had diarrhea and constipation, but after that, her digestion improved. And in just six months, Rachel lost 80 pounds.

Besides her tremendous weight loss, Rachel experienced other health victories. She can lift weights, has more energy, sleeps better, and wakes up feeling refreshed. Her hair is growing thicker, and her knees and hips are no longer painful. Her cycle-related cystic acne has vanished. She is free from heartburn.

Rachel is especially pleased that she doesn’t need the medication she was on for years. She no longer experiences panic attacks, and she now feels mentally better than she did while taking it.

Rachel likes coffee, eggs, sausage, and bacon for breakfast. She’ll have a ribeye or New York strip steak, some shrimp, and bacon for dinner. Rachel enjoys fatty meats and uses butter or tallow when cooking. She prefers conventionally raised beef over grass-fed beef and finds she feels the same eating either. She also eats cheese and adds electrolytes to her water.

“I listen to my body.” Rachel eats when she’s hungry and stops when she’s full. Meat keeps her feeling full, and she no longer snacks or thinks about food all day long.

When she began the carnivore diet, Rachel was on food stamps and broke. She made it work by shopping for meat sales, finding a butcher who accepted food stamps, and getting to the store early to buy any discounted meat. She freezes meat that is on sale or discounted.

Rachel loves her diet and thinks that living a carnivore lifestyle is sustainable.

Greg is off blood pressure meds and has improved gout on the carnivore diet

April 24, 2023 No Comments

Greg, who is 6’3″, put on 150 pounds in 20 years. In 2018, he weighed 397 pounds—a number that shocked him—only three pounds away from 400.

Greg was a long-distance runner and was very lean from high school into his 30s. Between a growing family and work, he had less time to run. Plus, his job as a computer scientist was very sedentary.

Before his weight gain, he followed a no-fat diet with lots of carbs based on Dr. Pritikin’s protocol. This worked while he ran. He continued to eat this way even while not exercising, and his weight crept upward.

Greg had high BP and an A1c between 5 and 6, which made him prediabetic; he had sleep apnea and used a CPAP; he experienced generalized and situational anxiety, especially when speaking in public; he had joint pain from old injuries and gout flare-ups that were almost continuous.

After the shock of his weight in 2018, Greg began to gather facts about keto, which was trending big at the time. He searched for medically sound information but did not make any commitment to change.

It wasn’t until January 2020 that Greg began keto. As part of his keto routine, he fasted for two to three days each month. Over almost 10 months, Greg lost 80 pounds.

After his initial weight loss, he saw improvement in his BP and A1c. The gout flare-ups had subsided so much that they were rare—one every 3 months.

Greg’s keto diet morphed into a more “ketovore” diet. He describes this as meat, veggies, and fasting. Eventually, Greg gravitated toward doctors in the carnivore community, and this led him to shift from keto to a more meat-focused diet.

Greg has been mostly carnivore for the last nine months. He lost another 60 pounds on carnivore, for a total of 140 pounds.

The carnivore diet satiates Greg, and he doesn’t have the urge to snack. He eats one meal in the evening—ribeye, ground beef, seafood, or chicken. He eats 80–90 percent beef and likes steak and eggs. He chooses the fattier cuts of meat and doesn’t need to add additional fat to his diet. He uses salt and, occasionally, electrolytes. Greg enjoys decaf coffee.

Occasionally he’ll eat some veggies, but he limits them because the plant toxins aggravate his joint pain. Greg says, “I don’t eat food if it has an ingredient list.” He finds the carnivore diet to be much easier to navigate than keto and more cost-effective, even with the price of beef, because there is so much he doesn’t buy now.

Greg has experienced amazing results on his health journey. The last gout attack he had was a couple of years ago—red meat is clearly not causing his gout. The dose of his BP meds has been decreased several times, and he thinks that on his next doctor’s visit, he will be completely done with them. His last A1c was 4.8, and while he is still on metformin, he believes that he will soon get off that as well.

Daily stress is much easier for Greg to handle now, although public speaking still makes him anxious. His mental focus is much improved, and he believes that he’s less distracted because he has fewer physical discomforts. And with less joint pain, he’s able to exercise using a rowing machine.

Greg is 60 and encourages people to make this change at any age. “It’s never too late.”

David manages pain and loses weight on a carnivore diet

April 24, 2023 No Comments

Since my early teenage years, training was a big part of my life. Running, swimming, bodybuilding, wrestling and martial arts. Staying fit was always important to me. At the age of 19, I served 6 years in the United States Army as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. The 82nd, we were known as the running junkies!

After the military I spent most weekends sport parachuting. After many decades of hard parachute landings and a few accidents, I had my share of broken bones and injuries. Always playing hard, I felt bulletproof in my early years.

I relocated to Southern California after the military and spent the next 32 years working as a bodyguard in the executive protection busines. I had the privilege of working and training with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office (LASO).

During the 90’s a few retired law enforcement officers and I decided to take advantage of the new three strikes law in California and started a fugitive recovery/bounty hunting business. The three strikes law applied to criminals who were convicted of three or more violent felonies, earning them a life sentence in a California State prison. We would locate the worst of the worst and arrest these criminals who were evading law enforcement for a percentage of the bond. It was dangerous and we were busy! Most of my career was spent in Beverly Hills, California. I protected celebrities, Saudi Royal family members, prime ministers, dignitaries, billionaires and CEOs.

In 2010 I was offered a position protecting a CEO of a large defense contractor and his family. I accepted the position and relocated to the East coast.

Most of my life I stayed in great shape, because my job and my life depended on it. While living in Southern California, I was a regular at the famous Venice Gold’s Gym. As time passed my bulletproof mindset changed!

In my late 50’s the joint pain I felt was excruciating. I lived with that pain for years and accepted that was the price to pay for playing hard. Over the course of the next 10 years, I was working long hours and had absolutely no energy or desire to exercise. I gained 75 pounds and went from a 36 to 44 inch waist, weighing in at 300 pounds. At 62 years old I realized I was fat, sick, unhealthy and probably borderline diabetic. I needed to take drastic steps.

I attempted numerous diets, even ate vegetarian for over a year with no success. I ate more carbs as a vegetarian than I did on SAD. I tried the low-fat approach but found it unsustainable.

Next, I tried Keto for two months and had pretty good success. However, found it too complicated! After watching Dr. Shawn Baker on YouTube, I started the carnivore diet. It took only a few weeks for all the inflammation and joint pain to be relieved. I thought it was a miracle!

I dropped 65 pounds pretty easily over the course of ten months, maintaining muscle, strength and feeling great! I’m never hungry! I usually eat four eggs and bacon for breakfast with coffee with a little organic cream.I eat one pound of steak or ground beef for lunch and dinner with butter and Redmond salt. If want a snack, it’s either 4505 pork rinds or pepperoni slices.

People are constantly saying “You look great, what are you doing”? I explain the carnivore diet and usually receive the identical response “Red meat is not good for you”and “saturated fats cause cardiovascular disease.” They proceed to say “no way, I couldn’t even imagine doing that diet.”

I feel better than I have in decades and will never go back to the SAD.

Jim, stroke survivor, improves health on carnivore diet

April 3, 2023 1 Comment

Jim was 47 years old when he suffered an ischemic stroke leaving him paralyzed on his left side. The standard American diet for the first three decades of his life was the beginning of his slow decline in health. To improve his health, he switched to a vegan diet and lost some weight as well as some strength and his energy levels dropped. Jim added some animal products back into his diet, however he followed all the standard recommendations. He only consumed lean meats, used the recommended “healthy” plant-based oils, and included whole grains. After years of eating this way, Jim gained back all of the weight he lost, not much of it being muscle, and ultimately suffered a stroke in January of 2016.

Three weeks in rehab. Hospital with only 3 hours of daily therapy leaves one a lot of free time to contemplate life choices and question the conventional wisdom they have been following. Plenty of patients before Jim worked as hard as he did on rehab, but no one worked harder than he did. Jim is fortunate to have a nice home gym set up, unfortunately he had not been using it consistently. He went to Craigslist and hired a trainer while still in the hospital so he could continue his recovery as soon as he came home.

He also started studying diet and nutrition, the more he learned, the more he began to shift his diet from the standard recommendations to a ketogenic diet. He wasn’t perfect but was consistent enough that the weight started to drop. As Jim continued to study and learn he heard more and more about the carnivore diet. He moved from keto to keto-carnivore and continued to see improvements in body composition. It seems that the standard recommendations were all wrong and if the same people pushing the standard recommendation were against the carnivore diet, it must be the correct thing to try.

At 55 years old, Jim is probably in better shape than since his early teens and is probably stronger than 98% of men in his age range. Most people guess his age at way younger than he is and he credits this to regular strength and cardio training, fasting, daily meditation and the carnivore diet.

Jim loves the simplicity of the carnivore diet. If he is in a hurry, he can turn on the Otto Wilde grill as he walks in the house, melt a little butter on a plate, grab a steak out of the refrigerator, slap it in the butter, add a little salt and stick in the grill for 1.25 minutes per side and is eating within 5 minutes. One plate, one knife, one fork and a set of tongs. Combining fasting and carnivore save hours per week that would have been spent shopping, eating, driving to eat and cleaning up.

While not an environmentalist, eating carnivore has a way lower impact on the planet in terms of the number of dishes that must be washed, trash created, etc. not to mention the impact of driving to the store on a regular basis to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables.

Jim eats primarily carnivore and stays away from sugar and processed foods. He does still enjoy some red wine with his wife on the weekends. He is embracing the wearable technology and is wearing the Whoop to track his sleep and a CGM to monitor how diet, exercise, sleep and stress impacts blood glucose. Recent labs are some of the best he has ever seen and prove to him that carnivore is healthy and safe. He never liked vegetables and can’t believe that he waited so long to find the perfect diet that is simple, healthy, and delicious.

Jen Overcomes Sugar Dependency on Keto Diet

March 30, 2023 No Comments

Jen is in her 40s and has two children. After having her second one in her later 30s, she found that recovery from second childbirth was very challenging, saying, “After my little boy was born, I just could not get my body back; not in a way that I could feel comfortable in my body. I was one of those people that say ‘I’ve tried everything and it just doesn’t work. It’s just my body like, I’m stuck like this.”

Jen says, “I’m a really active person. I’m a runner, and I’m a dancer; I’m an aerialist; I use my body on a daily basis. I got to the point that I felt like a sack of potatoes all the time… I just had inflammation everywhere in my body.”

The culprit was Jen’s diet, as she admits, “Looking back, I had a complete carb addiction. I craved salty crunch.” Jennifer also used exercise as a justification for eating sweet foods that she knew she shouldn’t eat. “One of the things I would do after my run is I would go to Starbucks, and I would get a chonga bagel with cream cheese and a grande soy iced chai. It was like my favorite thing! I would literally go for a run and sweat my head off, and then eat complete garbage.”

Though she wasn’t eating a huge amount in one sitting, she says, “I was eating in small increments, but if you added it up it just added to countless amounts of sugar in my body.”

She was physically uncomfortable and unhappy with herself: “Every night before bed, I would bloat and look like I was six months pregnant, and I would just be disgusted with myself.” Jen was tired all the time, even for a mom of two, saying that she felt like she was “always dragging.”

She learned about intermittent fasting at a performance when a sound engineer friend explained that he had lost weight and been able to discontinue his diabetic meds because of his ketogenic diet. way. She decided to commit to the keto diet for four weeks, and after three months she had lost “ten or twelve pounds.”

Sugar was a game-changer for Jen. “One of the big things for me that made a difference was getting all that sugar out. Table sugar, and carbohydrates. My bloating went away.”

Jen has reached a weight that she is comfortable with, and says that her diet now is “meat, fats; I eat a lot of avocados; I use olive oil and coconut oil; MCT oil. Eggs, lots of nuts and seeds, and a lot of greens and vegetables. I eat a little bit of fruit.”

She also credits quitting grains and gluten for her progress: “Getting those grains out was a really important thing, and made me realize that gluten does not agree with me, and I don’t think it agrees with our country. I would be surprised if gluten works for anybody, truly.” Way to go, Jen!

Guy goes on carnivore diet after widow-maker heart attack

March 29, 2023 No Comments

Guy is a 57-year-old man who has been married for 33 years and has three grown children. He worked as a microbiologist and chemist before transitioning to a career as a software engineer. He enjoys playing tennis, beach volleyball, and running obstacle races in the mud. Additionally, he has played lead guitar in various 80s hair metal tribute bands, estimating that he has played over 800 shows in his life.

Guy was gaining a few pounds each year and said a typical meal before his heart attack would be “maybe four eggs, but only one yolk…oatmeal was a big thing-I didn’t put sugar, I was kind of already hip on not eating too much sugar. One thing that may have done me in was I did love making my own tacos, and I would fry the tortillas in corn oil. So I’m heating oil, saturating my tortillas in oil, pretty often-it’s a favorite dish of mine. I was not eating much red meat; I was definitely eating grains, and sort of a low-fat for the most part diet.”

On his 51st birthday, he suffered a widowmaker heart attack. His left anterior descending artery was completely blocked for over three hours before two stents were eventually placed in the artery while he was still experiencing the heart attack.

“When that happened to me, luckily, I recovered with very little damage to my heart, which is kind of amazing, in itself, but I think collateral circulation had a lot to do with that.” Guy’s body had already developed extra blood vessels around the blockage, from frequent high-intensity training sessions doing CrossFit.

The events started Guy on a learning path: “After that, I just started researching nutrition, to make sure that never happened to me again.”

Guy was put on statins after his heart attack and stents, and he continued taking them for a few months until “I was definitely getting muscle aches and pains that I hadn’t had previously, and when I finally stopped they actually went away.”

A few years after the heart attack, Guy also started losing his hair, saying, “after that was alopecia areata, which is basically you start losing your hair in patches, and it can… get really bad and mine did.”

To prevent another heart attack and promote hair regrowth, he conducted extensive nutrition research and discovered the carnivore diet. “Being a voracious reader; I had no bias at that point. If I found out that being vegan would have helped, I would have taken that advice. But the more I read, the more I did gravitate toward a meat-based diet.”

He adopted the carnivore diet, and eventually, much of his hair grew back. He also decided to stop taking all medications, including statins. He is doing well and remains very active. He credits the carnivore diet for his hair regrowth and good health.

“Meat is kind of the ultimate elimination diet. It’s been a great journey to get the right information, and also my hair is coming back, which is great!”

Amanda loses weight on the carnivore diet

March 28, 2023 2 Comments

Amanda is 33 years old and lives in Bellingham, Washington. She started gaining weight when she was about nine years old after experiencing trauma. She learned to cope using food, saying, “I watched my Mom be a size four and eat an entire bag of Hershey’s to deal with her emotions, so as I got older, I kind of learned, Oh, that is how you deal with your feelings, that is how you deal with the negativity in life, is eating.”

She had PCOS when she was 16 and weighed “in the two-twenties” during her teen years. As an adult, she developed depression and anxiety from being overweight.

After she turned 18, Amanda developed a lot of pain issues. Her hands, joints, and skin hurt. She was diagnosed with scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. She became diabetic in her late 20s and also developed fatty liver disease.

Amanda was prescribed Metformin, and told to “eat less and move more.” The nutritionists she saw recommended low-fat, high-carb diets, and she says, “I just was hungry all the time!” Amanda was very physically active, helping remodel houses: “I literally was digging post holes and moving dirt around. I think that’s the only thing that kept my weight down, is I was very physically active.”

When Amanda tried vegan diets, she found the oxalates made her inflammation worse, and she would awaken with her hands stiff. “I had a hard time waking up in the morning, opening my hands. It was like someone with severe RA or very like a lot of arthritis. I just couldn’t open my hands in the morning until I ran them under hot water and tried to move them around.”

Amanda would eventually grow to 360 pounds before going on a carnivore diet.

She found a nutritionist who admitted everything she learned in school was wrong. Amanda was told to try a low-carb diet. “I had pretty good success on that. I lost like 40 pounds. But it still did not address the mental component of the binge eating for me.” Ketogenic diets resulted in Amanda reinventing sweet foods she enjoyed, using alternative flours and artificial sweeteners. These drove her binge eating to new highs.

She started watching Michaela Peterson’s arthritis and carnivore journey and became inspired. Amanda went 100% carnivore and has lost 105 pounds so far. She stopped having edema in her legs, her urinary incontinence eased, her reflux had stopped, and she no longer wakes up “choking on my own vomit.”

Her physician was against the carnivore diet at first, but after seeing Amanda lose 105 pounds and her husband lose 27 pounds while his testosterone rose from 250 to 650, he is now supportive of her diet and is asking how to broach the subject with his other patients.

She says, “I take half my antidepressants now… I no longer suffer from anxiety… I haven’t had a panic attack since I started this… I used to say I wished I wouldn’t wake up tomorrow… Now I wake up excited for life and motivated!”

Gina manages IBS, anemia, joint pain, migraines, anxiety, and mood on the carnivore diet

March 24, 2023 1 Comment

I’m Gina. I’m a 52 year old wife, mom and dental hygienist. I had my two oldest when I was in my early 20s and became very physically active when they were little to stay in shape. I lifted weights and even worked at a gym as a trainer. In my 30s I was involved in karate, and in my 40s and 50s I was running. In the 90s, the “fat makes you fat” idea was in full swing. You could eat all the Snack Well cookies you wanted, just stay away from butter. I followed that but eventually transitioned into more of a mainstream diet most of my life. I also figured I had wiggle room due to being active so I never turned down chips, cookies, cake, etc.

In 2019 I was 49 and had been running several years doing everything from 5ks all the way to ultramarathons. I was looking ahead to 2020 when I would be turning 50 and decided to celebrate by signing up for a 50 mile race. It was a good training year until end of summer, early fall. I started to experience trouble running. I would get very winded and unable to continue. I’d go for a 6 mile run and quit in the first mile or two. My legs felt like they were stuck in wet cement. Severe fatigue, numbness and tingling followed. MS was suspected so I had MRIs, tests and a spinal tap. All came back fine, and I had no diagnosis for the illness.

I quit running for six months, but was desperate to feel better. I began to think about my diet. My best friend and running partner is vegan. Everywhere you turn, vegan is promoted as the healthiest diet. I decided to give it a try. I watched all the documentaries. I liked Game Changers because it was about athletes. I was whole food, plant based for 18 months. At first things went well. I began running again, and it felt good to have such a “healthy” diet. I even got my certification in plant based nutrition. I was gearing up for possibly health coaching.

As time went by, my health began to decline. But I had no idea it was diet related. I had gallbladder pain and an ultrasound revealed a polyp. I had my gallbladder removed. I had IBS for about 10 years, it was mostly manageable but suddenly was becoming really bad. It was interfering with my work. It got so bad at one point it I almost had to quit my job. My cycle became extremely heavy and painful. I had a hysterectomy. Then one night I woke with my heart pounding and I was panting. A trip to the ER revealed severe anemia. They wanted to give me a transfusion, but I managed to hold them off and got 4 weekly iron infusions. My bones and joints began to ache really badly. I was Googling bone cancer. Brain fog and some cognitive issues began to arise. I was sure I was dying from something.

I quit veganism in early 2022, not because I thought the diet was the problem, but because I figured, what’s the point in eating well if I’m just going to feel like garbage anyway. I spent about 6 months alternating between a terrible diet and trying to get back to veganism, but I just was over it. I gained 20 pounds. I felt like my health was in freefall.

Then I read a blog post by The Peasant’s Daughter called “Why I Am No Longer Vegan”. It was the first time the idea that the diet may have been behind my health troubles. Down the rabbit hole I went, consuming everything I could and eventually landed on the countless stories of carnivores.

I transitioned slowly because I wasn’t completely sure it was a good idea. I took things out of my diet like vegetables, kept things like oatmeal, and increased meat. For 2 months I worked toward carnivore, which I think helped me transition because I never got the keto flu. Mid December I was pretty much full carnivore.

I lost the 20 pounds I gained. My joint and bone pain disappeared. My migraines were about 90% gone. Brain fog gone. Energy soared. But the biggest, most wonderful thing has been that my IBS is gone. To live life like a normal person and not have a brain completely consumed with going to the bathroom or holding in gas. Just a feeling of nothing going on in my gut. It is unreal.

I want to learn and devour everything I can about this way of life. I no longer think about food all day. I know that this way of eating could stave off Alzheimer’s which I am at great risk of developing. I’m lifting again and feel better, stronger, more energetic than I have in years. I’m even beginning to talk with my dental patients about this diet. Everyday I see patients trapped in bad metabolic health. My hope is more people can heal like I did.

Weight loss

Real People, Real Results

Rick overcame high blood pressure and poor metabolic health on a carnivore diet

Holly and Matt’s autistic son improves on a carnivore diet

Rachel’s autistic daughter improves speech and communication on the carnivore diet

Greg is off blood pressure meds and has improved gout on the carnivore diet

David manages pain and loses weight on a carnivore diet

Jim, stroke survivor, improves health on carnivore diet

Jen Overcomes Sugar Dependency on Keto Diet

Guy goes on carnivore diet after widow-maker heart attack

Amanda loses weight on the carnivore diet

Gina manages IBS, anemia, joint pain, migraines, anxiety, and mood on the carnivore diet

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