Izzie’s Struggle with Health Issues
Izzie has struggled with severe allergies, hives, and asthma for most of her life. She says since she was two years old, her mom has done everything possible to help her daughter. She tried various creams and elimination diets, carried an inhaler with her everywhere, and only ate organic foods– nothing seemed to help.
Trying Different Diets and Approaches
Izzie is tall and says by the time she was a teenager, she struggled with body dysmorphic disorder and anxiety. In addition, she also developed mild scoliosis of her spine and started experiencing heavy menstrual periods.
Izzie says she missed over twenty days of school her junior year of high school and ended up doing school online her senior year due to all her health issues. Izzie’s heavy periods were causing her to faint from blood loss, so at eighteen, she had endometriosis surgery.
Izzie felt her life was out of control and often drank sugary coffee and fried foods to make herself feel better. Izzie says it was around this time her mom also started feeling the weight of her own health, so she and her mom got a gym membership to try to get healthy together.
The Benefits of the Carnivore Diet
Izzie says initially, she approached her health with an “eat less, move more” mentality. It worked to some degree, as she quickly lost forty pounds. Izzie’s diet at the time consisted of a lot of carbohydrates, like oatmeal and protein bars, and very few nutritious foods, such as meat.
Izzie said she struggled with hunger and often wanted to eat every couple of hours because of her carb addiction. Izzie decided to try the ketogenic diet. Immediately she noticed a difference in satiety and her anxiety.
However, she transferred her addiction from carbs to artificial sweeteners, and her hives and other autoimmune issues began to act up again. Izzie says she had heard of the carnivore diet and “dipped her toes” before she fully committed. She tried a three-day egg diet and also tried keeping two of her three meals a day zero-carb.
One day she was planning to tell her boyfriend while they were having coffee that she wanted to try the carnivore diet. Unbeknownst to her, Izzie’s boyfriend also thought he wanted to try the diet. And so they committed to do the diet together.
Advice for Those Considering the Carnivore Diet
Izzie says the carnivore diet helped her reduce her inflammation and endometriosis and improved her allergies, hives, and asthma. She says it has also given her a flat stomach and mental clarity, reduced her hunger, and she has been able to gain muscle and reconfigure her body shape by lifting weights.
Izzie says she eats three meals a day that include all meats, seafood, eggs, butter, and organ meats– she found a love for liver pate she never knew she had. She says her advice for anyone looking to start this way of eating is to “focus on what you can have, rather than what you cannot have.”
Izzie credits her faith, her mom, and her boyfriend as helping her stay motivated to continue this way of eating. She says for her, it’s about “choosing my hard.”
She says the carnivore diet can feel challenging some days, but it was also hard on her wallet when she drank two sugary frappuccinos daily. She is thankful for this way of eating and says at the end of the day, “it’s your body,” and you have to make the best decisions for your body.
