Katie grew up on a standard American diet and had very few restrictions on what she ate. She struggled with allergies, asthma, anger, and menstrual issues until beginning a carnivore diet a year ago. Today, she is at her healthiest weight and continues to heal from all of the above!
At 16, Katie was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and always suffered from painful periods and cramping. At the time, her doctor suggested cutting back on carbohydrates to help alleviate the condition, but she didn’t understand what he meant and dismissed the advice for years. “I had no idea what the doctor meant by cutting carbs, so I went about my life and ended up in the hospital twice more with severe pain from the cysts popping.” Until recently, Katie had an irregular menstrual cycle and had constant pain from the condition.
After weighing 198 pounds at age 23, Katie had her wake-up call. “I started a high-protein and low-fat diet. I didn’t understand what a carb was at that point. I lived on vegetables, chicken breast, egg whites, and cottage cheese.” She lost nearly 70 pounds but felt miserable. “I was starving all the time,” she recalls, “and I was angrier than before.” After both of her children were born, Katie found she had regained her weight and tried again (with limited success) to do the same diet she had tried before. Eventually, a friend from her child’s school offered the ketogenic diet as an option to try.
“When I saw that it was low-carb, what my doctor had said to me years ago all came back,” she shares. “It was a night and day difference! I wasn’t hungry, felt more alert, and had tons of energy.” Katie continued on the keto diet for nine months, and her husband eventually joined her. He came across Dr. Ken Berry’s video on the carnivore diet, and together, they decided to give it a try.
Katie had a smooth transition from keto to carnivore. “Everything I felt when I started keto was 100 times more powerful on carnivore,” she notes. “I had even more energy and no longer needed coffee. I can chase the kids around all day and still go to the gym.” Katie enjoys CrossFit and weightlifting several times a week and feels stronger than she ever has on a meat-based diet.
Beyond her initial weight loss goal, Katie has experienced much more healing than she thought possible. She no longer has angry outbursts and feels much calmer. Her menstrual cycle has begun normalizing, and she no longer has severe pain from PCOS. Even her ADHD and asthma since childhood have gone away. “The other day, I was cleaning my bathroom, and I threw my inhaler away! I haven’t used it in so long, and I can run five miles without a problem.”
Katie sticks to a simple carnivore diet and eats one meal a day, typically a ribeye and fish. She hopes that sharing her story as a coach will encourage others to try a carnivore diet. “If I can help one person, and they can help one person, we can make a chain reaction! It’s important to really listen to people because it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ approach.”
