Looking back, Nicole says she’s blown away by how unhealthy she used to be prior to starting a carnivore diet. “This diet saving me is an understatement!” she says. “I didn’t have energy and was following a gluten-free diet, taking thyroid medication for Hashimoto’s, supplementing with vitamins, and exercising. My joints still ached, I was unable to think clearly, and couldn’t lose weight.”
A friend shared with Nicole her results on a carnivore diet, and that prompted Nicole to investigate it for herself. “I didn’t know what to try next,” she says. “I saw my friend’s transformation and I knew I had nothing to lose as I had already tried everything I was supposed to do.” Nicole recalls the stories of Dr. Jordan Peterson and his daughter Mikhaila as being further motivation to make the switch to carnivore.
A key benefit of following a carnivore diet is its simplicity. Nicole sticks to basic food that is easy to prepare, as she does not have food processors or any fancy kitchen devices. “I do not like to meal prep,” she shares. “I keep it simple with steak, bacon and eggs. When I go to the grocery store, people stare at me and my cart full of just meat.” Some of Nicole’s favorite meals are different cuts of steak and bacon-wrapped scallops. Due to her busy schedule and current job training, Nicole makes sure to have steak ready in the fridge, and then only needs about ten minutes to get dinner ready. “It’s a really simple diet for people with busy schedules!”
The transition to a carnivore diet was relatively smooth for Nicole, and only took her about two weeks before she started to feel better. “I lost about 15 pounds in the first two weeks,” she recalls. “It was a huge epiphany for me to see how addicted to certain foods I had become.” Some of the first improvements Nicole experienced were improved energy and relief from depression that had plagued her for years. “For years, I didn’t know what was wrong with me and I wanted to get better. I noticed less brain fog and my joints stopped aching.”
Nicole finally was able to lose weight on a carnivore diet, something that had eluded her for years. During the height of the pandemic, Nicole had to make some changes in her life, and has had a brief lapse back into her old way of eating. This experience has been valuable to her, however. “When I fell off the wagon a little big, it just opened my eyes as to how dramatically everything changed. I am seeking to go back to carnivore as soon as possible.”
Test results seem to confirm that eating a meat-based diet improved several different health markers for Nicole. “When I was at peak carnivore earlier this year, I had labs done and my doctor was surprised to see I was extremely healthy.” When she was retested again for an unrelated issue, her results were drastically worse as she went back to her old way of eating for a brief period. Nicole’s goal is to go back to a strict carnivore diet in hopes that she can come off her thyroid medication for Hashimoto’s.
