Five years ago, Paula found herself overweight and struggling with several ailments. Paula is just 5’1” and, at the time, weighed 215 pounds– a number considered obese for her height. She also struggled with hypothyroidism, migraines, depression, and high blood pressure. Paula was also concerned because she has a strong family tie to type 2 diabetes– she knew something had to change.
Paula decided to follow a friend who was selling ketogenic products as a part of a keto-based diet program. She says during her four to five years as a keto diet follower, she did see many improvements in her health. Paula lost seventy-five pounds and no longer struggled with weekly migraines or high blood pressure. However, she still had issues with depression and her thyroid.
Paula says after a while, she became a meat-based keto diet follower. She found that vegetables didn’t seem to sit well with her system and slowly reduced the number of vegetables she ate per week. Then one day, about a year ago, Paula stumbled across Dr. Shawn Baker and began to learn about the carnivore diet. Paula says she tried to soak up as much information as she could. Paula listened to other carnivore diet advocates like Kelly Hogan and Charles Washington. She decided to try the carnivore lifestyle, but in the beginning, she told no one.
Paula said she slowly began transitioning out what little vegetables she was still eating. Paula states within a week, she noticed she had more energy and began to sleep better. Even though she didn’t tell anyone around her that she had begun only to eat meat, one of her coworkers commented to her about noticing that she seemed to have more energy. That’s when Paula knew for sure that there was something about this carnivore diet thing.
Sometime later, Paula went to her doctor. Paula says her doctor wasn’t entirely supportive of her new carnivore lifestyle but couldn’t deny that her bloodwork looked terrific. Paula states that her A1C after just a few months was 4.98– an almost perfect number. Her cholesterol as an individual number is still considered high, but she knows her high cholesterol doesn’t tell the entire story and isn’t concerned. Paula says she is much healthier nowadays thanks to the carnivore diet– even if her cholesterol number does not reflect that.
Initially, Paula’s carnivore diet mainly consisted of ground beef, butter, and some eggs. These days, Paula says she has branched out and now includes many cuts of beef, including steak, bacon, butter, and coffee. She says she noticed dairy gave her a bit of a cough and tried to cut it out, but she still enjoys some cheese from time to time.
Paula says cutting out processed foods, even when she was keto-based, helped to heal her depression. She also says that even though the rest of her family are not carnivore followers, she tries to be a shining example. Paula states she is delighted she found this way of eating and is thankful for how it finally “clicked” for her and has changed her life and health. Paula has no plans to go back to her previous way of eating. She says, “for me, this is a life, not diet.”
