Suzi grew up in Battle Ground, Michigan, home of Kellogg’s cereal, and says growing up, she was encouraged to eat a lot of cereal and other grains. Suzi says she was overweight as a child and teen. When Suzi was seventeen, she wanted to join the United States Navy but was told she would need to lose weight before she was accepted. And so, like many young women, Suzi starved herself and went on a liquid diet to get herself thin enough to join the Navy.
Suzi lost enough weight to join and says her destructive diet habits stayed with her for the first several years in the Navy. Then in 1992, at twenty-one, Suzi said she wanted to start having babies and knew she needed to get her body healthier.
Suzi found the book “Protein Power” by Drs. Micheal and Mary Dan Eades. Suzi says she is a Christian and believes finding the book was “a God thing.” She began to learn about the importance of protein and the danger of carbohydrates. Suzi says the book helped her body become healthier, and she was able to have seven children.
Some years later, Suzi was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Then, in 2018, Suzi became very sick. Through a series of tests, it was discovered that Suzi had the babesiosis parasite, a parasite typically found in Africa. Suzi was in the hospital for over three months.
During her time in the hospital, Suzi began researching her health and discovered the paleo diet. She started to pay more attention to what she was eating. She ate whole foods, including plants, but began to notice when she ate meat, she felt her best.
Suzi then decided to only eat meat for one year. MS is caused by lesions on the brain. She says at the beginning of her meat-based diet journey, she had a brain scan performed and then another a year later. Suzi was excited to learn that no new lesions had formed on her brain. Suzi knows the slowing of her MS results from her meat-based diet. She says, “protein is a healer.”
Suzi says her diet makes her more intelligent and gives her better mental clarity. Suzi also says she has more energy following a meat-based diet. Suzi says she is trying to get her kids on board with eating more meat, but it has been a process. Still, she enjoys experimenting with making dried meat for her family and other snacks.
Today, Suzi is a primal health coach and says she does eat a few foods that aren’t meat. Suzi says a typical day for her includes eating two meals. Her first meal is usually whole grain rice, which she explains is processed in the body like a plant. She also eats yogurt during this meal, sometimes with a sweetener. Then for dinner, Suzi usually eats a big steak.
Suzi plans to take her thirteen-week primal health program to local churches. She says as a Christian, she feels she has a responsibility to teach other Christians about how to fuel the body they are given. She says, “we should not treat our body this way.” Suzi is grateful she has learned so much about nutrition and health and looks forward to continuing to spread the word.
