Denormalizing Your Diet- Carnivore 6 Month Update

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is designed to introduce Standard American Illnesses…which leads to putting you in the hands of Standard American Healthcare…which leads to Standard American Pharmaceuticals…which makes you a Standard American Patient for LIFE.

A patient cured is a patient lost. The System makes no money off you if you are healthy.

Why are the most inflammatory foods at the base of the food pyramid?

Why are processed foods like Cheerios considered to be nearly 3x’s more healthy than a beef steak?

Why did the American Heart Association (AHA) start pushing highly processed seed oils and margarine instead of butter in the 1960s?

Why would ANY processed food be rated higher than food that has one ingredient?

If we are following the food pyramid suggested, why aren’t we healthier?

Why do one in ten people have type 2 diabetes despite the US having the best healthcare, and what I thought to be a healthy variety of foods readily available?

These questions (and more!) are what I wound up asking once I found a way of eating that worked for me after years of yo-yo dieting!

BACKGROUND: WHY I STARTED THE CARNIVORE DIET

I started the keto diet in 2017. I struggled to stick to my macros and found myself binging on sugary foods and treats far too often. After yet another failed embryo transfer in January 2020, Dr. Robert Kiltz, the creator of my fertility clinic- CNY Fertility in upstate NY, told me to try the carnivore diet.

I slowly eased my way into it.

Meat only for breakfast and lunch then meat with a little vegetable on the side for dinner. By April 2020 I was completely zero carb while allowing dry red wine on special occasions.

I immediately loved the way I felt! My sleep improved, my mood improved, and the weight started falling off! My mood improved so greatly that I was able to safely get off of my antidepressants after 20 years of regular use!

I knew this way of eating was what was best for my body and mind.

Due to my mental health while dealing with covid and the mandates, I fell off the carnivore diet in 2021. However, I continued to follow influencers who ate carnivore and continued researching the benefits of the carnivore diet. I joined every carnivore group on Facebook and started reading about all of the carnivore for fertility success stories.

In the Fall of 2021, I had two more failed rounds of IVF. I fell into a DEEP depression and turned to alcohol while still attempting to eat a ketovore diet which is characterized by eating heavy meat with minimal fruit and vegetables.

In July 2022 I hired a homeopathic practitioner to help me get pregnant. After 6 months of taking fists full of supplements and spending thousands of dollars on expensive tinctures, I wasn’t any better off than when I had started.

SOMETHING HAD TO CHANGE

By the winter of 2022, I knew something drastic had to change. My body was slowly starting to reject alcohol and I was sleeping on average three hours a night.

I wanted to give up completely.

I had two options:

1) I could continue to spiral downward, not heal, not feel well and, frankly, just give up….OR

2) I could go ALL IN, buckle down on adherence to my diet, focus on getting as healthy as possible, and pursue living my best life with no apologies…

Thankfully… I decided to go ALL IN with my health in the new year!

Both Bryce and I abstained from drinking alcohol together for the first time in our relationship. I decided to commit to eating a completely zero carb-Carnivore diet!

THE START OF MY HEALING JOURNEY

On December 29, 2022, I quit drinking. A week later I changed my diet to carnivore.

I went ALL IN. No transition period.

I immediately cut out all sugar, carbs, processed foods, vegetables, and fruit.

Most importantly, for my overall health, I did not drink a single drop of alcohol.

I was so grateful I didn’t experience the “keto flu” like I have in the past when I drop sugar and carbs. Most people experience headaches and brain fog for a week while detoxing from carbs. I had zero issues transitioning from a bottle of wine a night and processed foods, to no alcohol and just meat.

Maybe the transition was easy this time because I knew that I had no other choice?

This time I was going to get healthy! This time there would be no excuses!

That homeopathic practitioner I’d hired in July of 2022…well, I decided to fire her in January 2023. I never noticed any positive changes with her protocol, and I’d grown tired of swallowing 30+ supplements and tinctures per day (not to mention swallowing the BILLS for them!), so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I wanted to see how much healing I could do on my own by going dry and with the carnivore diet!

I had this huge expectation that my sleep would immediately improve, my anxiety would be gone and I’d be happy and healthy Nora.

It did not.

However, I did not give up! I knew how long it takes the body to heal.

The damage definitely didn’t happen overnight!

I knew I had so much damage to reverse from years of antidepressants and years of fertility drugs. I refused to let anything get in the way of my healing journey.

In early April, I got my first God Wink that I was on the right track.

We got pregnant naturally!!!

Unfortunately, we lost the baby :(

Despite miscarrying, getting a positive pregnancy test NATURALLY was enough to keep me pushing forward.

I knew I was on a healing path!

I got my second God Wink when I got my routine lab work back a month later. Despite eating eggs, beef, bacon, butter, and a whole-meat diet, my triglycerides were PERFECT. My C-reactive protein, which measures inflammation in the body, was nearly zero.

At this point, I was 4 months into no alcohol and the carnivore diet.

My labs were perfect.

I was eating an omelet with eggs and homemade sausage for breakfast when I worked, bacon on the weekends for breakfast, hamburger patties for lunch, and a ribeye for dinner. During the weekends we played around with cooking various meats, such as pork ribs, beef short ribs, brisket, pork butts, and various styles of steaks, on the smoker. The only non-carnivore item I allowed was one to two cups of coffee with raw cream.

Thanks to the suggestion from carnivore influencers, I also started incorporating chicken liver! I’d heard that’s a super food and ideal for fertility. I started eating 3 oz of chicken liver per week. I tried everything from liver pancakes to adding liver to my burgers.

However, after three months of adding liver, I decided to leave it out. I just couldn’t stomach it!

Liver pancakes with homemade butter and bacon

SLEEP

I tend to stress out over every little thing unnecessarily. I know this leads to decreased sleep quality. In 2022, I was only averaging 3 hours a night.

Now, in 2023, Despite all of my positive changes, I still didn’t feel as though I was getting restful sleep.

Was it all in my head?

Was I so worried about being “perfect” with my diet that I was placing additional unnecessary stress that was affecting my sleep?

To find out, I had an adrenal test/cortisol function done in late April. That lack of sleep plus the stress of work and life in general led to severe adrenal fatigue. I had been getting upset that Carnivore wasn’t fixing everything for me!

However, once I got these hormone results, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

A diet alone wasn’t going to fix my adrenal fatigue. My new functional medicine doctor, who had ordered these labs, gave me two adrenal tinctures and ashwaghanda to help address my adrenals.

To get better data and insight into my sleep, I ordered an Oura ring in early May.

After only a few nights of use, I was pleasantly surprised by how much sleep I was getting!

I’m a firm believer in “mind over matter”. After seeing that I was actually getting more sleep than I thought, my mind was at ease and I was able to relax at night and sleep even better! I do know the adrenal support helped my sleep quality as well.

OTHER SIGNS OF HEALING PROGRESS

Did you know women shouldn’t have painful cycles?

Pain typically means there’s inflammation in the body. Prior to January I also experienced painful ovulation which also disappeared when I changed my diet.

I was very shocked at the lack of cravings during my cycle! Unfortunately this is a known issue for women: you’re on your period, you’re going to eat chocolate and sweets. Thanks to not eating sugar, my period was just another day.

Over the past 6 months, I’ve had 6 periods. During my cycles I never bloated, never had a single breakout, PMS was minimal, and I didn’t experience any cramps.

I was taking my measurements and weighing myself religiously until I attended Ketocon in late April. After that I continued eating the same way, but not stressing about weight and inches.

In the first four months of eating Carnviore, I went from a body fat percentage of 36.5% to 31.1%! From January to now, I’ve reduced my weight from 183lbs to 168lbs! My weight hasn’t moved like I’d hoped it would, but I know that my staying in a stressed-out state causes my cortisol levels to stay elevated, resulting in holding on to weight.

Now that life is starting to settle down again, I’ll start taking my measurements to track my progress. Just because the scale isn’t moving doesn’t mean the inches aren’t coming off!

Looking back on the past 6 months, I realized I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect. I am so grateful I went all in and stuck to the plan! I was so proud of myself for not breaking down during the miscarriage and, instead, found renewed determination and progress from the loss!

From now on, I won’t be as worried about being “PERFECT” at EVERYTHING. That just causes more stress than I need!