Tag: calorie restriction

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My 2023 (Resolutions) To-Do List

My 2023 Resolutions To-Do List

Many people say that New Year’s resolutions have a negative connotation for them. But I don’t think the word choice really matters. If you make a resolution, a goal, a commitment, or a plan….it’s all the same thing. No matter what word you use, the idea is the same and if it isn’t always at the forefront of your mind, it can become a passive attempt at a loose concept. Not to mention, if you just set the goal without the steps to get there…it’s probably not going to go great for you. I don’t remember the last time I even made a New Year’s resolution. But I make the hell out of to-do lists. Like daily. So that’s what I’m doing for this year. The items on my 2023 To-Do list are things that I will need to take action on daily, weekly, or monthly in order to be able to check them off my list this time next year. 

  1. THE WHAT: Get strong AF – at the young, tender age of 50, my family is already beginning to treat me like I’m fragile. Let me tell you, that pisses me right off! Just because I had to have a rotator cuff repair and a week before the surgery I tore the other side, does not make me fragile. It makes me independent, and maybe a little impatient and dumb. But not fragile!
    • THE HOW: Weight lifting at least 3 days per week at an incrementally challenging load and duration. 
  1. THE WHAT: Prioritize sleep – I love my sleep. Always have. But I have struggled with it a lot lately due to dopamine antagonist withdrawal. That’s a story for another time but if I could go back to 2016 and not take some recommended medications, believe me, I would. This is a misery you don’t want to mess with.
    • THE HOW: End phone and computer time by 6 pm daily unless I have a coaching session, group, class, or meeting. 
    • Also, no phone or computer time at all on Sundays. This will be great for my sleep and my mental health!
  1. THE WHAT: Get ready for the day, every day.
    • THE WHY: Because of my poor sleep, I have a tendency only to make myself presentable when absolutely necessary. I feel like this has made me so freaking lazy over the last 6 months since I left my government job. To clarify, I think a lot of work-from-homers get trapped in this. Getting a quick shower and switching from PJs to other equally comfy clothes doesn’t really motivate me. I comb my hair but do not style it. I put on clothes, but nothing I would leave the house in. I want to eliminate any excuse for not putting myself out there more.
  1. THE WHAT: Drink more water. I forget to drink water. Can anyone else relate? I know this is a big issue for those with ADHD, which I have learned I probably have but have not been formally diagnosed.
    • THE HOW: I downloaded an app on my phone already. It’s helpful, but I may need something a little more extreme – like an alarm on my phone every few hours. The app makes a noise, but when I’m hyper-focused on something (which is almost every minute of every day) I ignore it. Not on purpose, I hear it but it doesn’t really register in my brain and the reminder only sounds once at each designated interval. I almost need something that will ensure I can’t ignore it. 
  2. THE WHAT: Continue my education – to better serve my clients, the plan is to watch, read, and/or listen to educational content every week.
    • THE HOW: I will schedule time for this every week. I may join a group hosted by a trusted mentor, watch a webinar, read or listen to an audiobook, or enroll in free and paid courses. All of which will be related to zero-carb, low-carb, keto, carnivore, food addiction, etc. 

I will track some of these habits each day, week, or month so that I can check them off my list at the end of the year! None of these items will be automatic – meaning I’m obviously not going to be strong AF tomorrow, but I will be making progress toward each to-do item every day, week, or month. 

I feel that saying, ‘ok, starting today I am doing X’, can be a recipe for failure. I know I need transitions. 

Another thing that helps me is the reminder to act like who I want to be. By that, I mean I will start ‘identifying’ as the kind of person who is productive and ready for every day. I will ‘identify’ as the kind of person who stops working and puts the phone away at 6 pm each day. I won’t beat myself up if I can’t do that due to something that is scheduled, like a meeting, a client session, or something going toward my continued education. But on the days I do not have something planned, I will be sure to have screens off by 6 pm. This is a small measure that will go toward my to-do item of prioritizing sleep. So small steps toward a larger, overall goal is my strategy for success. Knowing I love to cross items off a list means making this a to-do list rather than a lofty goal or resolution is less daunting, and will (hopefully) lead me to success. 

See, it always, ALWAYS goes back to individuality. Knowing yourself and what you need to do to succeed is the key. You can’t copy someone else’s goals or systems and expect to get the same results. It might work, but you really need to consider the process of achieving the goal and not just the goal itself. 

If that seems overwhelming, reach out! I can help you pick an attainable goal in a realistic time frame, and help you break that goal down into a process toward progress. 

There are two options available!

Group sessions offer a community led by two mentors, meetings at least once per week, and group support with the ability for the mentors to give individualized advice due to the small group size. Join us here for just $30 with no ongoing commitment. 

Individual coaching offers a one-on-one, private approach. This allows me to focus solely on you, your goals, and the steps to achieve them. Book a session with me here for just $17.99 with no ongoing commitment.

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Is a HEALTHY, happy new year on your wishlist?

new year resolution

Is a HEALTHY, happy new year on your wishlist?

NO PRODUCTS TO BUY, NO MEMBERSHIP OR SUBSCRIPTION!

Hi there! I’m Stephanie, a certified health coach and I have 2 options available for January to help you finally ditch the standard diet to gain health and lose weight. 

What I DO vs What I Do Not DO

As stated, I PROMISE, I do not sell any products – no pills, powders, or meal replacements, nothing like that. This is not an MLM. 

I teach people all over the world how to optimize their health with a low-carb, zero-carb, meat-based way of eating. I provide a service to help you heal chronic disease and lose weight permanently. I provide knowledge, support, accountability, and an individualized plan of action to help you heal, with fine-tuning along the way to help you reach your goal. 

If you…

Can’t control yourself around certain foods – it’s not your fault! Food addiction is REAL and I can help you put it in remission!

Have tried low-calorie diets – I’ll show you how to eat more nutrient-dense food and get results!

Have aches and pains due to inflammation – there are specific foods that cause this!

Take meds for type 2 diabetes, skin conditions, blood pressure, or any chronic disease – you can reverse these by adjusting your diet!

Think you need to lose weight to be healthy – that’s backward! You need to heal to lose weight!

Two Options Available

Option 1: Individual one-on-one coaching in a private, virtual space so I can help you no matter where you are. You choose the frequency of our sessions, days, and times, as needed. You can schedule 1 session and use that as a launching pad, or schedule a session as often as you like for fine-tuning, support, and accountability. Individual sessions are just $17.99, typically last 30 minutes, and there is no obligation. Book a session with me here: https://thecandidcarnivore.com/healing-with-carnivore/one-on-one-health-coaching/

Option 2: Group Sessions with TWO coaches! Groups are limited to 20 members, you get two coaches – myself and Amy Labbe who has 20 years of experience in the medical field and is part of the Food Addiction Recovery program, built-in support with like-minded peers, a Facebook group limited to only those members in your selected group where you can interact in addition to scheduled meetings and view meeting replays, at least one live virtual meeting per week with various topics, downloadable tools for success (habit tracker, food lists, recipes, and more!). Group sessions are $30/month, with no obligation, membership or subscription required. Available now – January sessions on Thursday evenings at 6pm EST, or Saturday mornings at 10am EST. Register for January Group Sessions here: https://thecandidcarnivore.com/products/

What Is There to Lose?

Aside from losing 100lbs along the way from low-carb to zero-carb, I’ve also lost:

Sugar addiction

Carb addiction

Processed food addiction

Binge eating disorder, anorexia, and bulimia

PCOS symptoms

Bleeding gums

Constipation

Metformin

Spironolactone

High-dose thyroid meds (reduced dose twice this year!)

Depression

Aches & pains

Inflammation

Chronic fatigue

Unstable moods

Brain fog

What Is There to Gain?

What have I gained? 

A deep appreciation and passion for LIVING

Energy

Muscle

Deep sleep

Confidence

Freedom from all the things I have lost!

Still have questions? Message me!

Let’s GO! We’ve got HEALING to do!

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Addicted to Food vs Addicted to Living

Addicted to Food vs Addicted to Living Life

I don’t like to focus on weight or size as a goal anymore. I used to think those numbers would mean I’m healthy. I now know that isn’t the case.

Once you begin to heal, those numbers change. But it’s always the comparison, the before and after, that gets our attention, right? We all want to look better, and that’s ok.

What I want people to understand is that there is so much freedom and life available to us when we break free of sugar, carbs, processed foods, and the strain it puts on our bodies and minds.

And when you begin that healing, THEN the physical changes happen!

The impulse to eat garbage, the feeling that I was POSSESSED by sugar and carbs, is gone.

Autoimmune symptoms are decreasing all the time and meds have been reduced 3 times this year.

Hair stopped falling out and is growing back – with less gray!

Nails are strong, not bendy. Skin is smooth and clear.
No more constipation!
No random aches and pains.
Steady energy throughout the day.
Mental clarity and mood are greatly improved.
Depression is gone. Anxiety is greatly improved.
Hirsutism is diminished.
So many things….

The best part – I have more LIFE in me. I’m lively, creative, goofy and fun-loving.
The worst part – I wish I had known all of this when my kids were young…

No matter what stage of life you are in right now, the information is out there and easily accessible. But if it seems too overwhelming, it’s ok – there are so many wonderful support groups and coaches out there!
Amy Labbe, aka @amysketolife73, and I have openings in our small zero-carb focused groups called Beyond the Scale: Zero Carb Healing, or you can work with me one-on-one – register for either at www.thecandidcarnivore.com or go to the link in my bio!

And to illustrate just how goofy I am sometimes, I’ll admit that while I’m writing this, the quote from the Terminator keeps rolling around in my head – “Come with me if you want to live”…no, like REALLY LIVE 😂

xoxo

The Candid Carnivore

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A Letter to My Former Self

letter to my former self

If only. If only I could travel back in time and show myself how life could be. If only I had learned then what I know now about health, nutrition, and mindset. If only I could take her by the hand, encourage and love her. If only I could send a letter to my former self, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time punishing myself with nothing to show for it but a feeling of defeat and failure.

Dear Me (or You)

I get it. I really do.
You want to feel better NOW.
You want the weight off NOW.
You’re sick. You’re tired.
And you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Your confidence is down. Or maybe it’s gone completely.

You’re ready to try anything and everything to get to the person you are inside.

Baby, just take a breath.

You’re frustrated. I know.

Change is hard.
But please do me a favor.

Do it out of LOVE.

Do it because you’re making your health a priority – not because you hate your thighs or your pant size.

Do it because you want to truly live and love every minute of this short life.

Fuel your body for the life you want to live.
Move your body for the life you want to live – not to punish yourself.
Do it out of love – love for yourself, love for your family, love for life.

Your expectations are high, and that’s a great motivator. But let’s be realistic about it, hm?

You would never decide you’re going to be a runner one day and try to finish a marathon the next.
You would never decide you’re going to start strength training today and walk onto a bodybuilding competition the next.

Can you expect to heal years of health issues in a week? A month? Six months? Probably not.

But if you start today, you’re one day closer to revealing your true self. The version of you that has been hidden from the world for years – hell, your whole life – is suffocating in there.

This is not how God intended you to live. You were not created to merely exist, survive, or take up space. Life is a gift to be experienced every minute of every day, free of suffering.

It’s time to stop hiding under the soul-crushing weight of chronic disease and food addiction. You have the choice to change all of it. It’s not your fault. You didn’t choose to be this way. Don’t worry, I’m on your side. You’re not alone. And I love you.

xoxo

Love,

the version you were meant to be

Click here for Workshops & Merch

Click here for 1-on-1 Coaching

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Tuning In to My Body, Tuning Out the Noise & Impulses

Tuning In to My Body, Tuning Out Noise & Impulses

I’m taking a break from all the extra things this month. I’m tuning in to my body, tuning out the noise & impulses – discerning between impulses and actual needs. What I am doing and what I am not doing in November 2022…

Let me preface all of this by saying – I don’t see what I’ve experimented with over the last 2 years as jumping from trend to trend. I typically give new things several months and keep a close eye on every detail. If there is something I may have only tried for a few weeks – that’s because the negative effects were insurmountable in relation to the expected outcome. i.e., it just wasn’t worth it.  Like the 6 weeks of straight liquid bowel movements that I experienced in one of these experiments. I may try that experiment again in the future with more measured steps. But for now…

Here’s what I’m doing and what I’m not doing – the things I’m saying yes to and the things I’m saying no to for the month. I am in no way saying you should do these things or not do these things. Please, for the love of God, do the work to find what your body needs – either on your own, armed with books, podcasts, and videos; or in groups or with a coach. But it MUST be individually tailored to YOU. You can find so much support and guidance out there! Here is the link to my groups and one-on-one coaching, but you find the person, people, or groups that best suit you. No hard feelings! I just want people to heal and feel good!

I’m Saying NO…

No to Weighing Myself

Hopping on the scale has been an automatic daily habit for years. It doesn’t trigger me or make me feel bad anymore. I may feel temporarily disappointed or validated depending on the number it shows me, but I don’t think I obsess over it. It doesn’t ruin my day. I have just been using it as a piece of data that helps me measure what is happening with my body. I have a goal weight in mind but I’m not focusing on that as I have in the past. I weigh what I weigh. It’s just whatever. 

I’ve always had a higher muscle mass, just naturally, so the only thing I really want to measure when I do use the scale is my body fat percentage. BMI is honestly the stupidest thing, so I ignore that completely. BMI doesn’t take into account my high bone density, my muscle mass, or my excess skin from losing and gaining 60 – 100 lbs over and over again. 

No to Tracking

Tracking has been a helpful tool in different experiments I have tried. Tracking definitely has its time and place in a carnivore diet on occasion. But it is so easy to get into the habit of using it for the wrong reasons. That can quickly lead to obsessive, restrictive behavior. As someone susceptible to addictions, it’s time for me to let this go for a bit. 

When I was using a tracker during my low carb/keto phase, I was using it as a means to restrict calories. I was so hungry and miserable all the time. Sure, I lost weight, but I still felt like shit physically and mentally. It was an exhausting battle to deny my needs just to fit into a calorie limit. Seriously, I’d like to go back in time and smack myself for restricting to 1200 calories a day, while working out 3 times a week for 1 – 2 hours each time. I never got in enough fat because my calories were set so low and I was so addicted to sweet tastes during that time that I would prioritize getting to eat a fake sweet keto treat over eating fat. I thought that if my carbs were low enough and I ate foods labeled ‘keto’, that I was keto. Rookie mistake!

I stopped tracking for a long time when I went carnivore and that was so freeing. I recommend tracking for a very short time to my clients to make sure they are not under-eating. I want them to hit a minimum number of calories for their specific needs, especially if they have a history of dieting and restricting. Never ever do I want them to use that as a tool to limit their calories when their bodies are demanding nutrition. 

I began tracking again this year for a different purpose. When I tried the higher fat and moderate protein version of carnivore to see if it spurred any fat loss for me, tracking was serving a different purpose than it did before, yet it still felt a little obsessive. Rather than tracking to stay below a certain number of calories, I was tracking to make sure I had the exact right number of grams of fat and protein based on a general calculation. I would find myself eating when I’m not hungry, or using the excuse that if I still have ‘x’ number of grams of one macro or the other I can eat more even if I was not hungry. 

Conversely, I sometimes would not allow myself to eat when I really was still hungry because I had already hit those limits. So for this month, I’m not tracking. It’s kind of making me panic a little, to be extremely honest. My brain and my body have been at war for so long, there is no trust between the two. I’ll spend this month working on repairing that relationship!

Next month, I may track intermittently. Just to see what the data is. Not to hit a specific number or stay below a certain number. But just to observe…’I wasn’t all that hungry and this is what that looked like and what resulted at a later date’. Or, ‘I was super hungry and I ate until satisfied the thing that I craved and this is what that looked like and here is the result’.

I’m also not tracking blood glucose or ketones this month for the same reasons. I have to give my body back the control over what it needs and stop trying to hack it into what I want it to do.  In short, I’ll listen to my body, do what it wants, observe that as data and wait for results.  

No to Eating on a Schedule

I’m trying to really tune in to what my body needs. When I set an eating schedule for myself, much like tracking, I find I will eat even if I’m not hungry because it’s time to eat. Or I will not allow myself to eat because it’s outside of that schedule. 

How many times a day will I eat? Not a clue. Eating one meal a day was nice for a while, as it gave me that feeling of fullness I love so much. But it wasn’t great for my digestion or for my binge eating behavior. Eating 3 – 4 times a day was a pain in the ass. I don’t have time for that. I naturally tend to lean toward 2 meals a day. Then a little snack if I am truly hungry. 

Eating on a schedule makes living life and being spontaneous very difficult. I have been so stressed about random things that come up when eating on a schedule. I freaked out if I wasn’t going to be able to eat due to a meeting or some appointment or obligation, so I would eat early when I wasn’t hungry. But then freaked out because the schedule was messed up and I didn’t want to throw my tracking off – over- or under-eating any of my macros. 

This is going to be the hardest part for me. Because it means being present and truly allowing my body to guide me rather than allowing my brain to control things. At this moment, 11:15 am, I’m not all that hungry. I don’t want to stop what I’m doing to go eat. Normally, I’d be getting ready to eat my second meal of the day. I’m not intentionally fasting or intermittent fasting. I’m just actively listening. 

No to Following or Trying New Things to Force Weight Loss

Eating all the meat didn’t work for the weight loss result I wanted – but I healed a bunch and let go of the guilt and nourished myself! Eating high fat also didn’t give me that weight loss result. Though I know my body responded better to higher fat and moderate protein with lower glucose and measurable (not high) ketones. But I found anything under 90 grams of protein made me feel horrible. This version also gave me severe and prolonged gastric distress making me feel depleted and defeated. 

I never quite fit into any one way of doing anything. I’m learning to take bits and pieces from various ideologies within carnivore and using what works for me and throwing out what doesn’t work. In the end, this tells me that there is still healing to do and reminds me to not focus on weight. Goal weight does not equal goal health. 

This will be challenging for me, because my brain wants a certain outcome and has a certain goal in mind. I’m not a patient person and I’m extremely stubborn. Rather than trying every trend and every hack, I’m just going to sit back and let my body lead me. I’ll take any new information I see out there in the webiverse and examine it very carefully before deciding if I want or need to try it. 

This is what I want to stress to literally every single person trying any method of changing their health. Just because it worked for person A, does not mean it is right for person B. If I see person A is doing X and achieving a goal I seek – does that apply to me? Does that person A have a similar health history? Was their metabolism damaged in the same way and for the same length of time? Is that person in the same age range, or have the same muscle mass? The answer to most of these will probably be no. You’re the only you, and I’m the only me – go figure!

I’m Saying Yes to…

Yes to Movement

Listen, I require dopamine. If something doesn’t give me dopamine I want nothing to do with it. The idea of working out does not give me dopamine. I get so bored during a workout that I want to scream. But as in the rest of my commitments for this month, I’m taking my brain out of it. I can’t get to my goal of a healthier, more metabolically fit version of myself without going down that road. Working out is the path to that goal. 

Getting stronger and more flexible will make me less prone to health issues and injuries as I get older. Being in the habit of exercise and daily movement is going to go a long way to ensure that I can still do all the things I want to do well into my old age. I plan to live for a very long time, but I don’t want to spend my golden years just sitting around. I want to live –  truly live and love every minute until the very end. Which hopefully is at least 100 years old!

I am really going to try to love exercise again. I’d rather just do a lot of physically intense labor, honestly. But I don’t live on a farm (yet), and winter is fast approaching, so doing labor-intensive work outside will have to wait until summer home improvement projects roll back around. 

Yes to Habits That Make Me Feel Good

Going outside – The cold does not make me feel good, but maybe I just need to learn to love it. The sun, on the other hand, does make me feel good! I feel more energized, more focused, and feel more gratitude when I go outside and get sunlight into my eyeballs. It transforms me. Oh the things I wish I had known in my darker days of depression!

Praying and practicing gratitude helps calm my chaotic brain and ease my anxiety. This is an easy habit to stick to when I’m outside seeing all the beauty in nature and focusing on breathing. It puts me fully in touch with my intentions…

Yes to Focusing on My Intentions

I have been so very blessed to have many incredible opportunities this year. I left my government job of 12 years to follow my passions – writing and coaching people to better health. Now there’s a YouTube channel and interviews and my platform to reach others is growing! This makes my heart so happy! All of the ‘No’ items listed above, those things I am breaking up with for at least the month of November actually were taking up so much time and energy. 

If you pay attention to my blog at all, you’ll know it’s been several weeks since I posted last with the exception of reposting something I put on Instagram last week. It’s always been my intention to post to this blog once each week. Trying to do all the things and hacks and tracking took a big chunk of my time. 

I want more than anything in the world to help pull people up out of that place I was in for so many years. That despair inside me that I literally sugar-coated my entire life has been replaced with clarity and joy. I intend to use that new-found energy and outlook to show others the way. I want to be the Rafiki to your Simba! Does anyone else get that reference, or is it just in my head? Hard to say. The point is, I want to show cab addicts, food addicts, sugar addicts, binge eaters, and anyone struggling to just not feel like crap that it IS possible. I’ll be there to guide them, cheer them on, and celebrate with them. There are no small wins – only WINS. 

If you’re looking for your very own cheering section, you can find my groups here. 

If you’d prefer your own coach/cheerleader, you can sign up for individual one-on-one coaching here. 

You CAN do this. You can take back control of your health. You can heal. You can lose weight. You really can live a long, beautiful life. 

I’m here to help. 

Love you!

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The Long Road to Health

I have a few ‘then and now’ images to share. My story isn’t a glamorous one, but all stories are important ones, right? The long road to health may be winding, bumpy, steep, and seemingly never-ending. I haven’t found the end yet, myself. And I don’t know if that’s even the goal. Because…then what? My goal is to seek out new challenges and never stop improving.

How Did I Get Here?

I didn’t have shocking results with one specific plan, carnivore or otherwise.

The list on each side of the photos above, me at 40 and me at 50, is not the whole list. There’s so much more…depression, anxiety, brain fog, PCOS, hirsutism, insulin resistance, OTHER eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia, muscle and joint pain…the list goes on and on.

I tried all the diets, and all the advice, and felt like I must be broken beyond repair.

Slowly, when one daughter was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, I started looking into “food” as a cause of chronic health issues. We started with gluten-free, paleo, whole food. Then I discovered low carb. Then keto. But I was still addicted to sweet tastes. Still am, to be honest. I have to be very deliberate and strict with even carnivore-ish sweet foods.

I lost weight doing a lot of these different things. But I didn’t start HEALING and optimizing my health until I found carnivore.

My 2-year carniversary is coming up on January 1, 2023. Even that wasn’t a linear journey! I had a few ‘cheats’ in the first year. I got hooked on keto ice cream for two weeks when I had surgery in September of 2021.

But, MAN! Look how far I’ve come!

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Navigate Holidays with a Carnivore Coach

Navigating Holidays – a Carnivore Coach Can Help 

Always on the lookout for inspiring content, I happened upon Dr. Lisa Weiderman’s latest video last week. CarnivoreDoctor, as she is known on YouTube and Instagram, takes us on a beach walk with her as she talks about what she calls ‘the excuse trifecta’ and how it’s so important to have a plan to navigate holidays with a carnivore coach or other support. You can check out her video here!

Holidays are Hard!

We all know trying to stay away from carbs and sugar during the holidays can take a toll on us especially if we are coming from food addiction or disordered eating. It’s a well-known fact that holidays are just really hard when trying to stick to a particular way of eating that excludes traditional foods. I won’t call them treats anymore, because poisoning yourself should never be considered a treat! Like my t-shirt says, ‘Eating sugar and calling it a treat is like getting punched in the face and calling it a gift’. (You can find that and other carnivore merchandise in my shop here)

Dr. Weiderman made an excellent point in her video – the time to plan for those holiday temptations is NOW. Halloween candy is out in stores. Thanksgiving and Christmas won’t be far behind. Then you’ll start seeing all the weight loss gimmicks making their way into your life to ‘help you’ with your New Year’s resolution. 

Have a Plan!

Excuse season is upon us! Make your plan now to deal with those things when they come up! There are lots of free Facebook Groups and various levels of paid groups on other platforms. You can watch carnivore YouTube channels and listen to carnivore books and podcasts, or enlist the expertise of a carnivore coach to help you one-on-one or in a small group setting.

When you have a group of people with similar goals and challenges, your strength is multiplied by them. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals in a place you feel safe to share, ask questions, give and receive support. Yes, even if you are just starting out, you can lend support to others. Your experience and your struggle, or just being there for someone to lean on, is valid and important. In turn, when you lend support, you strengthen your own resolve.

If you need extra help, or if groups get to be too noisy for you, maybe you just want to focus on your own goals and challenges, then navigating the holidays with a carnivore coach may be a better fit for you. A carnivore coach will understand your struggles and work with you to develop strategies for success. Working with a coach will give you the confidence to say no to foods that may sabotage your progress while still enjoying gatherings with family and friends. You’ll have a tailored plan to combat cravings and temptation that fits your life.

Find the Right Support Tools

You can do all the things – large groups, support groups, one-on-one carnivore coaching, podcasts, videos, books…it’s all about resolving to only put the right things into your body and into your brain.

These things will help keep you on track, giving you a suit of armor for the holidays that assault us with sugar and carbs.

Follow the links below!

Facebook Group: Beyond the Scale

Why We Get Sick by Dr Ben Bikman

One-on-one coaching

Join now to inoculate yourself from the temptations, and have a personalized plan!

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5 Things I Learned as a Carnivore

My healing mission looks different today than it did 20 months ago – it’s changed even in the last six months. Hell, I’ve changed things up in the last two months! Here are some key items I’ve learned along the way. 

Slowwwww and Steady

5. It’s ok to make gradual changes. We always hear about how people just want instant gratification these days. Let me tell ya, when you add that societal trend to my life-long glaring lack of patience, I get a bit frustrated. I’ve learned that our bodies just can’t keep up if we change too much all at once. Aside from potential adverse effects, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what worked and what made no difference at all. If you change too much all at once how do you know what is helping or hurting your progress? Wanting instant gratification gets in the way of that.

I know my clients get frustrated when I tell them that I have several suggestions for them, but only give them one or two at a time. It’s not that I’m trying to stretch out their time with me. I want to take the one or two things that are likely to make the biggest impact and have them work on them for one or two weeks. Then we can gauge their progress and adjust as needed. 

Addiction Began in Childhood

4. Sugar and carb addiction is just as real as any other addiction. Maybe it doesn’t damage relationships or cost you your home or your job, but it does destroy your physical and mental health. I had this revelation somewhere around 1992. Man, that was a long time ago! I was sitting in my apartment, just 20 years old, fighting a mental battle no one else knew about. This unyielding urge to scrape up what change I could find to go to the store and buy whatever cakes and candy I could get. Not just once, not just some days. This was every damn day. It always felt like I was possessed. I remember talking to my mom about it and she was sympathetic, if not a little confused, but had no solution for me. I had no idea what to do about it.

A solution didn’t come for a few more years. Though the solution I chose out of desperation ended up being more disordered eating and I was still addicted. Rather than being obsessed with consuming these foods, I became obsessed with counting and tracking fat grams. Low fat was all the rage at the time. I became very thin but I was only eating carbs and sugar, very few calories. No fat or protein, no nutrition at all. I began developing arrhythmia, urinary problems, I was sick all the time, and lost my period. My moods were horrendous and I could barely function. 

Binging on Carnivore Foods

3. Binging absolutely can still happen on carnivore. I’ve heard so many influencers say that you can’t overeat on carnivore. That’s a dangerous claim for a binger. I’m trying to get used to smaller meals since people in the high-profile carnivore communities have been telling us to just eat as much meat as we want because it absolutely did trigger my binge eating disorder. It gave me the freedom to binge without guilt. Yes, I needed to actually nourish my body and not fear weight gain so I can begin to heal. But it also gave me permission to continue the disordered eating habit of binging.

I’ve heard some say it’s not possible to overeat fat. Somewhere in my subconscious, my brain said, “Challenge accepted! Hold my steak and watch this!” This was not a conscious decision. In some circles, it’s believed that the concept of priming is supposed to break the binging habit. That was not the case for me. The act of eating is a comfort for me. Doesn’t matter what the food is. The feeling of fullness equates to love, dopamine, and a really nice high. 

High Fat and Gut Health

2. High-fat carnivore may be the ideal approach for you – but you may need to heal some gut issues first. If you are not seeing results, or if your blood glucose increases dramatically when taking the ‘eat all the meats’/high-protein approach, you may need to adjust. If your body is converting more protein to glucose for energy, it’s fighting against what you’re attempting to do.

I think this happens a lot in those of us who are severely damaged metabolically. I put my body through hell with a lifetime of a very high-carb diet, chronic dieting, eating disorders (binging, restricting, bulimia, and a brief bout of anorexia), Hashimoto’s, sugar and carb addiction. So when my body takes in protein, it improvises so that it can comfortably continue to do what it’s always done by using glucose for fuel. While I’m healing, I’m not utilizing stored fat for energy. I argue this with my body every day, but we speak two different languages. So it’s my job to try to communicate what I want my body to do.

When I began doing this high fat/moderate protein version of carnivore, my body rebelled in a not-so-pleasant way. We’ll call it gastric distress. After weeks of making 6 – 8 trips per day to the bathroom with this ‘gastric distress’, I also caught some stomach virus – I think. I couldn’t stand the thought of eating any fat. My only nourishment for more than a week was eggs, plain gelatin flavored with electrolytes, and plain full-fat greek yogurt that I also flavored with electrolytes. I’m not recommending this tactic, but I think these foods helped heal and balance my gut microbiome. Now I can eat very high fat and not have any bowel issues at all. Yay for stomach viruses!

I’m joking, of course. It was not fun, I do not recommend it. But it caused an unintentional experiment and I learned something. I didn’t lose any weight at all during my illness, despite the amount of time I was on the toilet and despite the limited intake of food. I think it’s fascinating though! So, if you are feeling that you need to try the higher fat version of carnivore but your digestion is uncooperative, you may be able to add some gelatin and/or yogurt for a short time to balance things out so that you are able to process fats. Start reintroducing fat at a 50/50 fat to protein ratio of your calories and slowly increase the fat from there.

Individuality Matters

‘Just eat meat’ is becoming the new ‘eat less move more’ mantra.

1 . The number one most important this I’ve learned is this: Not everyone can carnivore the same way. Huge companies in the diet industry have been selling diets, supplements, pre-packaged ‘foods’, and the promise of looking good in a bikini for decades. These days, there are some big influencers promoting a one size fits all approach even when it comes to keto or carnivore. Maybe those plans work for the majority, but making a blanket statement urging people to just eat meat could be doing more harm than good. While ‘just eat meat’ is excellent advice, and will absolutely help kickstart the healing process, it’s not always just that simple. The carnivore community stands to lose people that way when they don’t get the same results. Each health mission is different, each body is different.

I wholeheartedly agree that it shouldn’t be overcomplicated – but it’s potentially detrimental to over-simplify as well. Particularly so if the person has an autoimmune issue, eating disorder, insulin resistance, or gut issues. It’s so important to take your own health issues into consideration, do your research, and work one-on-one with a coach if you have some specific challenges to navigate. Groups are wonderful for their support and camaraderie! Even small groups are great for coaching. But please take what you hear in large groups – or even what I write here! – with a grain of salt and use it as a launching point for your own mission. And if you’d like some one-on-one advice tailored specifically to your challenges and goals, you can reach me HERE!

thecandidcarnivore@gmail.com
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Stop Dieting! Why Traditional Dieting Doesn’t Work

Stop Dieting! Why Traditional Dieting Doesn't Work

Dieting in the traditional way is not sustainable. Why traditional dieting doesn’t work, and what do I mean by that? When you go on a diet it’s a temporary solution to a problem that returns when you stop utilizing said solution. Usually, this is some combination of tracking calories, restricting calories, low fat, lots of veggies, fruit, and fiber, and increasing exercise. 

Calorie Restriction Doesn’t Work

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but, candidly speaking, calorie restriction for weight loss is bullshit. It’s not sustainable. Any weight lost will be gained back when you go back to eating ‘normally’. You can’t lose weight to become healthy. You must become healthy to lose weight. Weight gain is a metabolic disorder that can be reversed. 

Dieting Doesn’t Make You Healthy

I’m currently reading Dr. Ben Bikman’s book, Why We Get Sick. It’s really fascinating and confirms a lot of my suspicions and answers a lot of my questions about insulin and insulin resistance. I’ll share more insight from what I learn from him in future posts. If you’d like to read it for yourself, you can find it on Amazon

Dr. Bikman is a professor and metabolic scientist whose work really speaks to me. An analogy I recently heard Dr. Ben Bikman use went something like this: He asked his students to imagine he had invited them to a huge buffet celebration dinner. It would include all of their favorite foods. A smorgasbord of palatable delights. Now if you want to make sure you are good and hungry so that you can enjoy all of this food I’m providing, he asked, how would you prepare for that? How would you ensure you’re hungry enough to sample all that food?

The majority of his students explained that they would eat less for a couple of days. Some also said they would exercise a bit more. This was sure to make their bodies able to indulge in everything they wanted. Dr. Bikman’s reply? But isn’t that exactly what you do when you’re trying to diet? Therefore, the strategy of reducing calories or food intake and exercising more innately sets you up for failure because your body naturally then wants MORE. If you deprive your body of nutrition and then use up its energy stores by exercising more….guess what? You are going to be hungrier than usual! A great strategy for preparing to binge, but not great if you want to lose weight.

Extended restriction of calories initiates a change, slowing your metabolism. This may then trigger you to overeat and the cycle continues. Maybe you are able to attain weight loss in time for whatever event you’re dieting for and when that is over you go back to your old habits. Well…of course you do, you’ve been starving your body, your hormones, and your brain! You may very well be malnourished even when you’re eating whatever you like and overeating. This is what causes some of us to overeat in the first place. Your stomach is often full, and yet you always have a notion to eat. I mean, there’s always room for ice cream or a few more chips, right? Why? Lack of actual nutrition that is bioavailable to your body. See my blog post here on this topic – Obese and Malnourished/Stuffed but Starving. 

Love Yourself By Healing Yourself

Now, let me set the record straight once again – this is not about punishing yourself for not being a certain size or weight. Yes, you should love your body at any size – but love your body enough to nourish it and move it. That’s not self-loathing. THAT is loving the body you have and wanting it to function optimally so that you can live a long, beautiful, and fulfilling life as God intended. Not to be sick and miserable, putting on a brave face and telling yourself it’s ok to be this way. Stop abusing your body with nutrient-void, addictive garbage. This is not about a beauty standard. It’s about health. Physical, mental, and metabolic health. 

It’s also not immediately about weight loss. It’s about healing. Even if you don’t have a medical diagnosis and you have a waist-to-height ratio greater than 45-50%, you have metabolic issues to correct. This can be done with diet. Autoimmune disorders, diabetes, arthritis, insulin resistance, and many MANY health concerns can potentially be reversed by following a species (human) appropriate way of eating.

How Is That Possible?

Stop dieting! So how, exactly, do I propose you nourish your body and prevent or even reverse chronic disease without calorie restriction and exercise? The answer, my friend, is simple. That’s not to say it’s easy, but it is very simple. Eat what we as humans were designed to eat, and don’t eat what was not meant for us. Hint: there’s a reason every parent fights to get their kids to eat vegetables. 

My 2 rules for starting your mission to better health:

  1. Eat meat and other animal products (eggs, butter, etc.)
  2. Do NOT eat processed “foods” (if it comes in a box or has ingredients you wouldn’t recognize in nature ditch it)

This may be a slow, measured process or you might dive right in. I’ll help you decide which method is best for you! Feel free to email me at thecandidcarnivore@gmail.com if you would like more information on healing your body or losing weight; message me on my social media pages linked below, or click here to find out more about my virtual coaching sessions. I love helping people all over the world feel their best without buying some plan, program, special foods, or having to count or track anything! 

If you’re ready to feel your best, heal your body, get great sleep, and lose weight in the process, what are you waiting for? Contact me!

XOXO

~ The Candid Carnivore

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Obese and Malnourished/Stuffed but Starving: the Real Epidemic

There’s a lot of conflicting chatter about the obesity epidemic and body-positivity. The diet and fitness industries are booming and have been for quite some time. So with so much health-conscious advice and programs available to us, how is it that the obesity rate just seems to keep climbing? Shouldn’t people be healthier than ever? Shouldn’t diabetes and heart disease be a thing of the past if all this advice really works?

Diets are Designed to Fail

Let me share my personal experience with you. Being 5′ 4″ and having been 240+ pounds, 112 pounds, and everywhere in between; having been anorexic and bulimic and having run the gamut of diet trends, restricting, binging, and being completely addicted to food in general as a means of coping with many issues in my life, having meticulously counted calories, fat grams, and carbs, done low fat, low carb, keto, and carnivore…I can speak pretty confidently about this subject.

Both times that I lost a significant amount of weight, I did so by restricting my food intake. It definitely works for weight loss. But it is not, has never been, and will never be, a sustainable way of life. Eat less, move more, right? No. Please stop doing that to your body. Do not punish your body for doing what it was designed to do. There’s so much talk of self-love and body-positivity, but the meaning of those phrases is being twisted. Self-love should not be conditional and body positivity should not take precedence over actual health. It’s one thing to love who you are as a person at any size, but the reality of the actual health of a person of any size – overly fat or overly thin – is something different. The first photo shows me at approximately 240 lbs – malnourished from eating tons of sugar and processed foods. The second photo shows me at approximately 140 lbs – malnourished from eating tons of keto products and calorie restricting. Yes, I felt better about my body and the way I looked in the second photo, but I didn’t feel great. I felt better, for sure. But not great. 

When you see an overweight person, it’s easy to assume they are not lacking nutrition. But in most cases, they are. For example, let’s think about Thanksgiving when you eat all the things, not only the turkey but the potatoes, the rolls, the stuffing, the sweet potatoes. You are absolutely stuffed, yet you manage to squeeze in a piece of pie or two, and whatever other desserts catch your eye. A few hours later you’re back at it, picking at the turkey, having another helping of your favorites. And you may actually feel hungry, even though you know your stomach is at capacity. How?

Stuffed but Starving

One Thanksgiving a few years ago, I made sure I stayed keto/carnivore. I had turkey, deviled eggs, and made PSMF rolls. PSMF rolls are a protein-sparing modified fasting recipe made from eggs. I ate until I was stuffed – yet I still felt like I needed more. For the entire month of November, I had been eating beef only. I was satisfied, happy, nourished, and thriving every day. But on Thanksgiving, everything I ate was from poultry. Again, my stomach was completely full after eating so much – including nearly an entire pan of those rolls. After that, I ‘treated myself’ with my favorite keto ice cream. I could NOT stop eating! I literally made myself feel sick because my body was crying out for the nutrition it had been getting all month and I threw it a curveball that day. I love turkey, chicken, and eggs – don’t get me wrong. I eat one of those things almost daily. But I can’t get by just eating those things. I had starved my body of whole nutrition for too long all those years of eating what we were all taught was healthy. 

2010: 230+ lbs, malnourished, always hungry

Nutrients > Calories

Chances are that an obese person is not that size because of the whole one-ingredient foods. They are likely eating very processed foods. It’s not really about the calorie content of a food, but the nutrition. It makes sense to me that if you are consuming both carbs and fat, that your body will use the most readily available fuel first – the carbs, saving the slow-burning fat in case of actual starvation. If you have been restricting calories in an effort to lose weight, your body doesn’t trust you. Your metabolic system has no brain or logic. It reacts based on your actions. Or lack of action. 

Whether I was eating low-fat, low-calorie, low-carb, or whatever I wanted, I still ate a lot of processed, manufactured food. I always felt deprived, tired, achy, lethargic. When I began my health mission on Carnivore, I started out still using zero-carb sweeteners and diet sodas. While I was feeling much better than I ever had on any other way of eating, there were still times my energy would plummet. Those ‘natural’ and artificial sweeteners were still causing an insulin response. And I still had some minor carb cravings. When I cut those things out, I have consistent energy and zero cravings.

Proper Human Diet

Eating meat and animal products has allowed my body to trust me again. No more glucose spikes and dips. I have nice, level energy and mental clarity that I thought I would never experience. I am now 51 years old and I feel better than I did at age 20.

XOXO

~ The Candid Carnivore