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Carnivore Isn’t Working? Stop!

So you’ve jumped in but it seems like carnivore isn’t working. 

Now what?

My first piece of advice…stop. 

I don’t mean stop carnivore! You’re not getting off that easy! 

I mean stop comparing yourself to other people. Especially stop comparing yourself to those who are younger, fitter, have less to heal, and who have been doing this way longer than you. 

What To Do Instead

Let’s think about this logically. Carnivore truly is the proper human diet. There’s just too much scientific and anecdotal evidence to ignore. Carnivore, in any form, is far superior to any standard dietary guidelines. The exact right way to carnivore for you specifically may be different than it is for your favorite carnivore expert or influencer. 

This is no fad. Rather the information is being shared with greater ease thanks to the internet and social media, making that information more easily accessible. Sadly, that means it can also get a little confusing with so many versions and opinions out there. 

I’ll Keep Saying It Until You Hear Me

Bioindividuality matters. You’ll often hear some carnivores say that all we need to do is eat fatty meat and drink water. Simple. How I wish that were true for me. See, I’m a complicated being. Just ask my family. This was #1 on my list of 5 Things I Learned as a Carnivore. “Just eat meat” is as frustrating as the old standard “eat less and move more” for those of us with significant damage that we need to heal. 

On the flip side, to say that carnivore doesn’t work is like throwing up your hands and abandoning your home because a lightbulb burned out. That’s ridiculous. Of course it works. You just can’t force your body to do what it’s not ready to do. You can’t do what someone half your age is doing. You can’t heal decades of damage in 90 days. 

Healing Factors

If you’re older, it’s going to take longer.

If you have a lot to heal, it’s going to take longer. 

Don’t compare yourself to a 20-something with a few years of damage if you’re over 40 and/or have several years or a lifetime of damage to heal. 

You also simply cannot compare yourself to someone who started carnivore several years ago or who didn’t have as many years of damage or severity of illness. 

Think about this. If a 5-year-old falls and scrapes a knee, and you fall and break a hip, who will heal faster? 

Or this: if you fall down the stairs at age 40 but have no health issues and lean muscle mass, and your 40-year-old friend falls down the stairs but has brittle bones, little muscle, and inflammation, who’s going to heal faster?

Unfair Comparison

The only person you can compare yourself to is the version of you prior to starting carnivore. And if you’ve been eating this way for less than 6 months, don’t even compare yourself to yourself!

Your body will prioritize healing and we can’t always observe that in the mirror or on the scale. You may also lose some weight if that is your goal. But if you stall, or if it’s not happening as quickly as you want, you may need to change some ratios, and look at your calorie intake to make sure you are eating enough and getting enough fat and protein. What you can’t do is simply give up and walk away from a future healthy you that you just can’t see yet. Give it time. Take note of every improvement. 

Keep the faith, my friend. You are loved and you are worth the work and time it will take to get there. 

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How the Carnivore Diet Can Relieve Anxiety and Masking Personality

An often overlooked benefit of the carnivore diet is dramatic improvement in mental health. We carnivores know this to be true, but most people don’t come to this way of eating for that specific benefit. Some do, but most are looking for physical changes and/or healing some medical issues. What brought me to carnivore? A couple of things: disordered eating, weight, autoimmune disorders, food addiction, and just being really fucking sick and tired of counting and tracking every damn thing I put in my mouth. But wait, there’s more…

Cleaning out my home office today, I came across a notebook that I had used for many different things. As I flipped through the pages to see if anything important jumped out at me, I noticed I had scribbled some thoughts onto a couple of pages at some point in the last year or two. Maybe three. There are two entries that caught my eye – and both of them completely shattered my heart. I cried for the woman who wrote those thoughts. The version of me who wrote these things is still here, but she has healed so much since then.

One entry was probably written within the last six to twelve months. It’s a whole blog entry all on its own, so I won’t share it here. It’s very similar to my first blog post CARNIVORE MISSION: FOOD ADDICTION AND RESTRICTION, WITH A DASH OF HASHIMOTO’S AND A SIDE OF SHAME. Food addiction, as I write about often, is cruel and sinister. You need food to live, you can’t just avoid it. That causes a whole other issue. I’ve gone that route, too. I’m better now – thanks to carnivore. I will take each day as it comes, but I have zero desire to ever take that ride again.

Masking Personality

The other entry I found, is in regard to something I am still struggling with. But I am so much better than I was when I wrote this:

“It’s exhausting. Being the person people expect you to be. It’s a lie. Every time I flip the switch it drains my soul. I WANT to be that person – that happy, fun, bubbly person. That person who makes a connection with everyone I meet. Maybe I am that person, somehow, somewhere deep, DEEP inside. But the chains, the weight of not being able to act what I feel, to look how I feel when I want to shut out the world. Sleep. Think. Dream. Plan. Heal. Then maybe I could be that person. But for now, the pretending, on-off, on-off, on-off… it’s torture.”

Masking, in my case, has been a way for me to cope with anxiety and depression. I crave friendships and connection but the thought of social situations crippled me. Holidays with extended family was excruciating for me. I dreaded them from the moment the invitation was extended. Smile, converse, look amused, know you’re being judged but pretend you don’t. Or maybe that part was just in my head. Working with the public was exhausting. Smile and greet people, validate them whether they are right or wrong, pander to them because they might be well-connected. I was always completely exhausted. I’ve done this all my life. But get ready, because the mask is about to come off!

Don’t be scared, it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Unmasking

Trauma gets buried under expectations and layered under the day to day. The pain, ailments, work, family, obligations pile up, covering the initial major trauma(s) and we forget it’s there. Too busy to deal and heal. But your body remembers and acts out in ways we cannot ignore. Once we begin trying to heal the physical problems we have created for ourselves, heal the very cells and nourish each one of them so that we can be whole again, those deeper traumas may be revealed and demand to be dealt with.

Through that healing, I’ve discovered a lot about myself and still am discovering more. I’m recognizing my past traumas, naming them, and releasing them. There is no room for them in my life anymore. I’m removing all things from my life that do not serve me in a positive way – including my government job. That is the place where I have had to mask the most. Even though I now feel I am me again, completely authentic. That authenticity is happiness now and I no longer feel like I’m flipping a switch. I have room for joy. My mind is healing along with my body.

How Does the Carnivore Diet Heal?

A carnivore diet means eating only animal products. So many complex things happen in your body in reaction to what you consume, apply, and inject. Yet, it really is very simple. I think of it this way: we are what we eat. Humans are animals. Humans are not plants, we did not sprout up from the ground. We are not manufactured or made up of lab-produced chemicals. Human cells require replenishment with the correct building blocks. We need to replace animal protein with animal protein. You can’t rebuild a brick house with cardboard boxes or sugar cubes and expect the same stable structure. This seems like common sense to me.

Once your cells are healthy and functioning properly, after all of the clutter that is unusable material is removed from your body, you start to think and process more clearly. When your body and your cells are working congruently, your mind can finally deal with everything it needs to deal with – swiftly and clearly.

Me, Revealed

I am very happy to report, that I am actually a very happy person. I’m removing the mask, bit by bit, and I’m finding that I AM that happy, friendly person. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’m a ‘people person’, and I still get anxious about social gatherings. but it’s getting easier. It’s not a tremendous effort anymore. I’ve found that the ‘on switch’ is the real me. The off switch was my very sick body attempting to recuperate from any effort I put out and the buried trauma that I had not dealt with properly. I still get tired after a particularly people-y day, but I have the tools to refuel and not shut down at 5pm. I gained the strength to leave my job so that I can earn a certification to become a health coach, and focus on helping others heal so they, too, can live a joyful life.

Don’t waste another day.

xoxo

~ The Candid Carnivore