Sid and I decided to stop eating meat. We love animals, have multiple animal family members, and had recently watched The Game Changers, which made a pretty good case for a plant-based diet.
A disclaimer: I understand vegan to mean that you’re all in. Zero animal products in your life. No leather shoes, no beeswax lip balm, etc. We weren’t that hardcore, but we committed to consuming no animal products in our diet.
Our diet shift coincided with the increased prevalence of plant-based meat products. Beyond Meat and Impossible products were staples in our kitchen. We subscribed to a weekly farm box that delivered pounds of local, fresh fruits and veggies to our doorstep. We ate all the nuts and lentils we could and felt great mentally. We were doing the right thing by letting the roaming creatures live.
My physical health told a different story. At this point in my life, I was also immensely unhappy and stressed in my job. I felt like I could never do enough and struggled to feel valued or a part of any community with my peers. In my last year at my job, I experienced new ailments that included inflammatory acne, three broken teeth, an eye stye that required surgical removal, and panic attacks. I also had about 20 pounds of unwanted weight that wouldn’t budge, no matter how much I worked out or how little I ate. Hey, now, I thought the vegan people were all skinny! Why wasn’t I?
An incoming shift
After my forced resignation and our move, one afternoon, Sid mentioned his interest in the Carnivore Diet. I hadn’t heard much about it, so I searched for more information. I came across a Joe Rogan Podcast episode featuring Dr. Rhonda Patrick. She spoke about how eating meat could help many health issues, including gut problems. I’ve had digestive issues since high school. During dance concert weeks in college, I only consumed bland sourdough bread, skinless chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and bottles of Mylanta. I’d been told I had a “nervous stomach,” IBS, ulcers, a dairy allergy, and gluten intolerance–possibly Celiac Disease. In other words, my tummy and I felt miserable most of the time.
We decided to go for it. To shift from a plant-based diet to an animal-based diet.
The first several weeks were horrific, to say the least. I’ve read a lot about something called Oxalate Dumping. Oxalates are molecules in foods like lentils, nuts, seeds, and leafy greens. Aka, my entire previous diet. Oh my golly gosh, I couldn’t be happier that I wasn’t working outside my home. Wow. When you’re sliding into first, and you feel a little….you know. Oofta, it was bad.
After about six months, I felt really different. I noticed a clarity in my thoughts, a more positive mood, less joint pain, more energy, and clearer skin, and I had lost over 20 pounds. I felt great! But I had to wonder how much of this was related to diet and how much pertained to leaving a toxic work environment. However, this time frame did coincide with my starting SPEX and the beginnings of Freddie’s disease progression, so I definitely was not in a stress-free zone.
I’ve now been eating carnivore for about two and a half years, and I must say that I still feel terrific. I know this because every time I cheat with some sugar, I feel absolutely terrible the next day. The joints in my fingers swell and become painful and difficult to move, my previous injuries all come back to say, “Hey, remember us!!!” and my digestive issues return with a vengeance.
So what do I eat?
Thankfully, I’m a person who is totally ok with eating the same foods every day. I eat bacon, chicken thighs, ground beef with some organs cooked in bacon grease, some sheep or goat cheese, and burger patties. When I feel like cooking something more complicated, I pull out my pork panko, aka ground pork rinds, and make meatloaf or carnivore bread. I just purchased a new book by carnivore chef Courtney Luna, and she has all sorts of fun recipes, from breakfasts to desserts.
My grad school thesis was to create a university course I could teach in a future appointment. My course focused on nutrition, injury prevention, and fitness basics—an owner’s manual for the body. The coursework encouraged students to do their own research regarding best practices. We looked at the Food Pyramid and questioned who funded the studies that suggested eating eight to eleven servings of grains per day. Students had to research the rules and stated benefits of restricted eating plans like the Cookie Diet, the Keto Diet, and the Mediterranean Diet. While some poo-poo the idea of one doing their own research, the innate contrarian and skeptic in me thrives off of it. And I believe the Carnivore Diet goes against much of the widely accepted but not thoroughly tested nutritional guidance.
I’m not here to tell you how to eat. I will be sharing my experiences with eating this way and would love to hear your thoughts. Even the ones saying that I’m probably going to die of heart disease before I finish writing thi
Gotcha. I didn’t die. Yet.
