Interview with Nancy

1) Introduce Yourself. 

My name is Nancy, I’m 30 years old, and I am an amateur photographer. I live with my husband and three cats in the south of England. I was diagnosed with various chronic illnesses in my early 20’s and since then it’s been a long battle back to being healthy and functional. The dream is to reclaim my health and start travelling as much as possible.

 

2) How did you eat before Carnivore. 

Through my childhood and teens I ate very poorly, obviously I didn’t understand at that age the importance of nutrition when it comes to health. I was spoilt as a child in terms of food, what I asked for I got, and that was often chocolate, packets of crisps, you name it. I always had an appreciation for good food though, my father cooked meals from fresh and taught me how to cook. Cooking for my friends and family was something I was proud of and enjoyed doing. Nevertheless, there was still a lot of carbs and sugar in my diet up until my early 20s. When I was at my sickest, I decided to overhaul my lifestyle habits, I quit smoking at the age of 24 and from then on tried every diet you could think of. The Antihistamine Diet, Anti-Inflammatory Diet, Low Carb High Fat, Hormone Balancing Diet and many others.

 

3) Why did you try Carnivore to begin with. 

Despite years of trying these different diets and having some drastic improvements from being unable to walk without a walking stick and needing assistance with daily activities to almost functioning like a healthy person, I was still suffering from a lot of physical pain and exhaustion. Outside stress factors caused me to turn to food and alcohol for comfort, so even though the bulk of my meals were healthy, I was undoing all my hard work by comfort eating and drinking. No painkiller was helping the pain and I had convinced myself that the only way to bare the pain in my body was to drink it away, which helped at the time but was gradually increasing inflammation in my body. I was bloated and gaining weight.

 

At my biggest I was 10st 11lb, for someone the height of 5ft 3inches I was overweight. I had some health scares that knocked me to my senses. I cut out all the crap in my diet and stopped drinking. I was eating some variation of a Keto hormone balancing diet. I started losing weight and feeling better but the one thing that never improved was my bowel problems. From the age of 17 I had suffered from chronic diarrhoea, despite investigations the Doctors couldn’t figure out exactly what was wrong and I was hit with the umbrella term “Irritable Bowel Syndrome”. Despite what I believed to be a healthy diet of meat and plant foods. I still had severe diarrhoea and unnaturally coloured bowel movements. I also started to develop the most horrendous GERD symptoms, where stomach acid was aspirating into my lungs and burning my throat. I couldn’t bare it any longer and after seeing a family members improvements through the Carnivore Diet, I took the plunge.

 

4) How do you personally approach the Carnivore Diet. 

If I’m totally honest I’m not a 100% strict zero carber, I eat what I want and often that is cheese. I have cheese with a lot of my meats. My main food I like to eat is Steak, it’s delicious and simple and hits the spot. I also use Erythritol to sweeten my Teas and Coffees. A real treat for me is having some Cocoa Kefir which is delicious, but most of all my diet consists of Beef, Lamb, Chicken, Eggs, Cheese, and Bone Broth. I intend to get stricter; I’m even considering trying a 30 day Beef, Salt, and Water only cleanse.

 

5) What benefits have you seen since starting the Carnivore Diet. 

As soon as I switched to Carnivore the GERD symptoms disappeared. I still struggled with a bit of heartburn but that doesn’t touch the horrible symptoms of before, before Carnivore I was struggling to swallow food and even struggling to breathe. The biggest transformation and the one that has been completely life changing is I am now having completely normal bowel movements. No more running to the toilet in pain, no more toilet mapping when I go out, no more embarrassment. That’s worth it all on its own. But a big plus is the weight loss, I’m feeling and looking good and lots of people have complemented me.

 

6) What negatives have you found with the Carnivore Diet. 

I would say it’s still early days so I couldn’t answer definitively yet but the main thing is I’m still fighting the sugar cravings. The relationship I had with food and comfort eating is a hard psychological tie to break and that is not something that is to blame on the Carnivore diet, but it is hard when you are around family who are eating sweets and you have to really utilise your willpower in situations like that.

 

I’m tracking my health during this way of eating and all my bloods have improved except for my Cholesterol, which is to be expected, but we know what a controversial subject that is.

 

7) Do you exercise on the Carnivore Diet, if so how do you find it and what do you do. 

I am currently not exercising as this is a slow process of reclaiming my health, but despite not exercising I have still lost 2 stone. As my health further improves I intend to start weight training and I’m looking forward to it.

 

8) What piece of advice would you give someone who is interested in trying this diet, but hasn’t taken the leap yet. 

You can’t know what the Carnivore diet will do for you until you try and if you are someone who is struggling with health issues I would definitely say give it a go for at least a month or two, see how you feel. Just eat what you want as long as it’s animal based and eat when you are hungry. Don’t throw yourself in the deep end with Beef only OMAD/Fasting levels of strictness. That is the sort of thing that could turn you away.

 

9) Do you think Carnivore will ever be accepted as a mainstream diet. 

Being Vegan is really being pushed by the media and whilst it is admirable for its intention of lessening harm, not everyone can live and exist like that. I certainly know when I tried going Vegetarian I became really quite unwell.

 

There can be a lot of outrage when people find out that we eat this kind of diet, but I can tell you that my best friend is a Vegan so that’s proof that it’s possible for us to get along, we shouldn’t let these things divide us. If people can learn to accept each other’s life choices then maybe one day the Carnivore could be a mainstream diet, but no doubt there will be a lot of pushback about it. 

10) Anything you would like to add, and where can people follow you. 

You can find me at @carnivoreandthriving on Instagram where I post what food I’m eating and tracking any changes in my health. Come say hi!

 

Ketogenic Endurance – I hoped you enjoyed this post.

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