What Happened After a Year on the Carnivore Diet - Benefits, Challenges & Myths

Hosts: Amanda Golightly & Kate McDowell

🎙️ Episode Summary:

In this episode, Amanda and Kate dive deep into their one-year experience following the carnivore diet. They share the surprising health transformations, key benefits, and the challenges they faced along the way. 

Whether you’re considering the carnivore diet for weight loss, clearer skin, better sleep, or overall health, this candid conversation will help you decide if it’s right for you.

You’ll learn:

•✅ Why Amanda and Kate chose to follow the carnivore diet for a year.

•✅ The health benefits they experienced, including clearer thinking, better energy, and improved digestion.

•✅ Common myths about the carnivore diet debunked.

•✅ How to keep meals simple with beef, butter, and salt.

•✅ Tips for navigating social situations and staying consistent.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

•The carnivore diet can support better digestion, clearer skin, and balanced blood sugar.

•Why we chose Grass-fed, grass-finished beef and organ meats are nutrient-dense.

•Simplicity is key – no need for complex recipes.

•Results vary: It’s essential to listen to your body and personal health goals.

🔑 SEO Keywords:

•Carnivore diet results

•Carnivore diet benefits

•Carnivore diet for weight loss

•Carnivore diet myths

•How to start a carnivore diet

•Beef butter and salt diet

•Clear skin diet

•Low inflammation foods

•Holistic health nutrition

•Natural health podcast

📲 Connect with Amanda & Kate:

•🌐 Website: Aligned Natural Health

•📸 Instagram: Kate @alignednaturalhealth | Amanda @amandagolightlycoaching

👉 Call to Action:

Loved this episode? Share it with someone curious about the carnivore diet! Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review to support the show.

*** This podcast is for information purposes only. By providing the information contained herein, we are not diagnosing, treating, curing, mitigating, or preventing any disease or medical condition. Before beginning any type of natural regimen, it is advisable to seek the advice of a licensed healthcare professional.

Transcript

Amanda Golightly [00:00:00]:
A year ago, Kate and I made a pretty bold choice. We went all in on the carnivore diet. No plants, no grains, just meat. And honestly, the results have been pretty great. We've had better energy, clearer thinking, and maybe more so for Kate, major shifts in health. And today we wanted to share what worked for us, what didn't, and just some lessons we've learned along the way. Because whether you're sticking to this long term or not, this is something that a lot of people out there are curious about and we just wanna share, so stay tuned. We believe in growth and continuous learning.

Kate McDowell [00:00:48]:
We believe in educating and sharing knowledge.

Amanda Golightly [00:00:51]:
We believe the body is miraculous and is able to heal with the proper nutrition and support.

Kate McDowell [00:00:56]:
And we believe the right mindset is key to your success.

Amanda Golightly [00:01:00]:
I'm Amanda Golytely.

Kate McDowell [00:01:01]:
And I'm Kate McDowell, and this is Limitless Health.

Amanda Golightly [00:01:04]:
Live well naturally. Welcome everyone to the Limitless Health podcast. So today we are talking carnivore diets, all things that we can. And it was something that, this is actually our second time around doing it together. We're approaching our year mark, which is on January 8th. And it's really hard to believe that it's been a year. It seems like it's gone by pretty fast. Would you agree?

Kate McDowell [00:01:32]:
Oh, totally. The interesting part too is we initially went into it with, like, a let's do this for 30 days.

Amanda Golightly [00:01:40]:
Mhmm.

Kate McDowell [00:01:40]:
The first time as well, I think that was the objective. Let's do this for 30 days and then see how it goes. And in 30 days, it was like, okay. It starts to get easier, and you start to kind of the shifts were subtle the first time, I think. Like, that was back in 2019, so I don't entirely remember. But the shifts weren't massive, but it was just like, this is actually really easy

Amanda Golightly [00:02:03]:
Mhmm.

Kate McDowell [00:02:03]:
And enjoyable. So we didn't change. But for this time, like why what was your why for doing this again?

Amanda Golightly [00:02:14]:
Well, if we're being honest.

Kate McDowell [00:02:16]:
I'll be honest too. It's all good.

Amanda Golightly [00:02:18]:
Yeah. Okay. There were some not so great habits around consuming, even though they were, I'm putting air quotes here, a healthier version of ice cream. Mhmm. And I believe there were some cookies involved at that time as well. They were not so good habits that were happening quite often throughout the week. And this was a decision to cut that out. Yeah.

Amanda Golightly [00:02:44]:
I'm not gonna eat any more of that crap, basically, because it's not a whole food, which is often what we would talk about for people to eat because that's a good way to clean up what you're eating. Yeah. So we decided, yeah, let's go back into carnivore and cut out eating junk. Yeah. And your side?

Kate McDowell [00:03:02]:
I mean, I was stress eating for sure. That was a big part of, like, my ice cream and cookie consumption. And I don't touch gluten. Generally speaking, I haven't for many years now. So yeah, we're eating gluten free, but just because something's gluten free doesn't mean it's good for you. There was a lot of rice flour in there, which was like causing chaos for me blood sugar wise. I typically am not the high blood sugar person. I'm the person who was checking my blood sugar in the morning.

Kate McDowell [00:03:33]:
It was like 2.6. So I go hypoglycemic and then feel like garbage. I was shaky and just not feeling good. And I was like, okay, I have a grandfather that was type 2 diabetic. And so I always have been cautious around just keeping that in check as much as possible. And so when the blood sugar was kind of going all over the place because I was consuming more ice cream than any human should be, I was like, let's just do this again because I remember last time, like we did make some changes this time, which we'll talk about as well, but I was from the health perspective. I've made changes with my nutrition and my diet over the last several, well, more than a decade now. Yeah, more than a decade now, 12 years.

Kate McDowell [00:04:18]:
And I know that it's beneficial health wise. I never want to go back on medication again. I don't want to have to live on medication. I don't want to have the health issues that were happening for me before. And I look at around my MS story. It's like the word cure. I don't really believe in it. Because what does cure mean? Cure means you fixed your illness to the point where you can go back to eating the garbage you were eating before and living the lifestyle you were living before and expect it to not come back.

Kate McDowell [00:04:45]:
And so I don't ever want to get to a place where my health declines again. So, yeah, it was like, because we've done it before, I think that was part of the, I know it's easy. I know it's something we can do, but yeah, we decided to jump in again and it started with a, let's do this for 30 days. And I probably unconsciously knew it would be a lot longer than that, but yeah, it's almost a year, which is pretty cool.

Amanda Golightly [00:05:10]:
It's interesting to look back on the first time we did this as well and stuff that I'm noticing with other people. Because there's been multiple people that we've interacted with who have also heard about it and, and are actually, I believe still on it right now. And just going through what we did first time around, where you went carnivore and you're cutting out all the garbage, if you will, but then you were still replacing things with a carnivore version of it. Like the carnivore, pardon me, pizza. There was, what else is there? This is where I'm starting to blank out on it

Kate McDowell [00:05:45]:
now. Waffles.

Amanda Golightly [00:05:48]:
Oh, yeah. The carnivore bread, I think. That's a thing too. I don't think we did that, but that's something people are doing now.

Kate McDowell [00:05:54]:
Yep. We used pork rinds for a lot more stuff last time, and we were eating all of the meats. I remember you used to make chicken thighs all the time and take them places. I used to we used to make bacon wrapped chicken. We used to eat a lot more chicken. We used to eat pulled pork. And then all of a sudden, one day, I don't even remember how far in we were, both of us were just like, I can't eat this anymore.

Amanda Golightly [00:06:19]:
Yeah.

Kate McDowell [00:06:19]:
And pork was gone. But, yeah, we were doing a lot of the kind of replacing the things that we eat in the past, and that's something from my paleo journey more than a decade ago that I always recommend to people don't look to replace the foods that you had before because it's never gonna replace it. And so how is that affecting you unconsciously, right, where you're like, I'm having pizza, but part of you is like, this isn't pizza. You lied to me. Right?

Amanda Golightly [00:06:49]:
Well, what's the reason you want the pizza? What's the real reason you want the pizza?

Kate McDowell [00:06:54]:
Yeah. That's true.

Amanda Golightly [00:06:55]:
Is there an emotional tie in to eating or consuming that food? Like, what's the, like, the comfort value or, like, what's what's it serving? What's it meet what need is it meeting?

Kate McDowell [00:07:06]:
Yeah. Yeah. That's true. I mean, we ate a lot more different stuff last time, and I think this time, that's a big part of what has made this round easier. And like you said, we do talk to a lot of people who are doing this as well. And something that I hear sometimes is people are like, I just I'm getting bored of what I'm eating, or I'm getting I'm craving other things or I'm wanting, and that's what I found this time. There's like, that's not a thing, like, at all because we decided this round, we're just doing beef, butter, and salt. There is a little there's some bacon, so I won't deny that.

Kate McDowell [00:07:45]:
Yeah. And then

Amanda Golightly [00:07:46]:
It's bacon.

Kate McDowell [00:07:48]:
Yeah. But other than that, yeah, it's it's really simple, and I think that's part of what's made it really easy.

Amanda Golightly [00:07:55]:
And this time, I don't wanna make the carnivore pizza because it's it's a lot of work.

Kate McDowell [00:08:00]:
It's a lot of work.

Amanda Golightly [00:08:01]:
That's the other thing. The liver cakes that we were making as well, we were used because liver is like the all encompassing way of health, all the minerals and maybe not minerals, vitamins that are in liver. And we're utilizing that into, pancake form, basically, liver, butter, and eggs. And it it actually it tasted pretty good. Mhmm. Just, again, a lot of work. Yeah. And I just like to keep it simple.

Kate McDowell [00:08:31]:
It was a lot of work. That was from so the the we tried to eat liver. I think that was from the first time that we did carnivore and, like, couldn't do it. The smell of it, the texture of it. We tried putting bacon in with it. Maybe that wasn't when we did carnivore because we did put onion in at one point, but anyways, liver was like a, nope, I can't do that. So the carnivore pancakes was a way to get liver in, and now thankfully, we found and it's easier to come by now where you can get nose to tail beef. So basically they're putting liver, kidney, heart Tongue.

Kate McDowell [00:09:08]:
Tongue.

Amanda Golightly [00:09:09]:
Depends on what they have, I guess.

Kate McDowell [00:09:11]:
Grinding that. So it's 20% organs in 80% beef is how we buy it now. Does it taste a little bit different than ground beef? A little bit, but it's doable. That's been really beneficial because the first time that we did carnivore, one of the big motivations for me or one of the inspirations, yes, I was in nutrition school at the time, definitely the oddball in that class, a room full of vegetarians and vegans that were mortified when the teachers started talking about carnivore. And I was like, tell me more. I could try that. So my teacher there was an inspiration for carnivore, but then also Paul Saladino. I followed him on Instagram for a long time and listened to his stuff.

Kate McDowell [00:09:55]:
I actually had a testimonial in one of his books just talking about how carnivore actually got rid of the last of my MS symptoms. So he was a motivation, but he talked about organ meat quite a bit. And so I think that's what led to that. And he's had some transitions over the years as well, but now in terms of motivation and inspiration, there's lots of people that you can listen from. I know January, they're considering this World Carnivore Month, which is good timing, but there's people like Steak and Butter Girl and Carnivore Ray and, Doctor. Anthony Chaffee, who we had set up to come on the show, but we haven't anyways, we haven't coordinated that, but that may happen again in the future. Who else did you mention?

Amanda Golightly [00:10:37]:
Oh, Doctor. Sean Baker.

Kate McDowell [00:10:39]:
Yeah. And, oh, and there's also Michaela Peterson who eats a carnivore away and her autoimmune stuff all got better based on eating this way. So.

Amanda Golightly [00:10:48]:
And these are long term carnivore people as well, just to emphasize that it can be done on long term. It doesn't have to just be a 30 day, but you can make it whatever you want it to be.

Kate McDowell [00:10:58]:
Yeah. And I mean, it depends on your motivation on wanting to do it as well. Right? A lot of people turn to something like this from a weight loss perspective. And that hasn't been it wasn't the driving factor for me in terms of doing this. I did lose a bunch of weight at the beginning. We have made some changes because we were eating grass fed, grass finished beef, and I have noticed a difference in going back to conventionally raised beef in terms of weight a little bit, but, like energy is better. Mental clarity is way better, I find. I'm sleeping better.

Kate McDowell [00:11:37]:
That could be a mouth taping thing, though.

Amanda Golightly [00:11:39]:
We may talk about that because that's

Kate McDowell [00:11:41]:
a year anniversary as well. But, yeah, it's I I just like eating this way. So it's neat.

Amanda Golightly [00:11:53]:
Yeah. I like how simple it is. It's and I know we get the the feedback all the time. It's like like, no no vegetables, like nothing. It's just people start to glitch when they hear this, which is quite entertaining actually. And because again, it does come down to the beliefs of what we have, what we think we should be eating to be what's perceived as healthy, because a lot of things out there right now are very much against eating meat.

Kate McDowell [00:12:24]:
Mhmm. In

Amanda Golightly [00:12:25]:
some cases at all, because of the supposed impacts on the the environment. And you have to wonder for something that's been around as long as it has, that the cow is the one that's at fault for all the environmental issues. Yep. I mean, I know the the ways of mass producing isn't maybe not the best, most ideal way of going about it. There are some, there are some better ways to do things. And I think hopefully that will come eventually. It's just we need to get there, and that doesn't happen overnight either.

Kate McDowell [00:13:05]:
Yeah. It's true.

Amanda Golightly [00:13:09]:
Yeah. Exactly. Where do we wanna go from here?

Kate McDowell [00:13:16]:
Oh, what do you eat? That's another question that I get all the time too. So you mentioned about how we no longer eat plants. That was funny because I came up at Toastmasters, like, right before the holidays.

Amanda Golightly [00:13:25]:
And I

Kate McDowell [00:13:25]:
was like, oh, I eat carnivore because there was a table, like, full of all kinds of there were treats, but there was also lots of vegetables and all different foods.

Amanda Golightly [00:13:35]:
Fruit

Kate McDowell [00:13:36]:
too. Yeah, that's true. And we went and didn't eat anything because we pre ate before we went. So there's the social, people always say it's really hard socially. It's like, it is what you make of it. And this is, I have a really strong foundation in this because of my, you change the way you eat or you go back on medication kind of mantra that I went through with that journey for me, but I'm okay with saying to people, it's no big deal, like enjoy. We don't eat that way. We ate burgers before we went to this event.

Kate McDowell [00:14:13]:
It was a potlucks. We had to bring some things. We brought meatballs. And they I bought the meatballs from the grocery store. They were like sirloin meatballs. They had toasted wheat crumbs in them, so we didn't eat those. And And then we put sauce on them, so we didn't eat them.

Amanda Golightly [00:14:28]:
Gotta love that too. So I think you said that was a brand that didn't have that before, and now they do. Yeah. So that's They used

Kate McDowell [00:14:34]:
to have gluten free, and they've changed it.

Amanda Golightly [00:14:36]:
Yeah. So that's something to keep an eye on as well. If you're used to buying certain products that have certain ingredients, they can

Kate McDowell [00:14:42]:
Stop buying products.

Amanda Golightly [00:14:43]:
Yeah. Well, yeah. Basically.

Kate McDowell [00:14:46]:
Yeah. Sorry. But But

Amanda Golightly [00:14:48]:
this is one one off for us because, again, we don't often Yeah. You know, actually, because eating at home is often very much easier, and you know what's going into the into your food. Mhmm. And with what we were doing around that potluck, it's just a matter of a different strategy. Because people, some people maybe will eat something before going into a party like that, just so they don't eat as much. But for us, it was eating something to eat because we weren't going to do it. We knew we weren't going to have any of the potluck stuff there. Yeah.

Amanda Golightly [00:15:20]:
Just a different strategy when you go into your day to day.

Kate McDowell [00:15:23]:
Yeah. It was just an interesting conversation I had with the one person because they were like, oh, there's all these things up there. Like, don't you want anything? And I was like, oh, we don't we eat carnivore. And she was like, okay, so you eat meat then. All right. And I was like, but like but just meat, like beef, butter, and salt. And she's like, no vegetables? No, no, no vegetables. No fruit? No, no, no fruit either.

Kate McDowell [00:15:55]:
No bread? Oh, this is going to be all night. And I was like, no, beef, butter and salt. Yeah. And so like the biggest question is like, okay, so what does a day of food look like for you? We talked about this before getting on. What did, what did, what does the day look like for you? We're pretty similar, obviously.

Amanda Golightly [00:16:15]:
Yeah. It it can vary. Generally, it's pretty consistent where I'll have a couple burgers for breakfast on the weekends. And, usually, I'll make 3 because I'll have 2 initially, and then I'll save 1 for the afternoon. And then dinner could be could be meatballs wrapped in bacon. It could be steak. It's that's I mean, those are pretty much the options, really.

Kate McDowell [00:16:39]:
Yeah. It's true. And it's like there's planning involved for sure. Like for us, burgers is the, well, we forgot to take something out today, so we need something fast and easy. So that's where sirloin, just beef burgers is what we'll throw on the barbecue. The the bacon wrapped meatballs, I quite enjoy, and those are the the nose to tail beef is what's in the meatballs. So we are getting the organ meat in that sense, and then the bacon, like, tones down the organ meat side of it kind of thing, but that one's really useful because that'll give us at least 2 meals. So it's helpful for during the week.

Kate McDowell [00:17:20]:
And then steak, I mean, how do you go wrong with steak? Interesting too because I used to be a striploin. Like, I was striploin, striploin, striploin. That's all I wanted. And now I'm a rib steak girl, so I don't know. I don't

Amanda Golightly [00:17:32]:
know what you're saying. That before carnivore, you wouldn't you would barely ever have red meat. Let's just be honest here. I'm gonna be honest on her behalf.

Kate McDowell [00:17:40]:
That's true. That's true. Yeah.

Amanda Golightly [00:17:43]:
You've come such a long way.

Kate McDowell [00:17:44]:
Beth Trepkin: It had to be. It couldn't bleed on the plate. I'm still kind of a meat snob. Amanda always laughs at me because she says the words that I'm thinking in my head. And it's like, oh, no, not that piece because I'll cut off little bits sometimes, whatever. But the daily food is, like, super simple, which is nice.

Amanda Golightly [00:18:09]:
Mhmm. Yeah. It's really again, you can't get any easier than this as far as what you're eating in the day, and the prep is so simple as well. Yeah. So I don't when so when people say they can't do carnivore even for 30 days, it's a decision. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. It's always a decision.

Kate McDowell [00:18:28]:
Yeah. I mean, some people will say that they have like keto flu at the beginning or it's really hard at the beginning. I think it depends where you're coming from because, yes, we had an ice cream problem leading up to this round and the first time we were eating kind of keto leading up to it to begin with. So we weren't eating a ton of carbs before. So transitioning into this wasn't super hard For some people, it can be. I know that. And then one of the biggest kind of is bowel movements. People are like, oh, how are you going to survive without fiber? And it's like fiber is just bulk.

Kate McDowell [00:19:05]:
You actually don't need it. And what I found beneficial is if you need to poop more, you eat more fat. If you need to not, like, as carnivore race, as like pee out your butt, then you eat less fat. And it's just kind of a sliding scale of adjusting your fat intake to get to the stool consistency that you would like, but you still may not have bowel movements every day, which as a nutritionist was something I used to preach to people. You have to be pooping every day. But the difference here is that, like, plant matter is waste. If you're eating quality food and meat, your body's using it, So there is less waste. Mhmm.

Kate McDowell [00:19:52]:
So, yeah, don't freak out if that's the situation. I mean, if it's been 7 days

Amanda Golightly [00:19:58]:
Yeah. DM ing. But But on the other side too, with not having all the waste, the plant matter that you mentioned, we've dramatically cut out any of the glyphosate, the pesticides that are used. And a lot of the things that work to the plants or veggies, we're not really supposed to eat anyway. Yeah. Because they they give off these chemicals so they can deter, I guess, mostly animals from eating them. And that's their only defense system. But then we come along and say spinach is good and kale, and we're not supposed to eat those things.

Kate McDowell [00:20:36]:
I used to be the kale smoothie Queen. My workmates used to call it my lawn clippings in the morning. I could bring spinach and kale in a smoothie because I thought it's so good for you. And there was so much inflammation it was causing my body. I think a lot of people, when they go on carnivore, they do lose a bunch of weight at the beginning, especially. And it's like, how much of that are you just losing the inflammation in your body? And the spinach, the kale, all of these especially processed packaged foods that we're used to eating, how much inflammation is that causing in your digestive tract as well? And if there's a lot of inflammation there, you're not going to use the nutrients of the food that you're eating to begin with. And so then we end up nutrient deficient, even though we're overweight because we've got so much inflammation and the system is just not able to function properly.

Amanda Golightly [00:21:26]:
I think that's the other key part as well, knowing where the nutrient density really lies and what's actually available for our bodies to use. Yeah. You've got the ground nose to tail or any sort of organ meat, which is totally nutrient dense versus a plant where if there was the nutrients in there, you'd have to eat how much of it to get that? And then would your body even absorb it?

Kate McDowell [00:21:53]:
Yeah, it's true. It's all the bioavailability. Right? Like, if we look at things like iron is coming to mind just because I've been reading and learning about that lately more so. But it's like there's different forms of everything. Yes, there's a plant form of protein, but how much of that is your body, like Amanda said, actually absorbing and able to use? And to get the amount of protein that you need from a plant, like, okay, so enough protein from spinach, you're going to need a kiddie pool full of spinach for your salad. You will be pooping a lot.

Amanda Golightly [00:22:31]:
Gassy too.

Kate McDowell [00:22:32]:
Yeah. Oh, that's another thing. No bloating.

Amanda Golightly [00:22:36]:
Yes. Exactly.

Kate McDowell [00:22:37]:
No gas. Like, digestively, I felt phenomenal for a year. Mhmm. That never happens.

Amanda Golightly [00:22:45]:
Yeah. I'm just thinking of, like, the holidays too, going to family dinners, and there's like a plethora. My mom is fantastic at putting meals together and has a plethora of different veggies and potatoes. And I used to love getting in there and having all the things, but oh my goodness, you do definitely feel the bloat afterwards from not being used to consuming all those those things. And, yeah, this year, none of that. None of that, which is amazing.

Kate McDowell [00:23:15]:
Yeah. And then what else can we talk about? Okay. So a concern that people always have, and we're not going to get really in-depth into this, but the biggest question I always get is, have you gone to your doctor? What does your cholesterol look like? You're eating all of this fat, all this fatty meat, and the things that are proposed to be problems for cholesterol. But the way that I like to look at cholesterol is your body makes cholesterol. Cholesterol is demonized as something that causes heart disease and that's going to kill us, but would your body make something that could kill it? I don't think it would. And so why is cholesterol such a problem? Amy, Amanda, you had said something before we started this too, like, yes, there is a leveling out period that you go through when you first start something like this. So I think the recommendation people like Sean Baker and stuff say, don't go for blood work for the 1st 6 months. Give your body a chance to adapt to your new way of eating.

Kate McDowell [00:24:22]:
But when heart disease becomes a concern and when cholesterol is a problem, cholesterol is the repair crew. It's like blaming the city's maintenance crew for the highways being destroyed. It's the other crap and the traffic and and the abuse

Amanda Golightly [00:24:39]:
that probably. What? The government, probably.

Kate McDowell [00:24:43]:
The abuse that the streets have been put through, that the cholesterol, the repair crew is coming to fix it. The cholesterol is coming to repair things in your body. Yeah. Without cholesterol, we can't make brain tissue. We can't make hormones. Like, we can't make strong cells. Your cell membranes are all made up of cholesterol. There's so many reasons our body needs cholesterol.

Kate McDowell [00:25:06]:
So, yeah, I may go get blood work done. I haven't decided yet because I know it'll happen if my cholesterol is high. My doctor's going to be on the phone. So what's going on? And it's you need a better understanding of what cholesterol levels actually mean and what's real. Right?

Amanda Golightly [00:25:28]:
Mhmm. I think doctor, Sean Baker is probably a good resource and doctor Chafee? Chafee Yep. Are good resources to look up if that's something you wanna look up.

Kate McDowell [00:25:39]:
Doctor. Wolfson talks about cholesterol as well.

Amanda Golightly [00:25:41]:
Yes. Thank you. That was the other name I was just looking for. Yeah. Since that's kind of definitely his field, those are resources to check out because they are doctors and they can give better recommendations on these things. We don't give recommendations on these things. So just a side note. Yeah.

Amanda Golightly [00:26:00]:
Love that. Alright. So one other thing too, that even if you decide you wanna try carnivore, you don't have to stay on it. It's a different journey for everyone from maybe it is just 30 days. You try it and see how you feel and maybe it's okay. I'm going to add some things back in. It's the going to add some things back in. It's the the best elimination diet you could ever have.

Amanda Golightly [00:26:25]:
So, if you're struggling with some sort of health issue, this is something you can do to eliminate things and then slowly introduce back in to see what is the actual issue. And it's funny with that too, because we've talked with others who have done the same and then they try something they haven't had for a while. And then they like, oh, my body, like you're feeling headaches or whatever it is. And it's like now I'm responding worse to it than I was before. And and that's because your body doesn't like it. It's more sensitive to it now because you've basically withdrawn. You've gone through the withdrawal from that period. So it's this is all information for you to decide what you wanna do next.

Amanda Golightly [00:27:06]:
Is it worth feeling a certain way to have a certain food? What is the outcome that you want? That's the biggest question.

Kate McDowell [00:27:14]:
I think it really teaches you how to how to listen to your body better. Like, we are so, as a society, we are so dissociated from our bodies at this point. Right? And I try and explain to people too if, okay, so you cut out gluten and then you add it back in and you're responding to it worse than you were in the past. And it's like before, your body could not even give you the signals because it was so beat down by having to deal with this over and over and over and over again that it's just like, okay, and just coping and dealing with it. And then you take it out and the body's like, no. It's like sounding the alarm. I don't like this. This isn't good for me.

Kate McDowell [00:27:57]:
And we have talked to people. I know that when we talked carnivore Ray, he said joint pain was something that was Mhmm. I think there was some depression and stuff too, but the joint pain was a really big one. And he reintroduced stuff recently a couple months ago, I think, and the joint pain came back. And so that's one that neither of us dealt with, but that's one that I have definitely heard, like, amazing testimonials about improvements in joint pain. That's Michaela Peterson. That was a really big part because she had juvenile arthritis, I think. Mhmm.

Kate McDowell [00:28:28]:
And carnivore has been like life changing for her in that regard, which is so cool to see.

Amanda Golightly [00:28:34]:
And many others. There's been so many other stories around it. Mhmm. So I mean, if this is if you don't want to do other things, this is an easy way to to see what works for you. And again, start with 30 days. Maybe you're not in a beef, butter, salt person because Kate drinks coffee and I have other drinks that are not quite carnivore specific if you're strict. But again, there's there's a spectrum of what carnivore is, and you have to make it work for you and whatever that is. And again, it it all depends on what your goals are.

Amanda Golightly [00:29:06]:
So you find that perfect spot for you. And maybe it's animal based, like, Doctor Saladino has transitioned to. Yeah. What are your health goals? That's the biggest question. And only you can answer that.

Kate McDowell [00:29:20]:
Exactly. And that's, that is one thing I like about Carnivar too, is that there's no rules really. Like, you make the rules whatever you want. I also like that carnivore probably will never be commercialized. Like, you look at things like vegan or keto and there's like junk food, keto. There's like an entire section in the store now that has keto on it and then you look at the ingredients and it's like this is keto. I don't know how they're gonna commercialize carnivore. It will be very challenging to do.

Kate McDowell [00:29:50]:
So, yeah. People say another complaint is that it's really expensive. It will tell you you eat less when you're just eating meat. Mhmm. Ground beef is kind of like if you ate steak 3 meals a day all the time, yeah, we'd get up there in price, but there's ways to work around it. Like I'm pretty sure we spend less on groceries now. I think we factored it out the first time that we did carnivore and found, yes, we are spending less on groceries than we did in the past.

Amanda Golightly [00:30:28]:
Yeah, I'm sure that's true. I don't remember what the numbers are. But, yeah, the fact that even alone last year when we had started and we were eating ice cream and those cookies so often, like how much was that costing? And now we don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're out there listening and you want to try this, just think of all the stuff that you would cut out and what the cost of that is and start adding that up. Even beverages alone. What are the beverages that you're consuming?

Kate McDowell [00:30:55]:
True. That's true. Yeah. We don't drink any alcoholic beverages.

Amanda Golightly [00:31:00]:
No. No.

Kate McDowell [00:31:00]:
Haven't you never did,

Amanda Golightly [00:31:01]:
but yeah. These are all things you can consider if you wanna dive into this journey because it's it's a pretty great one if you have health things. Even if you don't have health things, it's, just enhances what, you've already got then. So

Kate McDowell [00:31:17]:
Yeah. That's true. And a lot of people argue it's not sustainable. Like Amanda said, that's a choice. Mhmm. Right? So I've been happy eating this way and I have no plan to change.

Amanda Golightly [00:31:31]:
So Agreed. Yeah. There's nothing in, there's no signs of, changing at this point. So who knows how long this will be indefinitely. Who knows? I can't say that for sure, but the results have been great, and I see no reason to to stop at this point.

Kate McDowell [00:31:49]:
Amazing. Well, thank you for listening to this episode today. It's just been kind of a candid casual conversation about our year of eating carnivore. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out anytime. Be more than happy to have a conversation with you. And thank you everyone again. Hope you have a wonderful New Year, and we'll talk to you on the next one.