February 17, 2025 • 61 mins
Jenny Mitich, author of Complete Carnivore, joins us to share how the carnivore diet transformed her health and why it’s gaining momentum. From improving metabolic health to enhancing mental clarity, she breaks down the science, debunks common myths, and explains why having a strong why—beyond just weight loss—is key. We also dive into strength training, oxalate dumping, and the freedom of food choices within carnivore. Whether you're curious about making the switch or just want a fresh perspective on nutrition, this episode is packed with insights to help get started on your carnivore journey.
Connect with Jenny:
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https://www.instagram.com/mamamitich/
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@JennyMitich
Preorder links for book:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1628605766
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/complete-carnivore-jenny-mitich/1146838850?ean=9781628605761&st=AFF&2sid=Random%20House%20Inc_8373827_NA&sourceId=AFFRandom%20House%20Inc
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For international viewers: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Complete-Carnivore-by-Jenny-Mitich/9781628605761
Coaching call link: https://calendly.com/mamamitich/30min
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Use code JennyMitich for 10% off your order
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's guest is Jenny Mittage.
Jenny is following thecarnivore diet for approximately
two years and the author ofComplete Carnivore.
She is active and shares herjourney and insights on
Instagram at Mama Mittage, andprovides a wealth of videos and
resources on her YouTube channel, jenny Mittage.
Jenny, welcome to the PrimalFoundations podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you so much.
Happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's great to see you again.
The last time we spoke was atthe Healing for Humanity event
with Carrie Mann, and we had DrKiltz, amongst many other people
and guests.
Tony Hampton, how did you feelabout that whole meetup and
getting to see some of the clipsof the hopefully upcoming
(00:44):
documentary?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh man, I loved it.
I love meetups in general.
The first time you and I metwas at one of Karen Miles's
meetups in Chicago.
That was awesome.
She's always putting stufftogether, so it's a really.
It's just nice to be able to goand see people in your area
that are also, you know,following carnivore, and I love
seeing the clips from HealingHumanity.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's going gonna be a game changer when it's
released.
I think, yeah, I think we getreally caught up in, you know,
documentaries, especially thevery, very well done ones, right
, you know, they have the, thecharts, the graphs, the stories,
the people and the editing anddepending on what you watch, you
could go one way or the other.
I, I went down the road ofbeing two, uh, two years vegan,
uh, a long time ago, because ofuh.
I saw forks over knives and Iwas like, oh, like this is this
(01:35):
seems right to me okay, and uhjust took my health for a turn
and then, um, you know, there'sreally nothing, like you said,
there's nothing really forcarnivore.
There's some ketogenic thingsout there, but i'm'm excited for
this.
I think this one is if thisgets into the movie theaters,
I'm like buying it out and I'minviting everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Agreed.
You know, the cool thing withCarrie is he is just so
passionate about carnivorebecause of the just like extreme
positive changes that he's seenin his mental and physical
health, so he puts that passioninto the documentary as well.
And then his I guesscinematographer the guy that's
(02:13):
filming it, adam, he was instill photography.
He did a lot of photography andthen learned how to shoot video
and has done.
I couldn't tell he that it'sshot beautifully.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So I his story was really riveting too, so it was
really nice to to be able to seesome clips and to hear all of
the testimonials from Carrie'sfamily and from, you know, Dr
kilts, dr Wiedemann, dr TonyHampton, it was.
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It was great event.
I can't wait to see that wholebunch of people again.
And we were talking kind of offcamera, a little bit like how
carnivores gain popularity overthe years.
There's more and more peoplethat come into it, especially in
this past year.
People have just asked me aboutit.
How do you explain carnivorediet to somebody who's
unfamiliar to it?
And you know, how does thatcompare to more of like a widely
(03:01):
known keto diet?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It's a really good question.
I've also noticed an uptick inawareness on carnivore.
I was at REI getting like asweatshirt or something and the
cash register lady was like, ohyeah, carnivore, I know what
that is, my cousin's doing it,you know.
So a lot more people are doingit.
I really think we're coming toa point where it's going to be
(03:24):
like blowing up probably thisyear, like in popularity.
So when people ask me about it,it's really simple, honestly.
It's just all I eat is meat andanimal products, and they'll be
like, no, no meat.
I'm like, no, all meat, onlymeat.
No, no vegetables, no fruits.
I'm like, no, no, no, that'sall I eat.
(03:45):
And then I just talk about howit's kind of like just the
lowest carb ketogenic diet thatyou can do, and a lot of people
use it as an elimination diet.
So if you're suffering fromsome really hardcore metabolic
issues, it could be a gamechanger for you.
But also if you just want tocome to it to lose some weight,
it's really helpful for that too.
(04:06):
So that's kind of where I start.
And then, of course, you know Ihave my YouTube channel, so I've
been working on building aplaylist of beginner carnivore
videos for the past year.
I think I've got about 40 nowand I have a few like complete
in-depth guide videos that helppeople to get started, like
prepping your kitchen, figuringout your whys, why you're doing
(04:31):
it in the first place, and thengetting everything prepared and
then going into your first monthon carnivore, because the first
month on carnivore is the mostdifficult.
That's when people can run intoketo flu symptoms, especially
if they're coming from eating alot of carbs 200, 300, 400 grams
a day plus, you know, talkingabout electrolytes and ways that
you can avoid or mitigate theworst of those symptoms.
(04:53):
And then, once you're throughthat first month, typically it's
smooth sailing.
So I just try to condense thatas much as possible and I only I
only share all that stuff ifthey ask.
I'm not just, like you know,evangelizing about carnivore.
Oh, my God, you need to do thisCause I don't want to turn
people off, but uh, but if theyask I'll, I'll definitely give
them, give them the info theyneed.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, there's.
There's a lot of people goingto carnivore.
Again, you mentioned some ofthe reasons weight loss, uh,
healing, uh a prolonged healthissue, and people connect with
stories, just like kind ofhealing with humanity.
That's like the premise iswe're just telling the stories
and the listeners I know aregoing to be very excited to hear
yours.
You know what inspired you toadopt a carnivore diet and how
(05:37):
has that transformed your healthand lifestyle?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, so I have twins .
They're now three.
You may hear them screaming inthe background occasionally
because they're trying to godown for a nap.
But I gained 70 pounds when Iwas pregnant with them and when
I got pregnant I was already abit overweight.
So I was not happy.
And after they were born I, youknow, did the standard.
(06:01):
You know low fat, lots offruits and vegetables.
I was following Noom it's thisapp.
That's like 1200 calories, lowfat, lots of carbs.
You know red meats bad.
And I lost I don't know 21pounds over a year.
But that was really really slow.
I had a lot of weight still tolose.
I was like 195 pounds.
(06:23):
So my husband he was the onethat got me started on carnivore
.
Actually, he had found Dr KenBerry on YouTube and had started
watching his videos that summer, before we started, and he was
like, hey, I really want to trythis.
My husband had lost 130 poundsusing keto and he wanted to kind
of take it to the next leveland I was just like you're
(06:45):
insane, how can you get all ofthe vitamins and minerals you
need just eating meat?
You know the standard thestandard concerns but I did
watch the videos with him.
I ended up watching the videoswith him and did a little bit of
my own exploring over the nextsix months.
I got a continuous glucosemonitor in September of that
year and had seen that myglucose was not maybe moving
(07:09):
towards pre-diabetic because Iwas eating so much fruit really
no ultra processed foods, butjust a lot of fruit and I'm like
man, that's crazy.
So then it got to the pointwhere I had only lost 21 pounds.
I was super frustrated and Iwas like you know what?
I'm going to give carnivore ashot.
(07:30):
So I'm going to do it for 30days.
I'm going to see how, likewhat's going to happen to my
glucose levels on a carnivorediet.
That'll be the experiment andthat's it 30 days, just give it
a shot.
So I actually started thecarnivore diet before my husband
, which is so funny because hewas the one that wanted to do it
first.
So I started it on December27th 2022, and I lost eight
(07:58):
pounds my first month.
I dropped my glucose from like100 down to 80 as my average and
I didn't feel very good.
I had horrible keto flu, whichI now know was also a mix of
oxalate dumping because I'd beeneating so many high oxalate
fruits and vegetables that Ithought were healthy.
So I committed to another 30days.
Only lost two pounds my secondmonth, because I started
(08:28):
including dairy again, cut thedairy, did it another 30 days
and by the end of that 90 dayperiod I'd lost 15 and a half
pounds and my glucose hadstabilized in the low 80s.
So I was just hooked and I'vebeen on it ever since now over
two years.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And a lot of people do come to this diet as a weight
loss.
I'm going to do carnivore toweight loss, but how did you?
How did you feel?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh, I mean, I felt so much better.
So I've had mental healthissues since I was like 13,
depression, anxiety and thingslike that, and as I'd gotten
older it'd gotten a little bitbetter.
You know, I was able to dealwith it better than I was when I
was younger, but it almostcompletely went away.
That's probably the mostamazing thing that I wasn't
really expecting.
I lost 50 pounds Energy wise,night and day.
(09:16):
Night and day With these guys.
They are balls of energy.
And I turned 41 in a couple ofweeks, so I'm not a young mom of
energy and I'm.
I turned 41 in a couple ofweeks, so I'm not a young mom.
Um, I, I, I need, I need help,and doing carnivore has been,
has been amazing for me.
Energy wise yeah, that wasreally helpful.
Um, I've noticed a lot ofimprovements in oral health.
(09:37):
I used to have bleeding gumsand I'd have to use a breath
mint often.
I felt like I did and I nolonger need to.
My gums no longer bleed.
Just a lot of really unexpectedbenefits that I that I didn't
know were going to happen, butthat did.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I hear that a lot too of you know I used to get
cavities a lot.
Every time I would go to thedoctor I'd have a cavity or
something going on.
And you know for myself I'm I'mgetting.
I mean, I have an electrictoothbrush now.
I don't know if that changesthe game, but I, like I, every
time I go into the dentistthey're like, oh, it's all good,
it's actually better than itwas X amount of years ago.
I was like, oh, awesome, so Ido think there is something to
(10:16):
it.
And plus other benefits yes,you want to lose weight, we're a
little little vain, we want tolook good.
I mean, that's totally fine,but just the, the energy, the
mental clarity and thesimplicity of carnivore is is
very attractive to people aswell.
(10:37):
And plus, you know you youmentioned that, like I saw on
your YouTube banner, you have alike a picture from two years
ago to now, like, what a what adifference.
Just just in your it's only aface picture, but just in your
face.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, I had gone back that.
Uh, the one from two years agowas from my 30 day update video
and I was probably 186 poundsthere, but just the inflammation
in my face compared to that.
The second shot was December of2024 and I was like 150 pounds
(11:07):
and just the clarity andeverything that was crazy.
I had to make a post cause Iwas like, oh my God, look at
this and there's no.
I've had a few people on onthat picture be like, oh, you
got plastic surgery or fillers.
I'm like, no, no, I, I'mhealthier.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I put no filters on it either, because I hate it
when people do that.
I don't want you to seefiltered.
I want you to see what it wason the video.
That's it, and it's a starkdifference, for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You mentioned some things that are happening when
people get on to carnivore.
For those interested in to acarnivore, you know, for those
interested in transitioning to acarnivore diet, what essential
steps or resources would yourecommend to ensure that
successful start?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Sure, I do think there's a little bit of prep
work that needs to go into it.
I did not do these prep workitems and I suffered for it.
So I think it's reallyimportant to first figure out
why you're doing it in the firstplace.
So for me, my whys are myfamily, my boys.
I want to age gracefully.
I'd really like to do likecrazy physical things in my
(12:16):
eighties and nineties, you know,like climb a mountain or like
you know just weird, crazy stuff.
And then I I also, you knowwant to want to look good.
You know I came to this forweight loss, but I don't think
that can be your only why.
If you're coming to carnivorejust to lose weight, that's not
going to be enough of amotivator.
So try to figure out why areyou doing this in the first
(12:39):
place and then write that whydown on a post-it or put it on
your phone, like on your banneror something whatever, so that
you can see it every single day,because you need to keep it
fresh in your mind.
Once you figure out your whys,then you need to start prepping
your kitchen, because if youhave a bunch of non-carnivore
foods laying around, I can tellyou it will be difficult, not
(13:01):
impossible.
There's some people that can doit, but I think it's better to
just try to get rid of all thatnon-carnivore food.
So pastas, breads, desserts,cereals, anything that, fruit,
vegetables, things like that.
You don't have to throw it away.
You could put it in a box, putit out in your garage, you could
donate it, you could give itaway whatever.
And this only works if eitheryou're living alone or if you're
(13:23):
living with somebody that isalso doing it along with you.
There are people you know thathave people in their household
that are not also going to bedoing it, so that can be
difficult.
But if that's the case, whereyou can't get rid of everything,
I would say at least try to getrid of the things that are a
weakness for you.
So like for me, that would becinnamon, toast crunch and Oreos
.
I would not be able to havethose in the house and do
(13:44):
carnivore, so I'd get those out.
Then, after you do that, youkind of have to restock your
shelves.
Right, you got to have somefood.
You don't know how many peopleI've talked to that start
carnivore and then they're likeoh, I have no food, so I have a
free grocery list for anybodythat wants it.
They can follow me over onInstagram or send me an email
(14:06):
and I'll get it to them.
Of all the different foods thatyou can get.
You know, get a week's worth offood.
Get some ground beef, some eggs, some butter.
You know pork chops are good,chicken whatever meat you enjoy,
buy some.
And then I do think it's a goodidea to do a little bit of meal
prep.
You know hard, boil a dozeneggs and have them in your
(14:27):
fridge, make a pot roast orsomething.
Just have something on hand,because your hunger cues are
going to be a bit wacky thefirst month as you're learning
your true hunger cues and you'regoing to want to have some food
on hand that you can eat rightaway.
After that, I think you'd bepretty much ready to go.
I do think you need to havesome electrolytes on hand.
(14:48):
Whatever brand you know worksfor you, just make sure that
they don't have a bunch of sugarand things like that.
You really just want theminerals.
So sodium, potassium, magnesiumat minimum I use Element.
They're raw and flavored aregreat.
There's a bunch of other brandsout there that you can do.
Figure out which one works bestfor you and have some on hand.
Don't wait.
Do that before you startBecause, like for me, man day
(15:11):
two was terrible, terrible, andif I would have, I didn't have
electrolytes on hand.
I just had to do salt and then Iordered the electrolytes.
So make sure you have thembeforehand.
Then really, it's just kind oflike picking when to start.
I would not start carnivore ifyou're going to go cold turkey
into it.
Um, I wouldn't start it likebefore a big event.
Or if you have like a work tripplanned, you know, or anything
(15:33):
like that.
Um, I would pick, you know, amonth where you have some light
schedules going on, you know,cause you don't know what's
going to happen.
Some people don't have any ketoflu and some people it's bad,
so you kind of have to planaround that.
And then there's, you know, ifyou don't want to go cold turkey
into carnivore, you could alsojust gradually reduce your carbs
(15:55):
, I think, starting by eatingmeat, fruit and vegetables,
cutting all of the processedrefined carbs out of your diet
and doing that for a few weeksto let your body kind of get
used to that, and then drop thefruit slowly and then drop the
vegetables.
That can be a way for people toease on to carnivore where it's
not as much of a shock to yoursystem.
(16:16):
So you kind of have to figureout which way works best for you
and then and then get started.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, it's, it's also , you know it's a personality
thing.
You know there's some peoplethat are like I'm, I need to go
all in two feet, I need to jumpinto the pool.
You know I've got a cannonballin there and get wet real quick.
Or you know I'm going to easemy way into it.
And then for some people,honestly, easing their way into
it is, I would say, the bettersituation for most, because if
(16:44):
you are transitioning from juststandard american diet,
processed food, you might haveto do that and like, like you
you even said it just gettingunprocessed, you know, just real
whole foods in your diet, plushave increasing animal proteins
and fat, you're gonna feelbetter, like just that's step
one, right, and then slowlydecreasing.
(17:05):
And you mentioned some thingsabout oxalate dumpings.
What are some signs andsymptoms that you might be
experiencing oxalate dumping?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah.
So I had no idea what oxalateswere until like a year after I
started carnivore.
The best book to read on thatis Toxic Superfoods by Dr Sally
Norton.
Doctor, is she a doctor?
By Sally Norton, wonderful book.
That's where I learned about it.
Oxalates are plant toxins, soplants don't want to be eaten.
(17:33):
They have defense mechanismsplant chemicals, phytochemicals,
things like that and an oxalateis basically just kind of like
a crystalline structure that isin some fruits and vegetables.
Sometimes it can be like in theyounger version of the fruiter
vegetable as opposed to theolder.
In her book she has a wholelist of everything you can avoid
(17:55):
, but the highest oxalate itemswould be spinach, kiwi,
raspberries, dark chocolate,sweet potatoes it's a big one.
Tea black and green tea.
So a good way that you can knowif you're oxalate dumping is if
you start carnivore, you go coldturkey and you after like two
(18:17):
or three weeks you're stillexperiencing what you would
think are keto flu symptoms, soextreme fatigue, diarrhea, just
feeling out of it.
I would say then perhaps you'reoxalate dumping and you can
check that by brewing yourself acup of black or green tea and
drinking it and then within 30minutes, if you start feeling
(18:40):
better than you're oxalatedumping, and if that's the case,
then I would think it might bea good idea to add back in some
fruits and vegetables to slowthe oxalate dumping process.
The thing about oxalate dumpingis there's not a ton of
information about it out there.
Sally did a really great job inresearching it, but she had to
(19:01):
bring together like so manydifferent outside sources and
all of this stuff together totry to get a cohesive idea of
like what you should do.
So that's why I think thegradual reduction of carbs is a
good idea for somebody.
That's like making like spinachsmoothies and eating a sweet
potato every day, and like I waseating dark chocolate every
night, I had kiwis every day,sweet potato every day,
(19:24):
raspberries every day.
I had so many high oxalatefoods.
That's why I suffered.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So, yeah, I think that that's something to pay
attention to and something thata lot of people don't really
know about you know, yeah, I'vehad bill schindler on the
podcast and he talks uh, he hasthe book, uh, eat like a human.
He has the modern stone agekitchen and one big thing is he,
he took like this group ofstudents, uh, on some type of
like, just like a foraging eventor something, and some people
(19:52):
were talking about a mushroomand they're like he just like a
foraging event or something.
And some people were talkingabout a mushroom and they're
like he's like.
You know what's really scary?
Yeah, he's like spinach.
She's like.
He's like do you just said thatmushroom was poisonous, that I
shouldn't eat that?
He goes, yeah, but somebodyeats that once.
Then they die.
You're nobody's going to eatthat mushroom again, but he goes
.
Spinach, he goes.
You'll constantly eat that.
(20:14):
You won't see the symptomsright away, but over time it can
cause havoc on your body andyou get those high, high
oxalates from the spinach, fromthe kale.
As a former vegan, I look back.
I'm like I'm blending kale,spinach, banana like smoothies
(20:35):
in the morning and I'm justmaking it even worse because
it's liquid form at this pointand I'm just gunning it down and
that's why I ran into a bunchof health issues and, like you
said nobody really talks aboutthis, nobody knows it.
When you say, hey, like I don'teat spinach because I think
it's unhealthy People look atyou like you got three heads,
you know so totally.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
you know it's so funny.
Um, I think it was ChrisHemsworth was doing spinach
smoothies, like every morningand he had to stop because he
was poisoning himself and andhe's a big dude, he's like six
three, six, four or somethinglike that, but like a smaller
person, like a five foot tallwoman, you can actually die from
from eating too many oxalates.
(21:12):
If she was eating the samespinach smoothies as Chris
Hemsworth three days in a rowshe could die from oxalate
toxicity.
And it's just so funny becausespinach is like touted as a
superfood.
You know, oh, it's so good foryou.
It's like, oh, my God, I won'ttouch spinach with a 10 foot
pole.
Now you know, and actually it'sfunny, kale is actually not
very high oxalate.
I thought it was Um, but then,reading Sally's book, she's like
(21:35):
no, actually kale is okay, it'sthe spinach.
So I was like I always thoughtit was the kale.
Crazy craziness man.
But when you're doing carnivoreyou don't eat any plants, so
you're like I get that all outof my diet.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Every time my coworkers look at me they're
like dude, do you have avegetable?
I go, I try to avoid vegetablesif I can, and uh, for me at
least.
Like it's a garnish, ifanything like I like.
Like you know, nobody's takingmy carnivore card away, but I
like jalapenos sometimes.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Like, I like.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I like spicy, I like spicy.
So a garnish is one thing, butas a main food group, I just
tell my my coworkers like I tryto avoid vegetables if I can,
for sure I do a keto cheat mealonce a month, so we'll do like
Brussels sprouts smothered incheese and bacon, or asparagus.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I try to keep to the low oxalate vegetables.
I love a salad.
I would eat a salad every day,I love salads, but I just don't
feel my best when I do that.
So I do it once a month andthat seems to work well for me.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
But for some people they wouldn't be able.
I do that, so I do it once amonth and that seems to work
well for me, but for some peoplethey wouldn't be able to do
that.
So that's that's something too,that some people might not know
that if you are going to have afood that's either low, mid
oxalates or whatever, if youcook it with a cream sauce or
actually have a dairy with it,the oxalates will bind to that
and you're able to pass throughyour body more effectively and
not get stored up as much.
So if you are going to havelike a spinach or anything, more
than likely, if you have itwith a cream sauce, it'll lower
(23:01):
not necessarily the oxalates,but how many oxalates stay into
your system.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Interesting.
I did not know that.
That's a really great tip.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
While we're on the topic of food, you know meal
planning and prepping, senior.
What do I eat in a week?
Videos, which are awesome.
You have a fantastic I told youoff air a fantastic YouTube
channel.
You showcase daily meals.
How do you keep a variety inyour diet and any tips for those
struggling with meal ideas?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So I'm really boring.
I eat beef butter, bacon andeggs 90% of the time.
I eat beef butter, bacon andeggs 90% of the time.
For meal prep I always have adozen eggs hard-boiled in the
fridge.
I just today was filming somevideos for YouTube.
I did a pork tenderloin that Iput ground beef and cream cheese
.
I made kind of like a base ofthat, put that in there with
(23:50):
some more cheese and then rolledit up and baked it.
That was enough for dinner, andnow we've got some leftover.
Chicken is so easy to meal prep.
Wings I love doing wings,probably once a month, but like
bone-in, skin-on thighs ordrummies are so easy to just
cook a whole bunch of them andthen have them in the fridge to
(24:10):
eat.
I tend to not need a lot ofvariety, but my husband does.
He likes a little bit morevariety, so we've been coming up
with recipes the past couple ofyears that we've been doing
YouTube and a lot of my viewersneed variety too.
So I have a beef stroganoff.
That's really good.
I like to do taco dishes ofsome kind a carnivore taco or a
(24:31):
taco ball.
There's lots of really greatways you can add some variety
into your diet, but for me, Ieat like eggs and bacon or eggs
and sausage every morning andthen for dinner.
I only eat twice a day.
I'll do like a pound of groundbeef with some butter on it or
something, or I'll do like a 16to 24 ounce ribeye, or I'll do
(24:52):
like two pounds of chicken wingsand that's enough for me.
I'm very boring, but it works.
It works.
You know, that's one of thebeautiful things about
carnivores I don't have to thinktoo much about food and I'm
only eating when I'm trulyhungry.
So I could eat the same thingdays in a row, but because I'm
actually hungry, every singletime I eat it I'm like, oh, this
(25:13):
is so good.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
You know, yeah, right , I look back at.
I was like I used to tellmyself this I'm basically doing
hide and go seek with the food,like I would go into the kitchen
.
You know this is back in justregular, standard American diet.
Even when I was vegan, I wouldjust like constantly be opening
cabinets and looking for stuffLike I'm not even hungry.
(25:35):
What am I doing?
Like I don't think I'm hungry,but I am.
I'm like looking.
I'm in the fridge, I'm in thecabinets, I'm in the pantry.
All day I'm going in and out ofthe kitchen.
Now I'm like I ate.
Earlier today I had two poundsof ground beef.
I'm I'm sad I for the day, Idon't need to eat.
(26:00):
I can go about my life.
I won't even eat till tomorrowand, uh, again, I am boring,
like you a little bit.
That's fine.
You know it's ground beef, it'seggs, it's butter.
You know, uh, it's cold.
I mean we're, we're prettylocal to each other.
It's cold right now, but in thein the summer, I love grilling,
I like to go outside and that'swhen I do my steaks.
I really get into steaks.
Maybe people don't like thisnext comment.
I don't like cooking with anair fryer.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh no, I love cooking with the air fryer.
I do my steaks in the air fryerin the winter.
I am not about to go outside.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
Everybody talks about the airfryer.
They love it.
I bought one.
Did I do it wrong?
Maybe I have no idea?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
but I tried to practice.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
I tried the air fryer .
It takes some practice.
I tried the air fryer, I did acouple steaks in there.
I did the wing flats in there.
It was okay, it was all right,but I was like I actually just
like I ended up like returningit.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I was like this what air fryer did you get?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
It was like a Ninja or something.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, cause you know some of the.
The one that I have is thetasty and it goes up to 450
degrees Fahrenheit and most airfryers only go up to like 400 or
420.
And that's where I get thecrispiness from.
So, like on my chicken wings, Icook them at 420 for 18 to 20
minutes and they are crispy asheck.
So it might just be, you know,practicing a little more,
(27:11):
finding the one that has higher,higher temp.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, I might have to .
I might have to go the route,you know, cause, again, I really
don't even have stakes duringthe winter, cause I'm like I'm
not going all the way upstairs,cause we have like a little
rooftop, like I'm like I'm notgoing up there off the lake
front just freezing.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
We're both in the Chicagoland area it's bitter
cold right now.
February is the worst.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
And with your meals.
I think you just did a post theother day.
You know I love this phrase, Iuse it all the time Like don't
let perfection be the enemy ofgood, do you feel?
You know that a lot of peoplethink it has to be?
If you're doing carnivore,everything must be like the
highest of quality.
It's got to be grass fed, grassfinished.
It must be, pasture raised.
(27:55):
It must be this, must be that.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I just did a post about thisyesterday.
So I went to Jewel that's ourlocal grocery store and I found
this Oscar Meyer bacon was onsale.
It was usually 10.99 a pound,it was 99 cents a pound, I don't
know why.
There were only three left.
I scooped them all up, createda post about look at all this
cheap meat that I got.
(28:16):
And I had a few commenters belike oh my God, that's so full
of garbage I would never buythat bacon.
I read the ingredients labeland there's nothing bad on the
back of that label.
The only thing that's in it isjust stuff that would be used to
cure bacon.
If you're eating cured bacon,that's what's going to be in it
Zero carbs.
I think a lot of people getbogged down by the dogmatic
(28:41):
thoughts of it has to begrass-fed, grass-finished
everything, no toxins, blah, andit's like no, I eat
conventionally raised meat 90%of the time.
90% of the time I get my meatfrom Juul or Costco.
I'll get a whole ribeye, I'llcut that up myself, but it's
conventionally raised, choicemeat.
Um, I do some grass fed, grassfinished.
(29:03):
Um, I'll do some American Wagyu.
I have a have a ranch inMissouri that I'll get my ground
beef from cause it's so good,but, like in general, no, and
you can see profound healthimprovements eating
conventionally raised meat,including processed meats.
Everyone thinks, oh, processedmeats are so bad?
No, no, they're not that bad.
(29:26):
Of course there's going to besome that are like there's this
brand of bacon that's likecinnamon toast crunch sprinkled
bacon.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I took a picture of it the other day.
I was going to post it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yes, don't buy that, okay.
But like Oscar Mayer, bacon,normal bacon, that's fine.
We use Bob Evans sausage in theroll and there's zero carbs, no
corn syrup.
It's very hard to findbreakfast sausage that doesn't
have corn syrup in it, but itdoes have MSG in it and some
(29:59):
people are very sensitive to MSG.
We are not.
We eat that stuff five days aweek and our metabolic health
has improved across the board.
And I do blood tests, arterialscans, dexa scans, continuous
glucose monitoring, continuousketone monitoring, like every
test you can possibly get.
I get it done and I share it onmy YouTube channel so you can
see that eating that sausageisn't killing me.
(30:22):
You know what I mean.
So I think it's all aboutgetting what you can afford,
getting what you prefer to eat,because if you don't like the
taste, you're not going to eat.
It, prefer to eat because ifyou don't like the taste, you're
not going to eat it.
And if you can afford grass-fed, grass-finished, everything and
that is what you prefer to eat,that's okay too.
(30:46):
There are marginal healthbenefits to eating the grass-fed
, grass-finished, for sure.
Less omega-6s, for sure, in theruminants.
But it's marginal.
It's marginal.
And if you're coming from astandard American diet, just
cutting out all the crap andeating conventionally raised
meat is going to do just nightand day difference.
So I think that is somethingthat as a community, we need to
communicate a little bit more,because I still get comments all
(31:08):
the time like oh, you're notdoing it pure enough and I'm
like I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, it just gets like dogmatic within carnivore
it's.
You know, it's lion diet ornothing.
I don't like that, oh God On.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
TikTok.
I've gotten comments where,like you can't use garlic powder
or you're using pepperoni,that's not carnivore, People get
violently angry about it.
I'm like Jesus, you guys.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I'm down.
If you don't want to use it,that's fine and I'll give like a
nuanced response.
And it's like they don't evenwatch it because they don't.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah, you're not.
You do more than I would.
I wouldn't even be.
Like sometimes I like do asteak emoji, like anytime, like
somebody says something aboutsomebody just did kids watch
this.
I can't believe you, whatever.
And I like this has to stop.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
And I'm not really because I know the person that
I'm responding to most likelyisn't going to be changeable,
(32:19):
but the people reading thecomments might be like oh okay,
you know what I mean.
I personally don't readcomments, like I don't go on
people's feeds and read all thatstuff, but my mom does.
I know a ton of people that doso feeds and read all that stuff
, but my mom does.
I know a ton of people that do,so I'm just like Do you hear
what they said about you, jenny?
Yeah, I'm just, I don't reallycare.
I try not to read that stufffor my mental health.
(32:40):
But I always try to be kind andI don't want to turn people off
, so that's kind of why Irespond that way, always trying
to educate.
That's my place.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I think yeah.
And being the self, youmentioned some things, topics
but being the self-proclaimeddata junkie, you know N equals
one, experiments, blood work.
You know what are somesignificant trends you have
observed with carnivore, likeeither yourself or around you.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, yeah, I do tons of NO1 experiments.
I'm trying to gear up for anext one coming up soon of NO1
experiments.
I'm trying to gear up for anext one coming up soon.
Interesting stuff.
So I follow Dave Feldman's workpretty closely with the lean
mass hyper responders so that'sbeen really interesting to see.
A lot of people think that ifyou go carnivore that your LDL
cholesterol is justautomatically going to shoot up
really high, and that's actuallynot true.
(33:29):
Ldl numbers tend to track withyour BMI.
So people that are overweightor normal weight tend to see
their LDL cholesterol stay thesame or even go down on
carnivore in the beginning.
But as you continue to loseweight, become more physically
active and all that kind ofstuff, you can see where your
(33:50):
LDL will go up super, super high.
But that's just a small groupof people that are lean mass
hyper-responders.
I've actually seen in my data myLDL cholesterol is typically
between 175 to I don't know 275,but my triglycerides are like
between 30 and 60.
My HDL is between 70 and 100,and that would be the lean mass
(34:14):
hyper-responder triad.
But also in the N of 1experiments I've been able to
manipulate my cholesterolnumbers drastically just with
the food that I eat.
So I did an experiment where Iate really, really, really high
fat, carnivore and very highcalorie for three days before a
standard lipid panel and I wasable to drop my LDL cholesterol
(34:35):
by 23%.
And if you're going to yeah,exactly If you're- going to.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
If a pill could have done that, you know people would
be buying that off the shelves.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Well, yeah, and that's the thing is.
We're all told like, oh,saturated fat is going to raise
your LDL cholesterol, and simplynot true.
It does the opposite.
Very, very interesting stuff.
I measure my blood once ortwice a month with all these
different experiments.
I just did a 14-day carnivorebar experiment, where I just ate
carnivore bars for 14 days.
(35:05):
I just did a 14-day sardinefast experiment Same thing just
ate sardines.
So yeah, lots of fun data there.
I just want to show people like,hey, there's ways that you can
manipulate your lipids, yourglucose, and I think being
really cued into your numbers isimportant.
(35:28):
I don't think anybody needs totest as much as I do.
I'm a crazy person.
I'm doing this for fun and forscience and for YouTube.
You know, if I wasn't doingthis for YouTube, I I'd probably
get my blood work checked everysix months now, knowing what I
know now, just becauseeverything's so fluid, people
think they get a lipid panel andtheir triglycerides are just,
you know, whatever they are forthe whole rest of the year.
(35:50):
And no, they're constantlymoving and you need to see what
your range is.
You know if my, if mytriglycerides go from 37 to 70,
I'm not like, oh my God, mytriglycerides went up.
That's within the range that Isee in my blood work.
You know, I would be concernedif my triglycerides went up to
like 150, then I'd be like, ohokay, something that's a little
(36:14):
different you know, yeah, youknow it's.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It's also this, this goalpost, right, like the
goalposts will continuously move, you know what, as like on the
doctor's charts, right, andwherever that they put that
goalpost.
If you don't hit the goalpost,then it's like, oh, you're doing
something wrong, like we haveto give you a stat.
(36:37):
And you know, they even triedto give me a stat and I was in
the midst of, yeah, uh, I was inthe midst of Ironman training
probably arguably the best shapeI've ever been in my life and
they're like hey, yourcholesterol is a little high, we
should get you on a stat.
And I'm like, no, I'm likelet's, let's, let's break apart.
(37:01):
Like I feel great, I'mperforming well, right, I have
function in my, my body,everything's working the right
way.
What do I care if that you know, my number hits your goalpost
or not?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So right, Well, and, and the and the goalpost at a
conventional doctor for LDLcholesterol has been
continuously lowered so thatthey can get more and more
people on statins.
That's not actually accurate andLDL cholesterol is a terrible,
terrible biomarker to basehealth-related decisions on.
I would be more concerned aboutwhat's your fasting insulin
fasting, glucose A1C,triglycerides and HDL.
That's what I'd want to know.
(37:36):
I don't even care what your LDLcholesterol is and, granted,
I'm not a doctor, this is justfrom what I've learned from
low-carb carnivore doctors inthe space.
But I can take a look at thosefive markers right there and
tell you the state of yourmetabolic health quickly, and
that's like I don't know.
Maybe 35 to $40 worth of bloodtests.
(37:56):
It's not that much, I don'tknow.
I feel like the world is kindof waking up to the fact that
LDL cholesterol is not a greatbiomarker and that it really is
just used to put people on drugs.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
And the question is usually like, just the things
that you just said rattle offyour head right, those like five
markers or whatever they may be.
The person that did mine like Icould tell she was reading off
a list and goes, okay, all right, do you want a flu shot today?
And I'm like, no, okay, allright, see that.
Didn't ask me about my diet,Didn't ask me about my activity
(38:31):
level, my sleep, my stress,hydrate nothing didn't ask me
about my activity level, mysleep, my stress, hydrate
nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
They're not trained to know anything about that.
So it's not necessarily thefault of the conventional doctor
or the nurse or things.
They're not trained anythingabout nutrition and what they
are trained is not good.
I think that it's like 60% ofyour daily calories coming from
carbohydrates.
That's insane.
That's insane Even if they'refruits and vegetables.
So yeah, I I don't go to thedoctor for um prevention or
(39:05):
nutrition advice or anythinglike that.
I go to the doctor if I'mreally sick and I need some
antibiotics, or if I break a legor if I need a C-section.
You know what I mean.
I think that's probably thebest, the decision I've made for
myself.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
What the hospital is designed for basically.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Correct.
Yeah, yeah, and you know, I dothink we need a complete shift
in our medical schools, in ourhealthcare system, but right now
, the entire healthcare systemis literally built on
prescribing medications,treating symptoms, not
addressing root causes, andnutrition is a very low-hanging
(39:45):
fruit that will take care ofabout 80% of whatever the heck
is wrong with you.
If you eat the right foods, itreally does kind of strip away
all of that extra stuff and thenyou can really start to see
what the root causes are.
It's not going to solveeverything.
Carnivore is not a magic bullet, but it will really help you
(40:05):
get to where you need to be.
Like I still have Hashimoto'shypothyroid even though I'm
carnivore.
But being carnivore it's much,much, much.
You know better than it wouldbe if I was eating a standard
American diet you know, Um, soyeah, there's some profound
shifts that need to happen inour healthcare system.
I don't know if and when thatwould ever happen, because it
would have to be completelyredesigned.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I mean isn't that you know Kennedy is, is taking the
taking.
You know he can't do everything, Can't do everything,
everything, but he's a frontrunner.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yeah, I'm hopeful.
You know, I'm glad that he gotconfirmed.
Uh interested to see what hecan get done.
But he's only one person andthere's a lot of bureaucracy,
and he can't solve every ill.
This is something that we haveto work on as a society too, you
know.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, it takes everybody and I think, just
looking at you know 70% ofAmericans are either pre or type
2 diabetic.
That's when, 100 years ago, youhad to like travel to find
somebody.
That was that you know.
They used to be the childhooddisease.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Like dialysis clinics .
There used to be one in everystate.
Now there's three in every city, right Like you know what?
one in every state and nowthere's three in every city,
right Like.
You know what's changed?
Well, our food, absolutelyMostly.
You know environmental stuff,pollutants, microplastics,
bromide in everything you know.
Yeah, it's really interestingand it's just so funny because
(41:36):
type 2 diabetes, you cancompletely go into remission
from it.
It is a curable.
It is not a life sentence.
Yet so many people don't knowthat, they just think it's it's
just.
You know what they have to havefor the rest of their lives and
with the advice from theAmerican Diabetes Association,
they will have it for the restof their lives.
You know eating oatmeal forbreakfast.
(41:57):
Get out of here.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Oatmeal and orange juice.
Isn't that the recommendation?
Oatmeal and orange juice in themorning.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Or like have, like apple strudel for your dessert
with your you know high carbdinner.
Like no desserts for you ifyou're type 2 diabetic.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Well, if you need to manage your you know blood
glucose.
Oh, you have a pump.
Well, if we're going to beusing the pump and needing
insulin more and more and more,it makes sense.
If they're going to the morehigh carbohydrate foods that
they recommend, the more you'reusing the pumps.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Well, and the American Diabetes Association is
heavily funded by insulinmanufacturers, so of course
they're going to tell you to eatfoods that make you need more
insulin, but that's not doing aservice to humanity.
That's just killing peopleslowly and horribly.
You know it's, it's terrible.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Yeah, there's this.
Uh, another flip side of thecoin of people pre-diabetic or
type two diabetic, is it?
You don't necessarily even haveto be overweight.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Like people.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
People make the assumption like, oh, they're
just lazy and they don'texercise and they eat bad.
Well, there's athletes outthere and if I get the
documentary Running on Fat 2,man, I love this documentary, I
watched it twice but I can'tremember the person's name, so
shame on me.
But Running on Fat 2 is thedocumentary on me.
(43:18):
But, um, running on fat, too,is the documentary and they
follow um two like ketogenicathletes, fat adapted athletes
that were, you know, ironmanracers and endurance racers from
beforehand, but they wouldfollow the conventional high
carb carbo load and these peoplewere arguably like the most in
shape people you've ever met inyour life.
And they one guy goes to thedoctor, the husband, and they're
(43:39):
like, yeah, you're pre diabetic.
He's like what it's like?
I'm a top tier athlete.
How am I?
He's like well, you've beenjust slamming glucose and gels
and carbohydrates for all theseyears.
Like your pancreas can onlyhandle so much.
So it's not like you have to beoverweight, it's the food in
the quantities that we're havingit.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, well, I mean the human body, regardless of
your muscle size or weight oranything like that.
We can only handle about ateaspoon of sugar in our
bloodstream at any time.
Now, if you have a lot ofmuscle, that is a good glucose
sink.
It's better to have more musclebecause your body can then put
the glucose in those muscles.
But if you are constantly, likea lot of athletes do, like you
(44:21):
said, carb loading, you'reoverwhelming your system.
So you can be skinny fat.
That is a thing.
Skinny on the outside, fat onthe inside, with tons of
visceral fat which you wouldn'tknow unless you get a DEXA scan.
Yeah, it's profound.
It's profound.
You can look great on theoutside and be so sick and on
the flip, you could be reallyobese but metabolically healthy
(44:45):
on the inside, perhaps becauseyou might have something where
you haven't met your personalfat threshold, maybe your fat
cells fill up really easily, orthings like that.
That is a thing too.
So we can't judge a book by itscover.
I think that's why it's soimportant to take a look on the
inside with blood work, dexascans and all that kind of stuff
periodically, you know, just tomake sure everything's you know
(45:05):
working the way it should underthe hood.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Okay, and speaking of athletes, strength training yes
, 5ff gets you on the podcast.
We definitely could, if I getyou on the podcast.
We definitely talk about this.
I saw some clips of you do somestrength training.
You know what's, what's theregimen.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
You know we're talking push pull, legs.
So I do three to four days aweek of strength training.
I lift heavy.
I'm typically doing legs andarms.
Sometimes I'll do push pull,but typically just legs one day,
arms one day.
I don't have a ton of time,unfortunately, so I just try to
get in and be as efficient aspossible.
(45:41):
I like to do three sets ofanywhere between I don't know
eight to 14 reps, and I reallylike those last few.
I want to like lift to failure.
That's what I like to do.
Um, I walk a lot.
I like to walk three, three orso miles per day.
I like the Stairmaster machine.
I do this glute routine thing.
It's not just walking on it andthen I like to do sprints too.
(46:01):
That's really fun.
But yeah, that's pretty muchwhat I do.
If I had it my way, I'd be atthe gym like five days a week,
and then when I'm there I alsodo the steam room and or the
sauna.
I like to do that for at least15 to 20 minutes to really kind
of get some toxins out, and thenmy gym has a cold plunge.
So I like to get in the coldplunge too.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Nice, yeah, I had a at um human healing for humanity
.
Lisa Wiedemann was sitting nextto me and we were just talking
about strength training.
She's also in the camp of goingto failure and I was like, uh,
yeah, I don't think that thatgoing to failure is the best you
know.
Um, and she like turns to meand she like flips over to a
(46:45):
picture of her in a bathing suit.
She goes this is what going tofailure looks like.
She's just she's jacked and Iwas like oh yeah, oh hell yeah,
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
I love Dr Wiedemann.
Yeah, you know it's not foreverybody.
I think it just depends on whatyou're trying to do.
I'm trying to maximize thegains that I can get in the
small amount of time that I haveto work out, because I'm doing
this full-time YouTube channel.
You know I do coaching.
I've got the kids.
I've got the kids, I've got myhusband.
You know I need to like alsotake care of myself, you know.
(47:18):
So it's just like trying to dothat, but yeah, yeah, it's not
for everybody for sure.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
That's, that's um and there's, there's differences
too, of um, you know, that'smore if you're going into
failure and you're going reps,you know, and, and like you're
getting exhausted in those lastfew, you're, you're, you are
gonna build muscle like that'sgonna, that's, you know,
hypertrophy you're going to dothat's more of the bodybuilder
style, versus a functional, likestrength training, which is its
(47:47):
own thing, but that's not gonnaget you the big growth, uh,
long-term strength.
There's other ways to achievethat.
But if you're like I need tobuild muscle right now, quick,
then yeah, going to failure isgoing to be your option, because
that's the bodybuilding style,just having ample recovery
between the sessions is the bigkey.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah, I think people don't realize how important the
rest days are.
They're just as important asthe workout days, because the
muscle is built on the the restday.
That's when it rebuilds itself.
You know, yeah, I, I take uhresting very seriously hardcore
(48:26):
rest very like I'm crazy aboutmy sleep and my stress and
hydration.
Nutrition and exercise yeah it,it's holistic, you know, it's
not just one thing.
I think people can getoverwhelmed when they start and
try to do everything all at once, like I've been doing this God,
some form of like I learnedabout nutrition and keto and all
(48:49):
that stuff in like 2016.
And then I started going downthat rabbit hole, really started
working out a lot then too.
So I I'm almost 10 years intomy you know, nutrition and
exercise journey.
Um, so I think you know, start,just start somewhere.
If you're getting started andyou don't understand what we're
talking about at all, justwalking is enough to just get
(49:12):
off the couch and start walking.
That that can.
That's what I did.
The first year on carnivore wasjust walked, cause I was, um,
the kids were still so littleand I was dealing with some
Hashimoto's stuff and I was kindof tired, so, but that that
allowed me to lose, I think, 35,40 pounds.
The first year was carnivoreand walking.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, I think, a combination of strength,
movement, nutrition, recovery.
You take all those things,things like that's why I even
named my company podcast, primalfoundations.
Those are the four things.
I think that if you do, you'regonna, you're gonna feel better,
you're gonna cover a lot ofbases.
And plus walking and I I saythis on the podcast all the time
I used to I used to talk shitabout walking I think a lot of
(49:52):
people I used to talk shit.
however, as I've gotten a littlebit older, because I was from
marathons and I did bigendurance races and to me it's
like I don't want to walk.
Why am I going to walk for anhour when I get the same
distance done in like 10 minutes, 15?
Speaker 2 (50:07):
minutes Right, right, right.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
But just being in that low zone too, being outside
, getting the sun exposure, sunexposure that just in itself.
And also if I'm, if I'm bangedup I don't want to go run two,
three, four, five, six miles.
When I'm banged up I just walkand I feel like it's actually
helped my health drasticallymore, because I'm able to
(50:32):
recover more, I'm able to be inzone two for a long period of
time, I'm not taxing my body andtherefore my strength gains go
up.
My sleep is better.
So I used to not I used to be aanti-walker.
Now I'm like I get my, my mom's, walking every day.
I'm doing walks, so I thinkthat's a great step to start.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah, you know, walking it's just so low impact.
You know, I'm, I'm old, I'mgoing to be 41 old to me, I
don't feel old.
I know, I know, but you knowwhat I mean Like it's different
than when you're 20, than whenyou're 40.
There is a difference.
And walking on my walks I writescripts for my YouTube videos,
I answer emails, I brainstorm.
(51:10):
We have a nice little pondright over here.
I do like a mile loop and I getlike look at the birds and shit
.
You know I love it.
It's so nice, it's calming.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
I look at the birds and shit.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
I do.
We have some really cool birdsover here.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Some sandhill cranes and some yeast and some ducks.
We've got some cool birds.
So that's cool.
And talking about cool thingsthat you thought about upcoming
book complete.
Complete Carnivore.
It offers recipes, detailedguidance on how to do the
carnivore diet.
And can you share some uniquefeatures of the book and then
how it caters to both newcomersand seasoned carnivores?
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah for sure.
So, complete Carnivore.
I envisioned it as like thefull reference guide, like
encyclopedia, to carnivores.
So, whether you've been doingcarnivore for years, envisioned
it as like the full referenceguide, like encyclopedia to
carnivore.
So whether you've been doingcarnivore for years or you're
just getting started orresearching it, it's going to
have something for you.
So the whole first half of thebook is like a complete,
in-depth guide to the carnivorediet starter guide.
Um, you know how you can decideif you want to ease in or go
(52:12):
cold Turkey, uh, meal plans,grocery lists, all that kind of
stuff.
Then it guides you through thefirst month, the first year, and
then it goes into a bunch ofother stuff.
So, troubleshooting If you'rerunning into certain issues on
carnivore, you can go to thatchapter and find the issue and
it will give you action, stepsthat you can take to take care
(52:34):
of it, faqs I mean having theYouTube channel has been really
helpful for that, because I getthe same questions over and over
and over.
So I just distilled that and putthat into that chapter.
Myths you know we all encounterthe myths like oh, ldl
cholesterol will cause heartdisease, or like eating red meat
is bad for the kidneys, thingslike that, addressing all of
(52:55):
that stuff.
And then I think one of myfavorite chapters is the
monitoring your progress chapter, where I go into how you can
order your own blood work online, where you can get DEXA scans,
ketones and how to monitor them,what to optimal functional
ranges for all of these numbersand how you can set up your own
end of one experiments.
So that's like the whole firsthalf of the book, which is its
(53:18):
own book in and of itself.
Honestly, I basically wrote twobooks in one.
The second half is 80 pluscarnivore recipes, and it's not
just like how to grill a steak,although that is in there.
These are more recipes for like, if you and me, if we get bored
and we're like I need somethingdifferent, you can go through
here and get something differentthat's still fully carnivore
(53:41):
and throw that into your diet.
So it's going to be reallyhelpful for a lot of people.
I just kind of wanted it to besomething you could put on your
shelf and pull it out wheneveryou had a question, whenever you
needed a new recipe or whateveryou needed it for.
So, yeah, I've worked a lot onit.
It was.
It's very hard to write a book.
I didn't think it would be easy, but like it was a lot, just
(54:06):
because I was also still doingthe YouTube channel.
So I create six to 12 videosper month long form, then the
short form as well, and thecoaching and all that stuff.
Then also writing a book.
My husband hated me.
He was like you work from dawnuntil we go to bed.
I'm like I got to get it done.
What am I going to do?
(54:26):
But man, I'm excited.
I'm excited for it.
I think it's going to be prettycool.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
That sounds awesome.
I feel like that's the one areaof really tracking progress for
me.
I do have like a very intuitivescale that gives me a laundry
list of, like, protein and body.
It gives me you know body fatcomposition.
(54:53):
It gives me you know trends andstuff, which is great, but I
don't dive into blood work,ketones or anything like that.
So I feel like I'm definitelypre-ordering.
Go on Amazon, guys.
Pre-order.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
You can already do it .
Yeah, amazon and Barnes Nobleboth have really good pre-order
deals where whenever youpre-order it until the date of
release, you're going to get thelowest price that it ever is
during that period of time.
So let's say on Amazon theyhave a flash sale.
Whenever you pre-order it untilthe date of release, you're
going to get the lowest pricethat it ever is during that
period of time.
So let's say on Amazon theyhave a flash sale.
It goes on sale for like 20bucks, but you had already
pre-ordered it on release day.
You get it for that price.
(55:27):
Yeah, and they don't charge youuntil release day, and then
typically you get it on releaseday too, which is pretty cool,
oh they already sent it out.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, yeah.
So Amazon and Barnes and Nobleboth have that kind of deal, and
then I have a link to targetand then for international
viewers, of course you can useyour own Amazon too, but I have
one that's.
That's for internationalviewers as well.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Yeah, so I mean the leak I put in the show notes and
then you know I always givepeople this very loaded question
, but you're no different.
With the book release on thehorizon and everything like that
, what are the next projects?
What do you have in mind forthe carnivore community?
Speaker 2 (56:05):
Yeah.
So this year it's going to bereally conference heavy.
So I just spoke at my firstconference, the Collaborative
Science Conference in Vegas lastweekend, dave Feldman's
conference that was awesome.
It was my first time speakingat a conference.
I've done a lot of publicspeaking in other areas, but in
May is Meat Stock, so that's inGatlinburg, tennessee.
(56:29):
That's like every singlecarnivore, doctor and influencer
on the planet is going to bethere.
I'm really excited for that.
One influencer on the planet isgoing to be there.
I'm really excited for that one.
And then the book comes out inthe fall.
So it just depends.
I don't know if there's going tobe a lot of like interviews and
tours and things for that.
I have no idea yet.
We'll see what happens, butthat's going to be pretty much
(56:50):
eating up most of my time thelast quarter of the year.
So that's kind of what's goingon.
As far as what the future holds, I'm definitely doing carnivore
for this year.
We're thinking about, well, wereally need to buy a house, but
it's just like when is thatgoing to happen?
Lots of travel and just tryingto stay consistent with the
(57:14):
workouts.
That's kind of what I have onmy plate for this year, trying
to keep it pretty simple becauseI have so many work-related
things going on that could becrazy that I just want to keep
my health up as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
Awesome.
Well, again, thanks for comingon.
I'm going to put your linksYouTube, Instagram and all your
information in the show notes,and I appreciate all that you do
, because those videos do take along time and I think if I were
to go back and you know, causethis is my fifth year on
carnivore I would have loved tohave something else An
(57:48):
additional of a starter guide.
You know, I had Sean Baker'sRogan episode.
That was pretty much it and Ijust went off from there.
But I appreciate all you do andfor the community and taking
the time to do these things.
It's not a it's not an easytask.
Speaker 2 (58:03):
No, it's not, you know, and basically I just
didn't want people to sufferlike I did in the beginning.
So that's why I created allthese videos and I hope that
they help people at least avoidsome of the pitfalls that I went
through.
Speaker 1 (58:16):
Well, hope all the listeners go check out the links
and thanks for everybodylistening to another episode of
the Primal Foundations podcast.
Thank you, thank you.
Today's guest is Jenny Mittage.
Jenny is following thecarnivore diet for approximately
two years and the author ofComplete Carnivore.
She is active and shares herjourney and insights on
Instagram at Mama Mittage, andprovides a wealth of videos and
resources on her YouTube channel, jenny Mittage.
Jenny, welcome to the PrimalFoundations podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thank you so much.
Happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
It's great to see you again.
The last time we spoke was atthe Healing for Humanity event
with Carrie Mann, and we had DrKiltz, amongst many other people
and guests.
Tony Hampton, how did you feelabout that whole meetup and
getting to see some of the clipsof the hopefully upcoming
(00:44):
documentary?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh man, I loved it.
I love meetups in general.
The first time you and I metwas at one of Karen Miles's
meetups in Chicago.
That was awesome.
She's always putting stufftogether, so it's a really.
It's just nice to be able to goand see people in your area
that are also, you know,following carnivore, and I love
seeing the clips from HealingHumanity.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's going gonna be a game changer when it's
released.
I think, yeah, I think we getreally caught up in, you know,
documentaries, especially thevery, very well done ones, right
, you know, they have the, thecharts, the graphs, the stories,
the people and the editing anddepending on what you watch, you
could go one way or the other.
I, I went down the road ofbeing two, uh, two years vegan,
uh, a long time ago, because ofuh.
I saw forks over knives and Iwas like, oh, like this is this
(01:35):
seems right to me okay, and uhjust took my health for a turn
and then, um, you know, there'sreally nothing, like you said,
there's nothing really forcarnivore.
There's some ketogenic thingsout there, but i'm'm excited for
this.
I think this one is if thisgets into the movie theaters,
I'm like buying it out and I'minviting everybody.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Agreed.
You know, the cool thing withCarrie is he is just so
passionate about carnivorebecause of the just like extreme
positive changes that he's seenin his mental and physical
health, so he puts that passioninto the documentary as well.
And then his I guesscinematographer the guy that's
(02:13):
filming it, adam, he was instill photography.
He did a lot of photography andthen learned how to shoot video
and has done.
I couldn't tell he that it'sshot beautifully.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So I his story was really riveting too, so it was
really nice to to be able to seesome clips and to hear all of
the testimonials from Carrie'sfamily and from, you know, Dr
kilts, dr Wiedemann, dr TonyHampton, it was.
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
It was great event.
I can't wait to see that wholebunch of people again.
And we were talking kind of offcamera, a little bit like how
carnivores gain popularity overthe years.
There's more and more peoplethat come into it, especially in
this past year.
People have just asked me aboutit.
How do you explain carnivorediet to somebody who's
unfamiliar to it?
And you know, how does thatcompare to more of like a widely
(03:01):
known keto diet?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
It's a really good question.
I've also noticed an uptick inawareness on carnivore.
I was at REI getting like asweatshirt or something and the
cash register lady was like, ohyeah, carnivore, I know what
that is, my cousin's doing it,you know.
So a lot more people are doingit.
I really think we're coming toa point where it's going to be
(03:24):
like blowing up probably thisyear, like in popularity.
So when people ask me about it,it's really simple, honestly.
It's just all I eat is meat andanimal products, and they'll be
like, no, no meat.
I'm like, no, all meat, onlymeat.
No, no vegetables, no fruits.
I'm like, no, no, no, that'sall I eat.
(03:45):
And then I just talk about howit's kind of like just the
lowest carb ketogenic diet thatyou can do, and a lot of people
use it as an elimination diet.
So if you're suffering fromsome really hardcore metabolic
issues, it could be a gamechanger for you.
But also if you just want tocome to it to lose some weight,
it's really helpful for that too.
(04:06):
So that's kind of where I start.
And then, of course, you know Ihave my YouTube channel, so I've
been working on building aplaylist of beginner carnivore
videos for the past year.
I think I've got about 40 nowand I have a few like complete
in-depth guide videos that helppeople to get started, like
prepping your kitchen, figuringout your whys, why you're doing
(04:31):
it in the first place, and thengetting everything prepared and
then going into your first monthon carnivore, because the first
month on carnivore is the mostdifficult.
That's when people can run intoketo flu symptoms, especially
if they're coming from eating alot of carbs 200, 300, 400 grams
a day plus, you know, talkingabout electrolytes and ways that
you can avoid or mitigate theworst of those symptoms.
(04:53):
And then, once you're throughthat first month, typically it's
smooth sailing.
So I just try to condense thatas much as possible and I only I
only share all that stuff ifthey ask.
I'm not just, like you know,evangelizing about carnivore.
Oh, my God, you need to do thisCause I don't want to turn
people off, but uh, but if theyask I'll, I'll definitely give
them, give them the info theyneed.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, there's.
There's a lot of people goingto carnivore.
Again, you mentioned some ofthe reasons weight loss, uh,
healing, uh a prolonged healthissue, and people connect with
stories, just like kind ofhealing with humanity.
That's like the premise iswe're just telling the stories
and the listeners I know aregoing to be very excited to hear
yours.
You know what inspired you toadopt a carnivore diet and how
(05:37):
has that transformed your healthand lifestyle?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, so I have twins .
They're now three.
You may hear them screaming inthe background occasionally
because they're trying to godown for a nap.
But I gained 70 pounds when Iwas pregnant with them and when
I got pregnant I was already abit overweight.
So I was not happy.
And after they were born I, youknow, did the standard.
(06:01):
You know low fat, lots offruits and vegetables.
I was following Noom it's thisapp.
That's like 1200 calories, lowfat, lots of carbs.
You know red meats bad.
And I lost I don't know 21pounds over a year.
But that was really really slow.
I had a lot of weight still tolose.
I was like 195 pounds.
(06:23):
So my husband he was the onethat got me started on carnivore
.
Actually, he had found Dr KenBerry on YouTube and had started
watching his videos that summer, before we started, and he was
like, hey, I really want to trythis.
My husband had lost 130 poundsusing keto and he wanted to kind
of take it to the next leveland I was just like you're
(06:45):
insane, how can you get all ofthe vitamins and minerals you
need just eating meat?
You know the standard thestandard concerns but I did
watch the videos with him.
I ended up watching the videoswith him and did a little bit of
my own exploring over the nextsix months.
I got a continuous glucosemonitor in September of that
year and had seen that myglucose was not maybe moving
(07:09):
towards pre-diabetic because Iwas eating so much fruit really
no ultra processed foods, butjust a lot of fruit and I'm like
man, that's crazy.
So then it got to the pointwhere I had only lost 21 pounds.
I was super frustrated and Iwas like you know what?
I'm going to give carnivore ashot.
(07:30):
So I'm going to do it for 30days.
I'm going to see how, likewhat's going to happen to my
glucose levels on a carnivorediet.
That'll be the experiment andthat's it 30 days, just give it
a shot.
So I actually started thecarnivore diet before my husband
, which is so funny because hewas the one that wanted to do it
first.
So I started it on December27th 2022, and I lost eight
(07:58):
pounds my first month.
I dropped my glucose from like100 down to 80 as my average and
I didn't feel very good.
I had horrible keto flu, whichI now know was also a mix of
oxalate dumping because I'd beeneating so many high oxalate
fruits and vegetables that Ithought were healthy.
So I committed to another 30days.
Only lost two pounds my secondmonth, because I started
(08:28):
including dairy again, cut thedairy, did it another 30 days
and by the end of that 90 dayperiod I'd lost 15 and a half
pounds and my glucose hadstabilized in the low 80s.
So I was just hooked and I'vebeen on it ever since now over
two years.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And a lot of people do come to this diet as a weight
loss.
I'm going to do carnivore toweight loss, but how did you?
How did you feel?
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Oh, I mean, I felt so much better.
So I've had mental healthissues since I was like 13,
depression, anxiety and thingslike that, and as I'd gotten
older it'd gotten a little bitbetter.
You know, I was able to dealwith it better than I was when I
was younger, but it almostcompletely went away.
That's probably the mostamazing thing that I wasn't
really expecting.
I lost 50 pounds Energy wise,night and day.
(09:16):
Night and day With these guys.
They are balls of energy.
And I turned 41 in a couple ofweeks, so I'm not a young mom of
energy and I'm.
I turned 41 in a couple ofweeks, so I'm not a young mom.
Um, I, I, I need, I need help,and doing carnivore has been,
has been amazing for me.
Energy wise yeah, that wasreally helpful.
Um, I've noticed a lot ofimprovements in oral health.
(09:37):
I used to have bleeding gumsand I'd have to use a breath
mint often.
I felt like I did and I nolonger need to.
My gums no longer bleed.
Just a lot of really unexpectedbenefits that I that I didn't
know were going to happen, butthat did.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I hear that a lot too of you know I used to get
cavities a lot.
Every time I would go to thedoctor I'd have a cavity or
something going on.
And you know for myself I'm I'mgetting.
I mean, I have an electrictoothbrush now.
I don't know if that changesthe game, but I, like I, every
time I go into the dentistthey're like, oh, it's all good,
it's actually better than itwas X amount of years ago.
I was like, oh, awesome, so Ido think there is something to
(10:16):
it.
And plus other benefits yes,you want to lose weight, we're a
little little vain, we want tolook good.
I mean, that's totally fine,but just the, the energy, the
mental clarity and thesimplicity of carnivore is is
very attractive to people aswell.
(10:37):
And plus, you know you youmentioned that, like I saw on
your YouTube banner, you have alike a picture from two years
ago to now, like, what a what adifference.
Just just in your it's only aface picture, but just in your
face.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, I had gone back that.
Uh, the one from two years agowas from my 30 day update video
and I was probably 186 poundsthere, but just the inflammation
in my face compared to that.
The second shot was December of2024 and I was like 150 pounds
(11:07):
and just the clarity andeverything that was crazy.
I had to make a post cause Iwas like, oh my God, look at
this and there's no.
I've had a few people on onthat picture be like, oh, you
got plastic surgery or fillers.
I'm like, no, no, I, I'mhealthier.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I put no filters on it either, because I hate it
when people do that.
I don't want you to seefiltered.
I want you to see what it wason the video.
That's it, and it's a starkdifference, for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You mentioned some things that are happening when
people get on to carnivore.
For those interested in to acarnivore, you know, for those
interested in transitioning to acarnivore diet, what essential
steps or resources would yourecommend to ensure that
successful start?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Sure, I do think there's a little bit of prep
work that needs to go into it.
I did not do these prep workitems and I suffered for it.
So I think it's reallyimportant to first figure out
why you're doing it in the firstplace.
So for me, my whys are myfamily, my boys.
I want to age gracefully.
I'd really like to do likecrazy physical things in my
(12:16):
eighties and nineties, you know,like climb a mountain or like
you know just weird, crazy stuff.
And then I I also, you knowwant to want to look good.
You know I came to this forweight loss, but I don't think
that can be your only why.
If you're coming to carnivorejust to lose weight, that's not
going to be enough of amotivator.
So try to figure out why areyou doing this in the first
(12:39):
place and then write that whydown on a post-it or put it on
your phone, like on your banneror something whatever, so that
you can see it every single day,because you need to keep it
fresh in your mind.
Once you figure out your whys,then you need to start prepping
your kitchen, because if youhave a bunch of non-carnivore
foods laying around, I can tellyou it will be difficult, not
(13:01):
impossible.
There's some people that can doit, but I think it's better to
just try to get rid of all thatnon-carnivore food.
So pastas, breads, desserts,cereals, anything that, fruit,
vegetables, things like that.
You don't have to throw it away.
You could put it in a box, putit out in your garage, you could
donate it, you could give itaway whatever.
And this only works if eitheryou're living alone or if you're
(13:23):
living with somebody that isalso doing it along with you.
There are people you know thathave people in their household
that are not also going to bedoing it, so that can be
difficult.
But if that's the case, whereyou can't get rid of everything,
I would say at least try to getrid of the things that are a
weakness for you.
So like for me, that would becinnamon, toast crunch and Oreos
.
I would not be able to havethose in the house and do
(13:44):
carnivore, so I'd get those out.
Then, after you do that, youkind of have to restock your
shelves.
Right, you got to have somefood.
You don't know how many peopleI've talked to that start
carnivore and then they're likeoh, I have no food, so I have a
free grocery list for anybodythat wants it.
They can follow me over onInstagram or send me an email
(14:06):
and I'll get it to them.
Of all the different foods thatyou can get.
You know, get a week's worth offood.
Get some ground beef, some eggs, some butter.
You know pork chops are good,chicken whatever meat you enjoy,
buy some.
And then I do think it's a goodidea to do a little bit of meal
prep.
You know hard, boil a dozeneggs and have them in your
(14:27):
fridge, make a pot roast orsomething.
Just have something on hand,because your hunger cues are
going to be a bit wacky thefirst month as you're learning
your true hunger cues and you'regoing to want to have some food
on hand that you can eat rightaway.
After that, I think you'd bepretty much ready to go.
I do think you need to havesome electrolytes on hand.
(14:48):
Whatever brand you know worksfor you, just make sure that
they don't have a bunch of sugarand things like that.
You really just want theminerals.
So sodium, potassium, magnesiumat minimum I use Element.
They're raw and flavored aregreat.
There's a bunch of other brandsout there that you can do.
Figure out which one works bestfor you and have some on hand.
Don't wait.
Do that before you startBecause, like for me, man day
(15:11):
two was terrible, terrible, andif I would have, I didn't have
electrolytes on hand.
I just had to do salt and then Iordered the electrolytes.
So make sure you have thembeforehand.
Then really, it's just kind oflike picking when to start.
I would not start carnivore ifyou're going to go cold turkey
into it.
Um, I wouldn't start it likebefore a big event.
Or if you have like a work tripplanned, you know, or anything
(15:33):
like that.
Um, I would pick, you know, amonth where you have some light
schedules going on, you know,cause you don't know what's
going to happen.
Some people don't have any ketoflu and some people it's bad,
so you kind of have to planaround that.
And then there's, you know, ifyou don't want to go cold turkey
into carnivore, you could alsojust gradually reduce your carbs
(15:55):
, I think, starting by eatingmeat, fruit and vegetables,
cutting all of the processedrefined carbs out of your diet
and doing that for a few weeksto let your body kind of get
used to that, and then drop thefruit slowly and then drop the
vegetables.
That can be a way for people toease on to carnivore where it's
not as much of a shock to yoursystem.
(16:16):
So you kind of have to figureout which way works best for you
and then and then get started.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, it's, it's also , you know it's a personality
thing.
You know there's some peoplethat are like I'm, I need to go
all in two feet, I need to jumpinto the pool.
You know I've got a cannonballin there and get wet real quick.
Or you know I'm going to easemy way into it.
And then for some people,honestly, easing their way into
it is, I would say, the bettersituation for most, because if
(16:44):
you are transitioning from juststandard american diet,
processed food, you might haveto do that and like, like you
you even said it just gettingunprocessed, you know, just real
whole foods in your diet, plushave increasing animal proteins
and fat, you're gonna feelbetter, like just that's step
one, right, and then slowlydecreasing.
(17:05):
And you mentioned some thingsabout oxalate dumpings.
What are some signs andsymptoms that you might be
experiencing oxalate dumping?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Yeah.
So I had no idea what oxalateswere until like a year after I
started carnivore.
The best book to read on thatis Toxic Superfoods by Dr Sally
Norton.
Doctor, is she a doctor?
By Sally Norton, wonderful book.
That's where I learned about it.
Oxalates are plant toxins, soplants don't want to be eaten.
(17:33):
They have defense mechanismsplant chemicals, phytochemicals,
things like that and an oxalateis basically just kind of like
a crystalline structure that isin some fruits and vegetables.
Sometimes it can be like in theyounger version of the fruiter
vegetable as opposed to theolder.
In her book she has a wholelist of everything you can avoid
(17:55):
, but the highest oxalate itemswould be spinach, kiwi,
raspberries, dark chocolate,sweet potatoes it's a big one.
Tea black and green tea.
So a good way that you can knowif you're oxalate dumping is if
you start carnivore, you go coldturkey and you after like two
(18:17):
or three weeks you're stillexperiencing what you would
think are keto flu symptoms, soextreme fatigue, diarrhea, just
feeling out of it.
I would say then perhaps you'reoxalate dumping and you can
check that by brewing yourself acup of black or green tea and
drinking it and then within 30minutes, if you start feeling
(18:40):
better than you're oxalatedumping, and if that's the case,
then I would think it might bea good idea to add back in some
fruits and vegetables to slowthe oxalate dumping process.
The thing about oxalate dumpingis there's not a ton of
information about it out there.
Sally did a really great job inresearching it, but she had to
(19:01):
bring together like so manydifferent outside sources and
all of this stuff together totry to get a cohesive idea of
like what you should do.
So that's why I think thegradual reduction of carbs is a
good idea for somebody.
That's like making like spinachsmoothies and eating a sweet
potato every day, and like I waseating dark chocolate every
night, I had kiwis every day,sweet potato every day,
(19:24):
raspberries every day.
I had so many high oxalatefoods.
That's why I suffered.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
So, yeah, I think that that's something to pay
attention to and something thata lot of people don't really
know about you know, yeah, I'vehad bill schindler on the
podcast and he talks uh, he hasthe book, uh, eat like a human.
He has the modern stone agekitchen and one big thing is he,
he took like this group ofstudents, uh, on some type of
like, just like a foraging eventor something, and some people
(19:52):
were talking about a mushroomand they're like he just like a
foraging event or something.
And some people were talkingabout a mushroom and they're
like he's like.
You know what's really scary?
Yeah, he's like spinach.
She's like.
He's like do you just said thatmushroom was poisonous, that I
shouldn't eat that?
He goes, yeah, but somebodyeats that once.
Then they die.
You're nobody's going to eatthat mushroom again, but he goes
.
Spinach, he goes.
You'll constantly eat that.
(20:14):
You won't see the symptomsright away, but over time it can
cause havoc on your body andyou get those high, high
oxalates from the spinach, fromthe kale.
As a former vegan, I look back.
I'm like I'm blending kale,spinach, banana like smoothies
(20:35):
in the morning and I'm justmaking it even worse because
it's liquid form at this pointand I'm just gunning it down and
that's why I ran into a bunchof health issues and, like you
said nobody really talks aboutthis, nobody knows it.
When you say, hey, like I don'teat spinach because I think
it's unhealthy People look atyou like you got three heads,
you know so totally.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
you know it's so funny.
Um, I think it was ChrisHemsworth was doing spinach
smoothies, like every morningand he had to stop because he
was poisoning himself and andhe's a big dude, he's like six
three, six, four or somethinglike that, but like a smaller
person, like a five foot tallwoman, you can actually die from
from eating too many oxalates.
(21:12):
If she was eating the samespinach smoothies as Chris
Hemsworth three days in a rowshe could die from oxalate
toxicity.
And it's just so funny becausespinach is like touted as a
superfood.
You know, oh, it's so good foryou.
It's like, oh, my God, I won'ttouch spinach with a 10 foot
pole.
Now you know, and actually it'sfunny, kale is actually not
very high oxalate.
I thought it was Um, but then,reading Sally's book, she's like
(21:35):
no, actually kale is okay, it'sthe spinach.
So I was like I always thoughtit was the kale.
Crazy craziness man.
But when you're doing carnivoreyou don't eat any plants, so
you're like I get that all outof my diet.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Every time my coworkers look at me they're
like dude, do you have avegetable?
I go, I try to avoid vegetablesif I can, and uh, for me at
least.
Like it's a garnish, ifanything like I like.
Like you know, nobody's takingmy carnivore card away, but I
like jalapenos sometimes.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Like, I like.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I like spicy, I like spicy.
So a garnish is one thing, butas a main food group, I just
tell my my coworkers like I tryto avoid vegetables if I can,
for sure I do a keto cheat mealonce a month, so we'll do like
Brussels sprouts smothered incheese and bacon, or asparagus.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I try to keep to the low oxalate vegetables.
I love a salad.
I would eat a salad every day,I love salads, but I just don't
feel my best when I do that.
So I do it once a month andthat seems to work well for me.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
But for some people they wouldn't be able.
I do that, so I do it once amonth and that seems to work
well for me, but for some peoplethey wouldn't be able to do
that.
So that's that's something too,that some people might not know
that if you are going to have afood that's either low, mid
oxalates or whatever, if youcook it with a cream sauce or
actually have a dairy with it,the oxalates will bind to that
and you're able to pass throughyour body more effectively and
not get stored up as much.
So if you are going to havelike a spinach or anything, more
than likely, if you have itwith a cream sauce, it'll lower
(23:01):
not necessarily the oxalates,but how many oxalates stay into
your system.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Interesting.
I did not know that.
That's a really great tip.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
While we're on the topic of food, you know meal
planning and prepping, senior.
What do I eat in a week?
Videos, which are awesome.
You have a fantastic I told youoff air a fantastic YouTube
channel.
You showcase daily meals.
How do you keep a variety inyour diet and any tips for those
struggling with meal ideas?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
So I'm really boring.
I eat beef butter, bacon andeggs 90% of the time.
I eat beef butter, bacon andeggs 90% of the time.
For meal prep I always have adozen eggs hard-boiled in the
fridge.
I just today was filming somevideos for YouTube.
I did a pork tenderloin that Iput ground beef and cream cheese
.
I made kind of like a base ofthat, put that in there with
(23:50):
some more cheese and then rolledit up and baked it.
That was enough for dinner, andnow we've got some leftover.
Chicken is so easy to meal prep.
Wings I love doing wings,probably once a month, but like
bone-in, skin-on thighs ordrummies are so easy to just
cook a whole bunch of them andthen have them in the fridge to
(24:10):
eat.
I tend to not need a lot ofvariety, but my husband does.
He likes a little bit morevariety, so we've been coming up
with recipes the past couple ofyears that we've been doing
YouTube and a lot of my viewersneed variety too.
So I have a beef stroganoff.
That's really good.
I like to do taco dishes ofsome kind a carnivore taco or a
(24:31):
taco ball.
There's lots of really greatways you can add some variety
into your diet, but for me, Ieat like eggs and bacon or eggs
and sausage every morning andthen for dinner.
I only eat twice a day.
I'll do like a pound of groundbeef with some butter on it or
something, or I'll do like a 16to 24 ounce ribeye, or I'll do
(24:52):
like two pounds of chicken wingsand that's enough for me.
I'm very boring, but it works.
It works.
You know, that's one of thebeautiful things about
carnivores I don't have to thinktoo much about food and I'm
only eating when I'm trulyhungry.
So I could eat the same thingdays in a row, but because I'm
actually hungry, every singletime I eat it I'm like, oh, this
(25:13):
is so good.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
You know, yeah, right , I look back at.
I was like I used to tellmyself this I'm basically doing
hide and go seek with the food,like I would go into the kitchen
.
You know this is back in justregular, standard American diet.
Even when I was vegan, I wouldjust like constantly be opening
cabinets and looking for stuffLike I'm not even hungry.
(25:35):
What am I doing?
Like I don't think I'm hungry,but I am.
I'm like looking.
I'm in the fridge, I'm in thecabinets, I'm in the pantry.
All day I'm going in and out ofthe kitchen.
Now I'm like I ate.
Earlier today I had two poundsof ground beef.
I'm I'm sad I for the day, Idon't need to eat.
(26:00):
I can go about my life.
I won't even eat till tomorrowand, uh, again, I am boring,
like you a little bit.
That's fine.
You know it's ground beef, it'seggs, it's butter.
You know, uh, it's cold.
I mean we're, we're prettylocal to each other.
It's cold right now, but in thein the summer, I love grilling,
I like to go outside and that'swhen I do my steaks.
I really get into steaks.
Maybe people don't like thisnext comment.
I don't like cooking with anair fryer.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh no, I love cooking with the air fryer.
I do my steaks in the air fryerin the winter.
I am not about to go outside.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
Everybody talks about the airfryer.
They love it.
I bought one.
Did I do it wrong?
Maybe I have no idea?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
but I tried to practice.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
I tried the air fryer .
It takes some practice.
I tried the air fryer, I did acouple steaks in there.
I did the wing flats in there.
It was okay, it was all right,but I was like I actually just
like I ended up like returningit.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
I was like this what air fryer did you get?
Speaker 1 (26:48):
It was like a Ninja or something.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah, cause you know some of the.
The one that I have is thetasty and it goes up to 450
degrees Fahrenheit and most airfryers only go up to like 400 or
420.
And that's where I get thecrispiness from.
So, like on my chicken wings, Icook them at 420 for 18 to 20
minutes and they are crispy asheck.
So it might just be, you know,practicing a little more,
(27:11):
finding the one that has higher,higher temp.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, I might have to .
I might have to go the route,you know, cause, again, I really
don't even have stakes duringthe winter, cause I'm like I'm
not going all the way upstairs,cause we have like a little
rooftop, like I'm like I'm notgoing up there off the lake
front just freezing.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
We're both in the Chicagoland area it's bitter
cold right now.
February is the worst.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
And with your meals.
I think you just did a post theother day.
You know I love this phrase, Iuse it all the time Like don't
let perfection be the enemy ofgood, do you feel?
You know that a lot of peoplethink it has to be?
If you're doing carnivore,everything must be like the
highest of quality.
It's got to be grass fed, grassfinished.
It must be, pasture raised.
(27:55):
It must be this, must be that.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I just did a post about thisyesterday.
So I went to Jewel that's ourlocal grocery store and I found
this Oscar Meyer bacon was onsale.
It was usually 10.99 a pound,it was 99 cents a pound, I don't
know why.
There were only three left.
I scooped them all up, createda post about look at all this
cheap meat that I got.
(28:16):
And I had a few commenters belike oh my God, that's so full
of garbage I would never buythat bacon.
I read the ingredients labeland there's nothing bad on the
back of that label.
The only thing that's in it isjust stuff that would be used to
cure bacon.
If you're eating cured bacon,that's what's going to be in it
Zero carbs.
I think a lot of people getbogged down by the dogmatic
(28:41):
thoughts of it has to begrass-fed, grass-finished
everything, no toxins, blah, andit's like no, I eat
conventionally raised meat 90%of the time.
90% of the time I get my meatfrom Juul or Costco.
I'll get a whole ribeye, I'llcut that up myself, but it's
conventionally raised, choicemeat.
Um, I do some grass fed, grassfinished.
(29:03):
Um, I'll do some American Wagyu.
I have a have a ranch inMissouri that I'll get my ground
beef from cause it's so good,but, like in general, no, and
you can see profound healthimprovements eating
conventionally raised meat,including processed meats.
Everyone thinks, oh, processedmeats are so bad?
No, no, they're not that bad.
(29:26):
Of course there's going to besome that are like there's this
brand of bacon that's likecinnamon toast crunch sprinkled
bacon.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I took a picture of it the other day.
I was going to post it.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yes, don't buy that, okay.
But like Oscar Mayer, bacon,normal bacon, that's fine.
We use Bob Evans sausage in theroll and there's zero carbs, no
corn syrup.
It's very hard to findbreakfast sausage that doesn't
have corn syrup in it, but itdoes have MSG in it and some
(29:59):
people are very sensitive to MSG.
We are not.
We eat that stuff five days aweek and our metabolic health
has improved across the board.
And I do blood tests, arterialscans, dexa scans, continuous
glucose monitoring, continuousketone monitoring, like every
test you can possibly get.
I get it done and I share it onmy YouTube channel so you can
see that eating that sausageisn't killing me.
(30:22):
You know what I mean.
So I think it's all aboutgetting what you can afford,
getting what you prefer to eat,because if you don't like the
taste, you're not going to eat.
It, prefer to eat because ifyou don't like the taste, you're
not going to eat it.
And if you can afford grass-fed, grass-finished, everything and
that is what you prefer to eat,that's okay too.
(30:46):
There are marginal healthbenefits to eating the grass-fed
, grass-finished, for sure.
Less omega-6s, for sure, in theruminants.
But it's marginal.
It's marginal.
And if you're coming from astandard American diet, just
cutting out all the crap andeating conventionally raised
meat is going to do just nightand day difference.
So I think that is somethingthat as a community, we need to
communicate a little bit more,because I still get comments all
(31:08):
the time like oh, you're notdoing it pure enough and I'm
like I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, it just gets like dogmatic within carnivore
it's.
You know, it's lion diet ornothing.
I don't like that, oh God On.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
TikTok.
I've gotten comments where,like you can't use garlic powder
or you're using pepperoni,that's not carnivore, People get
violently angry about it.
I'm like Jesus, you guys.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
I'm down.
If you don't want to use it,that's fine and I'll give like a
nuanced response.
And it's like they don't evenwatch it because they don't.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah, you're not.
You do more than I would.
I wouldn't even be.
Like sometimes I like do asteak emoji, like anytime, like
somebody says something aboutsomebody just did kids watch
this.
I can't believe you, whatever.
And I like this has to stop.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
And I'm not really because I know the person that
I'm responding to most likelyisn't going to be changeable,
(32:19):
but the people reading thecomments might be like oh okay,
you know what I mean.
I personally don't readcomments, like I don't go on
people's feeds and read all thatstuff, but my mom does.
I know a ton of people that doso feeds and read all that stuff
, but my mom does.
I know a ton of people that do,so I'm just like Do you hear
what they said about you, jenny?
Yeah, I'm just, I don't reallycare.
I try not to read that stufffor my mental health.
(32:40):
But I always try to be kind andI don't want to turn people off
, so that's kind of why Irespond that way, always trying
to educate.
That's my place.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I think yeah.
And being the self, youmentioned some things, topics
but being the self-proclaimeddata junkie, you know N equals
one, experiments, blood work.
You know what are somesignificant trends you have
observed with carnivore, likeeither yourself or around you.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, yeah, I do tons of NO1 experiments.
I'm trying to gear up for anext one coming up soon of NO1
experiments.
I'm trying to gear up for anext one coming up soon.
Interesting stuff.
So I follow Dave Feldman's workpretty closely with the lean
mass hyper responders so that'sbeen really interesting to see.
A lot of people think that ifyou go carnivore that your LDL
cholesterol is justautomatically going to shoot up
really high, and that's actuallynot true.
(33:29):
Ldl numbers tend to track withyour BMI.
So people that are overweightor normal weight tend to see
their LDL cholesterol stay thesame or even go down on
carnivore in the beginning.
But as you continue to loseweight, become more physically
active and all that kind ofstuff, you can see where your
(33:50):
LDL will go up super, super high.
But that's just a small groupof people that are lean mass
hyper-responders.
I've actually seen in my data myLDL cholesterol is typically
between 175 to I don't know 275,but my triglycerides are like
between 30 and 60.
My HDL is between 70 and 100,and that would be the lean mass
(34:14):
hyper-responder triad.
But also in the N of 1experiments I've been able to
manipulate my cholesterolnumbers drastically just with
the food that I eat.
So I did an experiment where Iate really, really, really high
fat, carnivore and very highcalorie for three days before a
standard lipid panel and I wasable to drop my LDL cholesterol
(34:35):
by 23%.
And if you're going to yeah,exactly If you're- going to.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
If a pill could have done that, you know people would
be buying that off the shelves.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Well, yeah, and that's the thing is.
We're all told like, oh,saturated fat is going to raise
your LDL cholesterol, and simplynot true.
It does the opposite.
Very, very interesting stuff.
I measure my blood once ortwice a month with all these
different experiments.
I just did a 14-day carnivorebar experiment, where I just ate
carnivore bars for 14 days.
(35:05):
I just did a 14-day sardinefast experiment Same thing just
ate sardines.
So yeah, lots of fun data there.
I just want to show people like,hey, there's ways that you can
manipulate your lipids, yourglucose, and I think being
really cued into your numbers isimportant.
(35:28):
I don't think anybody needs totest as much as I do.
I'm a crazy person.
I'm doing this for fun and forscience and for YouTube.
You know, if I wasn't doingthis for YouTube, I I'd probably
get my blood work checked everysix months now, knowing what I
know now, just becauseeverything's so fluid, people
think they get a lipid panel andtheir triglycerides are just,
you know, whatever they are forthe whole rest of the year.
(35:50):
And no, they're constantlymoving and you need to see what
your range is.
You know if my, if mytriglycerides go from 37 to 70,
I'm not like, oh my God, mytriglycerides went up.
That's within the range that Isee in my blood work.
You know, I would be concernedif my triglycerides went up to
like 150, then I'd be like, ohokay, something that's a little
(36:14):
different you know, yeah, youknow it's.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
It's also this, this goalpost, right, like the
goalposts will continuously move, you know what, as like on the
doctor's charts, right, andwherever that they put that
goalpost.
If you don't hit the goalpost,then it's like, oh, you're doing
something wrong, like we haveto give you a stat.
(36:37):
And you know, they even triedto give me a stat and I was in
the midst of, yeah, uh, I was inthe midst of Ironman training
probably arguably the best shapeI've ever been in my life and
they're like hey, yourcholesterol is a little high, we
should get you on a stat.
And I'm like, no, I'm likelet's, let's, let's break apart.
(37:01):
Like I feel great, I'mperforming well, right, I have
function in my, my body,everything's working the right
way.
What do I care if that you know, my number hits your goalpost
or not?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So right, Well, and, and the and the goalpost at a
conventional doctor for LDLcholesterol has been
continuously lowered so thatthey can get more and more
people on statins.
That's not actually accurate andLDL cholesterol is a terrible,
terrible biomarker to basehealth-related decisions on.
I would be more concerned aboutwhat's your fasting insulin
fasting, glucose A1C,triglycerides and HDL.
That's what I'd want to know.
(37:36):
I don't even care what your LDLcholesterol is and, granted,
I'm not a doctor, this is justfrom what I've learned from
low-carb carnivore doctors inthe space.
But I can take a look at thosefive markers right there and
tell you the state of yourmetabolic health quickly, and
that's like I don't know.
Maybe 35 to $40 worth of bloodtests.
(37:56):
It's not that much, I don'tknow.
I feel like the world is kindof waking up to the fact that
LDL cholesterol is not a greatbiomarker and that it really is
just used to put people on drugs.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
And the question is usually like, just the things
that you just said rattle offyour head right, those like five
markers or whatever they may be.
The person that did mine like Icould tell she was reading off
a list and goes, okay, all right, do you want a flu shot today?
And I'm like, no, okay, allright, see that.
Didn't ask me about my diet,Didn't ask me about my activity
(38:31):
level, my sleep, my stress,hydrate nothing didn't ask me
about my activity level, mysleep, my stress, hydrate
nothing.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
They're not trained to know anything about that.
So it's not necessarily thefault of the conventional doctor
or the nurse or things.
They're not trained anythingabout nutrition and what they
are trained is not good.
I think that it's like 60% ofyour daily calories coming from
carbohydrates.
That's insane.
That's insane Even if they'refruits and vegetables.
So yeah, I I don't go to thedoctor for um prevention or
(39:05):
nutrition advice or anythinglike that.
I go to the doctor if I'mreally sick and I need some
antibiotics, or if I break a legor if I need a C-section.
You know what I mean.
I think that's probably thebest, the decision I've made for
myself.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
What the hospital is designed for basically.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Correct.
Yeah, yeah, and you know, I dothink we need a complete shift
in our medical schools, in ourhealthcare system, but right now
, the entire healthcare systemis literally built on
prescribing medications,treating symptoms, not
addressing root causes, andnutrition is a very low-hanging
(39:45):
fruit that will take care ofabout 80% of whatever the heck
is wrong with you.
If you eat the right foods, itreally does kind of strip away
all of that extra stuff and thenyou can really start to see
what the root causes are.
It's not going to solveeverything.
Carnivore is not a magic bullet, but it will really help you
(40:05):
get to where you need to be.
Like I still have Hashimoto'shypothyroid even though I'm
carnivore.
But being carnivore it's much,much, much.
You know better than it wouldbe if I was eating a standard
American diet you know, Um, soyeah, there's some profound
shifts that need to happen inour healthcare system.
I don't know if and when thatwould ever happen, because it
would have to be completelyredesigned.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I mean isn't that you know Kennedy is, is taking the
taking.
You know he can't do everything, Can't do everything,
everything, but he's a frontrunner.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Yeah, I'm hopeful.
You know, I'm glad that he gotconfirmed.
Uh interested to see what hecan get done.
But he's only one person andthere's a lot of bureaucracy,
and he can't solve every ill.
This is something that we haveto work on as a society too, you
know.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Yeah, it takes everybody and I think, just
looking at you know 70% ofAmericans are either pre or type
2 diabetic.
That's when, 100 years ago, youhad to like travel to find
somebody.
That was that you know.
They used to be the childhooddisease.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Like dialysis clinics .
There used to be one in everystate.
Now there's three in every city, right Like you know what?
one in every state and nowthere's three in every city,
right Like.
You know what's changed?
Well, our food, absolutelyMostly.
You know environmental stuff,pollutants, microplastics,
bromide in everything you know.
Yeah, it's really interestingand it's just so funny because
(41:36):
type 2 diabetes, you cancompletely go into remission
from it.
It is a curable.
It is not a life sentence.
Yet so many people don't knowthat, they just think it's it's
just.
You know what they have to havefor the rest of their lives and
with the advice from theAmerican Diabetes Association,
they will have it for the restof their lives.
You know eating oatmeal forbreakfast.
(41:57):
Get out of here.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Oatmeal and orange juice.
Isn't that the recommendation?
Oatmeal and orange juice in themorning.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
Or like have, like apple strudel for your dessert
with your you know high carbdinner.
Like no desserts for you ifyou're type 2 diabetic.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Well, if you need to manage your you know blood
glucose.
Oh, you have a pump.
Well, if we're going to beusing the pump and needing
insulin more and more and more,it makes sense.
If they're going to the morehigh carbohydrate foods that
they recommend, the more you'reusing the pumps.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Well, and the American Diabetes Association is
heavily funded by insulinmanufacturers, so of course
they're going to tell you to eatfoods that make you need more
insulin, but that's not doing aservice to humanity.
That's just killing peopleslowly and horribly.
You know it's, it's terrible.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Yeah, there's this.
Uh, another flip side of thecoin of people pre-diabetic or
type two diabetic, is it?
You don't necessarily even haveto be overweight.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Like people.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
People make the assumption like, oh, they're
just lazy and they don'texercise and they eat bad.
Well, there's athletes outthere and if I get the
documentary Running on Fat 2,man, I love this documentary, I
watched it twice but I can'tremember the person's name, so
shame on me.
But Running on Fat 2 is thedocumentary on me.
(43:18):
But, um, running on fat, too,is the documentary and they
follow um two like ketogenicathletes, fat adapted athletes
that were, you know, ironmanracers and endurance racers from
beforehand, but they wouldfollow the conventional high
carb carbo load and these peoplewere arguably like the most in
shape people you've ever met inyour life.
And they one guy goes to thedoctor, the husband, and they're
(43:39):
like, yeah, you're pre diabetic.
He's like what it's like?
I'm a top tier athlete.
How am I?
He's like well, you've beenjust slamming glucose and gels
and carbohydrates for all theseyears.
Like your pancreas can onlyhandle so much.
So it's not like you have to beoverweight, it's the food in
the quantities that we're havingit.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, well, I mean the human body, regardless of
your muscle size or weight oranything like that.
We can only handle about ateaspoon of sugar in our
bloodstream at any time.
Now, if you have a lot ofmuscle, that is a good glucose
sink.
It's better to have more musclebecause your body can then put
the glucose in those muscles.
But if you are constantly, likea lot of athletes do, like you
(44:21):
said, carb loading, you'reoverwhelming your system.
So you can be skinny fat.
That is a thing.
Skinny on the outside, fat onthe inside, with tons of
visceral fat which you wouldn'tknow unless you get a DEXA scan.
Yeah, it's profound.
It's profound.
You can look great on theoutside and be so sick and on
the flip, you could be reallyobese but metabolically healthy
(44:45):
on the inside, perhaps becauseyou might have something where
you haven't met your personalfat threshold, maybe your fat
cells fill up really easily, orthings like that.
That is a thing too.
So we can't judge a book by itscover.
I think that's why it's soimportant to take a look on the
inside with blood work, dexascans and all that kind of stuff
periodically, you know, just tomake sure everything's you know
(45:05):
working the way it should underthe hood.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Okay, and speaking of athletes, strength training yes
, 5ff gets you on the podcast.
We definitely could, if I getyou on the podcast.
We definitely talk about this.
I saw some clips of you do somestrength training.
You know what's, what's theregimen.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
You know we're talking push pull, legs.
So I do three to four days aweek of strength training.
I lift heavy.
I'm typically doing legs andarms.
Sometimes I'll do push pull,but typically just legs one day,
arms one day.
I don't have a ton of time,unfortunately, so I just try to
get in and be as efficient aspossible.
(45:41):
I like to do three sets ofanywhere between I don't know
eight to 14 reps, and I reallylike those last few.
I want to like lift to failure.
That's what I like to do.
Um, I walk a lot.
I like to walk three, three orso miles per day.
I like the Stairmaster machine.
I do this glute routine thing.
It's not just walking on it andthen I like to do sprints too.
(46:01):
That's really fun.
But yeah, that's pretty muchwhat I do.
If I had it my way, I'd be atthe gym like five days a week,
and then when I'm there I alsodo the steam room and or the
sauna.
I like to do that for at least15 to 20 minutes to really kind
of get some toxins out, and thenmy gym has a cold plunge.
So I like to get in the coldplunge too.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
Nice, yeah, I had a at um human healing for humanity
.
Lisa Wiedemann was sitting nextto me and we were just talking
about strength training.
She's also in the camp of goingto failure and I was like, uh,
yeah, I don't think that thatgoing to failure is the best you
know.
Um, and she like turns to meand she like flips over to a
(46:45):
picture of her in a bathing suit.
She goes this is what going tofailure looks like.
She's just she's jacked and Iwas like oh yeah, oh hell yeah,
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
I love Dr Wiedemann.
Yeah, you know it's not foreverybody.
I think it just depends on whatyou're trying to do.
I'm trying to maximize thegains that I can get in the
small amount of time that I haveto work out, because I'm doing
this full-time YouTube channel.
You know I do coaching.
I've got the kids.
I've got the kids, I've got myhusband.
You know I need to like alsotake care of myself, you know.
(47:18):
So it's just like trying to dothat, but yeah, yeah, it's not
for everybody for sure.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
That's, that's um and there's, there's differences
too, of um, you know, that'smore if you're going into
failure and you're going reps,you know, and, and like you're
getting exhausted in those lastfew, you're, you're, you are
gonna build muscle like that'sgonna, that's, you know,
hypertrophy you're going to dothat's more of the bodybuilder
style, versus a functional, likestrength training, which is its
(47:47):
own thing, but that's not gonnaget you the big growth, uh,
long-term strength.
There's other ways to achievethat.
But if you're like I need tobuild muscle right now, quick,
then yeah, going to failure isgoing to be your option, because
that's the bodybuilding style,just having ample recovery
between the sessions is the bigkey.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Yeah, I think people don't realize how important the
rest days are.
They're just as important asthe workout days, because the
muscle is built on the the restday.
That's when it rebuilds itself.
You know, yeah, I, I take uhresting very seriously hardcore
(48:26):
rest very like I'm crazy aboutmy sleep and my stress and
hydration.
Nutrition and exercise yeah it,it's holistic, you know, it's
not just one thing.
I think people can getoverwhelmed when they start and
try to do everything all at once, like I've been doing this God,
some form of like I learnedabout nutrition and keto and all
(48:49):
that stuff in like 2016.
And then I started going downthat rabbit hole, really started
working out a lot then too.
So I I'm almost 10 years intomy you know, nutrition and
exercise journey.
Um, so I think you know, start,just start somewhere.
If you're getting started andyou don't understand what we're
talking about at all, justwalking is enough to just get
(49:12):
off the couch and start walking.
That that can.
That's what I did.
The first year on carnivore wasjust walked, cause I was, um,
the kids were still so littleand I was dealing with some
Hashimoto's stuff and I was kindof tired, so, but that that
allowed me to lose, I think, 35,40 pounds.
The first year was carnivoreand walking.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, I think, a combination of strength,
movement, nutrition, recovery.
You take all those things,things like that's why I even
named my company podcast, primalfoundations.
Those are the four things.
I think that if you do, you'regonna, you're gonna feel better,
you're gonna cover a lot ofbases.
And plus walking and I I saythis on the podcast all the time
I used to I used to talk shitabout walking I think a lot of
(49:52):
people I used to talk shit.
however, as I've gotten a littlebit older, because I was from
marathons and I did bigendurance races and to me it's
like I don't want to walk.
Why am I going to walk for anhour when I get the same
distance done in like 10 minutes, 15?
Speaker 2 (50:07):
minutes Right, right, right.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
But just being in that low zone too, being outside
, getting the sun exposure, sunexposure that just in itself.
And also if I'm, if I'm bangedup I don't want to go run two,
three, four, five, six miles.
When I'm banged up I just walkand I feel like it's actually
helped my health drasticallymore, because I'm able to
(50:32):
recover more, I'm able to be inzone two for a long period of
time, I'm not taxing my body andtherefore my strength gains go
up.
My sleep is better.
So I used to not I used to be aanti-walker.
Now I'm like I get my, my mom's, walking every day.
I'm doing walks, so I thinkthat's a great step to start.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah, you know, walking it's just so low impact.
You know, I'm, I'm old, I'mgoing to be 41 old to me, I
don't feel old.
I know, I know, but you knowwhat I mean Like it's different
than when you're 20, than whenyou're 40.
There is a difference.
And walking on my walks I writescripts for my YouTube videos,
I answer emails, I brainstorm.
(51:10):
We have a nice little pondright over here.
I do like a mile loop and I getlike look at the birds and shit
.
You know I love it.
It's so nice, it's calming.
Speaker 1 (51:19):
I look at the birds and shit.
It's great.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
I do.
We have some really cool birdsover here.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Some sandhill cranes and some yeast and some ducks.
We've got some cool birds.
So that's cool.
And talking about cool thingsthat you thought about upcoming
book complete.
Complete Carnivore.
It offers recipes, detailedguidance on how to do the
carnivore diet.
And can you share some uniquefeatures of the book and then
how it caters to both newcomersand seasoned carnivores?
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Yeah for sure.
So, complete Carnivore.
I envisioned it as like thefull reference guide, like
encyclopedia, to carnivores.
So, whether you've been doingcarnivore for years, envisioned
it as like the full referenceguide, like encyclopedia to
carnivore.
So whether you've been doingcarnivore for years or you're
just getting started orresearching it, it's going to
have something for you.
So the whole first half of thebook is like a complete,
in-depth guide to the carnivorediet starter guide.
Um, you know how you can decideif you want to ease in or go
(52:12):
cold Turkey, uh, meal plans,grocery lists, all that kind of
stuff.
Then it guides you through thefirst month, the first year, and
then it goes into a bunch ofother stuff.
So, troubleshooting If you'rerunning into certain issues on
carnivore, you can go to thatchapter and find the issue and
it will give you action, stepsthat you can take to take care
(52:34):
of it, faqs I mean having theYouTube channel has been really
helpful for that, because I getthe same questions over and over
and over.
So I just distilled that and putthat into that chapter.
Myths you know we all encounterthe myths like oh, ldl
cholesterol will cause heartdisease, or like eating red meat
is bad for the kidneys, thingslike that, addressing all of
(52:55):
that stuff.
And then I think one of myfavorite chapters is the
monitoring your progress chapter, where I go into how you can
order your own blood work online, where you can get DEXA scans,
ketones and how to monitor them,what to optimal functional
ranges for all of these numbersand how you can set up your own
end of one experiments.
So that's like the whole firsthalf of the book, which is its
(53:18):
own book in and of itself.
Honestly, I basically wrote twobooks in one.
The second half is 80 pluscarnivore recipes, and it's not
just like how to grill a steak,although that is in there.
These are more recipes for like, if you and me, if we get bored
and we're like I need somethingdifferent, you can go through
here and get something differentthat's still fully carnivore
(53:41):
and throw that into your diet.
So it's going to be reallyhelpful for a lot of people.
I just kind of wanted it to besomething you could put on your
shelf and pull it out wheneveryou had a question, whenever you
needed a new recipe or whateveryou needed it for.
So, yeah, I've worked a lot onit.
It was.
It's very hard to write a book.
I didn't think it would be easy, but like it was a lot, just
(54:06):
because I was also still doingthe YouTube channel.
So I create six to 12 videosper month long form, then the
short form as well, and thecoaching and all that stuff.
Then also writing a book.
My husband hated me.
He was like you work from dawnuntil we go to bed.
I'm like I got to get it done.
What am I going to do?
(54:26):
But man, I'm excited.
I'm excited for it.
I think it's going to be prettycool.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
That sounds awesome.
I feel like that's the one areaof really tracking progress for
me.
I do have like a very intuitivescale that gives me a laundry
list of, like, protein and body.
It gives me you know body fatcomposition.
(54:53):
It gives me you know trends andstuff, which is great, but I
don't dive into blood work,ketones or anything like that.
So I feel like I'm definitelypre-ordering.
Go on Amazon, guys.
Pre-order.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
You can already do it .
Yeah, amazon and Barnes Nobleboth have really good pre-order
deals where whenever youpre-order it until the date of
release, you're going to get thelowest price that it ever is
during that period of time.
So let's say on Amazon theyhave a flash sale.
Whenever you pre-order it untilthe date of release, you're
going to get the lowest pricethat it ever is during that
period of time.
So let's say on Amazon theyhave a flash sale.
It goes on sale for like 20bucks, but you had already
pre-ordered it on release day.
You get it for that price.
(55:27):
Yeah, and they don't charge youuntil release day, and then
typically you get it on releaseday too, which is pretty cool,
oh they already sent it out.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Yeah, yeah.
So Amazon and Barnes and Nobleboth have that kind of deal, and
then I have a link to targetand then for international
viewers, of course you can useyour own Amazon too, but I have
one that's.
That's for internationalviewers as well.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Yeah, so I mean the leak I put in the show notes and
then you know I always givepeople this very loaded question
, but you're no different.
With the book release on thehorizon and everything like that
, what are the next projects?
What do you have in mind forthe carnivore community?
Speaker 2 (56:05):
Yeah.
So this year it's going to bereally conference heavy.
So I just spoke at my firstconference, the Collaborative
Science Conference in Vegas lastweekend, dave Feldman's
conference that was awesome.
It was my first time speakingat a conference.
I've done a lot of publicspeaking in other areas, but in
May is Meat Stock, so that's inGatlinburg, tennessee.
(56:29):
That's like every singlecarnivore, doctor and influencer
on the planet is going to bethere.
I'm really excited for that.
One influencer on the planet isgoing to be there.
I'm really excited for that one.
And then the book comes out inthe fall.
So it just depends.
I don't know if there's going tobe a lot of like interviews and
tours and things for that.
I have no idea yet.
We'll see what happens, butthat's going to be pretty much
(56:50):
eating up most of my time thelast quarter of the year.
So that's kind of what's goingon.
As far as what the future holds, I'm definitely doing carnivore
for this year.
We're thinking about, well, wereally need to buy a house, but
it's just like when is thatgoing to happen?
Lots of travel and just tryingto stay consistent with the
(57:14):
workouts.
That's kind of what I have onmy plate for this year, trying
to keep it pretty simple becauseI have so many work-related
things going on that could becrazy that I just want to keep
my health up as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (57:28):
Awesome.
Well, again, thanks for comingon.
I'm going to put your linksYouTube, Instagram and all your
information in the show notes,and I appreciate all that you do
, because those videos do take along time and I think if I were
to go back and you know, causethis is my fifth year on
carnivore I would have loved tohave something else An
(57:48):
additional of a starter guide.
You know, I had Sean Baker'sRogan episode.
That was pretty much it and Ijust went off from there.
But I appreciate all you do andfor the community and taking
the time to do these things.
It's not a it's not an easytask.
Speaker 2 (58:03):
No, it's not, you know, and basically I just
didn't want people to sufferlike I did in the beginning.
So that's why I created allthese videos and I hope that
they help people at least avoidsome of the pitfalls that I went
through.
Speaker 1 (58:16):
Well, hope all the listeners go check out the links
and thanks for everybodylistening to another episode of
the Primal Foundations podcast.
Thank you, thank you.
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