The Carnivore Way, Episode 11: Nourishment Redacted

Join me, Carnivore Soldier, as I interview Ellie, from the Nourishment Redacted  YouTube channel (@NourishmentRedacted).  Ellie is a mother, wife, and successful carnivore who has transformed her body, mind, and health through diet.

Strap in for a great story!

Carnivore Diet Planning Guide: https://4343867330708.gumroad.com/l/fqtjv
Website: https://www.carnivoresoldier.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/6762077700490092
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/eqyzCqtwgd

I'm a retired US Army Chief Warrant Officer living the carnivore lifestyle since March 22nd, 2023. I lost 30lbs in the first 90 days, and continued my weight loss beyond that losing another 14lbs in the following 60 days. I have become much healthier, both physically and mentally in the process. If you’re seeking a sustainable and effective weight loss method, the carnivore diet might be the answer you’ve been looking for!

Prepare to be motivated and inspired as I share my success story, offering valuable tips and insights for anyone ready to embark on their own weight loss journey. Don’t miss out on this incredible transformation – hit that play button and let’s dive into the world of carnivore diet weight loss!

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor and am not giving medical advice. This is simply a channel about my experience. Please consult your own physician if you have questions or concerns about nutrition, weight loss, or your conditions.

Transcript

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All right. All right. All right. Carnivore soldier coming at you from Austin, Texas. Today we've got another podcast. This is the carnivore way. And today we've got Ellie from nourishment redacted. She's been carnivore for quite a while now, over a year, I believe now. And she's had a massive transformation in her life. She's a carnivore mom and a wife. And I just want to interview her and talk about her journey and how she deals with being a carnivore in her busy life. So let's bring her on. Hi, Ellie. Hi. Hi, Larry. Thanks so much for having me on your channel. That's my pleasure. Listen, some people don't know who you are. And I know it's hard to believe because you're so famous on YouTube, but why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, you know, Your, your age, that kind of thing. Like what, what your life is like kind of, and just introduce yourself a little bit. Absolutely. Hi everyone. If we haven't met before, my name is Ellie. I'm 34 years old. I'm a wife, a mother of two. I have a four year old daughter and an almost two year old son, which is crazy to me. And I started my. I, I lived my life as someone who always kind of faked a smile, who is someone who always always trying to please others, trying to make other people feel better, even though I was in pain. I wouldn't let others in. On what was really going on with me. And I think that's so sad because I think that I'm actually very blessed to have a lot of people in my life who were very supportive of me, but I had this insecurity that my voice was not to be heard and that I shouldn't share. And so with those insecurities, you know, I was a pretty healthy kid. You know, metabolically healthy kid. I would say that my weight started going up after preschool. I think, I think that happens a lot for people. I think that my bad eating habits were finally catching up with me. So I was definitely a volume eater. I was in an emotional eater. And I was addicted and still kind of addicted to media, watching videos, watching movies, video games, just, and I, and I don't want to use the word addicted in a derogatory way, because it's not like I was properly diagnosed or anything like that, but I just feel like it consumes my life too much. And so with being. A sedentary person and having these, these bad eating habits, my weight started climbing, climbing up, my mental health continued to decline, and so my highest weight ever was 240 pounds. And it's so sad to think back on what my life used to be like before I found this way of eating. I suffered with depression and I had panic attacks and I had some symptoms of depersonalization disorder. And those mental illnesses, they really were. It was kind of like a shadow that was placed over me, and, but I kept trying to be a bright, happy person, regardless of all that, and when things became, in life became too tough and too scary, I would just crack. And that was me, you know, dropping out of college, which I had always aspired to do. That was about 80 percent done with my bachelor's degree. And I had this one episode that was really bad where I started having an out of body experience, which is kind of like what depersonalization disorder is. And I was so scared because I, I could look down and say, Oh, this is my body. These are my hands and my feet and my. But I did not recognize them as my own. It was this really weird, bizarre kind of experience. And ever since then. So I ended up dropping out of college. I stayed home and luckily for me, I, you know, I found the love of my life, who is my husband today, but we were engaged at the time and he stuck by me and supported me, but there was many years where I did not do anything. I, and I just continued to gain weight and was miserable and that was about 5 years of my life after dropping out of college and it wasn't until I found the keto diet. This was in 2018 that I was just like, I had stumbled upon it on YouTube and I was so surprised to learn that you can eat hamburgers and bacon and butter and lose weight. And that was just mind boggling to me because I was somebody who always was trying to follow the eat less, move more. Even though I was 240 pounds with horrible knee pain because I had dislocated one knee when I was in middle school and I had a hairline fracture in my other knee when I was in high school and I feel I don't talk about this too often But I feel like my my knees are kind of like this is such a weird Metaphor, I guess, but it's like, imagine a ball being placed underwater and you're trying to control that ball. And it just keeps like shifting back and forth. So I definitely had horrible knees. So it was difficult for me to move around and it was difficult, you know, being that size and my thighs would were so large. Cause I carry everything waist down majority. I had inflammation everywhere though. And my thighs would rub so much. I would have boils. And I would have like the skin was starting to deteriorate from the rubbing. I'd have skin tags and there would be like small forms were about to form. And so I was just so desperate to get out of this body. That was, I felt I knew that was holding me back. And so when I found keto, I did it successfully for six months and all of these, I'm going to tell you a bunch of symptoms that alleviated when I did keto my depression lifted. No more anxiety. My period was irregular and it was sometimes every three months I'd get it. Sometimes it'd be two months, one month. It just, it was never consistent and extremely painful and very heavy. And so that got resolved and became normal to the point where I could get. I lost 53 pounds in those six months, my skin cleared up. My energy was skyrocketing. I had confidence and I was. So happy for the first time in my life. And when I went to the doctor, you know, you find out you're pregnant, you go to start going to the doctor. And she had asked what my diet was. And I told her I ate keto. And she told me that you're going to harm your baby. If you continue to eat keto, which is just mind boggling to me. Yeah, I know. Right. It's awful. And I was, I had a panic. Panic. I really was terrified that I was going to do that. So, all of a sudden, I started having meat aversions. I started being really, I started having a lot of nausea. And so, I just started to, I just listened and I stopped eating the ketogenic diet. And, you know, things slowly started coming back. The depression and, luckily, I didn't gain too much weight from that pregnancy. And then, you know, life went on and I was so tired all the time and I was really struggling. I could not produce breast milk for my baby. And even though they told me, you know, just eat oatmeal and eat lots of carbs and you'll start producing milk, which is not true at all. It's actually fat, which helps produce breast milk. But I did not know that at the time. And I kept trying to go back to keto, but I had my sugar cravings came back. My carb addiction and sugar. My sugar and carb cravings came back and I would do keto for a week and I'd fail. Do keto for a week and fail. And then, so time passed. I had my son and he was a healthy little boy. And then I was watching some lectures from Dr. Jordan Peterson. I've really admire and, and really enjoy his work because I, I have a big passion about improving myself and I think that he's very inspiring. So I started learning about his diet and I was like, Oh, wow, maybe I should. You know, try this, this is kind of like keto 2. 0. This is like, this would really get me out of the addictions with carbs and sugar. And I had tried it for a while. I was about four or five months into it. And my son turned six months old. And I just, this is when we started introducing solids to him. And so his first foods were eggs. His first foods were steak, which I love. I love that. And I accidentally ate some old meat in my fridge, and so I had food poisoning. So, it really wrecked me, and I just totally, I was like, I can't eat meat, I started having all these meat aversions, but I kept my son on it. So my son, who is now going to be turning two, has been more consistent on carnivore than I have. But I ended up eventually coming back to carnivore about 13 months ago. And my highest weight at that time was 202 pounds. So I did not gain all the weight back and my depression lifted within 30 days. And that's really surprising considering that I just located my knee four days, four or five days after starting the carnivore diet. I slipped on some water in my kitchen. And this is, like I said earlier, it's a repeat injury and I was in so much emancipating the first night, because obviously, you know, it was a pretty harsh injury, but I was happy. I was actually really happy and I had tons of energy before I dislocated it. I was going on walks and I felt so incredible. So even though it was bedridden for like the first month or two, and then I eventually got a wheelchair and crutches and I was, that was just a really dark time because. It's just my husband and I, we can't really rely on other people to watch our children for us. And I'm very protective of my children. And so it's, it was really, it would have crushed me to know that I can't fulfill my job as a mother and a wife. And yet I felt fantastic eating burgers and lamb and butter and salt. And I just, and then the, so mental health was fantastic. Weight was fantastic. The irregular periods, they went back to normal. I no longer had dandruff. I had I no longer smelled bad. I felt like I was constantly having to like wear deodorant. That's no longer an issue anymore. And overall, I'm just, I feel confident within myself. I don't feel like a doormat anymore. I don't feel like somebody who's a pushover and I feel really strong and confident in In my way. And I, so this, this is like, you know, the sec, these past 13 months is technically my second attempt at Carnivore and I don't see myself stopping at this point. I was inspired by Carrie from Homestead, Hal, and he told everyone to make a YouTube channel and to share your pain and don't forget your pain so that you can continue to heal. And, and that was something I kept forgetting. And I think that's why I failed so much with keto in the past, because I would feel good. And then I would just kind of go, Oh, it's okay if I eat this. And so it's, it's been a wild ride since then. I think I did keto for on and off. In the 2017 2018, you know, getting ready for military schools and such, and it worked because you could lose weight and get your energy up and get ready physically fit for school. But, and I'd always say, I'm going to stay on it this time. That's what I always say. And then I would, you know, you're, you're actually managing, you're counting carbs, you're counting, you're. Checking your, you know, your ketones, you're blowing in or whatever, do your ketones and you're monitoring all this thing. And to me, it's like, you're managing your addiction. It's like, I'm only going to drink one beer each night, right? Instead of getting a 12 pack. And that's what it feels like because it's so easy to slip off. Because once you have one bad day, it's like, oh, I'm going to birthday party. I'm just going to let it go. Then you just go full on. You're like, well, I might as well make it the weekend now. And then the weekend's gone. And now you're into the week and you're still eating ice cream and cake or Oreos or whatever. And you're like, I'll just get back on, you know, and it, and it just doesn't happen. And. So for me, managing the addiction is not a, not a thing I can do. And I have to do it this way, which a cheat for me now would be like doing the ice cream with Stevia. Like that's a cheat, you know, and really, I mean, it's still keto, right? So if keto is your cheat, that's not too bad. Right. That I never have. And if I ever get where sometimes like if I do something like that, And the next night I have like a sweet craving. I can just fast for 24 hours and then the cravings are gone because I'm already in this state of ketosis. I don't think I ever leave it, but. You gotta learn your body and it's kind of becoming a carnivore is you hone your skills, right? I think. Yeah, now you're talking about your, your depression and everything. I had that too, because I was always athletic and physically fit and you had a pretty good, you know, adult life up till, you know, right before covid and all this and all these things happen. And I got way out of shape. I didn't feel, I felt like a shadow of the man I used to be. Yeah. I didn't feel any hope that there was any way to turn it around. I felt like I was a shadow of what I, you know, what I was. And there's no way that I could get back to what I was before. So I thought I'd just like gradually go down this decline in health and die, you know, like my dad's doing kind of, and just like, hopefully I'll make it to 80. That's kind of what I thought, you know, maybe if I'm lucky and I won't get too sick where I'll, I'll stay out of the hospital. So that's really. All I had now, my life has changed completely. It's like, I have plans. I'm, I'm, you know, looking at investment properties. I just bought a Porsche. I'm like driving a sports car. I'm hitting the gym. I mean, I'm, my life is like I'm doing things I always wanted to do and always put off and I'm like, I'm just gonna, live for now and plan for the future. So I'm doing both and I wasn't doing either. And so what I ask you is when you were sick, metabolically ill, you know, how did that make you feel as a woman, a wife, a mother? Like, what did you feel? And what do you feel now as a carnivore? Like what's changed? Oh yeah, absolutely. I've always admired my husband. I find him to be very intelligent and very kind and understanding. And for the longest time, he never saw my weight because when we started, I've known him since I was 15 years old, he was 17 years old. And. And we were friends for a really long time. And then when we were in our early twenties, we decided to start dating and, you know, we've been together like 13 years now and he never saw, he never realized how unhealthy I was getting because he always just loved me unconditionally. We look back on these old photos of myself and him, and it's just, it's just unbelievable how much I've changed. I mean, sure. We look a little younger. I mean, he looks younger too, but you know, it's like, My face was literally like, so, so round and I was so, it's just, it's disgusting to me, like, I'm just being honest. It's I, I find myself, I'm disgusted by myself, but I'm just like, how could you love that? You know, but it's, he loved my soul and he loved my mind and he, you know, and we had been through so much together. And so he was actually the first person who told me because he has ulcer colitis. So my husband has ulcer colitis. He's been battling that since he was 18 years old. He's almost died like three or four times, you know, he was on feeding tubes and all this stuff. Very very difficult life that he had. And he's the first person to tell me, you need to look at the ingredients on a package. You need to stop eating fast food. You need to stop drinking soda. And so he was like the very beginning of. Someone who is going to help me with my weight, but he didn't have the knowledge that we have now about the importance of, and cholesterol and protein, everything was, you know, salads and lean chicken and it's not his fault. He didn't know, but he at least was saying, you know, you need to stay away from TBHQ and BHA. Like meanwhile, I had never even heard of what those things are. And so. My marriage and my, my relationship and my marriage with my husband before compared to now pales in comparison because now I'm able to keep up with it. Now I'm able to, you know, be on the same level almost because it's like, he'd be walking and we'd be going to do something and having fun. I'd be like, hold on, I got to take a rest. Or, you know, I felt like I was. And he never made me feel like that, but that was the truth. Your 20s? In my 20s! I'm 34 now. And it's like, in my early 20s is like when you're supposed to be at your peak, you know? And I was I was struggling just to like, so if it wasn't something to do with my body that was keeping me physically impaired, then it was my mind that was shattered and horrible. And, and there were so many, like, I don't know how many times. I would be breaking down from a panic attack and he'd just be there to help me and staying calm. And now I don't have those anymore. And it's just like, you could physically see the stress on his face and his body, you know, when he was trying to help me not, you know, lose it. And now it's like every day. It's just it's just wonderful in our marriage. I feel like that's awesome. And you, like, for me, I felt like less of a man. I mean, do you feel like more of a woman, more feminine, like more attractive, more desirable? Yeah, I definitely do. Because what I see. Before I feel like I'm, you know, I, I went from a size, I don't know if, you know, women's sizes, but for the women watching, I went through, I went from the size. That's okay. I had like a 50 inch weight hips. I had 50 inch hips and now I'm like. 38 or something like that. Like several of my heaviest to my smallest, I was a size extra large in a shirt. Now I'm a size small. I feel more feminine. Yeah, it's, it's incredible. I feel more, I definitely feel more feminine. I feel like I can express myself and, and, and wear the clothes that I always wanted to wear so that I feel good next to him, you know, because I feel like. When we're together, it's like, I don't know, we're a unit. We have to look good and present ourselves so that, because you never know who you're going to meet. You never know what connections you're going to have. So yeah, it's definitely, I definitely feel more feminine and more attractive. And I'm really thankful for that because I feel like I'm who I was always supposed to be, what I was always supposed to look like. That's what, you know, that's one thing I like to say about this. Cause I've talked to people, they're like, well, I don't want to lose weight. I just want to get healthy and that's the right attitude, but it's not. This is not really a weight loss diet. It's a body optimization diet and the body optimization. What it's going to do is going to dial your weight into the optimal weight for your body. And that weight, you may weigh more, it depends how much muscle you put on, how much bone density you add how much fat you lose, you'll lose fat. And that's the wonderful thing because you're going to replace it with stuff that matters like muscle and bone density. And don't zero in on weight, zero in on the way your clothes feel and fit. I know I saw some of your videos, you talk about that, which I love because I have a planning guide in my, on my website for people to plan their carnivore diet. And I have metrics in there that people can, you know key metrics they can, they can track every month and none of them have to do with the scale. Not one of them. They have to do with sleep quality. They have to do with mood. They have to do with going outside. Are you, are you, you know, motivated to get up off the couch and go for a walk? Are you, you know what, this is a stuff you, and then this is the stuff you track and how your clothes fit your weight is just, I mean, everyone zeros in the weight because that's the sexy thing. Oh, look all the weight I lost. I don't give a roof about that. You know, it's the energy is the life changing, you know, mental status. It's everything. I mean, your attitude on life. My, I'm alive again, you know, I'm back and that's what I was gone. I was gone and I was on a trip down and you know, I could put the break smile off for people too when I met him, but inside I was, I was horrible. And now inside, I feel great when I wake up, I don't have bad days. I just don't. And that's not something I ever had before. So what about being a carnivore mom? Now is your family on carnivore? Are they eating Keto or clean? What are they eating? Okay. So my son, he started carnivore at six months old and this is around, yeah, so six months old. And my daughter, and then this is in the second, in the second attempt at carnivore, my daughter started when I was about five months in and so they were eating, like I was trying to do whole foods, but it wasn't always whole food, it was packaged foods and stuff like that. So they were carnivore. My entire family was carnivore. Okay. For at least seven months strict strict carnivore because my daughter would not eat meat She had a lot of, she was very picky and very opinionated and she's, you know, she's only four years old, but she's incredibly intelligent. My daughter is very intelligent, but she was really struggling because before that she was only eating like pasta, rice, bananas, you know, you name it. All those starchy foods. Yeah. And so. Now we've, so I've, I've tapered off a little bit from that because she's now eating more meat and Because I had to get her off just like as you would an adult if you're addicted to you know carbs and sugar There's no way to moderate that after a while Then you can see if you can tolerate it. So now I call our family meat based, they pretty much eat like 90% carnivore foods, and then they'll have some fruit. Well, I think the definition of carnivore is 70% animal based diet. Yeah, it is. Right? So they are carnivore, but they're really, they are animal based diet. But the, the YouTube algorithm probably would not categorize them. Disagree. Yeah, carnivore police would be like, yeah, you know, no, you're not. So my son, my son's 14 and he did carnivore strict through the summer last year. And now he's. He's with me. He does whole food almost all the time. Good. Now, the other day we went out and I got him a burger and he ate, he ate the bun. He had a milkshake with it. And I don't have a problem with the milkshake or the bun. The guy's an athlete, he's in good shape, but he ate fries and that really bothered me. And I, I want to tell him, but I'm, I don't wanna be the dad that beats him up. But you know, the seed oils are the thing that scare, scare me the most because we know they damage mitochondria, which causes cancer and we know they have a half life. In your body of like 600 days or something. Crazy. Ooh. So, oh, crazy. It's like, it takes five years for them to leave your body when you eat them, which is terrible. Right. So anyway, I, that, that's the one thing that bothered me. But yeah, being a carnivore dad, when he's with me, I make fries at home for him with sweet potatoes. I cut him. I fry them in lard, I put salt on them. And I even eat a couple every now and then. I know, don't say anything, but I've tasted them. I just want to make sure they're right. You know, they're like cooked all the way. And I give him the lion's share and I just have a couple of bites cause, but you know what, I'm never addicted to it. I was like, Oh, I gotta have more. Like I, you know, back in the day I would knock out some massive fries wherever I went or onion rings or whatever. It was like the worst. Yeah, fast food's terrible. And I used to, I used to think I was doing him right and feeding him healthy by going to Chick fil a back in before I was, before I was a carnivore. And I thought, well, that's the healthy thing, right? Just like you said, eating salad and stuff. I would go and I'd get a salad there because I was going to eat healthy. And then I would get him like a chicken sandwich and a shake and fries. How awful is that? That is like all seed oil, a hundred percent. And now looking back, I just, I just think that, you know, so many people are just so misinformed, disinformed, I guess. I mean, we, we thought we were doing the right thing, right? And I was not malicious, but I was poisoning my, my son and it feels bad looking back. I wish I would have known like your kids are going to grow up knowing this, right? And they can make their choices when they will. But at least they know, and they've had real food. Exactly. And I always want to make a priority of whole foods in my family, because, you know, as long as I'll be happy as a mother that I did my job, if my kids end up being anywhere on the, the proper human diet spectrum, anywhere from low carb to carnivore, or, you know, if they want to go lion diet, they can't, but you know, it's like, if there's, and it's always whole food, I would feel proud to know that my efforts. They saw my efforts and they, and they learned and they actually were, they actually decided to put their, their body first and their mind first and not to succumb to these really, I kind of called them like sirens, you know, the, like the fast food and the packaged food and all that stuff. They're, they're monsters waiting to like destroy you from the inside out. But I never want to play spy. Fear of those foods because I, there was a long time as a carnivore mom, I had fear that, you know, it's like if we, we took them out to dinner or something like that, I'd let them eat what they wanted because it's not at home. Right. That was kind of like the mentality I had for a while and it would eat me alive because they're like, Oh my gosh, what did I just put them to their body? But I've calmed down a lot and that's, you know, yeah, it's, it's an interesting thing to deal with, with kids. Cause the thing is too, it's hard for them because they're so resilient. They can eat the poison and not feel bad. They can't, they can just, I was there. I did that. I mean, I, now, of course, when I was a kid, The fries at all these places were fried in talent. They weren't fried in seed oil. So the, the fries were healthier, you know, and the burgers were probably a little healthier. Everything was a little healthier, still bad. It was just not as bad right now. This stuff, when I look at it, I just see straight up poison. I see straight up, you know, cancer, you know, Alzheimer's, all these things. I just see that being caused by all this stuff. And it's like, man, I don't want that for my son, but he's got to make his own decisions. And I respect him. He's very intelligent. I respect him and, you know, I'll let him know how I feel, but I'm not going to be, you know, hovering over him and trying to influence his daily decision making. So that's, that's the difference. I guess like when we go on our trip, we're going to go on a summer trip to visit my dad in Alabama. We're driving the new Porsche out there. It'll be a lot of fun. It's super comfortable, but the whole way we're driving. I'm going to be playing some YouTube videos and podcasts on carnivore. So he's going to get it. When I pick them up in school, I have a carnivore podcast going. So he hears it on the way home, you know? So he's going to always have those seeds planted. That's my, my passive, I guess it's passive aggressive. I don't know. I mean, whatever you call it, it's just whatever. It's about being a dad, right? It's like, yeah, you're just, but not being aggressive. Yeah, you know, the kids are going to be influenced by anything, like with the young kids, you have to be so careful with what they're watching, you know, I'm very protective of over that and every single kid show, they're always singing about how vegetables are good for you, and it's like, it's such a hard narrative. To like get away from, and I'm really, like I said, I really limit my kids with what they can watch and how long they can watch, because I don't like screens, which is funny because I do YouTube, but I really don't, I don't think it's appropriate for kids for a long period of time, you know, like how, how it is today, because like, I didn't grow up with a screen in my face, you know, I watched TV and that was about it, you know, so it's definitely a different world we're living in, but they're going to be exposed to anything and everything out there. And so I think that's great that you're playing those podcasts. I let my kids see videos, you know, they, they're starting to learn, you know, like I'll probably have my daughter watch this and be like, well, what's his name? Like that's Larry and he's a veteran. And then, you know, talk about how we're eating and stuff like that. And. You know, you just have to involve your kids because it's like, it's a part of your life. Why I think that if they love you and they care about you, they'll have like at least like 5 percent interest. So they'll probably be like, Oh, let's listen to, you know? Yeah. And I took him to KetoCon with me and he wasn't really into it. Cause he's kind of out of the diet thing, but he got to meet like Dr. Chafee and Dr. Baker and. Got to see a lot of cool stuff. He got bored pretty quick, so I took him home, but that was on Saturday, I think, but at least he got exposed to it and he got to see you know, the carnivore teacher and that was great. Anyway, it was very you know, like I said, I like to expose him to things and he'll make his decisions later, but he'll always know he can fall back to this. He'll always know what the changes he saw in my life. I mean, I have changed and he knows that and that's always going to be in the back of his mind. He'll know that have that experience. So if he ever does go down the wrong road and start experiencing bad effects he can always opt for changing his diet. Now your your husband is his ulcerative colitis better on the whole food diet that he's eating? Yes, he is managing it. He, he, it's really funny because he's been, since we started dating, actually, which, so we were like 23, now we're, I'm 34. It's been a while. He was on a medication called Remicade, which is an infusion. And it's kind of like a sister drug to chemotherapy. So you can kind of think of it as like, you know, it shuts down his entire immune system. Essentially, and it's incredibly, I hate that he was on it for so long, but you know, he hasn't been on it in like a year and it was kind of unintentional because we were like, oh, you should, we're trying to, you know, eat better, eat more meat and stay away from other things. There's sometimes he deviates from it. He's not as strict as I am but he's not had any symptoms like at all. And it's. I don't want to jinx it. Like, I don't want to talk about it. I'm like, let's see how long this goes, you know, cause if he needs to go back on the medicine, cause he has a lot, like he doesn't have any bridges in his colon anymore. Just due to how painful and yeah, it, he has, he's had a really hard experience with ulcerative colitis, but he's been like, what is happening? I know what's happening. He's eating, he's eating good food, eating the right food that we're designed to have. Yeah. Our body's designed to eat. Animal based fats. That's why we have, I think, five organs that for the, to handle the fat that we eat, because we're designed to eat that. Pretty crazy, right? Okay. So what is your, what are your greatest challenges with carnivore? You said you've gone off and gone back on now with that. When you went off, it was kind of like the doctor scaring you. But how great is that? I mean, that drives me crazy. My doctor is a vegan, believe it or not. It's a VA. Well, she's religious vegan because she's Indian. And so it's a little different. She's not like a militant vegan. She's just a vegan because she's an Indian and that is her religion. And so I was telling her about the dangers of seed oils. And I'm like, you know, can you eat ghee or butter or coconut oil? I say coconut oil is probably the best thing you can eat then, you know out of the, and maybe avocado oil, if it's not, if it's unadulterated, but so hard to find pure or, or pure olive oil. It's really unadulterated in a dark bottle, you know, not oxidized, very hard to find, but if you're going to cook high temperature, probably coconut oil is the best. But anyway, you know, my doctor's telling me like, oh, you know, All this bad advice. And then I come back this year for my physical and she's like, everything about you is better, everything except for your LDL is high. I'm like, yeah, but LDL being high when you're not metabolically sick is no problem that is healthy. That is not a problem. I try glycerides are low. I have no metabolic syndrome. My, you know, fasting glucose level's low. So LDL alone being high is not a marker for any heart, you know? So it's pretty awesome. And she recognized that. She recognized that, but she's like, I don't know what to do because I got it. You know?'cause she, you could tell she. over the last couple of years, she's getting sicker. She's older now and it's, I can see she's, she's declining and she's only a 40 minute, you know, late forties. I'm like, man, I can see the decline and it's, it's pretty sad. But what were your greatest challenges? I know that I got off on the doctor thing. What were your greatest challenges with carnivore so far? No, you're fine. I actually really liked hearing that. I'm, I hope that Something changes within her, but that's a really hard situation for her to be in. I understand. A challenge for carnivore was I had to be in the right mindset because I, you know, I, I had a previous what is it? What is the best way to say it? Like, you know, I loved food. I love eating food. I love every emotion that I had. Happy, sad, angry, bored. Whatever it was tied to food. And so I had to really break that way of thinking that mindset and fill it with something else. And I just find that the carnivore foods that really. That really helped me, but it wasn't until I found the carnivore community. Cause this is like, you know, my second and final time. I feel like I'm just like, I'm on a good streak now. Like I'm not going to jinx it or anything like that, but I didn't have the carnivore community and seeing the stories I think really is what helped me stay away from like sugar cravings and searching for substitution foods and hyper palatable foods, because there, there are still hyper palatable foods on carnivore and I seldom eat them now, but. It's, I think that if you're not within a community, the, one of the greatest challenges is that you feel alone. And even though I'm, you know, I have my children and my husband doing it with me. People outside of that look at me like I'm, I don't know, like a vegan. No, I'm just kidding. Like I, like I'm doing something so harmful, especially for my kids. They're like, I can't believe you're doing that. You could just moderate, like, what are you doing? And it's like. I cannot moderate. Maybe I can now, like with keto foods, if I really wanted to, but I just don't want, you know, because like, I know that keto works for me. What was a challenge with keto was I was making keto pizza, and then I was making keto bread, and then I was eating keto protein bars, which is just candy, basically, and that was my downfall, because sugar cannot be. Unless I think a natural sugar like a fruit can be moderated, but regardless of that, that those things are really, really hard for me. So, yeah, I, I'm the community. I've actually had like slices of apple because I cut, I cut apples up for my son and put peanut butter on them. For him. I get now I get peanut butter that's got no seed oils. I get a hundred percent peanut peanut butter. Got it. And I make him a, a, a snack where I'll cut an apple up and slices, put a little peanut butter on there and put a little salt on there and give it to him. And he loves it. And so I'll eat a slice every now and then. And, but I never get that sugar high. And I also never get the craving after. So I would not eat like a whole apple probably, but every now and then it's like, yeah, it's not going to hurt you probably to to do a little thing like that. Or I eat a blueberry when I get them blueberries and I'd rinse them off and I'll make, I'll maybe one or two, but that's about it. So it's it's pretty it's interesting. My, my relationship with food has changed as well. It's no longer the centerpiece of my Entertainment because it was like, Hey, let's go out and try a restaurant. And it's funny being single. You look at the dating apps. And almost all of them, almost every female out there puts on their finding new restaurants to explore that kind of stuff. It's like something that they love as an activity. That's like a number one activity for almost. Every dating profile I see. Yeah. And cooking together. Well, yeah, cause it's such a big, it's, it's, it's central going out and eating is central and it's so weird being single and not doing that. It is a challenge for me. I'll be honest because I've gone on dates and going on a date and then they want to order dinner. And it's like well, I wasn't really planning on anything because I already ate today and I'm, I'm not hungry. Oh, I guess you eat, you know? I mean. And then if I do order, I'll order like just a burger patty. And they're having like, whatever. And they're like, do you wanna bite it? I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm, and it's just weird, right? It's, you almost think I'm like some extreme person, but, and it's so, it's not fun. That's hard. I tell you that. That's hard. It is hard. So I think that you just have to, if you're carnivore, find someone else that's a carnivore too, and, you know, you don't want to try to indoctrinate'em into your, your eating style or whatever, but. That's the last thing it's like, try to get someone to become a Christian or something because you're a Christian, you want them to already be there and maybe have that in common. That'd be good. But it's so weird. It's for me, eating is like fueling up at the gas station now, and that's about how much entertainment it is for me now, too. So I like to liken it to like, Hey, if we got the whole family together and throw them in the car and Hey guys, let's go get gas. And you guys can all sit around and watch people gas in the car. And if you want, you can hold the handle. That's not, that's not entertainment, right? That is fueling the car up to go do something more fun. And this is exactly what eating is now for me. It's fueling the body up so I could do something more fun or more productive. Eating is not fun for me anymore, really. And that's not a problem. I just eat because I get hungry and I want to. Eat quickly and move on. So I love my air fryer as a single guy, air fryer to create, I can air fry some meat in there and it's going. Nice. Yeah. So anyway, when you cook meals for your family, do you use like air fryers and stuff? Or do you do? I mean, what's your meal planning like? Is it much more simplified than it was before when you're on keto or regular? Absolutely. I think that carnivore brings a simplicity to life. That I didn't expect as a homemaker and a wife and a mother, there's a lot of things that go on in a woman's brain. You'll see a lot of jokes about that online. You know, it's like, we're thinking about the dishes and then the laundry and then helping with the homework. And then, you know, thinking about, you know, all the social things with our friends. And, you know, it's, there's a lot of moving pieces when you're a homemaker and I feel it's a breath of fresh air. that Carnivore brings because it is so simple, like incredibly simple. It's all whole food ingredients. I don't use any fancy gadgets. I use my oven. I use my stove. I have a toaster oven, like that's it. And if I need to, I'll have a mixer if I want to make whipped cream or something like that for the kids, but that's really rare. And you know a breakfast will be sausage and some bacon and some eggs. And, and maybe some yogurt and some berries at, and then that's, that's breakfast. Like you literally just. Either cook it in a pan or stick it all on the sheet pan and stick it in the oven, like just one, and you're just like, okay, bacon okay, great, boom, 20 minutes, done, and then there's leftovers too, which is great. And then, you know, lunch could be burger patties with more bacon or, or fish. Like I had some, you know, salmon with butter and a little tiny bit of cream cheese because I love cream cheese and like boom, lunch is done. The salmon cooks in like 10 minutes in the oven. Look, it's incredible. Like how simple it is. And I had actually made a, my latest video. I talked about how How simple homemaking has become, especially since I was living with a lot of stress in my old, my old home with a lot of plumbing issues. We just moved here about a week or two ago. And it's, it's like, it's now even more simple because now I have a sink that functions and I have a dishwasher and I can wash clothes. And on my, like, there's just so many things that I'm so thankful for. And the simplicity is definitely, it's incredible. Yeah. I love A couple of things here. One is when I go grocery shopping now, it's speed checkout every time 15 or less. Always, if not self check, self check my normally. So and and it's usually I go to the gym and then I just drive by the grocery store and stop and buy two or three things. That's all I need. And I drive home. I don't ever like have a basket full of stuff other than water. I'll get water from an ice machine or something like distilled water. That's the only big stuff I get. Or I get sparkling water. Right. They have a sparkling water there and I'll get those. That's the only big stuff I get. And the other thing I noticed is well, I, I generate way less trash. I have one bag a week that I take out even if it's not full because it's like, okay, I got to take this out. You know, it's got like eggshells in it and stuff. So, and then the other thing is I don't, I have barely any trash and then doing dishes, I don't have nearly as many dirty dishes because like you said, you cook with one item and one thing, and then you don't have like five pots and pans and. Bowls and all this stuff's gone. Right. My bowls, my prep, they're gathering dust in the cabinet and I know. And and my pantry was empty cause I threw away most stuff on pantry. So now I moved like a lot of the stuff that I used to use toaster and all this stuff into the pantry. I don't even, I can't envision ever using a toaster again, but like a regular toaster pop and then Yeah, doing dishes. Now that the dishes there is more fat on the you got to use more soap and scrub a little better, but it's easier. I mean, because less in the plates too, but it's just, I don't even use my dishwasher anymore. I do everything by hand. It's just easy. Oh, that's great. Just to just to knock it out and being single is with my son even is pretty easy to do. But yeah, that's, that's it. That's my experience with yeah, with doing the carnivore, simplifying my life. Okay. So what was the most unexpected thing you experienced at carnivore? Like what blew you away the most that you did not expect? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay. So I like to say this carnivore is cheaper than therapy. And I feel like since I've so silly, but I feel like since I've been on carnivore, I can now really dig deep and figure out where, cause I have a lot of like, Internal anger from people in my life that, you know, who did wrong by me, or, you know, I, I was told a lot when I was a child that made me still gets me really upset. You know, like, you talk too much. You're not very intelligent. You're so bubbly your head is in the clouds. And so I had a. I had difficulty. And I held all this anger in, like, so I have this like perfectionistic kind of thing where it's like, I want to do things perfectly. I want to do it right. But, and if I mess up, I like tear myself apart because I'm like, Oh, I'm just all those things that people said to me when I was little. And I confronted those people who had said those things to me. And it was always like, Oh, they didn't mean it. Like it was unintentional. It was just like a, I don't know. Oh, you were so cute. And it just seemed like you're always with your head in the clouds and stuff like that. It's like, no, your words that you say to your children. Even if you don't mean it, like you're not trying to be malicious, it really can hurt somebody. And so one of the unexpected things from carnivore is being able to look back on those things and realize when I get triggered and when I'm feeling like, you know, especially as a mom. Like, you know, cause I had toddlers and so they have these outbursts and stuff like that, and I've learned that the reason why I want to control them is because I can't control myself. And I feel like a lot of parents tend to like blow up or get really upset. And I've been there and it's, it's really hard sometimes when you don't realize that you're being triggered from something that your child does. And now I'm so aware of it. Now I'm just like, wow, I'm getting upset over this thing. And now I can take a step back. I can breathe, I can think about it, and I can be a better mother now, and I can have better communication, and if I mess up, I fess up to it, and I don't pretend like nothing bad happened, I'm the parent, I didn't, there's nothing, I can't do anything wrong, I apologize if I mess up, but I'm like, you know what, I got really angry, and that's not your fault, this is my fault, because this is something mommy's working on, and so it's like, Where did that come from? I just started working properly. I mean, it's really what it is anymore. No. And yeah, I think the, you know, when you talk about the brain functionality, I love Dr. Chafee talking about it, like all these different. Synapse is firing off to each other, and they're all in perfect timing. And when you, when you bad food, it starts misfiring. And people can't think straight and they can't, they aren't, they aren't optimal. They aren't acting like they're designed to be acting. They're acting in a inferior way. And I, I, I think I was there too. So yeah, I think, you know, mental health, it goes beyond just you know. Anxiety being gone and well, the anxiety I think was because you weren't able to handle things. You handle them better. So you don't have the anxiety. I think you don't experience it me anyway, as much as I did. I get anxiety like driving and stuff. Like I get all angry. I think that's why I was road rage. People are just, you know, I grew up, we didn't have road rage in the seventies. I never even heard of it until like the nineties, I think is when it started becoming a big thing. And That's the diet thing that started that. But I think it really did. I think people's brains just started going off the reservation a little bit. All right. So let's talk about your YouTube channel. YouTube channel is. At nourishment redacted. I'll bring it up there. It is right there. Ellie at Nourishment Redacted. Like and subscribe and check her stuff out. But why did you start that? I know you said because you saw Kerry. Is that basically all there was to it? Yeah. He, he's the one that had inspired me. I actually started a YouTube channel. A different channel when I was 17 years old and I was doing blogs and I was really into editing, editing videos and making and doing graphic design. And I had this, and I used to, when I was a little kid, I used to make a home. I used to record all the home videos and do skits with my cousins and. I was a very creative kid in that aspect. And eventually I learned to have a love of writing and I feel like the YouTube channel has been an amalgamation of all those loves. I love painting and I love, you know, creating. And so unfortunately my YouTube channel, when I was 17 years old, did not last long because my mother. Saw it and then she made me delete the whole thing. And I thought that YouTube would save my videos forever. But when I closed my account, I realized, Oh, all my videos are gone now. Yeah, I don't know what I was doing. And I had to leave them off my computer. So unfortunately I do not have any of those. I have like very few clips, which is, which sucks. Cause I had made like 70 videos or something like that at the time. But my YouTube channel is. I want to help spread the message of, you know, that you don't have to be sick anymore, especially for children. So I have on my channel I have a podcast that I do called called mother knows best. I invite a car or mom to come on and they, or they can be like low carb or keto. Somewhere, anywhere in the, in the proper human spectrum proper human diet spectrum. And I like to invite them on and, and talk about why they decided to go against the status quo, why they have changed their, how they changed their lives with it. And how does it affect their children? Because that was a question that I had when I was, you know, I had, I started eating carnivore and my, my month, my son turned six months old. I'm like, what am I doing? Am I doing the right thing here? And I think it's. It's something that a lot of parents don't talk about and especially moms, if they're really concerned or confused about what is the right foods to feed. And then on my channel, I like to, I wanted to just share my carnivore journey as well. So I have carnivore diet updates, you know, and this past I have, if you're, if someone's watching and they want to see my one year update. I lost 30 pounds and 30 inches, 33 inches off my body in one year. So, and you can see, you know, in my updates, I do all the measurements and everything like that. And I also have a live stream show called lioness lifestyle life. I go every go on every Tuesday and we're totally going to take over your channel, Larry on the Wednesday, and that should be a lot of. When we invite a meat based woman to come on and we allow her to have a chance to share her story and talk about the incredible changes that she's seen in her life due to diet. And yeah, that's, that's, I just want to share and help as many people as possible who might have been suffering just like me. So have you seen the video on this blog? I did a I did a, or not blog on this podcast. I did a interview with Darlene Beth, who had a severe ADHD child, and she went against it. Yeah, so watch that. Okay, go back into my, my channel. Look, and she, it's all, it's all we talk about is the ADHD, getting him off Ritalin, get him off all these. He was suicidal at like eight years old. He said, mom, I don't want to live anymore. And cause he's on all these drugs. This is a great doc and you need to get her on your show, but first you need to watch that interview. She's really good. And she took a stand against her family who are all nurses and such. And they were like, you're your tape. They basically said, You're removing what he needs to succeed by taking the drugs away. You're, you're hurting him. And he, she, she had to take a stand by herself. She's not married. And she just said, I'm just doing what I think is right, because I don't think giving my son, you know, methamphetamine is for the rest of his life. It's a good thing. And, and he had never, I believe he had never gotten above a C plus on any of his grades and he had D's and C's. The first report card after being carnivore for like, I think six months was A's and B's. I mean, complete, complete change. So it's so huge, huge. I need to watch that. What a brave mother. What a brave mother. I mean, you know, so yeah, check out it's in my, I only have like 10 videos on this podcast, so you'll find it. But it's the carnivore way. There's a playlist and find Darlene Beth, ADHD mom. That's a really good one. Okay. So look, I have a video where I talk about how not to fail and I talk about you know, how people say, well, I can't do it. I always, you know, slip up and then I bring up the fact that if we opened up an escrow account and I put 25, 000 in that escrow account, would you have any problem making it 31 days on this diet? If you knew you got that 25, 000 at the end of the month? And I guarantee you, no one would have a problem, even if it was Christmas and they had to go to a party, they probably just wouldn't go or they'd go and they would be very strict because they knew they'd lose 25, 000. Right. If they didn't. So it's really about the why. It's not about they can't do it. So I have a question I want to ask you if I were to offer you 25, 000 now to go back to standard American diet and never do carnivore, would you take it? No, absolutely not. I wouldn't give up anything. I wouldn't give up anything in the world to go back to what I was before. I was a shell of a person. Like. Money comes and goes in life, but your health is always going to your mind, your body, your soul, how you're taking care of it, how you're taking care of the people around you. That is so much more important than material things. And so thank you for the money, but I'll say no, thank you. Yeah, it's just, you know, that's the thing. I love that question because it puts things in perspective with people. And you know, not everyone values money like that, but a lot of people do. And 25, 000, not a little amount, you know but I think when you're on the carnivore diet and you change your life so much, I can easily make 25, 000 more in a year if I want to, by being more productive, by doing things differently. I mean, I have so much more energy. I'm on top of things and. Before that wasn't the case. So no one could pay me 25, 000, 50, 000, even a hundred thousand dollars to go back. I would not, I would not, I would not go back. It would be the end of my life. I know that. And you know, I don't want to go to that, that deterioration. I want to be like a finely tuned Ferrari my whole life and then just die the last day, whatever day it is, I don't care if it's like. Boom. Go from a hundred percent functionality to zero and you know, wake up in heaven. That's the way I want to be. I don't want to be gradually getting sicker and gradually getting weaker and less capable of doing things. So you know, that's that there is an option. You don't have to go that route and that's what this is all about. So, well, Ellie, this has been really good. We've got a few more minutes. I'm just going to give you the floor. If you were to. Talk to somebody who's watching this video who's just checking out Carnivore and has never done it. What advice would you give them? And how to get started or how to, you know, move forward in healing themselves. Absolutely. So if I were to speak to someone who was just starting out on carnivore and they needed that motivation, I would let them know that you don't have to be in pain anymore. You don't have to. Essentially be suffering and allowing this Franken food. That's what I like to call it. All this processed food, this fake food and these, these traditions that we put on, like every birthday you have to have cake and, you know, it's like, you don't have to succumb to those things and those expectations because those expectations, they're not easy to live up to. Yeah. You could. You could eat the birthday cake every year and for every single love person that, you know, and then on top of that, then you, then you start eating ice cream at the end of the night and then it just continues to get worse. And so I would challenge them. I would ask them, I would think, what is more important to you in life? What, wouldn't it be great? And then if there was some, like, say they had type two diabetes or they had arthritis, like, wouldn't it be amazing if you could get off your medication, wouldn't it be amazing if you could, you know, walk and start using your hands like I used to. And I would really like to show that perspective of you can live a different life essentially. And what are you going to do to get that? And I think that if we remember our pain. Then we can take the steps forward so that we don't have to continue to live that pain. And there's hope there and that hope is so, so powerful. And if they're like, well, where do I start? How do I do this? You know, I would say. Just start slowly, just pick one type of food. If you're take away the bread and continue to eat like that for a week, then take away the pasta and eat like that for a week. Stop eating fast food. You know if you're drinking alcohol, stop doing that too. There's just so many things that can be potentially holding you back in life and your life is worth it. Your life is worth it and you deserve to be the best version of yourself. And I would get really immersed in listening and learning as much as you can from the doctors and the real life stories, and just know that you can be one of those success stories too. And that's my encouragement to them. Yeah, that's really good stuff. I I agree with it all. I think the first things I would cut out, if I were to cut out food, would be seed oils, number one. Dump out all your seed oils. Don't use them. Cook with animal fats. That's the first thing. Even if you're going to cook bad food. Cook with animal effects, and that's a And then, and then cut, cut out sugar and alcohol for me, I didn't cut it out initially. I cut it out over time. And it's interesting'cause I know it's not just me, but a lot of people, their bad habits slash addictions. fall away on this guy. And it's because it's a fasting mimicking diet and fasting does help with addictions. I mean, we're talking gambling addictions, pornography, addictions, alcohol addictions. People, they are freed of these addictions with with diet, which is crazy because your brain actually start working right and it doesn't seek that outside dopamine hit because your body's just, it's making all it needs and you just feel good. So it's it's crazy. But I know a lot of people have experienced it. Not just me. I don't drink nearly like I used to. And I don't, I've known people that quit smoking from it and never, never set out to stop buying cigarettes when they ran out crazy, man. Cause I quit smoking back, you know, decades ago and it was really hard. And then like me, when I ran out of bourbon, I just stopped buying bourbon. I'm like, I just don't feel like going out and buying it. I don't want to drink it tomorrow. So why should I buy a bottle? And it's really, really strange. So, yeah, I agree. If you're gonna dial stuff back, I would just start with like seed oils and breads and stuff. You can cut that stuff out and, and all processed food, you know, throw away, throw away protein bars, all that garbage and just eat real whole food. That's, that's really the way to go. Well, it's been great Ellie. I'm going to drop you off. I'm going to say goodbye to everybody. If you want to stick around with your chat for a few minutes afterwards. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. Yeah, it was great. Okay. All right, guys. Another great podcast here, the carnivore way. We really appreciate Ellie. She's got a great story and has a lot to offer. Please check her channel out. And all I got to say, guys, is stay strong and overcome carnivore soldier out.