Carnivore Approach: Less Plants More Healing for Hashimoto’s? With Caitlin Weeks

Introduction to Carnivore for Hashimoto's 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Thyroid Pharmacists Healing Conversations podcast. Today we're going to be diving into a topic that many people might not be aware of, and it's the carnivore diet as a healing diet for Hashimoto's. So we are actually talking less plants, more meat and how that can make you feel better. We're joined by Caitlin Weeks, also known as the Grass-Fed Girl. She is a certified nutrition consultant, personal trainer, and founder of the popular keto blog, grassfedgirl.com. She's the bestselling author of one of my favorite cookbooks, the Mediterranean Paleo Cooking, which incorporates the mediterranean diet and ancestral foods into easy flavorful recipes.

After yo-yo dieting and excessive exercising through her teens and 20s, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's. Like myself and many of you listening, while learning to heal her own thyroid and body, With a full-body approach, she chronicled the journey on her blog to help others dealing with similar issues. Her mission is to empower people to find wellness on their own terms with a nutrient-dense, low-carb diet and a non-toxic lifestyle through self-love and personal experimentation.

Welcome, Caitlin. It's so great to have you here with us. Thank you so much, Isabella. I've been a fan of your work for years and you're helping so many people. Thank you so much. Likewise, I've been a big fan of your work as well, and it's been really fun to watch your evolution and watch you're healing journey as you've gone from low carb, paleo, autoimmune, Paleo and keto. And really, you were figuring out what was working best for you. I'd love for your to share a little bit about your healing, journey and some of the paths that you took on that journey.

Well, yeah, thank you. I was a Southern girl growing up in Nashville and I had my grandma fixing fried chicken and biscuits and all that kind of stuff. You know, I grew up eating standard American diet, but a lot of fried foods and whatever I could get my hands on. I loved eating candy and sweets and treats and big southern family, you know, so it was all about food and that was the social thing. But then as I get older, I started having weight problems around Even as young as six, seven years old, I was in Weight Watchers with my parents and, you know, a lot of weight problems in my family growing up.

So I kind of just was always surrounded by dieting. And then in high school, i really got into it and I started going to the gym myself. by myself and really restricting, starting to restrict food and seeing how many hours I go without eating and, really, destructive things for a young person.

Caitlin's Early Dieting and Weight Struggles 2:53

But then I went to college. I had lost some weight in high school. It looked pretty good going into college, and then, I got that freshman 25. Then I became 50 by the time I graduated. I was really at the heaviest of my life when I And that was really sad for me. But I was doing everything wrong. I just was kind of like, I'm going to have fun. And I am going eat whatever I want. So I eating tons of pizza, tons late nights, snacking with friends, and just going out. Then, so I 240 when I graduated, really depressed about that.I was happy to graduate, but then I don't even want to walk on the stage.

This is really kind kind of an aha moment because I was like I don't even want to walk on the stage even though I had like a big black you know gown thing like graduation cape thing but I still felt so gross and um so it's kind like okay I'm happy but i'm sad at the same time and I really want do something about this so then I started dieting again after you know when I got away from that college scene and I was back in my parents house and i was like i'm gonna go to Weight Watchers again on my own and this time I really kind of learned more but You know, they have some good things to teach you as far as like eating protein, as with your points, like allotting your point in a smart way.

Like I learned like, okay, you can't really get through the day unless you use yourpoints in smart ways. You can just use all yourpoint for a Snickers bar or you're going to run out at 8 a.m., you know. So this was back when they had the points. And then, so I started eating some protein and low fat, very low-fat. That was in the early 2000s. So I was really into the lowfat and I thought this is not that hard. I was young, so it was working and I lost 90 pounds. It was like a year, I mean it, was really fast.

So I said, this was easy. And I wasn't doing extreme exercise at the time and was just like, This isn't that bad. so I lose all this weight and said I'm going to tell everybody about this. I mean, you don't realize that youth is on your side, I guess. Then I became a personal trainer. I moved to California and I was like, ''I know the answer.'' I'm just going to teach everybody about being on a low-fat diet, counting their calories, calories points, whatever. It's basically the same thing. And then I thought, oh, well, why doesn't everybody do this?

So I taught all my clients and they had a lot of success with personal training. And I thought I had it all figured out. And then I did a bunch of half marathons and I was just really just like push, push push. I never listened to my voice in my head about should I, am I tired? I though that was like the lazy voice. That was the fat me talking. I never listened to that. How do you actually feel today? I was just like, that's just shut up. You need to exercise more, work harder, because you don't want to get fat again.

I just pushed that down and then One day, I had been a personal trainer for probably five years plus. And I started having this crazy joint pain in my elbow. All I'd done was little dumbbell curls like this. My elbow hurt for two weeks. I was like, this is weird. About 32 then. And it just didn't go away. And I was like, this really weird, you know, and I started noticing it. Then I starting feeling super tired, like super-tired. Like I had to hold the wall when I training people. That doesn't look too good when you're supposed to be like this energetic trainer and you are like holding the walk or I have to sit down.

When I break, I would have go home and nap. And it was like, Oh, a lot of times I had morning clients and then had night clients. So I would go home, nap, and I'd try to get back to the gym. And that second time, I mean, it, was, It was almost impossible for me to back. I was just like to, get out of bed and go back was this, And I, like something's wrong with me. This isn't right. mean I always had energy. Everything was fine. My digestion started going crazy. It felt like I was starting to react to every food I ate.

I had sort of gotten into that five meal a day thing. It was sort like a bodybuilder. So I like carrying this cooler with all these meals in it. But I just felt... terrible all of a sudden and my husband noticed he was like you're sleeping all the time what's wrong with you and i mean i wanted to sleep at like 18 hours a day i i only had you know let's say i had six clients all, the rest of the, time i was sleeping so uh that's six hours of work and then sleeping, so it was really weird and And I went to the doctor and they're like, well, you know, maybe you should get on a birth control pill, a change your birth, do something like that.

And they were like you are 30 now, and I was like I feel like i'm dying. I don't know. This is not just like changing my pill or something. So I kept searching and my mom had actually gone to like a chiropractor that had given her a lot of information and I think he was actually a detese Karazian person. He had the list of the thyroid test and she sent me that list. I asked the doctor and they were like, no, you don't need that. We just, of course, do the TSH. They gave me the form. So I was like well, I'm just going to fill this in myself.

What's the big deal? Then They said, you can no longer be a patient here. Did you try to order your own labs? Yeah. It was just like you could just circle it, and I didn't know that it was such a problem. You're a red flag. And so they said you, can't be patient anymore.

Hashimoto's Symptoms and Diagnosis 10:11

I was like, oh, okay. But I had my results. So, I took them and of course they weren't covered by my insurance. I had to pay like $1,500, something crazy, which was like, at that time was a lot of money, you know, but I have the results. So I felt like okay, I can do something with this. so I actually had ran into a naturopathic doctor that was working nearby my gym and she looked at it immediately and said, You have Hashimoto's like right away, And in California back then, I don't know how it is now, but they could prescribe natural desiccated thyroid.

So that was just super lucky because within two weeks, it was like I was raised from the dead. It was they dug me out of the coffin. I mean, and I think you would understand or somebody who had been through it because I think, especially in carnivore, people don't give thyroid medication any credit and they think you should get off of it immediately or something. But I know what happened to me and I'm like, that was the biggest change I've ever seen. Immediately, I felt better and then I could actually think and Now I can do something, I could research more.

I wasn't needing to sleep all the time. And I was like, so then I got really interested in nutrition and I went to nutrition school. There was a pretty good nutrition in Berkeley and lived in San Francisco. So part of it was building a protocol. It was three different, there was cleansing a building and something else. But the building is what I really gravitated towards, and there was a lot more protein. And then I was realizing, well, everybody needs that, kind of. More about blood sugar and stuff.

Then they started teaching about Weston A. Price and GAPS diet. I mean, I so I mean it was like a fire hose of information I was so happy like I just was this is everything that I need to know you know so i was doing everything you, know when you're new at it you were like i'm going to try everything and it, was really fun to, try all that stuff and you. Know your own guinea pig because I, I got better and better, but my one thing that never really got, better was my digestion. I was pounding vegetables.

That was back to my Weight Watchers days because that was like zero points, zero calories, they didn't count vegetables at all. So I'm just going to eat as many vegetables as I can because I I'll lose weight. And of course, I never lost weight anymore. My digestion was just horrible. I was very, very constipated. Very bloated, my fingers would swell up and down. People would notice my rings. They're like, wow, you know, your finger. I met another practitioner years later and she was like why don't you try carnivore?

Just like try it for a month. And I was, like okay, I mean, well, it took me about three or four months to actually try because I'm not doing that. It's crazy. But I've tried everything else, and I did feel better. I did current horror in Within. another, you know, two weeks. I mean, it was almost as dramatic as the first time. Like I was I. Was just like, wow. You know all the bloating went away.I felt so much better. l lost 20 pounds like within the 1st couple of months and that was in 2018 and then I just kept doing and doing it.

And then l got pregnant in 2020 and l stayed pretty much carnivore while l was pregnant. and I ate a little bit of fruit just because I had really, really bad sugar cravings and it was summer and It was hot and one of the things that you learn on carnivore is that fruit has a lot less anti-nutrients than a Lot of vegetables and seeds and nuts and things. So fruit is kind of given a hall pass for anti-nutrients, which are the things that are in vegetables that your body, they're the natural defenses.

That is the way they defend themselves is by having anti nutrients which is like a wheat germ, it has all these layers and your cows or something, we cannot break down a lot of those plant defenses. And a lotta people are very sensitive to them. I think I was, and stopping those vegetables did help with gut healing for me. So I was just a convert and I just kept doing it, doing and doing. I have been able to add a couple things back, but mostly they are like I can eat some berries now and then I get some coconut milk because I still have kind of a dairy sensitivity.

And that's something that I think people. should kind of do carnivore without dairy or limited dairy because a lot of Hashimoto's people have dairy sensitivities. So you can try it both ways. I mean, you could try with some or without or different kinds. Like some people can tolerate cheese, but they can't tolerate milk. So I mean, that's something you can play around with, because some people get really crazy with the dairy when they start carnivore. And it's just like keto, when you do all these recipes, you're probably getting way too many calories, way to many, it just getting too complicated.

so it really should just kind of be like meat, and fat and eggs and, you know, that's it. And when you're making, if you are following these complicated recipes with, a block of shredded cheese or something, You've probably turned in the wrong direction. That's a lot to unpack there. So it sounds like you started with diet, mostly because you were looking to lose weight. And you were hoping to, through Weight Watchers and the low fat approach, and I love how you talked about when you're young, you know, certain things work when your in your 20s and it's like, okay, And your getting a lot of physical activity.

And I'm sure you looked amazing at that time, but you didn't feel great, right? So you are still dealing with all of these awful symptoms like I know I was in my 20s and when I got my Hashimoto's diagnosis my husband's like but you look great like how how could you be sick and I'm like i am exhausted i'm sleeping 12 14 hours a night and iIm still feeling tired i didn't have as physically of a demanding job as a personal trainer but, you know, I think a lot of people think that diet is for weight loss, right?

But you just let us know. A lot the symptoms you were experiencing, they're actually responsive to diet, like the joint swelling, the fatigue. What other kind of symptoms were you dealing with? Well, the constipation was a big one, bloating, very bloated, up and down, you know, related to the, I think, consti-pation. So those were the main ones, just the tiredness. But it was like a bone tired. It wasn't like, oh, i just need a good night's sleep. it never went away. And I don't think anybody's...

you haven't had it you don't know really what I'm talking about because it was weird because and also to be young and, you know,

Finding Relief with Paleo, Keto, and Carnivore 18:18

healthy most mostly and in and for it to come on really fast like I was fine, fine fine then it Was just it came on kind of with that joints pain and started to notice the bloating which was a lot of foods like I noticed especially beans for example I would get super bloated and I was like okay something's weird about that and you know when I started eating then I you, know I did go to the paleo diet and those things they all it all helped and i was very carb sensitive so I thought you when i started paleos like everybody's doing you I don't feel good when I eat that way.

I need just meat and maybe a little bit of low carb vegetable and that's about it. Maybe some blueberries or something. But then I just felt even better. The less vegetable, the less plants I ate. One of the most telling things from my results is that my antibodies for years when I was doing paleo and low carb and keto. When I first got sick, there were 600. So when was going to that naturopath and she diagnosed me and everything, that was my result on that, was 600 on my TPO. And then it went down pretty fast when it got on thyroid medication.

It went to around 100 within, I don't know, maybe a year or something. And then it hovered around 100 for many, many years, even doing the therapeutic diet. But then when I did carnivore, it dropped down to my last result was seven. And most people would say that was remission. So not having antibodies anymore is pretty amazing. I think that means my body had a significant healing. That's incredible. I know thyroid type thyroid tired. And I'm definitely with you on that. It's like. A different kind of tired than just not getting enough sleep one night because you go to bed tired and you wake up tired, and your like, there's just, not enough.

that I can get to actually feel refreshed. So that's incredible. Were you diagnosed primarily through thyroid antibodies, but your TSH was normal? Yes, my TSh was a 1 or 1.1 or something. It was mostly symptoms, along with the TPO. The TPU was 600, and then I felt like death. They were like, well, This is a really good naturopathic doctor. She had been to Bestir and she knew what she was talking about. So she said you have Hashimoto's based on that, which I'm so glad because later on, I would take my labs back because I had Kaiser for my insurance.

And so I will go back there and they would be like, well, you don't have hashimoto, there's nothing wrong with you. Here's my... I could have this giant notebook of labs. I'd be like, this? Yes, I do. And they were like oh, okay, because my new labs might not show it, but my old labs would show. Thank goodness, you know you are bold enough to order your own labs these days, I do advocate for people if they don't have a physician or practitioner that's willing to or labs for them, they can go through something like Alta lab or.

what not to self-order their own labs and that way you won't get kicked out of the medical practice that you're going to and you can still get the results. If you hadn't done that and were young and didn't know any better that your not supposed to do that, you would have probably been bounced around so many different places because a lot of practitioners out there, even some of them integrated ones will say that thyroid antibodies don't really matter. when you have that they don't really mean anything, and they've been connected to thyroid symptoms.

As you know, as you've mentioned, taking thyroid meds can be very helpful when You have thyroid antibodies, even if you don t have a change in TSH. And then you kno what you're dealing with, right? Because you'r like, okay, these antibodies are elevated. An so I'm going to make some lifestyle changes and I can monitor these and see if the changes are happening both in my body and also on my blood work. You initially noticed the improvement with the natural desiccated thyroid and some of the paleo-keto diets you were doing, and then the carnivore diet, you are like, okay, this is it.

This got you into the remission range to the thyroid antibodies where some would say they're they might consider negative, right? So if you were to go to a brand new, fresh practitioner, they would not diagnose you with Hashimoto's in many cases with thyroid antibodies that low. And now your digestion and your weight also improved with this protocol. Yeah, absolutely. I mean the constipation, the bloating was really gone. The consti-pation piece, I'm still working on it, but I have, you know, just for me I just take a lot of magnesium every day and that helps a lots.

So, don't hold back on the magnesium. Just take it and, because like you talk about with your liver protocol, and you have to get those detox pathways open or else you're never going to get better. All the other things like detoxing your home from the chemicals and detox in your personal care, those things all help. Yeah, I'm a big fan of magnesium and I like the citrate version for a lot of people with thyroid issues just because they tend to have a sluggish digestion. I am currently very pregnant right now, so magnesium is my best friend.

Normally I don't have to necessarily rely on it, and i'm also doing some fiber because it's something that I need. when you are on a carnivore diet, your digestion is going to change. Is that right? You shouldn't expect to have the same amount of bowel movements as you would on traditional diet or a Western diet. Would you agree with that? I've heard that, and I'm not quite sure, so I'd love to know your thoughts on that. You probably will have less volume than you usually do, but I think didn't notice a big difference because I think a lot of people with Hashimoto's Day struggle with constipation anyway.

I mean they may go the other way, I guess they could have fast digestion, so some people really struggle. With fat, like when they up their fat they end up running to the toilet for a month or two but then that usually goes away and they can take a digestive enzyme with ox bile that can help with that. A lot of people do carnivore with no supplements but I already had been doing so many things for so long that I knew the supplements that i really needed which is like And then maybe some vitamin D or something, but I don't I'm not a big supplement person and I think that because I wasted I did so many years of supplements that never worked for me.

And so I just sort of like really cautious about what I try now because is wasted thousands of dollars. I feel like on supplements. any really good ones. But carnivore was what helped me more than any supplement ever did. So I'm not against supplements. I think people should just really pair them down and try carnival before you spend thousands of dollars on a supplement. Just try carnaval. And just try it for 30 days and see. You can always add back your supplements that you feel really you know, the ones that really work for you.

And it sort of like gives you a fresh start or clean slate to decide which things do you really need or not need. I think some people can get really down the rabbit hole with supplements where really what they need is nutrition when they eat meat and eggs and fats and butter and you or ghee or whatever. So I was doing just ghee for a lot of years because I reacted to butter. Yeah, I had a really big dairy. Dairy seemed to make me very bloated. So I just did meat and eggs. And you can even do egg white.

I've done periods where I know no egg whites. Have done period where you didn't know eggs at all, just to see. Really, you have to be your own kind of guinea pig on this. Yeah, it's really fascinating because I feel like there are these recommendations and we might get them from our doctors or from government agencies. And they're very much like one size fits all cookie cutter, right? That everybody should eat more plants and that fiber is good for you. Um, and then there might be a different school of thought that might say something completely different or that everybody's should be on supplements or every nobody should And I think at the end of the day, when you have a chronic health condition, one, you Have to consider like what actually works for people with your specific condition one right because you're not going to take the advice for the average American with.

Digestion, Dairy, and Carnivore Adjustments 28:38

Let's say hypertension if you're somebody who has Hashimoto's and low blood pressure because that's a common finding. And then the other thing is like what works for you as a person, right? So you are this unique person with your own genetics, your metabolism, digestive enzymes, microbiome. And you need to figure that out. You might have nutrient deficiencies, or you might not. And so a lot of it is actually maybe taking some of the information, but not just copying and pasting it to your life, and figuring out what's actually going to move the needle for me and what is working.

I love that you talked about that two-week timeline. I actually think people stay on diets and supplements for way too long, sometimes three months, four months five months six months years, and they'll be doing a dietary protocol or they will be like on the supplement regimen and I still feel like crap, but they're taking 20 supplements. They're on a super restrictive diet that isn't working for them. Maybe they are eating a lot of plants. I work with a digestive issues and irritable bowel syndrome and blueberries and lettuce can cause them to have such awful symptoms.

Traditionally, these foods are considered great, right? What are some of the red flags or thoughts that you have around who might benefit from a carnivore diet? The digestive piece always jumps out at me. If you're really So I think we are brainwashed as children to eat our vegetables and vegetables, vegetables but if you're having like IBS and you know your doctor of course doesn't know anything to tell you and maybe you have tried paleo or you've tried Gab's diet or and I you had done all those and my digestion had not improved but with carnivore it did when I removed all the plants and then now I found like if I want to eat a little bit of say romaine lettuce I can it doesn't really make a difference now but if i eat A head of broccoli for example which is what I used to each every single day I use to a head cauliflower People always say, well, you just needed more fiber to eat.

No, I have eaten all the fiber in my life and it was horrible. I felt so much better when I stopped eating large amounts of vegetables. For example, if I eat a little bit of romaine, it doesn't really make a difference one way or the other. If I go back to eating those large amounts of broccoli or cauliflower, I get the worst heartburn. I cannot sleep. It's like up here all night. And I can even get some cramping in my legs and stuff. If i eat a lot of vegetables, i will feel that now that i've taken them out.

i can feel like a charlie horse in the heel of my foot if i I mean, it's interesting. I think it is so interesting to see how your body reacts to that. But I thing everybody can find their safe foods. Trying carnivore for a little while can really help you sort that out. Yeah, thank you for sharing that with with me. I feel like if you're on a protocol for 30 days, maybe up to 90 days and things aren't working, it's probably time to switch that up. And perhaps, you know, if You've gone down different paths, giving a diet like carnivore or try maybe for thirty days.

Is that how long you would say you you notice the results in two weeks? Would you say for Thirty days is how much how I mean, I might say with carnivore because there's a lot of bugs in the system when you first start. So I'd say maybe more like three months because like we talked about the fast digestion, there is a a of electrolyte issues to work out. People can feel weird again with the charley horses and things like i can even get a charlie horse in my ribs when i get super when I go like zero carb if i don't have electrolytes so you have to kind of increase your electrolyte that's something that people have a lot of people have the fast digestion so I mean I'd say a little longer with carnivore but they should see a lots of other things that will keep them going so like you might have one thing wrong but the other thing are all getting better like your joint pain should go away, your skin should look better, you should lose probably some weight and especially water weight Your eyes, a lot of people, they just look, their skin just looks a little better and they should see more muscle tone or feel more energetic.

and their mood. A lot of people talk about the benefits to their mental health, like they don't have as many low moods and depression and stuff like that. So those are all, I think, tied back to the nutrient deficiencies. And maybe it's not for everyone. but some people will feel significant improvement really fast. I think that it's almost like an IV of nutrition. You're just getting all those B vitamins, the choline and the eggs, and vitamin A in the butter. There's nothing blocking it from being absorbed that you would have maybe had if you were eating it with say gluten-free grains and a bunch of green vegetables.

There's one thing, a lot of people really into green smoothies and greens, and there's oxalates. Now, I'm aware of that I never was before. I'd heard of it. There's a lot of people that swear by removing oxalates. But another thing to watch out for is histamines when you're doing carnivore because sometimes people can eat a more processed meats, maybe preserved meats. they're doing more crock-pod kind of things where the histamines can, so anytime you have meat that is aged or leftovers, the histograms can increase.

So if you're somebody who kind is reacting to histamine, that's something to watch out for. and just do less, do more like frozen meats and fresh meats, and don't let them sit around a long time and avoid processed meats. So that's something that people can kind of run into if they are not used to it. Thank you for sharing all that because I think a lot of times people try a healing diet and then they're like, oh, it didn't work for me, but they don't fully consider all the nuances. I know when various people that I've worked with will go keto, there's like a list of things that we'll talk about.

When you have Hashimoto's, here are some modifications you might need to make. And one of them is you probably need be dairy-free because a lotta people with Hashimoto's have dairy sensitivity. You need to add some electrolytes in, because this is going to be a thing. If you have issues with fat malabsorption or protein mal absorption or, protein digestive issues. Keto diet can actually make you feel more sluggish or more fatigued, so we would want to incorporate some digestive enzymes for these items.

If you're somebody with perhaps some mitochondrial dysfunction or issues with shunting your fats into your cells, you might want consider something like carnitine, and you kind of go through this checklist so that people are prepared because if you were just to kind of like, okay, I'm starting tomorrow without getting prepared, you can really set yourself up for failure. So you mentioned electrolytes being prepared that sometimes things can speed up or slow down. The histamines I feel like are such an important point, because if you're eating aged meats, or if your eating leftovers, if doing a batch cook, that can actually exacerbate that part of your digestive system.

Any other things that we may have missed? to consider. Any group, you know, can be like, this is the way I saw it in gaps. I mean, I've been in all of these different groups and they got like you're just not eating enough broth. You know you are just whatever. It's like go back to the gaps one or whatever the beginning of gaps is.

Who Benefits from Carnivore and What to Watch For 38:08

So you can get really myopic in thinking in a carnivore can really get to be like a religion to that. That it's the only way and But I mean, we've been around a long time and seen a lot of things and it's not just your diet. It's your like, you know, being a personal trainer, I had to change everything about my relationship with exercise. You know I was used to just beating myself up with it. calories in, calories out. And now I just do it for longevity and preventing osteoporosis and for my moods.

Like the other day, my mom was here and I hadn't got to the gym yet. I was like, I need to go or I'm going to get really mad and cranky and stuff. She was, okay, just go and stay with my five-year-old. Then I'll come back in 45 minutes because it's really close. And then I was like so much different person, you know? And there's the social aspects. I mean, carnivore can be really, just like any of these groups, it's really good to have a social framework around it so you have support. But it can also become, It can go in a negative way if it is like, that's only thing you're doing.

And if you are just not doing it hard enough, You're just working hard on this, You're not perfect enough. And that's one thing with carnivore. It's like recently I did a parasite cleanse. That's probably something that people who are hardcore carnival would not do maybe. But I have a holistic doctor here who's really amazing and she was like, just do it. I finally had the time and I wasn't breastfeeding because you can't do that when you're breast-feeding, so I was like, I'll just do it. I did see some small improvements and was, well, why don't I feel vast improvements?

She was probably because he was doing carnivore before, you had a lot of nutrients already. and so like she said when you're doing kind of a standard American diet or you eating like a lot of grains and stuff you might not you, might feel a huge improvement because you are now digesting things or, you know, your absorbing things that you weren't. So she was like, well you probably, but I did see one weird kind, of thing was, like I used to get a, lot, staining on my teeth and, stuff and I don't see that now, so maybe it's a parasite.

I've I think that's really cool. I'm so glad that you brought up parasites and the dogmas that a lot of the dietary protocols can send us down. When I was on my healing journey, I tried the specific carbohydrate gaps diet and that really it progressed from going like gluten-free and dairy- free and seeing benefits to me thinking like I just had to eliminate more foods to be healthy and I that diet like did not work for me for whatever reason. I think all of the almonds and oxalates or whatnot. It just caused my skin to break out and then I you know, I felt like.

Losing weight my my I sort of got down the rabbit hole and there was some information about like if the diet isn't working for you to look into parasites and I had done like 20 different gut stool tests at that point. All of them were negative and finally I came across one test that actually did show I have a protozoal parasite called blastocystis hominis. That's like actually pretty common in a lot of people with Hashimoto's and it's been thyroid antibodies and so many things. And I took the treatment for it.

A lot of my food sensitivities went away. All of a sudden, I could tolerate more grains and I can tolerate a lot more foods. I'm so glad that you brought that up because sometimes it's like, what are you doing from a whole picture? Nutrition is super important, super foundational for part of your healing. But there could be things that are sabotaging you. like you and I both had the same bugger, right? Yeah. Well, my doctor, she doesn't work with people out of state, but if you're in Tennessee, it's amazing.

It's hopeful family care. She has a muscle testing guy and she said she's done all these, send in tests and stool tests, and they don't work, but this guy can tell every time what. So I was like, fine, I'll try it. I thought it was woo-woo. But then when I went back, the stuff that you take isn't really that expensive. It's like what do they really have? They're not. They're making money, but it's not like they're charging you crazy amounts of money or anything. So it was like, what do they really have to gain from it?

But I've done those tests too, and they always said I was fine. And I'm like I am not fine, something is wrong. But then you go back several months later and you test again with the same guy and he's like well, like I had four maybe parasites and three of them were gone and there was like still one more. So I'm still doing a little bit of one thing, but it is, it's interesting. I mean, and also my husband did it and it felt, he felt a lot better from it. He did before me. so I was, like, I'll try to, because why not, you know?

So, be open minded, don't get ripped off, things especially if you're if, you've done the send-off test they just a lot of them don't work that's what it's very tricky because parasites they don' necessarily come out in every stool sample and so you just might send out one stool, sample but maybe you needed to send, out like 30 to actually pick up on a parasite and, so, The test that I found to be the most helpful is gut zoomer and then bio, as it called, and parallelness research. But they are pricey, you know, they're like a few hundred dollars, five hundred, six hundred.

I have found them to game changers for people who are just like, I'm doing everything and I don't really know. I feel like intuitives can be incredible in helping us guide us. And not a lot of them are created equally too. So that's not always an option for people. But definitely figuring out what else is going on in your body if you're still not feeling well is something that I am a big advocate for. mixing different philosophies and if you're feeling like you are doing something over and over again and you still not feeling well, it's kind of like, well that's the definition of insanity, you might need to change it up a little bit, right?

Yeah, I mean, our society is so instant gratification oriented and I know it has been for me at least 15 years 20 years of doing things of different doctors and different practitioners and diets. So just don't think you have to do it all right now. Especially if you're new to this, you are going to get better over time. There are so many things you work on. I had to change my entire job. Like I could not become a personal, I couldn't be a personnel trainer anymore.I could do that schedule. Had to drink a pot of coffee to get out of bed.

That's something you had change. You might have a job that you hate. And then you have to kind of find something you can do that's less stressful or goes along with your core values and makes you feel refreshed rather than so depleted every day. So that somewhere to start. And just don't think you to do it all overnight. You might hear all this and you're like, oh, I don' have $10,000. Like, you just do something this year and then maybe next year do somthing else. But I think with all the things that we both teach, it's like clean up your home, clean your personal care, change your exercise to something that's more rejuvenating, not depleting.

Learn how to meditate, learn how just to do walks and things where you just feel better, not beating yourself up.

Parasites, Testing, and Healing Roadblocks 47:48

I think that's our culture. You have to be skinny, you have be pretty, a career woman, and you can't do all of it. And I wish I could talk to myself as a younger person and say, You can do everything, or you're going to die trying. Yeah, I think that's such a profound and beautiful observation, because I feel like we're part of autoimmunity, the whole mind-body connection. If you have an autoimmune condition, it's essentially your body attacking yourself. And when you're somebody that is disconnected from your purpose or disconnected Pushing yourself when you are tired I used to do the same thing I would be like okay Isabella you're tired today that means you need to go to the gym.

And really all of that is like you fighting against yourself and that comes from the actions that you take. Maybe from that thoughts that have been that such an important part of healing is. accepting yourself and loving yourself, and self-care, self kindness. Sometimes that does mean quitting a toxic job. I had one person who wrote a book review for my first book, Hashimoto's The Root Cause. It was like, I don't remember if it was a bad review or a good one, like how many stars or whatever, but the contents of the review was that she didn't need to do any anything that I said, she just needed to quit her job and then she got better.

And like, I mean, more power to you. Sometimes it is that like you find that one thing that's driving your inflammation, your autoimmunity, all of that stress in your body. sometimes it's a food, sometimes that the nutrient depletion, and sometimes, it might be a toxic boss or toxic relationship that you're in. I love that. You talk about You know, really being kind to yourself and really listening and aligning with your body. And part of that is like, are you on the right diet? Right? Like, what is your buddy trying to tell you when your digestion is off?

Is it your diet is it something else? You actually have a guide. So for anybody that might be interested in carnivore diet, perhaps they're looking at some of the maybe they have some digestive symptoms. They're really stuck on their healing journey. Their thyroid antibodies aren't budging. This might be something they'd like to consider, but I think you and I would both say, like, don't just, do it tomorrow, get prepared. And you actually created a guide for people where they can download all of your knowledge and experience so that they don t make the same mistakes that you're seeing a lot of times your clients make.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah, I wrote an ebook a few years ago. And it's just everything I learned doing the carnivore diet over five or six years. It has ideas for meal plans, eating out, and eating on the go. One thing about carnival is so simple. I think sometimes people can overthink it. So if you're kind of like a type A, which most Hashimoto's people are, and you can almost make it too complicated. So I think it's good to have a guide and just kind Chinese restaurant or wherever and then like ideas for holidays and what kind of foods you can bring to maybe a family gathering and how to deal with like your family and friends who are like what are you talking about don't you know that's not safe and stuff like that so it has 42 faqs 182 pages lots of diagrams easy to read little things about what you Yeah, it's really helpful for people who kind of want to get started, but you could read it in a weekend.

I mean, It's so easy to read and then you can really get it started on the right foot and not make a lot of the mistakes that people make and make themselves maybe not feel so good at the beginning. So it's carnivore30.info, and I'm gonna put that in the show notes. Thank you so much for creating this resource. I know how much work and effort it takes to put something like that together, so I appreciate you putting it together for everybody that's trying to get started with Carnivor and doesn't wanna make all of those rookie mistakes.

It was my pleasure. You mentioned exercise. We did allude to that. Do you have any thoughts for exercise with Hashimoto's? Yeah, I think, for me, always such an exercise junkie and I had such a negative loop going in my head about exercise, when I first got sick, i worked with a practitioner and she was just like, just walk around your neighborhood and take a break for It could have been at least a month and maybe more like 90 days or something. I took a complete break because I had exercised myself into oblivion.

That really gave me some time to just kind of think and just be out on those walks and always listening to podcasts and things like that, but just to be outside. And so I think just start with that if you are just newly sick, and just try to get away from that. Definitely that you know, a lot of the machines at the gym will say, Oh, you burn this many calories and this mini stuff, whatever, just get Away from all that and and Just try your relationship with exercise as more of a something just to make you feel good rather than to look good and eventually you can get back to looking good or whatever but I think you just kind of have to have almost like a truce at the beginning because a lot of us of brought this on ourselves.

I mean I know there's triggers and there we have like my dad has Hashimoto's too like it's not out of the blue but I think when it started for me was me you know that I've your genetics loads the gun but you pull the trigger you have to just change your relationship with that hardcore exercise and then you can always go back to it later I think but just take a little break for a few months and now I don't really do much cardio, I do tons of walking but I mean people call it cardio I guess it is but i don t really look at it like that because I dont like the word because i have such a bad you know relationship with that word um so i just do i i kind of separated into two buckets i have my weight training which is you,

Exercise, Lifestyle, and Self-Care 54:58

know about 30 minutes 20 to 30, minutes really fast kind, of just push-ups you. Know lunges squats And then I have my walking. So those are the two kind of buckets, but I would spend, if you only have a few minutes, spend it on weight training and then just try to increase your movement through the day, less sitting and get more time outside. I love it. That's super helpful. I'm going to ask you some quick questions like rapid fire questions for social media. First one would be, is bone broth considered a carnivore food?

Yes, absolutely. Bone broth is great. kind of what we're talking about earlier you have to be careful about the histamines my mother actually we had a huge histamine outbreak she kept getting this weird rash like her entire neck would just swell up with this um so this and and her doctor had no idea it give her you know steroids or hit cortisone or whatever just didn't have any idea i would make it maybe calm down a little bit But then finally one weekend she had, this is what clued me into what it was.

She had like wine, brie. And then we went and we took her to a barbecue restaurant. This was like all in two days. It was from here to here just red. I mean, itchy and she was miserable. And then of course, I'm the one who has to hear about it, you know. So I was like, that's what it is. It's histamine. I so glad to figure it out. Now she just knows she cannot put those together. That's a bucket. When it overflows, so you have to avoid those things. she can have one of those but not three together.

You know what I mean? So and that's what bone broth is. It can be a histamine. Getting back to the bone bra. So be careful. A lot of people are now doing maybe a stock where it's just like boil. Maybe what i do is like i boil a whole chicken. For example, for like an hour in the instant pot, then you can drink that. That's probably not going to have as many histamines as something that you boiled for two days in a crock pot for example. So do a fast and then drink it that day. Maybe you could stick it in in freezer.

I'm not sure, but just try to do things that are more fresh. not so long cooking and that will help but again don't eat three or four histamines at one time um should help too but yeah watch the bone broth if you have histamine but yes it is a very good carnivore food i can't drink bone bath in the summer though it's like i'm too hot you don' t do bone breath popsicles oh i don t know I haven't tried those. That's on my list of wellness hacks that I would not try. Do you have any wellness hats that you refuse to try?

Well, I mean I really, really stay away from the green juices, green smoothies, kale. I used to be, i would eat kale chips like all day long and so now I'm like really I stay way from all that stuff because I just think that it can you know, your body crystallizes, it tries to sequester, there's like little glass shards and I just think, especially if you are prone to joint pain and stuff like that, really stay away from those oxalates in the kale and the green smoothies and green juices.

Carnivore Guide, FAQs, and Final Takeaways 58:58

I don't believe in medical medium. So I think you should stay away from those things, especially if you are prone, which most people who have autoimmune have joint pain. Just take it out and see if Should everybody eat more vegetables to feel better? You've probably already tried that. So if it did make you feel you know, you would know by now. And like I said, just try carnivore for a month. I mean, first, and then kind of reassess. Then you might add, I felt so good that I just kept doing it for years.

You probably have already try that way, so maybe try less and see if you Top five benefits of the carnivore diet that you've seen with yourself and your clients? I think bloating was a big one because it was so fast, 24 hours, and I know a lot of people with Hashimoto's have bloated, improved skin. I don't really have skin problems, but I feel like everybody if you look side to side and that goes with the inflammation you're just their skin just looks better they look younger very fast on the carnivore diet.

If you put them side by side in a month you'll see a big change in skin and the mood people feel just so much better. They I mean I've had so many friends that told me they came off medications, you know, as they worked with their doctor, of course, but they felt that they didn't need a lot of things that They were And I think there's a gut the gut brain connection there. So you're healing your gut, which is healing, your brain and You know I also stopped having cavities and that was pretty cool when I started a carnivore diet so Those are really good ones.

And then, of course, the Hashimoto's went into remission. So that's probably the number one. That's very cool. Thank you so much for sharing that. I definitely am going to have to consider this because your skin is just glowing and. You look amazing and it's been so wonderful to reconnect with you and to hear about your healing journey and amazing to here how well Carnivore has worked for you, and for your clients and I'm so glad that you're spreading awareness about this healing diet. Everybody listening, thank you so much for being here.

It's such a pleasure to have you. I hope this conversation has been healing on your journey.