She Tried Carnivore for 30 Days… Then Lost 50 Pounds and Transformed Her Health with Jenny Mitich

Introduction to Jenny's Carnivore Journey 0:00

What if everything you were told about eating was backwards? Jenny Middich reclaimed her health, energy and identity by going all in on a way of eating most people still see as extreme. But when you're battling chronic symptoms, emotional burnout and food confusion, sometimes the most radical thing you can do is simplify. In this episode, Ginny shares her unapologetic story of healing through animal-based nutrition, what it's really like to raise a family on meat, how trusting her body broke her free from food fear, chronic pain, and the wellness hamster wheel.

I really liked exposing people to the different diets out there, but specifically like on a personal level, like where someone really did have a life change where this diet not only has become their brand, but really healed them. So I'd love you to just start there. Like what was going on that needed healing? Yeah. So I initially came to Carnivore to lose weight, but I had so many other things heal in the process. I have twin boys, Max and Harry. They're now four. But when I was pregnant with them, I gained 70 pounds and I already overweight when i got pregnant.

The day I delivered, i was 242 pounds. That was huge and miserable. Very tough pregnancy. I had a lot of swelling in my wrists and feet. Um, I just could not get enough food and this is pre-carnivore. So I was like standard American pregnancy all the way. And I think that carb roller coaster was why I felt hungry all of the time because of blood sugar spikes and dips. Cut to about six months later, I'm trying to lose weight, and it's coming off really slowly. I was trying with just the standard 1,200 calories, fruits and vegetables, lean meats, low fat, it wasn't coming off very, very slowly.

And my husband, he had lost about 130 pounds using keto and water fasting a few years before we met. So he was acquainted with a ketogenic diet. He came to me because he found Dr. Ken Berry's videos on YouTube. and he brought these videos to mean he said, honey, I'd really like to try carnivore. I want to take it to the next level. Would you be willing to do the carnival diet with me? And at that point I said, absolutely not. There's no way. That's crazy. How can you only eat meat? How you can get all the nutrients you need only eating meat.

So I hard no. But he and I continued to watch those videos occasionally after we put the boys to bed at night. Over the next six months I continue doing what I was doing and having a lot of issues with it, wasn't losing a lot of weight and continued watching these videos. And finally, got to the end of the year, I'd only lost 20 of 70 pounds and I was still feeling like crap. So I said, you know what, screw this, i'm going to try carnivore for 30 days. I had been wearing a continuous glucose monitor for about three and a half months at that point just for fun because I love data.

I was really curious to see what would happen to my glucose. It wasn't pathological. I think if I had stayed on that path for another 20 years, it probably could have turned into pre-diabetes or type 2, but I like low 100s on the average. How were you eating again? So you weren't eating keto like your husband at the time. You were just eating not even standard American, what, slightly low carb? Oh, no, not low carb at all. I was eating a ton of fruits and vegetables, chicken, lean meats, I'd cut gluten years before.

What a lot of people will call is healthy, eating the rainbow. But not necessarily low-carb though. Oh no. It was not. Low carb. Yeah. No, it was probably eating 300, 400 grams of carbs per day in the form of fruit and vegetable. It was very high carb. Like what you said, it still is what people would say is healthy. You weren't eating like the fast food kind of stuff. you weren''t going crazy with the desserts.You were just eating real foods, but not necessarily thinking about the amounts of those real food.

Pregnancy Weight Gain and Failed Diet Attempts 4:20

Just kind eating till you're satiated. Sure, so I was following the Noom diet. So the noom app was a psychology-based app and it went through and kind of taught you to have a different relationship with food and they scored foods based on color. Green, yellow, and red. All the green foods were fruits and vegetables. They were all like, if it has high water content, you can eat as much of it as you want. Yellow foods we're gonna be a little bit more like the lean meats and things. And red foods are just all the foods I eat now, ribeye, butter, all of the stuff with lots of fat.

So, that's kind of how I was eating. And sure, it would work for a week, but then I'd be starving because I'm not eating enough food and I am eating so much sugar in the form of fruit that I would just be like on a glucose roller coaster. So yeah, I eating a traditional healthy diet, what I thought was healthy, and it was not great. So then you went down the Kenberry rabbit hole, which is a great hole to go down. And then, you started 30 days on carnivore. Before you go into what happened, what did that look like?

So what were you eating? But that's a really good question. A lot of beef, bacon, sausage, eggs, butter, and some chicken, pretty much. But I had a hard time the first month. I was not very happy. So I honestly, looking back now, I'm almost three years carnivore. Honestly, can't remember much besides the severe keto flu and oxalate dumping that I went through that first one. Really? Okay. Yeah. You were unhappy? So what did that look like? What did oxalyte dumping look So, I didn't know that I was oxalate dumping until about a year later.

So the first month on carnivore, did it, was miserable, fatigue, and lots of diarrhea. I thought it was keto flu the whole time, but it a mixture of both. I started feeling better around week six. But as far as oxalate dumping, I think it was just, it felt like the keto flu. I just had severe fatigue and diarrhea that lasted six weeks. For those that don't know what keto is, can you explain it? Sure. Keto flu, it's basically carbohydrate withdrawal. When you drop your carbs down to basically zero or go low carb if you're doing keto, your body releases a lot of water weight and with that water go electrolytes and you feel like you have the flu.

It's like fatigue, diarrhea or constipation, depends on the person, headaches, anxiety, sleep disturbances. There's so many things that go along with it. But typically, it only lasts like two to three weeks at most. So six weeks was a bit extreme. And it wasn't until I read Sally Norton's book, Toxic Superfoods, about a year later that I realized I was eating so may high oxalate foods, James. Like, everything I ate was high oxalate, sweet potato, quinoa, dark chocolate, kiwi, raspberries. So many of the foods that I eat every single day for like a year were high-oxalates.

I suffered. It wasn't great. Can you talk about, because there's going to be people that don't even know about the oxolates, and I know it's a hot topic in our circles, but can you elaborate on what that is for people who don' know? Yeah, sure. Oxalates are just plant toxins, like little crystals that are only in certain foods. They're not in every plant. But in some certain ones, there's higher levels. And our bodies are built to withstand a little bit of this. If you're eating a sweet potato every single day, if you are eating spinach smoothies every day.

Those oxalate can start to build up and store themselves in your system where they don't belong. So then if you stop eating all oxalates, your body's like, I can take a break. And it starts to try to release these from your system. But when it does that, if it's too fast, it makes you feel terrible. I feel like there's more of an understanding of them now because of Sally's book. Yeah, but I had no idea what they were, what that was before I started Carnivore. And so that process of that dumping and just you feeling really fatigued, how long did that last?

It was six weeks that it was really acute. And then what happened thereafter? I started feeling a lot better. I finally started to feel what so many people experience when they go on an ultra-low carb diet, a little more energy. Um, I didn't have to eat as often, uh, lot of food freedom. And that's when I really started seeing a a of the other improvements in my health besides just weight loss and glucose improvements. Yeah, so maybe you can talk about some of those improvements, because I want to make sure that we kind of speak to the elephant in the room.

Like, you're not a health practitioner, not an nutritionist. You're someone who's studied these things in a university. What you are is someone, who wanted a change in their lifestyle and their body. and started to go down these different paths, referring to people that are experts in the field and saw huge benefits, saw a huge gains. And so you just kind of kept going. But, but I know you also kind have a data, you know, your kind about data nerd or for lack of a better word, I mean that with affection, of course.

You're someone who likes data. So you're, not just going about this in a laissez faire kind way. Oh, no, definitely not. So I'm a huge dork. I love data, so I do a lot of blood work, DEXA scans, continuous glucose monitoring, ketone monitoring arterial scans. And that was just for fun. But yeah, my degree, My bachelor's degree is in management finance. I had just kind of stumbled into the world of nutrition in like 2015, 2016 when I heard Mark Sisson on a Joe Rogan podcast.

Trying Carnivore and Surviving the Adaptation Phase 10:20

And then I bought all of his books and just devoured those. I've been reading and doing research on it myself just because I have a passion for it since then. But he's more like paleo, right? So did you... Sure. He's, he is more primal is what his whole shtick is. But yeah, it started there. And then I read more into keto, read into all this stuff. So I had, I was like acquainted with it before I started carnivore, but I never really given it a fair shot. I'd never tried the diet. It was trying to be more whole real food and moderation and things like that.

That just never worked well for me. What was your rock bottom moment, though, that just made you question everything you were taught about food and it's not like there's, of course, there was the moment that made Hey, I want to lose weight. And of course there was the keto flu moment of when you did start to make a change, but was there that. Did you, did you have a moment where you were like, Oh my God, everything I was told is wrong and like what I'm doing is revolution. Like, Did. You have that moment?

And when was that? It's a really good question. And what first comes to my mind when you ask that is when I read Nina Tay-Schultz's book, The Big Fat Surprise. So in that first month or two that I was on Carnivore, I red that book as well. I think I had gotten it as a recommendation from one of Barry's videos. Mind blown. And then I moved on to the great plant-based con. I think it's Jane Buxton. That book, wow, incredible. Both of those books just highly, highly researched, excellent references.

It really kind of peeled back the veil for me on like, Wow, I did not realize that the dietary, like the food pyramid and all that stuff wasn't really based on science. I didn't realize that I shouldn't be eating like fruit. If you're just eating fruit on its own, like your body can't recognize the difference between fruit and a candy bar. It's sugar. All of these things that, I don't know, also fat is not the enemy. Saturated fat isn't going to give you a heart attack. Just things like that. Yeah, that was a big aha moment for me after reading those books.

And I think it kind of also lit a fire under me because I was so angry. I just was like, why have we been told this for so many years? And now so people are sick, their metabolic health is terrible. How did we get here? So that kind really lit the passion for me and that's why I started sharing about the carnivore diet on my YouTube channel. Yeah. And then you started getting a large audience from that. Clearly people are hungry to better understand how food affects their body, what diet to follow.

I mean, I guess that's been true for a while. looking to someone else to tell us what to eat. Like every other species just eats, right? They instinctively know. So why did we lose our instincts? What has happened? And sometimes I think it's just because our brain is so big, we complicate things beyond what they need to be complicated. But have you ever historically dealt with any food issues when you were younger? Has diet culture kind of been, and potentially just feeling not good in your body, has that ever shown up in you life before the moment where you made these changes?

Oh, sure. Yeah, I grew up... I'm a classic sugar addict. So in our house, we had like every really good sugary cereal. We always had the different snack cakes and things like that, chips, candy. I am a big like sweet tarts, lemon heads, nerds kind of gal. That's just what I ate growing up. I don't know, I guess I had the pressures of being thin, but I was always pretty thin in school once I got past like fifth grade. I wasn't bullied for being overweight and having terrible acne in fifth-grade. That's a horror way to start getting, because that's when you start developing and stuff.

You already feel like people are looking at you, right? Yeah, it was terrible. I mean, that has carried through my entire life. So, yeah, I think I had that...I self-medicated.I had depression and anxiety starting around 13, and I self medicated with drugs and alcohol. So I was deep into that in my teens and into my mid-20s before I got clean and got out of that whole world and really started. And even then I still smoking and drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and I wasn't doing drugs anymore.

It wasn' until my early 30s that I really starting to figure out like, oh, I should probably be paying attention to what I put into body if I want to feel good. Yeah, it's something that people think is such a rudimentary idea, but I mean, I didn't learn it till I was in my 20s. I know people that still haven't learned it, you know, and they're in their 50s, or they are just learning it now. We assume it's such an easy concept, but it really isn't. It's not obvious that food affects your health.

I mean, that's why so many people, when they have health issues, they go to the doctor. They don't go their nutritionists, right? Or they don' look at what they're eating, They go the doctors because they are not connecting like what their eating as a cause for their immune issues. Because you did have issues or I'm saying issues because food and body images, you know, our body Because food and your body and you mentioned the shaming because that was prevalent for you. What I find interesting is that.

Carnivore is an extremely restrictive diet. I mean, really, the opposite end is plant-based. That's also restrictive. So I'm not highlighting carnivores. Any diet that has a very specific dogma and a restricted, like you can't do this, is going to be restrictive for some people. Restriction in itself is kind of, you know, resonates with them as like, oh, this is reminding me of when I was bulimic or when had these other food issues. So has that ever come up for you when you've gone down this path of like questioning whether are we designed to be so restrictive?

I never had any kind of issues with food in that way. I had a friend that was bulimic and I tried it one time and it was like, this is terrible, I want to eat food.

Food Myths, Research, and the Big Aha Moment 17:20

So I've never have that issue, my issue I can eat, and like sugary stuff, so that's kind where my path went. As far as carnivore being restrictive, yeah, if you're restricting your food intake to just animal products, it is going to be lot less food than you're normally eating, but what I've found with carnivore is it's freeing and simplifying because I have a lot on my plate. And if I can just eat some burger patties and a steak and some eggs for the day and be done, it has just made my life so much better.

It is pretty amazing. Like when you, when have that simplified eating ritual, like the eating rituals simplified. It's so amazing in that way. Cause you're right. You know what to eat. And I think more importantly, you are satiated, right? Yeah, I mean I only have to eat once or twice a day. I woke up this morning, doing an end of one experiment where I'm only eating McDonald's burger patties for 10 days and I did before and after blood work indexes is what I am measuring. And I had five burger patty in the fridge ready for me because I've been really hungry the past few days, and have eaten more of the pattys.

But this mornig I didn't I didn't even need to eat one. I was just good. And my ketones were good, my glucose was good I've still not eaten. What time is it? Two o'clock? Almost two o clock and I'm fine. So I'll probably just eat dinner and be good to go. Don't have that hangry feeling that I would get when I am eating carbs where I have to like eat now or I gonna pass out or beat somebody up. You know, I don't that anymore. That's gone. So I'm doing an end-of-one experiment where I am only eating McDonald's quarter pound burger patties for 10 days.

Interesting, and what is the end to one? I've never heard of it called that. What is that? End of one, an end of experiment is just where you're doing an experiment with one person, just on myself. Oh, okay. That's interesting. I never had it said like that, that's interested. And so you are doing it with McDonald's patties specifically and it's just the meat, right? It's obviously, it is nothing else. Why McDonalds specifically? So, I think a lot of people think, oh, you can't eat McDonald's or Wendy's, or whatever, when you're on carnivore.

But you, can. You can do the patties. There's certain things that you could do to get things a la carte. And I still get a lotta comments on my YouTube channel, like, Oh my God, your eating. burger patties from McDonald's, blah. So I like to dispel myths with my N of 1 experiments. One of them is going to be this one, where I'm showing the blood work before and after, DEXA scans before an after. Continuous glucose monitor data throughout, and just showing what happens when that's all you do. I've done this with sardines.

Where I ate like 100 cans of sartines in a month. And I tested my mercury levels because that's another question I get often on the YouTube channel. It's like, if you eat sardines, your mercury is going to go up. And it's actually, no, it is very low mercury fish. But you have to show people, take them through why that doesn't happen. I like to share with data, hard data. So I do these probably once every couple of months. Oh, I love it. That's so cool. Uh, what do you find from these experiments or just from your, from you're interaction with people in your community?

What do find are some of the biggest myths out there about food in general? I mean, obviously it's carnivore slanted, but you know, just kind of in General around the trending nutritional habits these days, like. That's a really good question. I mean, I get a lot of comments or questions about cholesterol. Like, what does carnivore do to your cholesterol? I did a sugar diet experiment in the summer because sugar was popping off earlier this year, and it was like everyone wanted to try it, so I didn't for eight days, it's terrible.

So I had a lots of questions and comments around that. that video like, oh, it really works for me, blah, or other people being like ooh, this is why it didn't work for. So I get a lot of comments around that. It seems like overall I feel like there's a a confusion around food in general. Just like what is healthy? What is not? And the common myths are just like red meat is terrible for you. It will make your cholesterol go up. You're gonna have a heart attack. A lot of questions about like, oh, if you only eat neat, aren't you just constipated all the time?

Or on the flip, are you not just farting all time or having diarrhea? Like there's a lot confusion around what this diet actually does for your metabolic health and how you react to it. Well, let's address a few of them. So if anyone's watching this for the first time and learning about carnivore, and they may have those kind of questions, so I'll just fire a view off and maybe you can give some short answers. But one is like, So do you get constipated on carnovore? You can in the beginning. In the begining of carnivore, the first month, month and a half, a lot of wild things can happen to your digestive system and that's where I think this pops up.

But for most people, after that adaptation period, your bowel movements become regular every day, every couple of days or something like that. And there's some things you can do to address constipation if it does come up any concern about the, what about fiber? Is there any concerned about not having the fiber in the diet? Have you ever checked your, you know, your gut level? I have, have you checked the gut for any leaky gut, anything like that to see if the lack of fiber is, decreasing your good microbes or anything I have not done any stool testing or anything like that.

Usually the question with fiber that comes up is like, if you don't have any fiber in your diet, how do you go to the bathroom? A lot of people just think that it just stops moving. But the thing is, is when you're only eating meat, it's still moving through. very easily as well. And a lot of people, when they cut fiber from their diet, they have a lots less digestive distress. It can actually cause harm to your intestines, fiber running through there because it's not digested. Your body doesn't need to use it, it can't use so you're pooping it out.

That's necessarily a good thing. You want your body to be using as much of the food that you're intaking. That's why a lot of people have less bowel movements on carnivore because their body is utilizing all of what they're putting into it. It's actually breaking it all down so you have a less fecal volume, which can then be confused for constipation, Do you find that on carnivore,

Data Tracking, Health Improvements, and Family Eating 24:20

are you eating a certain percentage of fat? Is there a concern of eating too much fat or too little? Yeah, yeah. I think it's gonna be different for everybody. For me personally, I usually settle around like 65% fat to 35% protein or like 70% to 30% percent protein, which I thing is pretty normal if you're just eating like rib-eyes and burgers and eggs and bacon and things like that. Some people need to go higher fat. Some people need to go lower fat and higher protein It just depends on your goals and what you're trying to heal or what?

You're, trying, to lose whatever you are trying. To do have you found Have you experimented at all with different parts of the animal whether it's incorporating organ meats or just non-rib eye pieces of The animal to to and seen how your body responds to those and Yeah, I like to eat nose to tail as much as possible. I personally do not like the taste of liver, so that's where I love your EatPluck, because it allows me to get organ meats when I don't like they taste as muc, but it's hard for me t get into the organ meat.

Do you notice the difference when you do get them in? Yeah, I definitely feel less fatigue and I just feel a bit brighter. It's so funny because I have frozen pancreas, heart, liver, and a few others in my freezer from White Oak Farms in Georgia. So it's like grass fed, really clean. I haven't been brave enough to cook them yet. Yeah. Oh, I could help you with that. Thank you. Well, that's a good question actually. That's another thing that probably comes up for people is like, but it's so expensive eating carnivores.

So how are you kind of combating the expense? It sounds like you're doing what meat shares or CSAs or something? So I have a few things. No, we don't do that. I honestly buy a lot of conventionally raised meats. awesome deal on meat. So like last week, it was $3 a pound ground beef, 85.15 ground Beef, which I mean, beef is crazy right now. That was a great deal. I picked a bunch of that up. A few weeks before that, It was 99 cent chicken wings. which is amazing. So I bought up like 30 pounds of well 30 packages of that more like two and a half pounds per package.

I get the whole rib eyes or the hole sirloins from Costco and I cut those up myself because those are about let's see right now it's $18.99 a pound for ribeye pre-cut at Costco in my area. Yeah, you can learn a lot. Yeah. A ton of money. So I like to do it that way. I also, like anytime I see a sale, I pick up the meat. But see, we're not concerned because that's another question people have is like, you know, what about quality? Like, is it supposed to be 100% grass fed? It doesn't sound like that.

It's more the price and just getting the meat in for you that that takes priority. Have you noticed? And you said you've been doing carnivore, strict carnival, or I say strict, but have you been 100 percent carnivo for three years? Three years. I mean, short of my little end of one experiments, like the sugar diet, I was not carnivore, obviously, for that. But my overarching lifestyle for three years has been carnival, yes. And you haven't noticed any change like difference of eating because you I know you get exposed to obviously like white oaks is grass fed.

So so like you're getting sense of grass. Do you notice any difference in your satiety, your hunger levels, you your fatigue, anything like that? No, I really don't. But I haven't given it a fair shot. I have it in my mind that I'd love to do an N of 1 experiment where I just eat grass-fed, grass finished meats for like a month. And I would love test my omega levels before and after and a few other markers. just to kind of see what the difference is. And also, you know, qualitatively, like, do I feel better?

I do a mix. So, I'll get sent some stuff, some organic of this, and some conventional of that, all in one day. I haven't really given it a fair shot of just doing organic, mostly because it is very expensive and I eat a lot. I'm a volume eater, so I'd have to live on the streets, I think, if I did organic meat all the time. You'd either have be naked and not buy any clothes. Yeah, exactly. Let's talk, though, about some of the test result differences you saw since you're a data geek, as you mentioned.

So what kind of quantifiable changes have you seen in your energy, your lab, skin, mood since going carnivore? So many. So I think the biggest thing that changed for me besides the weight loss, I've lost 50 pounds. My glucose has dropped significantly. It's in the 70s to 80s now when I am strict carnivore as opposed to, you know, low 100s. Mental health improvements. The anxiety and depression that I self-medicated with drugs and alcohol in my younger years, it's completely gone. I used to have an emergency prescription for anxiety attacks that had to take a couple of times a week.

That all went away around month three or four. Skin. So I'm going to be 42 in March. And I used to a heavy drinker. When I was 32, my skin didn't look as good as it does now. It's just much brighter, clearer. I think all the collagen and meat that I am eating is just really helping with that. As far as blood work goes, yeah, drastic improvements, my triglycerides dropped significantly. They're now between like 30 and 60. My HDL is very high. It's in the 80s to 100. my LDL cholesterol is interesting.

So I've done so many experiments with LDl cholesterol and trying to illustrate how easy it is to raise and lower LD l cholesterol. And my cholesterol, LD L cholesterol for the past like six months has been really low. like 60 to 80, whereas earlier on in carnivore, it was like, I think at the highest, 275 or something like that. I had the lean mass hyper responder triad, which I don't have right now. It's so interesting how that all kind of ebbs and flows. Do you have a hypothesis around it? I think it has to do with the amount of fat that I was consuming.

If you eat a really high fat diet, high-fat carnivore diet your LDL tends to drop just because you're getting a lot of energy from the food that you are eating. You do a lotta fasting or lower fat you can see LDl go up but I don't know this one has been wild for me the past few months, I can't quite pinpoint it. But that's one of the great things about measuring and doing all these blood tests. I'm taking blood like once a month. So I have all this data I could look at and just kind of...it helps me to think deeply about this topic and helps to feed my curiosity of learning more.

There's always something interesting that pops up when I am doing blood work. HSCRP, systemic inflammation marker, that one is super low all the time. Like you want it to be under a one, it's like 0.19 or something like that. I've seen a ton of improvements in vitamins and minerals, just across the board, great. And then when I look at DEXA scans, my visceral fat right after I, well, no, about nine months after gave birth was at 2.24 pounds. And I am now between 0.5 and one pound of visceral fat.

Common Carnivore Questions and Practical Tips 33:00

It varies depending on the scan. So that's great. You want one-pound or less of this visceral fat, so I'm there. And you can see it in my numbers. On paper, I look great Great, so you have no reason to change things up because the body's responding. It's giving you clear indication that what you're doing is working. We had Emily Pinton on where she talked about how going carnivore helped to solve her MS issues and even like her bipolar stuff. And it's incredible learning about her recovery and her, the changes that happened from it, uh, you as well.

And there's so many others. Um, what would you say though is like, yeah, w what's surprised you the most though? Is there something that's true? Surprised you? The most about going down this path and maybe even like cause you're parenting on carnivore as. Well, like are you, are, your kids eating carnival? Yeah, so they eat an animal-based diet. So they'll have some fruit. I do like gluten-free mac and cheese with them occasionally, but they Eat and Eat at every meal. Like this morning, I found some turkey breakfast sausage that was on sale at the store, So I was like, let's try this.

They ate it all. And then they love like all beef hot dogs from Costco, steak, they loved steak. I'll make them little ground beef bowls with like primal kitchen ranch on the top of it. They love that little cute, like put it in a ramekin for them. Yeah, They eat a lot of meat. And I think that is reflected in their height. They're very fit, they're just like sturdy boys and very smart. Mm-hmm. they started reading at two and a half, like legit reading. Therefore, and they read better than our seven-year-old nieces.

So, it's incredible. I mean, NEET is such a great fuel for growth and for intelligence, so yeah. Yeah, I'm happy. We started them on it at one, you know, because we started when they were one. So I am so thankful that they are going to be able to grow up with this nutrition, cause I sure didn't get that. You know my parents didn' know any better, we just ate standard American, classic processed foods, but the boys won't have to do that." Well, I think that's what's so intriguing about your story is because you're in many ways like you are representative of so many people out there, right?

Like you were doing things the way that you we're taught. They weren't really that different. You were seeing similar ailments to what people are seeing, probably not thinking about. the fact that these were coming from the food you're eating and then you started to realize they were. So your journey in many ways is the every person's journey, which is I think what's so powerful about your story because hopefully people can see themselves in you. I mean, to that end, what would you say to the mom who's exhausted, inflamed and still clinging to green smoothies and oat milk because she thinks it's healthy?

Yeah. Yeah, I would say just give carnivore 30 days. I never thought I was going to go beyond 30-days, James. Like I just was gonna give this a fair shot and now I'm at three years.I've lost 50 pounds. i have no pain, none, unless I eat something with gluten in it and then it instantly comes back. It's interesting. And as a mom of twin boys, I work full-time. YouTube is my full time job. And I have to balance everything else with life, try to have some self-care, trying to hang out with my husband, you know, to try and read some books or whatever.

I had a lot on my plate. Carnivore has just made my life so much easier. So much more easier! I'm operating at a much higher optimal baseline. And when you have a million things on your plate, you gotta be there. You can't be operating down in the gutter. That's where you're starting, and so many moms out there are doing that. So I say, just give it 30 days, give a shot, see what happens. My book has a complete full starter guide that will walk you through every step of the way and YouTube is full of free videos and I have ton of videos on it.

The information is there for them. And I think, Give it thirty days and see happens, I you'll be shocked. Yeah, you mentioned your book, so please share that, The Complete Carnivore. Yes, it's right here. Yeah. So it just came out on November 4th. It's a complete end-up guide to the carnivores diet, and it also has 80 carniva recipes. so it is two books in one. I endeavored to write the encyclopedia for the Carniva diet. That is what I tried to do, I think I accomplished it. And I'm very happy with how it turned out.

It's very robust. You graciously sent me one and I was shocked at how robust it is. It is not thin, it's not like just a glossing over of these concepts. Like you go in depth into everything. Yeah, well I wanted to share everything that I have learned over the past three years. I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning of Carnivore and if I would have had this book, I wouldn't have to go through any of them. Well, what's a big mistake that people make that you think if they heard you say the answer now to not do it, that would help them?

Sure, there's two. There's too that I would change if I started carnivore today. And the first would be having electrolytes on hand. I did not have any and I felt like crap. Day two, I had to put salt in just water and just drink that and it really helped. But then I to wait a few more days to get my electrolyte in the mail. So whatever electrolytes you use, just have something on-hand, make sure it doesn't have sugar in it. Just make sure it has sodium, potassium, magnesium, all of the trace minerals you need because it really does take the edge off of ketoflu.

The second tip would be if you've been eating very high-carb, like a lot of high oxalate foods or just high carb in general, it's in your best interest to ease into carnivore. You do not have to go cold turkey. Now, for me, I just did because I'm stubborn and that's kind of what I do. But man, if I was starting again today, i would have probably taken about eight weeks to ease into it and I would've slowly eliminated one high oxalate food at a time. because that would have avoided most of the pain that I encountered, and it would also minimize your keto flu.

In chapter three, I believe, of this book, have a gradual carb reduction guide that walks you through four-week gradual-carb reduction. And you can make that longer or shorter if you need to. But there's just no reason to have to suffer as much as I did. Six weeks of diarrhea and fatigue. Most people wouldn't be able to go through that. And they shouldn't have too. So that's kind of the two biggies. That's great. Those are great tips. What would you say? I'm just so curious about this because something that is coming out a lot more around sort of, you know, the ancestral or Paleolithic times, is there some more data coming out now that we weren't necessarily like, dogmatic about any specific diet, that if anything, we were opportunistic.

So if it grew wherever we had nutrition to it, then we would utilize it. What I hear you saying is like, yeah, you are being specific about carnivore, but it doesn't sound like you're so extreme because you even mentioned using cluck,

Books, Treats, Circadian Rhythm, and Where to Find Jenny 40:40

which has seasonings in it. Right. So, and then you'll also eating different species. What would you say, what are you allowing in versus, because there are different levels of carnival. And so what level are. Sure. So I am not the carnivore police. And I think it all depends on why you came to carnival in the first place. For me, I came the carnaval to lose weight and I have been able to use seasonings. I use Primal Kitchen ranch dressing and buffalo sauce. I don't have to restrict that much, and I still see a lot of benefits.

So I think people just need to figure out what works best for them. I totally agree with you on the humans as opportunistic eaters. That's why we're here today, because we can eat anything. Does it mean we should? No, of course not. But I think our ancestors would have taken advantage of whatever was available, but there was a lot of caveats to that seasonality, you know. Where in the world were you? Was it a region that has a two-month summer or was it region summer all the time? You know, that really depends...it helps to...you know your genetic makeup, where you came from is going to influence how you respond to certain foods.

Um, pesticide load, they didn't have pesticides, you know, in ancient times. So that's something we have to think about that they. Um there's lots that go into it. Yeah. I'm, I just want people to find something that works best for them where they feel their best and they're able to live a healthy long life. And if that means they are using some garlic powder or your eat plug seasoning with their meat or they having some salads or their, just figure out what works for you. That's kind of my philosophy.

Yeah. And it almost sounds like it's like, and don't be afraid to go away from the norm because, uh, doing something like carnivore or, or animal base or something, like that, may end up resulting in you feeling incredible. But you just don' know it until you try it. Right. If you could erase one health rule from society forever, what would it be? I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is this whole 1200 calories is enough food for an adult of any kind. That's all of the, you know, diets out there are all like, oh, 1200 Calories a day.

Like, that's not enough for a child. So that is probably what I would erase. Nice. And how would they replace it? Like would you recommend they just follow their body or what is their barometer? I mean, I think when I'm recommending food to people, meat heavy diet for everybody. But you can also include whole real food. So if it has an ingredients label that's this long, you shouldn't eat it. That's not real. Once in a blue moon sure is a treat, but that is not meant to be eaten every day. Meat heavy, fruits, vegetables, lower oxalate, low lectin, try to keep away from the toxins, the plant toxins and things like that and you'll be in pretty good shape.

What does a treat look like to you these days? That's a good question. Oh man, I'm actually gonna make these this weekend. I gonna to make a Christmas version. Um, i'm making my carnivore ice cream sandwiches. So I don't do a lot of dairy conventional, um, because I have Hashimoto's, so I can't, do wooten or conventional dairy. And I do raw dairy and I just got a shipment of it from Miller's. What do you use for the sandwich part? Like pork rind? No. So in the book, it is my cottage cheese flatbread that I then add things to.

I can do chocolate, like cocoa powder to make the chocolate one, or cinnamon to the cinnamon flavored one. But for this, I need to do eggnog spices and then gingerbread spices that the cookie part, and then just my normal, I might do eggnog ice cream. I don't know, might even do some peppermint. The world is my oyster, that is go to. That's great, egg nog ice is so good too. Thank you so much for coming on here. Anything that, you know I haven't asked that you were like, oh I really like to talk about that.

No, I think you're a really good interviewer, so you covered it all. Okay. I just want to make sure because I know that... You know, I know that there can be a lot of things that come up for people when we talk about any diets. Like I said earlier, they can see them as restrictive and then that can bring out stuff. And I think if anything, what you're showing is that, hey, first of all, it doesn't have to be as restricted as you think. You can still find a balance that fits for you, but you do have make a choice if you want to see change.

Yeah, I think the choice is, do you want to live a healthy life? Do you wanna feel good? And that needs to come first and then everything else kind of peels away. And when you prioritize on that, everything falls into place. Yeah. Carnivore doesn't have to be restrictive. I have 80 carnivores recipes in my book that will make you feel like you're eating the best, least restrictive diet on the planet. You will not feel restricted. That's great. So last question, I ask my guests this every time. If you could wave a magic wand and bring back one ancestral practice, what would it be?

Oh, circadian, getting up at dawn and lights, artificial lights. I think we have gotten so out of sync with our circadian rhythms and I that causes a lot of issues. So you would want to get up early, get some sun, and then obviously not be inside with the artificial light so much? Yeah, I also think it would be great if just as a society we followed the rhythm of the sun more. Because now with our phones, emails, we can just be on our phone or watching a screen at all hours of night and we shouldn't be doing that.

Do you try to counterbalance since you said your main job is doing YouTube, which is obviously in front of a screen, do you find yourself struggling for the balance or have you found a way to balance that? I'm still working on it. I get up with Dawn, I go outside and get that morning sunlight in my eyes. Sure. Yeah, it starts with awareness. That's great. Well, thank you so much, Jenny. So where can people go to find you? Like you you have your book, but you also do one on one coaching, don't you.

I do. I Do. All of that is on my YouTube channel. So go over to Jenny Middich on YouTube and everything is linked there, my Instagram, TikTok, coaching hours, t-shirts, the book. And if you want to just look up the books, you can search on any online bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Blackwells if your international and you could find it there. Excellent. And I highly recommend, we'll put the other books you mentioned in the show notes as well, because Nina is awesome. Her book is so great.

I mean, every book you mention is really great, and of course, check out Ken Berry's stuff. Ken's a friend and his stuff is fantastic. There's so many more, which Jenny is either interviewed or talks about on our channel, so definitely check our her channel as Thank you again Jenny for joining and thank you for just sharing your journey. I love highlighting people's health journeys. It's really important for people to hear because I think it reminds us that this is a choice and there's so many different options out there and the key is to try them and see what works for you.

that your body's not going to lie and that you just got to listen to your buddy and let it tell you what's working or not working. So I'm so glad this is working for you. Thanks, James. This was awesome to be here. And yeah, also out there, people listening, like you're not alone. We're all going through this together. Find one of us, listen, to our shows, check out the YouTube channels and you will see that. You can do this. Yeah, excellent. Empowerment. Thank you so much and thank you all for joining us.

This is all about staying curious, everyone. And Carnivore is working for people, and I highly recommend checking it out and finding the rhythm that works for you, not feeling forced to just only doing it one way, but making it work for. But I guarantee if you're not thriving, there is a diet out there that will support you in thriving. So please be curious and seek it. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a message, comment, share it. Make sure you let us know what's working and or what not working, because we want to know, what you'd like.

Thank you again for joining us on Everyday Ancestral. Remember, be curious, stay curious and be kind. Take care. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K dot com. And hey, if you know someone who gets something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.