Shocking Things Pictures Don’t Tell You. My Story (And Maybe Your Story Too)

woman looking in mirror

โ€œPictures are worth 1000 wordsโ€โ€ฆ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜†?
๐˜š๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ต ๐˜ข ๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฏโ€™๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐Ÿซฃ {Maybe you can relate}

๐Ÿ’๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธI changed my approach to lifeโ€ฆI donโ€™t put myself in a โ€œmotivation spaceโ€ I put myself in a ๐™’๐™„๐™‰๐™‰๐™„๐™‰๐™‚ space.

Do what you love. Eat what you love. Move how you love๐Ÿ‘‰ & ๐™ก๐™ž๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ฃ๐Ÿ‘‚ to what loves you back. ๐šƒ๐š‘๐šŠ๐š ๐šœ๐š™๐šŠ๐šŒ๐šŽ ๐š’๐šœ ๐š ๐š‘๐šŽ๐š›๐šŽ ๐šข๐š˜๐šž ๐š๐š’๐š—๐š ๐šข๐š˜๐šž๐š› ๐šŠ๐š—๐šœ๐š ๐šŽ๐š›๐šœ.

My most successful clients are the ones who have been through some shit yet still choose to be high achievers.

Because they know what it feels like to hit rock bottom. They know they donโ€™t ever want to feel that way again & arenโ€™t afraid to work hard to do & sacrifice to get where they want to be.

They want to be ๐—ช๐—œ๐—ก๐—ก๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ฆ. They believe theyโ€™re winners. And they execute.

This also means living a life authentic to them. It doesnโ€™t mean having the biggest bank account with the fanciest clothes or lowest weight on the scale or heaviest weight on the barbell or looking a certain way. โœจItโ€™s about embodying the person they want to be.

๐™’๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ฃ๐™š๐™ง๐™จ ๐™–๐™ง๐™š๐™ฃโ€™๐™ฉ ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ค๐™ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐™ข๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ค๐™ฃ, ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™ฎโ€™๐™ง๐™š ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ค๐™ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™›๐™ค๐™ง ๐—˜๐—Ÿ๐—˜๐—ฉ๐—”๐—ง๐—œ๐—ข๐—ก {write that shizzle my nizzle, down}

This is why many high achievers have small circles & spend much time alone because they know how to weed out the bullshit. ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ & ๐˜ฆ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜จ๐˜ฉ๐˜ต๐˜ด, ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ด & behaviors ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ, ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ decisions.

So if you need someone to tell you itโ€™s gonna be OK, youโ€™re not alone, you can do this, & you can figure it outโžก๏ธhere you go.

pictures aren't worth 1000 words

Did you know:

  • I have Crohnโ€™s disease, had cervical cancer in my mid 20s & am unable to have children. I suffered decades with bulimia, orthorexia, gallbladder attacks, kidney stones, surgery, & paralyzing gut complications. I spent the majority of my childhood, teens, & early adulthood, 55 lbs overweight, sick, & broke as fuck. I wrote a blog on my healing & weight loss journey here.
  • I eat a flexible โ€œcarnivoreโ€ diet because it serves me best mentally & physically โ€” NOT because I think carbs are the devil, plants are the devil, or people who eat differently than me are wrong. I believe everyone has the right to eat & live as they choose. My priority now at almost 41 years old is longevity, feeling my best, all while looking good nekkid ๐Ÿ˜‰ You can find my daily routine & “secrets” here.
Here are a few videos of simple, basic af meaty deliciousness I enjoy!
#meatbars saved my life!!
  • I know what it feels like to check out at the grocery store, have all of your cards declined, acknowledge you were broke as fuck, & stand there in tears & shame. I used to be over $40,000 in debt & had my car repo one time. I used to live out of my office & car & eat at hotels to save food on money.
  • Through these struggles, I learned to love & respect money, time, energy, & freedom. My clothes in this picture are from Goodwill. I shop at Goodwill because I love Goodwill not because I donโ€™t have any money to spend on designer clothes if I wanted to.
  • It took over 11+ years of consistent social media content, fluctuations in my journey, & learning a lot of shiz along the way to build my platform to what it is today. It wasnโ€™t something I set out to do intentionally itโ€™s something that the Universe blessed me with. I am forever grateful for all of you and the gifts bestowed upon me.
  • Iโ€™ve been divorced twice, consider myself โ€œself partneredโ€, AND the happiest & most fulfilled Iโ€™ve ever been. Lonely vs alone are 2 different things. I do have hope for the future that I find my aligned person who loves freedom and adventure as much as I do. The one who makes me feel the way I want to feel & I make them feel the way they want to feel.
  • I would coach & do Xray for free if money wasnโ€™t a wonderful tool necessary for energy exchange & life because I love them that much. I value having purpose, I love working & I hope you guys have things in your life that light your soul on fire too!

โฃโฃ
Some things to know:โฃโฃ

  • I believe healing, mentally & physically, take time. I provide daily consultations & coach people to live THEIR best life. Iโ€™ve worked in radiology & as a nutritionist for over 18yrs.โฃโฃ
    โฃโฃ
  • Body image healing is a skill you sharpen & learn to navigate successfully with wisdom & acceptance & a whole helluva lotta self love.โฃโฃ
    โฃโฃ
  • Emotional inflammation & trauma weigh you down more so than physical weight.โฃ As a former US Marine wife, Iโ€™m especially fond of supporting our military & veterans – body, mind, & spirit. โฃ
    โฃโฃ
  • Iโ€™m a farmers daughter, & Purdue graduate with degrees in Science, Radiology, & Nutrition. Grateful for vast training which focused on mental health, disordered eating, sports performance, & gut healing.
    โฃโฃ
  • I love all the meats & eggs & bourbon ๐Ÿฅƒ & my wish for everyone is to find a lifestyle & LEGACY they love that gives them PURPOSE, nourishment, & food & body freedom no matter what diet.โฃโฃ I am not a โ€œgenetically leanโ€ petite (5โ€™1) woman. I spent the majority of my teens & 20s overweight. Iโ€™ve been all shapes & sizes.โฃโฃ
    โฃโฃ
  • I post blogs daily for you with tons of free content here that I enjoy creating for yโ€™all.โฃโฃ my mom & dad are my best friends & biggest influences in my life. They are the hardest working people I know & I will forever be grateful for them. I hope you have people in your life you love too!
    โฃโฃ
    A million more things I could put here. So hereโ€™s to learning from my dumb shit not to do dumb shit ๐Ÿ˜‚

Oxox
Coach โ€œsorta sweet sorta Beth Dutton๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ๐Ÿค โ€ K

All resources, discount codes, meal plans, workout routines, guides, recipes, coaching, & more here

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers

Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. 

She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating, body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 18 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

Life On The Real Reel Updates & Energy Check At 41

life update blog

Had a mentor tell me one time,

โ€œWhen you are “getting your shit together” & finding clarity it oftentimes gets lonely. Thereโ€™s growth in being alone & there’s a big difference in being lonely vs alone. You donโ€™t have to be the person with a lot to say & you don’t owe anyone any explanations. The most powerful person is the best listener, especially with yourself.โ€

Iโ€™ll never forget that.

I’m writing this update & sharing my thoughts just as much for me as it is for you. Enjoy the storytelling! I appreciate all of you who take time to read & allow me to add value to your lives whether it be here on the blog, Instagram, or “real life.”

I’m at a point in my life where I’m so trusting in my abilities, self awareness, adaptability, & faith that the Universe always takes care of me, it’s unfathomable. I always end up where I’m meant to be. Especially when I feel anxious, stagnant, & just fuckin weird sometimes.

I finally surrendered & quit trying to make sense or rigidly control everything.

I live by the MO: “I don’t do rules, I do what feels right.

Maybe you’re here in a similar energetic space, too.

life update
Warm summer days, the road & the radio = life’s simple pleasures

When you first meet me, Iโ€™m pretty quiet. (Unless Iโ€™m jacked up on caffeine๐Ÿ˜‚)

I’m an observer, an “experience collector” I like to say.

I might not have a ton to say. I may not have a ton of questions to ask, but thatโ€™s because I do a lot of listening.

Not in a judgmental sense, but out of an intention to learn. To actually hear your story. To connect with your energy & not just the words coming out of your mouth.

The more you listen, the more people tell you. The more you get quiet with yourself, the more clarity you have with your answers & paths you wish to take.

In these times when I go internal & solitary (hermit mode lol), some people in my life tend to get triggered. My silence is nothing personal, but a protective growth measure & absolute survival necessity for me.

โ†“SIDE NOTE โ†“

{A tip that will help you live a more peaceful life: live by the Four Agreements}

The Four Agreements are:

  • Be Impeccable With Your Word.
  • Don’t Take Anything Personally.
  • Don’t Make Assumptions.
  • Always Do Your Best.
current body and inbody scan
Best I’ve ever felt & looked. My 40’s have treated me well! Every year gets better!

Here are a few blogs for you, because I know I’ll get asked about food/workouts/routines, etc. โ†“

๐ŸฆพBiohacking/Anti-aging Guide Here

๐ŸฆพDaily Fit Routine Here

๐ŸฆพA Guide On How I Fixed My Fat Loss Levers: Leptin Resistance, Insulin Resistance, & Cortisol Balance Hacks

Meals I’m currently enjoying right now

Iโ€™ve had a lot of conversations. Iโ€™ve listened to a lot of stories from yโ€™all. Iโ€™ve heard a lot about life. Iโ€™ve had a lot of wisdom, vulnerability, courage, & confession shared with me.

  • finding your purpose

And while Iโ€™d never disclose the words & revelations composing these exchanges, the one thing I am constantly reminded of is:
โ†’nobody has their shit together.

The ONLY way to truly have your shit togetherโ€ฆis to accept that youโ€™re NEVER going to have it together & to find out how to live within that.

The people we admire for their โ€œtogethernessโ€ just have one piece or a few pieces of the puzzle figured out. What they donโ€™t do, is let the subsequent balls dropping interfere with their success & progress.

Managing overwhelm comes with how well you know your comfort zone. Not for the purpose of staying within it, but having enough awareness to know when it is beneficial for you to push past your pre-existing limits & when you need to stay in it.


Get comfortable in the chaos.

Hey, I like my bourbon on the rocks kinda like my life LOL! Beef & bourbon can solve alotta problems ya know. [ Write that down ๐Ÿ™‚ ]

Having it together is boring. It doesnโ€™t give you much else to learn nor extension to grow.

Iโ€™d rather take my mess & have a story to show๐Ÿ˜‰

  • vibe check

I stumbled across a letter I wrote to myself my freshman year at Purdue.

During orientation, we were told to write these letters to our future selves with our hopes & dreams.

“Dear Katie, I hope you always remember how wildly beautiful you are. And on those days that you forget, I hope you always remember you have the strength to come back, forgive yourself & try again.”

The one piece that struck me โ†’ I ended it saying that, โ€œI hope that when I read this letter, I have learned to love myself & have grown as a person.โ€

Youโ€™ll learn as you get older when you know youโ€™re rare, you live different.

You love different. You surround yourself with other rare, high value people, too.

You donโ€™t waste your rarity taking things personal or trying to control other people.

You donโ€™t waste your time trying to chase or convince others of your worth.

So proud of the woman I used to be that created the woman I am today.

I wrote another letter on July 1st to myself on my 40th birthday eve last year.

I sent it to a woman today mourning a younger version of herselfโ€ฆ

โ€œPeople everywhere walk around fearing aging, & trying to deny its fate.
But it is excitingโ€ฆa new decade, a new start, a new adventure!

I love how much you have grown in your acceptance of being just who you are over the last few decades.

I love how you are willing to do the hard work of examining thoughts, actions & past experiences.
How you work to find all the little elements that make you, you.

I love how you have taken on challenges & stepped into new things, with some trepidation but also excitement.

I love that you feel more & more comfortable in your own skin, with your own particular way of dressing, loving, eating, & being.

I love that you are a good friend & an encourager of women.

I know that last decade had pain, some heartache & tears, & I canโ€™t promise that the next decade wonโ€™t hold that too.
But I pray that you will continue to remember that grief is a part of life, that you will allow it to wash over you but not overwhelm you.

I pray that you grow in your writing. That your words reach women of all ages, that you lift them up will a simple phrase or a recognition of โ€œme tooโ€.

I pray that you continue to grow in your capacity to love. That you will continue to be a true, honest friend & lover. One who is able to have hard conversations & grow a friendship & relationship.

I pray that you will not despise the small ordinariness of life. But also, that you wonโ€™t get subsumed by it & will reach for extraordinary experiences.

I pray that you will continue to treat your body with the respect & honor it deserves. Not despising any part of it, but celebrating that you are a woman of 40 years.

Above all I pray that you will continue to listen to your maker & creator, when he says โ€œthis is the way, walk in itโ€. (Isaiah 30:21)

Happy 40th, & may the next decade be better than the last,

Katie
Oxoxโ€

It wasโœ…

Take what you need from thisโค๏ธ

โœชAll resources, email list, discount codes, guides, recipes, coaching, & more here

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers

Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating, body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 18 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

Easy Carnivore Macros & Meal Plans For Fat Loss

carnivore meal plan

Meal prep & macro cheat sheets to help give yโ€™all visual examples of how to break down meals.

Cheat sheets on IG here

carnivore macros and meal plans

Included the โ€œmeat your macrosโ€ with #MeatBars examples if you like 2 meals/d.โฃ

These are basic af & utilize 2 lbs of ground meat to keep them as easy as possible. You donโ€™t necessarily have to cook these in the air fryer, you can cook them anyway you want.
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Blog for Meat Bars Recipe here

You can eat 2-3 meals/d or even 4 of you need to. You guys can do things however you want, there is no right or wrong way.โฃ
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Protein requirements will vary for different individuals, your goals, food & training preferences, health history, digestibility, etc…โฃ
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I recommend weighing out your meat raw, which is theย information available on the label. Meat shrinks down 20-30% in weight after cooking. I find most people are either weighing & logging meat incorrectly &/or are inefficient at eyeballing.
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Hitting protein goals is a non-negotiable. Starting out hitting your maintenance macros is also highly recommended when adjusting to this way of eating (WOE). Use theย tdeecalculator.netย to find yours.โฃ
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Our need for protein becomes even more important if we’re avid exercisers, in a muscle-gaining phase, a fat loss phase, &/or as we age.โฃ
โฃ
My typical range is .8-1.2g/lb of bodyweight for most active individuals. The leaner the individual, the higher protein most can tolerate or require. I’ve had some even preferย up toย 1.5g/lb of bw especially if they’re carnivore & in a fatย loss phase. Those with more body fat, Iโ€™d likely have aim closer towards that ~0.8 recommendation.โฃ
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Some examples I’ve used with clients:โฃ
21-40 y/o, 105 lb, 5’0-5’2 lean individual = ~105-158g protein (~1.0-1.5)โฃ
30 y/o, 120 lb, 5โ€™2-5’3 lean individual = ~120-135g protein (~1.0โ€“1.1)โฃ
30 y/o, 160 lb, 5โ€™3-5’5 individual = ~130g protein (~0.8)โฃ
45 y/o+, 130 lb, 5โ€™3 individual = ~130-145g protein (~1.0-1.1)โฃ

Recipe book & guides here

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating,ย body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 17 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

Simple Strategies That Helped Me Stop Binge Eating And Start Treating Food As Fuel

strategies that helped me stop binging & start treating food as fuel, abstainers vs moderators

I didn’t dare talk about it much publicly when I was younger, I used to binge eat โ€” A LOT. It didn’t help my health, gut issues, gym performance, or fat loss goals either.

It would happen mostly when I was lonely, stressed, or bored out of my mind. Sometimes, it would happen when I was celebrating, too โ€” but always when I was alone. I would go to the store, buy all the junk food, then go home or sit in my car & eat as much as I could. I was an addict, food was my drug, & binging was a high.

Iโ€™d eat until I didnโ€™t think I could eat another bite, & then felt so sick I’d puke to “undo” what I’d done. Sometimes even after I threw up, Iโ€™d wait a while, & when the feelings of nausea started to subside, Iโ€™d start eating again until either the food was gone, I vomited, or until I went to bed in deep shameful sleep.

Without fail, Iโ€™d wake up feeling like absolute shit the next day. Iโ€™d beat myself up, forcing an unending spiral of guilt, restriction, & punishment.

To make myself feel even worse, Iโ€™d look in the mirror & tell myself how terrible I looked, & that I would never be good enough until I could stop eating & got as thin as I could. That if only I could somehow turn myself into one of those people who just โ€œforgetsโ€ to eat, then Iโ€™d finally be good enough.

But that was the wrong approach.

Learning to Treat Food as Fuel
Looking back at how I used to treat food & abuse my body, my first reaction is to wonder what the hell was wrong with me. After all, the binge eating obviously made me feel like a dumpster fire, physically & emotionally, yet I kept doin it.

But when I took the time to look deeper into my behaviors & habits, I started to be kinder to myself & feel empathy for that past Katie.

Back then, I didnโ€™t treat food as fuel as I do now. I treated it as the enemy.

So if you deal with binge eating at times, or know someone who does, know that youโ€™re not alone. Know thereโ€™s hope. But you have to start treating food like you should โ€” as nourishment, not punishment, a treat, or reward.

Here are the strategies that slowly helped me learn to stop binging & start treating food as fuel!

If you donโ€™t know how to stop binge eating start here

Start Eating Enough During the Day

One of the constant mistakes I used to make was to eat as little as possible throughout the day, often limiting food intake to as little as 1,000โ€“1,200 calories. I thought I was being โ€œgoodโ€ & if I could eat as little as possible without completely crashing, the better.

This caused several problems:

  • Incredibly low energy, meaning my workouts were shit (if I worked out at all).
  • Mental fatigue, due to lack of fuel โ€” your body needs food to function at an optimal level.
  • Feelings of endless hunger due to hormones bring completely f*cked, even after eating a reasonable meal. This made me more susceptible to binging!

The key was pretty simple: EAT enough throughout the day.

Start tracking your calories if you need to keep yourself accountable, & aim to eat at least every 4 hours. This strategy may scare you a bit & make you feel like youโ€™re eating “too much.” But trust me โ€” eating enough during the day does wonders to help you avoid binging.

Donโ€™t Keep Trigger Foods Around

We all have certain foods that once we start eating them, we just canโ€™t stop.

A few of mine:

  • Cracker, cookies, cereal, cheese nips, goldfish
  • Sweet sugary candy & drinks
  • Ice cream, cool whip, chocolate, nut butters
  • Cake, cupcakes, doughnuts, rolls, biscuits
  • Rice, french fries, mashed potatoes – basically any CARB.

I’m an abstainer, carbs are drugs for me so I cut them out of my diet almost completely switching to a carnivore WOE (way of eating). Not only is my Crohn’s disease in remission, I’ve lost 55lbs, & healed my binge eating changing the way I eat.

Why do I not “cheat” on my diet? Because itโ€™s not worth it. You’re not winning by cheating on yourself.

Grace & Control Your Environment

Nobody is perfect. We will all have days when we eat too much, choose the less healthy option.

Thatโ€™s why I follow a flexible “carnivore” low carb approach. I eat well 90% of the time, eating perfect & healthy 100% of the time is unrealistic.

One of the most common questions: How do you stick to a healthy diet when youโ€™re surrounded by tempting food?

The answer: change your environment.

In other words, make it as easy as possible to eat healthy food & as difficult as possible to eat unhealthy food.

  • Keep healthy food with you so youโ€™re never tempted.
  • Make it harder to eat out by cooking more meals at home.
  • Don’t grocery shop when you’re hungry & make sure you’re eating enough to fuel your day!

Restriction or Food Freedom?

Abstainers vs Moderators

Food & sugar addiction are not bullsh*t excuses people make to eat & live a certain way. I lived food addiction for 30+ yrs. It negatively affected me physically & mentally.

I am definitely an abstainer when it comes to carbs & sugar. It is freeing to me to have food rules & not have to waste energy justifying my choices & actions. I either DO or I DON’T. I also understand not everyone is wired this way.

Moderators & abstainers are often very judgmental toward each other, as they both believe that their way of approaching temptation is the right way.

Some think that a meat-based diet or “carnivore” is too extreme and restrictive. But whether thatโ€™s true for you might depend on whether youโ€™re an Abstainer or a Moderator. This is why we determine which one you are. It makes choosing a nutrition approach easier because sustainability, ease, & adherence are everything.

I feel our society as a whole has a strong moderator bias. How many times have you heard someone say: “Everything in moderation”?

As one who is an abstainer & suffered with food addiction, disordered eating, orthorexia, alongside an autoimmune condition like Crohn’s, I know first hand not everyone can moderate & eat all foods without repercussions.

Saying things to an abstainer like:

“Youโ€™re too restrictive.”

“Just loosen up.”

“One wonโ€™t kill you.โ€

etc…

is like telling an alcoholic or drug addict to “just have one drink or one hit, you’ll be fine.”

How to Handle Food Pushers & Moderators If You’re an Abstainer

  • โ€œYou’re too restrictive.โ€ We’re all different & I respect your choices. To me, the way I eat is freeing & meets my needs so I can be the best for you. I honor my body & that may change in the future, but for right now, I feel great!
  • โ€œJust loosen up.” I’m happy you can moderate food choices, but that does not align for me. For people who are abstainers, we have specific needs & approaches that work better.
  • “Just have one.” I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t feel my best when I have those foods, mentally or physically. Thank you for understanding!
  • โ€œMeat is bad for you.” Well, so is drinking nothing but celery juice. ( jus sayin lol)

Everyone has the freedom to eat & live as they choose. Right now this is my choice & I respect yours. I feel great, it’s easy & sustainable for me. If I get to a point where I feel like I need to make an adjustment, I will honor that.

Go your own way.

Can you relate to my story too?

oxox Coach K

All resources, links, discount codes, guides, recipes, coaching, & more here. Thank you for allowing me to add value to your lives!

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating, CrossFit, & adapting a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 18 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & personal life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

A Simple Guide to Fasting And Why It Isn’t Working For You Especially With A Disordered Eating History

sad-overweight-girl-eating-carrot-footage-074939351_prevstill

This guide has now passed thousands of views! Big thank you to everyone who continues to share (my posts & your story too) & be a big part of my life as my digital family!

 You guys make my days so much brighter & I hope you know how much you mean to me!

Iโ€™ve lost 55 lbs thanks to carnivore & intermittent fasting! Follow me on Instagram (@lil_bit_of_fit) to see my day-to-day journey with living a meat-based life as a busy xray tech & 40 year old athlete with Crohn’s Disease.

Interested in trying carnivore & fasting with me? โ˜•๏ธ๐Ÿ– Join my coaching community & book a coaching call! I also provide you with a recipe book, Meat & Macros Guide & 2 workout plans!

I tried every diet in the book to lose weight & heal my gut issues. While I did see occasional results, I eventually couldnโ€™t  sustain it and then yo-yoโ€™d. IF & carnivore have been the simplest and most manageable way I have found to improve my health & fitness (and stick with it).

This post is intended for my friends (and friends of friends) who have been following my health journey on Instagram, Facebook, or have asked how to get started. Because the interest has been in the thousands (so amazing!), Iโ€™ve wanted to share this information more publicly.

In the interest of time, Iโ€™ve created this super quick educational start guide with a couple troubleshooting videos!

Letโ€™s dive into fasting & why you may not be seeing results.

I see this oftentimes with all yโ€™all chronically under eating, trying to do protein sparing modified fasting (PSMF) or OMAD (one meal a day) with a disordered eating history.

Tap for a short video on why fasting may not be working for you!


Yes, I prefer to utilize intermittent fasting. It works best for my digestion. I eat when Iโ€™m hungry & fast when Iโ€™m not. Typical fasting window is around 14-20hrs, biggest meal I consume after my workout in the am. I also love to incorporate fat & carb cycling.
โฃ
It is not necessary for you to fast to achieve your health and body goals no matter what diet you prefer.

Remember: health & happy hormones first.
โฃโฃ

Here’s a previous video answering a client question talking about why fasting wasn’t working for her

What is intermittent fasting?โฃโฃ

Intermittent fasting, also known as intermittent energy restriction, is simply an umbrella term for various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting or reduced calorie intake and eating over a given period of time.

It is just a tool to help you to manage meal times & calorie intake, it is not a dirty word nor is it a quick fix or magic pill. There are 100 different ways to “fast” & everyone has their own “definition” of what they consider fasting. Some drink coffee & water, some don’t. Some use no calorie sweeteners, some don’t. There are more optimal times, situations, & schedules that are more effective & efficient. Make sure it fits easily into your lifestyle & schedule. Pick whatever suits your needs. Remember adherence & consistency are always keys!

Most utilize the 16/8 or 14/10 or 12/10 windows. (Fast 16 hrs/eat 8) You can also periodically fast 24 hrs or longer. I personally do NOT do extended fasts.

  • 16/8, 14/10, 12/12 Protocols – Ex: Fast 16hrs/8hr eating window
  • OMAD – One meal a day, fast the rest
  • TMAD – Two meals a day, fast the rest
  • PSMF – Protein Sparing Modified Fasts: highly restrictive diet that involves severely limiting the intake of calories, carbs, & fat & consuming only lean (zero-low fat) protein
  • 5:2 – Eat normal 5 days, restrict calories to 500-600 for 2 days
  • Eat Stop Eat – Eat normal for 5 days then fast for 24hrs for 2 days
  • 4:3 or Alternate Day Fasting – Fast every other day, eat normal on non-fasting days
  • Skip Meals Spontaneously – skip meals when you’re not hungry

Will fasting help me lose body fat?

Why your story & background matter when it comes to fasting efficacy

Before we dive into fasting deets I want to reiterate & touch on WHY your story & food/dieting/health history matter when it comes to the experiences & results you get (or lack of).

Lets be honest, the main reason most people choose the Carnivore Diet & utilizing fasting is because they want fat loss. Thatโ€™s fine, we all wanna look good nekkid, HOWEVER, the difference lies in our starting point: calorically, metabolically, hormonally, physiologically, mentally, emotionally โ€“ the whole picture.

I feel we really should approach any nutrition protocol from a health/healing perspective, first, aesthetic perspective, second.

Some of us come from the SAD (Standard American Diet), some have been dieting basically our entire lives & still think 1200 calories is the magic number for weight loss, some fear fat, some fear carbs, some are binge eating &/or suffering from disordered eating & still in denial, some come from Keto, some have been struggling with gut issues/autoimmune stuff for decades & really have no idea what they can eat.

All of these different stories & starting points impact the transition & adaptation to any diet. You do not have to fast at all if you don’t want to.

Usually I see two different stories, & thus experiences, when working with clients. Weโ€™ll call them Peter & Patty.

Are you Peter or Patty?

PETER

Peter is male, used to over consuming the typical SAD, dad bod (aka looks like he might lick something deemed โ€œhealthyโ€ & work out occasionally but really loves tacos & would much rather smash a 6 pack vs have a 6 pack). Simply eating meat & cutting out all the other crap significantly reduces his caloric intake & the fat just falls off.

PATTY

Patty is female, lets say 30-40yrs old, habitual yo-yo dieter, excessive exerciser, wants to lose fat & build muscle but doesnโ€™t wanna be โ€œbulkyโ€ (sigh smdh), scared to eat more than 1200-1500 calories & gaining weight is one of her biggest fears.

Sheโ€™s tried every diet in the book. Had some success with โ€œKetoโ€ (doesnโ€™t really know what keto means but sheโ€™s eating less carbs right?!) but always falls off the wagon, stressful home life/ job, struggled with bloating & gut issues for years.

Her neighbor, Peter, looks great since carnivore, so she decides itโ€™s gonna be the magic quick fix to all her issues. Sooo Patty stops tracking food (because she was told it didnโ€™t matter on the carnivore diet) & starts smashin all the bacon, ribeyes, cheese, ribs, & chicken wings.

Her gut issues get better, the first week she dropped 3lbs, but now she’s about 6 weeks in & hungry, tired, & the scale is going up! So she decided to start fasting more, & ups her steps to 20k/d. (Further stressing her body out more btw).

She gives it another month with more weight gain. She wants to quit after a couple months despite her gut issues resolving. It doesnโ€™t work she says, โ€œI didnโ€™t lose weight.โ€

Things that matter when choosing any diet, macros, calories, &/or fasting protocols

Things I need as a coach to help you figure out appropriate macros/diet/fitness/fasting approaches:

  • Age, Current Weight, Heightโฃโฃ
  • Training modalitiesโฃโฃ (how you prefer to workout. CrossFit vs running vs yoga vs Orange Theory vs walking vs Barre vs Bodybuilding vs power lifting etc)โฃโฃ
  • Daily Activity โฃโฃ(steps, job, kids, schedules etc)โฃโฃ
  • Training Frequency, Volume, Intensity โฃโฃ
  • Previous Dieting Historyโฃโฃ (disordered eating, low carb, high carb, low fat, have you been chronically dieting, eating surplus, etc)โฃโฃ
  • Medical Historyโฃโฃ (allergies, IBD, IBS, gut issues, hormonal issues, cancer, thyroid, etc)โฃโฃ
  • Your goals, preferences, special needs)โฃโฃ
  • Mindset & mental healthโฃโฃ
  • Lifestyleโฃโฃ & Stress (kids, stressful job, shitty sleep, relationship problems, etc)

Thatโ€™s a LOT of stuff, right? Itโ€™s not as simple as just picking a set of macro numbers, or calories, or a magic diet camp or fasting protocol. You are not a template or calculator, youโ€™re a human. This is why we set up coaching consultations to help you!

indiana lilbitoffit maintenance calories chart carnivore reverse diet katie kelly
A BIG reminder, we should not be dieting any more than 1-2 times per year, no longer than 12-16 weeks. You should be chillin, eating at your maintenance calories, enjoying life and getting strong AF the majority of the year! Like this chart? Allllll the free content available on Instagram!

Why should I try fasting?โฃโฃ

  • Itโ€™s simple, eating fewer times works better for your schedule, less thinking/measuring. Your lifestyle aligns w/your eating schedule. Helpful when in a calorie deficit to allot larger meals.โฃ
    โฃโฃ
  • Metabolic flexibility. It will utilize the fuel from previous meals/glycogen first, then it will use your fat stores to fuel your day.โฃโฃ
  • Hunger response. Are you bored or really hungry? You learn/feel the difference. A big reason I would utilize IF with clients. It helps connect with your bodyโ€™s true hunger signals.โฃโฃ
  •  Benefits of fasting: hormone balance, reduced insulin resistance, risk of diabetes, inflammation, improved focus, gut health & digestion, fat loss in a calorie deficit.

Why it works for fat loss

While I will reiterate fasting is not a diet, it can help with fat loss goals by creating a calorie deficit in various ways:

  • Reduces the number of meals in a day
  • Helps create food rules to prevent over eating & snacking, especially for people who are abstainers
  • Helps reduce your weekly calorie average
  • Helps you feel & get back in tune with true hunger cues which helps prevent eating when you’re not truly hungry. Many of us eat out of learned habit like eating in front of the tv at night, eating desert just because it is available, or seeing/smelling/hearing food cook

When should I not fast?

  • Youโ€™re on the gain train. If youโ€™re ok cramming 3-4000 calories down your pie hole in a short amount of time go for it. For most, IF protocols are utilized for eating less calories simply by decreasing feeding time.โฃโฃ
    โฃโฃ
  • It screws with your mind & feels restrictive. Canโ€™t sustain it easily & comfortably w/your lifestyle. If it increases cortisol/blood sugar/affecting your sleep/mood/energy negatively.
  •  If you canโ€™t feel fullness cues & eat past satiety & all you do is think about eating during your fasting โ€” STOP! Try eating more frequent meals during the day.

Who should NOT fast &/or fasting is not ideal

  • Pregnant Women
  • Women who are nursing
  • People who are reverse dieting
  • People training for high performance
  • People who have abused or overly fasted
  • People who have chronically under eaten for an extended period of time (aka you’ve made chasing a smaller body your hobby)
  • People who are trying to gain muscle
  • Women a week before their cycle
  • People healing &/or struggling with adrenal insufficiency & fatigue
  • People with eating disorders &/or disordered eating habits, poor relationships with food, exercise, &/or body image where restriction is a huge trigger

Getting Started

Chances are that youโ€™ve already done many intermittent fasts in your life.

If youโ€™ve ever eaten dinner, then slept late and not eaten until lunch the next day, then youโ€™ve probably already fasted for 16+ hours.

Some people instinctively eat this way. They simply donโ€™t feel hungry in the morning.

Many people consider the 16/8 method the simplest and most sustainable way of intermittent fasting โ€” you might want to try this practice first.

If you find it easy and feel good during the fast, then have fun, experiment and maybe try moving on to more advanced fasts like 24-hour fasts 1โ€“2 times per week (Eat-Stop-Eat) or only eating 500โ€“600 calories 1โ€“2 days per week (5:2 diet).

Another approach is to simply fast whenever itโ€™s convenient โ€” simply skip meals from time to time when youโ€™re not hungry or donโ€™t have time to cook.

There is no need to follow a structured intermittent fasting plan to derive at least some of the benefits.

Experiment with the different approaches and find something that you enjoy and fits your schedule.

At the end of the day, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to nutrition. The best diet for you is the one you can stick to in the long run.

I find for those who have a poor relationship with carbs & sugar, chronic gut or health issues, autoimmune needs, etc for example, a lower carb, animal or meat-based approach is extremely effective for health, healing, & fat loss.

body transformation woman carnivore diet

Here’s my routine & what has help me drop 55lbs & put my Crohn’s disease & bulimia in med-free remission.

https://lilbitoffit.com/the-stupidly-simple-system-i-use-to-stay-in-shape-and-love-my-body-as-an-empath-at-age-40/

Intermittent fasting is great for some people, not others. The only way to find out which group you belong to is to try it out.

If you feel good when fasting and find it to be a sustainable way of eating, it can be a very powerful tool to lose weight and improve your health.

oxox Coach K

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating, body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 18 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

5 Psychological Reasons You Hate Your Body & Donโ€™t Feel Confident

5 Psychological Reasons You Hate Your Body & Donโ€™t Feel Confident

All you need to know…

I tried every program possible to get in shape in my 20s & 30s, & I still looked & felt like sh*t.

I constantly had โ€˜projectsโ€™. Big Plans.

Keto for 6 weeks. Crash diet for 3 months. Cold showers forโ€ฆ well I didnโ€™t last long with that one, to be honest. Brrrr.

After 40 your mind & body start arguing with you a little. You realize 99% of people struggle to do things that canโ€™t be found in their social media feeds, meal plans, cookie cutter bs fitness stuff, & Google searches.

The secrets come from within. Check out this video with Serena at Carnivore Revolution!

In the video we talk:โฃ
– Your relationship with food, exercise, & self
– Being a moderator vs abstainer
– Crossfit, training & workouts
– Trigger foods & tracking foodโฃ, macros
-What I drink & eat
-High fat vs high protein carnivore
-Meat bars & recipes
-Tips to help anyone wanting to change their health
-Gut issues, gut healing, Crohnโ€™s disease, disordered eating
-Judgment, criticism, worrying about what other people think of you
-Social media triggers, food pushers
And more!

If you want to feel more confident, work to identify & eliminate these confidence-killing, progress smashing habits:

  • Avoiding emotions & reassurance-seeking
  • Second-guessing yourself
  • Constantly catastrophizing & thinking negatively
  • Dwelling on the past, mistakes, & failures
  • Avoiding fear & feeling unsafe

Each week, I create blogs & content with simple, practical tips for building emotional & physical health & wellbeing. I truly hope these have helped you create a better human!

All resources, links, & guides live in the link in my Instagram bio, highlights, blog atย lilbitoffit.com, & YouTube! You can also subscribe to my private email list!

I enjoy sharing my experiences & knowledge. Thank you to all who read, engage, & have become a part of my digital family!

oxox Coach K

23 Simple Rules to Transform Your Fitness & Health in order to live your best life! girl with barbell deadlifts in gym

Rules To Live Your Best Life including my daily routine to help you create your own!

It comes down to your habits

Hereโ€™s how most people think about their lack of confidence:

  • Iโ€™d be more confident & successful if I lost 20 lbsโ€ฆ
  • If only I had more money I’d be happierโ€ฆ
  • If my parents had really loved me then Iโ€™d feel more confident & secure in my relationshipsโ€ฆ
  • If I had more time I could focus on my fitness…

Fortunately, theyโ€™re wrong.

Of course, everything from genetics to childhood experience has some influence on how confident you feel (or donโ€™t). But by far the biggest influence on confidence is the one everyone seems to missโ€ฆ

Itโ€™s your habits in the present, not the events of your past, that determine your confidence.

In my work as a nutrition coach & taking care of patients for over 18 years in the healthcare industry, Iโ€™ve found that there are a handful of confidence-killing habits people fall into without knowing it. And itโ€™s these habits that are the real causes of chronically low confidence, body hate, & unhappiness with life. If you can learn to identify & work through them, youโ€™ll find that your natural levels of confidence & life satisfaction are much higher than you realize.

Why you over eat & self sabotage

1. Youโ€™re addicted to avoiding emotions & reassurance

Reassurance-seeking is like outsourcing emotional labor onto other people. And not only does it kill your confidence, it also tends to sabotage your relationships & lead to people becoming resentful of you.

Food & healthy emotional navigation are medicine. They can stabilize you & also throw you off. Iโ€™ve observed in over 18 years of working in healthcare & nutrition, overeating, body hate, & food addictions are common among those who avoid &/or numb emotions & are constantly seeking reassurance & outside validation.

Food addiction is a biggie. Frequently, the specific addiction is to sugar or carbohydrates, which is a huge reason I adopted the “carnivore” WOE (way of eating) for both my Crohn’s disease & disordered eating. I’ve lost 55lbs & put my Crohn’s & bulimia in med-free remission for over 4 years.

Avoiding painful feelings always makes them worse in the end. When you immediately run away from your emotional difficulties, youโ€™re teaching your brain that youโ€™re afraid of feeling bad & canโ€™t handle it on your own. This means the next time you feel afraid youโ€™re going to feel doubly afraid and not confident to deal with it, oftentimes seeking numbing through food, drugs, alcohol, spending, & using other people.

A helpful survival guide

Tips that have helped me to eat well, stay fit, & release negativity before self sabotaging & over eating:

  • Breathe: When you feel stress, immediately focus on breathing slowly & deeply. This releases negative energy. Holding your breath out of fear traps toxicity in your body.
  • Hydrate: Water purifies you. Drink filtered or spring water, especially when youโ€™ve been exposed to negative energy & have the urge to overeat. Consume at least 1/2 your body weight in oz daily. Get in adequate electrolytes. Take a bath or shower. Water washes away impurities of all kinds.
  • Minimize Sugar & Processed Food As Much As Possible: Although you may crave carbs & sugar (as well as alcohol), they will destabilize you mentally & physically. This makes you more susceptible to absorbing unwanted energy & self sabotaging. These kinds of hyperpalatable foods are like drugs, leaving you wanting more.
  • Prioritize Protein: Protein stabilizes. It gives a sense of grounding & satiation. Get protein at every meal, at least 30-50g. Big reason many food addicts thrive, lose weight, & heal on carnivore.
  • Rest: Sleep. Remove yourself from your busy routine. Regularly unplug. We stay stuck in the in-between, dissatisfied & seeking something to make us feel better. Solitude is your best friend. Go take a walk in nature. Eat alone & mindfully especially if you’re an empath.
  • Restore & Release: Part of the human condition is that we come with soul wounds, past trauma, & conditioning. Our job is to heal & reintegrate the perceived โ€œunlovableโ€ parts of ourselves so we can live connected to Self, Source, & each other. The parts of yourself that youโ€™re angry or ashamed of are the source of your suffering. Therapy does wonders!
  • Move: Walk, go to the gym, get sunlight, connect with friends. We cope with stress, including loneliness, by using dopamine-triggering substances & behaviors as a means of avoiding painful emotions & self-awareness. But if we make a commitment to living a kick-ass life, then moving the body will get the dopamine flowing, reconnecting us to what we truly enjoy, like our friends & families. Oh, and that workout high & lookin good nekkid too!!

Second-guessing & perfectionism

2. You second-guess yourself constantly

Each time you second-guess yourself, itโ€™s a tiny message to your brain that you donโ€™t believe in yourself. If youโ€™re in the habit of constantly second-guessing yourself, think about what youโ€™re teaching your brain?

If every time a big decision arrives your immediate reaction is to tell your brain youโ€™re not capable of making big decisions, how confident can you expect to feel the next time a big decision comes around?

Look, itโ€™s obviously important to be thoughtful before making decisions โ€” especially big ones with major consequences and lots of uncertainty.

But itโ€™s also important to accept that you will never eliminate uncertainty entirely. This means there will always be a chance you make the wrong decision, but they’re just lessons that help make you a better, more well-equipped version of yourself.

The heart of second-guessing is the unwillingness to accept the fundamental uncertainty of life. Chronic second-guessing is a form of perfectionism where you feel like no matter how hard you work, the result is never good enough because itโ€™s not perfect. If you want to feel more confident, you need to make your peace with uncertainty & accept the responsibility of making decisions & being unattached from the outcome.

Managing your inner narrative

3. You constantly catastrophize & think negatively

Catastrophizing is an extreme form of worry where you quickly start thinking about all the worst case scenariosโ€ฆ

  • Oh my God, I’m gonna gain 10 lbs if I lift & eat more…
  • Great, Iโ€™m gonna lose my job. How will I be able to make rent? What will other people think?
  • I can’t wear thatโ€ฆ they probably think I’m poor or ugly, etc…

The ability to imagine the worst case scenario can be a good thing in the appropriate time & place if you can emotionally navigate thru the therapeutic process to shift your mindset to one of safety, power, & security. But if youโ€™re in the habit of always catastrophizing, not only will it chip away at your confidence in your ability to handle difficulties in the future โ€” itโ€™s also going to make you incredibly anxious & stressed to the titties all the time.

If youโ€™re constantly telling yourself the world is ending, youโ€™re going to constantly feel like the world is ending. And itโ€™s awfully hard to feel confident when youโ€™re always worried that disaster is right around the corner.

โ€œInstead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.โ€ Roy T. Bennett

Embrace failures as lessons

4. You dwell on past mistakes

Just like itโ€™s hard to feel confident if youโ€™re always predicting that disaster is about to strike, itโ€™s similarly hard to feel confident if youโ€™re constantly reminding yourself of your mistakes & “failures.”

Healthy reflection is a good & normal thing. Which means some degree of thinking back on your mistakes in an attempt to learn from them is very useful โ€” even confidence-boosting!

But if youโ€™re habitually reminding yourself of past mistakes well past the point of new learning, itโ€™s all side effect & no benefit. Youโ€™re keeping your shame & insecurity high & your confidence & self-worth low.

Itโ€™s hard to feel confident about the future when you wonโ€™t let go of the past.

The trick is that you have to be willing to live with the fact that the past is unchangeable, which means you are truly helpless to change it.

More often than not, incessant rumination about the past is a sign that you havenโ€™t really confronted that helplessness & learned to embrace it o make better decisions. Your low confidence & life dissatisfaction are unfortunate casualties of that denial.

โ€œTo think too much is a disease.โ€ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Stop avoiding fear

5. Youโ€™re afraid of feeling unsafe & afraid

The American President Franklin Roosevelt famously said: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And while his political and economic policies arenโ€™t something Iโ€™m qualified to comment on, as a statement of human psychology, that quote is pretty right on the mark.

Because hereโ€™s the thing: The fear that keeps your confidence low doesnโ€™t come from the thing itself, but from the feelings about it.

Why do you think many people drink before giving speeches/toasts or going on dates? Alcohol doesnโ€™t make you more articulate or attractive. Alcohol makes you feel confident because it gets rid of your fear & inhibitions & lets your natural confidence shine through (at the right dosage, anyway ๐Ÿ™‚

In any situation where you lack confidence & feel afraid or unsafe, thereโ€™s a good chance the real obstacle is your relationship with fear & specific triggers. If you want to feel more confident, start to cultivate a healthier relationship with your fear. Start acknowledging it & validating it instead of trying to avoid it. Remember: Confident people donโ€™t escape fear. They master it.

โ€œThe soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.โ€ Marcus Aurelius

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating,ย body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 18 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

The Hard Truths About Body Fat % & Getting Lean Af

sad girl looking in mirror

My body shivered as I undressed & stepped on the scale.
I looked at the number. Shit.

But Iโ€™m different now. Iโ€™m better. I donโ€™t read Anorexia blogs, starve myself, or equate my weight with my self-worth anymore. Yet, a tiny thought crosses my mind. โ€œJust five more,โ€ it whispers. โ€œImagine how powerful youโ€™d feel. Maybe then youโ€™d actually like yourself.โ€

Instead of glorifying shredded abs & single digit body fat, Iโ€™m speaking up. In a society that pressures us to look a certain way, I know others share my past struggle.
Yeah, theyโ€™re the parts of me Iโ€™m not proud of, but understanding them changed my life.

  • The hard truths about Body Fat % & getting lean af

I used to believe that starving was an art, bare bones were beautiful, & I was an artist.

Iโ€™d try & mold my body to match the models on TV & in the magazines. I worked hard to paint the emptiness I felt inside.

When I was in 3rd grade, I got the honor of being โ€˜the fat kid.โ€™ This event might not sound like a big deal to some, but to 8-year-old me, it was traumatic. Food became my enemy. My stomach hurt all the time, too. Later on in life to be diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. My poor relationships with food (specifically binging on carbs & sugar) & body image exacerbated.

At the beginning of 7th grade, we did weigh-ins. When it was my turn to stand on the scale, my health teacher made a frowny face at the numbers & pulled me aside. I was informed I was 160lbs & obese at 5ft tall.

My cheeks burned, & tears streamed from my eyes as I was lectured about exercising & eating less.

And by my senior year of high school, I was a mastermind of my craft. I learned how to eat just enough to keep me from binging or passing out.

Losing weight was like a drug โ€” each time I stood on the scale, dopamine rushed into my brain, & I forgot all my problems.

Getting smaller also gave me a sense of power โ€” & I loved it. I loved feeling “better” than everyone else because I was the โ€˜perfectโ€™ anorexic & bulimic.

No matter how skinny I became, I couldnโ€™t get rid of my problems. My weight yoyo’d over the years. I was fading away from my life; I was lonely, miserable, & sick. I burned bridges in relationships because of my constant irritability, fatigue, gut issues, & obsession with losing weight.

While Iโ€™d been chasing the โ€˜highโ€™ & power, there were other feelings, a deeper longing, that I needed to acknowledge. Helplessness & self hate.

From my struggles came my strengths & my passion for helping others. My awesomeness comes from being myself โ€” from writing, speaking my truth, & kindling the potential energy within me.

We are all artists; weโ€™re sculptors & painters, creators of our dreams, poets of our memories. Let our hands mold our ambitions, not our appearances. Because it is there where we find our true power!

oxox Coach K

Like this Blog? Join my email list & follow along on the gram for all the life & resources to help you! Link Here

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating,ย body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 17 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com

23 Simple Rules to Transform Your Fitness & Health In Order To Live Your Best Life!

23 Simple Rules to Transform Your Fitness & Health in order to live your best life! girl with barbell deadlifts in gym

You lie to yourself a lot. You know you do. At some point, you have to rip the band-aid, learn from mistakes & do what works.

Hi. Iโ€™m Katie.
Iโ€™ve coached hundreds of nutrition & fitness clients.
I’ve taken care of hundreds of patients in the 18 years I’ve been in this space.

I ainโ€™t here to preach or convince you I know everything or am the best coach in the world.
Iโ€™m here to speak to my younger self, to remind my current self, & anyone else out there needing hope.

My rules for a good life are based on years of struggle, both personally, & seeing others fall deeper & deeper into the dark abyss of 50 shades of fucked up.

Now is always the time to get into the best shape & live your best life.

When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear. I’m not here to tell you what you want to hear.

I donโ€™t provide cures. If I know anything about self-improvement itโ€™s because I battle & struggle with it every day, too. Most self-improvement writers & coaches are writing & coaching to themselves, with the hopes that it helps you.

So use the concept of radical honesty, with yourself & with others, to fight the uphill battle needed to change your life. Be honest with yourself about who you are, what you want, & what you need to do to stay true to both.

Letโ€™s go!

Rules To Live Your Best Life

If youโ€™re anxious, slow down. If youโ€™re depressed, speed up.

Anxiety means weโ€™re doing too much & overthinking. Slowing down consciously helps with this. Being depressed is often remedied by leaning into action & getting busy.

Never make big decisions when youโ€™re emotional.

Take your time & give the decision as much time as possible. It’s ok if youโ€™re scared, but if you know itโ€™s right in your gut, then act. We feel our thoughts. If our thinking makes us doubtful & fearful, those thoughts are not serving us. We donโ€™t need to be at the mercy of a thought.

If youโ€™re self-conscious, focus on serving others.

Self-consciousness has brought me little but misery. When I feel anxious, itโ€™s time to focus on making someone else smile & serving. This takes the pressure off me & instantly makes me feel better because I’m helping someone else.

Drink coffee.

Coffee (caffeine) is a fat loss cheat code when used optimally. Itโ€™ll help you burn fat through a few different mechanisms: Fat mobilization (moving fat out of storage), Fat oxidation (burning fat), Increased adrenaline (the release of adrenaline leads to more fat burning)

Eat 1g of protein/lb of body weight or goal weight if you have more to lose.

Protein is crucial for optimizing body composition & controlling hunger/satiety. Aim for 30โ€“40g/meal through things like: meat, seafood, eggs, & dairy (if you’re not sensitive)

Time-restricted eating (Intermittent Fasting).

Eat all of your meals within a 12 hour or less window each day. Choose a fasting window that works for you like: 12/12, 14/10, 16/8, 18/6, etc. Donโ€™t snack or eat outside of this. TRE will accelerate your fat loss by letting your body tap into its fat stores, autophagy, & giving your digestive system a break.

Avoid seed, veggie, & low quality oils (fats).

Things like: canola (rapeseed) oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, grapeseed oil, rice bran oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, & sunflower oil. Theyโ€™re highly inflammatory & are destroying your health, metabolism, & weight loss efforts. If you want to get in the best shape of your life, avoid these at all costs.

Morning fasted walk/movement.

During a fasted walk, your body has minimal stores of available energy (glycogen) from the foods you eat. Your body needs to tap into energy stores in the body (stored fat) plus its good for the mind.

big rocks of sustainable fat loss lilbitoffit's bulletproof routine

Get 7+ hours of high-quality sleep & walk 10k steps/day.

If youโ€™re not getting 7 hours of sleep, youโ€™re sabotaging your efforts. Your hormones will be out of whack โ€” leading to increased hunger/ cravings. Your body is also more likely to hold onto fat & is going to struggle to build muscle. If you want to transform your body, you need to walk more. Walking 10k steps/day might be the highest ROI habit in this list. This one habit can dramatically improve your ability to lose fat & will improve your energy, mood, & productivity too.

Make the first move & be a role model.

Stop waiting to be a follower. Stop waiting for permission to create something cool. Start a conversation with a stranger. Experiment first. Lean in first & make it a habit. Now youโ€™re the leader, & you set the precedent for creating success that others will admire & follow.

Walk tall, always look & do your best.

Posture has been known to directly affect our chemical composition, among other benefits. Walk a fraction taller with a skip in your step. Your self-image will improve by doing this alone. The little things regarding your appearance make a huge difference in how you perceive yourself & how others perceive you. Be extra. Clean your dirty-ass shoes. Iron your shirt. It will infect your confidence (the good way).

Do what most others refuse to do.

What interests you? How bad do you want something? Your drive, commitment, & work ethic set you apart by doing what others do NOT have the patience or fortitude to do. Thatโ€™s how you separate yourself from the pack.

Eat nourishing, single-ingredient foods.

You need to eat high-quality foods if you want to be healthy & lose weight. By prioritizing single-ingredient foods (i.e., foods as they come in nature), youโ€™ll make massive progress. Eat these foods 80-90% of the time & be flexible with the other 10-20%. (Shit like Beyond Meat & packaged diet foods are NOT one of them. Read your labels!)

carnivore diet food list

Lift weights at least 3x a week.

Lifting weights is key if you want to transform your body. Lifting weights: burns a lot of fat, increases your metabolism, improves your body comp (what you look like aka looking good nekkid), builds muscle (which will also lead to you burning more calories at rest).

Minimize alcohol consumption.

It wrecks your sleep, sabotages your weight loss efforts, & leads to many other unhealthy habits. Stick to an allocated 1โ€“2 drinks/wk. Plan ahead & find alternatives so that you donโ€™t give in in the moment.

Get your heart rate up & do HIIT 1โ€“2x a week.

High-intensity interval training, or HIIT, is another great tool for fat loss. It involves exercising at a higher intensity for a short period of time, followed by a period of rest. I personally love CrossFit because it combines strength training sprinkled with a little HIIT.

Eat healthy fats.

Fat doesnโ€™t make us fat, despite what weโ€™ve been told. We need fats โ€” our cells are made up of this vital macronutrient & they are the precursors to our hormones. Prioritize things like: eggs, fatty fish/seafood, avocados (if you’re not sensitive), & fatty cuts of meat.

Measure & track progress (especially if things aren’t working).

You need objective data to ensure youโ€™re making progress & proper adjustments. You can measure: food (calories/macros), body weight, body fat %, lean muscle mass, blood glucose, ketones, performance (cardio/endurance/strength) in the gym, body measurements, etc.

Manage stress.

Stress is an overlooked aspect of body transformation. Cortisol (our stress hormone) disrupts insulin activity & leads to weight gain. It also makes it hard to build muscle. Include de-stressing practices like walking, coloring, yoga, working out, & meditation.

Make a habit of asking.

Many people fall short of their dreams & potential because they donโ€™t want to rock the boat, ask for help, seek coaching or mentorship, & let their ego get the best of them. You can be, do, or have anything you want if youโ€™re willing to do what you need to do & learn to achieve it.

Create something & smile every day.

Journal your thoughts. Brainstorm ideas. Design. Share your stories. Build a following with your advice. Thereโ€™s little downside & massive upside to daily creating. Also, smiles are free & contagious. It can change your &/or someone else’s entire day!

Don’t be a whiner, moaner, complainer, or fun-hater.

No one likes a Debbie Downer. Whining reaffirms a negative reality. Focusing on whatโ€™s good brings more good in.

Mind what you consume.

What you consume, consumes you & what consumes you, controls your life. It’s not only what we eat & drink but also what we watch, listen to, media, & environment. If you want to change, become a better version of yourself, you have to change your habits. Listen to a podcast, motivational speakers, surround yourself with successful, positive minded people – create yourself a new environment.

Final Thoughts

If you want better health, a better body, & a better life, it’s gonna take work. For some of us, maybe you’re simply not disciplined enough. It is what it is – you either do or you don’t.

There’s nothing worse than rolling through life in the passenger’s seat.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather be a DOer. Goals don’t mean anything unless you act. Just like knowledge isn’t power unless there’s application. We were made to be ACTIVE participants in life. The word ATTRACTION includes the word ACTION.

Do these sound familiar?

  • “I want this, but not bad enough to do what is required to achieve it”
  • “I can’t cut back on workouts.” (even though they’re stressing my body out even more which is actually hindering progress)
  • “I can’t give up sugar/bangs/etc.” (even though my glucose/cortisol are jacked up thru the roof & I can’t sleep at night)
  • “I can’t give up sweets & snacking at night.” (even though they’re causing inflammation, gut problems, high glucose, fat gain, & more cravings)
  • “I can’t reverse diet because I’ll gain weight.” (even though you’ve been eating less than a toddler for 20+ yrs & still don’t have the health or body you want)

Thank you for reading & allowing me to add value to your lives! Link here to resources, guides, coaching & more!

Life is the dash between the dates on your tombstone. What you do with it is your choice.

Katie Kelly @lil_bit_of_fit

While the inevitable is bound to happen, my goal is to carpe diem my way thru life & make my dash everything I want it to be. People will remember how you made them feel. Treat each other with respect & smile more. Remember this special dash might only last a little while. So, when your eulogy is being read, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent YOUR dash?

  • 23 Simple Rules to Transform Your Fitness & Health in order to live your best life! girl with barbell deadlifts in gym
  • body transformation woman carnivore diet
  • 23 Simple Rules to Transform Your Fitness & Health in order to live your best life!

Recap

23 Rules:

If youโ€™re anxious, slow down. If youโ€™re depressed, speed up.

Never make big decisions when youโ€™re emotional.

If youโ€™re self-conscious, focus on serving others.

Drink coffee.

Eat 1g of protein/lb of body weight or goal weight if you have more to lose.

Time-restricted eating (Intermittent Fasting).

Avoid seed, veggie, & low quality oils (fats).

Morning fasted walk/movement.

Get 7+ hours of high-quality sleep & walk 10k steps/day.

Make the first move & be a role model.

Walk tall, always look & do your best.

Do what most others refuse to do.

Eat nourishing, single-ingredient foods.

Lift weights at least 3x a week.

Minimize alcohol consumption.

Get your heart rate up & do HIIT 1โ€“2x a week.

Eat healthy fats.

Measure & track progress (especially if things aren’t working).

Manage stress.

Make a habit of asking.

Create something & smile every day.

Don’t be a whiner, moaner, complainer, or fun-hater.

Mind what you consume.

bio carnivore lilbitoffit katie kelly indiana fishers
Hailing from Fishers, Indiana, Katie is an aficionado of health, mindset, human connection, & entrepreneurship. Motivational writer, speaker, doer of many things, she grew up on her familyโ€™s beef cattle & crop farm where agriculture was her first love. She is a Purdue University graduate well known for her storytelling of life lessons & personal transformation through her own relationships, financial struggles, Crohnโ€™s Disease, disordered eating,ย body transformation, & adapting to a carnivore diet lifestyle.

Katie also has over 17 years experience as a Registered Radiologic Technologist, Nutritionist, Brand Growth & Sales Consultant. She works with people of all walks of life as a nutritionist & life coach to help them authentically optimize their lives to find health, wealth, & happy!

You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com