Health Coach | Speaker | Writer | Welcome to my digital diary! I'm here to help you blend life & fitness to find your health & happy! Thank you for being part of my family & allowing me to add value to your journey!
5 years ago, I wrote a journal entry about my ongoing struggle with Crohn’s disease, binge eating, unhealthy addiction to exercise, & poor body image.
I detailed longstanding struggle with my seemingly endless appetite & f*cked up addiction to stuffing huge amounts of food in my face, struggling with gut flares & drowning in a black cloud of self loathing & frustration.
I had no “cures” as of yet, but I was now out of the closet getting REAL with living in a “haunted house.”
Since writing that entry, I chose to turn that pain into something constructive. I created a community here simply sharing my life in hopes of helping others living a similar nightmare.
I wrote a super informative blog on my healing & carnivore story here that will answer the majority of your questions what I went through transitioning & how I healed via a meat based, “carnivore” lifestyle.
I’ve received hundreds of messages asking about the journey of recovery from disordered eating, poor body image, food addiction, orthorexia, & Crohn’s disease.
Living decades with these devils on my shoulders since the age of 8, I’ve learned a lot.
After going “carnivore” with diet & changing my perspective on health & fitness, I never binge & am healthier than ever at 40 years old & med free in remission. I want the same for you.
How did I crack the code? Brain dumped as many resources as I could in this blog for you.
First, I stopped looking outside myself for solutions, online & advice from friends, doctors, & latest fads. Instead, I decided to compassionately look inward & get curious on what life & fitness meant to me.
I started observing myself to understand my thoughts & actions.
I found without exception, I binged in response to 3 different situations that left me hungry physically & mentally:
When “restricting” & trying to eat like everyone else instead of ME
When avoiding an emotion or lacking purpose
When neglecting my own pleasure & needs
My priorities now are: Great food in the form of animal based nutrition — quality sleep & exercise — simple joy & inner peace.
I’ve learned to consider fitness a lifestyle I love, not a chore.
A CHAMPION means to be someone that loves the work of becoming one more than the idea of becoming one.
Hope these tips help you! Feel free to swipe, tag, save, & share any post of mine on IG freely! That’s all that I ask of you is to share anything that has helped you or will help someone else! What’s mine is yours!
***Disclaimer: This is in no way, shape, or form medical advice, I am simply sharing what has helped me***
You could have picked a bunch of other people to follow & allow influence into your lives, but you chose me. Thank you for giving me a platform & portals to share with you my thoughts, experiences, & life through my lens. Thank you for being my most incredible supporters & being part of my digital family. Cheers to many more years of health, happiness, abundance, community, & choosing to live life on our own terms!
“Abs are made in the kitchen.” — possibly every fitness trainer & influencer who ever lived. LOL!
We’ve all heard this statement before as we try to figure out why the countless hours we have spent sweating in the gym & eating all the “healthy diet food” have yet to turn into that chiseled six-pack we desire.
While the obvious answer is that regardless of how hard you work in the gym, if you don’t eat “right” FOR YOU, you’re only working against yourself. Health first, aesthetics will follow.
What if I told you the quality of what you’re eating every day was related to & a predictor of the quality of your life?
We’ve all heard how important healthy eating is, but we all tend to put it on the back burner because we’re too focused on working harder in the gym & chronically dieting.
While I did hit several personal & fitness goals by just outworking my former self (to my demise in the long run) what I recognized was that by focusing on self love & my eating first, I didn’t have to work as hard in the gym anymore & discovered a number of other areas of my life became much easier & better to manage.
I’ve lost 55lbs in my lifetime, put my Crohn’s disease in remission, & live med-free via the carnivore woe (way of eating).
One positive change led to another that created an almost domino effect of favorable results in my life, ultimately leading to a more well-balanced, happier life!
Hoosier farm girl & Purdue University grad, Katie is a multifaceted girlboss! She’s a nutritionist, radiologic technologist, personal coach, motivational speaker & writer, & brand growth consultant working with individuals, businesses, organizations, & executives. She specializes in gut health, sports nutrition, disordered eating, social branding, human connection, and how to optimize life to attract health, wealth, & happiness. Katie welcomes all preferences & skill levels with a no diet dogma or one size-size-fits-all approach to health, wellness, fitness, & nutrition. After decades of struggling with her own health issues from Crohn’s, obesity, disordered eating, infertility, hormonal imbalances, & being a competitive athlete, she is passionate about helping others find self love, achieve their goals, & create sustainable success habits for an EXTRAordinary life!
You can catch her via Instagram @lil_bit_of_fit & blog, Lilbitoffit.com
It was hard enough worrying about fitting in with the popular sorority girls in college. Special dietary needs and digestive issues piled on added physical, emotional, and mental weight. My body image and food issues started at the age of eight, and exacerbated as I got older — food fear, disordered eating, orthorexia, gastrointestinal bleeding, chronic constipation, abdominal pain, fatigue, weight gain, and bloating… just to name a few.
Decades later, I finally received a diagnosis.
Crohn’s Disease can occur in people of any age. By simple definition, Crohn’s is an inflammatory bowel disease that causes chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.
In the years that I have been managing this disease, I have been able to find health, happiness and wellness, even living with Crohn’s. What I’ve discovered is that it’s all about boundaries and vocalizing specific needs that would have solved a lot of suffering over the years had I shared them sooner.
Have you ever stopped to think about how 90% of your relationships are arguing over picking out a place to eat then ending up smashing pizza or Mexican & sayin the word “babe?”
Don’t lie. Y’all know it’s true. 😂🤚
Now embracing my Crohn’s & Carnivore lifestyle, I realize sticking to my boundaries, non negotiables, & OWNING my special needs would’ve solved much suffering in my lifetime.
Dating & relationships are challenging enough, let alone the added stress if you struggle with any kind of special health & digestive needs.
It’s like the Bumble Prompt: “We’ll get along if…”
— literally have put “You aren’t vegan. 🥩“ there before.
(No diet dogma here, but let’s be real 😆)
I hardly think we’re gonna have a great relationship as you sit there with your kale salad glaring at me like I’m a degenerate as I’m devouring burger patties. 🥗🍔
Ok, ok, joking aside, here are my top pieces of advice for successfully navigating dating and being social while living with Crohn’s. These tips are also helpful to those living with other special digestive needs and diets.
1.) Be honest and upfront about your needs.
Not only do you deserve the freedom to be yourself, others deserve to know who you truly are. Everyone deserves to know the real you and you deserve a real relationship. You do not want to jeopardize your health and eat or drink something that will trigger issues just because you are embarrassed to be yourself. Use it as an opportunity to educate. Embrace your uniqueness, most people don’t know what they don’t know. Education drives compliance and acceptance.
2.) Eat beforehand, bring your own food, and check the menu prior to your event.
This eliminates food issues completely. Social functions and dates do not need to be centered around food or cocktails. They should be centered around connection. By preparing ahead of time, you alleviate the stress of the unknown. Determine your nonnegotiables. They can be things like choosing to have a cocktail over a meal or choosing to savor a special meal from your favorite restaurant over your typical meal prep. I have literally brought @Zevia as a mixer or eaten an hour or two before dates/social functions.
Luckily with Carnivore, most places have a meat option. Custom order your food with specifics like grilled over fried, no oil, seasoning, sauces, or creams. Request an earlier time if later meals trigger gut symptoms and works better for your schedule.
My go to‘s when ordering out:
Burger patties
Grilled chicken
Chicken wings (naked, no seasoning)
Grilled salmon, fish, scallops, shrimp
Chopped steak, steaks
Fajita meat only when eating Mexican (ask for them to be cooked in no oil, seasonings, and no veggies)
3.) Request to have your cocktails crafted to your specific needs.
Most restaurants will cater to your food needs, don’t forget about cocktails, too. Read the ingredients in cocktails. Set drink limits. I have a two-three drink rule and personally avoid any calorically dense beverages with an abundance of sugar, carbs, or gluten. Remember that no one wants to be the girl or guy sitting on the corner trying to find your dignity down the street the next day. That look is not cute on anyone.
4.) Be an unapologetic question-asker and boundary-setter.
If you don’t ask questions, you’ll never know. Simple as that.
Boundaries are paramount. I struggled setting and standing by my boundaries when I was younger. I felt I was apologizing for everything whether I needed to apologize or not.
I had a professor tell me one time, “Never apologize for something you purposely set out to do with good intentions or a minor mistake simply because you’re human. If you go through life always apologizing, people will take you a lot less seriously, and so will you.”
Healthy boundaries are there to protect you. Don’t apologize for special needs, non-negotiables, and protecting your energy. Maybe you require more alone time or maybe you don’t feel like going out. Own your boundaries or people will continue to step over the line.
5.) Be a realistic relentless optimist.
Accept the facts but choose to always look for the silver linings.
Thoughts become things. Most would prefer to be around people who radiate joy and positivity.
I have a letter board in my kitchen that reads, “Stay close to the people who feel like sunshine.” I choose to be one of those people and bring the sunshine more than the rain.
Remember, just because you have special needs or a chronic illness does not mean you have to dull your sparkle!
You can save and share this post with Infographics on IG HERE
Hoosier farm girl & Purdue University grad, Katie is a multifaceted girlboss! She’s a nutritionist, radiologic technologist, personal coach, executive assistant, motivational speaker & writer, & brand growth consultant working with individuals, businesses, organizations, & executives. She specializes in gut health, sports nutrition, disordered eating, social branding, human connection, and how to optimize life to attract health, wealth, & happiness. Katie welcomes all preferences & skill levels with a no diet dogma or one size-size-fits-all approach to health, wellness, fitness, & nutrition. After decades of struggling with her own health issues from Crohn’s, obesity, disordered eating, infertility, hormonal imbalances, & being a competitive athlete, she is passionate about helping others find self love, achieve their goals, & create sustainable success habits for an EXTRAordinary life!
I lived the majority of my life misdiagnosed with IBS when I in fact had IBD Crohn’s.
Know the difference!
Ulcerative colitis involves the inner lining of the colon, while Crohn’s disease involves all layers of the intestine & can occur in both the small intestine & colon. Mine is specifically is affected in the right lower quadrant (around where your appendix is located).
These disorders affect the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the area of the body where digestion takes place. Digestion affects every facet of your life including fat loss goals, performance goals, & just living every day life.
It can be paralyzing when you don’t know what to eat & are struggling with symptoms.
The diseases cause inflammation of the intestine & lead to ongoing symptoms/complications.
There is no known cause or cure for IBD, but fortunately there are many effective treatments to help control it, including diet & lifestyle. Carnivore saved my life.
If medications fail to control the symptoms of IBD, or if certain complications occur, surgery may be required.
There is no single diet or eating plan that will work for everyone with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
Dietary recommendations with my clients are tailored for each individual, depending on what part of the intestines is affected, if they have IBS or IBD, specific body goals, lifestyle needs & preferences.
Swipe for all the cheat sheets on things that I learned, things that helped me improve symptoms, carnivore healing phases, symptoms, triggers, & supplements that were helpful! IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeeqJRiJLrv/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I assure you there is light at the end of the tunnel!!
Sending you all the love & hugs & know that I understand I’ve been there too!
“You’re just too big to be a cheerleader, hon.” -cheerleading coach, middle school
“Pretty girls are in the front, you fit better in the back.” -a mom, childhood birthday party pictures
“Well, you’re just not polished enough.” -recruiter, job fair in college
“I’m sorry I cheated, I like you, it’s just, she was prettier.” -someone not even worth mentioning here
Naturally I’d be lying if a part of me didn’t want to tell these people of past chapters of my life they can suck it.
I’ll take the high road & use it to help y’all if you’ve ever struggled when someone has devalued you.
People will teach you how to love well by hurting you. They will teach you how to love yourself by not loving you back. Life will teach you evolution & growth through pain & stagnation.
Pay attention to the wisdom the Universe is trying to teach you. Gold is found sifting thru gravel & diamonds are created under pressure.
Hell, crispy airfryer #meatbars were discovered by me being late to work & literally throwing the shizzle my nizzle in the airfryer basket. Now we can’t live without them!
In my youth, I shouldn’t have taken these statements as a reflection of my worth, simply moved on, & not allowed a single encounter to take up so much energy in my heart & taint decades of my being with shame.
This world is made up of a plethora of different people with different priorities with different life situations all 50 shades of f*cked up.
You’re not alone, the difference is how you react to what life throws at you.
People who have broken my spirit have actually led me to having more empathy, more self worth & appreciation for who I am, & the desire to reach out to all of you because I have felt what a lack of human acknowledgment & compassion can do to a person.
Know that your feelings have a real place, & this life can be so much more beautiful & grander if we let love & optimism fully into our hearts.
The first time I set a “fitness goal, “I didn’t even know fitness goals were a thing. I just wanted to lose as much weight as possible.
I started out doing videos at home in my room. I swapped two and three portions of food at dinner for a salad and then walked a mile on the treadmill instead of sitting and watching TV.
I started working out and setting more intentional exercise goals in the 7th grade. I was the heaviest I’d ever been. I was 160lbs and barely 5 foot tall.
Me at my heaviest
Kids were extremely cruel. They called me names. I will never forget the kids who were mean to me, their names, or the way they made me feel.
And I took that as a life lesson into my adulthood that I would be aware of how I made other people feel because the way other people made me feel made a huge impression on the trajectory of my life and perception of myself.
The imprint you make on other people’s lives is truly your legacy. It’s not the number in your bank account, what you look like, your size, achievements or how many titles you have before or after your name.
“To live in the hearts of those we love is to never die.”
Hazel Gaynor
I was 11 years old feeling trapped in an overweight, changing body I didn’t recognize or understand. All I wanted was to be accepted and loved.
As I spoke before my body image issues started at the age of 8 and I had already absorbed the message that being skinny was desirable, powerful even.
If I could just shrink myself down to the “right size”, I’d ace all my classes and win the hearts of all the boys and the popular girls would want to be friends with me.
Although more intentional exercise goals are a positive thing in the right dose, I noticed all I wanted to do was skip meals and exercise more.
My lunch used to be a handful of Ritz crackers and one small snack size cottage cheese container. Dessert, some sugar-free Jell-O.
In retrospect, at 40 years old, it’s something I can only guess was an attempt to exert control over my body, life, & other people in an attempt at “happiness.”
Throughout my school years, college and even when I married early at 22 years old, I struggled with my body image and self-confidence.
I skipped many social functions to exercise and avoid eating. With all my gut issues I didn’t know what to eat without causing some sort of flare up anyways. I resorted to diet pills and taking shots of cold medicine to make myself sleep so I wouldn’t eat.
I figured out when I binged, ice cream was the easiest to indulge because it was easy to throw up. I’d down 2-3 gallons of ice cream in one sitting.
I missed the beauty of exercise as a celebration of what my body could do & the simple love & joy it brought to my life.
I couldn’t see the ways I was hurting myself, pushing myself too hard, eating too little, and denying myself basic care, pleasures, and missing out on making memories with friends and family because of my addictions.
This pattern continued even into my early 30s, even after I shifted my focus away from being purely about aesthetics and losing weight towards performance goals like CrossFit, running, spartan races and lifting.
I knew I had the heart of an athlete and so much potential but why did I always feel like a total failure?
The answer arrived when I broke up with aesthetic or performance goal setting, at least in the way I’d been doing it.
I started focusing more on improving my health, especially my gut health which I struggled with my entire life.
I stopped trying to fit into a box and eat a certain diet because certain athletes ate that way or my favorite Instagram account ate that way.
I started looking at goals as destinations on the horizon, an invitation to do better because now I knew better.
Goals aren’t a finish line or a final destination. There’s simply an invitation.
I started choosing workouts because I loved doing them and they made me feel amazing whether it was running, bodybuilding, spartan races, or CrossFit.
I started eating food that made me feel amazing and I took the knowledge I had gained working as a nutritionist to make smarter adjustments and decisions with things like quality, quantity, macros and the types of foods I was eating.
We’ll talk about food & gut specifics later on in the book.
I’ve been meat based or ”carnivore” for almost 3 years. Outside of coffee & occasional social alcohol, my diet is 99% comprised of meat and eggs. I haven’t had a full blown Crohn’s flare since I started this way of eating.
And in the process of learning, experimenting, and authentically stepping into myself, my greatest fears since childhood, gaining weight and failure, fell away.
I got stronger, leaner, and healthier. I can confidently say at 40 years old I am the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been.
This hasn’t been a linear journey, I’ll remind you it takes a long time.
Simply sit back and enjoy it. It’s taken over 10 years to build the physique you see today. It took me 4 years of intentional healing and doing things I didn’t want to do like eat more food and gain weight to gain my health back.
I tell everyone, especially my clients, any weight that you gain in the process of gaining back your HEALTH is weight you needed to gain.
And what I’ve learned throughout this process is that I can accept that sometimes I must get lost to find what I was looking for all along.
“Lost & found are from the same box. Remember this when you don’t know where you belong.”
@mikhailapeterson made a post today about how much time & suffering would’ve been saved if doctors would’ve just told us they didn’t know what was wrong & we were gonna have to figure it out for ourselves.
I wasn’t diagnosed with Crohn’s until 2018. I was 35 years old. I had lived 35 years with doctors telling me to eat more fruits, vegetables, & fiber when those were the exact things basically killing me.
Eating nothing but meat was frowned upon & frankly considered f*cked up & a shade of disordered eating, which is not. It saved me.
If you told me 2 yrs ago I could eat this many calories (2,000/d) & be happy, & maintain this level of leanness & health, I would’ve told you you were full of sh*t.
I understand what y’all are goin thru trying to figure out what food & fitness will give you the feeling & body you’re seeking. I know what it feels like to not know what to eat. I included my symptoms & a list of trigger foods along with all the many shapes & sizes of my 55lb weight loss journey in this post to help you.
I also understand what it feels like to not have the money to invest in someone to help you, which is why I created a 354 page Meat & Macros guide which you can find in the link in my IG bio at a reduced price because I want to help as many people out there as possible.
I simply want to remind you to listen to your gut, to your intuition & don’t be afraid to go against the grain, literally & figuratively if it feels right to you.
I love you guys & wish you the happiest of Fridays! ❤️
