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!
Tips to optimize a low carb lifestyle as an athlete/avid exerciser with special digestive needs:
▫️For my carnivore low carb’ers:
1.) Just get adapted-eat meat, find the low carb sources you love, cut the junk, find what eat windows that work for your schedule, track to make sure you’re eating enough food.
2.) Focus on healing any gi issues & give it time. Be patient & consistent. You don’t feel good all the time, as with any diet it takes time to find your groove. Most hit a slump around 2 weeks. Reduce the intensity & volume of your workouts (especially my crossfitters & Orange Theory enthusiasts)
3.) Thrive & THEN play around with fat loss or muscle gain goals. You’ll be more self aware & educated once your reach this point.
Not until someone is adapted & healed do I recommend any kind of playing around with fat loss cuts.
For some it may take 3-6 months or it can take years depending on what kind of healing (gut, hormonal, metabolic etc) you have to do.
▫️For someone who is just learning how to best manage IBD – I wanted to share my learning tools as an athlete. Do not give up who you are because of IBD – you will need to adjust & pay attention to your body, but you can continue to do what you love as well! There will be good days & bad days. Some days you may need to modify workouts, movements, intensity & volume.
SLEEP & HYDRATION
I drink water with electrolytes from @goultima Sleep has made the biggest impact on me physically & mentally. Shoot for at least 7 hours. I am in bed asleep by 8:30 at the latest most days, wake at 4am the majority of week days. Sleep is the most important thing to manage during any season. NON NEGOTIABLE.
NUTRITION
Everyone has different triggers & different needs. Do not apologize for having to eat a certain way or bring your own food in social situations. Food choices are extremely important. For me, I find lowfodmap, easy to digest, gluten free, low lectin, minimal dairy, animal based nutrition with the exception of white rice, plain rice cakes, & rice Chex cereal if I feel like I need some carbs (don’t crave or need them anymore now that I’m fully adapted to a more carnivore lifestyle). But I believe you should always leave room for flexibility & no diet dogma. Do what works for you. Carbs are most optimal post workout & in the evening prior to bed.
SOCIAL SITUATIONS
I understand this is a rough spot for many with autoimmune issues &/or special digestive needs. Use your uniqueness to educate others why you need to eat the way you do. Maybe it’s something they need to hear too. Be confident, bring your own food if you have to, eat before you go out, custom order your meals. I set a limit of 2 alcoholic beverages in social situations & also mix my own drinks the majority of the time. Just order a shot of whatever liquor you want & whatever mixer you want. That way you have control over how much alcohol is in that drink. There have been times I’ve also brought @zevia as a mixer. Voice your needs to the restaurant & they will accommodate.
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Stress plays a huge role in inflammation. Sleep, take more rest days when you need them, make sure you’re eating enough food for your activity, take walks, spend time alone.Learning how to manage stress is a skill. Be kind to yourself!❤️
People are gonna tell you you CAN’T do a lot of things. They’re gonna tell you THEIR way is better than YOUR way…
You’ve asked great carnivore questions over the weekend. I’ll summarize for those I haven’t had the pleasure to chat with & tell you some things you may not want to hear…
▫️I don’t ‘treat myself.’ My view of food has changed since going animal based. I “treat” myself everyday, enjoy every bite & it all serves a purpose — nourishment & fuel. Food is not a reward/something to earn.
▫️You must experiment with different meats/food/fats, eating/fasting windows, meal sizes/freq, tracking macros vs not, & macro ratios. Your experience will be different than mine. It takes TIME. It took me an entire year to fully adapt &, yes, I gained 15lbs initially.
Common Q&A’s:
⇢ Majority of my meals are 85% ground beef, ground chicken, & salmon. Avg 2lbs of meat/d, 2-2 1/2 meals/d. Yes I drink coffee. Ground meat is easier to digest & track. I removed pork & dairy, I found I don’t digest’em well. I only consume them on occasion in small quantities.
⇢ I stick to beef bc it’s satisfying & delicious but not SO delicious I want to over eat. For those who struggle with food addiction, like me, find foods that are satisfying & get the job done without triggering over eating or bingeing. We typically do better with food rules, we are abstainers. (Food addicts tend to have issues controlling carbs, sugar, sugar free substitutes, keto treats, dairy, butter, cheese, bacon, pork rinds, hyper palatable & processed meats)
⇢ I track macros loosely. It keeps me accountable & I know where to adjust. Rice cakes/white rice on occasion post workout or in the evening if I need them, portioned carefully, rarely above 50g/day.
⇢ YES, you can CrossFit & carnivore, CAREFULLY. Comes down to allowing yourself to fully adapt to being fat-fueled, meal timing, eating ample calories, & RECOVERY (sleep, rest days, deloads) Macros 10% C – 30% P – 60% F for ME**
⇢ Sleep is a MUST. 7 hrs min. Zzyquil helps. It is what it is, I’m transparent here.
⇢ Still hit 13-15k steps/day, even on rest days, drinkin a ton of water + electrolytes, reduce alcohol, fasting when I’m not hungry (~18hrs avg), eating when I am. No extended fasts, no snacking.
It’s taken me 38 yrs to understand where my body is at mentally & physically.
And I’ll have to keep figuring it out every day for the rest of my life.
Have patience. Take care of your body it’s the only forever home you have♥️🏠
Had a message recently from a woman who asked me to list the one thing she needed to do to lose weight & be successful in life.
I thought, “Dayum, that’s a deep one.” I don’t have enough space on Instagram to answer this one!
So I brainstormed. Came up with one thing I felt could help you achieve & overcome anything in life. It’s dirty. It hurts. It makes your eyes well up. And it’s absolutely necessary — mental toughness.
A lil bit about my story…
This child was called fat. This child was called ugly. This child felt she would never be the girl that sparkles when she enters a room. This child is me.
Making cookies for 4-H. My first year of 10 years of 4-H.
Easter morning
I was told to lose weight & I tried to diet before I was 10 years old. My self-esteem & body issues started at 8 years old.
I hated my body.
I was told on numerous accounts, “If you just lost weight, you would be as pretty as all the other girls in school.” Hurt like a bxtch every time. Translated into: you won’t be successful &/or loved unless you’re thin & look the part.
I thought something was truly wrong with me & wanted so badly to be as thin as the women in my Seventeen magazine, the stars I idolized, & my thin, popular classmates.
This turned into decades of disordered eating — anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, orthorexia, you name it. My body has been all shapes and sizes and everything in between. Not to mention struggling with Crohns, chronic bloating, gut issues, gi bleeding, constipation, inflammation, allergies, infertility, cervical cancer, renal stones, GERD, & a cholecystectomy.
After suffering from poor body image basically the majority of my 38 years on this earth, now, I stand as a woman who loves herself more than anyone else in the world.
I learned to finally love my body for the first time in my life. It felt like a breath of fresh air which also ushered in emotional & mental transformations. These in turn brought more abundance into my life.
I truly accepted my unique self, my mess of a message & didn’t feel the need to change it because of someone else’s opinion.
I changed my inner voice to self love & never looked back. I’ve lost 50lbs from my heaviest weight, the biggest weight lost being self loathing & doubt.
The one thing I needed to develop was the product of my struggles — mental toughness.
The one thing you have to have to be successful.
How did I do this?
It’s easy. No, really, it is. It takes some time, but if you commit to yourself every single day, you’ll get there.
When you see yourself in the mirror, what do you say?
Do you make negative comments on your appearance?
Maybe you see your stretch marks that you wish you could erase. I have’em. Call’em my tiger stripes.
Society makes us think that any “imperfection” we may have is something we need to fix.
Your “imperfections” are NOT something to be ashamed of or fixed. They make you — YOU.
When you look at yourself in the mirror, give yourself a compliment. Every time you feel a negative thought creep in, shut it down & replace it with a positive.
If you hate your stretch marks, instead of thinking negatively about them, turn it into a positive & think about how it was an honor to stretch & grow your children or allow you to share your unique story to help another women hating hers. Some women can’t have children. Some women don’t know what it feels like to be overweight & hating themselves.
Or if you’ve struggled with gut issues & Crohns like me or any autoimmune or dis-ease, use your unique experiences to give others hope.
Fuel your fire y’all! Use that passion to help someone else. If someone asks you why you live & eat the way that you do, use that as an opportunity to educate them.
There was a time I was so afraid to gain a pound that I was eating about 800 calories a day.
Then I found CrossFit at 31, new obsessions appeared. I chased PR‘s & dug a hole so deep full of metabolic adaptation, gut & hormonal issues, working out for hours each day.
Although from the outside I looked “thin and healthy,” I was an absolute train wreck.
Still didn’t think I was successful at life, my relationships were less than optimal, I was in debt, my health was not good.
I basically put myself on the clearance rack.
You have to heal from the inside first. No matter what you look like on the outside or what the number says on the scale if you do not get to the root cause of any issue that brings negativity into your life, things will never change.
I started doing the inner work with a group called To Be Magnetic. I highly recommend checking them out, they changed my life.
They help me rewire my brain to one of lack to one of abundance & possibility. They helped me heal my trauma to step into the woman I am today. I’m confident and proud of my body!
Photo by: Jennifer Matteucci
Photo by: Jennifer Matteucci
I’ committed to an animal based diet this year. Down 15lbs & thriving!
All the shapes and sizes. Honor your seasons!
Photo by: Pamela Scott
— I payed off over $43,000 in debt during a pandemic — I work three fulfilling jobs in radiology for 3 of the biggest healthcare networks in Indianapolis.
— I’m also a private health coach & able to make my own schedule in tandem with my love of healthcare.
Click image for coaching inquiry. Excited to hear your story!
— I love where I live, never thought I’d be able to afford a “bougie” apartment.
— My health & relationship with my body is better than it’s ever been. — I’m surrounded by uplifting, successful, positive people. Cut out the toxicity.
— I unapologetically love myself more than anything in this world & I’m ok being alone. Learn to be your own best friend.
Realize life is an ongoing journey, there is no finish line, there are only experiences. And we are here to live in Joy.
Back to that mental toughness thing…
Qualities you need to develop mental toughness:
1.) Emotional Intelligence. It’s really the cornerstone of mental toughness. You cannot be mentally tough without the ability to fully understand and tolerate strong negative emotions and do something productive with them.
2.) Confidence.
“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t — you’re right.” Henry Ford
Mentally tough people know that your mentality has a powerful effect on your ability to succeed. Your confidence inspires others and helps them to make things happen.
3.) Ability to Remove Toxicity. Dealing with difficult people, self sabotaging habits, toxic environments are frustrating and exhausting. Be able to remove these from your life. You can’t grow in constant darkness, you also need the light.
4.) Saying No. Mentally tough people know that saying NO is healthy and absolutely necessary. Trust your gut. You don’t always owe people apologies either.
5.) Fear is the Source of Regret. When its all said and done, mentally tough people know the chances they didn’t take will haunt them far more than the risks. The worst thing that can happen to you is allowing yourself to die inside while you’re still alive.
6.) Embrace Failure. Failure is the road success is paved on. It’s how you grow. Live and learn. Don’t dwell on mistakes.
7.) Choose Your Joy. When your life and satisfaction is derived from comparing yourself with others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. You do you, boo.
8.) Movement & Health. People who place priority on health and exercise feel more socially, intellectually, emotionally, and physically competent. Discipline also fuels mental toughness. The majority of the most successful people in the world have an exercise regimen. That means SLEEP too.
9.) Relentlessly Positive. Control what you can control, let go of the rest. 92% of your worry is wasted worry.
I keep a copy of this sheet in my daily scheduler as a reminder when I feel the weight of stress
I hope this fueled the fxck out of your Sunday. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this for you and I can’t wait to chat with y’all via text, email, or social media!
I’ve talked about this before…I am the first to admit I prefer extremes & love the high of a red line heart rate.
Thought this was appropriate to talk about with CrossFit open right around the corner.
These particular videos — this workout was basically like 15 minutes in the pain cave🤢
I prefer to overtrain & over work. I prefer that ‘sittin in the dirt’ feel of a fat loss cut over a surplus.
I’m also one to admit I’ve learned a lot through these chapters of extremes & they’re not ones you want to chronically stay in.
Most of you I talk to & SEE in the gyms…you’re doing enough. Maybe we should try to do less 🤷🏼♀️ We have seasons for a reason. Mother Nature doesn’t hustle & grind all year.
If a little is good then MORE is better right? That’s the mentality we adopt.
Some examples:
Drinking a couple socially vs gettin black out drunk & wakin up in a bush.
Being content with what you have vs always wanting the next best thing to keep up with neighbors.
Losing 10lbs vs starving yourself & beating the shxt out of your body 7 days a week.
Sometimes you may need to push yourself more, but let’s be realistic. If you have a good routine down, you work out 3 days a week, you eat well 90% of the time — you don’t need to work out 7 days to be worthy.
Ask yourself:
— Are you working out efficiently & putting in the work when you actually train?
— Are you using positive self talk & affirmations?
— Are you eating appropriately for your goals?
— Are you eating low carb because instafamous Karen does? Are you trying to be a vegan because Yoga Bob down the road does yet you don’t feel well eating vegetables?
— Are you doing stupid workouts with inappropriate weights just because Crossfit beast Sarah lifts 300lbs & you think you should do?
I went into this low carb, insulin reset diet as another learning experience. What I found was a wake up call.
A lot of knowledge and life bombs here 💣
With the dramatic life changes for us all over the course of the past 2 weeks, cliché as it sounds, everything happens for a reason at precisely the right time.
Why the reset? I had been overly stressed, trying to cut, eating a high amt of carbs (via jasmine rice/rice Chex/occasional alcohol) while intermittent fasting & focusing on 2 (occasionally 3) larger meals a day.
👉🏻I have Crohn’s, struggled with a missed diagnosis of IBS basically my entire early life & was overweight.
👉🏻Don’t digest fruits or vegetables or fiber or seeds or skins well
👉🏻Thrive off animal meals & animal-based nutrition
👉🏻Struggled with disordered eating & bingeing
👉🏻 Spent 4-5 years healing my gut & getting myself out of metabolic adaptation because I ate poverty macros for fuggin forever
👉🏻Tried to competitively CrossFit on Paleo, Quito, low carb & did all the dumb shit for years
👉🏻I eat lowfodmap, gluten-free, dairy free, bullshit free 😆, and basic af, not cute meals are my jam. Why? Because that’s how I like to eat, Karen.
Save this for later 😉
My cut started out well, but as we progressed I noticed my energy was all over the place I was starting to feel more out of control eating larger meals (I was fuller throughout the day). My fasting blood sugar was consistently higher (for me) around the 95 to 100 range, staying elevated even 2 hours after eating.
Mine typically sits around 80 to 85 in a controlled environment, fasting.
My digestion was decent, but I still felt inflamed, puffy, & like I was carrying a lot of “fluff” around my middle which I did not have in my 20s. (I was more low carb as far as my diet approach in my 20s, & my workouts were lower intensity). I didn’t CrossFit until my 30s.
My lifestyle now is very different from even December 2019. My stress is higher & I’m traveling more.
My last cut was amazing (I had not dieted in 2 years & was coming off of a surplus) My schedule & stress were more controlled.
Last 12 week cut for a photo shoot.
💭🤔 HELLO!!!! Katie, you’ll be 38 in July, you don’t have the same body you had in your 20s. Dude, you’re almost a legit Cougar 😻😂
💁🏼♀️It’s time to get real, refocus, & realign.
To those of you in your 30s, let me tell you, things change quickly. You don’t recover as quickly, nights of bad decisions haunt you for weeks, and you’d rather go to bed by 9:30 than stay up & go clubbing. PS you still don’t have your shit together in your 30s. 👍🏼🤘🏻
I’ve learned this is the time to accept, adjust, & think about longevity more so than a ripped set of abs.
I love being lean & feeling light & strong, but just because you look the part doesn’t mean you’re healthy on the inside. Abs, striations, & single digit body fat — don’t help you live to a ripe old age.
These require different levels of commitment and flexibility with your diet and training. Be realistic.
MY CHANGES:
👉🏻Focus on a low carb approach, primarily animal-based nutrition. Why? Because I thrive off animal meats & already don’t digest fibers and plants well. I will harp at you till I’m blue in the face, go your own way! Don’t send me fucking hate messages because I eat animals. I’m not telling anyone to eat this way, I’m simply sharing my experiences and reasoning why.
👉🏻I also am not “CrossFitting” because all the gyms are closed, therefore, my activity is more lower intensity. This would warrant lower carbohydrates for my needs are not as high.
👉🏻I am also sleeping more, reducing caffeine intake, & fasting at least 14-16hrs overnight to recover, give my digestion a break & allow my body to balance itself out.
👉🏻I need an approach that is going to keep me fuller, longer, with less energy crashes to sustain long days working at the clinics & hospitals. I don’t like worrying about food & a bunch of meal preps, just my personality. I prefer two large meals a day. Naturally, protein and fats will do this. they take longer to digest and are harder to digest by the body — keeping blood sugar more stable, energy levels more stable with you feeling fuller, longer like a cherry on top. Which is why I’m taking a higher protein, higher fat approach.
👉🏻Macro wise, I am loosely tracking just to make sure my calories are in check. Keeping my carbs 50 g & under. Not really paying attention to where my protein & fats fall, obviously I’m getting plenty of both with animal-based nutrition with the inclusion of nut butters.
👉🏻I Am tracking weight, progress photos, & blood sugar with a simple glucometer (am fasting, 2 hrs post meal, bedtime) just to see how my body tolerates specific ratios, salt intake, stress, & food choices. Not because I’m focusing on the weight on the scale. Obviously when reducing carbohydrates, you’ll naturally lose water, so a lot of this is water weight loss, initially.
Me this morning 3/24/20 113.7lbs
THINGS IM LEARNING:
✅CrossFit is not in aesthetic sport. Stop choosing CrossFit to look like a bodybuilder. Align your training, lifestyle, & align your food. Manage you mofo stress!
✅I personally feel much better on a carnivore-ish diet which aligns better with my lifestyle right now.
🌀My digestion is exceptional, my bloating is gone, bowel movements routine & normal, my puffiness is gone, I feel lighter.
🌀After nine days I’m noticing aesthetic changes finally. Stomach is starting to lose that patchy fat in my stubborn areas above and below my belly button.
🌀Yes with the training differences I’m getting smaller, and softer but I’m fitting more naturally back into my happy setpoint. My weight is staying around 113 pounds.
🌀I don’t hurt as much (minus my broken toe I have right now).
🌀No energy crashes, I have absolutely no cravings for sugar and I’m offen satisfied with one large meal during the day after my fasted walk.
🌀I love walking, it is my savior mind and body. I don’t need to work out six days a week and I need to sleep more. Duh.
✅The more data we have the more we can make educated informed decisions about our lifestyle & food choices. Do we need to worry about tracking & measuring all of the time — NO! But there’s a time & a place for it so you can learn & make educated decisions about how to live your life for YOU.
Quit whining, complaining, yo-yo dieting, yo-yo training, yo-yo living your life aimlessly because you’re not educating yourself. Get tested, invest in mentors, coaches, doctors to help you. There are free podcasts, wonderful people & resources on social media, books you can purchase & things out there at minimal cost.
✅Your goals should be centered around 4 different areas: healing, performance, aesthetics, & longevity. Your seasons will change, adjust accordingly.
✅People just think glucose is just a measure of carbs, it’s not, it’s a measurement of your lifestyle. Stress, food choices, sleep, your workouts, air pollution, under eating, over eating, toxins, artificial shit you put in your body or on your body — it all matters. It all affects your physiology, hormones, gut health, & processes that go on internally.
✅You have to ask yourself what level of stress you are OK with in your life. Adjust accordingly. If you choose this stress level, don’t bitch when you don’t get what you want.
✅The biggest thing people ignore are their mindset & their thoughts. So why are people having such a hard time right now being at home with their thoughts?
BINGO.
I hope this helps you wherever you are in your journey. Remember only you know your body best. I am not endorsing anyone to follow any particular diet I want you to learn, I want you to follow your heart, and I want you to ALWAYS listen to your gut. ❤️
I’ve talked about it openly through the years via my Instagram.
For yrs my reason for diving into these fad diets were focused around self loathing, lack of education & wanting to shrink my life away.
I’m grateful, however, bc I learned how my body responded to different foods, different quantities, my energy level during training, my crohn’s & digestion, recovery, & realistic sustainability.
I don’t believe in any perfect way of eating — only the perfect way of eating for you. So I don’t bash anyone who hates meat or prefers a certain way of living.
💁🏼♀️Golden rule: basically don’t be a dick.
I simply want to educate you on my journey & why I utilize specific methods.
Currently I’m going through a reset diet. I found with my high carb approach I was feeling inflamed, blood sugar consistently high, digestion off, hungry more often than I should’ve, energy was all over the place, & I was having to eat an asinine amt of food to feel full to keep from wanting to binge during my cut.
Obv life has been pretty crazy for everyone recently so stress levels high. I felt I needed to hit the redo button.
Why I choose a diet based on animal foods👇
✅Majority of my calories are from the most nutrient-dense bioavailable foods
✅I LOVE & thrive off meat with no digestion issues #farmersdaughter yo 🐮❤️ BM’s have been normal! Maybe TMI but for those of us who struggle with gut stuff — shit matters — literally 💩 😂
✅Minimal fiber, meaning everything is easy to digest. I’ve talked before about my special needs — I don’t digest vegetables very well at all. Gritty, tough textures like skins, nuts & seeds, gluten, dairy, high FODMAP foods are a no no FOR ME.
✅Low to no sugar, or highly palatable processed carb based foods. I found these are my biggest triggers when it comes to binging or basically eating like an asshole.
Cereals, cakes/donuts/cookies/chips. I told you I’m an all or nothing person — I’m not a moderator. I can’t have any of that stuff in my house bc I know if I have it here, I have a higher probability to binge. KNOW THY SELF!
✅Natural fats & plenty of protein. I’m fuller longer, I don’t have energy crashes, I can eat 1 to 2 large meals & be happy all day & not have to worry about having a bunch of meal preps.
I work in healthcare — I don’t have a lot of time to fuggn worry about 100 perfectly measured out meal preps. I like to live life simple, this takes the guessing out. It was driving me nuts.
✅My body is more recovered, less inflamed. I do have to take it easy with higher intensity work like CrossFit. Yes, I love it but trying to do a 30 minute metcon on no carbs — let’s be real people, you’re gonna have to change your training.
Don’t be a dumbass & try to do Orange Theory & CrossFit on zero carbs thinking you’re going to perform like a games athlete. It’s not gonna happen. These are highly glycolytic sports & the most efficient fuel for these will be carbs. They’re not your enemy.
I modify my #carnivorish diet to my preferences. There is room for leniency, you are in charge of what you put in your mouth. If there is a food not animal based, that doesn’t trigger symptoms for you, don’t feel pressured to avoid it.
Some I include in my diet are:
💟 nut butters (pb @sunbutter & coconut)
💟 eggs & egg whites & spray butter (vice)
💟 @strongcoffeecompany & coffee
💟 water flavoring (dudes I hate water, whatevs, pick your poison)
💟 @zevia & occasional alcohol
💟 Plant based protein powder
💟Jasmine Rice or Rice Chex around training
I loosely track & eat till I’m satisfied. I still eat mainly animal foods, but this is what works for me. I don’t beat myself up if I want nachos. I make them fit. They’re still my #bae
