Lauren Lejeune

I’m getting ignored by people in public. 

It’s not uncommon to run into someone at the store or drive by them and they might not recognize you or notice you. So I’m not bothered by this fact — but rather elated for the actual reason they’re not recognizing me. Since last spring I’ve lost 50 pounds and people don’t know it’s me!

Like many people, after I graduated high school I put on a little weight. Due to life choices and poor habits, this compounded into a significant weight gain. I was unhappy, unhealthy and unsure how to even get my life back. That’s when I discovered the carnivore diet. 

I’m going to preface the rest of this piece by publicly stating that I am in fact not a doctor and make no claims to be one. This is just MY personal experience over the last year and what worked for ME. Doctors, nutritionists, please don’t come for me. 

It was around February of 2024 that I decided to get serious with weight loss. I had started doing some online searching and talking with my uncle who’s been on the carnivore diet for a few years now. I wasn’t comfortable going to the gym, so I wanted to go with a radical diet change to see what would happen. If you don’t know, the carnivore diet consists of eating only animal byproducts: meat, dairy and eggs. No sugars, including fruits. No veggies. No bread. No nothing of the sort. If you wanna get crazy with it, you cut out all seasonings except for sea salt. 

I knew there would be no way I could go cold turkey, so I began a systematic termination of different foods from my diet. Starting with all processed foods, I cut everything out until I was only eating meat, veggies and fruits (a normal “healthy” human diet). This lasted for a few weeks, and once the food noise subsided a little, it was time to cut out the rest. 

It was the hardest month of my life. The claim that sugar addiction is equivalent to quitting drugs has to be true, I’m guessing. I snacked on an unusual amount of cheese, and when I was REALLY craving something, I would eat plain butter. Nate was horrified — I had a designated stick of butter in the fridge containing bite marks to ward off any potential users. I’m sure my roommates really appreciated it, too. My diet consisted of mainly beef, fish, cheese and raw milk (thank you Hippie Cow).

Before long I was losing weight. It felt good to see physical progress, but what amazed me even more than the weight loss was how much more energy I had. Where getting up in the morning was the hardest part of my day, I was practically jumping out of bed. My brain fog was gone, I was a happier person in general. It was about five months into the carnivore diet that I really felt like my hormones had balanced out for the first time in my entire life. I had a large red patch on my cheek, and after cutting out inflammatory foods, it’s almost completely gone. 

The mindset change of food being fuel — not entertainment, not anything else, was difficult. I enjoy going out to eat with friends, or cooking at home. I miss pasta. But for myself personally, after hitting my goal weight, I added a few foods back just to see how I would react. Mainly fruits and some veggies, but crazy enough, I’ve noticed I’ve become a little more tired and irritable (sorry Nate) and my sugar cravings have been coming back in full swing. I’ve really had to limit it, even natural sugars. 

While this might not be a feasible option for some people, it has definitely been life changing for me. I’m thankful to finally feel like myself again, on the outside as well as the inside. And no, I’m not tired of eating meat every single day. Rare and salted with a glass of milk, sorry mom.