Well, hello ladies and gents Robert Sykes kilo Savage.com. And today, I've got special guest Laura speth on the line and we're done, we're going to dive into all things carnivore. She has lost over 100 pounds of honey. A carnivore diet. She has seen great success. Alongside her normal day-to-day activities. She's got two kids, she's got a job. She's got all the things that everyday people have.
And she hasn't let that result in a bunch of excuses to why she can't turn her health around, improve her day-to-day being. So, we dive into how she's seen. So much success with a carnivore diet. What? She's done its work to what she's done. That hasn't worked. Worked and how she's made it sustainable for her. So, without further Ado, sit back, relax. Enjoy the podcast with Laura and we are live. Laura, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you?
I'm doing wonderfully. Well, we met at Judy chose carnivore. Meetup was about a month ago now, I guess. Yeah. A couple of months actually taught you listen. You've been a little busy. Been a couple months, I know time doesn't make sense when you when you have a kid. So yeah, it's got it was great to meet you in person. Finally, I've heard so much about you through the, you know, keto space and through your book and your products. And so it was great to meet you in person.
Yeah, for sure. We all had dinner afterwards and I'm pretty pretty strict on who I bring on the podcast. But I knew that I had to have you on the podcast, when we're sitting there for dinner and we all order steaks, first of all. But then you pull out this little travel container with like 15 different Compartments in it with butter, and a different type of salt for every occasion. Some, okay? That's the person I got to have
on the podcast, so here you are. Yeah, I'm very specific with my salts for the type of meat that I'm eating, and I travel so much that I got to bring it with me. Like, you have to make this sustainable. Especially when I travel. I got to make it work and enjoy my food. No, 100% 100%. So you have been carnivore now, for how long total? So, for years, I guess a little over four years ago I started Quito and And really didn't know
about carnivore. It took a few months to transition to and learn about carnivore and kind of transition over to a fully carnivore diet, but kind of the big boom that everybody was doing in 2018. I'm starting keto, I definitely got caught up in that which was ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah, totally. And in that time, you've lost like over 100 pounds, right? Yeah. So, originally, I mean, I lost 120 pounds in less than a year lightning quick.
I was just like, never. It was my number one priority was Is getting healthy getting back. You know, getting my health back losing weight and then, you know, like most people have dealt with some fluctuations
since then. So I'm about 100 pounds down now from where I was in the beginning or for my highest weight, which is I think this is a much better place for me to be staying and like still be able to live my, you know, a regular Life's, a carnivore and not have to have like, you know, we have to make Health work with our lifestyle and it can't be our number one, priority forever and I work a full-time job. I have a family I think making it your biggest priority when
you are reversing some crazy. Terrible damage is so necessary but then you got to find a place that you can just live and have what you is a normal life for you. Yeah, 100% agree. I feel like sustainability is of Paramount importance, no matter what diet you're following. And I love talking to people, like yourself that are seeing a lot of success with a very specific that they've turned into a lifestyle. And they've just adhered to for, you know, months on end years on end.
Because right now, especially in the space. There's a there's a lot of turmoil in the keto carnivore space. It seems like everybody's Jumping Ship almost because the grass is greener. On the other side here, I am just kind of scratching my head like, hey, it's still working, pretty dang good for me so I don't know what she'll is problem is, but it seems to be working pretty well for you as well. Yeah. And I think it's because so many people turn it into this, you know, crazy intensity.
That it's really hard to sustain that type of perfection or optimization, you know, I couldn't have Stained. What I was doing originally of, you know, not eating out, eating at home, ICE, very specific fasting Windows, my very specific fasting regimen. I ended up, you know, then adding exercise at the end and I was doing an exercise that took
a lot of time every week. Like, those things were just not sustainable for me, and I think, sometimes people think we'll, this isn't sustainable and so they jump to like, what's the next step? Or the next thing that's going to be easy for me to maintain and it's ends up being something completely different. Or, you know, myself too.
I went too hard for too long and some of the issues that I was having near the end was that I had lost too much weight, you know, I was fasting too much still and still really exercising, and, you know, really being aware of all of my calories and limiting, some extra fat content because I was afraid of weight gain. And when I was doing things that intensely and that hard, I did start having some hormone dips
and some issues. The problem wasn't the diet it was I was just going to hard on it, like it was me and the way that I was approaching it, I had to kind of really just chillax a little bit and eat more often stop being. So obsessive about my fasting Windows stop, you know, exercising that intensely when I was fasting so much and just kind of let my body heal and find its natural Rhythm. And, you know, like, you know what, the bodybuilding world. You can't maintain Peak Week all the time.
You would have major health issues and I think sometimes people get into those niche, Cities and try to make contain that for a long period of time and then it's not great for your health. And so then they find something else, they add the fruit, they add carbs and then all of a sudden, they're getting his energy back really because they were kind of going to hard the other direction. Yeah, 100% agree. I feel like.
I feel like so many people come to quito for weight loss and when they associate something weight loss, they associated with dieting down or reducing their intake and drop in their calories. And I think that's great. I feel like there's so many benefits to be had.
With regard to fasting, both intermittent fasting, and extended fasting, there's benefits behind with being in a caloric deficit, but you have to have this opposite side of the spectrum, and have a period in a surplus, or at least a healthy maintenance as well, or else you just constantly, you know, digging your hole, deeper and deeper and deeper and no matter what that you're following a few don't balance out that period of being in a deficit with a period of being in a healthy
maintenance, at least ideally a slight Surplus, then the diet's going to fail. Yeah absolutely. And that was my issue to I lost so much weight so fast and my body was just honestly just needed some time to stabilize and I needed to like maintain a stable weight, which I hadn't really done in my whole life. I had always been on this weight roller, coaster of gaining and losing 20 30 50 pounds, back and forth. And so having this radical
weight loss so fast. My body was like, okay, hang on a second, we got to survive because we don't know when you're going to stop losing weight and it took kind of, you know, ten pounds of weight gain. Then stabilizing that for about a year before my hormones, really leveled out. And before you know, my hair quit falling out. And I started just really having that like major energy once I quit living in that deficit all the time.
Yeah. 100%. I love to kind of pull the curtain back on what you were doing before you found keto and carnivore that kind of led to you gaining the weight in the first place. So what was that chapter in your life looking like, you know, it was just eating a lot all the time Non-Stop and you know, Oh, I kind of usually say, I live on lived on fast, food, and gas station food.
You know, I would stop at the gas station in the morning on my way to work and I would grab a breakfast tuxedo and a bunch of snacks. I'd spend like, you know, I'm sure like 20 bucks or whatever on like the hostess white, powdered donuts and a bunch of snacks that I knew I was going to eat during the day, my big giant soda and go to work and I'll probably would stop a Chick-fil-A for breakfast as a
second breakfast. Sometimes and I would always For lunch with coworkers, we go to some kind of fast food for lunch, come home at night and make dinner with the family, which was maybe it some meat but like, obviously carbs and pasta and or something to go along with it. And then the kids would go to bed at night and I would have a pint of Ben & Jerry's and like, it's, I sound like I'm exaggerating but I'm absolutely not.
There are many times many, many times more often than not that I would eat fast, food twice a day including, and in addition to that, have the gas station Axe and a full carb dinner and have a desert at night and I just have always been this kind of All or Nothing person where I could go on a diet lose 20 pounds, reward myself with a cheat day and gained back 30.
I just couldn't figure out how people were able to like have a cheat day every Friday night and then still like maintain this healthy diet, the rest of the time, I just couldn't function that way. I wasn't capable of that, you know, Friday night, cheat day turned into like three months. Later. I'm trying to get myself back on
track again. Yeah I think there's a there's a big conversation to be had with regard to the people that are more suited for moderating their intake with certain foods and those that are just simply better off eliminating certain foods. And I feel like a lot of people that are drawn to the keto corner of our way of living are probably Naturally Fit, you know, eliminators more.
So the moderators because if you're going to do, you're going to Corner for your more or less eliminating an entire macronutrient, maybe not in its entirety, especially if you're keto. But all in all I mean you're not eating near the Carbohydrate content that you were
previously. So for all intents and purposes, you could just say, hey, I'm eliminating, this macronutrient group and a lot of people in the, you know, bro, science Community, or the flexible dieting, If It Fits your Macros space, they view that as incredibly unhealthy. And that if you can't moderate, then you're doing something wrong. You got some psychological issues, but I feel like there's so many people that are finally tapping into their full potential because they've found
what works for them. And that is by eliminating an entire macronutrient group. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think I spent so many I was just thinking I was broken for not being able to have a half of a cookie, like I would watch my co-workers, eat that half of a desert and then or half the donut and then put it back and walk away.
And my mind is like screaming, like he's eat the rest of it, you know, and like kind of obsessively thinking about it and I just thought that it was it was me and that I was broken. And it wasn't really until like sharing my story and kind of sharing those feelings and thoughts out loud that I realized how many other people are struggling with it.
And I think that If anything, this entire movement of people turning this kilo or carnivore into a lifestyle has made it normalize that broken, I guess or the abstainer need for your relationship with food. Like, we're not broken, I guess, just because what we see, we think that the common thing is for people to be able to like have some dessert occasionally and then not stress them out. I think number one, we don't know what people are really dealing with.
And if nothing else sharing my life, online has taught me that, like, so many. Might look like they have it all together, but they're the, they're really struggling behind the scenes, like we really don't know what we see when we watch our co-workers interacting with food.
Hmm. But also that it's not just because we think something is common doesn't mean it's normal and we don't have to feel alone in dealing with that or and I don't have to feel bad about, you know, I've given myself that Grace and that freedom to say like it's okay that you can't regulate it. Stop trying to fix that and just avoid it completely because that's way easier for me to avoid Desserts and carbs and sugar than it is to try to just
have a small amount and I don't have to try to force myself to moderate those things anymore. Yeah.
I feel like a lot of people struggle with that because they feel like they're inherently missing something by removing that food group and maybe it's because they feel you're missing something from like a psychological standpoint of, you know, hey you know, you only live life once maybe you should be able to justify eating like this one occasion and some people feel like they're missing out from a performance
optimization standpoint. There's a lot of athletes that They're just simply not going to perform at an elite level without carbohydrates and sugar coursing through their veins. And I feel like once you tap into this truly, you know, deep state of meditation and you recognize that you can excel in the complete absence of dietary carbohydrates, you don't have that constant nagging concern in the back of your mind of, hey, am I leaving something on the table by not having
carbohydrates. So that's been the message that I've tried to spread personally, like if you can complete an elite level without carbohydrates, there's no. No. Need to feel like you're missing out from a performance standpoint from a psychological standpoint. That's going to be kind of, you know, where you fall in that elimination versus moderation spectrum. And everyone's going to be a little bit different in that regard.
Yeah. And from an emotional standpoint like is it really healthy that I was using food to sue those emotions in the first place? I think that you know we it's called comfort food for a reason because people eat these things and it supposedly makes them feel better, but in the end it really just ended up making me feel terrible and that brief moment of that emotional high is Enough to sustain like the damage that it was doing to my body.
And it doesn't mean that there's not a grieving process that goes along with it. Like I can't say that I've always liked thrilled to never eat dessert again. And I know I can't handle it and I actually, I feel so much better without it. I push through those moments, but it's okay to acknowledge that like you feel sad about it and try to remind yourself, why? You're not having it and the benefits of it. But, you know, there's, I'm I'm
with you on that. I think people just try to convince Themselves, sometimes that they need it, whether it's for performance or health or emotional reasons, mainly just because they miss having it, and it's a, it's an emotional connection thing. Yeah, I agree. So, how did you stumble upon keto corner? Where the first place? What was the Catalyst for that
shift in Direction? You know, we were big fans of Jordan Pederson at the time, his first book told roles of life like kind of Chris. And I were in this fonk, we just had had kids. We had, you know, a newborn and a toddler. It's just that crazy time in your life, Chris Also had just recently, he's my husband who had really dealt with a, you know, life-threatening Health scare. He had necrotizing fasciitis,
which is flesh-eating, bacteria. I never heard of that, except from like Grey's Anatomy before it happened to him. And that really, you know, the cause of that was because he was so diabetic. But, you know, he had almost died. He was stopped working at the time, we both were like, really kind of at the lowest point in our lives of feeling terrible, feeling miserable, also feel And
unmotivated. And just really, I mean, Super heavy and super miserable in my own skin, and a lot of Jordan Peterson's message was make your bed like basically get your act together, get up every morning and make your bed and, you know, take care of yourself as a big part of that message, and Chris literally got up in the mornings and started like making our bed physically, and he still does it now all these years later and it started this routine of us being able to, like focus more on
ourselves and our health. And we started Doing some deep dives into that. We heard Jordan on Joe Rogan and he talked about how he had been eating his way to help with his depression. He talked about his daughter Mikaela who ate this way as well. And then that kind of led us to the Shaun Baker, Joe Rogan episode. And then really just kind of that was there. But the second my husband heard that we could do carnivore. He didn't have to eat vegetables anymore. He was like done.
That's it. I'm happy. This is exactly what I wanted to. I was obviously much more skeptical and resistant to it thinking, Hi needed, salads, or the spinach or broccoli, and Brussels sprouts, and all those things.
But, but, you know, the minute that I cut them out of my diet and I realized that my lifelong digestive issues, instantly cleared up. And the minute, I had a salad again, all of those digestive issues came flooding back and the lane like just terrible pain that I had been experiencing for most of my adult life. Instantly went away the minute. I cut out all the fiber completely and I just had some
really radical healing. Some really miserable digestive issues so that was what sold me on it. Completely was just how amazing I felt when I cut out the fiber. And that was basically the transition from Quito to carnivore for you. Yeah. So we had I mean we had been doing keto cut out a lot of the processed foods along the way and then we're left with basically like meat and vegetables and nuts and cutting out the meat or the all the vegetables for me was, like,
okay now I'm sold. I totally get it. I kept probably nuts in a Little while longer and that was just the you know, macadamia nuts are to addicting. And from a weight-loss perspective, they weren't working, but as soon as I cut out the macadamia nuts I had like acne that cleared up and went away. And now if I were to have peanut butter or any kind of nuts, right now, I instantly get like acne flare-ups and it's from the
nuts. And the inflammation that that causes for me, were my back all wake up in the morning, my back hurts, my skin breaks out. I just get really puffy. If I have too much, peanut butter or nuts and I can tell that those things are causing Inflation. So I didn't want to be carnivore necessarily. I kind of just ended up here because I can't handle moderating the sweets and then things like vegetables and nuts. And some of the other keto products like just have me not
feeling the best. Totally. Yeah. I feel like, you know, a lot of people cannot handle the vegetation of the nuts at all. I mean, I personally can eat a pretty good deal of nut or, you know, plant matter and stuff. I don't really cause I don't prefer it but I can have like, everyone's. Well, I'll have a big old bowl of Brussels sprouts, you know, sautéed in bacon, grease. Or something like that. It doesn't really seem to bother me, but some people like
yourself. It sounds like you eat that and it just tearing you up for days. Yeah, absolutely. And so as I do miss something like that, what you just described a big ol pile of Brussel sprouts and some of that stuff sounds great to me a good kind of cabbage slaw or something. I used to love having those
things. They just don't really love me back and so thankfully, I'm happy eating me and I it's not like I'm feeling restricted, I think if I was living on some kind of shake or pills or you know, supplements or if I was living on food, that didn't leave me. Why'd I would have a lot harder time sticking to it.
So that's kind of another reason why carnivore has been good for me. As far as a lifestyle goes is not only, do I feel great, but I enjoy very much the food that I'm eating, because I think, at the end of the day, like, if I didn't enjoy the food, I probably was just go back to eating the way that I was before. Totally totally, it's interesting.
You mentioned that, the, the Catalyst for this was Jordan Pederson. I mean, it's curious to think how many people have learned about carnivore that we're never anywhere near. The health and nutrition space, how many people, listen. Jordan Pederson are just listening to him for like the mindset peace and they stumble upon a nutritional, you know, tangent that they never even knew existed simply because they listen to him, which is pretty
cool. Yeah, that's exactly where we were at. We really had never even heard of any of this nutrition stuff before. I mean, my husband was type 2 diabetic. My mom was type 2 diabetic. I was pre-diabetic.
My husband had almost died from basically these infections caused by his diabetes and none of us had really ever, ever done anything outside of Into our normal doctors, our doctors have never given us any advice, and then through Jordan Pederson and finding Shaun Baker, then it was like, wait, there's all this health information out there that we didn't know existed. We found dr. Jason Fung and we really contribute like dr. Fung to saving my husband and my
mom's lives. When it comes to reversing their diabetes, understanding fasting, the way that you can regulate your blood sugar, you know, my husband, and my mom and my so we all off all of our medications we stopped seeing all doctors completely, you know, We didn't need to go to the doctor anymore and that was the main thing. We just were able to take back our health ourselves through kind of going down this rabbit
hole. And we didn't even realize this entire world outside of the mainstream medicine existed without having this, you know, one little it was a very short part of that podcast to like conversation. And I think that that's hopefully, I mean, I think a lot of people have experienced similar Pathways to get here.
Yeah, I think, you know, there's so much that that you can benefit from Kito Corner 49. A lot of people try and overcomplicate it but if you distill it down to its most simplest form it's pretty freaking simple to adhere to from like a technicality standpoint. There's not a whole lot of things you can mess up if you simply just you know stick to the basic good quality wholesome, single ingredient Natural Foods.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think there are ways you can like optimize and some of that stuff gets a little crazy and it's unfortunate that, you know, even in this space, I mean, you know, people have to find their own Niche. They're trying to find their own voice. They have to Which is supplements are the best for you
and it does get so complicated. When really at the heart of it, it for most people, there are people who have very specific healing needs serves as another big thing, I know Judy is working on. Now, people have this genetic predisposition to mold and their bodies just handle mold and
toxins differently. That's a different type of person that does need complicated, but I'm the average overweight obese, sick person in America, who was eating this fast food diet, the average person who's struggling with their health, all they have to do is just Cut out those things and if we can, you know, normalize that I think that 90% of America and the world can heal themselves just by simply cutting out all of those processed foods.
You don't have to get into the crazy macros and the fact of protein ratios and your specific fasting Windows. Like, we just got to get here to the most simple part. And I think for most people, this is where we need to end up being. We can eat in restaurants and, you know, eat regular grocery store meat and we can just live normal lives and not have to make take this, you know, fixing our health. Something that obsesses us
constantly. Yeah, I think it's a classic example of at the 80/20 analysis like 80% of your benefit. Your progress comes from 20% of your effort and that 20% and this context is simply eating wholesome single ingredient meat based foods and skip it on the processed foods and they'll junk carbohydrates. And that pretty much is going to solve 80% of people problems. Yeah and I think unfortunately that 80/20 ruled is very common that people About.
But oftentimes, they think it's like, well, it's what I eat, 80% of the time, and then, 20% time I can eat what I want or the 90/10. I hear people talking about that in terms of food. Well, to me, there is no 9010 and where I found this to be sustainable, is to keep my food, dialed in 100%, I don't deviate from what I'm eating.
But like other things I can relax on our, My fasting windows, and my macros, and my, you know, all those where I eat at the restaurant and the quality of meat that I'm getting, all of those things are flexible to me the night. And that's Where I get into my, you know, 9010 as far as like 90%, perfect and 10% relaxed, it doesn't mean I can eat Snickers 10% of the time or even sweet potatoes or these other types of
fruits and carbs. Because that's to me, what's going to cause my brain to just want more, and more, and more, and not be able to moderate that in any way. So I love the concept of like what we do 90% of time, matters most, but when what's that? 10% it for me, it can't be carbs and sugar. It has to More like cheese and ranch, and chicken wings, and that kind of stuff. Yeah, I think, you know, if you ever have to deviate from your diet then it's probably not a sustainable diet in the first
place. Like when I look at, you know, what I do with my nutrition, probably pretty similar to what you do with yours. It's like you don't deviate from that. Like you don't deviate from carnivore. You don't deviate from Quito.
Whatever. It is that you're doing, you don't deviate from that but within that you have a lot more flexibility as far as like, you know, when I'm going to prep, I'm tracking I can every single thing to the gram for a finite period of time to maximize performance for a very specific goal but I don't do that 365 days a year because that wouldn't be sustainable that wouldn't be enjoyable.
I wouldn't want to be able to like be hindered by that in my off season and when I'm not as concerned about coming at 3%, body fat, then I can go out to a restaurant and eat freely still always kid Janek foods, but I'm not having to obsess over tracking everything to the ground. Yeah, absolutely. If I go on vacation, I'm sticking to carnivore. I just might eat pork.
In sour cream is a snack in the evenings or have like a few snacky things that and some charcuterie and some, you know, eat in a restaurant and get a bunch of cheese and sour cream on stuff. Those are all things I do to relax to feel normal to just kind of live my life but if all the sudden I come home and I'm like, okay, the skills moving up. I'm feeling a little puffy. I've obviously been eating out a lot, then I really focus in I cut out that I really dial things in.
I eat at home, I'm Tighten Up On My fasting window. I throw in a 48-hour fast Like that's to me where I dial things back in, but I don't have to do that all the time and that's where I live. Now, in the way that I am based on the fact that that's what sustainable for me. I could probably live 10 or 15 20 pounds thinner. If I was that intense all the time, but just like you with prep, like, you can't live that way.
This is a much healthier. Wait for me to be as a woman and then also just from mental stability. You know, sustainability standpoint. Like, I'm really happy now with a balance, and I don't try Cal Don't track macros. I eat meat. That sounds good to me. And maybe every once in a while, I gotta go. Okay. Let's, let's do a fast this weekend or let's tighten things up for a couple days and then I get back to feeling better.
Yeah. I feel like that Soph awareness and that, you know, just connect with your body and what it responds to is, that's the point of empowerment that everybody should strive for when it comes to nutrition.
Like I definitely track everything for that, finite period of time, but I think the proof the true determining factor of like legitimate Real health is to be able to be able to maintain a healthy composition effortlessly eating foods that you look forward to eating in a way that doesn't create any obsessive, you know, it says of Tendencies around your food, your friend timing me that stuff like that should be the Paramount, the Pinnacle, the goal that everybody should
strive for and it's a really hard change to have a mindset switch from like I want to lose weight and I want to be skinny to like I want to be as healthy as my body can be and it's not.
Something that I can even just say lightly, it's taken me such a long time to get here to say, like, well, I used to be skinnier now, I also used to be a hundred pounds heavier, but I used to be skinnier two years ago and to not constantly, try to get back to that weight as something you have to really push out of your head and realize I wasn't actually healthy at that weight. Like, you know, your hormones weren't great. When you were that thin and you're in a much healthier place now.
So, it's hard to balance that, but it's I think that's for us to be able to sustain this long-term. You have to switch that mindset. Set to just wanting to be healthy and not wanting to be thin. Yeah, I think there's so much misinformation out there around what is healthy and a lot of people just associate lower body
fat percentages. I mean, obviously don't want to be obese, That's not healthy, but you don't want to be, you know, sub 10 percent body fat is a female and definitely, either as a true determining factor of Health, I mean, you don't want to be in a caloric deficit chronically, that's not going to be healthy for my hormonal or metabolic standpoint and I feel like that's the conversation that doesn't really get talked about near enough because A they what's appealing on?
Social media is seeing people's ripped bodies on a beach, you know, with abs popping and everything and let eaten eating minimal food, like nobody talks about embracing gaining a few pounds. Being a healthier body fat being in a higher caloric intake, you know, feeling the seat. But a little bit more snug around your midsection because you're at a healthier more sustainable weight that you don't have to obsessively, you know, avoid foods to maintain.
I feel like if more conversation was was centered around, That people's idea of what is truly healthy. Would probably be a lot healthier. Yeah, I absolutely wasn't healthy when I was at 263 pounds but I also wasn't healthy when I was down to like a size to either. And I think I have a lot of
skin. There's I mean that comes up, I get that question all the time, but I have a lot of excess skin, your body as it grows and expands and you're especially when you carry your weight in your stomach like I did your body creates those new adipose cells and adipose tissue. So you're just have more room to store. Fat in your body and it's what allows people to continue to get. So I some people just keep getting bigger and bigger and some people and get diabetes
when they're a lot. Thinner is because your body has this ability to, you know, some people's bodies can just grow bigger than others and mine was really growing quite a bit. And so now that my fat loss has shrunk, I still have all those tissues like you're fat goes away, but those extra compartments to store fat. Those don't go away.
Those extra adipocyte cells, I still Have those on my body, they're just empty because they're not full of fat anymore, but that also kind of is left with me having like excess skin and some excess, you know, stuff around my midsection. So I don't get this perfectly snatched Kardashian Waist but if I get that tiny it's not a healthy weight for me because my body ends up being too thin to sustain proper hormones and hair health and sleep and all those good things.
So it's like I have to live with the consequences of my actions of getting that big and without surgery like that. Again, and that those empty adipose cells are not going to go away. Yeah. Yeah. The, the loose cans of topic. That seems to be pretty polarizing. Some people are all for it. Some paper all like, hey, look, you should just rock that as a battle scar. You know? Like you've earned those that
extra skin. Like look at what you've accomplished and having that Loose Cannon and you lost all this weight. Like there seems to be a very diverse you know stance on what people should do that. I suppose it all just kind of winds up falling on the individual. What resonates most with them? Yeah. I mean My would go I go back and forth on what I want to do I would you know part of its a financial thing. It's such an expensive surgery
and their work. It's a dangerous recovery and, you know, there's a lot of complications that can happen with it. People that I know that have gotten it done, I've always loved it, I hear positive feedback. But then also like my husband is very adamant that I shouldn't do that and loves me and is happy. And if you know, like does it really matter and is it worth doing something like that so that an Instagram picture looks better like it's a little crazy to think about that mindset.
Um some days it really bothers me and I get pretty stressed about it and other days it's fine and it's just it is that battle scar. It's part of what's come from. It reminds me that I don't want to go back to that. Absolutely, but I think that the people saying like, I don't want to lose weight, I'm going to afraid. I have loose skin. I think it's just a I mean it's just something that people use as an excuse to like not get
there in the first place. I certainly had that thought but it was more just because I was scared to commit and lose the weight at all. It really had nothing to do with this fear of the skin. There's just there's just no way around it. Yeah. And why your you skin? Maybe, you know, inconvenient or an appealing it's not nearly as inconvenient as being 100-plus pounds overweight, and that's going to be more restricting to your day-to-day activities than loose skin.
Yeah. And a lot, unhealthy, I know a lot less healthy to I think, you know, there's people that say, like, you can do fasting and at off of G and all those things and yeah, sure. But at some point it's like not going to go away. Like I've done a lot of fasting. Trust me like it's not going anywhere. I can't do enough fasting. Get rid of the excess skin that I have. It just it is what it is at that point. And you know, I think we just need to try to be the healthiest that we can be.
Yeah, totally agree. There's one topic that I'd love to get your thoughts on and that is that there seems to be this big. I don't have conflicts right word, but there's this big disparity right now. In the keto low carb carnivore space between like, fats and protein ratio. So, I don't want to go into semantics and kind of just disregard everything. I said about the 80/20 and really focus on just simply prioritizing quality. Foods, because that is the most
important. But I feel like there's been this big push as of late to almost demonize fat, which is kind of strange. Because at the, at the onset, the ketogenic diet is defined primarily as a higher fat more moderate to optimal protein. Very low carbohydrate diet and you see a lot of people in the keto space.
Now seemingly demonizing fat consumption dietary fat and really just putting a halo around higher protein, very lean foods and really focusing away from Any types of dietary fat and I'm just curious to get your take on it. Yeah. I do think it's unfortunate and it's interesting because it usually these types of things go in cycles and a couple of years ago, everybody was eating super high fat and eating raw fat raw sewage. Everybody was doing like, 80 90 percent fat thing that was going
to heal all their hormones. And so, we went through that cycle and I think, because we were so Extreme as a community with the high-fat thing, people gained weight, because guess what, if you're eating raw fat all day long, you probably are gonna gain some Wait, and they were a lot of women that were getting very low protein. They were having hair fall out
issues. They were just not really having like ideal health because they work focusing on getting 80 90 percent fat in. And so, I think the pendulum has switched to this other extreme. I mean, even the keto world to if you're eating keto macros but it's 70% fat, you can eat a lot of fat bombs and a lot of desserts and a lot of things that are going to help you hit those fat macros.
I also really Blame a lot of, you know, part of my hair loss that I was dealing with on keto, was because I was so concerned about hitting my fat macros and being over 70% fat. That my protein was really low, and I was getting looking back 50, 60, grams of protein a day and I was losing weight, but I also was losing a lot of my hair and I attribute a lot of that to under eating protein. So I do think there's a balance. That was missing back then. Yeah, I agree with you got
sorry. No, I didn't mean to cut. You have continued and I think The pendulum has swung too far the other direction. Now where everybody is so focused on or the community, I guess tone is focused on weight loss and getting enough protein, which I do think is important. But now it's like we've gone so far that everybody's just eating tons of lean protein, they've cut out any added fats, they're having a lot of chicken, a lot of lean sirloins, all of these
really lean meats. And I think now we see people under eating fat because we're so focused on having those insulin spikes. Or, you know, optimizing protein, I think, you know, the protein sparing modified fast bread is out. And it's pretty popular with a
lot of people. I think that unfortunately, just draws people in who are missing bread and it really, you know, it drives people to wanting to do that method of having super high protein low fat because it gives them the opportunity to have those bread Replacements and some of the dessert Replacements that they were missing before. So I think we're unfortunately back too far the other direction and somewhere in the middle of adequate protein for women but
also adequate fat is necessary. Yeah I concur it's interesting. Like if you're eating enough total calories like a healthy caloric intake, you can still have a relatively high fat ratio and ample protein, like, it doesn't have to be one of the other. You just have to have a healthy caloric intake, give to be eating a healthy amount of food to sustain your day-to-day activities.
That if you're doing that, you can have a pretty High fat ratio and eat quite a bit of protein still, but these people that are trying to sustain their livelihood, eaten, you know, sub 1000 calories, then they can't really eat enough protein. And, you know, high fat ratio, because, no matter what choice, they do, the math, they're going to be deficient in something. Yeah, well, I mean, women need protein and they need fat further hormones like all of these things together.
But I think one especially for women and especially for older women. I think most of them are under eating especially when they are eating one meal a day or even some of them. It's Two meals a day. I have them go back and do some calculations and I'm like, how much have you been eating lately? And they're like, oh, it's 800 calories. If it's 1100 calories, it's like barely getting in 1,000 calories. I did one meal a day for a long time and it worked really well for me.
But that's also because I was able to eat a very large volume of food. I was used to eating an entire pizza and ice cream in one sitting in my previous life, I could eat a lot in one setting and so one meal a day worked because I could get in 2300 calories, 1800 calories. In one meal over time. My body couldn't really do that anymore. And I can't do one meal a day anymore because I can't eat enough in one sitting to get enough calories to sustain me for the day.
And so, I feel like that's where most people are trying to lose weight so fast. They try to do these fasting windows and they're doing high-protein, low-fat, their kind of following all of the advice at the same time. And they're drastically under eating, which is slowing their metabolism down and their way to stalling out and they can't figure figure out why they're not losing weight when they're
barely eating anything. Yeah. And those likely see some initial weight loss mean, their bodies going to have a little drop in weight and then it's going to plateau and there's going to be nowhere left to turn because if you're taking in at sub 1,000 calories and your body's plateaued, there's not really anywhere else to go. I mean, you're pretty much at Rock Bottom at that point. Yeah, and I think to them, they start feeling drained, their low
energy. Their sleep is not great, and just overall, they're feeling kind of terrible. And then on top of it, they're getting frustrated because They're not losing anymore and I think then I'm seeing people end up going off the rails. And just go back to carbs which I think those people are the ones who then start incorporating carbs and sugar and fruits and say I feel so much better. Carnivore wasn't working keto wasn't working. I felt so terrible and drained.
It's like you were eating 800 calories and barely any fat. And now you're eating carbs and sugar which are finally giving you some energy again. Like that's the difference. We just need to encourage eating it an adequate amount. Yeah hundred percent agree. I feel like you know that's true with regardless I mean we're goddess of what that you're following but it's not accepted accelerate.
It's not really the attractive thing talk about like nobody wants to talk about the importance of reverse dieting and putting on body fat, like, for me as a coach, when a client comes to me, it's been chronically under reading and have to talk them about the importance of slowly bringing calories, back up to healthy level, staying there at a pretty significant period of time and then tell them hey look you probably aren't going to lose any weight and then in the near
future that's a very hard sell for someone that's just one. To lose weight. I mean, but at the end of the day, what they've done up to that point obviously hasn't worked for me. It's not sustainable forms. They have to do something and that reverse that's pretty much the only viable option at that point.
Yeah and it's I mean think it's really hard for people to commit to that and especially do it over the course of a couple of months and watch that weight gain, because there's somebody else out there that's promising them fat loss. If they just come over and join this group and do it that way, and it's a really hard thing for people to and I think, Unfortunately, they end up down the wrong path. So many Times. Yeah, looking for that quick weight loss. I don't try Cal so I don't
really know for sure. But I know that I 10, I mean I would have guessed that I tend to live in like, you know, an adequate amount of calories or a surplus even I kind of live in this world where like, over the course of two weeks, if I'm just eating two meals a day, I'll probably gained a couple of pounds and then I'm like, okay, I've gained a few pounds, I need to do a 48-hour fast and kind of drop that back down again, so trying rather than trying to like calculate calories everyday
or live in a deficit. Constantly or manage it. I just kind of let the scale over time. Not a one-day fluctuation but like oh wow, two weeks ago. I gained you know, three pounds which for me is very easy to do. Again, I have so much skin, I could gain 20 pounds by Monday, if you really wanted to bet me, I won't bet you but no, don't I don't want to do if I would be terrible.
But like for me to kind of gained three pounds or so over the course of a couple of weeks, it's just because I'm like wow you've been, you know, eating a lot enjoying Foods snacking, whatever, okay? Now it's time to like let's do a
48 hour. Fast. Let's dial back into two very specific meals a day and then I'll drop that and then I kind of go back to being in relaxed mode again and now that I'm maintaining, that's really the world I live in, where I'm probably getting that little bit of a surplus every day and then rather than trying to do that
track and do a deficit. I love just occasionally, which for me. Now, the key is occasionally doing a 48-hour fast to help regulate my weight but doing those two frequently I think is not helpful. Our most women. Yeah. I feel like like when it comes to Extended fasting, I feel like it's totally viable and worthwhile. If in the grand scheme of things, the vast majority of time you're in a maintenance or Surplus.
I think, my issue with extended fasting is when people are chronically in a deficit, anyways, then they throw on extended fasting on top of, that's just too many stressors on the body happening, all the same time, 100% agree. And that is exactly the issues that I was having kind of back in 2019 was, I was just so intense.
Intent on keeping up my fasting windows, but I couldn't eat as much in one sitting anymore, and I think that that's where most women who are experiencing problems that I see kind of interact with on a regular basis it's because they're trying so hard to incorporate all the fasting that they think they need to lose weight, but then they're under eating at the same time. Bingo, bingo. I'd love to can switch directions, a little bit and
talk about your online presence. So to speak, I mean, you're killing it on Instagram, you're killing it on YouTube. You've got a normal full time job, if I remember correctly. You've got kids, you got husband. Like, what is, what is your, what is your plan? Like from a podcasting branding business content, creation, influencer standpoint. Like, what are you trying to accomplish? Because whatever you're doing?
It's working. Well, it's resonating with the community and making people it's providing value for sure. Well, thank you very much. I honestly, I have no plan. I have no idea plan with any of this, I am doing a podcast. We do a podcast weekly called cutting Against the Grain with Judy. And I'm not going to lie. The only reason that exists is because Judy says, show up at this time and let's record and she kind of keeps me on track.
I am the least consistent person when it comes to social media, I have no plan and make a video. And I'm like, all right, let's post that as soon as I'm done making it, right? And then maybe I won't post anything for a couple weeks on YouTube and then I this week, I think, because I had a couple ideas, I like through three things up a little quick. One minute those YouTube shorts. They're like recipes and that
kind of stuff. I'm probably camped out on ideas for like the next month on YouTube. I feel like I really have no plan when it when it comes to that, I kind of all happened. You know, I call myself an accidental influencer where I posted some pictures and it resonated with people and I've just enjoyed sharing that and I think more than anything me sharing publicly helps hold me accountable. Yeah, where I think it's if anything it helps me like not go off the rails.
Go or gain weight back. Like I feel a sense of responsibility that I want to show people that this is, As possible and I use it as a accountability for me. Like, if I go several days without posting my meals or I'm
super quiet. Like obviously, maybe there's just something going on and I'm busy, but maybe I'm also just like hiding out, you know, and not de feeling great and not being as clean as I should be. So it's if anything it's like an accountability tool for me to be sharing things and I tried really more than anything. Just to be this voice of the normal person who's trying to lose weight and trying to be
healthy and live. Life. Like I don't do this as a full-time job, obviously it's amazing if people can do that and be a health professional and have that be there. Full-time job. But there's a different time commitment that I can give to this lifestyle than somebody who has nothing. But time to work out and to meal prep and to plan and to you know sometimes it's like your job to be healthy and that's an amazing thing to have and then to help other people be healthy.
But this is the fourth. Fifth thing on My priority list, unlike what I have to get done in today and I just want to show people that like you can still get healthy and heal yourself and take back your life and help other people. Without spending that much time on it, I think that's you don't have to like be doing this as a full-time job to lose weight and get healthy. Yeah, think that's huge.
I feel like people need to be able to Simply document their Journey going through it as naturally as possible as organically as possible. And that's going to resonate with people in different. Wait, that's what I tried to do. And I first documented anything on YouTube and Instagram and whatnot and that that resonate with people that we're trying to do what I was trying to do and what you're doing. I mean your your day-to-day fits the description of a lot of
people. I mean, you have kids, you have a job. You have all these responsibilities, you like simply eaten perfect perfectly is not the top of your priority list, yet you still find time to do it right? Maintain your health lose, the weights, improve your hormonal function, your metabolic rate.
Like all these things have flourished, Rushed because you've been consistent with something that you've obviously found success within a, you simply can document that two people that are going through a similar journey in life and that resonates with them, like you've impacted people's lives and turn their health around in ways that you don't even realize, which
is, which is awesome. Yeah, and I want, I mean, I have kids who go to jiu jitsu and I Gotta Throw dinner in the airfryer and 10 minutes for them, and I need to eat and we gotta pack lunches for tomorrow and we got to do all those things. I, you know, I need food and ideas that are going to help the For that and easy and try to get my kids to, you know, naughty goldfish and eat something. That's better and neat and all those good things.
And I travel a lot for my job. I need restaurants that I can go to. That are normal restaurants. When I don't have an option, I can find something. You give me a restaurant other than maybe a vegan restaurant. And I can find something there that I can eat. And I like to share those ideas. I get a lot of criticism about like what oils are they cooked in or the quality of the meat at Applebee's or, you know, is that real cheese?
He's and like you should have just fast that meets, not grass-finished like this, not how normal people live their lives. I don't have all day to dedicate to this. I have to be able to stay healthy while traveling for my job and checking with my family and doing all those things. And I just want people to sometimes not obsess about all that stuff too much and just find a way to like enjoy going to a restaurant with your
friends. When you don't have control over everything but you could still go and have a good time. Yeah, I mean and you can't Like you said, you can totally adhere to a like a ketogenic, a carnivore diet at any restaurant, like you said, maybe borrowing a vegan restaurant and there's just, you can remove the excuses.
I feel like when you showcase what you've been able to accomplish with the lifestyle that you have and then just remove people's excuses, then they don't have anything to lean on or say, hey, look, I can't do this. Because if x y, or Z and I feel like when you remove people's excuses, it forces them to become more accountable, more self-reliance self-aware and I feel like that That is the empowerment that people need to make a difference in their life.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean there's not an office party or a restaurant or a situation that's going to cause me to kind of go off the rails anymore. Mainly because I know that it wouldn't be a one-time thing for me and it would be a very easy thing for me to gain all my weight back and end up in just as miserable of a health
position that I was in before. And so for me like being good enough is non-negotiable like sticking to the diet plan and sticking to this way of eating is non-negotiable and I I have to, because of that, I have to make it realistic options for me. Yeah. I love them. How did you and Judy meet? You know what through Instagram, I have met some really incredible people through social media through this carnivore
world. She planned the carnivore 75 hard challenge of a couple of years ago to kind of help push everybody through the holidays and to it was like her version of Andy for sellers challenge without having to do to 45 minutes extra workouts a day which I know it's not something that would be realistic for me. It's so hot. It's called A Hard challenge because it would be hard.
I couldn't do that, but this was a more Realistic version just trying to help people in the carnivore Community, stick to getting through the holidays and I needed that motivation. It was one of my big first holiday seasons without being Quito and not having keto cookies at Christmas and keto treats and all those things. And so to stick to carnivore it was like the perfect thing that I needed. And so she and I got really close during that challenge and
just started talking a lot. You know, we have kids the same age were into a lot of the same things. Our kids are in a lot of the same things and we really affected. And so, I one point, I called her up, and I was like, hey, I'm in town. Like, I'm gonna come over. And so, you know, we've met in person and are we spent Thanksgiving together with her family, and my family, our kids are good friends now and husbands get along and all those good things.
So it's been really fun getting close with her and her family. And I think, you know, we're I think we bring out the best in each other as far as balance. And I think that's why we have so much fun doing the podcast together because it ends up being a good mix of my real estate. Approach and her nutritional expertise and hopefully can
bring some context to people. Not everybody wants to be as Loose as I do. They want to be more strict, they have inflammatory things, like kind of all of that, she gives a lot of that expertise. And then we also just really talk together about how we incorporate this lifestyle into busy families. I love it, I love it. I feel like you're in good company with, with her.
I mean, she is, she's one of the few people in the space that I've known for years who have just continually the I've learned about her the deeper, I get to know her, the more I respect her. The more I appreciate the vibe that she has like, she's just a really high class individual, incredibly smart and Incredibly giving and generous. So, you're definitely good company with her. Yes, I'm very blessed to have her as a close friend.
She is the one of the bravest people in this community and it's also it's a challenge. I know she deals with a lot of because of the fact that she stands up for a lot of us and so we are very grateful. After that. Yeah. Well she's I've always got her back. I'm on her side for sure. Yes. Yeah I've got that much respect for her. I've got one more, very serious
question. Since you are realistic with everything you do in life, you have all the things that you've got going on, but you're also a hard court of 100% carnivore. What is your favorite carnivore dish? You know, every time for the last four years, I've always just said like ribeye and that's, you know, a perfectly cooked. Rib eye is is the way to go in every circumstance and you know lately, I just have been changing it up so much more aware.
Sometimes it's like chicken wings, just hit the spot. And I spent the last four years, not eating anything that was leaner, but I've been eating a lot of filet lately and feeling very bougie and fancy and I'll slather it with a bunch of butter and, you know, pork And all those things. So I've kind of its I think at the end of the day, if it was one thing, it would always be ribeye. But I've been having so much more fun eating, a lot of different kinds of really awesome meets lately.
Do you like like fish and seafood? So stuff like that. You know I'm I do Seafood is like shrimp lobster, crab legs like all the shellfish that are but like an actual like salmon or Cod or something. I'm not as big of a fan of, unfortunately, I do. It would be so good for me. If I was But I'm not unfortunately. Yeah not. I like fish Bentley. Eat it very frequently because Crystal, he's fish. So I'm pretty much ticklish rib eyes for the most most time as well.
Yeah, of course, eats fish. I make him wait till I'm like out of town for a couple days so I don't have to smell it. Exactly exactly. I'm Elora it's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you today. I really enjoyed having dinner with you at that meat up that we did in Austin will definitely. Are you going to Quito Connor in the conference? Yeah, I'll be there. Awesome. Well, I will see you again in person. There. Where did Go to find out more about you.
You can find me on YouTube, just search for Laura speth. I have a locals Community which is like a private Community where I post kind of early stuff if anything it's like a it's a community where people can get to know each other.
So the way that I've met a lot of my friends through the online community, it's hard to do that, you know, if you're not publicly sharing your story and so this is a community where people can hang out with me. And then also meet other people who are really going through the same things. We're all kind of just hanging out together and that's Laura East, bass, dot locals.com, Then Instagram is Laura a spa awesome. Well I was certainly linked out to all of those in the show notes.
Make it easy for people to find you. I cannot wait to see you again Aikido con. So if there's ever anything I can do for you in the meantime, by all means. Let me know. Thank you so much. It was so great. Thanks for having me. You better take care.