Menopause and Weight Loss: An Alternative to the Popular Weight Loss Shots
I'm in my menopause era. So are most of my friends. So are many of my colleagues. My neighbors, fellow committee members, and 97% of the fans at the Bon Jovi concert.
We are everywhere. So many of us are in menopause, and we are feeling the effects. We’re talking hot flashes, weight gain, puffy everything, skin issues, hair thinning, everything hurts, and we can’t sleep.
For the last few years, I've been working on reversing my menopause symptoms without drugs or hormone therapy, and I've had some success. Intermittent fasting on the 20:4 hour schedule helped me reverse my inflammation, sparked weight loss, and eradicated the pesky hot flashes. I began sleeping better and just felt more like ME AGAIN.
If you are in menopause or postmenopausal, you get it. You don't feel like yourself. I went to the doctor with a list of symptoms that were making my life insufferable for years. Sadly I was given a list of “shoulds” and “shouldn'ts” for each problem: eat less, move more, meditate, avoid stress, use coconut oil, take supplements, drink more water, do Pilates, practice self-care, etc. However, these are the things I've been doing MY WHOLE DANG LIFE, but now they aren't working anymore. What the doctor didn't understand is that the real problem was I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE ME ANYMORE. I didn't recognize myself in the mirror or recent photographs. My puffy hands and feet weren't MY hands and feet. My clothes didn't fit, so I couldn't even dress like me anymore. I had gained a ton of weight and inflammation and lost myself in the process.
While the rest of the world turns to Ozempic, Wegovey, and Ambien, I've been looking for the alternatives and found intermittent fasting. After just a few days I started sleeping better. After a few weeks my puffy face and hands, feet, ankles, etc. started to “depuff.” I lost some weight, and my clothes fit again. Success!
Things were going just swimmingly until my friend Rachel got the bright idea to try the Carnivore Diet for 90 days. I'm always up for a challenge, so here I am on Day 28 of this 90-day experiment. Here's what happened so far:
From Day 1 my clothes fit better and I slept soundly all night. Day 1!!
Felt a bit sick about 10 days in. I may have been detoxing. I hear this is normal on the carnivore diet.
On Day 12, I felt incredible! My energy was up, mood was improved, and I just felt good.
On Day 25, my clothes felt loose. What?! I weighed myself for the first time since I started this. I've lost 5 pounds total (so far).
I’m still sleeping incredibly well since Day 1. This is a huge thing for me, as sleep has been an issue for me before menopause and during. When my body kicked into menopause around age 49, I didn't sleep at all for about a year. Nothing helped. It's not an exaggeration. I didn't sleep for more than 30 minutes to an hour each night. Most nights I didn't sleep at all.
My skin feels better, and my joints don't ache at all. I have an abundance of energy! This feels like an anti-aging diet.
I was skeptical about trying the carnivore diet, but there might be something to this. I'm still doing intermittent fasting most days during the week, but for my snack and meal in the evening, I only eat foods that comply with the carnivore diet, like beef, chicken, eggs, cheese, lamb, butter, and plain yogurt. Right now I have some beef short ribs in the crock-pot. Yum!
I plan to continue eating the carnivore diet for the full 90 days. I'm curious to see what other changes happen. That means no alcohol, chocolate, or sweets on my birthday this year. No summer fruit until July 21st. No Fourth of July drinks and treats. During this 90 days I'll be traveling to my childhood home in Iowa to visit with my parents and extended family for a week, but there will be no Buster Bar ice cream dessert for me this year. This is something my mom has made every summer since 1982. But that's okay. We can still celebrate with a good steak, a hamburger without the bun, some slices of good cheese, lamb chops, and an ice cold bubbly bottle of Topo Chico! I may not be eating sugar this summer, but when your joints don't hurt anymore, and you can run and play with your 6-year-old niece, life is truly sweet.
Dear Reader, you may be thinking that intermittent fasting and the carnivore diet are too extreme. Some say these are not healthy. Yet the world believes that the SAD (Standard American Diet), with toxic ingredients and very little nutritional value is normal. I believe this highly processed garbage diet is extreme. Our society believes that eating on the go and getting drive-thru Starbucks or Chick-fil-A every morning is acceptable. I think that is crazy and dangerous. My positive experiences so far with intermittent fasting and the Carnivore Diet have helped reframe my attitudes about food, diet, and health. I can’t deny the results. I feel younger and look better. My health checkups show improvement. And I take NO drugs as a 53 year old woman.
While I don't think I'll stick to a purely carnivore diet after July 21st (that's when my 90 days are up), I do think I will continue eating no processed foods and no sugar. I'm going to keep paying attention to the vegetables I’m sensitive to. I may be sensitive to nightshades like tomatoes and bell peppers. I'm also going to stay away from alcohol. I think that is another change that is making a huge difference in just 28 days. So far, intermittent fasting and the carnivore diet have vastly improved my well-being. If you have tried intermittent fasting or the carnivore diet, please share your experiences with the rest of our Pain Free community. If you are considering cleaning up your diet and finally getting rid of some of your symptoms, why not start now? Summer is almost here— by the end of June you could be feeling great too. I wish you the best of health and a fantastic summer!
All the best,
Jennifer Kaye