Started in college, 2012. My senior year, and just one semester to go before graduation. I came home for Christmas break and to make a long, excruciating, horrible story shorter I randomly and for no particular reason had a panic attack that lasted for three days. I knew in my bones something was not right in my body. I knew that what had just happened to me wasn’t just “psychological”. I somehow knew even then that the brain can never be truly disconnected from the body, that you can’t cut your brain out of your skull and keep thinking and feeling without your guts and hands and everything else from the which the mind is in fact completely inseparable. 

The only solution the medical system was able to offer was an anti-depressant, which I had the good sense to refuse. Thus began an epic multi-year long quest that, to so many of us, is all too familiar. I tried low carb, paleo, mostly plant based, super food goji berry latest hit diet raw milk raw meat lots of beans maybe if I eat a lot of potatoes and butter I will get better etc., etc….so many very long, painful etceteras.  

I sorted and swam through loads of misinformation, tried to self-diagnose without the benefit of any diagnostic process whatsoever, and ended up finally getting some professional help and finding out I had Lyme Disease. 

And so I began befriending animal products, reintroducing eggs and then moving on to turkey, beef, and lamb. But still, I was red meat phobic, and I just didn’t focus on the animal foods. I ate a few token servings of meat or fish when I could, but mostly leaned into the plant-based mythology that’s unfortuanetly all too suffocatingly pervasive in the health and wellness scene of the last few decades. After a relapse, and in a moment of desperation, I went full on Ketotic and began to see some improvement in my body composition and in my mood, emotional stability, and sleep. 

Then the carnivore movement hit the world, and I learned about the importance of Protein. Something deep inside my gut said Yes and the more meat I ate, the stronger I felt. Finally, after two years on a ketogenic diet I went full carnivore during the summer of 2021 and have continued to experience gains in strength, resilience, and mental and physical wellbeing ever since.

What I also began to realize, through musing, prayer, and inspiration, was that carnivory is so much more than a diet; it’s an all encompassing way of being with myself and the world around me. It’s integrity in my intake, and not just of food. Integrity in my intake of beliefs; what beliefs do I feed myself? What kind of news, books, shows? Am I nourished by my relationships? Are they wholesome, nurturing, strengthening? Or are they toxic, dis-easing? What kind of light do I eat? Is it toxic processed fake light, or whole-food broad spectrum vintage straight from the source?

The devil’s in the details, and there are oh so many of them. But as I get the details of my intake in line with the what’s evolutionarily appropriate for my body, I find a corresponding increase in strength, health , resilience and in the radical wellbeing of which my body has always been capable should I feed it the diet of goodness, truth, and beauty it deserves.