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.
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.