Mackenzie talks about her journey on the carnivore diet.

::: spoiler summerizer Diagnosis and first exposure to carnivore

• McKenzie was diagnosed with lupus SLE at 23, after marriage and her first child, and before her second child was born.
• Her husband found an all-animal diet while looking into weight loss, and she first thought it sounded dangerous while she was 35 to 37 weeks pregnant.
• Watching him lose weight, improve his mood, feel satiated, and get excited about steak made her take the diet more seriously.
• He told her people called it an autoimmune diet and showed her videos of people improving with lupus and other autoimmune diseases.

Early lupus course and medications

• Her first symptoms were red bumps on her hands, neck joint pain on waking, and bleeding, peeling skin inside her nose and ears.
• A 10-day course of 10 mg prednisone cleared the skin problems, which pointed her doctor toward an immune-system problem.
• After she came off prednisone, fatigue, lower back discomfort, and a major sun-triggered flare developed after six hours outside on Memorial Day.
• The flare included a butterfly rash, rashes wherever sunlight hit, cracked toenails, swelling joints, severe fatigue, low appetite, and slow mornings.
• She was left in a full flare for about five weeks and did not get an official diagnosis until August, after the first major flare in May.
• Plaquenil, Imuran, and weekly Benlysta injections removed the classic lupus pain, stiffness, and most symptoms, but she did not want that to be forever.
• Doctors told her she might need night work, tinted windows, and lifelong medication because of sun sensitivity and photosensitivity.

First carnivore attempts

• About three or three and a half months postpartum, while breastfeeding and stalled after losing only 20 of 60 pregnancy pounds, she tried carnivore for 40 days.
• She felt much better quickly, but she was doing it poorly at first with lean chicken breast, too much seasoning and salt, and not enough fat.
• During that first 40-day run, she had mastitis a couple times, but her milk supply stayed stable, her baby gained weight, and her weight balanced out.
• She stopped after one piece of cake at a birthday-like event, spiraled off plan, and then went on and off carnivore several times.
• Last year she decided carnivore needed to be a year-long marathon, not a short sprint, if she wanted deeper benefits and autoimmune reversal.

One-year result and recent flare scare

• Her one-year mark was June 2, and by then she had no craving to add foods back because she felt satisfied and did not feel deprived.
• She is off the lupus medications now and has been able to spend time outside with her kids without zinc oxide sunscreen for over a year.
• Four or five weeks before the interview, she felt skin sensitivity and lower back pain return, so she found a new rheumatologist and checked her blood levels.
• She told the rheumatologist she was eating animal-based; he gave her Mediterranean diet paperwork, checked her levels, and told her to keep doing what she was doing.
• She then tightened the diet to beef, salt, water, and a little coffee for about three weeks, and the skin sensitivity went away again.
• She linked that scare to fasting, possible cortisol effects, and a new anti-aging skincare routine, not to lupus coming back.

Daily eating and household routine

• A typical day is five or six eggs with lots of bacon, water, sparkling water, coffee, then beef patties or ground beef with salt later in the day.
• Dinner is often more ground beef or a sirloin with butter, plus extra cold butter when the meat is lean, and electrolytes in sparkling water.
• Her usual foods are beef, butter, bacon, and eggs, with occasional Buffalo Wild Wings traditional wings fried in beef tallow.
• She does most of the cooking, including breakfast and lunch for her husband, egg-wrap beef lunches, chuck roast with bacon, and fresh air-fried steak.
• The grocery bill can look high up front, but the cost evens out by cutting Starbucks, convenience-store snacks, wasted groceries, medication, doctor visits, and clothing swings.

Family, work, and identity changes

• Her family and friends first thought she was crazy, especially as a nursing mother, and worried about cholesterol, constipation, milk supply, and sugar restriction.
• After adding standard foods back after the first 40 days, she had joint pain, fatigue, mood swings, irritability, and brain fog even while medicated.
• Her family became supportive after they saw major changes in motivation, joy, focus, work performance, and her husband’s view of her.
• As a pastor, she cannot be chronically fatigued, brain-fogged, sugar-addicted, nonchalant, and unavailable when people are in crisis.

Long-term plan and advice

• She does not see a reason to go back, because sweets now smell like candles, not food, she is satisfied, and she does not have cravings or food noise.
• For a 90-day carnivore trial, she would choose cold turkey for herself because moderation has never worked for her or the people around her.
• She would warn people about the first weeks: brain fog, irritability, digestive changes, and intense mental pressure to return to sugar.
• She would tell them to eat plenty of fat, focus on red meat and eggs, use cheese or pepperoni briefly if needed, and ignore addiction-driven thoughts until the body settles.

References

• [10:45] How To Carnivore - Dr. Chaffee's Carnivore Challenge — https://www.howtocarnivore.com/
• [10:48] Steak and Butter Gal — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvasvPW5q8Wwblqb_-6CkPw
• [10:51] Dr. Ken Berry: The Proper Human Diet — https://drberry.com/ :::