Are you wondering how to start the carnivore diet in 6 simple steps. I started this diet to improve with my Hashimoto’s thyroid issues. I had some lingering symptoms that were not going away even though I have been paleo and keto for about 8 or 9 years. I had the idea of doing carnivore diet from a health coach and also my sister, Ellen Weeks, had some great results. I have also seen some great improvements on a carnivore diet, especially in my thyroid health. I lost 10 pounds in the first month after going carnivore and went from a size 14 to a size 10 after several more months.
How to Start the Carnivore Diet in 6 Simple Steps starts with mindset and then come the big rewards. Carnivore way of eating is great for losing weight, better digestion and reducing inflammation. It has made a big difference in improving our health issues. That is why we wrote a 30 Day Carnivore Diet Challenge e-book as we we wanted to share our tips and tricks with people wanting to try carnivore diet. I have been doing carnivore diet since October 2018 and have learned a lot from my experience and put all of the practical information, recipes, meal plans, shopping and travel tips and much more into this book. It answers all of your common carnivore questions. You can read more about this e-book here.
How to Start the Carnivore Diet in 6 Simple Steps
Here I share my best tips for getting started and planning for success on carnivore way of eating and make sure to check out my video below.
1- Find Your Why
Tune into yourself and focus exactly why you want to go carnivore. It is difficult to stay committed and determined unless you know your why. This “why” should be a strong reason to keep you motivated. Maybe you want to lose weight, balance your blood sugar or fix other health issues. Make sure to find strong reasons and goals and write them so as to refer back to them when it may be tempting to go off the track. For me, I wanted to reduce autoimmune symptoms and risk of being diagnosed with more autoimmune diseases. So figure out this why for yourself to keep you going and it is better to post it on your mirror.
2- Measure Your Labs
It is always a good idea to discuss your doctor about any change in your diet and get your required lab work done before starting to try any diet. It becomes especially more important when you are taking any kind of medication because your medication may change or need to be adjusted after following a low carb diet for a period of time, or you may need less of it as you may get healthier. Therefore it is a good idea to measure your labs to compare your results again after eating meat based carnivore diet. It is not necessary, not mandatory but if you are working with your doctor and he/she is little hesitant about what you are doing, measure your labs specially your heart health markers. I have been eating high fat diet for many years and I am really not worried about that as my cholesterol is fine and in the normal range. But if you are concerned with your heart health, measure some of those labs or some other labs important to look at the whole picture of health and you will have them as a benchmark later for comparison.
3- Take Measurements and Before Picture
How to Start the Carnivore Diet: take some measurements around arms, chest, hips, waist, thigh, and calf with measuring tape because these changes may not show up on the bathroom scale. Sometimes scale is not going to show you everything that is important. Your whole body is going to change and this is not just on the scale so definitely take measurements and save in your phone or journal for comparing results after following carnivore diet. I did not do that because I was skeptical that it would change anything but I have lost weight and I wish I could have these markers. These measurements will help you keep motivated even when the scale is n0t moving as much as you had hoped for in the beginning.
Also make sure to have several full body before pictures. You will need these pictures to show progress and compare results after following carnivore diet as these non-scale victories are also important to celebrate. So take some standing sideways and straight on photos and try keeping the same outfit on hand for later use in “progress” pictures. Make sure that photos are well lit. If you are taking photos indoor, try using natural lighting by being close to window for the best photographic results.
4- Clean out Your Kitchen
You have to first clean out your kitchen by getting rid of unhealthy, junk and processed food around your house before beginning your journey to carnivore diet. Keep them out of your sight because you don’t want to be tempted specially in your first few days. I do not suggest to keep them for kids or other family members as your whole family deserve to eat real food, especially kids. It is better idea to donate these items.
5- Restock Your Kitchen
How to Start the Carnivore Diet in 6 Simple Steps may seem like an oversimplification but it really is easy. Step 5 is to restock your kitchen by bringing in all the nutrient dense foods. Fill up your kitchen and freezer with ground meats, steaks, seafood, eggs and animal-based fats from the highest quality animals that you can afford. Here I share a list of some of the foods that I got right away and like to stay stocked up with:
Grass Fed Ground Beef
Grass fed ground beef can be your best friend on carnivore diet as it is really affordable, you can keep a lot of it around and it is easy to cook up quickly. You can get that from local farmers market or get it online from US Wellness Meats or consider Butcher Box Delivery for monthly subscription of grass fed meat. Don’t worry too much about eating grass fed or organic all the time, just eat the meat you can afford and enjoy. Later on, quality can become more of a focus, if desired.
I have so many meaty carnivore recipes made with ground beef. You can find my meatloaf muffins recipe here. And some other recipes like savory breakfast sausage, easy peasy burgers, perfect stovetop ribeye in my 30 Day Carnivore Diet Challenge e-book. This book is a comprehensive carnivore guide that also includes helpful tools and tips to support people who want to try carnivore diet.
Meat on the bone
Meat on the bone has special nutrition. I like to keep meat on the bone such as T-bone steaks, ribs, chops, chicken legs, wings or whole chicken. My 30 Day Carnivore Diet Challenge e-book also contains so many delicious recipes for cooking meat on the bone like broiled T-bone steaks, lamb shoulder chops, reverse sear ribeye, country style short ribs, tender beef ribs, shredded chicken soup, roasted bone marrow and every night wings. You can read more about my e-book here.
Animal Fats
Make sure to get fats that come from animal sources. Animal fats contain fat soluble vitamins that are great for brain health and support strong immune system. If it comes from an animal source, it fits into the carnivore diet. If it comes from a plant just leave it on the shelf. So you want to have grass fed butter and ghee in your kitchen. These are really very good fats specially when you are on carnivore diet.
If you have dairy intolerance, you will want to make ghee with grass fed butter. Making ghee from butter removes the dairy solids that causes many people have an inflammatory reaction. I share how to make grass fed ghee with butter here or watch my video of how to make grass fed ghee in the instant pot. If you don’t have enough time to make it or it seems like too much trouble, you can buy it here.
You can also use chicken fat, duck fat or beef tallow but these are very hard to find. You can get these from your local farmer market or you can go to EatWild.com and find lots of resources. Or get it from here and here. I share my recipe for how to make beef tallow at home here.
Organ Meats
Make sure that you are getting some organ meats like chicken liver. It is very important to take it on weekly basis to get your vitamin C. I share my carnivore recipe for Creamy Pate Dip made with chicken liver in my 30 Day Carnivore Diet Challenge e-book. You can get it here.
Bone broth
You should have some bone broth. I make my bone broth in my instant pot. It is my favorite hot drink of all time on carnivore diet. I l have a video of how to make bone broth in instant pot here to get more electrolytes, gelatin, and collagen for your carnivore diet.
Eggs
Fried, scrambled or boiled eggs are great for when you are in a rush and want quick protein and fat. Pastured chicken eggs are high in vitamin D and best dietary source of choline. Make sure to get pastured eggs whenever tolerated. You can substitute them with duck eggs if you have a sensitivity to chicken eggs. Protein in duck eggs is different and they are little more high in fat. I am eliminating chicken eggs these days so I like to stock up my kitchen with duck eggs that I get from my farmers market. Listen to the grass fed podcast about egg nutrition, shopping and cooking tips and how to make them taste amazing here. I have recipes for perfect soft scrambled eggs and best hard boiled eggs in my 30 Day Carnivore Diet Challenge ebook.
Seafood
It is a good idea to incorporate nutrient dense seafood in your regular eating schedule. Omega-3s in the seafood helps reduce inflammation in the body. I like to keep canned salmon, smoked oysters and sardines in olive oil (drain off ) or water.
6- Electrolytes
It is very important to stay hydrated and maintain electrolyte balance when you are on a very low carb or zero carb diet. Keeping up with the electrolyte needs specially when your body starts to adjust to carnivore diet in the first few weeks is the key to success. So make sure to have real salt or some celtic sea salt with you in order to avoid transition problems such as lightheadedness, fatigue, headaches, low energy or sour breath. I like to keep this one in my bag and take it right away for feeling well when I am having any such symptoms. Sometimes I just sprinkle some mineral sea salt on my tongue or make an electrolyte drink for hydration and keep up with electrolyte intake. Here I share Ellen Weeks’s (my sister) recipe for electrolyte drink from our 30 Day Carnivore Diet Challenge e-book. Also if you want to use a premamde electrolyte drink I like this one and drink it daily, use my code GRASSFEDGIRL to save on your purchase.
Bonus Tip: Eat to Satiety
How to Start the Carnivore Diet in 6 Simple Steps plus a bonus!
Unlike other diets, it is very important to eat more and give up on the idea of eating less or counting calories. To be successful on carnivore diet, make sure to eat plenty of nutrient dense animal foods to satiety and add enough salt to your water and food.
Watch my video about how to get started on a carnivore diet here:
