Before and After – Mikhaila Through the Ages

Here goes.

I’ve had a number of people comment, “Hey where’s your scar, that’s not a real pic of you,” or, “This isn’t Jordan’s daughter, she doesn’t have scars”, orrrrr “this diet can’t be that good, you looked good before, (or better)”.

A) Most of my Instagram pics are from after I went low carb. So yeah they look pretty good. Thank you.

B) The bikini pics are pre-baby, and low carb, so yeah, they’re going to look pretty good. Thank you.

Anyway. Perhaps these rather irritating people have a point. So here are some pictures that I don’t like, I have never liked, but do show what kind of changes my body went through when I went low carb and then carnivore. My Instagram posts are mostly from after I went low carb. So there are no photos I don’t like there. Obviously.

And I don’t have any “before” photos. 

There was never a point in my life where I stood in front of a camera and took a picture of my body because I thought it would change. I wasn’t thinking, “Hey maybe I should take a before pic as I will cure my crippling depression and autoimmune disorder. Now seems like a good time.”

I have scrounged around on my best friends Facebook and found what I have found. All untagged photos that I didn’t like, but showed what happened to my body when I went to university and survived off of beer, pizza, pierogies, and ichiban.

Here I am before shit hit the fan (the first time) – a month before they told me I might need a hip replacement (August 2008):

And here are some surgical pics to get that out of the way. My scars are healed now obviously. It’s almost been a decade (these photos are from 2009). They’re not obvious in photos because they’re not obvious anymore. My ankle scar was horrid for the first 4 years but now it’s faded:

Here are pics of a skinny post-surgery teenager (2011 summer):

And then university happened (late 2011- early 2012):

Here are some pics of me after I gained 30 pounds in the year after the above pics (2012 winter-2013 spring). This was just before my skin really freaked out:

I dropped out after year 2 (2013) due to serious mental health issues, came home and upped my meat intake and lowered my noodle intake. I lost about 10 pounds after that and felt quite a bit better emotionally. Something to be said for not surviving off of beer and pizza. Some of my Instagrams are from then. This is when my skin really started to freak out. For pics of that go HERE. There were times in between with skin that wasn’t clear but was coverable with makeup. Those are the ones on my Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/fOQhDLJFNa/?hl=en&taken-by=mikhailapeterson

The rest (and all the bloating) came off when I went low carb (old bikini pics are from then):

https://www.instagram.com/p/_s9Ma6pFLq/?hl=en&taken-by=mikhailapeterson

The above photo was 2 months after the original elimination diet.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJoUAZgjfdG/?hl=en&taken-by=mikhailapeterson

The above was a year after the elimination diet.

And after the pregnancy, my pics are from my carnivore days:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiiZbqJnvVS/?hl=en&taken-by=mikhailapeterson

Now I can just link to this article when that person comments “where’s your scar” as if they have uncovered a conspiracy theory. Or “perhaps this isn’t Jordan’s daughter” or “your body never changed”. I was fortunate to figure out my issues before I seriously gained a lot of weight. But gaining 30 pounds in a year is serious enough. Not to mention the crippling depression and arthritis and fatigue and skin issues and itching.

For the most part, of course, people have been wonderful. And this was probably a necessary post. Thanks for the support! Hope this helps some people.