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.
What do you suggest for the constipation on this diet?
Carnivore veterans suggest upping your fat intake to avoid constipation.
See here: http://www.zerocarbhealth.com/index.php/2015/05/04/what-about-fiber-on-an-all-meat-diet/#more-91
Have you seen this article?
Glycosaminoglycans are a potential cause of rheumatoid arthritis
Julia Y. Wang and Michael H. Roehrl
PNAS October 29, 2002. 99 (22) 14362-14367; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.222536599
Communicated by John J. Mekalanos, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA (received for review July 19, 2002)
Abstract
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, systemic, and inflammatory disease of connective tissue with unknown etiology. We investigated whether aberrant immune responses to glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a major component of joint cartilage, joint fluid, and other soft connective tissue, causes this disease. Here we show that injection of GAGs such as hyaluronic acid, heparin, and chondroitin sulfates A, B, and C induce arthritis, tendosynovitis, dermatitis, and other pathological conditions in mice. We developed a technique by staining tissue specimens with fluorochrome- or biotin-labeled GAGs to visualize the direct binding between cells and GAGs. We discovered that inflammatory infiltrates from the affected tissue are dominated by a distinct phenotype of GAG-binding cells, a significant portion of which are CD4+ T cells. GAG-binding cells seem to be expanded in bone marrow of GAG-immunized mice. Furthermore, we identified GAG-binding cells in inflamed synovial tissue of human patients with RA. Our findings suggest that carbohydrate self-antigenic GAGs provoke autoimmune dysfunctions that involve the expansion of GAG-binding cells which migrate to anatomical sites rich in GAGs. These GAG-binding cells might, in turn, promote the inflammation and pathology seen both in our murine model and in human RA.
Hey Mikhaila. Just found your blog and am very impressed with your efforts. I have a few questions if you don’t mind!
1) Have you considered the possibility that this extreme diet elimination process has been throwing your microbiome out of whack which then made you react to foods that were fine in the past?
2) You went from low carb to carnivore, primarily due to residual anxiety after pregnancy. How did you measure the changes in your life to be certain of change between those two diets? It seems difficult to reliably gauge 8/10 happiness vs 10/10, and even more so to isolate that feeling to the effects of a diet when things like pregnancy, life, seasons, etc are at play.
3) What are your thoughts on vegetarians that develop a sensitivity to meat? I’ve heard many accounts similar, but opposite to yours, where people go off meat for a period, eat a little, then feel bad, and conclude that meat is an unsuitable part of a healthy diet, when in fact they perhaps just induced a sensitivity due to their body and microbiome adapting to diet.
Again I am amazed at what you’ve accomplished here, just interested to learn more. Response is much appreciated!
1) Have you considered the possibility that this extreme diet elimination process has been throwing your microbiome out of whack which then made you react to foods that were fine in the past?
Yes I have. Ultimately I didn’t have an option. I was obviously reacting to foods in the first place or I wouldn’t have had any illnesses. When you reduce carbs you reduce the amount of bacteria that digest carbs, but there isn’t a better option. I as reacting to foods in general. It may be a microbiome problem but there wasn’t anything I could do about it.
2) You went from low carb to carnivore, primarily due to residual anxiety after pregnancy. How did you measure the changes in your life to be certain of change between those two diets? It seems difficult to reliably gauge 8/10 happiness vs 10/10, and even more so to isolate that feeling to the effects of a diet when things like pregnancy, life, seasons, etc are at play.
While things in life can make you feel sad, they don’t make you feel depressed like a food reaction does. It feels like poison, not like sadness. I can’t be certain that next pregnancy won’t make me emotional again. It probable will but I think there were underlying food issues underneath. I think that because as soon as I eliminated vegetables it went away. That was during breastfeeding and nothing else changed. In the dead of winter so it wasn’t due to sunshine or something. It was food. I was also having arthritic symptoms, acne, and itchy legs. It’s not purely psychological. Anxiety was just the most bothersome symptom for me.
3) What are your thoughts on vegetarians that develop a sensitivity to meat? I’ve heard many accounts similar, but opposite to yours, where people go off meat for a period, eat a little, then feel bad, and conclude that meat is an unsuitable part of a healthy diet, when in fact they perhaps just induced a sensitivity due to their body and microbiome adapting to diet.
I don’t believe this. I think there’s an adaption period in order to digest more fat, meat, etc. But it’s not a food reaction. They’re very different feelings. People can go from vegetarian to meat eating again. And from vegan to meat eating. You don’t develop a sensitivity to meat. That being said, some people don’t tolerate pork well, but that’s not because it’s meat.
The other point is… if you survive of meat, you seem to get healthier. If you survive off of grain you get scurvy and die really quickly. All foods are not created equally, and it doesn’t have much to do with removing them.
Question no. 3 is very intersting, how do you differentiate between a reaction and adaptation? I have noticed that everytime I eat steak the top of my mouth swells, and I also have those feelings of rage you described about nonsense (somebody is walking slow in front of me). On the other hand I’m not bloated! So how do you work this out?
Thanks for sharing the pics (shoulders back?) Amazing to see the changes. They really seem to show up in your face more than anywhere else. Glad you are on a better path Mikhaila.
Just out of curiosity, how tall are you? Also, do you plan to write about your workout routine at any point? Thanks!
Thanks for the post, Mikhaila.
I was vegan for 16 years. When I went back to eating meat there were no transition problems.
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