Most of the writing in this chapter is pulled directly from posts on this site documenting different stages of my journey. Where the original posts get into substantial detail, I link to them — this chapter is the arc, not the full archive.
Childhood: arthritis at age two
I was born in Montreal in 1992. My family moved to Boston just before I turned two. My dad used to pick me up and put me on his shoulders when I was about two. When he took me off I would sit down and cry. My parents figured it was because I didn't want to be put down. We now think it was the first sign of hip pain. He stopped picking me up and putting me on his shoulders. Unfortunately, the problem wasn't that easily solved.
When I was five we moved to Toronto, where I live now. When I was six I started lagging behind my parents and younger brother when we were walking. I had a hard time waking up in the morning. My parents told me to stop acting like a witch due to my mood. What can you do when you think your kid is acting up? You have to train them to be strong. This is one of the things my parents regret.
Then I started going down the stairs sideways. Then I refused to walk to school. Then a doctor visited my school, watched me walk, asked my parents to bring me in. The diagnosis was juvenile idiopathic arthritis — eventually so severe that my right wrist, both shoulders, right knee, right big toe, both thumbs, both sides of my jaw, finger joints, both elbows, and lower back were all involved. The full childhood story is in Growing Up with an Autoimmune Disorder (age 2–10).
What I'd like people to take away is, when I was a kid, having arthritis was much easier psychologically than having arthritis when I was older. It was frustrating, painful, and terrible, but because I didn't know any different, it didn't get to me mentally. This is really important to remember if you're the parent of a child experiencing chronic illness. Children can adapt much easier psychologically, because they don't know what they're missing out on. I know my mom cried every time we went to the doctor when the doctor wrote down how many joints were still active. I didn't cry. It was harder on her.
For those of you who aren't sick, remember that chronic illness is often invisible. Remember that you never know who is having a worse day than you because most problems are invisible.
Teenage years and early twenties: stacking diagnoses
The arthritis was real, but it wasn't alone. By the time I was a teenager I had been put on antidepressants. Severe depression runs in my family — my dad realized what it was and saw it early in me. There seems to be a genetic component, but as I'd later figure out, it's controllable by diet.
By my late teens I needed a hip replacement. By 24 I needed an ankle replacement. By 25 I was on Enbrel, Methotrexate, Tylenol 3, Adderall (for chronic fatigue), Cipralex (an SSRI, 40mg, for 11 years), Lorazepam, briefly Lexapro and Wellbutrin, Dapsone (for blistering rashes and cystic acne), and Valacyclovir (for cold sores). And it wasn't working — I was still in severe pain, still depressed, still exhausted.
2015–2018: the food mystery
In 2015 I started seriously experimenting with food. The full timeline lives in Food Mystery Timeline/Overview 2015–2018. Here's the short version of what I was dealing with before I started changing my diet:
- Idiopathic arthritis — severe, not the kind that just "goes into remission." It causes joint deterioration and a need for multiple replacements as a teenager. I was worried I was headed for a wrist replacement.
- Idiopathic hypersomnia (chronic fatigue) — severe and debilitating. Slept for approximately 18 hours a day if unmedicated.
- Itching skin — severe. Particularly itchy on the legs but also everywhere else. Wore fake nails so that I wouldn't scratch my legs until I bled in my sleep.
- Mouth ulcers, floaters, cold sores — came and went.
- Skin rashes — severe. Blistering rashes that came and went on my bum, shoulders, chest, legs, face.
- Cystic acne — could have been worse but felt pretty severe.
- Dyshidrotic eczema — came and went.
- Restless leg syndrome — severe enough to stop me from sleeping.
- Depression / Anxiety — rare hypomanic episodes as well. Constant. Severe. Debilitating without medication.
- Breaking nails, dry skin — minor.
I started with a paleo elimination diet, then narrowed to meat and greens, then to beef and greens only, then eventually to just beef. The progression was driven by symptoms — every time I dropped a food category, more symptoms cleared. By the time I landed on just ruminant meat and salt, the autoimmune symptoms were gone, the skin had cleared, and the depression was lifting. The food connection wasn't the whole picture — I also had to figure out my reactions to specific foods within "safe" categories — but it was the biggest single lever I'd ever pulled. The Paleo Elimination Diet (That "Cured" Me Before the Lion Diet) has the details of that progression.
Coming off the medications
I took 40mg of Cipralex (an SSRI) for 11 years. The depression was probably a symptom of my autoimmune disorder. I also took Lorazepam, Lexapro (for a few days before stopping due to side effects), Wellbutrin for 5 years, and Adderall. Getting off of Cipralex and my other medications was the best thing I've done for myself (other than this diet).
My dad took SSRIs and Wellbutrin for 12 years and then benzodiazepines for 3 years. He is off everything now and has been for years and is traveling the world touring. He's doing that after experiencing the worst side effect I think there is — akathisia — every day for more than 2 years. He healed. I healed. How We Cured/Treated Suicidal Akathisia walks through what we figured out, and How to Treat Psych Med Withdrawal/Side Effects is the practical guide.
I had severe psych med withdrawal. My skin crawled, I had restless legs, I hallucinated demon faces repeatedly for more than a year. I felt like I was falling off a building, sound hurt, light hurt, my heart raced, I had insomnia. It was the worst experience I've ever had and it felt like it would never stop.
I made the very dangerous mistake of "tapering" Cipralex in 2 weeks. Do not do that. Do not suddenly stop psych meds. Many people are able to very slowly wean off using hyperbolic tapering while on the diet with minimal symptoms. Chapter 8 of this guide is dedicated entirely to this — please read it before you change anything about your medications.
2019: ankle surgery and the mold detour
In February 2019 I had my second ankle replacement. The recovery was rough but the diet held — the rest of my joints didn't flare even during the trauma of surgery. Update February 2019 After Ankle Surgery is the contemporaneous report.
Then in 2023 I got sick in a way I couldn't explain through food alone — and figuring out why led me to the next big lesson, which was about my environment, not my diet. The full update is in Update May 2023: Got sick. Finally healing. Beware of mold. Chapter 9 of this guide covers what I learned about mold, biotoxins, and how environmental exposure can mimic or stack with food sensitivities.
Briefly off the diet — and back on
In early 2025 I tried reintroducing more foods during first trimester of pregnancy, when I had a severe meat aversion. I wrote about it in 8 Years on the Lion Diet (the post was originally titled "No Longer Carnivore" — I updated it with what happened next).
What happened next: I had a gall bladder attack (more common in pregnancy but likely due to the addition of plant foods), and I noticed it was negatively impacting my mood and making my face puffy. Not major reactions compared to years ago, but not fun. Once my meat aversion went away, and after the gallbladder attack, I was kind of forced back to just meat or I had gallbladder pain — plus the negative mood and puffy face weren't worth it at all. So about a month after I put that article out, I went back to all meat, and I've been back on the Lion Diet since then.
I honestly do think first trimester had made me less reactive, but it's so hard to measure with the first trimester hormones and the intense stress of my dad being sick. So I'm no longer varying my diet due to mood instability and gallbladder pain. The lesson, eight years in: for me, this diet is the floor, not just a phase.
The Senate speech
In 2024 I was invited to speak to the U.S. Senate about the use of ketogenic and plant-free ketogenic diets to treat chronic illness. The full text is at Senate Speech: The Case for Using Ketogenic and Plant-Free Ketogenic Diets to Treat Chronic Illness. The short version of the speech: there are now several controlled trials, case series, and a large and growing body of patient-reported outcomes showing that ketogenic and carnivore-style diets reduce or resolve symptoms in autoimmune disease, mood disorders, and metabolic syndrome. This isn't medical fringe anymore — it's an underused tool that doctors should be allowed to recommend.
Eight years in
I generally stay on the Lion Diet — beef, lamb, salt, water. I occasionally reintroduce specific foods when I want to test something or when I'm traveling. When my symptoms come back, I drop back to strict Lion Diet for a few weeks to clear them. This is a sustainable long-term pattern for me, but it took years of trial and error to figure out exactly what I tolerate.
I'm functional. I'm productive. I'm not in pain. My skin is clear. I'm raising my daughter. I'm running a business. I'm doing podcast interviews and speaking. None of that was true ten years ago. The diet didn't fix everything — I have replacement joints, I still have to be careful, I still have to think about my environment, and I still have residual scars from psych med withdrawal that took years to fully fade — but the diet is the largest single lever I've ever pulled in my health.
That's why this guide exists. If you're where I was, this is what worked.