My Friend Went Carnivore And Here’s What Happened…

My friend Ashley has been on a roller coaster with her weight for most of her life, after we met she went Keto/Carnivore and lost 80 pounds in the last year.

**Thanks to LMNT for sponsoring this video! Head to http://DrinkLMNT.com/LAURASPATH to get your free sample pack with any purchase.

To follow along with my daily life come find me on Instagram: @lauraespath
Follow Ashley on Instagram: @ashley.kalkan

For community, support, and exclusive content from me come join my Locals. https://lauraespath.locals.com/

DISCOUNT LINKS:
EQUIP Protein Powder- Code: LAURAESPATH
https://www.equipfoods.com/?rfsn=7678223.758504

Meater Bluetooth Meat Thermometer:
https://meater.store/Laura

Gardners Wisconsin Cheese:
All Products

****Affiliate Links and Discount Codes to all my favorite brands and products: https://www.lauraspath.com/links

#carnivore #keto #weightloss #carnivorediet #lowcarb #Brca #brcagene

I feel like half my Instagram is in this this video is brought to you by Laura Spath and all of her promoters as you can see I know look at this prodct placement we got going on here hi guys welcome back to my channel my name is

Laura and I have been eating a meat-based carnivore diet for six years now but this video is not about me this video is about my amazing friend Ashley who I’m excited to share with you I am here in her house in Houston I’m here for my job this week and We snuck away

For a little bit to film uh Ashley is one of my co-workers we met on my first day at my job we both started the same day that’s right in our onboarding class and instantly bonded and have been fast friends ever since and not only that

Since we met she has lost how many pounds oh gosh it’s like 80 lbs I think now 80 lbs she’s a totally different person I am so proud of her she has transformed her husband is transformed her kids are transforming and I can’t wait to share her story with you today

And to think it all began with you cuz I can’t keep my mouth shut when you’re eating a steak on day one of orientation it draws a little attention um no I think one of the things that was amazing was that you’re so authentic like what you see on here is what you

See in real life and I think that that was one of the things that really translated to me but you know Laura didn’t come into orientation and be like I’m carnivore you know I try to keep it a little bit quiet no it was it was

Great to hear about her lifestyle in a very authentic organic way through orientation today I want Ashley to share her journey with food her weight loss roller coaster that so many of us have been through are we sharing your age yeah I don’t care I’m 42 she’s 42

Fabulous 42 so we’re going to share a little bit about her life and her health Journey up until now and just how she’s transforming everything and then we’re going to go check out this unbelievable keto paleo restaurant tonight and we’ll talk more there and see what kind of

Stuff we can find before we go any further I want to let you know that this video is sponsored by element which is the electrolyte drink mix that I use every day I think Ashley takes it every morning as well I like the unflavored versions which is just literally sodium

Magnesium and potassium no sweeteners nothing else in it and then Ashley loves the sweetened versions which are they have Stevia in them mhm and they’re fantastic I prefer them far beyond the unflavored I think the unflavored takes a little little getting used to so if you’re starting off like Citrus and

Watermelons my favorite and raspberry they’re amazing I brought Ashley has not tried the grapefruit yet so I brought her a grapefruit version that you can try while I’m here I’m so excited and then if you want to try grapefruit or if you’re crazy like me and you like the

Unflavored version you can get a free sample pack with your purchase and they have 100% money back guarantee you know they’ll swap things out for you they have the best customer service you can go to drink element.com lauras bath to get your sample pack and I’ll put the

Link down below as well so thanks element for sponsoring this video so for one of these I like to put it in my 40 oz container just to water it down and I I think that’s perfect I like it a little saltier so I concentrate mine a

Little more but it depends on how salty you like it okay so this is a grapefruit first time I’m tasting it by far my favorite like this I knew this is fantastic my mom likes that one the best too it’s so good so start us off with

Your health Journey before we met give us a brief version of like what your health and weight was like yeah so I think you know relatively average for most of my life heavier after kids much heavier after kids um but I also have the breast cancer Gene so I have the

Braa one and so I did all the preventative surgeries that you could do after I had my two kids and that led to like a very unique set of health issues where you couldn’t lose weight like you could before because when you’re surgically postmenopausal right like you

Don’t have the right kind of hormones anymore and so you take hormone replacement and things like that and so going out and running and just doing calorie restrictions and calories in versus calories out did wasn’t didn’t work for me um and so I think growing up in just a traditional Southern home

Where you had fried food and you prioritized carbs I had done keto off and on for a while and it would work you know a little bit but you kind of always had a stall Point um and it was stressful meal prep was stressful you

Know feeling that I had to you know feed my children something different because they needed to be healthier and I just needed to eat a certain way um yeah I mean and I think probably many of you have struggled with very similar you know story lines even if it doesn’t

Involve like the braae right you’ve had you grew up with um families that ate you know buffets and casseres casseres and tons of potatoes so yeah I mean a traditional kind of Southern upbringing um and always you know kind of sought food for Comfort uh if you’re happy

We’re Baptist so if you’re happy you eat and if you’re sad you eat and if somebody dies you bring them food you know I mean it’s just it’s a very food Centric culture so what was your bottom or what do you think the breaking point

Was in your health I know when we met you had been very curious about keto and on and off again um but where do you feel like the lowest point of your health Journey was oh gosh I would say covid I think everybody struggled with you know with eating and you know

Seeking it for comfort and distractions from things that were going on so I think during Co we laugh and my husband and I say oh we were Co mom and Co dad like you know we got to our highest weights we were eating unhealthy um and

Then it was joint pain right like you had joint pain and fatigue and you just couldn’t get up and do the things that you should be doing especially cuz at the time I was under 40 so it’s like why why am I struggling right yeah we were

Also stuck at home eating constantly and then just like not moving nobody was getting any exercise and weight gain and inflammation and all those things just added up and what’s interesting is I’ve always had like inflammation problems throughout probably like my 20s onward and um and so I just thought that that’s

Just that’s just who I was right you just get older and your body breaks down that’s what’s supposed to happen yeah I’m just getting old and I’m just getting you know worn out when we met our company brings new employees to Houston for a week for an onboarding and

So you’re there Monday through Friday for a really long week having all your meals together and bonding and so over the course of that week um Ashley and I got to know each other really well and bonded because of just the am they brought they catered breakfast and lunch and snacks and

Desserts and like it was just food buffet all day long while we were there and I think one of the things that impressed me the most is once I realized that you were on a specific type of eating she didn’t bring sometimes she brings her own food right but really she

Was modifying whatever they gave her to be compliant to what she could eat and most of the time when you’re thinking thinking of like a diet mentality it’s always oh I have to be separate I have to be set apart from these people and it’s a distinction and you’re drawing

Attention to the fact that you feel like you’re overweight and you feel like you have to eat a certain way that’s apart from all these thin people right um and so that’s the thing that I thought was really interesting was that you you would go to the same restaurants but you

Ordered in a different way so it wasn’t like oh I’m sorry I can’t have that like you never said that it was always like this is what I’m going to eat and when eating carnivore like you’re eating good stuff like saying oh I’m not going to have the role because I’m getting a

Ribeye right like it’s what kind of compromise are you really making and you know not not much of one really when you kind of look at it from that perspective yeah and I think when we met at orientation one of the things that I loved about Laura was we were doing like

A you know an ice breaker right and we had come back from lunch and of course lunch was like sandwiches with potato chips and pickle slices and so she had eaten the inside of a sandwich right and she had had a a I don’t think you had

The pickle slice but she had eaten the inside of a sandwich and there were cookies out and so there was a colleague of ours that started with us at the same time and I laughed so hard because he got a cookie and they were like delicious big fluffy cookies right that

They always have at work events and he brought it in we were doing our Icebreaker and he had eaten like half of his cookie and he left it there and I noticed it just because I was like damn that cookie looks good um but I didn’t say anything about an hour later Laura’s

Like why can you not eat the cookie what like why are you leaving the cookie there like I cuz we were talking about things that we have changed in our life and she was mentioning that she eats predominantly meat and that’s all she eats and then she kind of got more into

The carnivore but she was like like I sit there and I look at you and you’re you just ate half the cookie like it doesn’t function in my brain that somebody in there could just eat half a cookie and then not go back and eat the rest of it and what was

Funny is that’s when it like clicked with me cuz I was like I had thought the same thing I had watched him eat half of it and put it down and at this point guys like he was completely disinterested in it he never finished the cookie which I noticed and even when

Laura said something he laughed and he was like oh yeah I mean it’s all right like he just was not completely nonplused by any of it and it shows you the different mentality of like there are some people who moderation can work for them everything in moderation there’s people in the comment sections

Of all of my videos going everything in moderation have a piece of pizza occasionally have something occasionally but our brains don’t work like that our brains can’t have a half a cookie and then just go back to the rest of our day our brains go obsessive and crazy and

Have one and then several more as we go along throughout the day so it just shows you that that moderation approach is not going to work for everybody and I thought it was interesting to you cuz my brother has my oldest brother has always kind of struggled with being up and down

With his weight and when she said that it made me think of him when he was he had lost probably about 80 lbs he looked great he was at work one day they had brought in donuts and somebody came to him and said hey Chad why aren’t you

Eating a donut and you know you look great you’ve lost all this weight why are you depriving yourself and he was like if I eat one he’s like I’m going to eat all of them and I’m going to be you’re going to find me in an Alleyway

Trying to do some shady stuff to get more Donuts he was like I can’t if I could have controlled myself around a dozen donuts I wouldn’t have had to lose 80 PBS and I was like so when you said that it just kind of resonated and I was

Like yeah it’s like it’s a it’s a struggle that you have that I have and then Ashley really took like not necessarily that day but like over the next now it’s been a year and a half that we’ve known each other um talk about like you spent a few months like

On and off keto in and out of keto and then at what point kind of when did you transition to more carnivore based and then when did you get roll serious so I would love to say that it was like the next day like you said but it wasn’t I

Think I sent you home with like meat chips and a few other things she had made these pork chips and I was like oh my gosh these taste like lays and she’s like they’re just pork and I was like no way and of course I had not been

Depriving myself of anything right I was eating the cookies right alongside our colleague um and so it was so funny because I thought maybe I could do this but I did what I think 99% of people do and I go but I’m going to have a week

Where I eat whatever I want I’m going to eat whatever I want because then I’m going to start right and I think because that that works yeah exactly because we don’t restart that like every every week um so yeah so I went home and then I

Talked to my husband and I said you know I think I’m really just going to try it like let’s just try it and see what happens um and you know we could still have vegetables cuz vegetables are extremely healthy why would we cut those out that was that was what we said why

Would we do that right um but I think over the course of the year what I found was I still was having inflammation and I still was having problems and so it got to be before the holidays of of 2022 like around November before my birthday

I was like okay we’re just going to go strip carnivore and um we did for a couple weeks and it was like great like my joint pain went away in my ankles I was like losing weight uh and then the holidays hit and you know the holidays I

Think you have pointed this out many times have so many memories wrapped up in a recipe or in something your aunt made or your grandmother and these people who were no longer with you there’s this emotional attachment to these dishes and you almost feel like it’s disrespectful if you don’t make

Them and honor those traditions and eat the food right cuz why are you going to make it and just waste it so I think there was like backsliding throughout the holiday season and then of course bandwagon starts up January is a big deal um we started to try to get back on

Track and was really good for probably several months until summer and and this is all like in 2020 2023 2023 so with last year um you know January through probably about May uh we we had a family trip we were going to Italy like we were hardcore from January until April

Dropped probably a total of like almost 40 lbs was doing really well um was super excited walked everywhere in Italy you know but had the gelato and of course you’re in Italy you have to have the pizza right um and that actually I really didn’t actually gain very much

From there uh which that could lead us to a whole another discussion on food quality which is a different they’re poisoning Us in the US with our food a different different video right different topic different video um so and I think in summer I literally had

This thought of in summer I just want to be normal I just want to eat ice cream and have you know Fritos with my kids and go to the beach and have a hot dog and do like I wanted to do all the things and I really was kind of like I

Felt good and I’d lost like 40 lbs so like why not I I mean obviously I’ve conquered my problems you know that’s what I thought in June um and then I guess really to bring It full circle August of 2023 is when I got very serious about it again because I went on

A trip with my daughter and we went to the beach and you know things that had been fitting fine were getting tight again tons of inflammation from eating fried food um eating processed food uh seed oils which is again a whole another conversation um and I because very

Quickly we know that you can’t you can’t there is no going back to normal it is that our we have this mindset that does not let us moderate those types of addictive foods and we can’t just have a cheat day because it’s a vacation and then get back on track again because

It’s 20 lbs later and we’ve completely backslid and it’s so much harder how much harder is it to like get started all over again increasingly difficult like it just is and I I’ll say too when you’re eating processed foods yeah even if you have the best metabolism in the

World it’s still awful for your system and the inflammation that comes with it and for me it just is like immediately overnight 10 lbs on and then it takes for a week and a half you can put on 10 15 lbs and some of that is water weight

Justifiably so but then it takes you weeks to take that back off and that is where you get into the struggle and I started and so in August um we got back from that vacation I say vacation Loosely but we got back from that vacation and it was like nope that’s it

We’re going straight carnivore again and um I will occasionally work in like brussels sprouts stuff but what I realized is my inflammation went down the most when I took out salads and I love salads but the the lettuce screens the you know any kind of kale any kind

Of Brussel sprouts really reacted with me um and I feel much better when I’m eating meat and now you’ve established this like really like what I admire most about Ashley is not only the changes that she’s made the really hard major changes that she made she travels a lot

For her job you know she works in sales she’s she’s constantly at these like events and cocktail hours and all of these business dinners that she has to go to but she has made this a lifestyle that is sustainable for her they stayed strict like they stayed attached to this

Lifestyle and what that means for her all through the holidays last year and I think that was the first time that you’ve really ever done that correct and what I say I think she to me is the definition of somebody who has found a lifestyle balance that works for them

Where she not going from strict carnivore to pizza and ice cream but she’s going from hey I need a leverage carnivore cuz I’m feeling inflammation to like it’s I’m traveling and maybe I’ll have a couple of vegetables at a restaurant and then it’s a holiday maybe

I’ll have a keto treat hey like every once in a while I do something keto but she has found this really nice balance for her where she can do this like I know that you’re feeling confident that you can do this forever yes because vacations and trips and daily life and

All of these things youve you’ve done that now and you know where this flexibility is and I think like hang on I want to say this like I’m trying to say this nicely to say like you’re a normal person but I mean that like she

Is she is a the not average like this sounds sober yeah but this this is Ashley is a normal person who is living a very normal life and her goal is not to be a strict carnivore forever her goal is to like how can I keep this

Weight off and stay healthy forever and there is this balance that she has found that works for her I think I just touched your boob no you’re and she has found a balance that works for her that means that she can stick to this long term and you’ve had the last six months

Have been the most consistent and you’ve been steadily dropping all the entire time right I mean it was it was crazy because I thought I was doing really good was backsliding a little bit gain back 20 of like the 40 5 that or 40 that I had lost and then ended up dropping

That 20 plus like another you know 40 so overall around 80 a little bit more than that um and it it’s amazing because I I will be honest it’s you have to leverage the tools that are accessible to you and we are blessed to be in an age where

There’s tons and like I know Laura right so a lot of you know her virtually right you know her you follow her but I had really the advantage of meeting her before I’d even I’d never heard of carnivore before I had never watched a carnivore video I wouldn’t have even

Known like that that was the thing and so meeting her and hearing her and hearing the logic and she has to realize like when I met her she was always a skinny person so she comes at it from no I was larger and now I’m thin and I

Understand that cuz that’s how I feel like I’m was larger and now I’m smaller right but to me she’s always been the skinny person I can remember when she started talking about things I was like what does she know she’s like this little twig she doesn’t know anything

And that’s truly how I felt and then understanding where she came from gave more validation to her story and then seeing her be consistent she doesn’t just eat things on a video and then turn off and go to happy hour with us and chug back margaritas and chips right

It’s it’s sustainable and so it was super helpful for me to be with somebody in real life at a sales kickoff who was like oh great yeah I’ll it’s fajitas today so we’ll just eat the meat and we can put some sour cream on it understanding sustainable ways to keep

This because she’s right I’m a normal person most people would never even know most of my friends until I started posting stuff on Instagram had no clue that we had changed the way that we eat but we had totally changed it and I will say in December I was very convicted

That like I know how good it is for me and I was still feeding my kids processed foods and because it was easy right and I was still going through waterb I was still going through all the different the drive-throughs right um and so we have really cleaned up the

Majority of the way the kids eat and they feel better and they don’t have as many headaches which is funny cuz kids don’t hurt necessarily you don’t think of it but it’s like headaches we would attribute to oh they’ve been up studying or though no it’s like a lot of it is

Diet based and her kids are teenagers which I think is the hardest time and I get people that reach out to me every day saying how do I address my kids like my kids are teenagers what am I supposed to do and her kids are in high school

And they’re dealing with all of their friends and sports and activities and trying to change their diets over is so hard and just they’re in this routine now of like figuring it out and I’m so proud they’re they’re making swaps and they’re just like the kids are realizing

Like how they much better they feel and why they want to make those choices on their own because that listen you can’t control everything that goes into their mouth at this age they have to feel the difference and then want to make those changes for themselves 100% 100% yeah

And I think that having them realize if you’re in a situation and you can’t choose or you feel like you don’t have the options to choose here are better choices right um giving them that that knowledge is absolute power and I think you know understanding how they feel so

Much better when they are drinking water or water with element as opposed to Gatorade or Coke and Dr Pepper it is a GameChanger and it it changes the way they perform in school it changes the way they perform in sports yeah hands down and your husband is now on board

But let’s talk L about he was a little more reluctant to come along on the journey so did you like force him like how did that go how did you convince him that he needed to jump on board as well well I you know I’m blessed that I do

Have a partner right like who’s he’s like a real partner it’s like you and Chris um supporting one another because you do have to have support when you’re going through this I think if he were getting cheeseburgers and eating french fries every night that would be really

Hard to not you know physically assault him you know that would be very difficult um but he was you know he was like yeah I’m open for it let’s try it and he did not get super strict again really until November and it was before we have we both have birthdays in

November and I think he was tired of feeling crappy right we had a big trip that was planned for Universal and we you know I have brothers and my brothers love to joke and so they were like you know I think they had made a comment of

Like oh Ashley’s lost all this weight and Jonathan you better hope that they can fit you in the seats ha haa and Jonathan was like wow right but but then he was like yeah like I have put on some weight yeah my stuff is tight and so it

Was funny cuz he started in November he’s been strict carnivore um you know he doesn’t really ever drink even diet sodas he’s very much water and coffee and that’s pretty much it and and electrolytes he loves the electrolytes too and here we are in February and he’s

Down 36 lbs so I will say had he have started at the same time as me and and surpassed me within the first month I strangle orthy I would have I would have been extremely frustrated so maybe it’s a good thing that he started a little

Bit later but yeah I mean I think having a supportive partner and family are game changers and being able to have her on speed dial when I need ideas is is a game changer too yeah you you just can’t force people to make these changes until

They are ready on their own and I know Ashley has people in her life that she really loves that she wishes would make this change and and they’re just not ready yet and so her husband had to see the example that she was setting and the progress that she was making and decide

He was ready and her kids also had to see like how much better Mom feels and she’s working out she just Pilates we didn’t even talk about this but like exercises you’re so much better at that than I am like I see her post and like message me she’s doing Pilates every day

I’m like oh I’m being so like she’s inspiring me and motivating me to like not be so lazy anymore but her kids are just so proud of her for the changes that she’s making I mean talk talk about that all like I know that they make comments constantly they do so we were

Laughing cuz we were looking through pictures and I did tell Laura I said I probably have like the opposite of body dysmorphia where I thought I look like I do now all the time so when I look back at pictures of myself I’m like wow and

So it’s funny my kids were like oh yeah you were chunky like you were cuz they know not to use the f word with me fat like but they’re like oh that’s chunky Mama right and it is funny because you know I think as we started planning

Vacations that were going to be more strenuous in nature like oh let’s go to the Beach but it’s we’re going to have to walk a long way we’re going to have to be out in the surf all day and oh we’re going to go to this amusement park

And there’s a certain weight limit on stuff um I shared with Laura a couple of years ago we had gone to schlitter bond wonderful Park love it go if you can um but there was a ride that you could ride in tandem with your child and you have

To weigh obviously for safety reasons and we you know we weighed downstairs it was fine we get up to the top and I step on the scale and it goes I was like horrified red light I mean I do think that was a little bit overkilled as well but I’ll just put

That out there and you would think that would have been the moment to transform me and be like actually it drove me more towards the donuts and the bread cuz I was so embarrassed but it’s like those are the kind of things that I want to be

Able to enjoy with my children and and now they’re becoming adults right but I want to be able to enjoy those things and so my son had said you know I’d really like you to be able to be more active with me and you know if we want

To go running like you could go which we’re not running like we’re not running but you know but I can go to the gym with him and I can work out and I can be strong um and we can do all the activities kind of like what you said

With your vacation how much different would that vacation have been an active vacation if you couldn’t do those things right it really limits you and they see her get up every morning and exercise and eat right and she’s making food for them that’s clean and low carb and and

They see how they feel but they’re just I know they’re so proud of you and how hard you’re working and how much you’re focusing on your health and even though it does take time away from them that you have to exercise and you have to do

Some meal prep and and things like that and it’s maybe not as fun cuz you’re not going through the drive-thru as often as you used to I know you’re saving a lot of money cuz you’re eating home constantly corre um but I know they’re also just so proud of the example that

You’re setting and that’s what’s inspiring them to make changes also and I think you know I do think that we had talked about how there’s this perception when you’re heavier that you’re not disciplined or you’re not you know you’re just lazy and I there at no point

When I was heavy was I lazy was I not disciplined but I was disciplined and I was prioritizing different things yeah right and it was work and it was the kids in a different way right but it was never myself and so I’m never going to

Say oh always put yourself first cuz I actually don’t believe that I think you have to consider others right but I would say that if you’re not prioritizing your health and you’re not showing discipline you can’t take care of the people around you and I’ll also

Say when your kids get to be teenagers they listen to you whether or not you think they’re listening and they watch you and so if you tell them hey you should go out you should go out and you’re sitting on the couch eating chips or whatever like you’re not showing them

What they should be doing so I stopped preaching to them and I just started doing it and it’s so powerful to be able to turn to them and be like hey I’m going to I’m going to do a workout do you want to work out with me and they’re

Like all right you know because it’s not me saying you should go work out it’s hey you can join with me and I do think leading by example is is very powerful for them that’s great well I I am proud of you I am proud of your kids and your

Husband and your whole family and I love that like when I come to Houston for work I get a place to come get a good steak and then Ashley takes me to the best restaurants uh in Houston she’s a native histan and knows all the good places and so tonight we actually are

Going to go to a keto Palo restaurant that is I heard is gorgeous and fantastic and we’re going to check it out and take you guys along with us awesome I’m excited the restaurant we went to is called Ruggles black and it is an upscale dining experience that features

A full keto paleo seed oilfree glutenfree menu they cook with ghee and avocado oil and all fresh ingredients and really focus on Whole Foods we were able to meet the owners and talk with the chef and they spoke about their passion for giving everybody this amazing dining experience with fresh

Clean ingredients they have things that they’ll do all a cart a full keto a very clean paleo menu and they are willing to adapt and adhere to any diet request that you have they mentioned they will never tell you no if you ask for a specific accommodation I got the pork

Belly appetizer and they put the sauce on the side for me and Ashley and our other guests had the keto wings and the keto brussel sprouts which contain no gluten and no sugar Ashley got the keto Pizza which does not have wheat or gluten or rice

Flour in the crust it is actually keto they brought out a salad for the keto people at the table to share and then I had the filet with a quail egg on top it came with some vegetables and a cauliflower mash but I sent them home

With Ashley so she could feed them to her family overall it was an incredible dining experience and if you’re looking for a fun night out on keto or paleo I would highly recommend this restaurant thanks again to Ashley for participating in this video and sharing her story if

You want to hear more from her or myself you can come find us on Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to this channel if you’re looking for some support or some guidance or just have questions for me you can always come find me on locals thanks for watching