Get ready for an incredible story from K84 Wellness podcast host and nutrition coach Kate Ouellette-Cretsinger from Peterborough, NH. Kate will talk about her long journey into diet optimization, which started with a lifetime of suffering from what we now know is leaky gut syndrome, to discover vegetarian, then keto vegetarian for seven years, and finally, an amazing awakening into the carnivore diet. Kate relates some amazing success stories with the carnivore strategy: her daughter’s managing depression, anxiety and losing 85 pounds in a single year and a client’s success from decades long debilitating illness Crohn’s disease. Kate tried it, and found that she experienced greater mental clarity, as well as an improvement in digestive function. To celebrate the first anniversary of her carnivore eating, Kate dreamed up an incredible solo challenge of riding her bicycle the length of Vermont, from the Canadian border to the Massachusetts border. This was a ride of 225 miles over two days, and 14,500 feet of climbing!Kate also shares stories from her health journey and details what led her to the amazing place she is today. She reflects on the way her diet has changed and the days when she used to drink 8 juices in a single day, assuming that the gas and bloating she was experiencing were normal. She also shares how once she went vegetarian keto, she felt much clearer mentally, started sleeping better, and also just felt lighter as the inflammation in her body began to decrease. She also realized that everything is connected, and that getting rid of the inflammation in her head was the first thing she had to, before all else. “When you get rid of that inflammation in your head, it opens possibilities to other things too,” she says. She started paying attention to what was going on inside her head, the meaning behind the words she was saying, and the stories she was continually telling about herself, including negative self-talk, and began to focus on working on all aspects of her life, and not just the diet part. “I kept working on the internal stuff...and it is hard work to keep changing those thoughts,” Kate comments. However, once she changed the way she ate (particularly with adding in fat) she found that it wasn’t as hard anymore….in fact, it wasn’t hard at all for her to change her thoughts or to be less emotionally reactive and angry. This prompted Kate’s realization that, “A lot of the nutrition that we eat does affect our brain” and the rest is history!Today, Kate advocates for a nutrient dense, carnivore diet for all her clients, and suggests going strictly carnivore for two weeks, (then you can start to slowly incorporate avocado) for those who want to decrease inflammation and identify any potential irritants in their diet. She also makes the convincing case for eating fruit, and says, “Anything that comes off the plant, is what I would suggest to eat.” Another tip from Kate: carefully look through the ingredient list of your supplements, because if you have reactions to a certain ingredient in its whole food form, then it will still bother you if it is incorporated into a pill: “When you have a weak immune system, where you have something that’s bothering it, and then you’re adding [inflammatory foods] in, your body is more susceptible to having these symptoms and sensitivities.” Kate also points out that we are so used to symptoms of inflammation being so common that we think it’s normal, when it is actually far from it: “Anything that is not normal is considered to be autoimmune. Headaches, joint pain….these things that we think are normal, are not normal.” Kate then walks us through the wonderfully detailed nutrient density chart she made for her clients to wrap up the show, so be sure to take advantage and take a few notes!Enjoy this informative show with Kate and learn more at her health coaching website, K84Wellness.com TIMESTAMPS:Brad introduces Kate, a nutrition coach, who has a very interesting story to te