The BeCarnivorous lifestyle isnt strictly about fitness and nutrition, but mental health and personal development as well. Yet, all of those are connected in my opinion. Mental Health is one of the biggest crises we face today. Getting help from a professional isnt a bad option, but i believe theres more we can do personally to help in our mental health in conjunction with the tools we get from the professional help.
Nutrition and Mental Health
I want to start wih nutrition because its a great starting point. If you arent interested in exercising too much yet, then start with changing your nutrition. What we consider a healthy american diet is pretty far from healthy. The amount of processed foods, refined sugars, and vegetable oils in our foods is staggering. Vegetable oils and refined sugars are in the vast majority of packaged foods that we buy at the grocery store every week. And contrary to popular belief, they are even in a lot of those options in the “healthy” food aisle.
Many of my mental health issues that Ive dealt with in my life are products of how I felt about myself. The times I didnt feel good about myself were the times where I seriously negliected my nutrition. You might not know me yet but I dont do anything a “little bit”. That goes for good habits and bad habits. Lets just say my portion control was not eating the whole package of something in one sitting! During these times, I didnt look good to myself, I didnt feel good about myself, and I would continue the viscious cycle of ingesting poison in my body and expecting to feel better phsycially. Sounds insane right? Because it is insane. So I decided to be more concious about what I chose to fuel my body. Just being more aware of what I was feeding myself gave me a sense of self care. I was tired of feeling the way I was feeling physically which bleeds into how you feel mentally. I figured that if I felt better physically, it would be easier to find solutions for how I felt mentally. I was right.
You might be wondering: whats the best diet for mental health? Im no nutritionist, but I do have an opinion and you might know it already. I began with a version of the keto diet on the road to a healthier me. I had amazing results on the keto diet both physically and mentally. I had energy, I was losing weight, looking better, which all positively affects how I feel about myself. And it didnt take me long to start feeling better after swtiching my nutrition to the keto diet. I felt less bloated within a day or two. The second week I began to truly notice my energy levels increase as well. It became much easier to be productive and even have the energy to do things once I eliminated processed foods and adopted keto. I now eat a mostly carnivore diet. What is a Carnivore Diet meal plan look like? Essentially its meat, eggs, some dairy. Animal Based. For more info check out my blog about the Carnivore Diet.
Benefits of Exercise and Mental Health
In my personal life experience I can definitely see a correlation between how much I prioritized physical exercise and mental health levels. Exercise is definitely not the complete cure to mental health, but combined with proper nutrition (i.e. carnivore or keto type diet) can be more beneficial than pharmaceutical medications. Im no doctor, so please consult them for their medical advice. But I can promise you this; regardless of what pharmaceutical medication you might be on to help with your mental health, exercise and eating healthier wont be detrimental towards fixing it.
My fitness and health journey has been a roller coaster ride just like many of you. Ive had times of extreme dedication and commitment to fitness and my health, just to eventaully fall off and let other things be prioritized in my life. I came to the realization it was because I was doing things for the wrong reasons. The times of extreme dedication birthed a little confidence and I would become comfortable. Like I “made” it. Then I start relaxing a bit cause of all of my hard work and it slowly gets erased. Proscrastination begins the slow decay of our hard work.
As I said I dont do anything a little bit, so when I was choosing to put my time and energy into bad habits I would take those bad habits to the breaking point. Until I broke and had nothing. You know what pulled me out of those DARK places? Exercise. For me its always been weight lifting. Exercising during those dark moments can be a form of therapy. Its that little bit of light in a world full of dark. Light dissipates dark. Exercising during our darkest hour may be the only thing that will get us through. As long as you just keep showing up, that exercise will begin to illuminate our world slowly. We begin to care for ourselves again. We begin to take pride in completing tasks. We see the results of the hard work. Thats what I personally love about fitness, is that if you put in the work then the results will come. It is a pretty good correlation to LIFE as well.
Our Mental Health
I believe our mental health is very much correlated to the importance we put on fitness and nutrition. We dont all need to be bodybuilders, crossfit athletes, or fitness influencers. All it takes to get started is a walk. Walking daily could be the first steps on the path to a better life. Lets help each other take those first steps to a better tomorrow.
IG -@itsyonson
Stay Blessed