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Founder & CEO of TruStory. I have a passion for understanding things at a fundamental level and sharing it as clearly as possible.
Preethi Kasireddy
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I’ve gotten this question many times from the women who follow me so I figured I would write a short post that explains what I eat and the context behind why I eat this way.
Feel free to skip the context and go straight to the end if you just want to get an idea of a sample day of meals.
What I eat on a daily and weekly basis has changed a lot over the past couple years. It wasn’t by choice, but rather by a dire need to uncover the reasons behind a health issue I was facing. Diet played a big role in how I resolved the issue. Here is how it all started...
I was chubby my entire childhood. My classmates and extended family members made it a point to remind me of this whenever they saw me ;)
One day, when I was 13-years old, I decided I had enough and wanted to lose weight. I knew I could look and feel a lot better if I dropped a few pounds.
That’s when my obsession with food and nutrition really began. Unfortunately, I didn’t know any better and thought that the mainstream health advice was accurate. I started eating low-fat and low-calorie everything.
Sure, I lost a lot of weight and attained my dream body. But I also lost my period and it was no where to be found.
After 9 months of no period, my doctors put me on birth control to help “get my period back”. I got my “period” back...but little did I know that birth control periods are not real periods. Eventually, when I got off the pill, I didn’t get my “real period”.
After running around different OBGYNs for a year, I realized that none of them had any clue how to diagnose my issue. They only knew how to prescribe more interventions— i.e. they told me to go back on birth control to get my “period”. Why would I go back on something that masked the underlying issue in the first place?
A missing period means something is not working right in the female body and I wanted to get to the root cause of it, not put a bandaid on it.
I did a lot of research and found a functional doctor who specialized in women’s health. She did some basic labs on me and immediately knew what was going wrong.
“You have Hypothalamic amenorrhea”, she said.
Hypothalamic amenorrhea is when a female stops menstruating because the hypothalamus stops producing GnRH. GnRH is the hormone that signals to the brain to produce the reproductive hormones necessary for an egg to mature and for a women to ovulate, such as follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), and estrogen.
The results of the labs showed that all of these reproductive hormones had tanked. My hypothalamus stopped producing GnRH and the downstream reproductive hormones because it didn’t have the resources to do so (i.e. it was under-nourished and over-stressed). My body was focused on survival rather than reproduction.
The solution was to reduce the stress my body was enduring so that it can feel safe again to reproduce.
I sought out resources that could point me in the right direction. I went down many rabbit holes and started experimenting with diets that claimed to solve all health issues. Specifically, I was very drawn to the Carnivore diet because I knew how much of a difference eating beef had made in my health. Maybe there is something to the idea of going all in and eating just red meat? I came across countless stories of people who healed various ailments through the Carnivore diet so I decided to give it a shot.
I was physically active so I didn’t want to eliminate carbs/sugar all together. So I ate red meat and fruit for a month. When that didn’t work, I tried pure carnivore with no fruit.
While I felt pretty good on those diets, it wasn’t working. I still had no period after a couple months of eating only fatty meat and broth.
That’s when I started to branch out a bit and seek other points of view. I came across many holistic fertility specialists on Instagram and started devouring their content. I took their courses, read their books, and listened to their podcasts.
I sought out 1:1 help from a couple of these specialists but none of them had any availability for months. Fortunately, one of them took the time out of their day to respond to my DM and recommended that I read the book “No Period, Now what”. It was a book written by two practitioners who have studied 100s of women with hypothalamic amenorrhea and created a protocol for how to recover from it.
I ordered it on Amazon immediately and started reading it as soon as it arrived at my door step. I remember sitting by the pool for 4 days straight devouring the book. I was in awe at everything I was learning about my condition.
The best part? The solution was simple. It was to rest and eat whatever I want. They recommended I eat at least 2,300-2,500 calories per day so that my body eventually recognizes that I am not in starvation mode and that it is safe to reproduce. Moreover, I had to reduce my physical activity and take it easy so that I don’t elevate my stress hormones.
As simple as that sounded, it was really hard to do. I love being physically active. Moreover, the idea of not controlling how much I eat and just eating to my heart’s content was foreign to me.
The book didn’t make promises about how I would feel or look in the healing process. There were 100s of testimonials by women who followed the protocol in the book and ended up gaining 10, 20, or even 30+ pounds in the process of getting their period back. But every single one of them said it was worth it.
Besides that book, I also took an online course called “Fully Nourished” by Jessica Ash which was truly a Godsend. The course is designed for women in their reproductive years and she explains how important it is for women to nourish themselves rather than diet and try to attain a certain body image. She goes deep into what foods are the most nourishing and what foods can actually cause you to be more depleted. I learned that going low carb was actually doing the opposite of what I wanted it to do—it was causing more stress on my body. Every cell runs on glucose and asking my body to convert fat into glucose for energy just causes more stress.
I recommend every woman to take the course irregardless of how healthy you think you are. It will teach you a lot.
I took the advice from the "No Period, Now What" book and the specific foods from the "Fully Nourished" course and began my healing process. It took 3 months and voila! I got my period 4 days before my birthday :)
And it was very regular after that.
Now that I have explained the back story to how and why I was forced to learn about food and nutrition, I will share the foods I eat on a weekly basis. But first, I want to start with some basic diet principles I follow.
Every meal I eat has protein in it. Why is this important?
Well, for one, my goal is to build lean muscle mass, and protein is necessary to do that. There is no way I could recover and build muscular and neurological adaptations from my physical activities if I didn’t eat enough protein.
Secondly, eating protein (and fat) in each meal helps balance my blood sugar. For example, if I have breakfast with oats, milk, honey, and banana, then I notice a larger spike in my blood sugar than if I were to add 1-2 eggs to the mix.
I stick to animal proteins because they are the most bioavailable. I don’t feel nearly as satiated when I eat plant proteins.
For daily protein intake, a good place to start is 0.6-1g of protein per pound of body weight. For example, if you weigh 140 pounds, you’d eat between 84 to 140 grams of protein a day. Test out the ratio that works best for you.
I don’t count how much protein, fat, and carbs I eat, nor do I count calories. Instead, I go off my hunger cues and satiety.
For example, I know when I haven’t had enough protein and/or fat because a meal will not feel satiating. I might feel full, but not satiated. I also know when I haven't had enough carbs because my body will resist the idea of eating meat and it will want something more starchy or sugary.
Any time my body is craving something, it's a sign it is not nourished and needs more of something.
Those cravings go away once I have nourished my body of what it was depleted. My body is smarter than my brain.
In terms of calories, I go off hunger cues. On a night where I had a big dinner, I naturally don't get super hungry until later in the morning and I can make do with a lighter breakfast (or sometimes even going straight to an early and larger lunch). On other days, I might be starving yt the time it's 8am and so I'll have a full breakfast. From there on, I decide what and how much to eat for each meal based on what my hunger cues are telling me throughout the day.
If I had to guess, I probably eat between 2,200 - 2,500 calories per day and 30% carbs, 40% protein, 30% fat. But that is a guess.
If you have no bodily intuition, you can use an online macro calculator (just Google it and you will find a lot of options). Once you establish a base line and regain your bodily intuition, you can wean off them over time.
There have been countless studies and research showing the harm PUFAs can do on the body. “PUFA” stands for Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids and include things like seed oils, vegetable oils, certain nuts, etc. They drive up inflammation and lead to weight gain and all sorts of inflammatory diseases. If you want to a deep dive on PUFAs, read this.
I make sure that any food I buy at the grocery store does not have vegetable or seed oils. Moreover, I completely eliminated nut milks and nut-based flours from my diet. The only nut milk I'll have is coconut milk and the only nut-based flour I have is coconut flour.
With that said, I do really love my nut butters so that is one exception I make to the rule.
For cooking, I use coconut oil, ghee, tallow, or any animal-based fat. I get most of my fat from protein sources (e.g. egg yolks, beef fat, milk fat, fatty fish, etc.)
I am a foodie and always have been (remember how I said I was a chubby little kid?!). While I follow the above rules most of the time, me and my husband also do go out to eat often (1-2x per week). Anyone who watches my Instagram stories knows how much me and my husband love to eat. There is no doubt that some of the restaurants and take-out foods I consume are cooked in vegetable oils, made with factory farmed meat, and/or are loaded with gluten and sugar.
Moreover, there are days when I like to experiment with baked goods and my husband hates the idea of “healthy” baked goods because he thinks it defeats the purpose of indulging in them :)
In short, I follow the 80/20 rule. Trying to be 100% clean all the time gets boring. I allow myself some slack as long as I am eating well a majority of the time.
40%
Beef / Organ meat / Fatty fish
10%
Eggs
15%
Raw milk, cheese, yogurt
15%
Fruit, Honey
20%
Dark Chocolate, Nuts, Sourdough bread, Sprouted grains, Veggies, Misc
Breakfast
Hot cocoa (1 cup raw milk, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp 60% dark cocoa)
1 banana
Lunch
2 eggs, 4oz sardines in olive oil
1 slice of sourdough with 3oz aged gouda
1 cup greek yogurt w/ 1 serving of fruit + 1 tbsp nut butter
Dinner
10z steak marinated in bbq sauce
Raw carrots
Seaweed salad
Bedtime snack
Hot cocoa (1 cup raw milk, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp 60% dark cocoa)
Slice of sprouted raisin bread + 1 tbsp nut butter
Breakfast
1 cup full fat cottage cheese + 1 cup blackberries + 1 tbsp honey
Lunch
2 eggs, 4oz beef liverwurst
1 small baked potato w/ 2 tbsp sour cream
1 serving fruit + 1 tbsp nut butter
Dinner
1/2 lb ground beef cooked in ghee
1 bone marrow
1 cup rice
Bedtime snack
1/2 cup oatmeal w/ 1 cup raw milk + 1 tbsp honey + 3oz dark chocolate
Breakfast
Hot cocoa (1 cup raw milk, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp 60% dark cocoa)
Lunch
2 eggs, 4oz oysters
1 slice of sourdough with 3oz aged cheddar
1/2 banana + 1tbsp nut butter
Dinner
Poke bowl (3-4 scoops of fatty fish, half rice + half salad, various toppings, sauce on side)
Bedtime snack
Hot cocoa (1 cup raw milk, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp 60% dark cocoa)
1/2 banana
Breakfast
1 cup oatmeal w/ 1 cup raw milk + 1 tbsp honey + 1/2 tbsp nut butter + 1 serving fruit
Lunch
4oz salmon burgers (2x)
1 small baked potato w/ 2 tbsp sour cream
Dinner
1/2 lb slow-roasted shredded beef cooked in ghee and korean bbq sauce
1 bone marrow
Raw carrots
Bedtime snack
1 cup greek yogurt w/ 1 serving of fruit + 1 tbsp honey
You will notice that I have a few staples in my diet: beef, eggs, fatty fish, raw milk / cheese, yogurt, fruit, honey, dark chocolate, oatmeal, etc. I could certainly expand my list of foods but I find that sticking to simple ingredients is easier for me.
Whenever I get bored, I slightly switch things up. But my staples stay the same.
You may also notice that some of my morning meals have more carbs than protein. This is because on days I have dance or workout in the morning, I naturally crave carbs as it is the best source of fuel at the moment. I usually eat lunch within 2 hours of breakfast where I get more protein in. I could theoretically increase my protein intake at breakfast via collagen or protein powder but I have found that having protein powders suppresses my appetite for real food and they also make me extra thirsty. Hence, over the past year, I cut back on them completely and stick to protein from whole food sources.
If I had to summarize, the closest “diet” my diet represents is the pro-metabolic diet, which you can read more about here and here.
Founder & CEO of TruStory. I have a passion for understanding things at a fundamental level and sharing it as clearly as possible.