All Animal April

zerocarb
carnivore

#1

Our little carnivore tribe has marched through March, and now it’s All Animal April - which gives us another 30 days on the carnivore lifestyle to get healthier.

No fools here - just all animal products!

A bit of chat to start us off:

  • How long have you been carnivore?
  • What do you want to focus on this month?
  • Do you have any personal goals that you’re hoping to work towards?
  • What foods have you been enjoying the most?

Feel free to answer any of those - or none!

Looking forward to seeing another month of lively chatter from our regulars - and to welcoming any new carnivores who want to join us.


Carnivores March into March :)
#2

To kick us off, I should answer my own questions:

I’ve been carnivore for just over 16 months, and this month I am focusing on trying a different fat:protein ratio. I’ve been eating more protein than fat for a long while, and now I am going to try going closer towards Amber’s 2:1 recommendation - which means a lot more fat and a lot less protein.

I’m always trying to increase muscle and lose fat, and recently I’ve been focusing on increasing my bench press. So I am going to prioritise that lift this month.

As for food, I’ve gone back to steak and I am loving it. I’m adding fat in the form of butter, ghee, or tallow - so I am eating a smaller portion of steak, but I am enjoying it again.

Looking forward to reading everyone else’s thoughts :slight_smile:


#3

Me too. Well I focus on my whole workout… Bench press is the last one and I need help and that’s complicated so it may just not happen sometimes. I plan to focus on not skipping it and making my whole workout on the same day. It’s a challenge for me, okay?

I googled things and have read a tad.
About what an average untrained person should be able to do regarding bench press. I just don’t think it’s true. No way most person just move such big weights. Let’s get a normal chubby woman and she just bench press 80lbs without any training? No way. My male, active, healthy SO couldn’t do anything with that weight let alone doing one rep… Well I can try it but we are similar (he is a bit stronger even untrained. I lazily do my workouts with slow progression since years on and off) and I know that my weight is about 50 and if I add another 10, I probably can’t do one while he can but not many…
I just don’t think almost everyone is way stronger than us (and whatever I could be in a year if I really tried). People just doesn’t seem like it would be true. Girlies in offices with their spaghetti arms and tiny protein intake and never trained chest muscles…? And there are many such ones (but make them chubby, they still don’t get so strong, it definitely didn’t happen to me).

So I am confused.

I will think about my goals for April, I am very sleepy now. But I want to be as close to carnivore as I can and if I stray, I want to figure out why and solve it. It probably will be boredom of my carni foods. I have some idea what to do against it but I can’t pull it off every day. More experiments are needed.
I will make meatloaves like Fangs, that sounds a superb idea. Hard to imagine getting bored of it if I keep my other items so I don’t overuse it.

I go for a leaner style lately (think 60-65% fat, I have my limits). It may interfere with my OMAD plans but we will see. I do my best to avoid added fat but very fatty meat (processed doesn’t count as I use it in moderation) didn’t work either. It might be good for times when I can’t stomach enough food otherwise but I never know when it will come and on the wrong day I just eat way too much from it.

I think I already wrote before but I plan to increase my turkey (wing) consumption. It seems to satiate me, it’s tasty and quite cheap too, I get bones for a nice soup, it adds variety… What not to like? And there is pork thigh and chuck as my staple food besides my eggs. No idea if I can lower my egg consumption but I won’t hold back regarding meat for sure.

Well, eggs and meat :smiley: I have too many.
Heart and tongue (never ate a bad one, no matter the animal species), all my sponge cakes (=whipped egg white with or without yolks), pork sausage (various kinds), pork chuck roast, pork thigh with or without bacon, not a special fav but I surprisingly handle eating scrambled eggs all the time… And frikadeller/Stefania/scotch eggs (they are siblings in my world but truly similar anyway as far as I know. still didn’t look up how non-carnivores make scotch eggs) are lovely too.
And sour cream. The best kind of quark, sour and creamy, it’s super useful when I am bored with eggs and meat or just want a dessert. If I want one, I get it, I wonder if I could handle it in any other way… But I typically use quark when I need the protein and really can’t imagine eating more meat or eggs in a non-sweet way.
Stews are lovely too as always, still my best idea for beef.
I probably need other recipes.

I better sleep now and sorry, really. (I deleted some things about my fight against some parts of my internet addiction. But I have my food addiction and they joins forces when it comes to this forum.) It must be nice to have self-control, I can’t possibly know.

Maybe I should give myself some challenge but what can I follow even in my comment writing trance…? I know, I shouldn’t start. Hmmm… We will see what I can do.


(Robin) #4

I was keto for one year from June of 2020 to June of 2021. This June I will be one year carnivore. It was not a goal, just kept eliminating food according to my body’s extremely apparent signals. Now I eat meat and drink decaf coffee with HWC or plain decaf tea. Enough water.
Gave up all the supplements (except K and D).

I don’t have a new focus or goals! I started my journey at 215 lbs. Now at 153. Have been here for quite a while and think this is my best weight. (I’m 67 and 5’7”).

My favorite food is now almost always prepared in the air fryer. Lots of steak, pork, chicken. (I can’t. Make myself try the more ‘exotic” stuff like organs, and I don’t like fish) I Buy it all in the clearance bin. My son works at the grocery store, so I have an informant!


(UsedToBeT2D) #5

Yes, the clearance bin and my freezer are my strategy to fight inflation.


#6

Don’t really recall how long I’ve been on Keto. I think, 3 years- ish. Carnivore - on again off again on again now. Realized I really cannot handle other foods. Gotta be carnivore.

While out this evening, we mosied over to Tractor Supply. They had more baby chicks. So… we got 5 more fluffies! I can’t live without my eggs! lol!


(Judy Thompson) #7

I started the year on PSMF, ordered Maria Emmerich’s PSMF book (I must have read 5 PSMF books in that time and most of them were insane!) and in it, and in her FB pages, found carnivore, and started that on Jan 12th. So, Day 80 today. I had been LC and Keto for most of the last 15 years, keto OMAD from Jan 2019 (which was when I joined KF), but not much weight loss and no reversal of the OA that plagued me from fall 2016 - until carnivore. Now I’m in clothes I haven’t worn in 15 years.
It took 65 days on carni to fat-adapt and throw out the Depends, lol.
At present we’re on the road from TX to VA, back to our house we’ve been in forever, to clean it up and hand it over to my daughter who’ll be renting it. We’re musicians, there are gigs there in April and May.
As such my main goal for April is to stay the course, because we’ll be “wined and dined,” doing some restaurant time and I’m so much better now, all I need to do is keep on keepin’ on. In mid-May we’ll go back to TX and then I can think of “goals” but for now, the goals make themselves.
Oh yes… and I’m 69. Don’t think I’ve ever mentioned that. Dr.Chaffee mentioned in a podcast I heard yesterday, that the life expectancy of a healthy human should be 120. So I’m really just a kid :slight_smile:


(Robin) #8

Do you have any clips of you performing?


(Linda ) #9

I started keto in April 2020 moved to ketovore not long later, carnivore started in Feb 2021 so about 14 months now I got to my goal weight a couple months later then proceeded to gain back some of my lost weight. Right now im about 5"lbs up from when I first went carnivore so still got work to do to get back down and then try and get to my goal weight.
My goal for this month is still try to work on keeping my fats up and protein undercontrol.
Since it’s important to have fat for energy and leave the protein to rebuild not to be used to burn as glucose…
I’ve been impressed with the siatety achieved by adding butter… now this month I’ll try to focuss more on stopping when my body says stop and not overriding that by thinking it tastes good just a few more bites won’t hurt I don’t want to waste it. I gotta stop thinking like that and actually listen to when I first start thinking that’s enough…n


#10

Thanks @Septimius for igniting the thread for April. :slightly_smiling_face:

Crikey I feel hungover today. Made a mistake at a gas station on the long (3hr) night drive from the city. I got a coffee with milk in it and a 35g keto snack bar. A beef rib and some cheese had already been eaten, so I know the urge was from stress after a few hard working days. I was tired before setting out. The keto bar had sugar in it and the milk had its lactose. I copped a bellyache about an hour into the drive and have brought it on to the forum. Still felt bad this morning with some muscle soreness. Did a COVID RAT (sounds carnivore) and it was negative.

Lost a further 2cm of my belly measurement in the final part of carnivore March. So, since the 2nd of February I’ve misplaced 4 inches from my girth. I have no idea what I weigh these days.

I started keto on Christmas Day 2014. I was obese and my dad had died of Alzheimers dementia in 2013. I went carnivore about 2 years ago. Carnivore start here: Cheryl's 90 Day Carnivore Challenge: Started on Nov 01 going through to Feb 29, 2020
But it has been a bit of a struggle. My fallback and what dirties my carnivore WOE is keto. I’ve never relapsed into standard eating, however.

April is interesting. My workplace mandates a 3rd COVID inoculation and I got pretty sick with both the first two. But before that I have lots of monitoring blood tests due. It all happens in the last week of April. That’s my tracking. And a specialist rheumatologist recheck. With low carb carnivore as my foundation and due diligence on the medications and supplements prescribed and advised I became pain free in mid-March after 7 months treatments. For April I have stopped taking cortisone, but will continue on daily hydroxychloroquine until I see the specialist. All the supplements are pretty standard antioxidants and vitamins.

Beef prices have increased by about a third in my area of Australia. I’m eating a rib eye steak tonight that cost $44/kg. There 2.2lbs per kg. So, that is 20 $AU/lb. That is $14.95 $US/lb. How does that compare? I always though the food in the US was heavily subsidised and cheap. The good eggs are about $AU 8/dozen ~ $US 6/dozen (you can get bad eggs for about AU$5/dozen).


(Linda ) #11

Eggs are cheap here and your rib eye is prob the price of top grade rib eye ours is about 15.00 or we can get cheaper cuts of ribeye for 9.95 here in florida.

I get you on the keto food if I ever step back its into keto foods never into sad… but maybe that’s a good thing because the addictions not there in keto foods to hold me long I can always step back to carnivore…


#12

I’ve always done whole workout but I’ve realised that my arms and chest are lagging behind, so I am putting a bit of focus on them.

I use: https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/bench-press/lb

“Female beginners should aim to lift 38 lb (1RM) which is still impressive compared to the general population.”

You might find that more achievable?

If you want to learn how to bench press, follow Jennifer Thompson’s instructions:

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34XRmd3a8_0
2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ta--JGdbSo
3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJubNVtQfz4
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNqT2kUFweM
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBfp0A-V5Fw

They’re very old videos (she’s done more up to date ones since with better audio), but I found them really useful.


#13

I need to explore my air fryer more. I bought one of the ones which is multifunction (roast, grill, bake, air fry) - and although I’ve air fryed chicken wings and frozen steak, I tend to use roast/grill more often.

It makes great food though!


#14

@Septimius
Good start for the All Animal April thread :slight_smile: you are making us work and post goals. Love it!

@JJFiddle
So happy the Depends are gone!! I had no idea of your age, I thought way younger, the way you type out things you sound very vibrant and younger for sure :slight_smile: Love your attitude! Hope all goes well in VA and you get your home settled easily.

@FrankoBear
Wonderful 4 inches are gone and you are melting away slowly. Love the lean mean machine you will become on zc. You’ve had a hard walk with your soreness and issues with your pain etc. but it seems you are working thru it in good form now. I hope April brings you all good actions!

------------------It is wonderful reading how carnivore everyone is on the thread!

I am into year 5 zc. I love this lifestyle. I ‘fits’ me to a T literally in that I am not a chef by any means. Never liked cooking or baking so the simplified time in the kitchen is a massive compliment in my life day to day. I was and always will be a big meat hound :slight_smile: I feel great. I was low carb, then Keto a bit, then in and out of carnivore for a bit and then one day went all carnivore and never looked back. I got the last ‘20 stubborn’ damn lbs to lose, but have slowly whittled away 5 of those suckers, so I can say I got about 15 more I would like gone, but I don’t care in the end, I lost the bulk of the lbs. already, (50 or so lbs gone) and I feel wonderful, the scale number is not an issue for me anymore (thankfully, so over that dieting obsession crap!) and will just continue to eat zc and not look back. I hit 60 in Dec. and only thing I want is just great energy and better health heading into retirement years. I want to LIVE vibrantly and not slug out from the crap food in this world and enjoy my activities in my day and ‘just be ZC Zen!’

Goals are simple for All Animal April. Just eat well and thrive. Just daily see where the meats take me :sunny:

Today is a nice big ribeye steak and ? not sure, maybe a few of those hot dogs since I now have an opened pack of hot dogs in the fridge :wink: and I have some chicken breast I need to use. Eh, will see. I cement in best nutrition with that ribeye, after that my second meal doesn’t matter as much to me.

ON WE GO FOR ALL ANIMAL APRIL!! Full Speed Ahead


(Michael) #15

FWIW I pay around $58/kg for ribeye steaks and up to $130/kg for Buffalo filet mignon. Heart is only around $15/kg, and partly why I eat heart daily. I live in Canada. Pork is much cheaper at $20/kg or so as well. In general for organs
Beef cheeks 10/lb
Tongue 8/lb
Thymus 20/lb
Testicles 8/lb
Heart ranges, 5 to 10/lb depending

Started Keto in June 21, switched to carnivore in oct? 21 with some experimentation I have been mostly carnivore since. All introduction of vegetables has failed in that I have not felt good about them and dropped them all again (ok, might still have some chocolate sometimes even though my body does not like, my tastebuds still do).


#16

I think, and we probably all think…that the cost of produce is going to be a huge topic in the short to medium future.

We are being shafted without consent, that’s for sure.

R.


#17

I am joining you on this fat:protein journey. I am doing the ‘fat first’ approach - and I feel really satiated immediately after eating more fat, but I find that I’m hungry again sooner than I’d think.

It’s hard not to overthink it.

@FrankoBear - in the UK, supermarket steak is around £16-£19 per kg. It’s more in the region of low £20s per kg from the butcher, and low £30s per kg from the farm.

Free range eggs are about £1 for 6.

@JJFiddle - your progress has been so enjoyable to witness. Super stoked for you that you’re in those clothes!

And always great to hear your thoughts @Fangs - your approach always inspires me.


#18

So you realy think you know the UK?


#19

We will.


#20

I don’t understand?

I’m British and I live in the UK.