All Animal April

[Shinita]

Blanket weight is one thing, I don’t need a heavy one to sleep, it merely helps and very welcomed when it’s colder.
But when I haven’t even a proper blanket on me just the thinnest stuff or nothing at all, my sleep is totally ruined. I am unable to sleep okay without that little weight.
IDK why.
Sometimes I fall asleep on the couch, no blanket and wake up a bit later cold… I need my blanket.

I just hope I will need a bit less variety and I won’t get bored of my staples easily. It is horrible when I am hungry and don’t want my food. It probably gets better.
I like variety for fun but it’s not freedom if I am forced to have it or else I have problems.

I am fine with good dentists Even after all those years I spend at them. The drill is soothing or something, it’s sign that things get helped… I can relax at the dentist so much, I can listen to interesting noised and smells and whatnots, try to figure out what the hell is happening as I feel it very odd after half my head doesn’t feel much
So I never had the usual problem with dentists. It’s odd to me that people hate it so much. Of course healthy teeth is better but if I need them, I love to get the help and I see no problem at all, one is just there, in good hands and without pain (I had a special case once where the tooth were dead but there was something in my gum so it was painful. but quick).
I only hate the injection but that is short. Still, my last dentists did it so painfully I got tears and I will wait until I can to go again… I dislike even short term pain.

Fortunately since I am on low-carb my teeth are super slow at getting worse. I can wait with the tiny, painless problems.

@SecondBreakfast: Oh I wish the absolutely possibly best for her!!! I hope she will improve a lot. There is probably a huge chance she won’t as far as I know how things go but one can hope!

@Karen18: 1 week is a lot of time, I had no such luxury, living in another part of the country and depending on Alvaro for transport and he worked on weekends… We did it in several hours in a few times. It was enough for me, those were very heavy on my mental state.
But there weren’t so many stuff. I had hardest time with the books (about 10,000), we only had a motorbike box and my backpack most of the time…
But I have my memories.

Nice weather today, did some garden work but the mowing is tiring and my ankle is still not so great… Tomorrow. I sowed flowers and cut off dried branches, that’s something. My kitchen work was so much, I had enough, I soooo try not to make 5 different stuff a day but it happens sometimes. Even if most of them is tiny, it adds up.
No walking or workout, I need to get straighten this soon… But I messed up my bedtime yesterday. At least I slept enough not to feel a total zombie.

[Azi]

So sorry to hear about your mother inlaw hope you hear some positive news. Keeping you and your family in thoughts and prayers

[Ketodaisy]

@SecondBreakfast I’m so sorry to read about your mil!! I pray she gets better soon.

Food today was bone broth jello, bison burgers, a buttery bacon omelette, and twisty bacon. Headed to a track meet for the rest of the night.

[Azi]

Todays food started with two flanken ribs

Yesterday went and got a new toy to help my carnivore

Thin sliced brisket yummmm

[coopdawg]

All good!

[Karen18]

@Azi that brisket looks great thinly sliced. Is that an electric slicer? I have 2 slicer, one bought in East Berlin before the wall came down, still works perfectly and 9ne that i brought back from my Mums when I cleared out her house. I also brought back one of those machines that makes poly bags airtight and read that sous vide cooking is done with those airtight bags. I haven’t used it yet and had it about 6 years now! I will have to get the slicer out and use it when I next do a roast. Pork shoulder may be nice thinly sliced

@Ketodaisy love the look of that twisted bacon. Is it pan fried or oven cooked? Is there much difference to cooking it flat ?

The Gas engineer arrived as I was finishing my last post above so I went over to see my friend and have a brew sitting outside his porch in the sunshine.

Back home about 4.45pm and had the 2 remaining beef burgers as planned and had 2 fried eggs with them. Drizzled a little hot chilli sauce on top. There was only a dash left after using it to chilli up some of the chicken wings earlier.

Pottered about in the garden as the sun was still shining and the day had warmed up nicely. Put the fruit canes in pots against the fence, dead headed, put up some more twine to train the honeysuckle along the fence and admired my green fingered handy work lol

Just this minute eaten 9 rashers of dry cured unsmoked streaky bacon. It is by far the best bacon. Not overly salty, doesn’t shrivel up @Shinita nor does it ooze out that watery white stuff. Oh its nice to have finally worked out which bacon I like after all this time!

[robintemplin]

So jealous! For both the toy and the plunder!

[SecondBreakfast]

Quick update. She is not out of the woods, so to speak. But, she did show some improvement on her swallow study. So, I will be with her tomorrow and will have updates then.

Other improvements include her ability to speak - its not perfectly clear, but you can make out what she is trying to say. Her lip/mouth is no longer droopy. She has pain in her arm (on the affected side), so that is good- because she can feel something.

Thank you all for the prayers. They, most definitely, are working. Actually, it is HE who answers those prayers that is working! =) She actually swung her feet over off the edge of the bed…I think she was trying to get up. Very encouraging.

Despite the old urge to emotionally eat, I’ve not done that. Had a burger and butter (no bun), cheese, a little more ground beef, and a bit of Greek yogurt. Quite full and satisfied now.

[Ketodaisy]

“@Ketodaisy love the look of that twisted bacon. Is it pan fried or oven cooked? Is there much difference to cooking it flat ?”
Air fryer! No, not really. It tastes the same, but instead of fitting 4 slices in the air fryer, I fit 11!

[FrankoBear]

@Azi I love learning about flanken ribs. I had beef short ribs the past two nights.

I’ve had a week of minor aberrations in eating after the one noted in earlier posts. It’s interesting eating psychology of how easy it is to justify satisfying a craving to oneself having recently eaten off plan. I wonder if it is a gut bacteria lobby group at work? I’ve felt tired and over worked this week, so defences ahave been down, and eating aI recognise two off plan eating lapses toward the end of the week. Small single episodes. That is to say, not an avalanche, 90% on plan. Back at home in the countryside now. Back on bacon and eggs, and in a better home food environment. It’s bumpy and bruising mentally to ride the dietary rocking horse.

[Azi]

@Karen18 yeah it’s electric I went commercial grade so it wasn’t all plastic but yes my plan is brisket, roast beef, cornbeef, boneless, pork , I can get a low sugar ham for ham steaks and I was thinking of trying a brisket bacon…

@FrankoBear I love my flanken ribs

@SecondBreakfast. That’s so good to hear that she made such good improvement keeping you both in thoughts and prayers she continues to show improvement. We’ll done on staying on track proud of you.

Dinner tonight was bacon sausage strip and 2 inches of spicy sausage cos I forgot to get steak out of the freezer and went swimming instead

[Fangs]

@Shinita
yea I don’t like sleeping chilly/cold also. hubby and kiddo sleep under heavy blankets and love the house to be frozen chilly, I like the house on like 68 deg. and no heavy blanket but wear nice fuzzy sweatpants and sweatshirt. I would rather be dressed in warm then rely on the blanket yet the family goes to sleep in shorts and such and want the heavy blanket LOL I tell ya, all of us on this planet want it just like we want it but hey, how I love to sleep is super important to me at least HA

@SecondBreakfast, sending more prayers!! I am glad to read some improvement and her wanting to get up or at least sit up and swing her legs over the edge of the bed. That is good movement for sure. Yes it takes a bit after to realize how much function is lost and what is ok but with good rehab she could gain back much. Sending hugs!!

@Azi
wow that is SOME carnivore toy there! super cool. you got it going on in your carnivore kitchen!! Swimming…ohhh I can’t wait til my pool is open but too cold still. I bet you are loving your wonderful pool!!

@Karen18
darn that sounded like a rough clear out of your mum’s house. Luckily we won’t be that long for clear out, I am so happy that older furniture and couches etc are gone. All more little stuff to handle and should be alot easier on second go around. But yea, it is hard sorting thru stuff cause I did like you, saw something and memories came back ya know…did make it a rough but happy kinda day

@FrankoBear
So happy you are back in the countryside and time to relax. It sure sounds like your defenses are down, I know that feeling very well.
Key being, time to fortify those defenses back up! Anyway you can I don’t think it is the gut, I think it is pure life is unfair, I wanna eat this and I am tired and stressed and damn if I ain’t gonna have it, life is too short, feeling that comes into play when we are truly that tired. It is bumpy still for me on some days So yea we have to find other ways to combat mentally and short up our defense cause heck, any eating plan lifestyle anyone chooses, each and every day you have to choose to stay on that plan also. And yea, it is mentally bruising sometimes but our health and well being has to be that darn priority and we choose that we will fortify the defenses Keep on truckin’!

-------------hubby is icky sicky. taking day off work. guts. yea cause last night he made some steak pizza loaded with tons of diff. cheeses and other goop and even I knew when he ate that, the bathroom was gonna blow up. tell him over and over the crap you eat destroy your guts and he gets it, but it won’t stop him from eating garbage. oh well, …whatever. his guts and ick and life, not mine my guts are perfectly happy LOL I just hate watch it all go down…ugh.

today is steak and chicken breast.
keeping it super simple.

I do have a lb. of bacon I kinda want but will wait to see if I am in the mood to hound down bacon later or not. Steak comes first meal of day…after that I will worry on the bacon. With bacon pics and chat on the thread, yea bacon is coming to mind alot HA which is a good thing, I love it when I love it!

So close to closing out April…hang strong all and enjoy the zc ride!

[Karen18]

I shall try that method in the frying pan I am always annoyed when I can’t fit the amount I want in the pan.

@SecondBreakfast so pleased to hear prayers are being answered, they’re being answered very quickly, sometimes they take an age

@Fangs problem is I brought back so many of mums memories as I couldn’t bear to throw them away.i keep telling myself they’re her memories not mine but 6 years on and I still can’t bring myself to part with them
Oh my goodness I recall lots of time eating like your hubby, not so much with pizza mind but you know all that mix of protein and carbs and stuffing myself full and eating just for the sheer hell of eating and feeling just like he did next day. I could never sleep after stuffing myself like that.

Up bright and early, well it was bright outside though I wasn’t feeling so bright lol. Think that bacon I had last night was a bit too much before bed and I had a bit of a queasy tum when I woke up. I did my stair runs in between getting rid of the bacon on the loo, not the big D, just normal, but I obviously needed to go and clear out. Also felt that gungey feel at the back of my throat. Did a LFT to check for covid but it was negative. Felt a bit out of breath on stair runs but got through the whole 100 then went to CrossFit. If my daughter hadn’t been going to same class I probably would have cancelled but as we were doing a pair workout I knew i could do it without any pressure. It was hard and gassy but I got through it.

Came home, pottered in garden, watered containers in readiness for this warm day and then had my brunch. Cooked up half of the 24 beef meatballs and very nice they were too.

Off to help my daughter set the venue up for tonights birthday party for her other half.

[Shinita]

@SecondBreakfast: Great news! Let’s hope she will continue to get better! But this is already way better than the worst case scenario. I am a wee bit relieved but I am such a huge optimist and expect more. Best wishes for her!

@Fangs: We are a bit similar then I rely on my warm fluffy pajamas (and sometimes pullovers). Alvaro relies on his up to 6 blankets and sleeps naked.
But I still need my warm, not too light single blanket for a good sleep.

I think I went as far from carnivore as I could today, without doing very wrong things. Still keto I guess but lots of protein-rich and not too carby plant matter. Just for a break before my carni May. I just desired that food. It happens. I enjoyed it immensely and felt good.

These off times are useful to see how I changed. It’s very important for me to eat well enough even if there are no rules. Sometimes I don’t care or just need “something else”… I can’t go on a bad route then, I automatically should eat fine.
I never had anything against edible plants, just the carbs (and green leaves are rarely food to me. I ate a few sorrel leaves as they came out and grew nicely. I barely even look at them in summer and autumn, they are just decoration or something. Alvaro never touches them. Mom cooked them but I never bothered with it.). And I can handle some plant carbs very well and even a bit more than a few, occasionally. Sugar is the worst but a tiny bit is okay (it would be quite bad otherwise, I eat sugar even on carnivore all the time too, lactose from dairy, plant sugar from spices and condiments).
And my body dislikes peanuts more like ever. I never even eat much (like a handful, even for small hands, nope, not anymore, that was before carnivore) but still, nope. Okay then. Never will go over 5g on my wildest off days then. 5g is plenty. Usually smelling the jar is enough I don’t have this with nuts and other oily seeds, just with peanuts. Tiny nudge. I should listen to it. My body knows best what is good for it and all my food is pretty tasty.

My off times and carni times are a set, these things seem relevant to me.

Now I am looking forward to tomorrow when I get out some pork chuck from the freezer. I had enough roast lately (not bored yet but let’s not risk it) and the fried chuck was so awesome last time, all reddish and crunchy and fatty and great, I want that too but not a mere 290g, that wasn’t enough My pan is big, a pound easily fits, probably more.

I am very determined for May. Carnivore(-ish but I will try to keep that for emergencies or very, very tempting harmless things), no coffee (!), I have lots of plans for other parts of my life…
And I resume my properly frequent workouts and cycling. Almost 4 weeks, my ankle should be okay now (my broken, moved, surgeried wrist took only 5 weeks and never had any pain in it after the surgery… I know we have this sometimes, smaller injuries being more painful and longer to heal. Alvaro’s broken ribs and vertebrae weren’t a problem, his swollen foot was). It’s far from okay but I walk as quickly as ever, yay! I miss my longer walks. The wildlife park must be very pretty now, the trees transformed in April, even the pretty late walnut trees have tiny leaves now! (The locusts are bare but we know they are the laaaaaast trees to get leaves, they are super lazy.)

[Ketodaisy]

raw beef and beef suet. I tried Emily Penton’s (carnivore mind) method of chopping it all up and freezing it, then eating it frozen. I liked it and I really didn’t each that much. I ate all the fat and really just a large handful of the beef. But about 30 minutes later, I realized why she takes an hour and a half to eat it. I realized that I could definitely eat some more! I ate several more pieces of meat and a few more pieces of fat (that I had added to the bowl before putting it back in the freezer, so it definitely wasn’t frozen). We’ll see how this method makes me feel through the day! No matter what, I won’t eat again until tomorrow. This is a line I’ve had to draw for myself (last week), for my mental and physical well being. But I think I definitely ate enough after going back that I should easily be fine until tomorrow. I was eating more fat a couple weeks ago and realized as the days have passed that I’ve been going leaner and leaner. That’s been making my bg spike when I’ve been randomly checking it. 2 days this week after almost 24 hours fasted, my glucose was 111 and 97, which certainly should not be the case. So I’m going to try to focus on making sure I’m getting enough fat in that meal. That’s the fun thing about eating this way is that you can get it so narrowed down to be able to make tiny tweaks to find optimal success. Before, there were way too many variables!

[Shinita]

Taking tiny breaks is totally my thing, especially needed for carnivore OMAD. I can’t eat more meat or eggs, I feel satiated with a stop sign despite eaten a very modest amount of food for me, even when I am not bored of my food at all… But 10 minutes later I totally can eat again, even feel a very serious urge to do so… It happens a lot.

I had my last coffee around 8pm (comfort thing for my headache. the pill wasn’t enough. coffee CAN help with headaches but it stopped doing so since long, I had hope for too long, now it just felt nice to give another last chance… but I release that hope now and want to quit coffee anyway) and now I am ready for May.
My dinner was very eggy. And now I know that greek yogurt works for pancakes. It produces even softer ones than sour cream so it surely wouldn’t be okay for people who prefer them firmer but I am not them. But I am not so much into pancakes anymore.

[SecondBreakfast]

I’m with my MiL now. She REALLY wants to go home. =(

My FIL is fighting tooth and nail for her. He doesn’t feel she is getting enough therapy, and the local hospital does NOT rate well for stroke care. So, Dad is trying to get her into another facility. That will likely take place on Sunday/Monday. Gotta love him…no better patient advocate in the world!

[JJFiddle]

Gosh, there was a lot to read, off and on for the past several hours.
@SecondBreakfast so glad your mil is such a fighter, and you’re fil too! What a shock! Sending prayers & hugs also, and hoping for complete recovery.
@fangs SO much to do, please rest from time to time with that sciatica before you have no choice. I have it too for the past 6 years, had to learn to pace myself. I loved the story of your hubby and that awful pizza! I had a young adult student cancel this morning because of something he ate lastnight…kinda funny, like canceling for a hangover or a sunburn.
@Ketodaisy I looked up Emily Penton, finally found her on Instagram. Is she just a podcast or does she have books? She wasn’t on Amazon.
@FrankoBear I feel your carnivore curve is moving upward, though wavy. Better to know from trial and error than to white knuckle it only to crash completely! 90%, you’re doing well and feeling every bump in the road, it’s the calm assurance that nothing else works, that you’re moving toward.
@Azi love that slicer! I brought one from my mom’s house too, it’s in the shed. When we get back to tx I’m pulling that sucker out! Amazing thin sliced brisket and I really want pork belly, it will be great for that! Mmm smoked belly in the Traeger, wow, makes me want to go home even more!

Starting yesterday I ran the sous vide, first for the pork butt 24 hours, then the cornish hens 2 hours, and finally just took out the tenderloin. So I’m set for some amazing meals this week!
This morning I ate several slices of pork as I took it out. Didn’t eat hen, just put it away. This afternoon, after teaching, I went to a friend’s house for tea but I came clean with her and just had a hot water with slice of lemon, very refreshing. She also had some interesting cheese, a sheep’s cheese and mozzarella cut to look like little white worms lol. Mimsy liked the cheese too!
Awhile after getting home I had 3 eggs with sharp cheddar. Then sous vided the tenderloin at 135°, halfway between rare and medium rare. Red and tender. Had a small slice when I took that out.
Will be eating good tomorrow!

Also I read about carnivore moisturizer made from tallow. Got tallow from the farmer, then frankincense essential oil and sweet almond oil as a carrier. But although I whipped it with the stick blender it came out kinda grainy. Has anyone tried this? It’s very nice on my face, but the texture of the tallow is weird.

@Karen18 I bet your flamingo is cool with all the pink you have!

[robintemplin]

We all need someone like that in our corner

[Ketodaisy]

She’s on YouTube and Instagram. I don’t know if any book she has, but she’s an absolutely amazing human being. She cured bipolar and ms on carnivore and does coaching and free support calls every week. She does a ton of interviews so she’s been on pretty much every major carnivore’s channel . But she has transitioned fully to raw beef and fat over the last year.