Carnivore Rocktober - ZC Carnivore 31 day challenge October 2022

[JJFiddle]

Carbs are death to me point blank. I get fatter and fatter and eat and eat and feel horrible ANY time I ingest them

Hubby had hoped that at some point I would drop this “nonsense” and go back to eating “normally” a couple months ago but I said, If and when I stop this woe I’ll gain back everything as well as the health probs in the NEXT 10 minutes And that was that. No more mention of “normal” from him, he’s with me now. (Just gets embarrassed if I tell people.)

Yesterday was a long day, we had a gig on the Chesapeake Bay, eastern shore of MD 100 miles away. Walked the puppy and we had coffee and showers and I started his yogurt (24 hour ferment this time, it’s supposed to delete lactose) and sous vided the beef tenderloin, but in the end we just had 2 eggs and sausage and hit the road. A beautiful drive across the Bay Bridge into the Maryland hinterlands. I only took a couple pics of the gorgeous property the wedding was on - apparently owned by the bride and groom. We played pop music for the preceremony and wedding - string quartet with bass instead of viola, with the recessional “All You Need Is Love.”

We didn’t get back to town until 8 or so and went to Sweetwater where I ordered that same pork chop as last week. They brought it with mashed potatoes and I cleaned it off and tried to cut it but it was very well done and sort of cold, so I sent that back and got a perfect, very hot one with no potatoes and enjoyed the heck out of it!

Back home again I soft boiled 2 eggs though. Then, I was happy.

Today’s a rest day. Nice neighborhood walk this morning with Mimsy. Coffee with hwc, now chilling. I plan to put a couple chicken thighs in the air fryer and sear some beef tenderloin for lunch. Easy day, beautiful weather.

@FrankoBear your Apple podcast of Gary Fettke #074 is also available on Spotify. I don’t have Apple so I looked it up. Plan to listen later, maybe while making lunch.
@Karen18 I got the book, The Reason I Jump, read a little during the drive yesterday but still not through the Intro. I’m like you, enjoy reading several books at once, so adding this one to my queue.

Mimsy’s ready for Halloween, and Texas too!

[Karen18]

It isn’t a novel but I could have read it from cover to cover without putting it down I just like to read them bit by bit. It is a quick read if you want to read it quickly. Let me know what you think when you have read it xx

Haha just read your post above… enjoy. The food looks great, the venue for the wedding, amazing and Mimsy is adorable. I went to a greyhound Trust event today. Sian and I picked up Ben en route as it wasn’t far from where he lives. He was so calm and relaxed today which was great. Had the opportunity to chat to the people there and obviously pet their beautiful doggos. I think greyhounds would suit my lifestyle and seriously considering removing a retires one at some point. I am in no hurry and rarely dash into things so taking my time and when the right doggo comes along that wants to be with me then I will go with the flow. I found out that retired greyhounds drop the amount of protein to approx 20g a day. Couldnt stop petting the doggos though they’re just beautiful, soft and placid. Ben wasn’t particularly interested in them and thats fine.

[Shinita]

I learn more about greyhounds here I thought I needed But I like to know things and I find dogs interesting even if cats suit me better.

It was another beautiful day, weather wise as changing the broken water tank didn’t go as smoothly as it could have been, we need to buy an extra object. So we have no water for a day, no big deal, Alvaro is just worrying about NOT getting the (very common) object or facing some other problem… Fixing the water isn’t one of my fav pastimes either but at least it’s just the water tank. A broken water pump, that is the real trouble, we need a pro for that, of course but we helped too, it was winter and we were without water for weeks…? But several days at least. That wasn’t fun.

Alvaro still have a little rabbit but I just can’t eat my… IDK, 600g at most? rabbit meat for more than a day… It was amazing, nice young rabbits make good stews. The egg (and rabbit) lady said she caught the one that didn’t jump away quickly enough…

[Karen18]

Busy week for me. Monday was stair runs and 6m walk, Tuesday stair runs, Wednesday stair runs and tea dance with my work friend, Thursday was the funeral and then sorting Raymond out with his hospital appts, Friday Stair runs then picked Raymond up from hospital as he had been taken in with his groin injury (the badly torn muscle had dropped which made it look like he had a huge swollen lump in his groin and he was in a lot of pain and now back on crutches) I went on my own to the afternoon tea dance down in Lichfield and danced all afternoon! Saturday walked to shops and back, shopping for Raymond 3m then in the evening i went to a modern jive night and hardly came off the floor.

Friday tea dance broke through a personal barrier, first time I have gone to a ballroom dance on my own and Saturday night going to the jive night … well I haven’t gone to one of those dances for a good number of years … and on my own! I CAN do it and without too much anxiety. Yes!

Food over last few days … not got pics of all but all zc

Had a couple of meals out and both were cheese omelette with bacon and sausages.

[Azi]

Loved this post its so awesome you are breaking out and doing things on your own you wouldn’t have done before.

[Karen18]

Aww thank you Linda, its been a long time coming. I guess now I just feel if I’m tired I can rest up not worry about getting up st silly o’clock to go to work and also it is too easy to become dependant on someone else being fit and able when you just do partner dancing. Dont get me wrong though, Raymond will always be my number one dance partner and I will keep reassuring him of that bless him, just have to get him back on his feet!

[Fangs]

Great posts to read on the board.

today is super simple zc

first meal a nice smaller sirloin steak, will pair with tuna or some shrimp

second meal got nice 90/10 burger on sale and will do a nice giant cheeseburger.

You know this is strange, I bought some ‘cheapo’ store brand extra sharp cheddar. Alot cheaper than my usual ‘top fancy’ brand I buy. Big mistake. I swear I tasted sugar in this cheese. It was ‘sweet’ tasting. Very strange to me. I checked ingredients thinking I was gonna see sugar as one of them listed LOL but it wasn’t, just usual cultured enzymes and milk blah blah just like my top fancy brand but wow on taste diff. Back to good brand I so enjoy. I love the ‘extra sharp’ taste so I will go back to paying more and no look back on that one to try to save some money. Key being too a block lasts me a long time since I only use cheese sparingly so not worth the price cut to eat something that was really inferior to the other.

soldier on strong in Carni. October is starting to peter out, keep on truckin!!

[Shinita]

I am back but it’s October, I am just practicing for November when I truly will put some effort into sticking to my carnivore-ish… And that’s practice for whatever I will be able to do between January and May. Still, I expect some strict days, a bit more relaxed weekend and there will be only a few more days of this month…

Lunch was simple. I tried to pull it off using only pork and very few eggs and I did (except a few grams of cream in many coffees) but I kind of miss something… I added multiple kinds of processed stuff in tiny amounts (pâté and deli meat) but it wasn’t good enough. And my leftover fatty pork isn’t what I want now… Maybe I will eat cheese with some kind of egg dish later.

Weather is perfect now, I collected leaves remembering all the years when I started it too late and it was a tad stressful and rain came…

I swear I tasted sugar in this cheese. It was ‘sweet’ tasting. Very strange to me.

It’s strange to me too… I met some inferior cheeses in my life but none was sweet. Only the right, normally sweet kind was sweet. Emmentaler or what…?
Cheddar shouldn’t be sweet…

[Fangs]

Emmentaler or what…?

Girl I had to go look up that word
nope. hard aged extra sharp cheapy store brand cheddar.
should never ‘been sweet’ but it WAS SO sweet in taste to me after the first bite and chew I KNEW where is the sugar taste coming from? Literally have 0 clue but I know sugar taste on impact. Literally, I can taste a grain of sugar taste from 20 miles away now and it was just so strange??? no idea on it. I only eat hard aged. I do not do well on any soft cheese so I had to dump it.

but ya know, good little ‘wow’ for me on this one and I lived and learned extremely fast on what to buy to suit me or not. Key being I might…just might ‘buy a cheaper’ but fancy good hard aged to cut down from my other and will ‘do that darn taste’ test again and see where I land

thing is I wouldn’t write about it unless it was impactful to my taste buds ya know. like, WTH? on hard extra sharp cheddar? come on LOL

[JJFiddle]

@Fangs That sharp cheddar … I bet they took some shortcuts making it to save $$. Because the yogurt I made Saturday to Sunday, 24 hours ferment! OMG it’s so fantastic. NO lactose, I can eat it and there’s NO garbage poopy smell like anything with lactose including butter (covid related, summer '21). I know cheese has a long settling time to come to maturity, but they might have added some little thing to make it go faster. Yes I’m with you, extra sharp cheddar from a reputable company, or it’s not usable for me.

As expected, pretty easy day yesterday. I cooked 2 slices of tenderloin and 2 air fried thighs, and the trimmed skin from the edges also thrown in the air fryer and THAT was the surprise! Greased the air fryer with ghee as I read recently that spray stuff ruins the air fryer’s surface. Good because I don’t even buy that stuff anymore! So in the air fryer, the chicken skin was super crispy and amazing, salted going in and SO good! I ate one large thigh and one steak and an hour or 2 later, the other thigh, and lastnight, the other steak. A magnificent day.

I went to wire money to my indigent son in San Francisco and got stuck in my parking space next to a curb. Called AAA and waited maybe 45 minutes, then tried again and the car slid right out in reverse. Mimsy got a nice nap in my lap while we waited. Very strange event.

Students this afternoon from 3:30 to 8:30, 3 in person, always a nice day with students. I have said I can breathe or I can teach, they both take about the same amount of energy.

[Fangs]

I bet they took some shortcuts making it to save $$

yea JJ me thinks that also in some way cause ‘how much can we ever’ trust manufactured/sale to us on a cheap cost? oh yea, I found out the hard way on that but can’t ever prove it

your finding your ‘food zc way’ forward so well too and that is fab!!!

[Shinita]

I know yours was cheddar but Emmentaler is a lovely though weird because sweetish cheese, we have a big block of it in the fridge now (it’s super rare, we usually just have Gouda, maybe brie) and I couldn’t justify to open it when we have 2 bigger Gouda open (two because one was an experimental buy, it’s cheap and not tasty, I will use it for something… Alvaro had to try it, I can relate, sometimes we find great cheap stuff… and it’s not really really cheap, no cheese are)… But I had appetite problems and barely could imagine food I would be willing to eat let alone enjoy it… And Emmentaler sounded nice… But in the end I ate Gouda. 14g, I just couldn’t stomach more. But I never eat much cheese anyway. It’s just a little help.

And I stop tracking again, barely started, lunch had 80g protein and 150g fat (the 70/30 pork is serious even when losing 5% lard…). I barely ate from my viewpoint, it really wasn’t much food and I wasn’t perfectly satiated afterwards…
Fatty fried meat is TINY! Well, it’s easy to eat it at least, it can be useful but it didn’t satiate me well. Okay, so it’s all fatty meat. Pork shoulders, this stuff… They just don’t work so well. But it’s nice to have them here and there.
I go back to my beloved, leanish but fatty enough pork ham/butts soon! But whenever I run out of lard, I use the cheap and nice 70/30 mixed cuts, get a smaller cup of lard and nice fatty meat. I better don’t try to track it, it will be super high-fat and it’s a pain to figure out the macros anyway and quite inaccurate too. I will track when I don’t eat that stuff.

Meat intake was a pound for lunch already and it was fatty… I ate some more later but I didn’t desire it, I was merely hungry. It wasn’t bad at all but I still got bored of it to some extent. Too bad the bunny was so small. Alvaro still ate it today, for 2 meals He can eat it in sooooo tiny amounts and it’s his only meat! I can’t stop being amazed.

Maybe I need to make meatballs/sausages, something different than my usual roasts and fried meat…

[MeganNZ]

Welp, I gave high fat/lower protein carnivore a go (4 weeks) and it seems all I have achieved is a pronounced dislike for the taste of animal protein, b/c of the fat I’ve been adding to it. Even pork belly and pork shoulder, which I don’t need to add any fat to, is starting to make my stomach turn. I just had a piece of lean steak and gave most of it to my dogs. It tasted almost yuck. My mood is starting to tank now, I’m feeling easily overwhelmed and tearful - which isn’t like me. The fact I have lost some weight and lowered my inflammation is the only thing keeping me sticking with any kind of healthy woe right now.

[Shinita]

a pronounced dislike for the taste of animal protein

Interesting! I would think I would desire animal protein like crazy - without most of the fat…
But there are interesting things, my body goes crazy sometimes and when I finally tried the egg fast I was sure it will be horrible, I lasted for 8 hours and then I had to eat CARBS to balance things out and feel alive again… Why not protein?! My body wanted very concentrated sugar after my one and only 120 hour fast - on high-carb, of course, I can’t fast nearly as long on low-carb - too, that made even less sense… (It was only a few bites but still. Maybe I get some need for quick energy or something but why it didn’t want protein too? Mentally I am all for protein, I am a tad paranoid about it, I must get my protein But maybe that would have been a too big first meal… I only ate properly the next day.)
This was the 2 cases when my body specifically wanted carbs. And something with a little fruit as a newbie ketoer. Oh and my failed first keto try.
Normally it doesn’t want carbs at all. Physically I seem to fit almost no carbs very, very well. It’s always on my mental part that I go off, my body is quite happy on pure carnivore too - until I don’t get bored of my staples, that is but it still doesn’t want carbs, it wants protein and fat. But it accepts energy in carbs if that is the only option. Sometimes even I don’t want carbs, I just can’t eat my normal food, that’s sad. I really hope those times are in the past but I still need to be creative, I can’t just eat my normal pork in its simplest form (fried or roasted) all the time.

I carried away again, sorry.
And I am even more sorry hearing about your troubles, @MeganNZ You put effort into it, you are willing to make changes and try things unlike sooo many people and the results still doesn’t come quickly enough and you face new problems. I hope it will change soon! At least a bit for the better…

[Fangs]

don’t worry. it is very normal. key is you are ‘super focused’ on ‘what to eat’ for this change you are doing when what ya need to do, right now, is go back to eating what you love, desire, want on carnivore. Time for ‘back to basics’ and zc basics are eat what you desire and enjoy and don’t overthink it…it re-centers you and brings you back to being in tune with your body and how it directs you. Think seafood, fish and fowl too Now take care of you on this lifestyle. Your eating enjoyment is very important. WE ALL get meat aversion, it happens LOL but we all get thru it IF we just eat what we want, when we want.

Sometimes we can’t box ourselves in to ‘do this or that’ right now ya know.

So your change to make it all work…just eat what you want and need I got into alot of surf and turf which I love. I got into little alfredo sauce over chicken which I like. I would eat bacon wrapped scallops and more ya know.

When we get ‘very focused’ into carnivore we can super lose our way fast cause this is a massive dump of all other foods on the planet which we are bombarded with daily as we all know!!! It can get on our nerves but if YOU ALLOW you to eat all the meat/seafood/fish and fowl YOU want and a bit of dairy if you do well on it, you can correct back.

Plus if you are ‘forcing’ a change on your body when it doesn’t ‘really’ need it or require it for its healing you are kinda doing it a wrong in a way. ZC will direct how you need to eat if we don’t overdo some times forced eating changes that doesn’t suit the body…but that isn’t to say later down the line you might wanna experiment again, we all do, but key is think basic again. Basic carnivore. Eat what you love and want, and keep it very very simple now. Let the plan work as it needs to work for you personally!

wishing you the best way forward!! The ol’ motto of zc is eat what you love, want, can afford and are happy eating so do just that and see where ya land

for me personally, the more hyper focused I get on ‘any zc change’ the worse I do immediately. but that is me, so this could be you too so just eat what ya want, when ya want and ‘let yourself’ off the hook on controlling your carnivore food at this moment.

when many of us do just that we find our happy place again on the lifestyle and in the future if ya wanna try other changes ya can, but when the brain says UGH we have to dump back fast to just allowing us to eat as we want and need and desire and do that and I think you will be ok!!! hang in there

-----------------today is super simple zc again
got a lb. of burger. thinking mini meatloafs.
dinner will be a lb. of shrimp in alfredo sauce.

done deal. all I want. not in big food mode right now which is a good place for me to always be makes life so much easier!

[FrankoBear]

Baked beef ribs and bed. Working too hard.

[Shinita]

I got hungry early today so had my first lunch around 1:30pm. My leftover, somewhat leaner pork was quite welcomed this time, I ate ~300g of it (almost all I had) but used a little sausage to add fat and taste in the end. Egg is scarce until Friday so I only had 3 sponge cakes but consumed cheese generously. 47g, it’s very rare in my life but it’s very easy to eat…

I decided I will track protein only from now on (and some fat along with it but that’s very vague. of course if I don’t know the fattiness of my meat, it changes the protein too but not to the same extent). My first lunch had about 90g protein but I got hungry quickly again (it was a too small meal, apparently) and now I am a bit over 120. My fat is probably way lower as my meat felt lean and a single sausage and a bit of cream have no chance. Even my sponge cakes had more whites than yolks.

We will see if I will need a little dinner, probably yes. I took some meat from the freezer, 2 big slabs frozen together but I will put the lean stuff back as soon as they separate and roast the pork chuck. My fancier homemade sausage or stew plans are postponed, I don’t need them now.
Pork chuck is so perfect, not too lean, not too fatty and I love it. But leaner meat is very useful when I actually want to add fatty items and now I have cream… But I got very good at using a tiny bit of it.

Weather is PERFECT except we actually need some rain now… But we won’t get it anytime soon. I collected leaves, I have very many trees, some are quite big and there are leaves everywhere.
Our water tank is problematic (we have water since yesterday but it doesn’t work as it should) but Alvaro has ideas.
But the sunshine and the autumn feeling with all the beautiful colorful leaves are sooo calming… Our full bellies help too Anyway, I had enough negativity in this month and my self-protection unit works at top speed. I never could relax while having problems this well. I have this bouncing back thing, I need it as a hedonist, I just can’t stay down for too long, it’s very bad for me.

[Fangs]

Baked beef ribs and bed. Working too hard.

seems like a good combo to me
working hard…as in physical labor on your homestead, that is a good thing.

working hard as in navigating the crazy of work and city life…not as good??

hope it is homestead work and feeling very tired thru that physical stuff for ya FB!!!

hoping your ‘tired’ is not a bad coming at ya!!

[Naghite]

Breakfast

Hope everyone has a great day

[FrankoBear]

Working hard in the city. Long days reviewing college student projects for their portfolios. Also dealing with managers who are disconnected from teaching and schedule useless meetings with out regard to lectures and tutorials. Also trying to attend a software skills conference online being hosted in LA. That means 3am lecture presentations on contemporary techniques, to try and stay current with tools knowledge.

Luck coffee-ketocarnivore is a good base to work from.

I can see a light. The sunshine at the end of this tunnel. Next week lectures are done and we move into study break and exam time. Then student exhibitions and meetings with industries and planning for 2023.

Constantly high cortisol is my undoing with blood glucose control.

Then a surf.