Carnivore with new strategy

(Marianne) #1

I’ve been carnivore for over a year and like it. Still trying to lose the last ten stubborn pounds. I would get hungry and need to eat a couple of times before dinner, usually eggs in the morning and a smaller snack of cheese, bacon, pepperoni, etc. mid-afternoon. Although I gave up fasting long ago, I’ve discovered that if I eat in a four-hour window (20/4), I am still pleasantly satisfied by dinner. I’m ready to eat, but most often I don’t finish what I normally would consume for dinner. We eat around 7PM, and I wait to have my mid-day meal until about 3-3:30. I usually have three scrambled eggs with some ghee and 1-2 pieces of bacon. It really holds me, is not too long to wait to eat and I feel like I am slowly dropping some weight.

(Robin) #2

Hey, Marianne… this reminds me of something that’s been on my mind lately too.
I look at the charts that tell me what my weight should be for my height, gender, age, etc.
And like the scales, it tells me I have more work to do. And I accept that judgement, despite all the happy healthy messages my body is sending me.

Think about this… do we trust the conventional idea of WHAT we should be eating?
No. We trust our bodies.
So, why do we allow charts to dictate what our weight should be?

You and I have both seen our bodies let go of weight, and miraculously change
in ways we’d never imagined possible. Composition, shape, strength etc.
AND YET… our egos still need to see a specific number on the scale or the right size of jeans.

Perhaps, just perhaps… those ten pounds are our best friend and doing us a favor.
Perhaps those ten pounds will be helping us make more changes in the future.
Or they could simply be US at our best.
The lesson could be to love those ten pounds because we are rocking it.

That’s where I’m at. Or I should say, that’s where I am aiming to be.
I could lose another 10. But for what? An image in my mind? A standard?
At 67, I should be well beyond that ridiculous Twiggy mentality.

I think I am going to love my body right where it is… and simply be a good caretaker.
Numbers can’t influence my thinking anymore. Numbers are not my goal.
Health and longevity and happiness are.

We’re both winning finally. How about we accept it?
(You know this isn’t preaching to YOU… I share the same struggle.)
We got this!

(Joey) #3

Excellent point, rarely expressed even around here.

The BMI metric (suspect from the outset) was then divided into several range categories: obese, overweight, normal, underweight. There was zero scientific basis for drawing these distinctions. And some studies have even shown better health outcomes within the non-“normal” ranges, all else equal.

Yeah, I couldn’t agree more … as for appearances, how about you get to decide what body weight & composition feels right on you? :+1:

(Marianne) #4

I for real couldn’t give two crumbs about what the height/weight charts say. To me, that is the same b.s. as the scale. I haven’t weighed myself in three years (although I do get weighed when I go to the doctor.) I love my body now and feel great in my clothes. I still have a little extra padding that I’d like to drop - if I can. If my body resists, I’m happy if I remain right where I am. And I don’t have a time frame nor am I putting any pressure or restrictions on myself. I don’t find eating in a 20/4 window to be “fasting.” It is completely comfortable to me. When I fasted, that would be for 24 hours, and I didn’t like it and stopped after doing it once a week for about two months. I am still eating to satiety and not playing crazy games with my food. I love our meals and what I eat and will be forever indebted to keto/carnivore. My personal miracle.

(Robin) #5

Yes to all of the above!

(Stickin' with mammoth) #6

I tried to express it a few times years ago and got only lip service, then got steamrolled by drinkers of the Kool-aid in a style oddly reminiscent of those who comment on body positively articles by writing “It’s all well and good to love yourself, BUT [insert diatribe about how unhealthy every ounce of excess fat is].”

(Joey) #7

Our society is all over the map on this.

When others set out to control your feelings about your own body, that’s an affront. I’d put “fat shaming” in this category.

Then again, telling folks that being morbidly obese is perfectly healthy (to avoid hurting their feelings?) isn’t doing them any favors either.

When we inform patients with other conditions as to how they can improve their health, we don’t think of it as “cancer shaming” or “heart attack shaming.”

Caring respectful support, when invited and informed, is compassionate. Barging uninvited into other people’s lives is not.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #8

The irony of fat shaming, or any shaming, is grotesquely laughable in that it produces exactly the opposite behavior of what’s intended.

When you’re singing in the car and your passenger remarks, “Wow, you have an amazing singing voice,” does it make you want to sing more? Hells to the yeah, crank that Springsteen.

When you’re singing in the car and your passenger remarks, “Wow, you really suck, didn’t anyone ever tell you that?” does it make you want to sing more? God, no.

Before you open your mouth, remember that there’s a very good reason a person looks the way they do, however they look, and it’s nobody’s business but their own. If their appearance is down to choice, it’s their choice, and it may be their best option out of several much worse ones, you don’t know. Maybe they survived indescribable trauma and are using Hostess to process it at the moment instead of heroin, maybe they came through a famine, maybe they live in a food desert and 7-Eleven nachos and Snickers are the only thing standing between them and starvation. Point is, they’re surviving. Best way they can.

If it’s not down to choice, if it’s medical and out of their hands, that’s also none of your business. Lecturing someone on a symptom (which is what obesity is) makes about as much sense as scolding someone for losing their hair during chemo. Obesity and edema are the side order to hundreds of unfortunate medical entrees. If you’re not a doctor and you haven’t read their file, shut the cluck up. If you are a doctor and you have read their file, shut the cluck up, anyway. You should know better, you already know it’s not their fault so disparaging them in any way at this point is abuse, pure and simple.

Shaming a person into weight loss is like beating a child into obedience. Their momentary compliance in your presence is obliterated by the avalanche of rage, guilt, and self-loathing that will roar through the rest of their day. This does not activate singing.

To get someone to do something, make the reward easy and internal: “You know, I’ve always liked how smart you are, you’re pragmatic. You always figure something out. The human body is amazing, it changes all the time, it can change to adapt to just about anything. I can’t wait to see what you come up with, I’m sure I’ll learn something from it.” And then shut the cluck up.

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(Joey) #9

@Aqua_chonk [Applause!]

I especially admire how you ended with a closeup of protein. :heart:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

Ah, yes, I remember those days. Cancer was never publicly discussed, back then, and you were a pariah because you had it. People avoided you, for fear of coming down with cancer themselves. The stigma of having cancer was a lot like the stigma of having AIDS, except that cancer was not associated with any despised social groups, such as homosexuals and drug abusers, so the moral outrage level was less.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #11

I remember Richard’s remark at Ketofest about overhearing a couple of people who saw Tom Seest, and said something about “What does he know about weight loss?” Well, as it happens, by that point in time, Tom had lost more fat than I currently weigh. Or close to it, at any rate. So, as Richard pointed out, Tom actually knows quite a bit about weight loss.

It’s a useful reminder, when I’m in the supermarket, thinking, “Oh, that person could really use keto!” I call to mind that conversation with Richard, and remind myself that that very person may actually already be eating a ketogenic diet, and I have no idea where they were starting from. And I should talk—I lost just over a quarter of my starting weight, but to look at me, if you didn’t know me before, I’m just this fat guy who could use keto.

The difference, of course, is that nowadays, instead of being a heart attack or stroke waiting to happen, I’m metabolically healthy obese (MHO). Sure, it might be nice to be back at the weight and clothing size I was in college, but keto has already given me the gift of being able to wipe my butt again, to climb stairs without stopping, and to get up off the floor without having to spend ten minutes first, planning how to do it.

(Robin) #12

PREACH
So much here.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #13

I remember that, too. Poignant. Where’s Tom at these days?

Howled with laughter, the laughter of kindred spirits.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #14

Always leave 'em wanting more.

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#15

@gingersmommy, I am also a 19/5 or 20/4 eating time frame.
I am eat around 11-12, then I eat again around 3-4-…5 at the latest.
Only time that flips is on vacay or some issue in life that throws off my day, other than that I live on this time line.

We don’t eat family dinner anymore. Hubby works late, no telling on time he walks thru the door, 5? 7? kiddo only wants food on her time now being older teen, I don’t even bother fighting that…we kinda all do our own thing now.

yea that isn’t fasting at all :slight_smile: It is natural non-eating time. I am working on the last stubborn damn 15 lbs I want gone now too…royal PIA if ya ask me. But like you, in the end, I don’t lose another lb. I don’t care. I happy where I am at…what makes me happiest is I am on a eating plan that I love, not hungry, enjoy the food I eat immensely, feel great, fully nourished, life in the kitchen is wonderful cause I am almost never in the kitchen anymore :)! and to me, the last lbs I would love gone, don’t mean a thing in truth but darn, I want those last lbs gone I want gone HAHA

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

Last I heard, which was quite a while ago, he was busy working from home.

(Marianne) #17

Exactly!!!

(Marianne) #18

That chicken is so beautiful! :hugs:

(Stickin' with mammoth) #19

I know, right? Bacon is like Photoshop for meat.

(Rebecca ) #20

Me, too! I just told my husband the other day “Maybe the extra “fat” will come un handy if we have a famine!”
It sounds like you’re doing great! Not being a slave to cravings and constantly thinking about what to eat next is so freeing!