Pardon the use of so many ‘F’ words. But it is February and this month we are going to fff…earlessly and fff…erociusly do it!
It’s the February 2022 Carnivore Challenge for everyone to try. Please, you are welcome to join. Jump on the wagon, fall off it, dust off and climb on again. We will help you back up.
Last month we got clean. Or at least tested our cleanliness. What does it mean?
Clean meant less waste. It resulted in less waist. Clean meant aiming for optimal. Clean meant lowest possible toxins. Clean meant feeling good and confident. Clean meant clear thinking and decisive actions toward better health. Let’s keep it going!
This carnivore crew are here for helpful advice, tips and tricks, helping you through.
Some of us are finding some tight fitting clothes to start the challenge. A clothes-fit challenge to highlight that body weight scales are not always the best metric for mental health and well-being. Let’s see how loose the “skinny jeans” are in 28 days time!
Let’s start by sharing your aims, what is in your sights, lining up your goals, placing in some safety nets. Maybe you can form an accountability partnership with other challengees who describe a path you would like to follow?
Lurkers are welcome. We love it when you finally jump in. There is no start date. Join us when it’s right for you. Welcome to our healthier online community February!
I’m reviving the waist loss goal from 2021 to align with the tight-fit clothes-fit visualisation challenge. Waist loss not weight loss, as weight loss is a waste without a reduction in waist.
Staying on plan. Eating ruminant meats mainly and oily fish seafood. Easing the cheese, especially from breakfast has been successful. Cheese-ease achieved. An attempt at stopping eggs didn’t work. So, it’s time to try egg-ease. Eggs are so well packaged. Easy egg-easing is a matter of unit subtraction. There may be same seafood substitution involved. Hmmm, should I ease the nutrition packed fish eggs?
Last night some vegetarians came to dinner. I ate my Cattleman’s steak. They said, “That’s a big steak”. And I said, “Yes, it is.” They kept looking at my steak. We met over some Spanish goat’s milk cheese. They drank wine. I drank water. We shared conversation.
Breakfast was a bit later at 1pm due to work meetings. 3 pasture fed chicken eggs, 4 slices short-cut bacon cooked in the tallow from last night’s steak. 2 coffees with carefully measured doses of cream. Yesterday I noticed I was ‘hungry’, meaning stressed, after hours of frustrating administration work. I ate 75g of chicken liver pate and got outside in the sunshine. After the pate, I suddenly felt tired, like a afternoon carb-crash from 7 years ago. So, I had a lay down and listened to a low-carb podcast.
I’ve decided unilaterally to stop the prednisone. I am on a tiny dose. It seemed to help. But I feel unwell on it. That unwellness correlates with morning fasting blood glucose readings of over 130mg/dl (>7.2 mmol/L) and blood ketones dropping to a trace at 0.1mmol/L. I’ll see what happens with the joint pain.
I am still on CBD oil, Magnesium, Vit B3 Nicotinamide, curcuminoids, CoQ10, Zinc, Quercetin, Glutathione and low dose hydroxychloroquine. Yep, rattling like a maraca. I told my vegetarian/vegan, bicycling, middle-aged neighbour this combination, and he commented that it was similar to what he had been on when he was having cancer treatment (a lot to unpack there). I also spoke to a local shamanic, hippy, naturopath about a COVID-19 homecare kit and they, interestingly, listed pretty much the same combination minus the hydroxychloroquine but added vitamin E, K and C. I imagine the whole alternate-living village must be rattling and shaking like a 1970’s percussion ensemble at the moment.
@FrankoBear
great post to read, I truly so enjoy them plus this one is loaded with F bombs and alot of great info about how you are doing!! Smart to lower that prednisone down to a tiny dose. I am a firm believer in using only the lowest amt. of any med. for results to help.
-----------------for me I am doing the clothing challenge. I got a real nice shirt that is still on the tight side in that I bought it in the junior section and I just loved it but it has that tighter pull on me, I would love to make it have that bit looser fit. So I tried it on, got my judge on it, gonna see how it does for me at the end of the month
My one F for this month is Fitness. I am slugging out a bit in this cold weather. Not doing outside stuff like usual so I am getting out my darn ol’ walking exercise dvd and commiting to a month of Feb Fix. OMG that means I have to do it this morning!! OH WELL, I will just do it!!
Second F is food. On LION Diet! I got a 1 lb. ribeye steak defrosting and I have some burgers and a Tbone steak available for meal 2…and here we go.
Why oh why the minute I say Lion I wanna inhale an entire lb. of bacon?
@Alecmcq I think that some restaurants do call it a “Coat of Arms” when they serve kangaroo and emu on the same plate. I really like smoked kangaroo tail, it’s delicious. But for a truly Australian carnivore plate we would have to add some crocodile, snake and shark to the red meats of roo and emu.
I did rattlesnake. OK but nothing to write home about in the end.
I would love to try Roo. Just not happening around me here.
I am more backwoods rural. We just don’t have ‘exotic fancy’ stores around me so I am very limited on purchases.
I hit the beach and I can find shark and tons of crazy seafood easily which I love but most is fishy…I ain’t fishy gal. We got gator on the menu in some places more South but it again isn’t a store bought item to be found.
So many critters to eat and not enough time or easy location to score them
Since switching from protein sparing to carnivore on Jan 12th my goal has been just to find my stride within this woe, to develop the sensitivity to know what works within my lifestyle and what exacerbates inflammation.
Luckily, musicians are expected to be a little weird. That works in my favor. And we play regularly, I teach online (TY covid!) but food’s never a social issue anymore, luckily!
In my 21 days as carnivore I feel leaner, but stiffness, arthritis and sciatica still kicking my butt. This could take some time but I haven’t seen any other way so I’m here for the long haul.
Gabapentin and Skelaxin, a muscle relaxant, are my only meds and I take those before bed. Palpitations used to be common at night but I’m noticing they’re pretty much gone now - BP must be down.
I’m off all vitamins but take magnesium threonate and curcumin/boswellia also just at night. I sleep like a baby now and that is a change.
For better Fit Feb: Mom passed in Jan 2021 and I have her red leather jacket, still a little snug. Maybe that can be my goal for Feb!
Happy ferocious fix February… and fitness for some lol
Slept a good night ast night for me. I would so love to think it might just be February thing for the rest of the month but not holding my breath. Maybe it was the extra food yesterday. I ended up eating the beef burger that I had left in the pan before going upstairs to bed.
Not as hungry today. Stair runs at 8.30am and then off to CrossFit for a very gassy workout. Think I must have been a little fuzzy headed this morning as I didn’t see the 25 box jumps and read 100m bike (instead of cals) thinking thats easy and then when I got home realised I had been wearing my leggings back to front!
Picked up and posted some ebay parcels for my daughter and came home for brunch. Lamb chops and as you will see by my pics I got distracted and burnt them
Off to appt with the pharmacist regarding my BP readings I have taken diligently in Jan. LOOK OUT EVERYONE I AM GOING TO BE ON THE ROADS!
Have some salmon defrosting plus king prawns for later plus the last of my pork chops in fridge.
Sorry for your loss. My mom is going on 94 in a month and we have having big elderly issues and dealing with retirement homes and more now. But one thing I love is you striving to wear her beautiful red leather jacket…cause I got a red leather short biker type jacket that is a bit snug still and I have every intention of getting back into it too!! I know you will be wearing it before ya know it
Plus sciatica won’t be cured in any way, that nerve issue is a PIA I have to deal with also but we can get relief as we know but the other stiffness will go away with time. It is all time to get thru your personal adaption time and gain better joint health and you will so you hold strong!!!
Great post JJ!
@Karen18
if backward leggings is your only troubles
Hey maybe ya hit something, a little bit of protein right near bed time is WHO you are now…might be worth trying again as a mini experiment on ya!
you drive on the wrong side of the roads anyway right? glad you ain’t in my town right now too when ya drive out there HAHA
@FrankoBear
my worst concerns were a few thinking carnivore!
first WHY trim off that fat? that fat would be the oily animal fat to cook that meat instead of bringing a bottle of probably veg fat with ya on that excursion…ugh.
Second was no onions required but if 1 small…for condiment flavor…cool
Third was no rocks required. Cook the melted meat fat and meat…SO MANY damn rocks that I get it if ya want totally steaming action in that big azz pan but carnivores don’t require that truly LOL
Fourth is that whole eating could be trimmed to a 1/4th of time time on carnivore in that I AM hating the ‘kitchen duties’ either out in the wild or at home
No need for rocks for minerals, that water, so pure, has minerals, all ya need ever so no rocking should happen but darn if those rocks didn’t have some purpose but in the end, all those rocks were useless on that recipe if ya ask me, but no one is asking maybe
Fifth…which surprised me most was the guy never looked behind him to see if the YETI was creeping up behind him to eat him and his meat!
WOW I would have one eye behind me wanting to know if some YETI was sniffing that nice meal
BUT THAT was so nice to watch cause that is me. I wanna be there doing just that. I want pristine, natural, no life noise and that water in the background being all it is, was just wonderful and of course that recipe and life food was great…well the meat was til he trimmed it and the onions, probably not growing beside that beautiful river…but Ioved watching that FB!
I look at the wagon from a distance right now but it looks nicer every day. I jump on soon, well will hang from the side, sometimes grabbing something that grows on the road…
(Today I ate a rosehip. Not like it was the worst I did. It’s just an example for the growing things.)
My goals?
Stop being 76kg again Not like I weighed myself without clothes but it was 77kg after I got up, before toiled and in my pyjamas. So I am 76 again. It will be 75 soon but 75 is so old, I am that since 14 months and I was way too heavy before.
I won’t try hard anything. And I never try hard but I evolved and I can try too hard, apparently.
Without trying hard, I skip lunches whenever I can. I don’t wait until hunger, never could do that, it’s way too restrictive to me. But I don’t want to eat just because I can (that’s what I normally do. except maybe on the monthly fasting, I only fast when I can’t eat or can but I feel zero or less urge). If the pull is tiny and I don’t need food, I will wait.
Well I actually plan to come back to meat eating soon. But I will keep in mind that I shouldn’t eat meat if I don’t want it. I have other options. I don’t really have rules. I can eat whatever I just want. It’s not as simple as my different parts may want different things, that’s the point I need to evolve a tad more but it goes wonderfully. I am close I think.
So I won’t eat meat every day or in too big amounts. It just steals my joy too soon.
But we will see.
Eggs are different, they are my default item. I am hungry, I eat eggs, there’s no way around it except very very rarely, I had maybe 2 only meat meal in the last years…? Except maybe a few tiny ones? Eggs as default works and it’s convenient so I won’t change that. There are times when I don’t want anything but need food anyway so I can’t always eat what I desire. And it’s fine as long as it doesn’t feel bad and doesn’t happen too often.
As it’s almost totally hopeless for me to ever lose fat (I am super hopeful but well, it never happens. I probably need to chill and focus on other things first), I want to gain muscle as my primary goal body change wise And I will exercise more anyway, I even have more energy and desire to do so now!
NO tracking if possible. I still track my eggs and meat but that’s it. I already have a few half-tracked days. It’s super hard to stop tracking as I automatically restart, I am super curious and simple days especially trigger it but I will be careful.
And I never ate the exotic animals you guys did. Okay, kangaroo once, it was so forgettable I pretty much forgot. I ate frog and snail, the latter is meh, frog is tasty. And I loved octopus in vinegar. But I only ate these only once. I ate some organs but even that isn’t so interesting… Mostly liver and basically everything a chicken has. Chicken brain is nice but I love blood most and I can’t get any.
I haven’t even tried guineafowl eggs… And people keep them here. They just eat the eggs themselves. Oh well.
I have Mom’s grayish brown red leather jacket, it’s pretty… And has holes from a cat refusing to go into the box but both Mom and I were super stubborn…
Never wore it. I could, Mom wasn’t thin (or fat, just normal for an older woman here) and the jacket wasn’t form hugging but… No idea why. She died 12 years ago and it seems the shock totally wore off, I just start to notice it. It was extremely sharp in the first 2 years and not good in the following years. It’s good I have not many family members and friends, I am bad with losses. Of course, Mom was extremely special. She raised me alone, after all and taught me things and we were pretty similar as well (not a good thing when one is very temperimental and stubborn but we typically respected each other’s boundaries)… I didn’t write this much about her since she died, it stung for horribly long. She was the same, she seriously grieved her own Mom probably until her own death…
I have found the pair of punkish trousers I bought once. It was too small for me but I always knew I will fit into it one day. It was maybe 15 years ago (or a bit more, it was before my “big” fat-loss after going low-carb) but I am patient. If I will be 50 or more when I will fit into that pretty red-green stuff, so be it! I surely will wear it
I would be happy with 74kg in the beginning of March but that’s a bold goal from me…
The video had tempting meat But I am with Fangs… Who uses so much onions omg? (Unless it’s the protagonist of the meal like my eggy fried onions in my younger days.) And I would need more fat on my meat…
But each to their own I suppose. The river was lovely.
I wanna go out and see GREEN already. More green. We do have pines. Mostly sick ones, just like the thujas, the pines here are fine but the ones in the forests are sick All the thujas have problems, I don’t know why…
BUT we have wonderful weather so I can go out a lot. But I don’t wanna without green. I am a problematic one. We have a river, a big pond, small ponds, cliffs, birds, tiny rocks… Why do I want flowers and foliage too? I don’t have very many options for a small walk and they get old after a while without the greenery…
@Shinita
are you all in zc this month with us all?
just curious on it cause I know you backtrack into very lc sometimes.
Are ya all in or ? Just asking wondering where you stand now for this Ferocious Fix Carni month we are doing
Love that your mom had a red leather jacket! Must have had some sass in her. and love that it will be your inspiration. Good way to honor your mom. And wearing that jacket will be like a hug, won’t it?
I do 1-2 meatless days and then I come back to the usual just without trying, I suppose?
I will eat whenever I please so who knows what will happen but I imagine I will be almost always carnivore-ish until June. I barely can eat enough eggs and meat until i get satiated so I don’t have much room for other things. A little dairy and added fat, my usual condiments and spices and that’s about it. Surely won’t be that clean and chomp on some crunchy vegs here and there or enhance my bread with something though I pretty much try to avoid that and keep it carnivore… Oh my, my sponge cake breads, they have ZILLION options without introducing non-carnivore items! Even my 100% egg sponge cakes have multiple versions, I haven’t even tried many of them… I just made not fully carnivore ones now that I don’t eat meat, using the chance… But I go back to carni ones soon.
So i don’t know but no way I stay far. I don’t want the vast majority of the plants NOW that I borderline need them as I don’t eat meat! So if I bring back the meat, I will pretty much ignore them.
I don’t want sweets either (I mean, it’s hard to taste them when I have it for reason, i.e. I have mascarpone and whipped cream, of course I make sweets. Alvaro ate the vast majority of it), it’s odd, I always liked them off carnivore…
So I can’t imagine February won’t be (significantly) more carnivore than my January. It merely will be more pleasant as I won’t really have rules… Something like that but maybe I am overly optimistic as usual. I eat some borderline inevitable and really low-carb things tomorrow and come back on the 3rd. With fish I imagine, I am not at the pork roast level for a while yet and fish is the farthest from that (among meats).
OH WELL, I will just do it!!
Not like I weighed myself without clothes but it was 77kg after I got up, before toiled and in my pyjamas. So I am 76 again. It will be 75 soon but 75 is so old, I am that since 14 months and I was way too heavy before.