So sorry to hear about your mom…your stress must be through the roof with worry…sending hugs and best wishes things go well with her surgery 
we will be here thinking of you…
Ferocious Fix February - Carnivore Challenge (Fit it In - Fit in It! ) Feb 2022
Azi
(Linda )
#266
Karen18
(Karen)
#267
Dinner was later than I would normally eat but I just lost track of time and the food had been defrosted and I thought I ought to eat something a bit more substantial than just the omelette earlier. So I pan fried the ribeye very rare and 2 of the pork loin chops and very tasty it was too. I would have been satiated with just the steak or with just one pork chop but I think I needed the calories. I left the 2nd packet of prawns till tomorrow, I am sure they will be fine albeit a day over the use by date. I will just sniff them first and if they smell okay I will eat them. 
Azi
(Linda )
#268
I cooked the rib eye I bought for valentines day but it was chewy so a cheap cut of meat ill not do that again I shared it with hubby so 2nd meal will be strip steak
Alecmcq
(Alec)
#270
Why is it I always remember to take a photo of my great carnivore meal after I’ve eaten it? 
Just had great bacon and scrambled eggs with a pat of butter… yummo!
FrankoBear
#271
Image: moon rise at the beach last night.
Went off plan. Back on plan. I can feel the difference.
Plan slip was due to travel (to the city) for a work meeting about workload for 2022 with my line manager. We agreed best to do it face-to-face, as it was important to communicate well. We can all see what happened to @Karen18 when a robot sends a letter.
So, I drove 3 hours to the city to arrive at 9pm on a Sunday night. I’m going to write it out here. Hopefully to learn from. I had eggs and bacon afternoon breakfast. At the fuel stop I started the slip. Not hungry, but driving is inherently, physiological stressful, I bought a packet of something at the pay counter. “Packet of something” is the red flag. It was pork crackling. But we know they mass produce it deep-fried in cheap oil and then chemically flavour enhanced.
It triggered something, half an hour later I felt that I needed food. I wasn’t hungry. This was a craving. Red flag. I found a drive-thru takeaway chicken joint in a sad, grubby, little retail strip in a sad, grubby, little wayside town. The chicken was covered in flavourings on the skin. An hour later I felt nauseous as I drove, with an hour to go.
Arriving in the city I threw up on the front lawn of my brother’s house. The Labrador cleaned it up. Before I could restrain her. But I felt sad for her because of the toxins. My joints had become all stiff and sore, and I had a headache. Billie the Labrador seemed to not suffer any ill effects despite the toxin exposure.
Next morning, Monday, I still had joints flared up and a brain full of fog. ‘The horse’ was waiting and I climbed back on it with eggs and bacon that required me to show a COVID vaccination certificate. Checking my work emails, the line manager, at 10pm the night before, had changed the meeting to online. I could have stayed home.
It was a hot, summer day in the city. Too hot. I could hear the lemons boiling on the backyard tree.
It was a crap meeting. There was important stuff to talk about, but the manager’s internet connection made it so it was hard for him to hear my points. May have been a meeting tactic? I was delivering my prepared notes like a professional boxer introduces an opponent’s face to hooks and jabs. It was one of those stupid meetings where things remain unresolved and somehow I end up with more work to do. Would’ve been better face-to-face.
At Italian family dinner that night I had my once per month glass of home-made red wine that my 89 year old father-in-law makes. The plate was huge. It had beef, chicken and fish on about 50% and cooked garden vegetables mixed through a fresh summer salad in the other 50%, after we had a tiny plate (like a tea cup saucer) of fresh summer fruit.
I look at my parents-in-law, they came from a rural upbringing in the steep hills of Sicily, and they are as vigorous and bright as anyone in their early 60s, even though they are finishing up their 9th decade. They mentally spar with their teenage grandchildren and dispense love, family connection, and wisdom, as easily as they fill a plate with home-cooked goodness.
During apperitivo, pre-dinner nibbles, when the others have a small dose of mysterious spirits, I have water, my mother-in-law evasively swerved the main platter away from me with 4 types of cheese, chopped celery and carrot, and 3 types of nuts. But rapidly reappeared with a small platter of halved boiled eggs and cold cut meat. She apologised and admitted that Mrs. Bear, my wife/ her youngest daughter, had phoned and told her not to feed me cheese 
. It is hard for an Italian mother-in-law to restrict food.
I drove back down country roads taking me home yesterday, Tuesday. Broke fast, NoFUN, with 3 pasture fed chicken eggs and bacon cooked in butter. Powered through a lot of admin paperwork. Straightened out the manager above me but below my line manager on a few tasks. They offered me a promotion again. I said no. So, I got out into the summer sunshine and bucket watered our food forest. I could do it with a hose. But the 10kg buckets and mindful “farmer’s walk” (walking while carrying weight in both arms), is so satisfying. Back on the computer. After looking after the needs of the employees I supervise. It was time to take Billie the Labrador for a walk at the beach. It’s almost full moon, so we stayed a bit longer after dusk and played on the brightly moon-lit white sand beach. The summer night was warm, t-shirt and surf-boardshorts weather. It was a bit magical.
For dinner I ate an all-beef stew. Slow cooked beef cooked with beef bones and salt with added beef bone broth. Today I feel great. Reset after that failed trip to the city.
Moral: don’t eat anything from a packet. It’s the rolled carpet ridge you don’t see at the top of a flight of stairs.
Thinking about bathroom scales after chatting with @Alecmcq in other threads.
JJFiddle
(Judy Thompson)
#272
@FrankoBear Wow. What a ride that was. With you all the way. I love any story that ends happy, as yours has. Incredible that all of that was unnecessary! Mrs Bear takes good care of you even when you’re hundreds of miles away.
@Karen18 I was Air Force Band, DC, mostly. With a few years in Army medical.
This morning I (re)discovered a wonderful thing, cheddar wraps. A hard boiled egg chopped into baconnaise and tucked into this microwaved wrap. What a nice lat
e morning snack!
Mid afternoon, shank steak. Tonight, soft boiled eggs, no pic for those.
robintemplin
(Robin)
#273
Being retired has an extra perk…no food at work and few unplanned meals. And yes, there is definitely snack inducing about traveling.
JJFiddle
(Judy Thompson)
#275
It’s just cheese. Probably terrible. My main judgement of dairy is whether it has a disgusting metallic smell, courtesy of covid back in August. This doesn’t. I think the smell and taste are from lactose, however. Small amounts of cheddar seem acceptable.
I’ll check the ingredients in the morning.
FrankoBear
#276
Hey Fangsy. Thanks for checking in on us. Hope things go as best that they can in you life happening moments. Stay strong.
Regarding the LION diet, is part of it testing yourself physically? So that you could sprint away from a lion, if you needed to?
I made a Low Carb Biomarker Quiz. One question is about the ability to sprint.
Body weight scale measurement tracking is good as long as the goal is weight loss and the numbers are dropping. The mental uppercut happens when there is a stall or there is up-creep. (I’m waging a campaign against bathroom body weight scales)
Alecmcq
(Alec)
#277
I love getting the instant feedback on progress. If what I am doing isn’t working, I can instantly see it. I realise that weight loss is not everything, but for me if the weight is going in the right direction everything else is as well. It is an excellent proxy marker for me for overall health.
Septimius
#278
Interestingly, a spammer bumped a thread earlier that I’ve been reading this morning - and in it, the OP says that they only lost 15lbs. The before/after pics appear to show more of a loss: Doctor Goes Keto
Weight measurement can be a really useful tool - but it’s just being mindful if/when you stall or gain that it’s not the only tool, and not to get disheartened if the scale doesn’t reflect what you think it should.
I think it can be more distressing in those who have less to lose, or are near goal, or who experience wild swings due to hormones. If you’re only 5lbs from goal, a big meal and some water retention can push you up a couple of lbs and it can feel like the world is ending.
Alecmcq
(Alec)
#279
I can’t agree more with this…. Judging progress on weight loss when you are close to goal is just a hiding to nothing. When close to goal, my experience is you judge progress on the tape measure and gut feel (literally!!).
But I am approximately 30kg (70lbs) above target weight… the above subtlety is lost on me. If I am not losing weight I am not winning.
Septimius
#280
I have to admit, I think I come at this from a very female-centric standpoint, which is obviously very different from your circumstances - so I 100% appreciate that what you’re doing is working for you, especially at this stage. 
Some of this is the Kevin Stock logic - the difference between a John and a Sally: https://www.kevinstock.io/health/fat-loss-and-the-carnivore-diet/
But some of it is the ordinary dieting thing of losses generally being lower for women. I know so many partners who have embarked on a diet together and the men lose a massive amount and keep losing consistently week on week, whilst the women drop a couple of lbs and then stall out - and it’s incredibly discouraging for them.
I also think that - in very very broad and general terms - most women have a history of restrictive eating. We’re taught from an early age that we should exist on a small number of calories, and so many of us ate nutritionally empty foods (in line with recommended guidance) - and I think this can mean that our lean mass is not where it should be.
Suddenly, on carnivore, you’re getting the nutrition you need - so you might find things like bone density or muscle mass increases. This is amazing and exactly what you need, but it shows on the scale as an increase or a stall - and that can really mess with your mind. It is likely not as big a deal for some men in some circumstances because they might increase lean mass whilst still losing a massive amount of fat, so they don’t notice the increase - but for women, if you’re only losing a small amount of weight and then your lean mass goes up as well, all you see is the stall.
Let alone the general hormonal cycle that a woman goes through - and this is something that I have a massive amount of interest in at the moment because eating carnivore has revolutionised this for me.
What I am astounded at is that I did carnivore for fat loss predominantly, but it’s actually fixing things. I have long thought that what I experience each month is normal - reinforced by views in society - and I am utterly astonished that it’s been completely changed and improved beyond measure.
I did not think it was fixable - and it took many months to fix, and I think I’ve said previously, it got worse before it got better. If I’d just been watching the scale, even with a lot to lose, I might’ve given up because I thought it wasn’t working - but in reality, my body was prioritising fixing what was wrong and not working on the fat loss as much at that moment in time.
For me, I am ravenously hungry at certain points - and if I was worried about what the scale would say the next day, I might fear eating to satiety because of the volume of food. Let alone the fact that you do retain water etc at points - I think it’s easy to become disheartened, especially if your mood is low.
I realise all of this is not particularly relevant to you or your circumstances! I just thought I’d mention it all in case there are others lurking and debating starting carnivore and these things may not be obvious to them.
Alecmcq
(Alec)
#281
All excellent points. I can absolutely see there are some real challenges there. KCCO!
Karen18
(Karen)
#282
@FrankoBear oh my goodness what an up and down trip! I can remember many long journeys, before carnivore, when I was stopping at service stations en route. I would spend ages trying to find something that was in my eating remit of the day, I always ended up buying something that was off plan (generally carby) and that always sent me spiralling out of control one way or the other. Plus you could guarantee you would eat crap and want more crap and then feel crap. So glad you spun it around again and to feel good as soon as you did is just a credit to this woe. Loving your photo. Your expression of words change immediately when you talk of that wonderful beach.
@JJFiddle What is DC? Did you enjoy your time in the service? I was 7 years in the Military Police though I can’t say it was the best of times. I would have enjoyed it more had I done that time later in life … older and wiser lol. Cheese wraps? Do they not have potato starch in them ? I noticed the other day that the pre grated cheese i was buying regularly has it in the ingredients along with a host of other stuff. I was surprised though I don’t know why really, I had just not bothered checking… when it says cheddar i believe thats all thats in it hahah … stupid girl! I will be grating my own in future… I only bought it for convenience! I usually read all ingredients and carbs … I know if its flavoured there will be plenty additives/carbs. I bought some ‘cheddar’ yesterday and it promptly went in the bin. It tasted wrong … like ‘cheddar style’ fake cheese… Read the ingredients and the list was as long as your arm!!!
your wraps do look nice though.
@Alecmcq I think it is harder for women to judge by scales because a women’s weight fluctuates so much, not just daily but also throughout the day. Scales can become such an obsession and dependancy … once a month is acceptable if you really have to use that guage. I chucked mine out years ago and got off that roller coaster … Best thing I ever did … FREEDOM 
@Septimius I second everything you’ve said especially about restricting our calories and fear of eating to satiety because of how much food might pass our lips! That has been me a zillion times, I would restrict then binge eat and then would feel terribly depressed that m weight had gone up, appearing to undo and sabotage all my hard work … of restricting my calories and putting a clamp on my eating … mind games:unamused:
Oh how wonderful it feels to be totally free of all that! This forum and carnivore has been totally liberating for me
Went to bed too late last night probably because I ate too late but then didn’t settle to go off to sleep till maybe 1am. Still up twice in the night for a wee trip. Then awake early this morning so was up and stair running my 100 flights. The sun was shining and I knew it wasn’t going to be for long as we are due storm Dudley today.
The cardiologist called me for my tel appt, (over an hour early so was taken by surprise, they are usually late rather than early lol!) Anyway he talked me through the therapies my Occupatiinal Health consultant had mentioned and neither are any good for me. One was not for my type of AF and the other was only funded and offered to people who can’t tolerate blood thinners. They were both intrusive therapies. Anyway he is going to write me and my GP a letter outlining what he has told me. Well I have done what the OH suggested in his report and in turn approached cardiologist for answers. Cant do any more that that. I have been given an appt with OH for next month for the first stage of the process for Medical Retirement. I can foresee the stages to be ongoing for some time, will probably only have about 8 or 9 months left before actual retirement by the time a decision is made! Hey ho … and then I may not get it but I think I could hack a further 8/9 months in admin role if need be.
Brunch was cooked chicken sauted in butter with the remaining packet of prawns which were fine this morning… no funny ‘off’ taste lol. Wasn’t all that, I think they would have tasted better with a steak or the burgers I have in the fridge but they went down 
Thought I would pop this photo up … yesterdays CrossFit class… I am on the bike in pink leggings … love pink haahah but here i am with a class full of youngsters lol they are all 30 plus years younger but not necessarily 30 plus years fitter. Proud of my achievements. 
Redrobins
(Heather)
#284
I feel this is where I am right now. I would like to lose another 10-15 pounds, but my weight has been stuck for the past year or so. I bounce up and down between 165-171, but lately it seems to be creeping higher.
I’m doing my weight routine every-other-day, which consists of slow burn lifting for my arms, until failure (at least my definition of failure 
) interspersed with 9 sets of 12 reps of sumo squats, for a total of 108. The whole thing takes me about 30 minutes. I would like to think the weight increase is due to building muscle mass, but my clothes actually feel like their getting tighter, not looser and my measurements are increasing, not decreasing. 
I don’t think I’m over training. I’m definitely seeing definition in my arms and shoulders, but my thighs seem to be the same flabby blogs they’ve always been. I am also very rarely able to increase the heaviness of my weights.
I eat around 2100-2700 calories per day of mainly beef. I have coffee with ghee in the morning and then my big meal at dinnertime. The fat percentage of my food is around 70%.
When I had covid, I loss my sense of taste, so I had to restort to salting my food again (which I had totally gotten away from), in order to taste it. My taste still hasn’t completely returned.
I’m wondering if my change in scale/body composition is a result of–
A. My increased cortisol from exercising too much
B. Being peri-menopausal
C. Eating OMAD (with the exception of my coffee w/ ghee)
D. Eating too much/too little
E. My body is just happy where it is and it doesn’t want to move any lower
Or, all of the above. Any thoughts?
robintemplin
(Robin)
#285
I would say “maybe” for any and all of the above. I also lost my sense of taste, but I can detect sweet and salt.
Karen18
(Karen)
#286
I’m no expert but I have been training quite a number of years. I got very into weight training for a while and thats all I did for the most part. Then moved to more reps less weight and eventually to where i am now doing a mixture of both at CrossFit, stair running daily, walking and dancing. Even before my blip and doing a combination of those exercises every single day i was only maintaining my weight. I may have once or twice eaten calories to 2700 but generally eating between 1500 and 2000. Having said that I only started tracking when I did keto and since changing to carnivore haven’t tracked at all in a long time. My point being, and I know we are all different, but unless you are doing competition level training I would be thinking that you may be going too high. What are you doing for exercise on the days you’re not doing 30 mins weight training? I don’t know your situation but are you physically able to throw some cardio into the mix?
I have been going through the menopause for about 8 years and still see no end to it 
I do hope you manage to find the answers, I think it may be a case of trial and error.