Ferocious Fix February - Carnivore Challenge (Fit it In - Fit in It! ) Feb 2022

[JJFiddle]

@fangs @Ketodaisy @VirginiaEdie So, so, sad to hear. Hugs all around. Strength, love. Now comes the hard part, picking up the pieces, since you’re the ones left to do it. The ultimate rite of passage.

Day 39 of Carni and still experiencing serious disaster pants. I keep googling, how long does this go on?? Taking lipase and ox bile twice a day, should I take more?
In 2019 I started OMAD and had it then. So confusing and a Google search brought me to this forum, the only place that addressed it at that time. Most of my family are diabetic and without gall bladders so maybe there’s an inherent weakness there, but I can’t help but believe the way to develop strength is to continue to test the waters and challenge that organ to increase its bile production.

I read this good article on it: https://www.doctorkiltz.com/carnivore-diet-diarrhea/#:~:text=When%20adapting%20to%20a%20carnivore,more%20efficient%20at%20absorbing%20fluid.&text=Other%20potential%20causes%20of%20carnivore,or%20too%20many%20irritating%20seasonings.
Maybe I should stop eating pork. Or eggs. Beef does it too though. If I just thought it would eventually subside…

Yesterday about 10 am, an egg in a a cheese wrap with baconnaise. We went to the brewery for a late lunch where I had a hamburger party with cheese and a mineral water. Lastnight I chewed around the large bone of a shank steak and then an eggs in cheese wrap again.

Yesterday I bought a 12 lb brisket, a chicken, and also have a pork butt and a 1 lb salmon filet to put all on the smoker, then apportion and freeze. The chicken (and salt) I smoked Wednesday was a ridiculous waste of pellets! This will be my first big smoke.

[Septimius]

Dreams

People often talk about dreaming of carbs when they’re keto. I used to occasionally. Since going carnivore, I very rarely dream of food.

But I did last night. Two specific things - and weirdly, they’re things I don’t even like that much; I cannot recall the last time I ate them, and if I was given a free pass to eat carb/sugar junk for a day, I would not select them.

The reason I raise it here is because I haven’t eaten much red meat the past couple of days. I normally eat beef for every meal, salmon once a week, and lamb probably once a week.

But this week, I deviated:

Wednesday dinner: pork belly
Thursday lunch: leftover pork belly and leftover beef (very small amount)
Thursday dinner: half chicken
Friday lunch: most of the other half of the chicken
Friday dinner: tiny amount of leftover chicken and salmon

I really enjoyed the chicken - I bought it on a whim. I did think it probably wouldn’t sustain me, so I should eat beef - but I did not feel hungry at all.

When I am very hungry, I get stomach-growling hunger. That’s why I eat 3000-4000 calories on those days, because my stomach is so ferociously hungry, I realise I must need it.

I didn’t have that. I didn’t have any hunger pangs or any desire to eat, even though I’d eaten very little. I ate the salmon more because I knew logically that a couple of bits of chicken wasn’t enough to carry me through the night.

But late Friday night I was watching tv and thinking that a few things onscreen would be ‘nice’ to eat (I think I mentioned up-thread that is a warning sign that I am actually hungry, even if I don’t feel it).

I didn’t eat. I went to bed. And then, boom, dreams.

I thought it was interesting that the dream came off the back of not eating red meat for so many days in a row. I am convinced there is something in the nutrient profile of red meat that my body needs/craves and that craving manifests in an odd way.

[Fangs]

I am sorry for your loss also VE and KD! Life is marching straight over alot of us right now…as life will do with no remorse or thought about it

I appreciate the support and condolences. Thank you guys very much!

I am ok but just sad. Just sad but that is ok. One is allowed to be sad and grieve. Normal. What one isn’t allowed to do is use emotions for excuses and I am going down that road now so back for accountability.

My nibbles went to full on tablespoons of ‘a taste’ and my eat only 1 has become eat like 10 french fries off my kid’s plate kinda thing. NOT good for me.

Carbs are drawing me back and I have to make a stand. I am on plan but flirting off plan way too much and I know I am one who will backslide in a nano-second so today is stop the BS! Stop the food is comfort BS in my brain, it is not, it is the carbs saying eat me eat me and I will make ya sick.

I am bloaty to the max. I feel icky inside my body. Directly from food intake. So that is over. O V E R as of right now.

I am convinced there is something in the nutrient profile of red meat that my body needs/craves and that craving manifests in an odd way.

you are absolutely correct. Cuts of red meat (as with beef being the best vs. say ‘lean’ deer meat or lean bison meat etc) is that beef holds a very great fat to protein ratio that gives our bodies the balance it requires just thru the food of that meat. Beef from a cow is very stable and balanced in ratio so us carnivores do best on it cause it ‘sets us up into a very even keel’ of nutrition. We can ‘play a bit’ in that we can choose a leaner cut of beef when we want it, we can also choose a very fatty cut of beef when we want it, but that nutrient profile is packed how we need it best.

I also when eating pork and chicken and seafood ‘felt different’ than when I was eating beef only in my day.

I know all these years on ZC that if I start my day with a friggin’ 1 lb. fatty ribeye steak I do best. My body is in love with that. I feel balanced, settled, calm, in peace with my plan, my body feels stable and my brain goes along with that, meal 2 can be more flippy with some beef or pork or chicken or seafood but my ‘set in stone’ first meal of big ol’ ribeye steak is my anchor rock.

Many carnivores thrive and hit only beef in the end as the main staple but when we start to ditch it as a main in our every single day life for a bit longer, we tend to get the ‘wanders’ and that isn’t good. We tend to see changes like more dreams, or our bodies are ‘needing just something’ and we aren’t sure what, or we might get massive appetite swings or we get that ‘just off feeling’ of where we were. I know it. I go thru it. I know exactly what you are talking about!!

When food becomes a focus-----food of crap ----- in any way it is showing us our bodies are off its best nutritional balance. So if pork/chick/seafood is a focus go back to the big hefty beef. It takes a bit eating the big beef as you love to get rid of those unbalanced changes but it will do the trick.

--------SO GUYS for me I am in that sad spot of grieving, and wanting excuses to take me away into carb land and I will not allow it.

I am going back to all beef and water in my day come hell or highwater.

Today I got a nice NY Strip steak to start my day and I got a nice ribeye defrosting on the counter for tonight.

Time for the pull yourself up wtih the bootstraps type day. I need it. I know me. I will go down into a burning flame of carbs in a flash, I won’t allow it and I won’t go there!

Hard issues in life that come at us call for hard attack scenarios for keeping our control and lifestyle we desire for best health!

I say thank you again to all, you are so kind, each of you!

[Septimius]

so back for accountability.

Good on you, Fangs - you’ve picked up on the signals and you’re putting methods in place to stop the slide from happening. Good stuff.

[Fangs]

ohhh and I defrosted 3 packs of bacon for ‘just in case’ and yes if required I can inhale all 3 lbs on top of my steaks for the day as I might crave or go brain crazy…bacon to the rescue! Believe me it is a savior default eating tons of bacon that made me come into this plan and hold it and will always keep me on plan when required

BACON! Life blood to keep my health…who would ever think that HA

[robintemplin]

Pardon me if this has been asked and answered already…do you take powdered Magnesium citrate? I do and the dosage can be tweaked to change your poop issues. I like it because it can and does clean me out, when I want that. But I have found my personal level of manageable.

[robintemplin]

@Fangs so glad you are able to allow yourself to feel your feelings. That helps us to not find an escape through food, to take out mind off the trauma. It’s been years since I lost my parents, but recently lost my best life long friend. I wake up to a world without her, every day. My mantra is: I will never get over this, but I will get used to it.

Thinking of you still.

[Karen18]

Foods over last couple of days…

I am kitty sitting this weekend while my daughter is away. I needed something easy to do while I am here so popped to The Company Shop. Picked up some chicken wings and had to share with the kitty! They were okay but not overly brilliant. I had got a double pack of steaks, some lamb ribs and a pack of pork loin chops out of freezer this morning but decided they wouldn’t defrost in time so put them In the fridge to slowly defrost. So of course can’t just buy one thing in the cheapo shop … spent £49 and for that I got the chicken wings, 2 x 1.25kg ribeye steak chuncks… I will slice them into at least 7 or 8 steaks, maybe more and they were reduced to £17 each …hope they’re tasty! Lol got 2 half price rumps and 2 Angus sirloin steaks, 2 x large packs of pork chops ,(700g each) £2 a pack! I was pleased with my buy today.

After 2 very bad nights i got quite a decent nights sleep last night… I needed it I was shattered especially having been up at 445am both mornings for work.

Did my stair runs when I got up and then off to CrossFit and did a great workout. Really enjoyed it and it felt really good.

Been round my daughters all afternoon playing and cuddling with Astrid

And still here. My daughters has her heating on so its a lot warmer than my house a bit too warm for me so at one point t I got a bit dozy couldn’t doze off though because Astrid was in my arms for a good 1.5 hours!

[robintemplin]

Good for you. We must never disturb a cat sleeping on us. That is all.

[Karen18]

A little foody pic… my loverly meaty bargains!

[Azi]

my rings were so tight this morning could get them off so I weighed myself up 4lbs of the ,5 I lost my arm is still sore after falling in nebraska so I have asked for a referral to see if I’ve pulled something or torn something.

I’m going to return to my bbbe seemed to be doing better on that…

@Fangs yeah it’s so hard losing our parents I was close to my dad and when I lost him it hit me hard even though at the time it was best thing for him I didn’t want to see him suffer anymore…
But now I live knowing he will always be therefor me I can’t pick up the phone to hear his voice but I still often talk to him when I need him the most…he will always be my strength.

[JJFiddle]

I take magnesium threonate. Started with the usual mg oxides 25 years ago and slowly worked over to this one. I like that it does NOT mess with my poop, lol. (crosses the blood brain barrier, they say.) I’m waiting for more “solidity” nowadays - I think bile and lipase help if I remember to take them a few times a day. Just waiting for fat adaption, whenever it decides to manifest!

[JJFiddle]

Taught on and off today, fixed hubby’s big meal and cookies for the church-then cleaned it all up. He’s worried this woe is a bad idea especially because I still have diarrhea. But I got over it with OMAD so in time will likely get over it this time, too.
Today I got the grassfed beef roast out of the sous vide and seared it in tallow. Hubby loved it, it was good. He commented that he couldn’t eat a lot of it, I said that’s because it’s nutrient dense.
I tried @Ketodaisy’s beef broth and hamburger soup with a little Parmesan sprinkled over, it was a nice change. I’ll put some in my new heated lunch box for tomorrow as I’m out most of the day.
Here’s some food:

[FrankoBear]

Day 39 of Carni and still experiencing serious disaster pants. I keep googling, how long does this go on?? Taking lipase and ox bile twice a day, should I take more?

I keep thinking about gut bugs and diet changes. Fermented foods seem good to help restructure a gut society after a diet change gut biota die-off. Zero carb precludes us from eating fermented vegetables. Fermented dairy is our next option. Cheeses and unsweetened yoghurt? But commercial yoghurts may not be made from the cultures we need and are only fermented for a day or two for business expediency, so they may not have the colony numbers to get through the stomach to the intestines. Home-made yoghurt, might be the way? There are also fermented meats, but I don’t know much about them except they are presented as small goods.

Probiotics also come in powders and capsules. Again getting through the stomach environment is the challenge. But health companies are looking into spore forming helpful bacteria. The spores are acid resistant and get through to the gut. But those gut bugs might not be the ones we want for a carnivore diet?

Lipase and bile are digestive helpers, so are the right gut bugs. Might be an angle to consider?

[FrankoBear]

I’m thinking about disturbed sleep. Last night I woke at 3:49am. Thought I needed to go to the toilet. So I started to get up and felt incredibly weak. The moonlight was amazing. So it was easy to navigate. Interestingly I had a full bladder urination. Then I realised that my heart beat was all over the place. So I took a 500mg magnesium aspartate tablet with a swallow of water, and went back to bed.

I woke at 7am, which is normal. I had the prednisone tablet, every second day now seems to hold off the sharp joint pain. When I woke it felt like I had sliding door shifted into another dimension. I had another full bladder urination. I’m recording that as I ended up having 5 full bladders by noon. That’s a lot of water dumping. Then I realised what was going on with the increased urination I was probably also dumping electrolytes. The prednisone can be calculated in as a part cause.

My feet and ankles were swollen. I felt weak but not too unwell. In that “something ain’t right zone” that @Karen18 described in having a stroke. I wasn’t having a stroke, but the diagnosis is related. I slept another 2 hours and got up at 9:30am. I still felt like a drunk time traveller. So I took my heart rate. It was 230bpm. There it was, I was in atrial fibrillation. It can lead to a stroke. Mrs. Bear arrived home from morning yoga. And it was into action mode. Home treatment to avoid a drive to the hospital emergency room. We got it resolved within 20 minutes. It’s an interesting feeling when the heart flips back to normal rate and rhythm. My heart rate now is a steady 66bpm. That surreal feeling of being in a movie that you’re watching of yourself, welcomes the audience, you, back into the body and a feeling of wholeness and reality ensues. Now I’m tired. Last night I had a total of 12 hours sleep. But I also had an extreme cardio workout for about 6 hours mixed in there.

So, I was thinking. My heart woke me up. Could a heart-rate check help others when they wake up? If you’re waking up at night to pee, what is your heart doing? It should be under 120bpm. It should actually be the lowest rate of a 24hr period. If not, revisit your electrolyte management.

Here’s what we did if anyone is interested:

• Mrs. Bear puts on hypnosis music sound therapy aimed at slowing the heart rate and steadying the breathing. I find it a good cue to help me focus on deep, slow breathing.
• Mrs. Bear presses on my eyeballs to initiate our ancient ‘dive reflex’ that slows the heart rate
• The key here is to let people help, if they are nearby
• I dose magnesium citrate and magnesium aspartate tablets to gut tolerance disaster pants by taking a set double dose every 20 minutes
• To swallow the magnesium I drink a large mug of salty (added bullion cube) beef bone broth. The salt is important as a magnesium helper.
• I take 50mg of aspirin to help prevent a stroke while the heart rate is so high
• Every 20 minutes I check my heart rate
• On the 3rd check, at the one hour point, I hit the shower for a 20 minute hot shower
• At one hour and 20 minutes I take a final dose of magnesium and bone broth and wait a final 20 minutes
• If I’m still in AF at that time point we go to hospital

I flipped back to normal heart rate within 12 minutes this time.

These episodes are rare. I diarise them and there are months in between. It’s been years since I have been admitted to the ER. And the last time my heart rate had settled while I was in the waiting room, but I was already on the hospital conveyor belt and they wouldn’t let me go home until they thought they fixed me.

In January 2021:

JanZC --- No Plants! Smaller Pants!

BAM! Ugh. Yesterday had NoFUN except a coffee. Does writing that I have a coffee trigger any one? Should I blur filter? No Food Until Noon. Then breakfast was 3 pan filling slices of middle bacon cooked in butter, 3 egg omelette, topped with Jarlsberg cheese 60g (guesstimate) and hard cheddar 45g. I’m in that space. Do you know it? It happens in low carb, where one feels they need to be physically active. I think I saw @Fangs write about it back in October 2019. It’s not a planned exercise pla…

[robintemplin]

My gosh. I have never heard of doing anything but heading to the hospital when in AFib! You and Mrs Bear have tapped into the good flow of body/mind/music. Touch connection. I applaud you both!

[Azi]

Wow scary stuff

[JJFiddle]

Thanks @FrankoBear, I better look into probiotics. Any dairy product with lactose has that post-covid metallic taste for me (even butter) - if I could make kefir or yogurt out of pure cream! But unfortunately it’s the lactose that ferments. Probiotics in pill (or liquid) form could be a way! I used to give the kids acidophilus, I’ll get some next week.
I keep reading the magic number “6 weeks.” I’m on day 40, maybe just 2 more nights of this?

[JJFiddle]

@FrankoBear that’s brilliant workmanship, I’m going go and write all that down as soon as it gets light out!
220 is a LOT of afib. Interesting to link it to electrolyte imbalance, but of course.

Back in '84 when my grandma was 84 and I was in nursing school (after which I went back to music, lol) she called and asked me to drive up to New Jersey and see her. When I got there she opened her pill chest, pointed to each one and said “what would happen if I stopped taking this one?” when she got to the calcium blocker I said, “you’d probably have a massive heart attack,” and she closed the box and said thank you.
I went home later that day and the following morning she was rushed to the hospital and did not survive the week.
Electrolytes.

[Fangs]

@Karen18, ahhh your kitty Astrid is so cute. My cat looked exactly like her but she was solid dark gray, but that same type of fur and face angle. Her name was ‘Lil’ Kitty’…you reminded me of her when I saw your kitty you are kitty-sitting, too cute!

Yea my sleep is a train wreck right now.

@Azi, taking that fall could also have inflamed alot of your body ya know. When hurt we retain liquid and other stuff from that darn inflammation but yea, if you are not sure on your arm, definitely get it checked out. I hope you get over all this quickly and get back to feeling ok!

@JJFiddle
I never had the big D when I adapted in that I was so extreme lc when I went zc that I was already kinda there, so my adaption was way easier than most but I had some adaption like weird sleeping etc. but never the other. You mostly control your D situation thru food…fat intake. More fat intake, more gut issues…leaner food like make a meal include some lean like chicken without the skin or some fish/seafood options etc. to feed up yourself it helps a bit. Of course not all can control with eating some leaner, so some supps like ox bile or even something like Immodium come into play when required. Hoping you get adapted thru faster than longer Also rendered beef fat alot of times is a huge cause of D for many of us when we change into this plan. So eating just burger and draining off any fat helps alot, plus eating some leaner beef cuts helps alot etc.

@robintemplin,

@FrankoBear
wow, 12 mins. is all it took for you to get back to normal…that is amazing actually. Your list of what you guys do is so smart to find yourself a natural change on how to handle this is so interesting to me. But you also know if no change back you seek other help

this was a scary post to read about what affected you but I just enjoy your posts, taking care of yourself and being very smart to journal your episodes and more.

-----------------------I am not sleeping well at all. I am in that brain zombie land a bit still. Of course coming to terms with stuff as I have to but still in that bit super sad weepy stage. I am sure I will follow my time after my Dad passed around 5 yrs ago, I kinda now how this will go down for a while.

I don’t even pretend to participate in life for real right now. 2 focus. food that goes in my gob and just take the day in any simple way and best form for me without any other BS coming at me. In a bit of time I will be fully back in the brain and will tackle life again, right now I kinda checked out of it.

Plus I got some darn sinus cold type thing going on. clogged nose etc. Probably got that from hosptial visits? who knows, but all in the head, other than that I feel good…but of course still feel bloaty at this point.

Got NY Strip steak for first meal of day. I defrosted chicken for family and they don’t seem to want it so I might just fry up those chicken breasts and use them for tonights meal. I just hate defrosting stuff for meals for them and then no one wants it ya know…irks me to no end LOL

Ferocious Feb is winding down guys…we are heading toward March soon. I tell ya time is flying by without me even realizing it right now. But I know all of us will go into March as strong Carnivores!
I