When I started eating just meat I looked for YouTube videos and diaries of people’s experiences to get a handle on what to expect.
For the benefit of others, now that I am five and a half weeks in, I thought I would do a brief write up of my own experience.
To be perfectly honest I started the carnivore diet to try and deal with depression. I had just taken myself off citalopram which was crushing me into the ground.
I had also put on weight to my highest ever. I hoped for some weight loss but the depression was the main motivator.
Cutting to the end of the chapter, in the five weeks since I started I have shed 12lbs, and my mood has lifted immensely. The things that dragged me into the gutter a few months ago now don’t seem so bad. I remember how I felt back then but don’t recognise it as being me.
I don’t feel the mood swings at all now, that were damaging me and the people around me.
My sleep is better. I’m not sleeping in the day anymore, where I used to nap for hours every day.
My energy is nice and level throughout the day.
I used to live off coffee. Now I drink it out of habit, but don’t crave it, sometimes I even don’t want it. Water is fine.
So, walking briefly through the first five and a half weeks…
My energy initially was poor. I was very tired throughout the day but didn’t sleep great at night due to trips to the toilet.
I had diarrhea for the first few days but this settled down to very comfortable almost daily trips to “pass solids”. I wouldn’t say what I felt was constipation, but it felt much much solid than I’ve ever felt before.
The nighttime toilet trips stopped after a couple of weeks, but it was only after about 21:days that I felt my energy levels quietly rise. Now, I am not superman, but I can work all day, go to the gym, eat when I choose and sleep fairly soundly.
Speaking of eating, I initially ate when I chose. Now I seemed to have settled naturally into two meals a day, one at about 11.30 am and one at about 5.30pm.
I eat mostly beef but have liver from grass fed lambs twice a week.
My cravings for junk food are almost non - existent, just a whisper in my ear, which I can ignore pretty easily now.
The only persistent irritant is dry eyes, nose and mouth. I am going to make some bone broth in case I am not getting enough “connective tissue” nutrients.
I am going to Vegas today and have had some minor fears about what awaits me at the buffet. Travel mixed with opportunity might be a recipe for falling off the wagon. I am telling myself that actually, although I might want to eat carbs, I don’t want to have eaten carbs. There will be a price to pay, if I do, and it won’t be worth the temporary pleasure.
Anyway, I digress. For those thinking of trying this way of eating, I have found this first month to be liberating, after a couple of weeks of suffering. I was already suffering though, and still would be if I’d stuck to my previous patterns.
I told myself at the start I would do it for a month. Now I have decided that another month would be a good idea. It will very interesting to look back in another 30 days…
Lord, protect me from Vegas!
