JanZC --- No Plants! Smaller Pants!

(Edith) #48

Hi Everyone,

I am continuing my zero carb journey for another two months. It’s been four months now.

The past couple of days, I have really wanted to eat carbs. Today the feeling was very strong, so I decided to have a Zip Fizz. It does have artificial sweetener, but it also has added vitamins. I was hoping that the taste of something sweet but with a bit of nutrients might help stop the craving. It actually did help, but Zip Fizz is caffeinated and I haven’t had caffeine for quite some time. I now have the caffeine jitters. :crazy_face:

For you long timers, have you gone through periods where your body just suddenly wanted carbs?

(Karen) #49

Went back to work today.

Started to feel better late afternoon after fridays melted camembert and saturday having to return home from work sick. Finally stopped all the unladylike belching around 3.30pm.

Lunch was beef brisket that i had slow cooked and was sooo tender plus hard cheese, stilton, gorgonzola and chorizo.

Returned home from work and ate some duck breast slices and some streaky bacon oh and the last cup of rabbit stock.

Rest day from work tomorrow Yay!

(Daisy) #50

Circumstances delayed my eating today and I was feeling very frustrated by the time I actually got to eat. I ate a small chunk of suet while cooking the meal shown. Then was still hungry, so fixed a few shrimp in garlic butter.
This was chuck roast and eggs fried in butter, liver pâté and bone broth. I have also started a sleep journal. Writing down everything I’m eating in a day and how my sleep is. Plus any supplements, etc.
image

#51

Q: How will I know I am hungry?

A: A steak sounds good.

Q: How will I know I am not hungry?

A: A steak doesn’t sound good.

With that in mind I just had steak numero tres.
:wink::cut_of_meat::cut_of_meat::cut_of_meat::+1::fire:

#52

yes. just cause we are truly nourished and satisfied doesn’t mean old wants/desires/a mental game doesn’t come into play. Many of us have ‘weirdo times’ and this is when ya gotta hunker down and either knuckle thru it and talk to yourself like I do :slight_smile: or make sure you eat any and all zc food instead of allowing back sweeteners or plant carbs, cause while some can do this and come out the other side alright and can truly handle this situation, there are more like me, who if we allow any crap back we will break and carb binge and go off plan and you know, all the nasty that goes with it. Every time a longer term person falls from plan, it is almost impossible to get back on because it is like once someone has done years of this, when we get those carbs back, it is like we don’t wanna go back into ‘all in elimination mode’ again and we feel like we are in a more deprived state of mind. On the zc forum, when year 2 or into year 3 people fall, it is horrible on what it takes for them to try to get back. One reason I won’t allow it. I read what happens, I been a fall back person on my lc plans and it is devastating to me, so I can’t go there. I just talk and talk and talk to me about the exact reasons why I won’t go off plan. Cause eventually I talk sense into me HAHA but yea, all of us have demons following us at some point, and then it boils down to who are you? one that can eat off plan a bit and be ok? or one who absolutely can’t do it? I am the can’t do it person.

so that is kinda what I know about me and what I read from others on my zc forums. When the 2-3 yr people flip out, it is heartbreaking reading about all their struggles…and I truly think, I won’t allow that to be me. Gives me a focus I guess.

but yea we are all human, smells, sights, social events, that ‘little voice saying you can handle a little bit of crap’…all normal. then you have to just find you and how ya gotta handle it.

Also longer on plan people tend to not crave as often which is wonderful of course, but when we do crave that can be very strong, we get B slapped hard and we have to be prepared to work thru it. But as you keep time on plan, your levels and times of cravings will flip around and change up on a person, so again, it is one of those things as time on plan is super important with our eating changes, it will effect our craving issues also. So every journal will be a bit different for each of us cause we are all different but in the end, if we allow ourselves to go ‘loose’ there is that one bite where a person won’t come back. I realized I can never take that one bite. Alot of us longer term are just like me. It just has to be that way if you really want to hold this plan ya know, want this to be the long term lifestyle elected. But the benefits of my plan outweigh everything else to me so that is a monster plus to keep me right where I am. Everyone has that little personal story in us.

oh boy I sure know that feeling KD…sucks don’t it!
nice pic as usual!!
will be interesting about your journal and sleep etc…cool seeing what reactions etc you have going on for you.

@Ellacosew
wow, you are the new steak gal for sure! I love them too, a steak a day keeps the Dr away…wait, steak numero tres keeps the Dr away HA
you go girl

#53

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 plan. It’s a I have to get up and move and lift stuff feeling. I usually swim or surf it out in the ocean, or take the Labrador a long way down the beach and back. Yesterday, it was time to build some cob filled steps to the backdoor. Making cob requires digging clay filled subsoil, and mixing it with straw then forming it into shape inside a frame. So it was digging, pushing and pulling a barrow, mixing with a mortar hoe, mud dancing and kicking… It was a 32’C, clear summer day. So it was proper, sweaty building work. I added some extra magnesium supplements into my drink breaks of fresh rain water.

After about 4 hours, it was time to stop the work day and head to the beach to wash off the mud and sweat. I do love working with natural materials. But my heart had flipped into atrial fibrillation (AF). That’s the Ugh at the start. A heart rate of about 120bpm +.

Most people would go to the ER. I went to the beach. I did a float in the calm, cool water and listened to my breathing. It’s interesting, but I can regulate my heart rate to a degree by concentrating on it and breathing. Not enough to drop it back down to my regular 60bpm.

So I went home and settled into my home treatment. A 300mg oral magnesium dose every half hour until gut tolerance is reached. I wash that down with 500mL (in 2 cups) of salty (added pink salt) beef, bone broth. But it was also time to eat steak. While the 350g scotch fillet was sizzling away in butter, i snacked on 4 cold chicken wings left over from last night and a lump of cheese. Then the steak with a Jarlsberg slice separating it from a fried egg hat. That steak was local, grass finished Angus. So, yummy.

After dinner, I stood in a hot shower to wash of the sea salt and do some calm breathing. By 8pm heart rate was back to 60bpm. I like this treatment that works for me much better than the high stress, needles, drips, monitors and bright lights of ER.

So, this is my carnivore ZC downfall, or Achilles Heel. This heart and electrolyte thing. It’s not the WOE, it is that I’m at a certain age where it hits males. But I have found a way to manage it within the WOE.

Ferocious Fix February - Carnivore Challenge (Fit it In - Fit in It! ) Feb 2022
(Laurie) #54

You are your own hero! Wonderful that you could take care of yourself in this way.

(Liz ) #55

Hi folks, I love reading everyone’s ZC experiences. I can’t imagine finding another carnivore IRL so I’m back on the forum after a time away. I lurked the ZC threads for awhile before making the shift last year.

If you don’t know my story I’ve been low carb since 2003, keto since 2017, and now keto animal foods (high fat/meat/dairy) since February of last year. I have a pernicious carb addiction and going ZC was the only way to truly be free.

I still cook keto for my husband and mom then I usually make myself a half pound cheeseburger for dinner. It blows my mind I can eat the same thing pretty much every day and each time it tastes amazing. I don’t get bored?! I love being able to trust my hunger signals. I lost 15 pounds that had crept back on while I was just keto and my shape is different. Having lost 100 pounds overall through my whole LC journey I have a lot of loose skin & I don’t deliberately exercise except what happens when you take care of a yard and walking. I’m looking forward to another year of ZC and seeing what other improvements happen over time. Seems like the body heals very slowly and it needs time.

The thing that made me try eliminating plants was the hope for improved mental health and I think I got that? Hard to tell as life is very stressful but I feel like I’m handling it, anyway I haven’t run away screaming yet lol. I’m a full time caregiver for my disabled elderly mom with only my husband to help.

So I’d like to lose a little more fat and see if my skin might try firming up a little but I’m not counting on it at 51. Meanwhile I love the endless energy, endurance, and great sleeping,

#56

I found this FB: from the 'net: Tyramine can trigger AFIB. 1 ounce of cheddar contains 43 mg of tyramine. Aged cheeses with high amounts of tyramine – Swiss cheese, Stilton, Camembert, Muenster, Mozzarella, blue cheese and Gorgonzola cheese.

also caffeine is a biggie with AF situations. Maybe the 2 combined are a trigger for you in some way?

just a thought but from what I am reading, you are becoming truly a wonderful factor in your own control of your body and that to me is wild you are controlling your situation so well.

of the biggest factors with your carnivore, the cheese (dairy) and caffeine are two big AF factors. Like me and my PVCs the alcohol/caffeine and fake sweeteners were my biggest triggers, all crap I allowed myself on ‘just a low carb’ diet when I ‘counted carbs’ back in the day. It was like it wasn’t the carbs I had to watch it was literally the food and what it did to me. So when I ditched my 3 biggest factors I corrected my PVCs back to an absolute stellar management of me. Maybe that is what you are doing with you but by eliminating coffee and cheese maybe that would be a factor for you? Not saying ya gotta do that, but when we have limited food intake like a carnivore plan, if we then have an issue like PVC or AF then we take that ‘closer look’ for correlations.

just a chat. just throwing out some thought but I can truly see you walking such an enlightened path on your health and how you are taking care of yourself. Love it!

#57

Right? Far from bored! Meal time is exciting!

I am 52, and I am absolutely counting on it. Why not? :raised_hands:t2:
Let’s see what is possible for us!

It is very nice to meet you. Congratulations on your ZC success!!! :tada:

(Liz ) #58

Hi thanks! Even if I never lose the extra skin it’s fine, a “nice to have” not a “need to have”, you know? It’s just vanity on my part :smile: But I’m staying on plan so we’ll see! I used to fast along with keto & I hoped that would help and it may have, but I don’t fast anymore on ZC.

#59

Wow. I thought they are so used to carnivore and that is so important for their body that they can’t even go off seriously, they would suffer too much and jump back… Not everyone, of course but surely the ones who doesn’t feel fine when eating some plants…
So it was surprising to me. Going back to a lower-carb woe was always easy and as carbs came, it became totally irresistible. When I went low-carb (and felt WAY better), I lost the ability to stay on high-carb for days. Keto did little as I felt the same as low-carb but I couldn’t NOT come back regularly. But when I tried carnivore and felt better again, low-carb for longer term became pretty much impossible (and I can’t resist to come close if I go off. I don’t have the kind of willpower to stay away and my body would have some words about it or more like, actions. it’s not nice. I need some strictness anyway). So it isn’t like that for everyone, well okay, I know ketoers are able to go back to high-carb for long so it’s obvious… But still, it was surprising! I would think time helps - but I am sure many people needs some looser days. Maybe without them some pressure build up?
I am just thinking, I have no idea how it works (and it’s surely different for different people) as I don’t really resist or make things hard for me, it has both benefits and disadvantages but I have not much choice, it’s me. But when I was stricter than ideal for a little while, I felt the strain… So maybe that’s why it causes problems. Physically I don’t even know what happens…
I can’t imagine my body ever would allow me eating too much carbs again, whatever it means. Not very much. It just builds up and at some point it’s too serious carb poisoning and I don’t have the masochism and willpower to stay there, I drop carbs and enjoy that I heal. I so need this with my personality and temporarily somewhat indulgent body… I am very sure my body could handle carbs to the extent it did in my high-carb times. It just refuses to do so as it wants its favorite woe back. Maybe it’s mental too as I am on board with leading a better life with a better woe, I just have urges to other directions too.

I had some not so great days, too inactive and not so good eating wise either. I am close to carnivore as I planned but not close enough and yesterday things started to get out of hand so I will be way stricter for a while. It’s January, maybe December wasn’t carby enough to trigger the usual good behavior… I was a little angel regarding my chosen woe after my wild Decembers. So I should do this a bit more consciously.
Carnivore-ish is tricky, at least my current, a slightly more indulgent one that I didn’t even clearly define yet, I should do it soon… Very clean carnivore is easy, it’s just too strict for me and I couldn’t do it for long. I don’t want a quick hard challenge, I need this for very very long term. So I don’t push myself too hard. But being too indulgent is even worse. And after this December, I don’t go to the right direction near automatically. Now I will be as strict as comfortably possible. My food is good and it’s simpler and better that way, I need this.
I will be stricter with my eating window too as I should. I eat too often without a real need. It’s not tragic on carnivore(ish) but still not good. Alvaro started to have his lunch at 11am and as I happen to be not fully satiated at that time and my tiny abilities to resist eating ceased to exist some time during December (and the piglet caused smaller meals), I eat with him. But now I stop and wait for some valid reason to eat. 11:30 and I am satiated (I consciously didn’t resist and ate a second dinner and won the lottery with it, it seems… sometimes eating late and much triggers earlier hunger). Good.

I made Alvaro to hide the coffee again :slight_smile: I need all the help I can get :slight_smile:
So… No coffee, no eating way too early without any need, as strict as possible woe so pretty much carnivore. Not totally as I can’t avoid onions in my stew and I want lots of stew in the near future. But that’s about it for now. And tea, of course. It’s winter and I need my warm drinks. It’s nice and clear and defined. It should work. I had enough of not doing things right. I hope I will remember it next time when I will feel like messing with my woe again…

(Sama Hoole) #60

Oh absolutely, highly doubt I’ll be sent into a sugar coma from a few stray carbs.

#61

I wanted to address this a little bit cause hot damn if it ain’t one of the best perks of zc.

Carnivore or any good eating healthier plan gives us renewed energy we lost…but there is that deep down internal buzz and fire and tingle of the ‘I must move and move now’ factor that is achieved by some zc people that goes further…and I think you got it.

I also thought about it a bit and I think it truly is our healing bodies actually obtain a type of reversal of damage in our bodies a bit.

I think of it like this, we gained back something so natural and instinctual and normal. Yet we didn’t even know we lost it to this level.

Children are bursting with energy. Balls of fire. Jumping, moving, fidgeting and running and just letting it all out at full speed. Healthy. Into young adult years we are exploring, active in sports maybe, finding new adventure and life and our life force energy is directing us to move move into that further life realm as we change and grow. All energy supplied by our bodies to do just that. Use that energy, tap it, expend it, fire the muscles and more as our bodies were intended to do for our daily survival.

Then we lose it…well alot of us do anyway :slight_smile: but we have college for careers maybe, or job stress, marriage, mortgages, divorces, elderly parents, maybe some med issues creeping in, bad eating and we disconnect. We have lost what we had in our healthy childhood bodies. Something we never put a label on cause you had it, you just had it, but when ya lose something and gain it back and you are listening fully to your bodies directions now you think, huh, wow did I ever feel this deep down buzzed crazy sensations of having to move, the body is fired and healthier and saying you must move. I direct you to move and darned if ya just have to do it LOL

I think your path is doing a good change for you FB! We all get this ‘buzzed crazy have to move’ deep down feeling on our own timeline as our internal bodies heal from the damage…we get great energy while healing, etc…but I think there is a second special flip on our energy reserves where we fall into a category of reversed damage and we gain back something so extremely natural and didn’t even remember we had it back in the day.

I don’t know, just some of my thoughts on it all. :slight_smile: just great chatting out this stuff! A little bit of a story I put with my own venture into that ‘must move now!’ feeling that is just so interesting.

#62

HI and I loved reading your post.

So then in Feb. very soon we are going to be wishing you a 1 year Carniversary! Cool!!

If you worded this the way you have, then yea, you got some clarity in your thinking I bet! :slight_smile: It isn’t like we are zinged by the wisdom or educational gods out there and we are instantly changed and smarter LOL it truly works like you said…when our thinking clears we tend to approach and handle our daily life situations on a more thoughtful level. We analyze a bit more before going off the handle, we are less anxious in our decisions and all that jazz, well it seems to be that way for most zc people. I like it tho, a more calming approach in interactions in our lives with our daily issues.

Welcome to the zc group!!

Yes…also tho keep in mind how many jump ship on ‘every diet plan’ out there and later in their plans. Like a 5 yr Keto Plan maintainer who starts the usual post with…I thought I could have back a little but I went off the rails and can’t get back into the groove…oh boy it is the same with carnivore. We are not special kinda in that way of being exempt from being human while on eating plan changes.

I think so many want ZC to be ‘magical’ and while it gives us alot, it isn’t magic…we put in that work to change and adapt and bob and weave but in the end, we are who we are and like I said, if one came here having ‘eating issues or troubles’ like millions, we have to put in the work just as hard as anyone else.

Plus when ya think about many of us zc people do get away with a ‘few boundary pushes’ but with any eating change plan, you let that sugar back into your body and you flip into a glucose burn vs. a ketone burn and everything just falls apart and the long carb binge begins.

Many are that one bite away from disaster at every step. That is me and I know it.

I always remember one statement a few maintainers said while I was out reading how maintenance people kept off the weight they lost thru years and years and it was always the same…you have to eat all thru life just like you did to lose the lbs. With only very rare exemptions from that original eating plan. Those are the long term success people. Not the ones who carb creeped foods back into their plans, always pushing the boundaries of what it took to take them there, cause there is that one bite that sends everything you accomplished down the drain.

Be nice huh if all eating changes we wanted were easy :slight_smile: :slight_smile: or we wouldn’t all be here chatting about it LOL

#63

I ate big and good yesterday

food was

12 oz NY strip steak
1 lb. med. sized peel/eat shrimp
small cheeseburger patty as a snack…yea right? lol but darn it was wanted and good
4 thin cut pork chops

after those chops I was stuffed. Rarely I hit that ‘thanksgiving belly full feeling’ on zc but I sure did. I was just stuffed to the gills.
woke up feeling just as stuffed :slight_smile:

got a steak for later, not sure what else I might eat. truly in a no hungry, no interest for food right now feeling.

All is good, just doing my zc thing!

(Vic) #64

Did not eat today, yet…

Except candy.

20210104_153515
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#65

But I don’t know how people are able to binge eating carbs… Don’t they get carb poisoned like me? Don’t they feel the carby food isn’t what their body wants? I am very undisciplined but in December I didn’t enjoy most of my carbs. It was nostalgy and being more “free” between November and January and the food was there, being special as we never buy that stuff but got as gifts, these things. Little desire, little joy, sometimes none. After some while, I stop as it’s not good to sacrifice something important and not getting anything for it.
It’s hard enough this way but if one can just eat carbs without bouncing back due to serious physical problems or lack of joy from it… That sounds bad. But I have my personality and old skills and habits so I guess we all have our hardships…
And of course, long term carnivore is something I haven’t the vaguest idea about. I don’t like or need that level of strictness but I definitely have a long way to go until I eat really well for me. I have a lot of lingering… things. Hopefully most of them will disappear this year, gently and gradually enough, forcefulness never worked for me, it can easily backfire. But I am very very very stubborn and I have important goals. I easily fail but bounce back quickly (sometimes less quickly but my times when I had months without keto are over. I think that happened once. normally I went on and off keto very very frequently. normal keto was something I couldn’t stay on after I already had some level of fat adaptation and now I know carbs were the problem. carnivore is way easier to do for weeks and it even has noticeable and even huge benefits. my keto was like low-carb, just harder, I surely wrote that before) and I slowly but change for the better.
It would be wonderful to change quicker already… That’s my plan for 2021. Not only eating wise.

#66

yea I get this cause it just isn’t you. and might never be as we know in our eating thru our lives we have phases or changes or med issues that could push new changes, good or bad onto us----------but you read it all the time. Those who are different than you and you might never experience any of what is being written about out there, but if you match what someone else is saying…hit that lightbulb moment of OMG that is me and I need XYZ for health, than ya follow that path. But many don’t ever need ‘that path’.

So I get this cause I can say right now when I say carb binge, how you feel means nothing cause all you want is the sugar addiction fix. Doesn’t ever matter what ‘extra crap’ comes with that…the eating is first, we deal with the fallout and misery after and it goes on rinse/repeat cycle.

Just watch a show like ‘My 600 lb Life’ and you can easily see addiction physical eating problems, which are obviously fueled by emotional issues of big proportion for many who take that path…You think I would never ever be 600–800–999 lbs. but there are many right there in this entire world. So you think how can one carb binge and then I think—who is a carb binger type LOL says, how in the world can one be over 800 lbs?

I wouldn’t go there either but it is a real possibility in this world I could be one who does go there at some point? Who knows in that future predictions of life of course but in the end, the fight is real for each of us and our paths and true internal ‘know thyself’ and what it takes to bring our health to the forefront and succeed is a massive undertaking and not an easy row to sow or maintain.

I just posted a video with Dr Ken Berry and Kelly H kinda chatting with just about that…what it takes, how our eating signals are screwed up and more about finding our path to truer health.

Alot of complication in a way we face individually, but in absolute truth the eating changes are so simple, yet we do complicate that even LOL

Some change quick, others need time as they ‘see the light on personal effects/benefits/changes’ and we all walk that path meant for us.
But in that final end of it all, if you listen to the truth of ‘know thyself’ and act on what is what suits you and don’t play or pretend and take hard action, we really do find our way…if we get out of our own way sometimes :slight_smile:
good chat S!! Loving how we can throw out what ifs, and who are we issues of it all and weave thru in our journeys and find us as we desire. A whole big package of our life we are dealing with…mental/physical so as we change and try changes and more and learn we get there eventually if we have the time/desire/wants on this Earth to do just that.

(Vic) #67

I guess one time every month on average, so yes it happens.

I usually drink a litre of full fat milk then.

Ones in a blue moon i eat a bit of fruit/berries, not a lot thou, 20 gr of carbs would be the absolute upper limit. The cost being diarea and sick feeling the day after. I think I ate fruit 5 times last year.