Jerky Jubilee ZC July!

[Fangs]

Here is our new thread for July. Carnivore on everyone!!

Any goals, changes to your eating, any experiments you are wanting to see for this month? Just continue to cruise on ZC with no changes?

Whatever your challenges, experiments or just chat how great the zc benefits are to you, come on in and discuss any zc topic

-----------for me today is small ribeye steak with shrimp. keeping my eating very very simple. also have some chicken breasts for another meal or my good ol’ reliable tuna. Not tackling any changes nor do I have any zc concerns now so I think July will be a ‘zc cruise month’ for me

[Naghite]

Look what I found

Going to try and save this day old rabbit through daily feeding and washing afterwards. Should be interesting. If it dies, I will not eat “Miro” , too cute and already bonded with me, eyes closed and all.

[Shinita]

Let’s be not carried off. I want to do carnivore-ish on all weekdays in July. Possibly in the weekends too but it won’t happen all the time I suppose. But I will try…?
And no peanuts even on my off days, dammit. Carnivore is so perfectly took it away, no missing them ever - but I go off and they are there and while I never eat a ton anymore, I do eat more than I should and there are no cons, I don’t even like it so much anymore, too sweet for me.

Nothing special experiment or goal for carni days, I just eat whatever I fancy? Pork, eggs, cheese, mostly. I have a mild cheese phase, I enjoy it much more than usual. I still eat little of it though, it’s just flavoring for my eggs. Though I opened the Italian cheese Alvaro’s Mom brought for us and it’s amazing. I eat it with my sponge cake (they are less fluffy right now as too much yolk finds its way into the whites before whipping them. only a little is okay if I want perfect hard whipped whites but these are even more perfect bread than my usual, fluffy, soft sponge cake muffins).

I fry a little pork chuck today, not even 1100g but that’s the little town supermarket for you these days. It’s probably a big enough amount for my frying pan anyway. I don’t want to use the oven for hours in this heat, I do like fried meat and hopefully I render out some lard from it. Chuck isn’t fatty enough for much, I miss the 70/30 pork, that gives me great fried pork, skinless cracklings and lots of lard.
I plan to eat half of it today along with eggs (I eat as much as I want, it’s just a vague plan. that’s a nice amount). And more from that nice cheese. Nothing extreme flavorfulness or uniqueness, it’s pretty normal cheese but still so very nice. Harder than the young Gouda we always have but not too hard.

I drink some milk now due to reasons. Nice, cold and my tap water isn’t something I gladly drink right now. It happens sometimes. Not like the small amount I consume helps so much with my water need but I have soup now, have coffee as well… I can drink the water if something happens to it, I just can’t stand it alone. But I have lots of carbonated water so I will be fine. Yesterday I hadn’t, that was when I opened the milk.
But I don’t get much carbs from other dairy now.

@Naghite: Awwww…
Alvaro has a tentative friendship with a young curious fox (moves like a kitten, he says) now.

[FrankoBear]

I want to understand why some carnivores have higher range biomarkers.

Today I had blood tests to kick off the month.

Mrs. Bear and I went for lunch at a brewery with the ‘outlaws’. I had parts of a shared Ploughman’s lunch. There was cheddar, a pork terrine, sausage and mustard. Then I had beef brisket without the mashed potatoes. Dessert was a mediocre cup of black coffee. It was our first meal out in recent memory. Eating out can be a minefield.

Dinner was 6 salted and fried chicken wings and 100g smoked salmon.

This evening we went to the beach for the 5;30pm sunset. The volcanic dust cloud from the eruption in Tonga is making the sky show spectacular.

[Fangs]

And no peanuts even on my off days, dammit. Carnivore is so perfectly took it away, no missing them ever - but I go off and they are there and while I never eat a ton anymore, I do eat more than I should and there are no cons, I don’t even like it so much anymore, too sweet for me.

this is a suggestion from what works for me when I truly wanna drop something and start to want to that control or whatever munchability of some foods I kinda wanted to keep eating…I mean if you want them gone in full truth off your menu and really want this, a few things one can do. Like for me I always find the ‘bad side of’ that food I wanted to keep munching on and more I read about the bad, while I know, ‘a few’ ain’t ever gonna kill me but I truly want firm control over something, I research it. I research the bad it can do in my body and then that ‘sets that food’ into a negative brain thought and believe me, I got thru dumping alot of ‘hold onto crappier food’ that tempted me. I research the bad in depth on it and find in the end, I know eating that ain’t for me. Why go there is my thoughts when I get that food into a negative, bad labeled and unhealthy option to ‘munch on’ and I will then go for my carnivore foods to munch cause it helps me, never hinders me. I choose the good over the bad.

So that is just something I did before to help me and I got that advice thru others that tried it and I read about and for me it worked pretty well actually so just sending that along with what others do to help with changes they might want handled.

@Naghite
MIRO!!! I wish him well. baby bunnies are hard ones, so fragile but with great care ya might just get that baby in a good place. luckily bunnies grow up very fast so hope you guys do ok and he gets a chance! More power to you Naghite for helping wildlife!

@FrankoBear
little more info about what ya asking about biomarkers?

yea eating out is a minefield for sure but we can make it work we gotta LOL cause you know we all get dragged out at some point and it is best we embrace it in a good fashion and prep, learn how to order and more to get thru those times. your food sounds good actually!! a fun time, some decent zc food on the go and good company, yea sounds very nice

[FrankoBear]

@FrankoBear
little more info about what ya asking about biomarkers?

My daily fasting blood glucose is more than 100mg/dl. Often it is 120 to 130.

[Fangs]

just to recap:

also from net: Medications – similarly, medications can cause an increase in blood sugar levels. As already mentioned, steroids can be a common cause as well as beta blockers. Both medications can cause the liver to become resistant to insulin

but like the video says, it is about how are you thru the day and how fast you recover after meals etc. In that I think that ‘darn morning glucose’ number is not some end all be all about how your body is using glucose thru the entire day ya know. Like you need a bigger study on yourself thru a day before and after meals, recovery times and all that so it would take more time to do these values on us of course.

he says don’t worry

I also think truly that he said studies are being done cause this question is around alot without definitive answers thru any studies so that is being addressed and when does factual info thru some studies come out? not sure of course but when one researches this more and in depth what keeps coming up is NOT a concern, thru natural body functions but being carnivore one could be a tad more protein sensitive and causes higher numbers and then if one thought that, one would drop protein intake down a tad, add in more fat and ‘see then’ if it effects numbers.

OK that is just some thoughts…others will chime in but the body and those ‘numbers’ are not ever black and white by any darn means so we can’t be all gaga over them being something set in stone at all.

[robintemplin]

I don’t suppose I really have goals anymore, other than stay the course. I had my 2 year anniversary June 22. 2 years ago I started keto. Then a year go, I realized I had quite naturally slipped into carnivore.

The only thought I put into it…. The only goal in mind is to have what I need in the fridge. That’s it.

And that, my friends, is a miracle.

[Naghite]

My FBS is up to 130 as well. Did you get an A1C recently? I believe GNG is a byproduct of amino acid clearance. Lower protein and raising fat would help. I am already eating at my fat limit if I want to avoid diarrhea each morning, or I would have already done the same. Overall though I am not worried since my highest readings are below 140 so low BS ceiling, as noted by Bikman.

[JJFiddle]

I’d been mostly keto for about 10 years since my diabetic sister took “carb class” at the hospital and I decided to go on it with her. In January 2022 I went carnivore and found this thread.
Two years ago a doctor tested my FBS and A1C and I had 130ish and 6.4. She said “I won’t put you on diabetic meds at this time” and I said “or ever. I will control this through diet” and I bought a bs meter. I found that when I had my usual beer at night, my bs was 129-130 but when I didn’t, it was 78. So. Bye bye beer. And I just stopped worrying. And that was the last time I saw a doctor so next time I see one, I’ll keep you posted

[Shinita]

I research the bad it can do in my body and then that ‘sets that food’ into a negative brain thought

Oh I did that with many stuff, that’s how my low-carb times started. I can’t consider peanuts bad in general at all, I am very sure they are great for many - but I feel my body isn’t into them. It should help but not really. It’s still mostly harmless. If I can consume toxins (booze) without problems, I can eat this old fav too. Of course bigger amounts when my body nudges me are different but eating little while I don’t need them, don’t even gain joy from them, it’s just stupid.
It’s no big deal, I pretty much avoid it since years, I had some desperate times when I was bored of my meat but now I should get my stuff together and be okay even on off days.
But still… NOT having off days work way better It’s just unrealistic at this point but I can make some nice streaks in July I think. But I really want some rules for ALL of my days, no matter if I stray a bit or not. Those got better anyway as my taste and preferences changed but lately I realized I still can have surprisingly bad days. I thought it’s in the past. Sigh.
Good thing I never can get “properly” sugar poisoned anymore That isn’t fun.

Now I want to think about proper eating only. I fried my pork and yep, it fit the big pan! Between baking 2 different stuff for Alvaro and frying my pork, the kitchen got too hot again but now I have food for days. I have plenty of eggs from before.

5:15pm, I am still satiated. Just how much I ate yesterday? I have no idea but it doesn’t seem much… Maybe the hot. I never was the type to eat little in hot weather but who knows?

Btw radio talks about what to eat and what not to eat in this weather… Heavy food. I still don’t know what that is. Fatty pork feels light to me but it’s probably considered heavy…? But I am in my leaner meat phase now. So I need to add extra fatty items to balance things out. I would be doomed without dairy.
Today is different as I had leaner pork last time and need more lard so I focus on a bit fattier pork. But I go back to lean afterwards and that will be a way bigger amount.
This piece of chuck seems lean, it happens, they aren’t all the same… So it didn’t give me lard. Maybe 10g in the bottom of the pan if I am careful? I used to get 30g from less than half of this…
Oh well I still have options.

@robintemplin: Nice! A really big benefit of carnivore that it makes simple so easier in some areas I finally reached the point where my carni days are very chill. My off days, on the other hand… I need to focus and figure out what happens between them. Why I stray? I know a few reasons but it only explains rare occurances still close to carni. June is special even though I should have done it better. I have no excuses for July.
Oh but I will have my birthday I should have something nice for that. No steak though. I don’t even travel until September if possible…
But maybe… Deer? It’s not even so expensive. It’s like some not too expensive though not cheapest beef. We looked at deer prices and packages a lot lately, I am sure we both would love some

We have smoked mackerel now, I totally forgot about it and it doesn’t have a very long shelf life… YAY. I will bring photos, it’s beautiful!

(You are all heros putting up with me. I especially feel almost-guilty - I have immunity or almost, hedonist thing in dark times. I can’t afford feeling even worse - after June. It never was a keto month for me and while I did it way better now, I had very few proper carnivore-ish days if any. Even today won’t be perfect but good enough I suppose. And there are things around me I wanted to try. Traning time, yay. It was ages ago I did something like that. I don’t feel weak from the hot weather today and I am hedonistic enough to resist and choose feeling good and enjoying my proper food instead. If I ever get hungry today.)

And note to self: There is no such things as popping in to read. I always reply, get thoughts…

[Karen18]

Phew I thought I was doing really well reading the 3 posts in the June thread and then @fangs burst that bubble with the July thread and there’s 11 posts to try and read arghhhh

Well 8 woke up from a very wakeful weeing night to day 3 of the 75 day hard challenge. Felt tired but dragged myself out of bed and did 100 stair runs, ran to CrossFit, did the wod and ran home ate 3 duck egg scrambly fashion and got ready for going dancing again. We went to Lichfield to our fav Tea Dance, fab music all afternoon and danced more than yesterday. We got a tumultuous welcome when we walked in which was so lovely, they are such a great crowd of dancers.
Must admit my head was going a bit when they all wanted to catch up with us, lots of hustle and bustle chatting and music and I did feel a bit woozy a few times… the body is good the brain is broken!

Took the drive there and back gentle and the roads were not too conjested which was good.

Hungry or what when I got home lol ate the 2 remaining burgers and there were 2 remaining salmon fillets left and half pack of cold water prawns which i enjoyed cold with the hot burgers and fish. I am just finishing my last glass of water (4ltrs total) and again last night no smelly wee so it has to be that I have been dehydrated!

Thought I would only manage one of the salmon fillets but added the second to the plate. Followed it with a bit of cheddar and a hard boiled egg.

being silly when coach was videoing class

further into the wod and totally in the zone and very sweaty! (The lad in the background , only 27 had a stroke 15mhs ago,
Just as well I scrubbed up well for the dancing later

@Fangs so glad you’re a fan of Joyce Meyer, she just writes so well and she makes it so easy to read. Have you read Living beyond your feelings? Such a good read and brings everything home to you, I enjoy the way she explains the bible passages … certainly make me think which I like too x

[FrankoBear]

10:15am coffee with cream. I think I can taste it a bit more. Early sunny Saturday morning breakfast. 3 pasture fed chicken eggs, 150g smoked salmon, cooked in the left over chicken fat and some butter.

Interesting to note some observations. Eating a restaurant lunch seemed to make me hungrier for dinner. Usually eating that amount of beef could keep me satisfied and OMAD. But there are flavourings and chef additives in glazes, sauces, and drizzles that probably contain sugar-based carbohydrates.

Eating chicken wings last night did not seem to hold the hunger monster under control. It may have been the chicken, or a longer hangover from an (unclean) lunch that led to breakfast 2 hours earlier than usual.

I was looking at the chicken fat in the baking dish. Beef fat, being more saturated, usually hardens in the cold air of a winter night to waxy tallow. The rendered chicken fat was still clear liquid. Suggesting it was more like an oil containing monosaturated or polyunsaturated fat. It made me contemplate what the meat chickens were/are being fed to create that stored body fat. The oily fat may be less effective in driving hunger control hormones?

On the contrary, I observed my recent chicken soup phase. The fat does look like oil droplets on the surface of a heated bowl. But when the soup has cooled (for storage) it is like a meat and bone jelly - delicious collagen. A different nutrient.

I think a once daily ruminant animal-based meat meal seems to work best for feeding satisfaction for me as a dietary foundation.

[MeganNZ]

Hey guys and gals! I started keto on the 23rd of May and am getting more and more interested in going carnivore (standard at the moment, not meat and water only). I’m going to a local butcher today to look at what they stock and ask some questions about where they source their meat, how they cure their bacon (and cab/sugar added etc), what meat/fat ratio their mince (ground beef) is etc They have some great specials and it’s looking like they will be one of the most cost effective places I can buy meet. Butcher Jack for anyone living in Auckland, New Zealand.

I’ve been eating carnivore the past week and am starting to miss the on-my-palate freshness of raw veg like won bok (nappa cabbage/chinese cabbage). Any suggestions? Or just ride it out and it will pass?

[Shinita]

Eating a restaurant lunch seemed to make me hungrier for dinner. Usually eating that amount of beef could keep me satisfied and OMAD. But there are flavourings and chef additives in glazes, sauces, and drizzles that probably contain sugar-based carbohydrates.

Not surprising to me. Carbs magically makes me hungry. I mean, adding a little (not the tiny I do nowadays, that seems to be fine, probably the type matters too) mess up an otherwise great meal for OMAD… It’s probably better if I eat them together, I don’t know. Eating carbs after satiation makes me hungry even if my satiation was created by a biggish (possibly enough for OMAD) very nice and satiating carnivore meal. I don’t really mess such a one up with carbs but once it happened and it was surprising even for me and I knew carbs cause hunger to me since ages. But it’s not always as simple. Just almost always. I like when my body is predictable, helps with planning and training myself.
Tiny normal food carbs don’t seem to have a strong effect… I don’t know what some sugary glaze or sauce could do as I don’t eat such things.

I observed my recent chicken soup phase. The fat does look like oil droplets on the surface of a heated bowl. But when the soup has cooled (for storage) it is like a meat and bone jelly - delicious collagen.

All my meat soups and stews (if there is enough liquid) do that It’s fun.

All fats get solid in my kitchen, lard and especially fowl fat is soft but still not liquid.

I think a once daily ruminant animal-based meat meal seems to work best for feeding satisfaction for me as a dietary foundation.

Same expect pork works too. Beef is probably a tad better but I didn’t have enough almost exclusively meat meals to tell for sure. Pork is good enough but the fat amount matters, at least when I eat more than once a day. I still don’t know what would happen if I had quite fatty pork OMAD days. Maybe they would work well. Maybe the fat doesn’t satiate me well (my current hypothesis) even if it’s in pork. It was so very odd when I realized I eat way more from fattier pork, it makes little sense to me as I get even way more protein that way, not only the fat that may be not very satiating… I just don’t seem to stop like with a leaner cut. Or IDK what those 1000g pork shoulder days were. Maybe I will try some (almost) meat-only OMAD days, I am curious.
But first I need to be able to stick to OMAD.

@MeganNZ, welcome! Tell us what the butcher says, I am curious what is the situation there
I think I let the others say something to the vegs… (And then I went and wrote a lot, being me.) You should probably stay away if you can do it easily and if you can’t, you won’t and no idea what to do if it’s hard and that’s your case I suppose… It depends, we all have different priorities and strength… I lost interest in the vast majority of my precious beloved vegs when I tried out carnivore but I personally do carnivore-ish on the best days so eating a bite of raw veg is okay to me. I never seem to need it but it’s harmless fun for me. You need to choose what to do, I always needed a gradual change and my self-control is basically non-existent but if you can avoid all non-animal stuff, that may be a very useful experiment. You may not need it. You may need it or it may be informative to see what happens then. But it shouldn’t be right away if you need more time to change. I was so very pleased with my carnivore-ish (though I actually had carnivore weeks and even tried no-dairy for a few days) that I definitely won’t sacrifice my tiny extra joy (when it even compliments some too rich meat) until I feel ready. And anyway, it’s not worse than using spices and condiments, not like I use much of those but they come handy here and there.
But there is a benefit for many others. Maybe even for me but I am in no hurry and won’t force myself when I don’t see the point… It’s a mental thing…? if I easily could try pure carnivore, I would, to see what is different there. But I did it short time and nothing got better. Doing it long term is still unrealistic to me… But I am getting there I think. Next January I try to go for a looooong carni streak and possibly drop my very limited and tiny extras I allow on carnivore-ish.

It’s possible it will pass. First I felt so odd with less than the usual amount of fat, the same amount of protein - and not the volume that watered down the fat! I dropped my fat percentage there. But didn’t miss my vegs. I missed them on keto. I needed much time and some weird change, IDK what you need.

[robintemplin]

Ah, Karen… from bad ass weight lifter to elegant dance partner. Life is good.

[Karen18]

Hahaha, certainly not bad ass but I will take that one how it is meant bless you x

Day 4 of the challenge, woke up very tired after just over 5 hours sleep. For some reason I just could not get off to sleep and ended up downstairs watching something on TV for 15 mins. That seemed to do the trick and eventually I drifted off. Still a wakeful night after all the trouble drifting off but hey ho thats the way my sleep goes!

Stair runs done and then ran to the CrossFit Box for the teams workout and then started running home, only got down the first road and realised i had left my water bottle behind so turned round and ran back to Box to get it and then ran home. That wasn’t a particularly easy run home as the work out was very leg oriented not to mention yesterdays horrible thrusters!

Decided to have a rest this afternoon and settled down for rest of the day and then my daughter phoned and asked if I fancied going food shopping with her, It would have been rude to refuse so off we went to The Company Shop and although I have virtually no space in the freezer I still managed to pick up
3 sirloin steaks
4 rump steaks
2 good sized pork should joints both with a good amount of rind on for crackling …yesss!
Pack of sliced edam cheese
1 roast in the bag chicken
And a box of 6 bottles of bbq sauce which of course I don’t eat but they were free because I spent over £20 (my total was £23.78) gave a bottle to Sian for her hubby and will give the others to my neighbour (family of 5) they should probably be able to get through them lol

When I unpacked the food i found that the only thing that needed cooking up was the chicken, which has just finished in the oven (definitely would not have fit in freezer) all the rest has later use by dates. I am sure I could squeeze the steaks in the freezer!
Brunch was 2 scrambled duck eggs with cold, cold water prawns nd a piece of cheddar.
While I’ve been waiting for the chicken I have had some more cold water prawns, they’re nice lol, and a few slices of the edam and a slice of cheddar.

May have to take the skin off and fry it

[Fangs]

@Karen18
so enjoying your pics.

also that chicken, bag cooking never gets crispy does it but I have to say I am really liking that chicken pic, I could eat that whole thing now HA

------------------Jerky July is going well, few days in and keeping eating very simple.

ribeye steak yesterday was yummy but even as I was cooking it I still had that dull no draw to it. I knew I required like fattier beef in a meal so I ate it and liked it, but usually I am so in love with steaks but right now I kinda am not. Eh, usual zc journey for me. I really am waiting for my love of a honking big ol’ steak to come back!

after steak I was gonna cook some chicken but when I got it out of the package it smelled. woof! It went off for sure so I had to dump it and I fried up 2 cheeseburger patties instead. I also hounded down a beef stick

so far so easy for July, cruising along.

[Karen18]

This was my first cook in bag and maybe the last lol I did it exactly to instruction on the packet and made the slit in the bag at the set time and basted the skin but it didn’t do the trick and was not good… I ate it all the same for the fat content but it just tasted slimey! The last time I bought a chicken in the bag it was in tesco in their reduced section and I didn’t realise it was meant to be cooked in the bag… my daughter didn’t half laugh at me. She cooks them in the bag most times I think to save her oven getting splattered. Well I have one of the pork shoulder joints in there at the moment … i think being a carnivore eater one can’t afford to be too fussy about a messy oven glad you like the pics … the scrambled eggs and prawns make for a nice bright and cheerful photo whereas the meats some look all beige and brown. I love colour as you know.
Thinking about you going off your steak for a bit, perhaps you just need a damn good fatty steak to get your juices running and your love of steak to return. I know I feel a bit ughh with lean steaks !

[Karen18]

A better sleep last night, got just over 9 hours but did go to bed very early and was quite wakeful with a few toilet trips and got up just after 7.30am. Got my stair runs done, ran to the CrossFit Box again, did the Sunday sweat, which included lots of running and ran home again. Legs were tired which was to be expected.

Brunch was half the remaining chicken (one half of the breast and one wing) sautèd in butter and I had a good big knob of special butter with it. Yum yum so very nice. Then put one if the pork shoulder roasts in the oven and when the time was up, took it out and loosely wrapped it in foil and took Raymond to the Garden Centre for a brew.
Returned and carved off some slices of pork and had some crispy crackling with it and it was yet another wonderful yummy meal … Still quite warm too. Flippin lovely.i had the very last bit of the speciality butter and then tried the other special butter that i bought at same time. It was okay but no where near as rich as the first, I know which I will be buying again … probably tomorrow hahaha.

Was going to sit and do nothing but had to water garden and then realised the secret stash of plants in the greenhouse were looking a bit sorry for themselves and begging to be planted so I have spent a few hours out there potting up into containers. Just left two that really need bigger planters as their roots don’t like being overcrowded so will pick up two in the morning. My neighbour popped his head over the fence and said I won’t be able to walk around the garden soon cheeky man lol I like manoeuvring around the containers as I can pick up all the different scents. It looks a treat oh and there’s always room for a few more hahaha​:slightly_smiling_face: