Marble-ous Meat Munching May! - ZC Carnivore 31-day Challenge - 2023

[Shinita]

Chicken thigh is super fatty I learned… (It’s always so surprising but I looked it up and it has almost an 1:1 fat:protein ratio.) And it is very obvious too after roasting it
I eat the skin, of course. That’s the best part if I manage to do it right and now I start to get the hang of it
1 kg chicken thigh with skin has PLENTY of protein and fat. I still am starving after eating it. At least did it twice (it seems better at Alvaro’s Mom but I eat it for lunch there and have dinner at home while the 1 kg chicken happened at my aunt when I had dinner OMAD). Nope, it’s the chicken. If I eat lean pork, I get satiated better (I still need my fat, sure but pork is loads better. Maybe one day I will try to get satiated by green ham alone.)

But it seems I can handle half a chicken thigh if I eat it regularly. If it’s rare and I am into it, I want the whole big leg! (And 10 times as much skin but I don’t have that so it’s not a real problem.)

I still will try eating chicken and pork only for OMAD when I will have a whole grilled chicken! Even if I end up with 250g protein or something, it’s fine for one day. But I will try to be careful.
And I should try it with turkey, I didn’t eat any since so long! I saw nice wings in the local supermarket last week… For the price of my cheapest pork. A bit above chicken (well above the most amazing sales on chicken thigh) but it’s way tastier, that’s why I normally bought it before… But the skin is thicker. I prefer chicken skin and turkey meat. But maybe I just need to learn to handle the thick skin.
I would try fish too but no way I will eat a big amount of it in the near future.

Meanwhile Alvaro had his dinner, I cooked his breakfast (poppy seed microwave cake, almost keto) and drank tea. The plants got watered, 3 not rainy day made it important. It’s quick as we barely grow something, the big trees and decorative bushes are fine all by themselves. Even some of the flowers. I don’t think there are many things being able to kill claries, lack of water surely never did… I keep pulling them off from the worst places, they go everywhere.
But the flies are the worst. I have found two big black ones in the oven pan in the fridge. It’s good the chicken needed some extra pan time to get all crispy again (Alvaro complained, he wanted to eat… but in the end, could wait a few minutes. crispiness is important!). Now everything has a lid or aluminium foil.

Guesstimation says 160g protein, 140g fat for my elongated, 2 hour “meal” (I got hungry so I went back to eating after short breaks).
It was a meaty day with barely any dairy.
Not bad, I expect better days for the next days and then problems with eating enough on OMAD but I had resources (pork belly, pork jowl and very, very much sausages. I don’t say very many because one originally was a 2.5 kg single piece…), ideas and plans, it will be FINE.

And things will get better and I won’t write obsessively about my struggles, only will wax poetry about my food when I love it, it happens so often. And there is my garden too. I cut out a few young trees today. It’s amazing how many fits into a single small property.

[FrankoBear]

A farm on the road between our two country estates is using a dairy breed of cattle to create some interesting beef.

Jersey cows are bred for milk, but what about their meat? These farmers say...

Another AF episode at 11.30pm last night. I’m in a high stress period with work and behind on the task list as more work is piling in. Staying on plan, and had a nice Cattleman’s cut steak cooked on a wood fire last night with a card of sheep’s milk halloumi.

My nephew has been visiting and he is a fledgling, learning to cook and clean, to look after himself. He now makes a fine chicken eggs omelette cooked in butter. This is what uncles are for. Mrs. Bear, being an Italian derivation aunty, has been cooking the other foods we have been feeding him; salmon; barramundi; lamb chops…

The ‘win’ here, I hope for this 20 year old man, is that he has realised that he likes to eat an omelette he has cooked for himself rather than the breakfast cereal bowls he has been eating since he was a child. He also looks at his chosen sugar-laden breakfast cereal differently since I have shown him how similar it looks to cat latrine litter. I ask him, “Are you having cat litter or eggs for breakfast?”

[Shinita]

breakfast cereal bowls

I never understood how anyone can look at it and see food. When it came in to my country and I noticed (Alvaro says they were introduced in school so it must have happened earlier, not in my 20s, though not much earlier), I tried it out and found it not good and it just made no sense to me. End of story. (I do liked one kind but it was candy to me, definitely not proper food. I almost never ate candy when hungry. There was one exception, a famous biscuit that disappeared because the company that bought the original company makes Oreo and our is way better… At least tastier, it’s obviously not good ingredient wise. Now there is an elusive other company that makes it but the original will come back too, they say. Alvaro is excited and wanna try both. Nevermind he haven’t eaten the stuff more than twice in the last 10-something years and happy with all the sweets we make instead… He doesn’t even like biscuits! That’s me. Oh I should go back to my carni biscuit experiments. I used to have cheese whisps and keto wafers in the last months but they aren’t biscuit-like just crunchy and the keto things aren’t even carnivore. but tiny so work in a pinch).

Meanwhile eggs are great and beloved in all ages. They are just wonderful. I successfully missed or ignored the memo when it was popular to hate it (yeah some people never forgets those beliefs but it still got better and never was particularly bad here). Never stopped eating as many as I liked and I usually liked to have a lot. Not as many as now but still.

“Are you having cat litter or eggs for breakfast?”

I am sure vegan poets could say it nicer. For the inedible stuff, it’s the opposite for the eggs. I really don’t know how their mind works if they think I will stop eating meat and eggs if they call it corpse and hen menstruation It’s not how humans work when it comes to their tasty and even good food! I am choosy in a different way they are.

Wow, the beef! Jersey is a nice breed, produces the most beautiful cows with their lovely eyes

It’s HOT here. I use a fan as it’s not THAT hot yet in my room. I need to protect this room under the roof from the sun. Only the basics for now, it’s all dark when it’s the worst part of the summer and I move downstairs especially for sleep.

I made scratchings from the fattiest part of the pork roast I had (it’s the fattiest I use, the 70/30 “scraps”. already lost some fat during roasting but not enough), they will be lovely when I can justify them Yesterday I realized my food is too fatty, again. Maybe it won’t be so on OMAD, last week I managed lower-protein days and it will get better when I will have leaner pork again. It’s still not good that I just CAN’T keep my fat lower than my protein without using many extra whites or something. Even my tinned fish has more fat than protein. Chicken is almost as much fat as protein, egg has an 1:1 ratio but sometimes I add something fattier… So I get about 65% using the leanest stuff I can without organs, lean fish, lean pork or extra egg whites - and I have FATTY things I love too. And use a tiny bit of extra fat. My egg milks are fatty due to 4g butter or an extra yolk, oh they were amazing yesterday! And if I open some cream…
It may work, we will see though it’s tiresome to keep myself from my fattier items when I don’t really want them (if I want them, I eat them, it’s simple. but it’s tempting anyway. I opened my pork belly package so I need to be a tiny hero. it’s for making a traditional dish just with eggs without eggy pasta. and for emergencies. and making my scrambled eggs lovely, I will use more whites, it works but Alvaro’s cheesy fluff needs them for now) but I am really curious what would happen if I got my minimal protein without eating a ton of fat. I suspect I get satiated with less fat. Just a tad less. Adding fat doesn’t diminish the protein need, I know that much (that’s how I eat over 200g from both, eating fat… it’s fun once or twice but I am on a mission now) but OMAD may lower it. But what would happen longer term…? No idea and I am curious. It’s good as I gladly put more effort into it and don’t just eat too early. I think I got better at waiting until I really need it (or it gets a tad uncomfortable).

Sorry, got carried away again. So I just focus on my IF and carni now, get my lovely lean pork and we will see

[Karen18]

So yesterday i was up just before 7am stair running then outside for coffee and books. It is lovely weather at the mo and set for the week which is nice. Struggled to fit in the run to CF and walk home tho as i am officially kitty sitting for the week. I had to leave earlier to get to other side of local town where my daughter lives, sort out litter trays and food and dash to CF in the car of course then to the other local town for bank, order meds, get printouts and copies of docs for complaint to then send from the post office. The pharmacy was closed gor lunch so although i had eaten a cheese omelette earlier about 11.15 ish i went to cafe for a cuppa while waiting for pharmacy to open and decided to have 2 eggs 2 bacon and 2 sausage! It wasnt as nice as normal but then i wasnt as starving as i usually am when i go in there. Ate the steak before going round to my daughters again to feed kitties and have some cuddles and play time.
In between all that i visited Raymond in the rehabilitation centre
Also did CrossFit workout

This morning up at 6am stair running, coffee and books in garden then helped neighbour with their dog to vets for spaying. She doesn’t travel well in the car. That took much longer than the expected drop off and return home … almost 45mins longer so i am stressing as i have a tight schedule finally got home with a tight window to get to my daughters house for kitty sorting and then to CrossFit. It felt hard today as i had cooled down far too much from the stair running so i just did me and plodded through it. Having said that i did incredibly well with the Deadlifts and lifted 90kg, just 15kg under my pre covid/pre Stroke PB!

Went in The Company Shop on the way home and picked up 3 ribeye and 3 rump steaks, pack of cooked chick thighs, 2 packs of cooked smoked bacon rashers, 2 packs of cooked chicken slices, 2 goats cheese, 1 brie and 2x 1kg packs of frozen large beef burgers which i thought were a bargain at £4 per pack… hopefully they will taste good and there was 0.1g carbs in them so all good. Total £44. something

Started digging in to one packet of bacon rashers on way home and finished them off once home. Very nice too.

[SecondBreakfast]

@Karen18 YOU ARE ONE BUSY WOMAN!!! Wow! And, your finds at the butcher look outstanding!
@FrankoBear GORGEOUS Jersey steaks. Drooling at the sight of that lovely marble. Makes me jump for joy! LOL!

Fighting a migraine and waves of nausea for the past couple of days. Its on the left side, and those are usually much worse than the right side - AND last longer. Almost lost it again this morning, which is odd bc the nausea usually subsides the first day. So, dealing with that. Anticipated where the migraine was heading, so I called off work -in advance. Its like the second time I’ve called off work in over 4 years - not something I make a habit of. I lenjoy working, but, not like this.

Eats have been good. Its warmer out now, and the appetite seems to fade quite a bit as the temps increase outdoors. Had some ground beef for lunch, and cubed chicken breast cooked in coconut oil last evening for dinner. That was plenty. Tummy is still feeling way off, so, not eating for the time being. Think I’m just gonna tinker around with the freeze dryer and see what else can go in there. Maybe work on getting some seeds started for the garden too.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

[Shinita]

I deleted some photos from the CF cards to ensure I usually will have some around to make my food pics… I think I never showed it to anyone as it only was as the original big one.
My fav tiny coffee cup (when it was all new, from times with a very different weather ;)). They all have freckles The others are green and blue, all are very cheerful and light

I will bring my food photo later. I had a smallish but quite nice lunch. Barely any egg, very meat-based!
I drank some coffee but I had a headache and felt miserable in general. It’s too hot for me so I couldn’t take a walk. Later. Some of my smaller plants are suffering too (I suppose they can’t handle sudden summer so easily either) and my daisies suddenly died. So we will get flowers which love warmth and the florist didn’t have them last time yet. They are small and cute.

We didn’t see Tofu since days I hope she is okay.

[Shinita]

Having said that i did incredibly well with the Deadlifts and lifted 90kg, just 15kg under my pre covid/pre Stroke PB!

Oh my That’s a lot to me! I never deadlift so I don’t know my weight… But I surely couldn’t do it. Okay, the two are connected… Right now I really want to go back to 2 workouts per week, I tend to neglect them here and there but if I do them, my weights go up slowly but nicely.

I need to try deadlift soon.

All your food photos make me hungry… Maybe I shouldn’t come here after lunch when it’s not a proper OMAD day… I will eat soon to ensure a tiny eating window (and no struggle with super hard satiation at dinner) so maybe it’s fine if I get hungry

[Karen18]

Hope you feel better very soon. I used to get loads of migraines but not so many these days… i had one either last week or the week before but that was the first in such a long time. Fortunately i can usually catch it as it comes on, take a pink migralieve and that usually does the trick, if i can’t catch it quickly enough then i take a yellow one and it generally goes away. Migralieve is the only thing that does it for me.

[Karen18]

Had a pretty good week

Dinner was 6 cold cooked chicken thighs with some mayo.

Went to my daughters to kitty sit and now back ho.e and feeling a bit weary so will be heading up for an early night very soon

Beautiful Astrid

And baby Ren

[robintemplin]

What a beauty.

[JJFiddle]

@Karen18 what beautiful cats! Now with Ren, a matched set.
Following Raymond’s troubles. Poor guy. I hope he’s out of there soon and back on the dance floor. I read a couple articles on troponin. They used to measure SGOT the same way, maybe it’s the same. A substance that’s only in the heart muscle but when measurable in the blood, it means there is damage to the heart. (Ok, I looked it up. Same idea but a different chemical.)
All these maladies! I keep seeing where a carnivore diet reverses everything (or most things) and we will all live to be 120+.
I’ve never had a migraine, I thought they were from food sensitivities, and an elimination diet could pinpoint the origin. Hubby gets them along with double vision, and they typically last for days. I knew 2 people in the AF Band who had them, and they both turned out to be cancer! So food sensitivity can’t be the only cause. Whatever presses on the nerves in your head, can cause pain. Hope it’s sorted soon @SecondBreakfast.

We work late when we work, and we work hard! So eating a bacon and egg meal at 1am doesn’t bother me a bit. On non gig days though, I usually break out the liverwurst and cheese at 5 or 5:30 and finish by 6:30 or 7. My non carnivore indulgences are coffee and grain alcohol. I try to keep them to a daily minimum but for now they’re a cultural thing. One shot, diluted with water; sometimes two. A 5 oz Nespresso grand lungo with heavy cream and powdered collagen in the morning.

This week I sous vided a little chuck roast that cooked 72 hours and lasted 2 days (2 meals). Very tender and delicious at $11- $2.25 a serving! There’s another one in the freezer. I’ll put that in tonight to get us through the weekend.

Here is some food:

Lastnight I put a chicken in sous vide, then today used the juice from the bag and some of the meat to make a gravy. I added ¼ teaapoon xanthan gum to thicken it, and some butter. Then stick blended it.

Wouldn’t let me post, too big a file, so I cropped it.

We heard today that our playing schedule has changed for the summer. We’ve been doing 5 hours in 3 restaurants, now we’ll play 5 hours Fridays (12-3 and 8-10) and 2 hours Saturday! (8-10). Same money. Probably less tips. I’m good with that. The last couple days of playing, arthritis has kicked up in my left hand, too much intense playing. So this will be a vast improvement.

ZC on all. You’re such an inspiration!

[Fangs]

great posts to read on the board!!!

@Karen18, baby Ren is adorable!

-----------fast post again guys. super busy. I am coloring my daughter’s hair Lilac today. That is the color she wants for graduation. oh well She has been many colors thru this last 18 yrs from orange, deep purple, every shade of pink and red and green and blue of course, now we got Lilac going down…haha

after her graduation on friday life should slow a bit. seems very active right now, alot on me it seems to get’er done on deadline dates ya know with alot of stuff to handle, so just going with the flow of it all but I want my very quiet life existence back sooner than later now

ZC fine. I made 3 very big country pork ribs. OMG THEY WERE SO GOOD…the melty big fat on them was delish. The big of crispy and super soft tender meat, wow to die for literally for me. YUM…could only eat 2 before that big yummy fat and meat shut me down Ate 3rd one for second meal. Such a fine zc eating day it was!!

seems we are getting close to June now too! wow it seems May just marched on by…June, June…SummerMeatMadness!? Yet we are not all in summer time are we, lol…let’s name June everyone.

[SecondBreakfast]

Good Morning all!

Not feeling hungry at all, so maybe a good day to fast? Headache ended yesterday afternoon/evening.

Eats have been eggs, butter, a little chicken, not a whole lot. Just not that hungry. Might be a phase the body is going through.

Good thing to have taken a day off yesterday. Today is only a 4.5 hr shift, so that is good. Washing the doggie beds today, and doing a little garden work before my shift starts.

@Fangs Have fun w the haircoloring!!! Lilac sounds gorgeous! I’m cracking up at the timing of the post…as I’m sitting here with some Loreal Preference working the ole grey roots here!

[Karen18]

Yes guys furbaby Ren is a beaut i xan tell them apart by Astrid being a bit bigger, tho she is really still a small cat and Ren much slimmer and their beautiful eyes are a different shape., Astrids are big and round and Rens are almond shaped. I love them both… Ren is a cuddle bug

Up at 7am stair running, into the garden for coffee amd books and off to Sians to feed the furbabies. Straight on to CrossFit. Got there in time to warm up with a couple of laps running (400m) then bike for 50cals and a bit of other stuff. Good workout today with a PB on strict shoulder press and nearly went into the 3rd round of a 2 round for time workout duh! Fortunately the coach noticed I had got back on the rower and asked what round I was on lol! i get a bit carried away lol

Home at brunchtime just after noon and cooked up a packet of 12 cumberland chipolates which i split in half to fry and they were delish… i enjoyed every single one of them

Went to visit Raymond, spoke with the doctor and Raymond was a bit happier.

Ate a couple of chicken thighs and a bit of cheese when i got home. Now at my daughters again for cuddle time and about to feed and leave them.

[Shinita]

@Karen: Beauties Ren is sooo very elegant in that pose… Cats are wonderful. We have no black cats but a black tomcat often comes to visit. It’s much calmer that all 4 girls are neutered… I love variety in my cats and variety they offer, both looks and behaviour wise…

@JJFiddle: Good your new schedule will do good to your poor hand. You are my hero, diligently working and spreading joy and whatever nice things music can do to us!

@Fangs: Wow, lilac I can only have a teeny-tiny tint and keep to reds and eggplant (I want that next). Alvaro had bright orange and green and super light blond ages ago… I don’t abuse my hair and my deep brown is super stubborn but a tiny hint is fine by me.

Tofu came home but left again… She didn’t understand why I must hug her so much

[I wrote this yesterday.]
I have photos and I tracked. Wonderful day, around 120g protein and fat, TMAD in a 3 hour eating window (my second meal was in 2 pieces as I had a hard time with eating again, I needed food but didn’t want it. but I made it happen).

Lunch (it took ages for me to bring the photo so it’s yesterday’s lunch at this point):

The small plate has my jellied fluff, sometimes it looks like this as I mix it up before it manages to get a lower jelly part with an upper fluff. It harms the fluff and the thing gets bumpy and thin but the gelatin goes everywhere. This one wasn’t so great as it had no cream, only butter. Still useful.

The main part of dinner, the traditional dish (minus flour, much better this way). I ate it so very many times in my childhood… Egg, quark, sour cream, fried pork belly, black pepper too as I remember it being part of the traditional recipe, at least in our household. Hmmmm… I really don’t need black pepper in anything anymore. I used to LOVE the thing.

I got satiated in no time but I stuffed myself with some pork hock and finished my leftover dessert too. My satiation was long term. 3 hour eating window is apparently small enough on a normal day.

[Shinita]

Today’s lunch (and part of the tiny dinner and one quiche and some meat remained):

I never made such a wonderfully baked quiche muffins before!

It was a hungry day. My protein is wonderful (130g, it’s not so hard to keep at the minimum when I have 2 very close meals. even with some bites outside of them as I did today), my fat is anyone’s guess, maybe 160-170g…? Maybe not. I can’t tell but my meat seemed very lean. So I ate some scratchings (not in the photo)

And this photo can’t show the wonderful red beauty that one of our hazelnut bushes is… It’s called “blood hazelnut” in Hungarian and I love when the sun shines through its leaves and it does it quite often since the rainy times passed

We seriously underestimated its size when we planted it. Its partner (that is a normal, green hazelnut) is modest but this red one goes everywhere, grows like crazy and we need to cut it again as it almost completely blocks the path where I bring the bigger branches and sometimes whole little trees to the other compost mounds. We can’t put those into our normal one as we want to use the compost next year… So we put vegetable garbage, leaves, soft little weeds there.
The two hazelnuts barely yield any nuts, they are mostly decorative (especially the green one. I saw it even from the kitchen. the green one is still behind some thujas but all thujas are dying in this country) and the green is our first flowering plant (in February? something like that. it’s not a big sight but it’s fun I find the simplest things hilarous… and years may pass, I don’t change, it’s still fun).

Alvaro brought some lean pork, I will fry it tomorrow. The leanest parts will be fine with some smoked pork hock skin and fat, I make meatballs. But afterwards I get out some chuck from the freezer, it will be wonderful. It turned out that the sausage in the freezer is easy to cut even when frozen, it’s good as it is in huge pieces and I use it in moderation as every processed meat. But it has a great taste, the flavoring is spot on according to my tastebuds. It’s easy to eat too… It will help me out so much in the next weeks!

June is getting near. IDK when we will have fruits but it will be minimal so I don’t plan to change my ways yet. I don’t do proper carnivore even now but close enough, usually. I may try to be stricter next week. I am working on simplicity now. I have 6 items a day now (not counting fats and the tiny extras like condiments and whatever I fancy on the actual day…): egg, 2 dairy items, 3 meat items (2 proper, 1 processed). I can do this much now. On my pork chuck day it can go way lower

[Shinita]

I tried to wait for others but no one came and I have a new photo… Quite bad, I just can’t get the hang of it, it is even blurry now…

Today’s lunch plan.

Despite having a lighter day yesterday (fried pork and other things, it wasn’t carnivore but it was still keto and pretty good), I only managed to eat half of this. Wow. Just like with OMAD, my about 3 hour eating window results in smaller meals, apparently.
I got hungry 1 hour after lunch and ate a bit and I did it around 6pm too despite not really wanting food. But I could eat my leftovers and hopefully I will be satiated and satisfied for a long time.
I ate most of the things in the photo (except some fried pork), some cheese, some sponge cakes, creamy coffees and my leftover fluffy dessert.

And I somehow had eat another mini meal, so it was 4MAD in a 4.5 hour eating window. 120g protein, 100g fat or somewhere along those lines. A nice fat deficit in my world. And my half-workout went very well and my anti back ache exercises worked well too, lawnmowing still hurt my back but it always does.

Tomorrow we travel by car and by train among some nice parts of the mountains We planned to take that little train since long but now the trees got foliage… I packed a box with mostly pork but I bring some cheese and sponge cakes as well.

[FrankoBear]

Very much enjoyed this podcast episode driving home from the city last night. Can you believe the interviewee is in her fifties!

[Pjam]

@Shinita
I think belly pork is the overall winner. It’s my favourite food. Never fails. And really versatile

[Fangs]

Sorry I been MIA on chat a bit but I finally GOT THE KIDDO GRADUATED! Wee…it was a nice graduation and all went well and she is smiling that she is now on her way to college! Yippee…

omg graduation was over around 10pm or so and of course kiddo was hungry. Surprised she didn’t go out with friends but she said nah, she was tired, lol…and would party up with friends over summer anyway so she wanted McDonalds on the way home. YUK!!! I used to do ok on some fast food burger meat, got a double quarter lb’er with cheese, 2 patties and I gotta say, taste was not up to my taste standards, geez, right HAHA and it set so hard on my guts eating so late at night. Even woke up this morning with guts feeling super icky…not a doubt on that.

No food til eating out tonight. We booked a fine dining restaurant for tonight as her grad dinner so I will just hold off eating and will order a nice filet mignon and maybe lobster tail and ‘send her off’ in good form for surviving high school HAHA

My zc is going very well. Dumping herbs/spices and eating ‘way cleaner’ has shown me marked ‘good improvement’ on daily overall well being definitely. Will continue to ‘clean’ eat for sure going into June.

Any June names? Anyone got a good one? JuneMeat-a-thon?