@Karen18 nice the birds are coming closer! Hope you sleep better tonight.
@Fangs You and hubby had a good day, minimal dental work is still expen$ive but it could be so, so much worse. How is your MIL with the rehab move? Is she with it enough to realize what’s happening? Hope she settles in comfortably.
Busy long morning til about 3pm today, long walk with the puppy this morning - I let her decide where we’re going and I just walk along behind holding the leash. Interesting because she takes different routes every day, This morning’s walk was long, about an hour and a half. Then after coffee, I went for groceries and errands. At the PX on post I got a set of Henckel’s knives with the steak knives at a really good price. I checked them on Amazon, just the steak knives were $10 less than this whole set with block. To celebrate I bought two Porterhouse steaks at the commissary. Oh boy 
I got a rotisserie chicken at the commissary, plain as they could offer. John had a breast and I ate the rest! It was a really small chicken - could it have been a pigeon?? LOL
Took a nap afterward and woke up with an icky feeling tummy. Just water since then, I don’t think I’ll want much more today.
Meat Chewin' June - June 2022 Carnivore Chat
My dad had 6 brothers. Large outdoorsy farming men. Some became builders and bricklayers. Middle Northern European ancestry. Never bothered with food pyramids. Just ate farm food they raised and grew from the land. There are 3 uncles left. Well there were at the start of last week. Suddenly it seems they were all in their 90’s. Dad was the one who became civilised, went to university, and lived a ‘soft’ life in the city according to his older brothers, then passed in his late 70s. He was the youngest brother and youngest age to die. Rapid onset and fulminating dementia is the lesson from my father I aim to avoid.
Two of my uncles, on opposite sides of this country, recently retired to age care homes, were trundling along well, terrorising the staff with their lively senses of humour, boisterous farm boys. But just this week, suddenly, they have become gentle, according to my cousins. And within a few days they are now abed and on morphine IV drips (for fear of death being painful?). It happened outwardly just one week to the next. Full of life to departure gates, no waiting room. Cripes, there is a lot to learn here.
One uncle’s family is Christian religious. I am not. But I remember him being kind to me when among my uncles all bashing me with their bibles and beliefs. Their love was expressed in their concern for my eternal soul. I enjoyed the get togethers we had, the bustling German aunties with all types of love baked into their 1960’s cakes, their alien world of myths and stories and sudden bursts of prayer. Wow, they could sing. Often in German, so I lost the thread, but seven large men in harmony is pretty powerful.
The corresponding aunties have gracefully departed as well. Often in synchrony. The common theme with them was they enjoy a family event with their descendants, a together gather of their children, children’s children, and decide to take a short rest before finishing the cleaning up, and storing of the leftovers (family events were never under catered). The short rest turned forever.
I still have an uncle and aunty, and my mum, up in the city. But I’m not going to deliver COVID to their doors. There will be a funeral or two to attend soon. They seem to be the most common family catch-ups at the moment.
Mrs. Bear is out and lively in the world. Busy as a bee. But @Fangs might be interested to hear that Mrs. Bear bit down on an olive pit and fractured a pre-molar tooth. The dentist said he has been seeing fractured teeth a bit more commonly post COVID infections. We have health insurance that includes major dental work. But the quote for high tech 3D modelling and repairs is the price of a small used car. When the dentist was examining Mrs. Bear’s teeth they said, You were a vegetarian or a vegan when you were younger. They could tell from the jaw shape and bone density.
Sorry everyone, mid-winter today, slightly maudlin, leads to considering life lessons and existence. It’s a time for expiration. A time for breathing out. If we don’t breathe out there is the risk of explosion.
I’ve moved back to chicken soup at night as it eases the COVID hangover cough at the sudden evening temperature drop. Warm, cosy, wood fire. Current breakfasts of eggs and bacon are happening at about 2pm or 3pm in the afternoon. We are having bursts of winter sunshine these few days and I go and sit out in it as a priority. End of semester administration and college student marking has been completed. I got through it all while holding the COVID virus on a short leash. It means I can find some time to create art, and draw and make animation, before my managers come sniffing about with a list of tasks they don’t want to do. One coffee a day. Still no sense of smell nor taste. Coffee is a bitter experience. I can’t seem to avoid it as it still lights up my thinking.
The eucalypt trees blossom on their own calendar and keep the song birds and bees fed through these short days. This is Spotted Gum blossom.
Oh @FrankoBear I do love the way you write and love reading your posts. If you wrote a shortish book I with your reminiscing and thoughts I would most definitely buy the first copy. I don’t say that about many writers but I have found the odd one or 2 that I have enjoyed. I can’t do novels, disappearing into a fantasy world is not for this realist and I have always preferred non fiction. Please never apologise for putting words on paper, you do it so well. I found it very interesting and especially interesting that the dentists remarked about Mrs Bear being a vegan/vegetarian in her youth and the way it changes or forms the jawline. I was going to say who’d have thought but it is quite a logical observation !
I love FB’s post also! More power to him and Mrs. Bear but I feel for Mrs. B hitting that pit…the pits are the bad guys, and darn if it didn’t nail her tooth and I hope it goes easy on repair
Sorry you are fighting your fight being ill but I have to say FB you are doing very well thru what you are tackling!!
and I so enjoy everyone’s posts on this thread, I don’t have one doubt in my mind I love reading all you guys!!!
--------------tooth handled. done.
mother in law in ‘rehab’ for assessment and we are ‘now catching’ up truly on what the hell is going on or what we face so…wait, see, learn more but at least the chaos is controlled right now where we can get a grip.
MIL is a ‘real deal’ hoarder house so me and hubby chatted how to handle that mess but luckily MIL has big funds where we don’t have to sell this property ASAP to fund her future care so we got time and options…but with the amt of work with barns to handle, small trailers and out buildings filled to the max with farm stuff, old furn. and more we NEED to chat how this is gonna go down to even pretend we can get this hoarder property to sale. OK that can be diffused for later thought LOL I can’t handle alot of that too much now 
-------I am off.
I am having mushy gut issues. I am eating way less than stellar for me and where I should be. I hit that I don’t care but I also had bouts of eating like nothing then eating alot of processed like some hot dogs and melty cheese and sugar free popsicles and hitting fast food crap without the bread etc. but my body is saying literally YOU BEST STOP! ZC your way, the best way and my eyeballs are seeing this so yea, I will.
Told hubby my willy nilly who cares about my eating is now not acceptable and now I am BACK IN ZC FORCE in my brain and he best stop asking to eat this crap, get take out and more. I said enough is enough…hard crazy chaos times doesn’t mean we have to go down with the damn ship ya know. We must stay about that chaos for our best and I sadly say I am iffy on that one LOL A few good rum drinks helped me too and that gotta go by the wayside also.
I hit near a meltdown. Hit near being so overwhelmed. Hit ‘too many damn emotions’ coming to surface. Dealing with hubby’s emotions and support for him and then I found I was starting to lose me ALOT and it is not time to ‘evaluate all of life and mine/ours’ right now but get thru the issues and see where I stand…but I got a serious what do I want my last 20 good years to be? I know what they should be and will work for that effort and one of them is ZC ALL THE WAY BABY!!!
never lose sight of my daily life, lifestyle, that overall well being feeling, that health factor, and vitality factor getting older by the minute is my new focus. I can’t control so much but I sure can help me as I hit into the ‘golden years’ and ‘are they so darn golden?’ hmmmm
I don’t know, another ramble and blabber from me LOL
but carnivore is me and it suits me and being off what works for me at this point is showing its bad side big time now so in my tiny little ol’ brain I say back to me now.
ZC Strong guys!
Maudlin. Such a poignant word.
I always wonder if the move to a care facility creates a shift in our perception of how we are doing”. And a shift in our self perception is a shift in our entire world view and suddenly we don’t see beyond the windows of our little room. Our spirit becomes cramped. And withdraws and gives in to our confinement. And just the word confinement is enough to make me want to escape.
Just some maudlin musings here too.
you know it is the opposite for my mother in law. her home was her confinement and isolation trap. actually a care facility is going to open her world up to human contact again and maybe that golden oldie community group she can be part of.
kinda interesting how facilities can make or break I guess
Such a philosophical day in here! Maudlin indeed, I guess the cycle of birth and life and death goes on but how we take in each moment - whether we remember to exhale to avoid exploding (!) and whether we consider a facility a prison or an opportunity.
My mom hated the “joint” as my father in law called it when he was in one. I always said if I had to be in one I’d consider the quiet and opportunity to write and draw a huge gift. @Fangs I’m glad your MIL considers it the latter - it makes it so much easier for you and hubby!
You might be waffling a bit but you’re still ZC and that puts you miles ahead of any other “diet” where we just have to take a break - a few hot dogs or a small amount of sweetener and then right back to real food, not really a “break.” There was a time I know I couldn’t have stayed that true to myself. You’re fine and you know how good you feel on real food, and you’re there.
Walking the puppy this morning I talked to a guy who’s lost about 50 lbs and recommended the local medical care facility for diet counseling. He said, you’re doing great on your animal based diet but once you finish losing your weight, go over to this place and they’ll put you on a great maintenance diet. I was like, thanks but I don’t think so, but he just kept insisting. People don’t get it.
The thing I’ve found out in my 55+ years of dieting is that whatever you do to lose the weight - or regain health, reverse heart disease or whatever - that’s what you have to do to maintain. I have done regimens with mainly exercise but find I don’t stay on it. I do genuinely enjoy this woe and LOVE the simplicity of it. From my current standpoint I can’t imagine a healthier way to live through the next 20 or 30 years.
@FrankoBear all those uncles, and I just wish we knew one person amongst all our family members who had done something like we’re doing so we could see the difference in the way they aged from the general population in the civilized world.
We had rib eye steaks and the new steak knives were magnificent! For my “snack” tonight I had 2 duck eggs and Polish sausage which unfortunately I discovered to be lowfat upon opening it. Would have tasted better if regular - but still a nice meal and I hope to sleep well tonight.
Sunshine and reading for “breakfast”. Winter is a time for rest in the pursuit of recuperation. When one is diseased, and potentially infectious, an opportunity arises to be left alone. To be left alone to pursue health, rest, and recuperation. I am over the infection. But I see benefit in keeping that to myself. Society seeks to keep us busy. Is it to keep us distracted? If you are seen to be busy you are lauded and applauded. One dares not rest. To break against, or from, the fast pace of modern life. Break fast. On the other side of a fight, it’s a good idea to rest. And recuperate. I used to fight all the time when I was younger. The rounds in the ring, inside the circle of life should not extend into the infinite, until we are exhausted and begging to be knocked out. So, I break fast with sunshine on my skin and reading. The pursuit of rest, tranquility, and recuperation takes effort and resistance. Resisting the undertow, the grabby hands of managers, dragging us back to the world of business, task lists to fulfil, and the self perpetuation of the busy-ness norm where one who is seen to be getting jobs done gets given more work to do. Once our misdirected and manipulated hunger is under control one can discover that we have lost an appetite for relentlessly marketed ‘sweet’ life as served up in the mainstream.
Yesterday was 2MAD and 1 coffee. Coffee under contemplation, like any addictive drug, it’s the environment, ritual, and people that effect the experience as much as the biochemistry. I enjoyed a salty beef bone broth in the evening, as anything warm and soupy helps soothe the cough. The afternoon meal were eggs and bacon with some butter. 6 pm dinner was a Cattleman’s steak (a rib eye cousin cut) baked in the cast iron oven atop the wood fire stove. Some sides of liver pate and Jarlsberg cheese, and a playing card slice of fried sheep/buffalo milk halloumi. The winter feeding window has closed up a bit following a natural rhythm of reduced day light.
This is a granite claw flower. winter bloomer in the woods.
Ditto.
However, I think we can see from recent experiences that external factors, including stress, need that trusted foundation, that safe home. And we need to be adaptable. Like those responding to life challenges, Vic @carnivoor2 constantly in changing countries and cultures, and those of us with disease and injury to transform into knowledge and health. The spectrum of foods on ZC carnivore is a wide range from which to choose our approaches and responses.
I found this idea comforting. If one is generally a healthy elder that doesn’t require constant interference from health professionals and pharmaceutical dispensers. Somewhere that dietary choices remain one’s own and don’t conform to public health guidelines. To think it is a gift of time for gentle, reflective creative pursuits. A denouement of life.
Have you ever read the right thing at the right time exactly when you needed to read it? Well, this is one of those times. Thank you @FrankoBear.
@Fangs, such a good point! My mom went to a facility that provided a lot of opportunities for socialization and community. Unfortunately she focused on her “need” to be there as meaning she was entering the last stage of her life.
It’s all in our individual perspective, isn’t it? It was silly for me to expect my mom to suddenly change her personality and blossom into a social being.
I am beyond thrilled for your MIL!
Well I forgot to post my day, so enthralled I was by @FrankoBear 's musings. I am so easily distracted 
So it was 50 stair runs and off to the CrossFit Box for a pairs wicked wod lol then home and bath/hair wash and got ready to go back to the Box for a bbq. Now I think I have mentioned plenty of times I am not really a socialiser and have to mange my anxieties in these settings. So I had a good think about what I am anxious about which turns out to be standing around either on my own feeling a spare part or standing in
a circles of groups with everyone talking to each other and zillions of conversations going on at once, that would surely do my head no good whatsoever!
So I packed the folding table and folding chair i use in the garden and organised my infuser with some earl grey mit chillies and set myself up in a good little sunny spot to drink tea and people watch. Took my own hot n spicy chicken wings to pop on the bbq too. Well everyone said oh that was a good idea and I don’t think i spent more than 5 mins on my own, everyone and their dogs (and kiddies) came over to chat. Probably thought I was lonely hahaha but I did keep informing them I was a happy people watcher lol. I ate some of my wings which took ages to eat cos of the people talking to me and a single sausage and 2 polish sausages. Was only going to stay an hour and half but ended up staying almost 3 hours!. Gave one of the girls a lift home before heading to mine and finishing off the wings. Coping mechanisms worked a treat but I felt totally exhausted by the time I got home, head was a shed from the music, listening to people talking over it and of course myself talking over the music. Sat outside for a couple of hours at home so basically the whole day spent in the fresh air. You’d have thought I would have slept like a log … hmmmmm nuff said!
Still felt tired this mornng and pottered around outside in garden, bit breezy, the winds were gusty but still mild. Had 2 duck eggs scrambled for brunch then took Raymond to the Garden Centre for a catch up and it was still gusty but nice enough to sit outside.
Came home and starting cooking this bad boy
thought it was going to take an age but I turned the heat down and left it a while then flipped it over for same and it turned out so nice. I had bought this Daddy Beef Burger especially for the bbq yesterday but had to stick it in freezer as it had been reduced in price. Even defrosted i thought I might be waiting sometime for it to cook and also guessed people would be thinking i was a right greedy b*gga
Added a few knobs of special butter with it mmmmmm!
Work tomorrow … again … and 2nd IHR meeting with the Governor. In work Mon and Tue this week 
Just watching the greatest festval on Earth (Glasontonbury), so i haven’t be too active this weekend lol.
Chicken soup last night plus some sliced smoked salmon rolled in Jarlsberg cheese slices. I call them cigars. Post (2hrs) salmon and eggs breakfast. Blood glucose 6.3mmol/L and blood ketone 0.1mmol/L.
Doctor’s appointment for a flu vacc, postCOVID cough control, organised some blood test requests for July, and health discussion. Have incidentally lost 9lbs this month. Amazing COVID diet. Tom, my doc, still holds to the idea that reducing calories in and increasing exercise is the way to lose weight. I agreed it is a way to lose weight. I said I felt a bit worn down with fighting off a virus infection to jump back on any treadmills.
… and a carnivore’s dream.
@EssenSturm
not sure what post you are referring to about a cardiologists nightmare?
@FrankoBear
lost 9 lbs. when I was ‘dieting’ back in the day anytime I lost lbs. thru feeling sick and just starving them off mostly, I would say ‘hey sick lbs lost count too’. I hope you round the bend and start to come back on a good upswing and get over this mess you have nailing you!!
I remember your egg rollups. You ate alot of those when you started coming into carnivore long ago!
@JJFiddle
so right people don’t get it. interesting thing is if the person is ‘put on’ a maintenance plan, it will be interesting to see if they hold it. Most never do. That carb creep is OH SO real. So happy you are loving your lifestyle!
@Karen18, a happy people watcher! I like that. I think with the way your head works now that overwhelming loud conversations and action around you would truly hurt your head, smart to avoid that one. It does sound like a great time tho even tho everyone was invading your chicken wing eating time HA
-------for me still eating a bit strange. I have 0 desire for steak.
WTH? a few things I am sure. Summer and high heat. I just eat lighter anyway during this time so I think that is part of it. Anxiety and chaos and ‘the unknown’ coming at me I think is taking part of my appetite away. Which is probably alot better than old days when I would ‘feed the monster’ with crap and emotionally eat all the junk I could lay my hands on I guess
I feel bloaty and ‘thick’ and like my guts are off inside ya know. But I thought, might as well hit a weigh in since I haven’t checked in a good while and kinda didn’t want to thinking since I ‘feel like I gained weight’ but decided I best check me and I lost 2 lbs. Huh. I feel like I gained all bloaty and tired and discombulated in general, and I was sure I was up in some lbs, but I lost and I don’t even feel it at all.
yesterday I ate 3 scrambled eggs with bit of melty cheese and 7 thick cut bacon slices
then I defrosted Tbone steaks for us. hubby and kid ate their steaks and I said nope. I don’t want it. 0 draw to it so I ate 2 cans of tuna with mayo.
folding laundry yesterday I ate 6 slices salami and ate a few bites of leftover burger in the fridge along with a beef stick.
hunger level will hit raging sometimes and then when I go to hunker down into big meat I don’t want it.
while my eating is changed up and weird right now I am trying to learn little snippets about me and hunger and how I feel I get effected by my life and more in relation to food etc. I just find it interesting how we change thru whatever is happening to us and more ya know.
oh well…just mucking along!
today is visit to rehab/nursing home for MIL to bring her some items.
check in and see how all is going on her rehab and if she is walking more. I don’t get on deaths door one day with Drs saying all this bad and more and then in rehab days later and doing better and all? but who knows.
I need to hit grocery store on way home. Might grab me a big ol’ rotisserie chicken and call it a day. one for me and one for hubby
ZC strong guys…amazing that June is flying by so fast. July is coming and do we got any good July names? I barely remember June but at this point I say good riddance and move forward into that good future!
Each day has been a gift. Haven’t let much grass grow under my feet even tho I’m on vacation. Garden is pretty much completed, with the exception of a few transplants from the porch that need to get in there. We had high winds yesterday…54 mph. The last time that happened, all my tomatoes plants snapped off and died.
This year, to draw in some bees, I planted a small flower garden right in the center. Too lazy to build a raised garden bed, so I found a wood pallet behind the barn, slapped that bad boy down in the dirt and voila! I love growing things from seed, so with the exception of some yellow and orange marigolds, there are nasturiums (edible), giant pansies (also edible), Forget-me-nots, and one more I can’t recall…Asters mabe…
The garden, and cleaning sections of the house- those are my therapy sessions. Watching our 75lb shepherd puppy run around and chase houseflies is amusing as well. Feeling a bit crowded with things to do. Hubby has so much he has to do with his job, haying the field, chopping wood for winter…I pick up the slack. Honestly, at this point, I’ve no idea how I ever had time to work outside of the home!
We are going up to the lodge for a few days for our anniversary. Plan is to learn how to golf. (It has a 9 hole course). Go to the beach, relax a bit. (Its barely 1 hour away)
MIL contracted CDiff (2nd time) after being on another antibiotic for her 3rd UTI since the stroke. She is so weak. The staff is not performing oral care as the therapist instructed them. She has so much dried mucus in her mouth- she can hardly talk. I had enough of that and cleaned it myself last evening. Due to her weakened state, she was unable to do her swallow test last week. Hoping she improves this week. Since she is able to break down and swallow small ice pieces and popsicles, I made her popsicles out of coffee to use during therapy. She LOVES her coffee, and hasnt been able to have any since the stroke, except for a bit I put on the swabs for her. The therapist thought that was brilliant. Wish I’d thought of that sooner!
Dad is continuing to need support. He just called. got to go.
Not a good cardiologist! Go take a listen to Dr Stephen Hussey or to Dr Philip Ovadia. (I see you’re a fan of Dr Berry, he just recently did an interview with Dr Ovadia.)
I’m not sure if you realize that you’re in the carnivore corner of the Ketogenic forum but we’ve all thoroughly done our research on a carnivore diet, including listening to these brilliant minds in the field, plus many other brilliant doctors like Dr Berry and researchers. Above all that, we’ve learned from our own experience that plant based diets are not for us. They made us mentally and physically sick and now we’re thriving!
@SecondBreakfast
sending big 
No idea where a hug emoji is…but you are hitting it hard also!!
you sound very good thru it all and I applaud you big time.
I SO GET your farmer lifestyle and working outside the home at the same time you have SO much at home to handle. I did it all too!! You sound so competent and complete and I so love that about you!!
Pallets, oh yea, great for so much I used old stall boards for my kid’s little raised up garden, all from one stall that is deterioriating from the old barn LOL Made many a goat pen and more from pallets also when required for ‘fast what ya need’ when ya need it! 
Very sorry abut your MIL having issues. I know the nurses said my mom required that ‘oral care’ cause when in bad states everything dries out and I never knew all that but they handled her ‘being comfortable’ so when I read that I thought of my mom. And you ice chip coffee and more is so smart, hey, us types think of what does it take to make it work and you did it!!!
Sending prayers to your family all gets better and evens out for ya!!
Checking in to the group, I’ve mostly just been eating raw steak, raw hamburger, raw beef liver, and raw beef suet. Ate cooked food for a few days last week and probably will this week too. But I just feel so much better on raw! I’ll save you the pictures 