Meat Chewin' June - June 2022 Carnivore Chat

[FrankoBear]

Day 6, Carnivore with COVID. Thought I was fine. But had a middle of the day doze just in case. No appetite. All cold and flu symptoms have gone as I type, but I did have some coughing in the cold winter air this morning. Breakfast at 4pm = cured bacon wrapped around duck liver pate. Then 2 x baked lamb shanks in the cast iron oven over the woodfire. Left about 3/4 of the 2nd one to eat as cold leftovers tomorrow.

Fasting blood glucose at 4pm was 6.7mmol/L and blood ketones 0.3mmol/L. The meter advises my average reading over the past 7 days was 6.7mmol/L (121 mg/dl). That blood glucose is a bit high. But I reckon it’s a stress response. COVID didn’t knock me out of ketosis. I’m going to say it here, but I think that having my eating sorted was a great help for a short illness and (hopefully) a full and fast recovery.

Dr. Ben Bikman on getting out in the sunshine, and the effects of cortisol on blood glucose. (I like these short Instagram posts he produces)
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cd_l8Hujmoo/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

It has been an interesting first two weeks of Meat Chewin’ June. Totally off the trail for any early June goals or predictions. Even so, staying on plan. We also have an influenza (winter) outbreak in the city - waiting for me when I head back up to work.

I’ve been taking regular self portraits while on WOE for 2022 as a form of diary. I think this moment is celebration enough to bring one into the thread. Any hint of Viking?

Celebrating with an unflattering survivor self-portrait (love the Covid bedhead).

[Fangs]

@FrankoBear
Hey Grizzly!!

throw a bit of a big ol’ smile on your face and we might have a match and by the way, I find Grizzly very attractive so yea, you are a good lookin’ guy and a fun character to chat with for sure
Love your picture!!
no rifle and pet Grizz…you got a surf board and Billie!

wow…influenza outbreak on top of all the other crap the city is gonna give ya, like stress and insanity and chaos…sounds like none of us can win in the city LOL

great post FB. You sure are finding your way very solid on this zc lifestyle and doing so well!

edited to say: I knew I know you from your pic and darn if it didn’t dawn on me now…you remind me of my best friends hubby, Rex… he was a dairy farmer his whole life til he took retirement like 5 yrs ago…he looks darn near just like ya with the hair and beard LOL I knew you seemed ‘familiar’ to me ya know…ok just a chat on an interesting note to me

[Karen18]

I did eat the burnt offerings and very nice they were too lol … I am just glad I didn’t leave it for the full half hour blast like I do in my fan assisted oven, I only had it blasting for about 10 mins! No tooth breaking with my crackling, just crispy and crunchy and very very tasty!

Astrid the dragon cat lol from a Disney film all Sians cats have been named after characters in Disney movies. She really is the sweetest loving cat, she was loving the crackling too all cupboard love me thinks

[Karen18]

The thighs were very tasty but I shouldn’t have cooked them all at once as I knew I’d eat them all and then I needed big jobs in the middle of the night and a bit of gas had built up just in between my rib and hip on my right side so I spent a bit of time shifting that I couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards but really felt tired so dragged myself downstairs to watch a bit of boring TV, lasted about 15mins before thinking I had to go back and try again and fortunately dropped off again. Was up for work at 4.45am

[SecondBreakfast]

Weather sometimes dictates what I feel like eating. Like today… cool air and med-heavy rain. For me, that is a soup day. Wasn’t really hungry until now, so just fasted for the morning. So, I made egg drop soup. Beef gelatin doesn’t really thicken it until it cools off, tho. Tasty, nonetheless!

[Ketodaisy]

Last 2 days:
Yesterday we got up early, I made a quick omelette 3 minutes before we headed out the door and I scarfed it down. We drove 3 hours to the southern part of the state for a renaissance festival. While at the festival, I ate a sausage and steak. Both were supposed to be on a stick, neither were. I definitely wasn’t full, but that was a ton of money for a tiny bit of food. We stayed until the festival closes, then my husband wanted a nice dinner and we found an Applebees. They were ill equipped to handle the crowd and it took several hours to be served. I had a bun less bacon cheeseburger. Then we made the 3 hour drive home and it was almost 2 am. I slept in a bit and started work at 7, but was barely functional, so after doing some work, went back to bed for a while. Then I made an egg, bacon, ham, butter and cheese casserole. I had a bowl of bone broth jello while it cooked. I started with 2 slices, had my protein water, then got a third slice. Worked late to make up some time, then worked outside longer than expected. Had planned on burgers, but didn’t feel like putting the effort into making them, so had 2 more slices of cold casserole and another protein water.

[FrankoBear]

The lack of sleep and mis-timed eating must have been a downside to the cultural event.

I had a bowl of bone broth jello while it cooked.

Daisy, do you supplement Vitamin C (C is for collagen synthesis, according to Ben Bikman), to optimise the beneficial effects of strong collagen in the body?

Side note: from a Ben Bikman snippet - most people supplement Vitamin C in a sweet tablet form. Or they think Vitamin C is via a sweet fruit or berry. But the uptake for glucose and Vitamin C is a competition between them, and Vitamin C uptake can be hampered by the presence of sugars.

[Fangs]

keeping it real simple

90/10 ground burger, a lb. mini meatloaf for first meal
still wanting my alfredo, so will do chicken breasts in alfredo again today. yum

[Shinita]

Flowers! Kitty! But the meats are nice too.

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I just popped in before you reach zillion new comments here. I decided to have a carni day (okay, I have been planning that since days just things happened), I need a break.
This was my lunch. Not just the photo, I ate exactly this! (And a little leftover pizza sauce as the meat crumbles were a bit dry for me. It even fits my carnivore-ish if I have a good reason and it’s occasional.)

Scrambled eggs with a tiny sausage and some bacon (I have no lard, I will roast some nice fatty pork chuck next time as it gives me some!), a piece of quite fatty pork chuck, a single sponge cake muffin and my beef-pork-egg crumbles. I still consider brisket extremely tasty and the grounding made it not chewy, yay! I couldn’t add much fat to it so it was a tad dry but it was really nice. I used bbq spice on it, I only use sausage spice on my pork. For some reason if I ground my meat and mix with eggs, spices are too obvious, I can’t imagine it without them. Though pork, beef and eggs, all are so tasty, it probably would work… Oh well, next time. I put some of the beef into the freezer.

And I had a coffee egg milk. 1 egg + 1 yolk, some butter. I had many black coffees today as I had a headache. And a headache pill. The coffee seemed to be a tad more effective, I think I will stop trying the pill, it was ages ago it helped any. I can buy pork with that money.

Headache or not, I finally did a proper workout - if we consider using smaller weights than 2 months ago proper. I am weak as a kitten.

I try to be stricter with everything now. I still can’t skip lunch but as carni meals satiate me easily, especially if it’s only 3pm, it may work.
I haven’t the foggiest idea about my macros. But this looks little food. So okay for a meal on TMAD. 4 eggs, some meat… Yep, sounds good.

I probably will make sponge cakes for dinner, some smoked pork chuck is defrosting now.
And I want a very nice carni lunch tomorrow. Or no lunch at all. We will see afterwards. Another carni day sounds easy enough but I never get so very optimistic in June.

Oh and Alvaro was in the supermarket (he thought I can’t live without onions anymore. he actually is wrong. I can’t live without sour cream but I go in the town tomorrow so we can buy some) so he remembered what I told him and bought a little piece of pork thigh!!! The quite cheap thing with the price cap that is hard to get there as it gets sold out quickly. There were 2 pieces, 1.14 kg was the bigger one… So adorable but it’s fine, I have more in my freezer and I grab 4-5 kg in the weekend anyway, there is a supermarket chain that have it galore and it doesn’t even have the stupid 2kg upper limit. I like that cut much but now I need something fattier!

[Shinita]

most people supplement Vitamin C in a sweet tablet form

Oh I didn’t know that but not surprising, knowing people.
I can’t supplement anything but when I had a tiny extra here and there, that was ascorbic acid, super cheap and nicely sour I used it together with lemon as lemon tastes zillion times better but I can’t get much vitamin C from it. I think. I need to google.
Nope, I can’t.

But I never saw the need for supplementing vitamin C so I didn’t.
I just met people who were adamant they totally need 1-2-5-10 GRAMS of it for some reason.

I just know I always was fine and that if I eat very, very low carb, I need so little I get it somehow anyway. IDK how that works but I didn’t get scurvy even when I did my odd on/off carni times (okay, I basically always do them but not with the same ratio). Not even when I barely had any more vitamin C in my off times.
But maybe my tiny occasional lemon helps as it doesn’t raise my carb intake significantly…? Oh no, no one can tell what is with me and my crazy eating style. But as long as my body doesn’t complain, I am hopeful. It knows what it is doing.

This is just for vitamin C in general, for me who has no extreme need for it. Probably some people really could use more than what they get from their otherwise okay diet.

[Karen18]

Busy day today. Stair runs to start the day then to CrossFit and it was a hard session.

Came home and had a Gouda cheese omelette

Then started outside getting all the plants into pots and I had accumulated quite a few over the past week! I was outside for a good 4 hours potting and then clearing up. Sat down for a well earned brew and admire my new plants hahha

Then decided I would pop over to one of my CF friends to pick up some freebie pots. Unfortunately she had chucked the broken terracotta ones as I could have taken those for the pots but never mind she knows I will take them if she finds anymore broken ones lol.
Got back home and put the 2nd large packet of chicken thighs in the oven. 6 in this pack and they’re not small lol. There are two left in oven so let’s see if there still there for tomorrows lunch

Not sure if I mentioned or not but the meeting got adjourned for 2 weeks. I don’t mind really, the longer it takes the less time I have left to do!

[Shinita]

I wasn’t hungry but eating still seemed a good idea… So I finished the brisket crumbles (I only ate half of it for lunch, the amount on my pic), it wasn’t much as Alvaro ate some too.
Of course it triggered a full blown meal with pork chuck roast, smoked pork chuck, egg and eggy coffee… Even some mascarpone… But it was a good day I guess. It’s so odd I have absolutely no idea how much I ate but I feel okay and I didn’t eat unnecessarily I think. It was a workout day, the tiny lunch probably would have been enough.
But right now OMAD seems better. Tomorrow I will try to wait until hunger. I don’t know why doing it is so very hard! I can’t seem to able to do it even if it seems easy… But maybe if I focus a bit more?

[no food, just garden from now on…]

It turned out I have many little hemp plant this year!!! I only had one every year this far. They are so very pretty.
I never made a photo of my mock oranges but I have new flowers now. The last pansy died and the planter is full with petunias now. Well as much as it fits in nicely, I took out some. They grew like crazy in the last few weeks and the first bud appeared! I have no idea how they came, they are just there every year. Simple ones, nothing fancy but some are striped white-purple ones and that’s good enough for me.
The tall yellow flowers (no idea of the species name) made their empire bigger. They plan to rule the garden just like zillion other plants in my garden. And they are flowers so I pretty much let them going to places just like the petunias. My tiny vegetable patch is very chaotic, it has very many flowers (and a walnut tree. it just was there at some point). The outermost row is the flower row, I always put flowers there (I forgot about it this year and I had to make the patch bigger…) but there are many others, morning glory, petunia, calendula and the yellow flower. And clary but they have their own row… And they go everywhere and if it’s not too bad, I let them but not in my veggie patch, it is mostly for smaller flowers, not big ones that have too many specimen anyway… I don’t like them sooo much but they are flowers so why not? I am very indulgent with flowers. And decorative plants. Medick is decorative, I got out one from a bad place and fed it to the guinea pig today. I have a big flowering one in my garden and many young ones.

The plants still grow like crazy, weather is good, we had much rain and I couldn’t mow the lawn due to rain and today headache so things are a bit messy. My hawkweeds are in bloom and I am rooting for them, grass is so problematic, hawkweed is amazing so I won’t cut them now And I never need to cut them as they are so lovely and short… Except when blooming and making seeds, they are tall now. Still way cuter than the grass. I want them to win, at least here and there!
Sweet Williams (what name is this? many of what I use today are new to me) are amazing, they bloom beautifully under some big trees in the valley part of my garden, when they get sunlight…?
My orange lilies are almost blooming too. And I better stop now.

[Ketodaisy]

I don’t, because I haven’t found a form that doesn’t have sugar in it.

[JJFiddle]

If I take vitamin C I never take a chewable - so no sugar - but haven’t taken C since carnivore - 6 months now! Such a great woe.

So tired lastnight after performing - led a string quartet for a memorial. I was surprised to find the deceased was a famous political satirist. I’ve never read him but knew his name.
So yesterday I put together bacon, eggs and chaffles at lunchtime and we went afterward out for dinner, where I ordered a bacon cheeseburger, no bun.
Today I had a long day teaching, following a long morning, following a difficult night due to the heat. Eggs, ham and chaffles at lunchtime, air fried 4 chicken thighs during the hour break between my last 2 students - he ate 1, I ate the other 3😁. Most lessons are still online, far easier for me.

I’d finally gotten to where I could eat sour cream, after covid nearly a year ago. But today the bad smells came back with a vengeance, for cheeses and sour cream. Probably dairy I don’t need - but this may be permanent!

[FrankoBear]

Day 8 on COVID Carni. New phase. Through the fevers and aches. Now into the lungs and the harsh, dry, cough. So, I started the next phase of drugs. Back on to cortisone (this will mess me up a bit) tablets and a cortisone inhaler/puffer. Started on codeine to suppress the cough. Yet even I am still straining my rib muscles and pleura with the cough power. This is a stage that sees people go to hospital (post day 5). It can be the residual or ongoing inflammatory response. I was prepared with the puffer and heavy-duty cough suppressing drugs. However, if I make a mistake, and have a secondary bacterial chest infection, then I’m heading to pneumonia. I know the risk, and feel better for starting the new regimen based on the clinical symptoms. Still strongly COVID +ve on antigen testing.

Fasting blood glucose 6.4mmol/L (115 mg/dl) and ketones 0.1mmol/L.

I feel OK, though. Not well. Missing aromas. Thinking on their memories and tasting their bitter edges. Last night had left-over lamb shank from the fridge and some rough cut Jarlsberg cheese. I spent the evening sipping boiled rain water from the kettle as it was warm and soothing. Not directly from the kettle, but via a large pottery mug.

I forgot to have breakfast. Neither did I have a bone broth. It is 4pm and just the mildest hunger signals. I did have a coffee while sitting in the winter sunshine for half an hour this morning under the watchful eye of my Disability Support Officer (and coffee hound), Billie.

[robintemplin]

Aw, Mister Bear… be careful. I know you already are. But, you’re also an AFib Fighting Grizzly Bear. Be kind and gentle with yourself and seek help if warranted.
All the best juju heading your way.

[VirginiaEdie]

I’m sorry to hear you are having such a rough time of it. I hope you feel better soon!

[Shinita]

@FrankoBear: Sounds bad. I wish you to get better soon! Hopefully it won’t get to pneumonia!

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Another carnivore-ish day, at least this far.

I made tiramisu as I realized it’s ridiculously easy to do carnivore (unless someone has a stricter definition, mine is animal products and some spices, flavorings, maybe a little condiment)… The recipe was on the mascarpone cup lid as it usually is, IDK if you have that in your countries.
Once I even find an egg stew recipe on an egg carton That’s unusual. And it was useless as it had a fixed amount of fat and 2 eggs per person… And the fat sounded excessive even for 10 persons…

But I don’t give a carni sweet-ish desserts to Alvaro so his (way bigger, still not much, I just experiment and I need the mascarpone for other things too) is just low-carb.

No photos but I ate 310g smoked pork chuck, about 5 eggs and my tiny dessert… The latter was a bit frozen as I considered it a good idea to put it into the freezer… And pretty good! About the perfect sweetness. I only have this with mascarpone, IDK why it is so magical. I really didn’t miss any sweetener in it and considering my on/off style and my love towards properly sweet sweets, it’s remarkable. But again, mascarpone, it’s magic!

Today I was in the town, bought fatty pork and some quark. I miss sour cream but it was so expensive there and we will buy my way cheaper and fav brand on Saturday anyway. My life would be so much harder without the city supermarkets.
The pork is… Tiny. Alvaro is almost worried, mentioned past times when one needed a ticket to buy food… Even if it was way before we were born.
Oh well, I will grab multiple bigger slabs in the city and we will see what the future brings.

BUT! The local pig farm announced we can order fresh pork from them again (we never did, communication problems and whatnot… it’s probably expensive but surely amazing… but I already love the cheap stuff from supermarkets and money is an important priority)! We surely will try, I am curious. I know they have good stuff and they keep the pigs remarkably well… Pig farm pork chuck… It sounds like pure perfection to me.

Meat prices didn’t change lately. Good. Raising prices every few weeks would be problematic. But the chicken thigh went pretty much up. I bought some for 300 HUF/kg last summer (on sale) and now it’s almost 1000 HUF/kg (on sale). Chicken in general went up significantly but not THAT much. Thigh was that amazing little thing that had those insane sales. Not anymore.

HUF is Hungarian Forint. It always was weak (anything happens in anywhere, it gets weaker and I don’t even exaggerate, it’s what happens) but now it’s super bad.
In the past we had fillér too, 100f was 1 Forint. But now we don’t even have 1 and 2 Ft coins anymore as even 5 worth nothing. A bubble gum costs more.
We are in the EU since long but we have no Euro just our weakening currency.
Well when it suddenly gets weaker, our meat prices suddenly get lower in USD (AUD too, 1 AUD is 265Ft now. it was 200 some months ago. 262 a few days ago. 250 weeks ago) and that’s funny…

[coopdawg]

Lovely pup.

[SecondBreakfast]

@FrankoBear Sorry to hear all that you’re having to endure! Goodness sakes, that’s alot to deal with. Be patient with the process though, and rest. Praying for a complete recovery!

As for life here on the farm, I went out to feed the chickens last evening. Caught a glimpse of one of my cows behind the barn, and thought to myself…“That looks odd. Too many legs.” Got a little closer, and discovered she had a calf drinking from under her. LOL! So, we have a baby now…Nobby is his name. He is a bit wobbly, so he got the name for his nobby knees.

Plotted out a carnivore - IF-EF plan the last couple of days. I can just tell, from how my gut feels, that I really do need a good, long fast. But, that is not something to just jump in and do. So, staying carnivore (with the exception of my morning coffee), and eating on a 23/1 IF schedule. After a couple more days of this, I’ll move up to 48 hours fasting and go from there.

Pretty sure I mentioned this awhile back…but short recap. A few weeks ago, the left footsie was really aching alot. The hard concrete floors we have at work don’t help… but this was almost debilitating. (So glad I’m off for a month now! ) But anyways, I tried multiple different shoes, inserts, plantar fascitis sleeves, etc. Nothing. Explored some possibilities with a PT. Turns out, the first problem is extensor tendinitis. Big lump on the top/anterior ankle tendon that joins the leg to the foot. Second issue occurred when trying to shift weight to the outer edge of the foot- and I heard a metatarsal go “snap”. So, apparently one cannot just waltz (or limp as it were) into a clinic and ask for an Xray. A doctor must order the Xray. Phooey on that. Not waiting a month for a dr. appt. So, I tried to locally source out some Comfrey to make a poultice. None around here. Went online and ordered a 1 pound bag. In the meantime, I did what my dear Native American friend told me…and that is a poultice out of white pine needles. Apparently, the tea from white pine needles is especially potent and helpful for all kinds of ailments- (so @FrankoBear - you may want to try the tea. It does wonders for respiratory issues! ) So, I did the poultice for a few evenings and during the day for pain relief- and it worked remarkably well. The Comfrey arrived today, so I’ve made the poultice and have the footsie all wrapped up. Pain is already disappearing. For inquiring minds who want to know…Comfrey contains Allantoin (Skin cell repair) and rosmarinic acid. The acid is actually quite effective for relieving pain quickly.
For white piine needle tea, it is best done in an pressure cooker or insta-pot. Needles in first. Douse with vodke for 10-15 mins. Then add a few quarts of water. Pressure cooked for 35 mins. The alcohol draws out the non-water soluble compounds.

So, that’s it for today. Sipping water, coffee,and resting the footsie.

Have a good one, all.