My mom used to make elderberry flower omelets. You pour the egg in the pan, stand some flower sprigs face down in it, and snip off the green part. It adds a nice flavor to the omelet. It’s the only flower she used like a spice…
Meat Chew'n June! - ZC Carnivore 30-day Challenge - 2023
Geezy
#103
Hey y’all, just found this thread. Sorry I’m late to the party.
I started my ZC journey on the 9th of May and the month of June has been fantastic for me.
Today was a non fasting day so breakfast was a couple of eggs with some hamburger mixed in. The eggs are from our chickens and the hamburger is from our own cows.
Had a snack around 1:00 pm that consisted of a little beef jerky and a slice of cheddar cheese.
Then this evening we attended a birthday dinner for one of our nieces at a barbecue restaurant. I had a half pound of pork ribs and a half pound of jalapeño cheese sausage. No sauce and no sides. Amazingly enough I couldn’t finish it all.
There were wonderful yeast rolls with real butter and potato salad and pinto beans as well as lemon birthday cake and the amazing thing about it all was I had absolutely no desire, yearning or craving for any of it. Just the meat.
To borrow a phrase from another thread, I love the “freedom“ this way of eating affords me. There is no restriction when you don’t crave anything. Eating is so simple now. I gives me a feeling of empowerment over my life.
Naghite
(Michael)
#104
I have been busy and in general not taking photos. I am also running my next experiment which has taken me out of carnivore. However, still mostly there, so here is a pic from couple days ago. Love fatty steaks, but have also been working on lamb for a change as well. Anyway, 31 ounces.
Karen18
(Karen)
#106
My mum used to make elderflower and elderberry wine. Back then i used to drink (teetotal now 23 years) those were her best wines of all … the flower one was very delicate.
Karen18
(Karen)
#107
Welcome @Geezy. Nice to hear you are enjoying this woe. You’re certainly not late to the party … this thread runs from month to month. You may find that some peeps on this thread would prefer that when carby foods are mentioned that they are blurred. (I don’t know how to do that lol) anyway the mention of them doesn’t bother me but some only need to hear those little words or see pics of them to get them craving. I am not here specifically to lose weight, more for the health benefits and the ease of this woe which is why it probably doesn’t worry me. Plus i go to a friday tea dance and it is always someones birthday celebration so they bring all their goodies to eat…and when it’s no-ones birthday one of the guys pretends it is his 
everything gets offered round and stuffed under your nose so i practise great restraint 
Anyhow enjoy being part of this fab community, everyone is so nice and friendly and supportive and don’t forget to add some foody pics, ZC ones of course 
Karen18
(Karen)
#108
Took a rest day after all that exercise yesterday. Will be glad to get sleeping properly again, will take some more herbal sleepers again this evening, i didn’t take any last night … take them too regularly and they stop working!
So no stair runs today although i have gone up and down stairs quite a number of time anyway today. Legs felt a bit tired after using them so much yesterday, all the running and walking all day.
Sat and enjoyed reading in the garden with my coffee then gave it a good watering. We are due a bit of rain on Sunday… just as well we will be sitting on buses most of the day at the rally hahaha.
About 1050 i walked into Beeston which is about 2.5 miles-ish, met Raymond who had used his zimmer type walker with wheels and walked in. It isn’t as far for him but still a good walk considering he couldn’t even use his legs a couple of weeks ago! He is very determined to get back on the dance floor and he knows he has to be right for our dance weekend break in early september.
Walked about town, brunch in the cafe 2 fried eggs, 2 sausages and 2 bacon rashers forgot to take pic. Then a bit more shopping around the town before i walked back home. It was very hot on the way home with the sun ahead of me so i was ready to sit when i arrived home.
Ate some more chicken… nearly finished it… thankfully and then had a tin of salmon and mayo.
Here is another pic of the lillies that i took pic of a couple of days back… see how much they have bloomed and still more to open.
Geezy
#110
Good afternoon you wonderful carnivores.
I fasted till noon and walked a couple of miles. It felt so good.
For lunch I had leftover pork ribs from last night and I’m totally satisfied.
Now for a treat, this beauty.
An 18 pound beef brisket. The heart of Texas barbecue.
I trimmed 6 lbs of fat off of it.
Dry rubbed the meat, wrapped it and now it will sit in the fridge for 24 hour to dry brine. Cooking will begin tomorrow
In the meantime we get to extract that wonderful goodness called tallow. Rendering down all of the fat now.
This will be the end result. This is the last jar from my last brisket I trimmed.
Geezy
#111
@Karen18 thank you for the warm welcome and your advice. Everyone I’ve met so far seems very nice and supportive and you are no exception. I look forward to everyone’s support and I hope that I can someday help to inspire someone.
Karen18
(Karen)
#113
I’m sure you will with your enthusiasm.
Mi d you when you first mentioned you trimmed all the fat i nearly died … for me that’s absolutely the best bit but as you made tallow with it you are forgiven 
Geoffrey
(Geezy)
#114
Here you go @Karen18, rendered down and got three pints of precious golden goodness from six pounds of fat.
Great for cooking and frying. I will even add it to hamburger.
Then there’s the leftover chunks of fat that we in the south call cracklins. They are fantastic little fat bombs. With a little salt they take satiation to a new level. I like to eat a few when I’m eating leaner cuts of meat but I need that good bovine fat.
Shinita
#115
Nice flowers, @Karen18!
Hi guys, my Internet was off for days, they changed it for the better and supposed it will be all well… But it turned out we needed new router and transceiver antenna…
The birdies I watch on webcams grew so much and all the 5 redstart chicks have hatched! They are so, so very tiny, not like their parents are big 
Super cute birds.
I possibly will track (I worked on my notes so I should) and bring some photos, I think I did 1-2…
My days were quite similar. Lunch at 3, sometimes later, dinner around 6 and second dinner is around 9, once at 8:20. I just kept getting hungry!!! But my 3rd meal always did the trick. So no midnight eating, it’s something… Sigh.
I had my around-a-pound meat I suppose (usually some not very fatty but not too lean pork) - don’t expect much from my memory but that’s the plan lately, about a pound of meat, maybe a bit more now that I barely eat eggs… Little egg, hopefully not too much dairy but I can’t eat mostly meat… And my usual extras, I don’t even try to restrict myself and things go well, I mostly want my carni food. When I tried to be strict, I ate the same amount of extras but it’s more chill now… I have my limits but I am fine with them. I just want LESS meals a day 
This many meals (usually 3) means being hungry too much (not necessarily but likely) and other problems. I like my bigger meals and perfect satiation but I just can’t get them now. It’s not too bad but not ideal. Whatever, I practice my pound of meat and little egg style, I am sure it will help in the future.
Haven’t any idea about my macros, of course as I couldn’t track and I didn’t even eat simple. On Wednesday I had 16 carnivore items (and I counted all mostly egg stuff one)…
But I ate about 3 times every day (or 2.5 or 3.5 as snacks happened too) so no way it was little. But I ate leaner protein sources so it probably wasn’t much… But I had fatty items too… But not too much… So no idea but I guess I ate normal so I am sure it’s maintenance. It’s almost impossible for me not to be in my maintenance range, after all. It would require barely eating or overeating epically and I don’t do either.
Rainy times passed, finally. It’s warm and weather forecast says it will be hot (I will never leave the house… I already almost do that) but it’s not too bad yet, the house temperature is perfect and it’s dry, so so nice…
Maybe not for you. It would be for me as I wouldn’t know how to put this many…
Ooops. But… But maybe you can figure it out? I REALLY have very little sunlit places in my garden… That’s why I buy not so many seeds. But I totally can relate, it’s a JOY to see a wonderful wall of seed packets… Last time I bought some special beetroot seeds, it’s yellow and allegedly gentle and sweeter than the normal one. I basically can’t eat the normal one as it’s too sweet for me (vinegar helped in the past but I evolved out of it) but maybe Alvaro will eat it in the off chance the things will grow in my garden. My summer radishes were pitiful but there was a few quite flavorful, spicy bites for Alvaro.
And I hope I put my gladioluses(?) in places where they can bloom…
Flower or veg, it’s about the same to me, it’s gardening joy. But flowers are easier to make pretty.
Karen18
(Karen)
#116
All looks really good. I make cracklin when i roast pork shoulder. I can eat the whole lot straight off. Pork shoulder makes for the best cracklin and i have ot off to an art now
Karen18
(Karen)
#117
Up early with stair running then time to sit out and read in the garden with my coffee before running to CrossFit. It was a pairs workout today so i teamed up with a lovely young girl, in her early 20’s called Jesse. It was a very good wod but very sweaty and it drips into my eyes and stings, a bit of a nuisance and i had left my little hand towel in my gym bag and didn’t seem to get an opportune moment to grab it. Ran home before a bit of a shower set in then walked back to the Box for a Dynamic Shoulder workshop which was very good and then walked home afterwards for a bath and a bit of glamming up to be taken to the World all you can eat Buffet restaurant by Sian and Dave. Made sure I ate their monies worth lol as I was being treated and it was as good as always.
My Bus Pass arrived in yesterdays post, i didn’t retrieve it from the post box till I got home from that long walk back from beeston. I suppose I am now officially an OAP 
will be making the most of that baby and leaving the car at home for the most part… i have had to wait an extra 6 years for it as I have with the State Pension as you only get it at pensionable age. Yay! 
Shinita
#118
I tried to track this day (maybe I do the previous 3 later, I did all the work taking notes, after all). I was so good, only ate a tiny bit of chicken (half of my share, a few seconds) and not much pork, leaving some for tomorrow… Still over 220g protein, 120 from meat (620g meat? it seemed so little…). But I ate all day, basically, I was tired and hungry a lot. Not strongly hungry but not satiated and I couldn’t handle that now. I really go to bed early today. I mean 1am, that’s borderline realistic despite being quite early for me. Not being able to sleep until 4am took its toll. Meanwhile poor Alvaro wakes up barely past 4am…
I stopped my walks, not just because it’s summer so I try to stay still and inside (but I do my workouts in the nice cool house 
they go okay, I am improving but very slowly, need a bigger volume) but they got boring. I won’t do that for long but I skipped 2 days. It helps that I have lots of garden work (yeah I go out then but I come back super quick. one day I did some impressive lawnmoving in 8-10 little bursts) and I am in the terrace sometimes so I get my fresh air. Tomorrow we go to the wildlife park, I miss my walks. Did I say I saw 2 blue herons at the pond this week? It’s still boring in general, I have this 45-50 minutes tiny pond walk since ages, about 4 times a week. I had enough for a while.
The wildlife park is great but I need to cross a boring sunny strip next to the road… And I was there zillion times. The other forest only have 2 interesting flowers and it’s not their time now.
I do very tiny stationary bike cycling, I can do 0.8-1km at a time. I get overheated. My room starts to get hot, almost 23 Celsius. We will need to put the bike elsewhere. But it’s fine now.
I do wish to learn to run but when? I am too tired in the evening lately. Oh well, I am in no hurry, maybe next winter. (But I haven’t just give up yet.)
Shinita
#119
Welcome @Geezy! Carnivore gets more and more popular on this forum but probably in the world too? IDK, I only met ONE person who tried out just keto irl (zero for carnivore, no wonder) though I rarely meet people so it doesn’t mean much. But I don’t think there are many ketoers in my country.
This is a GREAT place. And we talk about life, not just the edible part And even I don’t get kicked out and I don’t even do proper carni. I do whatever I CAN, I have my limits - but I don’t even need to be so strict to get benefits. I do need to focus on simplicity though, I don’t know why it is so very elusive in my case.
I don’t want a brisket, per se (I dislike tallow, I am a lard person) but what a nice slab! I do love nice big slabs of meat…
@Karen18: So lovely lilies. We had beautiful ones at Grandma’s (inherited by Mom and later inherited by me but I sold it quickly, it was super far from me and so very dead without Mom… I loved that place), I want such ones again one day. White but with lovely brown dots.
Now I just have pure white ones and orange ones, a bit boring. But I am glad I have at least them. I really love lilies. Of course, I love many flowers (it’s like fruits, I have many favorites) but lilies are among my biggest favs.
But it’s so normal for super fatty meat… I do that with my 70/30 pork and sometimes pork shoulder too. That becomes my lard and crunchy fried loveliness! I consider it very normal to like meat with a smaller range of fattiness. I probably has it around 10-15%? For normal meat, processed meat can go way higher. See the pork jowl with 76% fat, it’s a tad too fatty but still so good…
15% fat is very fatty meat - or my database has no idea about anything But the 70/30 pork is insanely fatty, I cut off the big fats and the rest will be a wonderful, very fatty fried pork, just what I like.
(And I eat the cut off parts too but I fry it into oblivion first.)
Oh yes, they are good for that indeed! Mine are pork but they work really well.
Wow!!! That’s hardcore!
But if one doesn’t feel the pull, it may be quite easy. And one may get desensitized if carbs are around too often. But we change a lot anyway. (I should change more though… Still too wild. But almost always keto, it’s a lot considering it’s me.)
I will read back more later.
Geoffrey
(Geezy)
#120
Thank you @Shinita for the welcome and encouragement. Love me some pork cracklins too.
Nothing special on the menu today.
Just a hamburger and cheddar omelette for breakfast and ribeye for supper.
Tomorrow I will fast until this bad boy is ready.
That brisket will slow smoke for around 18 hours, just in time for Father’s Day lunch.
JulesyMcJulesface
(JJ)
#121
I am away from home working, so have been a bit slow, but did just catch up.
Seems like mostly a good week for everyone.
My dinner from last night, Tasmanian Salmon. I did squeeze a bit of half a lime that was given to me into my butter, but am ok with that.
Just entering into my third week carnivore, so far so good.
A few cravings for sweet things in this second week or rather, just “zesty/light” items. Think I may hit up some sashimi tomorrow to scratch that itch.
Scales have shifted down a bit, not much. I feel a bit worn out, having said that I am away working, including lots of oncall and living in nurses quarters, which is like a backpackers hostel for grown ups. Oh and before I left home my husband had influenza and my elderly father who I visited with has covid, so I think my body might be preoccupied trying to keep me from coming down with either of those delights.