Meat Chew'n June! - ZC Carnivore 30-day Challenge - 2023

[robintemplin]

First, there is much less pooping on carnivore. Perfectly natural.
Also, the less weight you have to lose, the longer it may take.
You know the drill…Patience.
You got this!

[JJFiddle]

@JulesyMcJulesface they say it can take 2-3 years on ZC to lose the rest of the weight after the first little blast. I lost between 40 and 50 lbs in the first year but the rest is slow. I don’t care. This week I put on a shirt that was too small when I got it last month and now it’s comfy. Darn if I haven’t been on 50 different diets, counting and starving and giving up and regaining. This “slow and easy wins the race” approach appeals greatly to me.

[Karen18]

I love the yellow ones … a very rich golden yellow … lovely. I had a couple of the top plant last year but they didn’t survive, one was the same colour as yours and one was golden yellow. They perhaps didn’t like being in pots but prefer direct into ground… i won’t get any more like that.

[Karen18]

Just go with the flow, don’t worry your head with calories but eat when you are hungry and stop when full. Your body will do it’s thing and settle down into this woe without you needing to worry about what it is doing. Go by how you feel and how your clothes feel not by counting kg on the scale. See how that is bringing questions and doubts to mind and no doubt a bit of dispondency. Forget about your actual weight and weight loss and allow this woe to give you freedom and peace from probably years of counting and fretting. You already know that the scales can lie!

I went to a long term health review this morning and was quite sure i would have put a couple of kilos on since the last time, nearly a year ago … i can be such a gannet and my tummy feels slightly bigger lately, but i was exactly the same weight… could have knocked me over with a feather. I never weigh myself and don’t own any scales. When the nurse asked me how much i thought i weighed i said i haven’t a clue and don’t really care (i am not overweight) i even stepped on the scale without taking my shoes off, thats how much i am not bothered. I truly trust this woe and only go by my clothes … rarely by the mirror as i have a bit of body dysmorphia from years of yo-yo dieting.

As i think Judy says it can be a good couple of years to lose whatever else you want to lose but bear in mind ehat you want to lose may not be what your body actually wants you to lose!

Keep strong and enjoy the freedom this woe gives you x

[Shinita]

Of course losing is very individual. Some people needs a few weeks on a carby diet to slim down completely (my SO is like that. he did it even for the first time when he was fat in the beginning… but many people has way more to lose, of course)… Some gain on carnivore There are many factors.
For me it’s basically only about calories, apparently. I almost never ate at a deficit so my experiences are tiny but they clearly show that.

I had a little flaw in my tracking for yesterday (and one item was guessed), it seems it was 100g protein and 80g fat. Quite low-cal, protein is below minimum and I managed TMAD, amazing. I don’t try to “blame” the weather or stress as they never did anything to my eating (except EXTREME stress/shock). It’s probably the power of meat. While I ate this much meat before, I ate my many eggs and dairy and whatnots too… Those did little to my satiation but boosted my calories. Now I focus on meat and it helps with simplicity too! Good.

Darn if I haven’t been on 50 different diets, counting and starving and giving up and regaining.

That was quite absent from my life. I just didn’t care I was fat or if I did for a second sometimes, I had no idea how to lose so I didn’t try. Once I tried to eat little (I met Alvaro and he was slim and prettier than me :D), that didn’t work and was very long-lived, it’s me, after all. If I get hungry, I eat, it was very basic to me until carnivore. I still eat if I have bothersome hunger (or some other good reason, I definitely eat without hunger if I need it) but I have the cute kind of hunger too now… And it passes. And I am on a mission and won’t eat before 3pm except maybe on some weekend days. It’s not like I ever need to eat before 3pm, after all. (But if it happens, I eat, sure. I am a health-conscious hedonist, not a masochist who think they know better than their own body.)

Regaining is something I have little experience with too. I had not very significant drops where I regained but I have a very very hard time to lose from my… I don’t like to call it set point but whatever is my normal weight in those years. It was 69kg after my biggest fat-loss (IDK my heighest weight, maybe 84kg) and I was around that for several years. Since I had my stress-gain, I am 75kg basically each and every morning, no matter how I ate the previous days. Fine, 1 kg up is possible if I really pig out (I still have the ability though it’s probably way weaker now) but that’s it. But maybe just my scale is stubborn
WHY I can’t go back to 69 easily now, IDK. The body changes, fine, I am a tad older but I do things WAY better now! More exercise, lower carb… But of course, as it’s about calories, it’s not enough… But I am hopeful now, this week goes well eating wise. Not ideally, I have oddly low-cal days but that’s no problem, there is always a break My very, very unreliable tracking/guesstimation shows:
1418, 1169, 2311, 1358 kcal.
Protein: 135, 88, 179, 101.
Wow. It’s super low (I mean the calories but my protein intake significantly dropped too)… I don’t think I had it that low in the very beginning when I seriously tried carnivore (it was short but as pure as it can be when the one in question is me. I really avoided plants except spice and mustard) when my body was confused and I underate though that was close. And I do eat plant sugars in bigger than normal amounts as it’s summer… But the main thing I focus on satiating meat…
Even with my almost zero activity level (as it’s summer and too hot), I obviously lose fat now I am sure. My body isn’t into slowing metabolism without reason and my still small deficit isn’t a reason.

But we will see. I definitely enjoy the chill, the satiation and the simplicity. It feels nice that I FINALLY can follow the method I have found… IDK, several months ago…? That I consider The Method that finally will help me to reach my goals. A pound of (at least mostly fresh) meat, some eggs as a start and we go from there. Much better than immediately jump the cheese and processed meat and drinking eggs galore… A pound of properly fatty meat is a wonderful base. I can’t always eat it all, I may get bored too (I swap to another meat option then) but I usually manage enough to have a good day eating wise.

And I can do TMAD now!!! I don’t get really hungry late when I try that! Not even with lowish protein, I don’t get that. I only could do lowish protein on OMAD before, maybe I remember wrong but main thing it was super rare. Even on OMAD, actually. But much meat and little else, that seems to work great, maybe too great but now I add butter and lard with less care, I can afford it, I probably even need the fat calories The same with cream and milk, it’s fine. Cool.
It’s so annoying that the level of my effort has about nothing to do with my success. Except when I have nearly effortless success, that’s neat Still confusing a bit, oh well.
It seems I only can lose without much effort. When something clicks? I find what I should do and it’s easy… I had that in the beginning of low-carb and I seem to get the hang of things already, it’s not my final form eating wise yet but close I suppose?

They perhaps didn’t like being in pots but prefer direct into ground…

Oh. We will see… As they are in a box now. The ugly, gray, super heavy (I never could move it beyond sliding a bit), crumbling flower box Or IDK how they are called. But I look at the flowers in it. Still a bit annoying when I try to make a photo… And I have a yellow one too, it got better but still needed time tomorrow, I go and look at it in the scorching heat… I saw this plant before but never owned any!

My already smallish energy is dropping, I NEED my walks but I can’t wake up early enough to brave the outside world
I used to do power walking in front of my computer (I have some place so I can even run a tiny bit not completely where I stand :D), forget about that option… But I need to do it downstairs as my room is too hot even for sitting.

And you reminded me of scales… So I stood on it. 11am, perfect time for it, I barely consumed some coffee yet and I don’t have heavy clothes as it’s hot 74kg. WOW it’s below 75 yay

I don’t have very fitting pants now (I have but I never wear it lately) but I use all my panties now, even the ones I avoided for years as they were too tight. So it hinted at good changes… But I barely started, I should wait for some months to see anything significant.
After 12 years of stalling (with some waves here and there) I surely don’t watch my changes every day or week

Now I am a bit excited. I want less fat to show off my tiny developing muscles!!! I need more muscles. Oh my workout before I forget about it. My brain has problems now and hot weather is a big reason for it. Always was a zombie in summer. I actually should solve that somehow… Along with my morning zombieness, I was always pretty useless for hours, never started to work before noon as I couldn’t (unless I started the previous day and it was simple). Brain, energy, mood, everything is bad in the morning. Sometimes not the mood, that is a wild spirit and even being a zombie can’t necessarily make me down. But usually these things has an effect on each other. It’s so odd. If I am physically tired (not in a good way so no exercise but something like shopping for hours, that is horrible), my brain is reluctant too and I have no mood to do things.
I feel I was too exhibitionist here. My pride must have gone away, I get it, I don’t do much to be proud of. But it’s a very, very important part of me, impossible to lose it. By the way, I don’t get why it’s one of the main sins when it’s clealy a virtue or at least a very important part to have. Oh well. (Of course extreme cases are wrong but extreme is rarely good. Fine, maybe very strong cases are inconvenient in some situations too but a healthy amount? Very good. Once my horoscope said Lions rarely become criminals due to their pride. The attitude/whatever, not their group Of course general horoscopes are clearly pretty stupid and there must be tons of criminal lions but for me, it’s spot on. I don’t do crimes for various reasons but pride is one of them when it comes to the really bad ones. I couldn’t respect myself even as much as I do now…)

Sorry for my style. I know many words and grammar but a great writing style? I don’t have it, sadly. I feel my comments are so… Childish? And not in a good way. A great writer can write childlike playful texts, mine are just not refined. Oh well.

[Shinita]

My low-cal days continue… And I tried to eat all my meatballs, I just couldn’t. But it was more than yesterday

So I had meatballs just like yesterday, a bite of sausage, the usual quark with sour cream and 5.5 sponge cakes. And some other eggs.
About 100g protein and fat. Almost everything was eaten for lunch.

And my lilies and cornflowers are not photogenic. They seem like that, they are pretty, even the sunshine was on my side with the lilies… But no, I messed the pics up. Oh well, I will try again, I have many different colored cornflowers!!!

Not very visible as the flowers are tiny but I shot the whole crumbling flower box…

This happens when I let the roses do whatever they want. They want too many buds next to each other… This one is very very fragrant, I go and smell sometimes. I don’t like pink but oh well, it’s a rose, it is allowed to be pink. I prefer other colors though. I have red roses too. But no black or blue or patterned or white on the outside, crimson inside… Or what I see in this street, yellow/red but in a way that you think it’s on fire!

Some of my orange lilies… I made multiple shots and something always was off. I bring my macro lens next time and try to shot one with the sunlight shining through it…

[Karen18]

Had an awful night last night… mudt have had some anxiety issues about getting up at 6am an whether to walk or drive to the 8am appt at the surgery. I woke at 6 with the alarm and popped to the loo… for the umpteenth time and then thought i would go back to bed till 7 and drive but i couldn’t get back to sleep so got up at 20 past 6, read my books and then walked to Beeston at 7am. Took me 42mins to do the 3 miles and was first on the list to go in and see nursey for my health check and bloods…i have the bruise to prove it

Walked home at 8.15 and took it a bit slower as there was no rush to get back… 54mins. My weight hasn’t changed since last year, still 58kg so i guess i should be pleased with that.

Finished the chapter i had begun earlier and then bath n glam up for the Lichfield Tea Dance this afternoon.

Ate a couple of hard boiled eggs diced and mixed in some grated cheddar…it was nice.

Lovely aftrnoon, took Raymond with me so he could socialise but he wasn’t ready to do any dancing. He sat watching with a little envy bless him.

Bought some cooked sliced chicken and some beef trimmings and ate some on the way home then fried up the last of the beef in some butter and sprinkled over a beef oxo stock cube…made it much more palatable.
Before coming up here to bed i cooked up the remaining salmon fillet in butter … that was tasty.

That egg was last nights snack before bed. I have some more eggs to hard boil, they are handy in the fridge.

[coopdawg]

Those eggs are very near perfection…they just need a bit of butter and perfecto

[Karen18]

I used to be a great cook but i am a very lazy one now and i love it. They do look nice i must admit and they tasted very good. You can end up with a little indigestion if over cooked and dry.

[coopdawg]

I know what you mean.

One of my on-site brunches is to hard boil (not too hard) 3 eggs, peel them and put in a large mug with a few knobs of butter and either philidelhia soft cheese or cheddar cheese, salt & pepper, and mash up with fork.

That’s called ‘Chuckie egg’ over here…I think it’s probably called the same on the mainland too?

Anyway, that’s what I be eating on work lunch breaks whilst the rest of them are on their pizza slices, biscuits, cakes, processed muck, fizzy drinks etc..

Either that or I down some pickled shellfish from Parsons lol, they don’t like that!

[velvet]

I’m having beef liver tonight, marinated in heavy cream and wrapped in bacon. One of my favorite meals.

[coopdawg]

I still prefer the lambs’ liver, but each to their own x.

[JulesyMcJulesface]

@Shinita I have a mental image of you power walking in front oof your computer as you write your replies now. Your replies are just perfect.

@Karen18 ugh I hate that alarm anxiety and associated restless sleep. Hope your bruise fades quickly.

Thanks for the nice boosting up positivity. Yep, I let some stupid numbers on a scale really rattle my confidence. Just ticking along with it all still, trying to be steady and patient. Checking in here is helpful.

Edit: my pic is too large to upload.
Dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. Half a chicken, cooked some haloumi too, divided up to make 2x filling portions for me. I am working away from home, most nurses just live on take away or microwave food I love that I cooked my own nutritious dinner in my accomodation.

[velvet]

I like lamb liver too, but most frequently I can only find chicken liver. Beef liver is rare, and I have never seen lamb’s or calf’s liver here.

[coopdawg]

Then you haven’t lived yet!

[velvet]

Oh, but I have. It’s just not available where I live now. I have eaten plenty of all sorts of offal elsewhere, and throughout my childhood.

[Karen18]

@velvet I had chicken liver today! I was surprised how lovely it was. I just popped a drizzle of olive oil in pan with a big knob of butter and pan fried it adding a chicken stock cube in before serving and it was delish. I can eat liver … when i feel I ought to include some into my diet but never over keen … lamb, beef or pork … never eager to eat it but the chicken liver was on another level! I picked it up in The Company Shop for 40p!

I got up breezy this morning and did 50 stair runs before sitting in garden with coffee and books and then ran to CrossFit with my shopping trolley in tow lol. My daughter was in the class today and she then suggested i go straight to her house afterwards so she could help me with another dispute form to fill in. I can’t manage to edit PDF and these companies always send it in that form. So i had a wod of paperwork with me in the trolley plus some goodies that i had taken to the Tea Dance yesterday that didn’t get eaten for the guys n gals in the class today.

Evil stinky wod which of course i enjoyed teams of 4 and me and Sian had two newbies with us… one was her very first time and one had only been once before on a saturday… she ended up in tears of frustration when she felt exhausted and like giving up but with some words of encouragement and a break from her next set she got stuck back in and grit her teeth to finish the workout. Wow she was very inspirational… she had got to complete failure but hung in there and got her last wind to finish it. We have all been there… and all got to tears at one point or another… true grit.

So Sian helped me with the paperwork and we spent a bit of time together and she had been to The Company Shop earlier and showed me some tinned mackeral she had picked up. ‘Would i like to try one ?’ Yes please lol and i was ready to munch something and it was lovely. It was a bigger tin than i usually see in the shops so when i went to TCS i bought a few tins too! Along with a bunch of other stuff… meat, meat and more meat of course walked home from the TCS and by that time it was feeling red hot. I was melting! I have some steak or some piri piri chicken wings and i can’t really decide which to cook … probably the steak as it needs eating because i have had one out the pack of 2 already and it will be quicker lol … time is moving on!

The Bravette Steak went down a treat and was lovely and rare inside. Not quite enough fat 9n it but nevertheless tasty

[Karen18]

4.30pm and it is roasting out here in the garden. I am sitting under my canopy having finished weeding the remaining pots and some that i only weeded a few days back and have grown more i have potted the plants i bought last week that have been sitting patiently waiting for me to get on with it. Last week was a busy week though, that’s my excuse and i am sticking to it.

Last night i looked at todays CrossFit wod and thought hmmm that’s one i would love to do but it was a full class with 2 on the reserve wait list so thought oh well i will get on with the garden and take a rest day. Well i slept a little longer this morning as curtains were closed and i didn’t set the alarm and when i looked at the class a number had cancelled and i could have gone I suppose I should see that as a forced rest and be glad i had opportunity to do the garden. Well as i said i have been on and off it all day sitting every now and again to rest. Carted heavy bags of bark about and got very hot and sweaty… so i have done a kind of workout anyway.

Don’t know how much longer we’re meant to have this heatwave and i am not grumbling it is better than wind rain and snow!

Made my brunch about half 12 and had 4 chicken and chirozo kebabs and piri piri chicken wings all oven baked. Very nice and quite a big plateful, i felt a bit greedy when i sat the plate on my lap to eat but got through the lot without feeling stuffed and it has seen me through working this afternoon. The wind is getting up so i may need to down the canopy. There is supposed to be a bit of rain on the way … was meant to come at 3pm then 4pm and i think last time i checked it was 5pm but only for a brief time.

Now what shall i do for dinner?

[Geoffrey]

I raise my own sheep, and never thought about saving the liver. I save our cows liver when we butcher but never thought about the sheep. I’ll be butchering a lamb in October so I will definitely be saving that liver.
What about the sheep heart? Is it also good?

[JulesyMcJulesface]

@Geoffrey yummmmm lamb. I would love to raise my own meat. My long term goal is to get off grid with my family and be as self sufficient as we can. I just have one pony who I drive in a cart currently- and would not eat his chubby butt

@Karen18 how hot does it get in your heatwave? I think I couldn’t handle how cold it would get in Winter- brrrrrr. I am going to Tasmania to work in a fortnight’s time and that will push my limits. Love you hooked into that chicken a little before thinking to take a pic So something I would do.

Just having a coffee with double cream and then will go on a bushwalk. Hoping my coffee will help things move along in my GI tract. Bit of an ongoing challenge for me o carnivore at the moment.
I am on an afternoon shift at the hospital and this is the first little gap of free time I have had in this work stint where I am not on-call, so intend to walk up the local “mountain”. Going to buy eggs Benedict at a cafe afterwards and have a choice of coked meats in lunchboxes in the fridge to take on shift with me for later