MeatMarchMadnessCarnivore

[LizinLowell]

Lovely to see what everyone is eating. I would eat a grilled ribeye daily if I could but I’ve never had success cooking steak indoors so I’m waiting for warmer New England days when my husband will grill me ribeyes on a weekend, one for dinner, two to eat cold for lunches.

For dinners I sometimes eat a half pound cheeseburger with bacon or pulled pork with two fried eggs over easy. Or chicken with butter & cheese.

I had avoided eggs for a whole year after a terrible stomach ache but recently reintroduced them and it’s been fine! Phew. So some lunches I’ll have bacon and hard boiled eggs, I like the uncured lunch meats I find at Whole Foods. Liverwurst with bacon if I’m in the mood. Cold hot dogs, not the junky kind though.

Sometimes I worry I’m not eating enough and that’s why my weight is stubborn. But after a lifetime of food addiction it’s hard for me to tell if I’m hungry or trying to self soothe. The “hard boiled egg test” always comes up yes so it’s probably real hunger and I should listen to it.

I did eliminate cream, yogurt, and cottage cheese because I can’t control portions on those. I don’t seem to have that issue with cheese, butter, or ghee which I still use in moderation. Still waiting for results on the scale but in any case glad to try to get a hold on those unwanted behaviors. Always wondering if I’m eating too much fat. Is that even a thing on carnivore? It’s so hotly debated.

My husband and I have been walking as many days a week as we can, just 30 minutes around the block on his lunchtime, he works from home. I can’t leave mom alone too long. The walking is entirely for my mental health.

[Shinita]

Always wondering if I’m eating too much fat. Is that even a thing on carnivore?

Definitely YES if you are me. I tend eat too much protein too.
(I only know it for short term but I don’t have much reason to think it would change especially for protein. I LOVE protein. In big amounts. 150g per meal sounds lovely but sometimes I can do only 100g for my first meal. I tend to get hungry very soon though then.)

Very fatty food is quite poor at satiating me - while I LOVE it… It’s still fine and dandy as long as I only eat once a day (sometimes twice)… And my phase matters… I had so very different times on carnivore. I even had very short undereating times! And I ate as much as I could! I “needed” years on/off carni to get really overeating times. One high-cal day happened here and there but that’s very normal.
But in good times I eat okay on carnivore - at least as long as I minimize everything (fat, protein, sometimes dairy or processed meat but most of all, added fat) but I never can do any force so it’s a comfortable, enjoyable minimalization. I love those times.

Probably most of us have a good fat/protein ratio range and we work fine there while things get messed up elsewhere. Not if we have good instincts to stay there… But sometimes I simply have irresistible very fatty pork and I am doomed No problem with that occasionally if I do things right before and after. I do like to enjoy my food immensely and eating to my heart’s content. But I enjoy leaner meats too now… And going too lean isn’t good for me either. So I should stay in my sweet spot fattiness wise.

How much do you eat?

The walking is entirely for my mental health.

It’s for that, my physical health, to have any energy and probably more. Walking is essential. I always walked. Except for a while in my blackest days… If I lose the urge to walk for more than 2 days, it’s a very bad sign. I can’t function without walks.
But in this wonderful spring? It’s medicine to my soul. Without any bad side effects.

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My dinner, 18:15-18:45. I wasn’t particularly hungry and I got satiated quickly. I still ate a few more bites but I am perfectly satiated now. Wow.

The non-meatballs part is very fatty fried chicken liver with eggs.
I couldn’t finish it (4 meatballs remained) but I had some more creamy and milky coffees as well.
I don’t write numbers, it’s not even a given it’s my full day. 830 kcal (with very little protein) and me, it very nearly never happens, no matter how much I eat in the previous days (2660 yesterday, says guesstimation, it’s barely higher than my average for several days). But even with a later meal, it should be a great day. I even walked 12 km Today is core+abs day so a longer than usual (but still little) walk suited it well.

[Azi]

Today I stepped away from my normal foods made a chaffel and cut a brat smoked sausage in half then in half again but length wise added a bit more mozzarella cheese them folded it in half cooked it a bit more so it melted together like an omelet it was really tasty so 2nd meal I just melted some mozzarella cheese in a pan let it cool so i could handle it then wrapped the melted cheese around the 2nd half of my brat…that was also very good…

[daigo1]

Chef Paul Prudomme’s meat magic mix

kind of an interesting observation i guess, but i don’t feel like this changes flavor at all, just the scent. so the meat tastes exactly the same, but it only smells different. so i guess i don’t actually need to use/apply it? i just need to sniff it like a smelling salt before i take a bite of my food

[LizinLowell]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I have no idea how much I’m eating, I don’t track. Are you trying to lose weight?

Mostly what I’m trying to do is eat in two windows with no snacking. It was so easy before but as my stress increases as caregiving gets harder, I find I’ve lost my old skills. That’s why I’m hoping the walking will help my mental health.

We are in very early spring just 15 minutes west of Boston. It’s still cold and intermittently snowing but we’re starting to see some crocuses in folks’ yards which feels hopeful. I love flowers and hope my seed packets produce blooms this summer.

[Shinita]

i just need to sniff it like a smelling salt before i take a bite of my food

I never used it for bland food but I keep sniffing the peanut jar LOVELY smell.
Well, no one should imagine me sniffing it every day, just now and then But I sniff various things my SO eats, fresh lovely things, not his normal food, that would be boring (except the carnivore part but I have that too).

Apropos smells… I fried the pork-skin-egg meatballs today in lard… It made so much smell, not bad but oily, frying things are like that. It even lingers after airing the whole house (not because of the smell, it’s the daily one)… Good thing smells never trigger me, I kept fasting just fine. Smells entertain me if they are good, that’s it.

I don’t like spice mixes with salt as the first ingredients, I barely can use them (and they are too expensive for being basically salts). But I salt my food lightly compared to @Fangs and possibly most ketoers So the salt easily overpowers everything for me.

I had the same problem with jam/marmelade. The sugar overpowered the fruitiness like crazy, I never really understood the concept to add sugar to an already very sugary thing. And then my sugar tolerance dropped…

Are you trying to lose weight?

That’s the plan since 13 years, yes. It doesn’t go well but I have trust in carnivore if I manage to stay close to it for longer while keeping my eating window tiny, exercise a lot and other things.
I am in no big hurry and my main goal is more energy. But chill is lovely too and in good times I get it from carnivore. And my food is just the best on this woe… Maybe too good. Pork is extremely palatable…

Crocuses are lovely, they warm my heart I have some, very few, I need to buy some more at autumn and I will put them into the best places, not on the bigger, bad part of my garden with less sunlight. I saw some beauties today in a garden, dark purple ones with lighter center, I want such ones too! And my SO said my biggest striped lovelies came out, I was almost worried about them but they arrived! I totally forgot to go and see, tomorrow I will make photos!

I cut the first hyacinth today. It’s white and has a nice fragrace

It’s extremely good to see my garden to come alive. I need a garden, I always felt best in a house (with a garden but that’s the norm), I would have a much more miserable childhood without my Grandma’s garden…

[Fangs]

but i don’t feel like this changes flavor at all, just the scent. so the meat tastes exactly the same, but it only smells different.

I get ya on that. I also don’t ‘get assualted’ by a huge taste change but I can taste a difference. On pork I notice it more heavy for some reason, maybe cause pork in a way has ‘less flavor’ than beef to me actually. ??

but ya know in that spice aisle there are tons of options to ‘try’ if you wanna play around a bit. I went thru alot of spices and in the end, not alot of them thrilled me at all, but I did hold a few to my liking tho.

[Naghite]

First plate today was 6 oz beef heart, 1.1 oz tallow, 1 oz mussels, 2 oz snails and 6.7 oz pork belly. Had 4 eggs and cheese later.

[JJFiddle]

Hi, I’ve lurked and now have read (most) everything. Last time I posted we were in February!

We have house guests, hubby’s brother and sis in law. I was worried about them judging my woe but these days you just say “animal based diet” and people leave you alone! Magic!

A well ago today we ate at the BJ’s restaurant chain and they gave us a ton of ice cream and I ate a bowl! Weird of me, and 2 days afterwards I had a sore on the side of my tongue that made swallowing difficult. It only lasted a day but I’m happy for the instant karma that let’s me know sugar is NOT my friend.

At all other times, for most of 14 months, my ZC behavior has been sterling.

Tomorrow night we start the long gigs of the weekend again. I’m glad to be 50 lbs lighter - I couldn’t have done these 5 hour performances before, I’m quite sure!

Here is some of the food I’ve had over the last week or 2:

Today we were in town with our guests, went to a western store and got a nice long duster to wear on gigs, had wings at the brewery, and then we went to the WW2 museum where we will play next weekend. They were so happy to meet us! It looks like we will be playing events for that museum, the Nimitz, which has helped to put this town on the map.
We’re always happy for any extra exposure. It looks like Texas is finally coming together for us!

[Shinita]

@Naghite: Except the tallow, it would be a plate I would like to have! What are the snails like in this way? I only ate those white things with almost the consistency of butter…

I’m glad to be 50 lbs lighter - I couldn’t have done these 5 hour performances before, I’m quite sure!

Wow. 5 hours, that’s serious. Of course I have no idea what such a thing can be like but it sounds quite much!

I miss the choir sometimes. We went to places, made people happy for a while (especially the ones in the nursing home, the caregivers told me they talked about it for weeks afterwards and it raised their spirits)… I don’t even sing at all now. And still ignore my keyboard. I shouldn’t.

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My daffodils are almost blooming!!! A few days and we will have many! I enjoy a sunny day, tomorrow the temp drops by 10 Celsius, forecast says, it probably would slow down the flowers again… Or they can’t be stopped anymore at this point? They are almost there, the hyacinths are improving every day too!

[Fangs]

@JJFiddle, great post to read I am like you, sugar just isn’t an option any more. With an elimination menu like carnivore we sure see what adding back some junk does to us. I feel ya on that
Sounds like you are in a fantastic place professionally and personally and that makes me smile when I read your posts. Rock on!!

melted together like an omelet it was really tasty so 2nd meal I just melted some mozzarella cheese in a pan let it cool so i could handle it then wrapped the melted cheese around the 2nd half of my brat…that was also very good…

This sounds you had darn fun with your food making all this and enjoying every bit of it. Love it!!!

-------------------first meal. 2 cheeseburgers and 1/2 lb of bacon. In the mood. second ‘feeding’ who knows. Nothing is coming to mind kinda. I feel so in the ‘could not care less’ mode but for some reason those crabs are now calling my name since I thought while typing, what do I got in the freezer and I remembered I bought snow crab legs…hmmm…maybe a reversal. Crab first thing and then burgers. OK my zc day is set

haven’t bought snow crab legs in so long cause of price and I won’t even know how to act when I get them in front of me…OH YES I WILL…I WILL DEVOUR those suckers HA

[robintemplin]

I am such a squeamish baby, the only thing I would eat on that plate is the pork belly. And lots of it.

[robintemplin]

What a fun life you lead! Going for your dreams, actually making them happen, and traveling MUCH lighter! Happy for you.

[Shinita]

I got hungry at 11:30 so I am totally amazed I lasted until 13:40 It wasn’t hard though, I just felt I need my lunch

My meat wasn’t quite ready yet but not exactly raw… I still focused on other things.

I had 4 meatballs with scrambled eggs (3… too few), cheesy carni biscuits, a piece of pork with the same amount of turkey sausage As the roast was very lean and only spent an hour in the oven so it was quite bland but with the sausage it was pretty much edible. I could have fried it in the pan but I was hungry at that point and wanted to eat right away.
I had an egg milk (with a little coffee in it. and proper milk too) as well.

Quite simple from me but when I will have some properly fatty fresh roast, it will be truly simple…

I stopped making sponge cakes. It’s a refreshing change. They surely will come back but it’s nice not needing them all the time.

Alvaro has a vegetarian day today. But maybe he will help with this lean pork later. If not, I have plenty of ideas, it’s just a pity to eat meat I don’t find highly palatable on its own… Unlike usual. Perfect for Alvaro though so if I get some fatty meat tomorrow (surely I will), I roast that for myself.
And it seems we will have 2 young rabbits again next week… Alvaro asked if we can fit 2 into the freezer. Obviously. I make that happen. I have space there now and 1800g deer and the other stuff won’t be so much in volume. I don’t need to buy very much meat in the city nowadays as the local supermarkets have great sales quite often. It’s convenient.

[daigo1]

That’s the plan since 13 years, yes. It doesn’t go well but I have trust in carnivore if I manage to stay close to it for longer while keeping my eating window tiny, exercise a lot and other things.
I am in no big hurry and my main goal is more energy.

i also did not lose weight on carnivore at first until i actually started consciously tracking my nutrition and controlling my portions+proportions of protein/fat. but the difference now (compared to from before when i was not on carnivore) is carnivore makes maintaining my desired weight a non-issue whereas with carbs i could easily put the weight back on (like dozens of pounds) within a matter of weeks. i don’t need to think about re-gaining weight because carnivore naturally maintains my current weight. the only time it did not was when i was fighting against it and over-did the weight loss and was in the single-digit bodyfat % range. i was lifting weights for several hours every day and was actually getting weaker and losing energy even though i was absolutely shredded because i mistakenly associated fitness level with health. while there’s a correlation of course, you know what they say about too much of a good thing being bad like everything. my physician was concerned about my test levels being dangerously low so i stopped doing whatever i was doing and started just doing normal carnivore actually naturally brought me back to a normal bodyfat % in the teens and my weight stayed approximately the same within the range i wanted, but my mood/energy went back to the upper levels

[Shinita]

I definitely track. Control isn’t my thing though It must come naturally to me or else it won’t happen Okay, I can push a tiny bit but it’s more like for fasting (and if I get an urge, I probably will eat anyway). If I start to eat… There’s no stopping until I eat a lot. And it’s fine, it’s how my body works and that’s why I try to do OMAD - or TMAD is I manage to have small enough meals, I have plenty of such days too (it’s usually a bigger first meal and a tiny second one but not always).

Maintenance is what I normally do but I never was slim. So I have no idea what it would take to keep that. I would LOVE to try out. I always was chubby, all my life, my anchestors too though I went farther (nothing very extreme, about 180lbs/80+ a few kg was my heaviest, I was unable to eat enough on HCHF to get fattier and it’s the style where I eat the most. I wasn’t ever shy with food. I just wasn’t vain so I never tried to eat little until I met my SO who slimmed down years before. I tried then, failed and just kept eating to my heart’s content. or maybe it wasn’t perfect for my heart, it’s possible with my eating everything but meat woe).

Now that I am older and my body surely changed to some extent, I probably even would get fattier on HCHF. If I could eat like in my past and I am quite far from that… Eating whatever (what I like, as much as I like except I instinctively try to not get overboard but I don’t do this well) doesn’t result in fat gain, I experienced that. But a forceful high-carb diet probably would make me up to 80kg in a few years again and I would just maintain there. It’s just 5-6 kg more…

But I want to lose fat. And gain muscle. And ENERGY and chill and not too expensive but the best tasting ever food. I don’t want miracles or the mentioned ones immediately But I have standards.

[Naghite]

What are the snails like in this way?

The snails are fried for a few minutes and are not soft, more chewy I guess my dog will not eat them due to texture. I like ‘em though, good enough at least.

[Shinita]

Sounds good, @Naghite! My soft snails were meh. But I like chewy in many cases, a good texture can even comfort me if the taste is meh It’s so great we have various textures on carnivore if we want Tender and chewier meat, crunchy too sometimes, creamy, soft and firm, even hard dairy… Fluffy sponge cakes… I missed them today but I had to cook a lot for Alvaro (simple things but still) and roast/fry things for me, there was a lot of doing the dishes so I just hadn’t mood/energy to bake too. But it will happen soon!

I had a cute sized dinner (and some little snack before and after). Not like I have ANY idea about the macros, I can’t guess such things if my life depends on it.
I had half of my chicken leg (with its crispy skin, 2 hours were enough :)), a piece of pork roast (the second hour made it better but of course, it’s still lean and not as juicy as sometimes… but the fatty not-so-liquid below helps a lot, the pork may be lean but the chicken is fatty so the sticky thing beneath are tasty and fatty and helps with the pork. but it has some own fat, that’s precious, it would be horrible without that!) and a cheese whisp. And egg milk.
I only ate as much as I needed to stop being unsatiated as I had no very tempting options now. But it was okay.

I refuse to track on the same day, I wait until I am sure the day is finished and I can’t do it before I go to sleep… I am quite sure I am finished but nope, I learned my lesson. I hate taking many extra measurements because I ate again and again and again…
But I can’t not track day to day yet, apparently. Too curious.
Oh well. I still aim simple and then it’s no big deal.

[Naghite]

Today’s first plate was 1 oz Buffalo liver, 1.4 oz tallow, 2 oz snails, 4.5 oz beef heart and 10 oz pork hock. Bit low on fat, so may make scrambled eggs with heavy cream in a bit.

[Shinita]

@Naghite: I can say what last time, I would love to eat it all expect the tallow. Do you eat the skin of the hock too? I do but usually not as it is but as I did today and yesterday, in meatballs.

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Guesstimation says I ate about 1100 kcal more than yesterday… I blame the chicken…? (Nope, that’s not right, looking at its numbers.) And maybe my 4 meals though 2 was almost nothing. Oh. Well. It’s actually quite fine, yesterday I barely ate and today I had a nice upper body workout while yesterday had a longer walk than today! If I keep my average like these 2 days, it will be perfect.

How people can stay in a less than 1000 kcal range calorie wise I have no idea I can’t even do 2000 if we talk about really long term. Not like it’s necessarily a problem.

I overate protein again (but it’s below 200g, even 180 and I call that a small success these days) and I only ate half of the chicken leg (well yep it wasn’t high because of the little chicken), I moderated myself so much! It was a huge chicken leg but half of it took barely any time to eat (it would have been true for the whole 400g without bone thing.) Chicken is a very easy snack.

I still can’t understand why amateur bodybuilders talk about protein being so expensive we should just eat the bare minimum for muscle gain (that’s a decent amount but I eat WAY more, obviously even when I don’t lift a finger, something I never do anymore)… If we choose our food well, it’s not so expensive, I am sure many people spend more on drinks (even if it’s just water and coffee) than my whole food cost… And people smoke and that’s buying bad health, who is rich and anti-hedonistic for that? And they buy so stupid overpriced items so often… But some decent amount protein is so very expensive? Yep, it’s more expensive than fat but that’s about it. Carbs are expensive too and less useful, okay, to me, at least.

But yes, I should lower my protein. I am aware. I think I lost the plot some time today. Maybe it’s my very low energy level again. My last 2 days weren’t good regarding that. Spirit okay, mental focus and energy level horrible, the former is probably due to the latter. I feel exhausted. It’s good I could do my workout. I think I need to do it earlier, not around/after noon especially when I have eaten little the previous day so I get hungry earlier. But my workout still went well, it’s not always the case. I will try to do it earlier. It will be an even longer time between it and my next meal though…

I think too much again I think. Or write. I should go to bed already, we plan to go early to catch the clothing market in the city! Sadly, our village or the town where Alvaro works has no market but 2 villages away there is one. A tiny one but Anna from the pig farm is there and someone sells eggs! And I never was there, only Alvaro.

Have a nice day, everyone, I come back with lots of lovely food tomorrow! Aspic from Alvaro’s Mom too! She always makes a lot and I go through it very quickly every time as the biggest part is just some aspic, not many calories but highly enjoyable… Yum.