I am ever amazed by your calm observation and protocol.
And You’re probably right… someday it may not work. But I believe you have found the way to postpone your own demise. That’s all any of us can do.
And there you are, sitting calmly in the eye of the storm whilst sipping bone broth and petting your very good dog… sounds pretty wonderful to me.
@FrankoBear Wow, you have gone through hell this week. You gave everything to try to help a guy who refused to see that he had the power to change his own life and health, hit the wall and had to compensate with caffeine, ended up in a situation where you had to ingest veggies toxic to your system - then suffered near heart failure. Mrs Bear knows the protocol and comes to your aid with salty bone broth and Billie soaks up excess trauma in the healing sunshine. Glad you’re getting into the doc’s office next week, also glad for your opportunity to rest and recover.
@daig
I love this and it’s the top reason I plan to stay carnivore (or zc) the rest of my life. And it contributes to the 2nd reason - no heart disease, diabetes or cancer. Joint pain is reduced. Energy much more even. Shopping is easier. The fridge is less packed without all those jars and those bags of keto fake flours. My cabinets are only half full! Travel is easy, eating is easy, if I’m out all day I grab a few boiled eggs and some cheese and I can eat later.
The five hour gigs kill us and we take a couple days to recover but man, they’re thrilling! Folks around these parts have never seen this type of entertainment - musicians coming up to your table to play and chat. We have been doing this type of work for nearly 50 years. It’s a rush interacting with the people and playing their songs.
Hubby’s brother and sister in law were here from Wednesday to Monday. We had 2 meals out, Wednesday at the Dodging Duck in Boerne where hubby and I split a platter of German sausages and cheeses which were moist and delicious! Then Thursday at the Fredericksburg Brewery where I had wings. At home on Friday I fixed burgers without buns for all, and Saturday, air fried chicken thighs which were too salty. (maybe I’m feeling the need to use less salt.) Sunday, beautiful rib eye steaks 
, sous vided for a few hours to a low rare point at 131° then charcoal grilled. Accompanied by shrimp fried with a half pound of bacon. Everybody was knocked out by these steaks! Luckily our guests don’t eat much steak so we had steak again on Monday.
I explained my woe to my sister in law so she knew what I was doing. A weight loss speaks for itself to most people so they’ll buy it - it’s just the flashy headline that satisfies the audience, they don’t care about the rest of the changes.
Today we’re driving to San Antonio to play pop rock string quintets hubby wrote. I don’t think I’ll have time to make deviled eggs. When I take those, I’m always sure there will be something clean I can eat. But a semi fast doesn’t kill me and there’s always food at home!
The weekend will include St Patty’s day Irish music at the restaurants Friday and Saturday, as well as a 3 hour gig at the Admiral Nimitz museum on Saturday. It’s outdoors so we’re hoping for moderate weather, it’s supposed to be chilly.
Sunday church will be our last performance before we head back to VA next week. We’ll have to sleep after all that!
Here is some food. Didn’t get the restaurants.
Yesterday we ate at the brewery in town because the breakfast place was too full on account of spring break. They said, we can do breakfast. They gave us a burger patty with bacon and cheese and 2 eggs on top! Hubby actually commented later that I missed getting a pic! He’s quite supportive 
Loved your post JJ!!! So wild your hubby ‘got you down’ on your zc pattern of wanting good pics of your meals, so wild!
5 hr gigs playing. Yea that would be a very long stretch to do a gig I would think also. Must be a ton of songs being played in that amt of time for sure but ya love it, and ya love your career, ya got it whipped. putting smiles on faces! can’t ask for more 
You sound so well in tune with your zc journey! So happy for you truly!!
@FrankoBear, 
Sending good heal vibes for your future to be a good one! I read your posts and they just scare me but I also read ‘how you know and how to correct’ without brain numbing trips to ER that you used to have to handle. I feel you have a level of your body you understand and are working so much more for your health now. You hold strong FB! You see patterns that might not be helping ya and hindering you, time for that reflective step back and keep yourself in the healing pattern of your life vs. how to unravel your life. Time to keep your changes and future changes you need to be more for your mind body and soul now to help ya move forward. Just reflect slowly and heal best you can now and gain strength back! Billie and Mrs B to the rescue. Such a fortunate man you are with 2 warriors by your side to help!! But as we all know it is never just one thing that can trigger a medical issue for you or any of us. So you keep working on you and sending big hugs to ya!! I am sorry you are dealing with this type of scary issue FB! Again, big hugs coming at ya my friend!
---------------forced to hit grocery. used up my burger supply. the dog just ate my last burger. me and him are in direct competition for burger meat in this hosue HAHA So they got NY Strips on sale. Will hit and load freezer on these steaks. Sale price is not wonderful, not as low so won’t get a ton but I must have more steaks in freezer. My inner ZC person knows that must happen Off for meat in a bit…kinda despise shopping but always an adventure doing a meat haul
ZC going well. Feeling fine.
Did not sleep much last night. No idea why. Bed at 3:30am, up at 7:30 and I got to say I am slightly dragging for sure. I decided a nap will happen later key being retirement time in life allows that to go down thank heavens. Allergies are kickin’ in tough for me now. Yellow pollen is coating everything, I can even taste the pollen in my mouth. Dragged out the allergy/sinus meds as usual.
Other than that all good, waiting on ‘real summer’ weather to get here and warm the ol’ bones!
I planned a 7 day trip to the beach around April 8th and I can’t wait. RV is ready to go. I just need a change of scenery to regenerize me and the beach does that for me. Got my metal detector ready to swing and find spanish gold 
and hubby to surf fish and kiddo and dog to roam the beaches on their walks. I so need out of winter head space now and into beach summer energy!!
ZC on strong everyone for our own healing and health for our futures!!
edited for my shopping haul:
3 packs 73/27 burger for dog.
3 packs 85/15 burger for me. I can’t do big fatty burger anymore.
1 pack 80/20 to make chili family wants.
Got a 1 lb. pork tenderloin. to eat 1/2 and feed 1/2 to my daughter as she loves it too so that is her dinner tonight.
13 NY Strips steaks on sale.
Pricey yes but in the end I am ZC freezer smiling here. I needed MORE in my freezer. Eating down the freezer to the level I have always worries me. I am a big beef eater and I rely on having it in my day so steaks are super important to me, I feel ZC secure right now
pic of this mornings haul:
I ate aspic, pork roast, eggs… Nothing new. It’s merely a national holiday today but it acts like a weekend one, Alvaro is home and I get hungry at noon… Sigh. I had many coffees with condensed milk in the morning too (I really stop with the coffee tomorrow… I hope).
But maybe it will be fine. Yesterday was okay, about 2000 kcal (extremely unreliable as I have no idea about the aspic. I just counted a lot of pork belly with skin, it’s very fatty meat with skin inside, after all :D), minimal protein (around 130g), a bit more fat… Great. I am active now so I can afford this much and lose fat. I just need to do it longer term, we will see. I know I need OMAD but I get hungry too early for it. But sometimes my dinner is tiny and that’s fine.
Sometimes I wonder about trying to get closer to my ideal dinner OMAD. I get hungry earlier, that just happens sometimes, even if I manage to get the hang of OMAD for a few days, it happens a bit later so I need to eat lunch, usually. But maybe I can do some small fat-fast style one? That is great, I get satiated easily and my protein intake won’t go overboard with a second, protein rich meal.
I will try that if I will have the mood for it. It’s quite odd to avoid protein for me, I am not sure I could do it often. Or if it would do what my single fat fast did back then.
Oh well, it’s chill now, I am more active, I eat 2-2.5 meals a day, my protein intake is good, my food is good and my mind isn’t on food so much. And eating doesn’t even cross my mind when it’s late.
But after my off days, I can’t imagine not eating desserts. And my quark isn’t tempting without sweetness now. So I told Alvaro to eat it. Cream or sour cream, coffee or egg milk, they are great desserts but quark… Not anymore. Not even with condensed milk. By the way, condensed milk is merely carby, it isn’t particularly sweet. It surprised me. It is sweet, yes but only as much as milk. It makes no sense but maybe the doubled fat and protein somehow interferes so I don’t feel the doubled sugar. I told Alvaro to use the condensed milk too… But not too much, I use it a lot 
But my intake is tiny. It wasn’t visible in yesterday’s carb intake as I ate very few eggs and little other dairy and those balanced things out. And it’s animal sugar, it doesn’t seem to make me hungrier at all. Good.
Cream is WAY better but it’s hard to get it for a reasonable price. I only have one box now and can’t buy more in a few weeks. No problem, I can live without cream, theoretically… But I need it for my unsweetened (well sweetened by animal sugar) desserts. I want the ability to have a meal without dessert but how do I get it…? Maybe I could do it with fancy processed meats but I don’t have those now… And I rather don’t keep overdoing cheese. And even coffee isn’t good enough while I want to quit it…
But I just talked about being kind of chill so I stop thinking about these now. My belly feels full, my energy dropped, I should just feel fine and not even thinking about food for a while.
Today was gloomy after a tiny rain last evening but it’s almost sunny now. If I had energy, I would go out… But it’s early afternoon, past-lunch so I am barely awake. I will do some garden work later, I have seeds to sow! I forgot if it’s early for cornflowers but I have a color mix, I had them in my garden before and I loved them But this year I will have gladiolus as well! I kept postponing it as while I LOVE those gorgeous big long lasting flowers, I need to take them out for winter and it’s such a bother, they need protection in the cellar as it’s too humid, it’s not so easy to find a good place for them either, most of my garden gets too little light, apparently (some parts get a decent amount but it still isn’t ideal for many flowers. only the open south-western part get a lot but it’s full with other plants. I still will find a place for a few bulbs there)… But I miss having them, they are one of my favorites!
Apropos favorites, I wonder if my black tulips will come out this year… I planted them myself, they bloomed then disappeared but they reappeared afterwards…
Trees and bushes started to bring out their flowers too. The first fruit flowers don’t count, that happens in February, the hazelnuts sprout those long things But 1-2 weeks ago the first almonds started the season (there are quite a few in this street. my attempts always died and I just gave up. it’s not so important anyway, I just like to collect all the fruits I can except the ones I really dislike. I still got a mulberry tree accidentally. it is worth nothing to me, it’s pretty much inedible, not pretty, not even the deep purple type but I won’t cut it out from the place where it does no harm), now it’s time for my apricot tree to bless us with their pink flowers. I don’t remember when it has this money, only that it barely had any fruit since 2019. Apricot is like this, it takes long breaks.
Cherry plum is the second, almost there. It’s the little tree that just happened in my garden, probably a bird brought a seed or something. But the placement was quite fortunate. My garden is full with trees and bushes (and thorny vines) but the little tree managed to grew at one of the very few free places. It grew like crazy and now it has an impressive size. Considering its species, it hardly will get much better. The fruit is small and not so great (quite tasteless raw but okay cooked) but the flowers are beautiful! And the tree is absolutely full with them, they are everywhere on it! So it will be a quite beautiful sight in the near future.
Yay.
Gloom and colder days or not, the weather always feels like spring I don’t need to look at my flowers (we have more every day), the air smells spring
@Shinita, loved reading your weather report and the blooming and how your weather is changing now. My air smells like big pollen LOL but I also know what ya mean, it shows signs of renewal and springing forward in life. Winter shuts me down. Stagnant, but spring, summer and fall, gives everything on the Earth more time to thrive~
Somehow I didn’t get those months where I am so very bored of winter… Probably because we usually have a not very cold, very sunny winter. But now that we have spring, it feels so, so good, I didn’t feel I missed it but I kinda did…?
I had some tiny snacks as noon was such a very early meal, I couldn’t last until dinnertime but eating an early dinner isn’t the best for me either. I had cheese whisps, my fluffy jelly dessert and wine (it was already decided, we MUST drink it before it spoils, the bottle is open since 3 days I think and almost full). 24ml in 2 parts, I am not good at this But I planned a bigger glass in the evening. If I can bring myself to it. Not in the mood now.
And I fried sausages, my fav kind, the raw things one should fry, either in a pan or in the oven. It’s usually the oven. It smells nice. One sausage, more pork, the leftover dessert… That will be my dinner and as I track to my best abilities, that should be an okay day. Tomorrow my first meal will be much later…
Food
Went to the back man today, he was okay and did some accupuncture and manipulation. Apparently my r8ght hip is lower than my left whivh is causing the on going problems so i now have an insert for my right shoe to balance them out till it corrects itself? At least thats what i thought he said. As soon as i walked in he said my gland in my neck was swollen, i hadnt noticed but it did cross my mind that the pain i was feeling last night was swollen glands. Also too many lymph nodes swollen which he drained. Said i had a number of issues … ha tell me something i dont know lol! He was a nice guy though. I go back in 6 weeks. Said to keep doing what i am doing… even my push ups, CrossFit, dancing, stair running …and i thought he would say something to the contrary, just have to remember to put the insert under my heel in my trainers and dance shoes!
Received a letter from the State pension … how quick was that! I now know when it will start and how much i will be getting. Just be nice if the Civil Service would get my IHR pension resolved.! 3 days for the State to let me know and we are now into month 6 with the Civil Service!
Completed 80 push ups and 40 each of the shoulder workout before getting the therapy and will let that settle and resume 100 tomorrow.
And I felt quite happy with my activity lately… Walks, better workouts, cycling…
I feel tiny now. But I will get better! My core exercises (for beginners, everyone wrote oh finally something they can do! I obviously couldn’t but was close) seem to get easier… It’s promising.
I am pretty sure eating at noon isn’t good for me, after all. No idea how to change it but I push for OMAD now, I am still quite sure it’s the way… If I get hungry earlier, I go for almost only fat if possible. It didn’t work lately (but I almost never tried) but it did on my old fat fast and I got more determined again. And if I can’t do it, I go for an early OMAD. And if I truly get hungry again, I go for a very fatty second meal. So I have plan A-D. I don’t need to think about it much, it’s very simple, just not easy.
I want OMAD at least on workdays when I am pretty satiated at noon (or even if not, I can wait until 3pm).
Food today
ate 2 slow cooked pork chops they are very tastyUsual morning reading books then went dancing this afternoon locally. Pleasant afternoon.
Usual workouts done plust just under 70 flights of stair running.
Had a good sleep last night but neck has been sore today especially at this moment which may be down to the work done on it yesterday. Sometimes it feels sore after manipulation. I will take some codeine before bed.
Getting my order tomorrow. 120 pounds of meat plus free bones, not sure how many. This was a front quarter cow plus extra organs ( will show pic tomorrow), and as such still trying to empty out my freezer to make enough space. I made 3.5 pounds of tallow to use up the stored fat and defrosted the freezer. One more meal with shrimp tonight, I do not think I will be purchasing shrimp again, very little nutritional value as compared to other things. Looking forward to beefing it up again with a ribeye, it has been months since my last steak. Hope everyone has a great day.
@Karen18, so glad ya got 1 financial handled, now 6 mos into civil and still waiting…yikes ohhh the red tape of life right? Sorry on your neck, hope it heals fast for ya. I had neck surgery about 25 yrs ago…omgosh I never want neck issues again, luckily I was one who ‘got totally fixed’ and thrived after my neck surgery, I heard such horror stories about this surgery but I thrived after so I count my blessings every day on that crap in my life
@Naghite, congrats on 120 lbs coming at ya and free bones to boot. I guess some of that is earmarked for your beautiful big dog maybe?
My eggs is your shrimp. I find them utterly useless to me. I still love shrimp but I get ya on their ‘value’ to us. So get that if you are eating to nutritional levels of minerals and vitamin load etc.
--------------So I had a nice ribeye steak and it was about 12 oz…still hungry after so I cooked up 1/2 lb. of shrimp and made a very small batch homemade alfredo sauce and omgosh it was delish. Satisfied me then. Second meal of the day I wasn’t too hungry so I did one big ol’ cheeseburger and ate one of the dog’s beef sticks that I stick his seizure pills into, lol. Good thing I keep a nice supply of ‘fairly’ decent beef sticks around for him and every now and then I jump on a couple to eat, HAHA I can easily say I eat like my dog LOL
zc strong all
My experience is that one needs to take care of electrolytes on a low carb diet, especially when things get exacerbated by stress ambushes and going off plan. The brain fog and general tiredness after a heart episode are reminiscent to 4 decades as an obese carb eater. I cannot fathom how people live their lives like that and think it is normal.
Still on plan. It’s important.
I’m attracting woe. Spoke to another friend after seeing his daughter at a 21st birthday party. It reminded me I was losing touch with her dad. He tells me he recently had a stroke and is on a slow road to recovery. He is not ready for visitors. But we have contact via text messages. Then, today, just as I feel a trickle of ketogenic energy after a 48 hour fast, another friend who is going through a divorce broke down in a phone call to say he was blind in one eye from a head injury from when he fell when attempting suicide. I did some strong listening on that call. He is now under professional psychological care. But he had to tell a friend, and felt better for it. My little heart flutter is quite insignificant.
I read an article on empaths and how tired they get.
Recently, while catching up on podcasts on the long commute, two in a row talked about atrial fibrillation (AF). The one with Tom Seest was very good as it shows that heart muscle can heal after inflammation and viral infection causing scarring.
Today’s workout was mixed. Some were just like usual, my biceps need bigger weights again, YAY!!! And I had to stop some but probably due to the late hour. I should do my workout earlier, I tend to get weaker just before lunchtime even if I don’t feel hungry yet.
And I really need to do my usual but rarely used exercises for my back pain… I strenghten my core too and everything so hopefully it won’t have so much of it in my future. It’s not horrible (I had that bad when I was much younger, occasionally) but I still don’t like it, obviously.
I ate whatever I had today, didn’t make anything new. Scrambled eggs with leftover fat from an old smoked pork hock and pork roast pieces, 6 sponge cake muffins (one had Grana Padano and one had sour cream too), more sour cream, little cheese, sausage etc. Oh and ice cream in the end, made with condensed milk. It was pretty nice but I still prefer whipped cream or mascarpone in it.
It was a fine day I think (I will track soon so I have no idea about my macros but it supposed to be okay…?) but today will be off again 
I don’t want it but can’t help it. Alvaro couldn’t bring the young rabbits, they will arrive on Monday and he has no plan B so I realized we still have seafood. And fancy veggie mix Alvaro wanted with it. A big bag, I need it out of the freezer to put one rabbit in.
Oh well. If I just eat the carbs that cannot be separated from some fancy meat (like ruminant or seafood. I have plenty of chicken and pork for myself but these special kinds are precious and no way I give them up), that’s not so bad. My unnecessary stupid off days are the bad ones. I don’t even understand I have so many of those when I like and prefer my carni food.
But it will one dish. I will have fried pork from the freezer and… No idea what I will eat on Saturday. Should I cook pork again before the rabbit? Probably. Chicken is too similar to it and I learned my lesson: I can’t live on eggs, dairy and meat products I can only use in small amounts (sausage, tinned fish, even my fried hake) alone. Well, together but sans proper meat. I have some pork chuck in my freezer. With or without skin. Never roasted a pig with skin except the amazing farm piglet.
Apropos pig farm! We ordered a bunch of meat! Sadly, the chuck run out in no time but we will have pork loin (for Alvaro), shoulder and heart! I haven’t eaten heart since AGES and @Naghite’s plate reminds me of my loss sometimes
Somehow hearts aren’t as available as some other parts. Livers are everywhere, I specifically seek out tongues sometimes (but I had enough of that last time so I take a break)… But the wonderful hearts (be it chicken, pork or beef), that’s a rare thing. Well the butcher has it but we very rarely go there, the prices are better in supermarkets and it’s quite important for us nowadays. We still should have bought some organ, that’s never exactly expensive… But I forgot I guess. I focused on other fun stuff like the fancy organ/skin pâté… That was a nice find.
Looking forward to it!!! 
Le gasp! (Not really, I already know your views. And each to their own anyway ;)) Eggs are my darlings, I hardly could live without them
And they are nutritious and versatile. While I have no idea what is in shrimp but it’s so special and expensive here especially compared to their not substantialness (there is probably a correct English word for this…) that I consider it mere joy and variety, who cares about its nutritional value. And tomorrow I will have some in my seafood mix I think. I already forgot what is it in the box but surely shrimp is one of them…?
Oh @Fangs how fortunate are you. I have always had issues with the left side of my neck and left shoulder … all spinal issues from a trauma in my teens. Oh how these things come back to haunt us! I don’t allow anything to mess with my life, i just get on with it and every now and again when it gets beyond a joke i get a bit of a fix.
It was finally warm enough without rain to sit outside to read this morning… yessss … noticed the buds popping through so wont be long …it was lovely and warm and for the most part i just sat wearing my wotkout top. I had already done some stair running and some push ups and shoulder stuff and felt very relaxed out there with the birds singing there little hearts out. Finished yet another Craig Groeschel book, his latest, which was another great read and started another book by an author i haven’t read before. It has started well.
Got in the bath about 11 and picked Raymond up for our tea dance in Lichfield this afternoon. Had a fab afternoon and had 4 slow cooked pork chops to come home to which were nice and tasty. Had a bit of Tickler extra mature cheese … yum … and now think i may have a hard boiled egg before bed… hmmm possibly … feeling too full at the mo.
the other pieces were fairly small but i was being a bit greedy eating them all lolCrossFit was all booked for tomorrow but my fault i left it too late … probably works out for the best and will give me a bit more time for my neck to settle. Rain forecast all day tomorrow so i doubt i will be sitting outaide to read 
I tracked. Maybe I need some more tempting meat, maybe I just love my non-meat food too much But my meat intake is lowish lately, again.
About 300g meat today (and some fat and skin I didn’t count this time). 126g protein (wow, I managed not to overdo it!), 164g fat (maybe a bit too much but it helps with the protein staying lower) , 11g carbs (the usual).
I am not perfectly satiated now, after 11pm but I don’t notice if I am not in the kitchen… Where I made tea and drank as I am very, very far from being hungry or unsatisfied, I just wanted “something”. And I am thirsty a lot. I drink a lot of water too, I enjoy that I like it more than before, it makes life easier.
Cannot wait for tomorrow, but here is tonight’s first plate. Finished off my shrimp (3.8 oz), a spleen also 3.8 oz, 4.3 oz beef heart and an even 3 oz tallow with bone broth. Cheese and eggs with sardines coming up when I pop over to my daughter’s to eat with her.
Back at home in the countryside. Egg and sardine omelette and a coffee for breakfast. 2 nights of good sleep. Beef bone broth once or twice a day. Carnivores need the glycine amino acid to balance the high load of methionine we eat if we eat a lot of steaks. Starting to feel more ZC ‘normal’. Heart beat behaving. Brain fog lifting. Cravings have gone. But in less good news it looks like the biltong shop has shut 
Thanks everyone for keeping the ZC chat going.
