NewYearNewYouCarnivore!

[gingersmommy]

and @gingersmommy re 20 lbs, I understand women are “meant” to carry a bit of fat, so are you talking about fat in excess of that? Or are you using our cultures standards when you say you need to lose more fat?

In my case, I am talking about an excess amount of fat. Currently at 170 (5’7"), I look and feel great, but all around I still have a bit of extra “padding” that I would like to get rid of. I’ve been 145/150 before and yes, it is very thin , however, I still consider that to be my ideal weight.

[Shinita]

Oh I just read this, it was lovely, you are so very enthusiastic with good food as I am

I have no idea what whipped butter balls are, googled, looks cute, still don’t know.

Pork belly as appetizer I don’t eat pork belly (way too fatty and expensive, I want more meat for my money) but if I did, that wouldn’t be an appetizer sized thing, probably… But sugar? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

Oh soup. I ate it yesterday and I kind of miss it. I want soup soon again but I don’t have something bony for it. Maybe I buy something tomorrow (city day again), maybe I make a soup using meat only for the first time…

[Shinita]

No one asked me but I am about 165 lbs as always, 5’4" but it’s no problem, the problem is that it’s very much extra fat and most of it is on my belly and hips. I have very big fat rolls on my belly, it’s not pretty and surely it would be a wee bit healthier to lose fat anyway. (I never worried about my health because I had extra fat. I felt healthy. But a tad less burden surely does good.)

I don’t have a target weight though I suppose 125 lbs would be good. But as I never ever was slim and hopefully my musculature slowly changes and who knows how many decades it will take to lose what I want to lose… I will just decide when I see my changes when to stop. Worse, my body will decide, it actually did once, that’s why I have been stalling since 11-12 years except a few little waves. But I got better at tricking it. I hope.

I don’t care about people’s ideas about a good figure, I want to look okay for myself. And Alvaro but he doesn’t seem to be a choosy one. He is the vain one, it’s perfect as I don’t like him fat. Myself either but I never was particularly bothered about my own fattiness. I suppose because I never was slim or pretty… It’s interesting that I want to be more muscular… And yep, to show off muscles I need less fat. Not too little, that’s unhealthy and ugly too (and plain impossible for me unless someone or some natural force keeps me imprisoned).

But as I always say, it’s way more important for me to get more energy. And feel good. And eat good. And chill. (Well I am super bad at giving up so if I stay fat, I never will properly chill. I am super patient but still.)

[robintemplin]

170 was a very happy place for me. 180 was my goal.
I think if you are happy, feel good, (have a diet and lifestyle you actively enjoy and can maintain) I would try to embrace the number on the scale.

Also ‘look” at your body with eyes of love instead of appraisal. There is nothing to judge yourself against except your own expectations. And those are often shaped by society’s out of whack viewpoints.

You may or may not lose more.
So celebrate how far you have come and how great you feel and look. You know you look pretty sassy right now! Enjoy it!

[Fangs]

At 170 (5’7"), I look and feel great, however, I still have some extra “padding” that I would like to get rid of. I’ve been 145/150 before and although it is very thin for me, I consider that to be my ideal weight.

very interesting cause height wise I am 5’8 and have a very narrow body comp. I got 0 hips etc. I am not curvy in any way.

but I am trying to ‘hit 170’ as my ideal at 5’8 in that when I was there, I was ‘fine to me’ but when I did hit lower, like low 160s is WHEN EVERYONE told me my head was too big for my body and I got ‘way too thin looking’ for ME.

weirdo time on that cause I thought I was fine lower, but others told me differrent and I was like, hmmm, ‘we don’t know what real bodies SHOULD look like’ in life or was it a real thing people perceive as ‘off on our body image against our frames and height’???

I don’t know. I want back to 170 for 5’8n and that gives me size 10 and I would be fab on just that and you a tad shorter, you got ‘your personal feel of where’ you need to be.

I know charts and ‘ideal weight graphs’ say at 5’8 I ‘should be like 150’ but heck at low 160s people told me I looked more sickly and off then more healthy but eye change thru time or what is now considered ‘trim’ or ??? I don’t know LOL it is a mystery but if one ‘feels good’ at what lbs and puts it 'all in for them to ‘be there’ and final ya know then more power to those who hit that best spot as we want.

just chat on it all. so very personal for each of us and our brain games on it and more.

[robintemplin]

Isn’t it crazy how we allow people to tell us what they think about the size of OUR bodies?

[gingersmommy]

So celebrate how far you have come and how great you feel and look. You know you look pretty sassy right now! Enjoy it!

Hi Robin,

Yes, that’s how I feel exactly. Would I like to lose it - yes. Am I unhappy about it - not in the slightest. I feel great!

[Shinita]

I know charts and ‘ideal weight graphs’ say at 5’8 I ‘should be like 150’

Alvaro is 5’9 and he has a little unattractive pot belly at 150… Of course he is male, he needs less fat but for men people think the weight should be higher, it makes about no sense, even the extra normal muscle can’t add enough for that. Muscular men, sure, that’s another matter but many men aren’t muscular and there are muscular women too and that means a lot as we know. 10-20kg over some “ideal” doesn’t mean one has a gram extra fat, it may be muscle. And of course, how we are built, that matters so much.
By the way Alvaro has very muscular legs, without them, as a young boy (but already 5’9), he reached his slim body at 122… Not like he could keep it when he went back to his usual diet but fortunately he got more muscles later. Not much but it mattered.
With his height 176lbs would be quite perfect (probably not too dry but impressive) if he would be muscular enough for that.
So, for a 5’9" male 122-176 is all in the perfectly slim range and it’s just one person. There are wide ranges depending on things. And women have different sized hips and breasts too. But wide back and shoulders can add quite much too And some people looks best when not quite slim… I saw a girl fattier than me who were very sexy. I merely was fat with belly rolls, both Alvaro and me gain fat first and foremost on our bellies so only being slim looks good on us. It’s so stupid when almost all the fat goes to the belly Going everywhere, that would look way better. Probably would be healthier too. My lower arms always were skinny (well, normal, skinny is a word that makes me think about skin and bone, that’s my wrists, they are tiny and always were).

I personally use my eyes and my own taste to decide when to stop. Not like I get any closer as time passes but I am really, really optimistic now. About 40lbs to go… If I am very lucky, a few years can do the trick. But I don’t necessarily believe in such a miracle. I lost fat slowly even when I was fattier and it was easy to eat at a deficit…
But SOME fat-loss in the next 5 months, that would be nice. 10-20 lbs? Rather 10, 20 is quick fat-loss I never will be able to do. I would fit into some pants I have!

I don’t have the foggiest idea about my size. I don’t even KNOW if we have that sizing in this country… I just try on clothes and buy the one that fits (or the one I want despite I won’t fit into it for 26 more years).
The L, XL and other things are random, I know that, I saw “XL” pants for thin people, I saw plenty of pics showing how these says nothing and I have two t-shirts, everything is the same (brand, sizing, etc.) but the color - and the actual size. One is too tight so I never could wear it while its similarly sized sibling is very comfy and somewhat loose.
The numbered size seems to be proper but I don’t have any idea about my number.

[Karen18]

When i was over weight, which is quite a number of years ago from the age of 19/20 when i was earning my own dosh and could buy takeways by the truck load and get plastered most nights, i was obsessed with dress sizes (probably because they kept creeping up) and that didnt leave my psychie for many years as i bounced up and down yoyo dieting. I don’t think i have worried much about it since my mid forties when i stared weight training. I started to shop for clothes that felt and looked good on me despite what the label read. I didnt care whether it was an 8, 10, 12 or 14 … if it was little baggy here and there i just took it in, made darts where there weren’t any so it was more fitting. I realised that different labels were very different in their sizing. I finally learnt that trendy didnt necessarily mean it looked good and chose more classic designs that never go out of fashion. I learnt what suited me and my boyish figure. The scales became obsolete and i was finally able to jump off that roller coaster of emotions.

Going zero carb has just given me the freedom from constantly tracking and watching everything i eat and gone are any guilt feelings had from binge eating. Now i can binge to my hearts content … meat meat and fish, meat and some cheese and eggs and eggs and more meat life is so good.

When my first husband walked out on me and the kids i was so traumatised i lost almost a stone and half in a week … it was a very dramatic loss and i must have been about 7 stone IDK i dont think i dared step on the scales. I thought i looked good but when i look back at old photos my face looked guant and drawn. Then i started weight training and packed on some muscle i learnt that 9 stone looked like 8 stone only a lot better. Now of course my training is more to keep me fit and healthy and keep my bones strong as i drift into my senior years oh and of course to stop the baggy saggy under arms developing!

I was 56kg last check up at the docs, that may have gone up a little but its definitely not gone down. 5’3+3/4" to be precise u less i stand more on my toes lol then i am 5’4

[robintemplin]

Thanks for sharing this. Inspirational and feels familiar to me. (Except for the sewing part.)

[Shinita]

I had a tiny leftovers dinner when Alvaro ate. I finished the dry sausage with a sponge cake and drank my leftover egg milk. Yum. And it didn’t make me hungry, yay. It’s so strange I am able to eat small dinners now (if I ate okay before)
Guesstimation says 1800 kcal, 142g protein, 129g fat, 12g carbs.

I walked and run a tiny bit. Need more exercise but the weather was so, so gloomy and my mood was down. Still, it’s not good excuse…
Over a pound of meat and more than 5 eggs. Unusually much added fat today (I made fattier fried liver and it was lovelier than usual. And my scrambled eggs got more fat as normal as well.)
Still no dairy except my tiny butter in my egg milk.

All is well eating wise, chill, no boredom, no worries… My eating window hopefully gets smaller later but I don’t overeat, it’s something

Maybe $3.4-$3.7 food cost for today? As I ate way less pork chuck than yesterday. I will use it sparingly, I love variety anyway. I rather eat it almost every day in smaller amounts (at the point where I appreciate it best ;)) than rarely. I don’t even find it on sale all the time… Of course sometimes it’s good to take a break and appreciate a bigger amount later but I had way too few pork chuck eating days in 2022, I definitely want to bring it up this year!

[Karen18]

Thanks @robintemplin x

Well i have been having a few difficulties dragging myself out if bed just lately. I keep my curtains open so i can wake naturaly but so many mornings have been so dark and cloudy recently that i have been waking later. Of course my intermitent sleep pattern doesnt help at all so this morning, the sun was shining and it was brighter but i still didnt wake up till later than i like but i got up and thought that from now on i am going to set my alarm and get up whether i’ve had a good sleep or not. This is not just because i feel the day is being wasted lying in but also to hopefully get my sleep regulated. Later nights have also crept in which may be because there is better TV later in the evening. The early evening viewing is pretty diar.

Anyway i got up got my meds and took my coffee on my tray with my books into the lounge. I said my morning prayer asking to get as much out of my books as posible, lifting up those who are sick and need some healing and prayed for some motivation. Then sat quietly and PLAN jumped into my thoughts. Yes … confirming that i should set the alarm. Then i picked up Joyce Meyer ‘Starting Your Day Right’ and look what was on 2nd Jan …

Then i picked up Craig Groeschel Daily ‘Power’

Need i say any more!

So i have been organising dance dates, Crossfit sessions etc etc all marked down on my weekly to do list which is my whiteboard at the front door and so i see it all the time.

Vacuuming done, general clear up, upstairs windows cleaned … blimey thats enough housework for one day!

Sat down to eat brunch late, it was either 1.45 or 2.45 … think it was the latter and ate a lovely tender ribeye steak. I have got a whole chicken out of freezer into fridge to defrost… possibly be ready to cook tomorrow but may leave it till the following day to be on safe side. Also got a kilo pack of pork chops out too and that is also defrosting in fridge.

Decided to start that jigsaw puzzle i bought before xmas and the jigsaw table is really useful. I sat in the lounge doing it till i just really couldnt see the pieces anymore after the night drew in… not sure where the couple of hours went !

Dinner was 2 beef burgers … the cheapy ones i like and they were lovely. Also had some cheddar. @Fangs i like the mature and extra mature and sometimes vintage cheddars. I like creamy but crunchy with a good bite. I am not over fussed on cream cheese but also never found one without carbs or little to no carbs. I quite enjoy a goats cheese, semi hard or hard but not keen on the really soft one. Sometimes like a smoked cheese like baby bel. Can’t abide the ones with stuff added such as cranberries, apricots or onions … didn’t like them prior to zero carbing.

Also ate a tin of tuna.

Completed 3100 push ups through december and decide to continue into January including a delt workout so every set of 10 push ups are followed by 10 db side raises and 10 front raises. … why not eh? Good job i live on my own people may think i am crazy hahaha

[Shinita]

Completed 3100 push ups through december

You are my hero. Why I can’t start my own workouts? Well I tried today, with the easiest exercise and my arms just gave up on me, I am weak as a kitten… It was already a bit late for it anyway but the day after tomorrow (as the city paperwork+shopping day will be more than enough) I do it, no matter what! If I need to use smaller weights, so be it.
I’ve read a nice article about it once. Bad mood, no energy, we don’t want our workouts… But we still do it, without pressure, who cares if our weights are smaller… And we may do better due to less pressure. Not like I have much pressure to begin with, it’s not a pride thing for me, I am used to using the same weight for way too long, sometimes lowering them, being happy that I am DOING it (it’s like running, I am elated if I do ANY running at any speed) but the article still helped. Doing it “wrong”, not as well as we should is still better than not doing it at all. And I always was prone to prefer NOT doing things, I wanted to do it well or not at all. Even when I learned languages. If I wasn’t SURE, I just didn’t talk. But I was a kid, now I should be smarter But I still am not so good at it.

[Karen18]

I am only using 2.5kg dbs at the mo. At the gym i tend to use 5kg but as i am doing them straight after my push ups as a super set i think its plenty heavy enough and by time i am nearing end of the front raises i can certainly feel it on my shoulders. I may find i can increase the weight as i press on through the month.

Never concern yourself with using lighter weights the fact youre doing them is great and the stronger you get you can start increasing again. I do the sets throughout the day , keeping it doable.

[MeganNZ]

See at this point I can’t ‘zc diet’ or monkey too much. I am always on a slippery slope. So if I ‘do too much’ and ‘tweak’ too much I get very off balance. I get very ‘dieting’ mode and that is not a place I should be…I fail on that.

Yes! Me too. Ouch at $49 plus tax for a steak.

I’ve been 145/150 before and yes, it is very thin, however, I still consider that to be my ideal weight.

My supposed ideal weight makes me look like a stick insect b/c I’m so tall. I look great when I’m about 8kg heavier.

Joyce drives me bonkers @Karen18 but my friend loves her for that kind of practical stuff. My sleep gets out of whack very easily, I stay up later and later, then sleep in longer than I feel good about. Good luck with your plan!

[Fangs]

@Shinita
I can’t find it now to cofirm but did you say you were 5’4. For some reason I thought I remembered reading you were taller

----------sunny nice day, shall see what goes down at the beach today.

get this, someone pulled in with a giant Class A motorhome yesterday in the dark tho and when I went outside to walk the dog a lady was holding 2 miniature horses, black and white spotted, on leads in front of the motorhome??? WTH? too wild. LOL

sausage being fried on the rv stovetop. it was yum. gonna eat a few this morning but waiting a tad, I think hubby is gonna drag me out for breakfast…insert big moan here please

zc strong everyone.

edited to add:
hubby woke up with gut troubles, I am NOT being dragged out to breakfast —WEeeeeee and I wonder why on the gut troubles considering the crap he has eaten…ugh.

here is my first meal:
1.2 lb pork loin and it is off the stove all fried nice and eating it now.
that is chicken breast on the counter defrosting for later. might make a little homemade alfredo tonight to go on my chicken. THAT is all I want today. Just some pork and chicken. OMgosh I require just a few simple simple meals ya know!!

I just love my RV kitchen

oh edited again: Anyone catch my joke above? It isn’t mini horses, they got 2 gigantic great dane dogs! they are monsters but they might as well be ponies HAHA

[Shinita]

I was anxious but the paperwork went well and now we need to figure out what to do with the money in this extreme inflation time…

Circumstances piled up, about 4 things happened at the same time, it went so well for so long though but oh well.
Alvaro’s Mom thought it’s enough to give us chicken thighs every time we visit so she made a potato dish with whole Vienna sausages after some usual meat+vegs soup (the vegs were taken out so I had some of the liquid part and some bony chicken part) and there was dessert (fruit salad) - but I only had the meat part (and the liquid, I LOVE soups, I don’t miss that just because vegs were boiled in it and taken out) and my own food I brought with me, I did so unusually well, I typically go off keto but at least off carni when I visit - and then I had coffee with milk and 2 little pralines we got as a late Christmas gift from Alvaro’s brother and I was curious. It wasn’t really good but the coffee was so odd alone, maybe I should stay away from coffee even when I am not at home, need some comfort and I have a headache (it was decoffeinated so it is even less good for headache than the normal one but the latter is usually bad too. and painkillers as well. I don’t drink coffee for headache ONLY but things piled up as I wrote). It didn’t help that it was only the 3rd day (I don’t shorten much my hopefully long carni times, I just start again on the 4rd of January and stick to it better) and I slept unwell. I didn’t desire the stuff at all, that’s promising. But I am very curious, I know that. And coffee triggers things, I noticed that. It was a good idea to quit coffee.

I had some more coffee at home, to balance out the coffee I disliked in the city… But no, I don’t like even my fav now (cream would help, even milk but I don’t open one yet)… Good. Less temptation.
My headache got better at home.

It was a bit relaxed day anyway as I ate cheese! We bought some blue one but I don’t like it much. And I made cheesy puffs for Alvaro and I ate one of my own (I make 2 for me and 10 for him. mine usually contains sausage but I ate that up yesterday and I used tiny bacon cubes now). And some sour cream. My day had plenty of sponge eggs, tiny leftover pork, little chicken liver and I put an egg and butter into my coffee at home.

Tracking is tricky as I had food not at home but not much and I could make an educated guess. Just the usual, 1800 kcal, 140g protein… 22g carbs, 9g from the candy, the rest from animal sources, of course.
Not a very bad day but I won’t do such needless things in the near future again. Actually I don’t plan it even in the more distant future, I have good ideas for the potential food boredom, they won’t even raise my carb intake.

So, continuous carnivore days: 0 now but it will get way better soon

Tomorrow will be quite relaxed as it will be a rabbit stew day! Alvaro wanted to cook it already, I was glad as it has such an odd shape, takes up too much shape and last time it almost cut me with its broken leg bones… Anyway, I like rabbit, mild but nice… (I never ate wild rabbit, just these young domesticated ones.) So onions will be present but that’s it, the other rabbit dish option is way worse. But that uses a little sweetener (what a weird meat dish but it works for it) and Alvaro is out of xylitol. It’s mildly challenging as he will need to eat his 2-3 big sweet desserts a day (it’s non-negotiable, he NEEDS them. or if not dessert, a sweet main dish) with only a very little amount of erythritol (maybe 40g if left?) for about 3 weeks. Doable and we have sugars now too but he is very much against added sugar because he is a health-conscious one. His Mom asked when we said we don’t have much sweetener “isn’t sugar good?”. “NO”, the healthy son said enthusiastically to his obese mother with diabetes. Sigh. She doesn’t use much sugar anymore but her thinking and knowledge just isn’t NEARLY as good as it should be

Alvaro says he can’t eat quark without sweetener so that’s out now too. I just don’t get why. We have lots of savory quark dishes here… One has scratchings Others have sour cream and dill… Oh but we forgot about a very popular spread here, that is quark based and definitely savory. I would like to make it soon (would go wonderful with my sponge cakes. but it’s as carnivore as our stews so not totally but good enough for me IF I need it. I won’t make it without a need) but we didn’t buy quark today. Only a lot of sour cream, some cheese, pork jowl, yay, I will make fat fast days or just supplement my lean pork days? Oh yep, 3kg leanish pork too, I have a ton of it in my freezer now but I could fit it in as the rabbit got out…

I have nice supplies at the moment. Rabbit, chicken, turkey, lots of pork, some smoked pork hock, fried fish, pork fat tissue, soft and dry sausage, bacon… Even lots of butter but that better lasts for months, it’s almost 500g. They have earlier expiration dates but it’s butter, it hardly go wrong so easily.
We even have milk and cream but they are not my staples. They are just there if we need it, especially Alvaro. Or if I really want my loveliest carni dessert that uses cream. But it will take some time until I reach that point.

Sorry, I will be more carnivore even in my writing from now on that I am at home again ~.

[Shinita]

No I am short. Not so horribly short but short nonetheless. 163cm aka 5’4". Alvaro is 5’9", he isn’t particularly tall for a man around here but that’s quite nice. His parents were shorter than him, mine were about my height though I don’t remember the male one, I had serious problems with him for reasons and kind of disowned him at 13. I inherited my shortness and build from my Mom, among others. She never was slim, not even when she worked a lot in the garden not caring about eating so much (she always ate way less than me) and lost weight. Maybe I never will be really slim either though theoretically I should be able to achieve that as long as my body will be on board with that…

A few more inches would be nice but I met shorter men than me and way shorter women, it’s not so bad…

[Karen18]

Alarm was set and i woke up and thought its still the middle of the night it was so dark and dismal. Decided to stay in bed till 8 which was still earlier than the 9/9.30 i have been stayin in till just recently!

So about 10 to 8 this morning and i think the 7am target will start when the mornings become a little lighter. Had a nice long read … i finished one of my books a couple of days back so got started on another yesterday. Picked Raymond up about 11 and took him to the physio then we had breakfast at he sally army where i had my usual 2 fried eggs and rashers of bacon, very nice, chise some books … 6 in all … £3 … cheap at half the price!

We picked Raymond up some shopping on the way back to his house and then i went and did my shopping. Got myself some buffalo chicken wings which was just as well as the neither the whole chicken or the pork chops had fully defrosted so they will be cooked tomorrow. No oic of my brekkie… too busy looking through the books

100 push ups and 50 side raises 50 front raises conpleted.

[Shinita]

I realized I messed up my tracking, it happens sometimes. It was more like 1200 kcal and only 100g protein… So no wonder I am borderline hungry now (it’s 9pm). I go and eat some more meat

Oh books! I read few books nowaday but I got one for Christmas, about black holes! And I haven’t finished it yet, what is with me…?