No Angst Animal August - 31 day Carnivore Challenge - 2023

mental-health-month

#1

Are you OK?

Welcome to the zero carb carnivore way of eating topic for the month of August.

How are you feeling?

We are interested to hear your progress in low carb keto eating, and if you are willing to give carnivore a try.

It’s only for 31 days.

Last month we talked about freedom. Freedom from hunger, freedom from aches and pains. Freedom from cravings. And freedom from stressful thinking with the simplicity of this way of eating.

Whether you are new and curious and want to give it a try, or whether you are in the ZC Carnivore groove, join in and share your stories and ideas. Bring your questions and your concerns.

What are your goals? What is your fallback safety net? We started chatting about the positive mental health encounters and realisations people are experiencing. Maybe start by sharing one of those. Welcome.


Carnivore Chewy July - 31-day Challenge - 2023
#2

I think the online community chat is a great place to share experiences. Community is an amazing stress antidote. It’s great to write an anecdote, eat a steak, and get a dopamine hit with a few likes.

Does anyone remember this sausage from August 2022?


(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #3

So a good place to unwind? :grinning:


#4

My day probably isn’t finished yet so I state my goals I suppose…

Not like I have fixed ones. I just try to do my best, chill and feel good! :slight_smile:
It’s not even just about eating.

  1. I want many carni days, of course. I never had a carni month and August hardly will be one. But I still can have several carnivore and even more carnivore-ish days. It would be nice to keep August keto but a whole keto month isn’t something I do either. But it got way more realistic in the last years and I am almost sure it will happen soon. I haven’t given it up for August either.
    A small eating window is essential for my goals too. But it usually comes naturally so it’s about avoiding eating late, it’s not good for me anyway.
    We only buy 1 liter milk per week starting now, that’s 0.6 liter or less for me. It’s a big drop after my milky phase and I see zero problem with this tiny amount.
    The other dairy items are rarely a problem and I don’t even want many eggs per day either. Meat focused woe with a small eating window, it should work well.

  2. No coffee if possible. We will see.

  3. At least 2 full body workouts per day, the usual walks (4km a day isn’t unrealistic, sometimes twice as long cycling instead). but I want to run too. My track record is bad as I don’t like running just wish to. I can’t believe I can’t run even a little here and there!

I keep my tea, spices and even a tiny bit of condiment. I need something with my leaner pork and I have that now. Fattier pork is lovely and tasty enough just with salt.

Day #1 is ridiculously easy, of course, I usually need quite a few days to start to miss anything. I need my desserts though, the desire comes at the end of very nearly every meal. Maybe it gets better eventually, that would be neat. Not like there is any problem with my desserts but it’s simpler, more convenient to be able to have just meat with some eggs and that’s about it.

I made an egg milk soup today! :smiley: An egg, an extra yolk, spice (Tex Mex this time. it’s hard to use it up as it’s too salty and I have better spice mixes for the cases where I use some but it worked well now) and a little bit of lard. Some water too. Mixed up with my handy stick blender (it’s powerful and mostly metal, works so well since so long…). It was very good and reminded me of a traditional soup… The intersection of the ingredients are water and salt so it’s odd…
I will experiment with more spices, it will be fun. One thing I start to miss soon is making new recipes. And I love soups but don’t always want to bother with a proper meat soup even if it’s simple. I don’t even often have bony meats for it… No problem, I can live without soup for several days now (I ate it every day as a kid and then it got more rare but I still needed it every week. not anymore) but it’s very nice for me to start my meal with it, it helps, it is a good gateway food. Just because I need food I may not have a proper appetite to start to eat some fried meat. I can do it but it’s more smooth starting with some nice warm soup.

So it is a good day eating and recipe making wise :wink:


(Judy Thompson) #5

@FrankoBear Show for starting this new month out, and happy white rabbit day to all!

In July I ticked off 18 months of carnivore, it’s gone by so fast! It’s this thread and of course the 100 or so books, websites and Podcasts. The weight came off at first, has not lately but I read that it sometimes takes years. But without the changes brought about by this woe decision I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be working.

@Karen18 Yes, we talk to everybody! Strolling musicians are new to this part of the country and people really enjoy it. All the weddings and parties come from these jobs. I think at least half the pleasure of our job is the socializing!


#6

I wasn’t hungry today at all. I barely noticed my weak “need to refuel” sign.
It arrived at 3pm.

A little meat was left and I had sour cream and cottage cheese for dessert 1 and dessert 2 (I ate some more meat in-between… I often find I still want more meat despite I had enough 2 minutes before). They were tiny.

Then I got another weak signal before 6pm. I had a pickled egg with a little sausage and cheese and another egg milk, this time neutral, not salty, with butter. Yum.

It should have been a very fine day but let’s track it.

135g protein, 89g fat, 6g carbs. Yep, a low-cal day but I can pull one off sometimes and I really had enough food for now. Really no satiation problems today! :slight_smile:
505g meat so definitely over a pound today. A pound is very little for me now, at least while I keep my eggs and dairy low.

Good day this far, I hope I won’t get hungry, take a bite and become a gremlin.

I googled it. Wow. I never heard about it before…


(Judy Thompson) #7

@Shinita Sorry, thought at might be the case. I know @Karen18 knows it, but didn’t want to go to great lengths to describe it!
I learned about White Rabbit Day back in the 80s and have observed it ever since. It’s a good luck greeting on the first day of the month. There seem to be several different ways to do it- probably regional differences in the British Isles.


(Karen) #8

That was mine :rofl: can’t for the life of me think where i got it from :thinking::thinking:


(Karen) #9

We used to say a pinch and a punch first day of the month … and retaliate by saying a pinch and a kick for being so quick lol of course if you were quick to say no returns after the first one they couldn’t retaliate :wink:

Got to say Judy i have never heard of white rabbit day!


(Karen) #10

No goals for me just running one month to another as per. If I put weight on i may change that but as it is i just stay more or less the same.

Up early today, 51 stair runs soon as i got up oh and started with 100 relaxed hops as per a tai chi reel off facebook… supposed to energise you and it does.
Outside in the garden for a coffee and read books then ran to CrossFit. I enjoyed todays workout and managed the whole wod of Cindy rx instead of scaled. Yay. The pre wod workout was good too. Then after a coffee and chat i walked very briskly home. I was surprised i did such a good workout as i didn’t think i had eaten enough yesterday.


Ate a nice cheese omelette for brunch and then drove into Beeston to the Bank and a wander round the shops and then over to Raymonds. He returned home from hospital yesterday and i had some things in my car that he had asked me to take off him in the hospital. Home for about 4.45/5pm and ate some cheese and then a very delish aberdeen angus sirloin steak. Very very tasty!. Also snacked on a packet of smoked crispy bacon.


(Shawn Patrick Malone) #11

I’ll be joining in starting tomorrow. Due to an error on my part, forgetting the date, I didn’t eat properly this morning. I’m all in starting tomorrow.


(Judy Thompson) #12

Welcome Shawn!


(Karen) #13

Hi Shawn :raised_hand_with_fingers_splayed:


(Geoffrey) #14

83 days into carni and I’m sticking to it.
When I first started I told myself that I’d just do it for two weeks and see what I thought.
It was going so well that I figured I’d stretch it out to one month.
It felt so good and the results I was seeing were really impressing me so I kept going for another month.
I’m now closing in on three months and have decided that this is now my lifestyle of eating. Once I reach my goal weight I may try introducing some non carni foods back in to see how I react but as a whole, I’m in this for the long haul.

So today, liver and eggs around noon and this evening pork spareribs and brisket. Sorry no pics because we went to a bbq restaurant and I’m not comfortable taking pictures of my food in a public setting.


(Shawn Patrick Malone) #15

Good morning/afternoon Karen.


#16

HI GUYS!!!

I am here right now :slight_smile: :wink:

Sorry @FrankoBear, I just got caught and haven’t been on the 'puter lately as you know. All good, just time is not on my side basically.

Thanks for starting our next thread and loving the title. No Angst…or should that be All Angus? HA

You asked are we ok and goals.
I am super fine. All in ZC. into year 6 and I truly belive this lifestyle has changed me so much and given me ‘it all’ that I have 0 issues on this stand in my life. Not one thought of ever leaving this lifestyle for sure for this ol’ gal.

Goals. None. Hold plan. And I don’t even need to work at that anymore mostly. I am instinct carnivore daily now. I found I am dropping all thoughts of any other food as ‘real food’. I don’t even acknowledge it other than the darn family eats carby and of course I still have to have it in my face…bleck…but have to do that but lately don’t even care what I buy or cook for them…I just do ZC me and forget the rest. It is auto pilot to feed them and no issues with that…I am even gaining control over that part of our changes some of us get hit with when doing some thing big like a zc eating change for life…awww, things are so zc easy now for me. Loving it to the fullest.

Slowly, step by step, scale down another 2 lbs. Yea took 5-6 mos but I don’t care at all. I was saying years back I need the last 15-20 off me cause I so cared about ‘a number on a scale’ still but now, I can say I would still love the last 8-10 lbs off me so HEY…each year I lost a few more and held it off, of course body composition change and no weight loss still helps me keep on trucking :slight_smile:

Kiddo goes to college in 8 days. Sad. Finding my empty nest side of me coming out full now. Crying is in my future on this one LOL but kiddo has to fly now, I will endure it all!

Will check in when I can right now but got alot going down still…but I see more free times coming. Also I don’t ‘follow zc’ like I did before. I think my year 6 and me being zc me, I don’t require to chat up this lfiestyle anymore to the extent I did. I find now I want to lower all chat on it. Just live it ya know. Never will I leave this thread and I can’t leave my carni thread where I am a moderator, but I am dumping all other zc threads from my life. It needs to be me and moving foward without the cling to ‘read it all’ and ‘help all’ and let my life on zc just be that, my zc life ya know.

oh well, all good thru it all right now and hope everyone on the thread holds zc well and remember, friggin’ eat well everyone. Eat zc…don’t ever restrict or hold back…this is what starts our total walk forward, eating well, it changes us so much!


#17

@Geezy56, it’s great it works for you so well! :slight_smile:

Nice day again but warmer than before.
I had to fry some meat around noon (my low-cal but high meat, highprotein day worked well enough to avoid eating late but I got hungry early today), it was still late for my first meal so I just finished my leftover fried pork and ate these afterwards (some cottage cheese was left and I ate more butter):

I had several coffees as I had a headache and felt miserable in general… I do try no coffee and didn’t drink any in the morning or yesterday! :smiley: I successfully talked myself out of it a few times but I am vulnerable when not feeling well and coffee does feel nice. I was hungry anyway and the egg and butter in it was good… It’s fine.

[…]
And meanwhile the CF card found its way to my computer again, I had lunch. Just a little fried pork, the leftover cottage cheese and 1-2 egg milky coffees. I probably will need a third meal… I will focus on fat a bit more from now on, it’s so odd, normally I can’t eat lean enough but if I heavily base my day on leanish pork, I don’t get enough fat, not even with a few eggs and a little other things. Not even if I munch on a little butter… But I don’t think eating much fatty dairy would give me good satiation anyway, maybe I will try out if I fancy eating like that… But I haven’t trained myself out of eating sour cream like no tomorrow to go back anyway.

Our greengage tree finally finished (I helped a little bit). I use the pressure cooker for cooking now (for Alvaro, I don’t need it most of the time. I will use it for cooking smoked pork hock, I dream about having a big piece all for me. Alvaro only eats the lean part and he needs almost all of it for the dish it was cooked in - we can’t put in more as it makes it too salty - and I end up with a little meat and all the fat and skin*. it’s still great but I want MORE sometimes. it’s one of the processed things I don’t like to eat just a tiny amount of), how nice :smiley:

*Actually, I can grab more and provide him with cheesy fried fluffs… But I want both of us having fun with the hock, it’s nice. But I want much, I almost need it for all the fat. I could eat the fat with something but I prefer it with meat.

Now I desire some smoked hock and I don’t have any… Sigh. We don’t even plan shopping in the next weeks but fortunately it’s just some “it would be nice”, I won’t suffer, I can wait just fine :slight_smile:

But I do need something fattier. Fried not so lean pork green ham is lovely, I use a little lard… But it’s still leaner than what I really, really enjoy. Or it’s fine on some days but I need my fatty meat here and there… So I will buy some fattier meat soon (locally, I can’t wait until the next big shopping), my lard is diminishing rapidly anyway.

If I can’t stand it, I will open my tinned cod liver… I do have supplies. We have grill sausages as well. The tins are for sudden emergencies when I can’t wait.

Good to see you back with a “decent sized” comment again, @Fangs! :smiley:
(IDK how others use the term, when I say decent sized, it usually means something not little, not overly much, just right or close to it. Like a 21oz piece of meat is decent sized. Not too big, not too small :wink: )

It makes sense that you don’t need to talk a lot about zc anymore… Though I like when you do :wink: The others are lovely too but your comments have their unique flavor and I enjoy your enthusiasm.
I love talking about my fav dishes but I talk most when I struggle or experiment, need to figure out things… When things just work and all is chill and fine and no need to tweak things, I write less about what I actually eat (I still may and do wax poetry about my fav dishes). Anyway, now my base food is fried pork, I can’t talk about it particularly much and I rarely take a shot as it looks about the same every time… I can eat the stuff nearly every day in over a pound quantities, it’s so very odd still… I came a long way.


#18

A rather big eating window (7 hours), 3MAD… I can’t guess my macros if my life depends on it so my macros are a tad high but I am still very hungry, I just knew I surely ate more than enough so I am waiting for the hunger to pass now.
160g protein, 140g fat, guesstimation says (but it must be more fat and a tad less protein as it was fatty green ham and I cut off some lean parts and ate it fattier… fried meat must be a bit fatty, after all).
530g meat.
I have no idea if I ate at a tiny surplus but I was hungry and yesterday was low-cal. I am not displeased but I prefer 1-2 meals a day as it’s not nice to be very hungry for a while. Not my old strong hunger but still bothersome, not subtle. But I am fine, my stomach is full with eggs and pork! :wink:
(It’s still so much more satiating with fewer meals… Small meals just don’t suit me so well. Yep, I will focus on my fat being high enough in the future. If I can. It’s so lovely when it’s low but it messes with my next day.)

I had a lot of sour cream (we will see if it’s a problem for long term satiation… though I won’t know if it’s the too many meals in a too big window), a tiny bit of leftover pork jowl with scrambled eggs (2 eggs), a piece of sausage, some coffees with leftover egg milk and of course, fried pork. About 0 appetite but that works well. I wasn’t even particularly hungry before I started to eat but I got very hungry soon… Sigh. My signs are crazy as usual.

My mood is better now, it happens with carni meals. Even without satiation at this point.


(Robin) #19

Once you reach your goal weight, I would carry on the same. Your body composition will change and improve then. Rare things from the past, like waists, will magically appear etc.
Just my experience, but while maintaining with the same weight and same food/carbs/calorie…. my body changed rather dramatically…


(Karen) #20

What a flippin awful nights sleep! Probably got my hours in eventually but i did drop off to sleep shortly after half 9, i think, then up to loo a few times and dropped back to sleep until 2.50am and then was wide awake ugh! Went downstairs for about 20 minutes, think i ate 2 hard boiled eggs and returned to bed… as soon as i lay down i had indigestion arghh!

Upat 7.20 in the lounge with coffee and books, (raining) then took car for it’s MOT.

Walked to Beeston to see nice lady at bank about the global account in which i won’t be charged overseas currency fees and she wasn’t in today, she had some personal issues and took day off! It’s 2.5m to Beeston! Oh well went to Tescos for a coffee and had a pleasant chat to a man with his carer then walked home to collect my car from the garage. Walked just under 7m total.

Decided to go to garden centre to get some succulent compost and it was rammed. They were refitting part of it and had made a new route around… jammed full of trolley pushing slow peeps who were stopping to look at everything and no room to get passed without pushing them into the display stands and as i didn’t want to see legs and walking sticks akimbo and flashes of support tights i tried very hard to be patient. Then they didn’t have what i wanted! Argggghhhhh my head was totally shot to pieces!

Went over to B&Q and picked a bag up there. Was quite hungry so got myself a jumbo hot dog with cheese fom the vendor outside, without the wrapping lol and it was very tasty. Forgot the pic! Ooops!

Got home and then made a sirloin steak again which was very delish. Cheese omelette for dinner and a cheapo burger with a slice of cheese before off to bed at 7.20pm