Oxtober Fest! - ZC Carnivore 31 day challenge October 2024


(Bean) #21

Picked up a quarter beef yesterday. I asked that they not trim my fat… and they didn’t. Yay! I have good beef from a good farmer, and the butcher listened. I had to drive an hour and 15 minutes to pick it up, but that’s totally fine. My 85 year old mom rode along and it was a nice morning. The butcher mentioned that my cut sheet reminded him of some of the “carnivore” customers he has talked to. I’m pretty sure I’ll be a repeat customer.

I cooked 10# ground beef and chicken thighs for my college daughter (celiac in engineering school- no time to cook). We’re camping near her next weekend. I’m looking forward to it.

Hubby has decided since I keep setting things on fire in the house, I need a small Blackstone-type grill out under the covered porch. I still cook like I’m in a restaurant, and our house kitchen is most definitely not equipped for that. Setting things on fire is really impressive since I only have electric appliances, lol.


#22

After shopping relaxing lengthy comment. I tend to do those.

Stupid day again. Too gloomy, rain in the morning, in the end we just went to the nearby bigger town (not really big but it has the usual supermarket chains) and did a big shopping. I don’t like that. Except the result. Not the lack of money but the nice supplies! I didn’t find everything so no bacon for Halloween yet (I would like to repeat those bacon covered hands I did last year but maybe I should make feet or something…? maybe a tiny figure…) but we bought lots of dairy and meat. And other stuff. Alvaro focused on fruits (because we only have like 200-250 jars full with our own… okay, not any kind) and grains and lots of various nuts.
I have a slight headache now. I will go out later. I need more fresh air. IDK how people do it without a decent amount every day, I can’t stand that. If I don’t go for a walk, I still go out to do something on the terrace and I am used to truly fresh air here. WAY more trees than people, lovely.

I have tracked, kind of. I mean I did but the accuracy…? But it can’t be too bad. It’s just impossible to track chicken despite my efforts in the past. It’s a hen anyway, very different from young ones. Way tougher (I got a burn when I took apart some hot wing, hot for the temperature here, I only used Tandoori Masala, nothing spicy… those tendons are serious! the meat isn’t tender either but it’s not a problem) but tastier! And it makes a good soup, that’s why I buy hens to begin with.

So. For yesterday, 140g protein and a bit more fat, guesstimation says. Yeah because I may focus on leanish pork but my accidental “brioches” required some decent amount of butter. And cream cheese is very fatty while very nice… So yes, my fat intake can’t be kept low without constant vigilance on some days. I had a nice walk so it’s fine I guess. I just need to focus on meat more. I looked back and yeah, I can’t manage to eat more than 50% of my guesstimated calories from meat. And it almost always mean too much fat.

So, I will be more careful with cream cheese, that 20g butter on the whole week (almost) is something I refuse to feel bad about. It’s very modest. I love butter. And my meat wasn’t super enjoyable this week though it was quite fine, no problem. I am looking forward to eat pork loin though (it’s in the oven), so much better than green ham. Not just fine (in moderation) but very enjoyable.

I had lunch early yesterday, at 1pm but I felt no hunger or desire to eat until 7pm. But I managed to undereat protein so I needed a second and a third dinner too. The protein minimum had to be respected as usual.

Today we ate after our shopping, just a small meal for me as I had about zero normal meat. But it was enough and I will have a nice roasted pork loin dinner. That does good to my protein intake without adding a ton of fat. Instead of cream cheese, I eat my fav, very flavorful Camembert with my leftover sponge cakes. It doesn’t last long and I won’t bake with it this time so we will focus on it for a while. A little while, it’s not hard to eat 250g of it…

For the next week, I try to push my first meal as much as comfortably possible, NO coffee with calories before 3pm anyway… And lovely meats not needing a bunch of eggs and dairy as I can eat enough of them. Actually, that is more important than lunch skipping but it would be nice to do that too, now and then. I want my fat fast days back, they are useful.

Both LIDL and ALDI put their light pork loin on sale… Light pork loin, wow. What is that, 1% fat? Less? shudder Okay, okay, some people love lean meat, nothing is wrong with that. I am just highly incompatible with that. I used to think pork loin is way too lean to begin with but well, I have changed or rather, figured out that if I roast the stuff, it becomes something amazing. I noticed that it’s worth it to try to cook something myself (and not just once) before I give up on it…
It’s even possible that light pork loin is boderline edible! I love mine, after all and it has lean parts and those are nice and juicy and tasty too. IDK if the lack of the tiny fat cap could ruin that. I won’t try. BUT I ate some very lean green ham (half of Alvaro’s one) and it was okay for hungry me and loin is better. So it would work I suppose. I can eat even chicken breast when made right and it has that off-putting texture too… Cooked in something wet helps with that somewhat.

Oh! I noticed yesterday that I don’t eat dessert now. Unless we consider coffee dessert, it totally is but I used to want a solid dessert too. Nice. Simpler. I may get lazier and lazier regarding cooking… Baking is a bit different, it’s a hobby.

Alvaro cooked a substantial veggie dish and a mushroom dish for himself yesterday so I only need to provide him for the main protein for some days. No cheesy fluffs I fear as I run out of egg whites (I need it for my egg milk) but he seems to be accepting meat without any problem. He got green ham, hen and now comes his fav, pork loin. And if he will get bored of meat, hopefully we still will have some eggs left. We are running low again and I happily eat sponge cakes now. The accidental brioches happened when I put a substantial amount of milk powder into 2 of them. It’s so good… But it’s not as protein rich as my food should be so I better won’t make a batch :smiley: Only a few every time, maybe. I will experiment, I will try to put some butter inside… Maybe extra yolks, I need the extra whites anyway… And as little milk powder as possible. A little is nice, I get these brown-reddish, richer, sweet little brioche things. I still love sweet things but this one is almost nostalgic despite being pretty far from brioche (or it depends. skipping flour is very normal for me, it’s not like most things need it, pancakes are better without any too… and who needs raised dough when we can have whipped whites and yolks combined? not the same but I don’t miss anything).
And now IDK if it’s okay here despite it’s totally pure carnivore in my books as it’s 100% animal stuff and not even the most sugary powder I have (that’s the pretty useless whey powder). You pry my milk powder from my cold dead hands - or wait some months or years when my phase will end (but I still keep it, I just won’t use it all the time). I do try to use it in small amounts. But it’s very lovely. I don’t have many carnivore flour options especially for desserts.


(Liz ) #23

Drat! Lol I mean, yay! I’m happy for you, but this is going to be what I have to do too isn’t it and I’m grumpy about it! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

But seriously that’s excellent! What a relief, sounds like. And the job too! Woohoo!

This is me!! Very discouraging. I know something is triggering it, probably dairy but definitely stress. I tried eating ad libitum but I go off the rails SO FAST because of my eating disorder history and here I am up 20 pounds :scream: I hope you have better luck than I did. I’m back on OMAD carnivore but I have no idea if that will lead to weight loss but at least I can hope for some control.

So glad you got through that intense surgery @MeganNZ am I remembering right you had a piece of metal in your gut they were supposed to fish out as well???

Yesterday was our 22nd wedding anniversary, Dell grilled us the last ribeyes of the season. We pulled out an air conditioner and put the storm window back up, not an easy task on this 1880s house with original windows! We are slowly battening down for the coming winter. Right now in New England the days are still warm, nights not too cold, trees are turning. zinnias, cosmos, and marigolds are still adding color to the yard. Not quite time yet to fill dozens of leaf bags for fall clean up.

I got the two quilts done I absolutely had to finish for December and now it’s just a game to see how many more in the to-be-finished pile I can get done this year. I usually finish 9 or 10 quilts a year (of all sizes). This year I focused on finishing tops that have been sitting around awhile, neglected while I got excited about starting something new lol. So with that impetus I am up to 14 completed quilts! Including the one for my niece who is expecting a little girl at the end of the month. I used the fabric from my mom & dad’s button down shirts because I know my niece will appreciate something sentimental like that.

Ok today is the official start of my carnivore reboot. I’m aiming to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks. Here we go.


(Bean) #24

I’m cheering you on!


(Megan) #25

That’s awesome Bean. Congrats.


(Megan) #26

Thanks Judy!

I find not regaining easy on carni too - and I don’t eat in a time window or limit myself to x number of meals a day or x amount of food/cals. I know people can gain on carni and struggle to lose, even after the initial adaptation - which can be a long process for some. I feel very fortunate. I only have another 10 max kg to go but I’ll be happy with just 5. Being very tall I don’t look good without a little bit of weight on me, now I’m 62.


(Megan) #27

Thanks Robin! Thankfully I never did the yo-yo dieting thing or dieting much at all. Being 6’3" meant I could never be tiny lol.

I initially lost 19kg on carni eating a lot but “the right food”. Was crazy. Part of that food was cream and cheese, which seemed to make it even more crazy. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones who can eat quite a bit of dairy without it making me gain or stopping me from losing. I’m glad my appetite has returned and after a few very hungry days it’s “normal” now. Feels good to feel some hunger and for food to ease it quickly. I’d even hazard a guess and say my hunger and satiation cues have been healed and are now working as intended - but only when eating carni. I could still eat 2 large pizzas easily. Carbs are weird!!


(Liz ) #28

Thank you! I’m an old hand at starting over and sometimes I do succeed so my hopes are moderate but definitely still there. My food addiction is pernicious but I am a relentless person, especially when it comes to my health & also liking how I looked in all my clothes that used to fit :wink:


(Megan) #29

I bought an all terrain/off road walker (rollator) yesterday. Expensive (!!) but it will increase my choices in where I can take my 2 grls for an off lead walk and run and make the places I currently take them easier to walk about in. I have a dog beach 5 minutes drive from me that I can’t get to because the surface of the long track leading to it is too stony for my current walker. A nice ocean breeze and water to play in is exactly what my rottie needs. She takes forever to stop panting after running and risks overheating in the summer.

My credit card has taken quite a few big hits over the past 2 months so it wasn’t the most sensible thing to do, but…

Oh well :grimacing:


(Robin) #30

Yes! Nothing better than fitting in your cute clothes again!


(Liz ) #31

Sounds like a good investment to me!


(Liz ) #32

I even put up an inspiration photo like it’s 1997 lol but whatever works, you know? Eyes on the prize.


#33

My pork loin got a texture a bit like chicken breast… Sigh. Of course Alvaro loves it but I don’t. But I still can eat it, in moderation. Sometimes we just talk about something interesting and when I look at my plate, my boring lean meat disappeared. Good enough, I guess. I still have my enjoyable bites.

Sometimes I have food aversion (last dinner) but I can just have a night meal then, not ideal, I don’t like eating then for reasons but it works. Unless I overate but probably not…? IDK, I am lazy to track but I have my notes so I will try. Sometimes I wonder why I bother, it doesn’t effect my food intake and it’s inaccurate anyway… But the protein is more accurate and I am curious if the tiny dairy I still eat is actually much or not…

I fried some pork chuck today (so fatty, I trimmed off a lot and still very promising :smiley: the trimmings will become lard and lovely scratchings, eventually), didn’t eat it yet, still have lean pork and the chuck wasn’t fully ready at lunchtime yet, I forgot about starting it in time.
I keep eating lunch as my hunger arrives until 3pm. And I eat smaller meals on carnivore now so I need multiple meals anyway. It’s easier to eat my leaner, less tempting meat when I get hungry multiple times a day too.

And I went off yesterday, I decided it was the best decision, not torturing myself. As we bought 2 of my top fav fruits on Saturday and I kept myself from them for days, it wasn’t hard but I am always worn down in the end (meanwhile I keep myself from some other items, no problem but I can’t do it with everything at once. I mean I could if I thought it is needed but it’s not)… I am not ready to give them up yet. Maybe in November. I was always best at it in November. I do what I can, yesterday I ate some fruits, today I behave, my body and mind always handles quite well if it’s an isolated day. Last week I had some pickled and fresh vegs with my meats too as I really desired them and who am I to say no to myself but this week I don’t do that. I do what I can, really, I am determined and everything. But I don’t need proper carnivore. I am curious and will do it if it will become easy… But that’s it. I am pleased with what I have now. The carnivore mental changes regarding food are with me.

But the attitude must be carnivore. I make exceptions when things get hard but my default is carnivore. Or else I might or might not go too far. It’s not like I often desire carbs… But it’s better be safe. So that’s why I am here. It helps. I am very much surrounded by carbs, I cook them, I pick and break them (nuts), I clean, cut and pressure can them… I do it so well in almost all cases every day. And it’s enough for me now.

Today I had leftover boring very lean pork for lunch with a bite of sausage and some distraction :smiley: And a piece of Camembert. It was a small, nice enough lunch but I expect great things from my pork chuck dinner. Oh yes I had some creamy coffees too… I have whipped cream now. A bit disappointing as it’s not lactose free, I don’t feel it sweet :frowning: Oh well. It’s fine for coffee, lacking for ice cream (I had leftover yolks again so I had to do something with them and it’s better not to leave myself alone with 200ml cream, mostly whipped, sweet or not. I will eat the ice cream too but it’s slower).

@MeganNZ: But if it gives you more freedom and comfort and you actually could afford it without some tragedy like no money for food, maybe it was worth it…? Use it well and have nice breeze, I never saw the ocean! (No problem, the problem is that I saw the sea 2 times in my life. It will be nice to do it for the 3rd time next year! And I have waters here, just not the sea.)

Sunny day, I had a nice walk and found some wild champignons again, I will pressure can it as Alvaro ate 800g in the last days, it should be enough for him for a while. I lost all interest in eating mushrooms when I tried out carnivore, IDK why. I feel it’s tasty but I don’t get joy from it and don’t desire it either, not even occasionally. I usually want to try the items we only get a few times per year but if it’s most vegs or some mushroom, nope, their times are over. (If I could have this with most fruits too… No, I only have moderation there. And usually lack of desire. But I enjoy them very much. People talk about the high palatabily of highly processed foods, to me, fruits are WAY above them. I don’t find the overprocessed things very palatable to begin with… With exceptions, of course.)

Okay I will try to focus on carnivore food even if it’s about my thoughts and comments… At least the comments. It helps me to think about them sometimes.


(Judy Thompson) #34

@LizinLowell happy anniversary! 22 years. Guess it’s gonna stick :heart_eyes:
Also - those quilts!! Fantastic! People will think of you forever.

@MeganNZ yeah! Whatever gets you and the pups out there! And congrats on the gig!

We’re playing Oktoberfest tunes now, Beer Barrel Polka, Danke Schon, The Happy Wanderer. Today, he wrote out Danse McCabe for Halloween. Yes!! I’ve always wanted to perform that.

I lost track of time and didn’t sous vide our rib eyes this morning. They were SO tough. After lunch I put them in and forgot them for 4 hours (time is 1-4). I sliced one tonight, still red inside, browned it and rolled it into an egg white wrap with some grated cheese and it was awesome.
Yup. Sous vide for the win.


#35

Oh I am sure it is lovely, I would love to hear such songs by pros who know what they are doing!


Today is a very unusually simple day! I had no hunger at all at lunchtime but right afterwards it arrived so I ate a chicken leg and nothing else. Actually not a whole one but it was a pound without bone, a huge one :smiley: It was freshly made (Alvaro ate a whole leg himself but his was smaller. I always give the smaller one to him as he has his carbs and dessert too and it’s enough for him. but there was pork anyway…) and I was curious if I can get satiated by chicken alone for lunch (when I am not even very hungry. insistent, had to eat but I felt I don’t need much food, probably. and indeed I didn’t). I supposed I can as I did it at Alvaro’s Mom a few times (I did eat some other things but mostly chicken), I merely get hungry again soon and need some proper, red meat as well. So almost a pound of chicken leg must be as good for satiation as 5 bananas were in my past. But much better nutrition wise, I hardly will need to worry about getting enough protein from my first 2 meals… :wink: I usually worry about getting too much when it comes to chicken… Low-key worry, I just know the risk and try to be careful. But today I experimented and the chicken was the fresh warm crispy meat so I focused on it.

Things are fine eating wise. I still eat a bit too much fat (it’s very hard to eat lean, I am pants at it even when I really, really try. almost only fatty things are nice, after all… sometimes carby ones but that doesn’t help me…) but it’s chill, I eat lots of meat and I like it enough, usually not blissful but easy to eat and that’s enough. I eat a bit eggier now as I have quark to eat and I made pancakes. I rarely do that on carnivore as I always preferred dessert pancakes and my only old savory one had a veggie filling. But yesterday I could make multiple nice savory pancakes. One with cheeese (Masdaam, my big fav!), one with turkey deli meat and one with quark mixed with sour cream and dill. I always could eat many pancakes but always had to stop after a quark one. As I had a decent amount of fried pork chuck too and the quark one was my third, I had to stop after just half… But it was good. Quark alone can’t work so well, it needs the pancake, apparently. I like quiches too much so a quark quiche (if it is a thing but it is to me. I can’t invent new word for every dish I make, I am bad at that) may not be that effective, I would just eat them all up, satiation or not. Or who knows, I can be modest with quiche if I eat enough meat beforehand… But I really love baked goods and quiche is that. Mine isn’t too moist since I replace the cream with quark… If it’s moist, it’s some rich scrambled eggs but if it’s this drier one, it’s more like a rich sponge cake (especially that I whip the whites and yolks as my quiches come with sponge cake making, 6 sponge cake muffins, 6 quiche muffins). The moist normal ones are good too, though. Even Alvaro eats them. What is his problem with my sponge cakes, I don’t know but at least all is for me this way.

The weather is nice, today was even very warm though only some hours of sunshine. I have young onions coming out in my veggie patch, wow. They dried up in early summer but now that the rain came, they came out too. Alvaro will have some nice own vegs, it always warms my heart, I like growing things especially when it involves little work from my part.
I have some pretty but sensitive flowers, they were so ugly in summer but now? Multiple lovely flowers, they needed their rain too! The nice smelling pink roses didn’t like the rain, the outer petals tend to dry on the others, oh well, I had them during summer, they don’t have problems with hot drought, apparently. They roots must go far or IDK, maybe roses just aren’t so sensitive…? It had shadows but the sensitive flower had it too. Whatever, I just enjoy what I have flower wise. The summer lilac is still pretty and attracts hummingbird hawk-moths. By the way, we had a green woodpecker visitor some days ago, how cool is that? (2 normal ones too but they are nothing special, I still like them though.)

I keep trying to go toward the Ideal style eating wise, I know I am like this, I need training and things slowly change for the better. I can’t force these. I keep my 2MAD (well, I mean, it’s the plan, I have not much control over my number of meals, have I? I mean, occasionally I could force a number, sacrificing too many more important things… so in the end, I couldn’t as it would be a bad, not hedonistic deal), keep my focus on MEAT, eggs are fine but dairy must be minimized… I had this attitude lately but it doesn’t mean I was successful enough… So I keep trying. Maybe I should have small, very lean lunches, that sounds perfect as long as it works. Protein first always seemed the only good idea for me (unless I can do OMAD) but as lean protein as possible and nothing else for lunch sounds even better when I am not too hungry. As our lunch and dinner are way too close for me (I end up eating dinner with Alvaro most of the time but I am still satiated at that point so it feels a bit wrong…?) but with a tiny, protein rich lunch I get hungry very quickly. Of course I am not really satiated now either, right after my lunch but I am not hungry and it’s enough.
We will see.


(Liz ) #36

Oh fun! My SIL and BIL are musicians. He plays fiddle in a lot of Irish pubs, she’s the keyboardist in the Polka band they are both part of. Seems like a good time! And thanks for the kind anniversary & quilt words. I’ll attach a screenshot of my 2024 finished quilts album if anyone is curious.

Looking at the nice weather predicted for Saturday and thinking Dell could squeak out just one more grilled steak for the season!! I’m stoked.

Had an absurd food addiction lapse yesterday but today I’m back on track for my 20 pounds/20 weeks plan. Just keep swimming.


#37

Nice! Oh that last one is pretty cool :smiley: I love black but colors too and that’s just perfect, pixelated too :smiley:

I need to create more things too.


#38

Steak and eggs here. It’s spring wild flower season. This is the roadside near home.



#39

Wow, pretty flowers :slight_smile: I don’t miss them yet as it’s October so there is plenty here too :smiley:

Well. Not surprisingly, the chicken boosted my protein intake sigh. I was hungry and ate a night meal again, to make it worse. But I blame the chicken for that too.
About 200g protein, my lean eating worked* so only 150g fat, my quite inaccurate quesstimation says but well, it’s not only about the ratio, the grams are high.
But today I skipped lunch as wasn’t hungry so things go well (I had a coffee or two and a bite of cheese - mmm, Massdam is SO lovely! - but that’s barely anything). And I went below 80kg, the scale says but I don’t trust it so much, I wear various amounts of clothes and measure myself at various points of the day anyway. And even my bodyweight can change due to water and waste, usually not much but still, there is the possibility. Gimme 70kg and I will believe :stuck_out_tongue: Fine, even 75. Or 77. My weight truly is super stable, after all. And I have my clothes too.

*If my protein is noticeable higher, that’s a success to me. My taste likes when fat is as much or a bit higher than my protein but way higher works too… So 65-70-75%. 80% is much on average but occasional 90% days are fine albeit they wouldn’t happen automatically. And I must do 65% at most but less is better or else I overeat fat. I can overeat fat with 50-60% too, sure but it’s way harder while over 65% it’s nearly guaranteed.
I used to have 65% fat on almost every day on keto, virtually no matter how or how much I ate, it was almost creepy… But very logical, actually as I ate as lean as I could and this was the lowest I could stand. I missed fat a lot (my percentage wasn’t higher on high-carb but my grams surely were. did I mention it took me several months to keep my >200g fats really occasional? anything less felt very little fat to me. not like 200-250g is much but still, better. carnivore helps as I have little carbs AND little volume to go with my fat so I don’t need as much to feel I eat fatty) but I could do it without real suffering.

Another beautiful, sunny day, I had a nice longer walk (longer than my usual tiny one), it was too long ago. Tomorrow is hiking day! Just a tiny one, enough for my still not fully okay but much better foot, 12km or something but with decent elevation as our goal is the highest peak of our mountain range and it’s not on a plateau, it’s a normal mountain so there will be more or less steep slopes! :slight_smile: It was sooo long ago when I did some decent albeit tiny hiking.

We have 2 eggs left, we buy some tomorrow, I kind of miss them and I used a lot lately. I had an eggy phase. That’s fine, having it together with way too much dairy (I am trying and I feel I barely touch any but it’s still too much in the end) is the problem I should avoid. I keep trying! :slight_smile:


(Judy Thompson) #40

@LizinLowell thank you for sharing your quilts! Good lord, how do you have time to do anything else? These are mega impressive! I love the fiddly ones (as my Grampa would have said). All the tiny parts and beautiful color combinations. As Shinita says, the black is quite striking. I’m imagining it in my room :}
@FrankoBear your quilt of flowers is beautiful and refreshing. I love that while we’re seeing fall here, we can vicariously enjoy springtime through you.
I have an irritating cold that’s finally coming to an end. The cleansing symptoms of a cold always bring up body aches and pains I’d forgotten about for so long - sciatica literally kicking my butt, acid reflux of all things! Lastnight we got home at midnight from the gig and I wasn’t hungry, didn’t eat. I feel so much better this morning. Usually I make eggs and bacon when we get home. Hubby really looks forward to it but lastnight he just had cheese and crackers, worse for him :woozy_face:
He’s just starting into the cold I’m getting over. At least now we’re stocked up on OTC flu drugs for his benefit.