OXtoberFest ZC Challenge

(Edith) #181

Yeah, I did something similar with tortilla chips at the start of the pandemic. At least peanuts are keto.:joy:

(Edith) #182

When I was keto, my morning blood sugar was always over 100 mg/dL. I donā€™t test is regularly any more, but when I do (on carnivore) itā€™s been in the 80s.

#183

:crazy_face:
:astonished::ghost:

you know I was fortunate guys, I went the other way.
I went into :robot::robot:
auto robot mode for holding onto my eating as the only damn thing I could control every single step thru the crazy of it all.

Luckily everyone got a foothold in better and are doing so well now!!!

Stress times, ya know I never thought I would live thru some of the stuff you read about, hard times, disease times to this level and more and whammo here it is but we are all ok ya know. Life is gonna swirl around us and do its thing to us at all times, best we can do is buck up and do what we can but in the bitter end of it all, there is SO VERY little we do control in truth thru the big old mother nature situation.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #184

Virginia,

Iā€™m going to post details later on my accountability thread but I stopped 3 weeks ago my beta-blocker (Tropol XL) which turns out to increase insulin resistance (IR) and has other metabolic downsides. Today I cut my diuretic (spironolactone/hctz) in 1/2 and expect to get off of it in 2 weeks. Also causes IR and increases the risk of skin cancer, which I have had. I had been on it so long that I never read the flyer.

All of the above under my Cardiologist care. I expect my morning BG to go down from this and my carnivore adjacent lifestyle. If I get off the diuretic that will be 3 BP meds in 12 months gone for good.

(Edith) #185

I cannot imagine how satisfying that must feel. That is wonderful progress!

#186

Hey Peeps!
Seems like the day for good news! So here goes:

  1. got the promotion. I start Monday. $2/hr raise. =)
  2. got the results back on my bloodwork.
    12 hr. fasting glucose level was 91. No idea if thatā€™s good or bad. I think it might be good?
    Ferritinā€¦up to 12. From 7 or 8 or whatever it wasā€¦thatā€™s pretty good. Of course, eating red meat almost daily, plus 2-4 iron complex, I was hoping it would be at least on the edge of normal! HDL was 93, I think. Forgot the LDL, but it was well within normal ranges.

If I think of more stuff, will post. But, all in allā€¦pretty decent Saturday, me thinks! Have a happy day!

(Edith) #187

Congratulations on your promotion! Enjoy the extra day off each week!

#188

super congrats on that promotion SB! from how hard you work you sure deserve it!

and yea your numbers are good!

all going well for you and happy for ya!! Celebrate with a big old steak :slight_smile:

#189

ZC going well.

just doing my thing.

got seafood on the brain today for some reason when I woke up. sounds good to me. seafood and chicken today. probably a few burgers too.

holding my low on the scale but I got a body feeling coming ya know, that I feel very thin feeling, might mean a drop coming on the scaleā€¦but I donā€™t have to have it, but I like seeing it HAHA Clothes still getting looser so that means everything is still leaning out even if that scale doesnā€™t move just yet. Which is cool, I know the drill of it all. Just wait til it happens :slight_smile:

definitely need steak sales. They had chuck roast on sale and I hit the store and ALL GONEā€¦yea. Asked my meat guy and he said next truck isnā€™t til Tuesday so I was like darn. A few chucks woulda been good. oh wellā€¦when next sales come around my freezer will be packed.

Carnivore On!

#190

The only thing Iā€™ve seen on a good sale around here is chicken. Not much on a good sale in the way of steaks. (I always check prices to see if what we are selling is competitive.)

ooooo! Donā€™t you just LOVE that feeling??!!! Itā€™s like the mid-section just seems to melt away. I call it ā€œgettinā€™ the skinniesā€ !!! LOL!

#191

I am stealing that if ya dont mind :slight_smile: Love it!

#192

Day #11:

3MAD. 4 eggs scrambled in suet at 12 noon. Smoked salmon (150g) rolled in swiss cheese slices @ 3pm. Dinner with my wife = pan fried salmon fillet (in olive oil) + fried egg. 2 cups of coffee today with cream.

Not a great day for carnivorising. But I didnā€™t slip too far.

#193

you didnā€™t slip at all.

you might have slipped from your beef and water only type challenge cause you were doing it this month right? but that is fine you opted to eat differentā€¦what you are eating is ā€˜relaxedā€™ carnivore and a teaspoon of oil to pan fry your salmon is allowed on this panā€¦not ideal, but ok LOL and your dairy is fine if you are allowing it soā€¦I gotta say FB you arenā€™t ā€˜slipping out of carnivoreā€™ at all, but if your challenge was set different then you are slipping outta what you wanted Oxtober to be for you.

other than that you are eating fineā€¦be sure you are eating enough tho!!!

#194

4 slices bacon
few slices taylor ham

only ate the bacon and taylor ham cause hubby made breakfast yesterday and had some leftover he and kid didnā€™t eatā€¦so I ate the scraps and BOY IT made me not hungry thru the rest of the day. I never eat at like 7AM and I did and it threw me off alotā€¦which is cool, I donā€™t care LOL

other foodā€¦1 chicken breast, 1 tin of sardines

I got 2 nice burger patties I need to eat and a smaller NY strip steak that was all meant for yesterday :wink: but I couldnā€™t do it.
Kid wanted chicken for dinner so I just did me a small breast and my beloved sardines on the side and called the eating day done.

AND my ā€˜I feel the skinnies comingā€™ did come. I dropped 1/2 lb to a new low again. Boy 1/2 lb is so slow down the scale but I donā€™t care, I tried on some nice blouses I have in the closet and the one that didnā€™t button nicely over the boobs did this time, so yea, I am super cool with whatever changes I am getting, when I get them :slight_smile: Had that little gap in the buttons over the chest area and now that is gone, blouse falls perfect and I am thrilled. Tiny victories is key to my journey now and I see them, happy for them, thrilled by them and want more of them :wink: I will get all I need just eating zero carb and continuing in my changes.

Carnivore on everyone! This plan is the bomb :sunny:

(Kellyn ) #195

Congratulations!

Thatā€™s Great, Fangs! I am so happy for you that you are seeing victories in your clothes and on the scale.

So, Friday I went to give blood and my hemoglobin was 15.5. Which is awesome. Which is top of the normal range.
"The normal range for hemoglobin is:

  • For men, 13.5 to 17.5 grams per deciliter
  • For women, 12.0 to 15.5 grams per deciliter" -Mayoclinic

"The normal ranges for hemoglobin depend on the age and, beginning in adolescence, the gender of the person. The normal ranges are:

  • Newborns: 17 to 22 gm/dL
  • One (1) week of age: 15 to 20 gm/dL
  • One (1) month of age: 11 to 15 gm/dL
  • Children: 11 to 13 gm/dL
  • Adult males: 14 to 18 gm/dL
  • Adult women: 12 to 16 gm/dL
  • Men after middle age: 12.4 to 14.9 gm/dL
  • Women after middle age: 11.7 to 13.8 gm/dL" -Medicinenet.com

I was excited to see those numbers. Also, I finished up my week of a dairy experiment. I drank HWC in my coffee and had cheese with one meal a day to see if the dairy would effect my weight loss. This morning I am down 2.2 pounds! I still have a lot of weight to lose, but I am so happy that dairy does not seem to effect my weight loss as I do miss the HWC in my coffee. I donā€™t think I will have as much cheese this week, but it is nice to know that I can have it everyone in awhile as well as have some HWC in my coffee and still lose weight.
Another cool thing is that I thought I may catch a cold as last week my daughter had a cold and drank from my water bottle at volleyball, but nothing happened. I still feel great and did not get sick.
I am so happy that the sun is back out this week after a rainy weekend and am really looking forward to my daily lunchtime walk today.
Have a great day, my carnivore friends!

(Alex) #196

Just checkin in on all the awesome progress here - it keeps me motivated!

Blood tests are all done and dusted for now so Iā€™ve been eating almost zc for the past 3 days. Itā€™s funny that when I gave myself some leeway in my diet this time I wanted to ā€˜cheatā€™ with a spoonful of carrot and swede mash with my steak or half a cucumber with my chicken liver pate rather than eating a whole cake like I used to do when I fell off the keto wagon. Eating so much meat and animal fats has really helped my cravings.

I was emotionally fried after the blood tests and some personal stuff last week so Iā€™ve been reminding myself to not let perfection be the enemy of the good this weekend and have given myself the challenge of eating meat until I canā€™t eat another bite over the last few days. Still got a handful or two of frozen summer fruits in my diet too which Iā€™ll tackle on dropping when I feel up to it, but today I racked up:

400g lamb mince fried in ghee
(150g frozen berries)

(At this point I had a super intense craving to go buy a bar of chocolate and had to get into bed and watch kelly hogan videos for half an hour before I got up to make some zc snacks. I do think the berries have got to go so weā€™re off to the butchers this evening to stock up on pork belly/chicken thighs/salmon and stuff to eat in addition to my lamb and beef while Iā€™m adapting mentally to zc.)

bowl of prawns fried in ghee
2 salmon fillets fried in ghee (you can probably sense a theme in my cooking methods today)
1/2lb bacon from the air fryer
1lb brisket slow cooked (also in ghee)

Thatā€™s already nearly double what I would have been eating on a typical keto day and I didnā€™t start eating until 1pm today so I probably would have eaten more if I had started earlier. Iā€™ve been feeling really sick if I eat before 11am though so Iā€™m waiting on the Betaine HCl supplement I ordered to arrive before I try breakfast again. I struggle with low stomach acid and have noticed a great improvement in my nausea if I supplement it. I hadnā€™t been able to get my usual filler free (and non-vegan capsule) brand due to supply issues in the pandemic so Iā€™m excited itā€™s back in stock. Usually my low stomach acid is an acute thing due to stress and a fortnight of supplementing is all I need to kickstart my bodyā€™s own production again.

Iā€™ve been checking out the Zeroing In on Health facebook group and the posts and files there, and watching some of Kelly Hoganā€™s interviews which has helped me to question my mindset. I think even at the start of this OXtoberFest challenge I came in feeling like I had to track everything and count macros to succeed whereas now I still feel a fear within myself that Iā€™m doing the wrong thing, but Iā€™m getting better at ignoring the negative thoughts and coming up with positive reassurances to just keep calm and eat meat.

Also been having lots of cat naps with my two ragdolls when Iā€™m feeling overwhelmed or tired which has been lovely, cats have got the right attitude when it comes to doing things at your own pace!

(Edith) #197

Hi Everyone,

I am staying off the Diet Coke so far. Itā€™s not been easy, but Iā€™m sticking to it.

I decided to start posting my food for the day, because I am kind of losing track of what Iā€™m eating and how much. Plus, it may help me eat less of the processed meats. They are far too easy to let slip in. I did that yesterday and today.

Breakfast was two eggs and some bacon

Lunch was a ribeye steak, probably about a half pound and a half of knockwurst

Snack was a beef stick to tide me over until dinner

Dinner was three lamb loin chops (I donā€™t know the weight, but they were pretty thick.) and some pork rinds.

Goodnight.

#198

Super congrats on your drop! You are very fortunate your dairy is acting well with you. I am also one of those who can eat some dairy and do very fine on it. I know when people need to drop it cause of sensitivities it can be hard, I was always so fortunate and happy I was one who can keep some dairy in my life. Happy you are doing good like that too :slight_smile: You are having a grand old time on ZC KP! Cool!!

Really good post Alex. You are working going into zc as you need to do it. It is hard to drop all carbs and not latch onto something, and of course cravings will happen but further along you find your new natural pattern on zc. ZIOH has great resources. That is where I learned all about zc and I have to say, the old ā€˜keep the faithā€™ and just eat all the meat and seafood you need at all times was a key factor to help me transition.

It sounds like you are wrapping your head around zc and just letting the food be the healer and transitioner as it should be :slight_smile: And if needing some naps with the cats, you do just that!! A good nap never hurt anyone :slight_smile:

Yea I hear that! I eat such a narrow amt of items in my life but some days I canā€™t remember what I ate either HAHA For me it is just insert steak/burger/seafood and call my day done on food.

You went all in with this challenge so remember, that if a few processed like pork rinds so help you, then donā€™t be too hard on you about having some. If you are eating zc foods, like your beef stick etcā€¦then donā€™t over pressure yourself ya know, you are doing very very well! Time on this plan and holding tight to zc will change everything but that time is needed, so what one eats and relies on now might be something you can easily drop later as you change thru this plan.

I think you are doing wonderful VE!

#199

food was

smaller NY strip steak
2 cheeseburge patties
some slices taylor ham
can of tuna

the steak and burgers I ate together and boy that filled me up easily. the other stuff was my kinda hungry food and just capped off my day.

I feel like I am going into my ā€˜low eating modeā€™ right now. Which is cool. I just eat what I need when I need it. From ravenous days to eating lighter days, I just eat as the body says to eat :slight_smile:

I think everyone is doing so well on OxtoberFest!

Hoping my meat sales hit great tomorrow when my local store changes the sales. I need me some steaks in the freezer, this is getting a little close for my comfort. I usually have alot of it in there, right now with sales not around I find I am nearing my end of my stash, but eh, there is all kinds of meat/seafood to eat, but those steaks piled up in the freezer are like my life line I like to have around me now. Kinda that must have go to food, a steak a day, keeps the Dr away!

#200

Today was a fasting day. I didnā€™t eat anything yet. But baked beef ribs await to break the 24 hr fast.

Cold black coffee this morning.