TripleAAnimaliciousApril Carnivore

[Karen18]

Doing my usual zc way.

Up early this morning amd straight on to stair running then meds, bp, coffee and books for a quick read before getting off to a very puffy and sweaty CrossFit session. It was very good.

Then after chatting went toThe Company Shop and spent £33 on meat and 1 packet cheese. Cooked chicken thighs x2 packs , cooked spiced chicken thighs, 4 sirloins, 2 rumps, cooked chicken pieces for frying when i need a snack, 2 racks of pork ribs, 2 small packs of mussels and a spatch cock chick for cooking.

Had the spiced chicken thighs for lunch … after a small sirloin i had got out of freezer the other day… it needed eating. I still prefer the smaller steaks for taste and texture.

Picked up Raymond from hospital and dropped him home then eventually got home myself and stuffed myself with some mussels in mayo and 1 of the racks of ribs and they were very tender.

had to cut it in half to fit on roasting rack. Also had a bit of cheddar.
Usual home exercises completed.

[Fangs]

My hubby drives for a car dealership now that he is semi retired.

His car caught fire on the highway driving back a wholesale vehicle.
Big smoke out back of car. He pulled over on an Exit, got out fast, called fire dept, and he said within 5 mins. fully engulfed.

tough day at work for him. between all going down with us right now I yelled at the universe to leave us the hell alone right now …ugh.
He is fine tho!!

that was all that was left after he got out of it 5 mins later…I tell ya! woof…he said fire dept did a great job on it tho!

[Shinita]

Now I’ve got a new place with lots of garden space, but whatever will I grow??? I don’t want to raise animals. … flowers I guess.

Yes, that’s a good idea. I have a teeny-tiny veggie patch, half of it is flowers Cornflowers (it’s “wheat flower” in Hungarian…) is what I actually sow but there are morning glories, petunias, calendulas… I take out the claries, they have their own rows elsewhere but they are absolutely everywhere nearby, they are almost as bad as the “imperialist tree”, no idea about its proper name but the babies are everywhere, we have 2 adults at different places of the garden, they are quite fetching.
And the daisies try to migrate into the patch but they hardly survive when I dig up the place… The others survive everything.
And this is the veggie patch, I have lots of flowers everywhere. My garden is half decorative, half full with fruit bearing plants.
I have hundreds of daffodils right now. And a flowering plum tree. It never has fruit (it did years ago so I know it has big round ones), it just has flowers. One day we will cut it out but we aren’t in a hurry…

It would be a problem for me alone but my SO eats up the fruits (we don’t have so very much but I still have no chance to make a dent, even if I tried hard that I don’t). It seems he can handle that much.

---

Today was fine in the end, I only had problematic hungry feelings in/after the end of my eating window but some time passed and I am perfectly satiated. I just want this stupid headache to go away…

@Fangs: Oh my!!! I’m so glad he is fine!

[MeganNZ]

Hi everyone, a new month feels like a good time to review my progress to date. What I’m doing, what’s changed, how it’s changed, what hasn’t changed etc.

So, 10 months carnivore now, eating when my body asks for food and eating enough to be satisfied. My appetite has decreased from the 1st couple of months. I now eat somewhere between 1.5 to 2 pounds of meat a day, on average most days. Some less hungry days, occasional more hungry days. My main meats are ground beef and pork shoulder, I seem to be happy to eat both or just ground beef day in day out. No other meats/fish/fowl feel appealing. Eggs once or twice a week, about 50 grams of colby cheese most days, about 100mls of heavy cream in coffee thruout the day, and some unsweetened very low carb greek yoghurt every 2nd or so day.

Positive changes:

I’m down 19kg (42 pounds). I am definitely not “dieting”. I easily eat 2,500-3,000 calories most days. I eat in a way that is sustainable for me, and a big part of that is not going hungry and not triggering feelings of deprivation. Weight loss has slowed quite a lot the past couple of months and for the 1st time I’m seeing a bit of up and down on the scales. I’m not freaking out about it, just waiting to see what my body is up to.

Pain from inflammation has definitely decreased. The all over fibromyalgia pain is about 50% of what it used to be and the pain in my knees, especially my right knee, is about 70% better. I can now easily handle taking Lulu out for a walk then a good run off lead every second day. I learnt recently, however, I can’t overdo time on my feet, especially time that puts stress on my knees like stair climbing and walking up and downhill. Took a good 2 weeks for the intense pain to settle.

I’ve been a fairly heavy smoker my entire adult life (now 61) and used to cough a heck of a lot (partly throat irritation) and produce a huge amount of mucous in my lungs. Sometimes I felt like I was drowning in it and would be coughing a lot up thruout the day. I just realized a few days ago both have dramatically lessened despite continuing to smoke just as much.

No change:

I still have very low energy and feel like I am dragging myself thru my life. Chronic fatigue is part of fibromyalgia, and also part of depression.

Mental health wise my anxiety and depression haven’t improved at all. I “deal with” the anxiety by largely avoiding things that produce an anxiety response, where possible. This usually involves avoiding people. The depression is by far the most debilitating tho. I’ve tried various anti-depressants over the years and none have done much, if anything. I weaned myself off my current anti-depressant about 3 months into going carnivore. I’m starting to think about maybe going back on one b/c the depression has been particularly bad the past couple of months. I tick nearly every box for Major Depressive Episode. This isn’t super uncommon for me tho, at best I am very Dysthymic.

No change in cognition.

No change in sleep, I continue to sleep poorly even with the sleep meds I take. Waking 3-5 times a night, never feeling rested when I wake in the morning. This can be part of fibromyalgia as well as depression.

---

I’m mostly happy eating what I do but still experience intense cravings at times, usually for something like a BK burger. I don’t find this a particularly enjoyable way to eat but it’s not unenjoyable either. Just a bit meh some days. I’m glad I’ve lost some weight and somewhere in amongst the depression my self-esteem has improved, and shame lessened. I have another 8 or so kg to go. My body may decide to go lower but, being 6’2" inches tall (188cm), I think I look better with wee a bit of covering. The belly fat is being the most stubborn but, from what I’ve read, that’s quite common.

I’m still grieving the loss of Grace, it hurts so bad at times. For those who believe what the bible says I’m desperately hoping the place Jesus is preparing for me has Grace waiting there for me. And Tobias, and Dodger and Tarca - 3 other dogs I’ve loved with all my heart and lost. My friend Ruby had a dream about me having a Rottweiller, seeing it walking about in the garden looking very calm and happy. Ruby is a Christian and had a strong sense it was a dream from God. I was planning to get another dog but a rottie was on my list of breeds not to get, but I took a leap of faith and got Lulu. Boy oh boy, she is definitely a God picked dog!

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone has a wonderful April.

[Alecmcq]

I am definitely not “dieting”. I easily eat 2,500-3,000 calories most days. I eat in a way that is sustainable for me, and a big part of that is not going hungry and not triggering feelings of deprivation. Weight loss has slowed quite a lot the past couple of months and for the 1st time I’m seeing a bit of up and down on the scales. I’m not freaking out about it, just waiting to see what my body is up to

This is the same for me… your words above are very wise.

I think my body has decided on a weight loss pause at this point. It’s having a rest. If I lost no more weight and stayed as is, quite honestly I would be perfectly happy. But I think it may decide to shed some more at some point.

[Shinita]

Gloomy day but not rainy, we did some garden work. Had to do something with some unruly blackberries (and other thorny plants. it was a joy cutting out one kind that WASN’T thorny! small mercies) so I have a thorn deep in my finger, it is what happens when I go near them. I brought up the idea of just taking them all out but Alvaro said he loves the fruit. Sigh. It’s work, it’s pain…
I need some good gloves. I am careful, a simple one would help a lot.
We ended up sawing and cutting more so we have a mess and a ton of stuff needed to burn again… It’s amazing how much wood such a tiny garden can produce.
We have cherry and plum flowers now, they are very pretty in their simple snow white way. But a thorny thing from the zillion is about to flower too, I cut out the one that wasn’t our main one. I don’t know its name but it’s a pretty one with shiny green leaves and yellow bunch of flowers.

I tracked. Less accurate than usual (fatty pork is already bad but when I cut off the fatty parts, fry it and eat the meatier part of it… :D) but I did what I could I got 143g protein, 135g fat and 8g carbs. Good day macro wise and it gave me wonderful, long lasting satiation. Though I am already not THAT very satiated now, after noon. Maybe the garden work. But far from hungry so Alvaro has his lunch alone. He slowly eats his pork loin, he fears much meat would turn him off. So I won’t bother him with meaty lunches next week (he has his pork anyway, of course). I can do non-meaty carnivore things too, after all. Just a few but they are precious! Not in the mood to cook carby things now. Baking is different, that’s very enjoyable for me as the result is very pretty.

[Fangs]

@MeganNZ, thanks for sharing your update. remember also 10 mos. is still new to zc, especially since you might have alot of healing to handle, you keep truckin’ on, more great changes will come your way.

--------------------so my 4 pack of chops yesterday was 3 big ones in the pack

Could only eat 2 first meal so I have one leftover for first meal today and will pair up with a cheeseburger patty. Second meal today I got just chicken planned, I might make homemade alfredo if I feel like doing the work we shall see.

I am thinking sinus/allergy med change mighta done that PVC action on me. Interesting, but no idea but still my normal flips but controllable and normal in my actions now…hmm…not worrying on it too much but it opened my eyes for sure on how fast we can be effected by anything we do put down our gullet ugh

ZC’ing along in fine form.

[collaroygal]

Oh that looks like a nighmare. Glad he stayed safe.

[Shinita]

Things went well. I decided to eat already at 17:45, too bad I had no soup That is such a great gateway food for me when I don’t have an appetite.
The lack of appetite didn’t last long but it’s still easier, smoother to start with soup. And soup is lovely. Alvaro cooked one (mushroom soup with vegs) and I ate from the liquid, that should be fine enough, it was lovely with sour cream! Tomorrow I try to cook a soup even though my ingredients aren’t the best. I have a chicken frame and some (already somewhat used, very much not meaty) bones and smoked pork skin… Hopefully it will be good enough. Meaty pork bones or a whole small hen would be better but I have these now.

My tray:

I left some smoked pork ribs and liver but ate way more eggs and some cheese too. And salmon spread. I think I lost interest and joy… Oh well, it was a nice little help until now. And there was some sour cream too, nice neutral stuff even if very inferior, 12% fat… But it was half the price of the normal 20% one and I couldn’t resist (and already had 850g of my fav)… Okay for some roles, mixed into dishes but the fattier kind is way better, smoother, tastier.
I enjoyed the pork loin better today but I had a lovely little piece with much surface area and that is lovelier and fattier… The lean part from yesterday got the pan treatment and I ate scratchings with it…

I liked my food and satiation wasn’;t hard to reach at all this time. But it wasn’t particularly simple. It can’t be helped, I simply didn’t have a meat dish I could seriously depend on. I ate this and that. The scatching was the best, I thought I left the fatty pieces but there were meaty pieces still. And the flavor was really good. Fried fatty pork is my favorite. And pork chuck roast but they are different, hard to compare. The latter is best for eating as my main food but the fatty crunchy loveliness of scratching is something special I want to enjoy often in its moderate amounts.

150g protein, 140g fat, 12g carbs, guesstimation says. Meat is significantly above a pound, very normal from me. I got most of my calories from meat, not surprisingly but I had 5 eggs and a similar amount of calories from dairy (protein wise it’s different as sour cream isn’t good at that).

It’s 11pm now (took some time to bring up the CF card and track), I am super full. I had a time when I felt I was too full. Maybe I should stop eating earlier… But hopefully things get sorted out on OMAD, I really would hate to keep myself from eating to my heart’s desire at my single meal of the day. One huge benefit is that I don’t need to do such things or I thought. No, I still think so, I am just not a robot and my days aren’t the same.
But I don’t overeat, I have that already… And I will wish I can eat this well then OMAD brings its diminishing mealsize… But I have ideas for it.

[Fangs]

@collaroygal, thanks!! wild times for sure LOL I mean, car fire at work while driving? not like it happens every day , ugh.

-----------------keeping it simple. got alot of busy happening around here.
today is ribeye steak. finish off that last chop I didn’t eat yesterday as I should have but will today and burger meat. Didn’t make the alfredo sauce, too much work . Don’t really have a hankering for anything specific…when I feel like that it means I am very nourished ya know, like any meat will do at any time so…just eating zc as the body wants. But start the day with a ribeye steak and I can never go wrong.
PVC stuff seems settled, on my old sinus/allergy meds which is helping that issue I think. so far, so good.

zc on strong all!

[Karen18]

What a fabulous positive post Megan of course Grace and all the other fluufballs will be there to meet you when your time comes and judging by the weight that you have dropped that should now be later rather than sooner! So pleased you have a Christian partner and she passed on her dream to you. Rotties are wonderful dogs and very loyal and loving animals. Brought up correctly they are great with children and adults alike. I know you will be a happy bunny with Lulu. Well done on all those positives xxxx

[Karen18]

Sunday i was up and stair running fairly early in ordrr to do the meds etc and read before meetung Sian at the Spa. Got a bit of a headache there when a yound man started rattling on, i wanted to ask him to take a breath but inthe end just said i was sorry but his talking was makong my head hurt and we walked out the sauna to the spa pool. I was quite tire when i got home, sian jad been chatting to someone she was spi biking with before merting me which made us about 15/20 mins behind and i had to quickly bath hair wash glam up and go dancing and then qhen i phoned Raymond to say i was on my way he said he need to buy s9mething to eat for after the dancing as he had forgotten to get something out the freezer the night before arrrgh. The dance was over an hours drive in Linvolnshire so i had to grab something from him at the shop before picking him up. My carefully timed morning suddenly became a frantic mad dash.

Fortunately we had a super time at the dance, that made up for the bad start to the day. When i picked up the easy meal for Raymond i also got myself some cooked chiken to eat on way home from dance as i guessed i would be hungry by then. I had quickly fried some cooked chicken in butter and eaten it before leaving the house at midday but it was only snack size so i was ready for the 2nd lot of chicken… again i would call it snack size but a bit bigger than earlier lol. When i got home i had 2 cold chicken thighs and a small pack of mussels in mayo. Before and early night at 9.15 i cooked up some bacon to see me through. No pics of yesterdays food and none for today so far either lol.

Up just after 8am after a fairly wakeful night

Did my stair runs, got my meds, did bp, read my books mit coffee and then off to Raymonds. He had booked his community hall for an hour for us to run over some cha cha moves that he thought he had lost from his memory forever. We used yo put so much in pre covid but almost 2 years plus my stroke and gis health issues they had all but gone. I played aome of our old videos of us on the floor giving it rooti toot and things started coming back. We are going to book the hall weekly to run through moves till he has them firmly planted in his head again … we were pleased with todays efforts.

We went off to the Salvation Army for a snack, 2 fried eggs and 2 rashers of bacon which were nice and filled a hole and then went and got him a new mobile followed by a quick run to The Company Shop. While he was picking up cans of soup and some other bits i found some ribeyes further reduced at £1.05 each! I got all 4 of the cheapest but ended up giving one to Raymond to try in his slow cooker … sacrilege!
Also got cooked chicken thighs reduced to £1.25 and some other cooked chicken … i love that shop.

He was tired by the time i got him home and i must admit i was getting a bit weary. Ate one of the packs of cooked chicken fillets on the way home and just sitting and resting in the quiet now. Seems to be all chicken this past 2 days … i have chicken to stick in oven for later… it’s todays date and i don’t really want to put it in freezer to defrost another day… so chicken it is. Might remember to take a pic when its done haha

I ate it all… half a chicken.

[Fangs]

@Karen18, that 1/2 chicken looks delish on that plate!
You do hit nice prices at the Company Store for sure! Good score. Happy you and Raymond had a good time too. The spa guy chatting too much at ya, I am glad ya got away from him, lol…wow.

--------------------yesterday started with 10 slices bacon and 5 slices extra sharp hard cheddar to nibble then I ate that leftover pork chop. Dinner ended up being 2 small burgers and some salami slices. Then…I got ‘snacky’ feeling. Never good. My mind started to wander, thinking of the old foods I ate. Just thoughts of all food was entering my mind. Again, never a good thing. It is my mood, a bit down had to cancel trip, MIL and her health issues and other stress stuff all over me it seems and my mind wanders a bit and now crap food became a focus. Again, not a good thing…so I did eat a tin of sardines and some more salami later in the evening…believe me my mind was thinking to eat all kinds of crap but I held onto zc. But I gotta say, I don’t like days like this ugh.

have to say I enjoyed inhaling that bacon down in like 2.5 seconds HA

ZC ON!

[Karen18]

Well done holding strong when you felt weak with temptation xxxx

[Shinita]

I started this comment more a day ago. It’s time to send it.

---

We had no internet for several hours, it’s nice to have it back… Not like I couldn’t do things without it but I realized I need to look up things so often!

Odd day. I made my soup and it was great! 470g chicken frame because I couldn’t fit more into our smallest normal pot (4 liters?), I used so many old bones I put in a smoked rib (I got off all the fat and meat I could) and smoked skin, these are pork… And there was a piece of a rabbit spine with some meat on it… It was so good!
I was already borderline hungry when Alvaro arrived home at 2:45pm, I had lovely hot soup… So I ate. It wasn’t THAT easy to get satiated but easy enough, I just had to use some eggs and cheese as well. And that’s it. I never got hungry again but I had my last sponge cake muffin with some sour cream and cheese whisps for dinner.
Guesstimation (super inaccurate again as I had soup with meaty bones, good luck to figure things out) says 1000 kcal (with all the cheese I had… I realized emmentali is great for cheese whisps as it’s very much unsalted and I can use a very salty but otherwise nice spice). So it’s a weird day. Lowish protein, lowish fat, I tracked 170g meat…

It’s almost 10pm now and I feel very satiated.

Today I had no walk (or any other exercise). I was cold enough in the house (and I did heat). Wasn’t my day. There was like 5C outside, with wind! And sunshine only sometimes. But tomorrow I go to the little town (through the wildlife park forest among the millions of flowers) and buy something. Properly fatty sour cream, possibly chicken and/or pork, we will see… And normal coffee. I try not to use it but it’s nice to have. I just used up 100g and now I prefer it over my old fav instant coffee… More work but smells way better and I like the more bold (still not too bitter) flavor.
I missed the weekend sales, there was pork chuck and chicken thighs. I never was into chicken this much (the bar is low but still). The last ones were nice. Obviously meh compared to pork, not as substantial either but still nice, very tender, good to pair it up with pork for variety.

My soup with an egg, I usually don’t use it in this way but a video was on my mind and why not…

[…]
Oh I got hungry again soon after that and ate until reached 130g protein and stopped there. Wow. My body really like its minimums reached, not like it’s new. Calorie wise it was below but protein minimum is way more sacred. It’s almost impossible for me to stay below 130g protein as I experienced it zillion times. When it happens, I usually have extremely much fat though it’s hard for me to eat high fat without high protein, they usually go hand in hand.

It’s a sunny day, my sleep wasn’t perfect but good enough, I simply woke up at 5am and it was enough, it’s just bad for me to wake up before 6 so I probably will be a half-zombie all day. I have headache since days, very slight and I probably know what I am doing wrong… But I am good at not drinking coffee when I have it. Not like I HAVE coffee and that definitely helps but I don’t want my instant anyway. And I know it doesn’t help. We will see how many minutes I last when I buy a new packet today… Avoiding coffee isn’t my priority now but I go back to lunch skipping, lunch way too often triggers way too many meals (and I just mean 3 or more, I am fine with 2 as long as they are small enough and I am satiated basically all the time).

[…]
Too zombie for shopping so no coffee.
Today was tricky, I got hungry at 10-11am and I had no proper meat. So I ate this and that and mostly not meat. Finished my soup, had cheese whisps and eggs as usual… Alvaro gave me a pork loin slice, so lean but better than nothing… And of course I had smoked ribs, I think I need a break now.
For my 3rd meal I ate sponge cakes with butter and sausage, opened a milk and drank half of the box (so lovely… no regrets but next time I try not to drink it when I have thirst and hunger… but considering I missed dessert, it come very handy as it’s even sweet) and had half a tin of cod liver as well (without the oil). Smoked cod liver because I had that and a non-smoked one and Alvaro is more interested in the smoked one and I don’t mind, I was hungry and I love cod liver. So tender and nicely flavored.

So I had good food and a certain lack of proper meat but the farm pork shoulder is defrosting now. I really should make bigger roasts or something, I barely put some meat into the freezer now, it’s so easy to eat up everything.

About 150g protein and the same amount of fat (that’s less accurate) for today (3MAD). And quite a lot of carbs, of course, mostly from the milk.

[Fangs]

@Karen18, well, hmm, I did raid one damn cookie from my kid’s stash and believe me I was thinking of diving head first into the other crap she has in the house, but one thing saves me…nothing I buy her do I like actually. So savior on that one. Many products we both like, but in the end to survive I had to buy her the ‘stuff’ she likes and I won’t touch. Like tater chips, NO real reg. ol’ plain ones in the house, only ones I will eat, but I buy her vinegar/salt chips I will not touch but she loves, so after I ate the cookie there was nothing else after, then thought of inhaling the entire cookie pack, but I didn’t like the damn cookie enough to ever eat another LOL I tell ya I got away lucky yesterday afternoon when I wanted to ravage that entire kitchen My tastes are SO PICKY now that even crap food HAS to be of some value to me, and that irks me too HA, yes it irks me cause I walk thru the kitchen and think I wanna eat crap and I got no ‘decent crap’ to eat LOL

I tell ya K, some days truly for me but I got away ok thru it…I do feel more calm. I got alot of stress stuff on me right now and I feel like I just wanna run and hide and my trip cancelled as my escape got nailed so…just in a total pity party mood for myself…but I know eating crap won’t fix anything, sure won’t improve anything for me ugh lol

--------------today I got chicken defrosting. Not sure on first meal, thinking just burgers. bought a cheap store brand NY Extra Sharp White Cheddar and I love it. Has a ‘twang’ to its taste I enjoy. So might do some burgers with cheddar and then chicken out for next meal later. yea, sounds good.

rock on everyone.

[Shinita]

I didn’t blur everything planty. I don’t even think people here can be triggered so easily, carnivore is so very far from “normal”, you all surely saw non-carni items every day. I would imagine it builds insensitivity, such things happen to me. Usually. But reading about stuff never triggered me anyway. Or making them. Or smelling them. I am good at that and I need every little help as I still can go off too easily.
It’s my 5th carnivore-ish day now, hopefully I get a big number. I just can’t do it proper carnivore, I can’t even wish for it, carnivore-ish seems perfect for me. Even if I consider going unnecessarily strict useful sometimes. But canrivore-ish is already a tad strict for me. Easy for a while but still. The tiny hardships almost always revolve around sweet things (and sometimes I wish to put some powder into my sponge cakes… but it’s not so important and I have one, grated Grana Padano), will I ever change…? Probably I would if I could stay away from them for a long time. It probably never will happen but many shorter time should have a big impact too, that’s what I am doing this year.

nothing I buy her do I like actually

I have this with homemade food and Alvaro… I only make things I don’t want. Or I am sure I can resist, it’s tricky but when I am determined or my rebellious inner self was just sated, I can do it sometimes.
Of course, he just makes his own food sometimes. Like his mushroom soup in the last days. I had to eat some of the liquid, thankfully that is the best part for me. Even in meat soups unless the meat is really good. But really good boiled meat, that must be pork chuck. Or deer.

But sweets are usually easy as keto sweets are almost always better. And while eating the latter is still going off, it’s less bad especially when I only use a little walnut and erythritol, maybe our own chocolate.
And Alvaro never buys sweets anyway. We get them gifted or I am in a very wild state but that’s very rare and usually disappointing nowadays. Insignificant.

My tastes are SO PICKY now that even crap food HAS to be of some value to me

Well of course. I always was a bit choosy regarding sweets but now? It must be something spectacular for me to taste it. And not any time. Like now, not a chance.
They are too sweet anyway though a big jar of black coffee helps in every cases…

I walk thru the kitchen and think I wanna eat crap and I got no ‘decent crap’ to eat LOL

I can make better stuff than decent crap but I can relate. I can’t make crunchy biscuits or wafer. So if I happen to be in a mood for that, well that’s somewhat unfortunate but I am used to it…
But if you start eating triggering food, yes, I think I had that once lately, I was triggered but the stuff was bad so I gave it to Alvaro and I had nothing! Be careful what to taste and when. But if just my dessert/sweets eating is triggered, that’s fine as I can make any amount of it and as it probably will be very low-carb, I don’t even need to worry about eating enough carbs to feel bad or go out of ketosis. I will overeat fat though, most probably but I do that regularly.
But I am normally happy with my teeny-tiny off eating. I don’t need much
That’s certain kinds of breads where I eat half a loaf. Only I can make those so I have pretty much control over it. I have have no control when the fancy hits but I need to have the stuff on hand or it should be really quick to make to pose a real problem. Or I need some long term compulsion or craving but that’s rare so doesn’t really matter.

---

It’s a sunny day but COLD. Dawn is always frosty lately and my hands were freezing when I went out in the bright sunshine and it was almost noon! I am a wimp so I only take tiny walks. But I can go out a lot, the garden offers work and beauty alike. And I need to break walnuts regularly (Alvaro uses it instead of coconut lately and it’s good as coconut is almost impossible to buy with its fat still inside. they just lie, it’s dry tasteless stuff most of the time) and that works even when the weather is rainy as I do it outside but under the roof. I get some fresh air that way.

I fry 520g farm pork shoulder today and plan a super easy meal. With as few eggs as possible, we are low and Easter is coming (so the egg lady won’t sell us any and the greengrocery easily runs out of it so I won’t go there just to check. unless I fancy a ride or walk there)… We have maybe 80? And it should last for more than a week, ideally… Possible but I better am careful.
But eggs aren’t as satiating as pork and usually way easier to eat (in not so big amounts, though. but unless I adore the meat, I can’t eat it in bigger amounts either. except chicken as that’s easy to eat but it’s not satiating) so it’s good to keep them low.

I am still amazed (but not in a positive way) how I can write walls of texts of something that’s not new at all… Sigh.

I took out Ginger’s (actually Gyömbér but it’s tiresome to write on keyboard. it’s not like I often write in Hungarian and my keyboard is set to English) stitches yesterday, her belly looked bad and she managed to take out one. Thankfully she did it when the skin was already knitted together. It healed a lot from yesterday. Poor girl but it will be fine now. The vet always talks about putting a sock on it but I can’t imagine which cat is okay with it. Not ours, that’s sure. But the other girls were better at leaving the stiches in peace and Ginger was okay first too.
So, we have 4 desexed girls, between less than 1 and 8 years old, they should live a nice long life No new cats until we go down to 2 but that should be in the distant future! 4 different looking, differently behaving cats. A full set
The white/tabby ones leave white fur everywhere so they can’t come in. Except when it’s cold outside and I have a too soft heart. Cloud doesn’t shed her tabby fur noticeably so she can come in. She is sleeping in my bed as always at this time. Ginger is still a wild spirit and doesn’t want to be inside.

[Shinita]

I almost just put the photo here, I wrote my text into the food pic thread.\

I ate sponge cakes, sour cream and a little milk too and didn’t eat all the fried pork shoulder. And tracked (along with things I planned to eat later and all the pork), OK, I won’t either
The meat is very red, reminded me of beef, actually… Well on the red part, it had lighter meat too and of course light visible fat… It was firm and chewy, the taste is normal pork though. I am curious what the roast will be like.

[Karen18]

I forgot to post last night and i have been forgetting to take pics most of the time how rude of me is that?

Raymond was back feeling heaviness across his chest yesterday so phoned me before i went to CrossFit to let me know he wouldn’t be dancing in the afternoon. At least he calles in time for me not to have to rush about trying to squish everything in so after stair running and a little reading i went to CF and had a great puffy workout and was able to stay and catch up with folks.

I returned home feeling very tired and a bit low even though i had a great workout. I have had chicken chicken chicken non stop over past few days and yep that’s the reason i was worn out. No energy and stress of the ‘pension chasing’ which is worsening the head pains i live with My daughter stopped by to drop off the printouts she had done of my complaint letters, just in case both parties want paper copies and we had a pretty long chat standing in the hall (she was heading to retail park to get cat litter). I nearly cried, my eyes were watering up but i held strong, but i know i really needed that chat. Love her to bits and she is so damn sensible lol.

I told her i would eat a steak today as i needed some fat and some head boodting nutrition. The rump i had today wasn’t very fatty but it was tasty.

Raymond had picked up today so we popped out for a cuppa, i fixed his new phone and took him with his housing benefit proof and ID to The Company Shop to get his membership card. It would have been rude not to have a butchers while i was there and bought 4 packs of Ox Cheek for slow cooking, 6 x packs of cooked chicken tikka breast (further reduced to 50p each) and 2 packs of cooked roast chicken thighs (also further reduced to 70p each pack) so my total bill was £8.08 Yep another great saving. I chucked all the chicken in the freezer as i dont want to eat any more chicken for a few days… too lean … and kept the Ox Cheek in the fridge so will try a pack tomorrow, it is nice and marbled so i should get some energy from it. I don’t think i have eaten it before but at those prices i would try anything hahaha

My steak was very tasty but forgot a pic of it after i cooked it so just a raw one…

The chicken bits on the other plate were fried in a big knob of butter just to get some fat.

I have now had confirmation of receipt of complaints letters now from both the Prison and Civil Service Pensions … see where that takes me. I am going to take a trip to the tax office early next week, or even Friday if i feel up to it and see about a tax refund for all these months of no income. I think i should be due something.

[Naghite]

Food pics, a LOT of tallow, starting to just eat it as is without meat , lolz