You carnivores are hunting me... I mean HAUNTING me ;-)

(Jane Srygley) #1

I was going to fast today but ended up eating instead. I had a little keto-friendly concoction–basically a raw mug cake–and then had bison strip steak for lunch and a grass fed beef ribeye for dinner. I just feel so calm and satisfied after I eat good red meat like that. I think all the time about doing more of the carnivore thing. I haven’t been losing weight for the past few months. I don’t know if that would help… but I do know that one issue I’ve had is that despite eating a lot of protein, I never seem to feel completely satisfied. Today, I feel more satiated than I have in awhile… So… I dunno! Just writing out my thoughts.

(Vic) #2

Yeaa, me too, just had a huge meal, now chilling out and enjoying the fulfilment.

Come join us in the zc tread and go carnivore for a few months.

There much more to experience. The simplicity of it, less cooking and kitchen worries. Less groceries, less waste.

Easy to fast if you want to. I eat 2mad and omad when i feel like it.

There so much more, hard to explain. You have to experience it for yourself.

(Jane Srygley) #3

I’m scared LOL I don’t think I’ll ever go full ZC because my husband and I eat together on the weekends and I like the variety… but I have thought seriously about going full carnivore on workdays. I really don’t want to give up my keto concoctions is the thing… they have a little coconut flour and some erythritol and stevia. I’m assuming I’d have to be 100% carnivore to be a ZC’er or experience the benefits you’re talking about.

#4

I wrote a wall of text but deleted. I try it again, more concise this time and less personal! :smiley: It’s hard as I had so good experiences but you probably read about them already.

So. If it seems the right direction, do it. Just for a little while if more would be scary. And you will see. You may change, people do that.

But I would experiment in your stead. What is the difference that caused this positive change? Red meat? Eat red meat then. Lack of plants? Well yeah, you better do ZC then, it can’t be helped… Even if you can afford a little extra as I seemingly do (but it’s hard as it must be super tiny, it’s easy to overdo it if it’s me and some people can’t even afford any non-carnivore if they want to feel right), I wouldn’t keep sweeteners. It just sounds wrong to me. Carnivore is good at turning off sweets desires anyway (I think. it surely does to me - as long as I have enough carni food with enough variety so I never am hungry and desperate. well up to 2 weeks as I have no longer experience).
But if you merely need red meat and very low net carbs and sweeteners don’t cause problems for you, a woe with sweeteners still may be an improvement. But I wholeheartedly advice not using them if possible. And I hope I can do that long term in the future. If I get enough superb meat without getting bored of it, I probably can :wink: Perfect satiation, I know that too. Fortunately I don’t need red meat for that but the right type of meat is important and almost no carbs from plants is needed as well, it seems… It can’t be helped, I want the benefits, I must change my ways… Even if my progress is slow. It’s better than not even trying. I slowly build new habits and learn how on earth can I make such a seemingly impossible thing possible…

Good luck, whatever you do :slight_smile:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

So you want to both go carnivore and eat plants. It’s like an alcoholic wanting to get sober while continuing to drink. Not a fun place to be.

#6

I love baked beef ribs. My 78 year old mum enjoys cooking them for me every Tuesday night. She gets them from an Italian butcher who is very fussy. It is the meal in my week where I get the full appreciation of the hunger ‘off’ switch. The satiety signals are abrupt. I often am unable to finish what is served. I don’t feel stuffed, but i definitely cannot eat another bite. The finish for me is between mouthfuls. However, about an hour after that fabulous meal, which is relaxing in other ways, as I get to chat with mum, or play cards (she wins), pat my dog and wind down after work, so the whole experience of the meal is also fantastic, but an hour later, as I leave for my home, I get an incredible craving for something sweet. Writing this, I think I’ve cracked the code. I go to my car and start the engine and after relaxing, and enjoying human contact and company, my mind turns to the looming next day of work, or returns to the day of work just completed. My fix at that stage is not to get fuel, which will take me into sweet treat Hell, I put a low carb or addiction podcast in my ears and drive a route with no gas stations. Gah, work. :expressionless: Work is my haunting.

(Vic) #7

Follow your heart, be the best version of yourself and be happy.

I suggest you go ZC from Monday to Friday and Ketovore in the weekend.
No more then 20gr of carbs for the whole week thou.

I’ve done similar WOE’s but I have a tendency to fall back in full carnivore, thats what makes me calm and happy.

Do a full month of ZC as well, the only way to know if that even makes you more calm and happy is to give it a go, why not?

Finding your own thing in keto world is fun, explore :wink:

#8

Yea I get it!

darned if you do and darned if ya don’t :slight_smile:

you have 2 things rolling here. Wanting that variety of eating, which would include plants on the weekend cause you are sharing meals with hubby and just ‘wanna eat together’ and do whatever :slight_smile: The social thing around food, I know, I been there on that flip flop too.

then you got that ‘I don’t want to give up…’ that is the real addiction part of it all. Can you do it or truly give up ALL of that? Yea I been there too :slight_smile:

I think all week carnivore then weekend ketovore will show you alot. You might see during the week you got the ‘true carnivore’ effects but on weekends when ‘you eat different’ but might see glaring troubles with other foods OR you might be one who can do carnivore all week and ketovore on the weekend and find it suits you.

Most zc people can’t do that tho. That weekend eating usually will morph into the week cause the addiction is just there nagging ya. But heck it might work for you :slight_smile:

experiment around a bit, but like Vic said, 1 month all in carnivore, is a great experiment for you.

Most of us on zc had to come this way thru experimenting and changing our days on eating and just roll thru it til we truly found zc is where we need ‘or want’ to be for alot of great benefits the plan gives. Head our way :slight_smile: you might find a great eating way of life for you that works! Nothing wrong with a bit of experimenting on yourself ever.

@FrankoBear
Wonderful post! You know your feelings ‘switch’ and your anxiety of that darn work life which is stressing you out comes to the forefront of thought and ya think, screw this, give me junkier food to comfort me.
You hit a real good correlation there and NOW YOU KNOW and now you are fixing it and working on it. I love that!! I had those revelations too as I changed myself. You think, darn why am I? and then one day it hits you and then you can truly do something about it. Cool.

(Jane Srygley) #9

If I’m addicted to plants, yes… though as an addictions counselor, I can tell you that harm reduction is considered a legitimate strategy nowadays :wink:

(Jane Srygley) #10

You definitely give me hope, thank you! I certainly feel better when I leave the plants out. I have to take a beano enzyme pill every time I eat any veggies at all because they always ALWAYS upset my stomach. I have no problems with coconut, though.

Do some carnivores use sweeteners like erythritol and stevia? I know some use spices, drink coffee and tea… After eating those lovely steaks yesterday, I’m toying with the idea of just beef, bison and salt, quite honestly. I really wonder how much better I would feel… and I do know that the sweet thing is definitely an addiction for me. I am a sugar addict and even just having that sweet taste is emotionally comforting for me. It will be really hard to sacrifice that… but I wonder how my body will respond if I can make that happen.

#11

Ditch veggies then, at least. If you can’t handle them, it should be a great motivation for it!

Try to skip the sweeteners for a while. Maybe you did before, I don’t know… This problem may be solved quickly just like it happens with me when I stop eating plants for 1-3 days. I don’t need my sweets then, for any reason (as long as I am not bored with my food). The old habit has no power anymore, comfort and joy can come from carnivore food… It’s probably less simple for others (or for me longer term) but it’s amazing how carnivore can change some of us, almost instantly.

People responds differently to sweeteners too… So using them may be okay though unneeded for the body or almost tragic. They easily can interfere, physically or mentally, emotionally…
I wanted to make experiments but never felt the need. Maybe I will at some point. If you keep some sweeteners, I will be curious about your experiences! I am afraid they would keep my mind on sweets too much and carbier things would become more tempting and I can’t afford even more temptation…

If it’s just sweet taste and you aren’t sensitive to it, you may use cream, some “sweet” spice, a few drops of rum may help too… It’s what I do when I am bored with my normal food but I still can eat dessert pancakes or ice cream… I guess this is a crutch and I will lose the “need” for it eventually…
But interestingly, even sour cream makes a great dessert despite it’s more sour than sweet…

#12

yea when veggies bloat the gut and do gas and give those nasty issues it is rough. you sure go thru alot, it would be best ya dump them

but again…now sweeteners like erythritol and a bunch more under all those names can EASILY give you the same symptoms. Yup. Alot of sweeteners just give you that exact trouble, bloaty, gassy, icky gut.

So, hmm, what do you drop?

you do best off plants. ok. go carnivore full on one week and do ‘very clean’ carnivore…then weekend you want ketovore you pick ONLY one thing to add. A sweetener based food you want to eat or only veggies with a meal. Then re-evaluate the guts. With veg you will probably be needing that beano pill :slight_smile: but if you eat no veg and only have a sweetened food product, hmm, and need that pill, then you know you are super sensitive to that sweetener also.

It is just that big old elimination you have to do to know full truths on what nails ya and what you can get away with ok.

of course sugar did the same for me. comfort. didn’t need sugar either, just my mom’s mac n cheese and alot of it LOL Food made me a mess you know to that level of just feeling so off balanced and dysfunctional around food. I had to make a clean break. That draw the line in the sand and give it a ‘real go’ to find me and what eating suited me. Hard to do…darn right but if you want it bad enough we do put in the effort and even if uncomfortable doing it, and yea it is :), in the end what we do learn about ourselves is so worth that battle.

Girl you shoulda been the fly on the wall when I changed over and had to ‘give up carbs’…even a total 20g of carbs per day made me want more and more and more and I couldn’t break the cycle of them at all.
I would moan, cry, wonder what the heck was wrong with me that I could not eat normal and how unfair it was and yea, I went batty big time for a while over it all. But that is how it went for me cause I had to battle myself. I kept saying, eat that and who are you kidding? no one, only yourself and I was tired of lying to myself ya know so I went all in, 100% full commitment to learn what it would take for me. And yea, tough as darn nails LOL

I can only say one thing that makes me smile thru it all…it is ALL in the rear view now for me and it was hard but man am I glad I did it. I am also happy I am thru that stage cause it can be horror on changing ourselves. But full truth, I am so glad I never have to tackle that crap again!

So just take stock how ya wanna roll and what do you really want. Learn and act on what food does to you and roll the menu around more and more to suit you at all times and just learn and react to things about your eating and your personal needs. Heck it is all any of us can do.

Best of it all. You are asking questions. You see a need for change. You feel it deep down. You are experiencing some great changes when you do change it up and drop the plants etc…you are on that fence, I get it. But feeling great usually is the rope thru the nose ring that pulls us in one direction. You want to feel better all the time so you will follow that path even if it takes longer to get there!

#13

You sound just like me in autumn last year. I was intrigued by carnivore but I had some sticking points (diet soda, for instance).

I think we get into chicken and egg in these discussions. Newbies look at carnivore and think, “I can’t do carnivore because I can’t give these things up.”

For me, being carnivore created the environment where I could give things up without struggling; it’s the opposite: “I gave those things up because I had become carnivore.”

If I hadn’t done imperfect carnivore - including the diet soda - I’d never have jumped in, and I’d still be drinking diet soda now.

My experience was:

  • varied meat + eggs + dairy + one coffee + diet soda + occasional spirits
  • varied meat + eggs + one coffee + diet soda + occasional spirits
  • steak for every meal (and organs once a month) + eggs + one coffee + occasional spirits

If someone had said, “Give up all meat except steak, give up all dairy, give up diet soda,” I’d never have done it. I also would’ve thought I would be sick of steak by now but I love it.

Going carnivore meant I could give those things up with ease, rather than thinking I had to do it so I could start carnivore.

(Bob M) #14

Isn’t dairy carnivore? It’s 100% animal.

#15

It is, but some choose not to have it. I decided to eliminate it for a while to see if I noticed any difference, and I do feel better without it.

The point I’m making is that lots talk about ‘beef and water’ as the purest carnivore, and the ideal way to start.

This makes sense because you eliminate everything and add things back in and can monitor for issues, working out what suits your body.

But the point I am making is that I would never have tried carnivore if I’d been told ‘beef and water only’, because I could not give up diet soda.

Now, if someone said ‘you can’t have coffee or alcohol or eggs’, I’d just shrug and eat steak and drink water.

(Jane Srygley) #16

That’s a good idea, honestly. I know the thing that will be the hardest sell on the weekends to my husband is to skip our keto ice cream. I think he would go for carnivore breakfast and dinner just to support me, but no ice cream would be a lot more difficult :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Anyhow really appreciate the support and suggestions. I think the reason I keep leaning more and more into carnivore is because of my stomach issues and also my issues with satiety. For awhile, I was eating according to my plan and my weight was pretty stable most days… but I was hungry and having sweet cravings CONSTANTLY! Yesterday especially when I had those 2 steaks and I just felt so CALM… no cravings… just calm and content and satisfied… I thought wow I really would like to feel this way all the time.

(Jane Srygley) #17

That is super interesting! When I started keto in 2019, I was still eating a LOT of plants. As I got more into keto and discovered carnivore on this board, I’ve been eating more and more meat with fewer plants. I basically eat chicken, ground beef or steak or bison or lamb, eggs, cheese and a very small amount of coconut flour. I add stevia and erythritol to tea and black coffee. Some weeks I’ll have a little veg during the day… but it’s really low carb and mostly carnivore type foods. I think I may be sort of meandering that way and just not quite ready to take the full plunge. Really interesting perspective, thank you :heart:

#18

oh yea I have to say this plan truly gives us so much when it comes to that area of our eating lives. Just eat and ‘be done’ without all the extra crazy sometimes we have to deal with when ‘dieting’. Carnivore takes that away for us and it is a great place to be and stay :slight_smile:

I think you are a great candidate for a trial for sure because you are tip toeing this way, you just pick a week and go for it, all in, dump it all for a week then add back 1 thing and see how you do…once you truly know how food hits ya, you can manuever easier as you change yourself to eat to suit you vs. when the food wants to make ya icky.

@Septimius, great posts!!