Second week ramblings

I completed day 10 today, and things are going pretty smoothly. I still have no clue about buying and cooking meat, so there's that. I just way undercooked a $27 ribeye, but whatevs. I still ate it. Raw/blue steak, I ain't afraid. I should probably buy a good meat thermometer. This is what it looked like pre-cooking, didn't take an after because I was all up in it, my hands were too greasy to work the camera phone:

Still experiencing that slightly phlegmy feeling in my throat after eating a meal. I wonder what that is?? It's not terrible, I can tolerate it. Just interesting.

My body seems stuck in its weight/measurements. I'm probably on the thinner side of where I've usually been most likely (I'm guessing) the mid 160s range. Of course, that really means nothing from what I hear. Some folks seem to lose inches yet gain weight. After 29 years it's hard to walk outside of the normal dieting box, where we used to talk in pounds lost, calories eaten, etc. This is a new frontier.

Today's Crossfit workout was a doozy. It took me 19:44 to complete what amounted to a total of 1400 m of rowing, and 60 split-jerks, 75 lbs. Not the Rx level, but I was dying just the same. My endurance sucks anyway, but I don't think my eating is doing anything for it at this point. Maybe it will?

Is this high intensity exercise the great thing I once thought it was? I tend to balk when the time it takes to finish a workout bleeds over into the 20+ minutes category. Maybe my exercise tastes will change the deeper I get into this carnivore, yukshik lifestyle, just like I'm forcing my food tastes to eventually change. But it's also a social thing for me too, who am I kidding - I like those people. And I don't go every day, but maybe 3-4 per week is still too much for optimal health/recovery, but I'm not sure.

Blood sugars have been a bit lower today than they have been so far on this WOE, though still high after a high intensity workout. 195 today, taken fasting and about 45 minutes after my workout (wasn't hungry this morning). A lower-protein, more dairy/nut/veg heavy keto diet didn't used to do that to me as often - I could work out and then test my sugar, and I'd be at the most in the 140s. Hopefully that will even out, though I may have to change my insulin regimen.

I currently take 7 units of Lantus at bedtime, and Humalog on an as-needed basis. It's hard to know what my sliding scale is now that I'm not a regular ol' ADA sugar burner. I still generally follow the 1 unit per 15 gm carb rule, and I may extend that to 1 unit per 30 gm protein if I test before eating and I'm high. I really just go with my instinct by now, as I've been on the same medication regiment for probably 10 yrs at this point. I'm not the most scientific diabetic, and I wouldn't consider myself lazy... it's just that eating low carb usually makes things so much simpler.

The last time I had my Hemoglobin A1c checked in... March? I wanna say? It was 5.2, I do remember that. Fucking stellar for a type 1 diabetic, as it puts me in the non-damaged pancreas people crowd! Keto was great for my numbers.

Then again, if eating an all meat diet is for iconoclasts and folks that don't tend to trust the medical establishment, maybe even if my A1c creeps higher, it's better for my health and longevity overall? But how can I know?

Who cares really. I just want that ever-elusive HSIS weight to happen for me. You know - Hot Shit in a Swimsuit. Instagram model territory baby yasss.

End of My First Week (Day 7)

Yesterday was Saturday, April 25, and it marked my full week on this no carb lifestyle. And score - woke up with enough energy to go to Crossfit!

With a partner - 200 meter burpee broad jumps (we did it around the track at the gym)

Partner 1 starts on the burpee broad jumps
Partner 2 runs 200
When partner 2 catches partner 1 switch spots. Continue this cycle until a full 200 is completed with the burpee broad jumps.

then

100 Squats
100 Push Ups
100 Jump Lunges
One partner works at a time switch as needed on the reps.

My partner did more jump lunges than I did, my legs weren't as fast as hers. Of course, I bet I have about 50 lbs on her too. I kept up well enough I'd say. I wasn't hankering to do 1 mile run as a finisher like some of the crazy dudes in the class did.

So after that workout and me taking my time in the hot tub afterwards, I just took my time going back home. Stayed in the foyer/living room/cafe area of the gym and read my book a bit. On the way home I was mesmerized by Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, so I stayed in my car for like 15 min even after I parked at home. By that time I got inside I was hungry since I didn't have any breakfast. I had another ahi tuna steak that needed eating, so I cut it up as best I could after googling a yellowfin tuna sashimi demo video. The guy had a real knife and all my knives suck, so I just went with it, eating as I cut.

And then I added a shit-ton of butter to compensate for all the fat that this tuna did NOT have. Made my tummy a bit scared, but all was fine. No really progress on the poop, things have reverted to slight looseness. When do I get the poop magic???

Later that day, the hubs and I went back to the new Whole Foods nearby to check it out and walk around/stretch our legs, since we'd basically been lumps all day. I mean, I did make it to my Crossfit workout, but after that I basically just read my book and lounged around the house, mostly on the couch. By about 5 pm we were feeling cooped up. 

More crowded than before, since people were getting their dinners there. Yeesh, that deli section was full. But I did break my (tenuous) all-meat rule and sample a few morsels of cheese. My GOD. My sweet tooth is hopefully on its way to dying. I had some kind of 3yr aged gouda, and it was like caramel on my tongue. I was blown away. Lookin' forward to all the enhanced senses of taste and smell that some people have reported on this WOE.

We went to Five Guys for dinner, and I just got a bacon burger (2 patties). It was not nearly enough. For all the love Five Guys gets, their burger patties plain just aren't anything to write home about. I had a second dinner of ground beef probably an hour later :) 

Trying not to worry too much about total calories, just trying to optimize my fat because my blood sugars are running higher on this diet than they were on keto. May have something to do with the fiber, or the lack of nuts/cheese. Those were pretty much staples for me for the past 14 months.

Here's to being zen and relaxing, letting my body heal before I worry (too much) about hotness:

This was Day 6

Trying to get my posts done within the correct day. I'm not a very diligent blogger by nature,* so maybe after tomorrow, since the first week will be out of the way, I'll switch to a more weekly or biweekly report schedule.

I ate more today, but that was probably to be expected considering I dragged my ass to Crossfit today. It wasn't a terrible workout, kinda fun actually. Really took it out of me though, even though I scaled down from burpee pullups. This is what I did:

For time:

20 burpees + 20 ring rows
30 ground to overhead (Rx was 95 for girls, I did 75 lbs)
20 ring rows + 20 burpees

Did it in 14:38. That was in addition to a horrible warm up with jump squats/lunges, and a few snatch exercises. But it was fun. I've grown quite fond of that sweaty burn in the last 2+ years I've been a Crossfitter.

I keep track on Myfitnesspal of my calories and macros, just to see. I also try to emphasize fat for steady blood sugar control so it helps me there. Yesterday I ate roughly 1700 cals, today was 2300. But at this point, I'm so over calories. The idea that we humans know exactly how our bodies will burn foods every single time is now quite laughable to me. If you want to learn and laugh too, check out this series on Dr. Jason Fung's site, https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/how-do-we-gain-weight-calories-part-1/. It's so long, but so great.

(grossness warning) Another development today is that my poop changed. Instead of being so loose and liquidy, what I managed to squeeze out today resembled little dark brown squiggles. To me, they resembled green beans, but smaller? In my whole adult life I cannot remember it ever looking like that. Weird and cool! I'm so pumped for my next bowel movement.

As I recall, The Bear had said that stools are smaller in general on an all meat diet, because the unnecessary roughage/unavailable nutrients of all plant products are what really make up the majority of people's feces. No plants, less poop (I'm going to make this phrase into a t-shirt).

Planning to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I truly intend to make it to tomorrow's 9 am Crossfit WOD, but if I'm too sleepy I'll just reevaluate.

Final thought: the frozen ground beef patties from Costco (big blue bag, 78/22 beef) are pretty much awesome. So fast, so fatty, so easy.

*Seriously, I've had a lot of blogs that I just kinda gave up on. I run out of steam after a month or so. This issue goes all the way back to livejournal, man. I'm also torn about people knowing my business, because I also like attention and praise. I'm a super human being. #complicated - ok hashtags are dumb, especially in a blog, sorrry. #notsorry

Day 5

Day 5 went better than the other days. No real obvious symptoms. I did have to battle my craving though. They provided box lunch from Jason's Deli today at work. I hate turning down free food, but it's gotten easier the longer I'm not eating every other fat person's Standard American Diet. 

My strategy was to take the roast beef sandwich and just eat the meat. threw away the bread, tomato, lettuce. I ignored my chips and cookie by telling myself, it's not food. I do feel more zen about food lately, and it was only a little hard to be next to my husband as he ate the cookie and chips I'd saved for him and brought home.

I had been noticing a little more brittleness/thinness to my nails. I've NEVER had this problem. I can't be sure yet whether it's the coconut oil I lather on my hands every time I get back from the restroom, or the meat. Or the loose bowels? No clue.

Bedtime occurred at around my usual time, 11:30. Had to load up on the lard, and I introduced Kerrygold salted butter again. That tasted too good, I probably should be careful about that.

Had to add the fat because I made a mistake of buying meat that is too freaking lean! Makes me mad. I have a lot to learn about meat. Thanks, America, for telling us to cut down on red meat so long. Appreciate the big gap in knowledge about purchasing and cooking meat! *end sarcasm*

I finally got some glucose monitor test strips after a lot of mismanagement of my order from my shitty-ass pharmacy. So, I've really been blind in how this Way of Eating has made my blood sugars. But I'm pretty sure they're higher, and I was right - I tested about 1.5 hours after my evening meal and it was 130. Not terrible, but not ideal. REMINDER: I'm type 1 diabetic, hoping to overachieve relative to the other T1's who don't know The Way.

How Day 4 went

Well, I thought things were on the up and up. But in the middle of the night, (AND LET ME WARN YOU, POOP TALK AHEAD), I got up to pee like I usually do since I drink so much water.

I just got some slight cramping, and then I knew it was coming. Those on a high-fat diet may remember the transition period. I had a bit of looseness, due to all that good tallow I got in a huge dose when I ate that pound of beef for lunch dinner the previous day.

Anyway, no big deal. It just woke me up a bit more than a late night pee would have. I had gone to bed early again - around 10:45. I've been sleeping really well the past couple nights. The only downside is that I no longer have the crazy dreams associated with excessive carbohydrate consumption. Believe me, I fucking noticed that. I don't remember what happens really totally within those kinds of dreams, just more vignettes. For instance, I had imagined Pope Francis eating a slice of Sbarro pizza as his advisers pity him. "No, Il Papa, no."

In the early evening I did experience some more diarrhea, but nothing major. It'll take more than that to derail me. I've also had on/off episodes of my throat feeling more phlegmy than usual.

Today (ok, Yesterday since I'm late with this post), Earth Day, also happened to be the opening day of the new Whole Foods nearby. It's within 5 minutes walking distance, which is pretty cool out here in the suburbs of Kansas City.

Tim and I drove over to take a look-see (hey, it was chilly). Man. Viewing it all through a meat-eater's lens is so weird and sad. I used to be someone who would pay $8.00 for a chocolate bar just because it was fair-trade, organic. I used to be the girl who would think nothing of getting a $2.50 bag of fresh made donuts (yes, they have those) to snack on while shopping. I used to be obsessed with discovering new plant-based processed products to try.

The one thing that did give me pause and a bit of wistfulness was seeing that they have a bulk nut butter machine that makes PISTACHIO BUTTER. Oh man. $19.99 a lb, no big deal right??! I asked Tim to get me some pistachio butter for christmas :) I know I shouldn't be planning cheats already and that zero-carb is a lifestyle, a path. I'm an imperfect creature.

Asleep by about 11:20 pm, but woke up a bit nauseated in the night. I think it had to do with the two tb of tallow I supplemented my lean chuck steak with. I need to start getting fattier meat cuts!

Day 3

Day 3 was yesterday. It was so much better than Day 2! I think I must have been just detoxing, coming down hard from the 6000+ calories carb-stravaganza I had on the day before I started. Still a bit of a headache at times, but manageable.

Had a 7.5 oz ahi tuna steak for breakfast around 9:30 am, pan fried on both sides, longer than I had intended. It was still pinkish inside, but I wanted that baby to be raw. Next time. I did add 3 tbsp of lard and tallow, just to balance out the massive amount of protein in that steak. Fish is delicious, but kinda shitty to always be eating on a diet that's meant to be 80% calories from fat.

Then I had a pound of ground beef around 4:30 pm at work. I really wasn't hungry until then. May not have been a great idea to eat it hot and dripping with fat, because some of that liquid fat went down the wrong tube. I was just too enthusiastic I guess! Ugh, I had coughs/throat issues for like a good hour after that. Yikes.

I didn't eat anything else that day, but of course I drank my water. Including seltzer/sparkling water, I probably drink around 17 8-oz. glasses of water a day. This is an estimate, because I just drink out of this big cup at work:

On to day 4! I'm doing this!

Day 2 report

A bit late, but here's what I remember from Day 2. I had THE WORST migraine headache. All day. had to stop periodically, take a deep breath, close my eyes. Work was just a slog to get through, but I felt like being a carnivore martyr and didn't take any pain pills. Why? It's not MEAT or WATER.

I remember my sleep not being very good, so I went to bed a little after 10 pm, which is early for me. I needed it.

Starting measurements

Yikes.


Weight 180.4 lbs, 81.8 kg (I am 5'3", 63 cm tall)

Waist 82.5 cm, 32.5 in

Hips 110 cm, 43.3 in

Right thigh 69.5 cm, 27.4 in

Left arm 36.5 cm, 14.4 in

Neck 34.5 cm, 13.6 in


I just didn't feel like measuring both arms and both legs :)

I don't use the metric system in my day to day, since I'm an American. But somehow, taking the measurements in cm lessened the blow to my ego/feelings about how large I can make myself balloon after just a few days of unrestricted carbohydrate pleasure. Then again, all that humalog insulin I took to cover it can't be good for weight control, lol.

Day 1!

I've been trying to get through more and more of the all-meat, zero carb diet literature and forum postings. Such as this:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=287013&page=8&pp=30&goto=journalformat

The Bear claimed to have lived on a diet of all animal products for 47 years at the time of his postings. What a badass dude!

The morning after yesterday's carb bingeing, I woke up with congested sinuses. I also woke up at 11 am, which is a bit later than usual for a Sunday, but I finally managed to get some restful sleep despite having gone to bed so late. Fried up my last Costco bone-in steak, no seasonings but a little salt. I felt generally low energy the whole day, plus a headache. Just coming down off my carb high I guess. "Carb flu," they say. Good thing I literally had nothing planned to do except eat meat.

Later I had some ground beef and sirloin steak. I added some lard (I got some leaf lard from www.fatworks.com a while back). Tried not to use much salt to season. It will be interesting to see how much meat I can actually eat. I'll have to start cooking larger portions for myself - so different from my usual mindset of limiting my calories.

I'm proud of myself for only drinking water and mineral water today. I usually do 3 cups of coffee a day, so this will be quite an interesting experiment.

Feeling a bit tired, so I plan to go to bed by 11 pm at the latest. Can't wait to rise early and greet the day tomorrow! I need to cook up some meat to take to work with me.

Today is the day, technically. Oops

I am still awake at 1:03 am so it still feels like Sat, April 18 to me. Sorry for any confusion.

Neglected to mention that I also appear to be getting dumber as a result of my brief carb-caytion. Really hope this beef and water thing will help me fire up my brain cells properly again.

Death by refined carbohydrates

Today was my last day of eating crap, and boy did I ever. How would you eat if tomorrow all of the packaged, processed crap was gone? Yeah yeah- vegetables are gone too. Who cares? Fruit is also gone. Who cares?

I've been trying to keep to a low carb, high fat, ketogenic diet for about 14 months. The original, main goal has been (always will be?) weight loss. It's helped me maintain a lower set point in weight than I had previously maintained with a paleo kind of diet. A great side effect of this keto diet has been that my blood sugars have stabilized, I don't have to use so much insulin, and my hemoglobin A1c is finally in the normal non diabetic range. I've tested anywhere from 5.4 down to 5.0, which is fabulous.

 But I realized, I'm still addicted to sugar and carbs. I've always indulged in semi monthly opportunities to eat a high amount of carbs at holiday parties, going out with friends, or "just because." It's not good for my body, or anyone's really, to be flowing back and forth from being a fat burner and a sugar burner.

I've been reading about other folks and their zero carb/all meat experiences. Apparently this diet can heal a lot of things. I craved a piece of that action. Yet I was also scared to give up on the things I've had in my diet since I was a child.

After a week of semi-intentional binge eating and body sabotage, I've chosen tomorrow, April 19 2015, as my Carnivore Birthday. And really, it couldn't come soon enough. I've had donuts every day for the past 4 days. Same goes for candy. I included pizza, French fries, a Philly cheesesteak, two pints of ice cream, and even more into today's jam-packed gastroexplosive activities.

These are the symptoms I've managed to give myself in the past week:

Bloating
Weight gain of at least 10 lbs
New stomach stretch marks
Visibly flabbier arms
Sore, cracked lips from all the sugar
Extra dandruff
New beginnings of blemishes
More labored breathing
I experienced fleeting chest pain during my workout today
Parts of my body are quite sensitive and hurt to the touch
Way more farts!
Less desire for sex
Weird, vivid dreams
Restless sleep
A general crappy, hopeless feeling

Theses were the symptoms being kept at bay by going high fat low carb (and counting calories/ not eating like Joey on friends), but this way of eating wasn't a miracle for me by any means the way it was for some people in the keto subreddits and Facebook groups.

I am le tired of counting calories and working hard to stay under my carb limit. What could be simpler than eliminating all carbs or plant foods?

Day 1 of my new life starts now. The Meat Is On.

An all meat diet

Hello. I am a Mexican American female, 29 years old. I have had type 1 diabetes for 17 years. I'm going to try a meat/animal product only diet for 30 days at least. But I plan to eat this way for life. I'm ready to shed the shackles of modern consumer, grain based culture. It's time to unleash my inner carnívoro.

The name of this blog url is a transliteration of the Korean word for carnivore, 육식.