5 month update

Hello blog! I don't have much to report, really, but it will be useful for future me (and anyone else who stumbles upon this) to write my dutiful monthly entry anyway.

September 15 (Tues) was the 150th day since I committed to eating only animal products. My weight when I last checked it 5 days ago was 90.1 kg, or 198.6 lbs. I didn't take any measurements, since I know I'm gaining inches. I only have to gauge the tightening fit of the new jeans I bought a month or so ago, that were supposed to be seeing me through this period of gain. Back then, I bought a size 18 just in case I should expand more. And I had to break out those big jeans this week. They were a bit baggy in the legs/butt, but I bet I fill them out soon enough.

I'm writing about this more matter-of-factly because I think I've given up despairing about it. Or, at least I'm on an upswing of mood. Trying to just trust in the process, and trusting that my body is smarter than I think it is. I mean, surely I'm gaining muscle under there and not just fat.

For Labor Day, I took a short vacation with my friend to Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I broke my meat plan with a few kettle-cooked chips, some beer, a calzone, and then some ice cream. It was rough; I could feel the sugar and carbs gaining control of me and my brain, so much so that it scared me how powerless I felt against the urge to eat sugar. The ice cream wasn't eaten on the trip, but after I got home, I was so hard up and craving ice cream that Tim indulgently took me out in the rain to the grocery store. I got 3 half-cup size ice cream containers (the small Blue Bunny single servings). It was a mistake - they all tasted gross and full of chemicals, and the outing wasn't worth it.

The day after that vacation, I weighed myself. I was 199 lbs, which I thought had to surely be due to what I had eaten. Seeing that I've only lost .4 lbs since then about a week later, I'm even more confused about my body is doing. After that setback, I've since been on meat only.

My blood sugars have been in pretty much the same range, with a few lows when I take too much insulin. Same old story. I do think I will try eating a piece of cheese at night before I go to bed to see if it translates into lower morning numbers. Those have been around 130-170 mg/dl. Not the greatest.

Bathroom event summary, since you're dying to know: I was starting to eat leaner meats, and for a while my poops were dreams! Solid, quick. But yesterday things started loosening up again. I'll have to eat leaner. If only the lean cuts weren't so expensive and/or not tasty.

I've been trying to do yoga classes at the gym. My hip is still hurting me, which I think is unrelated, but I thought yoga couldn't hurt. Turns out I was wrong - some of those positions are not friendly! Still, I'll keep trying.

I was extremely proud of myself for not eating pizza when I took my partner out for his birthday. However, it was a strange thing to witness the staff at Pie Five struggle so mightily to fulfill my request for a crustless pizza.

Having been a subscriber to r/keto on Reddit back in the days of my ketogenic dieting, I knew that places like Cici's Pizza could do a crustless pizza - where they basically stick all the toppings in an aluminum pan and melt it together in the oven. Like a casserole or something.

The Pie Five folks did try to do that for me, but it failed with their pans and oven. What they ended up giving me was the uncooked ingredients piled on one of their pizza pans, based on my suggestion.

At least I had a buy-one-get-one coupon, so I didn't really feel that bad eating something I definitely could have prepared for myself at home. But still, in 10 or 20 years I imagine that more people will learn about how good an all meat, or at least low carb high fat, diet is. They'll learn to demand what their diet needs, just like vegetarians and gluten-free folks do today (they did offer me a gluten-free crust). Restaurants are going to have to learn to adapt to what customers ask for.

There is something so absurd about eating like 1.5 cups of shredded mozzarella off a plate in a restaurant. Yet somehow it's perfectly acceptable when it's melted, on top of a pizza. #murica

I took a picture of ironic wall decoration - seems like it should really say, "we only make one kind of pie: full of carbs"

4 Month Update UGGGGHH

As you can probably surmise from the title, month 4 was a slog and a travesty. I'm getting fatter, and I'm getting less okay with it.

I'm also mad at myself, because the temptations I've been experiencing have been given in to too many times. I should re-write that. I GAVE IN TO TEMPTATION TOO MANY TIMES. There. ownership. Feels good in a shitty way.

In late July and early August, a few cool things happened. I got to hang out with some friends from Crossfit I hadn't seen in a while, because some of them threw a beach/boat party (they're older and richer than I am). I had some kind of party cocktail dispensed from a cooler, and a few beers and some vodka. Then later, I ate the cheese off some pizza they ordered. Less than optimal. Why is beer and other alcohol still okay in my mind??

The Texas Trip

Then a few weeks later, I got to fly out to Texas to see mi familia again. I missed them so. Still do, now. Those 3 days flew by. I tried to minimize diet damage by only ordering burger patties + eggs at Whataburger during breakfast time, and picking barbecue joints to eat. My dad and brother even grilled steaks for us <3 <3 <3. Still, for some reason my hand kept reaching to the other side items - a little piece of bread here, some biscuits there, cole slaw, mac & cheese. All just a few bites. But enough to make my morale sink, my blood sugar rise, and make me wonder if I can really hack this WOE.

And of course, I drank some beer at the top of the Reunion Tower.

Texas beer, naturally

The Bear talked about having difficulty managing cravings for the first SIX YEARS (!!!omgggg) into his all-meat diet. That is less than heartening. Especially since my results aren't exactly jazzy enough for me to keep up my motivation and willpower in the face of Crema Catalan (amazing dessert at a Tapas place my parents took us to in McKinney, TX).

The most frustrating thing is that before this big trip home, I was actually very comfortable and in the groove of eating only meat. I could even imagine a Christmas or Thanksgiving where I would shun all cookies, candy, desserts, etc. I felt a change a'comin'! Then boom. Childhood memories overtake, and suddenly I'm wandering my parents' kitchen, looking for crunchy things to snack on. In case you were wondering, the winner was a bowl of tortilla chips, saltines, and graham crackers. <------- SO PATHETIC.

Food is still love when it comes to my family, apparently.

My stomach had been giving me problems before we left for TX, and my not-so-solid stools continued during my carby weekend. That was last weekend, and for some reason I still have diarrhea. My body must have to go through some kind of re-adaptation every fucking time I slip. I'll try my hardest to remember this in the future.

(Oh, and since my 120 day mark on this diet was the day after I got back from my trip, I weighed myself. 193 pounds. That is 8 pounds up from last month, and it is like a fucking knife in my heart. I'm hoping that can mostly be explained by the carbs.)

Sometimes though, just sticking with the diet doesn't even help me. Take yesterday.

The Saturday Saga

My friend Marcos and I went to the KC Ethnic Enrichment festival. A really fun time where different organizations around the city set up booths to sell their country's food and knick-knacks, and there's a main stage with performances. The biggest lines were at the Hawaii booth (for sno-cones) and the Mexico booth. Which tells you all you need to know about Midwest America.

I had a grand time at the festival, sidestepping all of the worst, most delicious-looking things (povitica, Thai coffee, American Indian Fry Bread, bacon rolls). I had some various meat-on-a-stick things from Laos and the Philippines.

I had 2 beers. The horror, I know.

I thought I had been doing great all day. Hadn't taken any insulin, but later after I came home (around 7:30 pm) when I checked my sugar it was 174. Not great, but not bad considering the beers. I corrected with 2 units I believe.

Had some ribeye steak for dinner - 1.16 lbs said the package. This is where I made my fatal error I think. I gave myself 4 units of insulin.

Normally this would be ok for a pound of meat, but I didn't check my blood sugar beforehand, so I probably would have been ok with just 3 units. Well, later, around 11 pm, I started feeling funny. So I got a few bites of summer sausage, 4 hot dogs, and some eggs. I was trying to chase away my low blood sugar, but it wasn't happening. I wasn't even hungry anymore, but I was trying to choke down all this food. It was terrible. I checked myself like 15 minutes after eating all this - 52.

Felt shitty for like an hour, whilst I ate some of Tim's dark chocolate, found some crappy sugar-free candies I munched on (because sometimes the oligosaccharides in them can raise my blood sugar anyway), and took a sip of a real Coke we somehow had in our fridge from Tim's brother's stash.

My life is a comedy of errors - I decide to commit to just meat, only to be thrown a loop with taking too much insulin. I had no cheese in the house, unfortunately. It's hard to treat a low with just meat, even if it's processed. So coke and chocolate it is. (I was really trying to get away from cheese, but maybe I need to keep it stocked.)

I finally went to bed after I tested my blood sugar at 61. Still felt low and crappy. Oh, and I also still had diarrhea. WHAT THE FUCK IS MY LIFE?!

But I still count yesterday as a fun day since I got to hang out with Marcos and see some fun ethnic food and garb. And hey, I had some weird vivid dreams (one upside of carb time).

*End*

Woke up this morning at 196. This really makes me want to throw up my hands and go back to keto. But I've committed a year to this to just find out how much better (or worse, now that I think of it) my body can be on an all-meat diet.

I think my T1 diabetes really hinders my ability to stay on this meat diet. Or, is it my preference to control my blood sugars what is really making me fail?

What if I were to increase my basal unit of 10 Lantus units to 12 (or whatever it takes), then not take any Humalog for bolus?

Am I willing to put up with higher blood sugars over the course of an undetermined period of time, in order to make the diet easier and try to see that they come down little by little on their own? I'm not sure.

This is what some of the T2 diabetics have done in the Zeroing In On Health Facebook group. Of course, most don't take insulin...

I'll have to think about that.

Ok, I think I've rambled on enough. I'll leave you with the only measurements I bothered to take of myself, besides my aforementioned weight. Really really really hope it's just due to the beer and accidental carbs of yesterday.

87 cm waist (formerly 82.5)

121.5 cm hips (formerly 114.5)

This blog is turning out to be more negative than I'd hoped it would be. Pretty bummed.

I'll leave with a positive thought. My nails are freakin' fantastically long and strong! They haven't broken, but they do bend sometimes. I'm thinking about cutting them, as sometimes typing gets annoying with nails this long. But part of me wants to see how long they can get!

Long nails. That polish did smell like grape for a short while.

3 Month Update

Yesterday was day 90 on Zero Carb! Time is really flying. Each day seems to crawl by itself, but suddenly you find yourself in the future.

This month seemed a bit smoother overall. For a while I still seemed to have issues with loose-type bowel movements arising at inopportune moments, and being kind of crampy/painful. It may have had to do with the kind of meat I was eating (ground beef that was too fatty), or possibly the quantity. The issue also seemed tied to my period. I've started eating eggs almost every day, and so that may be playing a helpful role in slowing things down. All I know is that I had 4 eggs/ 4 pc of bacon for breakfast yesterday, ground beef for lunch, a rare steak last night at 10 pm (when I finally got hungry) and I feel great this AM.

Now for the measurements. I'm not that excited. I'm also not that worried about the increases. Funny how abandoning sweets and carbs evens out your demeanor and brightens your outlook!

Weight 184.6 lbs, 83.7 kg (in case you forgot - I'm 5'3", 63 cm tall)

Waist 82.5 cm, 32.5 in

Hips 114.5 cm, 45.1 in

Right thigh 75 cm, 29.5 in

Left arm 39 cm, 15.4 in

Neck 34 cm, 13.4 in

Around 6 pounds gained, and also a few inches. I could definitely tell. My jeans weren't fitting as nicely anymore, so I went to Savers (thrift/secondhand store) to get some more clothes. I'm fat, but I'm oddly ok with it. I still fit in a lot of my stretchier clothes, and those are the best ones anyway. Whoever decided leggings were okay to wear outside was a genius.

During this third month of just eating meat, I had a challenge and I did not rise to the occasion. Tim and I went to the Kansas City Zoo to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was a hot day, and I had packed some steak with me to eat. However, my mistake was not packing it well enough so that I'd feel like carrying it around with me until lunch time, and so I left it in our car.

Now, we could have gone to our car and come back to the zoo, but this zoo is freakin' huge and I was so tired. I also started getting low at one point, having given myself too much insulin for a bunless cheeseburger I ate there.

Usually when I'm low I just try eating meat and waiting, but in this case the only meat I had made available to myself was a hot dog. So I ate that. Then I ate one of Tim's french fries, and a little less than half of the hot dog bun.

I could have spent another $6 (!!) on another hot dog frank, but I just got kind of fed up with the situation. Luckily, that little indiscretion was probably only 20 grams of carbs.

But the zoo was overall really fun, and some of the animals were really active and well worth seeing. We got to see a tiger play with a big plastic ball, and we saw chimp snack time. So adorable! I could have watched the chimpanzees all day.

After we got back from the zoo later that evening, after we rested and showered, we went to an underwhelming steakhouse. I ate some breaded buffalo wings, for no real reason other than we had a coupon for them. I tried to just eat the meatiest parts, but that was probably another 10 or so grams of carbs. Our food took a long time to come out (maybe that's what happens at steakhouses? I haven't been to very many), and I definitely should have gotten the ribeye or prime rib instead of the tiny 8 oz filet mignon. Oh well, live and learn. I also bit into the toothpick used to attach the bacon to the steak. Facepalm. But it was a lovely night with my man, because we were together. *barf i know*

Tim and I split a bottle of wine every night that anniversary weekend. This may have stalled any weight loss effort as well, but honestly, I didn't notice. I felt fatter and squishier this month anyway, without the help of much carbs or alcohol.

The folks at www.zerocarbhealth.com and its corresponding Facebook group really recommend sticking with this way of eating for 6 months to truly see the impact on the body. I'm very optimistic that my body is changing for the better, despite the extra chub. My face gets occasional blemishes, but this may still be part of the healing process.

A cool thing I've been noticing is that I have to take slightly less humalog. This all-meat diet is probably good for my metabolism and diabetes, though it works considerably slower than just a regular VLCHF/keto diet. I'm still at 10 units of Lantus.

I've also found that sometimes in the evening I appear to be more sensitive to the insulin, and so a few times this week I've over-corrected and ended up a bit low. When I dip into the 50s, I don't feel as ravenously hungry as in my carby past, but I've also never previously had the hypoglycemic symptom of where your tongue/lips go numb. That's happened to me twice now in the past month. It's kind of scary, but I just eat some cheese, summer sausage, and/or pork rinds to feel better.

After these low blood sugar episodes at night, I don't take any extra insulin for the food I eat to correct. In the mornings, I notice I'm usually higher, in the 150s. This contrasts with my regular morning numbers of 90 to 115. I'll just have to work on not taking as much insulin at dinner time.

Things are happening, things are exciting. I'm totally ready for month #4!

Measurements - Month 2

Day 61. Measurements. Here goes.


Weight 178.2 lbs, 80.8 kg (in case you forgot - I'm 5'3", 63 cm tall)

Waist 81.5 cm, 32.1 in

Hips 109.5 cm, 43.1 in

Right thigh 74.5 cm, 29.3 in

Left arm 38 cm, 14.9 in

Neck 34.5 cm, 13.5 in


I'm basically the same size I was as when I started this diet 2 months ago. Right after my indulgent week of carbs that left my body bloated. My thighs are way bigger than I anticipated.

I'm not pleased.

There's not much else I care to say. My spirit is slightly crushed. However, time will trudge on no matter what I'm eating. And to be honest, I want to complete the experiment now that I'm 61 days into it.

So I shall.

Day 60 update

Hello blog, good to see you. Just thought I'd pop in. Today is Thursday, June 18. Otherwise known as Day 61 in this WOE.

Over the past month (month 2 of this all-meat eating experiment), several notable things have happened.

On May 23rd, I took part in the Crossfit "Murph" challenge. This was a poor decision health-wise, probably, since I hadn't been an active participant at Crossfit for about 4 weeks at the time. If you don't know, this Murph workout is

1 mile run
100 pullups (I substituted ring rows)
200 pushups (I did them on my knees)
300 air squats
1 mile run

This whole stupid affair took me 1 hour and 12 minutes to complete. I pretty much just walked the last mile. After I was done, I tested my blood sugar and I was 237 mg/dl. YIKES. Just like old times, when I used to eat paleo carbs and then work out.

I was also sore for 5 days in my legs/core area, and for 8 days in my arms. I seriously thought I had a mild case of rhabdomyolysis. But my pee wasn't dark and I didn't get puffy, so probably not. One of the folks at my gym at least DID suffer that fate, however. Crossfit is dangerous, kids.

After that challenge, I could feel my body get a bit puffier/fatter. It was probably inflammation contributing to a bit of weight gain.

Also this month, my poops have been inconsistent, still, and some acne has reappeared. I thought for sure my stomach things would settle out this month, but I feel like things are still quite unpredictable. I hope I'm not giving myself some kind of gastrointestinal disorder. This may have something to do with the fact that I've added eggs in from time to time, and cheese maybe 2x a week (not that often, but it's not off limits either). I'll monitor these things. They're very annoying and hard to miss.

I went to the endocrinologist for a checkup, and my A1c increased from 5.2 to 6.2. This one was a bit of a blow. I pretty much looked a gift horse in the mouth when I turned away from keto to carnivory, it seems. Here are my past month's numbers as taken from my meter at the doctor's office:

I'll be waiting with bated breath to see how I do next month. I have increased my nighttime Lantus dosage to 10 units, originally 7 units in mid-April. I'll probably have to increase further.

And I can definitely tell I'm getting fatter. In fact, I know I am. I bought some pairs of pants from Savers this weekend, because the pants I have are getting too tight. :'( Measurements I took this morning confirm this. I'll have a separate post up later with my measurements. It's not pretty.

I need to work on being happier and more content with myself. But it's hard when I'm not seeing the results I want. Oh well. Onward to Month 3!