Hello everyone, I hope you won't mind if I post on this chat about my (imperfect) (mostly) carnivore (almost) month of April! If mods think necessary please remove.
I am, as of yesterday, having a little food holiday for a few days. I'm not going full denial, and will be very active in the garden and house so hopefully damage will be limited. I will take metformin which I stopped during April, also forxiga as long as I'm not excluding carbs or fasting.
I will probably start back on low carb before the end of the week, and while I won't post meals I will be lurking and chatting a bit!
My 28 day carnivore diet consisted of beef steak, mince and marrowbone broth, dairy, eggs, pork, lamb, chicken, pork puffs/crackling snacks and kefir. There was an occasional carb that fell off the shelf and into my mouth, and an odd day or two of off-plan meals, but most days were as carb free as you can get while you still have dairy. I drank coffee, green and black tea and both tap and sparkling water (lots of sparkling water!)
Most days I was also intermittent fasting at about 16/8
Effects on health:
Weight loss - 12lbs - compared to 5lbs in March
FBG down from around 7-9s to 6-8s but BGs during the day always 5-6s down from 8+
Ketones up to 1, usually around 0.5
BP down from 150s/70s to 120s/60s - this is the early morning reading before taking ramipril
Mental clarity - 100% wordle win rate, more within 3 or 4 attempts than previously (okay that one's a bit of humour but true, and previously I was often impatient and fluffed it quite often).
Sleep - very good most of the time, occasional waking early hours.
Energy - waking up 6am ish and getting up without grouches and ouches. Getting off my ample bottom and moving all day most days.
Mobility - remarkable improvement, I think way more than losing almost a stone without carnivore would do
I didn't experience much hunger, just occasional pleasant hunger.
This is a vast difference to me at the end of last year, when I wasn't mobile and I was in a lot of pain. I need to remember this, and keep striving for health - there's a long way to go yet.
I think I could sustain a mostly keto diet with carnivore weeks or fortnights, not sure about permanent carnivore though - it's pretty funny that by the end of the month carb-addicted me was craving cauliflower! The problem is that once I open the door to carbs I am not good at regulating them.
I also think that staple carnivore meats for me would be mostly cheaper beef and lamb mince, because the cost of steaks is unsustainable on my budget. I'm therefore not sure about the quality of the meat and there is a possiblity of grain and vegetable oil-fed meats having some toxic load in the fats. But I dunno. I think that risk is acceptable considering how I used to eat and the results of this month on my health.
One more thing I really loved about carnivore - how simple storing, preparing and choosing food became! My fridge is uncluttered, and I don't have to worry about wastage or plan meals around vegetables - I never realised how much of a stress that was for me. I don't do popping to the shops if I can help it, too much temptation, and I have a 3 month free delivery thing from Ocado but online buying of fresh vegetables is a bit of a worry and I tended to waste a fair bit.
