After consuming nothing but citrus fruit for more than a month, see my previous post: https://sheilamurrey.net/2022/03/25/when-was-the-last-time-you-felt-great/ and then lightening up to include some raw vegan foods, such as: celery, avocados, romaine lettuce, and saag spinach paneer with basmati rice for dinner too (a few times). And last month, I’d added green smoothies back into my diet to use up some protein powder I’d had in the pantry, as well as, try bananas again (that I had not eaten or used in smoothies for YEARS)!
I had noticed, even before adding the green smoothies, that I wasn’t losing anymore weight. But, in June I’d gained about 5 pounds back! Ugh! I had felt like I’d been sacrificing too–even with that frozen banana in my smoothies. And that’s never a good thing, and why a lot of people regain weight after dieting (which often leads people to conclude that “diets don’t work”).
But, is it true that diets don’t work???
Or perhaps, it’s that we’ve just never found the right balance of foods that will help us achieve our most desirable weight?
I happened to stumble upon this video with Dr. Ken Berry and a gal named Kelly Hogan (who has been eating only meat for 13 YEARS!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-qwRGNgjo
I had an epiphany while watching this. I had never ONLY consumed meat. I’d always eaten meat with lots of veggies, mostly low carb veggies. I had been raised on meat and potatoes, and some Italian foods like spaghetti with meat sauce and lasagna.
After watching that video and doing a fair amount of research, I was off to the grocery store! LOL
I spent about the same, if not less, money for only meat, eggs, and butter, as I had been spending on all the veggies and fruits for me, (as well as the prepared frozen meals for hubby).
Now, my hubby could join me and eat what I was cooking. Ah, cooking! Yes, I’d been missing that. Something about the smell of food cooking. Pleasing aromas.
I decided to commit to eating a carnivore diet for at least 3 days. Perhaps a week or more if I noticed any difference. In particular, I wanted to see if the number would go down on the scale! Ha!
The first day
I ate my regular breakfast. One ruby red grapefruit. (and no, I doubt grapefruit is on the Carnivore Diet but I love grapefruit and still had a bag of them in the fridge that I wasn’t going to waste).
For lunch, I modified my green smoothie to only 2 handfuls of kale, 1 frozen banana, and 1 cup frozen strawberries, and WATER to blend. No almond milk. No coconut milk. No protein powders. (‘d been adding almond or coconut milk before and using up protein powder I’d had on hand–this time, I was going to go “bare bones” and see if it made a difference).
Mid-afternoon, I felt a little hungry and ate two Paleovalley beef sticks (that we’ve had stored for over a year–I love their turkey sticks).
For dinner, hubby and I both thoroughly enjoyed a lamb shoulder and a ribeye steak! It was the first lamb I had cooked in years (I had to look up the broiling time), and it was the first time I’d used the broiler since we moved to the condo last September!
We following Dr. Berry and Kelly’s advice and only seasoned these with salt and freshly ground black pepper. YUM! I have always loved lamb and never needed mint jelly. I did miss having a small 3 to 4 ounce crystal glass of red wine with this, but I focused on how indulgent the meat with it’s accompanying fat (another thing I’ve always loved about steak), so in moments I wasn’t even thinking about the wine (and I did have 3 bottles in the kitchen, so… willpower! Haha!). I also had a thought that the 4 Rivers barbecue sauce would be lovely on the side of the steak, but I abstained from that too.
Spiral side note: I do love this barbecue sauce (it’s the only one I buy), and hope to enjoy it again sometime: https://www.4rsmokehouse.com/product/signature-barbecue-sauce/
The second day
The second day of my carnivore trial run was on a Saturday.
Now the real test was if I could get through a whole day on nothing but what I’d bought the night before and what we’d had on hand–without feeling like I needed to go buy any missing ingredients (something that always seemed to happen to me whenever I started a new diet).
The morning after my first carnivore day, and drumroll please… I lost 1.7 pounds!
To say I was shocked is an understatement!
What’s more, I had no cravings the night before. Usually I’d want a Werther’s Original caramel hard candy, or small square of dark chocolate, 3 or 4 ounces of dry red wine, something at the end of the day–especially on a Saturday night while sitting at home, watching a couple of movies. NOPE! Not this time.
This time, I had a couple of scrambled eggs for breakfast about 11:30am and a Paleovalley meat stick around 1pm. I didn’t make a smoothie today.
Dinner was a big ribeye steak grilled on the stove in my cast iron grill pan with a bit of grass-fed ghee on the pan (because I thought the steak might stick–it didn’t).
Again, I had a thought that some red wine might taste great with this, but I let the thought go pretty easily and did not succumb to it. And again I was surprised that I didn’t want any other bite of anything.
The third day
The third day of my carnivore adventure was on a Sunday.
I drank 32 ounces of water, went to the bathroom, and had a good BM. Well-formed. No smell. Substantial. (Yes, we talk sh*t here in this blog. Haha!)
Weighed in and had lost, or gently released shall I say, more than another pound! 1.1 pounds to be exact. Again, I am happily impressed!
I treated hubby and myself to a big brunch of 3 scrambled eggs (each), leftover ribeye, and chopped Paleovalley beef sticks. I did add a couple ounces of raw goat cheese to the pan of eggs and meat.
Since we ate after noon today, we ate dinner about 6pm and actually, it wasn’t enough! I’d bought a package of chicken wings but didn’t look at the weight. The package was just over a pound (and I’m supposed to eat a pound of meat for myself). Hmm, what to do!
I hadn’t cooked chicken at home in YEARS. So, I got the fry pan ready with the ghee in it and good and warm. I cooked the whole package of wings and when I could tell (by slicing into a few with a knife) that they were done, hubby and I shared (he had 5 and I had 4). I knew I would probably still be hungry, and I was. So, I ate another Paleaovalley turkey stick. And then, I waited. I didn’t feel full, but I wasn’t hungry. So, I drank another 32 ounce glass of water and had a cup of herb tea.
That got me through a movie and couple of Westworld series episodes (as last night was the premiere of the new season)! Love that show!
Morning of the fourth day
As you may suspect by now, yes, I lost another 1.1 pounds!!!
Okay, this is convincing me that for now at least, I am going carnivore! LOL
But I am going to have my grapefruit in the morning (the next few mornings), until that bag is gone. And I’m going to make my kale, strawberry, and banana smoothie this afternoon. I will post again in a few weeks and let you know the progress.
We have a big bag of shrimp in the freezer and salmon filets–so that will be dinner today/tomorrow. After that, we will be on vacation for a week, so we’ll see if I can stick to this during that time. If not, I’ll restart the Carnivore Diet when we come home.
I’ve noticed that a big part of this diet, other than all the meat and animal products, is learning how to read and abide by our own personal hunger cues (instead of looking a the clock) to know when it’s supposed to be time to eat.
I put what kale I had left (after making my smoothie today) in the Vitamix with some water and poured into an ice cube tray to use if I make a beef stew or such.
A bit about me, your Spiral Sister
Fractal of Omniscience. “Spiral Sister”Observer & Perceiver of Energy & Wisdom from Nature. Empath|Author|Connector|Speaker|Singer. ❤️🦋🌀〰️🔥🙏☯️
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