If you have been following certain blogger's and social media you may have heard about the Carnivore diet. If you haven't, that's OK. I'll fill you in! It's simple really - you eat products only from an animal - no not chicken nuggets! (LOL) No spices, no condiments. You eat eggs in butter, bacon, fish, beef, etc. Now if you love meat, you may be thinking, "This sounds awesome!" I know I was. I mean, after all, I was eating meat for breakfast and lunch with some sort of dressing. Be it either sriracha or mayo, etc. I would maybe add some veggies with lunch, but generally with dinner. Since I was already almost there I figured I could try it for 7 days after listening to Shawn Mynar's podcast, Keto for Women, that you can listen to here. There are several others in the keto community that have tried carnivore, including, Vivica Menegaz of the Nourished Caveman, her week one is here, and Dr. Anthony Gustin, his recap is here.
*Just as a FYI, I am writing this as I go throughout the experiment (except for the first 2 days), so if my mind set changes or something flows odd you've been warned. I also want to point out that it can be a lot of meat and fat. Highly suggesting a variety of meats at every meal.
Here we go!
Day 1 - Sunday
Kind of exciting to start something new! My day went pretty typical for a Sunday. I went to Whole Foods (weekly grocery shopping) and got a coffee to drink as I went about the parameter of the store. My cart was filled with mostly meats, eggs and a few things for D. Afterward, I headed to Birmingham's Farmers Market just outside of the downtown. Whole Foods didn't have a few meats with a high animal rating so I was going to stop at Trillium Farms tent to see what they had. The 2 things I wanted she had! Flank steak and pork sausage patties. I posted some early morning market pictures on Instagram here before the crowds came. I love to get there right when they open, up front parking! Not that I wouldn't mind walking, just it's nice when you want to run through and get out. I stopped on my way home to Dunkin to get D his iced coffee, nice that it's not even a half mile from home. My first official meal for my carnivore experience, breakfast? I naturally had bacon and eggs! I decided to poach my eggs (Vital Farms, non-GMO/Organic) and then to get some added fat, besides the bacon (Natures Rancher no sugar) was some Kerrygold butter. It was delish!
Breakfast sounds like an ad, doesn't it?!? I love the products I use and want to support them in anyway I can.
Around 12:30, I went to the gym and had a decent lifting workout. I even ran for about 20 minutes, as I usually do on Sunday. I didn't have any lunch because I still felt pretty satisfied from breakfast! I was looking forward to dinner though, BBQ!!
I picked up Woodpile, which is a local BBQ in Clawson. The best local BBQ, in my opinion. I always get the pulled pork and fatty brisket. SO GOOD!! I got a couple sides, but saved those for D for later in the week. I was really hungry and didn't take a pic, but I have posted from there before. I'm hoping to eat there again this coming weekend, hint hint!
My energy levels were good and I actually had a normal bm. If you know me, I am chronically constipated. Irritating to say the least!😒
Day 2 - Monday
Coffee with collagen and breakfast in hand, I got to work just before 2 am (as usual). After I get set up for the morning I grab my coffee and sip on it for a couple hours (it's typically iced coffee) and eat breakfast around 5-ish. I mentioned that I stopped at Trillium Farms and picked up some pork sausage patties for the week. I cooked them all on Sunday so I didn't need to worry about trying to cook up raw patties before heading to work. This morning, I paired 2 patties with a hard boiled egg. I clearly didn't bring enough food for the morning, but felt satisfied. After work, I went to the gym, which is around 9:30, my work out was good and energy level was great. By the time I got home I was super hungry! I was so happy to have leftover BBQ and even ate D's (sorry but not really!), that was about 11:30/12. I wasn't hungry again until about 5:30, around my normal time.
*Just as a FYI, I am writing this as I go throughout the experiment (except for the first 2 days), so if my mind set changes or something flows odd you've been warned. I also want to point out that it can be a lot of meat and fat. Highly suggesting a variety of meats at every meal.
Here we go!
Day 1 - Sunday
Kind of exciting to start something new! My day went pretty typical for a Sunday. I went to Whole Foods (weekly grocery shopping) and got a coffee to drink as I went about the parameter of the store. My cart was filled with mostly meats, eggs and a few things for D. Afterward, I headed to Birmingham's Farmers Market just outside of the downtown. Whole Foods didn't have a few meats with a high animal rating so I was going to stop at Trillium Farms tent to see what they had. The 2 things I wanted she had! Flank steak and pork sausage patties. I posted some early morning market pictures on Instagram here before the crowds came. I love to get there right when they open, up front parking! Not that I wouldn't mind walking, just it's nice when you want to run through and get out. I stopped on my way home to Dunkin to get D his iced coffee, nice that it's not even a half mile from home. My first official meal for my carnivore experience, breakfast? I naturally had bacon and eggs! I decided to poach my eggs (Vital Farms, non-GMO/Organic) and then to get some added fat, besides the bacon (Natures Rancher no sugar) was some Kerrygold butter. It was delish!
I did have some more coffee, I'm addicted I know, I added some Vital Protein collagen.
Breakfast sounds like an ad, doesn't it?!? I love the products I use and want to support them in anyway I can.
Around 12:30, I went to the gym and had a decent lifting workout. I even ran for about 20 minutes, as I usually do on Sunday. I didn't have any lunch because I still felt pretty satisfied from breakfast! I was looking forward to dinner though, BBQ!!
I picked up Woodpile, which is a local BBQ in Clawson. The best local BBQ, in my opinion. I always get the pulled pork and fatty brisket. SO GOOD!! I got a couple sides, but saved those for D for later in the week. I was really hungry and didn't take a pic, but I have posted from there before. I'm hoping to eat there again this coming weekend, hint hint!
My energy levels were good and I actually had a normal bm. If you know me, I am chronically constipated. Irritating to say the least!😒
Day 2 - Monday
Coffee with collagen and breakfast in hand, I got to work just before 2 am (as usual). After I get set up for the morning I grab my coffee and sip on it for a couple hours (it's typically iced coffee) and eat breakfast around 5-ish. I mentioned that I stopped at Trillium Farms and picked up some pork sausage patties for the week. I cooked them all on Sunday so I didn't need to worry about trying to cook up raw patties before heading to work. This morning, I paired 2 patties with a hard boiled egg. I clearly didn't bring enough food for the morning, but felt satisfied. After work, I went to the gym, which is around 9:30, my work out was good and energy level was great. By the time I got home I was super hungry! I was so happy to have leftover BBQ and even ate D's (sorry but not really!), that was about 11:30/12. I wasn't hungry again until about 5:30, around my normal time.
How can you go wrong with this dinner?!? Well, I guess depending on your likes and dislikes. My best said no to the ham! All good. I continued the egg since I already had one in the morning. Overall, today I felt really good and my sleep has been uninterrupted.
Day 3 - Tuesday (sorry, no pics! - boring food)
Another work day and more sausages! I had 3 this morning and the remaining 2 slices of ham with my coffee and collagen. Shortly after finishing breakfast, I just thought, blah, kinda over the pork sausage. Already?! I'm use to having mayo on everything in the morning. My energy level was good though and I had a good workout after work. On Tuesdays, I spin for 45 minutes and then run for 3 miles. I wasn't super hungry right away, which is pretty typical for me after an endurance session, so I delayed my lunch an hour. I had a 5 ounce hamburger that was left over from last night and 3 pieces of bacon. I also had coffee with heavy cream, which I typically will avoid dairy since it doesn't sit me with very well. I had to run out shortly after lunch and ended up having a everyone out moment. I'm pretty sure that it was the heavy cream that caused it, lesson number 1. I also didn't feel the best, stomach wise the rest of the day. I should mention that while I was out I really wanted something, but I wasn't sure what. My thoughts were that all I can have is meat and I really don't want meat, so I let it go. I did pick up a cold brew though, not carnivore at all, along with coffee, but I wasn't giving it up. I should also be drinking more water, and I have been, just not enough as usual. But, I certainly needed something different. I finally got hungry for dinner around 6:00 pm and ate just over 10 ounces of pork kielbasa. I sliced it and cooked it in a cast iron pan in coconut oil and butter. I ate half of it first and waited about 30 minutes till having the rest, I wanted to make sure I was truly still hungry. I find that my satiety indicator is pretty slow and if I wait about 30 minutes before eating anything else I can tell if I truly need more or not.
Day 4 -Wednesday
So close I can taste it. I can make this happen! I slept more soundly last night then I have in awhile. I didn't want to get up at 6:30 when D's alarm went off. It's my day off but still had plenty to accomplish. I wasn't hungry at all when I awoke and was a little sleepy. I went out for coffee and doctored mine up with collagen. I got D off to work, fed the animals and went to the gym. I'm not really sure if I just wasn't up long enough or if I was still feeling the haze of my deep sleep but I certainly didn't feel strong today. My workout was mediocre at best. Once I finished I needed to run a few errands and still wasn't hungry. I thought it was interesting. It was probably right around 11 that I wanted to eat, that was a 16 hour fast. Pretty amazing! Except I wasn't feeling the best. Energy felt good but my stomach wanted nothing to do with meat in general. If I could have gotten away with not eating I probably would have.
I need a different texture and decided I was going to have eggs for brunch. I made an omelette with leftover pulled chicken I made made the other night in the instant pot. It was a nice change in texture and flavor. It wasn't super filling but again I didn't know what else to have. But a couple hours later, after my conference call I had some liverwurst. It was fine but nothing super great. In the meantime, I was making chicken thighs and a lonely short rib for the rest of the week. Once it was cooked I did have a few bites of the chicken. I was feeling hungrier now, so I may have to make an earlier dinner, which is going to be a pork chop and my lonely beef short rib. Neither tasted that great and my stomach was just not having anymore of it. I was feeling nauseous and just not great in general, it only seemed to be getting worse as the day progressed.
It's a little small but the above is my macros for the day.
I gave up that night! It wouldn't have been wise for me to continue my experiment into carnivore until Saturday as I had planned. I took some Bentonite clay to help ease my stomach, which helped a great deal, then I had a couple potato chips and peanut butter. I felt even better.
I went to bed and Thursday morning I was feeling pretty good. I still had pork sausages, 3 in fact, that I had for breakfast with some mayo. Even though it was meat, the accompanied condiment put my stomach more at ease. By the end of Thursday and my normal low carb eating I was feeling myself.
The hubs thought this was a foolish thing to try. It was only going to be a week anyway, I had no plans of taking it longer unless I was feeling totally amazing, which I wasn't. I honestly don't think there was I could have adapted to make me feel better. This eating style just clearly wasn't for me. I do believe and many other out there that have tried this style themselves have mentioned if their client wanted to try it or asked their opinion of it they needed to experience it themselves. I believe the same. Would I recommend it? It's grey area, I would try other healthy lifestyle and dietary changes first based on the individuals needs.
