The Carnivore Experiment: One Month Later, A Recap

If you’ve been following me at all in the last month you’ll notice that I’ve started what we’ve dubbed the carnivore experiment. After coming across the concept on Joe Rogan with a podcast with Jordan Peterson (that and the one he did with Shawn Baker, both are goldmines of info) , both John and I became interested in at least a trial run of this diet. We’ve shared some of our adventures here but I get I haven’t really explained much beyond the basics, so now, a month in, it’s time for a recap.

What do you mean….carnivore?

The way of eating we’ve been experimenting with is defined by only eating animal fats and proteins, which is loosely defined as far as carnivores are concerned. One thing is for sure, no plants allowed not even fruits and veggies.

So, What do I eat?

Steak
Ground Meat Scrambles
Eggs
Fish/Seafood
Bacon
Cured Meats
Chicken/Duck
Lamb
Bone broth
Ribs...to name just a some of the options.

The diet between carnivores varies as it often depends on cues that are personal to ones own physical biology. For example, some carnivores only consume beef and water because they have allergies to chicken, or pork. We at this point eat all animal proteins and fats but find we crave beef and pork the most. Some carnivores keep cream, butter and cheese where others opt to cut it out completely for clear skin, something I’m heavily considering despite ghee being my only current dairy consumption.

For drinking there is water, some carnivores like carbonated water but that still has yet to grow on me. Some continue drinking tea or coffee unsweetened but that’s technically not part of the diet.

Salt and Pepper are primary seasonings, really the only ones with an occasional sprinkle of thyme or garlic powder to change things up. We upped our salt intake as recommended by….just about everyone and it seemed to help.

We’ve gotten into making beef jerky with a balsamic marinade that vaguely tastes of teriyaki with no sugar or soy added. When I’m feeling like a snack I go for bacon, jamon serrano or salami.

We eat until we are full and don’t hold back. I find I crave fattier pieces of meat than I ever have in my life, which I find interesting. I used to leave the fatty bits of steak on the plate but now I often eat that first.

Why carnivore?

For me personally I’ve always had a hard time digesting vegetables and that combined with the fact that I had a crappy childhood full of crappy food makes me an inflamed person. From skin troubles to digestive issues to stomach troubles to chronic pain I deal with too many crappy human afflictions on a regular basis for how young I am.

We went vegetarian for over a year in the beginning of our relationship and while we felt better at first we found we didn’t feel better in the long run until we started reintroducing meat. We’ve also noted that we both feel and look better after one month of carnivore than after one month of vegetarian, although it’s been a long time since we were vegetarian.

I’ve had chronic cystic acne for more than 15 years that’s never shown any sign of letting up. I’ve tried just about every product I can get my hands on chemical and natural both here and in the United States and at this point I’m convinced that it’s my diet, not what I’m smearing on my face. Those products at this point likely make things worse.

I’ve always had a chronic sugar habit but considering the fact that I’m not interested in dealing with diabetes I’m doing what I can to stop that. I’m also sick of dealing with brain fog, emotional and mental issues and other things I’m starting to associate with my chronic sugar habit. Now that I’ve gone without sugar, I’ve definitely noticed how sugar effects me now and how different types of sugar affect me. For example, I can tolerate cane sugar in small amounts without a reaction, but give me stevia and agave and I’ll feel crappy for a few days making me feel so bad I’ve sworn them off completely.

My research says that this diet is helping people with all the issues I’m dealing with and even greater ones, so we gave it a try over a month ago now to start. We’ve had some “cheats”, John more than I generally in the form of root beer floats, his kryptonite. I usually go for things like some gummy bears, dried dates and most recently my kryptonite Smores flavor poptarts. It’s not been a perfect journey but in some ways those cheats are experiments, we generally don’t feel the best at least in terms of energy level after consuming our old “favorites” and I’ve even sworn off things like almonds completely because I don’t like the gut pain I get from them.

How do I feel?

When I’m strict on the diet I feel better, more energy and less pain. Moods are more stabilized and I feel more capable of handling complex problems. I have more motivation in general partially because I also have more clarity within the mind and can focus better on tasks. Usually on the diet I grew up on I described myself as scatterbrained and I feel myself becoming less so as time goes on.

My skin is still a battle but it’s less of one. I’ve been reading that I’ll have to completely quit dairy, even my small use of ghee to get it to stop completely. I’ve also read that it takes some people 3-6 months to fully adjust to the diet meaning it still has plenty of time to clear up.

I’ve lost some weight though that wasn’t the goal so I can’t say how much. I’m visibly more toned, although I honestly don’t have before and after pictures to share. This was less about how I looked and more about feeling, at most I wanted to loose the bloating which I did within a week of starting the carnivore experiment. I crave fat a lot and I think that has to do with the fact that I’m not trying to lose weight. John looks much different, and neither of us have intentionally increased our activity level although we’re both doing more.

My energy level is notably higher. I’m known as someone who loves to sleep and I sleep less and get more out of it even so far on the diet. I was also suffering from chronic night sweats before the diet which have mostly ceased. I also don’t get as tired as early in the day as I generally do, which is nice. I notice on days where I even have a tiny amount of sugar I’ll get tired quickly just like I used to. I also have the urge to work physically more than ever, even taking to walking around the city recently both to save pesos on a taxi and to burn some energy.

What now?

The plan is to continue the diet likely more strictly in the next several weeks at least. We will keep up with it so long as it makes sense for us but at this point I’m more excited about staying on the diet than I was when we started.

What’s not to like?

Really the only downside I can think of is that variety can get a bit hard sometimes, especially if you don’t have direct access to a good butcher. We do indeed get sick of steak but I honestly shop by what looks tasty and I end up with a good mix of things to keep it interesting. Eating this way is currently cheaper than our old diet but that’s because we go to the central market a lot for meat at super cheap prices.

It’s not socially acceptable for everyone and I’ve already been called a murderer and a monster for what I’m doing. I’m not interested in the moral debate of things so when the confrontation arises I generally ignore it. It’s just not worth my time to argue with someone who isn’t really interested in my side of things anyway when they start off by calling me a murderer.

There’s a period in the beginning where you just won’t feel better, you might actually even feel worse and you’ll crave carbs like hell. For me it was about two and a half weeks of pretty crappy feelings before I started to notice what I would call an improvement. I still feel crappy on and off and that’s pretty directly related to the things I’ve attempted to cheat with. And those cheats generally aren’t much, it took like 7 chocolate covered almonds to make me swear those off for good.

But the improvements are enough to make me commit for longer than a month.

I’ll continue to share my adventures on here, I hope you’ll continue to follow them!

Check out the links below for more like this one!

The Carnivore Experiment: Bone In Rib Eye for Lunch
The Carnivore Experiment: Meat Lovers Scramble
The Carnivore Experiment: Finding my Triggers

In case you missed them, some of my recent posts:

The Carnivore Experiment: Day 31
Just Keep Crafting: The Beginning of a Voluntarist Bikini
Rebel Dog Tennis Ball Chase Show Off Session

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