Zero Carb beyond 30 days

I have been eating meat and drinking water for a month. 

Do i want to go back to eating other things? Not really. 

Has anything changed since my last post a couple of days ago? Not really. 

Well, a little. Yesterday I had cravings. Not cravings for something sweet or starchy but I just wanted to snack. Wasn't exactly hungry but wanted to chew on jerky. I did eat jerky but it also filled me so i didn't eat dinner. The jerky turned out as my lunch and dinner. 
I also had a very bad mood, felt kind of down and irritated as well as tired. 
I believe all these are connected to my upcoming period. 

My face is still clear and the old marks are slowly disappearing. 

My tummy seems to be shrinking. I don't feel the same with other body parts but that's how my body is, tummy is the first to shrink or last to grow while thighs and behind last to shrink and first to grow. 

I finally stepped on the scale this morning and am down 0.2 since last time. i am not really excited about it as at this point I just want to let my body to do it's thing. 

I haven't been trying to lose weight. I just want to be at peace with food. I am tired of the addiction and pre-occupation with food. 
It will take few months for my body to change, the fast changes I was used to from carb/calorie controlled eating will not happen here. The changes from this way of eating feel different. I have a feeling that my body composition is changing. 

I am guessing that in 6 months if i look at before/after photo there will be a difference. A big difference. We shall see......

I have finished the antibiotics and didn't have any severe reaction like some people said on FB, I have been a bit more tired and actually still am. I went to sleep before 10pm last night and was still dragging at 7am. 
I do not have tons of energy. I hope that this will improve with time. 

The other thing that is happening with me is that I am not very excited about my food. I am not particularly enjoying it or the taste. The only 'food' that I do enjoy and like is the beef jerky. I also really like the chicken wings that I make. I do eat beef, ground beef and about once a week hamburger and it really fills me up for a long time but i do not enjoy the taste even though I still put spices in my food. 
I do like my eggs and eat a little bit mozzarella cheese approximately every other day. That is filling for only about 3-4 hours, not as long as meat. I also use about 1tbs HWC in my coffee once a day. 
I have 1 or 2 plain cups of coffee and plenty of water as I still do get thirsty. 

I hope that my taste will change and i will acquire the taste for natural meat and it's texture. Sometimes i just gag on certain bites. Not even sure why? The jerky sometimes has fat in it and i do eat it but i don't like the texture.  

Two Weeks on Zero Carb Carnivore eating

It has been 2 weeks. It seems like a long time. It was a pretty easy transition for me. 
Made my life really simple. 

Physically it is really simple. Psychologically it is a little more complicated.  

I think. That's a problem. 

I have all kinds of thoughts. Fortunately I also have counter thoughts. 

When I started 2 weeks ago, I figured i'll just remove everything but keep the 100% dark chocolate and a tiny amount of macadamia and brazil nuts. I didn't eat them every day. But them I started eating them every day. I'd think about food and reach out to them. 
They didn't fill me up. They didn't satiate me. It was just an indulgence. Just so I am not bored with just meat. 

Initially my skin cleared. I have hormonal acne, my chin always had breakouts. Sometimes they were big, under skin and sometimes small. when I switched to ZC even with the nuts and chocolate, my skin cleared but then when i indulged daily I still had a breakout. Seemed smaller but still breakout. 

People on the ZIOH forum suggested I remove the nuts and chocolate. I did. 3 days ago. 
My skin is clearing and fast! I am not using anything on my skin. I used to put sulfur during the night and/or tea tree oil. But now i do not apply anything. 
I haven't had any new breakouts and my skin seems to be healing nicely. 

Now that's really great as I was really puzzled about it. Just 3 weeks ago I was researching hormonal acne, considering I had PCOS and trying to figure out what products to buy to clear my skin. Oil cleanse, vitamins, creams bla bla bla bla....... 
It is funny how i don't need to spend ANY money (or time!) to clear my skin. 

I did the Whole 30 in January and was hoping my skin would clear but it didn't. I also didn't lose any weight even though I was keeping my carbs low. 

In the past couple days my mind is playing tricks with me. I want to eat but I think I am tired of eating meat. I don't feel like eating anything I have. It kind of seems boring. 
I made lamb roast on Friday and I really don't like it. It doesn't taste good to me. The only thing I think is ok for me is ground beef or burger. I kind of want store food and not meat that I made. Not sure why. Like I really feel like going to Safeway and buying their chicken wings. I don't know what they put in them or what fat they cook them in. 
Last week I had Wendy's and Burger King burger patties. I didn't care much for Wendy's but BK tasted good. I wonder if those fast foods have some sugar in them and are causing my funny mind tricks. 

Beef seems to be good for me. I think I will just buy Trader Joe's clean frozen burgers and 80/20 ground beef and stick to them for a while. 

People on ZIOH talk about steaks. I never fancied steaks. Who knows maybe my taste will change? 

I am thinking of quitting cheese for a while and sticking with just beef and chicken until my body settles down with this WOE. The only dairy I am keeping is ~1tbs of Heavy Whipping Cream in my coffee  once or twice a day. 

Finally the scale is moving in the right direction!!!!!!

I stepped on the scale this morning and it is finally moving in the right direction. 

I could feel it in the past few days, my tummy is tighter and my jeans are getting more loose. 

I am at a very nice weight of 144.4 lbs...... I have not been under 145.4 for quite a while and even that weight was very temporary. I have been mostly hovering around 146 + for months now. With all my Low Carb, very low carb (20g net carbs) moderate protein and lower fat, precise measuring of macros, tracking, exercising and having mild cravings or just wanting to eat, looking up recipes, shopping for fresh veggies at least twice a week. 
I am very happy to finally see results. 

With this way of eating I have none of that. I just eat meat and drink water/coffee/tea. I am not hungry. I am not emotionally hungry. I do not have cravings. I do not spend a lot of time on cooking and shopping. I am not spending time on tracking my macros. 
If i am hungry or thinking of food I just eat meat and drink water. WOW! Just WOW! Well sometimes i eat few macadamia/brazil nuts and 1-2 squares of 100% dark chocolate. I am not super happy with it. I wonder if anything would change if i wouldn't do it. My problem is they are a weakness. I have them in the house. If i wouldn't have them in the house or in my purse I wouldn't eat them. But I am not feeling deprived and that's good. Even with all that and the few days of eggs and cheese I am still moving in the right direction. 

I feel pretty good. I have good energy level during the day. I have been getting tired in afternoon and evening and am not waking up with high energy these past few days.
I attribute it to late nights and a couple of days of not eating enough meet (ate eggs and cheese on the go). 

I think that when I eat mostly beef I feel the best. I will have to eat beef for few days and see how I am doing. I love chicken but seems like beef is really satisfying my body.

Feeling great today and planning ahead

Eating zero carb is tasty, satisfying, filling and low cost. With each day I feel better and less doubtful about it.

I just finished my lunch, 10 (plain) chicken wings I bought at Safeway earlier (for $8) I might have a piece of fish as I think I still haven't lost interest in food.

I had eggs and chicken for breakfast (estimated cost $4?) and will make ground beef for dinner (estimated cost $3). 
I have been drinking coffee (can't calculate this but probably around $1 a day?) sometimes I add about a tbs heavy whipping cream (25c?). 
A whole day worth of food for about $15 and it is soooo simple! 

No need to spend much time (and money!!!!) at the store, plan menu, count calories and nutrients figure out why this hurts or why this happens or why weight isn't dropping and how can you eliminate this or that or what to change in my diet? 

Also, no need to store tons of ingredients at home. When I was low carb I stocked up on: nuts, nut butters, almond milk, protein powder, flax, almond/coconut flour, psylium husk, quest bars, a large variety of (low carb) veggies, avocados, olive oil, avocado oil, and probably even more items that I cannot remember right now.

It all adds up and require me to go to the store more often since veggies have limited shelf life. I needed to cook few times a week so I could prepare the veggies.

I have been at it only about 4 days now and I feel great. I have no cravings AT ALL!!! The first few days it was a little hard to wake up, but on these first days I also had a little bit of cabbage in my beef. I am also eating a couple squares of 100% chocolate and 5 brazil/macadamia nuts, a habit I can't yet kick.
Now I am only stuck with the chocolate and brazil/macadamia nuts.

My skin cleared. I have no cystic acne since I switched to meat, it completely cleared. It improved from yesterday until today. Unbelievable! I still have dryness in that area. Hope it will improve tomorrow. I don't feel any new acne developing which feels great.

Switching to (almost) Zero Carb

I have about 15lbs to drop which I gained on low carb grain free diet. 
I have been eating ultra healthy diet, my friends think I am very srict since I do not touch grains or sweets. But in reality I have been over thinking food for a very long time. Paleo/LC recipes. All those nuts and almond/coconut flour baking ...... Even all the veggie recipes. 

I have been doing xtra lc for a couple days now, almost zero carb, with just some cabbage that I had made before with my ground beef (crack slaw), 5 brazil nuts and 2 squares of 100% chocolate. I am feeling really good. I even think my skin is starting to clear. I have always had hormonal acne (only learned about this term in the past week!) on my chin (even though I am turning 46 next month!) I haven't stepped on the scale but I can feel my clothes fitting a tiny bit looser, I feel my tummy a little tighter. Can't report anything on my thighs and behind ;-) I will weigh in and report either way in the next few days.  

I have been at around 20-25 net carbs for about a month and did not lose any weight. I did have appetite, hunger and cravings sometimes but in the past 2 days I haven't experienced any problem! 

Life is so much easier. I just need meet.

What I am finding interesting is I am not sure about how much to eat. I think that with time my body will adjust and give me signs of fullness. They say to eat until I am full/satisfied but even after over 2 years of low carb and grain free my body is not exactly trained in when to stop eating. When I was still on the old SAD diet I stopped eating when I would explode and not be able to eat anymore. I had to overeat because that rice, quinoa, hummus, whole wheat pasta or even vegetables, tasted soooo good and I just 'had' to have another serving.

When I was on MF/TSFL I missed that fullness but stuck with the diet and started to enjoy not feeling so full. But psychologically I still had some expectation for this feeling and a bit of deprivation of not having it.

It has been getting better but I am still not sure when to stop eating or if I had enough. Sometimes I know I want to eat out of just wanting.

I hope this psychological eating will disappear.

Dr. Barbara Berkley - When Food Become Drugs - very powerful!

In her book Dr. Barbara Berkley talks about how food is worse than drugs because no one pushes you to use drugs, it is not displayed everywhere in plain site and isn't enticing you everywhere you turn, no one tells you "it's ok, just today, you can afford it" and the like, no one criticizes you for abstaining. I really really resonate with it. I know it seems a little strict but I don't think so. I have been on weight loss and maintenance journey for several years now and I can tell you from experience she is not crazy or strict. Starting to look at some food as drugs. I,actually hid the mixed nuts in the back of my shelf today. If I don't see it, it will not tempt me. I'd rather eat chicken, slice of turkey/beef or hard boiled egg than munch on nuts. I have to start dealing with my drug. 

http://www.refusetoregain.com/2015/02/post-re-run-controlled-by-a-cookie-when-foods-become-drugs.html