I’ve been on a carnivore diet for about six months now. Still going strong. Figured I’d report in on what’s happening with it.
First of all, I’m not what I would call 100% carnivore. I figure on any given day I consume between 90-95% of my calories from meat and meat by-products, like eggs and the occasional bit of cheese. The rest, well, come from non-meat sources.
I was 100% carnivore for the first month. It did not bring me joy. So I added back in coconut milk to my morning beverage, which does bring me joy. I drink homemade Kombucha almost daily. Never a lot, maybe 1-2 ounces. I figure it’s good for my gut health to have some sort of fermented food. I also regularly eat small amounts of chocolate, but only the good stuff, 80% cacao or higher, and never too much.
I drink electrolytes every day. Frequently, I put both lime and (homemade) ginger juice in with those, as well as some homemade stevia, to make them taste better. I’ve discovered that I’ll drink a lot more water if it has some flavoring in it.
Then there’s fruit. I regularly have small amounts of fruit. I’ll put a quarter cup of frozen raspberries in carbonated water, and splash in a bit of coconut milk as well, for an Italian soda.
I make what I call the AIP BBQ sauce. It has molasses and maple syrup in it, but the base of it is rhubarb. That way I get a nice tangy sauce. I use maybe a tablespoon on my meat most days.
As of this week, I’m eating a lot more fruit, all stuff that we grew. This will only last until we eat it all up, then I’ll go back to eating less. (I see other carnivore people talking about how they eat seasonal fruit. It makes sense to me.)
This year, we didn’t have a lot of fruit. I made apple chutney out of some of the apples (OMG is it good!) and I’m having a couple tablespoons of that on my meat regularly until we run out.
I grilled the rest of the fruit on the Webber. Let me tell you, grilled/smoked fruit is one of my new favoritest things. Again, though, only eating it until we’re out.
In addition, when I go out to eat, I’ll frequently eat whatever the veggies are that get served with my dish, as long as they aren’t nightshades.
(Side note—I stopped eating nightshades for three months a few years ago. Didn’t really notice any change. Now, though, if I have any nightshades I notice the effects immediately. Owwww. They make me swell up, make my joints ache, and can cause a psoriasis flareup.)
I continue to be very careful about dairy. While I can handle more dairy than I used to be able to, too much still gives me a migraine. Hard cheese is always better than soft cheese unless it’s goat’s milk.
I went back and looked at the post I wrote originally about going on this diet. I’m happy to report that most of my skin tags have disappeared. I have a trace of one still, but it’s shrunken to almost nothing. I can feel it, though I can’t see it anymore. Fingers crossed that one will also disappear in the next few months. I feel as though that’s one of the weirder side effects of this diet.
Another positive side-effect of this diet revealed itself when I went to the dentist. Now, I don’t have the best relationship with the dentist. Lots of childhood trauma associated with dentists. After many years of neglect, I havebecome very good about taking care of my teeth. I’ve recently started using the mini-brushes—kind of like a fuzzy toothpick—after I eat every meal.
At the dentist visit before last, I had practically no plaque. No tarter or buildup. Dentist told me to keep doing what I was doing. Now, as this was six months ago, I can’t contribute it to the diet, but to the mini-brushes.
This last time, my gums didn’t bleed when they cleaned my teeth. No blood. None.
That has never happened to me. Certainly not in my adult life.
While some of that may be due to the mini-brushes, according to other people on the carnivore forums where I asked about this, many came back and said they’d experienced the same thing.
Overall, I feel as though I’m healthier than I have been in years. I’m much more capable of doing physical and mental activities daily. I’m not twenty, and that aggravates me from time to time. I don’t just bounce back from activities or doing too much.
Do I still have physical issues? Oh boy. I still have arthritis. The regular pain from it is gone, but I still get flare-ups, particularly when I eat something I shouldn’t. This week, I strained a muscle on the side of my knee. I’m having to ice it and baby it. My sleep is so far from perfect. I still take sleeping pills every other night. (It’s strange. The first night, I can sleep without the pills. Might be good sleep, might not be. The second night, I won’t sleep at all.)
So for the time being, I’m holding to this course. I’m still planning on baking my rosemary hazelnut cookies for the holidays, and limiting myself to one per day. When I traveled, I needed a snack and I had nuts with no ill effects. May make myself some spiced nuts as well. And chai-spiced chia seed pudding, because that sounds yummy.
A long time ago, I figured out that I couldn’t be 100% compliant with a diet. That would never work for me or my lifestyle. So I’ve always aimed for 80/20. Most of the time I’m just eating meat. However, I also get other things as well.
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