I guess I will continue to share here occasionally, since I just did. But I was pleasantly provoked. Here today just to share my two favorite ZC spots for info online:

BORN TO EAT MEAT ... www.borntoeatmeat.com/

ZIOH//Zeroing in on Health, a ZC group on Facebook ... www.facebook.com/groups/zioh2/

I choose to get my information about ZC living from the people who are living it TODAY who have lived it day-by-day for years. ZIOH is only one of several ZC groups on Facebook, but for me the most reliable. However, it's not a place to go to play 20 Questions with the group members. Instead, the best way to get information there is to read the FILES at top of the ZIOH group's page.

Since I'm writing here again, the first sentence is obviously incorrect.

I stand corrected on the second thing I said. There ARE ZC vets here, even if only occasionally. There are a lot of ZC vets around who have lost all their excess weight, have been living ZC for years, so have good health as well. They very well may be too busy to be here often. Whatever.

I will continue to share here what I am doing ZC. For now, because I'm seeing some good stuff come of it, including going up to 8 hours daytime with zero hunger (yippee!!!), I'm mostly eating ground beef & fried eggs & drinking mostly plain water.

I still drink coffee, but only black & very strong, made fresh by the cup. No, not via one of those expensive contraptions that uses only those costly widdle cups. Instant coffee, but the kind served in Paris cafes, as an acquaintance who works in Paris told me. Taster's Choice House Blend.

I make 6 oz at a time, using 1 1/2 heaping teaspoons each. Strong! But never bitter. I can't stand the taste of the coffee from most automatic drip coffeemakers, especially those using paper filters. I can almost always taste the paper filter. Yes, I'm picky.

Also drink sun tea. Ordinary Lipton tea bags. About 1/2 gallon glass jug at a time. This is sorta instant tea since I live in the desert.

Nothing added to my coffee or tea. Nothing. In sun tea is the only way I drink the tap water where I live -- by itself, the tap water tastes like it was filtered through the sewer first. The chilled tea tastes a-ok, though. Too cheap to use bottled spring water for iced tea since I drink so much of it, a half gallon in summer lasts me only one or two days. But I use bottled spring water for my coffee. Usually don't drink more than about 18 oz coffee a day. At my age, I need that much to get my eyes open & click on my brain.

I don't drink diet soft drinks, except maybe once or twice a year when a friend gives me a can of diet A&W rootbeer on my birthday or maybe Christmas. I find it bloats me &, I suspect, diet soft drinks also kick off the sugar craving due to the artificial sweetener. I don't use artificial sweeteners & find I do better drinking just water, coffee, tea.

To me, taste buds are history guides. They tell me what I mostly eat or have eaten recently, so when I get hungry, my taste buds want more of the same. To me, that's how a sugar or cheese addiction works. Remember, I said, "for me." If I don't eat cheese or sugar, I don't crave it. When I first stop eating it, I might for awhile. But the longer I go without it, the less I crave it until, one day, it just drops away into oblivion.

I also keep chicken thighs or chicken breasts (with skin) in the freezer sometimes. Sometimes I eat it instead of ground beef & fried eggs. I love chicken, I really do. I even love it cooked in the microwave. I know, some people would gag at that. But I'm a true lover of chicken so I'm different.

Okay, here's what I'm doing now. I eat 2x a day, about 6-8 hours apart, once in late morning, once in early evening (at least 2 hrs before bedtime). I sleep better when my stomach isn't still digesting dinner or other food. Remember, Scrooge thought his troublesome dreams were caused by a bit of undigested potato. Not that I eat potato. But I still sleep better without food in my stomach. I know, some are different. So what?

I eat 2 fried eggs & 1/2 lb ground beef as a meal 2x daily, cooking the eggs in a tablespoon of butter. The only seasoning I use is salt & sometimes a wee bit of freshly ground black pepper. Especially on sunny-side-u eggs. I've always eaten sunny-side-up eggs with a little salt & pepper on them. All my life I've done that. I don't taste the pepper. I don't use but a wee bit. It's just a habit. But those bright yellow yokes in the center of my fried eggs look naked without a little bit of black pepper on them. Just a little.

Most of the time, that's about 80% fat in what I eat daily. 70% if I have a pair of chicken thighs or a 1/2 chicken breast for dinner instead.

I realize that many here don't go into this much detail about what they are eating. I don't know why. Generalizations, in my opinion, are useful to no one, especially not beginners. I'm not obsessed with food or anything, but I can't see keeping a journal in a forum devoted to all kinds of LC or ZC ways of eating & remaining general. I don't know anyone who's lost a ton of weight thinking only generally about what they eat. Do you?

I also write a lot because I've been a writer all my life & I write more than I usually talk. Okay, enough explanation. I'm outta here for today.

I just wanted to say that I am a lurker and get inspiration from your writings, so thank you. I have yo yoed so many times that my system cannot tolerate even a modest amount of carbs ... gone are the days that I could have veggies and lose weight. Also introducing carbs via veggies brings back my appetite. So I am striving for a close to zero status at the moment so I can maintain and when I get my resolve and fortitude back I will cut back on the dairy and keep my calories lower and get back to losing. I cannot exercise for medical reasons so I burn very few calories a day. At any rate, please do keep posting! Thanks

You echo my own situation in regards to vegs & carbs & a lifetime of dieting, ebeadess.

I also find it easier to stick to things if I limit the variety of foods on hand. For now, just a pair of eggs fried in butter & 1/2 lb of ground beef twice daily, once midmorning or midday, the other late afternoon or at least two hours before bedtime. I've found I sleep better that way.

Other days I have chicken instead of beef. Those are my two preferences, ground beef & chicken (thighs or 1/2 breasts), as well as the ones I can afford easiest to eat.

I have a little coffee in the morning, maybe some iced tea (both plain) other times or plain spring water.

I've learned to eliminate those foods I like so much I overeat, such as cheese. I stopped using diet soda because the artificial sweetener revived my sweet tooth.

I don't regret the loss of any of these because I love the feeling of not being hungry for up to 8 hours at a time as well as not being a slave to my food's beckoning. I think you know what I mean.

We all do, don't we? We didn't get overweight by accident. Atkins called it a metabolic disorder -- something physical that affects us emotionally & mentally, in my experience & sense of things.

Food has always been on my mind, but now I'm finding it possible much of the time to get involved with other parts of my life until hunger beckons later in the day. This isn't by any means a permanent reality in my life yet, but I believe I've glimpsed the blueprint to follow in making it so.

Thanks for stopping by. Please feel free to do so again.

One thing about ZC that people either like or dislike is that it is FIRST about getting healthy & only later about losing weight.

In short, ZC isn't something someone does PRIMARILY to lose weight.

Our bodies get screwed up after a lifetime of dieting. It's about undoing FIRST the damage done to the body by low-calorie diets where one loses by starving most of the time.

Then there's the damage done by fad diets, eating grapefruit only, eating fruit only, only eating starch, or, yes, damage that comes from years as a vegetarian or vegan. That's where my recovery on ZC lies primarily.

I don't expect to begin losing the rest of my excess weight ... 18-28 pounds for me ... until this healing is done. How long? Who knows? For some ZCs, it's a few months, for others a few years.

But for me ZC is the healthiest way for me to live. I have a helluva time with carbs. I am constantly in a battle with veg carbs when I eat them, so not eating them is the path to freedom & recovery.

Going ZC is a choice some will make. I don't try to sell it to anyone who's not interested. I wish my diabetic brothers were interested in eating ZC to cease being diabetics. But they aren't. I'm not a diabetic, just their sister, & I guess they figure I don't know what I'm talking about. Who knows?

I read a lot & most people don't seem to do that. There's all kinds of information available online now about ZC & health. Here are just three:

zerocarbzen.com/
borntoeatmeat.com/
myzerocarblife.jamesdhogan.com/

These three are the stories of people who've regained health & lost their excess weight on ZC. The second one -- borntoeatmeat.com/ -- is about a retired M.D. who lives ZC in his 60s & looks to me like he's lost years as well as weight. The first one I listed has a number of articles in it, some about successful ZC individuals.

Probably the BEST thing about living ZC is not being hungry for 6-8 hours at a time.

The only time I have difficulty with distinguishing the difference between hunger & wanna-eat-ism -- the difference between a physical need & an emotional one -- is in the afternoon or evening.

I can get up from a nap & think FOOD! I can sit in front of the tv in the evening & think FOOD! My past arises most strongly then.

What do I do? When I am good ... when I'm running on what I'm sharing here rather than on automatic Cookie Monster mode ... I sit & inventory my insides: am I hungry? or do I just want to eat _____ ? (fill in the blank with desired food that's in the fridge, on the counter, in a cupboard nearby)

Sometimes I'm good & sometimes I'm the Cookie Monster on automatic. It happens. But most of the time I'm good. The more I practice this, the better I get at it.

When on automatic, when the inner Cookie Monster takes over, I'm not eating something non-ZC. Usually it's just a piece of chicken or some eggs. No big deal, one might say. I don't.

I want to get down pat this guideline: eat only when hungry. So that's where I am today.

I can't see the value of sharing here anything but where I am today & doing so in plain detail as best I can write it.

That's my goal for the 90 day good habits thread, Mo: distinguishing hunger from appetite.

The first couple of weeks were tough, as the grab a little snack (even though on plan) habit was so strong. But as I have gone along, it's gotten easier.

I thank Thud for coming up with the idea of that thread.

Me, on the other hand, I tend to try hard to avoid all those words that turn eating into a moral action, as with the words "good" & "bad."

What's "good" for me may be "bad" for you, vice versa.

I'd rather just talk about distinguishing hunger from appetite.

If I were to get into "good habits" vs. "bad habits" then I'd have to imagine there's a widdle devil inside me, tempting me to do the "bad" stuff.

Nope, I'll leave morality out of food.

I know you don't think this way, MickiSue, nor do I suspect all those folks in a "good habits" thread do so.

It's just why I don't go there, 'cause I know what my head would do with it.

That's something that went bye-bye when I went ZC. ZC does such a good job on ending hunger that I can actually go 6-8 hours without the thought of food entering my mind.

Snacking is something I kicked to the curb when I gave up LC for VLC & then ZC & switched to eating nothing but 2 or 3 meals in a day.

I never had the snacking habit while on Atkins. (What I did with a package of cheese wasn't called a snack -- it was called a binge.)

I had the munchies habit when I was vegan. As a vegan, I had to eat every 90 minutes or so because I simply couldn't eat enough in a vegan meal to go hours between eating.

Air-popcorn was my fav choice, but if I ate anything with sugar in it (even fruit) or sugar-sub in it (as in diet soda) I'd find myself salivating over freshly baked cookies in the deli part of the market.

I'd never buy any & snack on them. I'd buy them & dive in, a serving for me being one package. I'd start eating cookies & stop only when they were gone. Is that snacking? I thought of it as bingeing on sugar.

When I did it with air-popcorn (I developed a taste for it with no butter or salt after about a year as a vegan) I'd get through two huge bowls while watching tv or reading -- washing it down with spring water, of course.

No, I never snacked. I think a snack may be grabbing a slice of cheese & wrapping a bit of meat in it or maybe a baby dill -- but I never did that. I just ate all the cheese, or (as a vegan) stuffed myself full of air-popped corn.

I had a bad habit of bingeing or overeating that I got while I was a vegetarian for years & continued as a vegan. I did that, I believe now, because I never got full on normal amounts of starch & vegs. Well, maybe I did, but it didn't last very long. I remember being hungry 2 or 3 times in the same morning. And by evening, well, ....! No wonder I binged, heh?

To me, the only thing that helps with a "habit" that isn't helping me is looking for what the habit did for me. Then, addressing the cause ... not just the behavior. That's like taking an aspirin for a pain while leaving the cause of the pain untreated. Yes, I'm one of those ...

Hello JoAnne, Bravo for going zc! I just wanted to suggest googling the menus before you eat out since some restaurants are now offering GF Paleo etc. The wedge of lettuce w bacon is sublime.

Today I shopped!

There's a gigantic sale for Amazon Prime members which started today, and I'm gearing up for ZC. One of my purchases was the Instant Pot IP-DUO60 7-in-1 Multi-Functional Pressure Cooker. Radically down-priced today ~$69.99.
Woo-hoo! Going to find cooler, better methods to cook that meat.

Even if I can't be a ZC purist, I can try.

Sounds lovely, Glenda. As somebody who sells on Amazon, I'm equally excited about Prime Day: last year, they had 300 sales per SECOND on Prime Day.

I also have a seller's account, but haven't put anything up in years. I usually sold books. If you want, PM me your store name, as I'm curious....

MickiSue & bluesinger: Best of ZC wishes to each of you!

Thanks, Mo. Since none of the doctors can name my "affliction" I've got to do more sleuthing myself. I figure giving up everything but meat would be a place to start once it's cleared up. Can't hurt.