I KNEW I should have posted the link, but since I didn't I had to go back looking for it. Benefit of a Meat Only Diet I'm going back to the original post and add it there, too.

Yes, thank you, bluesinger. I like to post the link or at least the online source of any information off the internet that I give in my posts. That's me remembering there are readers, not just me writing.

My favorite online sources for information about ZC living are sources by those who have lived ZC for some time, the folks who have been successful in health & weight loss via ZC:

borntoeatmeat.com/
myzerocarblife.jamesdhogan.com/
Zeroing in on Health (public group on Facebook)
zerocarbzen.com/

Not nice outside -- windy but hot.

Eating just eggs scrambled in butter today. Have plenty of chicken & ground beef & some all-beef hot dogs in the freezer but today I've little interest in any food, just lots of cold spring water & maybe later some of Myrt's favorite ... iced tea. I drink mine plain, same as I drink coffee.

Walked the three blocks uphill to the center this morning to visit the library, then walked the three blocks downhill home.

Nothing but light exercise for me in this heat. Wearing my large floppy cloth hat, huge dark sunglasses, & Big Mac long-sleeved man's blue lightweight shirt with full-length tails over my lightweight Bermuda shorts & cotton pullover for skin protection (prone to skin cancer) on even these brief walks. Simpler, easier to don these than take time to rub on a thick coat of sun block daily, especially since it tends to end up in my eyes before day is over.

I love how I feel eating this way. Next to no hunger ...

I'm limited to meat choices at one supermarket or a local Walmart, depending on where my ride elects to go on Tuesdays, my grocery day. Not a problem. Haven't gone hungry yet. In fact, can't say I've ever had to buy anything that hasn't satisfied me when I ate it.

I have a few things I prefer not to eat, however. I've gotten so I just don't use any flavorings or seasonings anymore other than a little sea salt. Also, processed meats bother my stomach now -- sausage, hot dogs, pastrami, pepperoni, etc. I think it's the seasonings & any other non-meat ingredients that cause the problem.

So although I still have a few all-beef hot dogs in my freezer, I prefer to eat regular meat that comes raw from the supermarket. I'm a plain eater, too, so keep to what's rather ordinary -- chicken thighs or breasts, ground beef, sometimes beef chuck roast (mostly on sale). I've a real affection for those thin pork chops, but mostly don't buy them due to the expense. However, I've noticed that if I want something badly enough, the price doesn't stop me.

Cheese & mayo & most other things like that also seem to upset my stomach now. They didn't when I was LC instead of ZC, at least not unless I ate a LOT of them.

I guess I'm evolving slowly into a meat purist. I love the taste of meat with nothing more than sometimes a little sea salt on it. Ditto with eggs.

It was different when I was still eating minimal carbs when doing VLC Atkins 1972. Then I liked flavorings added to meat or to my salads, especially Bacon Bits & shredded cheese.

Going ZC was a choice I made for several reasons, one of which is simplicity. I find I do best in all ways when I keep meals very very simple. Today it's just eggs scrambled in butter, for instance, a day's vacation from meat. Tomorrow I may eat nothing but meat -- ground beef or chicken, likely. I live alone, eat alone, don't care what others think of how I eat. The only opinion on that I care about is my own.

Because I do not have a car & realize something could happen to where I've no ride to the market & may have to rely on the community's grocery bus schedule, I keep on hand an emergency stash of canned chicken breast & albacore tuna. I may add some cans of sardines to these later since I like sardines occasionally. I call canned meat my type of fast food. Open the can & dig in! But I eat them only occasionally, maybe one or two cans a month. I prefer to specialize in fresh food.

I bought a slightly used George Foreman indoor grill for $5 about 2 weeks ago. Still haven't used it. I tend to forget I've even got it & cook the same ways I always have, mostly the microwave.

When I have some beef chuck roast, I keep it raw in the fridge & just hack off some to cook then slowly on the stove top in a skillet. I tend to eat it rare. I learned that from Oregon Rose's journal still here where all the journals are or in the archives, as is the journal of the Bear whose journal & other writings first intro'd me to living on meat & eggs only.

I tend to overcook those thin porkchops when I have some (usually on sale or marked down for fast sale, as in Walmart), especially if there's an edge of fat on them. I like that to get crispy. Yum-yum, that's about the only pork I like. One small thin pork chop & a pair of eggs is a perfect meal for me.

Bacon gives me problems, probably due to how it is cured. I prefer raw meat that's not been tampered with by processing. The only exceptions are the canned chicken or fish I keep on hand for emergencies. Those I tend to eat as they come in the can, nothing added.

As you know, this ZC is a new experience for me. I'm using the experience to help find out what (if any) food allergies I have, and to heal my digestive tract.

The background on the digestive tract includes munching down Tums since I was a teen, and having everything I eat repeat on me all day. This escalated through time to life-threatening GERD which I tamed 8 years ago by eating a daily raw apple before bed.

I've noticed through experience that most of the things I really crave are the things which repeat the most, so I've gradually cut them from my diet.

What I've noticed in the few days since I started omitting vegetables is that I really miss them. The other thing I miss is heartburn. I feel better and a bit more energetic when taking the stairs. I'm still taking my digestive enzymes, but I strongly feel that once my gut heals I won't need them at all. My stomach will do a good job on its own.

Turning a major corner: giving up the trappings of dieting to better live my ZC way of life.

Bathroom scale has been retired to the realm of dust bunnies under the bed.

Charts & lists of calories & fat percentages along with the food diary I've kept for decades, recording everything I eat in a day, as well as where I've charted my daily weights, have been put away.

As of yesterday, I simply eat meat + drink water, eating only the meat I like + only when hungry + drinking water when thirsty.

I find I get thirsty often when eating only meat plus maybe a few eggs in a day.

The difference between a diet & a way of eating (a.k.a. a w.o.e.) is that a diet involves weighing, measuring, & recording, with accompanying fits of desperation & denial, all for achieving the heaven of weight loss.

A way of eating as a way of life, on the other hand, involves eating only what is good for the body, which is animal flesh & any product that comes from an animal such as eggs.

ZC eating, as most know who have lived ZC for years, is heaven achieved.

I can remember many years ago when I too lived on Tums & had almost daily pain in my chest that made me think I might be having a heart attack rather than an acid attack ... just my stomach in total rebellion about what & how much I was putting into it.

For me, most of the problem was caused by my nightly use of alcohol to erase whatever earlier in the day upset me. Once I stopped putting alcohol into me, most of that went bye-bye.

The rest went bye-bye when I stopped eating in restaurants, food from fast-food joints, & any products containing white poison (a.k.a. sugar) or white poison's first cousin (white flour). I learned about eating only Real Food in the many years I lived in weekly meetings of Weight Watchers. There I learned how to live well & with reduced weight as a vegetarian, which I kept to long enough to lose a lot of weight & become a vegan.

The taste of food can repeat on me even now IF I eat too much ... or eat on the run ... or eat when emotionally upset. But that is rare when compared to what it was like many years ago eating anything & everything.

What follows in this paragraph is my opinion only based only on my own experience. (Yours may vary.) For me, food allergies are a sign of body in rebellion, perhaps my body's main way of telling me to "CUT IT OUT !!!" a.k.a. "ARE YOU INSANE, WOMAN ??? I'M YOUR STOMACH, NOT THE GARBAGE CAN !!!" (Forgive the all caps, but my stomach never used to talk to me except in full-volume yelling. Now, it whispers & purrs ...)

For me, garbage today is anything of plant origin or anything of uncertain parentage that was "born" in a factory.

When I began eating meat & eggs, & nothing but meat & eggs, I still used some condiments, seasonings, or flavor enhancers. Meat tasted a little flat to me or I imagined it would, not sure I even tried it plain first before adding a little this or that from the cupboard where I used to keep all kinds of seasonings, condiments, & flavor enhancers.

But after only a few weeks of eating meat & eggs only, I got heartburn big-time after eating any meat or eggs with anything else on it ... any seasoning, condiments, or flavor enhancers ... beyond a wee bit of sea salt. This includes any & all "processed" meats -- meats like bacon "cured" with some form of sugar, pepperoni, sausage, salami, hot dogs.

I learned in reading others in ALCF that most commercial salt has a form of sugar in it to keep it from clogging up. Since then I've used only sea salt that comes in a grinder -- nothing but sea salt in it. Costs more, but lasts a long time since I use very little of it on meat. I've become a purist: it's meat & eggs only with nothing on it except maybe a little bit of freshly ground sea salt. Sea salt is stronger than ordinary commercial salt, so I like to use only a little of it. You know, a flavor accompaniment rather than a flavor slaughterer.

Bluesinger, I empathize with you. I too missed vegs & fruit when I went LC & evolved into living ZC.

Any urge or craving for them, I found for me, was my taste buds scolding me. My taste buds wanted what they always want: more of whatever it was I was eating earlier. When I ate sugar, they wanted sugar. When I drank diet cherry coke, they wanted diet cherry choke. When I ate salad, they wanted salad. Taste buds are mindless things that yammer for more of everything one used to eat, good or not for the body. If a person ate a lot of dirt, I bet the taste buds would yammer for more dirt.

But the kick in the stomach ... the pain of stomach acid rising up into my throat & burning ... that was my stomach telling me my body was in full rebellion about whatever it was I was mistaking as good food for the betterment of my body. Just a little seasoning on my meat or in my eggs can do that to me today. It's not that my body is getting worse. It's that it's healing & getting stronger. It has also learned that I listen to it today.

Bluesinger, I wish you all the best in living ZC for whatever reason you begin to live ZC. May you get from the experience the answers you seek. In any case, please stick around as my friend in these forums.

The following is something I "borrowed" from a friend in ZIOH this morning, something he was quoting from, written originally by the person (uncopyrighted to my understanding) whose name is given at the end, neither of these persons (to my knowledge) being members of the ALC forums.

I borrowed it & put it here in my journal & in the ZC thread because it is the truth for me, too:


Things I know about losing weight...

It really IS your hormones...

It's about reducing inflammation

It's about correcting all of your nourishment issues

It takes time

It takes persistence

It means NEVER being hungry - this is NOT a diet!

It means listening to your body

It means not panicking if it looks like nothing's happening

It's knowing that if you're keeping your blood sugar - and therefore your insulin - consistently low - it will work

It's noticing a bunch of conditions you thought had nothing to do with what you ate... gradually disappeared. One day you wake up and you notice it's just not there any more

It's forgiving yourself for slipping every now and again

It's being Ok with things not being linear - like weight not decreasing predictably and consistently

It's about getting rid of your scales and (eventually) being thrilled by the freedom

It's noticing (eventually) that your skinny clothes are now just a bit big for you

It's finding out that fats actually are your biggest ally

It's watching your wrinkles disappear (whoopee)

It's living lusciously

It's suddenly finding yourself happier - for apparently no reason

It's thinking clearly

It's sleeping well

It's having more energy than you've had in years

It's about having friends ask are you OK? You've lost a lot of weight.

It's knowing they wouldn't understand

It's finding yourself part of a fascinating online global community

It's finding yourself getting lost in scientific information - and fully understanding the implications

It's totally getting that losing weight is ONLY about improving your health - and that the weight loss is an absolute side benefit of getting healthy

It's knowing that you can't outrun an unhealthy diet and that no amount of exercise can substitute for eating right...
... whew!

~~ Jane Jordan

Yesterday after grocery-shopping through this morning, I ate nothing but what I hacked off & grilled from a beef chuck roast. I know that means I have eaten about two pounds of beef in this time.

I feel wonderful. Why doesn't chicken make me feel this way? There's something about beef that, every time I return to it, makes me feel super. I don't need to know the Facts. I am convinced by nothing rational that contradicts my body's AHHHH !!!

It's good to have open communication between my head & my body. Never had it while on any other way of eating.

Not sure I can afford to eat nothing but beef, even with beef chuck roast being cheaper per pound than much else in beef, except ground beef (not tasty to me, but I eat it sometimes). Even the roast figures out at about $5 lb, that's $10 daily ... if I eat only 2 lbs daily. My Social Security can't cover that, so besides some beef chuck roast (my fav beef) & some thin pork chops, I also eat lots of skinless/boneless chicken breasts, mostly because they are now cheaper than chicken breasts WITH skin & bones.

My understanding about eating ZC as a carnivore (I eat only animal flesh & nonprocessed/artificialized animal products -- eggs & butter when fat is needed for cooking) is based on what I've learned from ZC carnivore veterans in ZIOH. From them I know all that matters is that I eat the meat I like & can afford.

I'm a plain eater. I don't do recipes. I don't use fancy or expensive cooking devices. I use a microwave & the stovetop & refuse to fix anything that takes longer to cook than a chicken breast in the microwave or a hunk of beef in a skillet.

I shadow when I can the meat clerk in Walmart early in the morning weekly as she/he goes down the meat row marking down items that were stamped for selling by the next day.

I don't leave fresh beef longer than 4-6 days in the fridge, mostly because I eat it up first, use frozen second. Best tasting first ...

I've been eating nothing but meat (& occasionally a pair of eggs) for over two weeks now. My taste buds are so cleansed of carbs that plain meat & plain eggs taste best to me. Sometimes I add a wee bit of sea salt to my food, but never more than just a little.

To me, eggs are a "go with" for meat. I only eat eggs occasionally when also eating meat. I have to be short on time to eat them alone, as I was Tuesday morning, getting something in my stomach before leaving to grocery-shop.

Concerned about what may come of Monday's additional layer of medical testing. But I've no crystal ball to see into the future. I have to think all will go well, if only because that helps me get through the rest of the days until I have the test results. Besides, as long as no scalpels or needles are involved, how bad can it be?

Fairly much have settled now into eating just ground beef, eggs, & butter 2x daily. 1/2 lb gr beef with 2 fried eggs keeps me unhungry & fully satisfied for about 8 hours.

No definitive diagnosis yet. Have another pair of diagnostics scheduled for mid-August. There seems to be a possible abnormality in my left breast. That's what this is all about. Trying to see if the June mammogram is true or flawed.

Okay, back to ZC full-steam ahead. I now seem to be able to eat sliced Sargento sharp cheddar in a cheese omelette or topper for cooked ground beef without later bingeing on cheese alone. A week at a time, I'll see if that remains so. If it doesn't, I'll dropkick it out of my life again.

Any red-light food -- that is, any food that tempts me to overeat it -- I dropkick out of my life. Yes, this is harsh. Yes, it is necessary for me to do. I didn't think so at first. But I no longer enjoy watching the scale go up & down because I'm too relaxed in my personal standards regarding the food I buy.

My body loves me when I eat ZC. Yes, it sounded weird to me to read that kind of sentiment when I first read someone else here in ALCF share that (it was in the journal of OregonRose circa March 2008). But something in me responded to what she said because I too have had my body "talk" to me via messages in how it feels about the food I eat.

When I eat carbs in any quantity or type on a daily basis (from "healthy" salad to starchy potato, it matters not which), my body goes couch-potato on me.

All it wants to do is sit & feel sleepy. It also retains water & I swell around the hips & waist so that within a few days, my weight goes up about a pound daily & after only about 48 hours my clothes are too snug for comfort around the waist or the dang things won't pull up over my hips. Drats!!!

I'm not Zero Carb because I love meat. I was a happy vegan or vegetarian for a decade or more. I still like the taste of fresh fruit or vegs, even oatmeal! But I've become progressively more "allergic" to carbs since my 50s, especially after age 65.

Eating ZC is an acquired taste & habit for me. But my body loves it. I feel free again, as if I didn't have a body at all. I have none of the aches & pains society says go with "normal" aging. Getting older in anything but years from birth is unnecessary & certainly not healthy, no matter what opinions others in society have.

I'm living on meat & a few animal products such as butter & limited cheese. It is what is healthy for my body now & my body likes me once again & I like my body for sure.

Hi Desert Mo,

I want to thank you for providing the info for other zero carb sites, and more importantly, for telling about your zero carb experience.
You inspire me!
Reading here, I've learned about your ongoing medical issues.
I'm 68, and always hate mammograms and the dreaded wait for results. I know they are necessary, but that doesn't make them anymore palatable. I hope you get good results from further testing, and will be thinking of you and your journey.
Best of luck to you,
Maeve

Thank you, Maeve, for all your kind comments & wishes. I too hate mammograms & the need to have them regularly now. My last one came back indicating a possible malignancy which will be verified or not in further diagnostic procedures in mid-August.

I am coming to see periodic mammograms as like other things I don't like to do but find necessary, such as washing dishes or taking out the trash.

Thank you, Maeve, for everything you shared.

I have a quick question for you Mo.
Do zero Carbers use HWC in their coffee? I think that will probably be my stumbling block; I love my coffee with cream in the morning!
Thanks, M