Category Archives: Health

Why Would a Carnivore Use a Collagen Supplement?

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I thought this diet was perfect!

I recently gave a list of the foods of which my diet consists, and it included collagen powder. Carnivore purists would scoff at a number of things on my list, including that one, even if it is an animal-based food. Why? Because you can get collagen from meat! Why are you wasting your money?  Just include the gristle and chewy parts and have lots of bone broth instead of an expensive powder, they’d say. And they’d be right. You can certainly get plenty of collagen that way.

But you also might not get enough collagen that way. Or you might not be able to eat that way consistently. Or you might just want to be very sure of the minimum amount of collagen you’re getting, and that amount will always vary in foods.

I don’t like to drink a lot of bone broth. I don’t need a lot of extra liquid in my day, and I really just don’t enjoy a cup of bone broth unless I’m cold or have a sore throat. More importantly, because of my histamine sensitivities, long-cooked foods tend to make me itch in unmentionable places, so I don’t want to drink bone broth every day. And the chewy, slimy, gristly bits are–I’m sorry, I can’t grow up about this–gross. So is chicken skin, unless it’s very, very crispy. I’ll eat that, but it’s not happening every day. I’m mostly a beef girl.

Stronger skin, hair and nails. My hair and nails seem to me to be stronger when I include collagen, and it promotes wound healing, so I’m keeping it.

I’m getting older, just like everybody else. 

If only he’d been taking collagen all these years…

As we age, our bodies have a harder and harder time utilizing the protein we eat. We need more protein, not less, as our bodies become less efficient. (That’s a good YT video in the link.)

At the same time, our appetites decrease. In my case, I don’t seem to have reached that stage yet. I eat like a very hungry bear (I almost said “horse”, but no grains here). But I do want to maintain my current fat percentage, and I’m still hoping against hope to recompose away this last bit of floppy mommy-belly, so simply eating more isn’t going to work for my needs. It stands to reason that, if I can get an extra serving or two of collagen in some way that is easy for my body to absorb, but doesn’t add another 6 ounces of meat to my already-full plate, I can benefit from that.

I haven’t gotten too far into that senior category yet, but I am at the age where we start seeing the fine lines and wrinkles. Well, you see the fine lines and wrinkles. I can’t see me at all without a magnifying mirror because now I need glasses, too. Even carnivores are going to age and die. I’m on my way to that fair land!

I do credit my meat-heavy diet for my younger-than-my-age looks, though. Unless everybody I know is lying to me, I don’t look my age, nor do I look like I’ve had and nursed eight babies. When I look in the mirror, I see a forty-five year old woman. But I’ve been told many times, almost every time I go out, that I look ten years younger. I didn’t always use collagen, so it’s probably more the general healthy lifestyle I’m living, but…well, I’m vain. I want to hold onto that for as long as I can, and if a supplement of collagen might help with that, I’m doing it!

Now, if you see me out sometime and think I look my age or more, I understand. I think so, too. But be nice. Let me keep this dream going, ok?

Are there contraindications? Well, you can exacerbate kidney stones and other oxalate problems in some cases. Collagen can turn to oxalate in the body, and some individuals are more prone to overproduce their own oxalate already. And, as with so many other things, insulin resistance makes oxalate problems far more likely, so if you’re on a carnivore diet, a higher collagen intake is probably (in my fairly educated opinion) far less risky than if you’re dumping it on top of a high-carb diet. Nonetheless, if you are doing a carnivore way of eating to reduce kidney stones or other oxalate-related health problems, I wouldn’t advise taking extra collagen. Just eat the gristly bits and skin, like the carnivores say.

Now, why isn’t this diet perfect without supplements? For some people, I do think it is! If somebody is young enough when they get started, or if they had been fairly healthy beforehand, and if they’ve got every other health factor, like sunshine, exercise, sleep, etc., nailed down, or if they’re just lucky and haven’t suffered much impact from their standard diet yet, everything they need, and nothing they don’t need, should be found in meat. But some of us–probably most of us–do have farther to go to get to optimal health, and carry a bigger burden from our years of plant food, and can use a little extra help.

Collagen is one of those supplements that I find more likely to be useful than not.

Your Kids Eat Carnivore, Too?

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Why, thank you for asking!

Yes, they are eating in a way that is known as hypercarnivore. But they are not hyper carnivores. They’re very chill.

First, let’s define that new word. The Carnivore Diet, the way I’ve come to use the term, is not exactly what we’re talking about here. Most of my children lack the gut damage and medical conditions that forced me to remove all plants (some of which I miss very much) from my diet, so we have a more relaxed approach to their food. But they’re still living the Meat Life™, and doing very well on it!

From the Infogalactic entry for hypercarnivore:

“A hypercarnivore is an animal which has a diet that is more than 70% meat, with the balance consisting of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits or other plant material. Some examples include felids, dolphins, eagles, snakes, marlin, most sharks, and the GAH children.”

I may have made up part of that definition.

My kids are more carnivore than even that, though. I guess about 90% of their food is meat, fish, dairy, and eggs right now. One of them is almost 100% carnivore due to IBS. A few of them don’t tolerate dairy. They all know their own unique quirks, and as long as they eat their meat, I’m flexible on the other stuff.

I posted a meal plan a few years ago when someone asked if I fed my kids a carnivore diet. I had not yet fully applied my new way of thinking about food, and the family were still eating a high-carb (by my current lights, anyway) diet most days, though I did consider it to be carnivorish. Even then, I think it met the strict criteria for hypercarnivore. It didn’t meet my current standards, but we were moving in the right direction.

These days, my children eat all of the meats, and a limited selection of fruits and vegetables. I allow fruit once a day, and a sweet potato every now and then, but other than that, high-carb foods are out. As much activity as these children get, the amount of sugar in what I do allow them is still very low. Seeds and nuts are allowed, but limited. Grains and beans are not in our pantry, but at church functions, or friends’ houses, we will make a few exceptions for the sake of being social. Gluten is verboten, no matter where we are. Likewise, seed oils.

Parents, you don’t have to feed your kids junk food and “kid food”. They don’t need to eat what everybody else eats to be happy. In fact, what nearly everybody else’s kids are eating is making them unhappy. I was just making lunch for my family after a busy school day, and it was 2:30 p.m. before I got it on the table. We do that almost every school day, because I have seven children to homeschool, and we don’t want to interrupt our school day with food. We’re concentrating–something that a whole lot of people are unable to do simply because of their food choices.

How many Standard American Dieters, even if they try to keep it clean, organic, and “healthy” can say that their children go until 2:30 or even 3:30 in the afternoon without begging for food and getting hangry? Because my children are on a low-carb diet, they have very steady blood glucose, and very steady moods. They have breakfast at 7:30, and they are finished eating until whenever the food can be ready. They are extremely flexible, and I never hear a word about how late the food is.

When I think back to how hungry my children–especially the smaller ones–used to be between meals, and how cranky they would get, I am appalled that I let it go on that way for so many years! I just didn’t realize it could be any other way. I’d have to give them a snack mid-morning just to hold them until lunchtime, usually at noon. Then they’d want another snack while dinner was cooking. Nowadays, nobody is ever hungry around here at noon!

I thought 3 big meals and 2 snacks a day was normal! While it is common, it is not normal. It is a highly disordered food culture that has children eating every two and half to three hours, right up to suppertime, and sometimes even another snack right before bed. We still have three meals, most days, but only two of them are big meals, and the third will be a quick, small one of cold cuts, leftovers, and berries. Sometimes dinner (it’s called supper, if you’re one of ourn) is our biggest meal, but I usually try to do the biggest feed in the middle of the day, so we’re not eating a lot near bedtime. This meal timing helps our sleep, in addition to giving us extra time in our day to work.

Do you want to have hypercarnivore kids, too? I really think you should! Healthy kids are happy kids. Many, many of our family’s behavioral and supposedly untreatable health and brain problems just vanished into thin air with a better way of eating. I don’t want to talk too much about my kids’ personal challenges, but even difficulties as intractable as autism and IBS can be mitigated greatly with a high fat, low-carb diet. If you’ve ever been unable to get your child to smile and make eye contact with you, you know what it would mean to have those things all of a sudden. This is precisely what happened with one of ours! Please try it and see for yourself, parents! It’s worth the time and effort.

I would dearly love to see more children healed in body, mind, and soul.

If you’re trying to move your children to a more appropriate diet than the standard fare, it is wise to change diets slowly to avoid upheavals, both digestive and emotional. Take half a year or a year, not a month, to wean off all the bad stuff. Start with the worst foods (usually grains and added sugars) today, and eliminate the lesser offenders later, one at a time, after your child is used to thinking differently about food. It worked beautifully for my family!

Don’t fret about the time lost. Just work your way out of the mainstream food habits a little bit at a time.

Let me know if you have questions. I love to answer them, free of charge. I also offer half-hour coaching sessions via Zoom where we can talk about ideas for making your lifestyle healthier. Email me if you’re interested! My address is cindy at getalonghome dot com. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things Carnivores Say

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That I have never experienced.

Carnivores are always making fantastic claims about what the diet has done for them. And you know what? I believe every single one of them! How could I not? I make some fantastic claims for myself! I’ve healed my allergies (except to ragweed, which reigns champion every fall), asthma (even ragweed doesn’t bring that back), and eczema, lost 60 pounds, cured anxiety, depression, OCD, and a host of other problems! You can read the rest of the blog to hear about all of it. But there are some marvelous benefits that almost all carnivores say they have experienced that I, to date, have not.

I’ve been carnivore for seven years come November, so I’ve been eating this way plenty long enough to say for sure whether these effects are something everybody should expect. I say no. Some of this Meat Magic may pass you by, no matter what other benefits you receive. You may experience the following effects, and I hope you do. Practically everybody else seems to, but I have not.

Thing #1: Carnivores don’t fart anymore.

I hate to lead off with potentially embarrassing information about myself. I know it’s not ladylike, but I still toot. It does not smell bad at all. I never have gas, bloating, tummy pain, or anything like that. But air still puffs out from time to time, especially when I eat butter. In fact, it smells faintly of butter. Sorry if that’s tmi, but it’s true. Butter makes me fart.

Woman covering her mouth, saying oops, with a little green cloud behind her, indoors

Thing #2: Carnivores don’t get sore after a hard workout anymore.

While I am very glad for anybody who is able to say this, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is not something I’ve left behind. I don’t know what this means for my health. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. But when I lift super-heavy, I still feel it the next day! I actually like that feeling, because it means I broke past my comfort barrier and really did something. Most people don’t like to be in pain, so I’m happy for those who can still walk upstairs and sit down without groaning the day after leg day.

But I just haven’t seen this for some reason. Still sore, and still happy to be that way!

Thing #3: Carnivores never miss certain foods.

You’d think desserts would be the hardest thing to pass up, having gone off the sugar, but the biggest struggle for me is to not put collard greens in my face. “Well, why not just have some delicious, good-for-you leafy greens then, you freak? You even cook it with bacon!” Because, my friend, something about fiber-rich foods makes my OCD come back with a vengeance! I like having eyebrows, and collard greens make me pull my hair. I know that sounds nuts, but it’s true, and I’ve cheated with leafy greens enough to know for sure that I can’t have that stuff. I do pick out the greens-flavored bacon and enjoy that, though. I can get away with that.

I’m sure other people struggle with certain foods, as well. I’m not above lingering over the dessert table to smell the delicious food, myself. I’ve just gotten used to the idea that these foods are a pleasant memory. I can miss them, but they are dead to me.

Thing #4: Carnivores don’t get sunburn any more. 

This, sadly, is another myth for me. I kept waiting for the day that I would be able to spend unlimited amounts of time in the sun without getting a burn, and it never came. Now, I always just burnt a little in the early summer, peeled, and then had a nice tan the rest of the summer. I never had a big problem with burning anyway. But I do still get a painful glow if I don’t remember to get out of the sun during the most intense hours of the day.

One thing I have noticed is that I don’t burn as much if I don’t sit still. Running at noon in direct summer sun? No problem. Sitting for the same length of time? Burn, baby, burn! So maybe the rest of those carnivores who are not burning anymore are just suddenly moving a lot more than they used to, dodging those slowpoke sun-rays!

Thing #5: The bugs don’t bite me any more.

I’ve heard so many people say the bugs don’t bite them anymore. As with all of these things, I believe them! They’re mosquito-repellent all of a sudden. What a blessing! Amazing things happen when you change your body chemistry so completely. But I’m sitting here scratching this very minute, and so are my meat-heavy children. I dunno. You can form your own theories about why that might be.

How about you, carnivores, and non-carnivores alike? Do you have any dietary expectations that haven’t quite been fulfilled by the way you’re eating right now? Comments are open, and I’d sure love to get something besides spam in here! Let me know!

Also, while I’ve got you here, I’m asking for donations to fund my next run. Help me get to the Black Bear Half Marathon:

 

Help! I’ve Failed the Carnivore Diet!

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You ate pie? This cannot be tolerated! Mail in your Carnivore Club decoder ring immediately!

A person new to the carnivore way of eating was lamenting having fallen off the wagon after a number of days “strict carnivore”. My reply was this (edited a little):

Don’t count the days. You’re counting failures. Nobody can live like that. Instead, think of this as a path you’re on. You stepped in a little doo-doo today, or twisted your foot a little in a hole. But you’re still on the path. Stay. On. The. Path. I actually had a little bit of a slip on my path yesterday. I’ve been carnivore for 5+ years. I do not subtract the days that I ate something off-plan. I am still in the carnivore club, even if I ate something that is not meat, because Carnivore is the way I need to eat.

Friends, I stepped in a little doggie doo myself just yesterday! My kids and some friends were having strawberry and banana popsicles (homemade, just strawberries, bananas, and beef gelatin), and I was hot and thought that sounded like a neat idea, and I ate one! Right there in front of God and everybody!

While I wasn’t immediately sorry, and it tasted fine and cold, fruit of any kind will exacerbate some allergy symptoms for me, so this morning I was painfully reminded why I don’t usually indulge in such treats. When you get used to not having allergies, and suddenly you do again, you take notice!

Oh, dearie me. Now what will do? I can’t say I’m eating a carnivore diet now! My indulgence was a small one. Not even cake! I did not berate myself for it, and I wouldn’t even if it had been cake. I just got up this morning and ate my usual two hamburger patties and went on with my carnivore life. I scraped the dookie off my shoes and kept walking the path. That’s what you need to do now. Even if you’ve been absolutely wading in poo for days, or even weeks, every meal is a chance to do better for yourself.

You will never be able to build a new habit, or maintain an old one, if you are unable to face an imperfect day without beating yourself up. We all have stresses. We all have lapses. Heck, sometimes we just need to have a little fun! When we start going off the path more frequently, some thought might need to be applied as to why you keep doing that. But, thank God, changes can be made! You’re changing your neurology. Every cell in your body is being realigned to interact with food in a completely different way. That doesn’t just flip on and off like a switch. It’s going to take a lot of time.

If I eat a thing that’s not meat, I do not worry about it. I don’t consider myself to be less of a carnivore just because I occasionally like the little seaweed nori snacks. I include those in my carnivore diet sometimes because they do not appear to have any ill effect on me. Pickles, too. I could do it every day if I wanted to, and still consider this a carnivore diet. I don’t. It’s probably more like once a month. But who cares? Different people have different needs, and I do not need to avoid nori snacks. You might.

I do need to avoid strawberries and bananas. That fact is reinforced in my mind today every time I have to stop myself from rubbing my now-itchy eyes. I’m not going to forget this soon! You’re not going to forget your regret from the last mishap very soon, either. Just get up and go on with your healthy way of eating now. The trend is still in a positive direction! There is no reason to be angry with yourself. If anything, be resentful of the food. Learn to hate it for what it does to you.

Tell me, if you were on the standard American diet and you just happened to accidentally eat something that was good for you one day, would you feel like you were suddenly a health food fanatic? No, you would not. You would just think, “That was an unusual meal for me.” Do the same for your carnivore diet, friend. You had an unusual meal. You had a little misadventure, but you know that side-path you got onto won’t get you where you want to go. Just step back onto the right path!

And next time, look a little further ahead so you’ll be ready to dodge the doo-doo instead of stepping fully in it.

If you need help thinking about how to live a healthier life, I’d love to spend some time coaching you. It’s not just carnivore that I’m about. I can help you tweak your entire lifestyle to get to a better place. Just email me (cindy at get along home dot com) and we’ll get you scheduled. I’m not terribly busy this summer!

How’s All that Good Habit Stuff Going?

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I’m so glad you asked!

Remember when I told you I was going to be writing for five minutes a day, whether I like it or not? Well, I did that. I wrote for at least five minutes a day, every day, and hated everything I wrote so much that I never published it. I was bored with what came out of my own brain. I started thinking about why that is. I have lots of interesting (to me, so surely to somebody else) avenues of thought to explore. There’s something new just about every day that I think “wow, that would make a great blog post!” Which I promptly forget to write down, or worse, decide nobody really wants to read anyway.

This is no way to blog, y’all. What in the world could be getting in the way of all these captivating thoughts as soon as I went to put them where people could read them? Well, after a few weeks of careful observation (ha!), I have figured it out. You see, every time I’d sit down with these words that I really do think worth writing, instead of clicking on my wordpress dashboard, I was clicking on these little symbols in my bookmark toolbar instead. Social Galactic, Gab, Facebook, then I’d have to check email, read my RSS feed, then loop back to SG and start it all over again. Round and round I would go until I didn’t have any drive left to do what I’d actually set out to do. I would do the writing, but it never grew into something worth sharing.

This is a habit problem. An addiction, even. It’s very entertaining to talk to people, but social media has become my own 21st century version of 1 Timothy 5:13 “being idle and going about from house to house.” I’m just a hop, skip, and a jump from becoming verse 14, “not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to”. In fact, I might already be there. I hope it’s not as bad as it could be, but I can think of some things I probably ought not to have said.

So I’ve decided to knock that right off. 

Now, I can’t exit social media entirely. Where would I find my clients? And how would I promote those blog posts I must certainly be getting around to publishing soon? I do have some messages to spread that social media is fantastic for, and I do have some genuine friendships that I maintain on these sites. But social media needs to get in its box, and only be let out when I need to take it out.

The reasons I’m telling you about it, dear Reader, are fourfold:

I need accountability. I don’t really desire anybody to ask me, “Hey, GAHCindy, have you avoided the socials enough today?” You don’t have to mind me. But knowing that I told somebody, even people who never talk back or check in, will make me deeply ashamed if don’t stick to it. Shame is my friend.

This is a good example for you, my readers, in breaking a bad habit. I know you have some bad habits. Don’t lie. You might even have the same one I do. Let this post provide you some insight into how you can pinpoint where your failures are getting their foothold. Maybe you have a carb addiction to beat. Notice what it is that’s triggering you to procure and eat sweets every time you think today is the day you’re finally going to just eat wholesome, good-for-you meat and low-carb veggies. I noticed what was preventing me from performing my good habits, and I decided to stomp on that thing. You should do this, too!

It fulfills my daily writing obligation. Since this is what is on my mind, this is what you get. Come back tomorrow for something completely different.

So you won’t think I died or something. A sudden disappearance from social media, especially when you have a really nice little community like Social Galactic, can worry people. No worries! I have not been hit by a bus or anything. I’m just not able to do that stuff so much any more.

If you’ve got a bad habit to kill, you can’t just decide not to do it anymore. I’ve tried to simply avoid clicking the things until I have my work done, and it doesn’t work. The ruts in my brain are too deep to just jump out of! So I am taking some steps to prevent falling into the social hole again.

  • I have removed all of the bookmarks for social media from my browser. I have to type them in every time I want to go to a social website.
  • I also removed the apps from my phone, deleted all of the passwords from the manager so I have to type them in every time. I’m so lazy that that’s a huge hurdle to clear.
  • And finally, I am taking a near-complete fast from all social media for at least a month. I’ll probably check in every couple of days just to clear notifications. I’m already enjoying not just picking up the phone to check in on…what have I been checking in on? Nothing that I need to be checking on! Busy-bodying, is what I’ve been doing!

So anyhow, you guys share this around on your own social media so I don’t have to. See you (mostly on SG) after I’ve got my brain rearranged the way I like it!

 

 

 

Craving Sweets in the Heat?

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It’s hot outside. Not coincidentally, lately I’m seeing an uptick in questions from new carnivores about sweet cravings, especially in the afternoon. Please do not answer the siren call of the ice cream truck. You don’t need berries, honey, fruit, or cheesecake. You just need water!

Because an insulin spike will, in fact, cause your cells to pack away some water with the sugar that it lets in, your body will ask for sugar when you’re not giving it enough water and salt. It asks for sugar, but that doesn’t mean you have to give it sugar. It simply doesn’t know how to ask for salt through cravings. You, though, are a human, and smart, so you can figure this out for yourself! Salt and water will ease your sweet craving just as quickly, and much more beneficially.

A lot of people like to take a fancy electrolyte powder in their water, and I’m totally fine with that. In fact, I have a packet or two of them just about every day. Myoxcience has my favorite electrolyte powder, as they don’t use stevia in theirs. They even have an unflavored one for those of us who have to avoid all sweet tastes. A lot of people like LMNT, but for some reason (probably the stevia) that brand makes me wheeze.

Try these things if you like, but honestly, for most people, some good old pickle juice will do the trick. Pickles don’t cost near as much. Just make sure you find a pickle brand that doesn’t have polysorbates and food dyes in them. Mt. Olive has an organic one that fits the bill. I’m sure there are others.

Don’t let old habits and sudden cravings knock you off-plan just because it’s hot outside. Drink your water and salt!

 

It’s a Fallen World

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It’s not as fallen as you think it is.

Christians who read this blog may be familiar with the song “Is He Worthy?” If not, here you go.

Now, I happen to love that song. He is worthy, and the song is altogether worshipful and right. But that first line: “Do you feel the world is broken?” gets on my ever-loving nerves. Well, of course it is! But among Christians, it is too often our tendency to look around at the broken things, throw up our hands in despair and say “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!”

Yes, the world is broken. Some things are going horribly wrong. I’m not even talking about politics, as I’m sure you thought I would be. I’m talking, as is my wont, of our health. Nearly everybody I know is sick. They have cancers, heart disease, degenerative diseases, autoimmunity, mental illness. The list of troubles I see in the people around me is so long that I can’t possibly cover it all. The older they are, the more of them there are. But I don’t believe age is the problem. I believe the length of time they’ve spent living modern lifestyles is the problem.

There was a time, probably somewhere within the pages of this very blog, when I would have said “Oh, well, it’s a fallen world, after all!” about my own illnesses. I’d have sighed a bit, lamented my aches and pains, and accepted the doctor’s many prescriptions, thinking that this is just my genetics, just a fact of getting older, just the effect of the curse.

And all of this stuff does happen because there is a curse on all creation. It’s true. Creation is still groaning. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

But what if I told you that much of the trouble we experience that we think is inevitable, is actually avoidable and fixable? We’ve accepted a lot of unnecessary sicknesses, blaming perfectly preventable illnesses on bad genes, aging, or just bad luck. We’ve paid out a fortune for drugs that don’t make us well. I watched my grandmother die of medical treatment. She could have had a wonderful last two decades, and instead she was poked, prodded, medicated, and financially sucked dry as she became more and more miserable. And finally she died, with very little comfort or dignity.

Most of us have no idea how much of our sickness, our fatness, and our sadness, is due, not to the general fallenness of Man, which will cause us all to degenerate and die eventually, but to specific fallen behaviors, like the greed of agriculture, medicine, pharma, and government entities. I could write books, and have read several, about what they have done to our food supply, our environment, and our bodies.

But it’s not their choices that are killing us so miserably. It is our trust in “science”, our fatalistic attitude about getting fat and sick, and our love of comfort that keeps us from making the changes that could result in our living longer, healthier, stronger, more prosperous lives. We lean on medicine to make sure we don’t have “too many” children, ruining our hormonal health and our relationships. We vaccinate our children’s immune systems into oblivion because we don’t want to have to risk chicken pox.

We eat sugary, seed oil infused slop, day in and day out, just because it’s easy to get and cheap to buy, and lights up our brains like drugs. We relax in our recliners or beds or hammocks after meals instead of taking a walk or gardening or running or lifting some heavy weights. Our entertainment is soul-destroying, but we’re not willing to read difficult or inspiring books. Too hard on our sluggish, sugar-addled brains. I just drove by a group of men in full-body protective gear who were spraying toxic chemicals all over rows of small Christmas trees, destroying everything that lives in that field. We’re killing ourselves and our land so we can have nice looking trees in our living rooms in December. This is a choice we’re making.

We go for the easy route in every aspect of life. We atrophy. We degenerate. Our very cells no longer function the way they should because we have chosen ease and entertainment every day, all day, for our entire lives.

I’m not perfect. My kids are watching Pokemon right this minute. They get a little bit of screen time nearly every day. I will probably feel really convicted about that and put a stop to it now. We do all have to take ourselves off the hook from time to time. Rest is essential. But we have made a national identity of finding the easiest, most enjoyable route to absolutely everything. We have destroyed our health, both physical and mental, by coddling ourselves. And I hear people call this easy way of life “blessed”. They think they’re prospering while billions of their dollars are going into a kind of health care system that doesn’t even need to exist; while they endure horrible pains and discomforts from their lifestyle-induced diseases; while their relationships go under because of the depression and addictions.

Next time you have yet another ache or pain, or another miserable visit to the doctor, or another side effect from the pills you’re taking to try to counteract the damage you are doing to your body, don’t look at Big Pharma. They didn’t make you take that pill that doesn’t even work. Don’t look at Big Food. They didn’t force you to eat that Hot Pocket. Don’t look at the government and say “Save me from the consequences of my choices!”

Don’t look at Satan and Adam and Eve and blame the curse.

Look at yourself. You have made choices.

Look to Jesus, who died so that you don’t have to live defeated. Pray to be released from your addiction to foods, comfort, and self-indulgence. Put down the doughnut, turn off the teevee, and go do something to improve the wonderful physiology that God gave you. Go make your environment better. Make your food nourishing, instead of entertaining. Talk to your neighbor and get some real relationships going instead of playing around on Twitter. Take baby steps. I know it’s hard! But you can change things.

We are all going to die. It’s a fact. But we do not have to die like this.

Run Dump!

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I’m just gonna puke it all up here.

If you zoom in, you can see my little “Suffering Christ” pins I bought to hold the bib on. To Him be all the glory and praise! I know I talk up the Meat Life, but it’s only Jesus that makes me even want to live.

So, I did a thing. And now I’m sitting here, just smiling. And smiling is what I’ve been doing for days in the run up to this…er…this run. I have been so over-the-moon happy to be doing this!

I am having a hard time nailing down why it is that the mere idea of running a race–one which I never had a hope of winning or placing–makes me so happy. For days, I’ve been falling asleep with a smile on my face, thinking “I get to run! I get to race!”

Then last night…well, no smiling happened last night. Instead, I just lay there trying to sleep. You know how it is: when you know you need your rest, it’s really hard to fall asleep. You don’t smile when you’re trying as hard as you can to shut down your excitement and go to sleep. (UPDATE: Actually, this turned out to be PMS insomnia, which I am prone to.) I expect the next race I enter to affect me a little less this way.

Anyhow, I woke up, packed a breakfast for the family to eat while they waited for me at the finish line, and went and ran this thing:

On about 3 hours of sleep. And a weak left ankle. I’m not making excuses. Just telling the sad truth. I was not really in the best shape for this race because of these two things. But I was mentally into it, so I did it anyway. All things considered, my expectation to cross the finish line in an hour and twenty minutes (remember when I said I was slow?) was not too far off the mark. Taking it easy so as not to blow out my Achilles tendon, which I’m working on strengthening, I did it in 1:23! Woot! My average pace was an unimpressive 12 minutes per mile.

I finished ahead of only (I think) five other runners. Almost everybody, even the old people, came in ahead of me. I “lost”. By a LOT. I’m still happy.

And it’s because I’m so grateful. Six years ago (actually, my calendar tells me it was more like seven now), I could not breathe because of asthma. I could not run because I was fat and my right knee hurt all the time. Even if I could have run, I’d have had so much social anxiety that I’d have never considered going out in front of God and everybody and making an absolute fool of myself. But the biggest smiles I’ve smiled when anticipating this race have been the ones where I knew I was going to make a fool of myself. Because it doesn’t matter! I’m a fool? The world needs fools, too!

I had fun. I did something hard. I beat me. I beat Ten Years Ago Me. I even beat Last Week Me:

All personal bests!

Now, nobody is going to look at that and say “Wow! What a natural talent!” Really, I’m 4’11”. I’m not ever going to outpace people with actual legs. But I got faster today. And I’ll get still faster tomorrow. And eventually those numbers might start to look respectable. Maybe. If they don’t? Who cares?

What’s respectable about all this is not the numbers, but how far I’ve come. I’ve worked to be able to do this. I’ve sat at the dinner table with people eating “normal” food and cried because I knew I was never going to enjoy pizza again. I’d love to be able to say it was a tear of joy running down my cheek because I was so glad to be rid of all my health problems, but it wasn’t. I was just sad not to eat pizza anymore. (There are carnivore-keto ways to simulate pizza, by the way. But they don’t agree with my system very well, so I don’t eat them.)

I’ve been lifting weights, rowing, and running for a few years now.

I’ve done the hard work of getting myself to enjoy human contact, after living most of my adult life in abject dread of social interactions. I’m not going to try to make it sound like it was worse than it was. I was able to get the kids to church and playdates and basically live a normal life. But it was miserable. I cried–or cringed–myself to sleep frequently. Social anxiety sucks! But I beat it.

I deserve the respect I have for myself right now. 

As the last two runners came in at the 1:43 mark, I cheered for them as hard as I could. I was as proud of them as I was of the guy who finished in FORTY-FOUR minutes! Maybe those slow finishes don’t mean much to a “real runner”, but we have no idea what they may have overcome to be able to get to that finish line.

They didn’t lose. They just won last. 

 

 

You Have to Stop Doing Carnivore

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You’ll waste away!

Every time I see somebody I haven’t seen in a while, they tell me how great I look. Well, that’s nice of them, isn’t it? It also happens to be true. I look about as good as I am capable of looking. Not gonna be winning any beauty contests, sadly, but I’m doing OK! And then, at least half the time, that same someone will say with concern–or, I’m not above suspecting, envy–something to the effect that one can take this thing too far, and I should really reincorporate something sweet into my meals at some point.

There was a time when it would have been a fair observation that I was becoming too skinny. Back when I was doing keto and there were a bunch of vegetables taking up space I should have been using for protein and fat, I was getting to be a little bit on the stringy side. I got down to just 100 lbs, and I hated the way I looked. I still hadn’t lost all the visible fat in my belly, but everything just hung off of me. I was wasting muscle, not just fat. I knew I couldn’t go back to the way of eating that had made me sick to begin with, but I certainly couldn’t continue with keto. All of my research convinced me that removing even more kinds of foods from my diet, rather than adding anything else back, was the best way to make myself truly healthy, and not just not fat.

When I went carnivore, I put back on fifteen pounds or so, and most of that was muscle and bone. I wish I’d had a before and after dexa scan to prove it, but common sense and a good look in the mirror are really enough. I’m definitely bigger than I was, and I’m definitely not fat.

Now, most of the time, when somebody tells me I’m going to get sick from all this meat, I just show my skeptic a nice, firm bicep, or tell them how fast I can run or how much weight I can lift these days. I am well-built at this point, with a healthy layer of muscle everywhere it ought to be. I even get comments about my good build from strangers in public. Nobody thinks I’m skinny. Feels good, man!

I do still have a little bit of mommy-belly, an inch or so of dangly skin that’s pretty easily hidden under my clothes. I’ve carried eight babies and had 5 c-sections. It’s not perfect, and I don’t know if it ever will be. But that’s ok, because a perfect little tummy is not what I’m going for. It would be nice, but it’s not my goal. That’s what I really want you to understand: I’m not doing this diet so I can look small. I want to be appropriately sized, strong and fast enough to do anything I need to do, and sharp and quick enough to stay alive in an increasingly tricky world. (Have you seen the traffic around here lately?)

I can’t do this if I’m eating the way 98% of the people around me are eating. Sorry. It just won’t work. It’s not working for you, either, friend.

Beauty is a sign of health, and health is what I’m chasing. I won’t say I don’t care how I look, because I’m as vain as any woman. I like to look just as good as I can. Happily, when I chase health, I’m bound to catch a little beauty, as well! I can’t lose eating this way!

Carnivore is not a weight loss diet. If you are fat, you will lose weight on carnivore. Your body will no longer be receiving the signal from your food to store extra fat. But if you are too skinny, you can fix that with carnivore, too! Doesn’t that just blow your mind? How is that even possible? But it’s true. You can stimulate muscle and put on healthy fat with this diet. I did it myself, and I haven’t dropped below 115 pounds in a few years. In fact, I’m still slowly gaining a little muscle. It ain’t easy to gain at 40-something, but if you lift consistently, and eat enough MEAT, it is doable.

I never have to eat more than I want to, but I do get to eat until I’m full. And then I can stop eating until I’m hungry again. Now, my concerned friend, does that sound like an eating disorder to you?

People actually heal their eating disorders and get back to a healthy weight by eating only meat. The carnivore way of eating will recompose your body to its best advantage. It does not simply force weight loss until you die. It is not anorexia. It is not a weird cultish fear of food. It is not something people do just to shock the current culture and stick a finger in the globalist all-seeing eye. (Although I do see that last as an upside.)

Carnivore is simply optimal.

For everybody, though? Well, like I’ve said before, I don’t think everybody has to go carnivore. Most people who think they’re doing ok would see improvements in problems they never even thought were food-related, if they’d just give it 30 days. I do think absolutely everybody can thrive on it. There is nobody who absolutely has to have plants. They are non-essential. Plants, especially grains, are survival food, hibernation food, slave food. As long as I have a choice, I want to thrive, not just survive.

There are sometimes some bumps in the road for some as they become accustomed to the Meat Life™, but all of the difficulties I’ve coached people through are caused not by eating meat, but by the severe damage they’ve already done to their bodies with standard American fare. See my “Why Carnivore Didn’t Work For You” series, for a few ways things can go wrong. If you need any help getting through the transition to a diet (not necessarily carnivore) that will work best for you, get in touch with me by email (cindy at getalonghome dot com) or on social media. I’d love to help!

Dear friends and family, I cannot possibly take this lifestyle too far, because it is not weight loss that I’m pursuing. It is health that I am after, and I’m getting better all the time. Join me!

Want to chat? Catch me on Gab, MeWe, or Social Galactic.

 

 

Why Carnivore Didn’t Work for You, Part 2: Electrolytes

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Salt up, sweetie!

By far the most common complaints I hear from someone when they begin carnivore or keto are these:

  • cramping
  • dizziness
  • tiredness
  • flu-like muscle aches
  • heart pounding or flutters

These are all symptoms of electrolyte loss, which is thankfully very easy to fix!

When you switch to a low-carb or zero-carb way of eating, you no longer retain fluid the way you do when you’re a sweet-eater. The first thing you notice when you finally get into ketosis is that you pee. A LOT. In fact, that first heady weight-loss success of 10-15 pounds in two weeks is mostly just water! I’m sorry to break it to you, but the fat loss doesn’t come immediately. It’s water loss that has you all excited. And rightly so! You shouldn’t have been holding on to all that water. It’s making you puffy and not benefitting you at all, locked away like that.

Carbohydrates cause your body to lock water away in your cells, and with it, salts and minerals. As you begin to burn more fat than sugar, the retained water flushes out of your system, taking with it (mainly) your sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Your body has been used to doing one thing, and now it has to learn to do another. This comes with symptoms, unless you do something about it. Attention should be paid in the first several weeks of your new way of eating to getting enough salt (mainly), and very likely a magnesium and potassium supplement as well.

But salt is bad for you!

Well…no. Cutting back on salt is one of the worst ideas modern medicine has pushed. While there are apparently a small number of people for whom a very large amount of salt really does cause high blood pressure, most people need more salt, not less. Even those salt-sensitive people will probably be able to use normal amounts of salt when they cut out the sugar. It is that other white crystal we love to consume that is causing the outrageous epidemic of high blood pressure: sugar. Cut your sugar, and your “high” salt intake will be perfectly benign. Beneficial, even! James DiNicolantonio’s book, The Salt Fix, is a very good primer on the subject:

How much salt, though? Well, all I can say for sure is: be liberal about it. Salt your food to taste. Put a pinch of salt in your water when you drink. Drink clean electrolyte drinks like LMNT or Myoxcience’s Stix. If you have symptoms, have even more salt. If you have too much salt, you will simply feel thirsty and drink more water.

I like to buy electrolyte powders for hot days, or when I’m doing a lot of hard physical activity, but most of the time, they’re a treat, rather than a necessity. They can get a little bit expensive. You don’t have to spend that kind of money. Just put some salt, and maybe some no-salt into your water. Add a daily magnesium for a few weeks, as well, at least until the symptoms are long gone. After you’re “fat adapted”, you may never need to take further measures, and you’ll just instinctively eat the amount of salt you need. Some people find after a while that they need to eat no salt at all, while others, like me, are still salt-fiends. For now, though, assume you need more salt.

Can I have too much salt? There’s very little risk of overdose, unless you’re being ridiculous. You’re not going to be ridiculous are you? Remember the woman who drank too much water too fast and died? You can overdose on anything. But if you’re being sensible and not eating a tablespoon of salt at a time, ten times a day, you are not going to hurt yourself.

Just be a little bit, maybe a lot, more deliberately salty, and you’ll be fine. Don’t let “keto flu”, which is temporary, if unpleasant, stop you from getting healthy! Salt up!