31 Days of Calendar Club + Carnivore Nutritional Plan (PART TWO)
Dude. Love. Homeslice.
First off, let's recap a few things from the PART ONE blog post which you can read >> HERE <<
RECAP
I'm not entirely sane. Because who in the right mind would want to attempt to do TWO challenges at the same time?!? Not a sane person, for sure.
In full honesty, I'm also partaking in the 75Hard Challenge with a group of Mastermind folks but the Calendar Club and Carnivore Nutritional Plan sorta cancels out a few 75Hard Challenge tasks, so it's kinda like a sweet little bonus.
Now that we got that out of the way - I dove into the first portion, Calendar Club, in the PART ONE blog and now, we are tackle part two - Carnivore Nutritional Plan (we will table 75 Hard for the time being) as well as my experience along with any tips or strategy which helped me accomplish each challenge along with future plans.
CARNIVORE NUTRITIONAL PLAN
You probably will see how the term "nutritional plan" because I thoroughly detest the word, "diet" as it has a negative and/or strict tone associated with it. When actually, diet is a much simpler word that society has manipulated into something restrictive.
Diet (n.): the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.
For the purpose of my blog, I'll just use the words "nutritional plan". You are welcome. Now, let's move on. The Carnivore Nutritional Plan is when you basically consume only animal products. This includes beef, bison, pork, chicken, game, fowl, venison, seafood, eggs and even animal by-products such as butter, cheese, heavy cream. You get the gist, right?
However, what I was not aware of is there are actually LEVELS to the Carnivore Nutritional Plan - who knew?
Before we tackle the levels and the strategy I embraced going into this, how about we uncover the "why" behind this venture.
It's pretty simple, actually.
The hubster who does not have any social media accounts besides YouTube sent me a video of Joe Rogan talking about "going carnivore" for the month of January. The term, "carnivore" as a nutritional plan was not new to us - as someone who is fascinated about biohacks and understanding different ways to optimize one's health, mental strength and performance, I learned about eating as a carnivore years prior; however, just never decided to do this myself.
So, back to the hubster - he sent the YouTube video my way on Christmas Eve and a text he got back was "I'm game, let's do it." He really should know better, shouldn't he? 😉
The reason why the hubster wanted to embark on this journey was to aid in reducing overall inflammation especially in his joints - and I, honestly, just wanted to support him. Plus, I knew with my current goals - increasing protein was huge on the list.
We decided to start "officially" on January 1st; however, took Christmas to January 1st as a trial run and truly began eating the carnivore way on Christmas Day while prepping our freezer and discussing with the Gillies, our twins, that mom + dad's plates would be looking a wee bit different than theirs in the near future.
STRATEGY TO CARNIVORE NUTRITIONAL PLAN
Truthfully, I was concerned for myself - mainly because I cook majority of our meals. Out of 21 meals in our household, twenty are cooked by me (for some reason, I NEVER want to cook on Thursday nights - it's like I mentally give up and beg the hubster to whip something up which he does.)
NOTE: my hubster would cook more meals if:
1) he was home and able to do so 2) he could solve the question, "what's for dinner?"
Here's the strategy I decided to embark on during the Carnivore Nutritional Plan (note: hubster just ate what was available in animal protein form at the hospital and the meals I provided at home, so he didn't follow my structure but DID complete the carnivore nutritional plan for the month of January!).
The book used to follow the carnivore guidelines was: The Carnivore Cookbook
- LEVEL ONE: beef, beef tallow and salt
- January 1-7: This was what I focused on for the first week of our journey. The main food I was consuming was grass fed/finished ground beef or beef tenderloin.
- LEVEL TWO: all meats, all animal fats and salt
- January 8-14: I sorta hung out here for the next two weeks consuming pork and beef this week with nothing else. Super grateful the hubster was able to snag a pork shoulder and put it on the grill. It was super delicious.
- January 15-21: Added chicken to the mix which I'm not a huge fan of chicken or pork, actually, but it was delicious.
- LEVEL THREE: all meats, all animal fats, salt, dairy and eggs
- January 22nd - until (as of this blog, I'm still at Level III Carnivore): This is where I thrived - consumed shrimp, white fish and eggs. My favorite meal was pork shoulder with boiled eggs. Weird right? Our Gillies would be consuming pulled pork sandwiches with BBQ sauce on sourdough toast... while mama was having pork with eggs and I couldn't have been happier. It's that good.
- LEVEL FOUR: all meats, all animal fats, salt, dairy, eggs, spices, some low-sugar plant-based sauces
- Honestly, haven't truly dove into this level... currently holding strong at level three.
RESULTS FROM THE CARNIVORE NUTRITIONAL PLAN
Now, when I told folks about going "carnivore" the initial reaction was - "how did this change your body composition"? And as much as I would like to share that with you, there are some key factors which played a role with my body composition:
- Running daily with the Calendar Club
- Increased number of strength training sessions
- Added new supplements to the roster which could have an impact - reach out if you want to know more about these >> DM ME for supplements <<
So, yes, I did notice a decrease in body mass as well as measurements - one can not say it was strictly due to the nutritional plan in front of me (but I think it definitely helped).
GI: There was no changes or disturbances in my GI tract and the, um, flow. Some folks mentioned diarrhea while others expressed concerns for constipation. *knock on wood* Those were not experiences I encountered.
ENERGY: If you know me, my energy level is like a spastic squirrel on Red Bull. Not a huge fan of coffee or caffeinated teas. A typical day is a non-caffeinated day and if you catch me when I do have a half a cup of coffee- brace yourself. The reason I'm sharing this with you is that a friend who was following this plan alongside me experienced a dip in her energy levels. I did not. In fact, my energy levels may have actually perked up a wee bit.
SLEEP: Again, this is hard to measure as I'm a solid sleeper. I'm able to sleep on a rollercoaster in a thunderstorm. And being on this nutritional plan did not worsen or improve my sleep. However, the hubster's sleep did improve greatly.
CRAVINGS: This was something which shocked me - not once did I crave anything besides foods allotted on the nutritional plan. It was bizarre. My fear of cooking for the Gillies and serving fresh breads, rice, sweet potatoes, berries or even cookies - not once did I want to consume them myself. WHAT?!? This was huge for me.
PMS SYMPTOMS: For the ladies, there was a significant improvement in my PMS symptoms. For instance, I typically get a wee bit emotional/moody two days before my cycle starts - did not happen. Symptoms I would normally have such as bloated, intense cramps, food cravings - nada. Not a single one.
Other things I noticed, it's not as challenging to eat carnivore when you are prepared and you have a support system. We did go out to a friend's house for dinner - which would normally put a damper when following a pretty intense nutritional plan; however, it went smoothly. We focused on the protein portions and even turned down the dessert their Nana made which was an ice cream cookie cake. By the smiles and the empty plates our kids had, the dessert was delicious.
BIGGEST TAKEAWAY FROM THE CARNIVORE NUTRITIONAL PLAN
What I discovered by following this type of nutritional plan is this: do what's right for your body. With my training and consuming only protein, I found out quickly I needed to be on top of my hydration as well as electrolytes.
I also realized a lot of foods I would normally consume were basically just fillers. Not truly needed for their nutritional value. The lack of cravings as well as reduction of PMS signs has me continuing this nutritional plan for a wee bit longer. Although, a few additional foods like avocado and sauerkraut will be added for caloric/fat intake and gut health - not every meal, just on certain days.
Things I thought I would miss such as fresh sourdough toast or chips and salsa - were a thing of the past. It makes me wonder, "Who am I?".
As for the hubster, he kicked sass and did amazing following the Carnivore Nutritional Plan - he said his lower back pain didn't bother him as much (but I definitely noticed slim to no complaining from him this past month re: back pain!).
Do I think everyone could benefit from the Carnivore Nutritional Plan? Um, that's not my call. If it's something you are interested in - do your research, talk to your primary care physician and/or holistic nutritionist. What I can tell you is... that consuming natural animal products shouldn't be considered bizarre when there's items like: Funyons, meatless burgers, GMO corn or soy franks on the menu.
Don't come at me with the Funyons comment, those were my sister's favorite chips and I was thinking about her!
That's about sums it up! If for some reason, I did not cover anything that you wanted to know or read about from my Carnivore Nutritional Plan experience - just reach out. I'm happy to share, otherwise, it's just wasted knowledge. You can reach out to me >> HERE << .
Grit + Gumption.
ALG
