April Challenges
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I'm in for Ad Lib April.
This is close to how I usually eat anyway, protein and calorie tracking is just too much work and I very much doubt it can be done accurately. What I know is that as long as I control carbs everything else takes care of itself and the weight keeps going down. I started with a huge amount to lose, so that may have helped. Also, I don't like meat or fat so by controlling carbs I'm in fact controlling all the foods that I'm likely to overeat. My carb indulgence is fruit but I'm willing to go zero carb all day just so I can have an apple with my lunch.
I have a 50g/day limit, with a 20g limit on any one meal. Most days I stay under 20-30g. It'll be interesting to track carbs more carefully.
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OK, so, if we are doing all meat, do we weigh it, or do we just eat enough to feel satisfied then stop. This has me intrigued, and I must say, a little frightened. I am one who lives and dies by the food scale, and even with that, I've been steadily gaining. The thought of not weighing, measuring, logging scares the begeebers out of me. That said, I'm curious to try it. Same with the Ad lib. I think I am one of the "lucky" few, who calories do matter for. I would love to be proven wrong.0
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Hmm, thanks for the explanation. But I'm still afraid of becoming constipated. Lol. We'll see. Maybe I have to ease into it. But, I'm actually starting already, because I might as well get a jump on it!0
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@ChoiceNotChance you don't have to do both All Animal and Ad Lib ... they're both just themes for fun ... it should reduce stress not add to it, so if you want to continue logging, but try the theme of All Animal or All Meat or whatever, that's totally cool!
@lisawinning4losing I like this link http://www.empiri.ca/p/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fat.html and the rest of the blog too0 -
@ChoiceNotChance you don't have to do both All Animal and Ad Lib ... they're both just themes for fun ... it should reduce stress not add to it, so if you want to continue logging, but try the theme of All Animal or All Meat or whatever, that's totally cool!
@lisawinning4losing I like this link http://www.empiri.ca/p/eat-meat-not-too-little-mostly-fat.html and the rest of the blog too
Thanks for blog! It's not entirely new info for me, but, it does help to explain things. Heck, maybe I will just go full on animal style for 30 days and see what happens. I can always add some veggies back in if I want to, but I guess the point is to reset your system. At this point, I have nothing to lose. It won't be the first time in my life that I've gone 30 days without vegetables. Lol! The SAD diet usually doesn't contain much, and I know all about that, though I've been eating a lot more veggie lately. What I'm trying to say is that 30 days without veggies certainly won't kill me. I'm still not sure how my digestive system is going to react without some source of fiber, but maybe it won't be that bad.0 -
I'm in for trying the Ad Libitum April 0
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You don't get constipate from not eating fiber. Things move along very well. There will be less of it, significantly so, but you won't have problems actually going when you need to.0
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Bump for those who haven't seen it yet.0
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I'm in for the all-animal April. Will be using this last week to transition and will use up the rest of my veggies consuming more meat on a gradient. Excited to see how it turns out!0
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My all bacon starter challenge is a fail for me. Fourteen strips of bacon a day is not filling. Tasty, but not filling. I've added in other meats to help me feel satiated... Still not feeling full before about 2200 kcal but I'll cut calories when I can... maybe when hormones level out. So not worth it at the moment. LOL
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My all bacon starter challenge is a fail for me. Fourteen strips of bacon a day is not filling. Tasty, but not filling. I've added in other meats to help me feel satiated... Still not feeling full before about 2200 kcal but I'll cut calories when I can... maybe when hormones level out. So not worth it at the moment. LOL
This does not shock me. I would have to eat a LOT of bacon to be full. A pound is a single meal. So, probably three pounds a day (assuming the fat is drained). I could probably do a pound and a half if I could eat all the fat. But, I doubt I could.0 -
My all bacon starter challenge is a fail for me. Fourteen strips of bacon a day is not filling. Tasty, but not filling. I've added in other meats to help me feel satiated... Still not feeling full before about 2200 kcal but I'll cut calories when I can... maybe when hormones level out. So not worth it at the moment. LOL
This does not shock me. I would have to eat a LOT of bacon to be full. A pound is a single meal. So, probably three pounds a day (assuming the fat is drained). I could probably do a pound and a half if I could eat all the fat. But, I doubt I could.
Thanks Goat. Always good to hear. I honestly thought the bacon would be filling, instead I had to stop myself from eating it all at once. LOL 0 -
The last two days I've been ramping up for next month. Been at about 40 grams of carbs per day. Still polishing off some stuff I have, like a left over jar of spaghetti sauce in the fridge, and some sweet potatoes. But, still plan on staying below 50 at the most leading up to April. In April I'm actually going to do Ad Lib, 30 grams of carbs a day or less. I'm thinking of it as under 30 carbs for 30 days. Has a nice ring to it! But, I'm feeling good and I'm actually really enjoying all this yummy food without having to worry about fat or calories so much.
Also, ya know, there's always friends and family to deal with. My boyfriend is afraid that I'm literally going to die if I eat nothing but meat and stuff for 30 days. Lol. Plus, I probably have a better chance of sticking to it if I can a little bit of variety. Heck, today it was 4 carbs just to add some onion to my hamburger. Ya gotta have onion in your hamburger.
All I want is to get to ketosis. Hopefully >30 will be low enough to get me there. I'm going to buy some strips so I test myself. Any advice is appreciated. I've never done this before, but I'm reading up on it so I can be prepared.
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My boyfriend is afraid that I'm literally going to die if I eat nothing but meat and stuff for 30 days.
This was my wife. I did it anyway, and then she insisted that I was going to die any day after that. Even after six months, she was convinced I was going to die. It took a doctor's appointment with a full range of blood tests that came back perfectly normal before she accepted that it wasn't deadly. In the end, we're all going to die. But it [probably] won't be within 30 days just because of eating meat.0 -
I really want to do all-animal april, but will require negotiation at home with my husband, plus my mum is coming over for the weekend in early april and will go bananas at the idea - not sure I can take the grief!0
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My husband will definitely have some words of non support if I discuss it with him. So I'm not going to. I'm just going to do my thing and if he notices, I'll just say I haven't been in the mood for certain foods. I'm not likely to tell him I'm doing it on purpose.totaloblivia wrote: »I really want to do all-animal april, but will require negotiation at home with my husband, plus my mum is coming over for the weekend in early april and will go bananas at the idea - not sure I can take the grief!
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I am a newbie - have been doing LC for a little over 2 weeks now and am seeing pretty good weight loss but am still struggling with cutting out "sweetened" things... So, I am interested in the All Animal April as I think it may help me break those habits. Question though: what is included in the allowed "high fat/low carb dairy"?0
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Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »
My husband will definitely have some words of non support if I discuss it with him. So I'm not going to. I'm just going to do my thing and if he notices, I'll just say I haven't been in the mood for certain foods. I'm not likely to tell him I'm doing it on purpose.totaloblivia wrote: »I really want to do all-animal april, but will require negotiation at home with my husband, plus my mum is coming over for the weekend in early april and will go bananas at the idea - not sure I can take the grief!
I'm ashamed to say I started 2 weeks early because my mum is in Australia right now so she can't tell me everything I'm doing wrong (she's a devout follower of Slimming World and already can't grasp the concept of low carb). By the time she's home I'll have been doing this for 3 weeks and hopefully she'll be able to see the positive effects the diet is having on my body shape.
And after all the years I have spent converting my husband to a more balanced diet (he lived on beer and the kind of fast food you only get when you're drunk when he first moved in with me) it's not really surprising to me that he has something to say about me only eating animal products. I just sold it to him as 'testing how low I can take my carbs', I don't think he's noticed that I'm eating no veg at all because I eat separately from the family most days anyway.0 -
totaloblivia wrote: »I really want to do all-animal april, but will require negotiation at home with my husband, plus my mum is coming over for the weekend in early april and will go bananas at the idea - not sure I can take the grief!
I feel you on this!! My MIL and her SO are coming to stay in mid April. They are vegetarians!
Should be interesting. We don't see eye to eye on a lot of things so this will just be another thing for her to roll her eyes at. LOL 0 -
Definitely!lisawinning4losing wrote: »I'm thinking of it as under 30 carbs for 30 days. Has a nice ring to it!lisawinning4losing wrote: »All I want is to get to ketosis. Hopefully >30 will be low enough to get me there. I'm going to buy some strips so I test myself. Any advice is appreciated.
Do you mean the blood test strips? 'cuz the urine ones won't really give you what you're looking for.
Check your labels, but generally it means aged cheese, HWC as opposed to milk, some greek yogurts, etc.Question though: what is included in the allowed "high fat/low carb dairy"?
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Oh crap, I meant to write <30. Less than 30, not greater than! Oops! My math teacher would fail me right now, if I were still in school! Ha ha!
Well, I was reading article online that recommended using the urine strips to test for ketones, and they said you can buy them cheap from the pharmacy. Is that not good enough? I really hope I don't have to prick myself and draw blood.
Edit: Just found a couple more articles that kind of explain it. I guess the urine strips aren't very accurate, and apparently I was reading some old fashioned advice. Well, I'll hate having to poke myself, but, I'm the kind of person who needs to know.
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In addition to the pokey factor, the ketone blood strips are expensive. The thing is, if you are strict about your tracking and are under 30g carbs a day, it's a basically a metabolic certainty that you will be in ketosis. The question of "am I or aren't I" really only comes up when you start getting to that 50g-100g space where individual physiological differences manifest.0
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lisawinning4losing wrote: »Oh crap, I meant to write <30. Less than 30, not greater than! Oops! My math teacher would fail me right now, if I were still in school! Ha ha!
Well, I was reading article online that recommended using the urine strips to test for ketones, and they said you can buy them cheap from the pharmacy. Is that not good enough? I really hope I don't have to prick myself and draw blood.
Edit: Just found a couple more articles that kind of explain it. I guess the urine strips aren't very accurate, and apparently I was reading some old fashioned advice. Well, I'll hate having to poke myself, but, I'm the kind of person who needs to know.
I think the idea of them not being accurate is debatable. It's more like, you have to understand what can influence the test.
I think there are things that can cause someone to test negative that is actually making ketones.
But, if you test positive, there's nothing to debate. You're making ketones and the strip detected them.
They are sometimes not accurate when someone is very well hydrated because the urine is diluted. So the ketones show up as negative or possibly show as smaller concentration.
So basically,
If it shows ketones, you're making ketones.
If it shows negative, you might be making ketones.
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I'm in for Ad Libitum April! The fact that it feels "spooky" tells me that it is a healthy way for me to go!
Edit: I might even start early!0 -
I'm in for Ad Lib, and starting today
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I'm in for animal kingdom food with mct oil - beginning April 1.0
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Yay to everyone wanting to go for these challenges! They have both been life changing for me!0
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I think I'm going to try all meat, at least for a while. Don't know if I'll make a whole month. It could be a budget killer. It's going to be all animal, not going to restrict myself to ground beef. Are we saying no condiments? I sure do love a glob of home made mayo on my meat.
Are there actual guidelines anywhere?0 -
ChoiceNotChance wrote: »I think I'm going to try all meat, at least for a while. Don't know if I'll make a whole month. It could be a budget killer. It's going to be all animal, not going to restrict myself to ground beef. Are we saying no condiments? I sure do love a glob of home made mayo on my meat.
Are there actual guidelines anywhere?
I am guessing that ideally, mayo would be out due to canola oil or soy oil. I'm keeping coconut oil though. Do what works is my attitude.
Goat's guidelines:
All Animal April- This is the challenge that has already been discussed for April. Go the whole month giving up plants. It is similar to Meativore May. I forget if we had any specific guidelines last year, so I typed this up. Let me know if I missed anything or it needs clarification.
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For the month of April, eat only from the Animal kingdom. This means no plants or salads, no vegetable oils, and so on. Dairy is allowed, but could cause problems.
Basics- Eat only from the animal world (meat, eggs, high-fat/low-carb dairy).
- Eat nothing from the vegetable world whatsoever (very small amounts of spices may be added, they are not ‘food’).
- Drink mostly water, coffee, or tea. Drink nothing sweetened in any way.
- No sweeteners.
- Short description of how it's going for you. Anything you think is important or you want to mention.
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ChoiceNotChance wrote: »I think I'm going to try all meat, at least for a while. Don't know if I'll make a whole month. It could be a budget killer. It's going to be all animal, not going to restrict myself to ground beef. Are we saying no condiments? I sure do love a glob of home made mayo on my meat.
Are there actual guidelines anywhere?
It really isn't as bad on the budget as you might expect. You're dropping the foods with a very high $/calorie ratio. Veggies don't pack much punch per dollar spent. You're also not going to be replacing the veggies by volume or weight, just by calories. An extra 200 calories of meat is probably even cheaper than it would have been to get the 200 calories of veggies.
Condiments are fine. Multiple types of meat are encouraged (don't be one type of meat unless you've done this before or have a reason to go that simple). I try and avoid vegetable oils, but if a little homemade mayo is what it takes to keep things achievable, go for it. Supplements aren't deal-breakers either (although no fiber supplements). Seasonings, coffee, tea, sparkling water... all fine. No artificial sweeteners.
That's basically it.
Edit: My issue with vegetable oils is that they're really not healthy for you. They also mess up the omega ratios and can cause inflammation. Long-term, I highly encourage them to be removed from your diet. They are 0 carb, though, and shouldn't really negate the benefits of doing all-animal. If the difference between success and failure, for someone, is a couple TBS of mayo a once or twice a week, then I would say they should keep the mayo. There's time to clean up the little things after the big things are addressed.0
