2: Jumping into The Carnivore Diet, Why we love Carbs

This is going to be exciting. I outline the two methods I would suggest to newcomers just starting the Carnivore diet. One presents more freedom while the other keeps things simple and more personal. Next expect the things that will get you closer to being a full on Carnivore on either method. Two paths that lead to the same end. Choose wisely. We will conclude on a final note that will help you stick with this diet after the beginning stages of excitement.

The First Days

I think this is when you will have the most fun. It's always the most exciting time in the beginning when starting a new diet. While it is our goal to make this more of a default setting, it would be impossible to do in the first days or even weeks of doing this diet. Instead we will focus on doing what we can with the excitement and momentum you have.

We've just started a way of eating that blatantly says to eat as much meat and whatever type of meat we want. To me that sounds like heaven, and I think it really is, so what is stopping you from having all of those things you thought you couldn't before? That truly is the philosophy to Method 1.

Method 1:

Chicken wings, Steak, Burgers, Eggs, Pork Chops, Shrimp, Lobster. There are so many meats out there so go and indulge. With this method you will learn the scope of what you can eat on the Carnivore Diet. That being said, there are a lot of things to be considered first.

We will use wings as our main example because they are often covered in Non-Carnivore ingredients. Chicken wings are a popular deep fried finger food and they are great for a snack or side for me.

Peanut oil, corn oil, soybean oil, etc. are all plant based oils often used to deep fry in restaurants. The worry when ordering wings from a restaurant is that they have used one of these oils to cook them. Even if the wing is completely naked, just skin and salt, the oil used will be soaked into it. Personally after eating plain wings from a bowling alley, I didn't feel dramatically worse overall. What I did experience was feeling as if there was a large mass like a bowling ball in my stomach. It did not hurt or make me sick it just felt unnatural. I also feel like these oils halt any fat loss I may be experiencing and that may just be because they cause me to bloat. Of course when myself or anyone bloats they just don't look as lean anymore so that is a visual thing but, in terms of health bloat is something we want to avoid at all costs.

• Don't use vegetable oil at home AND do not order deep fried food from restaurants. My suggestion would be to order grilled items seasoned with herbs only.

• A deep fried wing that is breaded/battered is not Carnivore because it is covered in flour

Sauce. Sugar is in nearly every type of sauce we use. I challenge you to go in your kitchen and find any bottles that do not have any carbohydrates on the nutrition label and no sugar in the ingredients list. For now do not use any sauces. Chicken wings, ribs, pulled pork, shell fish, etc. are often eaten covered in it.

• Sauce: Avoid them for the first month at least then you can test 0 carb, no sugar sauces back into your diet to see if they work well for you

Additionally a lot of BBQ Pits are going to season their meats with sugar. Most sauces and seasonings contains some kind of sugar or carbohydrate. Limit seasonings to salt, pepper, or herbs and limit sauces to those that are zero calories and/or zero carb.

• Seasoning: Have Salt, Pepper, or Herbs as seasoning if you need to

• For the best effects try to slowly eliminate all seasonings gradually, or initially before testing them back in

I know. This is starting to sound like you can't eat anything. I speak about this mostly trying to get you to avoid restaurants. There are many viable options such as ordering hamburger patties only from your favorite fast food burger place but they don't always accommodate that request. Basically I've asked you to order only burgers without the bun or a steak at restaurants. You can do this. Most of the time that is my only option when I eat out. So here is my biggest piece of advice to you starting this diet, cook all of your food yourself. You will avoid having to worry about everything I just told you to worry about. Poof!

• Cook everything: If you cook your own chicken wings it will be cheaper, you can season it with salt and pepper only, and there won't be any worries of carb loaded sauces, breading, or oils.

• Butter is your new Olive Oil

• Chicken Wings in the Oven: Preheat to 400, Season with salt and pepper, place wings and however much butter you want into a baking sheet, and cook for 50 minutes. Make sure they're cooked all the way! But it is that simple. Wings are your favorite? Then eat a ton of them if you want. Just prepare them at home with Butter or Ghee (clarified butter) and you will be off to the races.

• Burgers without the Bun: Even simpler. Form patties and cook them with your favorite method. Charcoal grilling is my favorite but I use an electric skillet more often. I only use salt and sometimes pepper.

Most of your favorite meats can be prepared in the oven or in a pan without the breading, without sauces, and fully Carnivore. I know everyone has a pan or an oven for the most part so when your jumping in, use them. If you're a good cook then I'm sure you're already teeming with ideas. Air frying, roasting, sous vide, grilling, pressure cooking, and more can all be taken advantage of to prepare your meat.

Currently I am in a small apartment and I am limited to hot plates and a pressure cooker but I make do with them. On a hot plate I can cook a steak in very hot butter, 4-6 minutes per side to get an awesome medium steak. That's less than 15 minutes cooking time. With the pressure cooker I cook entire roasts. I just throw a roast in, set it to cook for 45 minutes (roughly 3 pound roast), then I go to the gym and the meat is cooked when I get back. Another option is to put your meat into a slow cooker at the beginning of your day and it will certainly be done cooking by dinner time.

• Be Creative! and email me if you need ideas

Conclusion on Method 1: This technique will definitely allow you to enjoy yourself as a Carnivore and find out which kinds of meat you want to have on hand. You may choose to have a different type of animal at each meal providing a lot of variety. The hard part can be paying for all the different types of food you buy. Chicken wings for example can be quite expensive or if a Ribeye steak is your favorite meat, that might be expensive as well.

---

Method 2:

I'd like to call this the simple and cheap method. It's beef/cow based. This will be the easiest for those with no time, a small budget, or don't have the desire to consume a variety of meats. For the simple and cheap method I would suggest you go to your source of beef, mine is a grocery store. Yours might be a cattle ranch, a butcher, hunting your meat, or something else. Anyway, go to your beef source and buy a week's worth of Chuck Roast/Steak, or Round Roast/Steak, or Bottom Roast/Steak. For me these are all often the cheapest cuts available. I get Chuck Roasts for $3-$4 per pound. I eat about 3 pounds a day so this comes out to $63-$84 spent a week on my main course. I might spend $10 on eggs every week or so. If cost is not an obstacle for you then just go in there and buy a week's worth of your favorite steak.

At a supermarket where you can talk to the butcher that's even better because you're probably going to clear out the shelves and need more. Especially for those who like Ribeye or New York Strip, they only have 4 or 5 pounds on display at one time where I go. If you can buy in bulk from a cattle ranch then it is up to you how much to buy. If you are a hunter then you don't have much of a choice however, I'm sure you know what you prefer when getting it processed. Just don't get any of your hunted game seasoned because they might put sugar or other undesirable chemicals into your meat.

• Buy a week's worth of the same meat/cut of meat.

The reason for this is so you have the opportunity to master your meal. There is a million ways to prepare a Ribeye steak but you should find your favorite and get good at it. This will keep things interesting despite eating the same meat at every meal. You will look for subtle differences and ways to improve your game.

If you like 3 meals a day I suggest you cook enough meat at dinner time to have leftovers for your meals the next day. This will self regulate itself and I imagine you will soon be eating only 1 or 2 meals a day. I will explain more on this later.

• Master your meat. Learn how to turn your favorite, or least favorite, cut of meat into a delicious meal. I sometimes enjoy a charcoal grilled Chuck steak just as much as a Ribeye.

• Figure out if you like Rare, Medium Rare, Medium, or Well Done

• Grilled or Pan Fried?

• Steak or Roast?

There are a lot of ways to make this simple meal plan interesting and at the same time it will help you progress towards becoming a total Carnivore faster than Method 1. Either method is made with the purpose of channeling your excitement to start into productive activities to support your new way of eating.

Conclusion on Method 2: Simple and easy taking away all the variety of Method 1, Method 2 is good for those who need a cheaper route to Carnivoreland. It also works for those who just don't need the variety in their meals. While focusing on one cut of meat every day you can really learn how to prepare it to perfection every time. That will ensure your Carnivore experience is as delicious as possible.

Things to expect from both methods:

1. You will become a Carnivore: Whether you eat beef, chicken, or fish you will be a Carnivore. When meat is the only thing on your plate you have become a Carnivore. So when that happens take pride in it and accept the title as your own. Nothing will change this if in your mind you know that meat is your main nutrition. Even if you accidentally(or intentionally) eat a plant as long as you know that meat is the right food for you, you are Carnivore.

2. You will be better off cooking: Cooking all your meat is implied in Method 2 but in either path you choose, cooking will help you avoid any danger of eating a food that might push you off the road to optimal health. Eventually you may even find that cooking is preferred to having it made by someone else. You can control the taste and the outcome. Also, cooking a steak takes me 20, maybe 30 minutes. Driving down to a burger joint to order 2 pounds of patties then driving back to my house is going to take just as long and might cost more. I choose steak.

3. Meat will get "boring": This was an initial worry of mine before I started. I'm here to tell you this is a good thing. The reason why it's so hard to give up carbohydrates is because they're addictive. I'm probably going to tell you a thousand times but, the reason you like meat is because your body needs it. The taste of meat is so good because your body is trying to convince you into eating it more often. You will notice that as you have had enough meat it will begin to taste bland and uninteresting; this is your new sign of being full. Your body is turning off the good taste of steak because you've eaten the required amount your body needs in that moment. You will get hungry again and the steak will taste awesome again. At first you might eat 3 meals a day but as the food starts to get monotonous it is your body telling you that you don't need to eat that often. Eventually you will know when you're really hungry instead of just being carb hungry. Without thinking, I eat 1 or 2 meals a day.

Something you should take note of during your first week or so is how much mass you eat. A 3 pound roast is about the size of a stack of copy paper I'd say. I'm speaking relative to my own eating habits, I am a chronic over eater, I eat too much. That 3 pound roast is so much smaller than the same amount of rice and potatoes it would take to fill me up. In my first article I talk about how I ate 10 potatoes a day when I was an Ultra-Vegan. The sensation I got from the potatoes was nowhere close to what I get when I eat my steaks. Most of the time I didn't mind only eating 10 potatoes because it would have taken another hour to bake 10 more. I was never really full nor did I feel as awesome as I do when eating strictly meat. Now you might ask, "If my taste buds are telling me to eat meat by making it taste good then they're also telling me to eat ice cream and cookies because they taste awesome." You're right, they do taste awesome, and your taste buds are telling you to eat those things. The reason for that is the addictive characteristics of carbohydrates and ultimately sugar. If we ran a test of two people, one who could eat as much steak as they wanted and one who could eat as much ice cream as they wanted, each only being able to eat their respective food, do you think the person eating only steak would eat until they were sick? No. Most people eat their steak until they feel the real sensation of being satiated(nutrient demand satisfied) then they have dessert where all of the sudden they can eat a whole bowl of ice cream. "I thought you were full?" I ask then they respond, "I was full on steak but I can eat ice cream all day." If you really ate ice cream to your heart's content you would be sick and probably throw up. I would too don't worry... So doesn't that sound like an overdose? A carb overdose to be exact. When eating sugar we will never feel quite satisfied. Each dose of it will just be holding us over until the next one.

This might feel minor or nonexistent to you but as a chronic eater I understand this feeling all to well. At the end of every meal I was already thinking about the next one to come. I had become a slave to sugar and carbs. This Carnivore Diet saved me and it will save you from the same thing. I feel that it is important to tell you this so you know where your desire for carbs comes from. With that information hopefully you can teach your mind that carbs are not necessary for your health, that they are actually detrimental to it.

If this all sounds like a hoax to you then I again challenge you to take on the Carnivore Diet for a month and keep a journal of your feelings toward your food then go back to your normal diet with carbohydrates included and keep another month's worth of journal entries on your feelings toward that food.

I am not interested in the science I am interested in what I feel and what I experience. I am not drawing anything from studies because I choose not to. I cannot prove these things to you, you must prove them or disprove them to yourself as a human would do naturally. You don't need to read a research paper to know if you're hungry, you feel it. Come find out.

Adam

The Carnivore Human

P.S. I was real excited about this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found value in it. I know it is a lot of information so if I missed anything or you have a question please feel free to email me so I can publish a part 2 or answer your question directly. Next week will be about Thinking Carnivore. Stay tuned and find out what that is. Also, catch up on the other two blogs if you haven't read them already. I appreciate your time and interest in this diet. Please continue your support of this site and me.