Saturday, September 12, 2009

Carnivorous Catch-Up!

Oops, in the madness of yesterday and the slog of today, I forgot to post. Possibly a good thing, since yesterday was a bit of an adventure and the story may be best served with a dose of normality and restraint, courtesy of today's menu...

So, yesterday morning I served myself a nice, juicy lamb backstrap for breakfast, cooked rare:


Looks good, huh? Sadly, and weirdly, I could only stomach two bites! Tasteless, and the texture was just creeeeepy... So apparently I only like my lamb backstrap when its rolled up with pesto and bocconcini, and slow-roasted to deliciousness!

What to do about breakfast? Well, I was all out of eggs, and there was no meat that I could cook in the few minutes I had before having to head to work, and nothing I could package up to take to work, so I had to go for the only other vaguely zero-carb food item in the fridge - cheese & cream. I quickly fried up a hunk of haloumi in some lard, scoffed it down, slurped a couple of spoonfuls of pure cream, and was out the door with more than enough in the tank to get me through a long day!

So after my less-than-ideal breakfast, I decided that rather than writing off the day as imperfect, I'd make the most of the situation by performing a true dairy tolerance test. That's right - a day of dairy-only!

Being Friday, I was keen to get home as soon as the final lesson was over, so around 4pm I grabbed the remaining haloumi out and fried it up for a late lunch. I also had a bit of organic gouda - I'm officially a fan! Again, I washed it down with some cream, mainly because I know some people end up constipated if they eat too much cheese, so I wanted to up the fat intake. I also began defrosting the chest of a chicken for the beau's dinner. He doesn't like the wings though, so I decided to eat them - mostly skin, anyway, and a nice back-up in case the dairy experiment went wrong.


Then it was off to the theatre via train, all alone but for the gurglings of a stomach ill-adapted to being filled with cheese and cream! A very good play - Rockabye by Joanna Murray-Smith. Worth a watch - the social and cultural concerns it presented are still buzzing in my mind...

By the time the play was over, the gurgles were gone, and I felt fine in all respects. Especially with the promise of my usual Saturday sleep-in ahead of me...

Twelve solid snooze-hours later, I woke up to a nice warm day and hours of essay-marking. Joy. Since my food log indicated that most of the past week has been spent around 400kcal above my ideal intake (the same as my last carnivore experiment, actually) I decided to fast for as long as my concentration held up. This would also allow me to monitor my digestion of dairy. Result - my intestines tended towards quirkiness, with some bubbles and aches from time to time.

At 3pm I was hungry and a little dazed (mostly due to all the marking, surely) so I grabbed three eggs and scrambled them in 1/4 cup of coconut oil. Oh yes, 1/4 cup. I intended this to be all I ate for the day, but the meal didn't stick for long at all. And the intestinal quirkiness was amplified by the coconut oil - I think perhaps my body copes with dairy better than with CCO, at least in that quantity... Why didn't I use my lovely lard? Argh...


So then, at only 5pm, I turned to my trusty pile of Organic Direct porterhouse steaks, and grilled up a little beauty for dinner:


Delicious! I could easily eat one of those for every meal, though I would probably end up broke... Worth it! Just look at that fat!!

So my caloric intake today was around the 1000kcal mark, and I'm feeling great. I'll probably feel better once Friday's indulgence passes, but hey... Always good to take a convenient moment to check what your body likes and doesn't like. It helps to keep us on track. I'm going to keep tomorrow's intake low as well, since I'm not doing anything except more marking (yay) so it's a good time to run the risk of fatigue, hunger, and ketosis breath!

Eight more days until Thailand! The plan - animal products only until leaving time, meaning lots of fatty meat and lard, a maximum of one egg per day (averaged), and teeny amounts of butter on steaks if I absolutely must! I hope to live on meat while in Thailand, making the most of the seafood access, but since I don't know what the portions and access will be like, I don't have my hopes up just yet. Fingers crossed though...

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