Finding community

[SusanneUK]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and wanted to introduce myself. Is this forum new? It's so awesome to find this - in my continued quest to minimise my Facebook use, and to find a message board that is actually easy to navigate by topic, this here is a Godsend!

I was a member of ZIOH back in 2009, and did this for a short time. But I was hopelessly stuck in my food addiction and mental obsession, so did not stay. Before and after my short stint into ZIOH, I was vegan; 1999ish to 2020. What can I say about that time - I think my body coped better than many, at least I didn't develop any major conditions apart from polycystic ovaries; but I was fat, tired, and in very bad shape. Mentally, things were desperate.

In 2004, I found a 12-Step programme for food addiction where I had to plan my meals for the next day in advance, commit them to my sponsor every day, and eat exactly what I had committed. That was three meals a day, weighed and measured precisely. This was a low-carb programme in that it elimiated sugars, grains and starches; but I was using soya as my protein, so it still wasn't all that healthy. It did get me out of the mental obsession, however.

I left that programme in 2008/9, and that's when I went totally off the rails and then tried to pull myself out of that haze by going zero carb. But I did not stay. Today, looking back, I'm really unable to say why I didn't stick with it for the long term - maybe I hadn't suffered enough yet? I left, went vegan again, and things went out of control really fast. Bingeing and fasting, sugar fog, madness. So eventually I went back into that 12-Step programme, and stuck with that for four years.

In late 2023 though, it began to chafe. I was less and less willing to go to these lengths, to prepare all my meals and weigh and measure them, to spend so much time on preparing and still not having mental freedom. I remembered ZC.

On 1st February I took the plunge, and it took a lot of courage - would I lose all control again? I did not. The four years of recovery, away from sugars and grains and starches, had given me a basis to stand on. Now I'm able to think long-term, not worry about what the scale says this week. My weight has gone up since the switch (as the previous diet was rather restrictive) but I can trust that meat won't make me obese, and I'm here for my health and for the long haul. But also, for peace with food, which I finally and for the first time in my life truly feel. That right there is the greatest thing for me right now.

Good to be here. I hope to meet some companions on this road, get involved, really find community here - which is so hard to do on FB. Please do say hi if you've read this. All the best!

[Geezy]

Welcome Susanne, we are so glad you could join us.
From your journey in dieting you have accumulated some wisdom that may help others around here.
It also seems that you have discovered what so many fail to realize and that is diets do not work. They are not sustainable.
Your knowledge has brought you to the realization that eating for health and well-being is a lifestyle and not a diet in the conventional sense.
Carnivore is a lifestyle commitment to health. It will bring optimal health and optimal weight.
As I’m fond of saying, “ I don’t eat a carnivore diet, I am carnivore.
Thank you for joining our tribe.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Miranda]

I tried wfpb in 2017 but was never really happy with the food. My search for answers to vegan problems led me to the anti-vegan algorithms and then into fasting and carnivore. I have been watching from the sidelines and dabbling since 2020. I thought fasting was going to be my answer, but the eat whatever you want in a 5 hour window just wasn't working for me. I began to develop hormonal symptoms and carnivore has alleviated some and reversed some. Also I just feel overall happier.

[Bob]

On 4/26/2024 at 8:55 AM, SusanneUK said:

I'm new here and wanted to introduce myself. Is this forum new? It's so awesome to find this - in my continued quest to minimise my Facebook use, and to find a message board that is actually easy to navigate by topic, this here is a Godsend!

Yes, it is new. We went live last September, so we're only 7 months old.

I've been a forum junkie since the 90's and like you I prefer communities centered around topical based discussions. Social media really doesn't provide that.

On 4/26/2024 at 8:55 AM, SusanneUK said:

I was using soya as my protein, so it still wasn't all that healthy.

I can relate. When I first discovered low carb and keto, soy was revered as a wonderful substitute. I consumed lots of it back in the day.

On 4/26/2024 at 8:55 AM, SusanneUK said:

The four years of recovery, away from sugars and grains and starches, had given me a basis to stand on. Now I'm able to think long-term, not worry about what the scale says this week. My weight has gone up since the switch (as the previous diet was rather restrictive) but I can trust that meat won't make me obese, and I'm here for my health and for the long haul. But also, for peace with food, which I finally and for the first time in my life truly feel. That right there is the greatest thing for me right now.

Awesome! These individuals that go carnivore cold turkey (that is, abruptly) - power to them. I couldn't have done it like that. I had to build on what I had learned in the low carb space and gradually adopt carnivore. And like you, I am in this for the long-haul, and I swear I will never go back to my former way of eating.

On 4/26/2024 at 8:55 AM, SusanneUK said:

Good to be here. I hope to meet some companions on this road, get involved, really find community here - which is so hard to do on FB. Please do say hi if you've read this. All the best!

Hi!

My name is Bob, and I am from Northeast Ohio, USA.

[SusanneUK]

9 hours ago, Miranda said:

I thought fasting was going to be my answer, but the eat whatever you want in a 5 hour window just wasn't working for me. 

Oh goodness, same!! I actually did IF for five years, with a five hour eating window. Five years, and it NEVER got easier. I'm a breakfast person, I wake up hungry, so I ended up miserable all morning - around my kids. Not good. 

Plus, I can eat volume, so when I was finally able to eat I would have a healthy meal and then all bets were off - I couldn't stop, I couldn't control what I was eating, so I basically binged my way through five hours until I could physically eat no more, and I was GAINING weight towards the end. Starving AND fat. Misery!

Like you, I'm so glad to be here and to feel so peaceful around food. My entire life I've never felt this way.

[SusanneUK]

8 hours ago, Bob said:

I've been a forum junkie since the 90's and like you I prefer communities centered around topical based discussions. 

Thanks for the welcome, Bob! I'm the same, I quit smoking in 1999 with the help of a message board like this - it was the hardest thing I'd ever done, but that community pulled me through. So I know the power of these, and have never found this in social media! 

(This makes me sound very old... I'm not THAT old, I just quit smoking at 19 after a pack-a-day habit from age 13)

[Miranda]

1 hour ago, SusanneUK said:

quit smoking at 19 after a pack-a-day habit from age 13)

That's my mom. She smoked from 9 ish to 21- thank God she quit. My Dad was a closet smoker. I was a closet smoker after my daughter was born. I started in early 1990's and quit in 2008.  I also prefer boards/forums to the scrolling type media. This type is based on interaction and scrolling media is really just for transmitting/bragging.

[Miranda]

2 hours ago, SusanneUK said:

Oh goodness, same!! I actually did IF for five years, with a five hour eating window. Five years, and it NEVER got easier. I'm a breakfast person, I wake up hungry, so I ended up miserable all morning - around my kids. Not good. 

Plus, I can eat volume, so when I was finally able to eat I would have a healthy meal and then all bets were off - I couldn't stop, I couldn't control what I was eating, so I basically binged my way through five hours until I could physically eat no more, 

Exactly, and binging on "health" foods like chickpeas is no better than binging on ice cream. It's just plain disordered eating.

[Bob]

19 hours ago, SusanneUK said:

I quit smoking in 1999 with the help of a message board like this... I'm not THAT old, I just quit smoking at 19

Awesome! I smoked from summer 1993 to October 7th, 2000 and haven't touched one since. I quit a month before I turned 25. 

17 hours ago, Miranda said:

scrolling media is really just for transmitting/bragging.

Social ME-dia. Me, me, me, me, look at me!