Meat for the Mind? – Experimenting with the Carnivore Diet for Mental Health
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019
*** If you would like to read about my rationale for starting this diet, my first post about this is available here.
- Sleep: About 7 and a half hours. Vivid anxious dreams. Hard time getting out of bed.
- Food consumed: 11:00 AM: Coffee with theanine and a little butter.
2:40 PM: A peach and 2 tbsp of peanut butter.
6:30 PM: About 8 oz of rib steak and two over-easy fried eggs.
For dessert, a sweet potato, baked in the oven, then cooked a bit more on the stove with butter, coconut oil and a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon. It was glorious and tasted like pumpkin pie.
- Mood: Better than usual. In the evening, Jared and I were listening to Heilung, while he ate his steak and I ate my amazing sweet potato. The music was wonderful and I was surprised to find that I felt somewhat good all of a sudden. I realized that I haven’t been putting on my own music lately, because it just feels like another task with no purpose. In that moment, I remembered how enjoyable music could be.
- Energy levels / physical feelings: Decent energy. We did 10 by 10 sets of burpees on a 53 second timer (with a couple extras thrown in at the beginning and end). My shoulder was a little stiff but other than that, they were difficult as usual but fine.
- Poop?: One at 1:00 AM and another at 11:00 AM
- Unusual events of the day: Jared and I spent some time drawing together. He drew a colourful fish as a card for his granny and I drew a terrible picture of him. It was nice to draw together.
I was offered a role in a play last night. I am happy about it albeit a little hesitant since I am still not very stable. However, theatre has helped me through a lot of difficulties in the past because I love it so much. But every play is a big commitment of time and energy. The last play I did was Othello, where I played Emilia, dealing with domestic abuse on and off the stage. I have been taking a break for over a year and a half, while recovering from everything that had happened in my life during that time.
For the past little while, trying to sort myself out, I keep thinking I should get back into theatre to cheer myself up. However, you really have to love it to do a good job and I have felt no positive feelings towards any type of activity. To feel nothing about theatre has felt a bit soul crushing. But there was a glimmer of eagerness when I found out I’d gotten the role. From what I’ve read so far, I really like the writing of this play. Maybe I can drag myself out of this hole yet! Maybe this will help provide me with more of an internal sense of purpose.
OH! Also, a bunch of articles came out yesterday, calling into question the rationale behind the many large health organizations (WHO, NHS, etc) telling the population to cut out red meat:
– https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2752328/unprocessed-red-meat-processed-meat-consumption-dietary-guideline-recommendations-from
– https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/red-meat-diet-controversy-1.5304005
– https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/10/02/red-meat-study-known-health-risks-unfounded-doctors-decry-guidelines/3838947002/
I find it funny that this is all coming back around again, and causing such a stir, even though the same studies this new evidence is refuting were debunked in Nourishing Traditions in 1995.
Thinking in Stomp-Claps 