Monthly Archives: August 2024

It’s a Trap!

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The Great Accuser is up to his games again.

Sometimes people share things on Facebook, and then I have a little rant in response, which few people see and even fewer care about. TL-DR, you know? But then I remember that I have a blog where I can put these things. Nobody much sees it or cares about it here, either, but it lives longer. Here’s a copy pasta from this morning’s rant, edited for blogworthiness:

Somebody on Facebook shared this quote today, and it is one I have ALWAYS HATED:

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Now, how could anybody hate such humbling, well-stated, Christian-sounding words? Don’t they just inspire you to live better? It sounds good at first, doesn’t it? Why, it’s even at the beginning of one of my favorite DC Talk songs! But then you think about it for a minute.

I’m not living for Jesus so that people can see me and think I’m a Real Christian.

I’m not living for Jesus because there is a single thing I can do for Him.

I don’t live for Him to convince others of His Lordship, though I hope I do.

I’m living for Jesus because He’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

That’s it. That’s my whole reason for bowing the knee to Him. He is everything, and I owe Him everything.

I hate gaslighting. I have never been subject to it, and people who use that tactic to control others hate me. It just doesn’t work. The downside to that is that I’m often a little too sure of myself. But a lot of other people don’t have that quality/failing, and I find they need to be rescued from Satan’s gaslighting from time to time.

Anytime somebody tries to put the blame for other people’s beliefs and actions on you, Christian, you are being lied to. They are lying because they don’t want to hear it. I’ve found over the years, that no matter what my message, only those who have ears to hear will hear it. Everybody else will have an argument, an excuse, and finally an accusation, to deflect the message. That goes for the Gospel, the Meat Life, Homeschooling, and everything else I’ve latched onto that I’ve tried to share with others, both on this blog and in real life. They will either hear it, or they won’t. The onus is not on me.

Anyone who denies Christ does so because he doesn’t want Christ to be Lord in his life. It is not because you are not a good enough Christian. There is no deed good enough that they will change their minds about you, and no sin you can commit that can make you blameworthy for their unbelief. Your human failings will not serve as an excuse when atheists have to stand before the throne of God and try to explain to Him why they rejected His perfect Son.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Their unbelief is on them, Christian. Not on you.

The first quote is from the Great Accuser, who would like to remind you of every sin that Christ has already put under the Blood. He wants you constantly worried about what the World thinks of you. It hampers your prayers with doubt to be constantly trying to measure up in the eyes of a never-satisfied world.

The second quote is from God’s Word.

God has made it plain to them. He is satisfied with you, Christian, because of what His Son did. Live victoriously, not in cowering fear that someone might find out you’re not perfect.

Things Carnivores Say

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That I have never experienced.

Carnivores are always making fantastic claims about what the diet has done for them. And you know what? I believe every single one of them! How could I not? I make some fantastic claims for myself! I’ve healed my allergies (except to ragweed, which reigns champion every fall), asthma (even ragweed doesn’t bring that back), and eczema, lost 60 pounds, cured anxiety, depression, OCD, and a host of other problems! You can read the rest of the blog to hear about all of it. But there are some marvelous benefits that almost all carnivores say they have experienced that I, to date, have not.

I’ve been carnivore for seven years come November, so I’ve been eating this way plenty long enough to say for sure whether these effects are something everybody should expect. I say no. Some of this Meat Magic may pass you by, no matter what other benefits you receive. You may experience the following effects, and I hope you do. Practically everybody else seems to, but I have not.

Thing #1: Carnivores don’t fart anymore.

I hate to lead off with potentially embarrassing information about myself. I know it’s not ladylike, but I still toot. It does not smell bad at all. I never have gas, bloating, tummy pain, or anything like that. But air still puffs out from time to time, especially when I eat butter. In fact, it smells faintly of butter. Sorry if that’s tmi, but it’s true. Butter makes me fart.

Woman covering her mouth, saying oops, with a little green cloud behind her, indoors

Thing #2: Carnivores don’t get sore after a hard workout anymore.

While I am very glad for anybody who is able to say this, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), is not something I’ve left behind. I don’t know what this means for my health. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. But when I lift super-heavy, I still feel it the next day! I actually like that feeling, because it means I broke past my comfort barrier and really did something. Most people don’t like to be in pain, so I’m happy for those who can still walk upstairs and sit down without groaning the day after leg day.

But I just haven’t seen this for some reason. Still sore, and still happy to be that way!

Thing #3: Carnivores never miss certain foods.

You’d think desserts would be the hardest thing to pass up, having gone off the sugar, but the biggest struggle for me is to not put collard greens in my face. “Well, why not just have some delicious, good-for-you leafy greens then, you freak? You even cook it with bacon!” Because, my friend, something about fiber-rich foods makes my OCD come back with a vengeance! I like having eyebrows, and collard greens make me pull my hair. I know that sounds nuts, but it’s true, and I’ve cheated with leafy greens enough to know for sure that I can’t have that stuff. I do pick out the greens-flavored bacon and enjoy that, though. I can get away with that.

I’m sure other people struggle with certain foods, as well. I’m not above lingering over the dessert table to smell the delicious food, myself. I’ve just gotten used to the idea that these foods are a pleasant memory. I can miss them, but they are dead to me.

Thing #4: Carnivores don’t get sunburn any more. 

This, sadly, is another myth for me. I kept waiting for the day that I would be able to spend unlimited amounts of time in the sun without getting a burn, and it never came. Now, I always just burnt a little in the early summer, peeled, and then had a nice tan the rest of the summer. I never had a big problem with burning anyway. But I do still get a painful glow if I don’t remember to get out of the sun during the most intense hours of the day.

One thing I have noticed is that I don’t burn as much if I don’t sit still. Running at noon in direct summer sun? No problem. Sitting for the same length of time? Burn, baby, burn! So maybe the rest of those carnivores who are not burning anymore are just suddenly moving a lot more than they used to, dodging those slowpoke sun-rays!

Thing #5: The bugs don’t bite me any more.

I’ve heard so many people say the bugs don’t bite them anymore. As with all of these things, I believe them! They’re mosquito-repellent all of a sudden. What a blessing! Amazing things happen when you change your body chemistry so completely. But I’m sitting here scratching this very minute, and so are my meat-heavy children. I dunno. You can form your own theories about why that might be.

How about you, carnivores, and non-carnivores alike? Do you have any dietary expectations that haven’t quite been fulfilled by the way you’re eating right now? Comments are open, and I’d sure love to get something besides spam in here! Let me know!

Also, while I’ve got you here, I’m asking for donations to fund my next run. Help me get to the Black Bear Half Marathon:

 

Off The Races Again!

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With your kind help.

I want to run the Black Bear Half Marathon in October, but between needing to refill the hole in our savings after a MASSIVE septic system failure last year and having a number of young mouths to feed, I do not have the spending money required to make it happen. If you, Dear Reader, would like to help out, or feel like this blog has benefited or entertained you, and you’d like to support my endeavors in some way, I’ve set up a GoFundMe page to try to get enough money to buy shoes, entry fee, a room to stay in, and a little bit of tech for training.

Please pitch in only if you have a few extra dollars and it would make you happy to do so!

4 Under 45 on My 45th!

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Not too bad for an old gal!

A couple of months ago, I told you all I had a running goal to beat by my birthday. I just know you’ve thought of nothing else since then, right? Well, I wanted to hurry up and post my results so you can get back your normal life, so here you go.

I had picked completely arbitrary numbers to try to beat. I was still 44, so I wanted to run 4 miles in 44 minutes or less. Alas, I forgot that I was supposed to do the race before turning 45. I just realized yesterday, after doing a leg workout, that I had misremembered my own goal. Smart, huh? Now just imagine the chaos when I’m trying to follow somebody else’s rules. So I turned my challenge into a birthday run. I needed to do something fun for myself today, anyhow.

As I said in the announcement post, I knew the original goal of 4 10-minute miles in a row was out of reach for me in that short amount of time, so I eased it up to 4 miles in 44 minutes. Did I make my goal? Well…

Sorta. It’s within the 44 minutes. I am as ecstatic with this result as if I had shaved off that last 45 seconds! Just look how cool those numbers are! 4 in 44:44, 313 calories (as if that mattered at all), 145 bpm at 45. I just think this is numerologically neat, ridiculous as numerology is.

My fastest 5k to date, as well, except for one fluke back before I got a new watch and lost the old data. I can’t prove it, but I had a 32-minuteish 5k once. Anyway, today’s 5k:

The first several seconds of my run were comprised of Myself arguing with Myself over whether she actually wanted to be doing this today. I was moving, but not really. You know how it is. No starting gun, no adrenaline rush. Next time I’ll have a kid out there with a gun. Why didn’t I think of that?

I guess you could say I missed the mark, if you wanted to be a Negative Nancy about it. But I don’t. I am a Positive Polly. I did 4 miles under 45 on my 45th! If you’re chasing arbitrary numbers (as I do), that’s pretty neat! And I expect sometime in the next month or two to hit my real goal of consistent, consecutive 10-minute miles. I’m improving!

What went wrong:

Now, in retrospect, some things could have gone better. My slow start due to feeling like crap is the thing I feel worst about. I really should have grabbed that thing by the…you know…the thing, and just RUN. There were also a couple of times I slowed down because I was daydreaming. I had no spectators besides some thoroughly underwhelmed cows, so that slowed me down a little.

I did pass one very nice gal in a Subaru who smiled so big it relit my fire for a good half mile.

I forgot to tank up on electrolytes before I went. Who knows? That might have been a good or a bad thing. Less chance of stomach-sloshies or needing to pee. But I do usually feel like having my drink before I go makes me feel better. I think that “mistake” probably didn’t affect me either way.

Like my first real race, I didn’t sleep well the night before. I don’t know why I’m always scheduling my races while I am pre-menstrual, but both runs were preceded by a miserable sleepless night due to hormones. Carnivore has taken care of every single one of my PMS symptoms except that one night of insomnia a couple of nights before I start. I think that if I’d “fat fast” the couple of days before it, that might solve this problem. Gonna try that next month. If anybody has any other ideas what to do about this, I’d be happy to hear it! Drop a comment!

Last night I was pretty sure, given my mood and this massive cold I seem to be coming down with, that I was going to have to post something pretty embarrassing today. I didn’t even want to do it, I was so draggy and sad and sniffly. But I did it anyway.

What went right:

Once I started moving, I had fun, and felt really good. If running weren’t fun for me, I’d find something else to do with my scant leisure time. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Zone 2 training, Maffetone method, and the like. A few weeks ago, I decided to change the way I run, backing off to a less impressive speed most of the time, in order to keep my heartrate down. Even though I was pretty sure it would knock me out of achieving this goal, I felt in the long run that it would make me much, much faster, and (more importantly) healthier. But slowing down all those weeks, surprisingly, didn’t stop me! It made me better, even in such a short time. That 145 avg heart rate is very good for me at that pace! I’m over the moon about this!

I have a really good sense of how I will perform. As with my April race, I was gratified to see that my estimate of what I am capable of, and then my ability to get pretty close to that, are fairly accurate. I set ambitious goals, and I really do try to reach those. But I am also very good at not getting so ambitious as to discourage myself. I like how good my instincts are for how far I can go on the training load I am able to fit into my busy life. Especially since I focus more on strength than running, I am stoked to see how much I have improved in a short time, just because I’m turning out to be a good trainer.

I didn’t talk myself out of the win. 

I felt like crap, y’all. All I could think all morning was “Why do I do these things to myself?” Well, I do them because that’s just who I am now: Not a quitter. Not a fearer. Not a loser. Not even that extra 45 seconds made a loser of me. I’m just too happy with how far I’ve come!

Don’t ever talk yourself out of a win, friends. Maybe you can’t measure up to the gal next door, and you sure won’t ever beat the one on social media who’s been running for years (Michelle Hurn, I’m looking at you!), but you can do your best for that day. It might hurt. It might come at some cost. But you can do something to make today a win. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make your day feel like a good one, whether it’s your birthday or not. Take the bull by the horns. I did, and now I don’t have to go my whole birthday feeling like a loser.

I did GOOD, y’all! I gave myself a wonderful birthday present. I pushed myself and got some very cool numbers at the end, no manipulation.

I WON!