I’m going full ketogenic for July. No foods or drinks that come from plants. That’s right I’m doing a 30-Day No Carb Challenge. Let’s see if eating just animal foods is possible. Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net and amenic181.

Well this should be interesting. I love my veggies, avocado, plum tomatoes, coconut oil and seasonings. But in the interest of my diet, I decided to give them all up in July. Yep, I’m going from 20g of net carbs a day to 0g total carbs.

That means no vegetables or fruits of any kind. No garlic. No leafy greens. No berries. No coffee or tea. No alcohol!!!!! No spices or seasonings, except for salt. If it comes from a plant, I’m giving it up in July.

Why am I doing this? Why not. Sometimes its good to shake things up. Also many LCHF folks experiment with this and many find it much easier to stick to. For me, the idea of giving up my morning avocado seems impossible, but I’m going to try.

What Can I Eat & Drink?
For 30 days the only foods I’ll eat comes from animals. Drinking is also restricted.

• Beef
• Seafood
• Lamb
• Pork
• Poultry
• Game meats
• Organ meats
• Eggs
• Bacon/sausage/salami/Jerky (no additives, nitrates, or added sugar)
• Healthy Fats: ghee, tallow (beef or lamb), duck fat and bacon drippings
• Limited Dairy: hard cheeses, heavy cream, grass-fed butter (oh, yes!!!)
• Water
• Sparkling Water (no sweeteners added)
• Bone Broth

Technically this isn’t a true zero carb challenge. Eggs have trace amounts of carbs as does cream. Likewise, organ meats and shellfish (due to eating the organs of shellfish) can be very high in carbs. But they are also excellent sources of healthy fats and supply the vitamins and minerals my body needs.

So it’s nothing but animal foods…fatty animal foods.

The plan is to eat around 78% fat, 20% protein and 2% carbs daily.

Dot, Why The “Extreme?”
I don’t agree that giving up vegetables and my limited fruit selection for 30 days is terribly extreme for me. If someone is gluten intolerant, no one tells that person to eat whole wheat bread in moderation. Nor do we tell an alcoholic to cut back on the alcohol. I do believe there are extreme diets – the low fat dogma comes to mind.

But when you are metabolically damaged, sometimes you need to eliminate certain foods or even whole food groups. That’s not extreme. That’s moderation.

While the human body needs fat and protein to survive, carbs are not essential. All vitamins and nutrients can be found in animal foods, especially organ meats.

Now I’m not advocating that everyone give up vegetables and fruit.  Heck, I’m planning to add them back in after this little experiment, but possibly fewer than I eat now.

To Track or Not To Track?
Normally zero carb eaters don’t do any tracking – food, calories, macros, or ketones. They just really focus on their hunger signals. Which is awesome and a place I’d love to get to at some point because writing down what I eat everyday for the rest of my life doesn’t seem realistic.

However for this challenge I intend to track it all.

How else am I to know if this is a viable healthy lifestyle or not.