Natalia: You are right, and you were kind about it. I am working to gain better control. I can honestly say that the impact is huge on my choices even when I'm not trying to "be good" my choices are way different than before I tried paleo. I choose grilled over breaded (never wulda happened b4). I choose nonstarchy sides as much as I can (not normal). And I care less and less what others think about it. I routinely eat a piece of fruit about 3PM while my officemate eats a candy bar. I wish I had remembered to pack a lunchbox of snacks when I forget and end up WISHING for an apple (that never happened before either). I need to ratchet it down another notch towards paleo. I did only have 4 foods off plan yesterday. Today, I'll should be completely on plan the rest of the day.
I've done carb counting before, with moderate success. The difficulty is I'm a slow loser anyway and eventually I'll drift away from it. I've found less drifting with paleo as my choices remain good on most things I eat. I've not viewed it as all or nothing.
Dana Carpender! OMG, if the recipe for Joe is in there that's a staple at my house. I whip it up for supper, and we finish it for breakfasts or lunch boxes. The chili dog casserole rocks. Fauxtatoes we even eat when not "dieting." I just nuke bag of cauli, pulverizer of your choice (blender, food proc...), add butter, salt and pepper during pulverizing. Don't add liquids to mine, makes them too runny. Have added cream cheese, shredded cheese or sour cream with good results. Excellent with steak if u spruce them up, perfect plain with meatloaf. Those are my standby's but I'm sure there are more I'm just not thinking of right now.
Exercise won't be a prob today, DH and I have decided to clean the garage - and that's a major undertaking. Prob is I don't know where he is right now. Well, sometime today we're gonna tackle that heapomess we call a garage. Maybe after my tea.....
HEY, almost completely on plan yesterday. One off plan choice - had a caramel sunday at the end of the day. That's it. SOOOO much more control than I had been having, of course, I was at home, so odds were more in my favor.
Today, almost completely on plan. Had usual bkfst, hot wings with salad at work for lunch, apple in afternoon, 3 pieces candy (oops, sliding). Supper involves pasta, but that's still closer than I've been for awhile to primal. I'm working in the right direction. And it wasn't so hard today. Tomorrow I'll get even better! I think I can I think I can I think I can....
Just another quick fly by to say howdy! No time to read everything, but I will catch up soon (I hope). Made some delicious curry soup this weekend... yum!
My name's Shannon and I just started eating primal/paleo a couple weeks ago. At first, it started because a trainer at my gym suggested that I don't eat carbs after 5pm. I started looking around on the internet to see if that "did" anything, and I ended up coming across paleo/primal stuff and it seemed pretty interesting.
I cut out my morning toast and also have stopped eating dairy. I LOVE bananas but how shocking is it that there are like 27g of carbs in each banana?
I try to keep my carbs way low on days where I'm not working out and add in fruit and sweet potatoes before or after a tough workout.
I used to be big into calorie counting, so I feel like I'm still in this limbo stage where I'm like "is this really going to work??".... especially when I'm eating an avocado or using coconut milk or even just olive oil!
Just thought I'd join the conversation in here, if that's okay, to keep me on track and have a place to talk to other people going through the same eating challenges as I am!
Shannon: Welcome!!! I agree with what you are doing, and whole heartedly agree we must find our own path. There is NO one size fits all diet, except for the one that doesn't work for most people that our gov't promotes.
Today: 3 items off plan - and one was candy when my Sugar dropped. The other 2 sneaks were a roll with lunch and 1 bite of potato chip tonight. So, not a bad day. Tomorrow I'm aiming for tighter control. I'm not beating myself up, but this reporting in to you guys is making me feel more accountable. Getting better. Even my sneaks are smaller in quantity.
I'm relatively new here too and I really identify with everyone here. I just started this paleo WOE fairly recently, I'd say I'm about two weeks really into it. I'm not sure this is working for me yet as I haven't seen any definitive results. The first few weeks of anything that I've done over the last few years results in about a 5-10 lb weight loss. I gain that back after about six months, at which point, I'm desperately trying not to give up but losing hope and looking for something new.
I'm monitoring everything with the livestrong daily plate feature and trying to stay within a certain amount of calories. I listened to "Why We Get Fat" and Gary Taubes makes so much sense to me. I like the notion that people who have excess fat shouldn't be demonized and made to feel at fault. I really have tried all my life to lose weight, I struggled when I was 18 and I struggle now at 45. It makes sense to me that each time I tried to change my WOE from a very protein centered one to a grain centered one, I gained weight and after a while I couldn't lose it anymore.
I am doing this with caution because I'm not convinced that this is the way for me and it's tenets are very counter to conventional wisdom and what I've known to be "true". It's good to be able to read the experiences of others who are giving this a try as well.
I had some success with calorie counting quite some time ago. Over the last two years my weight has gone up and down and success has been inconsistent. I've learned a lot about my body and self, namely that:
1) Dairy gives me acne. Wish I knew that at 19.
2) Bread and pasta, formerly a huge part of my diet, leaves me gassy and bloated.
While calorie counting, I learned that cutting them out made me feel a LOT better, even if i didn't lose weight! I've stuck to low dairy, but breads, not so much. I've gained ten pounds back.
Someone on this site made a reference to to Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint plan and I have to say it really matches a lot of what I've learned about myself.
I don't want to calorie count any more. Too much work and it makes me too obsessed. I'm not sure if I can really stick to counting grams of carbs daily, but I'm going to give it a solid shot through April
Honestly, right now, it seems like something I can stick to (and even get my man into as well. maybe. )
I'm doing ok, but unfortunately it's another rough week at work. I actually IF'ed today because I was simply too danged busy to eat. I had coffee and cream and coconut milk before work (yes, both cream and coc milk!). At lunch I was running between the computer lab, my classroom, and the copy room to make last minute copies. Every other day I have no planning time, and on my no planning day I teach 4 preps - STRESS!
I broke my fast at about 3:00 with a handful of almonds. Ugh.
30 minute walk, pork tenderloin and spinach for dinner, now off to grade some papers.
Come on, Spring Break!!!!
Hope everyone else is well and having a less stressful week than I am. Miss chatting and hope to get all caught up on the thread this weekend.
Welcome newcomers! I'm all about trying new things, and I hope this thing is the path is for you.
Today: Better. Off plan only with 2 choices Getting closer.... The two off plan items were breaded chicken strips and a moon pie - no, not together. The moon pie came about because I had a hypoglycemic episode, ate some fruit, but wasn't coming out of it fast enough. I may need to start keeping a little fruit juice for those moments. It seems, no matter what my diet if I don't eat a solid snack at 3pm I have a sugar crash. Makes ok sense, I'm usually busy, and I eat lunch around 11. I need to make myself have a SACRED 3PM snack time at work. IF sounds good until your hands shake. Lesson learned.....
Today was a good day although I had about 3 fruits... Made it to the gym but not running and tomorrow I work later so I can't even get to the gym or run, oh well, some weeks are better than others.
Kel, I find that when I IF and have eaten a lot of carbs I get the shakes but if I stick to very low carb I'm ok, we're all so different aren't we ...
Well other than that not to darn much going on in my life, so TTFN
Hey everybody!!! Glad to see some new chicks as well
I am 100% back on track. Those darned croissants! Today was perfect, clean and serene. Picked up a few Atkins bars, made a dip. Oh, and tried a few new-to-me low carb recipes!!
Kale chips- well IMO they weren't as good as everyone said. Fragile. Green aftertaste. But that said, a very satisfying crunch ! I might make again.
Fauxtatoes- added butter, salt and sour cream. Very tasty. Will make again. Hub liked em too
Cauli rice- while the flavor was okay, these definitely were not fooling anyone. Pain to make. Will not make again.
Still haven't really started exercising yet, still in more than average pain- but did score a pain med script from my gastro...focusing more kn keeping the house clean and tidy, also purging a bunch of stuff, and dragging up bins of summer stuff to see what I'll need to get d for shorts etc
Put a bunch of c's stuff in his too- small bin, and moved the mitts, hats etc from the baskets to space bags to store. Also cleaned the clutter in the car &got a new extension cord. Tomorrow if I'm up to it will be vacuuming the car and armoralling it.
I'm glad spring has pretty much sprung and it came quicker this year. I usually find February dreadfully depressing ..but spring lends more to a positive mood and it's not a stretch now go think about having to wear shorts and baring more skin. I am tired of being self conscious and overweight!
Sounds like everyone else is having an on plan day, too!
Good job, ladies!!
How much fat do you guys have in your day? Adding fat, to me, is just the scariest part because its so against "conventional diet wisdom." I guess I could just test it out and see how my body reacts? I'm just worried its gonna backfire or something!
This morning I had a nutrition appointment with my trainer... she took one look at the bacon, avocados, and red meat on my list and almost had a heart attack! She was shocked when I got on the scale and I'd lost weight. To be honest, though, I think that most of that weight loss came from BEFORE I started eating this way? What if the weight loss is happening in SPITE of this and not BECAUSE of it? Eeek. These are just all my insecurities... I think I just need to trust the process more because I've spent some time looking at Before/After pics on Mark's Daily Apple Forums and WOWWWWW.
@TheMeIWant2B I think the lack of the big "whoosh" at the beginning is one of the main reasons that all the primal/paleo sites tell you to lose the scale. I've been a little disappointed that I haven't seen the weight just "fall off," but I also see changes in my body/mood that I'm really excited about.
@Natalia Thanks for reviewing all the dishes I've been thinking about trying! I saw kale at the grocery store yesterday... picked it up and put it back down. Just didn't get inspired about the kale chips thing. Are fauxtatoes with cauliflower, too? Cauliflower rice, to me, seems sooo time consuming. And I don't have a food processor... yet. I didn't like rice before I gave up grains, though, either. But I think it would go well with some of the Indian and Middle Eastern flavored dishes I've been trying.
Well, sometime today we're gonna tackle that heapomess we call a garage. Maybe after my tea.....
SOOOO much more control than I had been having, of course, I was at home, so odds were more in my favor.
... I for one will never go back to the "old calories in/out" way of eating.... I feel so less bloated this way too... Good luck...
and bloated. 
)
Newbies 
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nothing to report!
