Yes... menu:

Turkey
Green beans
Baked sweet potato
Fried cassava
Cranberry sauce, no sugar, used brown rice syrup instead
Corn on the cob

Dessert: apple crisp, made with a nut/oatmail crumble (no flour or sugar, just apples, spices, and almonds and rolled oats)

Yum, Rana - that sounds good!

So, my dad has decided to try this way of eating but he's not quite getting it right. If things have 'a little bit' of flour, he's still eating them. Any advice - should I just let him figure it out on his own or try to provide more info? If the little bits work for him, that's great - I'm just concerned he won't feel the health benefits with flour still in his system. Not sure what it will do for weight loss...

Dancer, has your dad done any of his own reading about eating like this or does he only go on what you tell him?

We all make decisions on how strict we are to this eating plan. I've spoken with a reputable nephfrologist that says the benefits of Paleo/Primal are apparent even with around 80% compliance. It just depends on what people are sensitive to. I am off sugar, grains and legumes, and most processed food, but not dairy. Dairy doesn't bother me at all, but the moment I have flour, I start feeling achy. And with everything else, it spikes my blood sugar. I'm not 100% all the time, but I am most of the time and I feel better overall. On days I eat more dairy, I feel just as good.

Good question, Georgia - I gave him the link to Mark's Daily Apple (that has a bunch of info on what not to and what to eat so maybe I ought to let him find his own way. And he is probably sticking to it about 80%. He lifts weights and definitely needs more carbs/protein than I do.

I'm with you on flour - I'm convinced the reason that I no longer struggle with food cravings and mini-binges is from the total absence of flour. A little bit would be too much for me right now although I'm hoping that someday once I have everything in balance and am at maintenance weight, I might be able to have pizza occasionally. Everything else I'm fine about

I've made it 25 days of being super strict. It's my longest stretch in a long time. I went to the doctor Tuesday and weighed myself 3 weeks after I was weighed the first time. I lost 4 lbs. I was crushed. I feel like I've tried so hard for so little. I know it's only three weeks, but I was diagnosed last week with intracranial hypertension (too much cerbral fluid). Weight loss can put it into remission so I'm really trying. I'm staying away from sodium and eating tons of vegetables and some meat. A very rare piece of fruit or nuts. My calories have been under 1500 a day and carbs 50 - 75 a day. Hopefully the weight will start coming off.

Wendy - I know we're all so different so I'm not trying to say I know what would work for you but I find I lose quicker if I keep my carbs between 35-50g/day. That may not be a comfortable level for you but if you're frustrated and want something new to try, I'm just throwing it out there. Congrats on your disciplined approach - I bet your carb and sugar cravings are so much less than they used to be, right?

Hi everyone- may I join your group? My sweetie and I are going to try going paleo/primal. I found Mark's Daily Apple and the success stories are numerous and compelling. I am buying his book and cookbook. The biggest challenge for me is going to be pasta because I love it, and the fact that I bread so many items in flour before cooking them. The breading I can easily substitute with nut flour, but I guess pasta I'll just have to give up. I don't really have a problem with not eating bread, or sweets. I already don't drink soda or juice. I do drink wine and plan to abstain from that also although I will miss it. I am allergic to dairy but cheat sometimes on cheese. I find that although I'm allergic, since I severely limit dairy in my diet I can cheat occasionally without having a bad reaction. So I don't have milk, cream, sour cream, yogurt etc in my diet, but occasionally cheese. Some of that will be automatically reduced because I'm taking pasta out of my diet- you know how cheese goes with pasta! But I like to make steak with some blue cheese crumbles and such, and plan to continue to do that sometimes.

I'm fortunate this time that my sweetie is on board with trying this with me. In the past, when I was doing a special dietary plan we just ate separately. But this time he wants to lose weight also, and I guess a diet called "primal" didn't sound so scary to him. Haha. We split the cooking chores, so this will make my life a lot easier because he's super at following recipes and I have Mark Sisson's recipe book on order and I know Keith will prepare some on-plan meals using that. He's a carb addict, so we'll see how this goes. In reality I expect nothing will change about his breakfast/lunch habits, just his dinner habits. Since dinner is the only meal we eat together, that at least will help me.

I have a lot to learn about this style of eating, though, and the challenge that I live in Alaska where grass-fed beef and other items are either not available or are hideous expensive since we import nearly 100% of our food from the lower 48 states.

I hope you all don't mind me joining in with you so I can learn from you.

Welcome, eagleriverdee! Mark's daily apple is a great resource - sounds like you are off to a great start! I've been following primal strictly since early Sept and have lost 24lbs - not breaking any records but it has been the easiest weight loss that I have experienced. I always felt deprived on calories counting plans. Best of luck!

Welcome to the group, Dee! I love mark and the primal blueprint but his cookbook is not my favorite. There are tons of great recipes for free on the Internet. Nom nom paleo, theclothesmakethegirl, everyday paleo. I think my favorite cookbook so far is Diane sanfilipo's book but I can't think of the name. I think it's practical paleo.

I also found a great app for collecting recipes off the Internet . It's called paprika. It's super easy to use. I have it on my iPad but its a available on the computer, too. I love it.

Thank you for the welcomes, Dancerindenver and Wendyland.

Wendyland, I've discovered Nomnompaleo (I think because it was mentioned earlier in this thread) but hadn't heard of the others so I'll check those out! Thanks. I'm so new at this that many of the resources are unknown to me but I'll find them. I also noticed Amazon has a good inventory of paleo books and cookbooks. And I'm excited I found this thread. I already feel "lighter" since starting this diet. I've dropped 3 scale pounds which I know is probably just my liver dumping it's glycogen stores and water weight but I feel lighter and less bloated and that's a nice feeling.

Congrats on the 3lb loss!

Well I'm down 2 more pounds now, and so far the diet is going as well as it can. One frustration I have is with my DH. He said he was on board with doing this diet with me, and we rotate cooking chores, so I gave him the "paleo in a nutshell" rundown because he will not read a book but he's not getting it.

His first attempt was brisket- which he slathered in BBQ sauce that had 6 forms of sugar in it. Which he served with potatoes and corn. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, just not on plan. I ate it and thanked him.

His second attempt was lettuce wraps with a turkey-burger stir fry with carrots, water chestnut, peanuts and some sauce from a packet that tasted like solid sugar to me. The basic premise of lettuce wraps was good though.

He's trying, bless his heart, I know he is. But corn is grain. Potatoes are a no-no. Sugar of any sort is a no-no. Peanuts are a legume. Not to mention to add insult to injury the peanuts were old Planters peanuts he found in the cupboard that were rancid and I swear I'll be burping that up for the next two days.

*Sigh*

I can't wait until the cookbooks get here, so he can follow recipes. He's great at following recipes. I just don't know why this is so hard for him. My "nutshell" explanation was that meat and green things were safe. And we both know how to cook meat and vegetables, but all of a sudden it's like he's trying to be creative instead of just going with tried and true that we've done for years.

Sorry, I know this sounds ungrateful and I'm well aware how lucky I am that he cooks! We're just not on the same page diet-wise yet.

Dee - that sounds like a tricky situation to navigate! I can relate a bit - a close friend has decided to try to follow the primal blueprint way of eating without really doing the reading so she's kind of winging it and then asking me questions along the way and complaining that she's tired of eating the same stuff *sigh*. I tried the nutshell explanation too and then got the question - what about corn. I hope the cookbook resolves everything at your house!

I am trying to get back to full paleo. I want to be at least 80% and get close to 95%. Eagle I totally understand. My mother cooked spaghetti today because "she couldn't think of anything else to cook." I purposely made sure we ate the last of the carbs around here and she went and brought some more. I had to explain the plan to her down to the T.

On the good side I tried the Porkitos (prosciutto chips) from NomNomPaleo and wow those are so good they're dangerous. Thankfully prosciutto isn't cheap like a bag of Lays. Oh yeah I tried some swiss chard chips too. They were great.

I made a lovely soup last night for dinner. Just had the leftovers for lunch. Thought I'd share the recipe.

I broke up a head of cauliflower, tossed it with a little olive oil and roasted it. I also chunked a whole yellow onion and roasted it as well. Cooked them till they were soft. Then I put them all in a stock pot, covered them with homemade turkey broth (can use chicken broth too) and heated them till boiling and the veggies were nice and soft. I blended them with my stick blender, then added a half cup of heavy cream and a few ounces of shredded smoked gouda cheese. Stirred it till creamy. Topped each serving with a bit of crumbled bacon and a light sprinkling of cumin. YUM!