This is my goal. I love this philosophy. I'm not following it (note: muscle milk drink once a week or so), but it's a work in progress. I hope to eventually have a freezer in a future garage of a future house, where we can keep all the cuts from a side of beef from a cow that was raised in a pasture. I would *love* to have my own chickens and have fresh eggs, too.

Bob, I am a fan of the nuts, too. :D yum.

CJ, I think bob posted some great links and I love what Susan and kap have to say as well. If you haven't read Good Calories Bad Calories, you might get lots out of it. It convinced me that sat fat is not the devil. Among other things. That book is what brought me to primal eating. Seeing how you have lost so much weight eating essentially primal is a super bonus!

We are a lovely and diverse group! Love it!

I can't bring myself to eating the high fat meats and such, even bacon, but tonight I ate around the bone of a good steak :hun: ... Today I baked some red velvet cupcakes, I now know why I quit baking things :rolleyes: about 15 years ago, I eat more of the batter and icing as I am making it... I could :frypan: myself, now I have a headache and feel very jittery :hyper: ... It was DS's 22nd birthday and he requested red velvet cupcakes... I'm drinking a lot of water to compensate, of sorts, for the sugar...

I did roller blade today with DD, it was fun...

Great discussion. I'm not getting worked up about the fact that I'm not following primal every waking moment of my life. It's something that I am taking slow and that's working much better for me than my usual "all or nothing". I'm finding that I'm really not as interested in sweets as I used to be. I go to Barnes and Noble a lot. It's my quiet time place away from my kids and work. I used to have to have a treat every time that I went. I almost got a cookie today because it was habit. Then, I checked in with myself and found that I didn't even want one. I came home and had a piece of dark chocolate for only 100 calories and 7 carbs.

*peeks in* Hi!

I don't know if this is what I'm doing and I can't imagine I'll adhere very strictly to primal eating, but the overall principles do suit me best from everything I've read about it (mostly on Mark's blog).

Empty carbs have been the bane of my existence and how I ended up obese at the age of 11. I've started eating fish and poultry and nuts instead of most fruit. I've lost weight and I'm feeling great.

Thank you BibBob for answering those questions. I have a brand new one if you don't mind. It's very difficult for me to find fresh berries, I live in a small town and getting them off season is pretty much out of the question. Does freezing affect their nutrition too much to make them worthwhile? I remember reading a while ago that frozen blueberries are still nutritious, but I can only find mixed frozen berries. I do intend to buy lots of berries in season and freeze my own, but I don't want to wait that long if I don't have to.

OK, I love legumes and could never quit them, but I haven't had any in about two months, just never had the time to cook/soak. I've been constantly under 80g of carbs a day for the past 2 weeks, so... I see red beans in my future. :)

I need my cinnamon-sprinkled oatmeal in the morning, even if it's only about 3 tablespoons and I also eat high-fiber whole wheat tortillas, but I find they're worth the 14g of carbs two or three times a week. None of that today, I have delicious, mineral-packed sardines to bring with me to work today.

Hi Blackberry Fields!
Good morning everyone!

I actually made a dish for dinner last night instead of meat and a vegetable! Chicken breast cut up in chunks with canned tomato, sautee'd onion and italian spices. Very nice and I have some leftover for my lunch today.

DH asked for rhubarb so I had to decide between sugar and splenda. Since I'm trying to forgo diet coke too ... I chose the sugar. Very little compared to how I used to cook it! He loved it. About 3/4 of the quart I made is gone! I had a nice little bowl before bed. No harm, no foul.

In another attempt to make myself eat breakfast ... I put butter, coconut oil, ground almonds, coconut and blueberries in the food processor. A spoonful was delicious last night but I'm gonna have to choke it down this morning. I am sooo not a morning person!
Maybe I'll take it to work with me and have it a little later.

Thanks everyone for their response to my *long* outline of thoughts on eating primal. In reality, I don't care whether I'm primal or not. The label is not important, what is important *to me* is whether I am doing the most healthy things for my body.

I have read extensively on all these issues and I know there is good science behind, for example, eating saturated fats. However, there are still knowledgeable people with what I perceive to be open minds -- like Dr. Andrew Weil -- who believe lean protein is the way to go. Here is a link to a very interesting discussion on Larry King between Gary Taubes, Dr. Oz, and Dr. Weil: Link here. (This has nothing to do with saturated fat, btw, I just think it's a fascinating interchange.) I think Gary Taubes is fabulous, absolutely fabulous. I think Dr. Oz is a raving lunatic in this discussion, trying to defend his position without real consideration of the heavy science in Taubes' book which he just dismisses. If you're a doctor or scientist and you don't agree with something, give me some *hard* reasons why, refute the claims with facts not anecdotal information. And then we come to Dr. Weil who, I think, took exactly the right tone. He acknowledges Taubes' work, thinks its important. He is not so vested in his thoughts that he dismisses it (and this dismissive attitude of supposed scientists without consideration for the facts makes me crazy:dizzy:crazy!)

For me, this all translates into a conundrum every time I go to the store and look at the organic or Greek yogurt, for example -- full fat or no fat or 2%??? I usually opt for the 2% coming down squarely in the *I don't know what to do* category, sigh. Many bloggers really believe the full-fat stuff is the best for us healthwise, but there is so much pulling in the other direction with some bases in fact.

Same with meat ... low fat chicken or high fat beef.

And, if you're calorie counting like I am, you can eat more of the low fat stuff and I *do* like volume. But the taste is way better on the high-fat stuff for me. So ultimately, I would choose the "healthier" choice if only I knew what that was.

That's why I divided my list into 2 parts. The first part is *gospel* for me, the second part is not.

I am particularly interested right now in statins for cholesterol. I have read so many negative things about statins, but high cholesterol runs in my family. I do have high HDL and low triglycerides, but my LDL and total cholesterol are a bit over the limit. Should I take a statin? My dr. wants me to. It is a conundrum for me.

It just seems to me there should be some *final* answer to these questions by people who really know what they're talking about.

Susan, I'd NEVER eat breakfast if I had to eat it at home, I'm just not hungry when I wake up and I start my day with lots of water. I always have breakfast at work, I aim for no later than 9:30, though I've had it later as well. Is there a rule that says you have to have it much earlier? I think if you form a breakfast routine at work like I did, it'll be much easier to gulp it down.

:welcome: BlackBerry :D

I like breakfast but I do eat it a couple of hours after waking...

I don't know :shrug: but I doubt I would be able to choke that combo at any time, it's just not appetizing to me... But who am I to judge... Some of my combos are pretty bizzare...

I eat full fat but less of it, I have been for years, I just find it much tastier...

Another gorgeous day in Ontario... Running this afternoon with DD, she has a new job this summer and has Monday and Tuesdays off instead of the usual weekend Sat and Sun... I kinda like it we get to do a lot of stuff... She will roller blade while I run... I roller bladed yesterday, I want to keep up my running so I'll run behind her today...

Have a great day every one :wave: ...

My husband is a pharmacy student (one more year and he's done!) and recently did some research on statins and he came to the conclusion that statins help by reducing inflammation. I think I remember him saying that , yes, statins lowered LDL, but they also lowered HDL. It's the ratio that is more important than the actual numbers, and it doesn't affect the ratio. I will ask him to explain it all to me when he gets home. He has a long lecture day today, and then I work evenings, so it won't be until tomorrow, but I;m pretty sure that's what he found. I'm sure he still has the primary sources he used for his research, too, which I can then give you.

Hi Blackberry Fields,

Frozen berries lose very little nutrient value. Processed and cooked lose quite a bit. Make sure they are loose in the bag else they have thawed and refrozen which is not good.

On the issue of eating fats. I'm heavily conditioned by a life of obesity and diet failure to avoid them. I may even fear them a little and find them sort of gross. My whole life I have carved the fat off of my beef afraid it was unhealthy and made me fat -- even though avoiding them still made me fat. I've opted for lean ham when I really wanted bacon far too many times. Some brilliant doctors and thousands of success stories have me rethinking this. I am trying to eat more fat. I am liking it. I credit it for killing my appetite and making me feel more satisfied through the day. Weight is melting off of me. I rarely feel hungry. What if it all really was a big fat lie? What if the so called lipid hypothesis, low fat diet dogma, really is the reason we are fat today? I have sacrificed grains -- fine, not easy, but fine. It's that important, even for this pasta loving Italian. I have sacrificed sugar -- fine, I know better. That's kiddie food when you get down to it. I am avoiding a huge laundry list of processed foods and everything made from soy and seed oils. Jebus, the list of foods that get nixed by their labels is ridiculous. 90% of the grocery store is taboo. I am desperate and this made sense for one reason. I get to eat the fat. I don't think this could be a sustainable lifestyle without bacon, egg yolks, fun stuff like butter, cheese, Italian sausages cooked in tomato sauce, topped with fresh mozzarella and broiled. There's a list of fatty foods I thought I had to eliminate but found I get to enjoy them. That's how I can eliminate the other stuff. If you take the fat away, I yo yo again. I've done that enough to know. If I get to eat the fat, I see a lifestyle, not a diet.
I'll go back to square one and keep searching if this fails, but I am pretty convinced this works.

My favorite Italian restaurant in LA had great choices for me. I went with Chicken Al Forno and no one noticed me avoiding bread and pasta. I had a sauteed mushroom appetizer, a nice dinner salad, and pile of italian veggies with the chicken. I didn't miss a thing. I was 100% paleo in a nice restaurant and it was wonderful, and the chicken fat seeped into the olive oil and herbs made for some great dipping with the chicken meat. All hot and fatty and juicy and oily... slurp. hehe

I agree that it's a lot easier and more pleasant to be primal/paleo in a restaurant than with other diet lifestyles :yes: ...

Bob, that sounds delicious!!!! I agree....I think the fat is what makes this way of living the most doable. You can truly feel satisfied after every meal.

CJZee your concerns and confusion are also mine......I have been eating ALOT of fatty food lately and I wonder if I'm going overbored. And I've been going crazy with dairy products too. I do feel good though so that's a plus!

By the way, is MAYO primal? Or is it one of those foods you should eat but just a little. I find I'm eating all kinds of salads, chicken salad, salmon salad, broccoli salad.....even buffalo chicken dip with celery. Moderation is a hard thing for me.


Susan, I also don't eat breakfast. I am just not hungry. I can get into the habit of it but do we really need to eat it everyday or is it something we can skip every once in awhile (aka IFing) but not everyday.

I guess I need to get the book. I find it hard to read too much online....I bought PB on my kindle but it's hard to navigate.....I need a hard copy.

Thank you, Kathy! I do think I understand the gist of it all. I just want to know if I should take a statin, I don't think I have any risk factors other than being overweight for heart disease. I know I should be under 200 in the total cholesterol and under 100 in the LDL, but my ratio of total to HDL is not too bad. I have also read that eating saturated fats raises LDL (bad cholesterol) but it raises the "big fluffy" parts of LDL (the parts which supposedly "aren't bad", the small dense particles are.)
Cholesterol - 236
HDL - 56
LDL - 162
CH/HDL ratio - 4.23

Now I don't know if my LDL had large fluffy or small dense particles. I asked my doctor about a test to determine that, is there one? He is a little put off, I think, by my questioning on the statin issue. I certainly don't want to harm myself in any way by doing something stupid. Maybe there is a less invasive way to lower cholesterol. And, as we all know, correlation does not equal causation.