Midwife, I highly recommend The End of Overeating by David Kessler. It really opened my eyes about how much modern times have aided in creating and fostering addictions to food. And you're right, it's that first bite that is the gateway to losing control. I haven't finished reading the book yet, but there is a plan on how to learn to manage those moments when you're about to capitulate to that first bite.

Another thing that I've found immensely helpful is Emotional Brain Training. I'm practicing that technique now (have been for some time) and I find it exceptionally helpful with dealing with the rabbit trail of emotions that lead me to overeat, as well as other destructive behaviors. I've been able to step away from situations and people that keep me mired in the old mindset of using food to manage my emotions. I really believe it's why I have been able to maintain my focus on weight loss efforts.

I have a lot more weight to lose and a lot of challenges that prevent it from melting off at a steady rate. But Whole30, Paleolithic principals are what fuels my success.

I'm on day 20 of Whole 30 and so far I feel great and haven't had any trouble sticking with the plan. I haven't lost as much weight as I'd hoped, but it's worth it to feel so much better. Once my 30 days are up I will stick with a Paleo diet, maybe not Whole 30 strict all the time, but for the most part I don't see much need to veer from the Whole 30 principles.

I have been reading a lot about paleo eating a lot of the last few days. I have also been interested in only eating grassfed meats for a long time. Do any of you do grass fed? If so, do you get it local or online?

We have a local organic market that sells grass fed meat, so when I get it, that's where I buy it. I can't always afford to eat exactly to paleo standards, but I do the best I can. Grass fed steak is a once in a while treat for me.

I just found a company in Texas, that ships free in the US, it seems pretty reasonable to me, I'm going to order, and see how long it last me. This is what I ordered

10lbs Ground Beef, 90% lean: sm

2pks Kerrygold Butter Unsalted

3pks Smoked Ham Slices

1 Pastured Whole Chicken Roaster

2pks Boneless/Skinless Breasts

2pks Bone-In Thighs

2pks Drum Sticks

5lbs Ground Chicken

2pks Italian Chicken Sausage

1 Hawaii's Gold Macadamia Nut Oil

this was a little less than 300.00 it should last about a month and 1/2 I think. maybe more(Family of 4 - 1 adult, 3 kids)

I can get grass-fed ground beef and ground bison at my local supermarket. I can get grass-fed lamb there as well. I can get wild-caught fish there too, when it's in season.

I get pastured eggs from a local CSA. I use them because I have a soy intollerance and chickens don't completely digest soy feed and it passes through to the eggs and meat. (And I know some sciency people who tell me that's not true, but I still have soy-intollerance reactions to the meat and eggs from regular poultry. So there!!!!) I have had to try out different poultry products because of my soy intollerance. They all say their chickens are fed a vegetarian diet. But the Rocky brand seems to be soy free. And there are a few others too.

There's a market just over an hour away from me and I like to go there to get my Thanksgiving turkey because it's completely range-fed. All their meats are grass-fed, so I will load up for the holidays.

I have ordered wild salmon online. Costco carries some wild fish and grass-fed meats. They were carrying some really good bison steaks for a bit. Wish I bought more, because when I went back to get some last weekend, they were all gone. I HATE that! I can order the same bison steaks online, but they are much more expensive. There are some canned tunas that are pole-caught. I get some shipped to me through Amazon, but saw that Costco carries them too...for now. I get wild-caught sardines too.

I'm freaking out a little tonight. I'm a type 2 for a few years now and I've managed it all with diet and exercise for many years. In the last year I went Paleo, but kept dipping my toe into grains, dairy and sugar, almost daily. I kept thinking it was such a small thing, here and there.


Well, I finally bought a glucometer this week and discovered that ANY dip into the non-Paleo food list made my blood sugar go too high. I fasted for one day after having a few slices of pizza on Valentines Day and all but one of my tests were too high. The next day, I thought I'd maybe be able to get away with a little bit of Pirate Booty and a slice of my really low carb high fiber bread. Same reaction!


The other thing I really have to manage better is portion control. For breakfast I had eggs with spinach and onion. I cooked a lot of spinach and a half an onion. Even that made my blood sugar pop up. I skipped lunch and had an early dinner. Less carbs than breakfast, so lower blood sugar numbers.


Tomorrow I'm adding exercise back into the mix (have been sick/injured for a couple weeks). Hopefully that'll help even more and I won't have to freak out so much about the food. If I don't start losing weight with these new stricter measures, I'm probably going to have to go on medication. And I don't want that!

Hello all. I am working to lose weight with excersize and a pseudo-Paleo diet.
I say pseudo loosely as I have every intention of going whole30 but am easing into it. It has been my experience that "diets" attempts always fail me. I am looking to make a lifestyle change. I have existing health issues that Primal eating and excersize promise to address. I have cut out all sugar for the past 2 weeks. I think I experienced the carb flu, am fine now. I found if I eat ANYTHING sugary, I will cave to my cravings for sweets.. I am that addicted to sugar!
I have a lot of energy lately which really helps me get through a workout.
I do have issues with cutting out most fruits. I know they contain fructose and thus the sugar perpetuation. But doesn't the healthy side of eating fresh whole fruits with their antioxidant properties outweigh the sugar fear?
I'm am also struggling with the idea that for real weight loss, we must do at least 60-90 mins. of some cardio/ strengtht train DAILY. Phew...
That part is discouraging (as I ready myself for my daily 2 ml. dog walk). Will check back in an hour or so. Thanks for reading and any empathy or advice is welcome:))

On a side note, I am in the dark about these acronyms. Any lists available or what not? Thanks!

I ate a little bit of a muffin that had palm sugar in it, now I feel a bit bloated. I'm wondering if it's the palm sugar or something else. Blaaahh!

Hi Michelle, I really like coconut oil and I find if I can keep my glucose levels neutral I don't get cravings. I like the idea of being able to have a big steak and veggies and not feeling guilty. Who knew all along that it was the bread rolls that caused the crashes!

Joannavan, I bought some more coconut oil yesterday. Wow..$13!!
Need to find where to purchase a less expensive brand, perhaps. I have been sautéing veggies in 2tbs. of the stuff at least 2 x a day. As for fruit...
Jury is still out with me as to whether or not I am going to eliminate them, period. Just hard to wrap my head around the notion that eliminating any " whole food " like fruit, is good for weight loss... Not to mention the healthy benefits they add to our diet ( vitamins, minerals & fiber ) that we need.

Michelle, check out Vitacost.com

They have good prices on things like coconut oil (I paid less than $10 for the extra virgin coconut oil I ordered from them) and a flat $5 shipping rate on any size order. I order all my supplements from them as well, plus things like face lotion and black soap.

I still eat fruit, just in moderation. I usually have at least two servings a day and so far it hasn't hurt my weight loss, but I have a lot further to go than you.

PS: If the acronym you're wondering about is the CSA Georgia mentioned, it stands for 'community sustained agriculture'. It just means local farmers who sell their products straight to their local community rather than to restaurants or resellers, thus the community helps the local farmers stay in business.

Thanks for the encouragement,Caroline:)


I will check out that link. Meanwhile, I feel like I am not eating enough " variety" and seems maybe I am eating too much meat?!

Still hard to let go of this CW about diet & nutrition. Oh well, on a side note; I was able to get back into old pair of size smaller jeans today, despite the scales not budging. I have researched this Paleo lifestyle and everything is primal (down to going barefoot..ha) and it is still scary to me eating saturated fats and not counting calories. I had better not come out on the other side of this diet in a few months with an even bigger butt! LOL!

To be honest, I was afraid to try paleo because I gained weight on Atkins. (Way too many 'Atkins-friendly' desserts, and those one minute muffins got me into all kinds of trouble!) But I'm glad I gave it another go with more vegetables and none of the bacon, because I've lost just over 12 pounds so far.

I'm a little scared of what my cholesterol level might be (it went way up on Atkins, but I used Atkins as an excuse to eat bacon at pretty much every meal) but other than that I feel great. I haven't really lost this week, but I'm in the middle of TOM so I'm hopeful that it's temporary. I do count calories, but I don't think I've been eating enough this week for my fitness level. Pushing my calories UP is the hardest thing for me, for the first time in my life.

Congratulations on the jeans! That's my favorite kind of non-scale victory. I have clothes hanging all over my house that I am trying to fit back into. It looks like a thrift store in here.

"... looks like a thrift store in here"

Ha! I love it. I, too dropped a pant size. Just put on a pair from the back of my closet. Grok on:)

Good Morning!

I recently read an article promoting 'mindful awareness'. It was written for those of us ( yes me )who have a tendency to obsess about what to eat next.
In the article he wrote, if we stay very focused on the task at hand then it will eventually train our brains not to wander. Ha! Good try.

In all seriousness, it has been my experience that control over my self-sabotaging behaviors has been very much a state of mind. Giving myself a few minutes before I impulsively grab that candy bar at the check out counter makes it easier to "just say no" to my sweet tooth. How good does it feel later on when you have conquered a craving like that? Pretty awesome, I say!

I was most successful in my past efforts to eat healthy and not eat junk when I 'set my mind' to it. I truly believe that a high percentage of control over my addictions have been staying mindful and learning to tell myself ( much like a kid) no.

On a side note, yesterday was a particularly tough one with my DH and step-son around all day. We only get to see Cody every other weekend. He loves a good 'home cooked' meal which in his case means homemade Mac n cheese, casseroles ( laden in butter and cream sauces ) etc. And always there is cookies! So I felt especially proud to have turned away from the Toll House, and ate my hard-boiled egg, blueberries and a handful of almonds.

Now prayers are needed for the rest of the weekend!
Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and get outside for some fresh air and maybe a stroll around the block this morning. You'll feel ready to face the day with a dazzling smile:)

Good luck, Michelle! That is a lot of temptation to resist indeed.

I completed my Whole 30 yesterday for a total of 14 pounds lost. I feel really good, and proud of myself for sticking with it. I had some creamer in my coffee this morning, but other than that I will continue to stick with this way of eating long-term.

This morning I woke up at 5:00 am (on a Saturday! Pathetic.) and I've already done 45 minutes on the spin bike. In a little while I'll go to my sister's house for 45 minutes of strength training (P90X) and then I have to grocery shop and go look for some new jeans. Not really looking forward to that, but at least the sizes are going back down.

P90X looks really intense! On top of all that excercise, don't forget how many calories burnt shopping:))

Gotta love it when the clothes start getting loose!

Hi everyone,

I'm dipping my toes into the paleo world after a year-ish on South Beach Diet. I'm looking to paleo to help me avoid the temptation of grains which nearly always end up with me stuffing my face like a crazed maniac, and hoping that eliminating dairy will help with my GI issues. I've been a week grain-free now, but still am hooked on my lattes and the occasional greek yogurt or bit of cheese. Baby steps.

Finding some really great blogs and recipes along the way!

Hi Forzentusic!
I think you will enjoy the physical adjustments to eating Paleo/ Primal immediate once the dairy and grains are completely elemenated. starch mach used to gurgle and it was down right LOUD... embarrassing. My IBS is a thing of the past and I am only 20days eating strictly Paleo. I have also dropped one pant size. Not watching the scales... Just my measurements as I am building muscle.

I tried SB however, after I got through phase one I fell back into eating carbs and with a vengeance! Here's a very informative site to get more info and great recipes: marksdailyapple.com. His book, the Primal Plueprint is a real must have, IMO. Gook luck and feel great!



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I thought giving up yogurt would be the hardest thing for me, but now that it's gone I don't really miss it. I think you'll find the positives of feeling as good as you do on paleo outweigh pretty much any food that you think you can't live without.

That said, my sister's mostly paleo and she still indulges in a sugar free vanilla latte with 2% milk about once a week, and it hasn't hurt her at all. She's not trying to lose weight, so for her it's just a lifestyle. I expect to be able to fit occasional indulgences like that into my plan once I'm done with my weight loss (though I'm an iced Americano girl, so lattes won't be my indulgence!)

What's everyone's fav paleo sites? I love Nerdfitness, and like nomnompaleo, Marksdailyapple and paleodietlifestyle. The Stuffed Pork tenderloin on paleodietlifestyle is really good.

Hi Mandy! I really like marksdailyapple.com
Have all his books and is just easy for me to follow. Right one I don't feel like I am " following" a diet... Just a change a life's bad habits that CW has lead me to believe is good for me. As a recent BC survivor, I've a vested interest in living a pure and healthy lifestyle. Yes, you really can reprogram your gene expression!

my fave sites are:
marksdailyapple.com
paleomg.com
nomnompaleo.com
paleoparents.com
paleoplan.com
whole9life.com

My go-to source for recipes is Pinterest. I follow a whole load of paleo/primal boards!

Doing well on the grains, but still eating some cheese ;) I think once it's out of the house it will be even easier. My 2yo son is obsessed with yogurt so I've been feeding it all to him.

I would love to get some of those recipes from Pinterest, Fozentusic:)

Finally hitting pretty close to 100% Paleo. Wasn't sure how well it was working for me in general since I'm doing so many different things to help improve my health. But over the last few days several people have mentioned how good my skin was looking. I have rosacea. Wasn't doing anything to deal with it or diminish it, but it seems the closer I get to purely Paleo, the better my skin looks. More even toned overall.

I'm also feeling pretty fabulous now. Loads of energy, blood sugars starting to look better (not perfect but lower by at least 20 pts. overall) and I'm feeling more refreshed in the mornings after a good night's sleep.

Wasn't finding weight loss with Paleo until I cut calories. Cutting calories while still eating grains, legumes and dairy wasn't really happening. All I could do was maintain.

Just go to pinterest.com and type paleo in the search bar. Prepare to be amazed!

Hi all. My mom and I are starting paleo for March. Well be starting with a no meat start and then adding it back after 9 days.

Thanks, Fozentusic:)
@ Georgia, I noticed my energy level improving a few days ago, after a couple of weeks in the throws of "healing" from all the years of processed junk, diet drinks, grains, legumes and sugary stuff. Last night I actually slept 7 hours straight through the night. That's monumental for me. Like you, I had to do some tweeking of my eating habits. Now the scales are beginning to drop. Yes!
@Mizzthingaling, welcome! Primal/Paleo has been life changing for me. Never heard of starting eating Paleo without meat, though. All the best on your journey!

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Went to my Oncologist Appt. yesterday. Her scales read 5 lbs. Higher than mine. I KNEW it! Lol!

So now I am discouraged again about the weigh loss potential on this plan of eating. I am eating 100%, exercising daily( sometimes2xday), and watching my portions.
I am now 5 weeks into the program. I went through all the "healing" from my years of junk food eating and expected to see the lbs. Dropping by now.

I have had good success on SBD in past. But the weight came back. I think I learned a thing or two about myself and eating habits since then. I am considering going back to SBD. Any thoughts?

I haven't found success at losing weight with this way of eating because I tended to eat the same amount of calories. I really believe weight loss is about cutting the calories. So any food plan that can help you stick with the food choices that are of benefit to your body and still helps you cut back calories is going to work.

Going Paleo really helped me cut out all the food that just wasn't doing anything for me. There are people who think giving up the occasional doughnut (or whatever food one feels they MUST still have) is crazy. I think it's crazy to feel entitled to have a doughnut. The doughnut is not evil. It's just a doughnut. If eating a doughnut doesn't lead to other uncontrolled indulgences, then fine, eat the doughnut! For my body, I just can't go there ever again.

I had tried doing Weight Watchers Paleo style and found it didn't work at all because I'm a big woman and their points system wasn't working for me. I had to find another way to manage the amount of food I'm eating. And for me, it's measuring my blood sugar. For some reason, if my blood sugar is over a certain number when I think I want to eat, I am able to tell myself to wait until it drops to a healthy range, under 100. Once I started doing that, I was able to control blood sugar better and I started to lose weight a little faster. Just discovered this a few days ago, so I'm still working out the bugs, but it helps me stay on track.

Like you, I can't indulge in that "one" doughnut.. I would eventually eat them all. I believe myself to be addicted to sugar. Just like an alcoholic mustn't have just "one" drink. But that is me. Right now, I've got a bag of dark chocolate mini's. That's all the sweets I have and yet when I do indulge, I find myself obsessing about them.
As far as 'weight loss', going to be gentler on myself. Want that instant gratification and it's only been 5 weeks. Took a while for my body to detox...oops, I mean "heal" from junk. So in time, I know the weight will come off. Btw, does anyone do IF? I take meds and have to take with food so wouldn't work for me. Personally think it a bit rad?


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You eat daily on IF, but if you have to take your meds in the morning, for instance, you'd have to adjust a little. Shorter fasts or breakfast-to-breakfast might work, if you wanted to try it.

I did my first 24-hour fast yesterday and it was okay. I can't say I've had any results yet because I wasn't home to weigh myself this morning, but I wasn't unmanageably hungry during the actual fast. I feel like I ate a lot more in the evening than I normally would have, but I wasn't in my own house (I was dogsitting this weekend) and that made it harder because I didn't have *my* food, if that makes sense.

I didn't go off the rails, calorie-wise, but I ate some popcorn, which is obviously not paleo-friendly, and it was really salty, so I imagine I'm retaining water today. I wouldn't have eaten the popcorn if I was home, of course, because I don't keep popcorn in my house. It was probably a better choice than the chips and pretzels that were also in the house I was staying in. :shrug:

Anyway, my point is that I'll have to watch myself in future to make sure I don't overcompensate after a fast day. My next scheduled 24-hour fast is on Wednesday. I'm interested to see how it'll go during a full day of work. I did work part of the day Saturday, so I think it'll be okay.

As for sugar addiction, I always assumed that was my problem as well, but now that I've given up wheat completely I find it a lot easier to control myself with chocolate in the house than it was before when I was eating 'healthy' grains. So maybe my problem was wheat sensitivity all along.

Why are you discouraged by the fact that your doctor's scale weighs you differently than your home scale? It doesn't change how much weight you've lost, AND just because the scale is in a doctor's office doesn't guarantee that the scale is more accurate. Both balance scales and digital scales can lose accuracy.

My doctor's office has two scales (very expensive digital ones with handrails) and there's about a 4 lb difference between the two scales. One weighs me about 2 lbs lighter than my home scale and the other about 2 lbs heavier (it's more like 1.5 and 2.5).


As to my thoughts on SBD, In my opinion, In my opinion, for weight loss, Paleo "trumps" SBD. If you have trouble losing on Paleo, there's a really good chance that you'll have even more trouble on SBD.

That's been my experience. I lose best on extremely low-carb such as Atkins induction, but I feel terrible on it. Then I tried South Beach. I felt better (than on Atkins) but after the first month, I stopped losing weight (even when I returned to Phase I). I even gained on SBD if I wasn't very careful with grains. That's what led me to Paleo.

I do pretty well on Paleo, but I still can overeat (especially the carby foods like fruit), so I had to add a "counting" method of some type. I found that I always need a counting method of some type, whether I'm trying to eat Atkins-style (which I do during PMS to help prevent water weight gain), South-Beach style (which I do when I am really craving grains - though I eat high-protein grains like wild rice and quinoa), or Paleo-style. To count, I use an exchange plan, but I can apply what I've learned from Atkins, South Beach, and the many paleo diet books I've read (my favorite is still the first, Neanderthin).

I also feel much, much better on Paleo than on SBD. My skin issues (rosacea, oily skin with a tendency to break out, seborrheic dermatitis, inflamation, flaking and sometimes worse) disappear when I'm not eating grains. My arthrits and fibromyalgia pain flares are less severe and less frequent, and my sinus issues improve also. On SBD the issues are better, but not nearly as much so as on Paleo. As for weight loss, even with the calorie (exchange) counting, I lose better on Paleo than on SBD.


Everyone is different, so maybe for some reason, you would do better on SBD, but that certainly hasn't been my experience. For me, Paleo is the plan that I feel the best physically on, and lose weight best on.

I just started a 6week challenge on NerdFitness.com. my goals are no less than 4 days at the gym and no less than 5 days being as close to paleo as I can get.

Here's my food log for the first 2 days.

Day 1
Breakfast-3 cage free eggs and some turkey crumbles,
Large Coffee with 2 oz almond milk and 2oz 1% milk

Lunch-leftover free range roasted chicken and a bunch of asparagus

Dinner- Hamburger steaks made with grass fed beef and free range chicken, sliced portabella mushrooms and roasted mixed veggies

Day 2-
Breakfast- 3 Cage free eggs and some turkey sausage crumbles(I really love these)
Large Coffee with 2 oz almond milk and 2oz 1% milk

Lunch- Beef Tips and Broccoli

Snack- Apple and Almond butter

Dinner- Spaghetti (cabbage, organic sauce and grass fed beef)

Willow, I just joined the NF challenge too. My username there is supercanuck - I don't know how to work the forum yet but maybe we can be friends and motivate each other on there??

Hey supercanuck, I just found you there, you have responded to my blog once..lol. I sent you a friend request there

I've been caught up with recent type 2 diabetes issues, hyper-focusing on trying to figure out how to control my blood sugar. I have to give up the Intermittent Fasting until I lose enough weight so that my blood sugar doesn't pop up too high any longer. I've tested my blood sugar throughout a few fasting days and was disappointed to discover that it simply will not go down to a safe range unless I eat on a regular basis.

But as long as I remain strictly Paleo, my blood sugar does much better. As long as I don't overeat. In the morning my blood sugar starts off high and will just go higher if I eat more than 20 gm of protein at a meal. The same goes for going over 5 net gm of carbohydrate and 10 gm of fat. So that's the parameters I'm stuck with. That means for breakfast I can have non-starchy veg, and a much smaller portion of protein and fat than I'm accustomed to. My remaining meals look pretty much the same but I seem to handle blood sugar better later in the day so I can eat a little more protein and fat, but not carbs.

I'm in the process of creating some go-to combos for meals. Breakfast is going to have to be nothing more than a single poached egg on some sauteed greens, and I have to eat that first thing in the morning to get my body to stop accessing stored fats and flooding my system with glycogen in the mornings. It's okay for everybody else, but my pancrease is too lazy to deal with it.

Maybe with the very tight control over the blood sugar I'll finally be able to pick up the weight loss pace!

Georgia, I really feel for you with your struggle to find the right balance. It's frustrating when it's this hard for some of us, especially when others seem to have an easier time of it.

I have been struggling with my own balance recently. March, in short, has sucked for weight loss. Ever since I finished my Whole 30 and added back a few things (just dark chocolate and wine, mostly) my weight loss has stalled. This past week I was on vacation, and while I managed to avoid wheat the whole time, I couldn't avoid rice entirely. So I don't appear to have gained while on vacation, but I didn't lose either. Normally that would be a victory, but I was really expecting to be below 200 before I left, and that didn't happen.

I'm hanging on to the hope that once TOM ends in a few days I'll see a number in the 100s. As of yesterday I am back on strict Whole 30 for the next six weeks, when I will be leaving town again. We'll see if the strict restriction of grains does the trick to get things moving again. I'm not sure what else to do at this point.