I was somewhat surprised to find that hunger could be a not entirely pleasant, and even friendly, daily feeling. The usual advice is to never let yourself get hungry, and I'm sure that's what some people need. I just feel better if I get hungry between meals.

Thanks, I think you're right the outlook can be different in maintenance, sometimes not. I don't mean that I don't still have some problems with unhealthy eating. Sometimes I don't listen to what my body wants, and instead listen to what my mind or feelings want. But my body will usually give me decent feedback if I listen. And if I don't choose to eat something I'll regret anyway.

I definitely think time (as in a long time eating relatively healthily) makes a big difference. I think your body needs a certain level of nutrition in order to be able to tell you anything but "I wanna double double everything at the nearest fast food place, then please take me to the bakery."

Had a great primal dinner out (was quite surprised).

Hubby and I went to Applebee's, and I had the oriental chicken salad, one of the 550 calorie items on menu.

Awesome salad, but I suspect the calorie count is off. I suspect that what I ate of the salad was under 550 calories and what I took home was between 150 and 200 calories.

I think the calorie count would have been about right, if their had been about half the amount of slivered almonds. There were a lot of nuts in the salad.

Huge mound of lettuce, mostly romaine. A fairly large grilled chicken breast, sliced. Slivers of cabbage and carrot, diced red onion. Diced red bell pepper (jarred, I believe - blanced at the least as they were tender rather than crisp). Lots of snap peas. Slivered almonds and a dressing with a strong note of worcestershire. Hubby says canola oil and rice wine vinegar as well, and Splenda or Equal (he can duplicate restaurant dishes really well, so I trust his judgement).

koceank29 I came back because I didn't comment and I wanted to. I am so sorry you hear you lost your dog. I know how much that can really hurt, and sometimes other people don't take it seriously enough. I am still not over my last dog, and that was two years ago. I hope the stress for you eases up soon.

Good stuff. When I lost 50 pounds two years ago, I developed a saying that helped me.

"Hunger is good. Good things are happening now."

I seem to have forgotten about that the past few days and I let hunger be bad and controlling.

I've decided to get rid of nuts for now. I don't like them raw and they seem to mostly be roasted in seed oils I should be eliminating. I'm going to snack on veggies. Blanched green beans, sliced cukes, celery, anything a little crunchy accept carrots. I will feed them to the addiction. I added some stevia and cinnamon to some of the yogurt I bought last night and it really settled my nerves. Oy. I thought I could defeat the sweet tooth cold turkey, not by tricking it.

My problem with hunger has always been that I knew I had to get my blood sugar back up. Now, that I have actual growling stomach hunger, I'm finding it easier to just eat something so that it stops. One hard boiled egg or a slice of bacon is enough.

I can't speak for all of us ... but some day I'm going to have to admit that it took me over 7 years to lose 40 lbs for good. Practice, practice, practice Bob! It was 7 years until I figured out the real hunger thing. And without a doubt that's because of primal eating.

You're all right about hunger not being a bad thing. It doesn't hurt and feels a lot more natural than a bottoming blood sugar.

Well you can speak for moi!! Bob, Susan is spot on... Practice, plan, try again... I'm 53 and have been perfecting my healthy lifestyle since I'm 17!!! LOOONG freakin' time, but I get better and better at it, and feel the best I have ever felt in my life... Don't give up


I love this thread ... and Primal eating...

I agree with you on hunger, it is a good thing...why should we always be satisfied and full, that seems unnatural to our systems. I actually like when I go to bed at night and feel like my stomach is empty, then I know when I wake up that my body will be ready for some fuel. It definitely does take practice, it is too easy to confuse actual hunger with brain "trickery." I probably talk to myself way more than I should!LOL! "Am I really hungry, are you tricking me brain, do I want food, am I thirsty?" I now know when I'm hungry and the feeling in the pit of my stomach, but my brain still tricks me sometimes!

I have heard that the non flushing kind of niacin has issues with it because of the way that it time releases. I can't remember off the top of my head. I take the flushing type of nyacin. The flush doesn't really bother me that bad, but I make sure I don't take it right before I'm about to see people because I do get pretty red. The health benefits outweigh the side effect for me.

http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com...les/niacin.php

I do this, too! I used to never buy ice cream, but I'm allowing in a little more often. I think it's a much better cheat than eating something that also contains grains. I'm also finding that a pretty small cup of ice cream is really satisfying me right now. I made my own the other day. I just took heavy whipping cream, frozen strawberries, and a little sugar. I thawed the berries, blended it and refroze in a shallow dish. My kids loved it and it was way less sugar than in regular ice cream.

I want to get to a point where I can do this someday. It's a good goal to learn to live moderately like that.

I am truly just too frightened of going back to my bad habits right now. This process really does remind me of quitting smoking. Someone the other day, who is in OA, was fretting over me eschewing all grains. She said I was setting myself up for failure. I tried to explain that it would be setting myself up for failure if I allowed any of that IN right now because I think of all grains as triggers, no matter how "healthy."

As for weight loss, I have been grumbling baout not seeing any results for a couple weeks and lo and behold!, I was 282 just a few minutes ago, so I guess my body decided it was ok to let go of some more cargo. I can't wait until I see 280, so I can update my current weight.

Tonight we are having split chicken breasts, with raw goat cheese stuffed inbetween the skin and breast, with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper with tons of grilled asparagus. YUM!

My farmer friend/ old neighbour was just here to discuss how we'd like our 1/4 grassfed cow cut up!!! Roasts, steaks, hamburger, liver! Yum!

I want to say something about Kathy's friend from OA but I'm having trouble putting it into words. By cutting carbs we don't crave carbs and then don't set ourselves up for failure by eliminating foods??? Or OA is about training your mind to control eating habits and primal is about training our bodies to use food differently??? It's all too common for dieters to think that after weight loss they'll be able to eat whatever they want. Current wisdom would have us believe that we just need to be good for a while and a candy bar is at the end of the rainbow??? Hang on, hang on ... you can have that candy bar in September??? Like the carrot in front of the horse???

Golly! Did any of that make sense?

Kathy...I am with you on the concept of not eating grains because of their trigger properties, as well as the auto-immune problems I have from them. It is so similar to smoking, when I quit smoking cold-turkey about 8 years ago I knew that if I picked 1 up I would fall right back into smoking. I know myself well enough that if I even eat oatmeal in the morning, I am setting myself up to eat comforting carbs all day long. It reverts back to learning when I'm hungry, with me refraining from grains I am allowing myself to re-learn when to eat, otherwise I would eat senselessly(my own word!).

I do believe though in the primal lifestyle and I never tell anyone I'm on a diet, I just tell them I eat the foods my system was meant to handle, and they usually get it and then if they are overweight themselves they make up some excuse why they could never give up cake/cookies/etc.

Susan- I agree that primal is teaching us how to fuel our bodies, most other "diets" teach you how to integrate so-called healthy options back into our lives and I think thats how most people end up gaining so much weight back on top of what they lose. They start re-incorporating things that have missed and then before long they are back to where they started. It is a good feeling now learning how to fuel myself.

That's the way to live! I'll get there someday.


Although she abstains from certain foods in her program (donuts, cake and some others, I can't remember) she was worried because I was abstaining. She understands and believes she should never have another donut again, but can't understand me never having another grain again. She also mentioned that I might be excited to see rapid weight loss now, but that it will all come back when I stop eating this way. (thanks for the vote of confidence! )

I don't think she understands that I don't plan on going back. I MIGHT in the future have a cream/mixed berries/tiny bit of stevia concoction, but I won't go back to how I was living before. Gary Taubes' book changed my life.

My husband is joining me. His throat is healing well, and is all for it. He read Good Calories Bad Calories first and suggested it to me. Even my son is eating lots better, mainly because we aren't going out to eat, I'm not buying junk, and I'm not making carb heavy meals any longer.

I like this approach! I think I'm going to use it from now on. The other nurse's at work think I'm insane for eating this way. Maybe if I approach it as a way to eat that m body does best with, they will bring it down a notch.

I'll see how I feel two years from now, but that cream/berry/sugar (stevia) concoction sounds pretty darn good! I might feel very differently later on, but for now, I still have visions of sugarplums.