I do so understand about listening to our inner selves and heeding the advice given there. For example, I have characterized this place where I am (not losing weight) as a rest, which is exactly what I feel it is. I get actually agitated when people describe it as a "brick wall" I have to crash through. That mental image only hurts me. I'm so glad you're calmer and cautiously happy now.

First of all "Thank you" everyone for posting....it really makes me happy for some reason.

CJZee thanks for the suggestions. I'll check out the thyroid website but the more I read the more confused I get. My chiropractor has some ideas and I see him today.

Susan I totally agree about Christmas. I have a bug up my butt about presents. I think they should only be for the kids but it seems my DH's family doesn't agree. Then when you think you've come to a compromise, someone goes and buys everyone presents and makes you feel like a schmuck.

I was never much for Christmas untill I had my little boy and now i love it for him (watching movies, hiding the elf on the shelf, writing Santa, etc). But that's it. I end up spending WAY too much money on gifts that no one even cares about. Anyway, I'll quit ranting.

As for all of you who are stalled in your weight loss......I think if you look at your journey you will all be so proud of yourselves for not yo-yoing and for maintaining without much effort. It really has become a way of life for you!

You all inspire me everyday! Have a good one.

Found some very good information on iodine at Dr. Davis' blog:
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Iodine

Re: Chrismas Gifts... A few years ago we stopped buying for the adults and so far it's working well, everyone is going with it and agrees that there is way less stress... The first year it felt weird though... We got over that pretty quickly ...

Yep, I for one love eating Primal....This weekend we had two parties in the same night .. I ate prime rib roast and veggies at one party with desert, at the other party I ate only desert, of course I drank lots of wine too ... Yesterday I ate only two meals they were both very primal... This morning the scale only showed a .4 lbs gain... In the past with deserts and carbs I would have been up at least 5 lbs in a weekend where I splurge a little too much....

Life here is same ole same ole... but more on the busy-ish side

I have been tracking many things as you all know.

One thing that I don't pay much attention to is calories. I had my calorie thingy set for 1200 when I first started tracking at Livestrong.com/myplate. Just 'cause that is usually the lowest amount of calories that one "should" have. I would usually not get that high averaging around 900. Not trying to limit them but it just worked out that way.

Recently, after reading the hugh amounts of primal food most folks were eating on MDA, I changed the calorie amount to 1600. For awhile, I was no way eating that much, but in the last month or so, I have been exceeding that several times a week. Again, not trying to, just keeping my carbs around 50-60 and then eating primally.

I am kinda please that I am able to eat more without gaining weight. We all are so programmed by years of dieting, that increasing calories and fat becomes scary, we don't really believe....

My body is getting more nutrition and is stable.

I like that...

THanks CJZee! I think I read that one before.....by what I've read, I could have hypothyroidism but I don't know if i can convince my gp so I'd have to do some research on a good doctor. I go to my gyne in Jan so maybe she can be some help.

Maybe this is wrong but I was hoping to figure it all out myself and try some natural ways to heal myself. I think I really need to find a healthy regime and STICK TO IT! I got the primal eating down pretty much but I do eat too much sugar. My sweet tooth has got to stop. I also need to work on my digestion. The primal eating is great for that but I think I still need some tweaking....maybe some fermented foods??

I sound like a wacko don't I? It's just that after I turned 40 (I'm now 44) I seem to have so many little health problems. Nothing major, just minor annoyances.......and it bugs me.

I have been trying to post every day and no matter what I do it wont post, so I will try a quote this time, arrahahhhhgggg this is frustrating, next thing I will have to do is create a new user if this doesnt work

wildviolets,

I also think I have a sluggish thyroid. One of the markers is lack of moons on your fingernails. This is suppose to be a selenium deficiency according to something I read.

My niece, who tests low, doesn't have moons either.

I occasionally take kelp to get iodine. I should take it more regularly. You need to watch what kind of kelp it is. One of the better ones is Fucothin according to my sister, though it is also one of the most expensive. (I am not sure I would want to ask for the product by name, but that really is it, unless the pronunciation is different than I think it is.) It is a kind of brown seaweed.

Hi determined.....that is weird....I never noticed before but i don't have moons either??

I like seaweed in sushi but other than that it kindof grosses me out. DOes it taste weird?

My chiropractor was a complete bust. He just looked at my ranges on my blood test papers and said everything looked good. I wasn't expected much more though.

Hi, wildviolets,

I take kelp as a supplement. My sister says the Fucothin works best for her, but I have also picked up the NOW Kelp. It's cheaper. A magazine recommended NOW within the last year. I don't usually eat seaweed, as such. I live in the wrong region to find it easily, though I have had Japanese food that was wrapped with it.

Several years ago, my husband and I were at a beach on the west coast and came across a sign that forbid the harvesting of seaweed there. The sign was written in more than ten languages. I guess other cultures know more about its health benefits than we do.

Thanks determined....I'll check them out.

Does anyone eat any fermented foods? I think MDA recommends this and I've definitely see it at quite a few paleo/primals sites.

I was thinking it might be a good practice to start and to help my digestion.

your post made my morning...have a great day

Hello everyone! Thought I would check in here. I totally agree with the sentiment on Christmas presents. I don't celebrate Christmas, but I see the stress it causes everyone rushing around to buy presents. And especially now when everyone if so strapped for money.

This Christmas I am getting together with friends and we are cooking an amazing paleo dinner. It will involve a side of salmon, baked acorn squash, and I will be making something green, don't know what yet. It will be more like Thanksgiving than Christmas, but without the pies!

I had an amazing conversation with two women last night at a seminar I'm taking. Co-incidentally the issue of diet came up and both of them are on something called the "specific carb diet'. Turns out it's pretty much paleo. A doctor developed it for folks with GI problems, and a biochemist wrote a book about it. One of the women has a son with Autism, and she herself had depression and anxiety. Both were resolved on the diet. The other woman had IBS so severe she was in the hospital on antibiotics and they were talking about surgery and colostomy bags. Since going on the diet she has had no more symptoms!

It's amazing stuff, isn't it? Sometimes I get so mad that docs will hand out drugs like candy, but aren't willing to read up on how to improve health through diet!

When is someone going to set up a big fat fund to do more clinical trials of nutrition!?

As for me, I'm still struggling to get the weight off. Gained a few pounds while doing Paleo. I swear I'm the only person who could gain wait on Paleo. But like someone said "it's not magic, you still have to not overeat". I guess that's the trick. So for the next two weeks I'm going to count calories as well, and see what kind of difference it makes. If the scales moves in the right direction I'll have my answer.

The good news is, my clothes all still fit the same. I'm sure some of the weight gain is muscle, as I've been doing lots of strength training.

As for the Iodine, I find it very confusing. My GP (he's sort of holistic) gave me a book about how iodine was the best thing since sliced bread and we all need it. But when I take it my heart pounds, not good. Now there is a lot of other information about why it's bad for you. I guess it just goes to show what I already know, you have to sift through all the information yourself and then just experiment!

I really like the blog of Dr. Art Ayers (Ph.D not MD). He does research on gut flora (the microbes in your intestines). He has a great blog called "Cooling Inflammation", although for some reason he hasn't posted lately. He'll even respond to your questions if you ask it on a blog post. Here is the link.

Anyway, he highly recommends fermented foods and also pectin (apples etc) and inulin (leeks, etc). Here is a link to the anti-inflammatory diet he recommends which is very paleo-like but with emphasis on building (or re-building) diverse gut flora.

I personally try to eat fermented foods, aged cheese, leeks and the occasional apple strictly for my gut flora. If you search his site, he's got a ton of really good information, a lot of it in the "comments" sections.

so is a shot of vodka like a fermented potato?