I eat a restricted diet in many peoples' eyes. No gluten, not even any grains. Yet I have never been more free in my life.

My life before eating whole foods, no grains, grass fed meats, lots of saturated fat was anything but free. I ate everything. But I was chronically morbidly obese, in pain daily, and worse of all constantly hungry.

I ate bread, bam hungry, miserable, in pain, sick. Frankly dying. How in the world can any human being equate that with freedom?

Most people do not do well on grains. Many think they do, but don't link chronic health problems to grain consumption because they never try a month grain free to see.

I urge everyone to read the Primal Blueprint or Primal Blueprint 21 day transformation. Packed with tons of scientific info. If you need the scientific info which I did. But at least look up lectins, phytates, gliadin.

In any event I am the strongest I have ever been. The healthiest I've ever been. The best parent and spouse I have ever been. The happiest I've ever been. The best blood work I have ever had. No days being sick in well over a year. Allergy free and back pain free and just pain free for the first time in my life.

And yes it is all due to diet, for me. I exercise LESS than I ever have as an adult and weigh much less than I have ever have as an adult.

So is going grain free a restrictive diet? Yes it is. But it is the most free LIFE I have ever had.

And THAT is what really matters.

Love this post and how you worded it. I need and want that free feeling. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you. I want to point out that I am not a celiac, but every day more and more research comes out pointing to almost no one being able to handle modern wheat at some level.

And a couple more things on freedom. I never once needed to calorie count or deprive myself on my journey. A high fat low carb journey is most often gloriously free of calorie counting. Appetite naturally regulates itself. I cannot think of a more wonderful freedom. Low fat 'success' stories often come with lifetime calorie counting and chronic cardio. Yuck, no thanks. The national weight loss registry 90% of 'successes' say they exercise at least an hour a day. Most obsesss on food, and maintaining is really hard.

This way is effortless once the transition period is over. One big reason? The food ROCKS! Do I have burgers? Yes I do. The most glorious burgers ever because I taste and savour the meat, cheese, and veggies so much more without the bun. The sauce and meatball pops so much more without the pasta or with spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles.

So no calorie counting, amazing food. Yep, for me, free to be healthy, happy, and loving food and eating for the first time in my life. And free of hunger and in control.

Why did you change your screen name?

If someone did and didn't announce, why call them out with it? Maybe they are avoiding being found on a search engine. Way to blow that.

thank you for this post. I think many equate freedom with being able to eat whatever they want and how much they want. This leaves them fat and miserable,e so what kind is the price for that kind of freedom and is it worth it? I don't have celiac but I know that I feel bloated after bread. Pasta sits in my stomach like lead. I don't think my body likes it or wants it. I have a friend that gets horrible diarrhea all the time after eating grains but she refuses to admit that it may be something that is bad for her. She would rather feel sick...and in my mind THAT is just sick.

" The national weight loss registry 90% of 'successes' say they exercise at least an hour a day. "

You seem to think this is a bad thing. Exercise is mandatory for good health, to maintain muscle, strength and balance. The minimum is 150 minutes of cardio and 2 strength training sessions. I love going to the gym. I'm on the National Weight Loss Registery and I'm a fan of Atkins for many years.

I changed it because I got frustrated as heck with some of the posters here. Most especially JohnP. He called me a ******. The word was Paleotard but you can see the word he meant is ****** on 3FC even though Paleotard was allowed. It isn't funny really more of a shame that people like JohnP if you disagree with them it must be that you didn't read enough, or are close-minded, or wrong. It never occurs to them that maybe they are wrong and you are right. Maybe you've read all the counter-arguments to what you believe even more than them (I have BTW that is how I roll, I read all the counter arguments to low carb). It is astounding the level of non self-reflection many have. I am not perfect. But my best attribute is self-reflection and questioning myself. I question EVERYTHING. Most especially what I believe. How did I arrive at LCHF in the first place?

So after he called me that I asked, I asked, not someone else, Suzanne to shut my account down. I figured I had no need of 3FC with people like JohnP around. And he still irks me.

But after a week or so, I felt that people should know this info. Even on 3FC. I said to myself I would only post here in this forum. I've already broken that and posted on counting calories. But I am going to try to stick to that.

So thank you for asking me. People shouldn't assume an answer BTW. So that was it, JohnP went to far, I thought who needs 3FC when people like him around? But over the years I have gotten well over a dozen PMs from over a dozen different people saying how much my posts mean to them.

So I figured I would come back...but not every day. I am at home in Marks Daily Apple in so many ways and learn lots of new things every day there.

I am going to try really hard to just post here in this forum occasionally on 3FC. And if people just stick to other forums and want to bash themselves for not having will power when they are eating a diet guaranteed to keep them hungry 24/7 and make it virtually impossible to lose weight, it is what it is.

Chronic exercise is more bad than good. Many marathornes are dying of heart disease. Exercise is good. Smart exercise. Many people have no idea what that is. I can tell you this. It isn't an hour a day unless it is walking, hiking, etc.

An hour a day at a gym is going to do more harm than good for anyone.

And no it isn't a good thing the 'success' stories on the National Weight Registry. At least the ones that got there by calorie counting and low fat.

They've simply changed from one purgatory to another. The purgatory of obesity to the purgatory of constant calorie counting, obsessing over foods, and HAVING to exercise an hour each day to maintain weight. There is a much better way. MUCH better.

I don't calorie count, I have foods I love, I never think about food except when how much my next meal is going to rock. I am never hungry. I run when I want to, but on a regular basis just do 3 10 minute strength trainings a week and 1 short sprint session every 7 to 10 days. I just got a pull up bar and do a few reps here or there. Mostly chin ups now, working on getting to pull ups easier. I can do 1 pull up now.

I'm developing a six pack at 49. 2 lbs from normal BMI. Learn more about the dangers of chronic cardio at Marks Daily Apple. It is a very real thing and hurts millions in the U.S.

I don't condone anyone being rude to anyone else, that particular poster is quite rude to everyone but you can't take it personally and let it affect you so. People will always disagree and there needs to be room for that. But you make constant assertions that allude to your belief that any kind of diet other than the one you are doing is wrong, even if people feel like they are healthy and addressing their weight loss effectively. JohnP may be opinionated but he doesn't tell people that they are unhealthy unless they follow one specific religious diet. You can't expect everyone to fall at your feet and then whine and pout and stomp and go when someone doesn't want to do what you're doing. If you are willing to put information out then you have to be willing to accept that someone is going to reject it. Maybe some of the things you say resonate with some people, great, enjoy that. To me some of the things you say sound so bogus. I have no wish or desire or my hunger to "plummet" as you so often like to brag. Why would I even want that? My appetite is fine, hunger is a call of nature, it's certainly not something I want to be rid of. But that's not to say that I don't respect and admire the way others commit to their lifestyle, I've always wished you health and happiness but in turn you have told me indirectly that my way of eating is killing me. And then you wine about someone calling you names even though you're the one who has called me names. You're not victimized by anyone here, you just can't handle it when someone disagrees with you.

Yeah, they are all on pacemakers around here.

Just so wrong on the exercise.

If you do not exercise as part of your weightloss effort, you waste away. Period.

You lose weight. Of course. But both fat & muscle.

That's why people get called gaunt.

But more than that, exercise is fun, a great source of stress relief and just plain good for you.

I love it. My journey would have been dead long ago without it.

We have a health crisis that is going to bring down, is bringing down our economy. We spend three trillion dollars a year on lifestyle diseases. The food sector generates 1 trillion. 1 in 2 Americans is going to get some form of cancer now. 1 in 2. 1 in 2. Flip a coin.

Why is this happening? The biggest cause are too many carbs. Humans aren't designed to eat that many carbs. It gums us up. Some people can eat more than others but collectively we are eating too many carbs. It isn't my opinion it is the way humans are designed. The genes we have, the bodies we have, the bacteria we have.

Sometimes things are beyond opinion and they are science. Good science. Insulin is real, leptin is real, blood sugar is real, the impacts of eating too many carbs are real. The medical establishment is coming around. There are already books like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly.

Health and weight are not the same thing. You can probably lose weight on an all wheat based cake diet. It doesn't mean you will be healthy. So no at many biological levels no one gets to choose what a healthy diet is. Feed a lion all veggies they will die or get very, very sick. They are not designed to handle it. Many humans, most humans get sick more or less on too many carbs for their level. It just is what it is.

Sure you can disagree with me, that is fine. But I don't believe we just get to pick and choose our diet IF we want Optimal health. If you want Ok, kinda sorta health. Maybe not breaking down for some time, then yes whatever floats your boat. But just because you wish carbs are healthy doesn't make them so for most people above their tolerance level.

And oh yeah I can handle when people disagree with me. There is something called Conventional Wisdom. I went totally against it for me and my family and we are thriving now. In many ways the majority of the world disagrees with me. If I couldn't handle that I'd be just as sick as I was before.

But I couldn't save my uncle who was my dad and I don't want people bashing themselves into painful, early deaths on this bad diet advice. And this is just plain science: people are suffering because they took healthy, millennium year old fats, lard, tallow, butter out and replaced them with vegetable oils. And they eat too many carbs. I didn't decide this, the science did. Ignore at your own risk.

You can gain muscle on the high fat low carb diet with minimal exercise. My wife had a surgery in June. Was laid up for a few months. She gained muscle. Of course exercise helps. But it doesn't have to be chronic at all.

I am getting stronger and have a lot more muscle now with minimal exercising by most standards. But glad you love exercise. It is a great thing and I am glad it is working for you. I just want to alert people that there are dangers to chronic cardio. Google the term if you wish. Many exercise professionals are coming around to the dangers of it now.

I know what those fats do to my drains and they will do the same to your arteries. Good fats need to be liquid at room temperature.

Oily fish is good for you.

Lard is not.

That is where the confusion is with the "fats are good for you crowd" and that includes the scientists.

This can't de done without protein and quite a lot of exercise. What you are doing is losing fat and muscle and the fat loss is just showing what muscle you have left. Your abs are a case in point. Everyone has them. And they show at lower BMIs.