@dancerindenver - That sounds about how I do it when I'm being primal/paleo. I do eat dairy. I am lactose intolerant but only with milk/ice-cream. Yogurt and cheese don't seem to bother me as much unless I were to eat excess amounts! That's really nice to know that yo are eating dairy and it's not affecting your weight loss

Well I'm back after a 9 day trip back east visiting my parents. I did my best to stay on plan but boy my parents just don't understand paleo at all and even when they tried they were way off. As their guest, I just ate what I was served, LOL. The only formal meal was dinner and so I was on my own for breakfast, lunch and snacks so I tried to keep those as paleo/primal as I could and then limited my portions at dinner to minimize carbs. The only "bad" day I had was Christmas itself when I had told them I would eat whatever and so I had a slice of cheesecake, some sort of almond coated brittle, two glasses of wine, prime rib, green beans, and potatoes au gratin. And later I felt like I was having an anxiety attack- not out of guilt for going off-plan but I think my body was reacting to having all that sugar when I haven't been eating any at all. It was actually kind of educational. But I got back home last night late and so today I had for lunch a salad with steak and portabella mushrooms and my goodness that was so delicious.

This is the first time in my life I've LOST weight over the holidays. Even with being off plan some for my visit to my parents', I still lost a pound. So I've lost 11 lbs since the week before Thanksgiving. Amazing! Paleo works!

And I feel terrific- when I'm on plan. That alone is enough to keep me on plan.

Paleo does work. I was talking to a guy friend today that I've known for years. He's always been very big. I was telling him how I have this brain problem where I have too much cerebral fluid and losing weight could help it. So, he tells me all about his past success by not eating much meat and fat and doing the subway diet and eating 6 times a day. I told him that I eat lots of meat and 50% fat. Mostly saturated fats. He couldn't believe it. He didn't say I was crazy, but he really buys in to conventional wisdom. I keep telling people how great I feel, but I think they'll be skeptical until they see significant weight loss.

wendyland - a little off topic, but just curious, have you been to any of the Paleo meetups here in STL?

Dee - congrats on losing during the holidays!!

I have been to a couple potlucks. And to a kombucha demo. Have you?

Wendyland-

Yes, it's hard when people buy into the whole CW thing. Heaven knows I did, for years. I just could not understand when I was eating so "healthy" why I was gaining so much weight. Primal Blueprint (the paleo variant I'm using) explained it all. I had no idea I was creating the perfect storm of insulin to store fat. But it's so easy to lose when I'm not eating grain, it's ridiculous. I mean, it's not fast- just the one or two pounds a week, but I eat as much as I want and still lose. No portion control. No guilt. No calorie counting. And the food tastes good. I feel like shouting it from the roof tops- "Hey- everyone! Stop eating like a farm animal (corn and grain is what we use to fatten them up!) and try this!" But most people I know simply look at me like I'm insane and make a statement like, "I couldn't live without bread and pasta."

wendyland - I went to a Paleo challenge intro thing that Alex Born held last year. Then I got into a major car wreck and broke my sternum and fell into bad habits BIG TIME during the weeks and weeks of immobility. My husband and I have always wanted to get to more of the meetups, so maybe we'll be able to work more of them into our schedule in 2013. I'll say hello if I recognize you at one of them!

EagleRiverDee - I get the 'I couldn't live without pasta/cookies/bread/cake' responses all the time too. I've been trying to get my sister-in-law interested in paleo for awhile because I think it would work really well for her and she's massively depressed about her weight and she always thinks I'm borderline insane for suggesting a life without oreos and bread. I'm hoping really sticking with a paleo lifestyle and dropping weight/getting healthier myself (instead of going off and on and off and on...) will inspire her to give it a second look.

Hi ya'll, I am started paleo in May of 2010, but haven't been committed at all for the last few months. I have multiple podcasts I listen to on my phone and my brain just became overloaded with primal/paleo information. I finally decided that going full-board paleo is not possible for me right now, as it is quite expensive to eat the organic, grass fed, free range food recommended, and to avoid all vegetable oils, artificial sweeteners, etc.

I have Hashimoto's so I really need to avoid grains. I know it is what is best for me, I just wish I had more immediate symptoms as a result of eating bad food that would give me more motivation to stop eating it I am going to try to keep my carbs at 15% of my daily intake, my fat will be about 55% and protein 30%.

On a side note, I just registered for this forum yesterday and I saw Sarah Fragoso at the Tractor Supply today I consider it a sign

and don't forget.... BACON ROCKS!!!

Finally good to be back. I was sick over Christmas and my mother tried to stuff me full of bread and other stuff off of my diet. I am going back to my plan tomorrow though. She did her best. Thankfully or not, I didn't have much of an appetite but when you don't have the energy to cook, you eat what you can when you can.

Bindi, start small. You don't have to go all out right off the bat. I still don't eat all organic, because it is just not cost effective all the time. I do try to avoid the vegetable oils, but that's because I noticed I dropped faster eating coconut oil. I still eat cheese and yogurt but not as much and I try to stick to flavorful (sharp cheddar, goat, feta) so I don't need as much.

Find how to make it work within your budget and life.

Thanks Mizz, the only thing I eat that has vegetable oil in it is salad dressing. I cant find any that dont, and I don't want to make my own, too much trouble. We only use coconut oil, butter and olive oil when cooking. The coconut oil took a while to get used to since I HATE coconut, but it works great for pork chops and chicken curry. I do eat cheese but not yogurt because of the sugar and high carbs, but I am not much of a fan anyway. I am hoping that this time, modifying the gluten free/low carb lifestyle to be more realistic and doable I will succeed. And, with 3FC to turn to for support, I am feeling very hopeful

Bindi-
I make salad dressing using equal parts extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with some fresh ground pepper and Mrs. Dash table blend mixed in. I just swirl it all together in a cup. No fuss, no muss, plus it's healthy, easy, and tastes good.

yeah...the problem with that, is that I don't like it. If I don't like it I wont eat it. I have tried the balsamic dressings, too acidic for me. I have acid reflux and I can't eat a lot of foods. I can eat creamy dressings only, even then sometimes I get AR. I don't eat a lot of salads, but when I do, it has to be a creamy dressing. It is just going to be one of those "non-paleo/primal" exceptions to my diet. I may try that olive oil/balsamic vinegar mix combined with some sour cream or even a little heavy cream, though. That might work.... I am always looking for a way to make it work. I know vegetable oils are not good stuff.

I am going to try sour cream to thicken mine. I made an apple cinnamon dressing (got the recipe from That's Some Good Cookin'). I made it paleo friendly and it tasted really good. We actually like it better than store brought. I think it's because it pairs so well with salad and we don't have to use much.

I've also tried salsa on salads. That may work well with the sour cream too.

My goal this week is to try to make some meals ahead of time. I've pre-made some salads but I need to do some main dishes as well.

Hi everyone... I've been following this thread for a little while now, and thought I'd jump in...

My first experience with a paleo diet was back in college after using Joe Friel's "The Triathlete's Training Bible" to start working towards doing my first Ironman... and it definitely was a very different approach to diet and training from anything that I'd ever heard of before, at least back then... especially, coming from a high carb, vegetarian diet for optimal training and performance approach that worked well for me back then...

I guess because of this initial experience... I've always thought that if you were going to eat "paleo" that you should be exercising and training at a "paleo" level as well... Which unfortunately hasn't been the case for me these last couple of years... But now that my desire to run another marathon has returned, I've decided to give paleo another look, since there is a lot about it that I really like...and I think that will work for what I want to do...

I'm planning on taking a look at "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" since I'm already familiar with Cordain and Friel... and I'm also going to take a look at "The Primal Blueprint" since he has a marathon/Ironman background that I'm interested in and I can relate to... So if anyone has any experience with either of these, I'd love to hear about it...

But I'm also looking forward to see how everyone here makes "paleo" practical which I know from experience isn't always so easy...