The new Paleo/Primal thread - please reintroduce yourself, newcomers welcome!

[misscph1973]

Wow, we got to 1000 messages!

Welcome back from the previous thread and welcome to all new!

I have been Paleo since September last year, I started as an ex-vegetarian/vegan, I wanted to give up gluten and I had been doing 5:2/IF, which lead me to Paleo/primal. I am 40, I have 2 kids age 8 and 6. I have no major health issues, but I would like it to stay that way. I have bad skin, which has improved since starting Paleo and my dandruff has disappeared. I have gained some weight since starting Paleo, but I was not overweight before, although I would like to get back on my pre Paleo weight - I just love Paleo mayonnaise too much ;) I still practice IF and I lift weights 2-3 times per week. My family is also Paleo.

I have just come back from a camping weekend where I was not strict Paleo as I was camping with other families and I just didn't want to spend my entire weekend telling my kids "no, you cant have it". I do think that Paleo camping is entirely possible, think tinned fish, nuts, sausages, eggs etc.

Yeah, it comes up quite a lot on the American recipes I look at. I believe it is possible to grow them here but probably from seed. Thanks for that link, I will take a look at that. I'm am really not a natural gardener so welcome any help in that department!

That's interesting about the rhubarb leaves, I got rid of it because I don't really like it and it was going to waste but I have since discovered an amazing rhubarb and custard jam recipe (completely not Paleo but great for presents), I know that I can at least make use of it now. Plus, it appears to be very low-maintenance, it grew with no input from me whatsoever!

Bastard slugs , we have loads around us, some even come into the house for parties whilst we sleep so I will need something to counteract that. Your poor courgettes, hope you have better luck with them this year.

I love rhubarb and apple (and rhubarb on its own) but I appreciate some people find it too sharp. I add a beetroot or two to make the rhubarb sweeter. Have you tried the rhubarb with coconut milk? [yum]
I'll try to make custard with coconut milk with the next batch of rhubarb and report back -though I suspect rhubarb ice cream will be requested again!

As for my seedling...I'm going to cover every tray with WD40 (not green!) and cover the ground with saved up egg shells. To stop the slugs coming inside the house, try using a line of cheap fine salt where they generally come in. We used to have a big problem with slugs but the chickens generally do a good job but I have to pen them as soon as I seed or plant seedling as the are greedy! If all fails I will re-read this book,it is so funny.

Almost forgot! In my permaculture lesson today I learnt that rhubarbs is excellent for adding biomass and good at reaching down for nutrients.:) (biomass is the organic matter that will turn into good soil)

hi

i have a long history of weight, food and diet issues. in later years i switched to more low carb but the past year the carbs have crept right back up again. i have chronic fatigue and feel quite down at the minute as my weight has went up and i seem to not have the motivation i want to tackle it. i guess paleo sounds like a good plan for me. i am on a budget though. and i am lazy about preparing food which doesn't help with the paleo way.... for example i hate cooking so tend to want easy things, but im sure if i learnt to organise myself and use the slow cooker it wouldn't be as much of an issue. basically i need a kick up the backside and also stop eating dds chocolate. is porridge ok on paleo? itd be hard giving that up. would like to try this though.

Hello Jan,
Paleo on a budget is doable. Farm shops and farmers' markets are a good way of reducing your costs on vegetables, also using a traditional butcher can be sometimes more cost effective. In a paleo diet you eat the same amount of protein as in a conventional diet, accompanied by good fats and good 'carbs', so it does not have be expensive.
You don't have to cook complicated meals; Italian cooking is generally quite simple, quick and full of flavour (no grain pasta, no grain pizza); salads at this time of the year are great.
Porridge is not paleo but there is paleo granola recipe somewhere. A lot of us start the day on leftovers from dinner, cooked breakfast...I love a mixed salad with either eggs, ham, bacon, fish or chicken thrown in the mix.

Chocolate is allowed on Paleo (70% + dark). :) Other than oats what carbs are you struggling with?

thank you favad. the butchers all tend to more expensive where i live! i am not used to cooking a lot of meat (used to be vegetarian) so its a case of really getting used to switching everything round a bit. i will struggle with bread.. i love eating wraps, and crackers. not into pasta rice or potato. sometimes i make lentil or chickpea curry. im just in a total rut really and would love to get out of it, i live with my 2 year old dd and would love to get her eating this way too, ive just switched her yoghurt to full fat greek and trying to pesevere with it but you know what kids are like!

Maybe a couple of typical days of food would help.

Yesterday
Breakfast- couple of thin slices of roast pork and roasted swede (Sun dinner leftovers) with some spinach.
Lunch- salad: lettuce, tomato, fennel dressed in olive oil and lemon; two egg mushroom omlette.
Dinner- Aubergine and courgette cooked in tomato and basil; a minute steak; swede french fries.

Today
Breakfast- salad: spinach, wild fennel, chives with olive oil and lemon; liver sauted in coconut oil with orange and chives
Lunch-grilled aubergine slices topped with egg poached in tomato and parsley; and letucce leaves to mop sauce.
Dinner-I hadn't planned anything but I think I'm going to throw some ox tail in a pressure cooker with onion, carrots, celeriac and potato (for ds).

it really sounds nice, like the type of thing that i did when i was low carbing...brings back the memories of cooking properly etc. basically it means i will be making a bit more effort. i just need the motivation to get started. think ill wait till all my oatmeal is finished otherwise it will be there to tempt me.

flowers I understanding that overwhelming feeling only too well. After years of yo-yoing paleo is the only diet that worked. You already know from low carbing how much better you feel when removing gluten, you already love vegetables. No need to cook a lot of meat, but it is important to add fat. Coconut oil is lovely of the spoon (with or with out mint!); Coconut milk is just lovely to make sauces and ice-creams (with either sharp fruit or dark chocolate).

You can use grilled aubergine as mini wraps, pizza base or sliced bread (lovely with burgers). These rosmary crackers takes minutes to bake and are delicious. you can use the same recipe -minus the savoury ingredients- to make honey crackers for your little one.

Sorry it was meant to be

hmm now one thing i do love and i haven't had in ages is the coconut milk!

Hi, I was hoping to join in too as I have a problem I'm hoping some of you can help me with. I have been following these threads for a while now but I need to get involved as it may help me stay on the wagon, so to speak.

My DH has followed a paleo (actually 'bulletproof') diet for about 18 months now. I started with him and found it easy to make the changes to my diet. I then became pregnant and had terrible morning sickness which only receded while I was eating refined carbs. Fat and meat made me sick so I couldn't continue the paleo WOE.

Now I have a gorgeous three month old baby who I'm breast feeding and a two year old toddler to care for and I want to start eating the paleo way again. However, I'm finding it really hard this time round. I seem to be hungry all the time despite eating lots of healthy fats and a lot of protein. I feel sort of empty rather than hungry I guess. I'm craving sweet comfort food in a way I didn't before. I don't really like chocolate so that doesn't help (DD eats 90% cocoa!) and I've tried things like Greek yogurt with berries.

I need to lose a lot of weight and make a change in my diet for the better but it just seems so hard this time round.

Does anyone have any advice to get me past this hurdle?
Sorry, that turned into a bit of an essay.

Hello MrsH,
Breastfeeding is a hungry business. I remember being always hungry and getting cravings whilst breastfeeding both my children. There are so many Paleo recipes of sweet comfort food. Almond flour is so easy to bake with and hardly takes any honey to sweeten it. Coconut milk makes lovely ice creams, smoothies and poured as cream over berries, is far more filling (and sweeter) than yogurt; coconut oil with a drop or two of peppermint oil is yummy. Roasted roots like sweet potatoes, beetroots, parsnips are quite sweet.

Thank you for the ideas Favadi.
I have loads of coconut cream so I shall put that to use outside of prawn curries.
I do some paleo baking but it always tastes like the poor cousin to my old recipes.
I'm making root vegetable dauphinois to go with roast lamb and I'm hoping that offers the kind of soft, creamy goodness I'm craving.

How did your vegetable dauphinois turn out, MrsH?

I have finally got round to curing salmon: delicious!

How I did it:
I used just over 1 kg of filetted salmon with the skin still on (descaled and pin boned). I mixed about ground 300g of coarse sea salt, 2 tbs of pepper and the grated rind of 2 lemons as my curing salt. I rubbed the mix all over the fish, paying attention to little pockets. I then folded the fish roughly in half and tucked the tail under so I could only see the skin. I wrapped the fish in a lot of kitchen paper (~20 squares), placed it in a zip-lock bag, sqeezing as much air as possible. I placed the salmon in the fridge for 48 hrs. Once cured, I washed all the curing mix off, dried the fish and carved it. yum! I served it with mixed salad and the crackers from Elana's pantry.

It's soooooooooooo easy! :)

Hey all - newbie here - not been on MN (or DN) for ages. Thinking about trying paleo / primal, having been on just about every other diet. The only one I've had success on and stuck to for more than a few months is the Charles Clark high protein diet. I need to loose about 4/5 stone, having gained an enormous amount of weight back after coming off the Cambridge diet. Big mistake. I have just bought a book by Mark Sisson for a read. Not sure how I will manage going back to low carb - food budget is small, we have two under fives and my other half (who does most of the cooking as she works from home) is skeptical about the whole idea! Any thoughts/ideas welcomed, I'm at the end of my tether about my weight, I just can't stand it anymore. Also, I'm asthmatic and have a lot of problems with indigestion and acid reflux - carbs seem to make it worse, so maybe getting off cereal an bread will help.

Hello Cockneydad, welcome aboard! :)

Mark's book is an excellent book and his Mark's daily apple website is too. I have lost close to 35 kg on Paleo/Primal and there are bigger successes on this thread! :)
Each of us tolerate different amount of carbs-I get really ill under 50g/day- so don't stress about carbs...once you're grain (wheat in particular), sugar and pulses free, you'll struggle to be high carb (watch out for roots )

You can spend a fortune on paleo if you wish to but...you don't have to!:)

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping to join in if that's ok. I'm planning to start a low carb, gluten and dairy free diet from Monday.

I have hypothyroidism and I am overweight so need to limit my carbs I think. I have been ttc for a while with no luck, so I'm hoping that these dietary changes will help.

I'm planning to do a fairly long fast overnight and eat my first meal as brunch or lunch, so I guess that is a bit like the 16:8 thing I keep reading about?

Thanks Favadicacao ! I've low carbed before, but not for some time ! I will see how it goes !

Hello, may I join you?

The Paleo diet is something I came across in reading as a way to help with mitochondrial issues and autoimmune illness, and I'm keen to try. I lost a lot of weight on Atkins a few years ago and enjoyed it, but slipped back and put all the weight back on (and more). I did do better without sugar and refined carbs (never did go back to eating bread which has a strong immediate flare effect.) One of the things I found hardest about Atkins was that during bad fatigue patches which can go on for weeks, I stopped eating because I didn't have the energy to cook from scratch, and that's when I resort to eating junk.

A question for paleo / primal peeps - full cream seems to be OK for primal but not paleo - thoughts anyone on whether its OK ? I know its low(ish) carb (I like a little on berries as a dessert!) cheers!

Hi cockneydad,

If you don't have any problems with lactose/casein then a small amount of full fat dairy like cream is probably fine imo.

Strict Paleo-ers would probably point out that we wouldn't have eaten it before the advent of farming and agriculture, so isn't really a traditional food which we are necessarily evolved to eat.

As you say though, it is low carb and nutritious, so that's why an exception is made by some for dairy, esp cream and butter.

Mark's daily apple has lots of interesting and well-balanced stuff on full fat dairy.

Thanks foolishpeach - I found some stuff about it on Mark's website - I now have his blueprint book and a subscription for updates etc. What he says seems to make a lot of sense! I will continue to use a little butter and cream and see how things go !!

About 4 days into Primal - all going well so far - two work trips next month, each for a couple of days, not quite sure how I will manage, but will do my best to avoid grains and processed carbs etc!

Hi all

Having stepped on the scales this morning, i need to get back to this. I have , essentially 4 stone to lose.

I am heavier now than when i was 9 months gone.

Not a great situation at all.

I have pcos and insulin resistance and normal ' diets' do not work for me.

I went paleo for a month last year and dropped a stone in a month and felt great. Then, for personal reasons, i fell off the bandwagon and gained 2 whole stone since then.

Im on day 2. Ive been out and brought what i need, but i just find the first few days so hard. Im currently fighting a massive headache and feeling very on edge from the sugar withdrawl. Felt a bit lightheaded earlier too and had the shakes/ feeling a bit sweaty for a while, so ate a few nuts.

Once i get past the first week its ok, so, could i ask for some support to get me through?

Ive had scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Pork and brocoli for lunch
a handful of frozen red grapes ( not great, but better than cake)

and dinner is prawns, tomatoes, garlic, chilli. shit loads of spinach.