Paleo diet -- one month results

On 21 Aug 2004 23:34:13 GMT, Ignoramus15381
wrote:

At some point, I read about paleo diet, read one book, and decided to
try it. The idea of a paleo diet is to eat an approximation of how,
supposedly, people ate up to 10,000 years ago, as hunter
gatherers, which is eating meat and fish, vegetables, fruits and
nuts. No grains, legumes, milk products, sugar.

So, I went on it a month ago, giving myself a month to see how it
works. I eat pretty much as much as I want, but only of what is
allowed.

The result is, I am no longer hungry and no longer think too much
about food. It just comes naturally to me that I eat as much as I
need, without a big conscious effort, portion weighing etc.

Ig, I am really happy for you if you've reached this point because to
me that would be eating like a "normal" person - something I don't
believe I'll ever do in this lifetime

I do recall, though, when you'd recently completed your weight loss
that you repeatedly told us how easy it was to lose, and then to
maintain, and I remember challenging you on this - but I think since
then you have gone on to show that it wasn't all that easy after all.

Your description in another post of your wife's and FIL's attitude to
food is interesting, and particularly that your wife thinks more about
food since she lost weight. As you know, my relationship with food
was distorted permanently after the first time I dieted - prior to
that I ate like you describe, with a bit of overindulgence one day
being cancelled out by perhaps not feeling like so much next day, but
with no conscious "intervention" from me in my own food intake. I'm
not saying your wife's behaviour around food is going to turn out like
mine did, but I do think once we've limited our food intake
deliberately it's extremely difficult to ever get back to having the
casual, automatically self-regulating attitude, to food that "normal"
people do.

I don't know much about the Paleo diet (I've kept well away from the
other thread on this) but it seems for you this could be a case of a
diet being more appropriate for maintenance rather than weight loss.


janice
233/179/133

Congratulations on the diet change that eliminated you obsession with
food, and the need to exercise willpower.

Some of this seeming success could be just the change. Kind of like how
a vacation can make you feel so good.

Please report back on this topic each month, expecially the elimination
of the need to exercise will power.

SIgnificant point, that elimination of need to use will power.

Jim



Ignoramus15381 wrote:
As you might know, I lost 50 lbs by "eating less" and exercising.
Almost a year ago I reached normal weight, the anniversary is on Sep
10.

I ate less, reduced carbs some, but not radically.

Despite the fact that I maintained my weight loss steadily and even
lost a bit more, I felt hungry most of the day and got some food
obsessions, thinking a bit too much about food, which are, actually,
mental signs of starvation. (I can post a great text about that that
describes starvation related mental symptoms).

My main food desires were meaty, fatty things. That's even though I
was eating plenty of meat and fat.

So I was going by willpower, but started realizing that I cannot do
that for life and that, sooner or later, I would invent some
rationalization for giving up.

At some point, I read about paleo diet, read one book, and decided to
try it. The idea of a paleo diet is to eat an approximation of how,
supposedly, people ate up to 10,000 years ago, as hunter
gatherers, which is eating meat and fish, vegetables, fruits and
nuts. No grains, legumes, milk products, sugar.

So, I went on it a month ago, giving myself a month to see how it
works. I eat pretty much as much as I want, but only of what is
allowed.

The result is, I am no longer hungry and no longer think too much
about food. It just comes naturally to me that I eat as much as I
need, without a big conscious effort, portion weighing etc.

In that month, I gained about 0.07 lbs, which is obviously a
nonconsequential amount, not statistically significant.

So, so far, this diet is a winnder for me. I no longer need to
exercise my willpower on a daily basis. Especially because all those
foods are what I like, whereas grain products etc, I used to eat
because I considered them "healthy" and "prudent".

I want to thank, specifically, Cubit and Jenny for steering my mind
towards realizing that my hunger was due to me eating my morning bread
and too many junk carbs.

I will test my blood lipids after a while, as part of my physical, and
see how they change.

For breakfast tomorrow, I am going to eat a stewed squirrel.

i


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In article , Ignoramus3159
wrote:

In article , janice wrote:
On 21 Aug 2004 23:34:13 GMT, Ignoramus15381
wrote:

At some point, I read about paleo diet, read one book, and decided to
try it. The idea of a paleo diet is to eat an approximation of how,
supposedly, people ate up to 10,000 years ago, as hunter
gatherers, which is eating meat and fish, vegetables, fruits and
nuts. No grains, legumes, milk products, sugar.

So, I went on it a month ago, giving myself a month to see how it
works. I eat pretty much as much as I want, but only of what is
allowed.

The result is, I am no longer hungry and no longer think too much
about food. It just comes naturally to me that I eat as much as I
need, without a big conscious effort, portion weighing etc.

Ig, I am really happy for you if you've reached this point because to
me that would be eating like a "normal" person - something I don't
believe I'll ever do in this lifetime


That is quite possibly true. Maybe it takes a radically low calorie
diet to alter appetite permanently.

Disaccharide carbs are very addictive. Ditching them in fvor of
monosaccharides helps me with maintenance.

--
Diva
******
There is no substitute for the right food

jbuch wrote:

Significant point, that elimination of need to use will power.

Yes, I caught that, too. It was part of the requirement I had for
myself when devising what food program would work for me. I had to
figure out a way to do a bunch of different stuff with my diet, but
having it be one that didn't require "willpower" to use was a top
priority. I've always thought your need for willpower was a red flag
that you still hadn't solved the eating part of it.

I don't feel very comfortable buying into the Paleo diet any more than
Atkins or Zone or any named diet... there are pieces that work from each
angle, but fundamentally they're trying to sell a diet with their own
schtick. IMO there's just no reason to avoid low-fat cottage cheese -
unless you personally happen to be allergic to dairy. But continue
inching your way toward assimilating all this stuff. You've got the
rest of your life to get it all figured out.

Dally

On 8/24/2004 1:48 PM, Dally wrote:

IMO there's just no reason to avoid low-fat cottage cheese -
unless you personally happen to be allergic to dairy.

Speaking of cottage cheese, I was at Whole Foods yesterday and I bought
some cottage cheese (forgot on 'regular' grocery run). I got the
Friendship brand. I noticed that they have a no salt added version.
Have you tried that? What did you think of it?

--
jmk in NC

jmk wrote:

On 8/24/2004 1:48 PM, Dally wrote:

IMO there's just no reason to avoid low-fat cottage cheese - unless
you personally happen to be allergic to dairy.


Speaking of cottage cheese, I was at Whole Foods yesterday and I bought
some cottage cheese (forgot on 'regular' grocery run). I got the
Friendship brand. I noticed that they have a no salt added version.
Have you tried that? What did you think of it?

I tend to buy low-salt versions of prepared soups and broths whenever
possible, so I tried the low-salt cottage cheese. Once. It was foul.
Sometimes salt is good. :-)

Dally

On 8/24/2004 2:09 PM, Dally wrote:
jmk wrote:

On 8/24/2004 1:48 PM, Dally wrote:

IMO there's just no reason to avoid low-fat cottage cheese - unless
you personally happen to be allergic to dairy.



Speaking of cottage cheese, I was at Whole Foods yesterday and I
bought some cottage cheese (forgot on 'regular' grocery run). I got
the Friendship brand. I noticed that they have a no salt added
version. Have you tried that? What did you think of it?


I tend to buy low-salt versions of prepared soups and broths whenever
possible,

me too

so I tried the low-salt cottage cheese. Once. It was foul.
Sometimes salt is good. :-)

I just could not imagine what it would be like and they did not have it
in the "small" container so I passed...

--
jmk in NC

jmk wrote:
On 8/24/2004 2:09 PM, Dally wrote:

I tried the low-salt cottage cheese. Once. It was foul. Sometimes
salt is good. :-)

I just could not imagine what it would be like and they did not have it
in the "small" container so I passed...

I think it must be like unsalted butter: meant to be used in baking recipes.

Dally

jmk wrote:
On 8/24/2004 2:09 PM, Dally wrote:

I tried the low-salt cottage cheese. Once. It was foul. Sometimes
salt is good. :-)

I just could not imagine what it would be like and they did not have it
in the "small" container so I passed...

I think it must be like unsalted butter: meant to be used in baking recipes.

Dally

On 8/24/2004 2:35 PM, Dally wrote:
jmk wrote:

On 8/24/2004 2:09 PM, Dally wrote:


I tried the low-salt cottage cheese. Once. It was foul. Sometimes
salt is good. :-)


I just could not imagine what it would be like and they did not have
it in the "small" container so I passed...


I think it must be like unsalted butter: meant to be used in baking
recipes.

That makes sense. They also had whipped cottage cheese.

http://www.friendshipdairies.com/products/cottage.shtml

--
jmk in NC