I need to lose weight, and I'm thinking about going on a paleolithic, low-carb diet, something that is now more appealing after watching the documentary "Fat Head."
I was wondering if anybody could share any info on this kind of diet. I actually know a couple who are doing the diet right now. It consists of plenty of organic meat and veggie consumption, and no carbs. Funny thing is, before they started this diet they were vegetarians for 10 years, and within doing this diet they've lost over 30 pounds.
*Some people say that pastured/organic meats are too expensive; however, remember that you eventually end up eating less food than you would have otherwise because you are not getting the craving caused by not consuming enough nutrients from the food that you eat. I always go for pastured meats and eggs and organic everything and I am now spending less money than I did before. It is like buying a high-quality pair of shoes than last you 5 years versus buying low-quality shoes that are replaced every six months. Also, think about all money that you would save from preventing health problems caused by the high-carb, low-fat diet.
**Some people say that the primal diet contains too much meat; however, fasting solves that issue because you are not eating meat everyday.
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
I highly suggest this lifestyle. I haven't been sick in almost 5 years now. Not even a sniffle. I tend to agree with most everything on Marks Daily Apple. Except completely avoiding running. I tend to enjoy running. It's a great stress reliever, and I see no difference between running 3 miles and playing a game of pickup basketball. Also, dairy. If you can get raw milk, and its subsidiaries (butter, cream, kefir, etc), do drink. Anything pasteurized though avoid. Lastly, find some good raw sauerkraut, or raw milk kefir, or raw kombucha. It will repair the damage to your gut from the SAD, and you will then see marked improvement in nutrient absorption. Doesn't matter what foods you're taking in (or vitamin supplements) if you can't absorb the nutrients.
You can try using a blender. Get some yummy fruits, kale and other vegtables, hell, even add nuts if you wish, and blend it all into a smoothie. Drink during the morning and work out etc, youll feel alot better (i think). I havent tried this but i saw a video, and i have an aunt that does this. Seems like a good idea for getting something on the go.
“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence.""The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”
http://voluntaryistreader.wordpress.org
http://www.twomomsintheraw.com/pages/our-food has really great products. The only downside is the agave sugar they use. I think that for marketing purposes they maintain such a high level sugar (for us primals, at least). That and the price; but I cannot wait until more producers enter the market and drive prices down*.
*Do not go all Austrian on me! Y'all understand what I mean.
Thanks for the link, Daniel. Here is a starter list of companies to look out for. Dr. Mercola also has a nice store. He now has much, much more than supplements. Also try US Wellness Meats. I just discovered iHerb recently. Seems like a nice store. That should set you pretty well on food, and for supplements iHerb, Mercola, Dr. Ron's, Redmond (their toothpaste is phenomenal), and Mountain Rose Herbs. If you're eating healthily your sweat shouldn't produce too bad an odor, but if you feel naked not applying deodorant I highly suggest Herban Cowboy. Hopefully that expanded your market a bit. Also, attending farmers markets and networking with them is a great way to find things you thought you couldn't locate nearby. Often times it's cheaper, too. Good luck!
You can get a lot of info and great recipes over at marksdailyapple.com. I also really like fastpaleo.com. Diet and sleep are most important. Once you get a good relationship with food and listen to your body, incorporate fasting for even better results (I like doing 24 hours from lunch to lunch or from 6 p.m. to 1 p.m. the next day). Don't feel constricted by "proper" meal eating times. I've always found meal plans and easy meals helpful--I would suggest getting a pint of organic coconut oil or lard to use for the majority of your cooking. Here are some easy meals:
2 pcs of pastured bacon, 2 organic eggs cooked in the bacon fat, 1/2 avocado (adjust amounts according to your size/hunger)
1/2 lb steak pan fried in coconut oil (with spices--I like chipotle chili powder and cayenne), sliced peppers and onions or spinach
1 broiled salmon steak, 1 microwaved (I know, not primal, but quick) sweet potato covered in 1-2 tbsp clarified butter (no milk solids) with cinnamon or cumin
1 microwaved spaghetti squash (will last several meals), and combine a pot 1 lb ground beef, tomatoes, Italian spices, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, etc. (whatever you want to throw in there for sauce)
These are quick 10-15 minute meals, the 2nd and 4th ones are good to make lots of so you can bring them to work for lunch (if you have that kind of job). Once you find some meals you like and which satisfy your hunger, you can keep using them and occasionally trying new things and incorporating them. This is just what works for me though, I think this is all about self-experimentation and self-knowledge.
Thanks for all of the links guys, this is really good stuff.
All the time I wonder why Penn and Teller made an episode of Bullshit! about organic food. I think that episode of BS was...BS.
a) Penn & Teller have interviewed about how Bullshit itself is bullshit - it's not scientific and is just an expression of their own opinions. It's their own personal critique of the absurdity of modern life.
b) Organic is bullshit. My Mom makes homemade soap and she looked into getting it certified organic... wow, what a joke. It's an attempt to create an economic enclave wholly separated from the rest of the economy - tribal economics. I worked at a grocery store for my first job as a kid, back in 1996-1998. The fruits and vegetables being sold at that time as "ordinary" at ordinary prices were of the same quality as today's organics, which are now priced up to two and three times as high as "ordinary" fruits and vegetables which are now bottom-of-the-barrel quality. The bottom line is that organic creates a parallel industry that delivers what 15-20 years ago was standard quality food and charges 2x-3x the price of ordinary food.
Clayton -
Interesting how much the whole organic thing seems to be so confused among libertarians. Agorists seem to like it.
@Skeptical: I think you have to differentiate between "non-corporate" and "Organic®". The former is just common sense. The latter - at least in the US - is economic mumbo-jumbo and a gigantic ripoff scam. Buying cash from local farmers is a great idea. Blindly picking up anything with the "Organic" sticker on it is just throwing money away.
I see. So basically what Organic is, is it's corporations realizing that people are catching on to what they are doing, and then doing the exact same thing by re-labelling everything as...organic. Did I get that right?
@Skeptical: I'm not sure if the mainstream players are in on it or not. What I am sure of is that Organic is being pushed from the Agenda 21/Council-of-Rome crowd who understand enough economics to know that artificially raising prices on food is the quickest way to create starvation, which slows and can even reverse population growth. The way Organic is certified, every input to an "Organic" product must itself be Organic-certified. It's a completely bogus system.
I see. Do they sell the brands found on the Real Foods Market at most supermarkets, like, for instance, at a Publix?
In terms of sourcing foods, see what kinds of small farms are in your area. I've got only one that I know of, but up my parents' way in Connecticut they can go to a multiplicity of local farms that pasture their animals and sell both meat and veggie products right there. A lot of those kinds of farmers struggle so I like to buy direct if I can. Prices ARE high. I'm jealous though. They can buy lard from pastured pigs essentially right up the road. That's the kind of thing I wind up paying more in shipping than for the actual product.
Some farms operate only as a subscription type of thing where you get eggs, milk, or meat on a schedule based on pre-paying. It's annoying for the consumer but easier for the farmer to plan and stay financially solvent. The milk, in states where cowshares are necessary to sell raw milk, is unavoidable anyway.
I don't look for an organic label. I prefer to actually go look at the farm and the health/living conditions of the animals I'm eating, whenever it's possible. When not, I just buy pastured and hope for the best.
Clayton: @Skeptical: I think you have to differentiate between "non-corporate" and "Organic®". The former is just common sense. The latter - at least in the US - is economic mumbo-jumbo and a gigantic ripoff scam. Buying cash from local farmers is a great idea. Blindly picking up anything with the "Organic" sticker on it is just throwing money away. Clayton -
Anyway, I have had problems with farmers markets lately. Many vendors of pastured bacon and sausages add chemical presevatives to the product. Many organic soaps are made from organic olive oil, organic coconut, organic aloe, etc., but then a bunch of chemicals are added.
Clayton: @Skeptical: I'm not sure if the mainstream players are in on it or not. What I am sure of is that Organic is being pushed from the Agenda 21/Council-of-Rome crowd who understand enough economics to know that artificially raising prices on food is the quickest way to create starvation, which slows and can even reverse population growth. The way Organic is certified, every input to an "Organic" product must itself be Organic-certified. It's a completely bogus system. Clayton -
I'm also curious to know if dairy products such as milk are permitted in the Caveman diet. We buy the Horizon brand of milk.
I've heard everything across the board when it comes to raw milk. Some say it's incredibly good for you, others say drinking it is just ridiculous due to the immense dangers.
Its important to remember that pasteurization, preservatives, and the like were all invented for a reason. They may not have known that it was bad for you, but they also didnt know how to deliver raw milk safely and in the vast quantities demanded by the market. So when you remove modern "solutions" you need to solve those problems allover again, by yourself. Just drink the milk the day you buy it, I guess. You can get pasteurized, grass-fed, non-homogenized milk at whole foods. Its basically an act of terrorism to try to get raw milk these days anyway.
Dairy is the difference between paleo and primal.
Can anyone please tell me where I can get grass-fed meat that won't make me go broke?
Seriously, everywhere I look, the good stuff you need to truly follow the Paleo diet the correct way would make Bill Gates squirm. I'm really trying to get in shape here.
How much are you paying per pound?
Anyway, you do not need filet mignons nor New York steaks; so, go for the less expensive cuts.
To answer your question, go to farmers markets, where you can buy directly from the farms.
I tend to buy the non gmo milk.
Non homogenization
whole milk millk.
Right now I haven't been buying grass-fed due to the outrageous prices. I'm still on the grain-fed stuff. However, since switching to this primal diet, my weight has already begun to drop. We still have a lot of carbs in the house that we have to use up before we can say that we're completely primal.
Yeah, I already partially implement the primal diet. I intend to slowly ease myself into it fully. Not sure if I will go with the full-scale paleo version. There's a lot of debate about whether certain foods should or shouldn't be included in a diet (e.g. potatoes, almond flour; the sweet potato seems less controversial), and I am going by their nutritional value more so than whether they'd comprise part of the stricter paleo diet. Luckily there's a lot of materials on the topic online. I've ordered a couple of books and recipe collections on it to get inspired.
Strictly speaking, not every ethnic profile will benefit as much from it (Asians apparently can get away with more grain consumption than us whities), but in my case as I am a mixture of northern European and mediterranean ancestry, I pretty much fall into the groupings that do, and so avoid grains, legumes and dairy as much as possible. There's exceptions like Greek yoghurt, which you can consume as long as you moderate it.
I agree with others that it's important to keep fit on top of it, but the diet has the potential to rectify a lot of health problems grain, legume and highly refined carb consumption seem to bring about. I
Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...
Malachi, I have a long second toe (Celtic ancestry not Greek) so when I tried on a pair of Vibrams they didn't fit too well. I've seen where people have altered their Vibram's too fit the long second toe. I'd like to know if you tried the Fila's, Evoskin or other toe shoes for comparison?
I would like to see some (one?) of the finger shoes also have grounding to hopefully receive those benefits as well.
I've been working out since I was 15, and I've learned that the most important thing to maintaining a healthy diet: Being lucky enough to have good genetics.
After that, avoid carbs and drink water instead of everything else (minus tea and milk).
However, the Paleo diet seems to do the trick--I've unwittingly followed it loosely my entire life, and I'm 6'4", 195 lbs with 6% body fat. However, true health really has nothing to do with the measurables, someone can be "overweight" and in far better shape than a skinny guy.
But good luck to y'all, I have a cousin who has lost 20 lbs in the last two months basically just cutting every carb from her diet.
I've been eating 95% paleo right now, and my weight has been dropping...but I honestly don't see a real difference in the way I look or the way I feel.
Maybe it's because I do online courses, and I'm sitting at my desk practically all day. What can you do about that when you have to sit around all day?
I've been told there's a period of transition for some people, especially if you might have had some trouble regulating blood sugar before. In the meantime, I would imagine energy would be an issue.
My advice would be to pick up a really physical hobby. A martial arts class or rock climbing or whatever...personally, I like outdoor stuff best like canoeing, but when I lived close to a good fencing club I found that was a great workout too. I also run, and I try to weight my workouts (safely) toward quality mileage versus LSD.
Put on some muscle doing something fun, and make it a high calorie-burning thing, because you don't have endless amounts of time to devote to it.
Secondarily as you get older you'll find the computer jobs lead to repetitive stress injuries. Being strong and flexible goes a long way to preventing that.
I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean when you say "versus LSD"
Quality-paced running as preferable to long, slow distance running.
LSD isn't always "junk mileage" but it's good to maximize the benefits of a running program by a proportionate blend of threshold, repetition, interval, and easy paced running.
The LSD of a program is sort of active recovery, it's best used for that rather than the ONLY or major component of a running program. Especially for somene with a primal lifestyle in mind, who wants to avoid the slogging of slow-and-steady exercise and sensibly replace it with some work that pays higher returns.
I see. Well thank you for the information.
No problem! If you want some help designing a running program let me know or PM me, I’d be happy to help.
RE: something way back on this thread, I Love my Vibram 5 fingers. In warm weather, they are awesome for canoeing, too. I run in mine. I have the original Bikila type. I’m hankering after some of the better looking newer ones though. These puppies don’t really wear out though!
I am gonna start adding free running to my daily routine of walking and standing.
Less emphasis on style:
Free running in a forest: