<p>That salad sounds wonderful, Marilyn! I’ll get the ingredients next time I shop. Congratulations on the lost pounds!</p>
<p>Here are my rules:</p>
<p>Real food.
More vegetables.
Normal portion sizes.
Don’t drink sugar.
Figure out what treats you would feel deprived not having and plan for how they can be a regular part of your diet.</p>
<p>I treat fruits like other foods - what’s the cost/benefits ratio? I eat apples, pears and bananas but not every day and usually won’t eat two of them on the same day. Apples and pears provide a lot of fiber so they are always a consideration. Bananas are quite convenient foods - yes, they have sugars but still way less than a soda.</p>
<p>I’m just jumping in…haven’t read the whole thread…but abasket’s comments resonated with me. I can do anything if I don’t have cravings. What I’ve found works is to eliminate the simple carbohydrates. For the past 10 days I have been putting forth a more concerted effort to do so, and alas, I’m not craving junk food anymore. </p>
<p>Now I can focus on portion control, and eating healthy food. I refuse to eliminate fruit from my diet on the premise that it has sugar, because fruit is a whole lot better than six of my mother’s homemade chocolate chip cookies. And if I am feeling deprived, I lack the willpower to be successful.</p>
<p>So this method will take me a year to lose the 7 pounds I gained in one stressful week in May. But at least I’m not thinking about food 24/7, and can watch TV without a bag of chips at my side.</p>
<p>Clapping for FlyMeToTheMoon - that says for me pretty well!</p>
<p>Hungry for a snack this afternoon - I didn’t even think about grabbing junk food, but was totally happy and satisfied to grab a small piece of sharp cheese and a couple inches of a beef type stick I bought yesterday (thin).</p>
<p>
It’s a start, but it’s probably not enough. It’s been years since I’ve eaten any of that stuff except at parties, but whenever I stop tracking my food I creep up. </p>
<p>Anyway these are my food rules:</p>
<ol>
<li>Eat real food.</li>
<li>Eat more vegetables.</li>
<li>Pay attention to portion size. (Deck for cards for meat, a little bigger for fish, tennis ball of vegetable, a bit more for salad.)</li>
<li>You don’t need more than 1 portion a day of bread, grains or potatoes. If that.</li>
<li>If there are things you can’t just eat one of - don’t allow them in your house.</li>
<li>Figure out what sort of indulgences you can’t live without and make a plan for how they can be a regular part of your diet. (So if dh brings me back Swiss Chocolate I eat them at the rate of one a day. I don’t even think twice about having blueberry pancakes with the works on Saturday, it’s part of my eating plan.)</li>
<li>Don’t drink sugar.</li>
</ol>
<p>oh and 8. Don’t shirk on the exercise.</p>
<p>Sorry about the repeat, this version though is more complete. :)</p>
<p>FlyMeToTheMoon, you may be interested in Kathryn DesMaisons’ work on sugar addiction. Her website is radiantrecovery.com. I’ve found, following her advice, that a few days without sugar or “white” foods is enough to eliminate cravings.</p>
<p>I had posted a while back on this thread (about 2-3 weeks ago) when I had first started the Paleo diet that my son wanted to try. I’ve been following along with everyone and applaud you for your diligence in counting points and calories and whatever else you count, but I don’t have the patience to do that. For those who don’t know about the Paleo diet it’s essentially what hunter-gatherers would have eaten (proteins, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruit). No processed food, no grains (wheat, corn, barley, quinoa, oats, etc), no legumes, no sugar, no artificial sweetener, noting fried. So I didn’t have to pay attention to counting anything, just be aware of what I couldn’t eat.</p>
<p>Mind you, I’ve been eating pretty healthy for the past 3 years since my husband had a heart attack – lean proteins, brown rice, whole grain breads/pasta, low fat, egg whites, no butter, etc, but I’ve gained a few pounds a year and I didn’t like the trend. After being on this Paleo diet for about 2-1/2 weeks now I’ve lost 6.5 pounds. And I don’t feel deprived, which is really weird. And the food I eat actually tastes better. I don’t know if it’s the low carbs or the elimination of sugar (other than from fruit) that’s what’s making this diet so successful for me. But I’m going to keep it up for a little while longer and then figure out if I can have a little bit of non-Paleo food here and there and maintain my weight.</p>
<p>And in addition to the weight loss, the added bonus is that I actually feel more energetic and alert. I’ve never felt this good on any kind of diet before. And I was a real skeptic before starting it. I only did it because if my son was going to do it for 30 days while he was living at home this summer I figured it would be easier to make meals that he could eat too if I went on the same diet with him.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was afraid that we would be required to actually kill our own meat, LOL. </p>
<p>What foods fall in the seed category?</p>
<p>^^^ Yes, I would definitely lose weight that way! Seeds are sesame, pumpkin, and others. I can eat any kind of nuts too, but sadly peanuts are legumes, so no peanut butter. There are all kinds of recipes I’ve found online for this diet, so I’ve made blueberry pancakes with coconut flour (found the flour at Whole Foods). I’m also allowed to have a little honey and real maple syrup – supposedly the amount you can forage. I keep telling my son that I would have been really good at foraging honey, so I’m allowed extra. Some people on the Paleo diet don’t have dairy, and some do. I am having dairy so I can eat plain Greek yogurt that I mix some fruit in. My son’s doing no dairy. So for the pancakes I made I used coconut milk. And eggs are allowed, so he’s eating a lot of eggs. He’s lost around the same amount of weight I have and he eats a LOT more than I do.</p>
<p>BlackeyedSusan - I realize there is a lot of conflicting info, but as someone whose DH also had a heart attack (and bypass surgery) and has gone very low fat, vegetarian (and whole grains, complex carbs, etc) - that approach has made a difference in his arteries. He had a heart catheterization 15 years ago at the time of the incident, and more recently because of ventricular tachycardia it was found that his arteries are better now. The ER doc, his cardiologist, and two friends who are physicians all told him that he never would have survived VT if his arteries hadn’t been as good as they were. </p>
<p>His mom also had a heart attack the same year he did, went on the Reversal Diet, and at 86 has never had another incident. She has lived longer than any of her siblings - most of whom died of heart disease. </p>
<p>I know my husband often wondered if following the plan was making a difference. He had his answer - albeit in a manner he would have preferred to skip - two years ago. </p>
<p>Just curious, because I eat fish, does the Paleo diet include fish? I think I could have speared a fish. Or sent my more athletic spouse to spear it.</p>
<p>Spearing fish and killing your own meat has me chuckling this morning. Can’t wait to hear more about how the plan works. I foraged for peaches and blueberries yesterday.</p>
<p>If their diet was so hot, where are those hunter-gatherers now? ;)</p>
<p>Awesome turn in this thread! lol! Thank you!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Anything edible that can be hunted and gathered from the wild is included. This includes fish and insects. And probably such things as grains and starchy root vegetables, though in much less than the staple amounts eaten after agriculture.</p>
<p>Of course, paleolithic humans had to run all over the place hunting their meat and gathering their vegetables (including climbing trees to pick fruit); that amount of exercise is far more than modern humans get gathering food from a grocery store.</p>
<p>I’ve read about the Paleo Diet, blackeyedsusan, and there is a lot of enthusiasm for it. Some people with autoimmune diseases believe that grains (all grains, not just wheat, and not just in people with celiac disease) contribute to their problems. So this is a group that favors Paleo-like diets.</p>
<p>What worries me about the diet is the high levels of animal fat, and the absence of legumes. At the moment my goal is to completely eliminate bad carbs (almost there), eat more vegetables (success here, except when I’m travelling), reduce all carbs (now at about 50% of calories, will probably go to 40% at least), eat more protein (not doing so well; I have trouble getting as high as 20%). </p>
<p>What is the reversal diet?</p>
<p>Insects - an overlooked protein source! I wonder whether they’re in the MyPlate database?</p>
<p>Well, if anyone wants to burn some calories hunting insects, we’re still dealing with the Bedbug issue in my house. All are welcome.</p>
<p>Ewww bed bugs. :eek: Good luck. </p>
<p>I’ll stick to being a stink bug hunter. ;)</p>
<p>Wow, blackeyedsusan, sounds like success on the paleo diet! The paleos get into varying degrees of paleo, from eating raw liver to intermittent fasting (because paleolithic people didn’t have 3 meals a day, they had gorging and fasting) to doing Crossfit training and wearing the 5-toed shoes. I am way too in to cute footwear to go full-bore paleo. I think there is something to be said for giving up grains entirely though. I had one little piece of coffeecake yesterday and I am sore in my shoulders and upper arms today.</p>
<p>So…a diet such as Paleo…how long will/can you stay on it? Is that likely to be the way you eat from here forward? </p>
<p>Putting in my PSA for eating in a way you can live with for an extended period of time. :)</p>