Paleo / Primal Blueprint Diet Thread

[ghostofjack]

Does anyone else follow a Paleo or Primal Blueprint style diet? Just curious and wanted to bring this up because following the principles of the diet has changed my life dramatically. I was always the obese kid and was basically morbidly obese from age 13 to 40. 5 foot 8 with my weight in the 250-280 range at any given time. I started the Primal Diet in 2010 (a bit more than 5 years ago...) and went from 280 to 180 in about 6 months. It took a couple of years to get down from 180 to my current weight of 165 which has been holding pretty steady for about 3 years.

The diet basically focuses on taking eating back a hundred or so years by eliminating/minimizing processed foods, refined sugars & starches, and vegetable/seed oils in favor of freshly prepared nutrient dense food.

So what did I have for dinner last night that is helping maintain this weight loss? I had a 1/2 hamburger steak, 4 scrambled eggs with sour cream, cheese, and salsa, and a gigantic salad with cukes, peppers, and a home made olive oil vinaigrette. Desert was an apple, a cup of home made jello, and an entire 3 oz bar of dark chocolate. Every dinner is a feast

Almost everyone that knows me has asked me about the weight loss and it is hard to explain -- many folks think that a Paleo/Primal diet is a red meat and spinach diet which is an over simplification. I have a hard time explaining it face to face.

Physically I have never felt better. No more high blood pressure, spleep apnea, or "scary" bloodwork in regards to blood sugar and lipid profile.

Mentally, I still see myself as the fat guy. I fear that I will never get past this after a lifetime of obesity.

Anyone else doing something similar or interested in this type of diet?

I love bantering about healthy eating and there is always room for improvement!

[16pawz]

Glad to see this thread.  My husband just had some sketchy triglyceride results.  We started low fat eating about a month ago.  No dramatic weight loss, yet - but he says he feels better.  Honestly, I just want him to be healthy, couldn't care less about his weight...unfortunately, these usually go hand in hand.  
We're not eating any processed stuff and only very lean red meat. Tons of fruit, veggies, chicken, fish, homemade soups and salads w/ my vinagrettes.   He hasn't weighed himself (he wants to wait ??) But for sure his face is thinner.  
Cooking is one of my favorite things...and baking.  Probably how he got into this mess.  Cooking differently is a little challenging but also kind of great.  Good luck to both of you and a massive congrats on taking control of your health via diet.  It's inspiring, really.

[Grandote]

I agree with this diet except for the focus on meat. I think a vegetarian diet is better with perhaps a little meat or fish. I've been advocating giving up food with added sugar, flour or wheat. You will lose tons of weight on it as Fireplaces found. Its also very good for the health. I avoid processed food as much as possible. I avoid most major brands and try to buy organic if its available. I shop at trader joes where their branded stuff has no gmo, and no artificial sugar, msg, or in the dairy products, no BHT or rBHS hormones.

[ghostofjack]

Hey Fireplaces,

Love reading stories like yours The way you described your diet is basically the Primal Blueprint diet except he doesn't recommend beans. I still eat them and they don't cause any issues for me. He also advocates keeping a cap on carbs in general but I don't always do that either! Healthy eating can also be wonderful food. Personally, I have never eaten better!

16pawz,

There is a lot of recent research about fats that goes the complete opposite of what we have been taught for years. You might check out marksdailyapple.com for some advice for your husband. Personally, my blood stats went from pre-diabetic/you are going to have a heart attack to gee these are the blood results of someone 20 years younger! I focus on getting a liberal amount saturated fat and minimizing PUFA fat. It seems that excess carbohydrate consumption leads to generalized inflamation which leads to the poor lipid profiles. The truth will come out!

Granddote,

The meat thing is a common misconception about a Primal/Paleo diet. I eat more fresh, unprocessed vegetables than most vegetarians and vegans. Most of us who follow the diet fall into the 1/3 X 2/3 rule. 1/3 of mass eaten is animal in origin and 2/3 is vegetable. This roughly equates to 2/3 of calories coming from animal and 1/3 of calories coming from vegetables.

Most of the premise of this type of diet has its roots in the research done by Weston Price in 1930's and 40's where he went and studied the diets of populations who have kept to their native diets and he found several points in common in the diets of the healthiest people he encountered. Some were mostly vegetarian but NONE (whatsoever) shied away from animal products. Interesting stuff. There is a Weston Price Foundation out there that keeps his research alive and keeps building on it. Very interesting stuff.

[16pawz]

Ghost,
I should have clarified my post, sorry.  Yes, we're eating some fats but not the unhealthy ones.  Lots of evoo instead of butter or that fake, gross margarine, lol.  The goal, as I'm sure you're aware, is to raise hdl and lower ldl.  I recently retired from the healthcare field and have known all along the right way to eat...but, it's so easy to not.  His bloodwork was the kick in the pants that we needed. I've been the same size forever but am old enough to worry about heart disease.   I hope we can be as successful as you guys have been!

[ghostofjack]

16pawz, Hope the best for you and hubby. Luckily we all of us can keep improving.

Sorry....gotta say it...don't fear butter...it is the good fat! (Along with other high SAFA oils like coconut and high MUFA oils like Olive Oil.) To my way of thinking the bad oils are the high PUFA seed oils that only became part of the human diet 80 or 90 years ago when the industrial technology to chemically and mechanically extract them went into high gear. Now they are a staple in most diets because they are cheap and have $$$$ behind them. Food demand seems to follow the aggregate supply instead of the other way around which is kind of backasswards!

[16pawz]

Hi Ghost,  While I agree that butter is a better (more natural)  fat to metabolize than margarine or some of the other spreads and oils which are marketed, it's not a good fat to eat while trying to lower ldl.  Just for the record, I love butter, lol.  I'm using it very sparingly as opposed to my liberal use in the past.  We're going to stick with this for 90 days and redo his bloodwork.  If nothing has changed, I'm definitely open to trying new strategies.  Thanks so much for your ideas and feedback, I do appreciate the information.

[Grandote]

There are grains that are good for you such as quinoa. The ones to avoid are wheat, white rice and anything highly processed. Fresh veggies are best but nothing wrong with fresh frozen. Added sugar is bad, high fructose corn sweetener is the worst, except perhaps for fake sugar like aspartame, that's the pits. Just a bunch of nasty chemicals that taste sort of sweet. I avoid most major brands because they are all crap.

[ghostofjack]

Does anyone else find any benefits from true fermented foods like REAL pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, etc? I find these to be very helpful for digestion and a sense of well being. (I am talking about fermented stuff that would be refrigerated, not the vinegar pickles that have a multi year shelf life.)

I want to get into doing my own fermented vegetables but am a bit nervous about the process and being safe with it. If anybody makes their own, I would love some pointers!

[Double Deuces]

Making your own sauerkraut is actually pretty simple. There are many recipes online and I find it to be very helpful with my digestion.