Taking the plunge

I have been gaining weight my entire adult life and I noticed that I have become much more sedentary in the process. In the past I have experimented with different diets but always had cravings and controlling the quantities of food that I eat.

Over the past year or so I have heard and read a lot about how processed grains and refined sugars are not good for us regardless of how many calories we consume. This seems to make sense to me so I am taking the plunge. That said, I have almost as many questions popping into my head as the philosophy seems to answer. I am hoping to find some answers on this forum and some encouragement as well.

First a little bit about me. I am 39 and the heaviest I have been in my entire adult life. As a teenager and young adult, I could eat almost as much as I wanted but it it occurs to me that I use to eat a lot less. I am 5'4" and 196 lbs. At my last checkup, my doctor threatened to diagnose me with type 2 diabetes if I didn't lose weight. As a result I have been monitoring my blood sugar a couple times a week for the past couple of months. One observation I have been able to make from this is that bread seems to affect my glucose levels much more than sweet things.

Eating fats doesn't bother me as I have what doctors term genetically high cholesterol. Basically, I could eat salad with no protein or dressing three times a day and still have high cholesterol. Therefore, I will basically be on statins the rest of my life anyway so I might as well enjoy it.

About a year ago I took up hunting and we know the farm where our beef comes from so most of the meat I eat, with the exception of chicken, is either wild or grass fed.

Here are my goals:

1) lose 45lbs +/- ( I am not as concerned about the actual weight as how I look and feel)
2) be able to hike a mile, with my hunting gear, without getting tired
3) Feel like being active during the day more than sitting on the couch

So far I have I joined the local YMCA and I have been exercising 3 times a week for the past two weeks plus additional sessions on the tread mill (1/2 an hour at 3.5 miles per hour)

Today I am taking the plunge with how I eat. My planned menu for today is:

Breakfast: Fritata with spinach, mushrooms, onions and cheese (used butter to make it); 2 oz pork sausage (wild pig, homemade sausage so very low in fat) and black coffee

Lunch & snack: Venison vegetable soup, salad, carrots, grapes

Dinner: Baked chicken, broccoli


I have noticed that if I eat too much fruit I tend to get hungrier so I am limiting that for the time being.

Here are my most urgent questions:

1) I saw the calculation for how much fat, protein, and carbs I should be eating on the site. How do I track that?
2) Is it necessary to track what I eat? Will it help?
3) I realize everyone is different and that I might have to adjust. When do I start thinking about that?
4) Probably the biggest question all newbies have: When will I start to notice a change?


Any advice or support is greatly appreciated.

Hoping to Grock On :)

Day 2 and it was not as bad as I thought. I conquered my first primal business lunch (sounds a bit oxymoronic) and stayed true.

Breakfast was frittata with sausage again.

Lunch was salad, roasted vegetables, chicken caccitore and NO DESERT!!!

Dinner was primal tacos ( subbed lettuce for taco shells and summer squash for corn)

Not too much problem with hunger pains but I did feel hot and had a small headache in the afternoon. Is this what people refer to as car flu?

Hi there,

I am 4 weeks 100% primal as of today! I use this site to track everything I eat. I hope you find it useful :).

[url=http://paleotrack.com/journal/20130129]Food journal for the Paleo Diet - PaleoTrack[/url]

Thanks Lala. Does the myfitnesspal allow you to track paleo or just calories?

I really don't use myfitnesspal (only the free weight ticker ) lol. I use paleo track for all of my food :).