Your Top 3 Challenges When Going Primal... page 10

[hutax]

1. The toughest one for me was "Getting that darned CW out of my head". At 54 I've been listening to this Calories in Calories out, low fat, whole wheat garbage my whole adult life.

2. Breads and Cereals, It took a while to stop craving these, but I just stuck to it and now the cravings are 100% gone.

3. Heavy Lifting, I lifted weights for years and I burned out on it. I HATE lifting weights, it's just plain ole boring. I am a very fit martial artist and train 5-6 days a week. I can run circles around people half my age. We do great full body workouts, but I know I need to do more heavy lifting to keep from losing muscle mass. I think part of this is because after lifting for many years and being on a CW diet it never really worked. The one pound a year weight gain still came and I was working my tail off in the weight room so I just burned out from the battle. I have begun and little more body weight training, so I haven't given up on it yet.

[aboutsaffron]

My top three challenges... hm.

01) Giving up bread, pastas, etc - basically, I had to completely change the way I eat. I've got it down now, but I was used to eating sandwiches at least once a day. A lot of my favorite foods went by the way side, including a lot of family traditions & ethnic favorites. When you've grown up on dumplings & perogies, it's sad to see them go.

02) Finding substitutes, & affording them - I don't like near a Whole Foods or a Trader Joes, so a lot of products people suggest aren't available. There aren't any local butchers or ethnic markets, so getting different cuts of meat including organs is nearly impossible, & grassfed meat just isn't around. Yeah, I know that I could buy a side of beef, but I can't afford that. We live on a very limited income, paycheck to paycheck, in a dying rustbelt city. Luckily, I've found a farm market to get decent prices on produce, & I've found a good dozen or so foods I can make that we both enjoy.

03) Living with a picky eater - I'm definitely a foodie & willing to try nearly everything. My husband, however, is definitely not. When I met him, he was, as he put it, a "connoisseur of canned Italian cuisine." Thankfully, he made the switch with me & now fully appreciates the better food he eats, but he doesn't like much. No pork, aside from bacon. Not a huge fan of eggs. No dark meat poultry. No steak. Very few veggies, although to be fair he has a difficult time with a lot of them, experiencing gas or heartburn when eating them. There's no way he'll eat lamb, fish, shellfish, bison... you get the idea. Luckily, he enjoys nuts, so he snacks on those from time to time. This issue, coupled with #2, definitely made this switch daunting at first. But it's been nearly a year, & I think we're doing just fine. I know we both have far more energy, fewer headaches (my migraines have disappeared), less joint pain, & we just plain feel better. Thanks Mark!

[gottaluvalab]

1. breakfast
2. breakfast
3. breakfast

I have a list of 100 other things I find hard, from eating with friends to exercising, which are probably more significant in terms of weight and health and fitness.

But the breakfast thing drives me to distraction on a regular basis and for some reason looms largest in my mind.

[forsbd]

1. I miss my oatmeal/muscle milk combo like no other
2. Finding the best stuff to eat to replace my former staples of whole wheat pasta, rice, legumes (don't miss the gas tho :-D)
3. Cost, it's spendy to eat all this meat

[SteakNchop]

1. I miss my oatmeal/muscle milk combo like no other
2. Finding the best stuff to eat to replace my former staples of whole wheat pasta, rice, legumes (don't miss the gas tho :-D)
3. Cost, it's spendy to eat all this meat

How about going to costco and getting a "log" of ribeyes for a couple bucks per pound?

edit: forgot they weren't grassfed...

[IvyBlue]

I must say that I have taken to PB with relative ease. I was planning to ease into it but the results after a few days were so dramatic that I went in to a pantry cleaning frenzy the first week. I will reiterate a couple of things already mentioned:

1. The cost of grassfed beef (and dubious provenance where available). I ain't paying $20/pound for steak at Wholefoods when the weasel words indicate it was probably "grain finished." I have yet to get my mind around having to have meat shipped and the cowshares within driving distance are apparently sold out.

2. Embracing the fat. The low-fat part of CW sticks the most. I'm coming around slowly but surely.

3. I am seldom hungry. Good in that the weight is just falling off (maybe the body is desiring to burn those stores?) but I am concerned about eating enough while working out.

Let me take a moment to thank you for maintaining this site. I did read the book first but I am finding a wealth of practical information here. And for everything else. I just stumbled on the book, probably through some tangential Google search, and while you might not be the only proponent of the lifestyle you are the one I found first. After years of searching and trying different things it is such a relief to realize that it wasn't some failing on my part that I was unable to control my weight sufficient to avoid the fate of seemingly all of my family members. For this I cannot say thanks enough.

[BethanyK]

1. People.
I forgot the white potatoes in a meal prepared for 25 people, and you would have thought I was trying to kill everyone. Because, as you know, preparing a meal for 25 people who are all sitting expecting the food fairy to magically visit the house is so easy, and forgetting potatoes because you don't think about them anymore means you are trying to poison them all. The complaining was outlandish.
More importantly is feeding the people in my family. We are overscheduled this fall and I hate not having the go-to options I had before. And I hate that if I falter even a little bit in my planning its a big deal. I used to be able to say "whoops, we'll have to eat out tonight," with minimal consequence. There are days I really miss the ease of fast food.

2. Time. This way of life requires a lot more time commitment. Its hard for me to find time to plan meals, exercise, and shop. I feel like I spend a lot of time looking for recipes to make that will appeal to my family, and shopping for the food to make those recipes. The time to exercise is hard to find without cutting into sleep. But that's a general complaint for any way of life I suppose.

3. Jealousy and insecurity. My husband doesn't "follow the rules" very well, but he's looking great and losing weight so fast. I'm thrilled for him and his health, but I am jealous. I feel like I put all of this time into making sure the family is healthier but I'm the one who isn't reaping as many benefits. That might not be a PB problem but its one of my top 3.

[melodious]

1. celebrations/special events. "It's his 50th birthday - that will never happen again. Don't you want to share some cake?" "It's my first baby shower, have some cake." "I made these brownies special for today. They're your favorites!" "Her boyfriend dumped her and we're all going on a drinking/eating binge. Show your love by joining us!" "It's Halloween! You're allowed to eat candy today!" "It's Thanksgiving!" "It's Christmas!" "It's Tuesday!" I swear if I made an exception to healthy eating for each celebration, it would be closer to 10-90 than 80-20. And each event has a different suite of people pressuring...

2. My young relatives. My nieces and nephews are like children everywhere. I don't get to control the foods that set their palates, so my deserts are never sweet enough and my dinners I serve are always protested.

3. tortilla chips. I miss them...so very much. I love their delicate crunch, their salty flavor, and their incomparable skill in carrying loads of salsa, sour cream and queso to my mouth.

[omajoe]

1. Giving up breakfast cereal and oatmeal. It was always so easy and convenient to grab a bowl of bran flakes (because you need the fiber, right? ;-) ) or Apple Jacks
2. The cost of grass fed meat. I've only had it a couple of times because it's very pricey and it's hard to find.
3. Going primal when the rest of the family isn't. I'm always eating something different from the rest of the family, which can be hard. In addition, having a wife who loves to bake and has cookies, brownies, etc, around all the time for the kids can be a huge challenge.

[sharonss]

1. The breakfast conundrum. I was a major cereal eater.
2. Caffeine - coffee and diet soda.
3. Cost - organic or grass fed/finished meats are cost-prohibitive. I do the best I can with what I have.