Obligatory forum Introduce yourself thread page 266

[Tomtom]

Hey everyone! Glad I found all this stuff and can't wait to start reaping the benefits.

The Questions:


Your location: Stockbridge, GA

Age (If you want): 24

How Primal are you: Starting next month when I move (currently no fridge which makes it damn near impossible) But I plan to be as primal as possible. Most likely going with 80/20 until I get used to it.

Do you consume dairy: Not really. I think I might still use some cheese here and there but mostly no dairy.

Do you drink coffee or tea: No. maybe I should consider coffee to replace my redbull addiction......

Motivator for switching to Primal: I feel like a 40 year old man on the verge of a heart attack and I am only 24. Motivators would be lose weight, able to be more active, feel better, live as long as possible, be more attractive for dating and career purposes and just about every reason anyone would think of.

Favorite exercise: Lifting? not sure yet

Favorite Primal food: Turkey salad

Best part about being Primal: It just feels right

Worst part about being Primal: Explaining it to everybody

[SIVS]

Hi! First post; it took me a while to get the courage to introduce myself.

Your location:
Maine, USA

Age (If you want):
56

How Primal are you:
Depends on the day, but I shoot for 90%. Still have to incorporate some aspects beyond diet.

Do you consume dairy:
Occasionally heavy cream, Greek yogurt, and butter. It's impossible to find full fat Greek yogurt around here, hence the heavy cream. I "make" my own FFGY.

Do you drink coffee or tea:
Black tea

Motivator for switching to Primal:
Diabetes dx. I read Gary Taubes book, Why We Get Fat, and What to do About It, which led me to Google low-carb, which led me to MDA. As they say, "The rest is history."

Favorite exercise:
I'm still in physical therapy for a back injury, and have just been cleared to do a little more, so will be working on finding out what I like. I used to love back presses and leg presses in the gym.

Favorite Primal food:
A tie between a good steak or green beans sauteed in coconut oil, but also love just about every vegetable on the planet. Have recently discovered the joy of kale. Also have my own laying hens now, so am enjoying awesome eggs!

Best part about being Primal:
The astounding changes I have experienced in my health in just 3 short months. I was dx'd with diabetes (type two) and my A1C was 10.9 in July. At my doctor's visit on Wednesday it had dropped to 5.6 which is perfectly normal. My doctor told me that in 14 years of practice that she had never seen anyone drop their A1C that far, that fast! This was only with diet, since I have not been able to do much physical activity yet! The other frightening thing that she told me is that approx. 40% of her patients have diabetes. She's an internist who only treats adults.

Worst part about being Primal:
Haven't found a downside yet. Perhaps the hardest thing is finding quality food when out and about.

[wildebeester]

Today is the first day on my primal journey! So far so good... here are the intro questions:

Your location: Middle Tennessee

Age (If you want): 28

How Primal are you: Just started!

Do you consume dairy: Just greek yogurt and feta cheese... I hate milk and all other cheese.

Do you drink coffee or tea: YESYESYES to coffee and I love hot tea

Motivator for switching to Primal: Feeling constantly tired and run down, AND to carve up my bod.

Favorite exercise: sprints

Favorite Primal food: still experimenting

Best part about being Primal: don't know yet!

Worst part about being Primal: I have a feeling it's going to be giving up long distance running and long cardio sessions OR living with a fiancé who doesn't share my views on the Primal lifestyle.

[MissChriss]

Hello, my name is Chriss Thompson, I live in Dayton, Ohio, and on Christmas day I will turn 48. I'm learning the Primal lifestyle. For the past three weeks I have eliminated dairy and grains. I do love coffee and tea and have been drinking these beverages for as long as I can remember. The reason I am switching to Primal is because of a ten week program I did called Metabolic Effect, which showed me I was eating way too much starchy carbohydrate every day. Dr.s Jade and Keoni Teta speak highly of the Primal way of nourishing oneself so I thought this could be my next step towards better overall health. I love to excersise. I've been running well over 35 years. I enjoy lifting weights as well as walking long distances when I can. I'm interested in learning about Crossfit. I guess you could say I've been into chronic cardio, which I'm now learning is not a good thing. My favorite Primal food so far is beef stew. The best part of this is that food is easy to prepare and highly available. The worst part is that I'm a
Ready missing my mustard onion pretzels while watching tv. I've been off of them for almost a month now but I still miss them.

[ldkawk]

In other forums I've been a member of in the past - at least for small communities - there's been a 'introduce yourself' thread with some questions that people can answer. I know that there are people reading this forum that are fully primal, partially primal, and are considering it. I thought that I'd put some questions together to cover these things just to get an idea of who's out there.


The Questions:


Your location: New Hampshire

Age (If you want): Goodness... 44 already

How Primal are you: New today and scared to death

Do you consume dairy: try not too

Do you drink coffee or tea: LOVE both

Motivator for switching to Primal: 182 lbs at 5'2" HATE IT, have arthritis ,asthma, carpal tunnel and PAT

Favorite exercise: HAHAHAHAHAHA well walking, playing soccer with the 6 year old

Favorite Primal food: STEAK

Best part about being Primal: will let you know

Worst part about being Primal:

The learning curve. The feeling that I have nothing to eat, how do I feed the kiddo... he will not touch 3/4 of the stuff I am looking at

[no_touching]

Your location: Germany

Age (If you want): 40

How Primal are you: Depending on exactly which paramters we are talking about, somewhere between 60-80%. I'm currently in ketosis, eating only 25 carbs a day, but having just found out this morning that I am pregnant, I am desparately trying to find out more information about this. (I'll definitely need to increase it no matter what, as this low level is part of my weight loss efforts, which are obviously no longer relevant.)

Do you consume dairy: Yes. Cheese is one of the greatest pleasures I can think of.

Do you drink coffee or tea: Coffee in limited amounts.

Motivator for switching to Primal: A lot of reading from all sorts of different sources including MDA, and being ultimately convinced as a result that the conventional wisdom of what we have been told is healthy is driven more by politics, ignorance and bad critical thinking. Plus all the success stories on MDA are amazing. I also like Mark's "real world" approach rather than some Ideal that is less likely to be acheivable for most of us.

Favorite exercise: probably cycling and hiking.

Favorite Primal food: Just one?

Best part about being Primal: More consistent energy levels.

Worst part about being Primal: I do miss pasta and couscous. And trying to convince my husband that there is more to this than just losing weight.

Any advice for transitioning out of ketosis for the pregnancy?

[philfy]

Your location: tauranga, new zealand

Age: 31

How Primal are you: not very, i love wild foods, but dont have the opportunity to find them that often, i am lazy, i avoid wheat tho, and most processed food.

Do you consume dairy: yes, but infrequently, mostly cheese.

Do you drink coffee or tea:yes, earl grey at breakfast, and redbush in the afternoon/evenings

Motivator for switching to Primal:health, ive just started taking anti-depressants, im struggling with alcohol addiction, i smoke ciggarettes when i drink, i found this site when researching medicine balls and clubbells, ive made my own of both of these things.

Favorite exercise: throwing the medicine ball

Favorite Primal food: probably watercress, i wont say any more as im not sure what constitutes primal.

Best part about being Primal: dunno yet, i hope to lose my pot gut

Worst part about being Primal: i think im gunna find it hard to stick to, i was vegan for about a year, i think this will be harder.

[Hilly Girl]

The Questions:


Your location: Ireland

Age (If you want): 47

How Primal are you: Just getting started - have cut out grains and sugar, introducing coconut fats and more meat protein. Have never been a fan of processed food, just cheesecakes. Just halfway through reading the Primal Blueprint and also reading lots of blogs about primal/paleo/

Do you consume dairy: yes, I love cheese and butter

Do you drink coffee or tea: about one mug a day

Motivator for switching to Primal: Have sugar issues and what I read about insulin makes sense, hoping to loose weight and loose sugar-love

Favorite exercise: walking (outdoors, not gym equipment)

Favorite Primal food: eggs

Best part about being Primal: the lack of guilt after eating fats

Worst part about being Primal: I have haemochromatosis so I will need to keep a sharp eye on my blood iron levels as i eat more meat and more green veg, usually eat lamb and poultry rather than beef anyway.

[mama bear]

Your location: Southern California

Age (If you want): 31

How Primal are you: Just getting started. Was already gluten free for the last 2 months which was apparently my "training wheel phase". So about 80% now, but learning everyday about more and more things that I thought were primal, but aren't (i.e. peanuts and beans) aww so probably 75%.

Do you consume dairy: yes. I can't imagine living without milk/cheese, but maybe one day I would try giving them up. I'm still grieving over rye bread, etc.

Do you drink coffee or tea: green tea usually every other day. Had coffee a few times this month as an experiment on my focus/motivation. Mark drinks coffee (saw fun post about wine/coffee/chocolate) so I figure it can't be poison.

Motivator for switching to Primal: I'm hypothyroid with Hashimotos (on low dose of synthroid) and recently read a link between eating gluten free to rid oneself of the body's production of thyroid anitibodies allowing oneself to eventually lower and/or get off thyroid hormone meds permanently...this led me to MDA. I like this community website a lot and think it will help me in my health goal of being a lean mama and excellent role model for my family. I just had my second child four months ago so I'm looking forward to shedding my extra 25lbs over the coming months.

Favorite exercise: I love hiking out in nature. For Christmas I would love the vibram five fingers .

Favorite Primal food: lately... Ribeye steak (bone in)....excuse my salivation

Best part about being Primal: just started, but already losing some body fat. So if this keeps up, then looking lean is an awesome benefit!

Worst part about being Primal: feeling guilty about eating rice

[cave lady]

Your location:
bethel, ct

Age (If you want):
33

How Primal are you:
not settled yet... i just started this a week ago, am still trying to figure things out and keep learning and reading... coming from an old school endurance athlete background i am only used to the carb almost overload and still find it hard to believe that there is a (maybe even better) life without pasta and rice...

Do you consume dairy:
yes, milk since i was a baby, cheese etc since childhood... always full fat, 2 years ago trying to go skim, but it just doesn't taste right....

Do you drink coffee or tea:
coffee every morning, tea when i'm sick

Motivator for switching to Primal:
my husband and his shopping spree he went on after living primal for 6 months and falling out of his pants.....
it also seems like a great idea to go back to basics..... and i'm a curious person who likes to try things....

Favorite exercise:
triathlon

Favorite Primal food:
rib-eye steak!!

Best part about being Primal:
seems easy to prepare meals..... sounds cleansing

Worst part about being Primal:
i really love nutella bread and frozen pizza....