Obligatory forum Introduce yourself thread page 459

[PaleoSapien]

Namaste from Nepal! Kathmandu to be exact, but I'm an American New Englander with all northern Euro blood.
I'm coming up fast on 60 years old (YIKES!)

How Primal am I? Well, I've had almost no wheat or other grains since July, few legumes, almost no sugar. However, I think I'm eating too much protein and no where near enough fat.

Do I consume dairy: Hardly ever. Maybe with the occasional latte. But, I do love whipped cream on my strawberries.

Do I drink coffee or tea: Yup.

What motivated me to switch to Primal: I have some issues that may be auto immune (worst is lichen sclerosis) and began researching diet to see about improvement. Also, I've put on those pounds in the middle since surgical menopause at 48 and a long bout with adrenal exhaustion. I just knew it was time for a change.

What's my favorite exercise? I was never fast but I used to LOVE to trail run. One of my knees has now told me I cannot! I walk a bit, but definitely need to crank up on the exercise. I do work about 1/2 my day at a walking desk.

My favorite primal food is a big, fatty, juicy steak. Unfortunately, those are extremely hard to come by here in South Asia.

The best part about becoming primal for me has been the EASY weight loss.

The worst part is that I cannot buy most of the foods I'd like to have. I don't really have the time to raise my own chickens/eggs, goats, water buffalo. So, what I eat is pretty compromised. I don't think any of my meat is grass-fed. I really don't want to move back to America, but I may have to if I decide the health benefits of good primal food are worth it. First, though, I need to get my kids through high school! That's the other bad part about being primal, being unable to even talk much with them about the evils of bread and pasta! Perhaps when they're older...

[Rincewind]

Morning I'm Dave from the United Kingdom (Nottinghamshire) pleased to meet everyone.

Age:28

How Primal are you? I have been on a Cyclic ketogenic diet for about 6 months, I have now made the commitment to going full Paleo.

Do you consume dairy: 3-4 Lattes a day which I will be cutting back on/out from this point

Do you drink coffee or tea: See above.

Motivator for switching to Primal: I want to become the best I can physically be and after a lot of research Paleo makes so much sense whats more natural than genetics.

Favorite exercise: Progressive calisthenics / Kickboxing

Favorite Primal food:Bacon/Chicken - too close to call.

Best part about being Primal: Includes all the food's I enjoy

Worst part about being Primal: Living in the UK means it can be hard and very expensive to source good Paleo food.

[lordgrover]

Your location: UK

Age (If you want): 50

How Primal are you: +90%

Do you consume dairy: N

Do you drink coffee or tea: Y

Motivator for switching to Primal: Health, fitness, weight control & lifestyle

Favorite exercise: Press ups

Favorite Primal food: Grass fed sirloin steak

Best part about being Primal: Alertness

Worst part about being Primal: Explaining it to others

I'm back.

Had a pop at PB about a year ago... to be truthful, I really don't remember why I stopped. Probably bro-science at the gym, laziness or just losing interest... Anyway - back again, in earnest.

I've done low carb & IF on and off for quite a while now, but whether I 'mis-remembered' or plain got it wrong, I was consuming too much of the perceived good/better carbs like sweet potatoes and wild rice. If I was working out as much as I'd planned to that would have been okay, but I wasn't. I was eating enough to workout a lot, but not actually 'walking the walk', IYSWIM.
I've not got very fat, but improvements stopped or plateaued and I fell back into old habits.

Pretty clean diet-wise now; zero starchy carbs, dairy, fruit/nuts, etc at least for the first month. I suspect I'll have a cheat day 25 December like all good middle-class westerners.

Packing in the gym and sticking to the four biggies plus lunges and lots of walking/hiking and the required sprints 3 or 4 times a month. Quiting the gym saves me c. £40 /month which nicely helps out with the slightly more expensive food bill, which is nice.

Officially starting the 21-day plan today, but I've been preparing and pretty much primal since last Friday. Loving it all over again.

Huzzah!

[fatherof3]

The Questions:


Your location: Canada

Age (If you want): 38

How Primal are you: Started 2 months ago. I'd say 90 percent of higher. Not really sure.

Do you consume dairy: Seldom. Never milk, cheese sometimes.

Do you drink coffee or tea: Black coffee. 2 cups a day. I work shifts so sometimes it's 3 when I'm on early days or nights.

Motivator for switching to Primal: MY wife was diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity from a naturopath and was put on an elimination diet to start finding out exactly what was causing her IBS and other stomach issues. Her issues stopped almost immediately after cutting out gluten and I noticed almost immediately as well how great I started to feel. I started reading books on gluten free living and ended up with Mark's book as well.

Favorite exercise: Hockey, cycling, weight lifting (no real preference I actually just enjoy lifting weights)

Favorite Primal food: Ribs

Best part about being Primal: Not feeling exhausted and hungry all the time. I couldn't get over in the beginning how I felt that something was wrong with me because my appetite just disappeared along with most of my gut but my strength not only stayed but some of my lifts went up.

Worst part about being Primal: Restaurants. We're obviously still learning and took the kids out to a pub for dinner. I got meatloaf thinking I'd be ok and realized almost immediately after that it was most likely binded with bread crumbs. I was dead tired the whole way home and ended up on the couch for half an hour. I hadn't felt like that since I started. It was a pretty telling sign.

[GuitarGrok]

The Questions:


Your location: Canada

Age (If you want): 32

How Primal are you: Very

Do you consume dairy: Butter, and Cheese only

Do you drink coffee or tea: I love my morning coffee with Butter!!!

Motivator for switching to Primal: Originally to loose weight, but there are so many other benefits!!

Favorite exercise: Hockey

Favorite Primal food: Ribs, and Bacon...I think I might combine the two!!

Best part about being Primal: Hard to pick just one, loosing weight, feeling great, the desire to simplify life

Worst part about being Primal: For a while I was missing pizza, and doughnuts, but I don't crave those much any more. Now there are no real bad parts about being primal.

[leamariehelms]

Your location?
Mobile, Alabama.

Age?
24 years old.

How Primal are you?
I started going Primal at the end of January 2012. I did pretty well, considering I didn't exercise one little bit and I plateaued plenty of times and had to restart the carb-detox period each time, but I lost 47 pounds. I went from 236 to 189. Then, I was struck with Bell's Palsy (bilateral facial paralysis on the left side of my face) in October—one month before my wedding. I was put on steroids, which made me EAT like a madwoman, and most of it was junk-food-carb-related crap. Then, I got married in November, and my friend taking care of the catering ordered Southern soul food, which actually turned out to be lots of traditional Thanksgiving foods, one week before actual Thanksgiving. My mom bought wedding cupcakes for the reception. Of course, I ate everything that was given to me—I couldn't be rude! Then, the next week was Thanksgiving, and my mom just INSISTED that my husband and I come over for Thanksgiving this year, so. . . more food off of my "diet/lifestyle" paradigm. The holidays are the hardest, lol, and since October, I've put 11 pounds on and I feel really, really, really icky. So, TODAY marks my beginning date. Again. Wish me luck!

Do you consume dairy?
Full-fat dairy products: Butter, heavy whipping cream, high-fat cheeses, 10% milkfat Greek yogurt, and full-fat cream cheese. Raw dairy and grass-fed dairy products are extremely hard to find here and expensive, to boot, so I have to settle with commercial dairy products.

Do you drink coffee or tea?
Yes, to both. I drink herbal teas, unsweetened most of the time, with adding in raw/unfiltered honey when I'm craving a sweet drink. I make coffee "milkshakes" in the mornings with freshly brewed espresso, vanilla extract, protein powder, cinnamon, heavy whipping cream, ice, and unsweetened cocoa powder.

Motivator for switching to Primal?
Life. . . this is the only "diet/lifestyle" that has ever worked for me. When I was in my Primal Prime, I felt amazing and I was never hungry, and I burned my own body fat via ketosis.

Favorite exercise?
To be honest, I don't get much exercise. I plan on making a move towards exercising more in the new year.

Favorite Primal food?
I can't just pick one!

Best part about being Primal?
Empowerment. I always felt mightily empowered during my Primal Prime. It's a great self-esteem booster, I had more energy, and I was much happier in my own body.

Worst part about being Primal?
THE HOLIDAYS! Oh, damn the carb-ridden holiday treats!

[Jenni77]

Your location: Germany

Age (If you want): 29

How Primal are you: 60%

Do you consume dairy: no

Do you drink coffee or tea: I guess I'll have to stop for a while, it is not good for me.

Motivator for switching to Primal: Health, Weight Loss

Favorite exercise: Walking, Yoga

Favorite Primal food: All of it But avocados, bacon, brisket and smoked fish are pretty high in my rating.

Best part about being Primal: My mind and body feels good.

Worst part about being Primal: No Pizza, no Latte Machiato, No Icecream..

[Aviatrix]

Attending University in Arizona, originally from Michigan.

21

Just started the experience 2 weeks ago and so far have been completely primal with the exception of a small bowl of white rice.

I eat yogurt and cheese frequently. In Arizona I drink almond milk, however in Michigan I drink milk from a local dairy farm.

I drink coffee around finals time, otherwise I don't drink coffee or tea.

Curiosity of what this path will lead me to.

Walking. I love just wandering around nature.

Zucchini Carbonara from the PB quick & easy meals.

The improved mood and energy level.

The occasional primal flu that I've experienced but since that will go away I'm pretty much happy with everything.

[snerb]

Your location: Wisconsin

Age (If you want): 40

How Primal are you: 90%, shooting for 100% primal eating.

Do you consume dairy: Butter is the only dairy

Do you drink coffee or tea: Yes, both. Coffee is black

Motivator for switching to Primal: I've been educating myself on primal living for many months. Weather slows my running schedule during Wisconsin winters. With the slowed running, the winter months are a perfect time to switch to primal living.

Favorite exercise: Running

Favorite Primal food: Too many to list. I'm a bit of a 'shade-tree' chef so I'm enjoying cooking all these new meals/recipes.

Best part about being Primal: Energy levels

Worst part about being Primal: No beer (Insert Wisconsin boy missing his beer joke here)

I'm a runner through the spring, summer and fall months. My running slows in the winter months up here, not because of the snow but the cold temps. This is the perfect time to eat primal and fill Dec, Jan and Feb with P90X Lean. I've been a low carb eater for a few years already so the diet isn't much of a change for me. Yogurt, granola, protein shakes and a couple grilled pizza's are the biggest changes and that's not difficult.

Currently in week two and feeling excellent. I felt good before, but already feeling better.

Cheers all!!!

[tamb]

Scotland. 65 on sunday. Just started 3 days ago. Yes, butter,milk,cheese. Yes, tea. experiment, never hungry now and weight just falling off. Hill walking. Steak. Feel great. Nothing.