Obligatory forum Introduce yourself thread page 497

[KimPossible]

The Questions:

Your location: Boulder, Colorado

Age (If you want):45

How Primal are you: starting today, but plan to be very primal

Do you consume dairy: a little, I love paramasan and blue cheese on salads, cream in my coffee, Greek yogurt in smoothies

Do you drink coffee or tea: 1 cup of coffee every day .... a really big cup

Motivator for switching to Primal: After having two kids, I was able to get back to my pre-baby weight easily. Aside from during pregnancy, I have maintained the same weight since college. However, in the 5 years since I turned 40, I have started gaining weight. I need to reverse that trend! I love the approach to fitness not being such a grind, but focusing more on quick, intense workouts, weight training and fun outdoor activities.

Favorite exercise: hiking, biking, skiing

Favorite Primal food: not sure yet ... can I have chorizo sausage?

Best part about being Primal: having a plan to follow, less emphasis on endless cardio

Worst part about being Primal: hard to plan meals to pack for lunch (sandwiches are so simple!)

[Dena]

Your location: North Carolina, USA

Age (If you want): 42

How Primal are you: Still new to it and working on it, but about 70% there.

Do you consume dairy: Eggs and some cheese like feta or goat

Do you drink coffee or tea: decaf both

Motivator for switching to Primal: I was vegetarian for 22 years and vegan for 8 months. I'm also a (shhh...) chronic cardio girl, running marathons and ultras and just couldn't seem to lean out or drop any weight. I started off with Tim Ferris' slow carb diet and then found my way to Primal. It's been a huge mental leap eating meat again and I'm cautiously feeling my way into it, but so far, I'm seeing results I like.

Favorite exercise: Running

Favorite Primal food: Sweet potato

Best part about being Primal: Feels like I'm part of a secret "in the know" community

Worst part about being Primal: Defending my choices to family and friends who think I'm following some random fad

[amber_maiden]

Your location: Quebec, Canada

Age: 24

How Primal are you: 80%. Cheat occasionally on weekends, or special events.

Do you consume dairy: No, except on cheat days.

Do you drink coffee or tea: Not really, coffee on cheat days or if I'm working.

Motivator for switching to Primal: Got tired of being a vegan for so long, lacking energy... wanted to be more normal, if you can believe that...

Favorite exercise: Pullups.

Favorite Primal food: bacon wrapped dates.

Best part about being Primal: Having tons of energy!

Worst part about being Primal: How expensive my grocery bills are... I eat about enough food for two-three people.

[beccaboo]

Your location: San Jose, CA

Age (If you want): 28

How Primal are you: 100% most days, I have small cheats occasionally

Do you consume dairy: a small amount of raw milk cheese occasionally, I plan to attempt homemade yogurt & kefir soon

Do you drink coffee or tea: lots of herbal tea, turmeric tea, green tea, black tea

Motivator for switching to Primal: went primal with a couple friends, we all support each other. We are all doing it for improved health and fitness.

Favorite exercise: sprinting is fun

Favorite Primal food: berries

Best part about being Primal: no more stomach pain! and I am demolishing my sugar/carb cravings

Worst part about being Primal: a lot of time spent cooking, dish washing, planning ahead. but its worth it!

[whitewolf]

Your location: Estonia (In Europe)

Age (If you want): 28

How Primal are you: I was about 50-50 for a year (that meant basically cutting grains and adding cream to coffee ). Few months back ran my first marathon and really carb loaded myself freely :P
3 weeks ago started 90/10. Hope to stay that way. Want to loose these 2-5 kg(I'll see how it goes along the way) that keep me from being confident and happy about myself

Do you consume dairy:sour cream, cheese, heavy cream, cottage cheese.

Do you drink coffee or tea: 1-2 cups of coffee

Motivator for switching to Primal: I want to live a healthy life and not to obsess about food and my weight all the time. Still obsessing, but it's kind of a good obsession lately. Also my husband has high blood pressure (runs in the family), he is 30, not overweight at all(185cm/85kg) and his bp was 100/165 before medications. I wish that healthy eating could get him off the meds, but he is still at the 50/50 approach :P

Favorite exercise: running/hiking with my dog and bodypump

Favorite Primal food:eggs

Best part about being Primal: sugar cravings basically gone

Worst part about being Primal: I seem like a lunatic when talking to other people why I do not eat bread or pasta. Really try not to talk about it at all.


And I apologize for my english, not my everyday language

[jdnz]

Your location: Wellington, NZ


Age (If you want): 22


How Primal are you: 90-95%


Do you consume dairy: This has been the hardest for me to eliminate. I have cut out milk but do have the occasional bit of cream or cheese.


Do you drink coffee or tea: I was drinking about 6 cups a day but have got it down to 2 or 3, would like to keep reducing it.


Motivator for switching to Primal: After being on a low protein, low fat, high carb renal diet and packing on the weight I wanted to take control and start really living and enjoying life.

Favorite exercise: Dancing, cycling and walking/tramping.


Favorite Primal food: Kumara (sweet potato)


Best part about being Primal: No more fatigue, ezcema is 99% gone and weight loss!


Worst part about being Primal: Trying to convince people that this is a great, healthy and natural way of eating - not a diet but a lifestyle!

[AJR]

40 year old happily married father of 2 boys (2 yr and 3 wk old) in San Diego, CA (formerly a Kentucky boy of 30+ yrs though).

Just started primal yesterday; doing pretty good but i had a little white rice and i do dairy (cheese and heavy whipping cream). Need to research yogurt - any input? Huge coffee drinker - little cream or milk and lots of sweetener - Splenda or stevia (the latter has been dropped).

Always obese - from kindergarten through college and into my first job. 250+ lbs through high school and peaked at 345+ lbs in my early 30s. It wasn't abnormal for me to eat a double quarter pound cheeseburger supersize value meal AND a 20 pc.chicken mcnuggets followed by a quart of peanut butter chocolate ice cream. But i did only drink diet sodas...

I got fed up with fad diets and no success (and no girlfriends - no confidence) until i tried Atkins approx 10 yrs ago. Lost 100 lbs on diet alone the first year or so and it wasn't torture. Then started exercising and lost some more and held it off. Ultimately got down to 210 last year but started creeping back up and yo-yo'ing between 230 and 215. Currently I'm at 225 and not happy - as a 40 yr old Dad i want to be active with my boys and around a long time. I know I'm eating way too many carbs - breads, cereals, oatmeal, pancakes/waffles - and around the holidays i always have too many sweets.

I think I've only maintained because I'm pretty active - walking the dogs, weights, cardio, and my favorite stand up paddle surfing. I also track calories religiously so it's the type and balance of food I'm eating.

It's also always a fight to keep under my calories - constant cravings. I seem to remember not having the cravings like i do know when on a low carb lifestyle. If primal helps cut them then that will be my favorite part.

Worst part - educating those around me whom I'm close to that this will work, it's not a fad, and that they need to make minimal changes if they want to help (no more lasagna, spaghetti, our bean soups!).

I'm glad i found the forum - looking forward to the support and ideas!

Andy

[AMJ2222]

Your location: England UK

Age (If you want): 46

How Primal are you: Just starting today so very little at the moment!

Do you consume dairy: Hoping to cut it out or at least cut back significantly

Do you drink coffee or tea: Normally loads but so far today managed on just Green tea and water, I think I'm going to miss my morning cup of tea though :-(

Motivator for switching to Primal: Fed up of feeling tired and demotivated, also gained weight over the last year so would like to lose the weight but I think that will come from feeling less tired and wanting to do more.

Favorite exercise: Walking, I have two dogs so its a good job really!

Favorite Primal food: Yet to find out

Best part about being Primal: Also yet to find out

Worst part about being Primal: I think its going to be trying to be prepared as I'm really bad about planning what I'm going to eat in advance

[Glenview]

Welcome, Andy. You can get raw milk at Sprouts or Whole Foods near you, or cream top non-homogenized milk at Trader Joe's. I use these to make my own yogurt. I culture it for 24 hours (not 8 or 12) so that it has the least amount of lactose and casein. I just buy a tiny tub of plain Greek yogurt for the culture since I don't have "yogurt starter." I love dairy, but when I committed to doing things differently than I had before, I had to admit I never changed my dairy consumption. I am having good results with only eating home made yogurt or sour cream, and pastured (Kerrygold) butter. No milk, very minimal cheese.

Good luck with living different than you have before!

[roggg]

Your location: Ottawa Canada

Age (If you want): 42

How Primal are you: I've been at it for about two months, and I'd say about 90%.

Do you consume dairy: Yup. Mostly yogurt and cheese, but I try to stay off milk.

Do you drink coffee or tea: Yeah, I drink a lot of coffee.

Motivator for switching to Primal: It's two-fold. The first is in spite of an active, sport-filled lifestyle, my weight has been steadily creeping up for the last 5 years. I needed to change what I was doing. Second, I have a personal history, and family history of heart disease, bad cholesterol, diabetes and related health issues.

Favorite exercise: Karate

Favorite Primal food: Chili

Best part about being Primal: Weight loss seems easy

Worst part about being Primal: Preparation. There's always bread in the freezer, but fresh veggie only keep a few days so I need to be thinking two days ahead all the time.