Retiree. I tried it for 35 days and I quit. Didn't work for me. page 6

[zoebird]

Again, it's just an issue of a false expectation.

For most people, when they give primal a try for just 30 days, they are not looking to overcome a major medical condition. They are usually talking about basic weight loss (particularly if they are very overweight, people might see a significant initial drop in weight, but for people who are slightly overweight or really not overweight, they obviously won't) or they are talking about a decrease in physical discomforts in the body.

For example, I have struggled with gas/bloating through my life. Under stress, that's where my body goes. Once I went primal, I noticed within 2 weeks that I had much less gas and bloating. And two years later, if I'm on primal and clean, then I have no gas/bloating. If i'm not primal (emotional eating, usually, or stress eating), then I've got gas/bloating.

So, in that first 30 days, primal really did "change my life." But I had no specific expectations of it either way. I mostly went primal because my husband had pretty major gut issues and his naturopath recommended going gluten/grain free.

All over the boards, though, there are stories of people with major medical conditions and how primal helps them. Not a one of them saw "results" for their major medical conditions in just 30 days. For most of them, it was at 6 months to 1 year that they started to see real results.

Paleobird has information about her father in her journal. I believe he is over 80. When he switched to primal, he was able to go off of several meds -- including the BP one I believe -- after about 6 months or a year. He recently went back on some medications because he had some ministrokes, which may have damaged his heart a bit. I'm not clear on the details, but she's quite open about his progress overall, while still protecting his privacy.

There are several women over 50 on these boards and few in their 60s. Most of them have IBS or other auto-immune or gut disorders that they are healing. Many of them have not seen massive weight loss, but they have seen massive improvements in quality of life and/or their symptoms reducing by going primal. For many of them, it took more than 6 months of consistent primal *and* experimentation within primal to get the right foods for them so that they wouldn't trigger their issues and they could allow their guts to heal.

Paleobird, who recently turned 50, not only has healed herself from her post-cancer treatments health problems with primal, but she's also lost a lot of weight and gotten very lean. She also has a great threat about using primal to control epileptic seizures and is looking at the possibility of getting off those meds. It's been -- just about a two year process for her, too.

The reality is that the science is here to support that you could loose weight (and/or get leaner) and *possibly* go off your BP medication.

If you prefer your current status and current way of doing things, why do you keep looking around for "magic bullets" around this issue?

I assert that you are not happy with the current "everything in moderation" method, but perhaps have unrealistic expectations of what can work for you, and how much work it will take to get there.

It's up to you, of course. It's ok with us if you don't want to do primal.

But don't site the problem with primal "it didn't work for me." The reality is that you didn't work primal, or you didn't do it long enough for it to work.

Honest, right?

[zoebird]

Also, your age has nothing to do with why or how this didn't work at the most basic level.

Here is a link to Arthur DeVany. He's 75. He is in the paleo family and has been living this way for 25 years (since he was 50).

Honestly, it was photos of he and his wife that convinced me that paleo works. I am vain and I wanted to look awesome when I am older.

I am blessed with good genetics -- I do look about 10 years younger than I am (I'm 36, most people peg me at 26/27), and I take good care of myself. But when I do side-by-sie comparisons of athletic, paleo men/women over 50, over 60, and over 70 and other diets (CW, WAPF, vegetarian/vegan, etc), none of them look as fit, healthy, and happy as the paleo folk.

So, I'm also paleo because I want to be stronger and fitter as I get older, as well as look younger to boot. Thankfully, we started early (at 34 and 39 for DH), so I can only imagine how rockin' we'll be at 75 like DeVany and his wife.

[sbhikes]

Sorry Bob but it sounds like you didn't even do it 80/20. I'm guessing you went something more like 30/70 with the 70 being processed foods. Also, it was really stupid of you to go off your blood pressure medication on the first day. At your age you should know things don't work like that. You are also making assumptions that everybody here is young and fit and not retired and gets miraculous results on day 1. There are lots of different ages around here and easily-discovered topics about how the plan is not causing dramatic weight loss or going very slowly. But you are old and set in your ways and will believe whatever you want to believe. At least your "it doesn't work for retired people" thread now has enough common sense in it to prevent misinforming anybody else that comes along in the future and does a halfhearted search for the over-65 crowd.

[Nady]

Kind of funny really, I'm almost 63 and DH is 69~ and we're doing so much better than most people our age~ no meds, no 'conditions' DH is wiry strong and at a healthy weight, I'm working off the 'menopause pounds' but they're going.

You're right, it doesn't work as a diet ~ you need to make the mental switch that it's a lifestyle.

BTW~ DH ran 6 miles yesterday~ it was one of his 'short' runs.

[zoebird]

Awesome Nady!

[loves walking]

Well, I saw about a half dozen videos of Mark and others doing primal and they all said "Just try it for 30 days, and it will change your life." So I tried it for 35 days and it didn't. And I'm not willing to do more than I did. I tried vegetarian diets, they didn't work for me either. Neither did Atkins. What works as well as anything, and is a lot less effort and stressful is eating what I want in moderation, doing activities I enjoy, and keeping my mind occupied. At 213 and 6'1" I'm just moderately overweight. Other than bp I have no other medical conditions. My blood work and all other indicators are in normal range.

So, why did I post? Well, when I searched this site, two things I didn't find were:

1) How this was working for people over 65 (I'm 66). I found lots of introductions by people who were retired, but virtually no follow up posts. So it seemed to me that it was likely it didn't work for them but they just stopped posting. I didn't want to do that. I had invested my time and energy into trying it (yes, not perfectly, but I never have been or plan to do anything perfectly), so I wanted to document my experience. I felt entitled to do so. There was no difference to me or my weight in eaiting 100-150 grams of non grain non legume carbs, or eating grains.

2) I didn't see much on this forum by people who hoped to lower bp by going primal, on whether or not they achieved that goal. Maybe that's an issue that ties into age, as 75% of the people over 65 have high bp. So I wanted to be on the record for that as well. My pressure crept up during the 35 days to where I had to admit I needed to go back on the meds, because primal exercise and diet (albeit not perfect) did not keep my pressure down.

I have a good life. I don't need saving. I am retired 5 years with an adequate income and am healthier and more active than most people my age. Let's face it. Most people my age wouldn't be posting on a primal forum.

I have to say I enjoyed being on this board. The reactions to this, my goodbye post, were not nearly as negative as I thought they would be, and a few positive posts were here as well. To those of you for whom this program works, stick with it. For those for whom it doesn't work, don't blame yourself, look for something else. I did.

And apropos, here's my favorite quote, though I don't know who said it originally...

"In theory, theory is the same as practice. In practice, it's not."

Grok on.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread60996.html

[jojohaligo]

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread60996.html

That is awesome!

[workinprogress]

The moral of the story is, it takes more than switching up the diet for a month to fix things. I work in the medical field and can tell you most people really underestimate how much effort physically is required to get Hypertension under control. People also tend to overestimate how active they think they are. Diet is a huge part of the puzzle in healing any medical condition, but is rarely the only piece of the puzzle. It has also been stated that 30 days isn't enough time with the dietary changes. I have to agree, 30 days is really only dipping your toe in the water. Its long enough to find out if the diet will kill you or not. But until you have been fully immersed you will never get a full assessment of the potentials.

[Jac]

I'm 49, 18 months into paleo, and still figuring it all out for me. It took months to see the first results, and it's taken this long to work out how to lose weight but keep healthy. It's been well worth persisting

[Iron Fireling]

Am I understanding correctly that at the end of 35 days you lost weight (or at least hadn't gained any more) and were successfully off BP meds? You then re-introduced grains, and as a result gained weight and raised your BP? And the conclusion you reached from these data is that primal eating does not work?

I'm so confused.

Yup, my thoughts EXACTLY. How can you say eating primal didn't work, when it sounds like it was going back ON grains that made you put weight on and have to go back on your meds?

Unless I read your post incorrectly?

I'm still struggling to understand exactly why primal failed for you. (And I am genuinely curious... I'm still newish to this way of eating and still don't know if it will get me where I want to go... however, it's getting me closer than anywhere else has, at least to this point in time).