How has your primal diet evolved over time? page 3

[sakura_girl]

Wow, have I quite the timeline experimenting with extremes on how I viewed Primal.

September 2011: Officially stopped eating wheat. Exercise remained the same with the chronic cardio.
Mistake: I used it as an excuse to abuse chocolate and nuts and ate sugar liberally. Also still ate oats. Chronic cardio.
Consequence: Cravings still existed and carb flu.

January 2012: Read a lot of information and began the Bulletproof Exec. Began to exclusively do Stronglifts every other day, and sprinted once or twice a week. Took some walks, but they were not calming at all.
Mistake: More chocolate, except I ate exclusively 100% bars. Only ate expensive macadamias from Whole Foods and drank way too much coffee and ate too much butter (>200-300g fat daily). Exclusively low carb.
Consequence: Cravings for food in general. Low recovery rate. Possibly exhausted my adrenals with 4 cups of coffee worth of coffee/day. Also gained some pounds.

March 2012: Realized I need carbs to recover from the gym. Began eating carbs, but mostly in the form of sugar from chocolate bars. No fruit. Still drank BP coffee.
Mistake: Sugar binges. Calories from Primal junk food >75% of calories.
Consequence: Gained more pounds.

April 2012: Began cleaning up my diet; stopped eating chocolate (except once or twice) and carbed up on sweet potatoes and fruit. Exercise remained the same except with more walking and slightly creeping up on the cardio again. Dropped coffee for tea and began successful 24 hour fasts.
Mistake: Still way too much exercise. Cravings due to the fact of yo-yoing too much between LC and HC days and eating too much protein.
Consequence: Lost some pounds. Poor sleep, possibly due to overtraining or perpetual low carb flu because of extremes in carb intake. Binges whenever I had fructose.

September 2012: Began 25/25/50 balances of carbs/protein/fat. Minimal fruit. Occasional indulgences in dairy and chocolate. No more 24 hour fasts. Dropped cardio and sprints in favor of more walking.
Consequence: More level energy and almost no binges.
I have stress from a new job, so my sleep and gym sessions are not the best quality. Will eventually cope and reevaluate. Diet-wise, it is definitely working for me now, though.

[paleo-bunny]

I understand my body much better for experimenting, and I have come to the conclusion that I hit on the right formula pretty early on, but had to question that.

That is focusing carb consumption on my evening meal to replenish glycogen stores. Also eating VLC for breakfast (very helpful for correcting my body clock issues). Lunch is moderate carb, eating plenty of saturated fat, and never snacking is ideal.

I do way, way better on glucose than fructose. And I eat a lot of vegetables as I have done for a couple of decades, and a lot of goat's/sheeps dairy.

I have hypermobile joints so my biomechanics are very inefficient. This has caused chronic fatigue in the past. Hence I can eat 100-150 g glucose a day and still go into ketosis. But reducing carbs to enhance my fat burning capability gives a huge boost to my energy levels as I can run on dual fuel and my ability to walk more quickly is particularly apparent. I will always appear unfit as a walker or runner even when I actually have good fitness levels. My lung capacity is currently 114% of that expected but I appear weak as I am slower than average. However, my low heart rate cf power output paints a truer picture of my fitness and is a useful measure.

Coconut oil has made a huge difference to my health as I have been pescatarian for about 24 years hence was surely deficient in medium chain fatty acids during that time. I haven't had a cold in 16 months or so - I am sure due to eating more medium chain fatty acids and having a stronger immune system due to decreased inflammation from avoiding inflammatory foods - also I notice that my colour vision is much sharper for eating coconut oil. Huge benefits.

[Jac]

I started primal in Feb 2011 because of steadily increasing pain from IBS with joint involvement - went to my daughter's wedding in Jan '11 and couldn't keep my shoes on because of the pain. I was taking NSAIDS at least 3x/day, and using them as well as sleeping pills at night. 35kg overweight.

Stage 1 (Feb/Mar 11). Primal stopped most of the pains within the first couple of weeks, but didn't stop them all. It wasn't enough.

Stage 2 (Mar/Jun 11). Elimination time: found and removed nuts and all nut products except coconut, and every tiny bit of dairy. Feeling physically pretty good. Weight down by 10kg. Still getting random pain and bloating.

Stage 3 (July/Sept 11). Found fodmaps and eliminated all high and most moderate fodmap foods. No more BAS, apples, onions etc. Didn't lose any more weight, but the IBS triggers were minimised. Physically OK, but low energy and miserable

Stage 4 (Sept 11 - Jan 12). Perfect Health Diet - reintroduced starches, included bananas. Energy and mood stabilised and so did symptoms. No weight loss - still 25kg overweight!

Stage 5. Leptin reset. What was I thinking?? IBS flares from overeating protein. Sick. Only lasted about a week.

Stage 6 (Jan/Aug 12). Back to PHD, but introduced exercise, talked to primal exercise bloke - increased coconut cream for energy. Tired, bloated, happy for a couple of weeks, then just tired and bloated. Exercise fizzled out over time. Too many starches and too much sugar. Mostly maintained the weight loss, and had only a few symptoms. Most pain relief was stopped.

Stage 7 (late August to late Sept). Ketosis and VLC. Finally accepted that coconut has too many fodmaps for me, which gave a new high point in symptom control. Weight loss restarted. Feeling OK, but bad moods and sadness crept in. Felt deprived . . . could be the natural increase in exercise as the days got longer. Weighing compulsively, too much time on the web reading about ketosis.

Stage 8 (now). Trying Carb Nite. I feel like I've cracked the mystery of my pain and sleep with all the eliminations. The next stages are mood and weight. Trying to disconnect from the scales and the web a bit and enjoy the springtime. Wish me luck!!

[Neckhammer]

I use to make salads a bigger part of the day (and vegetables in general). Now I don't focus so much on veggies. I just eat a ton of good meat, eggs, and raw milk. I use veggies and fruits to taste/accent the meal. I still have a BAS once every week or two, but not on a daily basis like I did in the beginning.

[Dirlot]

I guess one thing I have done is make primal pizza with a mozzarella coconut flour base....hmmmmm

[henryyyyyyyyyy]

hi everybody,take a look at this course:
Welcome
see you.

[zoebird]

I started out as basically primal, dairy free (exception butter -- becuase I can't eat eggs cooked in coconut oil or olive oil as it tastes nasty to me).

We added in sweet potatoes/rice around year 1 mark.

I reduced potatoes/rice (to less than 1x week -- so rice about 1x month, potatoes about 1-2x month), and then I've also cut our pork and reduced chicken (1x week) and increased fish.

We are currently 16/8 IF, with all raw veggies and only 1 piece of fruit, with a back up of steamed veggies if we need them (so far we've needed them 3 times this week; we'll adjust this week at the grocery store to get more raw).