completely switching my diet long term? need help! page

[mrsj111]

Hey everyone, im new here, just thought this would be a good place to learn some things about my diet.

Im 24, 5'10 155ish lbs. basically, i need to drop 10 pounds, maybe 15, i race motorcycles and I was told i need to get my weight down to 140-145. its very easy for me to stay around 150-160. i can go weeks eating crap and doing nothing and not go much over 160.(though its been years since i actually have done that) I exercise a lot and eat pretty well.

i just recently, maybe 2 weeks ago started messing with eating a lot less breads and grains, and basically replacing them with vegitables. i started out making juice with my juicer in the morning, id do a grapefruit, an orange, about 3 large carrots, maybe an apple, and maybe some random leafy vegitables, i change it up a bit. id also make a breakfast with 1 egg, 1 egg white, and mix it with peppers broccoli etc.. throughout the day id eat random vegitables fruit and nuts, then either lean mean or steamed veggies or lentil/veggi soup. i dropped 5 lbs in a week, but i cant maintain that diet. i like eating too much.
after the week, i had to travel for 3 days, between eating reasonably there, a b-day party(lots of cake) when i got back, and one more day of eating breads and random stuff. i was back up 5 lbs. now 3 days ago, i started easing back into that same diet. this time i have my juice in the morning, eat some random fruit, maybe a few nuts. and eat a little bit of fruit, veggies, nuts throughout the day, BUT im allowing myself one "treat" per day. by treat i mean bread product, its been a poppyseed muffin each day so far. (I am freaking obsessed with muffins! probably my single favorite food) and im planning on doing one "reward" meal a week. so like a burger and fries for dinner or whatever.
anyway, im back down 4 lbs in 3 days. so so far its working. my hope is that i can actually keep this diet long term. like basically switch my entire diet over forever basically. id like veggies and fruit to take place of the bready (except muffins) and not so good foods i normally eat. i have 3 months to reach my required weight so ive got plenty of time

id just like some advice, ive been really liking this primal diet thing people are doing. for me it would be nearly impossible to follow a strictly lean meats, raw fruits and veggies type diet. i travel quite a bit, im in hotels on average 2 weeks out of every month. this means hotel breakfast and eating out at restraunts every night. i usually have a banana with peanut butter, maybe an english muffin with PB, whatever other fruit they have, and whatever im served for lunch. then i try to get chicken or fish for dinner. its definitely a pretty healthy diet on the road as well, but with some not so great foods thrown in.

im looking for advice at home, mostly ways to keep this diet going very long term. so far this fruit, veggies, lean meat with a small treat a day has been working. but if there are any bready, grainy, sweet type foods that are actually healthy and i could eat more of it would help soooo much. im willing to cook/bake it. my sister makes these healthy bran muffins and these Flax & Oat Breakfast Power Muffins. both of which are awesome. so maybe something like that that i could throw in on top of my daily "treat"

the other thing, is that on top of loosing weight, i need to be really physically fit. and i build muscle pretty easy. most riders you see arent big bulky strong guys, but basically like jockeys, and thats about where i need to be. so my diet and exercise need to reflect that. ive worked with trainers and despite what i tell them i end up with a muscley bulky build. and either gain or make it very hard to loose weight. i need a very lean, no excess build.

sorry that was so long but any advice would be awesome!

[Annieh]

Hi, good on you for making some healthy changes to your diet. You have a very achievable weight loss goal there, if you are willing to change your diet completely which you say you are. I would suggest you read all you can on this site about the primal blueprint, so that you gain some more understanding about why this way of eating works and what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Then you will find that you really need to drop the grains completely for the good of your health. In addition, since weight loss is your goal you will need to dial back on the fruit for a while. It is primal, but too high in carbs at this stage.

There is no need for your veges to be raw or your meat to be especially lean, or to limit your egg yolks.

Eggs and veges make a sustaining breakfast. Salad with chicken is good for lunch. Dinner should be meat and lots of non-starchy vegetables, IMO. You will be well nourished, conquer cravings and still lose weight eating like this.

My latest "bread substitute" is primal pancakes: Blend 1 egg, 1/2 banana, 1T cocoa powder. Pour into well greased wafflemaker and cook through.

But overall I find it better to concentrate on what I can eat, than trying to replace the things I can't. See my journal for some meal ideas if you like and there are lots of recipes on this site. Good luck.

[jfreaksho]

Low-carb, low-fat is actually the Faileo diet. Don't do that.

Stop thinking about "lean" meat, and just eat meat. Fatty meat is great. Get lots of vegetables, fruit, and meat, and you'll be okay. I think the harder thing to do is going to be avoiding nasty vegetable oils, which cause worse problems than wheat for some people.

[Kotato]

Welcome! Good advice above--you're right that you can't sustain a diet as low-calorie as the one you're describing sounds. I lost weight eating bacon cheeseburgers at restaurants (no bun, salad instead of fries)! You might want to try tracking your macronutrients for a few days on a site like myfitnesspal.com and compare it to what Mark recommends here to make sure you're getting enough protein and calories.

All that being said... If muffins are your psychological hurdle, here is your answer: Paleo Banana Bread Muffins. I make them without the flaxseed, and I blend the wet ingredients in a blender/food processor so they're nice and smooth. I promise they are as good as any other muffins I've eaten--the almond flour just gives them more of that "nutty" taste. They really shouldn't be every day food long term... but it's a place to start.

Good luck!

[froggie]

id just like some advice, ive been really liking this primal diet thing people are doing.

Hmm. Honestly the best piece of advice is to read Mark's book. Then you can follow his primal plan. What you've been doing? That's not it.
And I travel a lot too, it's not easy but entirely doable if you really try.

Good luck!

[sbhikes]

Eat lean meat AND fat meat. That's what humans used to do. Add veggies, tubers, fruits, nuts and maybe seeds, cheese, wine and chocolate. Skip the muffins, breads, cakes.

You can make a good paleo muffin/cup cake out of an egg, a generous heaping spoon of almond butter, a banana (or a half a large sweet potato already cooked, or an equivalent amount of canned pumpkin) and a big spoonful of unsweetened cocoa powder (or pumpkin pie spices). Mix together, put in a coffee mug and microwave for 2 minutes. Dress up with whipped cream, melt squares of chocolate in it while it's microwaving, or drizzle honey all over it. Yummy!

[mrsj111]

Hi, good on you for making some healthy changes to your diet. You have a very achievable weight loss goal there, if you are willing to change your diet completely which you say you are. I would suggest you read all you can on this site about the primal blueprint, so that you gain some more understanding about why this way of eating works and what you need to do to achieve your goals.

Then you will find that you really need to drop the grains completely for the good of your health. In addition, since weight loss is your goal you will need to dial back on the fruit for a while. It is primal, but too high in carbs at this stage.

There is no need for your veges to be raw or your meat to be especially lean, or to limit your egg yolks.

Eggs and veges make a sustaining breakfast. Salad with chicken is good for lunch. Dinner should be meat and lots of non-starchy vegetables, IMO. You will be well nourished, conquer cravings and still lose weight eating like this.

My latest "bread substitute" is primal pancakes: Blend 1 egg, 1/2 banana, 1T cocoa powder. Pour into well greased wafflemaker and cook through.

But overall I find it better to concentrate on what I can eat, than trying to replace the things I can't. See my journal for some meal ideas if you like and there are lots of recipes on this site. Good luck.

Geeez the meals you're listing in your journal look amazing, i had no idea some of the ingredients and foods were ok for this diet. sounds like im really going to have to do my research, if i can be making meals like that this diet will be much easier! i love frittata's, definitely going to start making those, snacks, breakfast and dinner actually seem like the bigger challenge for me, mostly cause im always changing what i want, breakfast i almost always like eating the same thing.

I havent done much reading yet, but pretty much anything that will replace bread would be awesome, i have a sweet tooth, but thats manageable, its freaking impossible for me to avoid breads, muffins, toast, pie, etc.. i could live off the stuff. i either need to find a good replacement or find a way to kick the craving. after a diet i tried a couple months ago which consisted pretty strictly of nuts, fruit and meat, i actually went 2 1/2 weeks with basically nothing but that, felt pretty good afterwards too, but the next day, i bought a pack of 6 of my favorite muffins, really really big muffins too. started with one, and they were all gone within a couple hours, went to my moms house later on, she had made pasta and pie for desert, ate a ton of pasta, and i ate about half of the entire pie, with ice cream. definitely one of the weirdest mental moments ive had, i just lost all control of my eating, felt like i gained back all i lost.

quick question, is almond/peanut butter on bananna slices good? its pretty much my go to pre workout/active day snack.

[Annieh]

Thanks, I'm glad you like my meals. So do I Frittatas are brilliant for any meal.

Go ahead and read up some more about the addictiveness of grains, particularly wheat. It sounds like you have it bad. Personally, I think it's better to go cold turkey than try to limit consumption of something that is so compulsive.

I have found that I get tummyaches so I don't really consume wheat or grains any more, and I don't really miss bread except for the convenience of grabbing it to spread something on. But there are ways around that if you think creatively.

Almond butter is primal and so is banana (but pretty high carb for someone in weight loss phase). Peanut butter is not regarded as primal since it is a legume.

[Rueben]

I read somewhere that wheat flour is addictive - it has a similar reaction in the brain as morphine -thats why you lose control and feel you can't do without it...

[sbhikes]

quick question, is almond/peanut butter on bananna slices good? its pretty much my go to pre workout/active day snack.

It's delicious. Wrapped in a tortilla, bananas and almond butter is partially what the left lady in my avatar was made of.