Another Paleo Newbie

scvb13

Hello all,
Long story short but I'm a 44 year old ICU nurse who spent my first 30 years as a super fit athlete. Then injuries, illness, having a child, and finally having emergency open heart surgery at age 40 for a rare congenital defect (previously unknown) pretty much wreaked havoc on my 30s. I've spent the last 4 years being pretty consistent with exercise but still struggle with diet. I'm totally addicted to sugar and the typical SAD diet. I've tried every diet there is and I just rebound worse than ever. I underwent metabolic testing in September and found out I'd been Undereating by hundreds of calories a day for years. I should be eating 2700 calories to maintain weight and about 2300 to lose weight. Instead I'd been trying to get by on 1700-1900 per day and my body is holding onto every fat cell.
To bust through this carb/sugar addiction I'm easing into Paleo (I'm on Day 3 and haven't been perfect but overall have done much better). I know this works as I did the 21-day Ignite program through Dailyburn in 2013 and DRAMATICALLY improved my labs in just 3 weeks. Any tips/advice/friend requests will help! I struggle with breakfast as I'm not super hungry and don't have time to eat real food. I usually have a protein shake and I'm ok with still having some whey/casein protein (I do ok with milk). After mindlessly reaching for tortilla chips at dinner last night it occurred to me just how much we don't even think about the carbs/grains we put into our bodies. I'm making a conscious effort to be prepared with snacks as I'm on my feet quite a bit at work and need the energy to go for hours at that pace.

kikih64

Welcome! This way of eating has really gotten me to pay attention to what I put in my mouth and how it makes me feel. You can friend me if you want, but I have to warn you that I'm not really that active here. I just wanted to tell you that you don't have to eat breakfast if you're not hungry or interested in it. Learn to listen to your body - eat when hungry, stop when almost full. Sugar is hard to shake, so beware of trying to replace it with paleo treats (honey and maple syrup are still sugar!). Good luck!!

emma7437

And most importantly persevere with it. I have been doing paleo now for a good three months and have felt really good. But it has only been the last two or three weeks that I have really lost the desire for bread and sugar. I have not eaten perfectly by any means and I do have some dairy, mostly a bit of milk in tea, but I now smell toast and don't want it. In the last few months when I have gone some time with out grains and then eaten bread it has gone straight through me, blah. Now I just don't want it. So, my point is, it is hard to start with but if you persevere, you adjust and somewhere along the way it just seems to become how you eat. Good luck and enjoy it. I am a teacher with only two weeks until summer holidays and I don't have that end of year exhaustion, which is totally unbelievable and I attribute it to good eating (that fueling my body concept is really starting to make sense to me).

sarabeth624

Be warned, eating paleo makes you not want as much food, usually, so you may have to struggle to meet your calorie goals. Choose cal dense foods - MEAT I do shakes often, too. Make sure you've chosen a good quality protein that has a lot of other nutrients in it too - Jay Robb is a good one (though expensive) there are others. Just look them up. A lot of powders have more added sugar than you want.

And replace those tortilla chips with veg or plantain chips!

homesweeths

sarabeth624 wrote: »

Be warned, eating paleo makes you not want as much food, usually, so you may have to struggle to meet your calorie goals. Choose cal dense foods - MEAT I do shakes often, too. Make sure you've chosen a good quality protein that has a lot of other nutrients in it too - Jay Robb is a good one (though expensive) there are others. Just look them up. A lot of powders have more added sugar than you want.

And replace those tortilla chips with veg or plantain chips!

I second this, at least so far as struggling to meet calorie goals. I'm never hungry on paleo. I'd say add in lots of good fat! Coconut oil, butter (or ghee), bacon and bacon fat, duck fat. I'd say leave off the veggie chips, though, unless homemade. I passed up a bag of plantain chips today -- they sounded so good! but were fried in sunflower oil. Or maybe it was safflower oil. Anyhow, one of the oils that I try to avoid.

If you're sticking to good protein, vegetables, a little fruit (I stuck to berries, mainly, when first starting out), and a lot of good fat (like 50+% of total calories -- I do best when my fat intake is at least that), you might not even have the desire to mindlessly eat chips at the end of the day! Good food is so satiating.