Quick check in. Hubby and I are enjoying an early dinner after hiking to the peak of Mt Edith... Just a mere 9400+ feet at the peak!

Thanks John I appreciate the support.

Happy Monday Folks! Hope all is well with all of you.

Howie - You are in a tough fight and I salute you. For me, the background of hunger and craving faded away when I did a whole 30 challenge and totally eliminated sugar, grains, dairy, and legumes for a month. I had already lost 70lbs but did not really have control of my hunger) I followed the process in the Book "IT Starts With Food" Highly recommend it though I couldn't promise it would have the same effect for you. Keep in the fight though, it really is life or death for all of us.

I just started reading this book. I am hoping to try the Whole 30 at some point, but for now my husband and I are doing the "Practical Paleo" 30 day fat loss menu. Very similar, I think. No grains, very little sugar (the occasional apple, orange, or organic maple syrup to be added to a recipe), no diary or legumes. Wish I could say I've stuck to it (see previous post LOL), but when I have, I've felt great and lost weight. But my sugar/carb addiction is pretty damn strong, so it's difficult for me to stick with it for days at a time. But I figure I will just keep working at it and eventually I will get to the point that those foods no longer have a hold over me.

Howie - some other good books to read... The Calorie Myth, Practical Paleo, and Eat the Yolks. My husband has been reading the Primal Blueprint and getting a lot of good information from that. Basically all these books talk about the same thing... eat natural, properly raised foods, and stay away from processed foods. All the books (I believe) give the reasons and explanations as to why it's so hard for people to get away from the processed foods...

Monday....finally got out on the bike a bit yesterday. Miss the dirt.

I'll add Jason Seib's "Paleo Coach" to Stacy's list. I'd read all the others she listed and flirted around with paleo/primal concepts for a couple years. Jason's book really hit a nerve last fall. The realization I have to stop looking at this all as a " diet" and instead get everything in line into an overall sustainable lifestyle. Not really sure why that one did it.

I also love that super full feeling. And get it often at dinner but only eat two meals most days and little snacking (yesterday I did eat post ride), and most nights I eat some berries before bed. For me the key is high fat, moderate proteins, lowish carbs ( not ultra low) I do 75-100 grams a dat often - but primarily in evening. It's kinda amazing how similar my macros are day in and day our without trying. Most days I'm about 65% calories from fat! remainder evenly split protein carbs- regardless of total calories. My current fasting blood sugar is in the low to mid 70s. I think that's the critical piece to getting rid of cravings and being able to eat intuitively - blood sugar below 80. Sarah Gottfired talks quite a bit about that lower range. I'm hearing Mark Sissin also recommend.

John, for my day to day food, I eat what i like that fits my macros. I eat Spam and I actually like it. *gasp* I don't view food as "bad" or "good" I think people get into trouble if they view food in that sense. I try not to reward myself with food either because I do not want to attach an emotion to a food. I used to do that a lot but I've learned over the years not to. I still enjoy food and I LOVE good food and trying different cuisine but food is not a barometer for my happiness. I still get cravings but I try my best to curb that.
For my carb nite I just eat lots of high carb stuff. I don't find it very difficult to stick to the Carb Nite food choices. I though his food choices are pretty common and nothing fancy. I try to good quality or ethical food as much as possible. For example if I'm shopping for eggs and one is organic and the other is humane certified I would choose the latter. Yes I eat spam and I am under no delusion as to how our meat is raised and harvested but I also buy half pastured lambs and pig and use every part of the animal. I have my own vegetable garden and when I do buy produce i usually buy it at my farmer's market. I think I'm striking the best balance on nutrition and animal welfare I can based on my circumstance and that's good enough for me now.

I am still trying to figure out my calorie consumption and its very frustrating and a little scary but I will get there.

Almost forgot Monday. ... been one of those weeks

I've read all the books previously mentioned except for Jason's book. I do listen to their podcasts and was a member of their online training group at one time though. I just refused to buy another "paleo" book. Good info in all of those books and the websites/podcasts of the writers. I just read Keto Clarity and have been eating HCLF (moderate protein) and I've been testing my blood sugar. I haven't felt ravenous at all and have been eating two meals a day (weekdays) and on the weekend I had three a day. My fasting blood sugar started at 107 and 108 consecutively and now is in the 90's. I hope to get to better numbers after a few weeks. My lowest fasting blood sugar was 87 yesterday morning and that's after drinking rum and beer most of Saturday. I find it all interesting and look forward to learning more about all my body's reaction to the things I eat/drink and to exercise. I also ordered the Ketonix breath ketone analyzer and look forward to tracking that.

Concur with all the above still working on the fasting blood sugar and just got Keto Clarity. See how it works out for me my typical Macros run in the 30 % ranges. With carbs generally 100-150G (about .5 - .7 g per lb of Body weight) See how it all rolls out.

Good morning all! Things are going really well for me this week and I am down 1lb already so I'm hoping for 3 by Friday. It's been nice having the group so active. I still wish they had email notifications for post, that is pretty basic.