October Whole 30 for Paleo/Primal Support Peeps

I just change to low carb 2 weeks ago and still adjusting and learning.
This weekend I was so bad-high carb, high fat, high cal.
I still ate at 1AM yesterday. I'm fasting until dinner today.

Today is off to a fantastic start!

Despite grumbling and groaning yesterday about food prep I'm SO glad I did it. That's one of the things I have the hardest time with despite how long I've been living this way is the time and energy it takes to get my provisions for the day or week together. I suppose I shouldn't grouse too much as it's just me I have to prep for but still... Once it's done, however, my day goes so much smoother. I made my smoothie for breakfast and a frittata for 2nd breakfast this morning, I have roasted free range chicken with sliced veggies and grapes for lunch, a protien packed nut ball (and my cheater yogurt) for preworkout snack and am planning a grass fed petite serloin with sauteed zucchini, mushrooms and peppers for dinner.

Looking forward to a killer workout tonight as well!
Today's a total body day so I'll likely see a 1K cal burn!

Not too bad for a Monday! :bigsmile:

Let's make this an awesome week!

:drinker:

I am in!
I totally fell off the wagon in September, but I am back on track for October. (Somehow I still managed to lose a couple of pounds in September despite the fact that I was doing Paleo about 50% of the time.) My goal for this month is to be strict Paleo as much as possible because when I cheat, I can't stop!

Question guys: I get that the paleo lifestyle cuts out the grains legumes dairy and, for many, root vegetables but HOW on God's Green EARTH are some of you managing on 50-100g of carbs/day? I burn out and totally lose energy, focus, power and drive if I cut back that steeply. I try to keep it under 150g on training days less, if I can, on off days but even then I get worn out and get a serious case of "Eat all the things!" especially nearing my "off" days (meaning days I'm not training). Training sucks and I have no energy if I don't carb up a little before I go workout. (No it's not psychosematic I had to try a bunch of crap to firgure out why I was feeling so gawd awful).

What is your routine like? What kind of training do you do? Are you doing extensive cardio? Strength Training? How are you preventing burn-out?

Ok, that's more than one question but enlighten me...

Your body may not need to go that low in carbs. When I started out, I was very low carb 50-75 average- l lost weight and corrected a lot of issues. I kept doing it up until this year when I began doing a bootcamp at a mixed martial arts gym. I'm working out at a level I never had before. I crashed pretty hard in the spring and it messed up my hormone balance again. After much reading and tracking what I was eating (on a different site) I realized my carb level might be too low. I added in fruit, some potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice and plantains. I didn't really even have to increase my carbs that much but I average probably 100-125 now. And it made a big difference in my performance and mental well-being and my hormones corrected. I believe my body has healed enough to accept and run with increased carbs. Maybe your body is in a similar state of health? Going paleo doesn't necessarily have to mean low carb.

Sorry, double post!!

How do I change my targets for protein/carbs etc?

I think I will aim for 100-125grams of carbs and 80grams of protein - does this seem about right anyone?

Spaghetti squash lasagna turned out better than expected. Hubby wanted more veggies in it, but it was just the right amount of mushrooms, red peppers & onions for me (so I could pretend they weren't there.) It was a real hassle though, and we should get 5 meals out of it, so I've got to look on the brightside. Bringing some for lunch today, with my two hard boiled eggs, scoop of cream cheese and handful of grapes for breakfast, I should be good until dinner, which will be some pan fried chicken in garlic butter with a side salad of romaine lettuce and olive oil/vinegar dressing. Usually bring almonds and an apple just in case. Still used to snacking all day, so it's tough to break that habit. At least with the IF, I know that it's all mental and not physical hunger, but that might be harder to get over.

Really having a hard time getting motivated to work out. Going to try some heavy weights tonight after work to see if that's a better time for me than morning. Just when you're maintaining, it's so tough to find motivation. I need some sort of a deadline or reward to encourage it. I do walk quite quickly to and from work (2.3 miles each way), so I do always get some exercise.

I use heavy cream instead of milk, and I cook with coconut milk, organic butter, coconut oil most of the time.

I eat allot of fish, meat, eggs, squashes with olive oil or butter like zucchini, butternut, acorn, spagetti. I also love having bell peppers and avacado. Stay away from fruit or really limit the fruit until you get your carbs under control. I love soaked (rehydrated) raw pecans and almonds with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries for snacking.

Saugage and onions and eggs is my typical lunch (with spices like cilantro, salt) or paleo pizza crust (just egg whites peaked, with yolks folded in) cooked, then add toppings. Sometimes lunch is last nite's leftover.

Stay away from yogurt! Get your diet tweeked first on the carbs. It's really important to make sure that you are getting enough fat in the diet, which will completely help curb your hunger! You will loose weight eating fat, just stay within or under your calorie goal.

This am, carb loading with my biggest carb intake of the day at 44g. I finish with 0 g carbs for my last meal. My breakfast is french toast:
1 tblspn butter, 1 egg, 2 tblspn heavy cream, 2 slices odough's GF flax loaf bread. Yummy! With coffee, heavy cream, and stevia.

Well I have changed my goals to 120g carbs, 86g protein and 61g fat - do you think this is okay?

Adastra47 posted this in another thread, but it's so true:

"The goal should be to use diet and exercise to cure the disease, not to go on a bunch of medicine and then adjust your diet so the meds will work properly! If your body doesn't create or process insulin correctly, then your goal should be to stop burning the sugar & carbs that require insulin. Start getting your energy by burning fat & protein instead. If you do that, you won't need any injections of insulin or any drugs to control it. If your body doesn't detect sugar & carbs in your system, then it won't need or release any insulin: problem solved.
...you can live a perfectly normal, healthy and DRUG-FREE life. My doctor has patients who have been on this type of diet for decades & have never had any problems with it.

Here are more links with info on low-carb diets and Type II diabetes:
http://www.diabetesnewsstand.com/vissue/vernon/titlepage.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diabetes/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3M75cYpx2w
"

now, get to work my friends!

Question guys: I get that the paleo lifestyle cuts out the grains legumes dairy and, for many, root vegetables but HOW on God's Green EARTH are some of you managing on 50-100g of carbs/day? I burn out and totally lose energy, focus, power and drive if I cut back that steeply. I try to keep it under 150g on training days less, if I can, on off days but even then I get worn out and get a serious case of "Eat all the things!" especially nearing my "off" days (meaning days I'm not training). Training sucks and I have no energy if I don't carb up a little before I go workout. (No it's not psychosematic I had to try a bunch of crap to firgure out why I was feeling so gawd awful).

What is your routine like? What kind of training do you do? Are you doing extensive cardio? Strength Training? How are you preventing burn-out?

Ok, that's more than one question but enlighten me...

For me, more fat, less carbs.

My current diet is very closed to paleo, so I would like to do this as well!!!

What i need suggestions for is lunches - I can not eat salad everyday but am running out of ideas because i would normally have sandwiches.

Mainly leftovers (cook extra steak, chicken, etc) but I also do wraps with romaine lettuce leaves (similar to a salad, but decidedly different) and fill it full of meat, veggies, cheese (if applicable) and a homemade oil/vinegar dressing. Very tasty. The other option is snacky type foods all together like some meat, hard boiled eggs, cut veggies, etc. I'm trying to find a way to use mayo but every one I've found has soybean oil as the first ingredient, and if I can ever find a half decent "creamy" style dressing, I'd do a mix of that in with some chicken or egg (or you can use tuna/salmon if you like) and put on to celery sticks. Nice and crunchy & filling.

If I honestly can't think of anything, i do IF once every couple of weeks and tell myself that I had a "bad hunting day". I haven't been super hungry yet, but I imagine if I was, it would make the salad the next day taste even better!

Make your own mayo with coconut oil, olive oil or grapeseed oil.

What i need suggestions for is lunches - I can not eat salad everyday but am running out of ideas because i would normally have sandwiches.

Mainly leftovers (cook extra steak, chicken, etc) but I also do wraps with romaine lettuce leaves (similar to a salad, but decidedly different) and fill it full of meat, veggies, cheese (if applicable) and a homemade oil/vinegar dressing. Very tasty. The other option is snacky type foods all together like some meat, hard boiled eggs, cut veggies, etc. I'm trying to find a way to use mayo but every one I've found has soybean oil as the first ingredient, and if I can ever find a half decent "creamy" style dressing, I'd do a mix of that in with some chicken or egg (or you can use tuna/salmon if you like) and put on to celery sticks. Nice and crunchy & filling.

If I honestly can't think of anything, i do IF once every couple of weeks and tell myself that I had a "bad hunting day". I haven't been super hungry yet, but I imagine if I was, it would make the salad the next day taste even better!

Make your own mayo with coconut oil, olive oil or grapeseed oil.

I still can't find coconut oil -- I live in Canada's largest city (around 4 million people) and still can't find it anywhere. I have bought olive oil & grapeseed oil though. I really hadn't even considered making my own because honestly it seems like such a hassle for a topping -- I haven't really made any condiments myself before (more challenging than my mixing of 3 parts olive oil and 1 part vinegar), but I'm a big girl and I can make mayo!!

OH YEAH! Now I remember why I haven't made it. It has raw egg in it, so I'm concerned about making a big ole jar of food borne bacteria. How do you avoid that?

jamk1446 - my friend who is on Paleo mentioned carb cycling to me. Basically eat more carbs on the days you work out. Hope to hear some of your thoughts on that...

Sorry to respond so late, I've been at a seminar all day and then football game. I know others do carb cycling, I tried that at first but it seemed like I did better just raising my carb level a little bit overall rather than forcing myself on specific days. I like sweet potatoes but I don't want to HAVE to eat them when I'd rather have spaghetti squash or roasted broccoli. Carb loading just felt a lot like binge behavior and that's something I'd do best to avoid but it's certainly a valid way of doing things. But I can tell if I go too low for too many days and then I have to compensate. I think there are some threads here asking specifically about carb loading if you are looking for more info.