Hi Mark, I am a primal beginner (which does allow some dairy by the way), you don't have to give up peanut butter, you can swap to another nut butter without any other additions. I currently use an organic almond butter - which is essentially ground almonds. I sometime use a almond, brazil and cashew butter - again absolutely no additives. Not as crunchy as some peanut butter but definitely tastier.

Hi all, I am new to MFP, but a year into a Primal food style. I found this group today and I'm excited to run into a group of folks more like-minded to what I am trying to accomplish.

One year ago, I topped out at 315.8 pounds. This culminated a lifetime of being chubby, to developing an eating disorder in my 20s which lead to an ever increasing waistline til there was more waste than waist. Nine years ago I took a job that involves a lot of travel, generally 3-5 days at a time, but sometimes much more than that. This put my already ample self in restaurants for three meals a day for days on end coupled with a very sedentary work experience I felt horrible, looked horrible, was depressed and feeling helpless. I had just been diagnosed with hypertension and put on medication and was told my blood sugars were creeping up, though not out of normal yet. One day, as a group of coworkers and I were walking back up a hill from lunch to a work site and I was having to rest, yet again, because of back pain and being winded due to overweight and out of shape, a coworker said to me, "I enjoy working with you so much, I would even push you in a wheelchair if need be rather than not have you here on our team." That really touched me, but it also shook me up - I really had to think about that - "push you in a wheelchair" aspect of the remark. And when I got home from that trip on November 5, 2010, I vowed that if my coworkers appreciated me, the least I could do is appreciate myself. I picked up the book Neander Thin and read it nonstop and have not looked back.

I began to research and seek out information on nutrition and the Paleo way of eating. I found Mark Sisson and began to follow his blogs at MarksDailyApple.com. I picked up Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and several of Mark Sisson's Book, Primal Blueprint and his cookbooks and his new book, 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Have looked at Loren Cordain and Mary Dan Eades work and that of her husband Micheal. I have read Nora Gedgadous's work. The more I read the more I appreciate this way of eating.

As of this morning, I weighed 280 pounds, a good reduction from the 315 of a year ago, but still a long way from where I wish to be. But the fault is not in Paleo/Primal eating, it is in my human failings. I had plateaued last early summer and didn't gain, but also didn't lose. Then as the fall began to creep over New England, I found myself avoiding my morning weigh-in. Last week, when I forced myself onto the scales, it was to discover a 7 pound creep back of weight. What pushed me back to the scales was my god-daughter who has lost 70 pounds through MFP. So here I am, and in one week, I have lost the 7 pounds that had crept back on...and now I think my head is straight and I am eating clean again and can begin again to become the lean body my genetic nature wants me to be.

I'm glad to be here, glad to be making progress again, and hope to learn a lot more to add to my growing fund of Paleo/Primal knowledge.

Susan