Recently I signed up with a Personal Trainer and he wants me to try what I thought was Paleo, but I'm a little stuck for what exactly I'm going to eat for a while. So my question is, does this sound right? Is it Paleo? Is it Primal?

Well, it's kinda hard to tell if it's primal or paleo without knowing the foods involved. Both paleo and primal is about "whole foods, organically grown, and simply prepared" along with avoiding the post-agricultural things that we have tried to turn into 'food'.

He wants me to eat 6 times a day
Meal 1 - Protein, Veg, Fat
Meal 2 - Carb (only) (but somehow LF yoghurt is a carb?)
Meal 3 - Protein, Veg, Fat
Meal 4 - Protein, Veg, Fat
Meal 5 - Carb (and the suggestion is fruit)
Meal 6 - Protein, Veg, Fat

As Crossfitterwa stated, this doesn't strike me as paleo or primal at all. First off, paleo/primal is based on hunter/gatherer biology (pre-agricultural) and there isn't fixed times to eat - in fact, there should be fewer meals per day, eating when one is hungry until one is not hungry - and food is available.

The 'protein/veg/fat' suggestion is meaningless without some indication of what he means. Canola oil is a fat - but it is a BAD fat. Potatoes are a 'vegetable' - but most roots are not considered primal/paleo because of the starch and carb content. And so on.

The only way low-fat yogurt could be considered a carb is if it has sugar - which is right out. Same as fruit by itself - only natural sugars (those surrounded by a plant) is preferred, and even then in the context of other plants and animals so the the sugar absorption rate is slowed.

This is also based on my schedule because I get up very early (5) and am on the way to work by 6.30 (and it takes me until 8.50 to get to work). He wants me to eat immediately (by 5.30) and then again around 7.30 and again at 10/12/15-16 and 19:00 when I arrive home. Honestly I have no idea how to make this work.

Unworkable diets are....unworkable. Mini-fasts are common and normal. There are times in the day when you are hungry AND you have time to eat - that's when you SHOULD eat. 'Three squares' are an invention of the Industrial Revolution - and one of the reasons people overeat - they eat when they are 'supposed' to instead of when they are hungry, and are thus trained to ignore their body signals.

Another question I have is - if you ate grains before, how did you replace them?

Basically, you you 'replace' them with the other food groups: more veg, more fat, sometimes more protein. Whole foods.

For example, my husband cooks (because of my commute) and we eat a lot of Indian food with basmati rice. Can I just replace that with cauliflower?

Sure. Steamed, mashed and google 'cauliflower rice'. Almost any vegetable that can sit under a sauce is a candidate.

What about Italian food - he cooks that a lot as well. I thought I could probably put my tomato-based sauce over broccoli instead of pasta but what about other things?

Spaghetti squash, eggplant, green beans; again the options are endless.

What about beans - considered a protein or a carb? Black/Kidney/Chick Peas/ Lentils - can I use these in my carb only meals?

Beans (in fact, all legumes) are not a primal/paleo food. Not only are their carb and sugar levels too high, they are a prime example of a food that is inedible without all sorts of modification. Legumes are high in phytates, which is poisonous, and has to be leeched out by soaking. If you were to eat a meal of dried beans raw, it would at the very least make you sick.

You will get all the carbs you need in the green leafy vegetables you consume. There is no need for high carb sources like grains, legumes, starchy roots or sugars.

I'd be happy to buy a book if I knew which one it should be. I believe he's based this off of Dr. Cordain's diet. Does it sound right?

This does not sound like anything I've read by Cordain.

Authors to look up: Robb Wolf (paleo), Mark Sisson (primal), Steven Gundry (Diet Evolution). You can also register on Mark Sisson's site (marksdailyapple.com) and you'll get and entire 'Primal 101' series of emails from him - including eBooks about recipes and exercise.

Thanks for putting up with my questions.

Renée

No problem - good fortunes on your new food adventure!

That was a very interesting and informative discussion for those of us relatively new to the paleo approach

Well Fed is my FAVORITE paleo cookbook. Everything I have made from it has turned out awesome and been in high demand since. I think I probably have all of the "paleo/primal" cookbooks that are available now, and this one is truly worth it.

The other one I would recommend highly is Paleo Comfort Foods. It's a little more on the basic, common recipes side, but there are still some great finds in there. Other than that, there are a TON of paleo/primal recipes online for free which I've used for inspiration and tried with varying degrees of success.

So the carb "meals" aren't timed around your workouts? I would have thought that as a trainer that's what his thinking would have been, carbs to either fuel or recover.

Like others I can't see the benefit of a random carb meal. Most odd. It sounds a little like one of those food combining diets, you know, can't eat fat with fruit, or can't eat fruit with protein.

that is a brand new one to me also.
I know MDA says "some" is ok.
I do have 3 sometimes 4 coffees a day and it doesn't seem to impair my progress.

mind you it isn't a latte with syrup - it is black without anything.