Plumfoodie
Paleo maintenance rocks!
I have been trialling primal eating for a few weeks now to see if it agreed with me and as it seems to I am intending to stick with it and thus thought it was high time I started a diary. 
(sorry to anybody reading that this is so long, I tend to waffle on, haha)
I have been losing weight since January 2011; the first 6 months were on Slimming World and then I switched to low GI which I had done in the past. I have had M.E. for 6 years or so and my weight just crept up and up as although my activity levels were fairly nonexistent, I hadn't cut down the amount I was eating. While I was doing low GI I tried the South Beach Diet phase 1 for two weeks and noticed that when I cut out grains I had a good loss and my stomach was noticeably less bloated.
However I stuck with low GI until I decided to cut out wheat to see if this had a good effect. I tried to find gluten-free products and recipes, but many of them are very high GI and so I naturally gravitated towards primal/paleo recipes, which aren't. I really enjoy the primal foods and so decided to make the switch! Because M.E. makes it hard to lose weight I am still calorie counting, however I have a pretty small calorie deficit (around 20%) and always eat back my exercise calories.
After I've settled into a good primal groove I will trial a week or two of not calorie counting to see if there's a noticeable difference in results as I don't want to count once I reach maintenance. My main goal at this point is to get my body fat % into the 'acceptable' range and I'm hoping primal will help me with this.
I haven't struggled with avoiding grains; we've been doing a lot of baking with almond flour and coconut flour. I do allow myself seeds (buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, millet) and beans/lentils in moderation (ie 2-3 servings a week max) as the primal 'template' seems to be finding what works for you, and these foods don't disagree with me - so occasionally some gram/chickpea flour creeps in too.
The main struggle I have had is with eating complex carbs at the right times to fuel my exercise. One of the plus sides of losing weight has been that I can now do some weight-bearing exercise (have to be careful of cardio though), so I do kettlebell routines twice a week and try to hit 3,000 steps every day on my FitBit. This might not sound like a lot but given that even a year ago I might not be able to do more than 3-400 steps a day it's a big improvement for me. Anyway I have found that if I don't have some sweet potato or something for dinner the night before, and a bit of fruit with breakfast, then I struggle with energy to get through my kettlebell workout. I'm sure this will improve a little bit as my body gets used to burning fat for fuel, I hope so anyway!
Results I've had in the last few weeks: my waist measurement is smaller, and my body fat % seems to be dropping more quickly than when I was doing low GI. I've always had probems with a double chin and there's been noticeable improvement there too. So I'll carry on and see how I go!
Last week I wound up having a pizza meal (long story but it was unavoidable) and my stomach bloated up immediately and stayed that way for several days. Lesson learned!
I have really enjoyed reading this forum and getting inspiration from the posts. I'm a bit of a cookbook collector and so I've treated myself to some nice primal/paleo books. The types of things I've been tending to eat:
Breakfast: mini egg/vegetable/ham quiches with a paleo muffin, or dippy eggs with paleo bread and a bit of fruit. On the weekend we might try something adventurous, paleo pumpkin pancakes and bacon were a big hit this Sunday. Last weekend we had scrambled eggs with creamy leaks and bacon on top.
Lunch: usually a salad with protein or a soup with lots of veggies and some protein. Again on the weekend we'll try out recipes like salmon cakes.
Snacks: nuts, turkey rollups with full-fat Philly, fruit and cheese, etc. plus a little bit of dark chocolate bark (homemade with pistachio nuts)
Dinner: paleo meatballs, grilled meats, etc. - once every week or every two weeks I might have a tiny glass (125ml) of wine
Luckily a lot of the low GI and South Beach Diet recipes are already primal-friendly (especially SBD phase 1) or easily adaptable. For example last night we had a SBD chicken stir-fry with sweet potato soba noodles (made with sweet potato and buckwheat only). I am really enjoying being able to eat more good fats, I love coconut oil and have a jar of red palm oil on order too. Avocados are a regular occurence and I have frozen double cream (in tablespoon measurements) ready to use as needed. I don't feel at all deprived and indeed am enjoying new recipes/baking.
(sorry to anybody reading that this is so long, I tend to waffle on, haha)I have been losing weight since January 2011; the first 6 months were on Slimming World and then I switched to low GI which I had done in the past. I have had M.E. for 6 years or so and my weight just crept up and up as although my activity levels were fairly nonexistent, I hadn't cut down the amount I was eating. While I was doing low GI I tried the South Beach Diet phase 1 for two weeks and noticed that when I cut out grains I had a good loss and my stomach was noticeably less bloated.
However I stuck with low GI until I decided to cut out wheat to see if this had a good effect. I tried to find gluten-free products and recipes, but many of them are very high GI and so I naturally gravitated towards primal/paleo recipes, which aren't. I really enjoy the primal foods and so decided to make the switch! Because M.E. makes it hard to lose weight I am still calorie counting, however I have a pretty small calorie deficit (around 20%) and always eat back my exercise calories.
After I've settled into a good primal groove I will trial a week or two of not calorie counting to see if there's a noticeable difference in results as I don't want to count once I reach maintenance. My main goal at this point is to get my body fat % into the 'acceptable' range and I'm hoping primal will help me with this.
I haven't struggled with avoiding grains; we've been doing a lot of baking with almond flour and coconut flour. I do allow myself seeds (buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, millet) and beans/lentils in moderation (ie 2-3 servings a week max) as the primal 'template' seems to be finding what works for you, and these foods don't disagree with me - so occasionally some gram/chickpea flour creeps in too.
The main struggle I have had is with eating complex carbs at the right times to fuel my exercise. One of the plus sides of losing weight has been that I can now do some weight-bearing exercise (have to be careful of cardio though), so I do kettlebell routines twice a week and try to hit 3,000 steps every day on my FitBit. This might not sound like a lot but given that even a year ago I might not be able to do more than 3-400 steps a day it's a big improvement for me.
Anyway I have found that if I don't have some sweet potato or something for dinner the night before, and a bit of fruit with breakfast, then I struggle with energy to get through my kettlebell workout. I'm sure this will improve a little bit as my body gets used to burning fat for fuel, I hope so anyway!Results I've had in the last few weeks: my waist measurement is smaller, and my body fat % seems to be dropping more quickly than when I was doing low GI. I've always had probems with a double chin and there's been noticeable improvement there too. So I'll carry on and see how I go!
Last week I wound up having a pizza meal (long story but it was unavoidable) and my stomach bloated up immediately and stayed that way for several days. Lesson learned!
I have really enjoyed reading this forum and getting inspiration from the posts. I'm a bit of a cookbook collector and so I've treated myself to some nice primal/paleo books. The types of things I've been tending to eat:
Breakfast: mini egg/vegetable/ham quiches with a paleo muffin, or dippy eggs with paleo bread and a bit of fruit. On the weekend we might try something adventurous, paleo pumpkin pancakes and bacon were a big hit this Sunday. Last weekend we had scrambled eggs with creamy leaks and bacon on top.
Lunch: usually a salad with protein or a soup with lots of veggies and some protein. Again on the weekend we'll try out recipes like salmon cakes.
Snacks: nuts, turkey rollups with full-fat Philly, fruit and cheese, etc. plus a little bit of dark chocolate bark (homemade with pistachio nuts)
Dinner: paleo meatballs, grilled meats, etc. - once every week or every two weeks I might have a tiny glass (125ml) of wine
Luckily a lot of the low GI and South Beach Diet recipes are already primal-friendly (especially SBD phase 1) or easily adaptable. For example last night we had a SBD chicken stir-fry with sweet potato soba noodles (made with sweet potato and buckwheat only). I am really enjoying being able to eat more good fats, I love coconut oil and have a jar of red palm oil on order too. Avocados are a regular occurence and I have frozen double cream (in tablespoon measurements) ready to use as needed. I don't feel at all deprived and indeed am enjoying new recipes/baking.
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