I grew up by the beach, but, I still have no clue why I never learned how to swim properly. I do a marvellous doggy paddle and an excellent brick stroke.

The eating thing....I love bad food, but, I've really embraced cooking. I've always loved fruit and veg (not as much as a double cheeseburger, admittedly) but I easily smash my 5 a day. Also, I've noticed that the healthier I eat, the more I can eat. Nom nom.

I'm thinking of trying to "go Primal" (or at least mostly so) ala marksdailyapple.com . Anyone done this?

I don't know anything about this specific diet but imo most diets are gimmicks to sell books/website subscriptions/etc. and are unsustainable in the long term. People generally just need to learn to incorporate healthy eating into their everyday habits, not follow something just "until I lose x pounds."

Basically, a good diet promotes mostly staying away from processed foods and focusing on getting the majority of your calories from whole foods such as veggies, fruits, lean meats, nuts, grains, etc. without cutting out entire food groups. Your body needs healthy proteins, fats, and carbs and cutting any of those out entirely are just short term solutions that won't stick. Adjust your calorie intake depending on whether you want to gain (lol), sustain, or lose weight, and that's pretty much it. If the "go Primal" diet does those things (and it sounds like it might) and would help you stick to it, then I say go for it FWIW, Bodybuilding.com has some good forums that I've found very helpful, this post in particular: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post553453753

I've had to re-dedicate myself to this recently since I pulled my hamstring pretty badly and will be off the tennis courts for a few months, so I'm burning a lot less than I used to and can't just burn off whatever I've eaten anymore . Thinking about going to a personal trainer to get a good upper body-focused routine together so I can do something until my hamstring heals but I don't know a whole lot about what I'm doing. If anyone has tips that'd be much appreciated

It really isn't a fad diet. I'm already pretty good about avoiding processed food but this takes it to the next level. It asserts that your body is capable (specifically your liver) of producing all the glucose you need for your body to do well, and that eating even whole grains is actually not the healthiest option for you body. He is big on organic protein, natural fats, and vegetables.

Of course, there is no way I could just avoid carbs forever, but he certainly makes a lot of interesting and compelling arguments for this type of eating. It dispells conventional wisdom about what is healthy, etc.

Also, does anyone out there have experience with taking high doses (5,000 UI +) of Vitamin D3 for extended periods?

A friend of mine stayed with me and my bf this summer at our house and was a positive influence and def helped move me in a better direction health wise/eating wise.
One of the things he introduced me to is an organic protein/nutritional drink called Orgain, and you can get it at Whole Foods in the water isle. They are pretty expensive...like $12 for a pack of 4, but they are by far the best nutritional/protein drinks I have ever had. And they def gave me energy and helped me get through the rigorous wsop schedule. The website is drinkorgain.com in case anyone wants to take a look, I think they are really helpful for people wanting to try and move in the right direction health-wise.

A nutritionist put me on this when I had a bit of a binging problem, and I lost weight pretty steadily without caring about calories. The weight loss leveled out after the first 4 months or so but I still feel awesome overall.

Now, I do a modified version of it. I regularly cheat with spices that aren't technically allowed because after a certain point, bland foods just got old. And sometimes when I'm eating out, I'll cheat for practicality purposes.

Interesting, and glad you had good experiences-- a bit confused though because I thought all natural herbs and spices were allowed-- encouraged even. Which spices are you referring to? Thanks

The keyword for spices is natural.
Rosemary was a life saver when I was strictly abiding. My dinner almost every night at home was rosemary seasoned sirloin with brown rice and broccoli or asparagus. Brag: It's one of the few full meals I can make, but I make it well ^_^

But when I cheat, it's along the lines of whatever they use in casino buffet food that I can't necessarily recognize. I'm Asian, so I also like having MSG on everything. And Mrs. Dash on meat is probably not allowed either.

Oh yeah, and tomatoes aren't supposed to be allowed either, but I'm ignoring that now. Apparently they didn't have tomatoes back then, so for that reason they're excluded in the diet.

I think we're talking about a different thing-- primal strives to be totally grain + rice free; or at least what I'm trying to refer to does :http://www.marksdailyapple.com/prima...#axzz2440t4ciO

Oh, crap, I might have done it wrong.

The only rule she gave me was "If cavemen didn't have it, you can't have it either" which means it should have been common sense that anything from the farming era isn't allowed

So I somehow did extensive research on whether they had tomatoes or not but convinced myself that rice and potatoes were acceptable. Oh well, I'm satisfied for the most part.

This is kind of like how I wanted to learn about spots to C/R bluff the river when I first started playing poker, before learning how to value bet top pair against the calling station.

No worries, just was curious. Thanks for your feedback

There's a lot of different factions regarding what is and what isn't Paleo (primal). Tomatoes are from the Americas, so unless you're native American it wasn't caveman food. It's not an exact science or any kind of science at all really. Just kind of a fun way to play around with diet and a relatively easy way to lose weight.

I don't agree with that, check this out, for example: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ancie...#axzz25Fxs2uBk

I been I on a high protein diet for over 2 years with great success. If you really want to learn the science behind it a strongly recommend reading.

"Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It" for an overview of low carb eating.
or
"Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health" if you want all the details.

Both books are by Gary Taubes and he shows the the science behind how carbs make us fat. If you want the science it's there and not just one or two studies. The evidence is pretty convincing.

These books changed how I look at eating, and I have maintained and early on dropped more weight then when I was always running around hungry on a low fat/ medium carb diet.

I would be careful with Mark Sisson. He is really not Paleo. He coattails on the Paleo crowd with what he calls Primal. Grok is cute metaphor for primal or even Paleo but what Sisson recommends and sells are also great deal of supplements and food that in no way are Paleo.

For example whey protein. I use whey and think it's great, but if you are truly buying into the "Paleo" philosophy how would Grok have gotten whey protein 30,000 years ago? He also recommends wine and dark chocolate in moderation. Again not something our ancestors would have had access to 30,000 years ago.

He sell a "Damage Control Master Formula package" with a series of vitamins. Again I don't see Grok popping a bunch supplements.

I like some of Sisson's stuff but he is not Paleo.

Yes, I'd thought about that and def think there's a slightly mixed message wrt the supplements. While they may be higher quality then some of the crap out there, they are still processed food.

I will def check out the books you talked about, thanks for your feedback!

Nothing wrong with quality supplements. I use Whey protein everyday. Can you imagine how much better our ancestors lives would have been with access to some of the thing we have regular access to today?

I also agree with some of Sisson's message. I liked his book. But "primal" is not Paleo or Low Carb. He also makes his income off promoting his brand of "primal" living even distancing himself from the Paleo proponents.

"Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It" for an overview of low carb eating. Is an excellent book and anyone who wants to see if there is science behind cutting carbs would be well served to read Gary Taubes excellent book.

Warning it's not a Paleo book. It's overview of low carb eating and changed how I eat.

Post or PM me your thoughts after reading if you like. I been a fitness/diet nut for a long time.

Thanks! I just bought the book you recommended

Am loving this book. One of the best book recs of my life, thanks so much!

Going to sound like a total shill lol, but I can't recommend reading this highly enough to anyone interested in health. It turns many commonly accepted ideas on their head, and is very well written!

+1

Just finished reading it and loved it. A validation of most of the Atkins ideas that I've known are right for a while now.

Been off carbs for about a week and feel a lot better already.

Shauna

That's great, Shauna!

I've been off carbs for about that same amount of time. I also gave up diet coke which I though would be really difficult considering how much I drank it. It wasn't actually that hard though, and the headaches I used to get every couple days have gone away. I feel a lot healthier in general, and cooking takes less time without having to have a carby component!

GL us!

I'm glad you're enjoying the book!

I've been a fitness nut all my life being active in sports when I was young and continuously working out with weights since I was about 15 with very few periods of inactivity.

I've been doing the high-protein thing for about 2 years with great success. I've been tweaking my diet for many years but most of the time involved playing the cut the calorie game. I used to walk around hungry all the time.

Now I'm not walking around hungry. It's not easy to give up the carbs particularly sugar. I'm down to about 60 g per day that sounds like a lot but if you're really honest and measure every gram of sugar you will find that is actually a pretty low amount compared to someone even on a pretty disciplined diet.

Even if you give up sugar it's easy to start consuming other carbs I think that's the hardest part is continuing to discipline yourself and stay away from pastas, breads etc. even if you dramatically cut down on your sugar consumption.

2 years is very impressive! I haven't been doing it for long at all, but I feel so much better than I did before. While I wasn't eating much processed food, I would get a lot of my energy from stuff like Quinoa, oatmeal, etc. I had headaches every other day, and my energy seemed to either be very high or very low. Now I don't get headaches, and maintain a high level of energy throughout the day.

I think my diet was closer to low carb than a lot of Americans in general, so maybe that aided the transition. I'd never believed that super processed low fat "cheese" could be better for you than full-fat real cheese (plus, I thought it was disgusting), and I used whole milk in my coffee.

The biggest part of switching to a low-carb lifestyle for me was reprogramming what is healthy, which is so often completely at odds with conventional wisdom. This was something I struggled with more before reading the science behind it in the great book Honey Badger recommended. I used to think of low carb as just a fad diet, but now I understand that eating this way is better for the body on many levels.

While I do really enjoy cooking, cooking low-carb takes so much less time-- especially with clean up! Now I basically make the protein and veg I would have made beforehand, and don't have to deal with a starch component. I do miss making pasta, potatoes, and corn chowder though.