This is just a quick note to introduce myself since I am a newcomer to the list - as least as far as subscribing to it. I have read all the archives and have been following the list on-and-off since about last February or so, so I feel I already know many of you although you don't know me! It's amazing I could sit on my hands without chiming in that long.

I come to Paleo by way of the Protein Power diet which I had been following since May of 1997. I decided to switch to Neanderthin to see if I could shake a couple-month plateau. I immediately lost 6
lbs which was wonderful, but then lost nothing again for several more months despite being strictly paleo that whole time and limiting my fruits and nuts.

Anyway, after a couple months of this I decided that if I had to follow a diet that did not allow chocolate life was really not worth living anyway. :-) So these days I am not 100% paleo but I follow it pretty closely. No grains, no cheese, but I *do* cave in and make a chocolate treat every now and then from unsweetened chocolate, coconut oil, almond butter and a non-sugar sweetener. I confess to using the artificial sweeteners here since the taste of stevia turns my stomach. :-) Some times of the month are worse than others as far as chocolate cravings go!

My son (college student) took to it with a vengeance and is much more paleo than I. Then again he always adored meat whereas I could take it or leave it and still feel that way. In fact pre-low-carb given the choice between a perfectly cooked filet mignon and a dish of macaroni and cheese I would have picked the macaroni every single time! Meat was always more of a condiment to me rather than a main course. Main course was usually a whole-grain carb of some sort such as whole-grain pasta or brown rice. Yet I always felt sick and rotten all the time and wondered why.

However cheese is one thing I did give up when I went paleo that I still have not resumed eating, though I used to think I would starve to death if cheese ever vanished from the earth.

Anyway I've had fun. We bought a dehydrator and have made our own jerky, yummy - though my jaws ache for days after eating it. My son also made a big batch of pemmican which was pretty tasty, but the
huge mess he made of the kitchen while rendering the suet was not a pretty sight and we have not made it since. It was a long, hard process and I have not had the energy to repeat it.

Anyway, just thought I'd say hi. I've enjoyed reading this list. My own health has improved dramatically and my own cholesterol, blood glucose and blood pressure are all now the lowest they have ever been in my adult life after 16 months of eating a diet high in meat and fat. I track my food intake with a software product called LifeForm and just for grins the average breakdown shows my diet to calorically made up of:
fat- 70-75%, protein-20-25% and carb-5%.
---
Debbie Cusick



-----== Sent via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/  Easy access to 50,000+ discussion forums