Hello, Paleofood List.  New member here.  I'm Ro.  Good to meet you.

Short bio:  female; 40; married 19 yrs; health problems; live in southern
US;  am in first few days of learning to eat this way.

I won't swamp you with a longer bio yet.  Best to retain some of the mystery.


I am ordering the (R.A's) book, but have already started to make some
changes based on information I've gleaned from the internet.  I'm trying to
cut out gluten, transfats, processed foods, and most dairy (though I've had
some unsalted butter and some cheese).  I hope to cut out dairy soon
too.  Found Stacie's website, and she gave me some good advice.  Been
pantry-cleaning today.  Wow.  I had no idea, for instance, that gluten was
in so many places.  Like alcohol.  I just now started reading labels for
things I hadn't considered before.  Starch is in my multi-vitamin, did you
know that?  I didn't. Doesn't say what kind, though.   Does this mean I
don't get to take it if I'm wanting to be strictly gluten and casin
free?  Then there was my salt; my Hain iodized sea salt has some calcium
something or other for pouring, and also says it has "dextrose" in it.  Is
that a kind of sugar? (I'm thinking of all those "-croses" I've learned are
sugar)  In SALT?

My aim is to try and stave off progression of an as yet undiagnosed,
painful, and frightening neurological disorder that I've developed.  My
third neurologist pronounced me "an enigma" and is sending me to a teaching
hospital in March.  Of course, being morbidly obese and finding out from my
doctor recently I'm something called insulin resistant also factors into my
motivation to take charge of my own health.  We won't even discuss the slew
of other problems, like crippling arthritis, sleep, sinus, GERD,
etc.  Reading to educate myself on my own nervous system has given me cause
to wonder how much of my neurological problem has nutritional
components.  It's somewhat like RSD, and somewhat like a neuropathy, but
doesn't appear to be strictly totally either, yet.  They've temporarily
ruled out MS as a brain MRI failed to show plaque.

Confession time:  I'm one of the world's worst eaters,
nutritionally-wise.  As I'm beginning to reconsider this entire paradigm in
terms of evolutionary principles, etc, it is truly a wonder to me I'm still
alive.  I can remember times in my life where we did nothing but eat fast
food for months, with not a vegetable in sight except potatoes or rice
(hey, used to think they were veggies, anyhow).  The only thing I've done
right in general the past couple of decades was to cut way down on
caffeine.  Coffee rarely, and not drink colas at all (though I'd drink an
occasional Sprite).  That was because of heart arrythmias.  I've always
been a big water drinker, beyond the recommendations, often.  Still, I've
lived on everything carby, refined, processed, and junkfoody, etc.  The one
time I managed to eat well was a try at The Zone several years ago.  This
was before my neuro problem of last year.  It produced remarkable
improvements over two month's time.  I found out then about transfats and
partially hydrog. stuff, though I fell off the wagon with the program due
to several things, but boredom and hating vegetables was part of it.  Being
on the zone did incline me towards considering the paleodiet when I came
across it, as I noted during that time that it was when I did it using
mostly meats, nuts, monofats like olive oil and almonds and nut butters,
and fruits and some veggies and cutting out processed foods and transfats
that I did much better.  Whenever I cheated on the carbs or tried relying
too much on those energybar things I did less well.

Now, with this nervous disease (or whatever it is), I'm very motivated.  I
made myself eat an orange yesterday.  A real one.  No kidding.  With pulp,
and everything.  First for me.  (I told you I was a bad eater).

I imagine I'll have lots of itty bitty and major questions concerning
eating this way in the future.  My big concern is supply; I've tried enough
"plans" during the years that I know the easier it is to find the right
foodstuffs, the easier it is for me to stick to it.  I live in a
medium-sized city, but with a dearth of wholefoods stores (one or two
little indie vegetarian stores that don't seem very complete or have fresh
stock).  My grocery store has started carrying a few things, but the meat
supply has me concerned.

Btw, (let the itty bitty questions begin), does anyone know if these new
fruit and veggie washes I've seen advertised are healthy or paleo?

Can I fry with olive oil?

Also, do any of you take supplements?  Um, supplements that don't have
wheat or corn or stuff in them, that is? I'm concerned about calcium as
regards my neuro prob, esp since I really don't like many vegetables
yet.  Though I do like spinach very much, it's like $3.00 here for a small
bag of it fresh.  I don't even want to talk about what blueberries
cost.  I'm going to start now on learning to eat the rest of the dark
leafies.  Whatever they are.  I'm so ashamed I don't even know.  I think
they're stuff like kale, collards, turnips (yuck), mustards?  I managed to
choke down some steamed broccoli last night.  Tell me this gets easier with
practice.

So, you see, I need serious help.  Next thing on list for a.m. tomorrow is
try to find a source of "good" eggs.  I'm not even sure what the
nomenclature is: organic?  Is there any supermarket brands that are also
organic or paleo?  I'm also wondering, given some things I've come across
on the MS pages, if I need to look into getting tested for food allergies,
in case eggs or seafood (I want to include tunafish and fish and seafood
more in my diet) or nuts or something are problems for my body that I don't
know about yet?

Thanks, and good to be here.
Ro

PS  Stacie mentioned not relying on tap water.   I'm now learning that tap
water has stuff in it.  Chlorine and stuff.  Anyone have any links to
reading material about what kind of water is good, or how I get it?  I've
been drinking some purchased water from the supermarket recently (they've
been cleaning out the city's waterlines), and liked the absence of an off
taste.  It says it is distilled water by reverse osmosis (whatever that
is), and has some minerals added.  But it would be awfully expensive, as
much water as I like to drink, not to mention if I cook with it too.

I feel like my whole world has turned flippy-flop on me.