Hi folks,

I've been lurking in this group for several months now--just trying to get to
know a little about the subject  matter and the participants.  You all really
do give each other a lot of support and for that I commend you.

First a little background.  I am a 47 year old woman who has lost 20 - 40 lb.
at least  half a dozen times in my life, and totally crippled my metabolism in
the process ( the old yo-yo diet syndrome).  For the last 4 years I've sworn
off dieting all together for fear of ending up morbidly obese.  My body weight
does tend to stabilize after a diet at somewhere around 10 lb. heavier than
before I started.  When my sister-in-law  had good results losing weight this
year on Neanderthin, I decided to give it a try.  I began on July 5th,  faced
with the task of losing 80 lb.   So far I  have lost  about 40 lb.

To John:   I've read your most recent theory about doing unrepairable damage
to your body.  I guess I can be your test case since I seem to fit all your
criteria ( over 40 years old, must lose about 80 lb.)  Just recently after
losing about 33 lb., I hit a plateau and didn't lose another pound for 4 weeks
(my weight loss had been pretty regular up until this point).  Since I had
been following your post, I was getting pretty nervous.  I decided to try
eating nothing but meat for several days, but not enough to overload on
calories (I still don't buy the fact that calories aren't important).  I ate a
large steak each day, and one morning I had bacon and eggs as well.  On the
third day I weighed myself and I was 6 lb. lighter.   Early on I ate a lot of
fruit, but did find that I had to give that up to keep the weight loss
progressing after about minus 20 lb.  I hope I can keep this up.  Wish me
luck.

Moria:  I find your son's improvement most interesting.  Before  I began this
way of eating, I had a lot of aches and pains in my elbows and feet.  My
doctor put me on Nepralan for several months but it did no good.  After 3
months on Neanderthin I have absolutely no aches or pains.  I was also
experiencing a lot of pain from gall balder disease and this has also
disappeared ( funny since this is completely opposite of how the doctors tell
you to eat with this illness).  Another improvement is that my gums don't
bleed as easily as they use to.  I'm waiting to see if my eyesight will
improve since it seems to get a little worse each year.  I wish you luck with
your son.  Keep us all posted of his progress.

Things I'm most concerned about: 1). How will this way of eating affect  my
cholesterol profile?  2).  The fact that most research shows eating animal fat
is not healthy.  3).  What's this stuff about trans fats staying with you?
I'd like to hear more on this--can anyone point me to any literature that
supports this fact?

And finally, what I would really like to see discussed in this group:
Several people have commented on how bored they get eating this way, and I
find that I often feel that way too.  I would find it most useful if several
of you would post what you eat in a typical week (several days if you don't
feel like writing that much).  Also has anyone experimented with recipes that
would fit within Neanderthin?  I've tried many of the recipes in Ray's book,
but I could use a few more.  I make a dish in which I fry cabbage and ham in
olive oil and season it with fresh lemon juice and hot sauce.  I know the hot
sauce isn't legal, but I think I could make a type of hot sauce with V-8 juice
and cayenne pepper that would work.  Also I've found some beef broth and
chicken broth in the store (Kitchen Basics) which list real chicken or beef
stock, salt, natural flavors, carrots, onion, celery, bay leaf, thyme, and
peppercorn as it's ingredients.  This if wonderful for taking all your
leftover meat and veggies at the end of the week and making soup.  Try adding
some V-8 juice to it.  Yummy!!  Tip:  I don't  really care for fish but I
think that its important to include it in my diet.  Guess what?  If I sneak
cooked fish into this vegetable soup, I really don't mind eating it.

Well, I guess this has gotten awfully long because I've been holding back all
these months.  I'm looking forward to contributing more to this group.  Please
some of you share with me what you eat in a typical week (include the illegal
stuff).

Binnie