Me: 6 feet, 1 inch, about 191 pounds. My usual Paleo diet is: - Lots of read meat, especially beef. - Bacon and Eggs, with occasional cheese omelets, lots of butter. - Roast Pork - A little chicken or turkey - 1 lb. Salmon once a week cooked on the backyard grill. - About 7 apples a day - About 3 pears a day - One HUGE salad of lettuce (various types), raw broccoli, occasional tomatoes, olive oil. - A lot of salt on the meats and salad. - Odds and ends, strawberries if there any good that day, blueberries, radishes, cucumber, melons, onions, garlic. - Occasional cheats, about 2 a month of chocolate, cake, ice-cream, pizza or the like. (generally a 2 day recovery!) Exercise: Walk/sprint/jog 3 times a week for about 1.5 miles. Sledding with the kids, weight lift once a week. Sit in front of the computer screen 9 hours a day. 8 hours of sleep (never enough) On the above pattern of living I very slowly gain weight. About 1 or 2 pounds a month. (But then, what bathroom scale is really that accurate or repeatable.) I suspect that it is too many apples and pears that cause the weight gain. When I get above a threshold weight (195 lbs.) I cut out all carbos for several days or a week (Atkin's) to get back down. Except for one head of broccoli or a little lettuce. Also then I take vitamin and mineral supplements. All the meats are simply the grocery store "what's on sale" stuff. Also I occasionally cut out the bacon and eggs for a week. I find too much of those for too long seem to build up toxins. In fact I try to vary the diet and exercise chaotically around the norm. I avoid any dressings such as barbecue sauce that have grain or soy products. I started the above pattern starting with very low carbos. about September of 1998 and quickly lost 25 pounds and got in much better shape. I live in Park City so this is high mountains and long winters. It will be interesting when spring comes and I add in wild foraging for the edible mountain plants. Another effect of this diet has been lifting of "brain fog" or ADD, or depression (whatever the current psychology fad is). Also the weight loss seems to have cleared up apnea and excessive snoring. Occasionally I get amazing bursts of energy but that tends to be offset by lack of good sleep. (new baby, 6 children, etc) A month ago (Jan 1999) I went on the Type A- Eat Right For Your Type diet. (More Vegetarian, some grains) The return of depression scared me so much I went right back to Paleo ASAP. That diet lasted about 3 days! R. Keene >>> Ilya <[log in to unmask]> 02/14/99 08:54PM >>> Lady Ariel wrote: > > Actually, a paleolithic diet is not *exactly* low carb is it? The > things > I've found on the net indicate that it's fine to eat fruits and > vegetables... > except of course starchy things like potatoes and corn....I'm sure there > are > more that one shouldn't eat. Different people here follow slightly different versions. If you are one of those who came upon paleo eating from low carb diets, you will tend to limit carbs more than others. The rational for those (me being one of them) is that while fruits are NOT bad for you from the point of foreign proteins, they ARE high in carbs and will likely result in some weight gain. Also, in cave man times, fruit was only available during a short part of the year. (Remember all those animals putting on weight for the winter?) > Is there anything that indicates one should eat based on the > geographical location > of their ancestors...or does the paleolithic theory go back so much > further than > ancestors that it doens't matter? For instance, my mom tells me about > our relatives > in northern Sweden who were pretty much eskimos...and living in the > frozen tundra > most of the time. One of my favorite things is an orange, but it seems > those > ancestors in the frozen tundra had probably never seen an orange. Prolly so. It does look like innuits were more adapted to eating mostly animal flesh then others. > I had another big carbaholic episode yesterday. I've found a pattern. > It's the 3:00 > in the afternoon thing...that's when I'm always ravishingly hungry and > maybe my body > just hasn't decided to quit with the hungry signal or something. Does > anyone have > tips for getting over that? Eating a hard-boiled egg or something? > Will that help? I may be assuming here, but it sounds from your posts that you haven't reduced your carbs to the point of truly going low carb. This might be the worst thing to do from the craving point of view. You are eating enough carbs to keep yourself out of ketosis, and possibly out of burning fat well, yet not enough to live on carbs. You might want to read the Protein Power first so that you are better informed. It's not a very big book, though definitely a bigger read than Neanderthin, and will answer a lot of questions. It's not that we won't if you ask, but you may not know what to ask if you are just a newbie to this and don't have friends who are also into it. Also, please keep in mind that this is NOT a health advice, I have no idea if you have any health conditions for which a low carb diet might be counterindicated or would require a doctors supervision (e.g. type I diabetes). As for eating hard-boiled eggs, yes it should help. When I first switched to low carbing I ate a LOT, but I was strict about what I ate. The first week I was rather hungry and was consuming much more than usual amounts for me. I still often overeat, but not because I am hungry, just because I like food and I know I can without any negative consequences, as long as I stick to low carb paleo foods. Ilya