Hi,
I searched the entire forum and haven't found any info on the topic of Paleo (aka, Caveman diet, Primal Blueprint) lifestyle. I was banded on May 22nd. At my heaviest I was 250lbs - 90+ days later I'm at 210 - so pretty good loss. I feel great.
I have read a ton of posts on these forums about what people eat and one thing that struck me as odd was that people continued their bad behavior of craving and eating carbs. In fact the entire post-op diet plan concentrates heavily on sweet stuff: jell-o, pudding, crystal-light, Protein shakes (sweet flavors: choco, fruit, vanilla, etc.) No wonder people are having problems and constantly complaining.
So here some things I'd like to share. About a month ago, I completely ditched all guidelines from the nutritional guide and decided that I would only eat things naturally occurring in nature. So, no artificial sweeteners, flavors, processed foods, etc. Instead I started buying organic, grass-fed, sustainable, and all that new age bull. As I did this I still age some carbs: whole grains, crispy/crunchy crackers, tortilla chips - all organic and "good for you." Then someone I know mentioned that what I was doing was close to the Primal Blueprint or Paleo lifestyle. Since then I've read up on the topic and completely made the switch to not eat agricultural products (grains). I am still eating dairy (Greek yogurt, Kefir, butter, etc.) Got rid of all the artificial fats (PAM sprays, canola oils, I can't believe it's not butters, blah, blah) and went primal.
Since I've started doing this, my energy levels skyrocketed and my weightloss increased. Before my doctor told me I'd expect to shed about a 1 pound per week. I'm 10cc in a 14cc band - so pretty tight. I get full on a small bowl of food - at that rate I was still losing about 1 lbs per week.
After I started on the Paleo, my weightloss from week to week increased to 2.5 lbs. My energy is high, my skin looks better and firmer and my cholesterol actually dropped (despite using animal fats such as lard or tallow or butter to cook with).
I talked to my doctor about this today and he was pretty impressed. His comment was that as long as I felt good about it and had no issues with any of the foods that I was eating he was 100% behind and actually mentioned that he supports the Paleo / natural foods diets.
Anyway - thought I'd share and ask if anyone out there has tried this and what were your results?
I'm not trying to sell or promote something here - just curious. If I read the book first, I probably would have been a skeptic as always, but since it was an experiment that worked out and already had a name - I'm happy with it.
Ahab.