I'm going paleo tomorrow

I'm starting the paleo diet tomorrow. This diet eliminates dairy, grains, legumes and all processed food. The health benefits are supposed to be awesome, including many claims to balance hormones and decrease headaches.

I have a close friend who started the diet to heal her stomach and it's worked wonders. I'll miss my sushi but I'll survive that if it helps with my head.

Yes, but what can you eat? Fruit and meat?

Lean meats, all veggies except peas and potatoes, all fruits. Coconut milk can replace a lot of dairy and hemp or almond milk is ok too. Nuts are all ok...except of course those darn legumes that pretend to be nuts...cashews and peanuts. Soy is also out.

It pretty much eliminates most of the common allergens (except eggs and nuts both of which you can take out of the diet if need be.)

I had an egg and handful of almonds for breakfast with my regular decaf americano...which I made taste paletable with some coconut milk and coconut sugar. I'm going to call it a coconut latte because it definately isn't an americano anymore. lol

OHHHHHHHHHH....and the most important part....you are still allowed some beer and wine.

You must have an iron will, Milo...

I will be very interested if indeed the health benefits will be as great as the diet promises.

Please keep us updated, and good luck!

Risa

Ok, I'm day three on the Paleo. NO HEADACHES YET. The diet is very easy for me, but it's true clueless, I do have an iron will. I have a slab of sea salt milk chocolate in my freezer and I have been able to ignore it's pleading to "eat me".

The best thing about this diet, so far, is that I'm not hungry at all. I have an egg, or just egg whites for breakfast along with my coffee, which we are now calling a coconut latte. The first day I had a few goji, golden and mulberries along with a handful of almonds with breakfast but yesterday and today I didn't feel the need.

I had a huge salad with lean pork for lunch both days and then last night for dinner I roasted a tonne of roots with a bit of cocnut oil and a tiny bit of sea salt. (The sea salt is not supposed to be there but I'm only human). I had them with roasted chicken.

I repeated the egg this am with my coffee and have my dinner from last night as left-overs for lunch today.

I've been reading a lot about ketosis and migraines. I may not go in to ketosis on the paleo, but I might.

The scale has dropped.....wait for it.....a full 5 pounds. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't put on the same clothes I wore on Monday and felt them loosened, as well as needing to go up two notches on my belt. The weight loss can be argued as water weight, but whether it is or isn't I'm not concerned. Obviously if it keeps up that rapid I'll have to add a few more carbs to my diet, as rapid weight-loss is no good. I don't think it will keep up at that rate though so I'm not concerned.

I have had inklings of a headache hanging out in the mornings, but it has not yet progressed. In a few days I am going to wean off my tylenol.

This sounds like a pretty extreme diet.
I wonder if you have cleared it with your doctor.
I think, any such diets needs very careful medical monitoring.
Also loosing so much weight, in such short space of time, can also be risky.

It sounds, as if this diet sounds quite similar, in principle, to the Atkins diet. I've tried it several years ago, but very soon I began to feel very unwell, and was told by my docotr to stop it immediately.

I also find that coconut, or coconut produscts, to be a certain migraine trigger - even the smell of it (like coconut butter sun cream for example) makes me feeling instatly sick, and it is followed by migraine.

What I am trying to say is,that any such extreme measures/diets need to be approached with great caution.

Actually, it's very similar to a lot of medical and elimination diets. I don't thinks it's extreme to stop eating processed foods and rely on fruits, vegetables, nuts and lean meats for your food source. It's very much a celiac diet.

Although some can compare it to Atkins, it is not at all like atkins. You eat lean meats, no dairy and your intake of carbs is much, much higher then the unsafe amounts allowed on Atkins.

I've been on a similar diet for two years. My migraines have been reduced and I have more energy. I use coconut oil as an energy source instead of glucose. It is not a trigger for me.

I've been feeling great on it so far. Today is day four. I've been eating lots of food and meeting all of my daily dietary requirements. I know from previous elimination diets that I've had to do for my allergies that my body would respond well to getting rid of all the grains that I'm allergic to.

PS This is a doctor recommended eating plan.

Milo, I am glad that this diet contains the ingredients you need and it is recommended by your doctor - so many are not healthy I if used for a long time.

I did elimination diet few years ago and was able to discover that many ordinary foods were triggers for me. No, not allergy, this is something completely different, it is food sensitivities which often means trigger for migraines.

Coconut was definitely one of them which was a shame, as I love Thai food ,and coconut milk plays great part in it. I was also sensitive to all citrus fruit, grapes (they contain large amounts of sulphur) nuts ( since they often contain traces of mildew) then cheese, smoked, processed deli meats and all usual stuff.

I know now that I need a good balance of healthy carbohydrates in my diet, otherwise my digestion suffers, I cannot tolerate much meat, heavy foods, or diary foods.
So, over the years I've developed my own diet which mainly contains plenty of vegetables, and little white meat and fish, which works for me in terms of avoiding migraines, and keeping my weight steady over the last twenty years, or so. I cook all my own food and never use processed foods or sauces, and do not eat sweets of any kind do not care for them.

I do not mind trying new diets, but I am afraid of upsetting the balance achieved.

What carbs are you allowed to have in this diet, and how much?

It sounds like you already follow a lot of the principles. The whole diet is more about removing the toxic foods that we eat and coming around to the foods that sustained life for so many years before all the processed foods were introduced.

On the paleo you are allowed unlimited amounts of fruits and unlimited vegetables except the tubers (mostly potato).

Depending on who's paleo you follow, you are either allowed or not allowed to have honey, agave nectar and coconut sugars. Some say you can use them, some say you can't.

You are also allowed nuts, but not peanuts as they are a legume. Cashews are another maybe/maybe not depending on what paleo you follow.

There are many different versions, some that encourage you to go lower carb to lose weight and some that tell you to eat whatever you want of the allowable foods. I'm personally trying to lose some weight, so I have made an attempt to keep my carbs a bit on the lower side.

I suppose it is also dictated by what is available in your part of the world. Perhaps it is more about what you are not allowed to have, and rest is acceptable.

I am trying at the moment to eat more often, very small portions of food, but I find it very, very difficult as I am absolutely not hungry during the day.
I like to cookone proper meal in the evning, and this what I have done for years. I find that I do not even rememebr to eat those meals during the day, so it is a real pain!
Then I get very hungry at night, but I can only have another small meal, so I get terribly hungry at midnight and this keeps me awake.
But my doctor suggested that I try this as my stomach is slightly inflamed (probably NASAIDS).
We shall see,I can do this, only I do not like it very much.

I am glad that you are getting such good results, Milo, it is always good to see that something works.