My Story - the short version
 

I lost nothing the first 4 months I low carbed. I was on Atkins, weighed all my food, kept calorie counts, exercised = nada, nothing, zip, zero - didn't lose a single pound. For 4! Whole! Months! I weighed every day, too, to get a weekly average.

Anyway, after a year of Atkins I got tired of being obsessed with counting everything, tired of being obsessed with what I ate, tired of being obsessed with being obsessed, even though I had lost some weight and was feeling great. I was sleeping better, feeling far perkier, had a lot more stamina, etc. So I switched to modified Paleo.

Paleo was (and is, though I'm not currently doing Paleo) perfect for me. I could eat without worrying about how much or counting carbs, I could go out to dinner and eat freely without worrying whether or not a spoonful of corn was allowed or not, it was fab.

Four years later, before I deliberately left lc'ing (I chose wine and cake over losing my sanity)(I'm not kidding), I discovered I'd lost about 60lbss. Most of the time I was in one stall or another, and nothing I tried really shifted anything significantly, I'd just go back to my weight loss crawl. I have PCOS , so that's where I lay the blame. Oh, and genes, too, natch.

Then we moved countries and I rediscovered bread from the amazing bakery in town. With the help of Science, and after nearly 9 years, I got pregnant and had my son. And was doing fine until poverty hit, wherein I remembered how cheap wheat, my nemesis, is. Cue pasta, mac and cheese, and pizza for dinner. 20lbs later and I'm back on the lc tip.

And that's my story,

M

Isn't it interesting that the wheat-based products are so cheap to buy, yet some of us pay such a huge physical price when they're the bulk of our diet.
Congratulations on rejoining the lc side, and huge congrats on your son.

Hi Moonrise, just wanted to say congrats on your son and sorry to hear of your recent economical struggles...

I don't have as much weight to lose but struggled like you on the 2002 DANDR...have stayed at only 6 pounds lost at almost 3 months...

I briefly looked at paleo, could you remind me of food choices on it? Isn't it primarily meat? I just ordered the original Atkin's book thinking that keeping it simple may jumpstart me...good luck, keep us posted!

Y'know what I realized after I'd posted the above? That I was only 40lbs from goal when I last stalled. Of course, I was stalled for about a year, but still...if only I'd realized!

As for paleo, the "rules" are the following:

EAT:

meat
fish
non-starchy veggies (all leafy greens, most squash, broccoli, cauli, brussels, etc)
fruit
honey
maple syrup
maple sugar

AVOID:

starchy veggies (peas, beans, corn, potatoes, etc)
all grains (ymmv)
processed foods (things in boxes, mostly)
processed drinks (things in cans and plastic, soda,etc)
non-fermented soy products (traditionally made items such as natto and miso are okay, I think)(possibly)

EAT IF YOU CAN TOLERATE:

Dairy (staunch paleo's say dairy is a no-no, but hunter-gatherers still make and eat yogurt and cheese and butter if they have milk animals and store milk where it can curdle)
legumes (I can handle Puy/French lentils, but not the red or orange ones)
nuts

EAT OCCASIONALLY:
chocolate
sweet root veg (beets, parsnips, carrot)

And that's it. I ate more veggies being paleo than I did when I was a vegetarian. No, really! You don't have to count carbs or calories unless you wish to. I didn't and was much happier about it. I found I could eat sweet root veggies as if they were a dessert - sweet potatoes practically made me fall into a coma, though. Heck, they still do, and are really treats for me. Ditto for beets.

Hope that helps!

M

Thanks Moonrise for the concise paleo info, and for the reminder that I'm somewhat close to my target weight, that made me feel better...it's a struggle to see so little changes with such a BIG change in my eating habits...I think dairy and nuts are bringing me down...and I've been craving fruit tonight too!!! :)