College gal starting the Paleo lifestyle, help anyone?
 

Hey all,

I've decided to lose some extra pounds, so I'm going to use the Paleo way, as it seems the best diet out there.

But I'm new to all this and the more I look, the more I get overwhelmed with various solutions.
So, I need a complete but affordable package to kick start my new Paleo lifestyle and I'd like to get some info on solutions I found so far, if you please.

http://paleodietmethod.com (it looks really cool, an all in one package, I think)
http://www.ultimatepaleoguide.com (great resource, but a bit too much for a newbie like me, I'm afraid)
http://paleodietrecipecookbook.com (although nice, I'm not looking for recipes alone).

So, could you please recommend me any of the above, if you have experience with it? Or, add your solution.

Thanks and have a great Paleo day :)

Barby

Some thoughts:

• Why do you need to pay for a "package"? There's a ton of free info on the web, and if you don't have time for that, a book will work, inexpensively.
• Paleo is not complicated as a concept. No grains, no beans, no dairy, no sugar. There.
• My goto Paleo site, Mark's Daily Apple, is a variation called Primal, which allows dairy if the person gets along with it. He has well-researched articles where he explains why he recommends what he does.
• If weightloss in your goal, just cutting grains might be enough. Dr. William Davis is the author of Wheatbelly, an eye-opening book about wheat's bad effects on our bodies. He has a Wheatbelly website where he catalogs his follower's amazing transformations.
• If, like so many of us here, you are incredibly efficient at turning carbs into body fat, avoiding natural sugars and starches would need to be a part of your Paleo diet. It can be as simple as swapping carrots and potatoes for broccoli and romaine. Just keeping track of your total and/or net carb count for a few weeks will give you the basics.

Eating this way is not complicated. However, fitting it into modern life, where all our friends and co-workers hourly cram down those "healthy" wholegrains, sugared yogurts, and cereal with skim milk, and 90% of all the food sold for on the go is a mess of processed nothing, IS the challenge.

But the rewards are incredible.

As WearBear wrote, Paleo is as simple a plan as you can get. And all the best advocates of it have their information on the web for free. beside Mark Sisson and Dr. Davis, Dr Eenfeldt http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf , Robb Wolf http://robbwolf.com, and Dr Ballentyne http://www.thepaleomom.com/start-here have good quick start guides.

That said, I hope you consider the Paleo Diet to optimize your health and not weight loss. Unless there is an error in your stats, your BMI is already at 19, very very bottom of Healthy. Your goal of a 15 BMI puts you severely underweight, in the range where your cycles will stop and your health will be compromised. It appears this is a time to focus on your health and the Paleo Diet is an excellent way to do that. All the best,

According to your stats Barby, you are already seriously underweight. Please get help from your doctor or speak to someone you trust.

Agree with all the above. Even for a young college girl, who one would expect to weigh less than an older woman, a goal of 100lbs at 5'4" sounds like it might be influenced more by the fashion and advertising industries rather than health and fitness.

All industries want your money. The fashion and advertising people are no different, and maybe among the worst since they couldn't care less if you literally kill yourself, as some have, in the attempt to alter your body to something they know is impossible for most. While you keep buying diet aids in the quest for size zero, they keep making money. Sorry to sound lecturey but I was an actress for many years and know that the pressure to stay impossibly thin backfires on everyone sooner or later.

That said....I've been paleo/primal (meaning I do eat a little dairy) for several years and love it. One of the principles is to try to eat food that has been grown or raised naturally, i.e. without hormones, chemicals and genetic modification. Look for grass-fed meat, free-range poultry, organic fruits and vegetables, wild-caught fish. Unfortunately that kind of superior quality food is very expensive. So, I would recommend saving your money to spend on that good food whenever possible and don't spend it on package deals or paleo gurus. As Werebear and Jey so wisely said, there is a ton of free info on the internet, Mark Sisson's Daily Apple is a terrific resource, and the basics couldn't be simpler: no grains, sugar, beans or dairy. You don't need to pay anyone a dime to tell you that. Good luck!

If you're interested in Paleo for health, great! It is a healthy diet. But from your stats, it sounds like you need to just eat a good, healthy paleo diet, not be concerning yourself with weight loss.

Barby gives her height in centimetres, so perhaps her weight is in kilograms.