Here we go again!!! I am such a dolt! I still have 59 pounds to go!!!! AAAAAGGGHHHHH! What a big, overstuffed bratwurst, dumb head I sometimes am! Still, only 59 pounds to go...that's way better than what it was last September, when it was 101 pounds!!!

captxray,
Fifty per cent is a real accomplishment. If you feel like I did when I reached fifty per cent, it was Hurrah!!! all the way. And from there on has seemed downhill. It is good news, too, that your stall has broken. Good for you for sticking with it!!

Heather,
I am with you one hundred per cent on wanting to have a goodly amount of non-starchy vegetables and some low-glycemic fruits in the WOE. Especially the vegetables. Both my husband and I have seen some adverse health effects when we've eaten too large an amount of meat in our diet. I knew it affected me poorly. And then recently my husband's health diary has shown the same thing for him. So we're even doing without meats for a short time and then will add back small amounts gradually over time to see how we do. But I don't want to go without meat permanently either, I've read of too many people who've had health problems from that route.

The interesting thing, to me, about the paleo diet is that we can arrange our diet to balance out our systems for best health. We have been doing fine at getting by without meat for a while. Both of us have high energy. I used to think of LC in terms of mostly meats. But now I'm finding out that isn't necessarily so.

We haven't tried bugs. We have eaten rattle snake and it was very good, as good as any chicken meat. I could cook and eat the meat, but I couldn't sit near the drying skin. Illogical, huh??? We also were served eel by an Indian family in Northern California. It was pretty tasty too but very rich. One of the younger Indians warned us not to eat too much of it or it could make us sick. We have neither one ever eaten an insect. My DH says he thinks he could eat a grasshopper. I think if we were lost in the woods, that either of us could eat grubs or about anything we had to. We might not like it, but I think we could make ourselves do it if it was necessary for survival.

I'm an herbalist of sorts, and we have, in the past, gathered many herbs from the wild for our own use. My DH used to hunt and fish a lot. But now we just grow sprouts for salads and buy our vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds in our town.

Dandi

Wow, Captxray, congratulations on your loss! Half-way there!!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Ok, that gives me encouragement to stay the course! Thank you!!!!!!!! I'm in-between gyms right now, new one opening first week of July, so exercise has been a little off lately. Can't wait for it to open, my sausage legs need a workout!

Did you know that dried stinging nettles is the most awesome herbal tea EVER?????? It has a really robust flavor and it is loaded with vitamins, particularly A! You're so lucky, you can forage for it right in your own backyard!

captxray,
You really have done, and are doing, wonderfully well. For one thing, you've stayed the course. That is a real inspiration to others. You've lost much of the weight you wanted to. You've got a regular exercise program going and you've set goals. That is all pretty great.

Your "rural" home sounds really special. There's something about just having space to look out. For some reason it is calming. Sometimes I wish we had space for a garden. But at our ages, I'm 64 and my DH will be 70 in August, we are really better off in our apartment where we can walk anywhere in town.

Heather,
It's neat to meet others, such as yourself, on this board who are interested in herbs. As you noted, nettles are good for herb tea and also to eat. An extract from them is also one of the three primary herbs used for men with prostate problems, which my husband is just overcoming. He has also used extract from saw palmetto. And we want to get some extract from pygeum but haven't found any yet. He has also changed his WOE, to include lots of non-starchy vegetables (especially broccoli) and he has taken up walking. He was riding a bicycle but that contributes to prostate problems so he gave that up.

Do either of you have any ideas on a paleo herbal seasoning? This evening meal I took a little tahini and spread it on romaine leaves. It tasted good and was very satisfying, quick and easy to make too. I seasoned it with a little Spike but then later I read the ingredients and saw some of them aren't paleo, so I'm looking for some herbal seasonings that will dress up the tahini.
This would make a great carry-along lunch or snack.

Dandi

Wow! You great paleolithic hunters and gatherers! I am so glad you are on this thread. What do I do to make the stinging nettle tea? They are everywhere on the bank in my back yard. I made a tea from wild artichokes in my back yard, once. It really wasn't very good. I made a tea from dried mullen leaves...they are all over the place, too. I forgot what that is supposed to be good for, now. Maybe you two could help me on that. I also remember, somewhere that I read that pussy willow makes a good tea...I've got that stuff, too...and wild watercress... and...and...I've got all sorts of wild plants in my back yard or on the canal...it goes for miles and is wild and free on both sides. I walk down it a lot and watch the minks chase the ducks and the baby ducklings and mothers trying to keep them from the minks, and the musk rats, and the beavers, and the all of the water fowl. This year we've seen some new ones for this area...white-faced ibis, evening gross beaks, quail all over my back yard, even a great blue heron on my bank! Not to mention our regular mainstays...thousands of them!...ducks, geese, finches, five kinds of blackbirds, night herons, robins, blue jays, greater and lesser egrets...the list goes on and on...we are on the Great Western Flyway...oh! Eagles!!! Lots of 'em!

Captxray, you are so lucky to have all that wildlife in your own backyard! I live in the suburbs, but across the street from us is a creek, so we get some tweety birds and doves, a few racoons and possums wandering around from time to time.

As far as the stinging nettles, I have dried nettles. So, for me, I boil some water and pour it over the dried herb in a french press. I let it steep for a few minutes before pressing and pouring. I don't know how they would taste fresh, but when I have fresh herbs I just make a sun tea. Sometimes drying allows the flavor to be more intense and robust. Mullein is gelatinous, good for soothing intestines and colon.

Dandi, I just bought some Herbes de Provence at Whole Foods and it was very tasty in my lemon juice and oil salad dressing. It's good if you like a slight lavender flavor. I have not heard of pygeum. I have TONS of herbal books, and have taken a few classes locally. Staying off the bike is probably the best thing he could do! I'll take a look and see if I can find anything else related to prostrate in any of my books. I'll get back to you.

Than you so much for the herbal advice! I know how bad that hard bike seat is for my prostate, but, dang! I've just got to keep at it! My bike is an 18 year old one-time-state-of-the-art racing bike from my old triathalon days...you know the seat is hard, hard, hard! I'm finally getting somewhat used to it, again, after over a week of riding it to work and back. For the first four or five days my butt hurt so bad! Sitting on the seat was agony. But, been there, done that, so I knew it would get better with time. I can fly, now! Well, compared to last week...I can stay in my highest gear almost all the way to work. What a beautiful ride this morning! I go along a bike path almost all the way...it goes along the canal and on an old railroad trail. The birds and waterfowl were wonderful this morning and the sun was coming up over the mountains and the sky was blue, blue, blue! Wow! I forgot how much I missed when I was just a big pig and ate all of the wrong foods all the time. I love getting back into shape! I can't really run, anymore. My knees are pretty much jelly on toast! My last races (10K) were pretty pitiful back 18 years ago. My last triathalon was a small 10 mile ride, 300 yard swim, 4 1/2 mile run. An old man came up behind me and passed me and said, "I just can't stand to watch the pain, any longer." Embarrassing...I finished 180 out of about 220. That was the end of my athletic career! That's why I bike, now. And walking doesn't jar my knees like running did.

Hi Heather and captxray,
On the nettle tea: Of course, be very careful picking the nettles. Wear gloves and don't let them touch your skin. Read up on this before going further but it seems, if I remember correctly, that we just dried them and then could handle them. Dropping them into boiling water and then steeping them for tea would take the sting out too. But do read up on it before doing anything because it has been over 20 years since I've gathered nettles and I may not be remembering correctly.

Concerning the prostate: there are softer seats designed to prevent that problem for men, I think. And my DH did develope his prostate problem in the same year he took up bike riding again. We also bought our first mircowave oven during that year, which some people think contributes to the problem too. Anyway, thanks to saw palmette, broccoli, lots of vegetables and some fruits, his symptoms are pretty much gone. For the prostate, they say that an extract of the herbs must be used, that just using the leaves or berries will not do the job. And many of the prostate formulas being sold in the stores do not have the extract(s) in them. Walking is very good for that problem too.

Mullein is the herb I use for respiratory problems. I am prone to get a form of pneumonia because bulbar polio affected that system. Mullein has been my mainstay over the years for that and for colds. It also helps a person sleep. And it is one of the ingredients in a famous and effective herbal formula for hypoglycemia.

It seems you live in a very special place, captxray. There are probably many other herbs you could gather there, if you want to. When we lived at Leavenworth, WA I just went out into the big yard and gathered and ate my lunch while soaking up some sunshine and peacefulness.

The great blue herons used to fly over our cabin in the Canadian wilderness and land on the beach by us to fish for food. A sea otter would play hide-and-seek with me when I sat on my log at the base of the waterfalls and where the creek ran out into the ocean. Everyone needs a "sitting place" for quiet meditation.

Heather, thanks for telling me about Herbes de Provence. I don't know what it is but will look for it around here.

I came across http://www.usaweekend.com/98_issues...980503eat_smart<caveman.html ,

The article there says the Stone Age Diet included 65% fruits, vegetables, nuts, (legumes) and honey. Along with 35% lean game, eggs, fowl, fish and shellfish. That it included 7000 mg of potassium and 600 mg of sodium. It was taken from the work of S. Boyd Eaton who does think they ate legumes and that disagrees with Audette. However, I was interested in the percentages of the food intake and in the amounts of sodium and potassium. The amounts of those two minierals is so-o-o different from what people take in today.

I am enjoying knowing you two very much and others on this board. Today, though, I put my computer up for sale. If and when it sells I won't be posting unless I start using a public computer. Maybe I can do that some.
I'll have to explore that possibility.

Dandi

Bummer! Sorry to hear that you may be leaving us...I'm going to read that article. Thanks for the address. Although Audette disagrees with Eaton, he really respects him and admits that if you cook beans and legumes, you cook out the harmful alkaloids, and beans probabaly aren't all that bad for you, except for the carb count. He just doesn't think that stone aged Mankind ate them and that the ones we get today are so heavily bred and farmed that they have lost their naturalness. He also has a policy that if it has to be cooked to be edible, it isn't for Neanderthinners. In other words, "If you were naked, with a stick, could you eat this?" Whatever...I stay away from beans and legumes because they never really agreed with me (or my wife...I get quite flatulent...drives her nuts and out of the house!). My dad's family were farmers from Southern Utah and they all ate beans by the bushels. I grew up on them and just thought faltulence was something unique to my family...and me. What a shock when I found that when I didn't eat them, I had no problems with gas. So, whatever cave men ate is of no consequence to me when it comes to those little guys. I don't touch 'em. I read an article once, about the people in Nepal and Tibet, who make a salt tea with rock salt every morning and all day long. Their sodium count is the highest in the world, but they live to be over a hundred, quite often. They eat loads of dried apricots and rock salt! Go figure.

I can't seem to get that web site that you gave us. I can't find the article on it.

let me try typing in that site again and see if it works this time:

http://www.usaweekend.com/98_issues...rt-caveman.html

That should work now.

Dandi

captxray,
Sorry, I just cannot get the address to come out right when I type it here. But I found a way, I think, around the problem Go to www.usaweekend.com and then type "stone age diet" into search. That will bring up about ten articles. The one you want has the word "caveman" on it.

I know that lupine is a naturally growing legume. I've read that it can be poisonous. But in one country they eat it often. Undoubtedly, as you said, it has to be cooked. Maybe even, like skunk cabbage, through several waters. Due to my convictions as a health nut, I once decided we would eat the young skunk cabbage without boiling it through the four waters. That was a mistake. Our lips felt as if they were receiving electrical jolts. That experience taught me that people have a reason for giving the instructions they give in herbal books.

Dandi

I think I'll stay away from skunk cabbage if it needs five waterings...obviously needs to be cooked to eat it. My yard is full of about three different types of lupine...I didn't know they were a legume! Doesn't really matter, though. They're pretty and will stay that way. I don't eat legumes or beans...Boy! those stinging nettles sure know how to sting! They went right through my heavy, rubber treated gloves...OWWWW! I think I'll stay with my wife's radishes and lettuce in the garden...

captxray,
Sorry about those nettles "getting" you. One does have to be careful to not get stung. But they are very good for nutritional and medicine. But you can always do like we do these days, buy the dried ones at the store. Radishes and lettuce are better behaved!!

In the days when we gathered our own herbs, we were well equipped with clothing and equipment suitable for whatever we were gathering -- more than a sharpened stick. So maybe the cavemen did not gather nettles.

I ordered a copy of Neanderthin through a local bookstore, couldn't find it on the shelves anywhere. It's due in Friday, only two days from now. I'm looking forward to reading it.

We are walking about five miles now on most days. And our pace has picked up. We'd like to be walking at least a 15 minute mile but aren't there yet. We aren't pushing, though, just walking a comfortable pace. But a comfortable pace now is faster than it was a few months, or even weeks, ago. Any progress is encouraging.

Dandi

Dandi, good to hear that you are picking up the pace! I agree with you about any progress. Last night I ate too much fruit...and everything else...I had a rather large (for me) lunch and rode my bike home and, for some reason, was famished. My wife is not at home to make my meals and keep me under control (our daughter, in Mountain Home, Idaho, is having our first grandchild...we hope...she had contractions two days ago...but then the little guy went back into hiding). I have no clients tonight...so, I've got to keep my(lonely)self under check. I don't know if it is related to my bike, my lack of sleep, too much exercise, or just...whatever, but I've now got a great big, nasty, ugly hemorroid...ow! It's not great with that hard bike seat, I'll tell ya'! I got up and suddenly remembered that I had to water all of the hanging plants and our new garden before I left for work this morning (remember, no wife..gone to help daughter with new baby...what about me?!...Only kidding). Therefore, I didn't get out my wife's bike down out of the attick in the garage, and refurbish it for the ride. It has a softer seat (it's a mountain bike). Tonight, after a grueling ride (I'm not kidding!) home, I plan to get it ready for Thursday's ride to work. Tomorrow, I can't ride it because of my late hours at my office with a four hour mediation expected and the paperwork that will follow.

I hope you like Neanderthin. I follow it religiously and enjoy the WOE and WOL. I know I need to cut back and eat a few more veggies and less meat, of late. I've also got to get to the store, tonight, so I can get some more salad makin's (lettuce, brocolli, celantro, parsely, spinach, and whatever else I can find that looks good and healthy). I didn't get a salad last night, or the night before that and, BOY! Do I miss my salad! I am craving it so bad, I can hardly stand it! I never thought I would crave leafy green veggies, or fruit! What a change this diet has made in my life!