Blog

3

And why?

Steps 7 and 12 seem difficult for many.

  • 2 meals a day is best. Don't graze like a herbivore.

  • Eliminate all remaining dairy including cheese- (now you are "Orthodox paleolithic")

Step 6 is difficult for myself (living in New England, being a dark-skinned office worker who forgets to take his D sometimes)

  • Make sure you are Vitamin D replete. Get daily midday sun or consider supplementation.

See here for all 12 steps, courtesy of the wise Dr. Harris: http://www.paleonu.com/get-started/

flag
1 
Edit, add link or post list for those not familiar – Stephen-Aegis Sep 16 2010 at 18:26
1 
paleonu.com/get-started – Stephen-Aegis Sep 16 2010 at 18:26
2 
Good point, thanks Stephen – Kamal Sep 16 2010 at 18:28
Love his steps in general, and have sent them to my mother who adopted straight away, but I have always kind of wondered about: Favor ruminants like beef, lamb and bison for your meat. Eat eggs and some fish. Reading that just always makes me wonder if I eat too much chicken. And I prolly eat more fish than is ideal by his standards. I do love me some bison though – ben61820 Oct 26 2010 at 17:27

14 Answers

8

12. With no intention of stopping. I eat Pastured hard cheese and pastured butter.

Butterisbetter

link|flag
Amen, Stephen. I can't gety enough fat iin my diet if I avoid dairy. My big deviation: heinz ketchup with my red meat. My only guilty pleasure. – Ed Sep 16 2010 at 19:18
Stephen, do you eat soft cheeses? How about things from the fermented cream family? (sour cream, creme fraiche...) – Kamal Sep 16 2010 at 19:26
Not a big soft fan. I do drink kefir tho – Stephen-Aegis Sep 16 2010 at 19:29
1 
amen on the butter. Ive stopped cheese of any kind for three months in what has become an ongoing experiment, but i do think its prolly a health food. Damn tasty to boot. Never will i forgo the almighty butter though. – ben61820 Sep 16 2010 at 23:26
For me, almighty heavy cream. – Cacktus Wayfinder Oct 26 2010 at 14:58
2

In order of my non-compliance:

(12) Dr. Harris also doesn't follow step 12. (He lives in Wisconsin, duh!) I really eat way more dairy than I probably should.

(7) I'd like to IF, but I have to eat when I take meds. - I do sometimes skip meals and try to only eat when hungry.

(9) I do excersize properly, just not very frequently (working on it!)

(11) I probably have some beans once or twice a month. Oops! Peanuts are a bean! Crap!! I love my peanutty peanuts. Okay make that twice a week - lol. He also says by step 10 "you are at 99% for most people." So, I take it as sorta optional. I mostly don't do beans casue of the carbs (I'm diabetic) and for the other reason.

(5) I do favor the beef, but also eat a fair amount of chicken - as that is what my wife tends to cook. I don't eat very much fish. But I do take fish oil and some cod liver oil.

The rest, I'm almost 100%

link|flag
I'm trying to get my diabetic mom to eat more paleo, and hope she can live with a similarly high compliance rate as you. How soon after being diagnosed did you start eating paleo, if you don't mind sharing? – Kamal Sep 16 2010 at 18:54
Oh gosh, I wish I had started sooner! Diagnosed in '95 or '96. Did Atkins for a coupla of years starting in 2002, even got off meds for a while - but I was still scared of saturated fat. Got strict low carb June '09 to get back in control. Started doing research/reading online. Low Carb Forum led to Eades and Protein Power led to FatHead led to PaNu/Hyperlipid/FreeTheAnimal/WholeHealthSource/MDA/WAPF/etc ... Slowly started migrating to paleo last fall, but became comitted early part of this year (Jan/Feb). Still working on minor details. – Dave S. Sep 20 2010 at 17:31
The Forums (Active Lowcarber) also led me to GCBC. After a while, it was like, why does everyone mention this book? Okay, maybe I should check it out. Wow! Dr. Harris had a epiphany in his car listening to a Taubes interview on NPR. No wonder! There's a lot of good work being done at that forum. My introduction to arguments about fats/fiber/veggies/supplements etc. all started there. – Dave S. Sep 20 2010 at 17:37
1

I eat peanut butter (from the jar -- it's my favouritest food in the whole world, but I stick to low sugar/salt), hard cheese (usually from raw milk), heavy cream, and butter.

I also sometimes make "franken-paleo" foods, like almond meal muffins or erythritol-sweetened chocolate fudge.

I don't like fish/seafood so I take fish oil. I eat a lot of beef and most of it is grass-fed. We do still eat out a couple times a week though, and that is usually not grass fed and most likely contains vegetable oils and other bad things, but I try to minimize it.

Two meals a day/IF was difficult at first but after a couple of months of paleo it started coming naturally.

I'm trying to focus more on resistance training, replacing one or two of my weekly dance classes with pilates/weights.

So I guess I'm doing pretty good but always room for improvement :) I feel great and have lost almost 20 lbs in a little over three months.

link|flag
1

I am pretty close, but after a short experiment I got back to eating dairy. I try to have as much grass-fed meat as possible, but I also get regular. I eat fish mostly from cans... I add krill oil or fish oil to supplement.

There are a few steps I do 100% and some in a pretty high percentage. It's only recently that I starter to push for even more fat.

link|flag
Yoannah-- this is unrelated, but I am going to buy the chlorella and some turmeric next week, and try it for a month or two. Will let you know the results (likely nothing, but might as well try!). – Kamal Sep 17 2010 at 1:08
1

I sometimes graze like a damn dirty herbivore on fruit, and I actually agree with him that it would be better if I didn't so I'm not in disagreement with any of his recommendations.

link|flag
1

Apparently I'm an orthodox paleo :) And that's also true when I go meat-only.

My only weak point would be #9 - proper exercise. But today's the last day of term before a two-week break, so I'll have some time to get in more walking, and maybe some resistance training too. I'm loving my belly dancing and yoga, but that's twice a week together...

link|flag
0

8) Adjust your 6s and 3s. Pastured (grass fed) dairy and grass fed beef or bison has a more optimal 6:3 ratio, more vitamins and CLA. A teaspoon or two of Carlson's fish oil (1-2 g DHA/EPA) daily is good compensatory supplementation if you eat grain-fed beef or no fish.

It is much harder to get grass-fed beef in Montreal. I just ordered half a cow, but I won't get it till mid-November. I am also having a hard time finding high-quality fish oil.

link|flag
If you eliminate all vegetable oils, cut down on the nuts, and eat mostly ruminants (even grain-fed), your 6s and 3s are fine. – haig Oct 26 2010 at 17:49
0

Eugh SO hard not to graze - especially when in charge of feeding a 3 year old and a 9 month old, and it seems like SOMEBODY in my household is hungry at least every couple of hours.

link|flag
0

I usually eat 3 meals. I don't call that grazing. I almost never snack. SOmetimes I will skip meals if I am busy and/or there is not healthy food around.

And I still eat diary, although not milk, just cheese or cream.

The rest I am rather good about, but not 100 percent. Once in a while, I will eat out or have one bite of pie or somesuch. I am not obsessive about compliance but overall, my compliance is high.

link|flag
0

I think a few cheats every now and then is fine.
For me the real breakthrough to sticking with the diet was learning to cook interesting and tasty meals that filled me up. After that the rest was easy.

link|flag
0

Who much vitamin D did the average paleolithic man get? in between the ice ages?

link|flag
0

step 10 about the fruits: although I don't eat masses of fruits, I've never worried about fruit consumption (never had to lose weight or had other metabolic problems)

link|flag
0

I eat apples and I eat more than twice a day, but then I'm not trying to lose weight.

Wonder what the effect of apples (bags of sugar) and other fruit has on my liver and other internal organs... anyone?

link|flag
Modern fruits are not really bags of sugar, they're more like sachets of sugar. I doubt these sugar sachets have similar effects to 7-11 Big Gulps and Pixie Sticks. – Kamal Oct 26 2010 at 18:59
0

Hadn't seen Harris' list previously; thanks.

1) I don't supplement on pure re-enactment/if Grok didn't do it grounds. Since I'm doing Sisson's PBF thing, I try to get outdoors for my exercise whenever it's sunny. I may, however, try some vitamin D once the snow flies this year.

2) I'll occasionally eat the odd cashew.

3) I've been wilfully remaining ignorant of the whole Omega 3/Omega 6 thing since I'm lazy and hoping that attention to the diet will cover that.

Other than that, seems like I'm pretty orthodox paleo by Harris's standards.

link|flag
I would at least try to get d if you're not getting a ton of sunshine and magnesium. Yes, grok didn't do it, but he did have adequate levels of these nutrients. – mari Oct 26 2010 at 20:25

Your Answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.