You don't have to change everything at once. You can transition step by step. You can wait until you've adapted to one step before moving on to the next.

I sort of gradually drifted into paleo myself. I never got any low carb flu or anything like that.

I think it is important to know what your diet was like before paleo. Can you share what motivated you to eat paleo? Do you have any health issues?

It's because you are craving carbs. Your body is used to carbs.

I think the biggest mistake newbies to the "diet" think it is a low-carb only diet. Not so! Many paleo or primal people use it to eat low-carb, but you don't personally have to.

What has worked for me is primal smoothies. Just blend together a frozen banana, a ripe banana, and other berries or fruit with a handful of spinach. Yum! This has stopped cravings for anything bad (for me personally) and my stalled weight loss is no more.

The key is to experiment with food.

I can't really answer your question about how normal it is to feel so bad in the beginning with any certainty. I would think not, however.

Are there any foods that fit in this plan simply real food, that you really like? I mean like a whole lot. Do you like chicken or shrimp or fish? Are there any vegetables that you eat for pleasure? I would not worry a whole lot at this point about how much or how little or how balanced. Find food you love and eat it. As long as it's whole, real food, you should be fine.

If you'd like to name a few foods you like, I'd be happy to make suggestions.

Stick with it for a few days. I felt absolutely terrible at first. I had flu-type symptoms, headaches, nausea. It took about a week to feel better. After a few days of your body adjusting, you will slowing start to feel better!

I am about 6 days in, and had that same exact feeling up until today. Now I am just dizzy as hell, and constantly hungry.

At least the pain in my stomach that has been eating away at me for the past 6 weeks has basically disappeared.

Just hoping this pays off. - Def. looking for snack food options. I have been frying the crap out of everything (Steak, Chicken Breast, Vegetables etc.) and having fruit for desert, yet never full. Def. looking for some snack ideas as well.

I think a lot of it is psychological. Giving up carbs sucks and when you want them and can't have them, you mentally rebel. The dizziness and hunger is because you aren't eating enough. Since you don't really care for meat or eggs, you're probably eating a lot of salads/veggies/fruit which is never going to fill you up. You'd have to graze all day, like a cow, to not be hungry.

My suggestion is to slowly transition into paleo. Start with one meal a day, and when that's not a challenge, bump it up to two and so on and so forth. In the meantime, get used to adding more healthy fats to your diet. The hardest part of starting with paleo for most people is actually mentally swearing off the theory that fats are evil. If you don't get used to eating them, you'll always feel bad.

My other suggestion is to spice it up a little. Get some really good paleo recipes that you can get excited about. I have plenty of recommendations for some great paleo cookbooks.

My first time dropping crappy food, I felt like that. First few days, a lot of folks feel that awful. Some people can ease into with a transition, rather than cold turkey (one day, you're eating the Standard American Diet (SAD) and then next you're eating organic freshly prepared meat and veggies with no chemicals).

One good way to transition is start eating more veggies. Just whatever your typical diet was before but another serving of veggies to every meal. A week later add more, and start dropping the bad stuff out of one meal a day. And so on.

I think it is fairly normal. It should pass...

I just went from semi-primal to strict LC primal, and this is happening to me too but not as severe. My personal trainer recently looked at my food log and told me I should be eating way more. I knew this of course, but it's hard to eat meat and veggies when all I want is carbs.

I'm sure it'll pass, eventually. My personal trainer had told me that the first two weeks especially suck, but I'm determined to stick with it even if it goes past two weeks. In the meantime, I'm making sure to get lots of fat in my diet. Don't forget to eat fat!

I'm having the exact same thing... Yes of course I ate meat and vegetables before, but they weren't the staple of my diet. The large bowl of cereal, the toast with butter, the muffins, cakes, grilled cheese, oh the cheese! I could have lived (however temporarily) happily on breads/cakes/cheese. I ate meat at dinner, and a little bit at lunch. For breakfast it was cereals, french toast, pancakes, for dinner some nights it was cereal. So I can understand why my body is nauseous, it is probably in shock, like WTF, where is my BREAD and MILK and CHEESE! ;) I am eating eggs, tuna, steak, veges, salads, etc. Yes I had thes things before, but they were the minority. The difference with me though is that I do feel full, or maybe the fact that eating this makes me want to puke makes my body not want food. Who knows, either way I will get through it. And if I cheat and have a bowl of cereal, or a bag of chips once in a while I am not going to feel guilty about it. I am doing what I can do and if I totally make myself miserable that certainly won't work in the long term and I'd end up quitting. Good luck to all of you!

Good to know I'm not alone!

I've had the same symptoms: nausea, dizziness, headaches and a complete lack of energy. I completely lost it when I tried coconut milk for the first time-I left work early and spent the day vomiting at home with less than a quarter cup serving. I started cheating on the diet then because I could not eat anything paleo. I think it was just hard on my body to increase workouts and to take away sweets, breads and dairy completely.

I lost 5lbs the first week (with workouts) despite eating a ton more food. My husband did the diet with me and we just went through so much food the first week. I'm going to try back and transition into the diet, doing only some meals paleo and maybe keeping some dairy and some grains in.

My goal will be that when I wont feel guilty if I'm continuing to workout.

Some of my favorite paleo-snacks are: watermelon grapes apples with almond butter tuna with lemon kale salad with almond butter dressing

I think the key's to change it up and add a ton more veggies!

Good luck!