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AHHH I have been losing weight by eating mostly anything... I don't eat many sweets. But I'll eat chips and what not. I don't eat much a day... I have lost 10 pounds so far, but I think I have hit a plateau because for the past week not much has been changing weight wise. I just can't seem to get used to just eating paleo... I feel like there is ZERO flavor! I love my ranch and my bbq sauce. Help a brotha out!

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eat only raw whole foods for on-two weeks without any spices or mixing, go through those withdrawal effects and you will be free afterwards! Even a steak with salt and pepper or eggs with pepper,salt & sweet pepper will have an unbeliavable flavor. – Primordial Oct 10 2011 at 18:47
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When you adapt your taste buds, your chips or bbq sauce will taste like chemical waste, brotha! – majkinetor Oct 11 2011 at 9:04

12 Answers

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You should probably learn to cook.

Also, if your palate is used to junk food that has been specifically engineered to make you want to eat as much as possible through unnatural flavour and texture combinations (think stuff like potato chips) then you might find eating actual, real, whole food boring at first in comparison. Stick with it, stop eating "chips and whatnot" and you'll likely find that processed food starts to lose its appeal and actual FOOD starts to taste good. It won't have that same "can't eat just one" factor that junk food has, but real food shouldn't taste like that. If that means paleo food is "boring" then so be it.

tl;dr: you need to retrain your palate.

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+1 paleo is far from boring - once we re-train our bodies we begin to actually taste what real food tastes like, not all the chemical laden crap most people eat. Pull a carrot right out of the ground wash it off & eat it, the flavor is amazing. – Josh M Oct 10 2011 at 20:03
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+1 for "You should probably learn to cook." If you need BBQ sauce and ranch dressing for something to taste good, then you really need to reeducate your palate. There are things called herbs and spices and, believe it or not, they makes things taste really good. – JansSushiBar Oct 10 2011 at 20:13
+1000 Olivia. Try cooking meat with garlic. If you need ranch dressing (and you are primal), dress your meat with a bit of sour cream mixed with roasted hot peppers. – The Loon Oct 10 2011 at 22:57
Yep, once your tastebuds adjust you will find it amazing, also learning how to use spices and new flavors in your food will help with the transition. – Team Oberg Aug 2 at 10:55
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I liken this to what happens when you go to a concert. The music is loud, REALLY loud, and when you get in the car to drive home, you don't even realize your friend is talking to you because your hearing is shot. Your ears have become desensitized to "normal" decibel ranges because of the exposure to volume kicked up to "11".

After a lifetime of eating foods that are deliberately designed to manipulate your sense of taste, you can't "hear" the flavors in regular food.

Cut out all processed foods, artificial flavors, fast food, etc. and let your sense of taste resensitize.

You also mentioned that you are having a hard time getting past a weight loss plateau. Eating foods that lack flavor ("low reward") is actually a weight loss strategy that is gaining some traction these days (vs simply counting calories, manipulating macronutrients, etc.)

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Great concert analogy. – familygrokumentarian Oct 10 2011 at 21:38
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Metal!!! \m/ (>_<) \m/ – Nemesis Oct 10 2011 at 23:56
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Quite exciting, this computer magic! – FED at LiveCaveman.com Oct 11 2011 at 0:36
Very well put. +1 – Nutritionator Oct 11 2011 at 2:43
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Let's nip this on in the bud:

http://robbwolf.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/thePaleoSolution_FoodMatrix.pdf

"81,000 DIFFERENT meals"

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I ♥ that matrix. – familygrokumentarian Oct 10 2011 at 21:37
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...lets nip this in the bud "buttercup" :D – JayJay Oct 11 2011 at 1:44
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I feel like I should start this with a chiding I got from my 5th grade teacher when I was complaining about being bored one day, "Only boring people get bored!" If corporal punishment were allowed at that school I'm sure it would have come with quick swat from a ruler too.

So, before blaming "paleo food" for your boredom, take some initiative and try to liven things up. It isn't the food per se, it is what you are bringing to it. Since you are hooked on strong flavors try these things (you can work on resensitizing your palate after you get the nutrition dialed in):

Add kim chi as a side dish and you'll wake up the whole plate, spicy pickled goodness, mmm. It is a kick in the pants in a jar, if you like to sweat while you eat, go ahead and down a big bowl of the stuff. Pickled jalepenos and garlic cloves are good too.

Paleo chili is a good option if you want something with intense flavors. You can spice it up as much as you want with tomato paste, salt, garlic, onions, chilis (chipotle chili powder has an amazing smokey heat), cumin, and even chocolate powder.

Coconut milk curry with a red curry paste has more punch than Cool Ranch Doritos could ever dream of. If you want a base for what it should taste like when you make it at home try Tom Kha Gai soup at a Thai restaurant with 3-4 stars.

If you are short on time, Trader Joe's has precooked carnitas (I'm sure not pastured, but oh well it is tasty enough meat for me to make an exception) that takes 2-3 minutes to heat in the microwave. Shred it and add a bunch of salsa or Tapatio hot sauce, a blob of guacamole and/or sour cream, and you have an amazing spicy meal.

If you need barbeque sauce, just make your own with Mark Sisson's recipe in the Primal Blueprint Cookbook.

Add these to your spice cabinet: cinnamon, cloves, cumin, sage, rosemary, dill, poultry seasoning, chili powder, cayenne chili powder, chipotle chili powder, Chinese hot mustard, a jar of horseradish, powdered ginger, a jar of crushed garlic, wasabi, pickled ginger, red curry paste, a pepper grinder, unrefined sea salt, coconut liquid aminos, liquid smoke, and sesame oil. Boring will be a thing of the past. Unlike processed snack foods, real food requires participation in the seasoning process.

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^Great answer! Also try this high-protein paleo pumpkin muffin recipe. It kicks butt. livinglikeatrapezeartist.com/?p=322 – Indie-Lou Jan 30 2012 at 23:13
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The only TV show I make a point to watch is Hell's Kitchen. I look at what they make, and it's basically paleo. Maybe there's some cheese here or there and then there are pasta dishes, but essentially it's somebody with talent making meat, seafood veggies, sauce, fat, spices, fruit, nuts, etc. Emphasis on talent.

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And you have the added benefit of watching people being cussed out. Win/win! – Nemesis Oct 10 2011 at 23:57
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#$%$ing right.. – Stabby Oct 11 2011 at 0:22
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It sounds like there is a more fundamental diet issue. Eating "chips and whatnot" means our friend here is not eating paleo, or real food. Sounds like he's also got a lingering sweet tooth and possibly that his tastebuds are overstimulated by the junk in his diet

Maybe if you give an idea of what you're eating, someone here can counsel you on how to get your tastebuds back on track, in addition to all the nifty paleo tips on seasoning and sauces.

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Paleo condiments: http://paleodietlifestyle.com/homemade-paleo-condiments/

There's plenty of flavor in paleo cooking if you are a little creative and keep looking for new recipes.

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For me, I couldn't eat "mostly anything" beyond the basics. If I wanted flavor, I needed to be willing to experiment, and I needed to plan a bit more it for the pantry. Herbs and Spices, etc. You can't do anything without the ingredients, and you'll pretty much have to make your own and not buy from the stores (as you saw with BBQ sauce). Search here for Paleo Ranch and Paleo BBQ Sauce recipes and give them a try.

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It would be helpful if you could give a rundown of a typical day. What did you eat this weekend?

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I like to use vegetables that really kick up the flavors when you cook them. Roasting certain vegetables really provides a lot of flavor, like tomatoes, eggplant, mushrooms, squash and garlic, with a little olive oil and lemon juice, roasted at 400-degrees until you can see the garlic has turned golden. This is a great base for soups too.

Braised greens, like kale, chard and spinach is really awesome. I cook that and serve it with a couple poached eggs for breakfast. Yum!

Use a variety of herbs, but don't add them till the end of cooking as they tend to lose some of their flavor. If you make a salad, add fresh parsley and cilantro to the greens, along with spring onions.

Dredge sole in coconut flour and cook it in butter, finished with lemon juice and finely shredded lemon rind.

Roasted butternut squash soup with a little coconut cream and chili oil.

Try new things. Go out to try cuisine from other countries. Buy something new at the market every time you go and Google ways to cook it. Be adventurous!

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Head over to some good paleo food blog sites for inspiration! (And no, I'm not affiliated with any of them!)

www.nomnompaleo.com

www.everydaypaleo.com

www.primalkitchen.blogspot.com/

www.paleocomfortfoods.com/

www.primal-palate.com/

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If you go a step further, go total carnivore, botanicals actually taste yucky, but the different meats taste great. You won't miss seasonings or spices. They're poison. I mistakenly bought some pepperoni the other day, an old favorite of mine, but oh boy, were they foul to my tongue. No thanks.

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That's ridiculous. Seasonings and spices aren't poisonous. Many of them have been used for thousands of years in food preparation and may in fact have health benefits, and one (salt) is actually essential. – Olivia Oct 10 2011 at 18:34
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If seasonings and spices were poisonous, England would never have been the ocean power it was over the centuries. Tea wasn't the only thing their navy was protecting. – James Oct 10 2011 at 19:17
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oregano killed my best friend – citrusfire Oct 10 2011 at 21:16
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Next on the 10 o'clock news: Basil, innocent plant or a deadly poison lurking in pesto! How YOU can keep your family safe! – Chickenosaurus Rex Oct 11 2011 at 2:05
England was a backwater until they found themselves ideally positioned to exploit the resource windfall of the New World. Then, before that windfall petered out, along came coal, which gave birth to the industrial revolution. North Sea oil saved the day when their coal output declined. Now the oil is in decline too, with no fallback. England is soon to be in deep doo-doo, as is the rest of the world, by turns. We'll all go paleo, but I'll do it right. – Huey Oct 11 2011 at 16:07

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