That I adore pasta.

Obstacles for me include money... I'm a college student paying for everything on my own off of waitressing twice a week...... you do the math. Also, socializing and drinking. I love going out with friends and love having drinks with them. It's absolutely crucial for my mental health to go out 1-2-3 X per week but I just can't seem to do it without drinking. I by no means go overboard (1-2 drinks per night) but let's just say I'm not ordering dry red wine while I'm out at a bar. Living in a house with roommates- the food constantly around and tempting me, although really my roommates are fairly healthy in the grand scheme. And also not necessarily wanting to come off as that uptight girl who can't let loose and have some fun. Trying to find a balance is tough, especially when you're young and trying to find yourself.

It has been my love for bread, seriously, it was my only issue but it was a big one... but on my last foray I discovered a correlation between bread and headaches, not to mention weight gain, but woohoo for that cuz now I'm finally not finding it so much of a problem anymore, I haven't had a single starch since. I much prefer to be headache & muffin-top free.

Myself. I'll go a few days following a strictly Paleolithic diet, and then binge horribly and attempt to make up for it through fasting and exercise. This morning marks my worst binge ever:

~9500 calories:

500g rotisserie chicken, 3/4 cup white chocolate chips, 330g cream cheese, 112g chocolate, 56g cheddar cheese, 200g strawberry cream cheese, 4 wheat biscuits, 10 shortbread cookies, 4 small chocolates, 2 lindt truffles, 2 cups granola, can of evaporated milk, 200g grilled chicken strips, 1 crispy chicken strip, 2 tbsp nutella, 3 slices of bread, 3 cups of oats, 1 tbsp butter, couple of almond M&M's and reeses pieces, 3 oatmeal raisin cookies, 2 chocolate chip cookies, bite of multigrain breakfast bar, 2 tortilla wraps, 1 fun size milky way bar, 2/3 cup of pecans, and a bite of leftover noodles.

I'm so disgusted with myself :(

The worst part is that I'm being told it's reactive eating and not bingeing because I'm 5'9 and 127 lbs. I need help.

Complacency.

I like to think that positive reinforcement works better than negative, but damn if it isn't just the fear of gastrointestinal pain that keeps me on track most of the time. The problem is, once I start to feel better, and feel my mistakes less severely, the less vigilant I become, and slide on back down that slide to start the gut healing all over again.

I'm not in this for a quick fix, I'm pretty sure I'll be life-timer (unless something far superior is discovered).

I keep telling myself the old saying, "Pain comes late, and leaves early" in regards to health problems, but somehow I've yet to fully make the leap to full application via intellectual understanding, and still have to rely on visceral and blatant lessons.

I want to say sleep too, but with young children in the mix, I'm guessing our ancestors also went many years without more than 4-5 consecutive hours of sleep either. So, I can whine about it, but not on the grounds that it is incongruent with a paleo lifestyle.

I don't have a spouse to do all the chopping, cooking and washing up, yet.

Well I was laid off yesterday, so I money is my biggest obstacle. My paleo vision would be a life similar to some of the owners of my crossfit box. Multiple sources of income, paleo environment full of people who share an interest in this life style and access to one tricked out gym. My second obstacle would be a lack of paleo friends. My third obstacle is lack of interpretation. My wife and mother in law do all my cooking for me (I burn water) and do well to keep it paleo but I can't guarantee cross contamination as they are not paleo. Fourth would be boredom as my wife and I aren't skilled enough to experiment much with new paleo food. Finally there's the MAN and HIS SYSTEM who tries to tell me that my fat intake isn't healthy, that my cholesterol is too healthy and if I dare step outside their definition of healthy then I need to pay heavily for it. I got 2 special letters for you and your system.

My obstacle is I'm bored of this diet. Been 9 months Paleo, lost a little weight and I'm just really burned out on it, it's not even cravings for sugar or grains, I'm just truly bored with a diet of pretty much meat and vegetables with some fruit and fats in there as well.

It's especially hard being a "foodie" type, plus I cook for a living and I feel just like I'm missing out on so many interesting and delicious foods by being so limited. But now it's a point where if I cheat I feel mentally awful, so guilty like I'm doing something terrible to my body and I don't even know if I am.

rotating shift work

I feel extremely unproductive. Thanks, in part to the paleo diet, I know this isn't totally my fault. I learned about this and implemented as best I could- and I did extremely well. An evolutionary approach to life doesn't end with diet though, and I keep noticing society is now set up to redirect us from normal human pursuits into what increasingly appears to be meaningless charades designed to keep the fairy tale castles in the air.

But then, babies are my favorite form of human, and when I sign my name I put a IV at the end, so I might be operating under a bias here...

My kid. She's a major SAD food-aholic as well - my fault. I'm slowing getting her to switch over, but I swear to God, she's the pickiest eater known to man-kind. It's having the stuff in the house that is tempting for me. My new year's resolution however has stuck and I haven't touched it, so far - in fact I moved all the crap to one shelf. Being a single mom - working full time and shuttling the kid to activities and doing homework, well, it's just stressful as hell and well, I love the red wind too. NOT COMPLAINING really by any means, it's just these are the cards I've been dealt and well, I think I'm doing a pretty good job. Love the kid, smart as hell - just gotta work on her addiction and mine to an extent. It's all going to come together soon, I'm pretty certain. Oh, and please don't think I blame her for my problems, by no means is that the case, I'm just saying...the stuff is there for her, it's tempting to me. I see the problem. Carry on.

My boyfriend who makes paleo jokes all the time and lives off french fries and coke.

Trying to convince my stubborn mother to feed herself something that doesn't come out of a box.

Spending half my time cooking huge meals for these people so they don't all just fall over dead.

Having none of the people in my life want to do outdoors-y fun things with me.

For me it is really really simple:

Money and accessibility.

Where I live there is no food choices and when there is good food I cant afford it.

Making the time to workout - i'm always tired after work and only can convince my self to work out a few times a week, if that... Also weekends - i oftenend up cheating because people want to go out to restaurants, and while restaurants are getting better with healthful options , it still is tough from time to time. As well as access to organic meats and raw food, they are expensive and hard to find. I also think people around me think this is a temporary diet and don't realize it's a lifestyle change, But i think as long as we do what we can we are on the right track...a far better track than before!

Let's see... My office job as a computer programmer. The 3+ hours a day commuting in a car. And more driving my daughters to and from activities. My family (wife and kids) that are SAD (refined carb and junk) food-aholics. My being old, fat, diabetic and out of shape. My love of cookies, BBQ Fritos, pizza, ice cream, peanut butter and the fact that all these things and more are readily available in my house.

Still not giving up, though. I'm eating a lunch of roast beef, shrimp and avocado right now.

My biggest obstacle is still food cravings and temptations when I'm under stress. It helps to have an upset stomach after.

My family. Apart from my mother, they are extremely lazy. They apparently hate me for eating a strict diet, because I don't drink beer, don't play computer games (I find those boring now), work really hard (12 hours daily) and am not excited all the time (because my mood is even all the time I'm very calm). Being excited apparently is a good thing, because it is "funny".

I thought a family is supposed to be helping, but apparently it's the opposite (except for my mother).

The amount of times I've heard "don't you want cake?", "that pizza is amazing!", "are you sure you don't want cake, it's really delicious". And they say it in a way, you know they're just trying to piss me off. I have a lot of stress already because of exams, they make it 10x worse.

On my birthday, they ate pie in front of me while they all knew damn well I wouldn't eat any. Yet they couldn't help but say "don't you want pie" multiple times.

The amount of times my brother called me gay last year, while being vegan (the funny thing is that his girlfriend looks like a dude, but I don't tell him that). I did look kinda girly back then, but I did never call him names... Never forgot that, I still just ignore him. I felt really sick at that time, and NOBODY helped me. They all treated me like crap. Of course it was my fault I was sick, but that doesn't mean you gotta make it worse.

The amount of times my father got mad because I told him he is wrong. Now, when he tries to tell me some bogus nutrition tips, I just nod and go away ("coconut oil is very bad for your health because it is a vegetable oil" really??? he said that 5 months ago. Now he said to my mother he will probably start to cook with it).

The more I work, the more I try to do good, the harder they make it for me.

Sorry for the rant. I'm leaving them monday and while I really look forward to that, I just wanted to get this out of my system.

I drink too much, and then eat a kebab. Which would be paleo (I don't eat doner kebab), if only I didn't eat the pitta bread.

Liver. I need to. I can't -no matter the secret recipe, type, or method.

THIS IS MY PALEO VISION -as per the question. I am not debating overall agreed upon paleo requirements.

(Please no suggestions -I have tried them ALL. Seriously. Love you guys though!!).

I am probably my only true obstacle, but since I've been cooperating and doing well I'd say it's my budget.

I'm living on Social Security so I can order grass-fed beef only occasionally. Much of my meat is from the supermarket and the checkbook groans when I load my fresh produce into the cart. I must say it would be easier if I weren't also feeding a 17-year-old young man. :-))

The 2 of us are doing fine but I wish sometimes I could afford to eat strictly pastured meat.