I have never read a reddit post this long before, or all the comments. You write very well.

I'll start with the budet issue. I do try to be as frugal as possible as well, but can 'afford' most of the food and to by expensive organic stuff sometimes too. I would make lean ground beef a staple. I would take the time to seek out a butcher or farmer so you know where the meat is coming from, and can usually get it at big box store prices. Where I live that is ~$3 per lb. I would also get some beef liver. This is actually one of the most nutrient dense source of food you can eat. One way to work it into your food with it being palatable is to mix it in with the ground beef. I also eat a ton of bacon. You should be able to get it for pretty cheap as well.

For eggs it was mentioned already but eat the yokes, Tim even says that hidden in the Testosteron chapter. I would again try to find a farmer that you can get pastured eggs for cheap.

For veggies I find that frozen is usually more expensive. Buy fresh whatever is on sale and paying attention to all the grocery store flyers is important. Again finding farms and farmers markets too. Some communities have Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) where you can put in some time working on the garden in exchange for some of the produce, I would look into that.

Also if you google for "paleo budget shopping list" or things like that there are a lot of resources. SCD comes from the same foundation as Paleo (listen to Tim on Robb Wolfs Podcast from Dec 2010 for more info).

It seems like you may not have a lot of financial resource but do have quite a bit of time. I would use that time to learn as much as possible about nutrition, for both physical health and mental health. Tim's book is a great starting point but it doesn't quite fill in a lot of the gaps. There are a lot of false info in conventional nutrition info and he didn't quite debunk them all enough. You can get books for free at your local library, hopefully it is a decent library. If not there are other ways to find them and most of these people have great websites and blogs as well.

1. It Starts With Food I have read a lot of books, and if this one came out sooner it would have saved me a lot of time. It is the best book by far. The blog is at http://whole9life.com/
   
2. Robb Wolf's podcast. This has been huge place for me to learn about some of the more scientific aspects of nutrition. I also read his bood The Paleo Solution and it is a good read.
   
3. Gary Taubes. He has a ton of interviews and talks on youtube and around the web http://www.google.com/search?q=gary+taubes+interview he also has 2 good book, "Good Calories Bad Calories" and "Why We Get Fat"
   
4. Underground Wellness podcast and the Dark Side Of Fat Loss Ebook by Sean Croxton. This podcast is all interviews by some of the best nutrition gurus out there (all of the previously mentioned have been on his podcast plus way more) The ebook is quite good as well
   
5. Emily Dean she has a blog here http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.ca/ and http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/emily-deans-md She also has a book which I just found out about.
   
6. Stephan Guyenet Blog at http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.ca/ he is quite technical but very good source
   
7. Chris Kresser has a great blog and podcast as well.
   
8. Dave Asprey bulletproofexec.com blog and podcast. He has really good stuff on stress and sleep hacking http://www.bulletproofexec.com/hack-stress/
   
9. Marks Daily Apple by Mark Sission great blog and forum. Also has a couple of books out call Primal Blueprint.
   
   There are also some small 4 HB specific blogs. hisc1ay has a good one http://www.findingmyfitness.com. Mine is at http://www.myfourhourbodydiary.com/. Luke at http://4hourbodycouple.com and http://4hourbodyzone.com by Brian and http://www.4hourlife.com/ by Stephen.
   
   Also the http://www.4hbtalk.com forum is quite active and has a lot of helpful people.
   
   To address some of the other specific things you asked about. The eggs I already mentioned I wrote about it a while ago if you want more detailed info http://www.myfourhourbodydiary.com/2012/02/05/the-big-fat-missing-chapter/.
   
   I personally don't think beans are the best choice for you give your history of thyroid issues. I would definitely stay away from peanuts, I know you didn't mention them but they are a legume, and the protein lectin in them can not be digested. This is why so allergies to them can be so sever in some people. I can see how your thyroid issues may have disappeared when you started eating more. Fasting that much and eating that little would cause a huge stress on you adrenals and your cortisol would be through the roof.
   
   I think roots and tubers like sweet potatoes, yam, taro, carrots, squash and other starchy veggies (potatoes might be ok for you too, they have a higher glycemic index but if you are eating them with fat an protein the glycemic load should be low) would be a safer choice for you. They have a glycemic index of ~37 which is pretty low and have very few inflammatory proteins.
   
   I also would try to limit starchy foods to 1-2 meals a day not all 3. A high fat and protein breakfast will keep you satiated for a long time and provide a ton of nutrition. Here is a good example although I would avoid the fruit until you are at your goal weight http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/270/The_Meat_and_Nut_Breakfast.aspx
   
   I also recommend to people to try a gluten free cheat day. It worked wonders for me and most people that try seem to feel much better and lose fat much faster as well. I try and recommend to eat as much fruit as possible on cheat day. Helps build up that store of liver glycogen and help with any sweet tooth issues.
   
   For exercise looks pretty good what you are doing, especially since you are noticing a difference so fast. When you start to plateau or get bored of those exercises adding in some stuff from the kiwi workout would be good, and other KB stuff like cleans and snatches if you feel comfortable doing them. Learning the more advanced stuff too is fun, like turkish getups, on legged deadlifts etc. Also I highly recommend pullups, you can usually find a bar at your local park to do them. Being that we sit a lot we generally have a weak back and pulling muscles.
   
   As for the amount of weight lost you are doing very good. I think 10 lbs a month is around average maybe a bit over average. I think it would really benefit you to make some non scale goals (NSV or non scale victories as they like to say in /r/loseit) see this post for ideas http://whole9life.com/2012/08/new-health-scale/
   The scale is a really shitty way to measure body composition and health.
   
   Some longer term goals and maybe some performance goals I think would really help you out as well. 'Dieting to lose x amount of weight' is never successful. Tim states in the book many time it is a lifestyle change. You want to look good, and being healthy is the best way to accomplish that. My goal from the start was to lead a healthy lifestyle to set an example for my son and any future kids I have, I have been at it for 18 months now and will never go back. There have been set back, ups and downs along the way, but when your goal is long term and you are looking way down the road, having some cake at a birthday isn't that big of a deal.
   
   I also get a ton of help from my S/O and I highly suggest everyone get by in and help from the people around them. They don't have to be as passionate about it as you are but as long as they are board and have some sort of health related goals it makes a huge difference.
   
   Good Luck, feel free to contact me directly.

Yes, Paleo is absolutely right for you.

I'm also 21, also very underweight (weighing just 46kg), and living with an autoimmune disease. I've suffered anxiety most of my life, and think I can offer you some really useful tips.

Eliminating gluten 100% has done a lot for me (but was incredibly difficult at first), in fact I've eliminated a ridiculous amount of stuff due to my illness, I now avoid all nightshades, refined sugars, gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, and high starch vegetables (I suffer from a leaky gut and have to follow the Paleo autoimmune-protocol).

An important question to ask yourself is, why are you underweight in the first place? I didn't used to be underweight, but as my gut health deteriorated, I developed food malabsorption, gut dysbiosis, and bacterial overgrowths, meaning I could barely tolerate any sugar, even from fruit, but especially not carbs. Being underweight - this was a big problem, I lost about 10kg, and I'm only just starting to recover and make sense of it all. It sounds like you're in a VERY similar situation to me, so perhaps we can help each-other out.

The most important thing is to accept that you're ill, and that things will only get worse unless you take action. However, no matter how hopeless you feel, just remember that by understanding the science behind your illness, you have the power to get better.

I strongly reccommend you buy this book: LINK

If you haven't yet been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease or leaky gut, chances are you are at high risk of developing one or the other. What you will find, is that by following some version of the Paleo diet, you will give your body everything it needs to recover back to it's natural state. Your gut is possibly the most important aspect of your health, once your gut is damaged, you don't digest food properly, and toxins are able to enter your blood stream, causing an immune response, leading to problems like allergies and a weakened immune system. This all has an affect on your hormone levels, and that is a very likely cause of your weight loss. I myself tested low for Testosterone levels.

Here are some quick tips:

• Increase your protein intake (I have nearly 100g protein daily), don't worry about the myths of excess protein being harmful, as long as you get your protein from healthy sources such as Salmon, Grass fed Beef, Shellfish, Poultry, Insects, ect, you will be fine. If you plan on following a low-sugar, low-carb Paleo diet (which I highly recommend), increasing your protein intake is a must, otherwise you simply wont be getting enough calories necessary to gain weight.
  
  
• Increasing your protein intake might cause you constipation at first, especially if you aren't digesting food properly, if this happens, there are several things I found which help. First, buy yourself some digestive enzymes, I recommend this brand LINK. Other things which help are stomach acid supplements LINK, and Ox-Bile LINK. I cannot stress how important it is that you properly digest your food, there's no point in eating if you aren't capable of digesting it. Always keep things moving, having a bowel movement at least every 1-2 days is important, so if constipation is an issue, don't be afraid to take supplements like magnesium 1-2 times a day LINK, or Glycerin suppositories. Also, it's important to have some vegetables with every meal, if you can tolerate starchy vegetables - great, if not, try and include plenty of food like broccoli & salad.
  
  
• Increase the amount of fat in your diet. Try and ensure you maintain a healthy omega-3 to omega-6 fat ratio, this can be done by avoiding grain-fed meat, always choose grass-fed meat when possible. Try and eat a portion of grass fed beef every day, this will help with gaining weight. Salmon is also very high in protein, as well as omega-3 fats. Don't be afraid to drizzle oils over your food, I personally like Garlic infused olive oil, avocado oil, flax-seed oil, walnut oil, macadamia oil, etc..
  
  
• Variety is important! Going on a restrictive diet can be really really stressful, especially when modern-day society shoves all these irresistible hyper-palatable foods in your face every minute of every day. It's super important to make sure that you ENJOY your food, otherwise you will be a slave to temptation. Plus, when you enjoy your food, you feel better, and you digest better. At first, going Paleo felt horribly restrictive to me, but after a while, I realised it has actually opened me up to a whole new world of wonderful foods. Eat like a king, enjoy the full variety that nature has to offer, here are some of the things I've learned to love since following the Paleo approach: King Prawns, Razor Clams, Frog legs, Octopus, Kangaroo, Offal (heart, liver, kidney, tongue, tail), Sardines, Sea Bass, Trout, Swordfish, Cod Roes, Crab, Lobster, Insects (dehydrated Crickets, Super-worms, Silk worms, Meal-worm), I could go on. Many of these things sound gross at first, but trust me - it's all completely natural, and tastes delicious!
  
  
• Although adopting a low sugar diet is important, it's also important to consume some sugar/carbs with each meal, in order for your body to produce insulin for storing that energy as fat. Having some ripe banana or pineapple with each meal is best.
  
  
• Space out your meals. Allow yourself to feel hungry before each meal, this will make you enjoy your meals more, and help with hormone regulation.
  
  
• Focus on sleeping more. I always leave myself at least 10 hours, in case I have a bad night. Sleep is when your body recovers and grows, even if you have the perfect diet, gaining weight will be impossible without adequate sleep.
  
  
• Go for walks in nature. Nature is a wonderful way to clear your mind and bring you back to your roots, it's wonderfully calming and healthy, it will do wonders for your anxiety. Listen to some calm music during your walks and try to meditate and allow yourself to absorb into your surroundings. Use this time to connect with yourself and make important life decisions. Walking also stimulates the digestive system, relieves stress, anxiety, and regulates your hormones. Try and go for at least one 30 minute walk per day, or two if possible.
  
  
• Try and connect with someone. I started seeing a nutritional therapist, and she did wonders for my self-esteem and is still helping me get my life back on track. Feel free to message me any time if you have or questions, or simply want to chat. :)
  
  Hope this helps, best of luck! Enjoy the journey to good health!
  
  Edit: Oh, and I recommend taking L-Glutamine every day, it will help you gain weight, and it's extremely good for healing your gut. Also, home-made bone broth will do wonders for health, I can't recommend it enough.

Honestly, OP, you have to understand that my words are not just kind words. They are 100%, bona fide truth. You have to work hard at overcoming the conditioning of your own mind and that of our sick, deluded society. You owe this to yourself.

You know deep down that what makes you special has absolutely nothing to do with your size, your skin colour, your hair, your teeth, your ears, your knees or your smell. There is something resolutely good about you (about all of us) that is jut there!

Be honest with yourself: do you only want to find love from somebody who is deluded? Are the most attractive people to you those who are attracted to physical characteristics over everyone else? I almost know that this is not the case.

Friends who tell you you are wonderful, loveable and beautiful are great, but it doesn't help if you think they're just saying this because they love you or because they want to be kind. But it might be that they can see it too! They are telling you the truth. They are not conditioned to stare only at your body and they can see beyond the fat that your mind is obsessed with.

OP, I lost about 70lbs not long ago. And all I saw was the fold of fat on my back, the bulge of fat on the hips, the roundness of the belly. A couple of years later and I have regained that weight. Just the other day, I looked in the photo album and couldn't believe just how thin, strong and great I looked. The mind plays tricks on us. You may well be fat and out-of-shape, but you can still be beautiful, still be loveable, still be wonderful.

This is not some kind of dippy positive-thinking. This is fact. Beauty is not the exclusive preserve of thin people. Beauty, as we are told, is in the eye of the beholder. But while you are utterly terrified that people will only ever see you as some sort of misshapen blob, you are hiding your beauty from them. While you hide the beauty, they will only ever see a misshapen blob.

In my arrogant view, you need to do two major things: the first is to stop looking for somebody to love you right now. Make yesterday your last day of ever having done that. You need to start looking inside you to find love. Without it, OP, nobody is ever going to love you (apart from us and your friends). But romantic love is ded in the water unless you start being in love with you just as you find yourself right now. Like I said earlier, this needs to be your number one priority. Meditation will help; mindfulness based stress reduction will help; understanding the way that your mind works will help (buddhist teachings focus on this). You have to set about this task in the correct way: stop thinking that my words are just nice or that they are positive opinions. Start thinking that my words are just simple truths and go and find the evidence to understand why I am saying these things. I am happy to be here and answer your questions if it would help.

The second thing you need to do is go and read Gary Taubes and then buy his book. In 3-6 months, you are not going to be fat any more. Da-da! Magic! But your problem will still be there unless you find out why you are already beautiful. Someone might end up falling for the new-look you, but it won't last because you will hate yourself secretly and this will lead to trouble, misery, suffering and unhappiness. Gary Taubes will be a great guide to why you are fat and what you can do about it; Dr Atkins was right! You may also find the Diet Doctor helpful and Tommy from Sweden with his blog. Google them and Google LCHF (low-carb, high fat). Being fat will become an option for you, not a life sentence. But thin people are deeply unhappy too; thin people are lonely; thin people can't find people to love them; thin people are in abusive relationships; thin people look to drink, drugs and other such distractions to make their lives bearable. When you step on the scales, you only see the quantity of mass that makes up you; love for yourself doesn't have any effect on the readout.

It matters not a jot if you have known for a while that you don't love yourself. That's the past; it's not real; it's just a memory; this is real; this is an objective experience; this is here and now. Here and now is when you need to start loving yourself.

Wanting what you cannot have is the root of all misery; in buddhist teachings, they call it clinging. Clinging is based on ignorance of things as they really are. Your ignorance teaches you that you are the fat that makes up your body (you're not); it teaches you that love and kindness are always less attractive that buff bodies and pert asses (they're not); it teaches you that if somebody can love you then you might be able to love you (you won't); it teaches you that if somebody loves you right now, they will be deserving of all of your love and you will owe them one (this is wrong). These are all delusions. The delusions lead to you craving the impossible; the impossibility of it all leads to unhappiness; unhappiness leads to loneliness and the circle spins around.

Buddhist teachings, on the other hand, say that you can keep from devaluing yourself. But you are going to have to work at it. Within six months, you are going to be thinner, stronger, healthier, more conventionally attractive. Woo hoo. But you are also going to be mentally stronger; more aware of what really makes you special; more confident; less judgemental; happier; and...you are going to be in a loving relationship with someone!!! That is the guarantee I can offer you if you take the scales off your eyes and look at the truths I have laid out in front of you.

As I said, I'm happy to keep you company on your journey. Start a blog and I'll subscribe; put photos of yourself all over it (remembering that you are already beautiful, wonderful, loveable.

Just think - by October, you are going to be everything that you ever dreamed of. But now, it's time to WAKE UP AND STOP DREAMING!!!

If your gym had that machine where you grab the handles and it tells you a BF% number, I wouldn't put too much trust in that. Honestly 5'11" and 199 doesn't sound like you're in the high risk due to weight category, that being said, if you feel slim but fat, then the gym is a great place to fix that.

Just so you're aware of it /r/fitness is pretty awesome. They will pretty much universally tell you that as a beginner you should start at Starting Strength(SS), or StrongLifts5x5(SL). I will agree with this advice.

You'll get mixed reviews on personal trainers, I did 5 sessions with one a while back, here are some of my thoughts

• Be prepared to do your homework, personal trainers are not nutrition scientists, they are not fitness scientists, they may have a certification that is not terribly difficult to acquire.
  
• Every trainer should talk about diet, it generally plays a lot larger role in achieving (most) goals.
  
• My training sessions left me pretty much immobile for a day - he worked the shit outta me.
  
• Try and focus on learning a good routine and good form, and not just paying them to get through every workout, think "Teach a man to fish...",
  
  *I stopped getting training sessions because no matter how many times I told my trainer that I wanted to focus on compound barbell movements, and instilling good form, I some how ended doing weird, unstructured movements that were supposed to work my 'core'.
  
  On to your questions:
  
  1, Unless you have some fancy reputable trainer, I would not make all your diet decisions on their recommendations. The best thing I did for myself was educate myself to the best of my ability on diet and make eating choices based on that. I can share more but I don't want to get in to the keto vs paleo vs mediterranean vs CountCalLowFatBeMiserable.
  
  2, The programs I mentioned above are highly recommended by reddit's fitness communities, SS is based on a book, SL is based on a website and some shorter PDF style guidelines. I use SL because I like it's program, but SS has notably larger collection of good information on the actual workouts. Don't modify the program, stick to it and learn your forms.
  
  3, If you find the diet the best suits your body, and a fitness plan you enjoy and stick to, and push yourself and actually work at the gym... 9-12 months for 22lbs is probably enough time. Again a lot of it depends on your current health (how fat are you?).
  
  4, Surely he didn't mean 32,000 calories. My advice - don't worry about spacing out your meals or over calculating. As you're starting out, focus on making well informed choices that stick to your plan. You can't just wing it, you should definitely track what you eat, but if you make the right (for your body) changes, you should be able to find a rhythm where you eat when you're hungry, you stop when you're full, and you get healthier.
  
  If you can afford to or have the motivation to, you should get some starting numbers from a visit to the doctor, heart health profile and BF% info can be very useful in deciding what kind of things you should do.
  
  And Finally, I just want to say, educate yourself. I approached getting healthy in a similar way to how you did in your post, and getting 100 different opinions on what to eat what to do was absolutely confusing. When advice I was getting was too confusing, I tried to stick to what doctors recommended, which didn't help either. I read this book, and I'm not going to tell you to base your diet and fitness on this book by any means, but I encourage you to read it only to increase your skepticism of common wisdom.
  
  I'm not an expert, or a doctor, just a dude who learned how my body functions in a healthy way, and made changes to facilitate it, me getting healthy :)
  
  (Edited for formatting)

I second both of the previous suggestions. Most of the recipes I have gotten are from Nom Nom Paleo and Clothes Make the Girl. The latter also has a book called Well Fed. Almost all of the recipes are Whole30 approved, and the Kindle version (which is accessible through the phone app or through cloud reader on your computer) is only $10. It's a great book. There's a sequel, but I don't have that one so I can't speak to it. It is important to note, we like more simple foods, so some of the recipes in Well Fed were a little bit overseasoned. The Creamy spice market kale was the worst offender, the spice blend she has you make is delicious, but a little bit goes a long way!

Here is a list of good websites taken from the Whole30 website

Here are a few of my boyfriend's and my favorite recipes from our current Whole30 (we are on day 28):

Spicy Pineapple Salsa. We used less jalapeno and less red onion, because when the salsa sits in its own juices overnight, these flavors become extremely pungent.

Balsalmic Vinaigrette and the Asian Ginger dressing from this website. We haven't tried any of the other recipes yet, but the two we tried were delicious! We used a little less balsalmic vinegar than was called for, so it would have a bit less bite.

Sweet Potato Hash. I've tried this with a variety of spices and all attempts have been delicious!

This avocado chicken salad was so good that we ate it for lunch for two weeks straight. Of course, after that, we were totally sick of it. Worth it, though.

CHILI! I seriously cannot say enough good things about this Chili. I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio, and this chili is extremely similar to our local fare. Add some cinnamon for extra Cincinnati flavor! We've gone through an average of a batch per week because it is so good. Eat it on baked sweet potatoes. Eat it on sweet potato hash. Eat it on squash. Eat it on veggies. Use it as dip for raw veggies. Eat it with eggs and veggies and sweet potatoes. It's delicious in every way imaginable. AND you can double the recipe and freeze half to save on time. Just make sure that if you double it, you watch the simmer... with a larger batch it takes longer to reach a simmer, and I almost burned mine by turning it up too high to start simmering! This is also a good beginner recipe. It's really easy, and it's so delicious that you'll be shocked you're allowed to eat it. I attribute our Whole30 success largely to the success of this recipe.

Here's a good sausage seasoning recipe. I found that it was difficult to find compliant sausage, so I just bought plain ground pork or chicken and made my own sausage. For chicken sausage, I used Italian seasoning, extra rosemary, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Play around with different flavors! You could even make curry sausage if you wanted to!

Cilantro lime cauliflower rice. I was really skeptical about cauliflower rice at first. But it's actually very delicious. It's a great option if, like me, you don't really like cauliflower. If you make a big batch, reheat it separately. We made the mistake of reheating it with some meat and sauce on it, and reheating with the sauce already on made it a little too squishy.

Bonus: we haven't tried this one yet but it sounds so tasty that I had to share... Pineapple Ginger chicken wings. It says appetizer, but I'm pretty sure I could eat this for a meal and be perfectly happy.

Breakfast casseroles. I don't have a specific link, as I haven't found one online that I like, but if you want, I can give you my favorite breakfast casserole recipe that I've made so far.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope this was helpful!

Congrats on considering going vegan!! I've been vegan for almost 2 years. In terms of energy and strength, I feel just about the same as I always have. I don't feel as sleepy after meals, but that's likely because I started eating healthier in general. I avoid processed carbs and overly sugared things, which makes me feel more energetic. My digestive system is also happier. I had heartburn and constipation problems (TMI, I know), which have entirely disappeared, likely from increased fiber intake and from cutting dairy.

I feel entirely healthy, but I don't think veganism is a miracle cure or magically superior diet. It's just like any other diet: it has the potential to be healthy and provide you with all essential nutrients as long as it is well-planned and doesn't involve too many processed foods.

Make sure you supplement B12! I recommend an actual vitamin supplement. Don't rely on B12 fortified milks and foods, I think they've been shown to be unreliable.

I highly recommend checking out Jack Norris' website for any questions you have regarding nutrition on a vegan diet. I also recommend the book Vegan for Life. It's a quick, comprehensive introduction to meeting your nutritional needs on a vegan diet. Overall, I don't think it's complicated to plan a healthy vegan diet. But I learned a lot about nutrition in general from the book, and I'm better at getting various nutrients now than when I ate an unplanned omnivorous diet.

As for protein options, my two favorites are lentils and tempeh. I have no problem meeting my daily protein requirements, but I don't target the suggested macros on this subreddit (mostly out of laziness). I haven't had any problems building or maintaining muscle. Here's one of my fave lentil recipes and one of my favorite tempeh recipes for inspiration! Any recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz is just delicious. I love the tempeh sausage crumbles served with marinara sauce over spaghetti squash. Yum!

I read /r/vegan a lot, and many new vegans report feeling weak or hungry when they switch. It's almost always because their initial diets are heavy on vegetables, but low on sources of carbs and fat. Fat in particular can easily slip out of a vegan diet, once meat and dairy are cut. Make sure you include nuts and other healthy fats, such as avocado. Don't shy away from oils entirely.

Finally, to make sure you're satisfied on a vegan diet, include umami-rich foods! I really believe that people who become vegan only to succumb to "cravings" for meat and cheese are lacking umami in their dishes. Here's an article that explains umami from another great vegan nutrition blog. And here's a list of ways to add umami to vegan dishes.

Okay...I'll stop writing my novel now! Good luck with your transition, I hope it works out for you :)

Someone pretty much asked this question last week, though he was asking on behalf of his wife. A lot of people found my answer helpful, so I'll repost it here:

I've been vegan for two years, running for two and a half. Things I love:

Curries. Yellow, red, green, all of them. Very versatile, put whatever veggies float your boat. My favorites are yellow potatoes, carrots, peas, bell peppers, onions. Tofu is a MUST for me in curries. Press the excess liquid out (honestly, if your wife is serious about plant-based eating, an actual tofu press is WAAAAY better than using towels and heavy pans) and cube it up. No need to cook it before you throw it into your curry. Also, sometimes I stir in some chunky peanut butter right before I eat it. Serve with white rice, brown rice, quinoa, whatevs. Or just by itself.

Tofu scrambles. These were absolutely essential for me during marathon training last summer. Very quick, easy as hell to make, versatile, and packed with protein, calcium, and iron. Also, one of the few tofu recipes where you really don't have to press the tofu. Getting the excess liquid out is a good idea, but no need to let it press for more than five minutes while you prep your veggies. A good tofu scramble may take a few tries to get the hang of, so I recommend starting with a recipe (like this, for example) but once you've got the hang of it, mix up your veggies and spices to find your favorite combo. I also highly recommend finding some black salt to give your egg-inspired dishes that sulphur-y flavor. ONLY A LITTLE BIT IS NEEDED TO GET THE FLAVOR. Too much, and you and your wife will have the WORST GAS OF YOUR LIVES.

Speaking of eggy stuff, Chickpea salad sandwiches are BOMB. Depending on what spices you use, you can make this more eggy or more chicken-y, or more tuna-y, depending on your mood. My favorite recipe so far has been Thug Kitchen's smoked almond and chickpea salad sandwiches (here) but you can make it way simpler by not bothering with all the almond stuff and just going super basic. This is a tuna-inspired version I love.

I could really go on and on about vegan food, but perhaps the best way to get you and your wife in the right direction is to recommend a few books for you. I have....god, probably like 20 vegan cook books. My top three favorites are:

America's Test Kitchen: Vegan for Everybody - Great pictures, great recipes, and a lot of information on "why this works/why this doesn't work" in vegan cooking. I have been vegan for two years and just recently got this book and it has taught me a lot that I wish I had known all along.

Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a Fuck - The first vegan cook book I ever got, a gift from my husband about a week after I went vegan, and still to this day one of my very favorites. So much basic info (like wtf is nooch), seriously tasty food, and hilariously written (NSFW language). I can't make up my mind whether I recommend this one or the ATK book more, but I'm leaning towards this one.

Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking - someone has already mentioned her blog, which I absolutely recommend as well, but there is SO MUCH on that blog, it can be hard to just find something to make. Dana's cook book takes care of that problem by having 101 of her very best recipes in a really beautiful and well-thought out book. Her recipes are always fun and inspired, and she has some of the tastiest vegan desserts I've ever had the pleasure of making.

Last thought: as far as "vegan recipes for runners" goes, one of the beautiful things about eating a whole foods, plant-based diet is that it's all really good food for runners. As long as you stay mostly away from processed stuff (fake meats made of soy protein isolate, vegan cheeses made of practically nothing but oil), then a vegan diet is going to be beneficial to your wife as a runner. There is a place in your kitchen for some Tofurky deli slices and vegan mayo (my favorite is Hampton Creek's Just Mayo) but keep it mostly whole foods and you really can't go wrong.

I hope this helps.

We're omnivores, not herbivores nor carnivorous (before anyone says it: that means that we can eat meat, not that we must).

About the brain… that's not totally showed and it doesn't mean anything if we kill the oceans in 2048.

All the major dietetics and health organizations in the world agree that vegan and vegetarian diets are just as healthy as omnivorous diets. Here are links to what some of them have to say on the subject:

American Dietetic Association

> It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.

Dietitians of Canada

> A well planned vegan diet can meet all of these needs. It is safe and healthy for pregnant and breastfeeding women, babies, children, teens and seniors.

The British National Health Service

> With good planning and an understanding of what makes up a healthy, balanced vegan diet, you can get all the nutrients your body needs.

The British Nutrition Foundation

> A well-planned, balanced vegetarian or vegan diet can be nutritionally adequate ... Studies of UK vegetarian and vegan children have revealed that their growth and development are within the normal range.

The Dietitians Association of Australia

>Vegan diets are a type of vegetarian diet, where only plant-based foods are eaten. They differ to other vegetarian diets in that no animal products are usually consumed or used. Despite these restrictions, with good planning it is still possible to obtain all the nutrients required for good health on a vegan diet.

The United States Department of Agriculture

> Vegetarian diets (see context) can meet all the recommendations for nutrients. The key is to consume a variety of foods and the right amount of foods to meet your calorie needs. Follow the food group recommendations for your age, sex, and activity level to get the right amount of food and the variety of foods needed for nutrient adequacy. Nutrients that vegetarians may need to focus on include protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B12.

The National Health and Medical Research Council

> Alternatives to animal foods include nuts, seeds, legumes, beans and tofu. For all Australians,
these foods increase dietary variety and can provide a valuable, affordable source of protein
and other nutrients found in meats. These foods are also particularly important for those who
follow vegetarian or vegan dietary patterns. Australians following a vegetarian diet can still meet nutrient requirements if energy needs are met and the appropriate number and variety of serves from the Five Food Groups are eaten throughout the day. For those eating a vegan diet, supplementation of B12 is recommended.

The Mayo Clinic

> A well-planned vegetarian diet (see context) can meet the needs of people of all ages, including children, teenagers, and pregnant or breast-feeding women. The key is to be aware of your nutritional needs so that you plan a diet that meets them.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

> Vegetarian diets (see context) can provide all the nutrients you need at any age, as well as some additional health benefits.

Harvard Medical School

> Traditionally, research into vegetarianism focused mainly on potential nutritional deficiencies, but in recent years, the pendulum has swung the other way, and studies are confirming the health benefits of meat-free eating. Nowadays, plant-based eating is recognized as not only nutritionally sufficient but also as a way to reduce the risk for many chronic illnesses.

From Your vegan fallacy is:

Eating Animals Does Not Cause Disease

>Many human diseases come directly from animals. For instance, pigs and birds carry influenza, pigs and dogs carry whooping cough, and cows carry tuberculosis, smallpox, and cowpox. So when we raise and eat animals, we increase our risk of exposure to these and other diseases. Further, plants contaminated by animal agribusiness runoff can be vectors of salmonella, which is the primary way spinach, peanut butter, and other plant-based foods come into contact with the bacteria.

Other resources

Nutrition Facts

>NUTRITIONFACTS.ORG is a strictly non-commercial, science-based public service provided by Michael Greger, MD, FACLM, launched with seed money and support by the Jesse & Julie Rasch Foundation. Now a 501c3 nonprofit charity, NutritionFacts.org provides free updates on the latest in nutrition research via bite-sized videos. There are now hundreds of videos on more than a thousand topics, with new videos and articles uploaded every day.
>
>Dr. Greger is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. A founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr. Greger is licensed as a general practitioner specializing in clinical nutrition. Currently he proudly serves as the public health director at the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine. His latest book, How Not to Die, became an instant New York Times Best Seller. Dr. Greger receives no compensation for his work on NutritionFacts.org.

Vegan Health and JackNorrisRD.com

> Jack Norris is a Registered Dietitian and the President and Executive Director of Vegan Outreach. Vegan Outreach promotes individual outreach primarily through distribution of our booklets on college campuses through our Adopt a College program. In 2005, Jack was elected to the Animal Rights Hall of Fame.
>
>Along with Ginny Messina, MS RD, Jack has written the book Vegan For Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet.
>
>Jack writes a nutrition blog at JackNorrisRD.com. He is the author of Vitamin B12: Are You Getting It? and maintains VeganHealth.org. Jack earned a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Life University (Marietta, GA) in 2000 and finished his dietetic internship at Georgia State University in 2001.

100-year-old surgeon, WWII vet who retired at age 95 shares secrets to longevity

> Dr. Ellsworth Wareham, 100, a celebrated heart surgeon, still mows his lawn and trims his bushes. He credits his longevity in large part to his vegan diet, which he adopted midlife.

As you see, this is not some kind of 5 years of malnutrition. It's a perfectly viable option and more ethical and environmental than eating dead animals and using them and their products. You'll find more information and people who have been vegan for decades on r/vegan.

My recommendations:

Videos:

1. Tasty videos! They’re short, so you can binge a bunch, but they’re also straightforward and usually on the simpler side. https://youtu.be/zcOsz-dHFe0
   
   
2. “Food Wishes” on YouTube. I’ve been watching them for over a decade - lighthearted, fun learning that takes you step by step through TONS of dishes. I cook almost daily, and I can credit this guy for most of my inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes
   
   
3. Binging with Babish & Basics with Babish. Similar to good wishes, but a little more laid back (which is an accomplishment) and a bit higher production quality IMO. https://www.youtube.com/user/bgfilms
   
   
4. Bon Apetit! Also YouTube. So many fun personalities, everyone has different specialties, it’s like learning from experts that feel like your friends. Carla & Molly have the best recipes and explanations IMO, but they’re all wonderful. https://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom
   
   Websites/Books:
   
   These are more advanced, but Serious Eats (google it) never lets you down when it comes to recipes, but they’re definitely more involved (hours to days).
   
   One of the serious eats writers, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is a PhD Biologist (I think biology...) who wrote The Food Lab. This man is the god of cooking. 100% scientifically and experimentally tested, this book will teach you everything you ever need to know about cooking and then some. HIGHLY recommend getting a copy. The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393081087/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_DgUuDb85KVPJ8
   
   Finally, if you don’t want to drop $20 (it’s dropped by ~60% since I bought it! Definitely get a copy!!!) on that, but want to be healthy and learn easy, flavor packed recipes, pick up a copy of The Thug Kitchen. It’s vegan, but the skills are useful anywhere and I’ve yet to find anyone - carnivores included - that’s disliked a single recipe. I got a copy for myself, my girlfriend, a good friend of mine, and my brother.
   
   Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck (Thug Kitchen Cookbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_miUuDb8363PR2

So I don't actually own these two but I was clicking through the Amazon Gift Guide and they both sparked my interest enough to check them out. They're on my Christmas list for sure haha. :)

• Thug Kitchen
  
  This book is awesome. Seriously awesome. It's wonderfully irreverent, well-illustrated, well-organized, it has plenty of really pitch perfect recipes that are simple and inspiring. Probably my favorite thing about it though is the intro since it has a really great holistic approach to just being in a kitchen and choosing food mindfully which is something I appreciate SO much over just a cookbook that is a list of recipes. All the recipes are vegetarian so just keep that in mind. It's kind of the schtick of the book "hey dumbass, eat more vegetables"
  
  
• The Food Lab - Cooking Through Science
  
  For similar reasons as above, I liked this because it EXPLAINS the process of cooking and not just telling you what to do. This is really helpful for me in understanding what I'm doing and creating a strong mental connection to actually learning it. The intro is once again filled with lots of great insight explaining why you might make the choices you make in a kitchen. It can feel a little bit like a textbook at times, but honestly I kind of like that, especially because it's something I'm highly interested in and motivated to learn. Being both studious and epicurious, I was really drawn to this book as I was learning more about it. I will probably buy this book. The recipes, as I can tell from what I saw, aren't really "health-conscious" per se. I think the bigger downside is the potential to turn into a really really obnoxious food snob. But hey, maybe that's a good thing, too. Lol
  
  

Not diabetic but married to a T1, so although I don't really know what you're going through, I have a little insight.

You've recognised that you need to address your control issues, and that fact alone is huge. You say you have no motivation, but what motivated you to write this post? Think about that and draw from it.

I noticed you mentioned carb counting. My husband has had great success with reducing his overall carb intake. If you can, take a look at Dr Bernstein's book (or at least his website) - he is T1 himself, and after discovering the affect that practically eliminating carbs had on his own blood sugars, he went back to qualify as an MD in order to get his message out. Really interesting read and very informative :) Also his own example (he is a fit and healthy 76 yr old T1D) is inspirational!

Nowadays my husband and I barely eat any carbs and we love it (fried bacon every morning, mm), and his HbA1c's are coming down and down. Get your parents on board. They want to help you, and if they read and take in the contents of the book, I am sure they will get onside and help you make the changes you need to get this under control.

You don't need to talk about the things you've done in the past; they are over and done with. Tell your family and doctor that you want to do more to control your blood, and commit to testing more often and taking better care of yourself. At the end of the day it's your health that's on the line, and the only person who can make it better is you.

I hope this helps a little, and please do come back in a couple of months and update us on how you get on :)

Good luck!

So what is interesting is there seem to be a lot of ways to react to foods. I have seen intolerance mean both autoimmune symptoms and/or gastrointestinal symptoms. Allergy seems to mean something to the effect of celiac or a peanut allergy which can be immediately life threatening. For me I have autoimmune symptoms to almost all of the foods I have problems with. Depending on what it is I'll get headaches pretty immediately after eating and then I'll get joint swelling in different parts of my body. Now after I got through all that the Doctor had me try the FODMAP diet as an elimination diet and I have found that there are a small number of foods that I eat regularly that actually are causing gastrointestinal issues. In my situation my doctor is of the opinion that my small intestine is more permeable due to damage that has happened. That the best way to let it heal is to get things out of my diet that cause distress... so figuring out things that cause gastrointestinal issues is important.

The reason this is hard to figure out is if the problems feel normal to you then you don't realize they are a problem. The elimination diets help because you remove things for a period and reintroduce them. It's basically a science experiment to see if you are having issues with any of those foods.

In my experience I have learned new things about my body and my issues for each diet. They do take a lot of energy to get into because it really does require a lot of attention. By the last ones though I'm pretty used to this and the payoff has been huge for me.

• Increased energy. Being able to exercise without hating life, being able to focus, work long days if i need too.
  
  
• Cognitive focus increased. I can sit and focus on work or a project far longer without being exhausted.
  
  
• Less dependance on meal time. I could not push meal time without becoming really short tempered. It cause me a lot of anxiety and I would keep snacks around in case something happened. I can pretty much skip snacking now and even skip a meal if i need to without it completely wiping me out.
  
  
• Weight loss. I have been trying to lose weight because I was obese for the last 8 years. I was making progress but it was so incredibly hard and painful. Changing my diet without cutting calories and minimal exercise (walking) I lost 25lbs this past year without really trying at all.
  
  
• Improved emotional stability. In my other comment I had written about my mood issues. Getting on thyroid meds helped a lot for the first 5 years or so but the last year with the diets have made a huge difference in my overall patience and ability to stay focused on calm.
  
  I'm not trying to push these at all I am just relating my experience so you can weigh out if it is something that you think might be worthwhile. These are the ones I have tried (in order of what I tried):
  
  
• IMF Elimination Diet Is a good first step.
  
  
• Whole30 I really recommend the book for the recipes, food planning, and cooking intro) there is also a subreddit for support
  
  
• Autoimmune Protocol - There are lots of online resources. This is a great intro book
  
  
• I also had this food sensitivity blood test done which while overwhelming at the time (because I reacted to like 40 things) was really helpful because I found out I had reactions to things like black pepper. You can also use this to do your own elimination diet so you can learn how your body reacts to those foods. It was also a great relief to know I could modify the Autoimmune Protocol diet... which for me was the hardest.
  
  
• FODMAP elimination diet. The Monash University app for iPhone or Android is very helpful for starting the diet.
  
  Anyway I know that is a ton to take in. Sorry for writing a book. I wish you the best luck and hugs* because its very hard when you are first starting out and trying to figure out what works for you. You are doing great to start reaching out and looking though. Keep searching, it will get better!
  

Okie dokie, here are a few tips:

• 1. Check out C25k - It's a structured and widely successful couch (not active) to running a 5k plan. It even has its own subreddit! Great place to start if you are currently not active and want to get into running specifically. Also look into running without heel striking, or also read the book "Born to Run", which is just highly motivational and will get you into the spirit! Here's a download link for an audiobook (torrent).
     
     
     
• 2. I know everyone and their mother's mother has an opinion about the best diet to do, but really I think that the paleo diet is the best all around way to go. Be prepared to ditch all kinds of grains and, if you can manage it, dairy. The best resources for this are Loren Cordain's original work on the subject, and an addendum written by a gym owner named Robb Wolf. I believe this diet, especially when done correctly (i.e. by eating grass fed beef and other high quality meats) has the most sound biological basis, and have also used it to great success (I also happen to recall that you just moved to Arcata, and luckily there is an abundance of high quality grass fed beef around here, as well as wild caught fish and the like). The only reason I am not on it now is because I have moved recently, am still unemployed, and have absolutely no money. I recently did a video blog of my progress on this diet on an 8 week challenge (during which time I dropped a ridiculous amount of weight, over 40 pounds), if you wanna see just PM me, I don't want to post a link to videos of me on Reddit in the open. There is also a subreddit for this, but it's mostly just a circle jerk making fun of vegetarians and showing off what food they ate today. Still though, it can give you some interesting meal ideas.
     
     
     
• 3. Just try to stay active! Hike in the redwood forest, stay on your feet, read up on some basic at home exercises. Supplement the C25K program with some bike riding or something on the off days (it only requires three days a week of running work).
     
     That's what comes to mind! Hope it helps.
     
     
     EDIT - Formatting, and added some links.
     
     EDIT 2 - you asked for websites! This one has an awesome quick start guide and lots of other good stuff. This one has some useful tools. These are the sites of the authors of the books I posted above, I have both books and love them dearly. There are also a TON of data online if you google around!

I worry about what it is going to be like being pregnant and vegan all the time, since I figure it's going to happen sooner than I think! So, I tend to remember some of the resources that I come across.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist, doctor, or medical professional, so these are suggestions for further resources, not scholarly advice.

When you say your diet is "pretty simple," does that mean simple as in a lot of "whole" foods where most of the preparation is done at home? If this is the case, eating a varied, calorically-sufficient diet will do a lot of good--that "well-planned" diet thing. Of course, processed isn't necessarily a bad thing--remember that basics like fortified nondairy milk, tofu, and even seitan are "processed." However, each of these can still be healthy (especially because baked tofu, rice, and veggies is easy and healthy for those nights you/your wife won't want to cook).

As far as supplements, B12 is of course the big one. For a complete look at general vegan nutrition, and some discussion both of vegan pregnancy/raising vegan kids, take a look at Vegan for Life, which is an accessible but science-based look at how to manage macro and micronutrient consumption while being vegan (including a look at supplements.)

You may want to take omega-3, but consult your doctor; I think research is pretty clear these days that they're good for you, but YMMV, especially during pregnancy. Ovega-3 has both DHA and EPA from algae sources; the conversion rate of ALA omega-3s, found in plants, is pretty low and not well understood, so flaxseed oil (while great) is probably not going to suffice.

Colleen Patrick Goudreau discusses supplementation and makes some suggestions for resources.

Pocket reference! The Vegan Guide to Pregnancy is pretty well-reviewed, from what I know, and I hear it recommended. Also, poking around Amazon from there will help you find some additional references. Probably worth it to have a few books on hand, as well as the internet.

Other thoughts:

• Find a supportive doctor! (This you'll probably have to Google.) While I/Reddit/the rest of the internet may kind of know what's going on, a doctor who knows you and your wife and isn't sneering at your diet will be invaluable. Veganism has become (somewhat more) mainstream lately, so you may be able to find resources for that.
  
  
• The people telling you/your wife that the baby needs eggs, milk and dairy probably (at least sort of) mean well, and everybody has a way they did it when they were pregnant, and just look at their little angel--it must be the best way! But most of them probably just don't know any better. So try not to get too upset with them (though if they carry on in such a way for the duration of the pregnancy, no one would blame you.) You can tell them that your doctor disagrees, your wife is in good health, the baby is fine, or something along these lines, and if they continue to harangue you, end the conversation. Arguing about it probably won't end well.
  
  
• Final note: The American Dietetic Association (now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), which is a large network of qualified medical professionals, publicly takes the position that a well-planned vegan or vegetarian diet is appropriate for all people in all stages of life, including pregnancy and infancy. The full statement is here. Long story short? The science/research is on your side here. Do your due diligence and get good prenatal care, and you, your wife, and baby will be fine.
  
  
  Good luck, and congratulations!

My staple dishes are curries, Indian and Thai most recently. I love some curry! You can use tofu, chickpeas, beans, lentils, etc. It's a great way to use up the rest of your veggies and clean the fridge. Curries are so flavorful and easy to make. There are even premade sauces if you don't want to make them from scratch.

• Patak's
  
  
• Archer Farms Curry Sauces
  
  
• Kitchens of India
  
  
• Thai Kitchens Curry Pastes
  
  My favorite cookbooks have been:
  
  
• Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like you Give a F*ck
  
  
• Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen: Traditional and Creative Recipes for the Home Cook Her blog is really great as well: http://www.veganricha.com/
  
  
• Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen
  
  Some other blogs/youtubers I would recommend highly are:
  
  
• Hot for Food Lauren Toyota also has a blog: http://www.hotforfoodblog.com/ (My favorite recipe youtuber)
  
  
• Edgy Veg
  
  
• Mary's Test Kitchen
  
  
• So You're Dating a Vegan
  
  
• Sweet Potato Soul
  
  
• Show Me the Curry
  
  I am always branching out to new foods, Ethiopian is great for vegan cooking as is Indian, Thai, Italian, and Vietnamese. Soon you will take recipes you love and veganize them. Google search recipes you love and just preface it with vegan, the possibilities are endless.
  
  Build up your spice rack! Amazon is great for this, a great suggestion made to me was buy 1 new thing each time you grocery shop to expand your recipes and cooking.
  
  Thanks for your compassionate choice to join us and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

That's just it - I didn't change anything about my diet or meals. Instead, I just kept (and still keep) myself well hydrated. This doesn't mean I obsess about hydration; it's just a basic goal that I think of and consider each time I pee. It takes about half a second; urine is dark then drink some water. After a while, it just became a habit and seems absolutely effortless. And, I notice that I feel better in general when I drink enough to keep my pee close to clear.

​

If you're struggling to find meal plans for vegan diets in general, there are endless resources on the internet. For simple, healthy recipes, I recommend One Ingredient Chef.

​

My personal general suggestions from 15 years of veganism...

• Plenty of fat! Many people struggle with a vegan diet because they don't get enough fat to feel satiated and to maintain energy levels. Olive oil is great (extra-virgin olive oil shouldn't be heated; use "regular" olive oil for cooking or canola oil). Avocado is a also a delicious and healthy source of fat.
  
• Spices. Explore spices; they keep food exciting.
  
• Snack on nuts and fruits. Peanuts are a great combo of fat, protein, and carbs to give you a sense of satiety and prolonged energy.
  
• Experiment! Not everything is going to be nor needs to be a 5-star meal. Try things out and be willing to fail. You learn as much (if not more) from failing as you do from succeeding.
  
• Nothing wrong with having Oreos once in a while!!
  
  ​
  
  You could also look for local vegan groups for meal-planning support. Try Facebook. Or, PM me and I'll be happy to help you find someone/a group near you.
  
  ​
  
  I think one of the biggest problems people have is that they feel overwhelmed by the amount of nutritional advice out there. For good reason: a lot of it is contradictory, the advice constantly changes with the release of new studies, a lot of it is junk science, and it seems impossible to satisfy all the requirements we're given. I subscribe to a much simpler mindset: just eat healthy foods and you'll get the nutrition you need.
  
  ​
  
  Michael Pollan has written a number of books about diet and nutrition. His background is investigative journalism so he's well-suited for analyzing the confusing information out there. And, he's a great author! Michael Pollan has summed up his research in three simple rules:
  
  

1. Eat food. By this, Pollan means "real" food. Whole foods. Natural foods.
   
2. Mostly plants. You're vegan so you're acing this one!
   
3. Not too much. Kind of self-explanatory; don't eat until you're stuffed.
   
   ​
   
   I'll add a fourth rule: eat lots of colors. Different colors typically indicate different nutrients. Eat a lot of colors throughout the day. But, forget brown and tan colors (e.g., potatoes, pasta); they're not unhealthy, they just tend not to provide too much in the way of nutrients so don't go patting yourself on the back because you ate four differently colored potatoes today.
   
   ​
   
   For a quick read, grab a copy of Pollan's Food Rules. Most of the pages are half-blank so it's a quick read. When you're done with that, pick up any of his other books; they're all great.
   
   ​
   
   And, every meal doesn't have to be perfectly balanced. Don't succumb to that kind of pressure. Just eat real food in a lot of colors throughout the day and you should be doing great!

If you're really interested in how diet can affect auto-immune disease, I've been reading this great book called The Paleo Approach by Sarah Ballantyne http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paleo-Approach-The-Sarah-Ballantyne/dp/1936608391 She has a great website too, called The Paleo Mom http://www.thepaleomom.com/ and you can get a good flavour of what her book is about from there.

I originally came from SCD to try and manage my symptoms and had good success, but didn't stick to it longterm enough, and reverted back to normal diet, but then flared up again funnily enough. I'm following it again but with the bonus knowledge I've gained from The Paleo Approach so I've learned what foods are particularly vicious towards auto-immune disease and what encourages heeling. Bone broth being particularly great as you've found doing the intro, and boosting vit D3 and Omega3 foods as much as poss through food mainly, with a wee top up of multi -vitamins each day.

When you haven't got bone broth to hand, as its a bit if chore to make continuously, I have a couple of glasses of hot fruit juice with a spoonful of gelatine in. Gelatine has been proven to aid digestion, and is supposedly quite good at helping babies cope with consuming milk, so may help if you are finding issues with dairy related products. I only have hard cheeses myself and cope well with the SCD yogurt anyway, but the bonus effect of it suppisedly helping to heal the mucosal lining jn your intestine makes it worth a punt. This is gelatine made from animals products by the way.

On the idea of Paleo diet, there is also what's called the auto-immune protocol which is a bit like the SCD starter diet in a way, give that a google for more info.

The best thing your mom can do is self educate - learn as much about the current information as she can. Knowing how diet can help control T2D is such valuable information.

Here is a really good book, written by a medical doctor who is now in his 80's and has been a diabetic since his teens. https://www.amazon.ca/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699
I think this is a good place to start. He also has a web site with lots of video lectures on various topics for both T1 & 2D . Also, I have found trying to find ready-made Low Carb/Keto/Diabetic premade food was hard to find and VERY expensive. It is not that hard to make great food at home that is based on whole food and is high in nutritional value. Now that she is a T2D she must change her lifestyle and relationship with food to live a healthy and complications free life.
I have now been on a full keto diet for 4 years and my T2D is totally under control - with NO MEDS. I was taking 3 kinds of meds before changing my diet.
Here is my playlist of Keto foods that have keept my BS in the very healthy normal range. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWxb2cfHHa24T7pXv6ssnDw/playlists

If you want to help your mom, the best thing is to learn with her about T2D and how a very low carb diet can make a huge difference. Supporting her journey will encourage her and the support is so appreciated (I love that my family are 100% helping keep to my keto lifestyle- they see how much it helped me)> Let me just complement you – you are amazing for wanting to do this for your mom. Best of luck to her and may she get her T2d UNDER CONTROLE!

Hope this helps. CHeers

U/4thShift offers a lot of the same sort of advice I'm following. I've recently gone through the transition to eating low carb in order to try and normalise my blood sugars. This is after nearly 10 years with terribly controlled diabetes, despite (almost) every effort - regular blood glucose testing, adopting the insulin pump , educating myself on carb counting including estimating etc. I was following the track that I can eat whatever I want as long as I bolus for it. But it really didn't work. Large amounts of carb cause spikes and I haven't heard of anyone who is able to normalise BGLs on a high carb diet.

BUT- the first piece of good news is that low carb is becoming adopted more as a solution that works among diabetics , both types. So there are lots of people who can share their strategies and there are resources to help. I don't describe myself as a "ketoer" but most of the recipes are diabetes friendly due to being low carb . I am picking a few of my favourite foods and drawing on keto recipes as well as the information in this complete guide to normalising blood glucose levels . It's a lot of information and I bought a little notebook to take important notes that I need to remember , and carry in my handbag and whip it out every now and then to go through to embed them into my psyche... A lot of what is in the book is here in video format

It's hard work but having my own highly supportive SO helps and he is also following the same sort of eating (in general, which I'm very grateful for, it really does help). Incidentally one of my favourite recipes is the fathead pizza. I weigh my dough and make own pizza to eat to ensure carb counting . It fills me more so I don't want to gulp down a whole piZza like I used to and I actually prefer the taste. I also get upset about missing out on certain things but there a loads of dessert recipes (some in the boook above). The pain is that you do have to make all yourself. Can't just pop into the cheesecake shop on the way home.

The second piece of good news is, because your SO is newly diagnosed, he will still have functioning beta cells. I remember my honeymoon period... those first six months were much easier to keep BGLs down because of those cells. If you can maintain their function by avoiding burning them out (as I understand ). I can't tell you how motivating and inspiring it is , after ten yeArs, to find out that I can potentially normalise BGLs as a type 1 diabetic. I'm hoping to achieve a normal A1C and consequently reverse my complications which have started to rest their ugly head. I wish I had the knowledge sooner, perhaps one way to look at the situation.

I miss being able to eat whenever I want, but less so each day I get into it. Meanwhile, when I do eat I am choosing things I always liked to eat (cheeses, bacon, mayo/Avocado chicken, breads but the low carb almond versions , lots of decadent creamy sauces in vegetables, low carb cheesecake etc) .

I wish you all the best. Hope something here and above helps. Your SO is very lucky to have you.

/r/keto

I was 246lbs in November of last year. About a month ago I was 196. Been hovering around there since then 'cause I've been traveling and unable to diet properly, but it's a great diet.

It's a more radical version of what is known as the 'Paleolithic' diet. The gist of that diet is that humans survived and indeed thrived and evolved on a diet that was high in animal protein, fat, and vegetables. The only source of sugar being fruit. For the majority of human history, that was our diet.

Then came the Industrial Revolution and new forms of processed wheat that were cheaper and easy to mass produce. The FDA recommended diet of 300g of carbohydrates a day -- a high carb/low fat diet -- coincides exactly with the rise in obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related illnesses.

There's an excellent documentary called The Perfect Human Diet that goes into great detail about the paleolithic diet. And more information on why wheat is bad for you can be found in a book called Wheat Belly.

Anyway, /r/keto is like a paleolithic diet but without fruit. So it's pretty much protein, fat, and vegetables. I don't consider it a sustainable diet or one that could be a lifestyle, but it's good for weight loss. The way it works is that, when your body runs out of carbohydrates to burn for energy, it goes into ketosis and starts burning fat for energy.

Turns out, it's much more efficient that way. Back before I ate keto/paleo, I'd have the bowl of cereal for breakfast or something high in carbohydrates, get a burst of energy, and need a nap by 11AM. Now I eat bacon, eggs, sausage for breakfast and I'm good until 1 or 2PM.

I lost a lot of weight, I never felt hungry because I could eat all the meat and cheese and fat and vegetables I wanted provided I stayed under 20-30g of carbohydrates (and stayed within a reasonable calorie limit).

It's really a dream diet, and in addition to losing weight, I just feel healthier. I lost around 50 pounds, and I'm happy where I am under 200, so I've reintroduced fruit into my diet in small forms, and some carbohydrates -- but from things like beans and potatoes and whatnot rather than processed wheat.

Honestly, it was a lifechanger. I was at a 44 waist, and now I'm at a 34. Once I start exercising to get rid of the remaining belly fat, I'll be set.

It's actually really easy. Beans + rice or beans + corn and you have a complete protein. I eat tacos, burritos, Thai, Indian (vegan curry), black bean burgers, and stir fry all the time. I thought all vegans were hungry skellies too before I gave it a shot, and it turns out it's really cheap and easy. It is only ever difficult to eat vegan at restaurants because everything seems to have milk or cheese, but I am doing the best I can and don't sweat the small stuff. My BF eats meat but these days at home he doesn't bother because he loves my cooking.

Edit: If anybody is interested in the nutrition of a plant-based diet or would like to try some delicious recipes, I would highly recommend

1. Vegan for Life which is written by two registered dietitians. This book discusses how to feed yourself properly and what vitamins you need (looking at you B12) to make a vegan lifestyle sustainable.
   
   
2. Thug kitchen Is a funny, no-nonsense book which showcases a lot of delicious recipes which I use every week
   
   
3. Some documentaries that I really enjoy sharing which are available on Netflix are:
   
   

• cowspiracy - the environmental impact of consuming meat and meat products
  
  
• Forks Over Knives - discusses nutrition and the effects of consuming animal products and oil and the links between these products and cancer. Big focus on the China Study
  
  
• Food Matters - another nutrition one.
  
  I want to point out that the last two really push the message that 'FOOD CURES ALL' and that is a bit of an extreme message imo. A good diet certainly leads to good health, but modern medicine exists for a reason.
  

TL,DR-If this type of dieting works for you, then have at it. Frankly, the diet you propose isn't something appealing to me, and is opposed to my fitness and aesthetic goals, which require greater yields of protein and fat to achieve. Most distance runners look like shit to me, and I don't wish to emulate their physiques in the least, but if you are looking to reap the benefits of a raw food or raw vegan diet, then have at it. I'd prefer to have the physique of Rob Riches crossed with Tom Hardy from Warrior, so I train and eat accordingly.

> The ideal macronutrient ratio for humans is ~80% carbs, ~10% protein, ~10% fat.

Where in the balls did you read this before? How in the world do you think our ancestors managed to thrive and evolve during the millennia prior do that advent of agriculture?

By shoveling handfuls of nuts down their gullets? Doubtful, as the nuts would have high fat content and skew your ratios. By eating pounds of wild berries that were laying around? Even if that be the case, which it wasn't, we have genetically manipulated the fruit in our grocery stores today to make them "sweeter" than that eaten by our ancestors.

You also realize that excess carbs that you don't burn get stored by your body as fat, right?

Serious question. Are you some fruitarian or a disciple of Dr. Graham, because that is the only source I've seen that jocks your ratios.

> Caveat: If someone is under-eating on calories for fat loss, it's important to get enough protein to limit lean muscle loss, so the ratios might be different for those people

The ratios are absurdly different for most persons. If you have any lean muscle whatsoever or are looking to add lean muscle in any kind of weightlifting regimen, such a paltry protein yield would be unable to maintain or enable the growth of muscle.

Protein is also inherently thermogenic, since you burn around 30% of the calories you consumed simply by metabolizing it, while diets with higher fat and protein ratios are more likely to satiate one's appetite than a high-carb diet, so you aren't as apt to "overeat." Consider, how many of the stories on here are about fatties eating chips, french fries, sweets, candy, and drinking soft drinks? There are no stories about fatties gorging themselves on something higher in protein and fat like wings or beef jerky.

> Most professional endurance athletes (including all those super-fast Kenyan runners) eat something very close to this ratio.

Most human beings aren't professional endurance runners or even recreational ones, and as I noted, for persons looking to do things like gain lean muscle, such a diet would be opposed to such a goal. I concur that a person who does a lot of steady state cardio such as someone who trains a lot in distance running, cycling, and swimming would benefit from a greater ratio of carbs in his diet than a strength athlete.

> But UNREFINED carbs (fruit, veggies, etc.) are pretty much the most health-promoting foods around.

Dude, whether it's mere fructose or high fructose corn syrup makes little difference. It's still a carbohydrate, and fructose from fruits can also lead to fat gain. Again, Taubes addresses this in his work which I referenced elsewhere in the thread, so pick up that book if you wish to read the argument he laid out.

> But UNREFINED carbs (fruit, veggies, etc.) are pretty much the most health-promoting foods around.

Again, where are you reading that I am against all fruits and veggies in diet or that they are all unhealthy? I noted that broccoli and cauliflower have excellent attributes making them "super foods," and that fruit can be enjoyed by healthy individuals.

I love being vegan, but I definitely didn't experience most of the health benefits you're seeing... it took me a while to adjust to the diet. Good for you nonetheless. Congrats on becoming vegan!

2) There are lots of good protein sources, and they'll add up throughout your day. Some major protein sources for me are beans, oatmeal, quinoa, peanut butter, peanuts and almonds, and soy milk. Veggies have some protein too. Also, I absolutely love Clif Builder Bars. They're vegan and have 20g of protein per bar. Perfect for when you can't cook.

3) When I was a few months into being vegan, I picked up Vegan for Life from the library. This book is amazing and gives you lots of meal ideas and solid nutritional advice for being a vegan in every stage of life. It told me a lot of things I wish I had known earlier, like getting omega-3s from flax and canola oil and where to get all my vitamins.

4) If you check the packaging first, there are many "accidentally vegan" snacks out there. Twizzlers, Wheat Thins and Triscuits, pretzels, Fritos, non-butter popcorn, lots of chips, Oreos, granola bars, Swedish Fish... the list goes on. Google "accidentally vegan" and look through some lists, I'm sure you'll find things you like. Not to mention you can find ways to veganize almost any baked good.

First of all, thank you and congradulations for supporting your daughter on her vegan journey! I wish more parents were supportive.

Check this out first: The Plant-Based diet food guide

Beans and greens should be the cornerstones of a healthy vegan diet. You want to cook lots and lots of legumes (beans, lentils, peas). They're the best vegan source of protein, as well as an excellent source of folate, calcium, and iron. Super important! Also, greens. That's where vegans are going to get most of their calcium (unless they drink a lot of fortified plant milk). You also want to make sure she's getting a tablespoon of either chia or ground flaxseed every day, for adequate intake of Omega-3. I put mine in a green breakfast smoothie to start the day with a kick!

I recommend you watch the documentary "Forks Over Knives." It will change the way you think about food. It's on Netflix. They have a companion cookbook that's pretty decent. I also like both of the China Study cookbooks, and the Health Promoting Cookbook. As you can see, I have a bias for the whole-food plant-based version of veganism. I'm going to assume that as a mother, you want the healthiest diet for your kids. She'll find plenty of delicious vegan junk food when she's out with her friends, so cooking whole foods at home is a great way to set a solid foundation for life. Good for the rest of your family, too!

Some great vegan dishes: beans & rice; bean burritos; chickpea curry (watch the coconut milk, it's high in fat and that's actually a much bigger risk factor for diabetes than carbs); lentil stew (which is awesome when you're short on time, because lentils don't require soaking; of course you can also use canned beans when you're in a hurry); tofu and veggie stir fry. You can also take almost any recipe and veganise it by swapping out the meat for tempeh or tofu, and using extra marinade or sauce. For snacks, raw veggies with hummus, nuts and seeds, raisins, and green smoothies are all really healthy and delicious. I start every day with a breakfast smoothie of kale, mixed fruit and berries, and flaxseed. I use a high powered blender (Vitamix or Blendtec) to break down the tough fibres and cells walls. That helps nutrient absorption as the food is already masticated.

While they're tasty and popular, I try and stay away from the fake meats and cheeses. They're vegan junk food. They might provide some protein, but you're far better getting that from whole plants like beans, chickpeas, and lentils.

As for the pasta-diabetes link, don't worry! A low-fat plant-based diet has been shown to halt and even reverse diabetes in even the most advanced cases. Check out the book "Starch Solution" by Dr. John McDougall. He's actually reversed diabetes in his patients by feeding them a low-fat vegan diet based on rice, pasta, and potatoes. He's got tons of videos on YouTube. My mom has been plant based for only a month, and her fasting blood sugar has already come down from 12 to 8 in just that short of time. But that being said, pasta made from refined white flour is complete garbage, it's basically table sugar with a multivitamin ground in. Yech.

>if even half of what it said was true then im dropping all animal products.

Yes it's all true. (The movie was dramatised, but the facts are all real). If you don't want to be associated with animal rights don't worry about it, just call yourself "plant-based" and do what's best for you (it still helps the animals anyway) :-)

>also do vegans eat durum wheat noodles, and what is your view on peanut butter?

You can eat any wheat products, but check that they have no egg or powdered milk in the recipe.

Peanut butter is fantastic! It's best to eat the 100% peanuts one, without the oil/fat/sugar/salt/preservatives. But you might want to combine it with jam or maple syrup if it's not sweet enough for you. (and then just use less, and less jam as you get used to the taste).


>how much fruit is too much if that random thing i heard is true?

The only time you could have too much fruit would only be if it stopped you from eating other healthy foods. Ideally you want to eat from every food group (fruit/veg/grains/beans/nuts) to get the best of everything. E.g. wheat noodles, with tomato/basil/lentil pure sauce (basically bolognase) and then have some diced apple and walnuts (they go really well together) for desert :-)



Try being plant-based/vegan for 3 weeks and see how you feel. You can always go back.
For more information go to pcrm.org/kickstart or any one of these books below are great, they are written by doctors(most of them were in What the Health), so you won't have to worry about missing anything, complete with recipes :-)

• https://www.amazon.com/Starch-Solution-Regain-Health-Weight/dp/1623360277
  
  
• http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7509230-the-get-healthy-go-vegan-cookbook
  
  
• http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3359298-the-engine-2-diet
  
  
• https://www.bookdepository.com/Forks-Over-Knives-Gene-Stone/9781615190454
  
  
• http://www.booktopia.com.au/the-end-of-dieting-joel-fuhrman/prod9780062249333.html?source=pla&gclid=CjwKEAjwsqjKBRDtwOSjs6GTgmASJACRbI3fVJLcA3KLprpPhk0X91TExviYldBux5vA1xJSSfc2uRoCxV3w_wcB
  
  
  >but then i thought about how steve jobs was crazy and ate only fruit or something then got pancreatic cancer.
  
  There is an excellent explanation about Steve Jobs' cancer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9B-A6X7Y4A
  

Hey everyone! It is a gorgeous sunny day so I took my strength training workout to the beach today. Hooray! I have also lost 2 inches from my waist this month so I am beyond happy.

I also got the "last resort" sports bra from Title9 and am SUPER impressed. Love love love it!

I have no recipes. I have literally been so bad at cooking lately. I will throw out there though that my favorite cookbook in the universe is definitely the Well Fed cookbook. I have made about half of the recipes and love 99% of them.

Hey, that's awesome!

First and foremost, educate yourself about nutrition. Seriously, nobody wants to further affirm the stereotype of the malnourished vegan, especially as an athlete or with somewhat athletic ambitions.

For nutritional information I would recommend the following resources:

Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet: A book with a lot of nutritional information.

Veganhealth: Website that has all the information about nutrients that need attention in a vegan diet and more. (Especially read up about B12 and take a supplement! I take the one I linked, because it's super cheap and vegan.)

Learn about complete proteins.

 

There are websites aimed at vegan athletes like these:

Tips from a Vegan Athlete plus meal recommendations

Meal Plan, information and a real life vegan bodybuilder

Some possible problems and their solution


 

Other stuff:
List of vegan athletes: Great as an inspiration and for that moment when people will try to tell you that it's impossible to build muscle on a vegan diet.

I love tofu, which has a lot of (complete) protein and I especially like this recipe.

Eat tofu, seitan and for the cheapest option rice with beans, lentils, chickpeas etc. Also plant milks, bananas, spinach, oatmeal, nut butters...


 

As a new vegan, you might find some of the things useful I posted yesterday. Skip the text at the beginning and especially take a look at the things about nutrition. I like to recommend the accidentally vegan foods as well.

Good luck! If you have any questions feel free to ask :)

I would strongly recommend Phinney and Volek's book I linked. I have not read Dr. Jason Fung's book but it appears to be strongly recommended as well. There are also a few MDs here who do recommend or follow the keto diet. /r/ketoscience is also a great place that your wife would be able to dig into actual research articles and make her own decision.

I am a nurse who lost 45 lbs in 3 months plus 10-inches off my waist a couple years ago and easily maintained that weight loss until I stopped emphasizing a keto diet. I did this while several of my co-workers told me what I was doing "could not work" or "was dangerous" and over the same time they struggled to lose 10 lbs I lost 4 times as much. My cholesterol panel is perfect regardless of my diet or weight, so good genetics there with a small improvement on keto.

During that time I was able to discuss the diet with cardiologists, nephrologists, endocrinologists, and internal medicine doctors:

• Out of about 10 MDs probably half were against it but did not substantiate why beyond "I don't like low-carb/keto diets" (I'm sure the objections were valid however these were hallway conversations with busy men and true discussion probably wasn't reasonable at the time)
  
  
• A nephrologist didn't like it but admitted that in an otherwise healthy individual it did not pose a risk to kidneys and no amount of protein intake in an otherwise healthy individual would pose a risk to them
  
  
• A cardiologist admitted that as long as your cholesterol profile was not at risk it was probably safe as long as it did not raise your profile
  
  
• An internal med doctor discussed it at length with me because of my weight loss and confirmed he had heard it was effective for weight loss, did not raise cholesterol, and had several questions as well as asking who I had discuss it with
  
  
• The strongest supporter I had was an endocrinologist who strongly supported low-carb diets for his patients and was also a Crossfit guy and had been low-carb (although not necessarily keto) himself for over 10 years.
  
  Ultimately, your wife may not be swayed that this is the best way. But at least she may realize it should not be dangerous to try.

Everyone can do it. Here is my advice:

Preparation

1. Do not jump straight in. First understand what you are doing, why and how it works, and what the risks are. Spend at least a few days on this section.
   
2. Keto In A Nutshell contains useful material. Read it.
   
3. FAQ Contains a lot of information. Read it, then read it again.
   
4. reddit.com/r/keto Contains a lot of real life questions and answers, experiences and support. Search here to see if others have had your question (they probably have).
   
5. Watch some YouTube videos on Keto. There's a lot of good stuff there.
   
6. Watch some general-audience movies about eating better. I recommend FatHead and That Sugar Film as starting points.
   
7. Get a good book. I recommend The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living, and The Big Fat Surprise
   
8. Be aware that there is a lot of conflicting information on the internet, and not everyone knows everything.
   
   

   Planning
   

9. Commit to a 30 day trial period. Weigh yourself and take a candid profile selfie as your starting point. If you want, you can get blood drawn and have the LDL/HDL/Triglyceride values as your starting point.
   
10. Give away all the sugar and flour, cereals and pasta you have in your house. You don't need them and they will be temptations.
    
11. Consider any trips you have during this time. You will need containers to take your own food with you.
    
12. Take a look at /r/mealprepsunday - many people on keto like to do their weekly shopping and preparation at the weekend.
    
13. Take a look at the Keto Calculator, play around with it and get your values. Plug these into MyFitnessPal or some other tracker, so that you can track everything you consume.
    
14. Think about your habits. Do you drink sugary drinks? Are you a bread addict? What will you do instead? Don't be surprised about this.
    
15. Get familiar with the macronutrient content of foods. This site http://nutritiondata.self.com/ helped me.
    
    

    Grocery shopping
    

16. Green leafy vegetables, cauliflower are always going to be needed
    
17. Eggs (fried, scrambled, devilled, poached, boiled...) are your friends
    
18. Meats and organ meats of all kinds, especially the fatty cuts are the best.
    
19. Butter, ghee, lard, tallow, olive oil are some of your better choices for fats
    
20. Many people do well with cheese, greek yogurt, full fat cottage cheese etc.
    
21. Bones for making broth
    
22. Take a look at (cheap) electrolyte salts for supplementing during your 30day trial.
    
    

    Doing
    

23. Don't accept meals / cookies / doughnots / cake from family and co-workers. Your response could be "I'm reducing my sugar intake".
    
24. Don't go hungry. It will take a few days for the natural satiety of this diet to take effect.
    
25. Eat a traditional 3 meals a day. Only skip a meal if you are confident you can make it to the next meal. Don't add additional meals or snacks. Don't get side tracked by all the talk of fasting. Fasting is not mandatory.
    
26. Track your food intake honestly in a food tracking app or tool. This includes calories, but is more useful to you as a history of what caused satiety and what caused hunger.
    
27. Focus on high fat, low carb food items such as eggs, avocados, meat as being the center of your meal, with veggies filling out the plate for taste and volume.
    
28. Never drink anything with calories. You are going to be a tea-totaller during this month. Black coffee and teas are fine, as is water.
    
29. You may test your pee with ketostix if you wish, during the initial period, but there are problems with this kind of testing. Also: don't tell us about your results.
    
30. keep a journal of your sleeping habits, dream intensity, well-being, energy levels, hunger levels etc.
    
    

    Correcting
    

31. If things are not going as planned, ask here for advice. Especially:
    
32. Skin rashes or zit outbreaks, racing heart, headaches, lethargy.
    
33. If you eat something you shouldn't have, don't worry. Figure out what your kryptonite is and plan for a better response next time.
    
    Good luck!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live and Dr. John McDougall's The Starch Solution. Both books explain how a whole-food, plant-based diet is the diet for obtaining optimum health.

Dr. Fuhrman has a wonderful "TED talk" on YouTube in which he presents six case studies of individuals who completely turned their health around by adopting his recommended way of eating. Here is the video. It is so joyful, so uplifting--I highly recommend it. (I especially like the last five minutes which features the healthy family he raised on this nutrition plan.)

Here is a post on Dr. McDougall's Web site from an individual who lost 106 pounds in one year by following Dr. McDougall's diet. This post is especially valuable because of the chart the person includes showing how a number of biomarkers like his lipid panel improved over the course of the year. He also includes stunning before-and-after photographs. Even more valuable is the fact that this individual kept an online journal here in which he logged everything he ate during this remarkable year-long transformation. It is really a revelation to see the stunning health improvements which can be achieved by eating such simple, satisfying foods.

Good luck. I hope you find a solution which works for you.

There’s this cook book called “Eat Like You Give a Fuck”. It’s a cheap cook book with cheaper and easier recipient. Do note it’s a vegan cook book but it’s great, tasty and healthy food that’s vegan. Many recipients are worth trying out because it’s based off of street food and such. No need to go full vegan obviously but it’s my fave cookbook. Through the book it tells you where you find the ingredients in the super market it walks you through super well how to make the food and it teaches you certain things to have proper cooking technique. It’s really such an outstanding beginner book. I can’t speak highly enough of it.


Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck (Thug Kitchen Cookbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_2wYJDbV4VDJ06

Any time, buddy :)

The book that helped change my attitude towards sleep and how to do it correctly is a fun look at tons of large-, small- and anecdotal-scale studies on sleep called Night School by Richard Wiseman

The one that helped me understand how my digestive system works and how to eat so that it functions properly is the massive, zombie-bludgeoning tome The Paleo Approach by Sarah Ballantyne Don’t let the cover and title scare you, it’s not a cliche, upper-middle class fad diet book. She deep dives into how the whole digestive system works in the larger system of your body and makes it very understandable. I was eating a food pyramid + junk food Canadian diet before and now that I’m not constantly full of inflammatory food my bp symptoms are so much better. I am still bipolar; it’s not a cure, but diet is massively linked to mental illness.

As to the weed: cut back, friend. I was an almost every day smoker. Told myself all the same stuff, it’s not physically addictive, it’s helping take the edge off my mood, etc. Seriously, I tracked my mood, diet, sleep and habits meticulously for 2 years. Weed was the biggest factor in mood swings. Always 2 days later. I enjoy it maybe twice a month now when I want to do something nice for myself like a happy sativa and a beach stroll or to make housework more fun. I save so much money I now use for cooler, far more memorable experiences and it takes so little bud now to get a nice toasty high going. A wise pothead once said to me: weed should be used to enhance life, not avoid it.

Good luck!

My best resources have been cookbooks, honestly! Every Sunday I pick something that appeals to me and try it. I've learned to appreciate and prepare different veggies in all different ways. And that has opened me up to a lot of veggies I never ate before: beets, cabbage, ALL of the beans. Before I would always buy new veggies to try with good intentions, but just never knew what to do with them.

I know there's some debate over their style, but I really like the Thug Kitchen books. The recipes are pretty easy and creative. I also LOVE Veganomicon specifically because it has a lot of basics and is a good starting point. I recommend checking it out!

Online, I like onegreenplanet.org. They have a LOT of recipes.

Hey man, when I started this I had roughly the same stats as you. A few months later, I'm at about 50 pounds lost and far fitter.

I hope you're a reader because my suggested first step is to read Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes. It helped me immensely to understand why, scientifically, I was the way I am. Once I knew, I made the appropriate changes.

For me, the first 30 pounds was diet change alone. No more sugary sodas or processed foods; I typically don't eat anything that comes in a box. My meals consist of grass-fed or free-range meats and organic fruits and vegetables; I don't count calories or fat or anything, I just make sure I know what I'm putting in my body. This goes a long way in making you healthier overall.

Once I dropped the 30 pounds, I started Couch to 5K (C25K) but I truly could've started at the beginning of my journey, I was just lazy. I'm in the forth week of the C25K program, which is about 15 minutes of running separated by small walking breaks, and it's an amazing high when I finish. Just today when I started the first run, I was about a minute in before I had to start breathing heavier. I couldn't go up five steps without wheezing; now I can sprint and it's a piece of cake. IT FEELS AWESOME.

That combined with the consistent, sensible eating has got me to 50 pounds lost and still dropping.

To sum up, STUDY why you're the way you are. CHANGE YOUR DIET and a great subreddit is /r/paleo to help you make wiser eating choices. START RUNNING NOW with C25K and guess what, another great subreddit for that at /r/c25k.

Power through that first week and trust me, it becomes an addiction and a joy, not a struggle.

While I agree that there's more to this issue (see other comments), I'm going to try to answer some of your actual questions.

To deal with nutrients in general, you can pick up recipes from books like this and start sneaking stuff into his food. In my opinion, it's not a great strategy, as he's an adult and should be in charge of his own dietary health, but one that might help in the short term.

My husband is very picky, as well, but I have found some ways to make a couple of vegetables so that he'll eat it. For example, he hates tomatoes, but he'll eat cherry tomatoes if I "caramelize" them but putting them on the stovetop and letting them blacken and burst a bit. He'll eat vegetables in soups and stews, if they are soft. He'll eat peas, but only young, sweet peas. You get the idea... You might just have to keep trying different preparations until you figure out something he likes. The definition of a "weird" texture is different for everyone, so you have to figure out what textures he likes and work from there.

You can also try to modify his current diet with healthier alternatives. Will he eat chicken? That's healthier than steak, cheaper, and has endless preparations. Any kinds of fish? Will he eat pizza with a cauliflower crust? I just made my husband a "pizza" on a portobello mushroom cap (grilled in the toaster oven, so it was soft and warm) that I thought he'd hate (I was planning to eat it for lunch the next day), but he loved it! Other healthy alternatives could be greek yogurt instead of sour cream, almond/soy milk instead of cow's milk, etc...

It's great that you want to prepare meals for him - I'm like that, too, and totally get it - but there comes a point where you are going to sacrifice your own health and food happiness to cater to him (trust me, I've been there!). Maybe for some meals, make him his faves; for some, make something new for him to try (can be just a side dish, so it doesn't ruin the meal if he doesn't like it); for some just make some food for yourself and leave him to make his own choices.

I hope this helps a little!

Good job on practicing HAES!

See your doctor and explain your issue, first to make sure your meds aren't messing you up too much, and to see if you can afford or if your doctor can prescribe (so insurance covers) a visit to a registered nutritionist or dietitian. They can probably offer some very specific ideas to you that meet your vegan and gluten-free requirements but still will cover basic nutrients.

If you can't see a dietitian or nutritionist, or continue to struggle to eat, ask your doctor if they recommend a vitamin for you. (Some doctors don't or they might interfere with your medication for your bipolar or thyroid stuff.)

I agree with other commenters who say to give yourself permission to enjoy the few foods you do enjoy. If you like simple things like mac and cheese, try doing things like adding stuff into it even if you start with a frozen or from-box dish. Add a can of diced tomatoes, chickpeas, and corn. Voila! A new dish with some extra calories and nutrients.

If you want to check out a fun cooking resource (in case it will jump start feeling more motivated about cooking), try ThugKitchen.com. They're not all gluten-free recipes, but they're vegan and probably can be modified relatively easily to be gluten-free. Cookbook here:
http://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417689868&sr=8-1&keywords=thug+kitchen

Think about what you currently like eating, and then look up vegan alternatives. That was how I went about transitioning (omni to vegan). While I don't eat too much vegan cheese or "meats" anymore, it really helped to have those as a yummy crutch.

Also, make sure that you're eating enough on a vegan diet. It takes more of the good stuff to fill you up, and a lot of people quit because they feel weak and hungry.

For cheapness, check out The Starch Solution (http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1623360277). It's pretty much the cheapest diet out there, and you can always add whatever leafy greens are on sale on any given week. Edit - Not that you're doing this to lose weight, necessarily, but it's always nice to have dietary guidelines to follow at first to make sure you're getting everything that you need

When I went vegan I spent a lot of time watching things like Earthlings, and while I wouldn't necessarily recommend dwelling on things like that (it made for a very depressed easmsm), it will stick in your mind as a reason to refrain from dairy and eggs and meat. There are definitely more vanilla versions out there (check out Bite Sized Vegan on Youtube, she's an inspiration of mine).

I quit cold turkey and I haven't been back since. Thank you for considering this change! You're awesome.

Another edit - Check out the sidebar as well! The Beginner's Guide/FAQ are a great resource!

I am a soldier who has to work to keep slim. As a result, I've educated myself some about nutrition, and there are a few things that I've found work.

First off, at 600+ lbs, you should consider seeing a doctor to see whether a hormonal imbalance of some sort is driving your weight gain. A thyroid disorder is entirely capable of driving that sort of gain. You should also consider seeing a physician that specializes in this sort of weight issue, because weight loss at those weights can come with special medical requirements.

You also need to psychologically steel yourself--not for the hunger, or for the work, but rather for how long becoming slim is actually going to take. I am currently helping one of my soldiers lose weight, and it's a constant battle to make this person understand the weight will not all come off in one month. You said you lost weight, but then would gain it all back. As one who has been there, I can tell you it's a result of losing sight of your milestones and goals, and falling back on the habits that got you where you are in the first place.

You also need to arm yourself with knowledge: LEARN HOW YOUR BODY WORKS! If I could recommend a single book that would really get you on the way, it'd be You On A Diet by Doctors Roizen and Oz. A close second would be Why We Get Fat and What We Can Do About It by Gary Taubes. These two books will give you great insight into how your body works, down to details like what foods will sate your hunger pangs and which will cause your body to accumulate fat. One of the most insightful things I learned from these books is that it is possible for your body to be starving, even as you get fat. Please read these two books. Hell, I'll even purchase them and send them to you if you promise me you'll read them.

One key piece of knowledge is calories in, calories out. While there is a lot of nuance to this, at the end of the day I've found that counting calories gives me predictable results. READ THIS, IT'S IMPORTANT:
YOU NEED ABOUT 2,000 CALORIES PER DAY TO LIVE
ONE POUND OF FAT CONTAINS 3,500 CALORIES
IF YOU RESTRICT YOUR DIET TO 1,500 CALORIES PER DAY (NO CHEATING), I PROMISE YOU WILL LOSE FOUR POUNDS PER MONTH

4-8 lbs per month is considered a good rate of loss. Keep in mind, that means that it'll take you a long time to drop. Generally, dietitians recommend not pushing it more than that because it saps your willpower over the long haul to wring your body any more than that. It is entirely possible you may lose more weight on a slight calorie restriction because, pending the diagnosis of a disorder, your body WANTS to lose that weight.

Just remember, though, losing 8 lbs per month is 96 lbs per year. Even making good progress will take a while.

Other things: consider becoming a vegetarian--it is a lot harder to overconsume. Also, get a multivitamin in every day.

It helps to have a support network to keep you motivated. Set those small, achievable milestones, such as "this month I will lose four pounds," and let people know when you meet those goals, and make sure it is positive people that will allow you to celebrate and celebrate it with you.

It will take time, but it is entirely possible to get there. I truly hope that the motivation to see your nephew and niece grow up will give you the strength to put what I've talked about into action. It will take time...years, even, but as long as you can keep the small achievements in mind and within reach, all will be okay.

Godspeed.

Yeah, from my reading vitamin K and probably magnesium are likely under-appreciated factors in osteoporosis. Vitamin K is a necessary co-factor for proteins regulating calcium metabolism such as Matrix Gla protein (MGP). There's lots of papers and other stuff on the web on this topic and the biochemistry of it seems compelling. I have no idea though if most practicing doctors understand about this or do anything about it. I would guess not, since education about such topics in the US tends to be pretty neglected (vitamin K not being a profitable pharmaceutical). It doesn't sound like osteoporosis or soft-tissue calcification was ultimately involved in your m. g-ma's death though, so lack of such information probably wasn't fatal.

I'm curious how the diverticulosis was diagnosed. I don't know specifically about diverticulosis, but there's lots of different things that can cause gut issues. In my experience the label that gets attached by doctors may or may not be helpful or lead down the right track for what might help.

I've read a lot of interesting things about gut health and how things like damage from dietary lectins, other sorts of food sensitivities, issues with gut flora, etc. can cause all sorts of problems. Personally I used to have problems with gut pain and motility problems (diagnosed as "IBS") that got way better after I started avoiding nightshades (potato, tomato, eggplant, peppers, etc). I also notice that things with small seeds seem to be an issue for me (seem to cause looser stools) and mostly stay away from them, though my issue wasn't ever called "diverticulitis".

So my take on it is that it's most important to pay attention to how foods affect you, since the assumptions that come with the various labels may or may not be right for you. The best sources I've found on this are the books Digestive Wellness and The Paleo Solution. They both recommend pulling out the likely culprits (grains (especially wheat), legumes, dairy, stuff with small seeds, possibly nightshades) for a month or so, seeing how you do, and then carefully adding stuff back and seeing what happens.

Lately I've been experimenting with using intestinal permeability testing to help assess how various experiments may be interacting with gut health. (Got really bad after a gut infection last spring, trying to figure out how best to heal.)

I'm also curious about your experiences on the genetic markers front. Do you use something like 23andme? Do you think that knowing about adverse-looking genetic markers gives you a different outlook on diet/lifestyle choices than if you didn't know?

Genetic marker testing is actually what started me studying about coumadin. 23andme reported on a polymorphism that affects vitamin K metabolism and coumadin dosing and I wanted to understand it better. Sadly I don't think anyone's actually checking for or paying attention to these things clinically. Hopefully the situation will improve over time and help make things like initial coumadin dosing less of a shot in the dark in the future.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded reply. I enjoy learning more about people's experiences with these things. Thanks for chatting with me about this. :)

Yes!!!! Like the other post says - unless you're an athlete protein isn't really a concern, assuming you eat a fairly balanced, healthy diet. If you are an athlete I can't recommend this book enough. Actually, all of his books are great.

I went vegan over 4 years ago and have never felt better or been healthier in my life! Plus it's nice to know that I'm doing my part to help animals and the planet. Here's a list of some other books/resources that have helped me immensely along the way, for anyone else who might be considering the transition:


Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet

How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease

Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss

The Forks Over Knives Plan: How to Transition to the Life-Saving, Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diet

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure

Oh She Glows (Food Blog)

Keepin' It Kind (Food Blog)

It takes work and is difficult at first, like most things in life that are worthwhile, but I promise you that it is very, very rewarding once you understand that you have made the commitment to live in a healthy and kind way. :)

Yes I do! Full disclosure, I got this recipe out of a vegan cookbook called Thug Kitchen.
 
This recipe makes a lot of cauliflower btw, probably enough for like 4-6 people, so just cut it in half if you don’t think you need that much.
 
Ingredients
2 medium heads of cauliflower
1/2 cup flour (I used all-purpose, but it doesn’t really matter what kind you use)
1/2 cup water
1/2 to 2/3 cup sriracha (depending on how much you can handle the heat)
2 teaspoons oil (I used olive, but if you’re cheap you can use pretty much any oil and it will work)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
 
Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 450F and lightly grease a rimmed baking sheet. Chop up your cauliflower into bite sized florets (or just buy it pre-chopped if you’re lazy).
   
2. Whisk together the flour and water to make a smooth batter. Too chunky? Add more water. Too runny? Add more flour.
   
3. Put the cauliflower into a big bowl, toss them in the batter, and make sure they are all a little coated. There should be enough batter to get a nice coating on them. They shouldn’t be soaked and dripping, but they should all be coated.
   
4. Spread them out evenly on the baking sheet in one layer and put them into the oven for 15 minutes. Move them around and flip them halfway through to make sure all the sides get a chance to cook.
   
5. While they are baking, make the hot sauce. Combine the oil, sriracha, vinegar, and soy sauce in a small saucepan and cook on low heat until it’s warm, but not bubbling. You’re just trying to get those flavors to combine nicely, but if it starts bubbling, you might spend some time later scraping burnt hot sauce out of your pan and it will probably mess up your sauce too. Once it’s warm and combined, remove it from the heat until your cauliflower is ready.
   
6. Once the cauliflower is done cooking, take it out of the oven and put them into a big bowl. You can just use the same bowl you used to toss them in the batter before, but obviously wipe it clean before you do. Toss the cauliflower with the hot sauce mixture from the stove and get those delicious little guys nice and coated.
   
7. Put them back on the baking sheet, leaving some extra sauce in the bowl (don’t worry, we’re coming back to it) and bake for another 3 minutes.
   
8. Serve these guys warm (or room temp, I’m just a random internet dude. I can’t tell you what to do) and top with that leftover sauce, or leave it on the side in a small bowl for dipping.

Type 1 is definitely a shock. I got diagnosed when I was 19. No DKA fortunately, but my HbA1c was 9%. I don't know what caused it, can be a lot of things. I suppose I won't ever get to know that. I can be something as little as a virus that made your immune system go haywire. Even something that has been dormant for years can cause your immune system to fail when it stops being dormant.

​

I remember feeling lost in the beginning as well. Going to do groceries and just thinking; I can't eat anything.

Over time I came to realise actually a lot is possible, you just have to actively be a pancreas on the side. I've seen this tip from others already, but I'll repeat: get a CGM or FGM (continuous / flash glucose monitor). This helps you be a pancreas(: CGM is probably nicer, as it provides warnings when your BG is acting up, but already having an FGM provides you with more comfort, since you can check you BG just with your smartphone with NFC.

​

As to weed, definitely possible (I live in the Netherlands). Though I would wait until you've got a better grip on your BG. Alcohol is also possible, but again, I'd wait until you know better how your body responds. Sometimes you just feel like drinking a few beers. CGM/FGM helps you more easily keep an eye on your BG. And I'll admit, sometimes I have a few too many, have my BG shoot up to 20-25 mmol/L (360 - 450 mg/dl). Yeah that's not good long term, but if you have Type 1 you are still a human being. If you're at those levels once in a while, you'll be fine. The thing is to find what works for you and how strict you want to be for yourself.

​

As a snack; I like 90% chocolate with peanut butter. Check to make sure there's no added sugar in the PB though. I recommend not starting with 90%, but working your way up. Start with something in the 70 range, from there to 80, then 85 and then finally 90. Otherwise it might be a bit too much, haha.

​

About half a year ago, I read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699

Basic premise: small quantities of carbohydrates in, means smaller fluctuations in your blood sugar levels. Might be a bit too much in the beginning, but it might give you some structure if you are looking for it.

​

Anyway, I think I speak for everyone when I say, you're not alone. We've all had ups and downs, but kicking its ass is definitely doable.

Congratulations! My wife is 7 weeks pregnant (woohoo!) so we are in the same boat, and we have tried to do our homework, well beforehand, and making sure we're doing well right now too.

Here is a great book for vegan pregnancies and infants http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everything-Healthy-Plant-Based/dp/0738214930

But really, there isn't much to it, and you can learn from online free resources
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl/jan/pregnancy.pdf

The healthiest way to eat for you and your baby is to eat a whole food plant based diet with a variety of whole grains, sweet potatoes, beans, vegetables, and fruits. It doesn't change when you are pregnant. But to many people, it's the one time they want to make absolutely sure they're doing it right :)

Keep in mind, a lot of women just eat whatever they can keep down during the first trimester. The body stores a ton of nutrients, and if you're feeling sick and can only eat a few things, just eat those things and trust that your body can provide other essentials like every other pregnant woman who can't stomach much. Eat well when you can, and if you are not able to consume everything every day, don't sweat it. My wife finds that she feels best when she eats small amounts throughout the day. Her morning sickness is kept down best that way.

Supplements: I do not suggest a mutli-vitamin. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it will have positives and negatives. Vitamins are concentrated isolated substances that in general overload receptors in the body and are not well-handled out of the context of real food. There are a few exceptions to take though: Take B12 (about 2500 mcg once per week) and iodine (150 mcg/day). And vitamin D (2000 IU daily) if you are not getting regular sun and live below 30 degrees latitude in the winter.

Despite what the whole world tells you, Folic acid is not a good substitute for actual folate in humans. Eat beans and leafy greens, which are great sources of actual folate. http://nutritionfacts.org/video/can-folic-acid-be-harmful/

Other than that, just eat a variety of whole foods, with lots of whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes and potatoes, and as much of vegetables and fruit as you can. That is the best thing you can do for your growing baby.

Also, keep your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio down by not consuming a lot of nuts, and If I were you I would totally avoid oils. Ground up flax is a great source of omega-3 if you aren't eating a lot of vegetables, fruits, and beans. (you can absolutely get all you need from those) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4TNhU3HR3o&index=1&list=PLchGiszWnMPjdtf47Bs4XIeE7gQptbX0q. If you still want to eat a lot of nuts and oil, you will need to bypass trying to get that ratio right (because no amount of flax will fix eating that much oil etc), take a DHA/EPA supplement http://nutritionfacts.org/video/algae-based-dha-vs-flax-2/

Yotam Ottolenghi came out with a followup on his Plenty cookbook a few months ago, its called Plenty More. Used to see vegetables as only a side dish but he really changed my mind and enabled me to see that they can really be the star of the table. There are many interesting combinations. And as a man who is an omnivore himself, he often makes his dishes hearty enough that many of us wont even miss the meat.

Another book which you should look into is Thug Kitchen. If you haven't seen their blog, you should really check it out.

You should also look into Deborah Madison's books. This one is practically the Bible among vegetarians due to how comprehensive it is. Ironically, she also is an omnivore.

Theres also the Moosewood Cookbook which is great for weeknight meals as many of the recipes are simple and quick.

If you like Indian, I would really recommend 660 Curries which has some of the best Indian food I've ever tasted. I often compare food I get in Indian restaurants to what I've cooked from this book. Yes, its not completely vegetarian but the vast majority of Indian cuisine is vegetarian so it should still be a valuable resource for you.

Speaking of Indian food, Madhur Jaffrey (who is known for her Indian cookbooks) has a great cookbook dedicated to vegetarian cooking.

There is a lot of really great advice on here.
-give your kids choices
-have them help in shopping and preparation of meals
-giving them foods that they can dip into something else (a lot of kids love dipping their food)
-continuing to offer a variety of healthy foods.

I have the same problem. My three your old started doing this at the same age as your child, and it hasn't gotten any better. I definitely feel your pain. Something that has definitely helped me is the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. While I don't like all of the recipes in there, it has definitely inspired me to create more ways to get fruits and veggies into my kids. Here is an idea for your mac 'n cheese lover. Buy baby food jars of carrots, or carrots mixed with tomatoe, and add the entire jar to your box of mac 'n cheese. My kids never noticed the difference! Also, you can puree spinach and get away with putting about a 1/2 a cup into the box brownie mix.

Good luck!

> Got any cites to legit studies on either side? Would love to read them.

There's two great sources I like because they take a scientific approach in their own ways.

The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald. It's expensive to buy on his website, but you can get it via torrents. I liked this book because he went into detail on how to do the diet. He doesn't take sides based on ideology and presents the scientific evidence for keto dies, and well as their drawbacks. It gives a very technical way to do the diet with the different ways to do it. "Over 600 scientific references were examined in the writing of this book, and each chapter includes a full bibliography so that interested readers may obtain more detail when desired. Readers who desire further in-depth information are encouraged to examine the cited references to educate themselves."

Summary of The Ketogenic Diet can be found here.

Gary Taubes has written Why We Get Fat: And What to do About it and Good Calories, Bad Calories. I've read the latter of the two and enjoyed it because he also takes a very scientific approach to the matter at hand.

I personally haven't seen any evidence that low carb diets are bad for you. People just argue this point on ideological grounds, and only care about proving their particular diet is the best one, instead of being open-minded. I've read books on both sides, from vegan to keto, and I believe that the evidence points to one thing: The main thing to worry about is eating a variety of foods in moderate amounts.

And some people may need different diets to accomplish this goal. One thing that is especially true of both vegan and keto diets is that they force a person to think about what they eat. It makes food artificially more scarce, thus making it more difficult to over eat. And I believe that that simple fact creates the majority of the health benefits that either diet purport to have.

Good for you, seriously. But they're triggers for the entire human race as they were designed to be so don't be too hard on yourself. We just have far too much of it because it's cheap and makes us hungrier customers. Furthermore the fact that it's addictive, fattening, and possibly lethal has been largely suppressed or overlooked until very recently.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobsullum/2013/10/16/research-shows-cocaine-and-heroin-are-less-addictive-than-oreos/

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/10/sugar-industry-lies-campaign

My friend's a surgeon who's speciality is obesity. So for what it's worth he say's the first 8 months of maintaing weight loss are crucial. After that your hormones have stabilized. So you can have a cheat meal or two per week and still maintain. And should sugar trigger your hunger as it's wont to do. Finding some fat (instead of more sugar) to calm your system down does the trick. And it's more easily stored for energy, not in fat cells. I reckon your probably a little fearful of food right now as are most after such a success - but I can't urge you enough that the surest solution to that anxiety is to educate yourself. I was anxious around food until I finally found some hard won clarity about nutrition. Gary Taubes "Why We Get Fat" is phenomenal, and just in general "Mastering Macros" Ie; They're are only three Fat/Protein/Carbs. Eat them in that order and you'll always be satisfied and nourished, and never have to worry about weight loss again. Eat in the opposite order and you will. You can certainly employ IIFYM but that can be tedious. A general avoidance of sugar, and embrace of fat, and adequate protein was the difference for me after many years of loss and gain, but utter ignorance about nutrition.

I just wish I'd know that before when I'd lost weight as a younger lad. It was easy but I had no idea why my efforts worked and I'd gain it all back. Now that I'm older I've worn out my welcome with metabolic damage.

So again, your progress is some 1% shit if I must say so myself. You should be very proud of your efforts. I'm guessing you weren't always heavier or never lost weight in this amount before? Because the rate at which you snapped back suggest you still have pretty healthy hormone levels and no long term metabolic damage. Just curious.

Also what are the rules you went by?

Today is the day you start a wonderful journey to your healthy self!

Here's some advice I wished I received about 5 years ago.

1. If you can afford it - get a withings scale to track your progress. Weigh yourself every morning after you pee.
   
   
2. Watch Forks over knives on netflix - this is just the trailer.
   
   
3. Read this book
   
   
4. Eat a starch centered plant based diet and do moderate exercise.
   
   I started my weight loss plan back in September of last year. The starch solution diet kicked off an initial weight loss that has taken me to nearly a healthy bmi (a slight modification got me to where I am now at 179 lbs 6 ft).
   
   The Withings scale showed me what I was doing was working - and it kept me on the plan.
   
   I didn't starve myself - I just chose healthy food (centered around rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta, and whole grains - with fruit, and green and yellow vegetables) and ate till I was reasonably full (no gut busting). I exercised moderately - I did what I could and weight trained using machines.
   
   You can see the success stories of a plant based diet here. You'll see that the initial weight loss and energy gain - will be like positive feedback and encourage you to keep going.
   
   If you have trouble learning how to cook - I recommend this dvd

Check out Paleoplan.com. They've got a two-week free trial, which should be enough to see if you like the service--it's $10/month to subscribe. The recipes are pretty good, and once you get the hang of it, you'll probably find that you're happier doing your own planning. Practical Paleo is a great resource and it has 30-day meal plans you can use. It's one of my favorite cookbooks. I'm sure the lovely folks in /r/paleo will also have some great suggestions for you.

Edit: grammar.

Actually, if you are reading Good Calories, Bad Calories, you can skip Metabolic Typing Diet. MTD is just another system to help you determine how your body processes fats and carbohydrates, which imho is the big variable when it comes to diet. But GCBC covers that along with updated information.

IIRC, GCBC also recommends starting with a super low-carbohydrate diet for a few weeks and then introducing carbs until you start to feel funky again, then pulling back til you feel better. This is pretty common practice for a lot of dieticians now. Incidentally, Taubes wrote a follow-up called Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It.
which is a bit of a rehash of GCBC but focuses more on putting the knowledge into practice. IMHO both are worth reading.

I'm also a huge fan of David Perlmutter's Grain Brain, which talks about the link between carbs and the brain and brain disease and imho is really worth a read. It has a couple of follow up books too (Brain Maker about the vital role that gut flora plays and Grain Brain Cookbook).

Since embarking on my nutritional journey, I discovered I have a gluten allergy (explains all those times I fell asleep at the wheel after eating a sandwich). I cut out grains for the most part and eat primarily protein and veg, very little sugar, definitely no refined sugar.
My mood is better and more consistent, brain fog is gone, weight is easier to maintain, and I have more lasting energy.

It's unfortunate that institutions like the FDA and AHA (who are backed by industrial farming corps) hammered the American public with the lie of the one-size-fits-all Food Pyramid and low-fat, "heart-healthy" diets & that the word "diet" carries a connotation of weight-loss instead of health.

Our generation is paying for it with our health.

Welcome! I'm a single mom to a 15 month old so I understand where you are coming from

-I make a lot of chicken thighs and buy in bulk at BJ's

-Check out Local Harvest for farmers markets in your area. I can get a weeks worth of fruits, vegetables and eggs for around $25

-Pick a day on the weekend and prep all of your fruits and vegetables for the week. It saves so much time during hectic week days.

-Macadamia nuts tend to be pricey so I try to buy raw almonds in bulk

-I recommend Well Fed or Everyday Paleo. The hot plates in Well Fed are awesome. Some of the recipes take a bit of time but are delicious.

-I use my crockpot faithfully, I prepare everything at night before bed that way in the morning, when we are rushed all I have to do is pull it out of the fridge and plug it in.

-As far as a picky toddler I don't keep anything that is not Paleo (other that whole milk from a local source) in the house. That way I'm not tempted to give in and just make mac and cheese. I give my daughter a variety of foods to try. Usually she eats everything but in the off chance she doesn't she knows she gets what's on her plate. We've had some tantrums because she would rather have fruit but I stick to my guns. I also try preparing vegetables different ways, she doesn't like cooked carrots but loves raw carrots or prefers one spice over another.

Please feel free to PM me if you need anything else and hope this helps.

Absolutely. I'm not sure what your training/goals are like, but you can go all the way up to 1xLBM if you're hitting weights hard. Anything over that and it's diminishing returns. This will also help you burn more calories as the higher your LBM is the more calories you burn just being alive.

Phinney and Volek have an excellent book called low carb performance, another great read is by Phil Campbell called synergy fitness. Both go over low carb diet combined with resistance training. I find working out fasted is the best for me, Campbell talks a lot about HGH production and how it is spiked by fasted workouts. r/ketogains is also a great source of info.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Low-Carbohydrate-Performance/dp/0983490716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493138282&sr=8-1&keywords=low+carb+performance

https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Set-Go-Synergy-Fitness/dp/0971663386/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1493138304&sr=8-5&keywords=synergy+fitness

Ha, I'm definitely in the hate-washing-dishes category with you. Luckily my almost-husband lost a bet and now he has to do all the dishes ALL the time.

Some general tips:

• The first week is the hardest, by far. If you can get past that cranky/craving/exhausted stage around day 4-5, you can handle anything.
  
• I find it helpful to a weekly haul and prep when you know you're going to have a busy week. Cut up tons of veggies, cook a few chicken breasts, brown ground meat, etc. Even portion it out if you want. Then everything is ready to throw into any sort of dish when you're hungry and all you have to do is add seasonings/sauces. Plus, then you have raw veggies to snack on when you need something quick.
  
• Always leftovers. Get into the mindset of cooking for, like, a kazillion people at a time. There are a ton of great paleo bloggers and books out there if you need recipe ideas. I like Well Fed best—I couldn't have gotten through my first Whole30 without that book. It's just genuinely practical, unlike many cookbooks.
  
• If you know you're going to be eating at a restaurant, look at their menu and call ahead so don't have to ask all the annoying questions at the table.
  
• Various soda waters and La Croix flavors are bearable stand-ins for cocktails. It's nice to have something in your hand when all your friends are drinking. Plus, you can also rack up major designated driver points to be cashed in next month.
  
  Hope this helps a little! Have fun this weekend!

You want this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Science-Carbohydrate-Performance/dp/0983490716

The authors do tests with cyclists and runners.

Now the Pro's are doing a high carb diet, so you can only store about 2000 calories from glucose, but even a very fit person has 40,000 calories of fat on them. which one sounds like a better energy source?(referenced from above book) The Pros need to "re-fuel" (keep food with them)because they burned their glucose and are hitting the wall.

A keto athlete never hits the wall and runs off their own fat.

Now that being said, I race mountain bikes and I have tried taking coconut oil before a ride and it doesn't help. I do notice a better boost when taking energy gel with less sugars (like GU). Lately I have been trying not to eat atleast 6 hours before a ride and I have been doing better. I guess it might be I'm accessing my stored fat better, but thats just a guess bro science, but its working for me.

Stay respectful, stay polite, be patient, but most of all don't lose motivation. You are going to have to change their minds about food and that can be a slow process. "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." If you lose confidence in your convictions they'll never have faith in your ideas either. This is going to take some work on your part.

You need to be able to have an intelligent, respectful, patient, and informed conversation with your parents about nutrition. To do this you must first educate yourself. I recommend you buy this book, you can find it anywhere http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307474259/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375280697&sr=8-1&keywords=why+we+get+fat

I would have you read the entire thing before you talk to your parents again about this issue. When you do talk about it you can't just tell them they are wrong. You must explain yourself. When they finally start to get curious where you got these ideas then you ask them to read this book as well. It probably won't end there.

You are still just a kid and some random book you head about on the internet isn't reliable enough. There's a good chance you're going to have to have an actual doctor talk to them. That means you're going to have to use google and your phone to start asking doctors offices if they support low carb. Find one that supports low carb and set up a visit with your parents.

It sounds like a lot of work but if you think about it none of this is particularly hard. It'll just take a bit of determination. I think this is the only way you are going to be able to convince them that this diet is indeed healthy.

All grains cause the glycemic index in your body to go up. Basically, it turns into sugar giving you that sugar rush. Everything from white bread, pasta, waffles, crackers, and whole wheat will do that. Conventional wisdom has taught us that whole wheat is good and we should consume more of it. While it is better than regular wheat, it still does the same thing in your body. It's just a lesser of the evils.

I would suggest if your lifting, to switch from the starchy carbs to protein and fats. Your body can burn sugar, but it's not that effective. Burning fats and protein are a lot more effective and clean. Here's a testimony of someone on the paleo diet who lifts.

Also, if you interested on what wheat actually does to the body, I would highly recommend Wheat Belly.

Best of luck!

Edit: Typos

I've never done keto but I have done no-carb diets before and felt the same fatigue. I've been eating paleo for over a year now, both because of choice and I like to. I think it's a totally sustainable lifestyle, particularly when busy. I managed a busy cafe, so I was on my feet without a break for 10 hours a day and still felt great on paleo. Handful of nuts, some jerky, or an apple and I was good to go.

Absolute biggest key is to eat plenty of veggies. Many people focus on devouring meat but end up feeling shitty. I've learned to love all sorts of different vegetables and it really makes the difference.

I HIGHLY recommend getting this cookbook. I can't say enough good things about it, to be honest. The front section explains the why's behind eating paleo, there are meal plans (and shopping lists) for every kind of goal you can think of, including high protein for athletes. The recipes are simple, delicious, and easy enough that they become part of your standard meal rotation. Sorry for the wall of text!

There are so many Paleo blogs out there that I really don't think you'll need to invest in a cookbook. But if you really want to get yourself one, I would suggest Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed, as I keep hearing so many amazing things about it: http://www.amazon.com/Well-Fed-Paleo-Recipes-People/dp/061557226X/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332421430&sr=1-9 (I haven't bought it because I just don't think I need to - soo many recipes I have yet to try from online)

What I do is I surf reddit and blogs for meal ideas and then I pin them onto "Pinterest" (http://pinterest.com/) - which is kind of like a Vision board-type thing (highly addictive) where you can take snapshots from websites and post them to your boards to keep them organized. It's like bookmarking but visually appealing.

Some blogs I'm enjoying/recipes plan to use:

http://www.whatrunslori.com
http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex
http://hollywouldifshecould.net/2011/11/a-month-of-paleo-crockpot-recipes/
http://fastpaleo.com/coconut-crepes/ (made these for breakfast)
http://sogoodpaleo.com/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ (he's more primal but his posts are great)
http://www.paleoplan.com/2010/01-13/cauliflower-rice/
http://theycallitfallingforareason.blogspot.ca/2011/06/paleo-carrot-cake.html
http://www.simplepaleocooking.com/


And the list goes on. Just google "Paleo __" and you're sure to get a ton of hits.

Good Luck :)

EDIT : This often helps a lot of people: http://robbwolf.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/thePaleoSolution_FoodMatrix.pdf

EDIT 2: Her stuff is sometimes paleo, it's usually gluten free: http://www.elanaspantry.com/gluten-free-recipes/breakfasts/
and Her stuff is good too: http://www.freckleditalian.com/ (mostly baking stuff)

Ketogenic diet is not a fad. It was developed in the 1920s to eliminate/minimize epilepsy and other seizure disorders by Dr. Wilder at the Mayo Clinic. It was widely used and fell out of favor in the 1950s when Big Pharma pushed pharmaceutical products as a treatment. Presently, Ketogentic diet is utilized when the pharmaceutical treatment fails. The Ketogentic diet continues to gain popularity and is becoming more favored over pharmaceutical approach.

I feel that the book "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable " is the best to book to provide her. The authors Dr. Steven Phinney and Dr. Jeff Voleck are very educated and site a ton of research (both modern and historical) on the subject.

Dr. Stephen D. Phinney is a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at UC-Davis. He is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He has twenty-five years of clinical experience as a director of multi-disciplinary weight management programs and has contributed to books and peer reviewed articles and is an expert in low carb nutrition and metabolism, fatty acids, inflammation, and the metabolic syndrome.

Dr. Jeff S. Volek is an associate professor in The Human Performance Laboratory at The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. He is an R.D. and has a Ph.D. in Kinesiology (Pennsylvania State University). He serves on the editorial boards of Nutrition and Metabolism and the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. He has published over 200 scientific articles and chapters.

This book is geared more toward medical professionals and people that have a great interest in the science behind it all.

Hope this helps

Keep smiling

My wife has been helping reduce her seizures/headaches with these three things. I will list them by most helpful to least helpful.

1. A ketogenic diet which has been proven to prevent seizures. The most helpful book we read on this diet is this Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes
   
   
2. CBD Oil sprayed under the tongue when she feels like a seizure might come soon. This is our favorite brand right now Plus CBDoil Spray 1mg
   
   
3. This works best with number 2 and she likes to take one in the morning and one at night. She says it helps her brain fog, headaches, and fatigue Now Foods Brain Elevate Formula Veg Capsules, 120 Count by NOW Foods
   
   She also notices a big difference trying to get enough sleep and taking steps to reduce her stress and thats free. :) I hope this helps you. Have a happy new year.

Silver Spoon is the best for basics/reference. I've got a copy in both English and the original Italian. It's the modern bible while larousse gastronomique is outdated imo.

Cooking by Hand was a big inspiration early in my career

Recently I like cookbooks that are entertaining beyond just pretty pictures of food.

The Dirt Candy cookbook. The graphic novel style is awesome and the recipes are good.

Also, A Super Upsetting Book about Sandwiches

And of course Thug Kitchen

Hello, I used to be a type 2 and use Metformin. While I was on it I was at 2000 mg a day, and it didn't really seem to work to well for me. It made me relieve my bowels way more often than I'd like to admit, and was really giving me hell. I told my endo that I refused to use it anymore, and he then prescribed me something called Glipizide which worked wonders in comparison.
Now I'm not saying this is what you should do, but I will say that 2000 mg of metformin didn't do much for me, probably because I wasn't producing much insulin anymore and was losing my ability to produce insulin, which they did not catch. However, whatever the glipizide does different, worked a lot better for me, and my sugars would even drop under 100 again. And this is after spiking up to 300+ after even the lowest of carbohydrate meals.
Glipizide was the wonder medicine for me.
However your situation is different as I wasn't put on Lantus until after I went into DKA and they found out I had LADA.
So what I would consider doing if I was in your shoes is the following:
Eat a "Meal (or snack)" with right around 20 carbohydrates. Before you do so, test your sugar levels and write down your number. Now set a timer on your phone for 2 hours, test your sugars again and write down the number that pops up on your meter again, and then check it again 1 hour later. After about 3 hours, it should peak, or have already started moving downwards.
Do this a few times to notice the trends. This should give you an idea of what a measly 20 carbs does to your body, with your current medicines you are on. If 20 carbs causes huge spike with your current medications, then maybe you need to bring that up to your endocrinologist.

Next: When I was on 2000mg of metformin/day I took 1000 in the morning, and 1000 at night before bed. Metformin was not a fun experience for me.

I can't really give you advice on your Lantus as we all have different insulin sensitivity. However, as a type 1.5 now I take 16 units at bedtime, and that seems to be my magic number.

My last A1C was 6.0. I have a strict breakfast and lunch diet and only really vary my dinner diets daily.

Your numbers you show above are close to what mine were when I was type 2. Swapping from metformin to glipizide made me a lot happier, although glipizide did make me go hypoglycemic every now and then, which was okay with me since I could eat more, instead of less, which I had to do on metformin.

Good luck in your future diabetes journey. One last thing youtube a documentary called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth", and watch it and pay attention to what is being told to you as a viewer especially about type 2.
If you enjoy reading I'd recommend Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars, it really is a life changing book with tons of amazing information.

Edit: Forgot to mention I have zero experience with Glimeperide, sorry!

Wife and I picked up the Thug Kitchen cookbook. It's hilarious to read and has some great recipes in there too.

I was raised where meat was pretty much the main entree for every meal, so things that substitute meat seem to work well for me. Some of my favorites are black bean or chick pea burgers, and baked BBQ cauliflower (good to use in tacos, salads, etc.). We also cook up these tasty tostadas as well. (Technically that's a meat-less meal, and you'd have to swap out the sour cream and cheese to go fully vegan).

Also, if you're like me, you'll leave for work and frequently leave your lunch on the counter at home. In those situations, I've found Taco Bell to be a pretty good option. Nearly any recipe tastes just as good asking them to swap the beef for beans.

Hope this helps!

My kid might have had a tooth starting to poke out when we gave him meat around 7 months but that's all. He does fine. We did a lot of shredded chicken and bits of steak from the get go and he loves it all. I'd definitely suggest checking out the book on Babyled Weaning. It really helped reassure me that my kid wasn't just going to choke right out of the gate. My son is 15 months old now and eats pretty much anything you put in front of him and does it surprisingly neatly as well, which is awesome.

Kev, we all try different paths to get us to where we want to go. If this works for you that's great, but for me it wouldn't be sustainable long-term. HcG just seems a little scammy to me, however if you're committed to it, I would throw in some vitamin D too. Breaking 500 is a great first step (it is nice to see the numbers drop!). I do worry that you're not getting enough real food with this diet.

I started well above where you are now so I know where you're coming from in wanting to get it done with (I still don't like to tell others how bad I got). I've tried most of the diets and fads out there, but what finally turned me around was reading Tim Ferris' 4hr body, Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories, Rob Wolff's Paleo Solution, Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet and Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint. I've culled what works for me from these and have been eating pretty much Paleo/Keto since November. I've dropped over 50lbs since then at about 2000-2200 cals day. I know it's not biggest loser territory, but slow and steady wins the race. Most of all, it's something I can live with long term. So far my only exercise has been walking and some stationary bike.

What made the change easier for me was I found a lifestyle rather than a diet to follow. That's not to say I haven't had the occasional setbacks (god I miss pizza and beer), but I'm getting there and you will too. Best of luck on your quest...

tl/dr - Plan's not for me, don't be afraid to try something else. Knock em dead kid!

It just depends on what's important to you. Assuming that wheat is causing a lot of health issues for you, then you may be forced to confront a simple choice: fix your health or satisfy your cravings. Some people won't make that choice until they're in really bad shape, like a smoker who won't stop smoking until s/he is diagnosed with cancer. If things are going this badly when you're this young, you can safely assume it's only going to get worse if you don't make some changes (eliminating wheat being one, others maybe be important too).

You might try reading the book "Wheat Belly." It's not paleo, it's not perfect, but I think it's an informative and worthwhile read for somebody in your situation, and it may scare you into trying something for your health. It's worth seeing if it resonates with you, and it will provide you with some insights I can almost promise you don't yet have.

The book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609611543

The associated website: http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/

While eliminating wheat can be tough, especially if you're essentially "addicted" to it, I don't think you have to take the approach right in the beginning that you must never have wheat again. I would suggest, however, that you, when you are emotionally prepared to do so, cut wheat out for 30 days, promising nothing more to yourself than you will re-evaluate your decision once those 30 days are up and you see whether it had an impact on you. Again, that won't be easy, but it could give you some information you need to determine whether or not you should make it a lifestyle choice.

And you have certainly identified one of the big problems cutting out wheat, it's convenience. So many packaged and/or easy-to-prepare foods are wheat-based, so you really do have to plan ahead and be prepared if you want to deal with cutting it from your diet.

Also, I don't know how much you've really bought into "paleo," but it does tend to be a relatively high-fat diet. This would mean that a lot of the calories you replace from weight should come from things like butter (technically not paleo, but most are okay with it), coconut oil, fatty cuts of meat, olive oil, and some other stuff too. These things tend to fill you up much better and much longer than wheat products to, so hunger shouldn't be a problem if you do the diet right, though I certainly recognize that cravings can be something distinct from hunger. Those, you will just have to will yourself through.

The replacements for breads, cakes, and wraps are probably not ideal if all you are doing is buying the "gluten-free" versions of these things. That would help some, but not a lot. Some general replacements would be lettuce wraps, nori (seasoned seaweed), almond bread (in limited quantities), coconut bread, buckwheat products, rice crackers, maybe some other stuff too. Some of that stuff is probably going to have to be homemade though, so it won't help with convenience.

I think you should take 30 days to eliminate wheat. You could go all out and do a Whole 30 challenge - /r/whole30 - and see how you feel. (I think Whole 30 is a good idea, because it won't let you get away with adding a bunch of paleofied versions of things you crave, and it will probably also reduce your overall carb intake, which may be an additional issue than just wheat intolerance.) Or just cut out wheat and also avoid non-gluten bread for those 30 days, and don't worry as much about cutting all the other stuff out for the time being. That may be beneficial as well.

I will say wheat elimination seems to have done a lot for me and others I know as well, and none of us were diagnosed one way or the other as gluten-intolerant.

Good luck!

hey, you might want to try this recipe book; I know you're not going paleo, but paleo recipes are great for kicking gluten to the curb and this book is one of the best I've found so far.

If you want to stick to just pulling recipes from online, OMG Paleo and nom nom paleo are great sites too :)

Good luck with it - it sucks at first, but seriously makes a huge difference. I cheat still, but when I don't eat any gluten and keep my carbs low, I feel like a completely different person.

background: i'm a keto runner, currently training for my second marathon (marathon in mid feb, so i'm tapering)

when i first switched over to keto, my legs felt like lead for the first week or two - that's normal because i wasn't keto adapted yet, so it was akin to bonking for the entire run, as my glycogen stores were depleted (by keto adapted, i'm talking about the ability for the body to convert fat cells into energy efficiently)

once i became keto adapted though, it was amazing - i can now run fasted 13 milers in the morning for training, and come out feeling great. and when you carbo load for the actual race, you'll feel like you have wings, because you're powered by both carbs and fat. and you never hit the wall anymore, it's more a gentle slowing down.

a lot of marathon/ultra runners have been breaking records by training low and racing high (keto while training, carb loading the race) i highly recommend checking out the keto running group on FB, and Stephen Phinney/Jeff Volek's book, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance

hope this helps, and good luck with your recovery!

I typed out a really long response to this and it got deleted before I could post it.

Here's the gist of what I wanted to say:

• You want to lose weight, but, as you've seen, exercise alone won't do it.
  
• This likely isn't a matter of self-discipline either. You exercise a lot which means your energy requirements will be much larger than someone who's sedentary. You're just hungry and it's fine to eat when you're hungry IF WHAT YOU EAT IS HEALTHY.
  
• I often hear it said that strength is made in the gym, while abs are made in the kitchen. If you want to lose weight, diet is what you need to focus on. You could stop working out and probably still lose weight with a healthy diet.
  
  And now for something completely different... Let's define healthy because the popular opinion on what is healthy is laughable.
  
  
• Insulin inhibits the enzyme, lipase. Lipase is responsible for lipolysis, the breakdown of fat for energy. Blood insulin concentration and lipolysis have an inverse relationship, meaning if one is high, the other is low and vice versa.
  
• Blood insulin levels are increased by meals high in carbohydrates. So, if you want to maintain optimal fat burning, you'll want to restrict your carb intake. For more information about this bullet and the last one, see this book.
  
• A carb intake of <50g a day will usually keep your body in "fat burning mode". We call this ketosis. To learn more about ketosis, you can check out /r/keto and this link. Sometimes, a carb intake of <20g is recommended.
  
• By now, you're probably thinking the well-founded question: "Uh... What will I eat?" A high-fat, moderate protein, low carb diet is very good at maintaining nutritional ketosis. Not only that, but a high fat, low carb (HFLC) diet has been shown to reduce appetite and lower weight more effectively than a low carb/low calorie diet^[1]
  
• And now you're thinking, "Why would I eat so much fat?! Won't that clog my arteries?" Saturated fat has been shown to improve the blood lipid profile (increases HDL, changes small, dense LDL to large LDL which is benign, lowers triglycerides). Check out this link for information about fat consumption. And check out the sources of his claims, too!
  
  TL;DR: Saturated fat isn't bad for you. Trans fats ARE bad for you. Eat as much saturated/monounsaturated fat as you want. Avoid anything that says "hydrogenated" or has trans fats. Limit polyunsaturated fats. Limit carbs to <20g a day. Bonus points if you remove wheat and sugar from your diet completely. Weight will start flying off, you'll stop feeling hungry all the time, and after the induction phase (first 1-6 weeks, depending on the individual) to a HFLC diet, you'll notice an increase in energy during aerobic workouts.
  
  If you want more information, let me know and I'll scrounge up some more papers/articles for you to read.
  
  EDIT: You CAN lost weight and beat 195!

I eat a combo of vegan/paleo. Why?
Paleo ppl know how to cook their meat in decently low calorie dishes
Vegan - man do they know how to make veggies! You don't really know how to cook veggies until you dig into these recipes.

• 1 Oh She Glows - Food genius! Best I've ever owned!
  

• 2 Against All Grain - Very solid, I love everything including the desserts
  

• 3 Thug Kitchen - Amazing flavor combinations and loved most everything I made, some things were more effort than they were worth. I found myself going to the grocery store a lot when I was cooking through this book. Avoided the desserts because of the use of all purpose flour, sugar etc. The baking seems more traditional.
  

• 4 Everyday Detox - Love the shakes and desserts, the cookie recipes are the best I've made, but the food falls flat. The combos don't knock my socks off.
  

• 5 Paleo Comfort Food - Found a few good things in here but lots of misses. Resorted to writing X's and check marks on the pages of things that were successful and not so successful.
  

  
  

I have a problem with things like "Good Morning" because my brain just kinda says "Yes, it is" and it would be silly to say that every time someone said something that made sense to me. Most of the time i remember it's a salutation but it's caused some misunderstandings and yelled greetings. The song "Good Mornin' to You" from Singin' in the Rain helps me remember it's something directed at me. I would try "Good Morning to you!" I had to start with "I bid you a good morning." The first time i heard "What's up?" at 14 i responded with "Not a whole lot, what is it that is up with you?" Also, my age mates and i couldn't understand each other until about 3rd-4th grade. Their speech sounded like jibberish to me and i sounded like stereo/ikea furniture instructions to them. Keep practicing with and building confidence in her and with the other supports you mentioned i think you'll be pleasantly surprised. You mentioned her singing a lot, that's awesome! If it weren't for band and choir i probably would have gotten a lot less social/conversation practice. I'm not college educated but i think the part of your brain that processes the intervals in between musical notes is the same part that processes language. On top of that, a lot of conversational English is used in songs. As she gets older and more listening options become appropriate it'll be a good form for learning informal speech.

On the eating thing, as i am told my dad had to step in. Mom was overthinking everything and worrying herself sick and Dad had to say "Calm down, when she's hungry, she'll eat." Having the food i didn't like near me while eating a food i liked helped me get over some stuff, although i am admittedly very picky now. The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious are good ways to start "sneaking" other veggies in. For example if she hates cauliflower i think one of those sources has a mac 'n' cheese recipe that uses it. I would make it for her one day, let her enjoy it. Ask if next time she wants to help make it. I thought i hated cabbage until i learned how to make egg rolls a couple years ago. If she likes pickles pickling things can be fairly easy. This is a Harvard lecture about fermentation and pickling (about 30-40 mins in they get to the pickling.) Maybe you two can make a hobby out of pickling new things and then trying them? I know it's not the best but my parents always knew their Hail Mary was to just batter it, fry it, and let me dip it in ketchup. When i was around 7 letting me add a drop or two of food coloring to a food i knew kinda made me more adventurous. If this tasty thing can look gross and still be tasty, maybe things that look gross can be tasty, too.

I don't have children, myself, so i am admittedly a bit ignorant on the bathroom thing. If i'm not mistaken i think the "Do you know why Mommy, Daddy, and Big Sis wear different underwear?" approach worked. I know i had bed wetting problems until 3rd-4th grade. If i get stressed out or really anxious i pee myself sometimes, still. I won't have to go badly i'll just start peeing the second i walk into a bathroom. Sometimes i don't notice i have to go until it's near critical. Normally not a big deal but if you're in a group of people you can look crazy shouting for a bathroom when we just passed one not 15 mins ago... When i was little i was afraid to be myself. That kept me out of the bathroom a lot, knowing i had to be alone in there. I tried to keep the door open so i could still hear other people. If i couldn't do that i would just be super fast. People actually comment often about how quick i "get my business" done. I don't know how to tell them it was totally cultivated by fear. I would try asking her is there is any reason she doesn't like the bathroom before it even comes up. You'll probably have to repeat to her that she's not in trouble. If i thought that at all i freaked out. Maybe a handheld mp3 player or walkie talkie. With a walkie talkie you're not just going poo, you're a secret agent evacuating prisoners and reporting back to headquarters! Receive the order to cease operations and clean up. I also had a Raggedy Ann doll that i took in there with me. It's just a doll but a buddy helped.

When i got discouraged my dad would remind me "Some people are gonna be faster, some people are gonna be slower. In some things you will be faster, in some things you will be slower. It's just a part of life. It's nothing to be ashamed of." He he, i freaking love my dad.

It might help to ease into it. That can help you find recipes you like and foods that make you feel great -- it's a lot less pressure if you mess up a meal or don't like something when you're doing one or two vegetarian days per week. You can then do it more and more as you feel more comfortable and it will let you move out of your comfort zone a bit and try new things.

Don't shy away from meat substitutes (as sometimes you just want a "burger"!) but don't rely on them 100% either. Look for meals that highlight vegetables rather than try to hide the fact that there's no meat.

Also, not all vegetarian cookbooks are created equal. The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook is amazing though, and Thug Kitchen is a lot of fun.

Finally, don't beat yourself up if you slip. If you eat meat, forgive yourself and move on. Nobody is perfect but seeing a slip as a huge disaster just makes it harder to get back on track if you do.

Good luck!

I just checked out Minimalist Baker's cookbook and the Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give A Fuck Minimalist Baker was meh, but Thug Kitchen is amazing. A lot of the recipes use cheap, simple ingredients and the dishes are pure deliciousness. I'm currently borrowing these books from the library, but I think I definitely need to add Thug Kitchen to my collection.

I also have the Seitanic Spellbook by the Vegan Black Metal Chef. It's ok for some basic stuff, but I don't care for how it's organized. Also, he doesn't use measurements in any of his recipes, which is ok if you like to improvise a lot, but it kinda leaves me in the dark if I'm trying a new recipe.

Then there's Happy, Healthy Vegan Kitchen by Kathy Patalsky which is ok if you can get past her narratives and obscure ingredients. Like, bitch, I'm not getting six different unicorn salts to put on my toast.

I also have The Joys of Vegan Baking (meh), and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (haven't tried it yet).

EDIT: damn amazon links

If you want to get healthy, start doing your research. Learn all you can from reputable sources and then use your new knowledge to get a plan. You should read "Why We Are Fat" by Gary Taubes and some of Michael Pollan's books. Check out r/keto and r/paleo. Watch "Fat Head" on Netflix. Personal health is a science and before you start, make sure you are doing it the best way for you. Plus, you don't want to put in a lot of time and effort only to find out there was a better, easier way out there. I wish I would have found r/keto wayyyy sooner. Good luck! You can DEFINITELY do this!

I have several cookbooks that I used (and you still have time to get them from Amazon if you wish).

Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook

Well Fed <-- GET THIS ONE IT IS AMAZING

Paleo Comfort Foods

Some of the recipes needed some tweaking to remove added sugar / whole30 non-compliant foods. All the recipes in Well Fed are 100% compliant though, and they're AMAZING.

The good thing is that many of these cookbooks have a "meal plan" in their intro pages, so you can look to that for guidance.

Additionally, these resources should help you out:

http://nomnompaleo.com/recipeindex (She also has a whole30 guide here)

http://www.theclothesmakethegirl.com/category/recipes/

As always, vet these recipes to make sure there aren't any added sugars or tamari or anything like that. In general, though they should be ok. I sat down beforehand and made 3 weeks of meal plans and shopping lists so I had NO EXCUSES, and then sort of winged it the last week (LOTS of leftovers).

From my experience, I was unprepared for the amount of food I was cooking. I only planned dinners, and budgeted the leftovers for lunches. Even so I was still overwhelmed with food (especially because my husband was only eating the dinners about 4 times a week).

The secret is to plan plan plan so you cant' fail :)

EDIT: They just posted this over at the Whole9 blog today! http://whole9life.com/2013/07/whole30-meal-plans/

Don't be afraid of lifting and keto, especially if your goals are related to body composition (rather than Olympic-level performance). Here are two reader-friendly articles for you to think about, if you want to keep things data-driven:

1. This article is the best in existence on the subject of nutrition and muscle gain. You'll have to adjust some things to fit with keto (such as the 4 meal/day recommendation - most folks on keto eat 1-2 meals/day), but that shouldn't be too difficult.

tl;dr version:

• 20g protein right after exercise, 0.25-0.40g protein/kg body weight/meal (I would up this if you're eating 1-2 meals/day)
  
• muscle failure during lifting is the most important exercise-related factor in muscle growth. Look at figure 1 for other factors, and a good summary.
  
  Morton, Robert W., Chris McGlory, and Stuart M. Phillips. “Nutritional Interventions to Augment Resistance Training-Induced Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy.” Frontiers in Physiology 6 (2015): 245. Web. PubMed link
  
  
  

  2. This whole article is great, but the table and figure on p. 45 are a good summary (and include a sample weightlifting plan to be used during low-carb diet): Direct pdf link
  

  
  
  
  Also, if you get way into the combination of keto and exercise, check out Volek and Phinney's book on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Science-Carbohydrate-Performance/dp/0983490716
  
  Have fun!

We eat quite a bit of meat, beans, and sweet potatoes. My SO and I don't follow any type of diet regimen, but my mom is allergic to wheat and corn so we found this book that has a lot of really good recipes without those! I'm not trying to plug the whole diet (and I honestly didn't read the whole front half of the book except a really funny picture of cartoon turds) but the recipes are awesome and use vegetables in ways I wouldn't have considered!

My salty snack is apples and peanut butter or cheese <3 Love me some wild garlic havarti.

If you want to lose weight, you don't have to count calories or even be more physically active. Don't get me wrong: being physically active is good for lots of things like muscle shape, physical endurance and stamina, and even your brain & cognitive performance. It's absolutely worth being physically active for lots of benefits.

But if your primary concern is losing weight, then you have to count carbs not calories. You've got to cut out (or drastically reduce) eating things like sugar, rice, bread (or for us Desis, the rotis and aloo). Read this book for why, at least if you're serious about losing weight. It's not a very long book or hard read, and at the end it lays out the very simple rules for what to do. In essence, it makes the case for the ketogenic diet, so you can Google that too.

It's also very good for your health. I'd gone keto for about 2 months right before my latest annual checkup with my physician. We did all kinds of tests, and my results were nothing short of fantastic. I'd lost tons of weight, and my cholesterol was fine. I also felt better than I ever had in my life, without any of the sugar highs or crashes that come with eating carbs constantly. Not to mention sugar is highly addictive and in the U.S. it's added to almost everything nowadays.

Also, with the very high incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes among Desis, pretty much all Desis should consider switching to a ketogenic diet. May not be right for everyone, but definitely worth a look. My physician is Desi and was very happy I went keto. My parents also reduced their carb intakes after seeing the results for me, and both have lost significant weight. Bottom line: cutting carbs/sugar works, and the science backs it. Calories have much less to do with weight gain than people have been led to believe. (Read the book to find out more how and why that happened.)

Interesting, nicely researched.

One observation, it is reasonably well understood that excercising in ketosis does indeed raise heart rates as per “The Effects of a Ketogenic Diet on Exercise Metabolism and Physical Performance in Off-Road Cyclists”, see also The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance

Anecdotally this threw me entirely when attempting maffetone training (heart zone 2/3), I basically couldn't go slow enough until I found out you need to add 5-10 bpm to your heart rate if in ketosis, and then it worked fine. FWIW even though I'm pushing 50 I can comfortably maintain 190-195 bpm for a minute or more i.e. half my age according to 220-age handwavium.

Mechanistically, instead of just supplying oxygen to muscles in glycosis which just burn the glycogen already present (until you hit the wall), in ketosis the bloodstream has to mobilize fat, and until full fat adaption send it to the liver to be converted to ketones and then transport to the muscles, so unsurprisingly the heart has to work harder (after full adaption fatty acids can be used directly by muscles). On the flip side there are less nasty metabolites to clear which allows the heart and other muscles to run faster and longer.

"Misfit and Shadow, please help! I asked my brother if I could borrow his new birthday gift, a really cool remote controlled airplane! He said I needed to be careful with it, and I was, but now I can't remember where I put it! I know he will ask for it back tomorrow, I need your help to find it!"

A neighborhood kid calls Misfit and Shadow about the missing toy. Misfit and Shadow come to the rescue, and they find it in the sandbox, only to realize it's broken. Misfit and Shadow either save the day and fix it for her or encourage her to tell her brother the truth :)

$0-20!

$0-5

You know how I eat?

Meat on top of spinach. That's it for the most part.

Then there's cheese, cream, butter, 85-90% dark chocolate (in moderation), soups, stews, burgers, eggs, bacon, nuts, ham and other processed meats. As I've always been aversed to most veg, my selection isn't as great as it should be admittedly, but if you do eat veg and want to try keto, go for the leafy green variety. Some fruits such as berries are ok in moderation too.

As for non-keto diets, cutting out added sugars by using whole veg is a start, and cooking meals from scratch is ideal. Time-wise getting a slow cooker/pressure cooker/multicooker could be useful as you can just bang it all in a pot. Ready meals can have loads more added sugar than what people expect.

As for me, I've never felt better eating like this, so I'd say healthy is more subjective than people think, especially as there's more research into low carb happening now.

r/keto has a fairly good FAQ on the diet if you want to know more about that or this book.

No matter what you choose to do, tracking and weighing your food is vital, as it helps control calories.

Hey,

I weighted 257 lbs back in February 2011. I've lost approx. 50 lbs since on a low carb diet, while doing absolutely no exercise for the first three months or so due to a sciatica. It is not an easy transition, but it's easily the best thing I've ever done diet wise. It's not a matter of losing weight anymore, but living better overall. I can't tell you how many advantages there are to cutting carbs, but apart from the weight loss, the energy levels always stay constant. No more feeling drowsy or tired after a meal. No more heartburns (which was a daily occurrence for me). No more cravings for sugar before or after a workout or long bike run, or a long day at work. No more feeling bloated.

I've never counted calories during this period. Not a single instant. But I watch the carbs I'm eating very carefully. Still, not to the point of obsession. Most carbs are easily discarded: sugar, bread, starchy vegetables, pasta, etc. Mayonnaise is now my main condiment (not proud or anything, just saying).

I've started biking again recently. I do approx. 250 to 300 km a week with a friend of mine over the course of three, sometimes four rides. During these rides is the only time I "carb-up" (eat a significant amount of carbs). I've literally struggled to keep losing weight since I started biking. Why? Because exercise makes me hungry. I compensate before/during rides, but I'm not doing it to LOSE weight. I'm doing it because I love it and I feel better doing it. Exercise does not help weight loss. It helps build lean mass and make you feel better, but the energy spent will be "asked" for by your body -- hunger, cravings, etc. Exercise is a zero-sum game. Energy spent will come back in. If not, you'll just be suffering for no reason!

When I do fall off the low-carb diet (special occasions, sometimes just for fun), I do end up gaining some pounds very rapidly. Eating pizza one night does often result in seeing a huge increase on the scale (2 lbs easily), but it's temporary. The weight goes away just as fast when going back on the low-carb diet.

I aim to eat less than 20 grams of carbs (except fiber) a day. This is typically called a ketogenic diet, as it results in your body going into ketogenesis. I'm just human, so I'd guess that my average was closer to 30-35 grams a days. I've tested for ketogenesis a few times during the last few months. It was obvious I was in keto after bike rides, but not before.

Oh, and my blood pressure was significantly lowered. My cholesterol levels are better than they were, but not yet perfect. I still have a lot to lose.

Anyways, do you have any time to read? If so, PM me. I'd like to send you a copy of Gary Taubes' Why we get fat. Got the Kindle edition recently, and I have no more use for the printed edition.

The Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy was a gift from a friend and my absolute favorite when I was pregnant. I've gifted it to several friends since. "What to Expect" I found surprisingly off-putting, much more "What to Expect if You Are Married and Upper-Middle Class".

For later, I loved Simplicity Parenting, Baby-Led Weaning, and The Happiest Baby on the Block. Those last three I got from our local library.

Books are a great way to educate yourself and keep you motivated. Check the FAQ for resources. I'm enjoying Gary Taubes' Why we get fat book. I found Tom Venuto's Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle to be a great start also. There are plenty of audiobooks too that you can listen to while running or working out.

Food scale, as suggested earlier, is a must if you're planning to use calorie counters and having more control of the things you eat. And form your comment about weighting your bowel movements, I'm sure you'll have fun using it.

Resistance bands and push-up handles are way cheap. I know fittit will prefer barbells and dumbells and I know they're right. But as you, when I initiated (recently) I wanted to have a range of "equipment" for cheap to get myself started and motivated and all of these stuff I mention helped me.

Work out videos/programs (P90X, Insanity, etc) help too, not only as routines but as a way to learn about exercises/form/stretching. I've been doing Power90 (not P90X) for a few months and I'm waiting for my copy of Starting Strength to arrive and looking to get myself a bench press and barbell/weights.

And mostly r/fitness! Good luck!

Start with Why We Get Fat and then /r/keto. If you're interested in bodybuilding/sculpting through exercise, www.leangains.com is a good resource.

But in a nutshell, your liver processes carbohydrates (sugar, bread, pasta, beer, etc) and turns them into fat through insulin. But fat eaten directly serves to make you feel full and lowers the insulin response, lessening the amount of fat that your body creates. Basically when your body gets enough fat on a regular basis, it doesn't feel as compelled to store fat.

If you consume no carbohydrates at all, like the Eskimos used to do, your brain switches from using glucose for energy to using ketones, which is the energy released when fat cells break down. It's called ketosis and there's a whole subreddit for it, /r/keto. If it sounds like the Atkins diet, it's very similar. The Atkins Induction Phase is basically going through that switch from glucose to ketones.

Also, this is not new information, Atkins wrote his book in 1972 or so and prior to the 1960's when gyms and high fructose corn syrup were introduced, people were thinner and ate less sugar. I think Americans started increasing their sugar intake much earlier like the early 20th century so we got fat earlier, but if anyone from 100 years ago saw us today stuffing our faces with low-fat food and running like hamsters on a treadmill trying to "burn" fat, they would think the future is a crazy time. The last 10 years or so it seems like people are starting to get it, with paleo, keto, and Atkins becoming more common knowledge. But there are still a whole lot of people who are sadly misinformed about how our bodies process foods. Also, doctors will often prescribe a strict keto diet to diabetic patients.

Just look at nature. What do cows eat? Now what to cougars eat? Ever seen a fat cougar? Also fun fact, animals that kill their prey mostly eat the fatty tissue and leave the lean muscle for the hyenas and vultures.

One last thing, exercise is great for strength, stamina, gaining muscle, and body sculpting but fact is, calories out -> calories in. Your body will want to replace the energy you expend. Trying to constantly eat less calories than you expend with exercise is not sustainable. Reducing your carbohydrate intake is far better than any exercise for losing weight. In fact you don't have to exercise at all to get thin. Just stop eating carbs. But you'll probably be a flabby skinny person and muscle looks better than flab, so exercise moderately - weights to build muscle, cardio to build stamina. Also yoga for stretching, balance, and to pick up on hot hippie chicks. Just kidding.

If you're looking for physical paleo cookbooks, I can recommend Sarah Ballantyne's The Paleo Approach Cookbook as well as Michelle Tam's Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans and Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed. All of them are excellent books with a huge recipe selection, including tons of sides.

If you'd like to browse a website for recipes, look at The Paleo Mom as well as Mark's Daily Apple. There are others, but those two are great starting points.

As for flavorful sides, one of my go to recipes is roasted veggies. Try some carrots, broccoli, turnips, parsnips roasted in the oven at 350F for about an hour, with lots of healthy fat and some great seasonings, salt, pepper, maybe smoked paprika.

oh really? Do you guy cook together often?

haha nothing wrong with some fried food every now and then! Fish and Chips is my favorite personally.

If you go a food route, check out this list of 28 gifts for foodies. I think #1, #6, and #18 could all be quite good options as general food-related gifts.

As far as cookbooks go, Thug Kitchen is really popular and great for fun healthy recipes

Hi and welcome! I'd really suggest reading this book. It's more of an all-in approach but its a good starting point :) I feel confident after reading it and can give advice about most posts on this sub just based on basics laid out in the book. And based on personal experience it all makes sense. Good luck!

The good news is you're young and healthy enough to avoid health complications the Standard Ameican Diet causes. I highly recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1623360277/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414563015&sr=8-1&keywords=starch+solution

I was over weight, high blood pressure and approaching forty. 2.5 years later my bp is normal, weight is awesome, and have ideal blood test results. This diet/lifestyle is easy, fun, satisfying, and cheap. Do yourself a favor and watch some of his lectures on youtube.

Honestly, as long as you're not being stupid (i.e. not eating bread and cheese and nothing else), you're probably going to be fine to go vegetarian or vegan without professional support. Most people do, and millions of people in e.g. India are life-long vegetarians with no ill effects. Getting blood tests done after a year or so would be a great way to check you're doing okay.

I have this book and it's very good: https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everything-Healthy-Plant-Based/dp/0738214930 - it has a sample eating plan and tranisition guides. It's written by two vegan dietitians who clearly know their stuff.

Otherwise, something like the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating's recommendations of the number of serves of different foods to aim for is a good way to check your diet is balanced: https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/node/add/calculator-servings

But as everyone is saying, if you are keen on seeing a professional for whatever reason, make sure it's a dietitian - anyone can call themselves a nutritionist regardless of their qualifications.

Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica, wrote a cookbook about hiding veggies in all sorts of things. I have no idea if the recipes are any good, but you could try this approach.

Smoothies are also a good idea; I wonder if some of your daughter's issue is texture?

I agree that you can "put your foot down", and I think it's important for kids to learn to eat veggies just because - not hidden. But you also want not to set yourself up for future battles about food.

I was told that it takes about 25 tastes of a food before a child is comfortable with something new. I found that helped when introducing new things to my kid; I would focus on getting her to eat one or two bites every time I served something - but I wouldn't push an entire serving at her, or stress if she didn't like it at first.

Also; in my experience, kids are much more likely to eat foods they have picked themselves - this is the perfect season for this - take her to a place she can pick some peas off the vine and she'll probably to excited to remember they're veggies.

And get her involved in some food prep/cooking for the same reasons.

Good luck.

This sub pretends to be a pro-vegan sub but you read anti-vegan sentiment and crap like "do your research before being vegan" here all the time. Which is funny because of how frequently unresearched, unhelpful opinions from dude-bros and kewl grllls get upvoted all the time, while the quality info gets buried.

That said if you ate shitty highly processed junk food before going vegan and do the same upon becoming vegan, while just simply substituting overly processed and over-priced meat and cheese analogues, likely you won't be healthy and even develop health issues on a long enough timeline(if you haven't already). It doesn't have to do with being vegan per-say, but with making really poor food choices, which is something you admitted to while being a carnist anyway. To avoid that, yes, likely you will have to do research on what constitutes better food choices. I would recommend reading McDougall's newsletters or his book the Starch Solution. If you want to find a good dietitian to follow I would recommend Jeff Novick, not ethical vegans posing as those giving good dietary advice like Ginny Messina. A Jeff Novick forum post(his posts are written by JeffN) is usually better researched and backed up than a Messina or Jack Norris blog post.

For the b12 canard of an issue consult this topic and this post.

The only criticism I'd have is to find a better dressing. You can find ranch/Caesars that are 1-2g per serving.

Lettuce is good, but there are more nutritious greens. Broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, spinach, etc... Make friends with all of these.

As for 20g of carbs, it's definitely a good hard limit to start. At first generally the closer to 0 the better, (which you'll never do unless you neglect veggies, which you shouldn't do). But people can go as high as 50g or more and still be in keto. Everyone's different but just don't freak out if you're at 25g a day or something. You'll learn your limits.

Also, don't pay much attention to calories, and read Why We Get Fat.

Good luck!

That's a tricky set of conditions for sure. The instinct for how to throw things together just comes with time and practice really. At the beginning, especially dealing with allergies, following recipes may be necessary.

Paleo will be challenging with no eggs and dairy, and many recipes also rely heavily on coconut and cashew.

Realistically it would be best to start with paleo autoimmune protocol (AIP) cookbooks and build from there.

A great reliable cooking fat is pastured lard. Rich in vitamin D also.

Gelatin is a good replacement for eggs to act as a binder, also it is gut healing.

For the most part you should be able to replace nuts with seeds. Hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds etc.

Lots of books out there, here's a popular one: https://www.amazon.com/Autoimmune-Paleo-Cookbook-Allergen-Free-Approach/dp/0578135213

If your goal is to be under 300 lbs by December 31st, prepare to become a massive over-achiever! So completely doable!!

Please - at a bare mimium - if you have $.99 to spare, visit Amazon .com and buy Gary Taubes book "The Elusive Benefits of Undereating and Exercise." If you like his delivery, probably the best book I've read on low-carb is Taubes "Why we get fat: And what to do about it". Incredibly strong stuff. It reads like a text book - he's a an investigative science and health journalist with a degree from Harvard in applied physics and (because that was not enough) a masters degree in journalism from Stanford.

Entering the low-carb world without reading Taubes is like walking on stage to perform a few Bach violin concertos without ever having taking a lesson.

For B12, I pop one of these every few days. I've never heard of it being affected by alcohol/marijuana use. It might also do you some good to also take a vegan vitamin D supplement, since most people are deficient anyways.

The nausea is not likely to be related to any specific nutrient deficiencies (a B12 deficiency usually takes years to manifest in any noticeable symptoms), but it is very possible that since you're probably eating different foods now than you did as an omni your stomach hasn't quite adjusted yet.

I'd highly recommend this book as a guide for healthy long term vegan nutrition. It's full of reliable science and teaches you how to be healthy as a vegan as opposed to some resources that try to convince people that a vegan diet is a silver bullet for anything and everything.

At this point, your blood results will be more likely to reflect your previous diet than they are your new vegan diet, so anything you see next Tuesday don't go 'OMG veganism is making me anemic/deficient/etc' based on those results. Also if you do have any deficiencies there are vegan solutions for all of them, so feel free to come on back and ask for more advice :]

You've taken the first step. Be mindful that this is a journey that does not end. This is a lifestyle change. You will falter. You may even hold up for a while. If you persist you will achieve your goals. Only by quitting do you fail.
Personally, I have had great luck with a modified Atkins diet. For the first 3 months - no carbs - seriously. That means no bread, rice, potatoes, corn, cauliflower etc. Cut back on your sugar intake. Also no fizzy drinks - that means beer too. Sorry. Drink lots of water.
It may seem severe but after 3 months you can start introducing things back in your diet. In moderation, though.
Use smaller plates - like 8 or 10" instead of 12". Dieting is a bit of a head-game.
Portion control is essential as well. Eat more slowly. Chew your food twice as long. You honestly don't need all the food that we typically put on our collective plates.
Shopping advice - stay away from the inner aisles in the grocery store. The outer aisles are your friends. Meat, fish, produce etc. Not canned. Not manufactured food.
Restaurant advice - Lots of restaurants have "tapas" or small plates. Eat from those or off the appetizer menus. When you order an entre, there's usually enough food to feed 2 or 3 people.
I read this book and used it for reference when planning meals.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439190275/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Nuff said. Best of luck.

For me - weekends are for cooking lovingly with lots of invested time whilst hectic weekdays for speed-cooking, so the meals I make the most are those that take the least of my time. Here's a few of my speedy staples:

1. Lamb burgers! Combine minced lamb, shallot, mint and a little bit of salt and pepper - pop it under a grill or in a George Foreman and you're set. I like to have it in a lettuce "bun".
   
   
2. Also made this (http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2011/09/paleo-spaghetti/) the other day with some modifications and it turned out great! My modifications were to the bolognese: I fried some garlic before adding the meat and I added some oregano, salt and pepper when I added the tomato sauce.
   
   
3. I also like to stir fry some prawns with a little garlic, fresh lime juice, and fresh coriander- it's zingy and done in less than 5 minutes.
   
   Also seconding Well Fed as a cookbook, I've also recently bought Practical Paleo (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936608758) which has some lovely chicken recipes in that are mostly compliant with Whole30 - not had a good chance to read through it properly yet though.

Seconded on the red meats. Saturated fat causes both HDL and LDL to increase and LDL breaks down into triglycerides. It's not the only cause of high LDL, many people have diets high in saturated fats and have great cholesterol numbers but if you're looking to lose weight, red meats have a a lot of fat and might eat up too many of the allotted calories in your food budget. Chicken and fish might fit better into your life. Like /u/aufleur says elsewhere in the thread, definitely cut out as much sugar as you can.

If you really want to take control of this thing, you're going to need to know more. I recommend checking out this video on sugar, getting a copy of Good Calories, Bad Calories if you can stand to read a textbook or Why We Get Fat if you want something a lot easier to get through. If you want some free info, read Gary Taubes' blog, Robb Wolf's blog, and Mark Sisson's blog. Start hanging out on /r/keto and /r/Paleo, and definitely get a lot more vegetables. Maybe hold off on fruits, just because of the sugar content. But vegetables are sooooo freakin' delicious if prepared right.

Most of all, start trying new things with your diet, life is an experiment with an n=1!! Don't be afraid to get unconventional. I like to say that if you do what everyone else is doing, you're going to have the same problems as everyone else. And if you take a look around America^^and ^^the ^^whole ^^world, I don't think it's working out too great for most peeps.

/rant/

As for cardio, I'm going to say it's overrated. Generally beneficial, but grossly overrated by culture obsessed with running as perfectly equal to fitness while demonizing any kind of weight training, especially for women, as something for boys only and then they're meatheads and bros and probably dummies. This national obsession with CARDIO YEAH BRO LET'S DO CARDIO drives people to run further than they're ready for and to ignore pain and injuries, or spend hours on cardio machines. Jeez, doesn't everyone just want to move? To do gymnastics and jujitsu and row^^and ^^run, ^^too, ^^I ^^guess, ^^if ^^it's ^^your ^^thing and climb things and lift all the things? I get very frustrated. Cardio and bodybuilding are just such...cold and joyless pursuits, and I think they come from a place of fear. I understand it, but I won't play this game. Sometimes, the only way to win is not to play. I choose to move.

/end rant

So yeah, going for a walk each morning is great advice, especially if you're getting less food because it's not too taxing. It won't fix your cholesterol problem, you can't out-train a bad diet. I've tried. I've run six miles a day every day till my knees and spine ached. I've done clean & jerks till I moved 5000lbs of iron a day. I've rowed till I was sick. I've swung kettlebells till my hands are bloody and raw. MyFitnessPal is pretty good, but when I was using the app on my phone I was too casual about what I ate. I use the Livestrong MyPlate because even though it's not as good as MyFitnessPal and you can't add foods to the database, I need to sit at my computer and plan my food out better.

Hope this all helps!!

My sister had a lot of difficulty with fertility (even had two miscarriages). She says what finally worked for her was a radical change in her diet. Look into [The Paleo Solution] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Paleo-Solution-Original-Human/dp/0982565844/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344606763&sr=8-1&keywords=paleo+solution)

Basically, though, cut all wheat, dairy, and soy out of your diet. Eat mostly vegetables, some meat, and as little starch as possible. I don't know why, exactly, but she ate like this for about six months, then when she started trying to get pregnant again, it was within a month, and my nephew is a happy, healthy little boy of 11 months.

Best of luck to you, and don't count on God for what you can do for yourself.

Read "The Wheat Belly"... it's a good book that goes over a lot of the history of how wheat has changed and how is affects your body.

Personally I have no allergy to wheat/gluten, but the fact is that modern wheat products hold almost no nutritional value and can lead to serious health problems when over consumed. I have personally gone wheat/gluten free for a long time and lost a serious amount of stubborn weight in the process, and so have many of my friends who tried it. Improved mood, fat loss, more healthy overall, so much benefit I've seen from it.

Now most people who remove something like wheat from the diets will start eating more whole, unprocessed foods in the process, like they should have been doing all along. This is a good thing as it will eventually bring up the demand and hopefully lower the cost of healthy eating in America.

I could rant for hours and go in to pretty detailed discussion, but I think you get it.

The PPK (Post-Punk Kitchen, http://www.theppk.com/ ) is an awesome resource for tasty recipes, and the forum there is very welcoming. It's run by Isa, who was one of the co-authors of The Veganomican.

Vegan for Life ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738214930/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0738214930&linkCode=as2&tag=wwwtheppkcom-20 ) is a wonderful resource for vegan nutrition and health in an easy to read package.

Aside from that you can go as cookbook crazy as you like. I strongly recommend all of Isa's cookbooks. They're entertaining to read (something I never thought I'd say about a cookbook) and full of tasty tasty food.

I don't remember any of them off the top of my head, but there are four or six really good ones in the book Practical Paleo. I've had terrific luck with the "garlic-herb blend" that I think is from McCormick's, and generic lemon pepper. Depending on your tolerance for spice, you could probably dust them with any taco seasoning and be good (I haven't tried this myself since I live with some spice-sensitive folks).

yes! Baby-led weaning was awesome. Basically as soon as my daughter was old enough to sit upright on her own (around 6 months) we started feeding her the exact same food we eat ourselves (supplementing w/ a bottle of course). The only exceptions are some dangerous things like large pieces of meat that require chewing, round things like blueberries and grapes, or things that baby's bodies can't quite deal with yet like raw meat and fish.

I wrote a long guide to getting my toddler to eat, which I think is worth a read. The real keys are to make sure they're involved in meal planning and preparation. nobody likes being told what to do, even toddlers and babies, so you need to make sure they feel empowered and like they have control over their own bodies and what goes into them.

Keto diet, switch your fuel source to fat. It will take time but you will also need less insulin. Less carbs, less insulin.

Read Dr. Bernstein's book, I highly recommend it. He is T1, in his mid 80's and very fit. This guy is in great shape, lifts weights etc.

Info http://www.diabetes-book.com/

For sale on Amazon, buy it used to save a few dollars. https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699

Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuJ11OJynsvHMsN48LG18Ag/videos

Check out some recipe books and see if you can make any meals you like and then ease yourself into it. That's how I started. I started with this one and it has a lot of good recipes.

Isa Does It: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316221902/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_8VnRAbS5569YV

Or this one is aimed at doing meals so that you won't miss meat

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FXnRAbJJ6N7BP

Check them out at your library and just pick a few to test. I've also found a few fake meat products that I never thought I would have liked. Quorn makes some good meatless alternatives like chikn nuggets. There's also Beyond Burger which is shockingly meaty.

My go-to resources are:

Baby Led Weaning

Loose Parts and Loose Parts 2: Inspiring Play for Infants and Toddlers

For discipline I prefer the Parenting with Love and Logic.

I'm a big believer in the Reggio Emilia philosophy of teaching and early childhood development. R.E., loose parts, and outdoor classroom theories all work really well together to create a natural, child-led, creative environment. The basic theory involved is that children are curious, competent, creative beings with a significant capacity for learning if we get out of their way. Instead of giving them plastic, light-up, noise-making toys that have one purpose or one way of playing, loose parts cultivates an environment of inviting materials that encourage creativity and discovery instead of "this is how you play with this toy" thinking. I was first introduced to Reggio Emilia and Loose Parts while working for a JCC and I was really impressed with the way it transformed the teaching environment. It's definitely harder the smaller your kids are, but it can be done and I have seen it jump start critical thinking and creativity in even the youngest kiddos.

Yep, I've lost over 15 pounds (7kg) in under 2 months on a low carb diet. Continuously trying to tweak it, but great to hear that reintroducing dietary fat to your diet is working for you.

Never thought that eating pretty much as much fat as I want -- within limits -- would work. But once I dropped bread, rice, other starchy carbs, and sugar -- despite still eating fruit and some other Atkins no-nos -- I started dropping fat at a pretty steady rate.

P.S. This is my first post on reddit. lol
P.P.S. Get this book! (Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes)

I think diet is the most important part for that based on my whirlwind research in the past few days.

I also found this page: https://www.restartmed.com/tpo-antibodies/

I think besides eliminating gluten, dairy, sugar, and alcohol from your diet (and probably some other things, too), the next important step are these nutrients that repeatedly come up like Selenium, Zinc, etc. I found this supplement that has 4,000+ positive reviews on Amazon. I ran it through fakespot and review meta to make sure the reviews are not fake. It got an A grade, passed with flying colors. Searching through the reviews, I found a lot of references to "hashimoto's," "anxiety," and "hair" regrowth. If you search for these quoted terms, you will find the reviews yourself. It appears to be a very good supplement that really helps. I've just ordered it yesterday, so I haven't actually tried it yet.

As far as diet and explanation goes for auto immune diseases like Hashimoto's, this book came highly recommended along with this cookbook. I will probably only get the first book because I never use cookbooks. Just tell me what I can eat and I will make my own meal no problem.

well fed has some great, tasty recipes, but is essentially a dairy-free keto recipe book. it sticks to whole30 approved ingredients, but would make a nice transition to paleo eating if you're coming from keto.

personally, i'd hoped for something a bit less carb restrictive, but if you serve the basic recipes listed with a starch, it's great.

I got these two books (Frugal Vegan and Thug Kitchen)as a gift and they have really helped me get better. I was a decent cook beforehand but these have given me tips on making tofu taste better, good sauces to make, etc. I like the combo of these two books because Frugal Vegan is a lot simpler, generally not too many ingredients, and usually not some weird thing you've never heard of while Thug Kitchen can get a bit more elaborate which can also be fun.

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s at 16, too. I’m now 37. You can do it. My best advice to you is focus on living better and taking care of yourself.

I wish I could tell you all of the things I wish someone would’ve told me 20 years ago. The one thing I’ll say is that changing your diet can completely change your life.

the Paleo Approach changed my life. I recommend buying a copy. If you can’t afford it, DM me and I’ll buy you a copy.

You can find support at r/autoimmuneprotocol

The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance advocates for zone training in order to help your body prefer fat burning. I've been doing zone training and have had about a 15% gain in running efficiency. I feel less winded and rarely feel sore.

I also really, really like chi running because of its focus on efficiency by using gravity to propel yourself forward. In a long event like yours, efficiency is the key to winning.

The basic premise of ketogenic diets. You said your body breaks down fats for energy and you are correct. On a low-carb diet your body is not using carbs to generate energy, it is using fats. Typically I am eating around 30 carbs per day. I maintain a rough ratio of 65% of my calories from fats, 35% from protein and 5% from carbs. On a typical game day, I will eat about 100-120g of fat. If I've been good about my food intake, I can play and feel boundless energy and rarely feel fatigued after.

Here is a great book about it.

EDIT: Some of the basic sciency stuff, and I'm quoting from memory, so I could be off, but your body can only hold about 2,000 Kcals of energy derived from glycogen (carb-based) in reserves. However, your body can store 40,000 kcals from fats. You won't use fat for energy unless you bottom out the carbs since glycogen is easier for the body to burn. It can usually take 1-2 weeks for your body to transition over to ketosis (not to be confused with ketoacidosis). Ketogenic diets are great for endurance (such as marathon running, cycling, etc). Some people say they don't lift well on it, but it never bothered me.

Check out Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious. It's an awesome cookbook for hiding veggies and healthy food from kids, but it seems like it might work here as well. She's brilliant and the recipes are fantastic.

It is not a requirement. However, if we stopped eating meat we would, none the less, have to kill off all of the animals we currently eat because releasing them or keeping them as pets would not be sustainable. Lots of vegetarians claim that "meat eaters" have a larger environmental footprint and that if we stopped eating meat that we could somehow feed those who have trouble getting it now.

This position is a bit naive. We currently produce more than enough food to feed the world. The problem isn't with producing the food, it is with paying for, and transporting, it to those who need it. Switching from our current omnivorous diet to a strictly vegetarian one would make this problem worse, not better, because it takes more space to provide sufficient nutrition without meat.

So, while there are just a few self-selected vegetarians they might have a slightly smaller footprint than the average American, but if everyone were to become one we would be worse off. Additionally, the idea that a vegetarian diet is more healthy is also not nearly as clear cut as many vegetarians would like to believe. If you look into the research on how carbohydrates affect obesity (Here is a good source) you can see that it's not the meat that is making us fat. It's the sugar and bread.

Finally, animals (specifically the fat in animals) is delicious and our bodies crave it because it is a good source of long-term energy without causing the insulin spike that carbohydrates cause. So, eating more fatty meat actually helps to regulate hunger and reduce our consumption.

TL;DR : Animals are delicious and good for you but it is possible to exist without them.

I did lots of research back in high school while I was trying to get my health in order, and I discovered one of those sodium studies. It showed that, if you feed Americans about 10 times their usual sodium intake, it increases their blood pressure by about 1/1. This was a statistically significant result, but in most cases hardly the determining factor for heart disease.

You're more likely to have cardiovascular disorders and clogged arteries from a carbohydrate-rich diet, usually heavy in sugars and wheat. In low-to-moderate quantities (0-600 cal/day, for me), carb sources like potatoes, carrots, and fruits appear essentially harmless, but one has only to look at the average American to see the impact of high carb intake.

Tom Naughton's "Fat Head" documentary is an excellent introduction to the subject of proper nutrition. It's also worth checking out the Doctors Eades' blogs and the books Wheat Belly and The Big Fat Surprise.

"Well Fed"

http://www.amazon.com/Well-Fed-Paleo-Recipes-People/dp/061557226X

Not the cheapest book but a great building block for me. It's great for building things on top of other things. Got 1 meat, 3 veggies and 5 spices? Here's how to interchange them several ways and get at least 4 different meals. Here's recipes for 3 different simple sauces/toppings. Here's at least 10 different recipes they can be used in/on. Things like that.

EDIT: Also, crock pot is your friend.

I'm not sure if you're arguing against the idea of modern wheat being a different breed, or if you're critical of the idea that wheat-free diet would be beneficial. If it is the second argument, I would address you:

There is indeed supportive evidence. On the blog, it references a book called Wheat Belly, and it well reviewed on Amazon.

As an anecdote, as a former medical professional who still keeps tabs on the industry, the notion of going wheat-free (or a variation like paleo, keto or carb/grain free) is an idea that's catching on like wild fire. A doctor recently recommended a grain-free diet in order to lower my dad's cholesterol. I went grain-free for two months, and saw my cholesterol drop from 220 to 160 in two months, with elevated HDL and moderate LDL. (Not that it matters, its been proven that cholesterol levels don't necessarily correlate to heart disease. Plus, I can think and feel better too!

So yes, there's plenty of references and supportive evidence on the more broad discussion of going wheat free.

I kindly direct you to r/Keto or r/Paleo to show a robust community around taking wheat, and more broadly, carbohydrates, out of their diets.

Well, I would stop giving her mush and start giving her solids. Maybe not toast right away, but a banana stick maybe. (Banana cut length ways twice.) because you have already started giving baby mush, just transition baby to solids, starting with softer ones.

It's really important you understand the difference between gagging and choking. Gagging is ok. It's your baby just working out how to move the food around in their mouth. Choking is when they are turning blue, no noise, food is lodged. Gagging will probably happen. Choking will probably not. But know the difference.

A really really great Blw book to help you on your journey is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/161519021X?pc_redir=1409137923&robot_redir=1

It gives lots of tips and a lot of really great information on baby led weaning. Good luck!

Michael Pollan, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

>“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

The 64 guidelines in that book boil down to:

1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
   
   
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
   
   
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
   
   
4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
   
   
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
   
   
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
   
   
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

I can't believe nobody else has said this yet (though maybe they did and I missed it):

Low-carb. Go low-carb.

Do you eat sugar and starches compulsively? Does it feel as though, no matter how much you eat, you still need more food? An hour or two after a meal, do you already want another one? Does trying to just "cut back" or count calories make your body scream at you to eat?

You need low-carb.

To put it as simply as possible, if you eat a lot of carbs, your body has likely been thrown completely out of whack. You eat flour or sugar, and your insulin levels go rocketing upward; a while later, they drop precipitously, making your body cry out for more in an attempt to stabilize the situation. But eating more only makes them rocket up again, and around and around you go. After years/decades of this, your body is pumping out vast amounts of insulin on a routine basis, leaving you with far too much in your system; however, your tissues have become numbed to it (ie, have become insulin resistant), meaning that it continually takes more to keep your blood sugar under control. Eventually the system begins to break down, leading to pre-diabetes, and later on full-blown Type II. Additionally, all the insulin coursing through your veins is the primary cause of your body's over-enthusiasm to store fat.

That's all terribly over-simplified, but for a more in-depth explanation, read this, and for an even more in-depth explanation, read this. To get you started for now, read this.

I am not shitting you: if you have carb issues (and as a pre-diabetic, you almost certainly do), going low-carb can change EVERYTHING. It can be a little bit of a challenge at first, but after a week or so it gets much easier -- it was far easier for me than any of the standard calorie-restricted, low-fat diets I've done, and I've done more than my share of them. Once you're on track, the compulsive eating vanishes. Your appetite drops off, your energy levels go way up, a surprising number of assorted physical complaints diminish. And most importantly, your weight starts to drop, quickly and without struggle.

I can vouch for this, because this is what happened to me. I've been obese for my entire adult life, and have made so many long, grinding efforts at standard diets -- always failing in the end -- that I was convinced there was just something inherently wrong with me. Then someone right here in r/loseit told me about low-carb dieting, and I decided, what the fuck? Why not give it a try? The worst that happens is that in two weeks, I'm still fat, which was going to happen anyway. So I tried a two-week "experiment," just to see what would happen.

That was nearly seven months ago. Since then, I've dropped roughly 80 lbs (of roughly 150 total that I need to drop) and feel for the first time in my life that I can be whatever size I want to be. Hell, a lot of the time I don't even feel as though I'm "on a diet"... it's more like, in soviet russia, diet goes on you. As long as I don't eat more than a certain number of carbs per day, the weight and everything that goes along with it, that all just takes care of itself.

Low-carb diets aren't a fad, they're not a crash diet, they're not unhealthy, though people will tell you all of these things. What a low-carb diet does is allow your body to regain its equilibrium and begin to correct all of the problems that have accumulated from a lifetime of eating refined carbohydrates. There are a lot of ways to go about it -- it's not all Atkins, although that's a perfectly valid place to start. But even just getting the major sources of carbs out of your diet -- the flour, sugar, and starch -- will almost certainly make an enormous, rapid difference in how you feel and what you weigh. It does require some effort, and it does require some sacrifice. Changing how you live your life is never easy. But compared to the tortures of a carb-based, low-fat, calorie-restricted diet (that doesn't work to address the real problem anyway), it's a walk in the fucking park.

If nothing else, it's worth a try. It's worth considering. For me, it literally changed my entire world. And I'm an Oregonian, too -- would I lead you astray? :)

Good luck, girl. I hear you so loud and clear my ears are bleeding. Think about this, and please, please ask if you have questions.

> My view is that bagels can be a healthy part of a balanced diet. Yes, they're relatively high in carbs, but you just have to eat low carb for the rest of the day and it's fine.

Plz educate yourself. It's difficult to know where to start explaining it when you display that what you know about nutrition is just the popular opinions of uneducated marketers.

"Bagel" doesn't really say much. Were eggs used? Does it have added high fructose corn syrup? It depends. And carbs are not bad. Seriously I recommend learning about what the science says about food or you're gonna get scammed all your life.


http://www.amazon.com/The-China-Study-Comprehensive-Implications/dp/1932100660

http://www.amazon.com/Prevent-Reverse-Heart-Disease-Nutrition-Based/dp/1583333002

http://www.amazon.com/Neal-Barnards-Program-Reversing-Diabetes/dp/1594868107

http://www.amazon.com/The-UltraMind-Solution-Broken-Healing/dp/0743570480

http://www.amazon.com/The-Starch-Solution-Regain-Health/dp/1623360277

You can find these books online for free if you don't have the money as well. They have some clinical data and information which will help you understand what's healthy. You don't have to read all of it, but I highly suggest looking in that direction.

You may want to check out The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance. http://amzn.com/0983490716

The general premise is, after several weeks on a very low carbohydrate diet, you body adapts to use fat as the primary fuel. Fat utilization increases. That is, you can burn fat a much higher rates than you can on a typical diet. Glycogen is preserved and you don't bonk. As intensity increases, you start burning more glycogen for energy, but you're still burning fat at rates that just can't be achieved on a standard diet.

> I'm not trying to go fast. I just want endurance, power and overall performance. You know, besides dropping some body fat.

It's well suited for this.
V02max will decrease slightly. That's your maximal effort. How much you can do in an all-out sprint. However, because fat mass decreases, your VO2max/kg and watts/kg actually increase. Since bike racing often involves a sprint to the finish, racers are after VO2max, so this hasn't caught on.
In events without a sprint to the finish; triathlon, ultra-endurance races, longer time trials, it's gaining in popularity.
I find it ideal for a recreational rider.

I have this one, but I can't say I use it all that often.

Couple of thoughts:

• Have you considered taking your favorite recipes and compiling them into a "book" for your parents to have? Some quick work in MS Word and a trip to Staples/Kinkos/OfficeMax should yield a DIY cookbook with a good handful of recipes.
  
• Make sure you include Why We Get Fat in your gift basket. It's a great primer on low carb diets, but much less science heavy than Good Calories, Bad Calories.

> I have read a little about this so far and it seems that DKA would only occur if she was on a keto diet AND was not receiving sufficient insulin.

This is exactly my concern with full on keto diet. I want to give you kudos for doing your research. There are absolutely benefits, and draw backs and it is ultimately up to you if the benefits outweigh the concerns.

I only know of one source that talks about extending the honeymoon period, Dr. Bernstein. His methods are similar in your thinking and I think you would be interested in what he has to say. As for proof of his methodology, being an 80+ year old diabetic is pretty convincing. But I recommend you make your own decision.

I really strongly recommend reading Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Ginny Messina. They're both registered dietitians and take nutrition seriously.

This book will answer the questions you posted and more. You're much better off getting nutrition advice from professionals than from a bunch of random people on Reddit (except for me ;).

For mock meat, I really like Gardein products. Their beefless tips are great for stir fries, the chicken breasts work great for all sorts of cooking, and they have a several different breaded nuggets/strips that are really good.

This is completely false. I used to believe that, until I spent some of my free time casually studying nutrition (specifically the effects of carbohydrates on the body).

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body's cells become insulin resistant due to excessive amounts of insulin being present (usually caused by excess sugar & carbohydrate intake). The pancreas has to make more and more insulin to achieve the same effect (directing cells to take in glucose in order to remove it from the bloodstream, which must happen because excess blood sugar is, as we know, highly toxic), and eventually it cannot create enough - you now have type 2 diabetes. It is not caused by stored fat.

Additionally, contrary to Reddit's popular belief, storing fat is not simply caused by an excessive intake of calories. Fat storage is primarily regulated by the hormone insulin, and since type 2 diabetics have had a huge excess of insulin for a long period, diabetes and obesity are very often (but not always*) seen together. Is it any wonder the belief that fat causes diabetes sprung up?

If you'd like to know more, a great starting point is the book "Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It



> If your burning the calories, eat away, you can't wear our your pancreas. That's a myth that needs to die.

PLEASE do some proper research before you perpetuate bullshit like this to people who may believe things they hear on the internet. You certainly can wear out your pancreas, several people in my family have done just that with a lifetime of sugar and processed carbohydrates (two of them being extremely "fit" looking, working out frequently and playing sports/generally being active.

Yeah I think this is pretty common across Lyme patients. The infection (or lingering damage) creates so much inflammation, you need to eat pretty clean to even get close to feeling "normal."


This book on the Autoimmune Protocol Diet has been pretty useful for me in terms of finding some new creative ideas that don't involve grains:


https://www.amazon.com/Autoimmune-Paleo-Cookbook-Allergen-Free-Approach/dp/0578135213

I've not used any recipes yet, but the books by Thug Kitchen look awesome. Really good design and high quality photos. I think even omnis would appreciate the recipes (and humour) in there.

• [Eat Like you give a fuck][1]
  
• [Party grub for social motherfuckers][2]
  
• Fast as fuck
  
  [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586
  [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Party-Grub-Motherf/dp/1623366321
  

Try to get your diabetes specialist to read this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Low-Carbohydrate-Living/dp/0983490708

It will explain almost everything he could want to know and has an entire chapter dedicated to specifically why it is what you're doing is so good at treating type 2 diabetes and another whole chapter dedicated explaining the metabolic effects of the diet and the derangements that are fixed by it's unique way to bypass them. There's several segments more or less explicitly written with the intent of convincing curious doctors like yours.

The fact that he signaled curiosity at what you where up to so early on is probably a good sign that he'll have an open mind and be open to exploring the ideas of carbohydrate restriction and extreme carbohydrate restriction with his other patients and doing so could very well save lives.

(That link is not a referral link just to be clear.)

> Does it matter if fat is unsaturated or saturated? I know saturated is bad for you, but would you just burn it off anyway?

Saturated fats are not bad for you, that is another of those myths surrounding dieting that came about during the "low fat" hype. Yes, certain mono-unsaturated fats, such as olive oil or fish oil, are better for you, but saturated fats aren't bad. A great resource for this information is Gary Taubes' book Why we get fat and what to do about it. When looking for fats, think of the ones that don't require a lot of processing, such as olive oil, coconut oil, lard, butter. Canola and other vegetable oils require a lot of processing and would not have been easy to get during paleolithic times.

> Since it can be hard to get a lot of fat, would it be a good idea to cook with butter/extra virgin olive oil whenever possible?

You should cook with butter/extra virgin olive oil, but getting enough fat isn't too difficult, especially if you are eating fattier meats, such as bacon or steaks. For salads, I love to use just olive oil for dressing.

Also I'd recommend the "Eat Like You Give a Fuck" cookbook. It's awesome for beginners on a budget, and it's awesome for inspiration if you want to customize recipes to fit how picky you are
.

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck (Thug Kitchen Cookbooks) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1623363586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_unoWCbMZBV38K

> I'm 38 and the past couple of years I've led a very unhealthy lifestyle and gained a lot of weight.

No disrespect, insult, or snark intended. Those sound like some pretty good, if distant warning signs right there.

You might want to check out this book written by the cardiac surgeon who created the diet President Bill Clinton used to recover from his bypass operation. It is also good for preventing heart disease, as well diabetes.

Good Luck


Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: by Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr.

It is clear, you should do both, help animals and become healthy and fit at the same time, without even lifting a finger. For some, the fact that you're helping animals may not be enough to "stay on course", you need that extra bit of motivation. Shedding all the fat and gaining energy, becoming sexy as AF is a great motivation.

I strongly urge you to order the Starch Solution. Read it and let it change your life. The fact that there's no "counter-evidence" on the starch solution which is common in popular "weight loss" diets such as paleo, lchf, atkins etc. speak louder than words.

The key difference is, you're not guided into "this is good, this is bad" but you get reasoning and evidence so you can make your own judgement calls with ease. I have yet to meet/talk to or actually even heard of anyone who didn't have their life change permanently from this book. I doubt you'd be the first.

FYI: I hate reading books in general, so I started by forcing myself to read just 5-10 minutes a week which I only had to do once. Afterwards, I read it daily and was looking forward to it, similar to watching a daily tv series.. Odd.

You can buy the book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Starch-Solution-Regain-Health-Weight/dp/1623360277

You can find free info from McDougall on youtube and here: https://www.drmcdougall.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Thug-Kitchen-Official-Cookbook-Like/dp/1623363586

The cursing might often look childish, but the dishes in the book are tasty and many of them will be probably loved by children as well. The recipes are also easy to make, in my opinion at least. And apart of a food processor not a lot of equipment is required. Which is a must-have in my opinion. Especially when you want to make some dips :)

I haven't switched to the paleo lifestyle yet, but I recently picked up Practical Paleo and it seems to be a great way to start out. I'm the type of person that needs something spelled out very clearly for me. I've also heard good things about Well Fed 1 and 2 and nomnompaleo.com.

Although I agree with your intent, I don't think an education in nutrition is the right approach. To me the only answer is to actively avoid all processed foods. You can't cut them out (in the US today) but you can do your damndest. As you say, eating out is an exercise in cleverly disguised (my additions) salt, fat, and sugar. Even in the most locavore, organic, vegetarian restaurant you don't know exactly what's in your dinner.

I'm not touting anyone as an expert, but Michael Pollan in Food Rules does a really nice job of creating a simple set of rules that you don't have to memorize or think about. You can eat heathy(er) without analyzing Omega-3 content, sugar content, or looking for phyto-nutrient rich super-foods.

If you are interested in learning about eating well from a nutritional standpoint, I cannot recommend highly enough Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina:

https://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Life-Everything-Healthy-Plant-Based/dp/0738214930

A friend who gets an Abel and Cole veg box gave me a spare copy of the Veg Box Companion. While not strictly vegan, all the recipes are based around seasonal vegetables and provide very straightforward ideas for preparing vegetables in tasty ways, with pics, and all the recipes are easy to veganise with a substitution or two, so I use this book all the time:

https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/abel-cole-veg-box-companion

The Veganomicon is very good. It doesnt have pictures and the recipes are a little USA-centric (not all the ingredients are widely available where I live), but has some great vegan recipes and some good advice about stocking a vegan storecupboard:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1059680.Veganomicon

Born to Eat: Whole, Healthy Foods from Baby’s First Bite https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1510719997/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_qzR-zbD6MKQ7Z

Got this book ^ love it, great resource

Want some background and research behind blw? Try anything by Gill Rapley, she basically made BLW what it is today.

Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods―and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater https://www.amazon.ca/dp/161519021X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3AR-zbARDF8JY

Getting past the keto flu....(read the FAQ)

Read this book, its great, provides the science, the rationality and the menus. http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Science-Carbohydrate-Living/dp/0983490708

And remember...
in about 3 weeks...

• you will have FAR LESS cravings, if you stick with it
  
• you will have FAR MORE energy thats stable, if you stick with it
  
• you will lose weight and become less bloated, if you stick with it
  
  Stick with it, mean ALL IN...not half in half out....eat 65%-85% fat - moderate protein and only get your carbs from non starchy veggies. This is the key...get in ketosis and stay there...then in a month see how you feel and do what you want. BUT for a month stick with it so you can see the REAL benefits of a well balance Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet.
  
  Good Luck, this diet is like no other, you will never be hungry again.
  

I use My Fitness Pal since it has a lot of choices but it’s not the best at counting carbs unless you pay for that version, which I don’t.

Definitely check out the Keto sub, lots of great info there! Keep things simple, don’t overwhelm yourself by doing too much too fast. Unless you are the kind of person who needs to totally immerse yourself to be successful? I’m a little changes at a time type person.

Also, I like this book. Idk if I’ll get crap for linking to it but it’s helped me, especially when I’ve needed to get back to basics. It’s not completely the same as Keto but close enough to where I recommend it.

New Atkins for A New You

It sounds like you want a "keto for beginners" that is better than what is here on reddit. There are some other websites like DietDoctor, but I think the best information is probably in books such as The Art And Science Of Low Carbohydrate Living. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Edit: Another good link is http://eatingacademy.com/ but you'll have to poke around to find what you're looking for. I don't think he really has any "how to do LCHF" stuff.

Same here, for Gluten and Dairy. My levels have remained the same, but my antibodies at last test were insane (almost 5k), but my quality of life improved exponentially. someone recommended this book to me, which I would highly recommend. Good Luck!

>A diabetic patient is recommended to have foods rich in Carbohydrates

ಠ_ಠ

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Get-Fat-About/dp/0307272702

>If the USDA dietary guidelines—recommending that highly caloric grains and carbohydrates comprise 45 to 65 percent of daily caloric intake—are so healthy, why, he asks, has obesity among Americans been on the upswing? Why has this same diet, endorsed by the American Heart Association, not managed to reduce the incidence of heart disease?

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16717

I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Vegan for Life from your local library.

It's a thorough and clear guide to a nutritionally sound vegan diet backed by equally sound science.

EDIT: You might also want to visit /r/PlantBasedDiet/ as that subreddit focused on a plant-based diet for health reasons, whereas veganism implies an ethical basis for your decision. On /r/PlantBasedDiet/ you are more likely to find other folks whose focus is exclusively on the health effects and they might have info that's more relevant to you if that is your focus as well. (I don't want to discourage your posting here, just suggest you might also find information that is helpful to you there!)

of course you can "bulk" on keto, too. you don't need carbs for that. And yeah, you sound as if you're not reacting well to carbs (or some of them at least). The GAS issue is usually related to your gut bacteria, you miss apparently some for the carbs you are eating, so this probably gets better over time.

But I consider the whole "bulking/cutting" done in the bodybuilder scene a myth, they came up with some patterns that work, and those are religiously followed now. Science says, if you have the proteins it takes, and a caloric deficit not too big, and the necessary growth stimuli from your exercises, you will gain lean mass. actually you have some benefits like growth hormone and other things.

"the art and science of low carbohydrate performance" by Volek and Phinney might be a good read for your coach :-)

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Low-Carbohydrate-Performance/dp/0983490716

Since we are all a little lazy... Here are links to all of the books in my stack:
Betty Goes Vegan (my mom got this one for my boyfriend - so not strictly mine - in hopes that he would cook for me. I am pressing the tofu right now at his request, so far so good)

Vegan Eats World

Eat Drink & Be Vegan

The 30 Minute Vegan

Thug Kitchen

The Lusty Vegan (my sister bought this one for me)

One-Dish Vegan

Fresh From the Vegan Slow Cooker

Vegan Brunch (second most used, the muffin recipes in here are crazy easy to customize)

Vegan Yum Yum

Twelve Months of Monastery Soups (not blatantly vegan, but almost entirely so)

The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (My most used, and longest owned, the best of all. All super simple ingredients, only non-vegan ingredient mentioned is honey on occasion)

Like I said, I haven't read it yet myself, but I believe the book "Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods - and Helping Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater" by Gill Rapley is considered to be the primary authority on the subject.