Philociraptor

Use it a a base for shepherd's pie. Add ground beef, chopped carrots, mashed turnips/cauliflower, whatever you want.

Wow, thanks everybody. I may try and talk her into a small wedding initially (like, court house) that way we can save up money to have a real ceremony and all that a few years down the road. Does this sound like a terrible idea? I want to be able to move in together in the fall and so it may be a little late to start planning a big wedding with no savings for it.

Hmm. Never thought of that Roos. When I asked one of the meat guys at the store I go to (all they had out was skinless stuff) what they do with the skin he said they throw it away. So I assumed most places do that. I'll be getting a Sam's club membership pretty soon so I'll be checking there for deals.

Yes. I'm not a fan of wasting perfectly good food in my own house, so I try to buy minimally trimmed meats from the store. I will look for deals on fish, blackened tilapia/salmon is super tasty.

The problem with eggs and dairy are that their protein:fat ratios are roughly 6:5 and 1:1 respectively (not to mention the massive amount of carbs included in dairy). And the problem with chicken breast is its usually found without the skin, which they just throw away (i.e. wasteful). I can up the tuna, just gotta find a way to make it tasty. And chicken overall is still pretty good with the skin on it (about 7:5, which is closer to my target). I guess I'm looking to see if there's anything I've missed. Also on dairy: it makes me gastronomically uncomfortable (except some cheeses).

Anybody on here been through them? I'm curious as to what exactly goes down in them, as the girlfriend (haven't asked yet) wants a Catholic wedding. My parents say that they nearly broke up during them, though they never told me what caused it. So yeah, what am I looking at here?

I'm starting to do WODs off ZombieFit.org and so I'm changing my macros to 20% carb, 30% protein, and 50% fat. Here's my question: How do I get enough protein (0.7-1.0g/lb BW) without going nuts on the fat or using protein powder every day (I will still use it after hard workouts)? The key here is that I don't want to be wasteful, e.g. I'm going to eat the skin when I make chicken and drink the fat when I make ground beef. What specific sources of lean, whole sources of protein do y'all use (while not breaking the bank)?

Just popped your average day into Wolfram|Alpha, spat this out: 1290 kcal, 83 carb, 123 protein, 55 fat. Hard exercise can knock several hundred off that. Which leads me to believe you're undereating. For your activity level your carbs and protein are good, I say up the good fats. Avocado, coconut oil, olive oil, fish oil, chicken with skin on it, etc. Also, for the iron, make sure you're getting some leafy greens like spinach and kale.

The cheating on Sundays didn't exist how I was raised. It stems from the fact that Sunday's are not counted in the 40 days, resulting in a Lenten season of 46 days. However, I was never told that Sundays included cheating, rather that they are a day of special worship during lent. Never heard of any friends that observe lent cheating on Sundays either. I'ma pick up a habit I think. Maybe 9 hours of sleep a night. Definitely no diet cheats. Could possibly give up caffeine (minus chocolate) Still contemplating.

I'm with Waldo here on unsustainable deficit, maybe track your calories and macros for a week, get an overall average and ratios, then compare to your BMR. I know I was accidentally eating at a 700-1000 kcal deficit for the last 5 months and now my weight loss has slowed down. Started eating closer to my BMR and started dropping again. Sometimes you need to give your body a surprise here and there.

Mmm, had 5 thick slices of US Wellness bacon this morning with 3 omega-3 enriched eggs. Good start to my fat Tuesday.

So you have some data and a hypothesis. Have you tested it? Let people think what they think and try not to dwell on it? Just get to know people and be yourself?

Joined. I wonder if there will be more business-folk or engineers.

It seems to me that you're not going to find that in a book. While it may be hard to hear from them, you need to talk to the people around you. Ask them not to sugar-coat it and tell you why, in their option, you are having problems socially. Be specific. Specificity gives you a much better chance at a good, useable answer.

Shrove Tuesday = fat Tuesday, right? I'm not sure what I'll be giving up. Maybe I'll take up a habit instead, like learning to shoot guns and bows better. Ideas?

This is EXACTLY what my girlfriend did to me! And I HATED it. Just gimme a recipe dag-nabbit! I just default to surfing blogs and such for recipes when she's not around.

They are legumes. Legumes are not Paleo.

I sure hope I'm not in this... Scrambled eggs = heat pan, add fat, break eggs into pan, add salt and pepper, scramble. I win! When I started worrying about exercise and getting my diet fixed up my girlfriend kept telling me "haven't I been telling you all this for the past few years now?". Of course, now that I've adopted Paleo and she's tried it out she loves it, so I get to say "I informed you thusly" for once =)

Nice Waldo, quite a read. I can hardly respond to all of it, but I can give a personal reason or two why I generally avoid the more processed food. I've found that I enjoy the taste of fresh food more (could very well be psychological) and have more control over the cooking of it (doh). There's also the environmental and ethical impact of all that processing which makes me uneasy. Buying local, organic and the like tends to have much less pollution associated with it along with the better treatment of animals. You can all but guarantee that very few of the animals used to make processed meat were treated well. Grains, especially wheat in the Midwest (I call it the middle east, Midwest never made sense to me), are grown using tons of fossil fuels. Not to mention the amount of land that has been leveled to grow so much grain, destroying ecosystems and killing small animals in the process and harvesting (natural selection argument aside, as I see humans as part of nature). And then there's just my health, which improved dramatically when I went from calorie-counting low fat to no-counting Paleo (though as you know I have started tracking more to make sure I get everything dialed in).

For fruits and veggies: farmers markets. Super cheap. For meats: get the bigger pieces (leg quarters vs drumsticks) and shop the sales. Chicken can be had around $1 a pound and ground beef $2 a pound. Large roasts can also be quite economical if you have the ability to cook, separate, and store. Spices: buy bulk at a whole foods/sprouts/anywhere that has bulk spices, they're cheaper this way and you only get as much as you'll use. Overall: shop during sales. A lot of grocery stores around here let their weekly specials overlap on Wednesday's, do find out if the ones near you do that. Get ziplock bags and Tupperware of you can afford them, cook in larger quantities and save for a week. My grocery budget is also $200 a month and I often feed my girlfriend and sometimes my parents out of my food.

What about beef jerky or fruit? Berries are very low GL and tasty. And eating an apple or banana with almond/peanut butter (spoon it from the jar onto the fruit) forces you to slow down and enjoy it. Some folks do cold chicken breasts and hard boiled eggs, which are easy to make and will definitely keep you full until your next meal.

Was this prolonged weight loss brought on in part by chronic cardio? That could explain why the muscles tended that way.

Tequila has replaced my beer habit. Straight or with lime and soda water. Low cal, tasty, good buzz. I won't say no to a good, dry red wine though.

Looks pretty legit. I'm always looking for more reasons for people to look at me funnily when i jog by (Vibrams are not enough). Money is tight this month (paid for my PaleoFX trip) but I may be in for one next month. Thanks for looking!

*pops into thread about boobs* Oh hello. Uhh, I don't have much to say on the subject, but the girlfriend did send me a humorous text about boobs the other day. It went a little something like this: "If dude not wearing boxers = free ballin' Does girl not wearing booby zoo = free boobin'?" Thought y'all would enjoy that. *shuffles out quietly*