cosmia

Well, this makes me never want to post on this forum again. I'm done after this post, so ban me for being an ass if you want. But between that and the person above bragging about causing a storm by telling women they don't know what they want... wow. My fault for coming into the men only thread, I guess, but I suppose I expected the men only thread's discussion to be intelligent. Oh wait, we now live in a world where women are superior and men are all idiots! I totally forgot the patriarchy doesn't exist anymore. BRB, waiting for my mythical biological clock to catch up so I can start making babies like a proper woman. I wasn't aware the menfolk don't like it when I don't care about having a family. My bad. This_is_seth, thank you for giving me hope for humanity.

For those of you who have read The Paleo Solution, have any of you tried the 30 day meal plan in the book? I'm considering trying it, because I feel like I really need a lot of hand-holding as I venture into the paleo world. I'm not the most creative of cooks or adventurous of eaters, so a plan is really good for me to start off. But I'm a little worried about some of these items on the plan. Often it seems like plenty of food, but sometimes it seems like not nearly enough. For example, there's one day where breakfast is "slice of ham, unsweetened applesauce, spoon of almond butter." That sounds like I'd be hungry again in an hour! Especially because I lift. I'm wondering if this plan was made with the assumption that the people trying it wouldn't be very physically active. I don't want to diet; I just want to go paleo! I mean, I figure I can just add more food on the days where it seems like the meal is too small. That's easy enough. But I was just wondering if anybody has tried the plan and can share their experiences, good or bad.

I do some of each (AM and PM), but I've been trying to move all my workouts to the AM. Why: 1) I feel much more energetic in the morning, and I feel like I get a better workout. And working out increases my energy and makes me feel really awesome throughout the whole day. This is assuming I eat enough, of course. If I don't, it all backfires. 2) Fewer people in the gym. Which I love for many reasons. 3) Less likely to make excuses: "oh, work was hard, I'm tired, I'll just go home today" or "oh my boyfriend wants to get dinner, I'll just do that," etc.

I'm no expert, so all I can offer is a personal anecdote. My dad, who is 61, decided last year that he wanted to lose weight. He wasn't and has never been obese, but he was definitely getting to be on the overweight side. So he did two things: 1) started walking five miles every single day, 2) stopped drinking beer. That's it. His eating habits (which aren't super unhealthy but also aren't super healthy) remained unchanged. And he lost a lot of weight. The point of the story being, simple things can go a long way. Of course he'd have to do more than that if he wanted his body to look a certain way / get stronger, but he doesn't. He just wants to be healthier and less overweight, and it works. But I guess it would depend on your parents' goals, really, just like anyone else.

Thanks for the great, super-informative answers, everyone. It makes a lot more sense now! In my case, I don't have any weight I want to lose; I just want to cut back the body fat % a bit. And my current goal is increasing strength, not so much gaining muscle mass. So if those two things can happen at once... then it sounds like I should just keep doing exactly what I'm doing, which is working on getting stronger and working on going paleo.

So I'm a bit confused. I keep seeing people saying over and over that you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. So if you want to eventually accomplish both... I guess my question is, which do you focus on first? Or if that's not the right way to think about it, what is the right way to think about it?

Ha, I'm the total opposite. I won't go near bananas that are green in any way. I'll only eat them when the skin is showing the first signs of turning brown.

I'm really worried about this too. I'm naturally small / on the slim side and have been an A cup all my life, but even though I have no weight I want to lose, I do want to reduce BF %. I honestly don't mind having small boobs, but if they get even smaller than this, I'm going to be so sad. I want to have something!

No veggies, even? I, too, am curious for the reasons behind this and whether or not it's to be permanent.

Thank you so much for this site! Between this and Nom Nom Paleo, I'm much less nervous about going paleo this year.

I say it shouldn't count towards the competition unless you get yourself banned without actually saying that's your goal. You gotta work for it!

You're right! Interesting. Why 7 weeks, out of curiosity?

I have no advice, since I am quite new to all of this. But I just wanted to say: are you me?! Both #1 and #2 are problems I also face. Weird. I'm glad you made this thread!

I will never understand the point of spam like this. It doesn't even have links to something spammy...