New and nervous

[Teros]

Hi, I found these forums about 2 weeks ago and have read up on a bunch of paleo things.  I'm trying to iron out a menu/food plan but I'm hitting a roadblock for the evenings.  I'm a sweets junkie and I get antsy between 6-8pm ish.  Are there any good EASY paleo desserts that can scratch the late-night itch?  Also, I wanted to create a 'lvl up' character and do the6-week challenge on the next cycle.  Where/how do I go about doing that?  Thanks.  Even writing about this stuff makes me feel nervous and antsy but people here seem to be pretty cool. so...Hi

[cn3wton]

Welcome, these links should help you with setting up your character

http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/page/articles.html/_/challenges/real-life-roleplaying-making-your-nf-characte-r13

http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/page/articles.html/_/rebel-updates/real-life-roleplaying-attribute-points-and-th-r14

 

I don't know much about the paleo diet, I just cut out sugars when I started.  It wasn't hard for me since they make me sick.

 

Are you hungry between 6 and 8?  Or are you just craving something sweet?

 

Something that always appeals to me is fresh smoothies.  Take your favorite fruits and mix in some lemon extract.  They may taste a little bit bland at first since your not used to less sugar.  But they will get sweeter as you slowly cut out the sweets.

 

Try to cut out sweets slowly.  Some people may disagree, but I find that putting too many restrictions on yourself too early will hinder you in the rest of your diet (personal experience). Just the same drastic changes to your diet in general give you a higher risk of falling off the wagon.

Good luck!

[goodbyeharrison]

I am also a sweet junkie! it's hard to give it up. I'm almost three weeks "sober" from my favorite sweets. To scratch "the itch" i either have a piece of fruit...or ill have yams with cinnamon and a little bit of raw honey, honey is also good on top of nuts. But even natural sugars im trying to limit. As far as paleo desserts, there are some brownie recipes you can find online. I found one and just adjusted it to how i wanted it to be. you can also find ones for cheesecake and tons of other desserts. i just started googling. eat these in moderation, honey and paleo desserts can be high in sugar still. (also depending on where you read, some paleo sites say yes to raw honey and yams, others say no...i say screw it im keeping them)

 

and cn3wton is right, for some people cutting out sweets completely is not the best road, but cutting back can be. it depends on you.

I went cold turkey and it's been hard, and there's been plenty of days where i want to just cave. but i also have a lot of restrictions already on my diet due to food sensitivity or intolerance, so i got used to saying "no." Also, i compulsively eat, so allowing myself to have that "one" snickers bar is never just "one" so it was best for me to go cold turkey and then see if i can handle moderation once my sugar beast is under control.

 

tips:

cook on days that are good for you, make decent sized batches! itll save you the hassle of having to prepare something all the time. making paleo transition easier.

 

quick and easy ones are 

-turkey patties and baked chicken breast. Add favorite seasonings.

-hardboiled eggs

-make batches of veggies that you can just heat up.

-A really good recipe i made the other day was organic ground beef with an organic marinara sauce and added mushrooms. I put this on top of a bed of raw zucchini and eggplant (grilled). let it bake. AMAZING. had that for a few days.

-cook cauliflower. mash. this can be used as a rice substitute in meals.

-stuffed bell peppers

-smoothies are your friend. add lots of vegetable (carrots, kale, spinach, etc) add a small amount of fruit and ginger and voila! delicious smoothie (i add kefir which is not paleo, but you can always just add water, coconut milk, almond milk, etc or whatever you want for smoothies)

[walterc]

I'm not a sweet junkie - mine is fried foods. What I did to get off this kick is to eat what I normally eat for about 2 weeks and record EVERYTHING that I was eating. It was actually hard to eat like I usually do when I was recording it and I noticed at the end of the 2 weeks I was eating less junk. I took it week by week after that, each week starting with "Ok, I can have 5 meals this week with fried food", reducing a bit every week. After 2 months or so I'm almost free of the fried food demon. This worked for me! Remember, this has to be a life style change, not a 6 month change. Who cares if it takes 6 months to get your diet where you want it - just keep working on it!

[Spider-Dan]

Welcome, and don't be nervous. This group is very warm, welcoming, accepting, and helpful. I agree with GBH on scratching the itch. Fruit can help a lot. If you need to feel more full, then make a smoothie that is really just made from water, ice, and fruit. It gives the illusion of something more like a shake without really being anything bad.

I still like the occasional sweet, and that is okay. It really is. Just not as a staple of your diet. Don't look at sweets and say "I can never have this again", or the cravings will get worse. Just say "not right now".

[Teros]

ok, I've been kicking this around for a few days (been lurking herefor a few weeks though) and I think this is a decent setup.  Let me know if there should be some tweaking:

 

 

First is my chracter.  The new 'round' starts in like a week or so so I guess I start with everyone else.  Are people assigned to groups? Like (all druids) vs (all warriors) ect?

 

Strength    -3
Dexterity    -1
Stamina        -2
Constitution    -2
Wisdom        -5
Charisma    -2
my lvl 1.

goals:
1) do shovelglove 5 days a week(with like 30ish jumping jacks for a warmup)= 3strength/2const
2) follow food/menu= 4 wisdom/1const
3) get to the gym twice a week for cardio= 4 dex/1const

 

Since I gotta drop a lot of weight but want something kind of well-rounded. I guess I'm going for a Ranger?

 

 

 

 

As for menu/food I was thinking this:

Breakfast- Eggs/breakfast sausage links or jimmydean turkey sausage breakfast sandwich

Snack- homemade trail mix (peanuts/cashews/dried cranberries/banana chips/some hersheys super dark chocolate bits)

Lunch- crockpot roast is cooked so i'm gonna pull it apart and have that with maybe a little ketchup or bbq sauce and a salad

Dinners-

1sausage+spaghetti squash

2fishsticks +veg

3crockpot hamsteak+pineapple

4meatloaf+sweet potato+veg

5breadless blts(head of lettuce so i'll use that as the bread)

6steakums+onions+mushrooms+peppers

7cheat day?

 

6-8pm craving time-fruit? smoothie?

 

[Teros]

my diet goal was going to have 1 cheat day a week /follow plan 6 out of 7 days a week.

 

it doesn't feel like a lot of activity but I'm basically very seditary besides that(my job is too)  (for reference a few weeks ago I was going to the gym once a week and able to use the arc machine on 100 difficulty for 2 hours straight- burned over 3k calories)

 

What would you suggest tweaking with my diet to make it more paleo/less fatty?  Also, I forgot that usually with breakfast or lunch I'll have fruit (banana with egg sandwich or an apple/orange with lunch).

[brader24]

I'm still getting started with this myself so I'm not sure how best to critique your plan (I haven't settled on what goals I will have for the challenge yet).  For your cardio goal though, it seems like there should be at least some points allocated for Stamina.  Dexterity would be appropriate if you are planning significant training for speed and/or agility (intervals, parkour, etc.).  This is based on my understanding though.  I'm still not real comfortable with what these mean and how to allocate points to them for various goals.

 

I don't know a lot about Paleo, I'm more inclined to keep things as simple as possible or I will burn out.  I try to keep track of what I eat daily, but I try not to be obsessive about it.  I have a target calorie limit to lose weight at the rate that I would like (1-2 lbs per week).  I don't restrict what kinds of food I eat except for reaching the calorie limit.  As I progress, I want to vastly improve the quality of the food I eat to have the energy and nutrients I need to complete my workouts and to build muscle, but it is not a priority for me right now.  One step at a time.

[Juice!]

terosx, it's okay to be nervous. It means you know you're doing something worthwhile.