Hello everyone!

[Daphna]

I'm so excited to join this community. I stumbled on NF almost a month ago & was drawn in by the Lego illustrations, then got hooked by the blogs & forum posts. Two days later I began the beginner exercise program & stuck to the diet. It was great! Then Halloween came around & lasted three days. OK...it's still going.

Rewind a bit... Most of my life (40 yrs) was spent with stomach aches, head aches, side pains, arthritis (diagnosed at age 17), foggy thinking, tiredness, a little over weight and very out of shape, Even while I was practicing Tae Kwon Doe three hours, six days a week. I have been a vegetarian since I was 12 up till six years ago. Tried the vegan diet and then the raw food diet (that lasted two minutes). All symptoms continued. It took several years of trial & error to figure out that I'm super sensitive to carbs. All my ailments happen minutes after eating dairy, sugar, legumes and any grains. I can be asleep 10 minutes after eating beans. Which explains why I'd fall asleep in the first period class in high school - I would have rice & beans for breakfast thinking I'm eating "real" food. So, I have been eating the paleo way for the last couple of years because that's all that's left to eat. The symptoms all disappeared but return almost instantly when I eat one of the none paleo foods. And that is the big problem. Addictive personality mixed with no will power. It takes even a mention of some food to get me on a down wards spiral. I even have to be careful with fruit, a bite of banana will spark a want of more of the wrong carbs.

From poking around NF I see that a big difference is that support makes a huge difference & I always went at it alone. So I finally jumped in ( I can be very timid at times) & am planning to join the challenge tomorrow.

Oh and Halloween is officially over!

[Hiraedd]

Welcome, Daphna! Glad to hear that you finally figured out what was bothering your stomach....and that you've decided to join the rebellion and the new challenge! See you around