Hey all. Thought I'd register and introduce myself -- I've been lurking for about a month.

A little about myself -- I've drastically changed my lifestyle over the past 5 years or so. When I was 20 I weighed 350+ lbs for eating SAD, except probably even worse. TONS of fast food; you name it, I inhaled it. A lot of this had to do with emotional eating/filling voids in my life, and also had to do with moving to Montana from California. I never knew how much lack of sunlight actually affected me, it made me even more depressed than I already was. I returned to California, started seeing a dietician, started to be active (walking, hiking, yoga were the primaries), and cut down to about 165. I eventually had to start eating more and have fluctuated between 165-175 since, depending on my activity level. For the two years I was losing weight I was vegetarian, and had stints of trying to be vegan. I felt great for the first 1.5 years, then started to become constantly lethargic, tired all the time, cranky, and unable to think well. I started adding meats back into my diet and began to feel better immediately. It was when I added red meat a few months later that I really began to feel better, and pretty much ate only red meat when I ate meat. Since then my health had fluctuated greatly. While I don't have any major diseases or disorders, I still have fluctuating levels of feeling lethargic and completely drained. When this happens, I become majorly depressed again. I've become interested in this way of eating from my own experiences (such as simply adding meat back to my diet), and my passion for nutrition and helping others, and also from meeting a teacher at the yoga studio I where I work who follows the Aajonous (Primal) diet. He convinced me to try adding raw proteins and fats to my diet a few years ago, and since doing so I've continued to feel better. I tried a few weeks ago following raw paleo for a few days and felt great at first, then started having major cravings for sugar and starch. For a week I forged myself on sugar/starch, and then felt like crap. Also when eating cooked meat, it just seemed to lack flavor or even be 'good.' So I'm back sticking with it. As I write this, it is my third day sticking with it again -- I've been doing some liver cleansing things (herbs, coffee enema, did the egg liver flush this morning) and actually feel very well. When I went hiking this morning I felt like I could keep hiking forever!

I'm not following the Primal diet since I don't function well with milk (although significantly better with raw vs. pasteurized), though I am eating raw butter since I think it's the lactose/protein I have difficulty with. Sorta my own variation I guess, some lower sugar fruit (mostly apples/lemons), raw beef, raw eggs, raw butter, veggie juices, olive/coconut oil, chia seed, and raw veggies. Probably will include some raw fish too since I love ceviche.

So that's that. I hope to contribute to this forum and learn a lot too!