Trying out raw paleo

[CaptainSparrow]

Hey there, I'm a 24 year old guy with a fast food addiction. For the most part my daily diet consists of pizza and/or burgers followed by a pint of ice cream. This has not only contributed to me being overweight, but also is contributing to other problems such as sinusitis, eczema, chest pain, and a load of other things like bad morning breath and dandruff. I am also very anxious and have a hard time just living my life.

I tried a (lightly cooked) zero carb diet last year. I lost about 40 pounds on it within two months and felt pretty good. I was still using butter and spices on my steak which caused me to eat more than my body could handle at a time, and I had serious bouts of chest pains right after eating a pound of beef this way. This scared me shitless and I went off the diet.

I also tried eating raw ground beef, and while I don't find the taste at all objectionable, I had a very hard time eating more than about half a cup at a time. I read about a study with rats where they were fed fast food for a long time and then when they switched the feed to healthy food, the rats starved themselves for two weeks rather than eating it. This is my case too. I'd rather go hungry than have to eat more than a couple of spoonfuls of raw meat.

But I'm tired of feeling like crap and looking like crap, so I'm gonna make an earnest attempt to get used to raw ground meat, and we'll see where it goes from there. Other raw things I've eating were calf liver and eggs, but for now I'm just going to eat raw ground lamb for the first two weeks to get accustomed to it.

This diet is so hard to do in face of all the acculturation and in face of all the people that tell me it's wrong. I need to do it cause if I can achieve this I can achieve anything. 

[eveheart]

Welcome. I'm "old enough to be your grandmother," as the saying goes. I have had a diagnosis of binge-eating disorder since before they even called it an eating disorder, since about 1964. I've been up and down in weight for decades, often with great "success" in keeping pounds off, but my appetite has never been normal until I started eating RVAF. I've had tons of psychological treatment, which I now think was a bunch of b.s.

From the first day eating raw, I looked better. In the first week, I felt better. I know nothing about rats eating fast food, but I know I did that myself, and never felt full enough to stop.

I started by reading four authors: Aajonus, Cordain, Burger, and Wai. I don't follow any one, but I have found my true appetite, and it's getting instinctive. I eat no processed foods, and no "agricultural era" foods. I don't try to eat a certain amount of meat, but I do make sure I'm getting enough fat.

I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean by "addiction" to fast food. My addiction started even before I began eating... I mentally obsessed over what to have at the next opportunity. I never experience that with raw foods.

I wish you the same relief that I have found.

[blimpie]

Best way to get off fast food is ironically enough a well disciplined 100% raw vegetable and animal food diet. So congratulations, you've come to the right place and the right ideologies. Like any discpline, you will have to deal with temptation, but once you're on for a while and see and feel the benefits (takes many months to reach that point), you'll never look back at cooked, especially processed, foods and you have the will to never touch it again. Even the smell or sight of that stuff may still make your mouth water.

I personally struggled with chocolate of all things (which I knew even contained lead and cadmium) until just about the point where I was literally only cooked meat, bone broth, and a pinch of salt away from going 100% raw primal. If you're still doing cooked and processed, the transition could be tough. 

[HIT_it_RAW]

Welcome!

You are obviously addicted to all the crap they put in fast food. If you cannot cope with eating raw because you crave the bad stuff very badly I would recommend you to do a few days fasting. Like an orance juice fast (the real stuf you make yourself). This fasting should eliminate your cravings for fast food. In the beginning when I ate 1 cooked (sad) thing my taste was off again and i couldn't stomach raw food. So i fasted till i was real hungry. Then ate raw food and liked it again. Even now after a few months when i eat something bad(very rare nowadays) my taste is off and i dislike the raw foods though not as much as in the beginning.

My experience says easing in is harder than going cold turkey because you are constantly feeding your addiction instead of dealing with it at once. Don't just focus on raw meat there are so many raw paleo foods that you probably like! Like fruits. I eat lots of avocado's and bland fuits like cucumber and tomatoes. Raw eggs are also a very good food that is easy to get used to. Like Aajonus says green veggie juices increase my appetite for healthy food. I usually start my day with some green juice than 30-45 mins later I eat a large meat/fat meal. If you dont have a juicer just blend green veggies with wather and strain the pulp out.

If you can handle dairy I highly recommend drinking homemade raw milk kefir. It populates your gut with the right bacteria very fast making it easier to digest meat. Drinking it togther with eating meat is even better.

good luck

[blimpie]

Another interesting idea, is the conept that it takes 1 month to establish a new behavior (brain circuit) and 3 months to make it the permanent choice behavior (and override the previous one). That might come into play for ya.

You should probably avoid being anywhere near fast food for the first few months, too. Like HIT mentioned, they're designed to get you hooked. And furthermore, the pleasurable flavors actually become anchored in your brain (taste and smell becomes associated with extremely positive/pleasurable feelings). So having the food in your visual field or even getting a single whif of it can trigger the desire for that same pleasurable feeling. Then again, I think all addiction sort of works that way, right?

[HIT_it_RAW]

So having the food in your visual field or even getting a single whif of it can trigger the desire for that same pleasurable feeling. Then again, I think all addiction sort of works that way, right?

Very right indeed. I still like the smell of some sad foods being cooked. Even though i dont even like the taste.

[CaptainSparrow]

Thanks for the welcomes and all your insightful posts! I hope to learn a lot in these forums and to find motivation to keep on the right path to health. I hope to start a journal at some point to keep you updated on my weight loss and other progress.

I agree that fasting is the best thing to begin with. Once I'm hungry enough I'd probably eat tree bark let alone delicious ground beef, so in the next few days I'm just going to drink water (not orange juice cause that can be very addictive to me). What's weird is that I prefer the taste of raw meat to cooked, yet it doesn't satisfy my addiction at all so it makes it psychologically "useless" to eat. Which is a good thing to me. But it's gonna be extremely hard, and I know that already.

As far as the idea of eating raw fruit, maybe down the line, but for now I'll be eating meat and fat only. The idea of getting a lot of my calories from fruit doesn't appeal to me, and I just wanna focus on animal products. Raw eggs I might consider eating too. Brains and liver are pretty decent tasting too but I have a hard time eating them raw at this stage.

I already kinda have a protocol with dealing with addiction. When I go to the supermarket I go straight to meat section without looking at anything. And then I just flee the scene. I don't have a hard time refusing offered food, but if they insist it might make it harder to refuse. I live basically alone, with some roommates but they don't cook or offer me food. And since I'm not a super social person it makes it much easier for me than for someone else, I guess.

Blimpie, if what you say is true, I will definitely work hard for the next three months to fix my habits completely. I really want a body I feel comfortable in, and I don't want to end up like my dad who has heart disease. Or other members of my family who had strokes or diabetes. Once stuff like that happens so close to me I start taking it more seriously than after reading some article online.

[HIT_it_RAW]

If you just eat meat and fat than make sure you include organ meat. Just muscle meat and fat isn't gonna suply all the vitamins and minerals you need. I wasn't suggesting getting a large part of your diet from fruits just 1-2 fruits a day. It provides some carbs. If you are trying to deal with sad addiction it may be a bit to much to also deal with (sugar)carb addiction, which you have.

You don't have to be afraid of those carbs limiting weight loss for now. If you are overweight and go 100% raw its hardly impossible to not loose weight.

Did i read supermarket? I don't know how its in your country but in mine all the meat in the supermarkets is of very low quality. All grainfed and antibiotics infested. You can sustain yourself on muscle meats from grainfed/drugged animals for a while but dont eat organs/fat/marrow off them. Animals store their toxins mostly in those parts. Find yourself a better source of meat! Others on the forum from your whereabouts can help you. Wild caught fish is also a good food. In fact wild caught anything is. Organic pasture fed eggs are an awesome food.

[achillezzz]

Hey welcome!! Where do you get the ground beef that you eat? and how do you know that brain is delicious have you already tried it cooked or something ?

[CaptainSparrow]

Yeah I'm not eating grain-fed supermarket beef. I tried that before and it made me gag.

What I'm eating right now is New Zealand ground lamb from Whole Foods Market. The thing is I don't have a freezer to buy a lot of meat in bulk from a farm but this is really high quality grass-fed meat, very fatty, and not obscenely expensive. Also they have grass fed beef which I don't like as much due to lower fat content. If anyone has any good sources around New England area though I'm all ears.

I've tried cooked brain before with scrambled eggs and it was delicious. Also cooked tongue when I was little and I wasn't really keen on it. I've tried raw liver and it has a very strong taste, I had to drink like 2 cups of water after every bite.

Another thing I wanna try is raw oysters.

[eveheart]

My main meat is lamb, and my favorite cuts are from the loin. Tender. Loin chops are great, but $$$$$. Lamb sirloin steak is more affordable, and just as good. Lamb liver tastes good to me, and I can buy a whole one and chow down on it for a couple of weeks.

It takes a while to get a handle on where to buy good meats. Keep your eyes and ears open.