Living RP Adventures

[Alive]

Anyone know where I can get like a 'chastity belt' for my mouth ?! (semi-joke)

Yesterday I was feeling tired, fatigued and bored and ate cheese, sour cream and apple juice (all cooked) and now I am feel like absolute crap, waking in the night with headache, bloodshot eyes, more backache - feeling like a sick animal backed into a corner wanting to snarl at any irritation. What an idiot.

I suspect the imbalance of microbes that are flourishing in me may be sending out chemical signals to encourage me to eat things that help them and not me. After all there are many documented cases of microbes and parasites taking control of their hosts behavior to further their own  reproduction.

I will try a fresh green smoothie 'fast' for the next week - surely that will help create an environment where only beneficial microbes flourish, while supporting detox. In the past green smoothies have worked well.

I feel like this RPD change is a one way trip for me - the further down the path I get the less my body can stand having anything at all abnormal (non-RPD) stuffed into it, even in small amounts.

[TylerDurden]

I also have found that I tolerate non-RPD toxins less and less over the years. The simple fact is that once the body starts getting genuine, high quality rawpalaeo foods, it doesn't feel the need to make that extra effort, any more, to properly digest cooked, processed foods. This results in either poor absorption or  the food takes too long to travel down the digestive tract etc.Plus one gets a hangover effect afterwards sometimes, depending on the type of cooked/processed food ingested etc.

[Alive]

When going to the toilet this morning I notice that my poos were floating and they contained undigested sunflower seed fragments. I have figured out previously that floating poos are an indication of a micro-flora imbalance, as the microbes create tiny gas bubbles as part of the incomplete digestion of carbohydrate containing foods in my bowels. Therefore from my point of view floating poos = bad and sinking poos = good.

On investigating sunflower seeds on livestrong.com it turns out that they contain as much carbs as protein, so are not suitable as part of the low carb diet I require to regain my natural human superpowers. So therefore I will no longer be consuming any seeds or nuts.

Its time for me to check out the zero carb thread ...

... Ahhh, zero carbs is 100% RAF, so that doesn't fit with my thinking, as I am certain that leaves, stalks, flowers and other low carb wet raw vegetation is very good for me!

So it seems my specific target diet is not listed on this site 

[LePatron7]

If you're concerned about your microflora, you could look into the specific carbohydrate diet.

Its real easy to follow. Just eat scd legal foods raw, along with raw meats.

Be strict about it and don't cheat though.

[Alive]

Hi DaBoss - I just pulled Breaking the Vicious Cycle book from the shelf, and SCD allows way too high amounts of carbs for what I need, judging from recent experience! Maybe after several months of low carb recovery then I could try a RP version of SCD and see how it goes.

[LePatron7]

Hi DaBoss - I just pulled Breaking the Vicious Cycle book from the shelf, and SCD allows way too high amounts of carbs for what I need, judging from recent experience! Maybe after several months of low carb recovery then I could try a RP version of SCD and see how it goes.

A lot of people have to go low carb.

When I was high carb cooked scd, I had white stuff on my tongue.

But when I went high carb raw scd the white stuff on my tongue disapeared.

I think something scd doesn't consider is the effect cooked meat has on the gut microbes.

[Alive]

I'm just saving some very interesting RPD quotes to return too later...

IMO, there is very little to say about eating an animal diet. For me, the watchwords are Eat enough fat, Eat enough salt, and Eat the whole animal. My idea of a high-carb meal is a dozen oysters.

ALIVE, you can't save anybody who doesn't want to save themselves. Even if it's in your own family. Let them make their own decisions, and let them learn for themselves. I know its hard. But, you can't force feed info to someone who is not listening. Don't worry about them, just worry about you! Hopefully they learn a thing or two from you! That's all you can do. Maybe one of these days they will come around? Everybody is on their own journey. Your journey has taken you here. It's OK if their Journey has a different path. Let them go. Preaching never helps. But, practicing what you preach can change people's perceptions. Keep doing what you're doing! You're setting an example if you know it or not.

Your body craves and needs Raw food! It's designed to run and thrive on Raw food. Look at our society, and tell me we don't have heath issues? If you want change, you have to change! Change only happens, if YOU change you're thinking and actions! When YOU take a step, that's change.

Salt is part of the our diet. I never measure how much salt I use per day. It's always done by taste. I use Himalayan Salt and I buy it by the bag. I never bought into the hype that salt was bad for us. Now, processed salt with all the minerals taken out, then add  back inorganic Iodine. That can't be all that healthy for us. Natural unprocessed Salt is the best option. Very interesting video PaleoPhil. Thanks for posting.

I agree with you on fish. I find it very unsatisfactory as far as curbing my appetite. I tend to eat a lot of it, when I do (which is very rare these days). But, it doesn't satisfy like you said. It digests way too fast for me at least. I find I have the same results with eggs. Poultry, doesn't have any interest with me due to the lack of quality pasture raised meat. Plus, it doesn't have the same nutrient profile as pasture raised red meat. So why bother. I haven't had pork yet. I haven't found any that are true pasture raised (fresh). I know I can find them online. But, I don't know if it's worth the bother to be quite honest with you.
I was a little surprised that you ranked grain finished meat second. I guess that show's how little interest you have with the following choices. I'm sure it would only be an option, if you had a limited supply of grass fed beef. Would that be the same for organ meat's also? I agree with you about keeping  things simple. I'm actually been 95+% Carnivore for going on three month's now. I seem to be getting stronger and stronger so far, and it's kept my appetite in check. I'm not too technical as some of the others on this site with keeping track of percentages. But, my body seems to function better with a high intake of animal fats. I try to get everything as fresh as I can. I'm currently avoiding frozen meats for now. What's your viewpoint on fresh vs. frozen? I read something on the site a about the advantages of fresh meats over frozen. I'm curious on what your intake or views are on the subject.

[Alive]

I have been rotating meals between grass fed lambs liver, kidneys, heart, chops (with fat & marrow), and fish. I can now eat these straight from the fridge - popping a whole lambs kidney in my mouth is very tender and easy to chew. I ate a whole broccoli to check if it still tasted good - it was very nice and good fun to bite the 'branches' off and chew up. The fish monger never saved any fish offal for me, so I will need try another one. The possum is still hanging in a fridge in the shed, and my son is encouraging me to do something with it since its stinking the place up... It looks kinda slimly, will have to taste it soon!

I like this quote below Löwenherz - since our evolutionary ancestors ate animal foods for hundreds of millions of years, starting before they lived on land, it makes even since that we are built to process fat and fructose processing is a much more recent adaption...

Judging from my own experiences and the reports of countless ketogenic dieters I strongly believe that the ketogenic state is the normal operating mode of human bodies. The advantages over sugar metabolism are overwhelming. But the process of keto adaptation takes time and can be very hard. One of many really fascinating things, for example, is the lack of lactic acid in ketosis. Sporting activities become a completely new experience. Many people suffer from receding gums, caused by grains and fruits. In deep ketosis the gums grow back! Most dentists still believe that this is impossible. Most people on ketogenic diets sleep much better. Levels of concentration are higher, stable blood sugar levels, no spikes, no mood swings, much higher fertility. etc. In short, for me, we have enough evidence that a state of ketosis is very benefical for us.

And yes, there have been a lot of indigenous people over the world who "lived off the fat of the land". What a nice english phrase. Eskimos had caribou fat, some Canadians candle fish fat, Norh American Indians buffalo fat, South American Gauchos beef fat, many Africans elephant fat, Masai dairy fat, Aborigines emu fat etc. They all praised the fats. High fat, low carb means ketosis.

Löwenherz

[Alive]

While eating mostly RPD I have still been impulsively eating some modern foods (pickles, peanut butter, cheese, and canned tuna). It seems when at home I sometimes have impulsive eating tendencies, probably to do with childhood and stress from school. I selected these cooked foods because they were low carb, but even in moderate quantities they are enough to make me tired, sleep poorly, and get headaches. If I am tired and rest then I just end up feeling worse - more tired and worse headaches. To help ignore the headaches I have been watching a lot of youtube - it is very interesting to watch The Story of Corn, Supersize Me etc, but the inactivity just makes me more tired.

On the plus side in the weekend I woke up with quite a bit of energy and got into doing housework, since it is good exercise and nice for my wife. Also I am doing well cutting down on anti-depressant use to a tiny amount (1/64 of previously), no smoking of herbs (makes me stupid), almost no alcohol use (makes me tired), and no coffee (makes me anxious). Still sometimes take panadine to get to sleep, so this will be the next to chop out as detox improves. My target is to be Drug Free by December

Remembering how exercise is vital to boost circulation, to clear out toxins etc, this morning I got up on waking (around dawn) and went for a run. Keeping HITI in mind I did occasional sprints to get heart and lungs peaking.

My intention is to be 100% RPD, have daily exercise, and keep active throughout the day.

I really want to get to that fantastic state of mind and body induced by RP lifestyle, like I briefly experienced several weeks ago!

[Alive]

I went to my first Overeaters Anonymous meeting tonight.
I cried & laughed on hearing people tell their stories about their compulsive eating controlling their lives, and how they have now managed - day by day - to stay clear of their addictions, using the same 12 step program as alcoholics anonymous. There is something very comforting about meeting other people with this condition, and in being open and honest about it.
I have had significant overeating problems at least since my teenage years, and have been very frustrated lately to have the amazing health benefits of this raw paleo diet wiped out by this addiction.
I looking forward to my next OA meeting this Friday and am very keen to follow the program.

[LePatron7]

While eating mostly RPD I have still been impulsively eating some modern foods (pickles, peanut butter, cheese, and canned tuna).

I think your problem is that your gut microbes are craving junk food. When you eat strictly RPD, those microbes get very little nutrition because everything is absorbed so well. So they send out signals to the brain telling you to eat junk food that feeds them.

Something I learned from being on the specific carbohydrate diet for about 8 months is that it isn't a perfect diet. Even after being low carb SCD I still had white stuff on my tongue. So I gave up low carb and started eating more carbs.

But when I started eating strictly (no cheating) raw-SCD the white stuff on my tongue disappeared in about a month.

I've also noticed that going from SCD to raw paleo/raw-SCD, it was an easy transition. Since I already wasn't eating grains, dairy, processed foods, etc., switching from cooked meat to raw meat was easy.

But when I went from a SADiet to raw paleo, I was unable to stick to it, and every night I had to have a cheat meal or I couldn't sleep. Eventually I was able to be fully raw paleo again, but it took 2-3 weeks of transitioning.

My point is, if you're coming from a SADiet, it may be tougher for you to go fully raw. You could try eating mostly raw, and then when you're craving something cooked, having something cooked without additives. Like something SCD-legal.

That way your gut microbes that are causing those cravings slowly die off, but your still getting your temporary fix of cooked food so you satisfy the cravings.

While eating mostly RPD I have still been impulsively eating some modern foods (pickles, peanut butter, cheese, and canned tuna).

You could easily find a decent peanut butter without additives, same thing with canned tuna.

My intention is to be 100% RPD, have daily exercise, and keep active throughout the day.

I really want to get to that fantastic state of mind and body induced by RP lifestyle, like I briefly experienced several weeks ago!

You can do it. Just remember you've been eating a SADiet for many years. It can take some time for your body to get used to strict raw paleo.

[Alive]

Thank you DaBoss88, I appreciate your comments.

This week I am at school camp, and I find it easier to stay on my diet plan when others are around, since I don't want them to catch me cheating  I am eating socially acceptable raw food in public, and secretly eating raw meat (like the old ox liver with baby maggots on it I just ate). I quite like showing off eating raw meat in small groups, but feel uncomfortable in large ones. Also I am trying to be more respectful about mainstream health teachings on these matters. It has been really cool to do high rope challenges and sea swimming, plus helping out as much as possible with the kids, cooking, and cleaning up. Its great how the RPD gives long term steady energy, while the carb munchers have to keep eating all the time to try to stabilise their blood sugar!

Overeater anonymous has been very helpful to be open about my long term challenges, and to hear from others how they have been managing their addictions day to day. Listening to others gives a whole new insight into hoe family and friends are affected by our addictions, and how to focus on contribution, rather than the addiction mindset that is all about me. At the last meeting I got to talk and told about my 30 year carb addiction cycles, and the turning points of finding RPD success, and then of compulsively eating and realising that my problem was beyond my control and I needed help. I felt very uncomfortable mentioning raw meat in front of a large group, so in future meetings I think I will just keep that to myself for a while!

[Alive]

We went to the neighbours last night for dinner and I took some raw beef and lamb to have with the salad and strawberries, plus soaked almonds. My neighbour was very accepting and talked of loving beef tare-tare, blue steak and sushi-mi
 
Today for late breakfast have had ox liver, beef, lamb, marrow, cucumber, spinach, celery, & 1/2 a banana. Then got some lovely sunshine for vit D.

[Alive]

We have just had an excellent 5 day camp with other families. We were camped under willows and ripe wild plums, beside a small, clear flowing river. The weather was hot and sunny, and to freshen up there was a fabulous deep, fresh swimming hole with a high rock and tree to jump off.

I did well eating raw meats, butter, & coconut oil and it was surprising how little I felt like eating, often not getting hungry until the late afternoon. I felt very strong and loved having a slim, concave tummy. It seemed like there was so much energy to be obtained from the fats that there was little need to eat.

Many of the other parents were very curious about my eating raw meat, and one parent and child even ate some of the raw lamb chop, beef liver, and kina (sea urchin)! The parent had worked at a slaughter house for 20 years and said heaps of workers had got sick when processing pig carcasses when they popped the kidneys.

It was nice to go mountain bike riding around the deserted gravel countryside, through hot hills of dry grass, sheep and cattle, and then find a shady row of perfectly ripe black wild cherry's - small and sweet they quickly stained my hands and mouth.

Coming home I have eaten off plan - at least I chose low carb non-RP foods to minimise the damage (raw bacon, fatty natural yoghurt, cream cheese, quality peanut butter, tomato, greens) but my tummy is telling me it is not happy. So I have taken some psyllium husks with whole sea salt, cider vinegar, and water, and will now try fasting until hungry again - probably sometime tonight or tomorrow.

I still have a lot of meats & fish left over from camp, which were not chilled well, so I will need to decide whether to eat them, make high meat, and/or feed our hens... I'll try smelling them once I'm hungry, as Iguana suggests.

[Alive]

This weeks diet has been mainly GF lamb shoulder chops, beef liver, & butter, along with indulgences such as coffee, tea, melon, ripe bananas, raw bacon, sour cream, cheese & gherkins. I'm pleased with the results from this diet compared to what I was doing before discovering RPD, my wellbeing has been greatly improved.

Late last year I managed to eat just RAF, only when getting really hungry, for around 2-3 weeks and hit a great period of excellent sleep, energy, and attitude. It was fantastic.

Daily goals: be quite hungry before eating, eat RAF to satisfy that hunger, get sun exposure, exercise.

[Alive]

I have just enjoyed reading AVs book We Want To Live - a very inspiring story.

I am now ready to become fully alive.

It seems that delayed gratification for 2 - 4 weeks is what is needed, focussing on the long term benefits of my individual actions.

Yesterday I ate my first meal at 2pm, but that felt too early so today I am fasting all day, to have a rest from digesting. I will wait until my stomach is growling for food, and then satisfy it with RAF (lamb chop, liver, high meat). I will be interested to discover how little RAF is required to satisfy the hunger.

Although I'm an atheist I am using some christian style thoughts to assist mental healing. I just convert to my atheist religion by replacing God with Good, so I can ask Good to forgive me for past actions and to help me forgive others, being thankful to Good, the Lord of Good etc. In my world view this is a way to communicate with my subconscious and create a focus on good thinking and actions. This improved thinking is helping my marital relationship, and my wife appreciates me sharing with her what is going on in my world and my plan to become alive.

I am eating RAF when hungry, drinking water or salty water when thirsty, keeping active, exercising daily, working diligently, caring for my family, and having some fun.

[l0rdcha0s]

My family have banned high meat experiments to the shed. The raw meat can stay in the fridge ("what do you mean it gets better with age and I can't put it in the freezer?")

Sorry to necro the first post. I have the same problem. I was dry aging my beef in the second fridge but I was told she didn't like the smell so I'm trying to find places where I can age them properly without upsetting the others in the house. Shed seems interesting. When I first bought it I told her I didn't want it to go in the freezer either.

[Alive]

Dry aging - that sounds interesting.

Well yesterday I didn't eat all day and my stomach growled at bedtime, but I still didn't feel hungry so didn't eat.
Tonight, after 44 hours of since eating, I started to feel hungry and had some really nice beef - thin slices from a rolled roast with lots of fat on the outside came out like ribbons, some beef liver, fish, and cucumber- nice and juicy. I still felt hungry afterwards, but I want to take things easy so I'll wait and see how I feel in the morning.

I have been thinking about AVs book, where he says some of us are not able to process cooked residues as well as others, and can have sharp crystals of residue form in our bodies. Several years ago I had a live blood analysis and it showed large crystals embedded in macro-phages. The herbalist had not seen this before, and now I wonder if these were the cooked food residues AV mentions.

Another part of AVs book that was especially interesting to me is that he links up coffee and candida as going together...

[l0rdcha0s]

Well yesterday I didn't eat all day and my stomach growled at bedtime, but I still didn't feel hungry so didn't eat.
Tonight, after 44 hours of since eating, I started to feel hungry

I've often wondered with some of us almost on a semi-carnivore, carnivore diet whether our bodies would adapt like some of them. Carnivores often go days without eating much, some go weeks. Also goes with something I had recently read that talks about even a 150 lb person with 10% body fat has enough fat on him to survive for a week or two without eating. Food for thought.

[Alive]

Wow, I have just had a awesome time doing a long trail run in the hills 
Even though I haven't run for years my stamina and energy levels were excellent.

It's now 5pm and I'm starting to think about having a nice bit of fatty beef, liver & fish for 'breakfast'.

My body is looking amazing on RP, and hopefully this plus exercise will clear my brain fog & headaches.

My underarms do smell a bit of fat, so maybe I am still eating a bit much food for my metabolic rate and exercise levels.

[Alive]

The past week has gone well, and I have managed to become hungry often and eat mainly lamb shoulder chops, fatty beef, and liver, with also some fish, a little coconut oil & high liver. I have cheated a little bit, but only pretty healthy stuff in small amounts (butter, yogurt, raw bacon, peanut butter, some beer). For the last few days I have also had some nice fruit (melon, new season apples, squeezed lemon water) and tonight had some raw broccoli.

I am drinking salty water daily, including some sulphurous volcanic salt, mixed with a little clay and psyllium husks to help detox.

I have been very stressed with difficult financial decisions and it is sometimes hard to sleep. Last night I tried breathing exercises from youtube which seemed to help (start breathing quickly until flooded with oxygen and then slow breathing right down to relax).

Its been satisfying to toilet, with signs of excellent digestion and happy bowels. 
My tongue has been been expelling lots of white goo, which I am scraping off daily.
My skin is going nice and brown with regular sun exposure.

[Alive]

I have finally found a source of GF suet, which the butcher gave me for free : ), so I am adding it to my low carb meals of chopped fatty lamb, liver, fish, broccoli, cucumber and egg, to increase the fat to protein ratio. I gather from previous posts that 50/50 'meat'and fat by volume is a reasonable target (to give ~80% energy from fat). I have also been eating high meat with each meal and taking cold showers in the morning.

Also I have started taking Iodine Plus-2 tablets after reading how important it is from other RPD contributors (iodine 5mg, iodide 7.5mg, selenium 15mcg, B2 15mg).

My body feels very strong, and my mind feels quite weak.

Unfortunately I have been eating some fruit, raw almonds, coffee and yogurt over the last few days, and last week I did cheat on a crap food binge, so still need more focus to really find out if the low carb RP diet is a solution to my condition.

As normal I have been feeling anxious & tired with constant headaches, and lately have slept very poorly (although it was quite nice to be awake during a dream last night when I was flying around above a crowd of people). It is weird that being more tired can make it harder to sleep. Then when I awake feeling not so good I tend to make judgement on how bad I feel, think about some poor choices that contributed to this problem, and dream up ways to escape, like to move to commune, live a nomad life in a camper van, or to find peace in death . But the reality is I have obligations to my family etc so I really need to focus on reality and how I can contribute the best to moving forward. Whether I am in pain or not there are still things that need doing and worthwhile opportunities to pursue.

To improve this situation I need to start exercising more, since I can remember feeling my best when I used to have a lot of exercise, training for multi-sport events and mountain biking. So I need to make a priority to do regular runs and strength exercises. This helped a lot when I was on SMD so it could be even more effective when on RPD. It is just an extra challenge to exercise when tired, but this is something that is really important to push through and wake my system up to get it processing faster.

Also I have got a lot of 'self improvement'  books out of the library, which highlight how important positive affirmations are. So I need to start thinking mainly encouraging thoughts about myself and my situation to focus my mind on what good I can achieve, and how well I can be. The book Happiness in Hard Times has pointers on this: Like yourself; Be flexible; Focus on what you want; Get relaxed with money; Be grateful. My mother gave me the book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, which has a lot of affirmation type thinking.

Then there is meditation / mindfulness, which is supposed to be very helpful, so I would like to try that as well and see if I can learn to relax. For some reason my mind seems to be stuck on the 'danger' setting, which for some people would be exciting, but for me is just very tiring.

I suppose I am taking life too seriously, and am scared of making more mistakes, when in reality a lot of things don't matter that much, and more success and health can be obtained when living with a more care free attitude. Anyway time to get back to work!

[LePatron7]

Also I have got a lot of 'self improvement'  books out of the library, which highlight how important positive affirmations are. So I need to start thinking mainly encouraging thoughts about myself and my situation to focus my mind on what good I can achieve, and how well I can be.

I recommend the book "Essential Elements for Effectiveness - optimal functioning through positive psychology."

It's a very good book. A lot of the things it covers help you be in control of your life, as well as have a positive outlook. Although it covers much more, and I'm only about half way through.

Also, if you're having trouble sticking to a raw diet (and assuming your goal is to not cheat). I recommend modifying your diet to see what works for you. Don't get stuck in forcing yourself to be LC, VLC or ZC. Some people don't do well on it.

First, I recommend trying moderate amounts of carbs, then cutting back till you reach a suitable amount.

Second, if the above doesn't work. Consider eliminating non-SCD legal carbs. Then using only SCD legal carbs, starting at a moderate amount of carbs. Cut back till you reach a suitable amount.

It could be that low carb isn't working for you, it could be that the types of carbs aren't working for you. Heck, you just said that you're NOW finding a source of raw beef fat. It's possible your meals were to low fat.

Good luck.

[Alive]

Thank you for your comments DaBoss.
Yes I have probably been eating too much protein.
On looking through Van's posts I see him mention having a 'meat' portion the size of our palm (I imagine this is meant as a daily ration, and the thickness would be the standard steak / chop thickness) and elsewhere he talks of eating an equal amount of fat as meat.
So that would be less food than I have been eating - I may just be eating too much, which is a habit to fill in time / emotional holes.
I do find low carb raw paleo to be tasty and satisfying for physical hunger.
On reflection I could be more aware of my hunger and the instinctive stop that people have been writing about.
To use food for fuel & repair only, not as an emotional filler!

[van]

the palm of your hand size is one portion, 2-3 times a day,, depending.