I can't believe how crap I've been eating these last 12 months. My diet used to be pretty much paleo and I felt good on it but slowly and insidiously it kinda got contaminated and before I knew it I was eating all sorts of junk and feeling seriously ill.

Things are slightly complicated in that I am allergic to eggs and nearly all nuts and then just the general thing of trying to eat junk free when everything is processed. I suppose the big changes this year have been school - I have to move around a lot for various placements and then the fact that I'm in a relationship which means that I'm eating out a lot more and my other half likes a variety of cuisines (why couldn't he just like steak? ). I know all this is just excuses but what it's meant is that I have much less time to be organised about food.

Anyway for the last few months I've been trying to get back to my WOE but it's just been hopeless. I'm fine for a few days, perhaps a week even but then I'll start bingeing on rubbish again. It's crazy.

It really hit home last night - I was shovelling marshmallows into my face whilst browsing Mark's Daily Apple and came across the recipes section. Looking at all of those wonderful dishes almost had me in tears. What the hell was I doing?! There's all this great food out there and I'm eating crap! So I went out today and did my shopping - all good stuff. But then this evening - I start bingeing again (on chips). Arrggghhh!

Help guys! What should I do? Just eat meat for a bit? Try that fasting thing? I'm just so frustrated with myself!

Get the stuff out of your house, ASAP!

So sorry! Getting it out of the house really helps, but having a partner who doesn't eat the same way makes everything harder.

Intermittent Fasting helps me a lot because I don't have to have food prepared all the time. I can just wait till I get home and I can make myself something that's safe for me.

But I wonder if there are some triggers, either environmental, emotional, or dietary, that are sending you on these binges. Maybe you're missing something like minerals, B12, Vitamin D? A Paleo diet should keep you satisfied enough that the temptation is never strong. Of course there's always and adjustment/withdrawal period, but if you are missing something that you can't get enough of from, say, muscle meat, then you may continue to crave other foods until you get it. On the other hand, if you are being exposed to something you're sensitive to, that could be causing cravings too. Ask your guy to help you figure out what's going on - I never could have got to this point without my wife's help.

~Nancy - yep, you're totally right. I've been an idiot thinking that I can eat 'just a little bit' of these non-foods and get away with it.

~Capmikee - you made a good point about vitamins and minerals. I stopped taking my D3 supplement about 12 months ago which has probably played a major role. I live in the UK and we don't really get much sun as I'm sure you know plus I have pretty dark skin... I just recently started taking it again so hopefully that will help somewhat.

I think like you said, there are other triggers too. This binging wouldn't be so bad if it was on real food. Maybe I should try intermittent fasting again but I do wonder if it was this that actually got me into the habit of stuffing my face in the first place and that I ultimately found it very easy to just switch to bad food (or non foods rather) after while.

I definitely think I need to eat more meat. I tried to give blood recently and my Hb levels were just below their cut off so I wasn't allowed. I'm not anaemic but this is the lowest it's been and I was quite annoyed. I suspect it's due to my rubbish diet. Ironically I wasn't even anaemic when I was vegan years ago!!

Anyway the other bad thing in my diet has been soy... I have a dairy allergy and was weaned onto the stuff, so have never had a problem eating it. I stopped when I first started this WOE but then slowly introduced it back which was a big, big mistake. I have become addicted to soya lattes! It's terrible.

Anyway this weekend in London there's the allergy & gluten free show. I'm attending the health professionals masterclass and am really interested as to what they say. I'm also quite curious to see the various stands at the exhibition afterwards. Should be fun.

I wouldn't be surprised if soy was a big part of the problem. It can deplete minerals and mess up your thyroid, and if you have a sensitivity to soy it could be worse. My wife says that since she gave up dairy she's been drinking iced coffee black. At home we have coconut milk for her coffee.

Not everything is processed, I barely ever eat eggs or nuts. I don't tolerate them very well, but I could put up with that; they just didn't end up being a major part of my diet.

I do, however, have plenty of steak and fish, pork meatloaf, tea and coffee, big-ass salads, and the occasional visit to the chinese buffet.



That's okay! You can still get your meat on at, say, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, or Ethiopian traditional restaurants. Italian isn't very economical when you have to say no bread and no pasta, but many of those places will have lovely things like stuffed pork chops (stuffed with water chestnuts the last time I felt adventurous - probably not authentic Italian and probably not paleo, but damn, a pretty good compromise!)

Greek places are also awesome. Souvlakis rock my socks. And just about every Americanized place has a decent fish fry you can get with a salad. Don't worry, you'll figure it out.

Oh yeah... souvlaki! *drool*

It's surely an old standby. *joins in drooling*

I totally forgot about souvlaki... I need to find a recipe.

I looked up souvlaki and it looks awesome... will definitely give it a try!

So I went to the allergy show and it was pretty cool - well, the health professional masterclass was anyway. There were some interesting talks on food allergies, intolerance, asthma, eczema etc. What all the doctors said, is that there is really no good test for food intolerances and no way apart from very rigorous elimination diets to work out what was going on. The professor who spoke at the end even suggested that the presence of IgG antibodies to certain foods may indicate protection rather than a problem...

He was the best speaker and I really wish that he could have spoken for longer. He told us about one of his patients - a medical student that had been 'diagnosed' with IBS and was failing school. They made her see a psychiatrist who said that all her symptoms were in her head and that she didn't have what it took to get through medical school!! Luckily her personal tutor didn't believe this and got her to see the professor who over time found her intolerances and brought her back to health - and she went on to graduate med school with flying colours!

The professor was brilliant - he was really sarcastic, telling us that the psychiatrist had written to him, saying that he should not to put her on any 'fad' diet as it was all in her head. Professor wrote back saying that he hoped the psychiatrist wouldn't mind but that he wanted to put her on this 'really dangerous diet' of fresh meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds.

Anyway the only thing that I didn't like about the show were the stands for food intolerance testing... I just feel that these companies are swindling people out of their money but at the same time completely understand why people turn to them. There is so little help from the medical profession for them that they feel they have no alternative. Sigh...

LOL! You know, a lot of people would think that IS a dangerous diet! Where's the soy and whole grains? OMG! You will die!

Ha ha.........You are absolutely correct!!! I just left a website where they still think low fat and starving yourself on low calorie is the only way to live............

I am so glad I follow Marks Daily Apple and believe what he has to say.

And it's not just having the good groceries on hand. Sometimes you really don't feel like cooking - you're tired after a long day or what have you. This is why it's so important to cook extra when you do cook something. I often make way more servings of grilled steak or chicken or whatever than I need for a particular meal. But then? I don't have to "cook" for the next few meals. Well worth the fuss.

In the meantime - get rid of the junkier foods in your house that you really don't want to be eating.

If you end up with a case of 'the hungries' - you don't be able to do too much damage - you'll be forced to eat some tuna or what have you. This will be a hassle. And as a result, when you make some nice steaks or homemade burgers of some kind, you'll make three times as much as you need for that meal. This way, when you get hungry at some weird hour and you're not in the mood to mess around - you've got some cold, cooked decent food on hand already in the fridge.

Only other thing? Because you've been eating things like marshmallows, it's *really* hard to get back on track. You're in the throes of serious carb cravings, just like people who go from high-carb eating right into Atkins induction or something. So yeah, it's gonna be tough for a bit. This is something to keep in mind. You're going to need more food (on-plan Paleo) than usual to get past the cravings. You might need two steaks for dinner, or more chicken legs or whatever your favourite thing is than usual for these next several days. No worrying about whether it's "too much food" - you gotta go what you gotta do to get past the horrible cravings. Marshmallows are the kind of thing that will have you in "carb craving hell", so to speak.

Um, even though I don't follow the all-meat diet myself, this might be just the ticket to speed on past the cravings sooner, rather than later. If that doesn't sound appealing, this is ok - you just have to keep in mind that it will take a few (or even several) days to get past the marshmallow effect. This means eating more food than usual, feeling hungrier than seems reasonable and so on.

You can do it though! Can you do it for three days? Five days? If you're all stocked up with homemade bison burgers, grilled chicken thighs, bits of veggies or whatever you fancy - if the good food is just all handy there, do you think you can do it?

Sure you can!!!!

You just have to load up on the good food and prepare for a bit of a battle (carb cravings and withdrawal) for a few days.

Not sure where you're located, but tomorrow's Tuesday - that means Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri before the weekend hits. Can you stick to it for these four days? Do you have enough of the right foods? Do you have some spare time tonight or tomorrow night to cook extra stuff to get you through the rest of the week?

If not, don't worry - just muddle on through for the rest of this week, but by this weekend, I'm hoping you'll be making a bunch of steaks, burgers, grilled chicken and so on, so that next week will be entirely different.

You can definitely do this. It's just:

1.) get rid of any junk food in the house
2.) decide you're not eating out this week
3.) getting the right groceries
4.) finding some time to cook up a bunch of stuff to get you through days where you really don't have the time or energy to fuss.

Good luck

I'm back again...

You might need a bit of an 'intervention' of sorts. I know what it's like to be in the throes of carb cravings. Not fun, and very tough to beat.

Three potential options:

1. ) Zero or as 'close to zero' carb as you can stand for at least three to five days - might plan on this over a weekend, with no eating out - this is just to get you over the hump. You can either continue on with it, or very slowly introduce some other lower carb foods.

2. ) Go on "Paleo-kins" - that is Atkins induction done Paleo-style. This means you won't be eating any fruit, any nuts, any artificial sweeteners (not if you're aiming for Paleo-ish).

3.) If you're already dairy-free, then you can afford a more 'flexible' kind of intervention - and in this case, I'd recommend Protein Power Life Plan's "Purist" variation. I wouldn't worry too much about leaner meats or whatever, but if you don't eat any dairy, and you're not doing any sweeteners at all - then you can 'afford' a small bit of fruit, a few more veggies or what have you and still find yourself in something of a hard-core, "craving blasting" induction-like state.

Although I love Primal Blueprint, and Mark's Daily Apple and so on - I don't think it's going to be the right thing at this particular moment. You need a serious clamp-down on the carbs. This is just for the so-called "intervention" thing - the "stop this train now" deal. Later on, after a few good solid weeks on whatever your low-carb plan of choice is - you can then veer back into standard Paleo-ish eating.

No matter which direction you go - remember that for the first week at least, you're going to be super-hungry and you're going to need more food than usual - this is just the process of withdrawing from the carby foods you've been eating. Soon, your appetite will drop off to a more reasonable level and everything will be good again, promise!