Help! Newbie is totally confused...

[Cavewoman]

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie and together with my husband I would like to start the Caveman diet tomorrow. At the moment we're doing Atkins but so far I've only lost 6kg and I want to lose lots and lots more! Are we allowed to have any food for breakfast like bacon and eggs or smoked salmon omelette or is it just water? I've tried to find a breakfastmenu but can't seem to find it. I  have so many questions and I was hoping some of you could help me answering them.

1. are we allowed to drink pop like diet Coke or fruit lemonade with no sugar but with natural fruit sugars (no more than 0.1gr per glass)
2. are we allowed to drink sparkling water?
3. I use olive oil but also rapeseed oil. Can I keep on using rapeseep oil?
4. what can we eat for breakfast and lunch?

Thanks for helping out< much appreciated! 

Mirjam

[watersennin]

Hello. First I would like to tell you i am no expert on the whole primal, paleo, caveman, etc. diet and technically haven't started it yet. But I have been trolling these forums and many others like it along with gathering information for when I do start. If weight loss is a big goal for you I'd probably just skip the breakfast. I know i never really ate breakfast (never hungry in the morning) and recently breakfast became available to me at my job for free and i started eating it and I gained a noticeable layer of fat. But if you wanna eat breakfast what you said sounds good to me. I would steer clear of diet soda for like 100 reasons a main one being artificial sweeteners is horrible for you and the sweet taste on the tongue causes an insulin response similar to that of real sugar (or so I've read). I'm sure a little fruit juice a day wont be horrible maybe even good (just not to much) I know a good lemonade i like to make (if you have a juicer, I used to a few years back) is (i think) 4 apples and a lemon its pretty good (but i would limit it to at most 1 glass a day). Also try just squeezing a lemon or lime into water like it says on this site. I have not idea about sparkling water id google it if it weren't for the fact the internet is slow where I'm at today. i also have no idea about rapeseed oil. And I would eat breakfast or lunch whenever you get hungry (like real hungry not just a yearning for food). Just follow your the advice of your stomach. I also believe a little hunger does the body good every now and then.

[Cavewoman]

Thanks Watersennin for your reply, I will google to see if you're allowed to drink sparkling water and thanks for the lemonade recipe. I am looking forward to start the diet and hopefully lose weight in the process
I cannot seem to find a book on the Caveman diet itself but will keep on searching the web.

[Lilnicki]

Fizzy pop is out im afraid...... far too much artificial gubbins in it!!...... as for the other meals, just eat whatever you want whenever you want...... i would have to disagree with the previous poster about skipping breakfast, being hungry is a bad idea if you want to lose weight as you'll just be over-indulging later on........I eat 5 or 6 small meals a day, and I find eating little and often works best for me.

Nicki

[Catrina]

Hello!

When my boyfriend and I started the diet, we stopped drinking soda (we drank it alot too!). What we really liked was Seltzer water and mixing it with Fruit Juice. We will even mix it with just Orange Juice in the morning. Our faves are:

Pineapple, cranberry and seltzer
V8 Fusion and seltzer
Orange Mango and seltzer

It surprisingly is a great substitute, we call it "fake soda". I also looked into sparkling water, but I think when I looked at the ingredients it had splenda or some type of sugar substitute.

We found that this was a much better and more refreshing drink. You can also put lime or lemon juice - be creative!

Best of Luck!

[watersennin]

Very true lilnicki eating many small meals a day will help you lose some weight quicker (speeds up the metabolism) . But then you never give your digestive system a break. In my opinion you give your muscles break from strength training, you give your heart (cardiovascular system) a break from cardio exercise, why not give your digestive system a chance to rest. I know everyone works different, but I find if i don't eat in the morning i get really hungry for like 10-15 mins about an hour after i wake up then i feel good until lunch..ish time (unless i smell something really good then hunger hits me like a bowling ball in the stomach). It also seems more caveman like to just to eat a lot at 1 or 2 sittings (while "grazing" through out the day). I have no evidence supporting this, just my thoughts lol. I have, however, been reading about fast vs slow metabolisms and they say a fast metabolism ages you quicker. Enter the whole restrictive calorie thing and in a way (not by choice of course) the cavepeople were on sort of restrictive diet because they didn't always get to eat when they wanted to and I'm sure they often went without a filling meal/hungry. Yes I know they would eat anything that came there way (that was edible) but I'm sure that didn't happen as much as they wanted lol. Anyways that's just my opinion and like i said before i am no expert and everybody works differently.

[watersennin]

also yes I guarantee you will overindulge later on but that's good thing about 1 or 2 big meals a day you can eat until your stomachs feels like it will explode and still be consuming far less calories than normal.

[houmax]

Thanks Watersennin for your reply, I will google to see if you're allowed to drink sparkling water and thanks for the lemonade recipe. I am looking forward to start the diet and hopefully lose weight in the process
I cannot seem to find a book on the Caveman diet itself but will keep on searching the web.

There's a few out there, here's what amazon has under Paleo(Caveman) Diet...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=paleo+diet&x=11&y=17

Basically if your doing it for weight loss check out this article. Keep your carb intake low and moderate exercise.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-succeed-with-the-primal-blueprint/

I never count carbs(that's no way to live), but say your wanting to drop some pounds "NOW", try to stay around 100 grams of carbs max a day, and fast a day on weekends every once in a while. You can drop 4 or 5 pounds a week if your pretty overweight. The last few are the toughest to shed.

Here's a carb chart, of course some are low carb but still considered non-paleo, and some paleo are higher in carbs.
http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data2f.html

[geronimo]

I am new to all of this and have just completed week one.  Results: I have a lot of weight to lose so was impressed with 12 pounds........ yes 12lbs.  How? Every day I make a small tub of mixed; walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, Goji berries.  I graze on these throughout the day and also have a banana and 2 apples.  I walk a small distance to my allotment every night and pick fresh salad vegetables to have with my chicken.  I have chicken most days as I don't like fish but this week I've fancied fish.  God only knows why but I might get some next week and give it a go.  I am really looking forward to next week as I am now finding that my evening meals are too big.  I drink at least 6 pints of water a day and at least one of them has a lime or lemon juiced into it.  So how do I feel?  First day I had really bad headaches, second day muzzy head but now all is ok.  Blood pressure has gone from 145/85 to 128/84.  I used to get little flutters and tightness in my chest when I walked but that seems to have gone now.
I have tried so many diets but this is the first time I've had these kind of results.  1 very good tip I saw on one of the sites was to "eat your food with your hands".  Feel it, taste it, love it.  Scrambled eggs were a bit of a laugh but I haven't used a knife and fork now in over a week.  A bit naughty but lots of fun.