Anyone starting eat fat, lose fat?

[CherryBomb]

Just wondering if anyone is planning on starting the Eat Fat, Lose Fat weight loss for the new year.  If there's a few of us, maybe we can start a support/chat thread.

[LunaLady]

I've been eating the Sally Fallon/Nourishing Traditions way for a few years, but not consistently enough to actually lose weight. I have a really high insulin resistance, so eating anything with carbs/sugars really sets me back. This week, though, I've made a commitment to be really gung ho and in the last four days I've already lost 5 pounds. :)

Have your read Nourishing Traditions, too?

[MizzThang]

Yes, I am! I just bought the book last week. I made coconut chicken soup for lunch today, from one of the recipes...it was so good! As a family, we have been weaning onto a TF diet- but Im going to follow the Eat Fat, Lose Fat program.

[CherryBomb]

LL, yes, I do own NT as well :)  Do you have Eat Fat, Lose Fat, too?  It's written by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig as well!  It's the same principals but focuses more on the coconut foods and losing weight.

MT, we've also been weaning over to NT, I think part of the point of the EFLF diet is to get you comfortable with NT concepts and preparations. 

Anyway, I'm working on clearing out the "bad" foods in the kitchen and I need to get some things, like cod liver oil.  I won'thave money for food until the 4th, so I won't officially start till around then.

[LunaLady]

Yep, I do have Eat Fat, Lose Fat. I fry my morning eggs in coconut oil because of it! :) I really tried to eat the straight coconut oil before every meal, but I just couldn't do it. I love the smell, but not the taste. My husband could eat it by the spoonful, though. He loves the stuff.

Right now I'm just following what NT says to eat for trying to conceive :)

[CherryBomb]

Oh, I know what you mean!  The virgin coconut oil smells so great, but BLEH!  Doesn't taste so great right out of the jar.  I've been putting some in with RRL tea and a little raw honey and it's much more palatable that way.

[Astrea]

I'm thinking about it... not sure if I can fully commit, though, time- and energy-wise (I do in-home childcare so I've got 3 girls 3 and under with me most of the time... it's hard to get much done).  When I glanced through the book it struck me as a pretty intense, time-consuming thing to do.  What do you all think?

[LunaLady]

It *can* be time consuming. When I got the book I did follow it to the letter for about a month. What I ended up doing, though, is prepping everything on Sunday. I made all the soups, I cooked all the chicken and veggies or salmon I was going to have for lunches and put it all into serving size containers. It made my life a lot easier. And any left overs we had from dinner went with DH for his lunch. 

I don't follow this 'diet' to the letter anymore, but I do incorporate a lot of what I've learned. I've been really strict this week (easier now that the holidays are over!) and I've lost another two pounds in addition to the five I mentioned earlier.

I do prepare foods much like Sally Fallon suggests in Nourishing Traditions, and I feel I spend about two to three hours in the kitchen per day - give or take. I do some fermenting, I do some soaking, I do some culturing, and then I prepare every meal. But, I'm a housewife (hoping to get promoted to SAHM this year!!) so I've got a lot of time to play. :)

[CherryBomb]

It does look pretty time consuming, so I'm using store-bought stuff when possible to help out with that.  Like I can get lacto-fermented condiments and homemade kombucha from the health food store, so I'll be using those instead of making my own (even though they're pricey :/)  But I think a lot of things don't take so much time, just some fore thought.  Like soaking grains isn't really time consuming, you just need to think ahead to make sure you give them enough soak time before using.  I'm also a SAHM, so the time thing isn't too bad for me.

[Astrea]

Yowza--two to three hours in the kitchen?  I guess I did do that fairly often when I just had Willow to watch.  There's no way I could do that now.  Too bad, because I do like the principles in EFLF.  I'm thinking I might end up just having to do something more like Weight Watchers, though, just because I can use foods that are much more quick to prepare. I wonder how reasonable TF is for families who don't either have a really good income (so they can buy things like pre-made kombucha and ferments), or a SAHM. 

[Altair]

I completely agree!  I make the majority of our meals from scratch/whole foods, despite being a FT working mom and my partner going to work at night leaving me alone for the play/dinner/bath/bed crunch... but it seems so daunting to me to *add* anything to my routine since we're just barely holding it together as it is.  During the summers I have off and I can take the time-- this past summer my partner and I went vegan for the summer.  I spent so much time in the kitchen!

[LunaLady]

I've actually found a traditional diet to be cheaper. I buy everything in single ingredients - nothing is pre-made or pre-packaged. We were snowed in a few weeks ago and had to go to Safeway to buy all of our food and the bill for a weeks worth of groceries was considerably more than I usually spend going to Whole Foods and a specialty butcher. 

For me, planning is a key thing. I plan on Sunday exactly what we'll eat for the week. Then I only buy that much food. I also make sure I eat before I go to the grocery, otherwise I end up buying stuff I don't need just because it looks good and I'm hungry!!

I think to make it work you have to do research to see where you can get the highest quality foods for the best price in your area. For me, I buy eggs from a lady who has a flock (found her on craigslist): so they are farm fresh, and about half the price of grocery store eggs. I buy raw milk from a co-op, so it's about $5 less a gallon than buying it at the store. I get our meat from a butcher in our area that sells only organic, local, grassfed, ect meats. Because all they sell is meat and just have a small butcher shop, they are able to provide their excellent food at a good price. It's not *cheap* (ground beef, for example, is $7.99 a pound), but I only buy what we'll use that week, so that makes it manageable each week. The rest of our food I buy at Whole Foods. Their 365 organics brand is not much more expensive than other store brands.

So I spend quite a bit of my time and energy each week getting our food and preparing it, but I love doing it and I love how I feel when we really commit to it.

[lookatreestar]

i might have to get this book...

[L J]

I just ordered this book. I read Atkins years ago, and everything he said made sense to me. Then, I recently read South Beach and was turned on to a low carb community much like Mothering. From there, I found Marks Daily Apple and Weston A. Price and I have been trying to follow these principals of eating and preparing food as much as possible. My family has eliminated all sugar and flour from our diet, and we are all noticing positive changes. We eat high fat and high protein and lots of dark green veggies. I am looking very forward to reading this book and seeing how it falls in with everything I have already learned and started doing.

[lookatreestar]

Originally Posted by L J 

I just ordered this book. I read Atkins years ago, and everything he said made sense to me. Then, I recently read South Beach and was turned on to a low carb community much like Mothering. From there, I found Marks Daily Apple and Weston A. Price and I have been trying to follow these principals of eating and preparing food as much as possible. My family has eliminated all sugar and flour from our diet, and we are all noticing positive changes. We eat high fat and high protein and lots of dark green veggies. I am looking very forward to reading this book and seeing how it falls in with everything I have already learned and started doing.

care to elaborate? 

[CherryBomb]

Originally Posted by Astrea 

I wonder how reasonable TF is for families who don't either have a really good income (so they can buy things like pre-made kombucha and ferments), or a SAHM. 

Haha!  Well, don't be fooled, we do NOT have a good income.  In fact, it's so bad right now (dh lost his job Jan '10 and is working part time now) that we're on foodstamps.  We're just very lucky that a local health food store takes them.

[Carolyn R]

Yes, I'm in! I was really excited to see this thread! I used my Borders gift card a few weeks ago and bought the EFLF book. I had read it several times from the library and finally decided I wanted my own copy. I've been slowly converting our way of eating to TF since summer, and had decided Jan 1 was the day I am going to buckle down and really try to follow EFLF. My biggest personal challenge is cutting out the sweets that I so desire.

Looking forward to getting to know everybody and sharing ideas!

[Astrea]

Originally Posted by LunaLady 

I've actually found a traditional diet to be cheaper. I buy everything in single ingredients - nothing is pre-made or pre-packaged. We were snowed in a few weeks ago and had to go to Safeway to buy all of our food and the bill for a weeks worth of groceries was considerably more than I usually spend going to Whole Foods and a specialty butcher. 

For me, planning is a key thing. I plan on Sunday exactly what we'll eat for the week. Then I only buy that much food. I also make sure I eat before I go to the grocery, otherwise I end up buying stuff I don't need just because it looks good and I'm hungry!!

I think to make it work you have to do research to see where you can get the highest quality foods for the best price in your area. For me, I buy eggs from a lady who has a flock (found her on craigslist): so they are farm fresh, and about half the price of grocery store eggs. I buy raw milk from a co-op, so it's about $5 less a gallon than buying it at the store. I get our meat from a butcher in our area that sells only organic, local, grassfed, ect meats. Because all they sell is meat and just have a small butcher shop, they are able to provide their excellent food at a good price. It's not *cheap* (ground beef, for example, is $7.99 a pound), but I only buy what we'll use that week, so that makes it manageable each week. The rest of our food I buy at Whole Foods. Their 365 organics brand is not much more expensive than other store brands.

So I spend quite a bit of my time and energy each week getting our food and preparing it, but I love doing it and I love how I feel when we really commit to it.

So true!  I actually did all that research and I know where to get all the stuff.  I just haven't found the time to go get it all (it's spread out in a three-hour-ish radius from where I live).  One of these days I'll just buckle down and make a huge master list and map and schedule and see how much time it would actually take to gather all the food from the various sources, and then factor in gas costs as well, and see if I'm better off going directly to the sources, or paying a bit of mark-up and getting it from local speciality places.

I'm looking forward to hearing how everyone does on this plan.  I'm hoping it'll inspire me to buckle down and do it myself!

[mamamerle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LunaLady 

Right now I'm just following what NT says to eat for trying to conceive :)

I started Paleo in mid-October and am pregnant now. Considering my infertility history, I was stunned to see those two lines. Good luck!

[CherryBomb]

Originally Posted by mamamerle 

Quote:

Originally Posted by LunaLady 

Right now I'm just following what NT says to eat for trying to conceive :)

I started Paleo in mid-October and am pregnant now. Considering my infertility history, I was stunned to see those two lines. Good luck!

That's wonderful!  Congratulations!

There seems to be a decent amount of interest!  Would you like me to start an official thread, or just chat on this one for now?