My story is probably all too familiar. I'd gained weight steadily after 30, and found myself approaching 40 with the situation spiraling out of control. I couldn't cut the grass or go for a walk without being winded, my blood pressure was controlled with three medications, and my cholesterol was to the point where my doctor wanted to medicate me there as well.

Then the chest pains started and I was done. I starved off 30 lbs the first year, but quickly gained 20 of it back. I don't remember how I discovered Paleo-Primal (probably surfing my way through other low carb resources due to some success in the past on Atkins) but something clicked.

Taubes, Eades, Sisson...I've read widely and continue to educate myself through blogs and books (Wheat Belly is next on my list!)

Today I commute by bicycle to work every day, and try to lift weights a couple of times per week. I just completed a 500 mile cycling tour. Grains are no longer a part of my life, and I'm working now to upgrade to more organic, local, and especially grass-fed foods.

What was the biggest challenge to adopting a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet?
I do all of the cooking for my family, so it was hard the first year preparing food that I couldn't eat. My wife has joined me on the Paleo-Primal path now (down 23lbs!!) so it's a lot easier.

What advice (if any) would you give to someone interested in trying a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet? Were there any obstacles that you overcame that could help future dieters?
You eat less variety than you think. When you start, pick a meal and get it easy and repeatable. If it's 2 eggs and bacon, then that's what you eat every day. Then figure out how to eat a healthy lunch every day and repeat it 5 days per week. Accumulate small changes and before you know it you'll be on auto-pilot

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Hi I’m Rio, I’m 29 years old and I’ve been primal since October 2011; I’d like to say that since then, I’ve lost 20kgs and have a visible 6 pack. However that for me is not the case, my story is still successful but it is more a story of persistence.

I’ll start with the usual – I’ve been overweight my whole life even though I was an active child/teenager/young adult and mum used to put ‘healthy’ food on the table with a few treats on the weekend I was still painted with the ‘big girl’ label. Unfortunately the healthy food consisted of bread, pasta, potatoes and grain based snacks. I started weight watchers when I was 12 years old. I was 72 kilos. Since then I feel like my life has been a perpetual cycle of ‘feeling naughty’ and depriving myself. I have tried the weird and wacky diets (such as the soup diet) and more depressingly the CW ‘eat healthy and exercise’ diet. I worked my butt off at the gym, ate low fat, and calorie counted to within an inch of my life, and still I never saw the numbers I hoped for. 

I gave up time and time again, only getting heavier at the end of every attempt. I felt like a failure. At the end of 2010 I was 87 kgs (I’m only 156cms) and felt huge. I was also due to get married in April 2011. I always thought that my wedding would be the time when I would finally lose the weight and I thought up until now that my early attempts hadn’t worked because I didn’t have the ultimate motivation and I so wanted to be a thin and beautiful bride. So I hopped on the “eat right and exercise wagon” again, and again I was disappointed and devastated...i was, after all my efforts, going to be a chubby bride. My wedding was a wonderful day, because I married the love of my life, but I’ll always look back with a tinge of regret over my size.

In August 2011 after returning from our honeymoon and ballooning yet again to 87-88kgs and feeling miserable and fat, I thought to try a different tact and booked in for 12 Hypoxi sessions which were incredibly expensive (around $700 for 12 sessions). Hypoxi treatments consist of cycling gently for 30 mins with your lower body encased in a pressurised chamber which applied and released pressure as you cycled. The theory is that the pressure mobilises your body fat into the blood stream so that you can magically cycle it away. Far fetched? Kinda. The Hypoxi team set you up with a list of suggested foods to ‘eat and not eat’ which consisted of eating good fresh food and avoiding refined carbs and potatoes 2 hours after a hypoxi session. I thought I’d better follow the eating plan since I was paying so much money for the treatments. Surprisingly I lost a good chuck of weight and cms around my body and looking back it was really my first furore into the primal lifestyle – low carb and gentle exercise (compared to the approaching-chronic-cardio exercise regime I was used to).

Not convinced it was the hypoxi treatments that caused the weight loss on its own I started to research low-carb diets when someone posted a link to Marks daily apple to a facebook page I am a member of. Once I started reading the articles and information on your site I was instantly hooked, I downloaded the primal blueprint and devoured it in a few days. I started eating Primal and my energy levels improved instantly...i couldn’t believe it! I’d gone from being tired and listless all day (falling asleep on the couch around 8pm every night) to bounding out of bed in the morning and not feeling tired until 10pm that night, with none of lethargy through the day (which I had started to think was ‘normal’). With little effort I lost 5 kilos. I felt great!
Since those initial 5 kilos the weight loss has been slow, but still on the decline (I’ve lost about 15 kgs and 17cms from my waist since my initial hypoxi session). My measurements also still are decreasing. What is more amazing is that the shape of my body is changing. I’ve lost 10 kgs before on the “eat healthy and exercise regime” and sure I got smaller but my body shape didn’t change all that much. This time my waist is visually smaller (nipped in at the sides), arms and legs more defined, face remarkably thinner.

I often feel frustrated reading other peoples success stories, and think, “why did I not lose 20 kilos in the first 6 months?”. But then I have to stop and think what I’ve gained. I’ve gained my body, I’ve gained energy like I could never have imagined, I’ve gained my happiness back (I believe beforehand I was starting to suffer from depression) and I’ve gained a healthy body that bends and twists and lifts and runs. 

If I were to offer any tips to the Primalites out there like me, it would be to keep going, this thing is for life, it’s not a quick fix and not many people (outside the community) get that – I can’t count the amount of times people have said to me “what do you think will happen when you go back to eating normal”. Well I am eating normally thank you very much.

Another thing that helps me stay sane is having a fantastic support network around me, my Husband Scott is sometimes-but-not-100%-Primal, but very supportive, I have a fantastic friend/personal trainer who is passionate about primal/paleo nutrition and lifestyle and a great friend who is also living the Primal life and lifting heavy sh*t. It is beneficial to have people to bounce ideas off of, to ask for advice about ‘what worked for them when this happened’ and to generally glow in the awesomeness which is the Primal lifestyle.
So in the end, being Primal for me so far is not about what I’ve lost....rather what I’ve gained (Health, Energy, Friends). And I couldn’t be happier.

What was the biggest challenge to adopting a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet?
Other peoples attitudes to the eat high fat, high protein and no grains.

What advice (if any) would you give to someone interested in trying a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet? Were there any obstacles that you overcame that could help future dieters?
keep going, stick at it and ignore the critics, because this thing is going to change your life! no gimmicks, no pressure, just good clean food!

My husband and I decided to try the Primal Blueprint 21 day challenge at the beginning of 2012. We took the whole family primal (us and our 4 kids). My husband has had many allergies and chronic digestive issues and his teeth have always been horrible. I just didn't feel great and wanted to drop 10 or 25 pounds. My younger children were having behavioral issues due to sugar sensitivities and my daughter's molars had grown in rotting (I believe due to our 2 years of vegetarian lifestyle). We decided to give it a shot- we could do anything for 3 weeks. 

I didn't expect to feel immediate improvements. My life seemed to revolve around food before. Suddenly I didn't need snacks and I wasn't thinking about what my next snack or meal would be. Food became simple. I saw a huge difference in the kids. Tantrums were fewer and farther between, they didn't have to snack all day to stay happy, and we began communicating so much more easily with each other. My husband's allergies and digestive issues improved vastly. Our dental issues disappeared. The entire family had 100% cavity free check ups for the first time ever! 

My lifelong skin issues cleared up fast, my hormone imbalances immediately began getting better. My periods got much lighter and shorter. My energy levels rose- I just want to play all the time! I lost about 15 pounds in the first 3 weeks and I felt so good! We hit the end of our challenge and decided we were in it for good. We didn't want to go back! Now, almost 7 months from day one, I've lost 25 pounds and almost 20% body fat. I'm wearing the same clothing size as I was in the 8th grade. I didn't lose weight because I worked my tail off for hours each day. I started losing weight and THEN began exercising more (short and hard) because I physically craved it! I trail run because I love it, I weight lift because I love it, I play hard and do yoga and love every second. I've never loved exercise like this! I have energy to spend and it makes it so fun! This is how bodies are supposed to be.

What was the biggest challenge to adopting a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet?
My biggest challenge was avoiding the "fail-eo" foods. Resisting the urge to go crazy on the grain-free baked treats was hard at first, but I think they can spell disaster to those trying to lose weight if not used very sparingly. 

What advice (if any) would you give to someone interested in trying a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet? Were there any obstacles that you overcame that could help future dieters?
Keep your food simple and your workouts short and hard. 
Eat good, clean fat and don't be afraid to adjust to your body's needs.
Learn as much you can about the inner workings of your body and why your diet works. When you know the facts, you can't abandon them along the line!

One of the major complications of diabetes involves injury to the small blood vessels traveling throughout your body. The excess glucose circulating in your blood stream is toxic to these blood vessels, resulting in damage to the organs or structures they supply. In the kidney, this results in damage to the glomeruli, the microscopic sieves that filter your blood. A new study in mice has shown that a ketogenic diet may reverse this damage: 

Read the whole article here.