Stevia is a sugar substitute. Since this is a no sugar 30 days, Stevia is a no-go. I also wrote a post a week or two back about how Robb Wolf taught me that sugar substitutes can have just as significant (and negative) an impact on insulin sensitivity and fat loss as real sugar.

Sorry. But you'll thank me for it.

Melissa

Angie

A Total Lie, but for some reason, sometimes people won't believe you if you say you have Celiac's disease (my usual story: works most of the time), just because the rest of the world has no willpower.

Another comment: I figured out alcohol exacerbates my already severe seasonal allergies. Another great reason not to drink!

Thanks for keeping a great blog! I'm off to buy some natural beef jerky made around here (smoked without sugar in the marinade!)

@TLC: Nuts are a fantastic fat source. How many you eat is, of course, individual. In this instance, as (I assume) you are struggling with replacing the calories you are losing from grains and dairy and experiencing some hunger pains (literally) from your new diet… just eat. If you're hungry, fat satiates. So, being conscious of what you are eating (always), if you're hungry, have a handful of almonds with your meal or as a snack and see how that does for your mental and physical cravings. If you're not satisfied, have more. Just eat.

@Michael (and Sloe, and V): My non-expert, non-science-y opinion is exactly what V said – you are literally detoxing from processed carbs and sugars. It's happened to me on a few occasions – I've written about it here. It can take a while to get through, but you have to stick with it until it passes. Eat some fruit and see if that helps, yes, but try to be cautious and only eat as much as you need. (Meaning, don't eat an entire bag of dried cranberries at a time, if just 1/4 of a cup of strawberries would do.) Be extra conscious of your carb choices as well. Dried fruit and sweet potatoes pack a substantial punch, and may not be moving you that far off the path of insulin resistance. Cherries, berries and vegetables (even carrots) are a better choice. Please keep us posted as to how you are feeling. I suspect you'll be feeling *tremendously* better in about a week. STICK WITH IT.

@Jimi: If I have enough delicious stuff in my salad, I find I don't need dressing at all. We made a gorgeous salad the other night with baby spinach, broiled salmon, diced pear, almond slivers and avocado. No dressing necessary. If you prefer, however, V's got it right – drizzle some olive oil, squeeze some lemon and/or lime or (depending on the salad) use some sesame oil for flavor.

@Jake: Stevia is not okay with this 30 day thing. Just making sure you're not selling yourself short. ;) Find some of that Applegate sausage, though. It's delicious.

Thanks to everyone for helping each other out, responding to questions and supplying your own thoughts. This is why I wanted to do this. We can all learn from each other, and everyone's contributions makes this a better place to be.

I'll see how it works.

Here is what happened to me with the headaches. I quit drinking about 5 years ago, and I was a big hop head beer drinker. The Carb Load of beer is pretty fantastic and I was really heavy and ate like shit anyway.

So I quit drinking and changed my diet a little bit, trying to cut out some of the pasta-y things. When I did that I got these horrific three day headaches and a friend of mine recommended that I start eating Starburst candies. My Brain was craving the sugar and it was telling me. Now I have found that there are much much much healthier ways to stymie that craving. Fruit mostly.

My experience with Paleo eating isn't that you should destroy carbs from your diet but that you should be super selective with the ones you choose to ingest.

My headaches lasted me about three weeks. Sometimes they were real bad and sometimes they were just nagging and persistent. But once they went away, the never came back. I have had two headaches in three years and both of them involved mild heat stroke.

But Michael, don't rule out the super-agent thing either.

How long did your headaches last? You are advocating fasting for 16 hours a day, twice a week? For how many weeks? What does the fasting do? Do you have references (web sites, books, articles) that support this approach to solving the headache problem?

Here is what Art De Vany has to say about headaches: "Headaches. If you get headaches on EF, this is a warning shot across your bow. You are probably at least a bit insulin resistant and may be tipping into the metabolic cascade toward the metabolic syndrome. It ends with diabetes 2 as visceral fat builds under your stomach muscles in your gut. It accelerates the rate at which you age.

The headaches are caused by your blood sugar dropping. The brain is crying for glucose because your high insulin has caused the glucose to be taken up by other tissues. Be careful during these headache episodes because you may lack judgment and feel more irritated. A bit of low sugar dark chocolate will help. Don’t drive a car when you feel this way.

The other cause of the headaches is that carb you did not notice. It shoots your blood sugar up and then the insulin drops it like a rock. It is the Chinese meal syndrome. You get hungry half an hour after a Chinese meal because all the corn starch in the sauce (and sugar in many non-authentic Chinese meals) produces a blood sugar rise followed by a crash induced by the high insulin response. Many people who eat too much simple carbs are exhausted by the end of the day from multiple blood sugar rises and crashes through the day. It produces a high level of stress, which will add to your insulin resistance, making these episodes worse over time."

Amy, thanks for the recipe for the sauce!

Someone up there asked about salad dressing. My favorite is pretty plain Jane but I love it: avocado oil and lemon juice, or olive oil and lemon juice.

Someone else up there asked about the headaches and two things come to mind:

1. The amount of carbohydrate you eat, particularly if you eat nutritionally barren carb, has a similar effect to drinking too much booze. So you are effectively detoxing from a nasty hangover. The "fix" of eating the carbs, is just giving the body what it has gotten to used to. When I kicked the grain carbs I had the worst headaches ever. But they went away, fast a twice a week for at least 16 hours, drink plenty of water.

2. You might be a highly trained government agent. Pick up a chef knife and throw it at the wall. If it sticks in and wiggles back and forth cinematically let me know where you live so I can stay the hell away from you.