Avalon - What when wine: lose weight and feel great with paleo-style meals, intermittent fasting, and wine

For my parents.
Thanks for providing the ingredients
so I could bake the proverbial (gluten-free) cake.
Love you more, most, so much!!

Hi new friends!

I wrote this book to hopefully enhance your life, but lets be real: I dont actually know anything about you. I dont know whether youre just hoping to lose weight or whether youre looking to change your whole dietary lifestyle permanently. I dont know whether you have any genetic or medical conditions, allergies, or predispositions that perhaps make it a not so good idea for you to change your diet at the moment, practice fasting, drink wine, or do any of the other things I recommend in this book. Only you can know that. (And Im all about finding what works for you personally!) So here are some very basic guidelines that I strongly encourage you to read as you consider implementing some or all of the steps that I discuss in this book:

IF YOU ARE DIABETIC, PREGNANT, OR NURSING: Please do not fast or drink alcohol unless you have been advised by a physician or other qualified health care provider that it is safe for you to do so. Consulting your doctor (more on that in a bit!) is particularly important if you suffer from any health condition or are experiencing any symptoms that may require treatment.

READING THIS BOOK: I know its tempting to skip some stuff and read the chapters or sections that sound like they will have the biggest or most immediate impact on your life. And I freely confess that I may have gone off the deep end in describing so many studies (especially the ones on rats and mice). But I beg you to read the whole book before you act on any of my suggestions. First of all, this book describes multiple interacting lifestyle changes. Second, I sprinkle super vital pieces of information throughout the book. Some of this info may be really key for you, in terms of how you may react to these practices. Maybe that one super important piece of info for you is in one of the Q&A sections... or maybe its in the The Tipsy Elephants in the Room chapter... or maybe its on that one random page you didnt read because you got distracted by life. You just wont know unless you read everything, ya know?

MEDICAL CONSENSUS (OR LACK THEREOF): Not surprisingly, there are disagreements among doctors, nutritionists, and others about much of what Im suggesting. Not everyone thinks intermittent fasting is a good idea, and for sure not everyone recommends drinking wine regularly, let alone daily! Ive tried to point out where there are debates or contradictory studies, but unless I mention a study that contradicts the ones I discuss, Im not aware of any.

CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR: Please consult your doctor before you do anythingbefore you change your diet, before you start fasting, before you start (or increase) drinking, before you take any supplements, before you hit the gym like a warrior... anything!

CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR (AGAIN): Consult your doctor if you have started to do any of the things I recommend and you begin to feel physically sick, tired, or mentally stressed out beyond just longing for your next meal (although that should totally stop happening once you adapt to intermittent fasting). The point of this book is to help you feel good, savvy?

WHAT TO EAT: Because everyone is different, I can give you guidelines about which foods have been shown to yield positive or harmful effects (oh hey, the whole What? section!), but I simply cannot tell you which exact foods are going to work best for you. I also cant know which foods you may be personally allergic or sensitive to. (So please keep that in mind when cooking any of the delicious recipes.) You have to figure all this out for yourself with self-experimentation. Which is sort of the theme of this book, and also where the fun begins! Yay for finding your perfect dietary protocol!

HOW MUCH TO EAT: For the same reasons, its also pretty much impossible for me to recommend exactly how much of anything to eat, be it carbs, protein, fat, micronutrients, or total calorie intake. All I can do is encourage you to eat super nutritiously to satiety. If youd like the official stance on the matter, check out the governments recommended dietary guidelines (health.gov/dietaryguidelines) and dietary reference intakes (ods.od.nih.gov/Health_Information/Dietary_Reference_Intakes.aspx).

HOW MUCH TO DRINK: Here in the United States, a glass of wine is usually five ounces. That said, different countries often use other standards, while the individual wines themselves can have different percentages of alcohol. So, when you read studies that involved people drinking a glass of wine, that glass may be smaller or larger than five ounces, and we likely dont even know how much alcohol the specific wine contained, to boot!

HOW MUCH TO EXERCISE: You should only exercise to the level of your own ability, even if youre just doing the few routines I suggest, like HIIT or wearing weights to the grocery store. If youve never exercised, then it could be a really bad idea to suddenly go crazy, especially if youre new to fasting as well. Plus, Im much more a fan of getting your exercise from life, rather than potentially overexerting yourself at the gym anyway.

BRANDED PRODUCTS: Although I mention some branded products, including some that I take myself, I am not endorsing any particular brand for you. I cant say enough times that you have to try the things that appeal to you and see which ones make you feel best.

Okie dokie, so with all that cautionary stuff said, bring on #allthethings! You got this!

When I was first introduced to Melanie, we had an instant connection. Melanie has this firean innate awesome passion and drive to share her knowledge and experience of dieting. That shes kind and genuinely caring is instantly obvious and special! Plus, shes funny, and Im a sucker for someone with a sense of humor.

Ive been in the Paleo world for a really long timesome would even consider me to be the matriarch of the ancestral health movement (but please give me a few more years before you call me the grandmother...), and Ive had the pleasure of seeing what used to be a fairly small circle of folks blogging and writing about Paleo turn into more websites, books, and experts then you can shake a stick at. The birth of my first book, Everyday Paleo, happened almost ten years ago, and it was the first Paleo cookbook and lifestyle guide to hit the market. There are now so many amazing resources out there; however, theres a lot of convoluted information as well, not just with Paleo but also with dieting advice in general. Melanie is one of the few who cuts through the cloudy, murky, crazy-laden diet world to give us some real useful tools to live by.

Im not easily impressed when it comes to folks who are out there talking about Paleo; but Melanieshes a gal who has done her homework, has lived this lifestyle, and has made it work for herself in an amazing way, and her passion is to share it with others in a fashion that just works!

Furthermore, she can back up what shes saying. Im not a science gal by nature, but I personally want to know why Im doing something as it pertains to my body, how it works, and when Im supposed to do the thing Im doing. Melanie covers all of these important bases in this book.