Hi and welcome to the forum.   

Paleo is pretty simple at its core. You need a diet based on meat, fish, eggs and vegetables. Grass-fed etc is nice fine-tuning, but the main thing is to get rid of the junk food, sugar, wheat, seed oils etc and eat real fresh food and drink plain water. If you can't find or afford grass-fed beef, grain-fed beef is still as good as regular pork or chicken. It will help balance the fats if you include oily fish like mackerel, herring, salmon and sardines.

One thing I wouldn't bother with is butter from grain-fed cows. You'd be better off using lard or tallow. If you want to use butter and can find grass-fed butter that's worth paying extra for.

As far as the gym goes, emphasising the weights is more useful than loads of cardio. Lots of cardio just makes you hungrier, so it doesn't do much for weight loss.

so what should i use for cooking like eggs and chicken etc. i cant eat fish whatsoever but i can take fish oils for the benefit. Also, what about protein shakes with water? can i still do that? my workout plan is about 1-1.5 hours mon-thurs. a 3day cycle I rotate so everyweek a workout gets doubled. back/bi - chest/tri - legs/shoulders.  each day with a bit of core and some HIT 15-20 min on elliptical/bike. i just want to be healthy and drop the weight and not starve my body of anything it needs.

For higher temperatures I use dripping saved from roasts, tallow, unhydrogenated lard, coconut oil or clarified butter, depending on what flavour I want. For very low temperatures, eg eggs or delicate fish, I use butter.

I would advise not to use protein shakes. Some of them are based on whey protein. Whey is insulinogenic, which means it will make you hold onto fat and feel hungrier. Some are made from egg white protein, and you'd be better off eating the eggs. Some are based on soy, which is poison! Yuk. Drink water and eat your food. If you can't cook after your workout, make some scrambled eggs to take away and pack it in your bag - it's not too bad cold. A nice big serve of scrambled egg and a banana to replenish glycogen stores is a better option than a fake shake.

If you are eating plenty of fresh red meat with its fat and some fruit and/or vegetables you can get everything you need for good health. If you're not planning on including any seafood in your diet you should either eat grass-fed meat or take fish oil capsules. Some kelp granules sprinkled on your food a couple of times a week would be good insurance - it's full of trace minerals. Vitamin D is important too. Sunshine is the best way to get it, but if that's impossible a supplement is a good idea.

Nick,

I just finished my first week and am not an expert at this but I wanted to wish you luck.  Wow, all of that exercise - I used to say standing up straight was an aerobic event for me.

Just wondering - have you been to Marksdailyapple.com  ?