Neil G:

Fat is the white part, so look for stuff with a lot of white inside the muscle.

The fattiest cheap cuts will be hamburger (of course) and chuck roasts.  Round tends to be very lean, as is most sirloin (unless the butcher leaves the lip around the edge).  Tri-tip and short ribs are great if you can find them on sale.  I won't buy the tubes of hamburger from the packing plant: I only buy fresh ground from the store (it'll come on a tray, not in a tube).

The main thing with meat on a budget is to shop the sales, and stock your freezer when the cuts you want become cheap.  I've bought entire rib primals (= 20 pounds worth of ribeye steak) for $5/pound!

I still buy fatty cuts, even at the supermarket, because the n-3/n-6 ratio of grain-fed beef is still better than even pastured chicken or pork -- let alone factory chicken/pork.

As far as the rancher you're talking to, he's most certainly dancing around the fact that his beef is grain-finished.  (This is because most places want the most intramuscular fat, and the fastest way to do that is to feed the animal a lot of grain.)  The best question to ask is "Is your beef finished on pasture?"  If no, they're finished in a feedlot like most beef.  If yes, ask "Is their feed supplemented with corn or other grains?"

Note that, contrary to his assertion, grass-finished does NOT mean tough and lean!  Here's a 100% grass-finished rib primal I personally cut (and ate part of):

What you want is someone who finishes on pasture and doesn't supplement, and feeds his beef hay cut from the pasture during the winter.  Also, for best nutrition and flavor, you want your beef to be slaughtered after it's been feeding on fresh pasture for at least 90 days, and preferably 120, which most likely means "late summer/early fall" in your area.  

I should write an article about this someday!

Daniel:

Glad to hear from you again!

"my mind state has shifted into a more "rational" and I guess I would say a less "emotional" basic platform of awareness."

Me too!  I'm not sure it's natural to be emotional over things that don't matter.  Paleolithic life was full of real risks, real triumphs, and real tragedies.  Survival was not guaranteed by the state -- life was something we had to earn every day, and our actions had meaningful and immediate consequences that could easily include our death.  Powerful emotions are for when something real actually happens...not when a sports team wins, a celebrity gets married, or someone is stupid on the Internet. 

"Moving towards a predatory type lifestyle and mindset has certainly made me more ambitious albeit for very different things than in the past."

Good!  All leadership is self-elected.

Yes, mind and body are one, and have never been separate: what we call "mind" is just the part of the body that is self-aware.

JS

Sally:

"only 18 pounds?"  That's a pound a week, which is a good, sustainable pace considering you're doing minimal exercise.  (Even the mainstream diet advice generally recommends a pound a week as a weight loss goal.)  I would only be concerned if you stop losing that pound a week and you're still well above your goal weight.

That being said, you can try some experiments.  Eating your carbohydrates for dinner instead of at breakfast can help.  If you're drinking calories in any form, cutting those out can make a big difference while allowing you to leave your portions the same.  Nuts and nut butters are another concentrated source of calories that many people find don't satiate in proportion to their calorie contribution.  And some people find that they can skip breakfast or lunch occasionally and still feel fine...but be careful with this, because if it makes you feel like you're starving and you snack or binge to compensate, you haven't done yourself any favors.

It's most important to keep eating in a way that lets you not be hungry all the time...you might lose the weight faster, but the moment you get tired of being hungry, you'll gain the weight back!

JS

Hugo:

I've noticed that all the people who say "Fructose is OK, stop being an alarmist" are athletes (often endurance athletes), who are continually depleting their liver glycogen and can easily absorb it.  For the average mostly-sedentary American, it's wise to be more cautious.

Also, I see no benefits to fructose.  It appears to be inferior to glucose in all ways: at best it's a heavily oxidation-prone version of glucose that's limited to replenishing liver glycogen.

I agree that Lustig overstates his case, and I think his calls for regulation are ill-conceived -- but I see no reason to consume it in any more than dessert quantities of fruit.

JS

Ferd:

Thank you!  I've done my best to boil everything down to essentials.

Jess:

There's plenty of potassium in meat: a five-ounce steak has as much potassium as a banana!  And the humble white potato is loaded with potassium.  Fruits and vegetables have plenty of it...

...in contrast, neither white nor whole wheat bread contains meaningful amounts of potassium.  So you'll be getting far more potassium on a paleo diet than you would otherwise.

Re: "would the paleo diet be safe for a T2D?", I don't feel comfortable giving you medical advice: see my disclaimer on the left sidebar.  However, I can say that from what I've seen, paleo diets generally seem to do an excellent job at lowering triglycerides and addressing fatty liver (both of which seem to be caused or exacerbated by excessive dietary carbohydrate, particularly fructose).  T2D is a disease of impaired glucose metabolism ("insulin resistance"), so it seems logical that reducing one's dietary load of glucose and reducing systemic inflammation generally, via a paleo diet, would be a good idea.  But the ultimate responsibility for dietary decisions, and their consequences, rests with you.

Steve Cooksey is a source of more information about paleo and T2D.  

JS