Why Paleo?

I'm the sort of girl who likes to eat. Well, maybe that's a slight understatement.  I really LOVE eating delicious food. I could never, ever, ever in a million years be anorexic.  I just like food waaaaay too much.  It's not that I overeat though.  My portions are usually pretty normal sized, and I'm not a junk food junkie or even a fast food junkie.  I actually prefer to eat mostly fresh, organic food and sometimes even raw food.  I grew up with a step-father who was an amazing cook - his only redeeming quality, unfortunately - so I developed a taste for the finer things, you know, more sort of gourmet.  As I grew older and moved out of the house I explored different ways of eating, became a vegetarian for several years and eventually went back to eating meat again.  Growing up in the pacific northwest, fresh seafood was a mainstay of our diet, along with pasta.  So naturally, I have a deep love for seafood and pasta, as well as sweet things.  We always had our dessert after dinner.  ALWAYS.  So yeah, the sweet tooth.  To make a long story short, one of my friends in Arizona is a weight-loss and fitness doctor and she mentioned Paleo in passing a couple of times when I told her I wanted to get healthier and lose some weight.  I tried the HCG diet under her supervision and it worked and I kept the weight off for several months but then it slowly crept back.  I'm sure that it was all the sugary and carby stuff I was eating, because for a while I was working two jobs and most of my meals were on the run... not enough time to do proper meal planning, let alone get a good night's sleep.  I told her I wanted to lose weight but I needed something less restrictive than doing HCG, because honestly I just don't have the will-power to do HCG the right way and I'd probably gain it back again afterwards just like before. That's when she mentioned Paleo.  I filed it away in the back of my mind and didn't think about it again.  Kept eating my carby sugary stuff and inhaling coffee to make it through those 12-16hr workdays.  Fast forward.  December 2011, I was in a horrible car accident and was left with horrible neck and shoulder pain.  The chiropractor suggested that I start exercising as part of my recovery (not right away, but after a couple months of getting adjustments).  Then I moved to Florida (this summer) and my new chiropractor suggested the paleo diet to reduce inflammation.  So I began researching it, especially the health benefits, and even though it's strict in some ways, it seems like a diet that could be viable as a long-term lifestyle change.  Plus, my chiropractor told me that he did Paleo himself for a little over 6 weeks and he lost 27 pounds!  Wow!  If I could lose 27 pounds in 6 weeks, that would be freakin amazing!  Sign me up!  I told him that I wanted to lose weight and was thinking about doing Atkins, but he advised me that once I started adding carbs back in on atkins, I'd gain it back anyway, so why not just eat a healthy Paleo diet (minus dairy - which adds to inflammation), and lose weight and keep it off?  It kind of made sense when he explained it that way,  He suggested I do it for 12 weeks and after that I can do one cheat day per week where I can eat whatever I want - pasta, or bread, or sweets, dairy, anything.  Really? A cheat day?!  Fantastic!  That's what he does, he told me.  He and his wife have one cheat day per week where they can eat grains, dairy, sugar, whatever.  But how will I get through the first 12 weeks with no sugar..... that's the key right there.  I can do no grains, no dairy.  But no sugar?  What will I put in my coffee each morning?  I gotta have my coffee, man!  It needs to be SWEET and CREAMY.  I cannot drink it black. NO WAY.  Black coffee = no bueno.