Potassium and Calcium are my 2 that I seem to consistently miss the mark on.

Although today I am doing better than normal, I am at 50%, not sure if that has anything to do with me adding in the paleo crackers or parsley.

Isn't potato almost as huge a no no as wheat?

I have been having foot cramps and calf cramps every day, so I'm pretty sure I am low.

I eat multiple bananas or canteloupe, spinach or other greens, pork and beef everyday too.

I was thinking if I just ate the potato skins, that wouldn't be so carb-y. That's where most of the potassium is on the potato apparently. Or, I could start drinking milk.

I don't want to add in cheats but I need to do something about the cramping.

Also I worry that it is problematic to follow a diet that just doesn't provide enough of some nutrients. I was a vegan for 7 years, and would read all the tip sheets and forums for vegans which would say the same thing "Don't worry about B12, your body stores it up, and you can get it from nutritional yeast!" That seems like a rationalization to me....if an exclusionary diet isn't providing all the nutrients your body needs, then perhaps it's wrong to exclude so many things.

I don't know....I'm open to suggestions. If you look at my food journal, I am eating a lot of foods high in potassium already though, which is why I'm so confounded! Is there some incredible source of potassium, that is Paleo, that I've just not come across yet?

From that same site, it says the RDA is: 3,500 mg. That's a lot. No wonder I keep coming up low, in spite of eating a bunch of foods high in it.

That seems like a huge amount.  3.5g?  You'd need about 7g of potassium salt to provide that.  I wonder if that amount is based on a standard American diet where a lot of potassium is needed to balance a high salt intake.

I guess I get my potassium from bananas, spinach, and pork.  Mostly I eat more bananas if I think I'm not getting enough potassium.  I do that if I'm cramping, though I'm not certain there's a connection.

With respect to potatoes, they are worse for me than wheat.  The skins sometimes contain substances - alkaloids, I think? - that one might want to avoid.

If you are going to go nonpaleo, you could consider using some "light" salt, which has more potassium salt and less regular sodium salt.

Wlfdg, I drink 2 pint glasses of water at work plus usually 3, 4oz glasses of Appolinaris water or tap water at home.

That's not very much water. You might want to bump that up quite a bit. I think you are dehydrated. Do you live someplace warm, dry or even both?

Hm, I can try drinking more water. It is warm here but not dry.

I just tallied it up, and what I drink is roughly 44oz. of water per day. How much do you usually drink?

ETA: It looks like sodium deficiency can also cause muscle cramping:
http://www.annecollins.com/sodium-rda-diet.htm

Quote

Sodium deficiency is not common but can occur during heavy/prolonged exercise, due to loss in sweat and in high temperatures. Signs of sodium deficiency include: cramps, weakness, fatigue, nausea and thirst.

I live at 6,134 ft. in a high alpine desert. I drink roughly 3 gal. per day. High heat here is 87F.

Since starting Paleo I have eliminated added salt from my diet and have had 2 occasions of cramping. On both of those occasions I was dehydrated. Previously I ate a lot of salt and cramped all the time. I don't buy the sodium thing any longer.

Marika…weren’t RDA’s partly set up to be a max allowance and just a general guide to cover “most” people because it would be near impossible to cover it all for everyone or every situation?  I don’t know, just seems like there could be a lot of variables to consider.  Could you be getting too much of something for you personally, and that in turn is causing some cramping rather than you‘re getting too little of something?  If you take any kind of medication, maybe you need to adjust for that also?  Food allergies can cause cramping.  Could the canned fish or what ever it’s packed in be causing the trouble…type of salt you‘re using…mineral water.  I wonder about the mineral water because maybe the added minerals are forcing fluids through your system faster than if it were plain water (or minerals as a solid food) putting a heavier load on your kidneys…losing fluid too fast can cause cramping.  Maybe some things to check out before you go back to eating dairy and other non paleo foods. 

I’ve heard that a person can have up 12 years (give or take) of B12 stores which is why vegans do ok for quite some time before having problems.  What I’ve never understood about that diet is that there’s no way it could survive past the first generation.  We’re mammals so vegans couldn’t nurse their offspring cuz the first rule of the diet is to exclude animal products of any kind.  I think a diet should be able to support it’s own offspring.  Not being able to nourish your own offspring is a pretty good clue that the diet is not fit for humans.