For those of you who have been following my blog since I started writing it back in February, you are probably familiar with my story. But for those who have only recently found this blog, or are just finding it today (welcome!) and have not gone back to the beginning, I figured it might not be a bad idea to recap my weight loss journey to-date.

It began in August, 2015. After the convergence of a number of realizations, my wife and I decided to get serious about our health and change our lifestyle to a more healthy one. With the help and support from my cousin Sarah and my friend Matt, we were armed with information about the evils of sugar, carbs, grains, and the added sugars in prepared foods. Coupled with our own research into Whole30 and Paleo, Sherry (my wife) and I began our first Whole30 on August 31, 2015.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it; the first week was tough. Probably one of the toughest things I’ve done in my life.  Breaking a sugar addiction is tough, and as long as I’ve been eating high-carb foods, it was a very hard addiction to break. Add to that the fact that nearly everything in my diet had added sugars and carbs makes for a tough transition. Or did it?

I was surprised, even from the very beginning, at how many foods that I considered delicious and that the nutrition establishment had deemed “bad” due to not being low-fat was actually good for me and allowed on Whole30 (and later, Paleo compliant). Foods I loved such as bacon, eggs, steak, sausage, pork chops, ribs, brisket, and every manner of meats were all not just allowed, but staples of Whole30 and Paleo. As for vegetables, with the exception of beans and grains, pretty much everything that grows in the ground naturally is good-to-go (as we say in the Marines). What began to happen, that I did not expect, was that I was actually enjoying all the food I ate, and I was full afterward. I no longer experienced snack cravings, and I only got hungry when it was time for the next meal. This was all a new experience for me, and I was enjoying it immensely. As an added bonus, in my first month, I lost 20 lbs.

After our Whole30 was complete, Sherry and I looked around for what to do next. Staying on the Whole30 for longer than 30 days is possible, and there are many who do just that, but we wanted something a little more sustainable for us, and something that allowed us a little more freedom in the foods we can eat. After a lot of reading and a lot of discussions, we settled on Paleo. Initially, I was also doing a very Keto-inspired diet, but it’s hard to get into ketones and easy to get out, so I stuck with Paleo. If I were doing this alone and could control every meal better, I might have stuck with the Keto, but Paleo has been serving me well. As an example of how well, by Christmas, which was only four months into my new Paleo lifestyle, I had lost 50 lbs.

My great weight loss continued through March, but then began to slow for a few reasons. One, there was a lot less weight to lose, so losing 10 lbs a month was getting difficult to sustain. Two, we went on vacation, and Sherry and I ate foods we wouldn’t regularly have eaten (How can you go to Canada and not eat Poutine?!). Where I was sustaining about 10-12 lbs per month of weight loss has now turned into about a 5 lbs/month weight loss. I’m totally okay with that, though, as progress is still being made, and I’m still getting closer to my final goal. 

Some of the things I’ve learned over the past nine months:

• Cravings go away after you wean yourself off sugar.
• Eating Paleo is easy and delicious, but requires a lot of preparation and planning.
• Having self-discipline is important, but if you fall of the wagon for a meal, you have to just get back on for the next. Don’t throw away an entire day just because you ate a hamburger at lunch; make your next meal Paleo.
• You will eventually not crave bread, donuts, and sweets when you see them. It took me about five months, but now I see those foods and it doesn’t even effect me. 
• Sugar is EVERYWHERE. It’s in foods you would not expect it to be in, and you have to be vigilant to keep added sugar out of your diet.

Finally, don’t be so hard on yourself. You will have successes, and there will be times when you don’t. That’s perfectly okay and normal. Also, don’t base your progress solely on the scale. It’s a horrible single measure of your health and progress. Instead, look at not only your weight, but your clothing size and how it feels as well as any blood work that you have done during a doctor’s visit or physical. There is also one very overlooked measure that always surprises me how few people consider: how you feel. If you have more energy, have fewer aches, and have much better flexibility and mobility, THAT’S A HUGE WIN! A neighbor of mine in his 70’s recently went Paleo after seeing my progress, and he told me that for the first time in nearly 15 years and after his 15 lbs of weight loss in his first month after going Paleo, he is able to stand for more than five minutes, tie his shoes without being winded, and able to play with his grandchildren. He isn’t concentrating on the weight loss, but rather on his improved quality of life. I think that’s a great way to look at it.

My progress so far isn’t out of reach for anyone. It’s not atypical. I didn’t lose it overnight. There were a lot of times I felt I wasn’t losing enough weight fast enough all while I was losing inches off my waist or neglecting how much better I felt. Losing the weight in the time I’ve lost it and in the manner I’ve lost it is within reach for you. Seriously. All you have to do is commit to the lifestyle, do some planning, spend the time to make the good food, and stick with it. That’s what I did to lose over 93 lbs in nine months. And you can do it, too!