Month: July 2016

Today is the Fourth of July, a big deal in the U.S. It’s a day we celebrate with friends, family, and our communities. Traditionally, we celebrate this holiday with barbecue foods, which is to say foods that are cooked outdoors on a grill. This includes hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage, chicken, and ribs. Some folks may even go the extra mile and smoke some meats (we do this annually) for their barbecue. Then there are the sides: rolls, potato salads, coleslaw, baked beans, some kind of potatoes, and of course dessert.

When adhering to a Paleo lifestyle, barbecues are not very hard to do or to go to. Most hamburger meat is on the plan, as is most chicken, ribs, and meats. Sure, some hot dogs or sausages may have sugar in them, while some rubs and sauces or the chicken and ribs may contain some sugar, but honestly, not in large quantities. Eaten reasonably, you can have these foods without worry. It’s the bread of the buns that are the trouble spot. Also, potato salad and coleslaw may contain sugar and/or dairy, but again, in small quantities, I will have some.

I’ve talked about holidays and special occasions in previous blog entries: these are those times in life when it’s okay to go off plan a little. When you look at photographs from the past, the vast majority of the people in them were fit, which is to say not fat. These people at whole foods, worked hard, and they naturally stayed at their ideal weight for the most part. They also ate foods full of sugar, but they did so only at special occasions or as a rare treat.

A strategy I use is to eat reasonably at breakfast and maybe have a handful of nuts or a slice of Paleo bread made with almond flour before the barbecue. Then, since most barbecues are late afternoon/early evening, I eat anything there, but in reasonable amounts. Typically, this is enough to not cause my weight to spike or to  stop any progress in my weight loss until I introduce one ingredient: alcohol. Sticking to a single glass of wine has typically been okay and not too much sugar, but if I go past one glass, I can guarantee either a slight weight gain, a stop in weight loss progress for five days, or both. Again, this is my personal experience, and this is something I’ve paid close attention to over the past ten months. It’s predictable and repeatable.

In the end, as we say, “You gotta live.” Losing weight is not a race; take the holiday to enjoy that time with family and friends, and eat some foods that give you emotional comfort. Just don’t go overboard, and try to make good decisions when you can. Oh, and enjoy that slim slice of apple pie.

I’m going to apologize in advance if you feel that this post is directed toward you. I promise, I have no single person in mind when I write the following.

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There is a common thread I see on Facebook every January among my many Facebook friends: it’s time to lose weight. Many go about doing so by taking on an exercise regimen while others attack the problem through diet. I watch through the month and into February the majority of these people quit. Some quietly while others find the humor in their failure and post a funny meme about having fallen off the wagon. Some persist.

 

Into March, April, and May, there are the die-hards who continue to post their motivation and their progress. For many, the progress is slow but they keep up hope. For a smaller bunch, they are doing well and happy with what they’re experiencing.

Spring arrives and turns to summer, and we start to see the big progress photos and posts. There are now a handful who have lost 30+ lbs, some through diet, some through exercise, and a few through both. There are still the die-hards who post they’re still trying but they aren’t seeing much progress.

What is the difference between those who have experienced success and those who are posting about their long walks, hard workouts, and deprivation diets but who have not really lost any weight? As they say, read between the lines. In this case, I read between the Facebook posts.

The one thing I’ve noticed is that the die-hards who continue to try, try, and try yet fail are also posting enticing photos and videos of these recipes for pastries, cakes, desserts, and other treats. They literally want to have their cake and eat it too.

I don’t begrudge anyone who wants to enjoy treats or posts about it. What I do see as counter-productive is those who are spending all this time and energy trying to lose weight and get healthy while not truly committing themselves to it. It’s a waste of that time and energy.

Look: I can be politically correct and sugar-coat it and say, “Well, as long as you’re trying, at least you’re not eating all bad foods and you’re getting some exercise.” I could say that, but I’m not. If you want to get healthy and lose weight, there’s no good reason at all to go half-way. I don’t care about how hard it is to break free of bread, pasta, rice, beans, or sweets. You just need to do it. You ARE strong enough. You ARE able to do this. You are choosing not to, and your health is going to cash the check that your cravings are writing.

I am hard on this because I used to be this way. I used to go half-in, and instead of getting half-results, I got no results. In two years, I was only willing to give up sodas for sugar-free sodas which let me lose about 12 lbs in two years. At that rate, I’d need another 9 years to get down to 250lbs. That’s just ridiculous. It was also dangerous. I had developed Type 2 Diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver. My blood pressure was rising, I was experiencing nerve pain in my right leg, and my vision was going bad due to my elevated blood sugar. My joints hurt and I was always in some discomfort or outright pain. It was no way to live. And yet, I justified it by telling myself that a life without good food is a life not worth living. I never considered that there is delicious and wholesome food available to me and that all I needed to do was cut out carbs.

I can’t say enough how much I understand that giving up sugar and carbs is hard. I will challenge anyone who says they love pizza more than me. But there is a point that I reached where my quality of life could so easily be changed just through diet that it became silly to continue with the diet I was eating. I had to go all-in.

Commitment. Go all-in on your health. Stop messing about and just do it. Don’t wait; start now. Start with your next meal. There are menus and information available online. The only thing holding you back is your preconceived notion that you will be miserable. You won’t. There is so much good Paleo food out there, you’ll be shocked at how much of it is already part of your diet and how many of those foods are things you already love and enjoy.

Commit. Make it real.

It happens every now and then; I receive an email or a message from someone who tells me that they can’t go Paleo because they experience some horrible side effects. Some I’ve heard of so far include:

• Dizziness
• Stomach pain
• Diarrhea

I will say that these side effects are very rare. Literally only two people out of hundreds I’ve heard from who have all gone Paleo successfully and without any issue. Our bodies are made to eat whole foods, but sometimes, our bodies have problems or genetic baggage that makes our bodies a bit pickier. This doesn’t mean you’ve failed or you’ve let anyone down nor does it mean that Paleo can’t work for you. You just need to identify what it is that’s causing the issue and carry on.

If you’re experiencing what could be withdrawals from sugar and other bad foods, they may manifest themselves as the aforementioned issues. It’s up to  you to listen to your body and make a determination for yourself as to whether you should continue with the diet. Just don’t give up because you’re uncomfortable for a bit. Everyone who abandons the sugar dragon goes through withdrawals. It’s hard to get through, but with some persistence, you can determine if it’s a real allergy, reaction, or just withdrawals.

This is why I recommend Whole30 first. Going Whole30 resets your body and you eat foods that the vast and overwhelming majority of people do not have food allergies to. Once you complete a Whole30, your body is at a base point, and you can better notice the effects of different foods on your body as you reintroduce things.

People are all different. Paleo isn’t just one way to eat good, wholesome foods. There are many other ways out there. Also, if the Paleo lifestyle appeals to you, you can identify what it is that your body is not happy with and just avoid that. I think you can do it!

Of course, if you are having problems with what you suspect may be a food allergy, then see a doctor. Food allergies can kill.

I never really thought about any fears I might have had when I did my Whole30 or went Paleo, but I guess it’s because I concentrated so much on eating right and sticking to the plan. However, I would be remiss if I failed to mention some little nagging doubts I had at the back of my mind when I began.

First and foremost was the voice in the back of my head that said, “You want that pizza. You want that bread. You want that pasta.” The joy I used to get from eating those foods was immense. Emotionally separating myself from them was hard at first. If anything, I was afraid I would succumb to the cravings and eat those foods. It wasn’t so much cravings as just eating for the sake of eating.

I also had a voice in the back of my head that would whisper doubts whenever I was telling people about the Whole30 I started. That little voice would say two things: First, it would say, “You better stick with it or you’ll embarrass yourself,” and second, “If you fail, this is going to look bad for you.”

I experienced a lot of disbelief in my progress when the weight kept coming off. It was hard to believe it was really happening. However, when my progress would stall, the negative part of my brain would say, “See? Here it is. The bottom. You won’t lose any more weight after this,” or “This is what you get for eating something sweet.”

It is in those moments, when negativity and self-doubt strike, that you muster all the self-confidence, motivation, and determination you have and get through it. You have to cast away the bad thoughts, and remind yourself what the goal is. You have to think about what it is that you are trying to accomplish and how much effort you’ve put into it so far. Throwing that all away for the short-term gratification of something that goes against your eating plan is just not worth it.

I tend to feel very guilty anytime I eat foods that aren’t part of the plan whether it’s just a little treat or a holiday. It doesn’t matter for me; I feel badly as if I’d let myself down somehow. This feeling is very strong for me, and it is exacerbated when the scale punishes me with a gain or a long plateau. I dislike that guilty feeling so much that, in and of itself, it is almost enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Whatever it is that helps drive you and keep you on the path, you have to find it. We’re all different and we all have different reasons for eating right. We all face those demons, though. I like to think that it’s the Sugar Dragon finding its way into our heads to get us to eat some sugar. Like any addiction, the voices are strongest when we are freshly cut off from the source of the addiction.

The good news is that now that I’ve been off sugar for nearly ten months, those negative voices are fewer and farther in between. It is rare for me to get the negative voices, though they can pop up here and there. When they do, I remind myself that I’ve lost over 97 lbs in under ten months, and I’m doing okay. This is no race; I can take my time and I’ll be alright.