Month: September 2016

The idea is going Paleo without breaking the bank. There are lots of foods that are Paleo that are analogues to non-Paleo foods, but many require some esoteric and sometimes rather expensive ingredients. For those who are cost-conscious, I recommend going slow into Paleo by purchasing one of the esoteric ingredients a week which will open up more food opportunities. By the end of a few weeks, you’ll have the basics required to make all kinds of Paleo foods, but in the beginning, there are lots of things you can make that don’t require the rare ingredients.

Here are some week 1 ideas for someone starting out with Paleo.

For week 1, I recommend finding coconut oil and cooking with it. If you have olive oil in your pantry, us it until it’s gone and then switch to coconut oil. Refined coconut oil has no taste. Unrefined has a bit of coconut flavor to it, but Sherry and I actually like it and use it in certain recipes.

Breakfast

Bacon and eggs. For bacon, Sherry and I use Kroger brand low-salt which has no sugar. It does contain nitrite, but in small amounts. It’s very tasty. As for the eggs, we buy the organic free-range, but regular eggs will do. Make these as you like. I prefer them sunny-side up.

Sausage and eggs. You can find sausage that has no sugar in it. We found two brands at HEB locally that had no sugar in them.

Omelettes. Using green pepper, onions, sausage and/or bacon, you can make a quite tasty omelette. Just make sure to watch portion size on this, as it’s easy to make an omelette that’s huge!

Lunch/Dinner

The main thing about lunches is that we prepare them ahead of time to take with us to work. We use Sundays as our meal-prep days. I recommend getting at least 5 plastic containers to put your food into to take it to work with you. An easier method is after making dinner, immediately put some into a plastic container for the next day’s lunch. That way, they’re not really left-overs.

Grilled meat. This one is easy. You can use whatever meat you can get on sale at the store and grill it up either on the stove top in a pan, or on a grill outside. For spices, you can use salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Grill the meat to your liking and serve.

Baked meat. Once again, using whatever meat you can get on sale at the store, bake some meat. Pork loin is especially tasty with salt and garlic.

Smoked meat. This one is a little controversial, as some people don’t consider smoking Paleo. They say that the smoke is a carcinogen, but I think most cavemen cooked with open fires which meant nearly all meats were smoked. My wife and I enjoy the flavor and convenience of smoking and do it often.

Vegetables. The following vegetables are what we eat with our meat for lunch and dinner:

• Sweet potato: these can be baked easily and don’t require any special ingredients. Serve with regular butter
• Asparagus: baked with some olive oil on top, these are very tasty when salted
• Brussels sprouts: baked with olive oil and bacon bits, this is one of the most amazing sides
• Cauliflower: the most versatile of vegetables, you can rice it, cream it, or roast it without much effort. They’re inexpensive, too!
• Broccoli: Typically we eat thease baked.
• Greens: I’ve been fortunate that we don’t eat greens often, even though I do like salad. I have been happy with the other sides and haven’t had to go with greens very often at all

The goal of week 1 is to cut out the foods with added sugars and anything with grains, beans, and soy. There are a lot of foods out there you can prepare that don’t have any of those in their ingredients, and that don’t require spending more on special ingredients.

One of the unexpected results of losing over 100 lbs in the past year is that I now always feel cold in air conditioned environs, and I feel comfortable outside even if the temperature is in the low 90’s. Sherry often comes outside while I’m smoking my pipe on the patio and asks me, “Don’t you feel hot out here?” So far, the answer every time has been, “No. It actually feels quite nice out here.”

When I go to the grocery store, I always pack a hoodie to put on once I walk in the door. Heck, sometimes I just wear the hoodie out of the house since I don’t start sweating so quickly anymore; I can walk from car to cold building without breaking a sweat. As for going to the movies, I now take a blanket with me. Granted, it’s a light blanket, but I couldn’t make it through a movie without one now. For this reason, I keep a hoodie and blankets in my car. In Texas.

This morning, I was speaking with a co-worker who asked me why I always wear a jacket to which I replied that it’s because I’m always cold. She said, “Well, I always feel warm.” I used to always feel warm as well when I weighed over 230 lbs. I noticed the “Always hot” sensation going away when my weight dipped below 230 lbs, but that turned to always cold when my weight went below 190 lbs. As much as I’m not a fan of feeling cold, I prefer it to always feeling hot. Feeling cold also allows me to dress in a way I prefer: jackets, long sleeve shirts, and trousers. Most people in Houston in the summertime wear shorts, and if I’m going to spend a lot of time outside, I sometimes do as well, but I almost exclusively wear trousers now.

Of all the changes that I’ve experienced since losing all this weight, this one caught me off-guard. I can’t say it’s horrible. Actually, whenever I get a chill, it’s a reminder to me of how far I’ve come. That nugget of knowledge warms me a little bit inside.

This is another in the series of posts about questions I receive from readers.

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My weight has gone up and down on my way to 180 lbs. It hasn’t been all loss; there have been times when my weight has gone up by as much as 6 lbs before I get to a new low. It has to do with many factors, as our bodies are very complicated.

Water. Our bodies are made up mostly of water, and our weight will fluctuate quite a bit based on our water content. Women tend to store up more liquid during different times throughout their menstrual cycle which can cause greater fluctuations in weight than in men. However, I have noticed that if I eat salty foods, my weight will go up for a day or so.

Food. There are times (like on Labor Day weekend) when I eat all Paleo food, but lots of it. In this case, there’s just a lot of food in me; more than normal. Eating more calories will cause our body to store excess energy, and this is why portion control is just as important as what you eat. After that weekend, I had to eat very normal (small) portions to get back to making progress with my weight loss.

Bowel movements. I tend to eat more proteins and fats than vegetables and fiber, so I find myself often “filled up” with stool. Depending on my diet, I sometimes can go for four or even five days without a bowel movement, and even then, the bowel movement can be very small. I’ve resorted recently to taking laxatives to help with this, although it’s not the best solution. As I get to my target weight, I will ensure I eat more fiber and greens.

Sleep. This is the most overlooked factor in weight loss. The body loses its weight while you sleep. There’s a lot written about how and why, but the Reader’s Digest version is that you need at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night to lose weight sufficiently. I definitely notice a lack of weight loss when I am not getting enough quality sleep. Make the time to get sleep to ensure you’re getting the most out of your diet and exercise.

Physical activity. This is a factor, albeit surprisingly, not the most important. Losing weight relies more on your diet than physical activity, although physical activity can offset nutrition that is not as strict as my Paleo diet. It comes down to a balance, and it’s up to you to find and accept that balance for the long haul.

Drugs. Some drugs make it difficult to lose weight. If you are taking prescription medication, you may want to consult a physician to determine what is best for you if you are trying to lose weight safely.

Genetics. This is an area we have little to no control over. Your body is different from mine, and what you do to lose weight may be different than what I did, but the six factors above this one will greatly impact your progress and rate of loss.

There are more factors involved, to be sure, but the seven above account for, what I believe, are the most important. Of those seven, six are within your control.

I’ve done it, and I know it can be done. Most people don’t realize or fail to grasp the reality of how our bodies lose weight. At the most basic level, you need to expend more calories than you take in, and many people mistakenly think that they can eat the same high-carb, pre-processed, and sugar-filled food and lose weight if they exercise enough. Unfortunately, while it’s true that if you can exercise enough to expend more calories than you ate, the amount of physical activity to burn of the calories in a typical McDonald’s meal is quite extreme. As the meme says, “Aint nobody got time fo’ that!”

People today want to lose weight without effort and without giving up anything. This is unrealistic, and anyone who clings to these will be forever disappointed in their lack of results. Something’s gotta give.

There are two ways to go about losing weight. First, you can eat reasonably and exercise a lot. Second, you can cut out high-carb foods and go Paleo and lose weight without physical activity. Don’t believe me? Well, look at these pictures.

That is what losing 110 lbs in one year looks like, and I did it without exercise. I did it by restricting my diet and sticking to it with very, very few exceptions. To be able to get the weight loss results I achieved without exercise, you must be prepared to give up the high-carb foods. There’s no way around this. If you allow  yourself a few fruit drinks, sodas, or high-carb meals a week, you will lose at a much lower rate, if even at all. Couple that with some exercise and you can start to lose weight at a steady rate, but it will be much slower.

Lots of exercise gives you more freedom in what you eat, but any nutrition or fitness coach worth their salt will tell you that a diet of moderation is key to maintaining a steady rate of weight loss.

There is more than one route to lose weight successfully, and we are all different in not only what we are willing do to but in how our bodies will respond. My way was Whole30, Paleo, and very little exercise. Your way very well may be different. However, I’m confident in saying that unless you do something radically different from what you’re doing now (if that is nothing), you will not lose weight.

There’s an old saying: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, there’s also no such thing as free weight loss. You’ve got to make some sort of change to make that happen. The good news is that you can do that without exercise, but it does mean being strict with your diet. The choice and the journey is yours.

One concern for many people is being able to afford to eat well. It’s no secret that a lot of the foods that are inexpensive and readily available to us are pre-processed and full of sugar. To actually eat well costs more money, and in some cases, a lot more money. There are, however, things you can do to eat well without breaking the bank.

First of all, the organic vs non-organic route. I know that Paleo is big on pushing organic, grass-fed beef, free range chickens, etc. These are all good things, but for a lot of people, this prices the food out of their budget. Not everyone has the freedom to exercise preference when selecting the food to put on their tables. I have good news for those of you who need to get more cost-friendly foods: You can do Paleo on the cheap!

It’s far better to eat meats and vegetables that are whole and not in pre-processed foods than it is to eat them as part of a pre-processed meal. If you can only afford regular (non-organic) vegetables, that’s still orders of magnitude better for you than pre-processed food of any variety. Therefore, forget the organic stuff. Just buy those onions, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, etc with impunity. I’d rather see you eating foods made from these vegetables than foregoing vegetables because you can’t afford the organic stuff.

As for meats, again, when getting whole chicken, chicken quarters, ground beef, pork, ribs, brisket, etc, just buy what you can afford. My wife and I shop the sales and we can often find at least one meat on sale for a good price each week. The “Meat of the week” may dominate all our recipes, but that’s okay. With the variety in preparations, it doesn’t get bland.

When it comes to sausages and bacons, the only real guidance I give is to find those without sugar of any kind. Paleo recommends avoiding nitrites and nitrates as well, but if you have to choose between sugar and nitrites, I’d go with the nitrites. There is a great no-salt added bacon we get at Kroger which doesn’t cost more than regular bacon and tastes great. The best part: it just so happens that the no-added salt bacon has no sugar. Go figure. The same goes for sausage. It’s easy to find sausage that has no sugar, but you have to search it out. We have had the best luck in locating sugar-free sausage (and it’s not marketed nor sold that way, btw; you have to read the label) at HEB here in Houston. I’m sure there is a supermarket near you that has these no-sugar added sausages.

My wife and I have been able to avoid Sprout’s and Whole Foods and still find foods that are good for us and Paleo, although we do shop at Sprout’s pretty regularly, if only because of its proximity to our home.

Now on to the more esoteric ingredients: coconut oil, coconut aminos, coconut flour, etc. These can be found in many of what I call the more advanced Paleo recipes. Sherry uses these ingredients a lot in some of the more complicated recipes, and they are used to make what I call analogues. Analogues are foods that are normally non-Paleo but can be prepared with alternative ingredients to allow you to have things like pizza, bread, and cake that are otherwise off-limits. These ingredients can be not only hard to find, but expensive. Fortunately, coconut oil is gaining a rather large following, and it’s getting easier and less expensive to find in supermarkets. I saw an entire shelf of coconut oil yesterday at HEB. They even sell it by the gallon (at $19.99! What a deal!). We’ve also had great luck finding coconut oil at Sam’s Club for a good price as well as Amazon.com. As for the other ingredients, Amazon has been our best friend. The stuff isn’t cheap, but it goes a long way.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be putting together sort of a transition recipe book that is designed to take people from regular food and cooking into Paleo without breaking the bank. I will list ingredients, where to get them, and what to look for. It’s possible to cook Paleo without a single esoteric ingredient. It’s only when you incorporate those into your recipes that it opens up greater possibilities and more of those analogues you may be missing.

This is another in the series of posts about questions I receive from readers.

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I’m asked often by people who have been reading this blog for a while, “Do you ever get tired of writing about Paleo?” Well, the short answer is NO! The long answer is what follows.

I started this blog to get all my exuberance and excitement off my chest without barraging my friends and family with nutrition info. I needed an outlet for my new-found energy, and this blog was it. While it initially began life as a blog called The Fat Marine, it evolved into PaleoMarine as I evolved from a fat Marine to a fit PaleoMarine.

While I’ve been on this journey for a year, I only started the blog back in January. In that time, if anything, I’ve felt a greater responsibility to post at least once a day; sometimes more. This sense of responsibility comes from the emails, messages, comments, and phone calls I get from people who want to try to lose weight and to get healthy. These people have come to rely on my motivation, my inspiration, and the information I post. It is for these people that I keep going.

Now, after a year, I no longer feel the need to get as much off my chest, yet I find posting here a comfortable way to expound on thoughts that come to me throughout the course of the week. It is also an outlet for me to make statements based on things I either read or see throughout my daily travels.

I hope that my constant posting brings value and helps people. I hope it continues to inspire and motivate, and at least, I hope it’s entertaining.

This is another post in the series of questions I’m asked often or statements made to me.

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I’m often told by people who meet me after I’ve lost the weight that, “It must be easy for you to stay fit. You’re a former Marine, after all.” Well, not so much.

I didn’t stay fit after I left the Corps. As a matter of fact, I ballooned to over 312 lbs in just a few years. I gained weight so quickly, in fact, that I have stretch marks on the sides of my stomach area and on the outsides of my thighs. I went from being fit to sitting in a chair at a desk all day without changing my eating habits. Coupled with my slowing metabolism after I turned 30, the result was a morbidly obese Paleo Marine.

I stayed overweight for nearly 15 years before I took back my health, attacked the source of the problem, broke up with bad foods, and undertook a healthy lifestyle. It wasn’t easy, but it was’t as hard as I’d made it out to be ahead of time in my mind. It turned out that it was better than okay; it was actually great! I enjoyed everything I ate, it made me feel full, I lost my cravings for snacks, and best of all, I lost weight at a steady rate and my health greatly improved.

The funny part is that, with my current diet, it’s actually not that hard to stay fit. All I have to do is eat the awesome and nutritious whole foods I eat, and I will not get fat unless I just eat tons of it.

So, it’s not the fact that I’m a Marine and I exercise all the time that has allowed me to get fit and to stay fit. It’s the fact that I have adopted and embraced the Paleo lifestyle that’s allowed me to get fit. Anyone can do that, even Airmen*.

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Of course, I am kidding. I have as much respect for all members of the Armed Forces as I do for my fellow Marines. But, I wouldn’t be a Marine if I didn’t post a lighthearted dig at another service every now and then.

This is another in the series of questions I’m regularly asked.

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Aside from actually feeling healthy, being more mobile, having more stamina, no longer being diabetic, no longer having non-alcoholic fatty liver, and being able to run up stairs without being winded? I would have to say the food.

Everything I eat is delicious and filling. I only feel hungry when it’s time for another meal, and I don’t get snack cravings. I don’t feel bloated or tired after eating anymore, and I find myself eating smaller portions to feel satisfied sooner.

There are the additional bonuses of eating foods that are organic and eating meats from animals that were treated ethically and without drugs and hormones. I’m not a vegetarian, but I want the animals I eat to have been treated properly in their lives before becoming my food. I am, after all, what I eat, and I don’t want to eat foods that are pumped full of drugs and antibiotics.

Don’t let all that ethical or organic stuff turn you off or away. These are benefits for me and may not matter to you. That’s okay. Just eat whole foods and you’ll be much better off in so many ways. There’s no arguing that generations past were healthier in terms of weight and fitness. Sure, we have medical science that has helped us conquer communicable diseases and we’re making progress in curing many maladies and conditions, but there is no substitute for good nutrition.

Eat right, and your body will thank and reward you.