Month: December 2016

Tonight is a holiday celebrated around the world. This holiday typically includes a lot of hors d’ouvres and alcohol, so it’s a night that people who are trying to eat well stress about.

Don’t.

Just eat, drink, and be merry! You can’t do any real damage to your health or weight loss in one night. Sure, you can stall it for a little while, but you won’t ruin everything. Enjoy the evening, have some fun, and hit the ground running on New Year’s Day. That’s what I’ll be doing.

I wish all my readers a Happy New Year, and I hope that 2017 is everything you hope it will be!

As I thought more about yesterday’s article, I thought about some of the nastier experiences I’ve had since losing weight. While there are so many awesome things I’ve experienced as a person who is over 130 lbs lighter than I was at my heaviest, there have been some strange interactions with others that were confusing to me.

One was with a lady I know at work who said she flat-out didn’t trust skinny people. I told her that I wasn’t always skinny, and that I used to weigh quite a bit, and even showed her a picture. She said that she would have trusted me back when I was fat, but not now. “Skinny people are hiding something,” she said to me. What?

Another was a lady I had a conversation with at the doctor’s office earlier this year when I went in for a physical. She told me that “Skinny people like you don’t have the same pressure to stay healthy as us regular people.” At the time, I saw it as a little bit of a victory. It was the first time in over 20 years for someone to call me a skinny person (which I honestly wasn’t at the time; I’ve lost 30 lbs since then). I also took the opportunity to explain to her that I wasn’t always skinny (her words) and that I had to work at it. I told her how I did it, and she said that was too difficult.

There are some people who are just flat-out jealous of someone like me who can use some motivation to change their life. I can understand envying someone for accomplishing something, but jealousy is something different altogether. For some of the people in my life who are jealous of my weight loss and fitness, it stems from a change in the power dynamic. These people enjoyed poking fun at me for my weight and lack of physical fitness. They enjoyed being the ones who ate right, exercised, and looked good in clothing. Now that I’m right there with them, the power dynamic has changed, and sadly, they don’t like it. They had a need to feel superior.

That makes me profoundly sad, because I don’t look down on anyone for any reason. We all have different walks in life, from our jobs, our careers, our education, and even our health and fitness. It doesn’t make me better than anyone else that I lost a bunch of weight and because I run. My friends with advanced degrees aren’t better than me or anyone else because of them. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We are all just people.

As the younger folks say today, “Don’t let the haters get you down.” The people who are jealous are dealing with issues that relate more to themselves than to you. They project their own insecurities and disappointments onto those who they see threaten the way they feel about themselves. Don’t let them get to you. Better yet, don’t stoop to their level. Keep your chin up, do the work, and carry on. The people who really love you will be there, admire your determination and hard work, and they will be there for you.

When I wasn’t ready to really buckle down and “Do the work,” as my cousin would say, I used to hate reading things written by people who were getting it done with weight loss or fitness. I didn’t want to read about how awesome their progress was, how great they were feeling, and their new personal bests. I don’t know if that was because of negativity I learned as a child, or if it was because I was jealous of these people. I think it was maybe a little of both.

I try to walk a very fine line on this blog between being proud of my accomplishments and bragging as well as between trying to motivate people and preaching. I never want to come off as preachy unless it’s about the evils of sugar. That stuff is seriously bad for us, and I’ll never stop preaching about how evil it is that it’s in everything processed! But I digress.

Some people take motivation from the examples of others. I am one of those people. Were it not for the subreddits of /r/progresspics, /r/paleo, and /r/whole30, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I know they’re not blogs, but these were subreddits full of real people (like me!) who were getting it doing, doing the work, and seeing the results I was after. I wanted to be like them, and I wanted to one day be in a position to help people whose shoes I walked.

As a guy who used to be really fat, I find myself in a position that can motivate others. I am not some skinny person who has been skinny their whole lives. They don’t know what it’s like to have been big and how hard it is to lose the weight. I know. I lived it. I’ve had people who didn’t know I used to weigh over 130 lbs more tell me that I’m lucky to not have to worry about my weight. I always chuckle and politely show them some pictures of me when I was heavy. Some don’t believe it. They flat out refuse to believe that the photos I show them were of me. I have to explain that I did struggle with my weight, and now I’ve taken back responsibility for my health and fitness and I’m very active in keeping it all in check.

Now, I write about these experiences. These conversations that take place, whether with other people or in my mind as I run and think about articles to write. I hope to inspire and motivate and to never turn anyone off from taking on a Whole30, Paleo, or running. I try to write in a way that would have inspired and motivated me. That’s why sometimes, I’m really very frank about things. That’s why I post pictures of myself in my underwear. These things would have (and did) motivate me. I hope it does the same for you.

 

I enjoyed the holiday. 

I ate a lot in volume, but I made good decisions otherwise. 

I will not let the scale dictate my mood over the next week of vacation. 

I will get right back up and continue to eat right. 

The scale may not be my friend today, but it is not my enemy. 

I will lose the extra few pounds I put on. I just need to stay the course and be patient. 

I feel great and I’m still 100+ lbs lighter this Christmas than in 2014 and 60 lbs lighter than last Christmas.

My clothes still fit right. I still look good in them.

I will run again tomorrow and it’ll feel great!

Keep your chins up, folks. We all ate a lot this weekend. It’s perfectly okay and normal. Just get back on track and instead of fixating on gains, remember the good times with friends and family. That is truly the most important part. 

Sherry and I would like to wish all of the readers here a Merry Christmas. In our home, we hold Christmas on the 24th in keeping with my Hungarian heritage where Christmas Eve is celebrated at 6 pm. My wife, being culturally American, and I have compromised, however. We have Christmas the morning of the 24th. This allows us to have Christmas with our extended family and/or friends on the 25th.

This year, we will have some family and dear friends coming over for a lunch on the 25th and then we will visit another dear friend and have dinner and celebrations at their home. I am looking forward to the holiday festivities and the time with loved ones.

Food-wise, our meals will be Paleo. Sherry has perfected holiday cooking to the extent that our non-Paleo guests either can’t tell the food is Paleo, or if they know it is, don’t mind because it’s so delicious. Paleo is very close to traditional cooking, so with the exception of breads and sweets (which can be prepared Paleo), it’s actually quite an easy meal to remain compliant on.

The only real danger for me is volume. I love to eat holiday food! I have, however, decided that if I do over eat over the holidays, I will deal with it by being extra-committed to eating good foods after the holidays. I will also try to limit my serving sizes as much as I can. We’ll see how that goes!

It’s okay to enjoy foods over the holidays with your family and friends. Don’t watch the scales and don’t stress about not being able to partake. Live, eat, drink, and be merry! It’s what the holidays are all about! You have the rest of the year to work on your diet/health/weight.

Merry Christmas!

On Wednesday evening last week, I had dinner with a former fellow Marine who is six weeks into his new healthy lifestyle after doing a Whole30 with his wife. They are still eating Whole30 and are slowly transitioning into Paleo, and we talked about his progress and how it’s been going for them.

First and foremost, he says he feels a lot better, and his blood sugar levels have been greatly reduced since starting the Whole30. He also noticed that eating anything with sugar, even natural sugars in fruits, spikes his blood sugar, so he avoids them. He has lost weight, but more than that, he lost inches off his waist and he is looking at having to purchase new trousers soon. Fortunately for him, he and I have the same inseam, so I will be able to give him some of my lightly used trousers I no longer can wear (they’re too big!).

What really struck me was his all-in attitude. He and his wife have decided that there will be no celebratory cheat days or cheat meals. They are staying the course and sticking to the diet in a strict fashion. They are not willing to cut corners or go half-in. For this great attitude, they are being rewarded by feeling much better, having more energy, getting away from cravings, and losing weight. My friend’s benefits are extending into his measurable blood sugar readings. He is currently awaiting the latest lab results, but his own tracking has shown a greatly reduced A1C level since starting the Whole30.

I can now count at least a dozen people who are among my friends that have all either done a Whole30 and transitioned into Paleo or who have adopted the Paleo lifestyle. All are seeing benefits to their health and weight. All are seeing benefits to energy levels, and all have reduced cravings. The results I’ve seen were pretty amazing, and I can’t say all my friends have lost as much weight as I did so quickly, but none of my friends were as overweight as I was, so it goes to reason that I put up such big numbers. Everyone else is seeing 2-5% weight loss per month, which is pretty healthy.

I’m really proud of my friend and his wife. They have adopted a healthy attitude of making sure to notice all change, and they’ve noticed their waist sizes reducing, energy levels increasing, and yes, even weight loss. Put all these together, and they are being met with great rewards for their hard work, and I am always excited to hear of their progress. I look forward to seeing them again soon and discussing their journey with them some more.