Some ups and downs for Sherry these past few weeks. I’m doing the best I can to make our home life as stable and uncomplicated as possible while she deals with work stresses.
I know I haven’t been writing as much as I usually do – and for that I’m really sorry. My only excuse is that it’s been a crappy couple of weeks at work, so that means my stress levels are through the ceiling, and consequently, so is the scale.
I have no idea if there’s been a reasonable study on it or not, but I can directly correlate my periods of successful weight loss to times in my life when things were relatively stable – feeling somewhat in control at work and at home, and therefore over my body and my cravings. Right now is not one of those times. While things are actually humming along just fine at home, my stresses at work are at an all-time high, which translates to exhaustion, both physically and mentally. While I may be holding on to some excess pounds I’d really…
Don’t you hate it when you pass the conference room or the workplace break area and someone has brought in a bunch of donuts, cinnamon rolls, or other foods you shouldn’t be eating? It smells delicious, and often even looks delicious, but you know that it’s something you shouldn’t eat. I used to hate it, and it used to be a temptation for me, but now, it’s more a curiosity.
I don’t get cravings from seeing sweets anymore. I used to, and sure, I can imagine how wonderful a cinnamon roll would taste, but I no longer have the overwhelming desire to have some of it. I think it’s because I’ve weaned myself off sugar and the cravings that go along with being addicted to sugar, but it’s also because of the changes I’ve made in my mindset and my relationship with food.
In the past, I’d see sweets on a tray and I would start planning how I could get away with taking more than 1. Maybe 3 or 4? I could never get enough. Of course, I didn’t want to be rude and take more than my share from anyone else, but at the same time I was a big guy, and if I was going to have sweets, I had to have THE SWEETS. I would eat one right there. Immediately. That would fulfill the immediate need. Then, I would take 1-2 with me to my desk and eat them at my leisure. After finishing those, I would walk by the tray again to see what was left after a few hours. I figured that if there was food still there, everyone had ample time to get something. At this point, everything was fair game. I would then take at least 1, and sometimes 2 more back to my desk again for consumption later during the day.
Looking back at it now, I can see how horrible that was for my health. At the time, I hadn’t a care in the world about my weight or my health, and it seemed completely normal to me. My new normal is to look at the tray, imagine how delicious the foods are, and then scan for any fruits. Sometimes there may be fruit present for those who are healthy minded, but it’s usually bananas (which I like, but they contain too much sugar for me now). I then switch my attention onto something else and put it out of my mind completely. Yes, I Jedi Mind Trick myself away from temptation. It wasn’t always easy, and sometimes it’s still not (Cinnabon, you bastards). But now, after nearly two years, I can finally walk past a tray of sweet or bad foods and it doesn’t tempt me.
It feels liberating, and I feel great about that. It’s another victory in my journey toward being healthy and fit.
Palate fatigue is what you get when you eat the same foods over and over again and you don’t want to eat them anymore. It’s very real, and studied a lot because it is what keeps humans from being able to eat the same thing day after day, week after week, month after month. This is what keeps us from having the one, perfect food. Us humans like variety, and it’s more than just preference: it’s in our nature. What happens when you eat the same food, regardless of how good it is for you, day after day? You tire of it and become unable to eat it. Some people say they could eat pizza every day non-stop, but the reality is that you would get tired of pizza, and eventually, you’d grow to hate it.
Palate fatigue is one of the reasons people fall off diets. They take on restrictive diets that limit them to one type of food, or very few types of foods, and eventually, palate fatigue kicks in, and these people are forced to find an alternative. A good friend of mine was on a restrictive diet once, and he told me that he lost a lot of weight and felt good on this diet, but the food was so bland and boring that he dropped it. It’s actually the idea behind the Cabbage Soup Diet: eat all you want, because eventually, you won’t want to eat.
This is horrible. There is no reason to hate your food. I am fortunate that there are as many Paleo options out there as there are non-Paleo options. Heck, most non-Paleo foods have a Paleo-friendly alternative. I was thinking about the food I eat today, and it dawned on me that I really enjoy what I eat, it’s delicious, filling, and I’m never bored with it. Sherry does a great job of rotating through recipes, even my favorites. Even though I tell her I can eat the meatloaf or chili all the time, she rotates those with other favorites so that I don’t even get close to palate fatigue.
Don’t eat the same boring foods day in and day out. You will be unhappy, and eventually eat foods that aren’t good for you. Check out the recipes on her blog for a starting point.
My latest mugshot. This is what a happy, healthy, and fit PaleoMarine looks like.
I lost 100 lbs in 10 months, and that anniversary is approaching in July. I will be entering my second year at more than 100 lbs less than I was in September of 2017. A big measure of a person’s success at weight loss is keeping that weight off long-term. Well, I’ve been keeping it off and even lost more since July 2016. I still have 7 more lbs to go (that stubborn 7, I call it), and then I’m at my goal weight. I am hoping to hit that before my 2 year anniversary of starting my first Whole30.
I was recently looking at some old pictures of me, and I am having a harder and harder time recognizing myself in those pictures. Slowly, my self-image is being replaced with this thinner and healthier person that I am today. I don’t ever want to go back to being that unhealthy again. I couldn’t handle it physically or emotionally.
My life does not revolve around food, but food is at the center of our existence, so this is something I’ve had to learn. Without food, we obviously wither and die, so how do we deal with all the temptation of foods that are bad for us while continuing to fuel our bodies? For me, as time goes by, it’s been getting easier. I see food in a whole new light: it’s fuel. Sure, some of it tastes better than others, and sometimes I want to enjoy some tasty food, but ultimately, it’s just fuel. Everything that goes on outside of meals is life. Eating is sitting at a gas station. At least that’s what works for me.
Don’t get me wrong. My wife Sherry and I enjoyed a great meal last week at Pappadeaux here in Houston, and everything was delicious. We both had Paleo-friendly options as our main courses, but the Caesar salad we had was definitely not Paleo. Even though we both eat them without croutons, the dairy in the dressing caused some water weight gain for me the following morning. We both enjoyed our food, our dinner experience, and once again, enjoyed each others’ company. That’s what life is about. But this was a treat.
What works for me may not work for you. My mind hack is that food is fuel. I get hungry when my fuel tank is near empty, so I refill. I just ate lunch and I feel sated, but I know that when I get home tonight, I will be a bit hungry. I won’t eat right when I get home as I’ll be running, but typically by the time I’m done running and through with my cool-down and shower, it’s time to eat dinner. Besides, running actually removes hunger. Pretty cool! With all that said, find what works for you to keep from eating too much, too often, and of foods that are not good for you.
I’m getting close to having a year at -100 lbs. I’m looking forward to that anniversary and beyond.
This is something I asked Sherry to make, and she indulged me. It turned out better than expected! She took Hungarian Lecso (pronounced “Lecho”) and turned it into a breakfast casserole with apples in it! i didn’t expect the apple, but it actually makes this casserole really special and tasty!
Recently we’ve had a number of questions about breakfast, and how to keep it from getting boring with bacon and eggs every day. Personally, I don’t really ever get tired of bacon and eggs (how can anyone get tired of bacon?) but I do sympathize with food boredom. E.J. and I have our favorites that we make often, but there’s always at least one somewhat experimental dish every week to help keep things interesting.
This week, E.J. was lamenting the lack of pulled pork to make another Pulled Pork & Apple casserole for breakfasts – and I just happened to have another pound of sausage left from the St. Paddy’s day so Hungarian Breakfast Casserole was born.
Whether it’s nutrition or fitness, the amount of bad information out there far outweighs the good. The problem stems from the fact that everyone has their own opinion or take on nutrition and fitness based on what’s worked for them. I’m guilty of this, although I make no claims that I’ve stumbled across something unique. I used Whole30 and Paleo to get my health in order, and running and push ups to get my fitness back. The most fundamental truth about nutrition and fitness is that the simplest plans are the most efficacious: eat whole foods and exercise. Period.
There’s no need for supplements, crazy plans that have you eat this vitamin, drink that smoothie, use this powder in your drinks, etc. There is no magic exercise plan or routine that will give you rock hard six-pack abs in 6 weeks when you are 100 lbs overweight. If you need to lose 10 lbs or less, just eating right and starting a regular exercise regimen will get you there. If you’re obese like I was, it’s going to take more effort, but the plan is still remarkably simple: eat good food, avoid bad food, and once your body is lighter so you don’t damage joints, start some exercise.
I’ve watched some people start a fitness plan last week, and they were miserable. They were telling me about how sore they were, how they can’t imagine keeping it up, and how they can’t imagine themselves being “Workout people.” When I told them that they need to go slow in the beginning, I was mocked. “It’s not a workout unless you feel the burn!” they proclaimed. I told them that “The burn” is something you should be feeling once you’re already been exercising for a while and made your body strong enough for it. They scoffed at me, yet I’d run three times that week already while they exercised only once.
I’m not an expert, but I have experience as someone who was fat and is now healthy. I used to get winded climbing a single flight of stairs while now I can run three or four miles comfortably. I am admittedly not a body builder, but I know how to get from fat to thin, from couch to runner. You can take or leave my advice, but I guarantee that the way I do things involves less pain and a healthier, safer progress path.
Overheard last week at lunch: “I’m not going to have a steak today because I’m trying to lose weight, so I’m going to have a salad and soup instead.” Then, when it was time to order, “I’ll have the deluxe salad with cheese, ranch, and extra croutons, please.” Her soup of choice? Beef barley soup.
There is so much wrong with what she ordered from a nutritional standpoint that I just sat there dumbstruck. This is what happens when we listen to the talk shows, Dr. Oz, and Oprah about what we should eat to lose weight. The salad she ate had more calories than my 6 oz filet and sweet potato that I ate for lunch. The salad I had before my steak was a Caesar with no croutons. Her soup had probably three times the calories of my salad.
Please, please, please don’t thin I’m judging her, because I’m not. I am sad for her. She’s wanting to eat right and lose weight yet she’s acting on bad information she has been given. Our sensationalist media and talk-show culture has fed her so much bad information that she truly believes she’s doing the right thing to lose weight.
I haven’t had a single meal that was salad-based since going Paleo. I have had some salads before meals, but not salads as my main meal. That’s because they don’t fill me up. All the food I eat is normal, delicious, and filling. I never interrupt anyone, especially strangers, about their food choices. That would be beyond rude. I do hope people find this blog, and heed my words. It is possible to lose weight without suffering, starving, or having to eat bland food. It’s called Paleo, and it’s delicious.
One of my favorite new Paleo creations by Sherry: Paleo Buffalo Meatballs
My wife prepares our food for us on the weekends so that we can have lunches and dinners throughout the week that are Paleo (which means delicious and filling). This week, I made some pulled pork which she used to also prep our breakfasts with a pork and apple egg casserole that starts our day off right!
This past Saturday, lunch consisted of buffalo wings that she prepped and I grilled (they came out PERFECTLY) along with some sweet potato country fries that she made in the oven that had some rosemary on it. So yummy! As for Sunday, we used the fresh pulled pork in little sandwiches! Sherry made some Paleo buns and I had two pulled pork sliders! I didn’t need any sauce: the pecan wood smoked pork was delicious on its own!
This week’s prepared foods include meat loaf, chili, and quiche. Sherry asked what I wanted for lunch this week, and I started my list with those three. Since these three are favorites of mine, she indulged me by preparing and packaging them for us. I can’t say enough how wonderful it all is, and my lunches have all been spectacular! Tonight, we’re going to eat something from the prepared foods in our refrigerator, and I know I can’t go wrong regardless of which box I choose.
Sherry also made some Paleo thin mints that are about the size of a large Peppermint Patty. These are amazingly delicious, and make for a great end to our meals. The packaged meals tend to be on the smaller size, so having this little bonus serving rounds out the meal.
Eating right doesn’t have to be dull, bland, boring, or repetitive. All the food I eat is none of those things! There are recipes available on Sherry’s site and all over the Internet.
I am craving chocolate today. There’s no reason for it. I just love chocolate. Yesterday, it was pizza. It’s not the sort of craving where I feel that I must eat something immediately. No, it’s more like, “I would really enjoy a pizza right now.” These sort of cravings are pretty easy to defeat: I just concentrate on something else and it goes away quickly enough. The pizza craving yesterday only lasted a few moments until I thought of something else. It used to be more difficult for me to do this, though.
In the past, when I would have one of these food cravings, I would obsess on it. I would allow my brain to get worked up about it, and I would make plans on how to acquire and then enjoy that food. The cycle was destructive, and I engaged in the cycle for so long that it was normal to me. To defeat this cycle, I had to teach myself to ignore them.
Ignoring a food craving is easier said than done. I know when I started my Whole30, the cravings I was experiencing were partly these cravings where I get an idea of a food that is delicious and then I obsessed on it until I ate that food. The other sort of craving I was experiencing was the sugar-induced craving. Those are more powerful, but fortunately, they go away after a few days of ridding your diet of sugar. The inspiration based cravings, however, persist.
If you can recognize the difference, it makes defeating the cravings easier. You also have to recognize that these cravings are not hunger. Hunger is a non-food specific feeling you get that tells you that it’s time to eat something. I get those before most of my normal meals. Cravings, on the other hand, are specific and point to a specific food. Sugar-induced cravings are hard to ignore and often, the only way I’ve been able to get past them is to eat a handful of nuts or drink a cup of coffee. Hunger is only sated by food. Whether that’s a full meal or something like an RX Bar (to hold the hunger off a little while until you can eat a proper meal), you have to feed hunger. The regular specific-food inspired craving is easy to defeat when you recognize it. Ignore it and think about something else. It seems silly and too simplistic, but with practice, you’ll find it works. It does for me.
Some days are easier than others. There are times I go for a number of days or even weeks without a single craving. Then, there’s yesterday and today. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to get past, and I’m already over it. Writing this article helped.
“Yes, I love technology. But not as much as you, you see. But still, I love technology. Always and forever.” – Kip, Napoleon Dynamite
I love that movie, and the song at the end is the perfect note on which to end it. My wife and I joke about the song, because technology is partly what bought us together. Our friend Elaine was a blogger as was I, and through the technology of the Internet and of blogging, I met my wife. It was technology that showed me how selfless and caring Sherry is: after a few power outages that kept forcing reboots of my self-hosted email server in my home, Sherry showed up one night after work with two UPS’s that she bought for me. That’s when I knew: this girl was a keeper.
I love technology. I always have. It’s something I learned from my dad who was always interested in tech and sci-fi. He encouraged me in any endeavor involving science and technology, and my favorite magazine was one he subscribed to: Popular Mechanics. Just seeing the title of that magazine on my monitor as I typed it brought back many warm memories of the glee I would feel when I opened the mailbox and saw the brown wrapper around the magazine with those words on it. I knew I was about to learn some cool stuff, see some cool tech, and be thrilled for at least a few hours about what’s coming in the future!
When I started my weight loss journey, I knew that if I had any chance of success, I had to find a way to get technology involved. I was using a Jawbone Up to count steps and to help analyze my sleep, but while it was cutting-edge when it came out, it was a little dated by the time I bought one. I had to sync it via a 3.5mm headphone jack to get any data off of it, and it was just a black wrist band with no other function. After a while, I replaced it with a Fitbit Surge which was amazing. It was not only a step counter, but it had GPS and a nice screen. I could track my runs with accuracy, and it had some limited smartwatch functionality (notifications and alarms). It was a great watch until it wasn’t. The battery life on mine has been fading fast in the past few weeks, to the point where I was having to charge it every other day (that’s a lot considering I used to have to charge it once every 10 days when I first got it). Seeing where this was going, the search was on for a replacement.
That replacement arrived yesterday: The Garmin Fenix 3 HR. It’s not Garmin’s latest and greatest fitness smartwatch; they literally just released the Fenix 5. However, after looking over all the features, I decided that the Fenix 3 HR was really the watch I was looking for. It has all the features I need, and many I don’t. Best of all, it’s robust, has a good battery life, is very configurable, and even has a sapphire crystal bezel which will help cut down on scratches.
My new watch. It’s pretty big on my small wrist, but I love it.
I didn’t get a chance to use it on my run yesterday as it arrived with a dead battery and I’m a stickler for getting an initial charge on any new device to 100% before I use it, so I ran one last run with my Fitbit Surge. As runs go, it was a good one. I ended up running 3.3 miles with a 9:39/mi average pace which is within my happy range. What I love most, however, is being able to look at data that points to my progress. Data points make me happy. I like to geek out with the data collected during my run to see my pace as it evolves through a run, the altitude changes (if any), the route, how the different parts of the route affect my pace, my breathing, and even my heart rate. It’s fascinating to me, and yes, it helps motivate me.
That’s the bottom line, I think: the technology motivates me and helps me be a better runner and helps keep me in line with my health. I always tell people to find the diet that works best for you and your body. Well, in this case, I also recommend finding whatever gadget or technology helps fuel your journey. Our minds need fuel for motivation. It can be just as important as what we fuel our bodies with for energy.
Whether it’s nutrition or fitness, the amount of bad information out there far outweighs the good. The problem stems from the fact that everyone has their own opinion or take on nutrition and fitness based on what’s worked for them. I’m guilty of this, although I make no claims that I’ve stumbled across something unique. I used Whole30 and Paleo to get my health in order, and running and push ups to get my fitness back. The most fundamental truth about nutrition and fitness is that the simplest plans are the most efficacious: eat whole foods and exercise. Period.
Paleo Marine 