Month: March 2017

My vacation wasn’t just a trip to Spain. I didn’t just get to see Madrid, Barcelona, Segovia, and Toledo. I also got to see how sugar, salt, potassium, and drinking a lot of alcohol affects my body’s water retention. Let’s just say it was both enlightening and frightening.

Our body is good at holding water. When your diet contains excess salt, sugar, and potassium, it will cause a reaction within your skin to store water. I’m not talking about edema, but a condition where (as best as I can understand it as a lay person) the cortisone in your body stores water. Weird, but true. And, it’s something I watched happen.

My trip began after a few days in Spain when I gradually allowed myself to eat foods that were higher in salt content than normal. I also began eating foods that were higher in carbs, and eventually, desserts with sugar in them. It’s not that I didn’t care: I did. It’s just that the more I thought about it, I was missing out on foods I really wanted to try, and these were likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to have these things. I figured I’d deal with the fallout later.

I didn’t expect to gain as much as I did. Two days before I left for Spain, I enlisted into the National Guard, and before my swearing in ceremony, they weighed me. I weighed in at 174 lbs. Fast forward two weeks: I weighed 189.9 lbs. That’s 15 lbs gained in 12 days.

Everything I read said that when you gain that much that fast, it’s mostly water weight, and that it will go away very quickly once you stop imbibing the added sugar, salt, and potassium. Well, I put this to the test, and sure enough, I dropped all but 5 lbs of it in two days. I’m sure that the rest is honestly-earned extra weight, but I also know that within a few weeks, it’ll also be gone.

My recent trip with water retention is likely over, and now I’m back into real weight loss territory, but it was an interesting (if not annoying) journey learning about how the body reacts to chemical input. It was also interesting to see how quickly the water retention subsided and how my body got back to normal.

The hardest part so far about coming back from a vacation where I ate a lot of foods is the fact that I still want to eat like crazy. It’s not because I’m hungry. Well, it feels like hunger, but really, it’s either boredom or cravings I’m still kicking from the added sugar that I had in my diet over the past two weeks. I’ve had to do things like drink glasses of water, drink some coffee, or find something to take my mind off of it over the past weekend. It worked: I didn’t eat outside of meal times.

When going back to a strict eating plan, there’s always some push-back from the body and also from our minds. My mind loves eating, and my body jumps right on the “Let’s eat all the things” bandwagon by giving me cravings between meals. Fortunately, I know that this all subsides after a few days of clean eating. Good, natural foods don’t have this effect on me, and once my body is accustomed to it, I can eat reasonable portions three times a day without hunger or cravings, imagined or otherwise. I just need to get there.

Starting a Whole30 is hard. Going back to Paleo after vacation feels like I’m doing a Whole30 again. At least I know how my body reacts, what to expect, and I also know that it will get better soon. The best part: I will feel super and I will be back to losing weight soon. After that, I’ll reach my goal and then be in maintenance mode. I can’t wait!

Oh, I’m down another pound this morning to 176. I’ve now lost all but 2 lbs of the weight I put on in Spain in the past two weeks, and it’s only taken me three days to do it. I finally feel better this morning and without the flu symptoms. It feels really good.

There are many reasons people fall off the plan. For me, it was a vacation to Spain for two weeks that I didn’t want to miss out on experiencing to the fullest. My plans were made with the best intentions to stay as Paleo as possible, and while I did, I also allowed myself to drink a lot of alcohol (Sangria is amazing in Spain!), eat desserts, and foods with carbs like bread and rice. I don’t regret it for a moment, but it did take a toll on me.

Others fall off because they have a hard time sticking with Paleo, an addiction to sugar or carbs, or an inability to cut the emotional attachments to certain foods. There are those who are stress eaters who eat more when they encounter more stress. The list of reasons could go on.

The bottom line is that at some point, you need to just get back on path and do the work. That’s what I’m doing. I started Saturday morning. It’s not easy with the sugar cravings I’m experiencing, but having been through this a few times now (first on my Whole30 and then after my vacation last year to Seattle and Vancouver), I know that these cravings will be gone in 2-3 days. Also, any bloating I am experiencing will also be gone in 2-3 days, and I will be able to lose most of the weight I gained on my trip after my first week of eating right.

There’s no time like the present to get back on track and eat right. If you’ve fallen off the plan, it’s okay. It happens. We’re all human, and life gets in the way sometimes. There is no grade on a report card, and you’re not in competition with anyone else. Just get back on the horse and ride it to victory! This is your journey and you make the rules.

That’s what I’m referring to my weight gain on vacation: the bill. I am paying for all the great, amazing, and delicious foods I ate while in Spain. While I did my best to limit the carbs and grains, the truth of the matter is that I still ate enough to cause me to gain weight. The total? 14 lbs. That’s a lot! However, I need to consider that this isn’t all fat.

I’m bloated and swollen from the sugar and salt. My body swells whenever I have a lot of sugar, and in the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot more than I have in a year and a half. A good amount of my extra weight right now is water. I also haven’t had a solid bowel movement in a few days, and I’ve eating some big meals, so there’s that.

The weird part is that my clothes all still fit the same. I can see a loss of some definition on my stomach and lower arms, but that’s due more to swelling/bloating/water retention than anything else. This will go away within 2-3 days after eating right again.

So, while I’m not happy with the gain, I’m also not upset. I’m not worried that it won’t go away because I know it will. I know that just by eating right, I’ll get back down to where I was and then continue to my final goal. I know this because I’ve done it before.

After my first morning of eating Paleo, I already feel great. My stomach wasn’t over-filled as it has been for the past two weeks, and yet I’m not hungry. I feel a bit more alert not being so full, and knowing that I’m doing the right thing to get my body back where it needs to be is psychologically a big boost, too.

I don’t regret a single thing I ate or drank on my vacation. It was all worth it. Now, I’m paying the bill, and I do so with a smile on my face and a lifetime of great memories.

Something strange happened when I ate bread, drank hot chocolate, and ate churros: I didn’t explode. My body didn’t rebel in the way I thought it might. I actually handled it all quite well. Heck, my body didn’t even bloat or swell as much as I expected. Why is that?

There are a few reasons for this. First, it’s that I didn’t eat this kind of stuff all day every day, and even when I did, it was normal (or for Americans, known as small) servings. Second, the food that has added sugar here in Spain has a lot less sugar added than in the US. Third, I walked a lot. I mean at least 8-10 miles a day. That kind of extra exercise burns some calories and helps mitigate any increase in calorie intake.

This gives me huge hope for the future when I reach my final goal weight for being able to eat non-Paleo things here and there more often. In-n-Out Burgers is coming to Houston, and I want to be able to go and have a single with fries every now and then, or enjoy a pizza every once in a while. Right now, those things are off-limits to me in my self-imposed strict interpretation of Paleo.

I look forward to reaching my final phase of this Paleo journey: maintenance. I’m not quite there yet (heck, I’ve added some pounds I will now have to re-lose), but I’m close. Really close. And the nice part is that I know I will be able to have some treats here and there without totally screwing myself over.

This past two weeks has been amazing. My wife have had a great time with friends in Spain visiting Barcelona, Segovia, Toledo, and Madrid. Aside from the sights, as I predicted, the food has played a large role in our experience. Fortunately, most of the food in Europe is far lower in sugar than in the US, and portions are smaller as well. Also, food tends to be more Paleo-friendly to begin with, so that also helps. However, I’ve eaten off the reservation quite a bit.

I don’t know how many pounds I’ve gained; I will find out tomorrow when I get home. I think I’ve gained a tiny bit of size around my waist, but not a lot. My fitness level has dropped since I was only able to run twice in the past 11 days. These are all realities I’m going to deal with head-on when I get back home. I’m not demotivated, upset, or even worried. I enjoyed my time here, I made as many sensible decisions as I could, and those few times I completely threw caution to the wind in terms of consumption of food with sugar, grains, or alcohol, were completely worth it and I don’t regret them for a moment.

Even though I’ve had a great time and I am not ready for it to end, I am ready to get back to my Paleo diet. I feel better when I eat well, and I miss my running routine. I never thought that would be me, but here I am. I know it will take a bit of time for my weight to get back down to pre-vacation levels, but it will get there. I know the formula and the method, and I know how much work it will take. I’m ready for it, and looking forward to it.

Nothing. It will mean that I had a good time, that I indulged in some delicious foreign foods, had some amazing experiences, and that I will need to get back to brass tacks and drop it again. I know what it takes for my body to lose weight, and I will do that again. It’s that simple.

I didn’t say it’s that easy. Being simple and being easy are two separate things. It’s simple because I know that I just have to eat the right foods in the right amounts. Being easy would mean that it takes no effort and can be done without effort. This is not true. After being on vacation for two weeks and eating delicious foods (albeit in moderation), it’ll be hard to go back to smaller portions. However, it helps that our Paleo food tends to be delicious and filling. So maybe it will be easy?

We’ll see. Either way, I’m not scared. I’m a little stressed about any possible (and likely) weight gain, but not worried. Whatever weight I put on will come back off and it’ll be back to business as usual in PaleoMarineLand.