Month: May 2017

At least at the very end. When I set initial goals of losing 20 lbs, 50 lbs, and even 100 lbs, I met those goals either on or before the mark, or slightly afterward (as in the case of my losing 100 lbs). Getting to my final goal has taken me quite a long time, and I’m still not there! I am within 2 lbs of it, although my weight has been going up and down +/- 2 lbs, bouncing off of my lowest weight a few times. I know I can get to 165 lbs if I really, really want to, but I’ve also been allowing myself to eat a regular Paleo diet without eating a “Weight loss” Paleo diet. What’s the difference? That, to me, would be cutting down on anything with sweetener in it at all, including honey or fruit. I haven’t gone that strict because, to be honest, I’ve been pretty happy with my weight and my physical progress.

My victories in the past few months have been mostly non-scale victories (NSV’s). Most of my NSV’s involve either losing waist size, shrinking extra skin, or improving muscle toning. I’ve also been making improvements in my push ups and in my run times.

As I get to the end of my weight loss phase, I am coming to the realization that I will not do anything different when I reach 165 lbs. I won’t eat a pizza, eat a cake, or have any sort of celebratory meal. To do so would be completely against everything I’ve learned in the past year and a half in regards to eating. I will likely just jump up and down like an idiot in the bathroom and smile a lot.

I saw a meme that I liked a lot (which is saying something): People who say the glass is half full or half empty miss the point; the glass is refillable. I think the same can be said for those who eat a course or meal that is non-Paleo or not in their diet plans. They think that if they eat a slice of pizza or a slice of cake, the whole day is ruined and they might as well just eat whatever they want and start again the next day. Who says you have to wait until the next day?

I have encountered non-Paleo foods at every picnic or BBQ I’ve attended since going Paleo, and instead of avoiding everything, I either limit my portion sizes or just eat a bit and then continue to try to find the best Paleo-friendly choices I can. There’s nothing that says an entire day is going to be ruined because I had some pizza or non-Paleo potato salad.

Changing your lifestyle is playing the long game. You may get short-term gains here and there, but you’re not changing your eating habits for a quick gain and then going back. You’re adopting a whole new way of thinking when it comes to food, and forging a new relationship with the things you eat so you can cut out those things that hurt you and eat only those that nourish you. Every now and then, a rogue item isn’t going to kill you. Only successive courses and meals will derail and sabotage you.

Don’t beat yourself up. Be as good as you can, but give up on eating well for an entire day just because you ate some sausage with sugar and nitrites in them. Avoid the cake and continue eating well. You’ll be just fine.

What you are teaching your kids to eat now is what they will eat for the rest of their lives. If you feed them foods high in carbs (sugar), they will continue to eat these foods for ever. The generation of children being born today is the first generation in the history of the United States to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. Think about that. The reason? Sugar.

In 1980, there were no cases of Type 2 Diabetes diagnosed in adolescents. Back then, Type 2 Diabetes was known as Adult Onset Diabetes. By 2010, over 52,000 adolescents were diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and that number is expected to climb five-fold by 2020. What’s changed? With the low-fat craze, food manufacturers replaced fat with sugar to make the foods delicious. The sugar lobby paid for studies and politicians to declare that sugar isn’t the enemy.

Over 80% of all food prepared and sold in grocery stores in the United States have sugar added to them. The crazy part is that the Government’s Nutrition Guidelines tell us that low-fat and carbs are good for us, ignoring the biology of how our bodies work. When we ingest sugar, our liver works to turn that into energy for our bodies. When the body detects that the sugar content in the blood is too high, the pancreas releases insulin which is pumped into the liver to store the excess sugar. That’s why so many people today (myself included) suffer from fatty liver. Fortunately for me, I no longer have fatty liver, but when I was heavy, I did.

Eating fat does not make you fat. Let me write that again. Eating fat does not make you fat. Eating carbs and sugar makes you fat. Our bodies reject excess ingested fat by passing it right through us. That’s why you get the runs when you eat lots of greasy food. I’m not saying fried foods are good for you, but bacon fat and other natural fats like fish oil are not only not bad, but in the case of fish oil, extremely beneficial. Remember when the government used to tell us that eggs were bad for us? It turns out that they are the perfect food; one of the most nutritious things you could eat.

Look at the companies that own the baby formula brands. Nestle. Kraft. These companies have a vested interest in putting sugar into baby formula; they are making future sugar junkies. Since sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine, it only makes sense to start them out young. Here’s something damning about the entire thing: insurance companies are the largest institutional shareholders of fast food companies. Think about that for a while.

Sugar is bad for you. It’s bad for your body, and especially your liver. Sugar is a toxin to humans. Sure, it happens to taste amazing, but apparently, antifreeze tastes amazing to dogs, too.

I used to eat until I could literally eat no more. I would stuff myself. I did this because it felt good, somehow. Sure, walking after a meal was tough and sometimes even painful. After certain dinners, I could hear the food sloshing around in my stomach. As I look back on it, it’s surreal. My stomach was really quite large and held a lot of food. Now? I can barely eat a regular serving at most restaurants without feeling too full.

Last night, I ate a meal at a restaurant, and I was surprised at just how full I felt afterward. Sherry and I noticed that this particular meal’s size had been reduced to about half of what it used to be (we used to share these plates), and still, I felt full after finishing it. The same has been happening the past few days with the lunches and dinners she’s been prepping for us.

The strange part is that now that I’m thinner, it hurts much worse when I eat to my stomach’s capacity. It’s a sharp pain, whereas in the past, eating until I was stuffed either just felt a little uncomfortable, or even felt good.

I don’t know what physiological changes have gone on in my gut to make feeling stuffed go from something I liked to something that is painful, but I’m okay with it. As much as I still  have the desire to eat a lot, knowing that doing so would cause me a lot of physical anguish keeps me from going overboard which, in turn, keeps me from gaining weight.

I’ll take it.

I bought three shirts on Woot! about six months ago, and I purchased a size too small for me at the time. They are nice button-down shirts, and I was pretty bummed when I couldn’t wear them. Fast forward to this morning when I decided to try one of them on and… IT FIT PERFECTLY!

I’ve lost about 7 lbs in the past 6 months, so it makes sense. It’s crazy how much size I’ve lost since then, too. I forget that 7 lbs is a much larger percentage of my total weight now, and as a result, a change of 7 lbs is reflected much more than it was when I was over 300 (I wouldn’t even notice 7 lbs weight loss back then).

I’m less than 2 lbs from my final goal. It’s so close… I can’t wait.

I was asked what I was going to do when I reach my goal, and I thought about it and said, “Besides let out a cheer, and maybe post on my blog and Facebook? Nothing, I guess.” See, there’s no sense in any celebratory dinner, meal, snack, treat, or anything like that. The reward is hitting the number, not food. The last thing in the world I want to do is reintroduce the concept of rewarding myself with food. That’s part of what got me into this predicament: irresponsible eating and an unhealthy relationship with food.