I hit an important milestone and went right past it without knowing it. Looking back, it’s been an amazing journey, and I look forward my future with running.
I was looking at my Strava Profile today, and I noticed something that went right by without me knowing it; I have run 101 times since starting in September of last year.
Wow.
When I started running last year, I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. In fact, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like running as I’d never liked it in the past. As an active duty Marine, I did it because I had to, and even then, I disliked it. Sure, I liked feeling fit, but not at the cost of having to run.
In September of last year, joining the National Guard was something I was interested in, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do. I knew I had to start running, but I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get fast enough, be strong…
Sherry’s first week of Whole30 results. I’m really happy for her and excited that she’s seeing the results she’s been after. I have also been benefiting from it myself, having lost 2 lbs last week without effort.
First, I need to give a shout out to my friends and family members for their support on this latest Whole 30 effort. You guys are awesome, and I appreciate it! I even went to a party this weekend where there were lots of approved options on the table so I was able to enjoy a healthy and tasty plate!
Second, I think I can say this is the easiest Whole30 I’ve done to date. I’ve learned quite a few things about myself since the last time – the most important of which is the mindset. There is a determination that you simply have to embrace to make the most of these 4 weeks. I keep repeating to myself, “I don’t want sugar. It’s making me uncomfortable and keeping me from being my best self. Eating those cookies or cake may be enjoyable for a moment, but the self-loathing I…
Sherry and I attended our second Paleo|f(x) and we had a great time. Once again, we scouted the floor for new Paleo products and sampled many of them. We didn’t stay for any of the panels. We went with friends Kenny and Elaine, and we enjoyed introducing them to some of our favorites from last year and discovering new foods and treats that we will be enjoying in the coming year.
Some of our old favorites (Muffin Else, RX Bars, Bubba’s, Epic, DNX) were there, and we purchased a lot from them and there were also some new products we’re currently in the process of sampling and evaluating.
I recommend Paleo|f(x) for anyone on the Paleo Diet and looking to discover new treats, snacks, drinks, foods, and products that are Paleo certified and good for you. I know our kitchen pantry is now full of good, healthy snacks for those rare times when you just need something to get through to the next meal. My backpack that I carry to work with me also has a sampling of snacks to help me get through in the event I miss a lunch or had too small of a previous meal to make it to the next one comfortably.
Make plans for Paleo|f(x) 2018. I’ll be there with Sherry. We hope to see you there!
Denying carbs are bad for us is like denying climate change. I’m not saying what causes climate change; it’s a fact that the planet we live upon has dealt with since it formed. That’s why we had ice ages, warmer periods, etc. However, the fact remains: carbs are bad for the human body.
Do they taste good? Heck yes! I’d argue that if you list 100 of the best tasting foods you know, at least 80 of them will contain carbs. That’s not by accident. Carbs give us quick energy, and our bodies are designed to use sugar as energy. So then, how can I say that carbs are bad for us?
Well, us humans are not in the same environment we were in when our bodies were designed. We now find ourselves surrounded by easily accessible, endless amounts of food. Our bodies no longer need to scrape every bit of energy from the food we eat, yet it does as designed. Our food is hyper-nutritious as compared to the food of even 50 years ago, and I’m not talking about vitamins and minerals: we’re talking carbs. How did this happen?
Low-fat is what’s making us fat. Crazy, right? Well, here’s why. In the 50’s, a prominent physician decried cigarette smoking (good) and fat (bad) as being the cause of heart disease. He spread his agenda that we need to cut fat out of our diet to reduce cholesterol in our blood. Unfortunately, this was completely wrong, counter to biological science, and just plain ignorant of how the human body processes sugar and fat. This, coupled with the McGovern Report in 1972 sealed our fate to becoming obese.
Food without fat in it tastes bland and horrible. Food makers know this, so they had to turn to something to make food delicious to sell more of it. What did they turn to? Sugar in all forms. Try to find a processed food without sugar in it, even the “Healthy” foods. Some of the “Heart Healthy” foods are the worst offenders, often containing more carbs than their regular counterparts.
There was a scientist who, in 1972, told us that we were getting it wrong and that it was sugar that was killing us, but he was run out of his profession and died in obscurity. Robert Lustig was his name, and I suggest reading about him. I do warn you; the article will make you mad (and it should!). If only we’d have listened.
It’s 2017. We know carbs are bad for us, yet I still see and hear people advocating a low-fat diet with no mention of carbs. When I mention that carbs are bad, I often hear, “But it’s part of a balanced diet,” or “It’s one of the food groups.” Neither of these statements are true, and actually, are very false. Painfully and ridiculously false.
Blood test results don’t lie. When I ate carbs, I had:
Diabetes
High cholesterol
Rising blood pressure
Nerve damage in legs (due to Diabetes)
Circulation problems (due to Diabetes)
Declining vision (due to Diabetes)
Increased liver enzymes due to fatty liver disease
I no longer suffer from ANY of the above. None. I have had numerous blood tests that have confirmed that I am now completely back in normal ranges for every measure (and my cholesterol is actually now on the LOW side). How could that be when I eat fat with every meal and I eat red meat? BECAUSE I DON’T EAT CARBS!
It’s not a whacky flavor-of-the-month weight loss diet. The Paleo Diet is something you can do easily for the rest of your life. It does take some thinking, some preparation, and readjusting how you approach your meals, but it’s well worth it. I can’t believe how much better I feel, how much more energy I have, and how much weight I lost without exercise (over 110 lbs!) within a year. 20 months later, I’m at 166 lbs, having started at 312 lbs. I’m keeping it off easily, and while eating until I’m full at every meal.
If you haven’t yet done so, take a look at Whole30 and the Paleo Diet. They are super-simple to follow and while it’s not easy to mentally tackle a sugar addiction, it can be done and you will feel so much better for having done so (and my live a longer, healthier life in the process).
I had a discussion with a friend who asserted that 1000 calories of pasta is the same as 1000 calories of any other food. He said that a person restricting themselves to 1000 calories of anything will lose weight. While this is a very simplistic overview of how our bodies work and it is true that a calorie deficit will result in weight loss, the health of your body, your satiety after eating meals, and your ability to sustain such a diet are all at risk. Not all calories are created the same, nor are their effect on our bodies.
When you eat refined sugar or foods with easily soluble sugars (carbs) like beans, grains, and pasta, the sugar is very easily extracted from the food. It doesn’t require a lot of work, and therefore, not much energy is used (calories) by the body. Thus, the net calories that get dumped into the blood stream is much higher than in natural foods. Then, the liver has to turn this sugar into energy the cells can use. If there is too much sugar in the blood, the liver gets enzymes from the pancreas to convert this sugar into fat. When the rate of fat creation exceeds the ability of the liver to send that fat to parts of the body for storage, a condition called fatty liver can be created. I suffered from fatty liver disease for a long time.
On the contrary, when eating natural sugars, the body has to spend calories to extract the sugar. Not only does this take energy (burning calories) to reduce the net calories taken in, but it also takes time which slows the release of sugar into the body. This allows the liver to keep up with processing the sugar in the blood into useful sugar (glucose) for the body to use. Since it’s a slow-release, the body can use the sugar in the blood as it’s extracted from the food which leads to less storage.
From a satiety standpoint, foods that are harder to digest (meats, vegetables, nuts, fruits) will give a steadier supply of energy and keep you sated, which means you won’t get cravings or get hungry soon after eating. This helps to keep eating down, and from snacking. It is easier to handle fewer calories when those calories are higher quality and take your body longer to digest.
Something I’ve learned through my own journey has been to eat until I’m full. I don’t count calories at all anymore. I eat as much as I need to feel comfortably full. It has made it easy for me to stick with the Paleo Diet because I never feel cravings, and the food I eat is both delicious and filling. I don’t worry about not eating enough or eating too much because I listen to my body. When I eat meat and vegetables, it’s easy to fill up and feel full long after you’ve eaten. It’s very hard to do that with pasta or bread.
I did it. By sticking with the Paleo Diet and doing another Whole30 to help me get past the last 2 lbs, I finally reached my goal of 165 lbs.
I thought I’d do a happy dance or something silly, but after seeing the scale (and re-weighing myself three times to be sure), I raised my arms in victory, and then almost cried. I say almost, because there were no tears, but my eyes did water up, and I had to sit down to let it sink in.
I did it.
It took 20 months, but I went from 312 lbs to 165 lbs. My body fat went from an astonishing 47% to 11%. I went from living a sedentary lifestyle to being a runner who is also in the National Guard.
My wife says I’ve completely reconfigured myself. The crazy part is how much of the rest of my life followed suit. Changing my diet has changed much in my life, and all of it is for the better.
As my wife congratulated me yesterday on reaching 165 lbs, I thanked her because there’s no way I could have done it without her. Aside from the cooking of our lunches and many dinners, she’s motivated me and helped keep me on the right track more than once. This was possible because we are a team, and this was a team effort.
Now, as we’re doing our third Whole30, she’s already lost 4 lbs in 4 days (I know, we’re not supposed to weigh ourselves, but we always break that rule) and she’s feeling much better again already. As for me? I lost 2 lbs this week to push me past 165 lbs. I’m sticking with the Whole30, so I may get some more bonus weigh loss out of it. At this point, for me, I’m in bonus territory; any further weight loss is just bonus.
I feel good and look good at 165 lbs. I haven’t felt this accomplished of anything in a while. It feels good.
This is crazy to me. That’s like a drug addict celebrating a year of being sober with a drug binge. It’s the wrong way to celebrate. I know; in most cultures, celebrations are intertwined with eating food. Every culture on the planet has special occasion meals, and yes, they contain foods that are tasty and wonderful. However, a lot of these celebratory dishes are not nutritionally good for us. Cakes, pasta, pizza, hamburgers (the buns and cheese), and all manner of high-carb foods are exactly the types of food we need to avoid to stay healthy. I know many people who have done Whole30’s and/or adopted the Paleo Diet, and when I hear one of them tell me they’re going to celebrate hitting a weight goal by eating a pizza or by having some cake, I can’t help but to wonder if they’ve learned anything at all.
I know: I’ve said time and time again that the occasional slice of pie or pizza isn’t going to derail you. Treats every now and then are okay, and heck, I just had a slice of cheesecake a few weeks back at a birthday party. I actually ended up losing about a pound the following day. However, those situations are completely natural and normal. Celebrating losing weight by changing your diet to get rid of horribly bad foods by eating horribly bad foods is illogical.
I plan on celebrating hitting 165 lbs by doing a happy dance, posting on social media (to the chagrin of everyone who knows me, I’m sure), and maybe doing a lot of smiling. But I refuse to eat anything bad for me. It’s not about discipline or being “All in” on my health, as some have told me. It’s about respect for the change I’ve made in my life. It’s about my new relationship with food and not going back to the old ways, even for just a moment. I refuse to use food to celebrate things anymore. That was part of my bad relationship with food, and I won’t give in. Not even for a moment.
I won’t judge you if you have your celebratory donut for reaching your weight goal, but don’t expect me to be enthusiastic about your choice of celebration. If anything, I’ll nod and smile, congratulate you on your success, and hope that you continue with eating healthy and avoiding bad foods. Any drug addict will tell you that all it takes is a taste to fall off the wagon and get back into drugs. Sugar is exactly the same thing. I know many scoff at this, but it is scientifically proven and I’ve experienced it and seen it myself. It’s best to just stay away at all costs. Even ESPECIALLY when celebrating.
So far, so good! Sherry is making some solid progress, and I’m doing well. I wasn’t expecting to lose any weight, and I haven’t yet, but I feel great. Eating on this Whole30 has been really pretty painless as Sherry has perfected so many of our Whole30 recipes and choices. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a slightly stricter Paleo menu.
Overall
My runs have been all amazing, even allowing me to experience what I think a “Runner’s High” feels like. I have been able to get to 100 push ups, and now I’m pushing for more. I have lots of energy, and my clothes are fitting great. Best yet; the skin is continuing to shrink around my mid-section.
I am doing this Whole30 to support Sherry. I figured it’s never a bad idea for me to follow it every now and then just to make sure things are all in ship-shape in terms of my serving sizes and the foods I eat. It’s also a good reminder of what eating good, whole food does for me and my body. It’s amazing how well you can eat on a Whole30!
It’s not okay to eat whatever you want in whatever quantity you want.
Just because you don’t want to take responsibility for your health, do what’s necessary to be healthy, and use every excuse you can think of as a crutch to remain heavy while eating all the things is not doing you or our society any favors. Why are kids obese today? Because parents let it happen. Because we say everyone is a special snowflake and should be accepted as they are.
FAT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU ARE; IT’S SOMETHING YOU DO.
I’m tired of hearing people tell me it’s hard to lose weight. NO SHIT IT’S HARD. You should respect your own life enough to break the sugar addiction (and yes, that’s the root of all this obesity going around).
Are you offended that I’m telling you what to do? Did I tell you what to do? Oh, telling you that you should respect yourself? That is insulting? Try this one: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE EITHER BECAUSE OF OR PARTLY BECAUSE OF YOUR FATNESS BECAUSE YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT YOURSELF TO SAVE YOURSELF FROM THAT FATE. Is that better?
There’s no nice way to say it. Being fat is not something to be proud of. It’s not something to accept as normal. It’s something we need to fight. Our country’s very existence may hinge on our health, and right now, we’re headed for disaster. When everyone is fat, who will do the work to pay for our healthcare system to care for all the weight-related health problems? Who will defend our country if everyone is too fat to meet standards in the military? Raise weight standards? Please.
Being fat is not healthy. The myth of the healthy fat person is just that; a myth. The media is trying to sell us BS because it makes them money. People don’t want to be told and don’t like to be told that they are doing something wrong. It’s not PC to say, “You’re fat and you need to change your life.” But I’m not PC. I’m not going to sugarcoat it or beat around the bush. I firmly believe that part of the problem is nobody speaking up about it. Nobody is willing to hurt feelings to get the point across.
My grandmother was famous for this. She would say, “My dear, it is not my intention to hurt your feelings, but as your grandmother, I feel it is my duty to tell you that you are fat and you need to change.” She literally said it just like that. Were my feelings hurt? Sure. Did she mean well? Absolutely. Did I listen? No, because I was too proud and I was too caught up in my own ego. She’s passed away now, but I know she’d be proud of me and this blog.
Being fat is not okay. Stop telling yourself that it is. You need to change what you eat, how much you eat, and learn to live healthier. Or you will die before you otherwise would.
After a weekend of rest and relaxation with my wife and another couple in Austin and Fredericksburg, Texas, we found ourselves faced with the challenge of deciding whether to partake in some German foods and pastries or to avoid them. We decided to go ahead and eat them, even though the pastry was filled with sugar.
We started the day at Paleo(f)X and sampled Paleo foods for about three hours straight. While the food was all Paleo, the amount was pretty large, and we were pretty filled up with naturally sweetened foods.
The meal I ate later in the day was Jaegerschnitzel, and was served with spaetzle (one of my favorite foods). I don’t ever eat spatzle, or nokedli as it’s called in Hungarian because it’s a pasta made with flour. I’ve tried some Paleo variants, but they haven’t quite been the same, so I just don’t eat it anymore. At this meal, however, I ate a serving, and yes, it was just as good and tasty as I remembered! I also had a few drinks and some wine earlier in the day.
The following day, I had two (TWO!) breakfasts that consisted of bacon and eggs and some cantaloupe and strawberries, and then after a lunch of wurst and sauerkraut, we had an apple strudel. It was absolutely delicious, but also filled to the brim with sugar.
The damage? I was up 7 lbs on Monday morning following the trip. I know it’s mostly water weight, but it’s still shocking to see on the scale and to feel in the waist. I can see on my skin that I’m retaining water, so I know it’s not permanent, but it’s amazing to me how much it bothers me now to be bloated this way. It strengthens my resolve to get back to my more comfortable weight range.
I will run later in the day which will take care of some of the extra water weight, but it usually takes a good 2-3 days for me to get rid of it all. I’m hoping it all comes back off in that time.
I was looking at my Strava Profile today, and I noticed something that went right by without me knowing it; I have run 101 times since starting in September of last year.
![IMG_6781[1]](https://paleomarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/img_67811.jpg?w=760)
After a weekend of rest and relaxation with my wife and another couple in Austin and Fredericksburg, Texas, we found ourselves faced with the challenge of deciding whether to partake in some German foods and pastries or to avoid them. We decided to go ahead and eat them, even though the pastry was filled with sugar.
Paleo Marine 