Month: February 2018

Why did I go Paleo when there are so many other low-carb/high-fat diets out there? For Sherry and I, it seemed like the natural progression from Whole30. Once we completed our first Whole30, we felt like we had learned a lot about food and how our bodies react to them, and we felt so much better than before, that we wanted to adopt a diet that was similar to Whole30 but a little less restrictive.

Where Whole30 asks you to avoid foods I call analogues, or those that are made with grain but can be made with other foods to make them Paleo-compliant, Sherry and I wanted to have a little more flexibility in eating the occasional Paleo dessert, or perhaps eat a pizza or some bread (both Paleo, of course).

What makes food Paleo? If you can make a bread without grain flour, for instance, and use almond flour, casava flour, coconut flour, etc, that makes it Paleo. Sherry has made many different foods for us like pizza, waffles, pancakes, breads, and even fudge that are all Paleo-compliant.

While Paleo-compliant doesn’t always mean we can just go nuts and eat dessert every night, it does give us peace of mind that we’re eating foods made from whole, natural ingredients that are good for us. We try not to overdo it, and limit our consumption of things like Paleo chocolate chip cookies (which are, in my honest opinion, at least as good if not better than the real thing!).

I also have found that it’s been easy to find food that is Paleo compliant at restaurants when we go out, and friends have had an easy time making foods that are Paleo compliant for us when necessary.

Finally, it just feels right. It makes sense, and it has helped Sherry and I stay thin and healthy. It allows us to feel good in the mornings, to get good sleep, and to maintain our weight. Oh, and there are literally millions of amazing recipes available online for delicious and filling healthy foods.

I no longer drink anything sweetened. Not even artificially. I have heard people say it’s okay to use honey or stevia in drinks, but from everything I’ve read, sweetened drinks affect the brain regardless of whether the sweetener is sugar or artificial. That means while it’s better to imbibe drinks without sugar, imbibing sweet drinks will still cause cravings.

That’s horrible to me, and I don’t even want to risk it.

I cut out sweet drinks back in September of 2015 with my first Whole30. Aside from the rare alcoholic beverage or hot cocoa in Spain while on vacation, I’ve stuck with unsweetened tea, coffee, and plain ol’ water. I have been known to drink my tea with lemon, and I have also put sliced cucumber in my water in the summertime, but that’s it. Nothing more.

I will admit that coffee still doesn’t taste nearly as awesome to me as it did when I used creamer and sugar, but I’m learning to appreciate the light and medium blends. They are quite flavorful, and some have a natural sweetness to them that is really quite amazing.

As for teas, there are many that are delicious, and I have had an easier time adopting unsweetened tea. I have it at lunch and dinner, and sometimes before bed.

Sweetened drinks are something I definitely miss, but I will not allow myself to have due to the negative impact it has on the brain and the cravings they bring about. It’s just not worth it to me.

Here it is. The final day of our Whole30. I hoped to have a lot more weight loss than I did, but I can’t say I’m unhappy: the 10 lbs lost in the first two weeks were the only weight loss I experienced. That’s okay; my clothes all fit better. I’ll take that anyday. I will work on my weight somehow.

Otherwise, I feel great. Lots of energy, good sleep, and I got over the flu in three days versus the week everyone else is taking to get over it. I’ll take that as a win!

My final Whole30 meals were:

Breakfast: No surprises here: the pork, apple, and egg casserole. No fruit or veggies because I forgot. Seriously, this morning I intended to have a few pieces of cantaloupe, but I forgot.

Lunch: A wonderfully tasty Tikka Masala that Sherry made in the Instantpot. It was yummy!!!

Dinner: I’ve mentioned before how much I love Sherry’s Chorizo and Bacon-wrapped Meatloaf? Well, that’s what I decided to wrap this Whole30 up with. It was very filling, delicious, and satisfying.

I fight with my weight sometimes. I want to weigh under 160 lbs, but it hasn’t happened since I was about 20. I am pretty fit at about 12%  body fat (according to measurements; admittedly, not determined by immersion), but I weight a lot for my size. People are always surprised I’m as heavy as I am.

Try as I do, 165 lbs seems to be about my lowest without starving, and my weight typically hovers between 168 and 170 lbs regardless of how hard I work out, how well I eat, etc. It’s maddening, but it’s also something I’ve had to learn that isn’t going to change unless I were to make drastic and unhealthy changes that I’m unwilling to undertake.

I have to be content with a low bodyfat percentage, with being able to fit into the same size clothes as I did when I was 19, and feeling much more energetic and youthful. I have to be happy that I can run 3x a week, that I am in the National Guard, and that I am healthier than most 50 year old men. I have to take solace in the fact that eating well allows my body to be healthier, and in turn, may give me a longer life. It may help me avoid some health problems I was headed right into.

They call those NSV’s, or Non Scale Victories. I have to focus on those now as the scale pretty much has stopped giving me any sort of victory. I still weigh myself daily because I monitor my weight due to Army requirements, but I more closely monitor how I feel in my clothing, how well it fits, and how energetic I feel. Those, to me, are more important feedback data points than the scale. I have felt amazing and my rings are falling off my fingers all while the scale says my weight is up. PHEW! I spit on you, scale!

Don’t use the scale as your only measure of success. Use it as one of many, and try to find other matrices by which to measure your health and success in your healthy lifestyle. In so doing, you will find yourself much happier and less stressed out about progress or the lack thereof.