When I left for training two weeks ago, I weighed a lot more than I wanted to. A LOT MORE. 200 lbs, to be exact. That’s the heaviest I’ve been in nearly 7 years. How did I get there? A vacation to Hungary and Christmas/New Year. I let myself eat anything and everything and the toll it took on my body was immense.

At the end of December, my wife and I resolved to do a Whole30 (we decided it wasn’t going to be a real Whole30, but more of a strict Paleo with Whole30 rules). I don’t know why we decided that, but here we are. The sticky part was that I was having to attend military training for two weeks in January which would make it difficult for me to eat Paleo. The food in the military is notoriously carb-heavy and MRE’s are the least healthy thing you can imagine putting in your body, so I had to think back to how I kept my Paleo diet during training in the past.

Enter the EPIC Bars, RX Bars, and Lara Bars. Between these three products, I had lunch every day that was clean and healthy. As for breakfast and dinner, I only stuck with foods that didn’t have grains, legumes, dairy, or added sugar. On the days when I couldn’t escape those things, I ate from my own lunch stash or I was fortunate enough to go out of the training area to get food from the local economy.

I was fortunate that the vendor who was catering our exercise noticed that I was ignoring certain items and after about the fourth day, if they had something very carb-heavy or completely un-Paleo, they would make me an option I could eat. It was very nice of them, and it was greatly appreciated.

What was the end result of the January not-so-Whole30 Whole30? I’ve lost around 14 lbs. I want to lose another 20 before May, so I’m sticking with the diet. I’m sticking with my exercise which consists of running and StrongLifts 5×5.

Consistency and dedication got me to where I am today, and it’ll keep me going towards my next goal.