Category: Scoop

Well, look at this. The sugar lobby paid scientists to blur sugar’s role in heart disease. This is no big surprise; I’ve been talking about this on PaleoMarine.com since I started this blog. What concerns me the most is how this news isn’t in the US media. Why aren’t we telling people that our nutritional ideas are based on poor or even false science? Could it be that the money behind our media is the same money behind these studies?

No, I don’t wear a tin foil hat, nor do I see a conspiracy around every corner. However, the “low-fat is good for your heart” and “whole grains are good for you” arguments are not holding up in any real scientific testing. I’ve even read a blog that says we need to eat grains because Jesus shared bread at the Last Supper.

Come on.

We need to stick to real science when it comes to nutrition and keep the food lobbies out of science. We also need to reevaluate the studies done in the past to better gauge their veracity.

There’s no real revelation in the article I posted. It echoes the previous links I’ve posted about the evils of sugar and how the sugar lobby paid for the studies to ignore how bad sugar is for us.

I’m hoping because you’re here reading this that you will read not only the link I posted here, but some of the other links about the evils of sugar. If you are going to change just one thing about your diet this year, make it eliminating processed and added sugars in your foods. You will be shocked at how much better you feel, how your health will improve, and yes, how much weight you will lose. It’s that big of a deal.

If you took my advice yesterday, you ate, drank, and were merry! Today, your head may hurt a little and you may feel badly for having eaten a bunch of food that wasn’t Paleo.

Like I said yesterday, don’t. The past is the past. We celebrate holidays with friends and loved ones rarely, and it’s important to be a part of your social circle.

Just let it go and make the next meal a good one. Maybe hit the gym or go running later today or tomorrow if you’re up for it.

I hope your celebrations were safe and fun! Let’s make 2017 a great year of health and fitness!

Tonight is a holiday celebrated around the world. This holiday typically includes a lot of hors d’ouvres and alcohol, so it’s a night that people who are trying to eat well stress about.

Don’t.

Just eat, drink, and be merry! You can’t do any real damage to your health or weight loss in one night. Sure, you can stall it for a little while, but you won’t ruin everything. Enjoy the evening, have some fun, and hit the ground running on New Year’s Day. That’s what I’ll be doing.

I wish all my readers a Happy New Year, and I hope that 2017 is everything you hope it will be!

As I thought more about yesterday’s article, I thought about some of the nastier experiences I’ve had since losing weight. While there are so many awesome things I’ve experienced as a person who is over 130 lbs lighter than I was at my heaviest, there have been some strange interactions with others that were confusing to me.

One was with a lady I know at work who said she flat-out didn’t trust skinny people. I told her that I wasn’t always skinny, and that I used to weigh quite a bit, and even showed her a picture. She said that she would have trusted me back when I was fat, but not now. “Skinny people are hiding something,” she said to me. What?

Another was a lady I had a conversation with at the doctor’s office earlier this year when I went in for a physical. She told me that “Skinny people like you don’t have the same pressure to stay healthy as us regular people.” At the time, I saw it as a little bit of a victory. It was the first time in over 20 years for someone to call me a skinny person (which I honestly wasn’t at the time; I’ve lost 30 lbs since then). I also took the opportunity to explain to her that I wasn’t always skinny (her words) and that I had to work at it. I told her how I did it, and she said that was too difficult.

There are some people who are just flat-out jealous of someone like me who can use some motivation to change their life. I can understand envying someone for accomplishing something, but jealousy is something different altogether. For some of the people in my life who are jealous of my weight loss and fitness, it stems from a change in the power dynamic. These people enjoyed poking fun at me for my weight and lack of physical fitness. They enjoyed being the ones who ate right, exercised, and looked good in clothing. Now that I’m right there with them, the power dynamic has changed, and sadly, they don’t like it. They had a need to feel superior.

That makes me profoundly sad, because I don’t look down on anyone for any reason. We all have different walks in life, from our jobs, our careers, our education, and even our health and fitness. It doesn’t make me better than anyone else that I lost a bunch of weight and because I run. My friends with advanced degrees aren’t better than me or anyone else because of them. We all have strengths and weaknesses. We are all just people.

As the younger folks say today, “Don’t let the haters get you down.” The people who are jealous are dealing with issues that relate more to themselves than to you. They project their own insecurities and disappointments onto those who they see threaten the way they feel about themselves. Don’t let them get to you. Better yet, don’t stoop to their level. Keep your chin up, do the work, and carry on. The people who really love you will be there, admire your determination and hard work, and they will be there for you.

When I wasn’t ready to really buckle down and “Do the work,” as my cousin would say, I used to hate reading things written by people who were getting it done with weight loss or fitness. I didn’t want to read about how awesome their progress was, how great they were feeling, and their new personal bests. I don’t know if that was because of negativity I learned as a child, or if it was because I was jealous of these people. I think it was maybe a little of both.

I try to walk a very fine line on this blog between being proud of my accomplishments and bragging as well as between trying to motivate people and preaching. I never want to come off as preachy unless it’s about the evils of sugar. That stuff is seriously bad for us, and I’ll never stop preaching about how evil it is that it’s in everything processed! But I digress.

Some people take motivation from the examples of others. I am one of those people. Were it not for the subreddits of /r/progresspics, /r/paleo, and /r/whole30, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I know they’re not blogs, but these were subreddits full of real people (like me!) who were getting it doing, doing the work, and seeing the results I was after. I wanted to be like them, and I wanted to one day be in a position to help people whose shoes I walked.

As a guy who used to be really fat, I find myself in a position that can motivate others. I am not some skinny person who has been skinny their whole lives. They don’t know what it’s like to have been big and how hard it is to lose the weight. I know. I lived it. I’ve had people who didn’t know I used to weigh over 130 lbs more tell me that I’m lucky to not have to worry about my weight. I always chuckle and politely show them some pictures of me when I was heavy. Some don’t believe it. They flat out refuse to believe that the photos I show them were of me. I have to explain that I did struggle with my weight, and now I’ve taken back responsibility for my health and fitness and I’m very active in keeping it all in check.

Now, I write about these experiences. These conversations that take place, whether with other people or in my mind as I run and think about articles to write. I hope to inspire and motivate and to never turn anyone off from taking on a Whole30, Paleo, or running. I try to write in a way that would have inspired and motivated me. That’s why sometimes, I’m really very frank about things. That’s why I post pictures of myself in my underwear. These things would have (and did) motivate me. I hope it does the same for you.