Category: Scoop

Let’s be honest. There are things about living a healthy lifestyle that, when you are accustomed to a life without rules, really stink. For me, some of those things include not having pasta, pizza, or hot dogs anymore. But when I thought about it (and I did think about this a lot), what I finally realized was that I had to say goodbye to being careless. I had to begin thinking about my health as an adult: being responsible, having a plan, and thinking for the long-term.

As a husband, a father, a Staff Sergeant, and hopefully one day as a grandfather, I have to consider other people before myself. I have to ensure that I am able to continue in my assigned or appointed role as long as possible. Not because I think I’m special, but because people need me or rely upon me for emotional or other support. I have a responsibility to keep myself around as long as possible, and in a way that doesn’t place a burden upon them. Being healthy is my duty.

Before I decided to be healthy, I could do what I wanted (especially if that meant not doing anything physical or active). I could eat what I wanted without a care. It was actually quite nice to be in that much control of things (even while my health was careening out of control, I felt like I was in complete control. Oh, the irony!). What I didn’t realize was I was trading my health for an artificial sense of freedom. While it’s nice to be able to do what you want, when you want, the reality is that the consequences were still there; I was just ignoring them. Once I became aware of the consequences of my carefree life, it became readily apparent to me that I needed to change my ways. And fast.

Fast forward three and a half years: I’m physically fit, I weigh 130 lbs less than I did when I began, and working to drop another 20 lbs to get back to my lowest weight a year ago. I let myself get lazy; I know how to lose weight, and I have unlocked the secret to doing so without a lot of pain and suffering, so I have let myself get lax. That ended this morning. While this weekend was a lot of fun and I spent it with all of my favorite people, the toll was heavy on my body. I’m back to my 2016 mindset: if it’s not 100% healthy, it’s not going in my mouth.

Some people see living healthy as being restrictive and most people don’t like living without the ability to do what they want, when they want. They see it as a negative, and regardless of the benefits, concentrate or focus on the bad parts (having to avoid sweets, alcohol, grains, etc). I see it as ensuring that I’m responsible for my health, ensuring that I have the best chance possible at living longer, and having a quality of life that makes it worth living. Most of all, I am taking responsibility for being around as long as I can for my wife, my kids, my friends, and my community. I have a lot to give, and I feel that being selfish and eating with abandon is disrespectful not only to them, but to my own health.

It’s not always easy, and sometimes I miss out on foods and drinks that may be amazing. I have to accept that as the cost for ensuring my health is as good as I can make it, and while I have to keep reminding myself of that, in the end, I think it will be worth it. I can’t change what genetics holds for my future, but I can make sure I don’t negatively impact my health through bad decisions and a lack of responsibility. That’s the best I can hope for.

I did it. I have run twice this week. If I’m good, I will either run, hike, or ride my bike at some point today. I am feeling better about it, and my wife reminded me that it’s hard to get back into the swing of things, but once you get going with fitness, it snowballs and you feel worse not exercising than you do exercising.

Is it necessary to exercise to lose weight? No. I have hit a decent plateau without doing much exercise in the past few months, but I want to get lower, and I know that the only way to get there is to actually do some sweating. So I’m doing it. Oh, and being in the military, fitness is an important thing, too. So, I’m back at it.

I’m still at the, “I hate starting” phase, but I know that within two weeks, I’ll cross the threshold and be back in the, “I’m looking forward to exercise” phase. That’s where I want to be. That’s where I will be. In the meantime, I will be faking it until I make it.

One of the more difficult things for me in the past few months has been to stay motivated to run. I’ve been averaging about one run a week, and it’s becoming clear to me that once a week is not nearly enough. I ran Monday; it is Thursday. I will run again this afternoon after work, but I’ll have to make sure to run again this weekend. The problem I have is that I have quite a busy weekend planned (well, Saturday, at least).

I have no-one to blame but myself. Sherry works out in the mornings before work, and I respect her motivation and dedication to get it done in the mornings. She also has two extra hours in the morning to get ready. I refuse to go to sleep at 7 pm (which is what I’d have to do to get the same amount of spare time in the mornings as she has). So, I just have to juggle.

The other problem is just making it a priority. I let myself slip here and there too easily. Yesterday, for example. I could have run, but I chose not to. I need to stop doing that. I’m tired of being in the 180’s. I also want to get back to eating breakfasts again.

This has less to do with eating right than it does with me being a doof on the treadmill yesterday after work. I hope it makes you laugh.

I wear glasses because my vision up-close is horrible. I’m far-sighted. When I run, I don’t wear glasses because I can typically see anything past about three or four feet in front of me with clarity, but anything within that range is blurry. I can’t read numbers on my watch, for example, unless they are huge. Anyway, I set out to run on our treadmill last night (it’s nice to run indoors with AC and not contending with walkers, dogs, kids, insects, etc), and I decided to use the Quick Run feature. You push the number corresponding to the mph you want to run, and it starts the treadmill immediately. Only, I made a mistake, and instead of pressing the number for the speed, I pressed the number for degrees of incline. The treadmill responded by starting me running at 1 mph, and I thought to myself, this is weird. I hit the 6 and we’re going 1. I thought maybe I had to press 6 a second time, only the second time I pressed it, I pressed the right 6 (which was for speed). Now, I was running at a 6 degree incline at 6 mph.

Normally, 6 mph is a slow and comfortable run for me, but this was tough. Very tough. I was getting tired quickly, more winded than usual, and my left knee started hurting. I thought to myself, “Wow, not running as much has really taken a toll on me!” I decided I needed to stop for a moment due to the knee pain. That’s when I noticed that I was running at a pretty severe incline. I immediately set it to 0 degrees, started back up at 6 mph, and I felt like I was running with wings on my shoes. After that hellish half mile, I was flying and even raising the speed on the treadmill to run faster.

So, maybe in the future, I’ll incorporate some inclines here and there to help me build strength, but I’ll also be more careful in the future to make sure I’m pressing the speed button and not the incline button. That was silly of me.

This past weekend was another National Guard Drill weekend which means I always have too many carbs. Mostly, it’s in liquid form, and this weekend was no exception. I was able to keep the food carbs limited with the exception of one evening: Saturday night’s Habitat for Humanity Fundraising Gala.

Sherry and I had a wonderful time helping to raise money for a charity we both believe in and support, and while most of the food was actually quite Paleo-friendly, the bread and dessert certainly were not. I did partake in both; they were delicious, and this was one of those “Life events” I encourage others to enjoy. And enjoy, we did!

I haven’t tallied the damage yet; I didn’t step on a scale all weekend or this morning. I will weigh myself after my run this afternoon and I’ll know how many steps backwards I took. My trousers didn’t feel too much tighter this morning, so maybe it’s not so bad. But, I did have the sweats last night, and I do feel a bit bloated. But the run will help even that out quickly.

I know I can’t drink every night, so I typically don’t. I know I can’t eat non-Paleo foods without ill effects, so I typically don’t. It’s always a good feeling to return to my normal diet after a drill weekend. I’m looking forward to eating my healthy foods this week. I can always feel the difference, especially in the mornings.

I’ve been slacking for months. I’ve been allowing myself to be dissuaded from running by apathy. The problem with having lost 150 lbs is that I know I can do it. I know how easy it actually can be. So now, as I struggle to get back down to the 170’s, I allow myself to be lazy. I allow myself to think, “It’s not that hard. I can do it anytime I want.” Well, that time is now.

Starting this afternoon, I will exercise a minimum of 3 times a week. When I did that, I was in the 160’s. Easily. Now, I struggle to stay in the 180’s and have to skip breakfasts and do IF. I miss my bacon and eggs! So, when I get home today, I will run. It will be slow, and likely not very comfortable, but when I’m done, I will take comfort in the fact that I’m back in charge of my exercise, back in charge of my fitness, and being actively involved in getting back to a more comfortable weight.

Nobody can do this for me. No amount of reading or planning will get it done. Only putting one food in front of the other will do it. My time to put words into action begins today.

When I look back at photos of my great-grandparents or even great-great-grandparents, I’m struck by something amazing: they all appear fit. None of them were overweight or struggling with obesity. Only when a few of my ancestors reached past the age of 70 did any of them gain appreciable weight, notably my great-great-grandmother, but outside of her, everyone appeared trim and fit. As for longevity, each of them lived well past 70 years old with very few exceptions. How is that possible when there were no 24 hour fitness gyms available?

Some people mistakenly believe that our ancestors were thin because life was harder then. They posit that everyone was in a day-to-day struggle to survive, eking out an existence through manual labor. However, this is patently wrong in the case of my own family. The vast majority of them were teachers, engineers, officers, chauffeurs, and even a royal guard. None of these people did what could be considered heavy labor. My great-grandfather was a forest ranger, and sure, that entailed a lot of walking, but that’s not enough to keep a man thin. There has to be another reason.

Oh, that’s right. There is another reason: the diet. What did my ancestors eat that is so different than the diet of people today? If my grandmother’s memories serve as any indication as to the makeup of my ancestor’s diet, and if she is to be trusted (and why not?), then meals consisted of 100% home-cooked meals made with 1/4 meat, 3/4 vegetables, and a side serving of bread. There were no desserts, as these were reserved solely for holidays and very special occasions. The occasional snack only took place when doing something that required a lot more energy than normal; cutting some wood, for example, would warrant eating a peach or a plum (or two).

Aside from athletes, most people before the World Wars didn’t exercise for the sake of fitness. The only exercise they got was from walking (which, admittedly, they did likely do a lot more of than we do today) and any tasks requiring physical labor, but to think that everyone was a subsistence farmer or working incredibly hard to merely survive is completely wrong and misses the most important lesson: it’s the diet, dummy.

It’s been a few weeks since I posted here, and it has turned out to be the longest break I’ve had since I began this blog over three years ago. What brought this break about has nothing to do with my resolve and my work toward staying healthy and fit and more about a hectic turn of events which, while good, left me with little time or energy to post here.

My new job is great. I have, for the first time in a very long time, found a job that I not only enjoy, but look forward to. This makes me far more productive than I have been at any job I’ve held in a very long time, but this also makes me expend a lot of mental energy during the day which results in me not able to post during the day, and it keeps me from my computers, laptops, iPads, and any available means for posting to this blog in the evenings. I used to write a bunch of posts on Saturdays and Sundays and have the queue up for the week, but my position in the National Guard coupled with weekend plans with my wife have kept me from being able to write my posts. That lead me to the position I find myself in this morning: explaining my absence.

Can I promise that I will be here more often? Not really, because I never know what my jobs and wife have planned for me or what will come up, but I can promise that I fully intend to resume my daily postings.

In the past few weeks, I’ve had a business trip for a week in Las Vegas (and didn’t gain any weight), a weekend at Fort Hood (didn’t gain any weight), and Easter (didn’t gain any weight). I didn’t really lose any weight either, but honestly, based on my lack of consistent hard exercise, I fully expect that my weight will hold where it’s at right now as long as I eat well: 185 lbs. I have about 12-15 lbs of excess skin on me, so that’s about right. When I run 3x a week, I can drop my weight by 15-20 lbs, but I haven’t been willing or able to put in the work. My knee is only recently healed up, and I’ve been taking it very slowly and deliberately to get back into the swing of exercise. My plan was to run three times this week, but a little pain kept me from running on Monday, and I gave blood yesterday, so that took me out of running yesterday. I’m still on the fence about whether I’ll run today or not. I may ride my bike instead, but it will depend on how I feel when I get home.

I did have a few thoughts and revelations about health and fitness over the past few weeks, and I will be posting about those in the coming days. Some are a bit controversial, and I know some people may get salty about them. But, I’m the PaleoMarine, not the PaleoKindergartenTeacher. I can be blunt sometimes with my statements, ideas, and people don’t necessarily like that. It is what it is. It comes from a good place, though, and I promise that I’m careful to not judge anyone for their decisions. But don’t be surprised if I call someone out over making bad ones.

With that said, I offer my apologies if you are someone who regularly follows and reads this blog. I know my absence was long and there were no warnings beforehand. Normally, I know when I’ll be out and I say something about it. I’ve punished myself with push-ups and I promise to be better in the future.

I’ll keep this one short today; I had a fun weekend going to a theater production and a classical symphony performance of Carmina Burana, but that also meant I had alcohol on more occasions in a weekend than I typically have in a few weeks. So, that means I’m a bit puffy (inflamed) and over last week’s weight. BUT, I will be running today after work, and I will continue to eat well again this week, so I will be back down to my new normal weight by Friday.

It’s annoying, but I don’t regret it at all. Life is for living. I am at a healthy weight/size, and although I want to weigh less, I’m still doing the right things: eat well, make our own food, and exercise (getting back to that more consistently).

Someone mentioned to me on Saturday that the reason they gain weight after losing it is because they allow themselves just a little bit here and a little bit there, and eventually, it all adds up to a lot here and a lot there and the next thing they know, they’ve gained all the weight back. It’s a slippery slope, and he said that the best thing to do is to never allow even a little bit of slip. I kind of agree with this, but as someone who has lost a large amount of weight and has managed to keep it off for three years, I can say that allowing yourself to have a good time here and there, even with foods and/or drinks that are not Paleo, is completely acceptable. It’s not something to do all the time, but as long as you get right back on that horse and keep eating well and staying away from alcohol, foods with added sugars, and grains (and all the other Paleo rules, of course), then you will be okay.

I’m still in decent territory. I want to get back in good territory, but for now, I’m okay. I continue to stick with it and move forward. It’s the best I can do, and it’s all I can expect from myself. Anything more would be unreasonable and setting myself up for failure.

If we take the time to listen to what our body is telling us, we can learn a lot, and in the process, keep ourselves from further pain, injury, or more. This week, I started running after a two-month absence due to a minor knee injury. I wanted to give my knee time not only to heal, but to get past the possibility of an easy re-injury. I think I got there, and my run on Monday was really good. However, while I didn’t push the pace, I pushed the distance, and as a result, I have excessive muscle burn. Some people thrive on that feeling; I’m not one of them. To me, there’s nothing worse than sore muscles (beyond a point). I was planning on running on Wednesday, but the pain was still too much, and I decided to run on Thursday (not remembering that I had a show scheduled with my wife that precluded running). Then there’s today, and I have plans with friends. I may still have time to knock out a run before they come over, but it will really depend on what time I get home. But I digress.

What did I have to gain by pushing through the excessive pain? In past experience, when I’ve done that, one of two things happens: either I’m able to get past it and the pain goes away, or I develop an injury because I run in a way my body isn’t used to, and I end up pulling a muscle, ligament, or tendon. I wasn’t willing to risk it, so I decided to sit it out. While I didn’t get the benefit of exercise on Wednesday, as I sit here and type this, I am not injured.

The same holds true for hunger. Since I cut out added sugars and grains, I haven’t had to cope with cravings or false appetite. What that means for me, however, is that when I get hungry, I have to listen to my body and feed it. It’s also feedback on the size of my meals. Last week, when I had an exceptionally large lunch, I wasn’t hungry again until the next day at lunchtime. I skipped dinner that night because as I was getting ready to prepare a meal, I realized that I was still not only not hungry, but stuffed. I listened to what my body was telling me, and the next morning I went into my regular Intermitted Fasting (IF) routine without issues. I was hungry about an hour sooner than usual, but it was fine. I ate a little early that day, but ended up having no ill effect.

Every time I eat, I make note of not only what I ate, but the volume so that I can make adjustments to later meals. Feedback is worthless if you ignore it. Our body is telling us things all the time, not only through muscle pain or hunger, but also through things like our weight, our size, how our skin looks, the bags under our eyes, etc. There’s a lot to take in and consider if you just open your eyes and allow yourself to see it. Don’t ignore those feelings. Don’t ignore the data. Use it all to analyze where you are at, how you’re doing, and use it moving forward to monitor your progress and guide you to your goals and beyond. Our body wants to help us: we need to listen.