Category: Scoop

I see it on Facebook at least once or twice a week; a well-made or cute video showing or describing what it supposed to be some sort of super food to either help you lose weight or to start healing your body, “In just 24 hours.” The sad reality is that this just isn’t true.

There are foods out there that are good for you: meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Other foods like grains, legumes, dairy, and anything with added-sugar in them won’t kill you on contact, but are best eaten in moderation, or not at all.

I remember seeing the commercials on TV for grapefruit supplements back when grapefruit was the wonder food that would “Magically melt fat from your tummy!” If any food is described as magical, miraculous, or as a super-food, it’s likely nothing more than a marketing ploy to separate  you from your money.

I get it; we all want to get the most result for the least amount of effort. It’s human nature, and it’s why grain-based foods are so popular. They’re fast, cheap, and fill you up. Unfortunately, the effects on our bodies from eating grains is detrimental over long periods of time.

Stick with what works: meat, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Eat healthy portions of healthy foods. You will find yourself feeling better, sleeping better, and having more energy. If that’s not magical, I don’t know what is.

Seriously. If you’re overweight and looking to lose weight, get healthy, and to make a change in your life that will last longer than the Holiday Season, then commit to a no-exercise November. Why? Because if weight loss is your goal, then exercise is not the best way to go about getting it done. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to become a gym rat, a psycho-cyclist, or a running fool. All you need to do is change your diet.

Now, I’m not talking about going “On” a diet. I’m saying you need to change your diet. Change what you eat, how often you eat, and how much you eat. Let’s break it down Gumby-style (as we say in the Marines).

What you eat. I follow the Paleo Diet, but Whole30, keto, Atkins, or any other low-carb diet will be successful in helping you lose weight and will definitely help in making you healthier. I cut anything with added sugar, grains, alcohol, legumes, soy, and dairy. Why? Because it works for me and many other people I know. I lost 150 lbs on this lifestyle, and 110 lbs of that was within the first year.

How often you eat. I used to eat 5, 6 or even 7 times a day. Snacks were just a thing I did without thinking. Now, I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t get hungry between meals unless I didn’t eat enough at the previous meal. Limiting yourself to meal times is actually good for you and helps your body get used to regulating its energy levels.

How much you eat. Being sensible in portion sizes takes time to learn, but the general rule of thumb is that if you make a cup with both your hands, your food should fit into it. More than that, and you might be over-eating. If you must snack (and let’s face it; sometimes, you just need to), make a cup with one hand and fill it half-way with nuts and eat them slowly. I used to eat very large portions, and I ate those large portions quickly. I’ve since learned to slow down and eat smaller portions. I find it fills me up faster, and allows me to eat a smaller amount of food.

I exercise because I need to remain fit. I’m in the National Guard, and a part of my job is to remain physically prepared to deploy at a moment’s notice, but if you’re not someone whose job or career depends on being physically fit and you find yourself overweight, skip the exercise for now and concentrate on your diet and lifestyle. You might surprise yourself by losing more weight than if you’d have spent your time and energy in the gym instead. Remember, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet, but you can out-diet the lack of a good exercise program as it pertains to weight loss.

Yesterday, despite my best intentions, I had food that I normally don’t eat. At lunch, I was given a free appetizer of fried mushrooms, and I decided to go ahead and eat them. What I didn’t expect was how my body would react to the breading. I was gassy the entire afternoon and I felt over-stuffed. I normally don’t eat large portions, and the normal lunch coupled with an appetizer left me feeling uncomfortably full the rest of the afternoon.

Then, at dinner at a new restaurant, my wife and I were offered a free appetizer that, to her, sounded irresistible. To be fair, I thought it sounded pretty amazing too, so we decided to take them up on the offer. It was delicious, but also had potato, cheese, and sour cream. The result of eating this was a sore stomach and a general feeling of sluggishness and discomfort. Both Sherry and I couldn’t finish our meals. Honestly, I was still stuffed from lunch when we sat down to eat 7 hours after I last ate (and that was after a three mile run, as well).

What yesterday did was to remind me why I eat good foods and normal-sized portions. I had fitful sleep, and I woke up feeling bleh. When I eat my normal food, I sleep solid, get good rest, and I wake up feeling energized and ready for the world.

I eat right because I want to be healthy, and I eat right to control my weight. Now, I’m reminded to eat right because it just plain makes me feel better, and that’s actually a pretty darned good reward in and of itself.

I’m a huge fan of bacon, and I’m very happy that it’s not only allowed on Paleo, but actually one of the better foods you can eat. When I was on keto, it was a staple. It’s funny how people who don’t understand nutrition and believe the outdated and incorrect information about fat and carbs look at me eating bacon and they say things like, “You should really eat oatmeal instead,” or “You’re going to have a heart attack eating that stuff.” It’s ironic that it’s the oatmeal that’ll kill you, yet people mistakenly believe it’s so good for you.

There is a lot of science you can find online as to why bacon is good for you. I won’t restate it here, because I’m no scientist. I recommend you search it out for yourself. Beware: there are still a large number of people who refuse to believe the newest research (and, ironically, centuries of experience) that shows that bacon is actually good for us. Look at old photographs and look at how many people are obese. Then, look at what they were eating: lots of fatty foods. Bacon, butter, whole milk, etc. The portions of grains were very low back then: it was a meat, vegetables, and fruit world.

I found this web page which is pretty funny but makes good points about why bacon is good for us (no, it’s not scientific, but it does state some things we’ve learned about bacon that make it good for us in other ways).

I eat bacon almost every day (Except on those days when I’m running late and just eat a Larabar, like this morning). I love it, and I look forward to it. Frankly, I’m kind of bummed I didn’t have any this morning. Now I want bacon. Dang it!

I’m in what people would call Maintenance Mode as it pertains to my weight. Do I still want to lose another 10 lbs or so? Yes! But it’s not with the same intensity that I had when I was initially losing weight from 312+ lbs. Now, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at with my weight and my health, but I really would like to get back to my weight happy place: 165 lbs.

Maintenance mode allows me to live a little, so to speak. If friends want to indulge in some drinks, I can join them. If a holiday or special event party has something non-Paleo that is a treat, I may have a little. Sometimes, I may take a bite or two of something that’s not on my diet, but I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at, and I’m always really good about strictly limiting what I allow myself to eat. I also make sure that it’s not an entire day or number of days that I allow myself to do this. It’s very typically a one-time deal.

The hardest part of any new lifestyle is maintenance mode. It’s easy to be very strict and to work toward a goal, but once you’re there, it’s often easy to get lax and to allow non-Paleo foods to creep in. This is why every now and then, Sherry and I do a Whole30. It’s to remind us of what portion sizes should look like, we remove foods with lots of sugar in them, and stick to pure Whole30 diets which emphasize eating the foods for their own sake and not to replace non-Whole30 compliant foods (look up SWYPO; it’s pretty funny).

While I’m in maintenance mode, I’m still working on improving my fitness and losing this pesky last 10 lbs. But last night I did enjoy some ciders, and while it led to the “Night Heating,” it’s nice to be able to have a little freedom here and there.

They aren’t ideal, but sometimes, they are life savers. I actually lived on snack bars the entire time I was on my National Guard Annual Training (AT) last year, and it taught me that I can get enough calories from them and feel sufficiently full after eating them to be able to get the right nutrition.

While the snack bars can keep me from feeling hungry and provide me with the requisite amount of calories, they don’t make me feel full, and I find myself getting very hungry sooner than after a real meal. Then, there’s the fact that these bars are typically fruit-based or nut-based and have a lot of calories for their mass. Aside from that, the fruit bars have lots of sugars, albeit natural, and I try to stay away from that.

Snack bars are a great way to replace a meal when there are no healthy options available, but in my experience, they’re best used as a last resort and not a true meal replacement. If you can food prep, that’s the best option. Finding a good, real-food meal is better, and sometimes you can even find these at a decent restaurant, but when the group at the office is going to lunch at a pizza parlor or to a burger joint, you might be better off with a snack bar.

Yesterday, I weighed myself in the morning and I turned in the lowest recorded weight I’ve seen on the scale since I went to Scotland and Ireland earlier this year: 173 lbs. That’s a big deal, because I’ve hovered between 175 and 177 lbs for around 6 months. I never let myself give up or even get disheartened. Sure, there were times I was scratching my head trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, but I never quit the process. I trusted in it. The timeline for progress may not have been to my liking, but the results are.

What changed? Besides me getting more sleep and eating a little bit smaller lunches, nothing. My body just needed time to reconfigure and adjust to the new normal which means my body was able to drop a few more pounds. I’m hoping that this trend continues for another 8 lbs (hahaha). But seriously, I hope that this trend continues for 8 more pounds.

Yesterday felt like a payday. Today, I’m at Drill in the National Guard, and I’ll be having breakfast and lunch as usual, but dinner might be weird. I’m not yet sure what’s going to happen, but after dinner, there will likely be some alcohol. I’ll do my best to keep it to a minimum: I’m finally making progress again, and I hate throwing a monkey wrench into it! But, it was pay day. In the military, that’s a celebration day. So, in true military fashion, I have to celebrate it.

It’s interesting. On Facebook, I see ads that are clearly targeted to my demographic: “Weight loss in 30 days for men over 40.” Ok, I used to post a lot about my weight loss on Facebook (on my personal account), and yes, I’m a bit over 40, so I decided to follow the link and see what they had to say. Surprise: not much. You have to pay them to get their “Program.”

Here’s the thing: I have a program that works, and it’s especially awesome for anyone over 40 or who can’t do lots of physical activity. It’s called Lifestyle Change, and it requires you to either do Whole30, Paleo, Keto, Atkins, or any other low-carb diet. If you stick to it and watch your portion sizes, then you WILL lose weight. Add some light exercise to it, and you will even feel better while losing the weight.

The weight loss industry is one of the most sketchy industries out there because it feeds on insecurity, failure, and self-image that is often compromised. People are desperate to lose weight, and they will gravitate toward any new diet that promises amazing results like a moth to the light. Sadly, most fall short because they promise things they can’t deliver on: effortless weight loss without changing lifestyle.

The bottom line is this: You must change what you put into your mouth. You MUST cut down sugar, grains, alcohol, and it’s a good idea to limit dairy and legumes/soy. You don’t have to exercise to lose weight. You can lost weight faster by eating right than a person who doesn’t change their eating habits and goes to the gym every day. If you want to double-down on your weight loss, then yes, exercise COUPLED with a good eating program will get you amazing results.

Don’t buy into the trap of easy weight loss. It’s not easy. It’s simple, but never easy.

Perseverance. Motivation. Dedication. Hard Work. These are all words or terms we hear when it comes to adjusting to a new lifestyle or a new diet, and yes, it’s true: all of those are necessary to be successful. But something most people leave out is forgiveness. You will make mistakes, you will either eat something that’s not on your diet or you will eat more than you should, and you’re going to feel guilty about it. That guilt often leads to people slipping into despair and doubt which then causes them to fall off the diet and out of the lifestyle. The end result is being right back where you started from, or worse.

I know this cycle all too well. I lived it for 20 years. I would try a diet, found it to be too restrictive, and I would fall off for a day. Then, feeling the guilt and weight of the oppressively strict diet, I would contemplate and then finally decide to give up the diet because, in my mind, no diet was worth that amount of suffering. I’d also end up gaining more weight than I originally lost, and this repeating cycle led to me ballooning up to over 312 lbs. At 5’7″, that’s dangerously obese.

Something I didn’t learn until three years ago, when I first began my new healthy lifestyle with a Whole30, was forgiveness. Forgiving myself for lapses in strength, judgment, and restraint. I didn’t give myself an easy out; that’s not what I’m talking about. This isn’t about justifying cheating or making it easy to fall off the wagon. This is about being able to forgive yourself for giving in to temptation so that you can dust yourself off, re-steel your resolve, and get right back on that diet. To get right back into the new lifestyle without the emotional baggage and depression that goes along with the guilt of not being perfect.

While I was on my journey to lose 150 lbs, I had a very strong resolve and I was able to resist nearly any temptation because I had, for the first time in my life, wanted something more than anything else in the world. I wanted to be healthy. I wanted to hit a target weight to allow me to re-enter military service. I needed it like a drowning man needs air. The very few times I over-ate or ate something not on the Paleo Diet could have easily derailed me, my mindset, and my progress had I not learned to forgive myself and carry on.

My site talks about losing weight quite often, but that’s mostly because right now, I’m working hard to drop some weight due to the height and weight standards of the military, to which I am required to adhere to. My weight is currently below the maximum allowable weight for my height, but it’s too close for comfort. I prefer to have a buffer, so I’m working on losing an additional 10 lbs which gives me the ability to yo-yo without stress. However, I don’t want people to get the idea that weight is my primary concern or goal with eating right and exercising. It’s not. Not even a little bit.

Eating right is all about being healthy and feeling healthy. I realized that I needed to change my life one morning when I bent down to tie my shoes and I could not only barely reach my shoes, but I had to hold my breath. My stomach had grown so large that it physically impeded me from bending over to tie my own shoes, and to push myself forward enough, I had to hold my breath. This was too much.

I knew I weighed too much. I also had begun to realize (after years of being told by nearly everyone around me who cared) that not only was I overweight, but extremely unhealthy, and continuing with doing nothing to improve my situation and health would only lead to weight-related disease and likely an early death. Of course, I was already dealing with things like Diabetes, nerve tingling in my legs, circulation issues in my toes, gum disease (related to Diabetes), and worsening vision (also related to Diabetes).

Three plus years later, I weigh 175 lbs and I can run sub-8 minute miles. I lost the weight and got into fitness not because I wanted to look better or fit into some norm that society expects or accepts. I didn’t do it because I wanted to see a lower number on the scale, or because I wanted to have a beach body. I did it because I wanted to feel healthy, to be able to go hiking or to take long walks on vacations, and because I didn’t want to die young.

People who never knew me at my heaviest often don’t believe I was ever 312+ lbs. Some have gone so far as to think I’m being disingenuous or pulling a hoax by using someone else’s “Before” photos. I wish. I felt horrible almost all the time. I was always tired, my knees were always sore, and short walks and a single flight of stairs would leave me winded. I never want to feel that way again.

Eating right, for me, is not about losing weight. It’s about living.