Results not typical

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bigejwine20142017You know those commercials on TV where they show a picture of someone who weighed over 300 lbs and then you see them wearing some sexy clothes and they are thin? They say, “I used Product X and lost 150 lbs in one year!” Then, there’s a small bit of text at the bottom of the screen that always says something to the effect of, “This weight loss was based on a healthy diet and exercise. These results are not typical.”

Well, I have good news for you! Those results are far more typical than you’d think! For those who actually eat well and get some exercise, they will lose weight. For every person who says, “But I eat well and I exercise but I can’t seem to lose weight,” I’m certain that you would find that they are not eating right. They may THINK they’re eating right, but ultimately, they are not. Why do I say this? How can I be certain? Because I’ve helped analyze diets of some of these people and when they are honest and send me the list of foods they eat every week, I’ve found 100% of the time that they are not eating right. What they think is healthy really isn’t. You can run, run, run until the day is done but unless you’re eating good food, it’s all for nothing.

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The bad news is that you can’t rely on a lot of the established “Science” in diet and nutrition. So much of it is based on studies paid for by food lobbies that it can’t be trusted. The recommendations they give are sketchy, at best. Milk and grains, even whole grains, are not nearly as good for you as these studies make them out to be. To the contrary, they are bad for us. I won’t even get into sugar again. It’s literally toxic to us and is killing us.

The results I’ve experience since going Paleo are typical if you stick with it and you are strict with it. 100% typical. But you have to persevere, you have to be honest, and you have to resist temptation. If you can’t do that, you will not have the same results I’ve had. Plain and simple.

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I know some people have a slower or harder time with it. I get it. Our bodies are all different. But what I’ve found is that these people often have a meal where they say, “Well, the weight’s not coming off, so I’ll just have this hamburger and get right back to the diet.” I’m sorry, but that’s not how this works. I know it’s hard. It’s been hard for me too. But the payoff is so much better than the short-term gratification of eating a burger that I can now easily resist these temptations. You can, too.

Get it in your head that you are on a new eating plan now. You are no longer the person you once were. This new you now eats a certain diet. You wouldn’t feed a fish to a koala bear. Be the koala bear and adopt the new lifestyle and stick with it. Paleo is delicious, healthy, and filling. It’s not all salads and baked chicken breast (thank God!).

Getting past cravings

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I think my body has finally adjusted back to my Paleo lifestyle. How do I know this? Well, my weight continues to plummet and my cravings have subsided and now I only feel hunger before meals (as it should be). I feel energetic, my body is lean and without bloating, and I feel more focused. Waking up is easier, as is falling asleep the night before. My skin feels better, my clothes are fitting properly, and in some cases, even getting too loose. Yes, Paleo continues to be a good thing for me.

 

 

I receive emails from folks asking me questions about how I do this or that on Paleo, and ultimately, my answer boils down to a few truths. This is what I do in a nutshell:

  1. I don’t eat anything at all with grains, added sugar, soy, legumes, and most dairy.
  2. I eat a portion that would fit into a cup made of both my hands (this is a Whole30 trick that works wonders).
  3. I don’t snack. This one is controversial to my wife, but I will admit that my cheat for this is to drink a cup of coffee whenever I get hungry too soon.
  4. I don’t cheat. I call it sabotage. I never, ever, ever allow myself to go off-plan without a good reason. What’s a good reason? Vacation, special dinner with friends for a special occasion, holidays, and birthdays. Even then, I try to limit the amount I eat to mitigate the impact to my body.
  5. I exercise at least three times a week. This is not for weight loss but for cardio, strength, and stress relief. It helps those three things far more than any effect I’ve seen it have on my weight. If anything, exercising has aided plateaus.
  6. I keep track of not just my weight, but my size, body fat, how I feel, how clothes feel, etc. There are so many measures of our health that I don’t allow myself to focus on one. Only when a few or more of these measures are out of whack do I change what I’m doing.

Don’t stick to the diet? You will not have the success I’ve had. Don’t eat smaller portions? You will not have the success I’ve had. Eat snacks regularly? You will not have the success I’ve had. Allow cheats more than once a month? Guess what? You will not have the success I’ve had. Will you see smaller weight loss or other improvements in your health? More than likely, yes, but you won’t see the huge results I’ve had.

I am strict, almost to a fault. It’s because I put my health first and everything else second. I lived a life without rules as it pertains to food, and it nearly cost me my life. That’s not hyperbole. Had I not undertaken the steps necessary to get healthy again, I would likely be a far worse health than I was, with loss in mobility, flexibility, and even basic function. You are in charge of your health. There are no quick and easy fixes. However, the solution is simple. It just takes discipline and perseverance.

Back at my pre-trip weight

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I just like this photo of us.

It took 6 days to lose 14 lbs. SIX DAYS. That confirms it: it was water weight. I find it amazing how much water my body was retaining due to the increase in salt, sugar, and potassium in my vacation diet. Now, just six days later, I’m back at the weight I was the day I left.

IT FEELS AMAZING!

Why? Because my clothes all fit better, and (and I admit this is silly and only psychological) because I know that I’m back at my lowest weight. I’m back to a happy place on the scale, and my body just feels right. I don’t feel sluggish anymore, and my flexibility is even better now (I like to stretch in bed in the mornings, and my knees come up farther now than they have for the past few weeks of wanton* eating). I feel like I’m the me I was getting used to (if that makes any sense).

I continuously use data points to help me make decisions with my diet and food choices. Having this additional data about having eaten pretty much anything for two weeks and then being able to recover back to my pre-trip weight within a week is really valuable information. It lets me know that I can go off-plan without long-term repercussions with more ease than I thought possible. I can see some In-n-Out burgers, pizza, or some Freddy’s hot dogs in my future (but very rarely). With that said, I am looking forward to today’s steak lunch. I will probably eat the entire sweet potato just because I can.

*Notice I said wanton, and not Wonton. Just saying.

Paleo: Our New Normal

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Sherry and I in Madrid.

Something Sherry talked about in her post a few days ago about returning from vacation and getting back to our “Normal Paleo meals” really struck a chord with me. Back in September 2015, I never could have imagined that our journey would be as successful as it’s been. I never thought we’d be so comfortable with a lifestyle that is so radically different than the one we were living. I never thought I would hear myself saying, “I can’t wait to get back to eating our healthy foods” after enjoying two weeks of non-Paleo treats.

The fact of the matter is that now that we’ve returned, after only three days of Paleo food, I’ve started feeling more myself than I have for the past few weeks. Don’t get me wrong. The food and drinks I’ve been enjoying for the past two weeks have been stellar and treat after treat, but therein lies the problem: they were treats. I’m glad to have enjoyed them, but now, it’s nice to be back to our normal food. It’s filling, it’s delicious, and most of all, it’s nutritious and feeds our bodies properly.

I gained 14 lbs in the 11 days we were in Spain, and in three days of eating Paleo, I’ve lost 11 of those lbs. Of course, it’s all water weight, but the food I’m eating now doesn’t promote water retention in my skin. My body is back to looking lean, and I don’t have a pudgy appearance anymore. Oh, and I’m almost back to my pre-vacation weight, to boot!

Once you embrace the lifestyle and accept the benefits, it becomes the new normal. It becomes not only comfortable, but something you crave because it makes you feel so good to eat wholesome, quality foods. Don’t just take my word for it. Commit to it, stick to it, and you’ll find the same.

 

Paleo-Friendly Vacation Foods Abroad

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Look at all that Paleo-friendly Iberian ham!

I have written about how I ate non-Paleo food and how it affected my weight through water retention. What I didn’t talk about, however, is that I didn’t really gain a lot of what I would call long-term or permanent weight on this trip. This is due to two things.

  1. Walking. So much walking. We did all the walking. 10 miles plus per day was the norm, and while it’s easy to eat more than the calories you expend, walking this much helped burn off at least some of the increased calorie intake.
  2. Budgeting the bad-food intake. I consciously ate Paleo as often as I could to allow myself non-Paleo servings or meals.

In other words, I didn’t eat non-Paleo three meals a day. At most, it was one meal that had a serving or two of non-Paleo options. The rest of the time, I skipped the bread, the desserts, and the rice. It was easy to do, as a lot of food in Spain is surprisingly Paleo-friendly to begin with.

A little restraint goes a long way. Limiting myself to just a serving or two a day of non-Paleo foods went a long way to ensuring I didn’t gain a lot of permanent weight. Also, eating a reduced amount of the non-Paleo foods when I did eat them helped matters as well.

I always tell people: live your life. Experience new things. You don’t have to live without carbs forever. If you do have them, be reasonable, be smart, and find a way to fit it into your life without derailing everything. Treats are okay; just don’t make them the new normal.

My Water Retention Trip

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Me at the helm of the SS Water Retention in Barcelona, Spain.

My vacation wasn’t just a trip to Spain. I didn’t just get to see Madrid, Barcelona, Segovia, and Toledo. I also got to see how sugar, salt, potassium, and drinking a lot of alcohol affects my body’s water retention. Let’s just say it was both enlightening and frightening.

Our body is good at holding water. When your diet contains excess salt, sugar, and potassium, it will cause a reaction within your skin to store water. I’m not talking about edema, but a condition where (as best as I can understand it as a lay person) the cortisone in your body stores water. Weird, but true. And, it’s something I watched happen.

My trip began after a few days in Spain when I gradually allowed myself to eat foods that were higher in salt content than normal. I also began eating foods that were higher in carbs, and eventually, desserts with sugar in them. It’s not that I didn’t care: I did. It’s just that the more I thought about it, I was missing out on foods I really wanted to try, and these were likely once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to have these things. I figured I’d deal with the fallout later.

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Duck Paella in Barcelona. So amazing. I can’t describe in words how delicious this was.

I didn’t expect to gain as much as I did. Two days before I left for Spain, I enlisted into the National Guard, and before my swearing in ceremony, they weighed me. I weighed in at 174 lbs. Fast forward two weeks: I weighed 189.9 lbs. That’s 15 lbs gained in 12 days.

Everything I read said that when you gain that much that fast, it’s mostly water weight, and that it will go away very quickly once you stop imbibing the added sugar, salt, and potassium. Well, I put this to the test, and sure enough, I dropped all but 5 lbs of it in two days. I’m sure that the rest is honestly-earned extra weight, but I also know that within a few weeks, it’ll also be gone.

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There was a lot of drinking done in Spain. This was a delicious Mojito. Note the sugar at the bottom of the glass.

My recent trip with water retention is likely over, and now I’m back into real weight loss territory, but it was an interesting (if not annoying) journey learning about how the body reacts to chemical input. It was also interesting to see how quickly the water retention subsided and how my body got back to normal.

I still want to eat like crazy, but not because I’m hungry

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Churros and Cocoa at San Gines in Madrid. Absolutely delicious.

The hardest part so far about coming back from a vacation where I ate a lot of foods is the fact that I still want to eat like crazy. It’s not because I’m hungry. Well, it feels like hunger, but really, it’s either boredom or cravings I’m still kicking from the added sugar that I had in my diet over the past two weeks. I’ve had to do things like drink glasses of water, drink some coffee, or find something to take my mind off of it over the past weekend. It worked: I didn’t eat outside of meal times.

When going back to a strict eating plan, there’s always some push-back from the body and also from our minds. My mind loves eating, and my body jumps right on the “Let’s eat all the things” bandwagon by giving me cravings between meals. Fortunately, I know that this all subsides after a few days of clean eating. Good, natural foods don’t have this effect on me, and once my body is accustomed to it, I can eat reasonable portions three times a day without hunger or cravings, imagined or otherwise. I just need to get there.

Starting a Whole30 is hard. Going back to Paleo after vacation feels like I’m doing a Whole30 again. At least I know how my body reacts, what to expect, and I also know that it will get better soon. The best part: I will feel super and I will be back to losing weight soon. After that, I’ll reach my goal and then be in maintenance mode. I can’t wait!

Oh, I’m down another pound this morning to 176. I’ve now lost all but 2 lbs of the weight I put on in Spain in the past two weeks, and it’s only taken me three days to do it. I finally feel better this morning and without the flu symptoms. It feels really good.

10 lbs, No Regrets

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Sherry’s recap of our trip and the philosophy behind our new normal versus experiencing a new culture while on a trip abroad is exactly how I feel.

paleosherry's avatarOur Daily Bacon

If you haven’t been following along on Paleo Marine’s blog, then you wouldn’t know that my 2 week absence from posting was because of a fabulous trip to Spain.  Spain – the land of hot chocolate & churros, crusty bread, pastries, paella, turrones, sangria, and the list goes on and on.  Interestingly enough, there were actually a lot of Paleo-friendly delicacies we enjoyed while we were there including the sliced Iberian hams, the potato “tortilla” omlettes, suckling pig, duck, steak, etc, but above all, I simply just ate too much of everything.  Yeah, all told the damage was about 10 lbs and a dress size up – but after 2 days of “normal” Paleo eating, things are already getting a little more comfortable.

Could I have done better while travelling?  Absolutely.  But my philosophy on travel (especially overseas) is to take the opportunity to experience as much local cuisine and…

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Weight Update: The Plan Works!

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I’m pretty happy this morning. I did skip running this morning, and I think I will regret that later this afternoon if I’m forced to run in the rain (when it’s also hot out), but after a weekend of strict Paleo, I’m down 9 lbs already! I weighed in at 188.8 lbs on Saturday morning and this morning, I weighed in at 179.8 lbs. I’m thinking that most of my added weight was water retention from eating foods high in sugar and in greater volume than usual.

Tonight after work, I begin my regular running schedule again of three runs a week. I was only able to get in two runs in the past two weeks in Spain while I was on vacation, and I’m going to be paying for that with slower runs with a bit more difficulty in the beginning. I also know my push ups will suffer. I’m hoping to get at least 60 (down from 80).

Either way, I’m happy to see the weight come back off and get me closer to my goal once again. I was pretty cranky about my weight Saturday morning even though I knew it would go away. It’s just easier to deal with it now that I’m seeing it drop again so quickly.

Edited to add: After my run tonight, my weight was down to 177.0 lbs! I know, more water weight lost, but overall, it’s looking like I’ll be back to my pre-vacation weight by the end of the week if all goes well! This is exciting!

Getting Back Into The Swing of Things

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There are many reasons people fall off the plan. For me, it was a vacation to Spain for two weeks that I didn’t want to miss out on experiencing to the fullest. My plans were made with the best intentions to stay as Paleo as possible, and while I did, I also allowed myself to drink a lot of alcohol (Sangria is amazing in Spain!), eat desserts, and foods with carbs like bread and rice. I don’t regret it for a moment, but it did take a toll on me.

Others fall off because they have a hard time sticking with Paleo, an addiction to sugar or carbs, or an inability to cut the emotional attachments to certain foods. There are those who are stress eaters who eat more when they encounter more stress. The list of reasons could go on.

The bottom line is that at some point, you need to just get back on path and do the work. That’s what I’m doing. I started Saturday morning. It’s not easy with the sugar cravings I’m experiencing, but having been through this a few times now (first on my Whole30 and then after my vacation last year to Seattle and Vancouver), I know that these cravings will be gone in 2-3 days. Also, any bloating I am experiencing will also be gone in 2-3 days, and I will be able to lose most of the weight I gained on my trip after my first week of eating right.

There’s no time like the present to get back on track and eat right. If you’ve fallen off the plan, it’s okay. It happens. We’re all human, and life gets in the way sometimes. There is no grade on a report card, and you’re not in competition with anyone else. Just get back on the horse and ride it to victory! This is your journey and you make the rules.