Paleo Marine

Seriously. This is going to be a brutally honest article, and if you are easily offended by straight-talk, stop reading now.

You’ve been warned.

Continue reading “The Truth Hurts: Don’t Read if you get Butt-Hurt Easily” →

Someone said this to me the other day. “Why eat well and exercise? You’re not gettinga ny younger!” Really? Thanks for that nugget of wisdom. I guess I should just pack it up, give up, and wait to die. At age 49, right?

You can’t stop getting older, but you can feel young, spry, and energetic past 40 as long as you eat well and get some exercise. I was beginning to feel like an old man. My muscles ached and my joints were sore nearly every moment of my life past 40. My ability to do something so basic as tying my shoes became a chore. I became winded climbing one flight of stairs in my house. Running anything past 15-20 feet was out of the question. Long walks would leave me sweaty, tired, and winded. I really felt like I had lost my youth.

Then, I got tired of it. Based on information from my cousin Sarah, my friend Matt, and the reading I did on the Interweb based on the information they gave me, I decided that I wasn’t ready to just roll into the grave. I was going to get my health back and lose weight (and hopefully get fit). I didn’t expect to become a runner, but I’m ahead of myself here.

I convinced Sherry to join me in this endeavor, and we both committed to the lifestyle change in perpetuity. There was no turning back; we were in it for the long haul. We both did a Whole30 which changed our lives, and then we transitioned into Paleo. After 13 months, I’ve lost 110 lbs and have started running. Sure, I’m only running 3.25 miles in 30 minutes, but that’s after four weeks of running.

The best part of it all: I feel young. I feel energetic, I no longer feel sluggish, tired, or craving foods all the time. I eat three times a day when it’s time to eat a meal to fuel my body, and nothing more. I eat well, and I eat delicious food that leaves me satisfied. I don’t suffer when it comes to what I’m eating. As for the exercise: I never thought I’d be one of those people who enjoy exercise, but I do enjoy my runs. I probably like the post-run feeling a bit more than the actual run itself, but out of my last five runs, four of them were actually fun. One was even amazing.

I know I can’t stop the clock. We all have an expiration date. I refuse to feel old prematurely. I refuse to be so heavy that I can’t sit in a booth at a restaurant. I refuse to ne so big that I need a belt extender on an airplane (or have to face the look of the person who has to sit next to me on the plane). I love how I feel. I love having energy. I love being flexible. I really feel like I did over 20 years ago, and that’s no exaggeration.

Everyone can do what I did. It’s just food and a “whole lotta discipline.” I lost 110 lbs without running. To be honest, I’ve only lost 2 lbs since I began running a month ago. Food plays a much larger part in weight loss than any weight loss fitness program will lead you to believe. It also requires no additional products; just eat right and stick to it.

And yeah, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. I never want to feel like I used to before I got healthy. That life was filled with pain, embarrassment, and disgust. Never again.

I see a lot of people posting these “Tasty” videos on Facebook. You know the ones I’m talking about: it’s a very cleverly edited video that shows ingredients being placed into a bowl and then the food is prepared. The vast majority of these, while most likely delicious, are very unhealthy. I watch them every time, and as soon as I see flour or sugar or rice or any other ingredient that is not Paleo get thrown into the bowl, I continue to scroll past.

It’s not that I can’t stand the temptation: that’s easy for me now. It’s that I feel badly for anyone who is still eating this stuff and thinking that it’s okay for us. If you, the reader, have been following along with me for any period of time, I hope that if you have learned one thing it would be that the diet recommended by the US Federal Government is horribly bad for us and based on bad science. Sugar is bad for us. Wheat and grains are bad for us. Dairy is only okay. Beans (legumes) and soy are not great for us, either.

Think about this: what do farmers feed their animals to fatten them up quickly? Grains. When did the US Government begin advocating eating a diet rich in grains? 1977. In what year did obesity begin to skyrocket in the US? 1977. Coincidences?

Our grandparents and great-grandparents knew that a diet rich in protein and vegetables was good for us and the key to losing weight. Even they knew that grains were fattening. That’s why they didn’t eat as much bread, cakes, and other grain-heavy foods as much as we do.

Is eating a slice of bread a day going to kill you? Probably not. Heck, I’ll even say most likely not. However, how many of us really eat just a single slice of bread a day? How many of us minimize the amount of carbs in the way of sugar, grains, soy, legumes, and dairy in our diets every day? Unless you are actively trying to reduce these things, it’s likely in nearly everything you eat. Strangest food find: most tuna has soy in it. Second-most strange find: most bacon has sugar in it.

Look at the labels of your food. Eliminate the foods that are bad for you. The amount of weight you will lose by just eliminating grains and added-sugar alone will surprise you.

And those “Tasty” videos? I’m over them. They are beautiful, but mostly bad for me.

I’ve written about this before, but I get asked about it all the time, so I’m going to write about it again. The question I get a lot is, when are your cheat days? My answer isn’t what most people want to hear, but it’s been key to my success.

Before I go into when I allow myself to go off-plan, let me discuss my mindset and what I consider cheat days. First of all, there is no such thing as a cheat day. There are off-plan meals, but never an entire cheat day. Second, calling it a cheat day or a cheat meal is a misnomer. Cheating is defined as gaining an unfair advantage on a foe or a competitor. Eating off-plan doesn’t really gain any advantage for the person trying to lose weight or get fit. What it actually does is typically slow or stop any progress, and in some cases, derails people from eating on-plan. A more accurate description would be sabotage day. In my mind, eating off-plan without careful consideration is a sabotage meal.

So, to rephrase the question people ask me, when are my sabotage days? The answer to that question is NEVER. I do not allow myself any regular sabotage days. I have found that anytime I eat off-plan, it takes my body a few days and up to a week or more to recover and start making meaningful progress in weight loss. I hate working for no result, so I minimize any off-plan meals as much as I can.

It is impossible to eat on-plan all the time, though. There are meals that are had with friends, co-workers, and family that sometimes are not Paleo. Sometimes, we just want to let our hair down and imbibe some alcohol and eat some chocolate. On those occasions, Sherry and I carefully consider our meals and exercise for the day, and when we do go off-plan, we are still very mindful of the types of foods and drinks we eat and drink as well as the amount. For example, after a grueling day of playing in a band this past Saturday and not eating very much at all, we decided that we would drink some wine and eat some chocolate after dinner. We did so, and had a great time. The next day, we both found that our weight was the same as the day before, and that we were not feeling any detrimental effects (except for feeling maybe a little dehydrated). We planned our non-Paleo fun, and made sure it wouldn’t make a large impact on the total nutritional intake of calories for the day (considering the fact we don’t count calories).

You don’t have to live a life without pasta, pizza, and donuts forever. You just need to be aware that from time to time, if you do eat foods like that, you can make it have a reduced impact on your overall nutrition for the day if you plan ahead and are careful. Just don’t make a habit of it, and don’t schedule these “Cheat days.” They don’t give you any advantage at all, and at best, hurt your progress. That’s called sabotage.