Paleo Marine

People attribute my success in changing my life and becoming healthy to my ability to motivate myself. They posit that this has to be a military thing, something I learned in the Marines. While it’s true that I grew up in the Corps, in many ways, the fact of the matter is that for over 20 years, I didn’t use any of that motivation to be healthy. In fact, I did pretty much everything in my life on whims based on which direction the winds of my life was blowing.

I have written in the past about finding motivation, but I think people inferred that somehow, you will find the motivation in external sources. This is very wrong. Motivation comes from one place alone: inside. Sure, there are things that can bolster or support your motivation, but ultimately, it’s something you have to dig deep down inside for, find, and nurture. Like anything else, you have to use it to grow it.

Can a scary diagnosis or admonitions from your doctor or health care professional scare you into eating better? Sure. But ultimately, it’s your own motivation that drives you. Can something like being unable to tie your own shoes push you to make better decisions with your health? Yes, but again, it’s your own motivation that makes this happen.

We all have motivation. It’s that drive behind what we do. Some people don’t recognize their motivation, or worse, they dismiss their having any. These are the people who think they can’t live without certain foods (Spoiler: yes you can!). These very same people have no problem getting up on time, getting to work on time, paying their bills, getting their kids to school on time, making swim practice on time five days a week, getting the desserts together for that pot luck at work, and many other things. These all take motivation, yet people dismiss it because these are all things that “Need to be done.” Well guess what: eating right, being healthy, and losing weight all need to be done, too. Heck, I’ll be bold enough to say that focusing on your health, weight, and fitness should be everyone’s primary concern. Staying healthy, within our control, should be something we all strive to do. It’s what allows us to be mobile, to work, to play, and to live longer to love longer.

Motivation is within you. It’s within me. It’s within all of us. You have to harness that power and use it. Think of all the things you get done on a daily basis. Think of those things you hate doing, but you do them anyway. Make a list. Seriously; take out a pen/pencil and a piece of paper (or for you tech-savvy people, grab your phone and make a list in the Notes app) of all the things you do that you don’t like but you get done anyway because you have to. Look at that list. Do you see how long it is? That’s your motivation getting you through!!! You can use that very same superpower and eat right. You can avoid the high-sugar foods. You can avoid the grains and the carbs. You can make progress and get healthy again.

But, as always, it’s up to you. Without you making the effort, nobody can get it done for you. This rests solely on your shoulders. Good thing you have that motivation to rely on!

I’m going to say this again: it’s never okay to accept poor health caused by being overweight. YOU are in control of what goes into your mouth. YOU are the person who has the final say in what you eat. YOU can be stronger than whatever appetite or craving you experience.

I’m really tired of hearing, “I just can’t stop eating bread,” or “I could never stop eating rice and beans.” Yes you could! You can do ANYTHING you set your mind to! I see people day after day eating food that is making them unhealthy and they continue to gain weight. These same people say to me, “You’re so lucky you have the strength to not eat donuts and bad foods,” and when I tell them that they have the very same power, they disagree. Yet somehow, they get to work on time day after day. They pay their bills. They take their kids to activities, day after day, and on-time. They do all these other things that require discipline, yet they can’t control what they eat? That’s a load of you-know-what.

It’s a cop out, is what it is. It’s easier to say you are powerless than to admit the truth: that you’re too lazy to even try. You’ve failed before, and instead of trying again, you surrendered and decided to just let your health be what it is, regardless of how bad it gets. 

I get it. I’ve been there. I surrendered for a long time until I got so fat I couldn’t even tie my own shoes without holding my breath. My health was failing, and my family and friends were afraid for me. I made the choice to change my life. I did a lot of reading, and I asked a lot of questions from people who knew nutrition and health. I made the decision to change my lifestyle, not for the short-term, but forever. I wanted to get healthy and to stay healthy. It’s a never-ending process. I can’t say I’ve reached my goal, because my goal is to stay as healthy as I can and at a healthy weight until I die.

Stop saying it’s too hard. Stop saying you can’t do this. Stop thinking you can’t stop eating foods that are hurting you. Like any relationship, your relationship with food is in your hands. Break up with sugar and start eating better today. I don’t care what method you use; pick a healthy one, adopt it, and live by it. No, you won’t be perfect, but if you strive to improve for the long-haul and adopt a healthy lifestyle, you will find yourself much happier, much healthier, and with some luck and discipline, much lighter. But stop saying you can’t do this. It’s like a broken record.

There are times when, regardless of how hard we try, we just can’t seem to get a good, solid start to eating right. Sometimes, even those of us who have had great success with being very strict and motivated have a tough time getting back up on that horse. It’s not something to be ashamed of; we’re all human. Heck, over the past few weeks, I’ve not been nearly as diligent as I’d like to be in eating right. The result: my weight is up. But I won’t let it get me down, and I’m not going to stop trying.

I ate right yesterday, and not just for a meal or two; I ate right all day. I didn’t drink any alcohol, either, which has been a big part of my diet lately due to the holidays and gatherings. I also ran, which is something else I need to get back into the habit of doing regularly. I’ve been running 1-2 times a week instead of the 3-4 times that I prefer. I will continue to work on this as best I can through the holidays, and I’ll be doing everything I can to stay motivated.

It’s easy to give up. It’s easy to not even start, but once you’ve made progress and fall off the wagon, it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security that you can return somewhat to your pre-diet eating habits. Then, you see the scale report back the toll all this bad food is having: increased weight. To be fair, I’m not up that much. But, it’s enough to trouble me, and enough to cause concern. Heck, I have lots of pants that are tighter than I like them to be, and they don’t feel as comfortable anymore. I got rid of all my larger pants, and I refuse to buy new larger pants, so getting back to eating right is my only option.

I know it’s not easy; if it was, we would all do it without effort, and I wouldn’t be writing about my journey in getting healthy and losing weight in an attempt to help others. I’m experiencing the challenges myself, and I’m right there with you. What defines successful people is their ability to get back up, dust themselves off, and get right back up on that horse after a fall. I may fall day after day, but I will never give up getting back up on that horse. I will continue to eat right and to get some exercise. You can do this, too. 

I used to put off losing weight and getting healthy because I just loved food so much. I figured I had all the time in the world to get healthy, so why start now? For me, things came to a head when I was trying to tie my shoes one morning, and I found I couldn’t do so without holding my breath; my stomach was so large, it physically impeded me from tying my own shoes comfortably. What didn’t get me to start losing weight on their own merits were the following:

• Diabetes. I was on Metformin for two years, but that wasn’t enough for me to begin adopting a healthy lifestyle.
• Obesity. I weighed over 312 lbs, yet this was’t reason enough either.
• Fatty Liver Disease. I figured this was irreversible.
• Unable to climb a single flight of stairs without being winded. 
• Failing eye sight (due to Diabetes).
• Numbness and tingling in lower extremities (due to circulation issues)
• XXXL clothing. It was getting hard to find clothing to fit me outside of t-shirts and jeans or sweat pants.

Now, to be fair, after I realized that tying my own shoes had become a major issue, it was more like the straw that broke the camel’s back. Once I realized that something had to change, all those aforementioned bullet points hit me at once. I realized my life had to change.

So, what is keeping you from adopting a healthier lifestyle? What are you waiting for? What reasons do  you have that are compelling enough to keep you from living your best life?

This weekend was very busy as it not only involved a lot of training for my Soldiers, but it was also the weekend when we hold our annual St. Barbara’s Ball. St. Barbara is the patron saint of the Field Artillery, and we have a ball annually to honor and celebrate members of the Field Artillery, past and present. If you know anything about military balls, then you also know it involves a lot of drinking.

The holiday season is tough enough without drinking, but like I’ve said many times before, certain life events are too important and too memorable to skip. While I could easily have gone to the ball and not drank any alcohol, many of the traditions include toasts and drinking of the “Grog,” which is an alcoholic beverage. I was not going to miss out on tradition, so I partook.

Fortunately,  I didn’t drink too much, and while I did have a headache the next morning, I felt fine within a few hours of waking up. Hydration is a necessity when drinking, and I let myself down in that regard.

Today is Monday, and I’m back on my strict eating plan: strict Paleo, and no alcohol. I have a 5k run coming up on Saturday, and there is a good chance I’ll be attending a military career development course in January, so I need to not only kick up my running and exercise to 3-4 times a week, but I also need to lose some weight. While I’m not very much over my max, I am by a few pounds. I’d rather not have to resort to measuring my body fat.

This holiday season, enjoy your time with your family and friends. I’m not condoning throwing all common sense out the window, but employing some moderation and making smart choices to mitigate the damage goes a long way toward holding your ground when it comes to your health and your weight.

Apologies for the hack poetry yesterday. I don’t know why I felt the need to post the way I did, yet it felt like the thing to do. I’ll try not to let that happen again. With that said, I almost feel like writing more poetry, or at least some lyrics to a song today, because the weight has finally started coming back off after a weekend of indulgence. Like I knew it would, the IF + Paleo Diet are yielding the results I’m after: I dropped 3 lbs since Sunday morning.

I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right; that’s not true weight. It’s water weight. And yes, I know that. However, it was weight I was carrying, and weight that made me feel bloated and made my trousers feel tighter than normal (and according to my friend Steve, they’re already tight enough). With every pound I lose, a portion of that is solid, no-kidding fat.

The weight I’m at right now looks fine, but it’s deceiving. I may look fine, but my weight is actually over the maximum allowed by the DoD for members of the military at my height. The reason I look okay but weigh too much comes down to two things: muscle weight and skin weight. You see, I still have a lot of extra skin on me, and it all weighs about 12 lbs.

While my skin doesn’t hang over or flop on me anywhere, it is visible when I’m doing push-ups or planks. It hangs off my body in a very unnatural way that makes it look like I’m wearing a body suit made of skin that’s just a little too big for me. It even hangs off my thighs and my shins! People have asked me if I’m going to get the skin removed, not because it looks weird when I’m standing up, but because I have mentioned how strange it is at times. I always say the same thing: no. It doesn’t bother me enough nor am I vain enough to get it cut off. I can deal with it. Besides, over time, it’s shrinking a little bit at a time. It’s not nearly as bad today as it was a year ago.

Intermittent Fasting (IF) has been working great for me. I’ve been doing some reading and research on it, and it turns out that it’s a great and healthy way for people to lose weight when coupled with a good, healthy eating program (which is called a diet, btw). Since I’m a pretty strict Paleo adherent (well, the vast majority of the time, anyway), it allows me to continue to make progress toward my ultimate goal despite me getting lax here and there. For example, this weekend is my unit’s St. Barbara’s Ball. I will be eating non-Paleo foods and drinking alcoholic beverages. But it won’t matter; I’ll be able to sustain the evening with some minor bloating and temporary weight gain thanks to IF.

This post is admittedly less about the overall process and more about my own progress. I apologize for that. At least I didn’t offend your brain with my bad poetry. Again, I promise to keep that to a minimum around here.

I ate too much.

I drank too much.

I now weigh too much.

But that’s okay. I will lose the weight.

I know how to do it.

I know how to get past this.

I know what it takes.

I will get through. I will lose the weight.

My mind is clear.

My determination is solid.

My motivation is set.

I will succeed. I will lose the weight.

It won’t happen in a day.

It won’t happen in a week.

It might happen in a month.

But it will happen. I will lose the weight.

This site is called PaleoMarine because that’s me! The word Paleo in my name comes from the diet I adhere to; the lifestyle I’ve adopted to lose weight and to remain healthy. The Marine in my name comes from my being a U.S. Marine. While I’m currently a Soldier in the Army National Guard, as the saying goes, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” Although I wear a different uniform and belong to a different organization, to the core, I am and always will be a Marine. Besides, I thought it would be silly to change the name of the website to PaleoSoldier.

I’ve discussed in the past my fitness, from my running to the necessity of my being physically fit for military service. I’ve also discussed exercise for fitness, but again, mostly as a counter-point to those who desire to lose weight through exercise without changing their diet or lifestyle. However, I’ve not gone into getting fit for the sake of being fit.

It sounds kind of silly, I know: get fit to be fit. But really, what reasons do people have to get fit? For me, initially, it was about feeling better. I was walking to get out of the house, to stretch the ol’ legs, and eventually, to try to get the heart pumping a bit more as I was living a very sedentary life. Sure, I lost over 100 lbs without lifting a finger, but I was also still weak and while I weighed a lot less, I didn’t really look that good in my new (very loose) skin. Getting fit solved a lot of those problems.

Increased physical strength. Getting fit will benefit you in your growing muscles and making them stronger. Your stamina will also increase. When I found myself getting winded using an electric drill while putting up shelves, I decided right then and there that I was going to start doing push-ups. I wasn’t expecting to get arms like Ahhnold (and quite frankly, I don’t really want to go down the rabbit hole that is body sculpting, although I respect those who do; that’s a level of commitment I’m just not willing to do), but I wanted to be able to do basic household work without feeling wiped out afterward.

Work. Some jobs require physical strength or agility. The military is one of those jobs with the added bonus of also requiring its members to adhere to height and weight regulations. While fitness isn’t the sole factor in controlling your weight, along with a good diet, it will help keep your speed up, your strength up, and your muscles will be better defined which help you look good in uniform and will keep your body fat ratio lower.

Finally, what most people are after when they exercise: look better and/or muscle definition. I admit that a small part of me was after this, too. After losing 130 lbs, I found myself with a lot of extra skin and not a lot of definition in my muscles. Worse, I still kind of looked a bit pudgy in the face. Once I began running and doing push-ups, that changed. At first, it was very quick and dramatic. I was actually able to notice a difference within about two weeks of running. Since then, there hasn’t been much change in my face, but my body continues to make changes as it becomes more muscular and as the skin (slowly) shrinks. Also, the muscles under the loose skin are getting bigger and leaner, and my legs are now very strong. Because of the loose skin, I will never look as great as I could have if I wouldn’t have become morbidly obese, but I’m also not shy about being shirtless. Sure, the very lower part of my gut looks a bit deflated, but the rest of me? I’m okay with, and that feels good.

So, while I spend the lion’s share of my typing here on eating right and on the psychological tools I use to succeed in weight loss and healthy living, I strongly advocate for getting fit. Even if you just walk for 30 minutes every other day. Start with that. Or you can start how I started: doing push-ups. My first day of push-ups was humbling: I did 5 (or 7… I forget, but it was definitely less than 10). It took me a while to get up to 10, and then 20 and then 25, and so on. I only did as many as I could comfortably do and I never “Pushed it.” This is the 80% fitness rule, and many military and special forces people do this to allow themselves to still be physically competent after a workout. You can see why this makes sense for them, but I found it made a lot of sense for me, too. You see, I hate muscle pain, and if I workout until my muscles burn, I will ache for up to 5 days afterward, and that leaves me never wanting to exercise again. So, doing the push-ups until you feel like you can no longer do another one comfortably made sense. And the crazy part? It worked! Within three months, I was up to 120 push-ups in two minutes! The best part? No pain along the way!!! Now, currently I do between 60-80 push-ups mostly because I’ve been slacking in my workouts a bit, but I know that if I need to, I can ramp it back up and work up to more.

So, there are lots of good reasons to get fit. Find one that suits you and hold onto that and get out there and do it. Stop procrastinating. It’s super-easy! Just walk. Or jog. Or run. Or do push-ups. Or buy some kettlebells and throw them around for a bit every other day. But whatever you do, make sure you do some reading to make sure you’re doing it safe, and don’t over-do it! But most importantly, just do it.

This is the official start of the Holiday Season! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and many of us will be eating with friends, family, and loved ones. Most of us will eat far more than we normally do, and for those of us who do our best to stay away from grains, legumes, foods with added sugar, and alcohol, it’s a day filled with indulgence that can lead to temptation, stress, and discomfort. What I aim to do with this article is to introduce some coping mechanisms I use to get past the holidays.

Temptation: you want to eat all this delicious food. It is tempting from the most basic level: it’s delicious food! But on an emotional level, you are around loved ones celebrating a time of year that brings us together. There are many traditions involved, both cultural and familial. To miss out on these seems wrong. So what are you to do? This leads to stress.

Stress: you want to continue to eat your healthy food, and you want to be true to your new healthy lifestyle, but dang it, look at all this delicious food! What about that apple pie Mom made just for me?!?! Aunt Rose makes the most amazing cranberry sauce; how could I possibly look her in the face and decline a serving or two? I’ve been feeling so incredible these past days/weeks/months on my new diet; eating this food will surely lead to discomfort.

Discomfort: both social and physical. Turning down Aunt Rose’s cranberry sauce or Mom’s apple pie will be socially awkward, and may likely hurt some feelings. Okay, let’s be real, here: you will MOST DEFINITELY hurt some feelings. Mom and Aunt Rose will both say that there is no such thing as a diet on a holiday, and you know what? I have come to believe that they’re right! As for the physical discomfort? That’s nothing that won’t go away in a day or two. You may end up with a slight tummy grumble, the runs, or some bloating for a day or two, but do you know what the great news is? It’ll pass. All of it. Within two to three days, you’ll be right back to where you were before the holiday; feeling great, eating great, and living your best life.

A new coping method I’ve found is intermittent fasting, or IF as I call it. Since beginning IF, I’ve been able to be a little more careless with my diet, eating larger portions or introducing sides that contain ingredients I normally shy away from or avoid outright. The result has been maintaining my weight (at worst), and losing weight easily when I do eat right (at best). This is also the method my wife Sherry has been using for years to mitigate the impact of the holiday meals on her physical and emotional well-being. I’ve decided to adopt it this year as well, and I will report back on how it goes.

With all that said, I truly and honestly wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope that you find yourself among loved ones, friends, and/or family. If you cannot, please don’t despair. Reach out to someone; anyone. If that’s not possible, or you’re not willing, that’s okay too. Remember that just because you’re alone does not mean you’re unwanted. I’ve spent many holidays alone, whether deployed or just on my own. I found myself alone on more holidays than I care to remember, and while they can be lonely, they can be times of reflection, marathon gaming, or binge watching that tv show you’ve heard about but haven’t had the time to check out yet. Make the most of it! Enjoy! And Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Sounds stupid, right? Delicious food is delicious. But it’s an important point to make because I, like many other people, mistakenly believed that in order to eat healthy, I had to get used to bland foods. That was not only my greatest fear, but honestly, led to most of my failures in the past when I tried to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Mostly, it was due to my own lack of knowledge; healthy foods don’t have to be bland, yet most Western diets that focused on weight loss tended to be very bland which led to palate fatigue and failure to maintain a healthier lifestyle.

The popularity of the Mediterranean Diet helped change some people’s minds about what a healthy diet could be: delicious and healthy at the same time. I never fully adopted it as my daily lifestyle, but I did eat a lot of Mediterranean food, and yes, it’s delicious, filling, and best of all, healthy. It’s this exposure to healthy food that enabled me to consider a healthier diet, and to convince my wife that she should give it a try with me.

It’s interesting to me that we can’t eat the same thing, day in and day out, without getting tired of it. My dad told me a story about when he first came to the United States, and his aunt asked him what he wanted to eat. My dad told her, “Chicken! I love chicken! I could eat it every day!” He said that because he hadn’t had many opportunities to eat chicken as a refugee in Austria after fleeing the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. You can guess what my great-aunt made for my dad: chicken. The problem was that she not only made it for him that night, but for every lunch and dinner for the following six months. He got so tired of chicken that for the rest of his life, unless it was every great once in a while, he avoided chicken like the plague.

My current diet is the Paleo Diet, but I have been incredibly successful with Whole30 and Keto diets. Right now, I’ve introduced intermittent fasting, but that’s more to combat my holiday eating than anything else. What I love about Paleo is that the foods are varied, delicious, and healthy. As long as I eat regular portions, I will either maintain my weight or even lose weight. The only problem I have is that so much Paleo food is amazing that it’s easy to over-eat.

One thing that doesn’t happen anymore, however, is being tempted by foods like breads, pizza, pasta, or other grains. It took a while for those foods to lose their luster for me, but while I did have some pizza last month with my soldiers, and yes, it was delicious, it doesn’t hold a candle to my wife’s Paleo Ropa Vieja, or even her Chorizo and Beef Meatloaf. It became easy to get away from the bad foods and to embrace the good ones when they taste so darned good.

Don’t get stuck in the baked chicken breast rut. Take a look at Whole30 and Paleo. Look at Keto. Look at Atkins. There are lots of options out there that fit your taste and lifestyle, and they will be much more effective at you being successful in the long-term.