Paleo Marine

Sometimes, you find that people who are close to you don’t seem to share your enthusiasm when you start a new healthy lifestyle. They ridicule, make snide comments, or otherwise put down what you are doing, trying to scare you with anecdotes they claim they heard from others or on the news about the difficulty or danger in your new diet. I have had this happen to me, and still, over three years after my wife and I began our healthy journey, I still hear from people that Paleo, Whole30, Keto, IF, etc are dangerous and won’t last long. Well, I don’t know where they are getting their info from, because Whole30 and Paleo have saved my life, I’ve been maintaining for over two years, and IF is working really well for me right now!

The reasons why people do this varies. Many times, people like to put others down when they feel their own shortcomings are being brought to the fore of their consciousness when they see you succeeding at something. They would rather drag you down than to admit that you’re doing something amazing that they can’t bring themselves to do.

Another reason this happens is because people don’t like change. They have put you into a certain slot within their world, and when you start changing your own lifestyle, they feel pressured to change where you put you in their social circle. They also begin to have doubts about being able to adapt to the changes you’re making.

Something else I’ve noticed is that often, it is the people we feel are the closest to us, or that we’ve invested a lot of emotional capital into who are the most vehement in their disapproval. In my personal experience, these people liked having the fat, jolly guy around to poke fun at. Now that I’m thinner than they are, they aren’t able to make fun of me for being overweight. It forces them to point the finger at themselves.

You need to learn to shut those people out. Often, these people are family members, and I’m not advocating cutting them out of your life, but you have to let what they say go in one ear and go out the other. I’ve had to do that, and it’s served me well.

A small anecdote about my own experience. I was telling a close family member that I was proud of hitting the 50lbs lost milestone early on, and I was expecting a congratulations or for them to at least be happy for me, but what I got was apathy and a snide remark. “Well, you still have a lot to go, so it’s not that big of a deal.” Oddly, it’s possible that in their mind they were being supportive or helpful, but if that’s what they thought they were doing, I’d have rather they didn’t even try. I didn’t let that conversation get to me. I remember it, but I didn’t let it demotivate me. If anything, I decided that I was going to show them, and that I was going to succeed despite their negativity.

Rely on your own motivation, dedication, and persevere regardless of what the Negative Nancys or the Pessimistic Pauls have to say. You are worth the effort, and worth the hard work. Do it despite the naysayers. It feels so good when you reach your goals. 

It’s not something I thought would work for me, but it’s allowed me to have some freedom I typically don’t allow myself. It’s also helped me drop a little weight, and although I’m still behind where I’d like to be, it’s a self-inflicted issue. The fact of the matter is that I’m not being as strict as I’d like to be.

I’m human. I like food and drink. What’s worse, is while I normally have very high levels of dedication and motivation, during the holiday season, we are around friends more often, and we find ourselves in social situations that surround you in food. What’s worse is that food, 99% of the time, is not Paleo. So, what’s a guy to do?

For me, it’s IF. Intermittent Fasting has allowed me to stray off course a little while maintaining (at worst) and even losing a little bit (at best) of weight. I am certain that if I were as strict and careful as I usually am with my food, coupled with IF, I’d be back in the 160’s right now. Am I okay with not being there yet? Yes and no. While I’d like to get back to a more comfortable weight, I take solace knowing that I’ve been able to participate in some social drinking and meals with friends who are dear to me.

So, my weight is holding steady for the most part, and I’m having a very nice holiday season. I’ve been able to have a drink or two here and there and even an order of onion rings. The rest of the time, I eat a very strict Paleo diet. The funny thing is that I definitely feel the side-effects of eating non-Paleo foods when I do: I get the tummy ache, grumbling guts, and more frequent trips to the restroom. But otherwise, IF has allowed me to enjoy things a little more this season, and I’m thankful for that.

Is IF something I will maintain forever? I don’t think so. I enjoy breakfast, and I really do miss my bacon and eggs and the occasional pulled pork and egg casserole or blueberry Paleo pancakes that Sherry makes for me. I’m not sure I can live without those indefinitely.

My first month of weight loss was amazing. I lost 20 lbs, and I felt great. I was eating delicious food, I never felt hungry or needed snacks, and I lost weight without suffering. Then, the rate of loss slowed to 10 lbs/month for the next 11 months. And then… the plateau. I had changed nothing: I was eating the same foods, the same portion sizes, and doing all the right things, yet my weight loss stopped. What happened?

A few things. First, from the most basic level, the amount of calories I was taking in equaled the amount of calories my body was expending. Calories In/Calories Out (CICO) is, on the surface, a solid diet. However, it fails to take into account the quality of the calories, and the makeup of those calories. A 100 calorie apple is FAR better for you and processed differently than a 100 calorie Snickers bar.

Second, your body adjusts and becomes accustomed to the quality calories. It burns leaner, and starts processing the food you eat more efficiently which causes it to use fewer calories to process the food you’re eating. Believe it or not, there’s a big difference between gross and net calories. Taking the example above, the net calories from a 100 calorie apple is far less than the net calories from that Snicker’s bar because the body can much more easily process the Snickers bar to extract the sugar and calories from it.

Third, there’s less of you. When I lost 100 lbs, I had lost nearly 1/3 of my body weight at that point. The means that the number of calories it took for me to exist was also reduced. While 2600 calories a day was what it took for my marbled body to maintain that weight, at 195 lbs, that number had reduced to around 1800 calories a day. Now at 170 lbs, I’m down to 1600 calories a day to maintain this weight.

My current goal is to get to 165 lbs. I find it difficult to get there because I need to eat smaller portions. The quality of my food is good, and I don’t snack. I get a lot of sleep, I stay hydrated, and I exercise regularly. The only variable I know is not right is the size of my portions: I love to eat. And that goes back to the source of my problem with food: I love to eat. I know, everyone loves food, but that’s not what I’m talking about. My problem with food is that I love eating.

I struggle with the last 10 lbs, and I know many others do, too. Find what is holding you back, and then decide: is losing that last 10 lbs really necessary? Is it worth the change in lifestyle or comfort to achieve? Is reaching that goal sustainable in the long run? I’m starting to think that maybe staying in the low 170’s is more sustainable for me long-term, and I’m also starting to think that I’m okay with that.

I am the turtle. I won the race comfortably. What race is that? The race to get healthy and to lose 150 lbs. I did so without starving, without a lot of exercise, and without discomfort. I did it without feeling hungry, guilty, or self-conscious. I did it eating delicious, easy to prepare (and not expensive) foods, and even being able to eat out. I didn’t accomplish all this overnight, and I not only didn’t expect to do it quickly, but I actually set out to do it at a comfortable, healthy pace. 10 lbs/month was my goal, and for the first 12 months, I was able to keep to that rate.

As people living in the Internet Age, we want everything immediately. Amazon Prime is a good example: we pay to get packages shipped to us quickly. Netflix allows us to click on a movie and watch it immediately. Burger King allows us to get a burger in minutes, while Little Caesar has Hot and Ready pizzas available as soon as you slip the cashier a fin (look that one up; my dad actually used to call them fins).

I get it. I wanted to lose weight quickly, too, but I learned that losing it slowly was better for your body, for your skin (to shrink up nicer), and even psychologically. The last one wasn’t something I expected to have to deal with, yet here I am over three years later still getting used to being 150 lbs lighter than I was at my heaviest. I still get surprised sometimes seeing pictures of myself, or even my reflection in the mirror. I have nightmares that I gained 100 lbs overnight. I don’t know how much of the psychological effect was mitigated by the slower rate of loss, but I can only imagine how strange it must feel for someone who loses 100 lbs in 6 months or less.

My point is don’t be in a hurry to lose weight. Focus on the quality of your food, your portion sizes, and on learning a new lifestyle that will leave you healthier and ultimately, weighing less. Let your journey be the focus, and not the destination. When you do that, you become regularly surprised with the lower numbers on the scale instead of expecting and waiting for it.

Back when I used to do “Diets,” I used to starve myself. I wasn’t doing a proper IF: I never went a full 16 hours or more without eating. Instead, I would eat small amounts of food, and I would feel miserable until the next meal. Then, I’d under-eat again, and repeat the cycle. The only problem was that by the time I got to dinner, I would tend to overeat, and any gains I made during the day in regards to calorie deficits were wiped out (and worse, most likely I ate more than I otherwise would have because I was starving).

Part of what I love so much about Whole30 and Paleo is that they taught me to eat good, whole-ingredient foods, and these foods allow me to eat until I’m comfortable and then not feel hungry between meals. Do I ever get hungry between meals? Sure! I find that happens if I either ate too little, or if I am doing a lot of physical activity and burning lots of calories.

My problem lately, however, is that I’ve been allowing myself (once again) to eat larger portions than I should be, and that has slowed my weight loss. This past weekend, I ate and drank a lot of non-Paleo foods due to a weekend trip to San Antonio, and while it was delicious and fun, I’m back to a weight I don’t like. The good news is, however, that a week of IF and Paleo and I’ll be back down to pre-weekend levels.

I never starve. I don’t allow myself to anymore. I eat slowly, and I eat until I feel comfortable. I don’t stuff myself (that’s a different problem entirely), but I eat until I feel like I’ve stated my appetite. This is important because feeling full between meals keeps you from snacking and keeps your mind off food. Further, it keeps you from overeating at the next meal.

If you find yourself hungry between meals, think about the portion you ate, and how you can augment it with more filling foods. Maybe you’re just not eating enough. You shouldn’t be hungry between meals, and worse, you should not be starving yourself. It’s possible to lose weight steadily without starving. I did it, and I know you can do it, too!

This morning, I was offered some free breakfast at work. I turned it down and said, “Thank you, but I don’t eat breakfasts right now. I’m doing IF.” Admittedly, that’s far more information than I should have given, and I have decided from now on, I’ll leave that last sentence off. But I said it, and I had to deal with the consequences. “What’s IF?” I explained intermittent fasting, to which she replied, “Oh, I could never do that.”

I bit. I asked why. She said, “Because I would get too light-headed.” I told her that I had the same fear, and that sure, the first day was tough, but it got better. She didn’t want to hear it. “There’s no way I could ever do that” and I was literally waved off.

The reason I am writing this is not because it’s a new experience or because I’ surprised. I’m writing about it because it made me realize something I’ve been doing and I never quite realized it. I have finally gotten to the point where I don’t dismiss things without trying them first. I won’t give up on making myself better, finding a more efficacious diet plan, or a better lifestyle without trying something new first. If it doesn’t work for me, that’s fine. I’m okay with that, because I tried.

I know some people who tried Whole30, Paleo, IF, Keto, and others and couldn’t make it work for them. They tell me that they failed at these diets with sadness or disappointment. I tell them, “That’s cool. Don’t be upset. You tried something and it didn’t work. Now you know what doesn’t work; find what DOES work for you!” Undertaking a new lifestyle is a big step, and one size does not fit all. Sure, it’s based on science, but we are all different in our genetic makeup. It may take a few tries to find the right diet for you. I’m fortunate that I found Whole30 and Paleo, and now I’m augmenting Paleo with IF. It works for me. That’s not to say it will work for you. You need to do the work to find the winning combination for your life. Just don’t give up before you even try.

A co-worker of mine was telling me about her workout regimen. It was 30 minutes of walking, 20 minutes of cardio, and 10 minutes of running. Just listening to it made me tired, and I have to admit, I was thinking to myself that I couldn’t do that much work. It’s just too much. I’d be too sore. The discomfort is more than I’m willing to accept. I asked her why she was doing this to herself, and she replied that it was to lose weight.

I explain to people that I had to do a lot of work to lose weight, but it’s not the kind of work people expect. I am told more often than not that “You must have spent a lot of time in the gym to lose all that weight.” Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, I vehemently fought doing any sort of exercise in my first year of weight loss. Only when I decided to get back into the military did I start exercising, and that was to improve my fitness level, not to lose weight.

The “Work” did to lose weight, in retrospect, didn’t really feel like much work at all. I wrote in the past about how I felt like I had found a cheat code to life as I was eating bacon, eggs, sausage, brisket, pulled pork, and other foods we’d been taught were bad for us and losing 10+ lbs per month, month after month. Compared to spending time in the gym, it was completely effortless. The only discomfort I felt was in learning a new lifestyle; I honestly was never hungry once I kicked the sugar habit.

The discomfort I felt was traded in preference over any discomfort in the gym (and with that said, I know fully well that you can’t out-exercise a bad diet!). The amount of exercise I’d have to do to burn more calories than I was eating would have me exercising in excess of 6-8 hours a day! I was not willing to accept that, and I took the logical and less discomfortable route: changing my lifestyle.

You’re going to feel some level of discomfort if you undertake losing weight in earnest. You might as well choose the least discomfortable method available. For me, that was changing my diet. It was so easy to do that I’ve adopted the diet for life, and I feel no discomfort at all to this day.

One thing that has been on my mind lately is how often I’m told by people that they could never do X because they aren’t willing to accept the discomfort associated with it. Whether it’s exercise, abstaining from alcohol, or adopting a new lifestyle; people want change to happen in their lives without any discomfort. Well, I have some bad news: It’s just not possible, and it’s just not going to happen.

Discomfort comes in many forms: physical, emotional, tiredness, loneliness, hunger, among others. When I did my first Whole30, there was a lot of discomfort. Not only did I find myself under emotional duress at not being able to eat all day (something I did for comfort), but I found myself hungry and feeling the most intense flu-like symptoms I’ve had without actually having the flu. The good news is that it passed relatively quickly for me, but in learning a new way of eating, I faced more discomfort as I felt uneasy and awkward with what I could vs couldn’t eat.

Right now, as I write this, I feel slight discomfort. My legs are sore from the great run I had last night, and my arms are sore from the 70 push ups I did within 2 minutes (not my max; I stop before my arms strain too much). My stomach is also grumbling because I’m about 20 minutes out from my regular lunchtime, and since I’m doing IF, I have to stick to the plan. Is this discomfort going to kill me? No. It’s all manageable, and if I am being completely honest, I kind of like it. It reminds me that I’m active, I’m engaged in my health and fitness, and I’m able to persevere past slight discomfort.

I also felt some discomfort last night in the last quarter of a mile of my three-mile run. Now, anytime I feel pain during a run, I make a quick determination as to whether the pain is injury-related, or my body getting used to the exertion. In this case, I quickly realized that it was my body being pushed to its limit, so while I backed off just a tiny bit to allow the pain to subside, I immediately kicked it back up as soon as the pain went away and ended up finishing strong. Again, this was an acceptable amount of discomfort, but it’s all for a good reason: my fitness.

Have you ever been fishing? If you haven’t, allow me to explain. When you hook a fish, it immediately begins to fight against the hook and your line. Depending on the size and type of fish, these fights can last a long time. I caught a jack earlier this year, and the fight took over an hour. I felt every pulse of the fish as he fought me. I ended up prevailing and the fish eventually tired out and couldn’t fight against me reeling him in. But he never fully gave up. I am certain that he felt all kinds of discomfort (I know I did, and for days afterward!) but the discomfort was worth it to the fish because he believed his life depended on it. In the end, it did not, as I released him back into his home, but the lesson is clear: if you value the outcome enough, no level of discomfort is unacceptable.

Anything worthwhile takes, effort, time, and will often be accompanied by discomfort. You have to learn to accept discomfort if you want to accomplish anything in life, not just weight loss, improved health, and fitness. They do, however, go hand-in-hand. You’d be surprised at the amount of discomfort you can put up with when you value the outcome greatly enough.

I wrote yesterday about not being able to run for a week (which, as it turns out, it has been: 7 whole days). Well, the weather was perfect, and while it was getting dark quickly, I hit the sidewalk “Track” around the lake in front of my house and ran my 3 miles. What I didn’t expect was the pace: I ran it at about the same pace (if not a little faster) than I have been! I also got in 70 push ups, which is about 10 more than usual. Perhaps this little break did me more good than bad.

I won’t be running tonight; I let my legs rest after run days (being older and all), and I also have after-work plans with Sherry to visit our friends for dinner and some Doctor Who watching. Tomorrow, I will be on my feet pretty much all day as we’re going to Wurstfest in New Braunfels followed by a stay at the Emily Morgan in San Antonio. We will be having a fancy dinner to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday where I’ll wear my Dress Blues uniform and Sherry will wear a nice dress. After that, I look forward to hitting a few bars before turning in for the night.

IF is keeping me happy about my weight. Yesterday, I was down another pound, and this morning, it held steady with last night’s post-run weight. I will be eating strictly according to plan today and will practice IF again tomorrow morning, but I expect some non-Paleo foods to be consumed during the day, and of course, there will be alcohol tomorrow night.

For those Marines out there, I wish you a Happy Birthday!

We go through stretches in life where, regardless of how well we plan and in spite of our best intentions, things just don’t go our way. I planned on running a lot this week, but I haven’t been able to hit the road for one reason or another. Every morning, I tell myself, “Finally. We get to start again this afternoon,” and then something comes up that keeps me from running. The good news for me is that I’m in pretty good shape, so all I’m really losing right now is speed, and since I already took my APFT for the year, that’s not as troubling. I was making some serious and solid progress, though, in both speed and distance. That stinks. But what I know I will be able to do is get right back into it. It’ll take 2-3 weeks to get my speed and distance back, but that’s okay.

I won’t let life getting in the way of my runs get me down. I won’t let this be the end of my running. I can’t. I won’t allow this to make me sad or depressed. I take my frustration and turn it into determination. Tonight, when I get home from work, I WILL run. I WILL get out there. And if I can’t? I’ll set my mind to do it again tomorrow.

Keep in mind, I’m not finding stupid reasons to not run, the worst of which is, “I just don’t feel like doing it.” My reasons have been schedule conflicts, injury, and weather. Anything less than that, and I’d have been out there. So, tonight, I’ll be out there running around the little lake in front of my house. I’ll run my 3 miles minimum, and after that, I’ll have a shower, some dinner, and then some time with some fellow Soldiers.

Never allow yourself to give up. Even if your plan or schedule is delayed, keep trying to get at it. It’s the person who perseveres that accomplishes the mighty and those who give up get nowhere.