Paleo Marine

I was thinking about this the other day as I was falling asleep: I’m glad I buckled down, changed my lifestyle, and lost all the weight and became healthy. I’m glad that I am now fit enough to experience all the things I have been able to do in the past two years. Without having lost the weight and regained my fitness, I would have missed out on many great experiences.

There’s more to life than can be seen from a couch or easy chair. I used to be content with being overweight and unfit. I would tell myself that it was okay, and that all those people out there, running, sweating, and being active were just kidding themselves. I told myself that I was being academic, and pursuing activities of the mind. What I failed to realize is how much richer the academic and mental activities are when you’re fit and healthy.

I love history. I love reading about the past, but there’s something incredibly moving about being able to go to a remote site or location and experience the history at the site it occurred. To be able to smell the air, see the sights, hear the sounds of these places that lived only in the history books when I was unfit and unhealthy really makes the history come alive in a way that would be otherwise impossible.

I love flying. I used to fly Cessnas, but I now fly radio controlled scale airplanes. My wife thought it’d be cool to get me a flight in a WWII-era training biplane as a present, and I was not only able to fly in it, but I was able to pilot the plane for a good half hour. This is something that would have been impossible at my pre-healthy weight. I literally would have been too heavy to fly in the plane, let alone fit in the cockpit.

Hang-gliding, zip-lining, hiking, climbing up and down stairs in castles, squeezing through tight spaces inside submarines and ships: all things that would have been impossible for me before.

These experiences have made my life richer and fuller. There is always time for sitting on the couch and curling up with a puppy and a book. But those are cold, or rainy days. The rest of the time, I like being outside, exploring, having adventures, and experiencing as many things as I can while I can. Some of it I was able to do when I was obese, but it took a toll on me and my body. Now? I can do just about anything without effort and fully enjoy the experience.

Like many people who were overweight, I tried diet after diet and failed each time. In the beginning, I would see some good results, but as time went on, I would end up eating more, eating foods I shouldn’t, and eventually just giving up entirely. What are reasons I was able to succeed this time versus all the others?

1. Variety of food. The amount of Whole30 and Paleo diets available either in great cookbooks or online is staggering. I think it’s impossible to find a new recipe for every day and you can probably go your entire life without repeating a recipe twice. The great news is that these foods are all healthy and made of natural, whole ingredients. That brings me to the next important point.
2. Delicious food. One of the main reasons I would fail at previous attempts to lose weight was because the food just wasn’t all that good. A person can only eat so much baked chicken breast before getting palate fatigue. If I want to eat chicken breast and salad, I can, but I prefer not to. There are so many delicious Whole30 and Paleo options available, I never have to eat bland, boring foods again.
3. Feeling better/energy levels. Once I got past the sugar dragon, I felt amazing! I wake up with a clear head, with lots of energy, and I feel like I’ve actually rested (and yeah, you still need 7+ hours of sleep. Eating well doesn’t negate the need for good sleep). I feel better throughout the day, and this next point is huge.
4. Eliminated cravings. Tied to the previous point, once the sugar dragon is kicked, the cravings go away. Now, when I feel hungry, it’s likely that I’m either genuinely hungry (as in I didn’t eat enough at my previous meal) or I’m bored. Typically, a glass of water, tea, or coffee and finding something to do makes the temporary hunger go away for a little while. In worst case scenarios, a handful of almonds, cashews, or pecans goes a long way to staving off hunger for a bit.
5. Mindset of changing lifestyle permanently. This is one of the most important things I’ve done toward succeeding in losing weight and improving my health. Before I did my first Whole30, I realized that I needed to make a permanent, life-long change. I couldn’t go back to how I used to eat. That had gotten me obese and unhealthy. I didn’t want to be that way anymore, and I changed my relationship with food from thinking of it as being entertaining to thinking of it as fuel. It’s okay to enjoy the food you eat (heck, I’d go a step further and say it’s important), but it’s not okay to use it as a source of entertainment. There are better, healthier activities to use as entertainment.
6. Perseverance. Along with the previous point, I realized that the changes wouldn’t happen overnight. Things would not go perfectly as planned, and there would be bumps in the road. There would be temptation and there would be setbacks. I knew this going in and expected them. When I experienced something that would have caused me to stop eating healthy in the past, this time I knew it was all part of the journey. I embraced my failures and decided to learn from them instead of allowing them to define me. In the end, I persevered and got through the worst so that I could experience and appreciate the best.

There are many different diets within the low-carb/high-fat realm. Ancestral eating is another term used for these types of diets. Regardless of what you use or how you apply it, it’s hard to argue the results that I and many others like me have experienced. Regardless of what method you choose, going into it with the right mindset and realistic expectations is going to be key in your success. Arm yourself with the best information you can get: read, read, and then read some more. Then commit, and make it happen. It won’t be easy, but the results will be well worth the effort.

I have been asked this a dozen times in the past few days, and I decided it might be good to explain why Sherry and I are doing our fourth Whole30. It’s not because we need to lose weight; we are at or near where we want to be with our weight. It has more to do with being a new year reset of our appetites, of getting our bodies back to eating healthier foods, and getting away from sugar. Even though we ate Paleo-friendly treats during the holidays, the fact remains that we ate a lot of treats, and these had sugar in them (even if the sugar is in the form of honey, fruits, or maple syrup). Oh, and let’s not even talk about the alcohol. So. Much. Alcohol. All of this led to over-eating, some cravings between meals, and generally unhealthy eating patterns.

This all ends on our Whole30 where we re-dedicate ourselves to eating healthy. This is not punishment, nor is it an act of desperation. This is something we are doing that we see as a positive: a reset.

Fortunately, as we’ve done three Whole30’s in the past, we know what to expect and we have many Whole30-compliant recipes that are some of our normal favorites, so we won’t be suffering in that regard. I know that the first couple of days will be a little tough, but not too bad, since we are mostly weaned off sugar. I also know that my portion sizes will seem smaller because, well, they will be. In the end, it’s all for a good reason: staying healthy.

My lowest ever weight was 160 lbs last July. My weight has slowly crept back up to hover between 165-170 lbs normally, and I was okay with that. Tuesday morning, it was 176.3 lbs. That’s a full 6 lbs higher than I like, and I’m hoping to get back into the 160’s by the end of the month. So, while it’s not about losing weight, I know that my larger portions and increased sugar and alcohol intake has led my weight to creep up into numbers I’m just not comfortable with.

I also haven’t been running. After my 5k in December, we went to New York City to visit my daughter for 5 days, and on the last day there, I tweaked my ankle. That kept me from running for another week, and then over the Christmas-New Year break, it was too darned cold to run, so I didn’t. Now, it’s still ridiculously cold outside, but I really need to get back to it; I have a physical fitness test coming in April for the National Guard I need to be prepared for. That means I’m also finally re-starting my push up regimen, having laid off push ups since an elbow injury in August.

So, lots of resets, lots of new starts, and lots of reasons to do Whole30 again.

Arguably one of the easiest restaurants to find Paleo food at aside from Mediterranean restaurants are Mexican restaurants. So much of Mexican food is made from whole ingredients and grilled that it’s a veritable cornucopia of goodness with a few big exceptions: tortillas, chips, rice, and beans.

For some, those four are the main reason they go to Mexican restaurants. I get it. They used to be part of the reason I went to them, too. However, as I’ve changed my diet, I have had to change my preferences, and I now find Mexican restaurants are among my favorites for things like beef or chicken fajitas, seafood, pork asada, beef stews, and other plates. At one of our local favorite Mexican restaurants, Alicia’s, they have a plate called the Puntas Chimino which has beef, ham, bacon, green pepper, and onions and is served with an avocado relish that we eat with grilled onions on the side that tastes amazing, is filling, and is 100% Paleo.

We have found many Mexican restaurants locally that have no problem substituting rice and beans for grilled vegetables, though you will get some funny looks when you refuse the chips and salsa. I typically show them a picture of myself before Paleo and I tell them that I quit eating chips and lost all the weight and then they get it. It’s funny: without exception, they make it their mission to keep grains/chips/tortillas away from me! When they see another server starting to bring me chips, they jump in and intercept them and explain that I can’t have them.

If you’re in a pinch and need to find some food to eat and there are no Mediterranean options available, Mexican restaurants are just as good. Just make sure to tell them to hold the tortillas, rice, beans, and chips.

2018 marks the third year Sherry and I have been low carb/high fat. We lost weight and got healthy through Whole30 and the Paleo Diet. We now eat clean food, made from scratch using whole ingredients, and our bodies have responded by losing weight and our blood chemistry getting back to normal. The improvements in how we feel and look, and in the number of opportunities we can now take advantage of are incredible. It’s all due to adopting a low carb/high fat diet that the human body is built for.

Look at old pictures from the ’40’s and earlier. The vast majority of people you will see in those photos are of slender build. It has nothing to do with starvation, famine, or lack of food. People had access to food, and ate regularly. It has nothing to do with life being harder, or people working more physically demanding jobs. It has to do with the food they ate.

When you look at cookbooks from the ’40’s or earlier, the ingredients are things like lard, butter, fat, meat, eggs, and vegetables. If wheat is used, it’s not enriched. Main dishes used wheat products sparingly, if ever. Our ancestors ate whole foods that were natural and what we would today consider organic. And their bodies were healthy.

Life expectancy was lower not because of the food they ate, but because things like the flu would (and did) kill millions of people at a time. Illnesses that we consider trivial today took lives by the thousands. Simple things like sterile surgical instruments weren’t common until 1916. People, on average, lived shorter lives because of medical advancements, not because of diet.

Look around you. Look at how many people around you are obese or overweight. It’s staggering when you open your eyes and really pay attention. What is causing this? It’s our diet of low fat and high carbs. All that bread and all those foods with sugar in them are killing us slowly. Type 2 Diabetes? It used to be called Adult Onset Diabetes until children started getting it. We now know it’s based on too much sugar in our diets that throws our system off.

It’s a new year. Make the decision to make a new you. Changing your diet isn’t easy, but it is simple, and you will be surprised with how many foods you love and enjoy can be made easily with a few changes to make them healthy, and how many of your favorite foods are already healthy and good for you (bacon, anyone?). Look up Whole30 and The Paleo Diet. Look up Ancestral Eating and Ketosis. Whatever your path, make this journey yours, and dedicate yourself to it.

I was thinking this morning about what led to Sherry and I embarking on our journey to become healthier people. It all came down to one important moment: the one where I made the decision to actually go for it, and do whatever it took to become healthy. I knew that without doing something drastic, I was going to see my health decline, and I would see a certain early demise. Something had to happen, and I made it happen.

Mindset is so often overlooked or just glanced at when discussing health. We talk about diets, exercise, and giving up certain foods, but we don’t often hear anything about the psychological side of weight loss and health. Sure, you hear people say it takes discipline and motivation, and I’ve often talked about perseverance, but if it were that easy, nobody would struggle with losing weight or getting healthy. There’s got to be something more we’re missing.

It’s the mindset. It’s the “Take no prisoners” mindset. The “Eye of the Tiger.” Focus. Strength. Determination. It’s setting a goal, and not accepting anything that would get in the way of achieving it. It’s no different than setting out to buy a specific item, or going to a favorite restaurant and ordering that one dish you want and will not accept any substitutes for. It’s attaining the goal of graduating high school, boot camp, or college. It’s getting your Ham license, or your pilot’s license. It’s passing the Bar exam. Whatever large goal you’ve accomplished in your life, it’s the same as that.

Think about it. I know everyone has achieved some long-term goal. You may not consider it to be a big deal, but to others, I’m sure it certainly is. Whether it’s a certification program, apprentice program, or a degree, it took time, effort, and determination. You made sure you put in the time and the work to make it happen. If you have achieved something great, something that took more than a few weeks, then you’ve been there. If it felt easy, it’s because you really wanted it, and you wouldn’t accept anything other than success. Do you remember how that feels?

THAT IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO WITH YOUR HEALTH: MAKE IT A PRIORITY!

That’s why it felt so easy for me when I was losing weight back in 2015-2016. I had set my mind to it, and I was accepting nothing that got in the way of reaching my goal. It wasn’t that there weren’t temptations; there were plenty. I decided that temptations weren’t even to be considered, and as such, it became easy to pass them up. I literally felt nothing when I was confronted with pizza, cakes, or pastries. Bread? Mmmmm, I used to love even the smell of bread, but once I set my mind to the Whole30 and Paleo, even the smell changed. It was no longer something that elicited cravings. It became something that was a sign of danger, and my mind quickly rewired and turned it into something I was easily able to avoid.

The mindset of losing weight and getting healthy takes the very same discipline and determination it takes a person to accomplish any large, important achievement. Your health isn’t something you will be able to fix in a week or two. Heck, it’s something you may not fix in a year. It’s a life-long commitment. It’s like being married to a diet. You take it for life, for better or for worse, through sickness and in health, ’til death do  you part.

I’m fully in the low carb/high fat diet world for the long haul. I’ve seen the benefits first hand, and my life has been changed in countless ways for the better since going Paleo. If I have to look back at the most important thing I did, it was committing to my health and losing weight by adopting a diet not for a temporary loss, but for a permanent positive change in my life. I haven’t looked back, and I have no regrets. I’d do it again, 100 times out of 100.

I wish you all a happy, joyous, and love-filled New Year! Here’s to 2018!

If you ate and drank too much (like I did!), it’s okay. It’s a new year. Buckle down, don’t look back, and get right to eating right! That’s what Sherry and I are doing by starting a new Whole30 (our fourth!).

2018 marks the third year of our clean eating. Since discovering the Low Carb/High Fat (LCHF) world of Whole30, Paleo, and Keto, Sherry and I improved our health greatly, losing a combined 215 lbs! We’ve been able to easily and comfortably maintain our healthy lifestyle for over two years now, and we are exciting to be starting our third year on Paleo by kicking it off with a Whole30 to help us reset our bodies and our appetites.

In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be blogging about my latest Whole30 experience complete with ideas, opinions, recipes, strategies, and more! Stay tuned for the 2018 PaleoMarine Whole30 Experience!