Paleo Marine

In just a few days, I will turn 50. That scares me a bit, because it’s a reminder to me of my mortality. Yet, it’s not that I’m afraid of death. I don’t want to die, but I’m not afraid of it. The actual part of being dead is a concept I’m strangely okay with. No, it’s the fact that my body is aging and no matter how much I want and try, physical limitations will begin to creep into my life that I have no power over.

Eating well and getting regular exercise can put off some of those physical effects, but ultimately, the DNA gets damaged and there are things that modern medical science just isn’t good enough to work past. This is something I will have to come to terms with, but I’m not ready for that yet. I continue to push myself physically, to stay fit, to be the best me I can be. Even at 50.

They say 50 is the new 30, and I believe it. I feel like I’m no older than 30, yet I know younger people who see me see an old guy who just happens to be healthy and fit. That’s okay. I have a lot of life experience to draw from that helps me get through a lot of the mundane and stressful situations they have yet to learn to deal with. Me? I’m a pro.

Fifty. I used to think that was old. Now, I think that age is just a number, to an extent. I have many adventures left in me, and lots of things I have yet to accomplish. I live as if I’m never going to die, yet at the same time, I know that my time here, as is everyone’s, is limited. Therefore, I try to live my life to the fullest, to laugh, live, and love as much as I can. I want to cram as much as I can into whatever time I have left, and I’m not going to do it on a couch sitting in front of a TV eating chips. I won’t help my DNA break down by being overweight, unhealthy, and unfit. I’m going out fighting.

Nobody should accept mortality sitting down. There’s so much we can do, whether it’s traveling, volunteering at a charity or organization we believe in, or being around those we love. I try to do all of the above: there’s time enough for rest when I’m dead. I live life to the fullest not because it’s so short, but because death lasts forever and there are no second chances.

Take charge of your life and make it a good one. Get healthy. Get fit. Life gets better when you give yourself the best body to enjoy it in.

This is another weird one. I think I figured out how people back before A/C were able to survive the heat in summertime: they were thin. They weren’t insulated, and didn’t have a layer of fat around them to keep them hot. As I sit outside writing this blog post, it’s 81 degrees outside, and I actually feel chilled. Yes, there’s a breeze that helps with that, but two years ago, sitting outside the way I am right now would have had me sweating puddles. Now? It feels great.

Our bodies were designed to be mostly muscle with just a small amount of fat to allow us to survive a few days or so, augmenting our nutrition with a readily available store of energy when we missed a meal or two. Now, with our easy access to hyper nutritious food, our bodies get fat very easily, and it makes living in conditions our forefathers lived in untenable.

I look forward to going to the Renaissance Festival this year in costume knowing that I can dress accurately in a period costume and I will remain comfortable. In the past, wearing a lot of period clothing kept me very hot and I would become exhausted quickly, not only because I was out of shape and overweight, but because I was overheating. I don’t think I will have that problem this year.

Of all the benefits of losing weight, this is one of the best ones, and I only just realized it. Feeling comfortable on a hot, summer night is truly something I didn’t know was so nice. It reminds me of my childhood, when physical comfort was something I took for granted. Now, I get to have that again, and it’s glorious.

I notice that if I don’t get enough sleep, I don’t lose weight. On top of that, I sometimes will gain weight. I think it’s water weight that I’m retaining, but the fact remains that in my experience, not getting enough sleep results in no weight loss. On the other hand, when I get 7.5 hours or more of sleep each night, the scale is nice to me the following morning.

It turns out that we lose weight in our sleep. As we rest, our bodies are busy using energy that we stored up to keep us alive until we wake up the next morning. The longer we sleep, the more of that stored energy that is used. How is it lost? Well, we exhale it mostly. The rest is turned into liquid waste which is why we typically need to use the restroom to empty our bladders when we wake up.

Our bodies are fascinating and the processes and functions it performs are all finely tuned. We need to learn to recognize these processes and allow them to be carried out properly. Get enough sleep. Not only will you feel better in the morning, but you’ll likely be a little lighter, too.

Back in April 2016, I felt great. I had lost over 120 lbs, and I was well on my way to my penultimate goal of 175 lbs and my final goal of 165 lbs. At the time, I remember feeling very thin as compared to what I used to be. I took a silly picture, and I remember seeing it and thinking, “My gosh, look how thin I am!”

Fast forward to April 2017 and I happened to take the same photo making the same face, only this time, I was at my final goal of 165 lbs. It’s amazing what a difference that last 30 lbs of weight loss made.

Now, I’m at around 162 lbs, and I’m not sure where my weight loss will end, but I find myself getting leaner all the time. Aside from eating clean, I run every other day which is having a big effect on my overall health.

Stick with it. The payoff is worth the discipline you have to use to get there.

In our society, we have an aversion to saying no to things. We are a polite people (well, most of us want to be, at least) and when we are offered food or drink, we naturally thank the person and accept whatever it is they are giving us. We don’t want to be rude, after all. This is something I had to get past when I did my first Whole30. I was being offered drinks and food at every social gathering, and at first, it was uncomfortable. I would begin to tell them about the changes I’m making in my diet, why I’m doing it, and how I can’t have the item they were offering me. The first few times were the worst. But then something strange happened. Not only did it get better, but people weren’t offended.

Now, I just smile and say, “No thanks.” If they show any hint of disappointment, I add, “But that does look amazing.” Only then will I add anything about my diet and how I can only eat certain foods. So far, everyone has understood 100% of the time and I have received no backlash. Sure, some people kid and tell me that I’m missing out, and I agree with them to a certain degree, but ultimately, my health is more important than a sweet snack.

Smile and say no. It works, it’s easy, and it will keep you on the right track. It works for me, and surprisingly, people are quite understanding about it.

Holy smokes! Where have you been for the past 20 months, cucumber water? You are AMAZING! So refreshing, a hint of sweetness, and you make water a pleasure to drink again.

The one area in which I have felt the biggest hit in quality of life since going Paleo has been with drinks. I drink coffee and tea, but without sweetener, which make the drinks bland to me. Even after 20 months, I still miss my sweet drinks. I’ve had some Celestial teas, and the Very Blueberry is my favorite, but it’s not as good cold as it is hot (and it is quite heavenly when it’s hot!). Cucumber water, on the other hand, is freaking amazing.

I buy a cucumber once every two weeks for the office and I cut it up and put it into a cup of water I drink every day. I am able to reuse the sliced cucumber a few times and it still tastes good. Having a refrigerator in the office does make doing this easy. I will begin experimenting with some other fruits and vegetables as well.

Sherry drinks water with lemon in it all the time. I guess she’s been onto this trick for a long time while I suffered through with plain old water. I don’t know why I haven’t tried this sooner. I think Sherry even mentioned it to me, and I just dismissed it because I thought there’s no way any drink without sugar or sweetener could ever replace my beloved sweet drinks. Boy was I wrong!

My basic cucumber water recipe

• 10 oz water
• 8 thin slices of cucumber

Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to an hour for best results. I reuse the cucumber one more time after the first drink, and it still tastes good. The third time? Not as much cucumber comes through, so I stick with using cucumber slices only twice.

So there you have it! A drink that you can have that feels refreshing and delicious, and a PaleoMarine.com first: a recipe! I know; it’s kind of weak to call that a recipe, but baby steps. We’ve got to start somewhere.

For me, it was a number of things. From my kids telling me they were afraid I would never live to see grandchildren, friends telling me they were sincerely afraid for my health, and family members telling me that I was extremely unhealthy and needed to do something to lose weight ASAP. My doctor told me as much, but his method was to take drugs that limit your ability to digest fats. This didn’t work at all.

Eventually, it came down to my being so incredibly uncomfortable in everything I did that I needed the change to happen. I couldn’t tie my shoes without holding my breath. I couldn’t sit in booths in restaurants. Flying on an airplane was an incredibly uncomfortable ordeal not just for me, but anyone with the bad fortune of being assigned the seat next to me. My health was beginning to decline: Diabetes, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, nerve damage, and poor circulation in my feet. These things were all happening at once; I went from being relatively healthy for a fat guy to all of the sudden, standing on the precipice of death.

I am too young to die.

That’s what I told myself. At 48 years old, I felt like I was 70. I was slow, sluggish, and easily exhausted. Normal household chores were becoming difficult for me to complete. I began going out less and even getting up to get a drink was starting to become difficult. I had to change my life or I would lose it.

For me, it was a no-brainer. Change the diet.

Then, the craziest thing happened: I lost weight. Not just a little, but a lot. 147 lbs in 20 months total, with 110 lbs of that coming off in the first 12 months. I became a new person. I felt young again. I had energy. I was able to do things I couldn’t do since I was in my late 20’s. It’s as if I had been reborn into a new, younger, and more fit body.

I eat well/clean now, and I run every other day. I do these things because they make me feel amazing. Do I miss pizza, pasta, cake, and muffins? Of course I do! But I don’t miss the feeling of being fat, out of shape, and dying. I much prefer how I feel now. That few minutes of pleasure during eating isn’t worth the 23+ hours a day of feeling great in my own skin.

What will it take for you to change your diet? How close to the precipice will you need to get before you take the necessary steps back away from it and change your life?

It happened without trying. It happened when I thought there was no more to lose. After my run, I weighed myself, and I was surprised by weighing in at 162.9 lbs. Wow! That’s the lowest I’ve weighed since I was around 23 years old, and almost a full 2 lbs less than my last low.

The fact that I’m losing weight means that my body is still reconfiguring, and still getting leaner. I run every other day, and that helps, but honestly, the weight loss kicked back in once Sherry and I undertook our third Whole30. The strict diet and attention to the food we are eating has helped me re-learn portion size control and got me off the dessert habit I’d reacquired, even if it was only a Paleo cookie every other dinner or so.

My goal was to hit 165 lbs. I’m now 162.9 lbs. That makes me very happy, and it makes it easier to run, makes my clothing fit better (although I’m now into small sized shirts and smaller pants which means more visits to the outlet mall for more new clothes), and I even feel better (which I didn’t think was possible).