First I should start off with a brief history, back in college I was pretty fit, I started on the slightly overweight side but began working out with a group of friends. We ran every now and then but mostly lifted weights. I am 5'9" and I left college close to 200 lbs with between 13-15% body fat, not too shabby.
I am a computer science major so my first and virtually every job following involved very long hours at my desk. In those early days we were fueled, by our bosses, with donuts, pizza, and that lime green super soda that all good coders love. Initially my weight dropped a lot. I knew I was losing muscle mass due to not working out and I was soon down in the 170's. Within a year or so my weight began to creep back up, a pound here and there and eventually I was in the upper 180's. I began to cut back on some of the junk since I knew where it was ultimately taking me but my weight seemed to still ever so slowly increase. Life proceeded, jobs changed, life changed, and then next thing I knew I was in the 190's. Each time I hit these new highs I found some way to say it was OK as long as I didn't go any higher. The funniest thing was that the population around me was growing at the same time making it so easy to look at myself and just accept that I was average or even above average.
I went in to the doctor for a physical in 2009 and weighed in at 206. I had just had my first child and another was already on the way. I told the doctor I was in the process of starting to get into shape for the kids. Truth was I thought about it for a minute or two but didn't do anything. My job was very stressful and busy and with the new baby and one on the way my head was spinning and I was simply reacting to each challenge as it arrived..
In the early spring of 2012 I truly decided to make a change. I felt terrible and my weight was noticeably impacting my quality of life. I started out on the treadmill and watching TV for about 15-30 min a night. I thought I was feeling some results although pretty minimal. In a late night philosophical discussion with a good friend (over several micro-brews) he convinced me to sign up for a 6-hour adventure race. It was the first week of May and I was still over 200 pounds. I had until the last week of July to prepare, less than 12 weeks, for a race that would involved 10 miles of hiking/running, 10-15 miles of mountain biking, and 3-5 miles of canoeing. I figure the fear that would set in the next morning was exactly the motivation I needed. I was right and increased the running and swore off all sweets.
Things were going well and a few weeks after my adventure racing agreement I went in for an annual physical. It had been a few years but I was up to about 10 miles a week and felt like I was making some progress so I figured that the doc would give me a big thumbs up. I was wrong. My cholesterol was high and triglycerides were the biggest concern. I also had above normal blood pressure. The doctor was clear that at 35 years old it was too early to be getting the talk about cholesterol and blood pressure and I needed to make some changes. Although I expected better news this served to put my motivation in high gear. I began counting calories, cutting meat, watching fat intake, and running like crazy. At my peak I was running about 25-30 miles a week, mountain biking regularly, and keeping the calories between 1500 and 1800. I finished my first adventure race and my first half marathon with respectable performances. My diet was on track with no sweets and I was eating more veggies than ever before. By the time Christmas rolled around I had lost over 10 pounds and was floating around the low 190's. At this point I had also developed some serious persistent muscle pains in one hamstring and glute later diagnosed as a strained piriformis. I reflected on the relatively small amount of weight loss compared to my fairly extreme efforts and just accepted that it was going to take as long to work it off as it was to put it on. I had my blood work checked again and things improved but only slightly and the doctors warnings did not change. I signed up for my second adventure race and began going to physical therapy for my piriformis. I continued PT for about 4 months going once a week. I think the PT was beneficial and helped point out many week areas in my body but it seemed like the treatment plan changed every week or two and the pain persisted. I decided to stop going, picked my running back up after taking a couple months off I headed out to my second adventure race. I again preformed respectably but was in a fair amount of pain before during and after. I cut back to running just 5 or 6 miles per week with the hopes that my leg issues would resolve.
It was now early summer 2013 and I fell off the wagon hard. My weight increased to near 200 pounds in a few short weeks and I began avoiding the scale since I really didn't want to know. My wife suffered some health issues that took me out of work for a few weeks. Her final week of recovery at home was the first week in July, my 37th birthday passed, and I was thinking it was time to get back on track. The prospect of the time and effort it would take was weighing very heavy on me. I sat with my wife flipping through Netflix and stumbled onto "The Perfect Human Diet" I had watched most food documentary's and often left feeling a little more educated on food and the industry but that was about it. This time it was different. This movie seemed to speak directly to my experiences. I though about the foods I had been eating during the last year and especially during my intense running. I had heard of Paleo before but only briefly from a couple friends and while it sounded interesting I had the average response most people do including comments about eating like a cave man, made some grunts, indiscriminately criticized anything that seemed strange, etc. We were just old friends hanging out so the last thing these guys were going to do was evangelize to me about Paleo. At the end of "The Perfect Human Diet" I looked at my wife and asked "What do you think, should we try it?" She said sure and we planned to spend the next week eating what was in the house and then switch over for 30 days and see how it went. I was motivated and for fear of loosing that motivation ended up throwing away most of the junk in the house. We were worried about the cost and had been tracking our budget very closely and were going to evaluate after the first couple weeks.
The first week was very tough. I wasn't eating enough, our grocery shopping habits had not evolved to adequately cover what we should have been taking in. I was very hungry, sluggish, and generally uncomfortable. This was clearly a combination of too few calories and the transition off of the heavy carb load I had been used to. I began doubling up on fruits and vegetables and prepared substantial fruit and veggie snacks every day. At the end of the first week, I stepped on the scale and I had dropped a couple pounds.
Week two was the game changer. As week two started I began to feel a change. I started to feel energized almost tingly. My energy seemed to be increasing and my mood was much better than the week before. I also felt like I was sleeping much sounder. My hunger issues and cravings of week one also seemed to vanish, partly do to the additional food but I had also got accustom to this new way of eating. At the end of week two I jumped on the scale and had lost a couple more pounds and could not believe it. This seemingly simple diet change had nearly returned me to the weight I had fought for several months to achieve in just two short weeks. The biggest difference this time however was not how quickly it happened but how great I felt.
Rolling into week 3 I felt amazing. My running still only 5-6 miles per week had gotten noticeably easier and I was running faster. My piriformis was hurting but the pain seemed to be fading away. As I was approaching the end of the first month I had lost about 10 lbs and was stunned at what was happening to my body.
The second month was as surprising as the first. The weight continued to drop. I felt better and better every day and at this point people were taking notice. I was receiving regular comments on how good I was looking and began to let people know how surprised I was at my results.
I am now in week 10 and have lost 23 lbs. I still feel amazing and the visual results are stunning. I just visited the doctor for another physical and he said no mater what the blood work looked like he thought I was in exception shape and would never consider taking any pharmaceutical action with someone in my physical condition. I was surprised and excited at how far I had come in such a short time.
My story is common in the Paleo community and like many others my journey has prompted me to spread the word to anyone that I can. I want to be one of the people helping to turn the tables on the increasingly disturbing decline in health across our society. This blog and my other ventures are specifically designed to be clear, educate, and empower all those individuals out there that need to hear this message. I want to give those I reach the tools to understand how to incorporate these philosophies into and change their lives forever.
So here is my general rule of thumb. If you are at a random grocery store you just have to do the best you can. So I look for these things in this order. First look for the eggs with omega-3s (the more milligrams the better), second narrow those down to cage free, third see if you can score brown eggs, and finally if you have more than one choice look at the price. As you may have figured out from my other posts my family is on a budget so I am not about to spring for $5 a dozen eggs every few days. My favorites at the moment are the Whole Foods brand of cage free organic omega-3 large brown eggs (grey carton with purple print). These bad boys are $2.99 here in Charlottesville and totally awesome. The yokes are rich, very thick, supper yellow, and exceptionally delicious. Now go make an omelette and some paleo pancakes mmmm!
