Ok! Here We Go!!

Here we go!

So, a couple of good friends introduced me to Paleo eating a few months ago. Like most people, I wondered if it was a new “fad diet”, the latest way to bilk people out of money and time and hope. But I started reading. I started looking at different sources, talking to people and more importantly, thinking about it. Yes, there are books to buy (cookbooks included), and websites to subscribe to, and yes, some people make money on those things, but guess what? There is no “product”, no “pill”, no gym membership, so weigh-ins to attend. The more I read, the more it became clear. Paleo is SIMPLE, paleo is real, paleo… makes sense!

In the proverbial nutshell, the whole paleo philosophy is this: EAT REAL FOOD!

Seems simple right? Could all of our dieting and health woes be fixed simply by eating? Uh… YES! But you know what, in order for this to work, we have to change everything we’ve been taught. We have to stop listening to the “experts”. And that, that is going to be very very hard! I’m gonna tell you up front that I am no expert, I am no doctor/nutritionist/personal trainer. I have absolutely no credentials whatsoever, but here’s who I am.

I’m a human being who has spent a long time at the mercy of the so-called experts at the expense of my health and my self-esteem. I dutifully listened to doctors and to “health gurus”. I’ve been on every diet known to man. I thank god I’ve never taken serious weight loss chemicals like Fen-Fen or had any weight loss surgery. I’m grateful for the experiences, the pain, even the shunning I experienced as a fat person. And truth be told, I’m still not skinny. But what I’ve discovered through all of this is that being skinny is irrelevant. Yes, do I want to weigh less, of course—but not because skinny equals healthy. I want to weigh less for the sheer physics of it. With less circumference, moving around and doing things is easier.

I can tell you that in most cases, exactly the opposite is true. I know a lot of skinny people and most of them don’t have my stamina. Some of them have dangerously high cholesterol and triglycerides and many of them are oblivious to how unhappy they are. I am surrounded by people who calculate every calorie and every fat gram in an attempt to stay skinny. I used to do that, and guess what? It got me nowhere!

I listened to doctors and experts, I ate like a teeny-tiny sparrow, I worked out all the time, sometimes twice a day and for over an hour at a time… and HARD workouts! I got buff for a little while and then it turns out, my body said NO MORE! Of course I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was putting myself into a constant fight or flight mode. I wasn’t providing any nutrition to fuel the workouts or even a decent night’s sleep for that matter and my thyroid went to hell. I started to feel tired all the time, I couldn’t work out anymore. I went to see doctors and they told me I was depressed, but other than that, there was nothing wrong with me. Oh, except your white blood cell count is a little elevated. Their thoughts? We don’t know why, let’s not worry about that even though it’s the case on EVERY blood draw. Now, I know exactly what happened! I’ll save that for another post.

I’ll also go into more depth about my search for help in other posts, I don’t want you to have to scroll until next Tuesday, but suffice it to say, it took me a long time to question any of these experts. Instead, I followed their advice, took their prescriptions, went in for heartburn and came out with a missing gall bladder. I was a mess. At my heaviest, I weighed 304 pounds. I don’t even want to admit that to myself, let alone the entire world by way of the immortal Internet, but there it is. I couldn’t walk half a block without my heart pounding like crazy and being short of breath. I was wearing a CPAP (aka cyborg) machine to sleep so I wouldn’t stop breathing and I just didn’t care anymore. I was on the verge of giving up.

My blessing in disguise? A full-on raging mid-life crisis! I hit 40 and thought, “What the heck are you doing? Your life is half over, get your head out of your ass!” I’ll tell you more about that story as well in other posts, but basically, I threw every medication away. No, I didn’t consult my doctors about this. I said SCREW my doctors! However, I did seek out a Homeopathic Doctor who helped me a great deal. I needed a jump start. I needed to get some weight off fast so that I could find hope again and she helped me do that with HCG. I told you, I’ve tried everything. And actually, HCG and she, saved my life. It was fast progress and I needed that so that I didn’t give up. Over the course of the next two years, I found paleo and I am a believer. I’m still human, I’m not infallible. Apparently, humans don’t always make rational decisions even when they know what’s good for them. But that’s why I’m writing this blog. I think it will keep me honest and I hope it will help others to find their way to paleo-or whatever works for them as well. I’m going to share with you my difficulties and my successes. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything—literally! And I’ll try to be as candid and as frank as possible-I’ll probably even talk about POO… you’re forewarned!

So for now, if you’re struggling with your weight and your health, if you feel like there is no hope even though you are following the rules, stay with me. Ask questions and please… DON’T GIVE UP!