Last week I shared about my all-of-a-sudden move to a healthier way to eat and live. I like the term ‘Paleo Lifestyle’ so I’m going to adopt that term for my efforts.
I promised some background that led up to my decision to adopt this diet/lifestyle. This post turned out to be longer than I meant for it to be, and is probably more info than you need, but I wanted to document it for myself if nothing else. At the end there’s an update on my first week’s progress so you can jump there if you like.
The Student Years
I’ve never had a big problem with my weight (I’m not obese), but I definitely have the tendency and genetics that encourage the overweight condition. I was a high school athlete (baseball), and that, along with the advantages of youth kept my weight consistent.
As I got into my University of Memphis days (Memphis State back then) I started to put on the pounds. I gained twenty pounds my freshman year! To reverse the trend I followed conventional wisdom and started visiting the campus gym and lifting weights. I also went on a calorie restrictive diet, following the Slim-Fast plan. I know…egads! As bad as that plan was, it had the desired effect. I lost the twenty pounds over the next three months or so.
I forget what my exact weight was at graduation from MSU, but I didn’t fall off the wagon completely. I may have fluctuated ten or fifteen pounds but that would have been max. My mother instilled discipline in me early on and I think that was what kept me able to restrict calories and do the self-deprivation thing. I still used Slim-Fast from time time.
The Real World
In the years following school I continued on a shallow roller coaster, but for the most part I managed to keep my weight within ten pounds with a combination of exercise and calorie restriction. However, I was slowly stair-stepping up in weight. Gaining ten and losing five over a year’s time. That went on for a few years, varying in frequency and modulation. After marriage and sitting behind a desk for several years, having less and less time to exercise and slowly losing my will power to worry about health and fitness, I found myself thirty to thirty-five pounds over my teen age weight.
The thing that got my attention were symptoms that developed over the last five years. Reflux has been gradually irritating my esophagus and every once in a while a bite of food refuses to pass. I hate that! Then all of a sudden I start having this really bad ‘gas pain’ for lack of a better description. It shows up out of the blue and a gas pill or two will relieve it in an hour so. Then last month the pain woke me up two different nights and the last time it really didn’t go completely away for a couple of days.
Now
I had the flu a few weeks ago and while I was at the doc anyway I asked about the abdominal pain. The doc suggested I start logging what I eat and try to notice a correlation between what I ate and the pain. My occasional use of Omeprazole for treating my more frequent acid reflux was also given approval.
I even mentioned to the doc that I felt like “all this processed food we eat is killing us, but I didn’t know what to do about it”. She just shook her head and said “I know, we just have to treat it the best we can”. No mention of diet or lifestyle change. I guess that wouldn’t be commercially advantageous. Criminal if you ask me!
Anyway, that’s where I was when I heard about Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
The Future
I’m very optimistic about the Paleo lifestyle. I’ve been reading and listening a lot this week and have read testimonials about a Paleo style diet relieving symptoms of everything from reflux to Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) which is what I think my abdominal pain is.
I’ve had a great first week ‘going Paleo’. I have not cheated at all as far as carbs go. I’m still having some diet soda, but have increased my water intake. The results:
- Much more consistent energy level.
- Higher energy level. No after lunch sleepy feeling.
- More consistent and smaller appetite.
- No acid reflux or IBS type symptoms.
A note about the smaller appetite. At the first of the week I was eating four eggs and four pieces of bacon for breakfast. I’ve now decided that cutting that to three will be just fine. At lunch time I’m really not that hungry, so I think my body is already responding to the diet and is ‘re-teaching’ me what a sensible meal is.
My Paleo Future is bright!
This week’s resources
I’ve added Robb Wolf’s The Paleo Solution blog to my reader. I’ve also listened to a couple of his podcast episodes. Another podcast that I’m catching up on is Latest In Paleo. It’s good to give you a reference for what the strictest Paleo Lifestyle would look like.
Just today we hopped on Amazon.com and ordered a food dehydrator
It’s On!
Am I on the right track? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
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