If you had told me four months ago that my life would be better than it was then I would have probably laughed, or maybe as was my mood at the time cry on your shoulder. I wasn’t depressed in the clinical sense but rather i was sad because things in my life wasn’t going as well as they could and so to deal with that I ate and ate and ate. To me, food was the equivalent of crack. I have never used drugs but I did abuse my body with food. Each day I resolved that TODAY I was going to stop and treat my bod with respect but everyday when ever a stressful situation popped up I would go and order a giant pizza or go somewhere (alone, I did not want anyone to know how much I really ate) and gorge myself on whatever they had. It made me feel better for a while but as my weight creeped up, I found it harder to do basic things and this started the cycle all over again.
And then….
A friend had discovered paleo and asked me if I had heard of it and if I wanted to try it. AS it was I had never heard of it but as I usually do I went on the Internet and looked it up. I landed on the Whole9 web page and thought that the people who came up with this was nuts.
Give up my gallon of Diet Coke habit a day? No way!
No sugar or even fake sugar in my coffee? Even Atkins let me have that.
and the list was endless.
I came up with a thousand excuses why it wouldn’t work. I had tried every diet under the sun before and I always felt like crap and deprived. There was also (as I realized later) my addiction to sugar and caffeine.
To be completely honest I knew something had to change. I was feeling like crap, struggling to get through each day and worse my weight had skyrocketed to 310 pounds. I almost had a heart attack when that number came up on the Dr office scale. The Dr was concerned also as I had high blood pressure at the age of 32.
So I went to the library and checked out all the books they had on paleo. Then somehow somewhere I got the gumption to jump in with a Whole30. I wont lie or sugar coat it. At first it was pure hell. I had cravings, and the worst it seemed no matter how much water I drank I still felt thirsty. My body was screaming out for a diet coke and sugar.
I found help on websites and the courage to keep going. And slowly my body began to adjust. The most amazing thing is that in four months I lost 60 pounds. There are other things as well. My ADHD is gone, my depression is gone, my acne is gone and so on. There are so many benefits to this life style that I cant even begin to list them all here.
I can honestly say that this is a lifestyle I will keep living until the day that I die. People remark on how much happier I seem and it is true I do have a sunnier outlook on life. I look forward to the day that I can go on long hikes, wear and look good in clothes that I want and not just ones that fit. There are many things I want to do that I will be able to do once i am in reasonable amount of shape. Now I look forward to life instead of dreading each day trying to calculate how much I will have to walk without having to sit down because of back pain. I wake up energized and am able to accomplish so much more. Now I can say, Life is good!
I just wanted to say hello and how excited I am for you! My husband (Bryan) forwarded me your post to read. I’ve had a similar experience, I’m down 85 pounds at this point and he is down nearly 50. Paleo has changed my life entirely and I lost a whole laundry list of other problems. Well done. Feel free to hit my Pinterest feed, I have boards of recipes, blogs, retail resources, and what have you.
I am glad that you have had good results also! I will chck out your pin interest.
Congratulations! Getting started is always the hardest part, right? 🙂
Yes! But now it is so easy!
My wife started “Wheat Belly” last year and already has lost about 90 pounds. Myself, I’ve lost about 40 since starting earlier this year. So basically we’re paleo too so we can relate to what you’re saying. Keep up the good work and don’t give in, although with so many good foods out there, I don’t think you’ll have a problem with that. 🙂
Sometimes I will get a craving for a pizza or something but I remmy how much better I feel and it goes away.
[…] Review: I had all sorts of problems. You can read about them here. When a friend suggested that I try the Paleo Diet I had to admit I was skeptical. I had tried […]
[…] reading about Paleo and healthy eating habits. I have lost 60 pounds in 5 months! You can also read here about how it has helped me tremendously. I find that the more I know the better I am able to stay […]