This is part of an ongoing series of real life success stories from people all over the world who have been impacted by the Paleo lifestyle and The Paleo Solution. Read Andy’s story below.
Short and sweet… a 30 day commitment from me resulted in a 25lb wieght loss. 248 to 223. Age mid 50’s., It was tax season so no time for consistent workout other than 3 miles of focused walking 3x’s per week. I have been overweight, I was 220 when I 1st was married 33 years ago. Last 10 years I was between 235 and 255. Tried Atkins a few times without any change in cravings; I was always looking for my piece of cheesecake at the end of the day.
Paleo was an eyeopener. First I enjoyed my Red Stripe beer a couple of times a week, so last year, Feb of 2010, I decided for any diet to be sucsessful I would have to bag any drinking. I succeded at that that with the thought, I would shortly begin my diet. Well of course, I always had an excuse not to start. And to compound my angst, I did not take off an ounce, because I stopped the drinking.
November, I saw Robb Wolf’s book and decided to buy one of the few nutrition books I have ever bought. I read it and put it away. Nice concept, I thought. Well the holidays came and went, then the Steelers were driving all the way to the Superbowl. A great excuse for cookies and cupcakes not to mention the occasional couple of cinnamon buns, deserts everynight. Same old, same old.
One day in mid Feb., I turned to my wife and said, “You know, one morning I am going just wake up and start this Paleo thing”. Well that was on 2/22/11. And my focus was to attempt to get my blood chemistry to better levels.
The thought of no dairy, no gluten, and for the first time in 35 years, no Diet Cokes had held me back, But no more. I was committed. The first few days were a breeze. Frankly, I did have some hunger pangs and cravings about day 4-7. Other than that it has been fairly easy,
By the way, I’m not a vegetable fan at all. But my thought process is this I can eat healthier today or if I survive the heart attack, I will be forced to eat healthier later. That thought kind of motivates me through the green beans. Do I cheat? I honestly have followed this to a tee, except for my scrambled eggs (which I have cut back from 3 in the morning to 2) – I do add less than half a teaspoon of milk to the eggs. After the first 10 days or so I began adding a SMALL amount of fruit between Breakfast and Lunch.
30 days, 25 pounds gone, now what? Well since I feel better and my cravings are minimal, (a coke zero would be nice, but noooo) this is simply the way I choose to eat. There is no end date, there is no goal weight, I have not been compelled to jump on a scale every morning. What is right with this picture? EVERYTHING.
A few thoughts in closing. I mentioned to my wife yeaterday, it has occured to me that that “blue” feeling that would occasionally envelope me, 3-4 times per week has been eliminated. That is a WOW, in my book. When people ask me what diet I’m on, I let them know I am not on a diet, I have just changed to the Paleo way of healthier eating. A pleasant side effect is that I am losing weight! As for my blood chemistry, well sorry to say, I did not get a recent baseline (long story but doubtful they were good) I did not measure inches. I did not think I would accomplish this. I have accomplished 30 days and you can too!
– Andy Kolowich
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Awesome story! I’m passing this on to my father as inspiration.
Thanks for the feedback, tell him it REALLY can be done. Wish I could get my brother on it but he’s strictly a meat and potato’s, potato’s and more potato’s type of guy
Congrats on the huge improvements. I have been doing the Paleo gig for a couple of months now as well and feel better than ever. It has been a truly life changing experience for me. Keep up the great work!
You too Jake, I know what you mean… life changing!
I’m trying to understand why he cut his egg consumption. I am new to paleo, but everything I have read and heard indicates that if anything, you would benefit from increasing your eggs per day…
I’ve been on the diet for a year and lost weight and look and feel better. I used to feel depression and it has disappeared so I intend to stay on it. My husband who doesn’t eat Paleo is sold on my need to stay on it because of the depression.
Regarding the egg question, in the book, The Paleo Diet, by Dr. Loren Cordain (the father of this diet), page 123 says to eat one egg a day and why. I love eggs and read other places that eggs are fine so I was eating more (2 or 3/day) along with bacon some and fatty meats like chicken legs and thighs daily and increased my cholesterol by 100 points since going on the diet. I’ve gone back down to one a day and added leaner meats (fish and chicken breast). My doctor said I’ll have to go on blood pressure meds if I can’t bring my count down. Good luck Derp!
From what I’ve read and heard, I wouldn’t worry about your cholesterol. Do a little research, and check out this funny video, it explains alot of what you need to know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVA4ibtDfPQ
Good luck.
While I do agree with you re: Cholesterol, it does matter to Doctors AND Health Insurance companies. I went on a Standard Process 21 Day Detox solely for the purpose of preparing for a physical. My cholesterol dropped from 286 to 211, my Trigs dropped from 220 to 146 in 3 weeks. So there is definitely a diet/cholesterol link.
I have read some cholesterol horror stories on low carb forums. Yet in Robb’s book the examples show significant decreases in the numbers. I suspect it may have something to do with too much total fat, too much saturated fat, or too many boxed/fake/processed low carb foods and bars.
Anyway, I would like to hear what others think about this.
Tom, I agree with you. My main goal on this was to impact my blood chemistry for the better. I briefly mention my results in my 60 day update. I think there is no doubt of the positive link
Derp: Perhaps it was just plain guilt. Eggs, prior to changing to Paleo were a primary Breakfast staple at least 5 days per week, but with a bagel or two. Hence, when I started this I felt that perhaps I should cut back on the egg intake. Also, I thought I read in Robb’s book that you should limit eggs to 6-8 per week. ANyway lent the book out, so I can’t point to where the reference is. Now, only a couple days to 60, I do primarily eat 3 eggs at breakfast (large not x-lg) and feel great and weight loss is continuing.
I believe the little bit of milk to cook the scrambled eggs was the “cheat”.
Congrats, Andy. Stories like these help keep me motivated.
I just started adhering to a Paleo-driven nutrition plan (NOT a diet) about 2 weeks ago. While I’m not perfectly adherent, I’d say I’m 90%+ Paleo at this point, and getting more disciplined by the day.
Before moving to San Francisco, I had been doing Crossfit in Boston to help amp up my workouts. I was a former college athlete, so I craved the competitive (albeit friendly) competition that CF provided. Some of the more devoted CF’ers were going Paleo, whereas I had mainly just started eating healthier breakfasts and better snacks throughout the day. When I got out to San Francisco, I decided that once I got into the swing of things out here, I was going to go Paleo. I wanted to truly be ready to make a lifestyle change and have no excuse to revert back to eating poorly.
Now that I’m two weeks in, I have a few observations:
1) No “bloating” after eating. My favorite snack for the first 28 years of my life was peanut butter and toast. I loved the taste but always felt sluggish afterwards. Don’t even get me started on a sandwich at lunch. That gross feeling afterwards was the worst. No more. Bonus: I think this helps even my temperament, mood & feelings as well. No more ups and downs.
2) I really don’t crave the things I’ve given up. I might be out of the norm, but once I passed on a piece of bread ONE TIME, it gave me the strength to realize “Hey, that wasn’t so bad! I don’t need to devour a piece of garlic bread at dinner.” Now I really don’t even feel like I’m missing out. Bonus: If for some reason I have to have a meal with bread in it, I don’t “relapse” and feel like I feel off the wagon.
3) Food tastes SO much better now. I’ve never been a poor eater, but grabbing a piece of fruit to snack on wasn’t my idea of fun. Instead I’d reach for a bagel with peanut butter. I eat every fruit under the sun now and really appreciate the taste. I honestly feel like my taste buds have been retrained. Bonus: Kale! Brussel spouts! Avocado! Oh my!
I choose to start Paleo because since high school, I’ve had trouble “losing the last 10 pounds.” While I would be considered “trim,” I never could lose a little bit of weight around my trunk. While it’s tough to gauge how much effect two weeks of adherence has had on my body composition, I truly feel like I’m headed in the right direction.
Again, congrats Andy. If you keep up the good work, I promise I will as well!
Best,
Ted Barbeau
Good job sir, it really is amazing how much an affect diet can have on ones overall health.
Continued health to you
Andy/Mark,
This is exactly the type of thing I am feeling too. I am not on a diet, I am enjoying every food I eat and even if there is a social occasion to attend, I some how find a way to get what I need and still be sociable. But some thing you said REALLY hit home. I am happier. It is my choice to do this. It is under my control. And my wife has enjoyed the benefits of someone who used to be the most negative person in the world to someone who makes her look negative now. I have ‘only’ lost 35 lbs in 3 months time, but I have enjoyed it, not dreaded it. I do work out 5 days a week (I like to feel like an athlete!) and hike and golf (walking only) on the weekends, but these are not ‘diet things’ they are things I do because I enjoy them.
It is good to hear that you are experiencing the same things, and I wish you continued happiness and success!
John Galt
I am going to email this post to my father. He has had weight issue for as long as I can remember. He won’t listen to me, but maybe hearing something from Andy who went through something similar can encourage him. I can only hope!
Anyway, Great story Andy. Keep at it.
Just wanted to say that I started on paleo about 3 months ago to help rid my body of inflammation (I have rheumatoid arthritis) and to control my blood sugars (my HBA1c had risen to 6.9). My morning fasting sugars were starting to hit around 140-150. Not good. Switched to paleo, ramped up my Barleans Fish Oil to about 6 grams of EPA/DHA per day and knocked down 90% of my rheumatoid flaring and dropped my HBA1c to 5.9 from 6.9 and lost about 8 lbs to boot (didn’t really need to lose that since I was 145 lbs when I started but there was certainly some fat sitting there in that 145).
Also started taking Dr Sear’s Polyphenol Plus capsules twice a day for extra antioxidants (something he recommended to avoid oxidation of all the fish oil I was consuming) and take Now’s Super Enzyme caps to help out my lack of a gall bladder.
Morning fasting sugars range between 95-110 now, which is considerably better. Don’t have any cravings – do tend to eat more nuts than I should which is somewhat problematic when you no longer have a gall bladder. Also have to watch out for Omega 6’s in those nuts, so stick pretty much to macadamia nuts and walnuts which have good balances of 3’s and 6’s.
Still a bit torn between the eggs vs egg whites thing. Dr Sears of the Zone Diet is pretty dead set against yolks, blaming the AA in them for causing inflammation and strongly suggests to me that I should be eating the whites only. I have switched to whites from whole eggs, but still eat whole eggs on the weekends or toss one into my egg whites once in a while. I was eating probably 15 whole eggs a week prior to that.
Will be nice when summer comes along and I have greater access to farmers markets and fresh organic veggies. Have found organic raspberries at Sam’s Club which is nice. Wish the blackberries were such. I tend to have a bowl of those in the mornings along with some strawberries or grapefruit with breakfast and find they do not spike my blood sugars that much.
So pretty pleased overall. Just had a full panel of blood tests (cholesterol, vit d levels (I take 5-7,000 IU’s per day), etc done at endo doc. If I see some good stuff in those results will post back here. Will be interested to see what my HDL levels are doing as they have been stubbornly low (35-40) on my old diet.
Mark
Well, got my blood test results back and thought I’d share. Vitamin D levels at 69, so I’d say that is about optimal and looks like the 5-7000 IU per day is doing the job. Cholesterol 155, triglycerides 47, HDL 43, LDL 103. All pretty good, except wish the HDL was a bit higher. Would have thought this new diet might have raised it some, but doesn’t appear to. Metabolic panel all normal – creatine at .8, glucose at 102, so those look good. As I said earlier, HBA1c had dropped from 7.3 to 6.1 and I suspect will continue to fall.
Mark
Nice!
To raise hdl try eating those yolks.
Thanks to everybody for the encouragment. Ecspecially, to Adam and Jeremy who want to encourage thier dad’s, I wanted to post an update.
Saturday was 61 days since I started and I hit the 40 pound loss bar that day. Needless to say I was very pleased. Still feel great, of course and am beginning to add an actual fitness schedule into the regiem.
This month I will not beat myself up if I stray a bit here or there. But I do hope to take off another 8-10 lbs. As it stands now, i’m basically 10 pounds lighter than I have been since 1978. It is really tough for me to try to hit an ideal weight of 185 or so, but who knows.
A final mention, as I said since I did not take a base line blood test, but I got my results taken about day 50. The results were encouraging. Triglycirides were 132. HDL 42 everything was low risk or average risk except remnant lipos. Now I have a base and I will incorporate some regular exercise… Frankly I took myself off of LIPITOR 2 years ago, so I’m sure I was a cholesterol disaster area.
John, like you said it makes you “happier”; I know it has made me healthier. Thanks for your stories and feedback.
Andy
P.S. I guess the 1/2 teaspoon of milk in the eggs was cheating but I still lost 40 lbs!!
Nice story.
Being new to the Paleo way of eating, I am concerned about the animal fats we consume. “Cave man Dave” ate wild game and wild game does not have the high fat content of today’s farm raised meat most people have access to. No way can anyone convince me that free range, cage free, organic this or that can compete with the HIGH QUALITY of wild game.
That said, I do agree that dairy and breads/simple carbs(pasta/ booze)need to be avoided. If someone has an opinion on animal fats and heart disease/cancer…please, let me hear it. 🙂
Thanks, and continued success!
Why would domestic ruminants raised start to finish on pasture be qualitatively different from wild? They are eating the same thing. The antelope and elk are grazing the exact same grass, sharing the same foraging areas with the cattle and the sheep. In hard winters the govt agencies in charge of wild game management even take hay to them (depending on what state it is).
@CTJerry:
One thing to keep in mind regarding the fat content of wild game is that “Cave Man Dave” would have been consuming the bone marrow, brains, and other organ meat in addition to the leaner muscle tissue — all of which have very high fat content.