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 Dave’s story below.
In 2002, my wife and I made a commitment to live a more healthy lifestyle and lose weight. We followed conventional wisdom and marched right into Weight Watchers and signed up. We also joined a newly constructed gym facility in our town. At the gym, we joined the triathlon training program on a whim. The combination of working out regularly and the calorie restriction of the Weight Watchers diet plan worked well for a while. I went from 5’7″ / 172 pounds to a svelte 136 pounds.
After a while though, keeping that weight off became quite a challenge. I increased my activity level even further in an attempt to preserve the weight I had worked so hard to attain. Over the course of the next 8 years I went on to complete numerous triathlons (four of them were Ironman distance), cycling events, running races, open water swim events and several seasons of cross country skiing. However, the fit and slender body I had achieved in 2002 was nowhere to be found. I was back to 168 pounds and getting heavier with every passing month. My wife has always been my biggest cheerleader and supported me in everything I set my mind to. She spent 3 years working in a naturopathic sports medicine clinic as their resident nutrition specialist and got a masters degree in holistic nutrition, dishing out elimination diet protocols to hundreds of patients with fantastic success. I was not ready to listen to the message and continued on my conventional diet of eating just about everything I could fit into my mouth that tasted good. I was a platinum level member of bread & cheese-o-holics anonymous!
In May of 2010 my world came crashing down on me in a single day. While I was competing at a regional off-road triathlon, something in my knee went completely wrong and I came into the finish line limping. After several weeks of conservative treatment there was no relief. My next stop was a well respected local orthopedic surgeon for a consultation. It turns out I had a flap of cartilage hanging loose under my kneecap and the only way this pain was going to resolve itself was via arthroscopic surgery to remove the cartilage. He suggested that it was time to consider that my running career had seen its pinnacle and that from here on out it would be downhill. Chronic Cardio had dealt me a harsh blow.
During my foray into triathlon I became interested in becoming a coach. I followed this passion and within a matter of 4 years I was certified by both USA Cycling and USA Triathlon. Much to my surprise, in August of 2010, I was accepted into the ranks of the USA Triathlon Level 2 coaching program. Holy Cats! I was being invited to Colorado Springs, to be schooled by the USA Olympic Team coaches and possibly become one of only 215 (Level 2) certified coaches in the entire country. How on Earth was I going to succeed at this challenge in my current state of mind and body? How was I supposed to be a high level coach with a beer gut and five chins? Desperate times call for desperate measures so I started my search for a quick way to slim down, bulk up and get my groove back in a hurry.
That’s when I stumbled upon the myriad stories peppering the internet about this Paleo/Primal movement that was taking the athletic world by storm. The more I read, the more it made sense. I was finally ready to hear the message my wife had been trying to tell me for years. I was ready to go “full-paleo”. September 1, 2010 was the first day of the rest of my life.
Fast forward six months….. I passed the practical and written exams and am now a USA Triathlon Level 2 coach, specializing in coaching athletes who live a paleo lifestyle. I have been successful in following a paleo way of life and my weight loss-body composition shift is continuing in a positive direction. My body fat has gone from 20.1% to 13.4% and I have more energy now than any time in recent memory. Last week I weighed in at 145 pounds, my lightest since 2004. For the first time in my life I placed in the top 3 finishers in my age group at a local 10K trail run. The days of chronic cardio are behind me too. I still enjoy endurance sports, but I train a lot smarter now and have more free time to spend doing other things besides long workouts. My coaching efforts continue to expand as I’m getting athletes who are coming to me asking me if I’m “that paleo coach”, to Which I proudly answer “yes, as a matter of fact I am”. This summer my wife and I plan to launch our coaching and lifestyle consulting business, Dreamcatcher Fitness.
Robb, Thanks for all you have done in educating folks about how to regain control of their life in such a simple and easy to understand fashion. Listening to and implementing the concepts from the Paleo Solution Podcast as well as reading your book and following your suggestions have changed my life and has given me new direction. Thanks for making sense of a very technical subject and communicating it to the world. You have been instrumental in my success as a person, an athlete and a coach.
Regards,
Dave Stark
Walnut Creek, CA
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How do you train smarter? I’ve become a chronic cardio-er and am trying a different approach. I’ve run 2 marathons and 3 half marathons with #1 full in November. I’m cutting back on the running this spring/summer and hitting the kettlebells along with my Paleo eating to see if this helps my overtrained/oversugared body.
Penguys – I do about 80% interval and hill training now and also took most of my cycling indoors on my trainer. I train with a power meter on the bike to ensure I am hitting the energy system I want to train that day (glycolitic versus aerobic). My run training is all by pace now based on the VDot calculator my Jack Daniels (the man, not the booze). My long rides are done as intervals seperated by steady state efforts not to exceed 30 minutes with total time on the bike of under 4 hours and my long runs are all under 2.5 hours (most are under 90 minutes – I only go 2.5 hours once or twice in a training cycle). I only do one long effort per week, the rest are high intensity intervals or hill repeats. I like to mix it up with trail running and mountain biking too. MTB riding is a fantastic interval workout. My strength training is 80% body weight work (TRX) and some kettlebells too. In the Fall and Winter I trained in a weighted vest often and when Spring arrived and it came off I was FLYING down the trails on my runs.
Amy- You don’t need to be super fast to be a good coach. I had a fast coach once but he was an idiot who overtrained me and pretty much everyone he coached.You need to be able to communicate your intentions in a manner that is easily understood and turned into action, provide feedback to your athletes and understand what their limiters are and how to address them. I use the “train low, race high” method of race fueling advocated my Joe Freil and Loren Cordain in Paleo for athletes.I would say I am about 90% paleo and I also follow the autoimune protocols of no nightshades, white potatos and very limited nuts/seeds due to having hypothyroidism and psoriasis. I do eat a LOT of sweet potatoes in preparation for a training session or long day of racing, but I also supplement with Maltodextrin and simple sugars on those days too. One of my athletes is doing great using this plan, he just went 5:32 at the Wildflower Half Ironman triathlon last weekend. Thats one of the harderst halfs out there and it was hot so we are really happy with his performance. Your fitness and speed is in there, you simply need to dig it out and dust off the cobwebs.
I would be very interested to see a couple days of meal plans you use to meet your very variable (depending on the workout) fuelling demands. I am an elite cyclist and Im always interested to see how other high volume endurance athletes tackle nutrition with paleo.
Crossfitendurance.com helped me a lot with big improvements in technique and training.
Hey Dave,
I’m curious about your coaching. You mentioned that you recently placed in a race for the first time. I am also fit, but not necessarily speedy. I’m also passionate about running. I am interested in becoming an RRCA running coach, but am a little concerned that clients won’t want me as a coach because I am not speedy. What do you think about this?
Great job on following Paleo! I’m just getting started and am loving the energy so far. Are you doing pure paleo or paleo for athletes?
Thanks and congrats!
Amy
I agree, check out crossfitendurance.com. I think their programming is great. My running consists of 100% speed work and I just PRd on a half marathon so it IS possible to be an endurance runner without running long all the time.
and you definitely DON’T have to be ALberto Salazar to be a good coach. If you know what you are talking about people can tell and they will listen.
Hi, Great story, congratulations to you! I wanted to ask about your knee surgery, did you go through with the surgery or did the paleo/primal diet fix the flapping cartilage? I have flapping cartilage too, diagnosed last week. Last week i could not walk on my knee, had fluid and swelling but now it has improved so much im not even limping today. Can a person get away with this without surgery, maybe help the body to heal itself? You see i believe my issue stemmed from being a vegetarian for 3 years and eating grain (im now Paleo/primal) I want to keep my cartilage, is that wise? Please, what are your thoughts on my situation? 🙂
Nicole, I would suggest at least two if not three opinions from reputable orthopedic surgeons before cutting. The body has an amazing capacity to heal itself, but we need to understand there are limits to that process too. Once a certain amount of damage is done, we may in fact need some help. What I had was called a Chondral Flap. There was no way it would resolve itself, but the chance of it continuing to tear was definitely there. I went ahead with the surgery which entailed orthrscopically entering the side of my knee and basically cutting the flap off and sanding the surface smooth so it would not catch on the end of my femer again. Sometimes we need conventional medicine to help us reach our goals. Don’t try to convince yourself that Paleo/Primal is the only thing out there that will work and that conventional medicine is bunk. Each has its place and smart people are able to see that and work to integrate all practices into their health management plan. All I can say is that if you do get surgery DO YOUR PHYSICAL THEREPY RELIGOUSLY. I did not and my recovery stretched over months instead of weeks.
Thanks Dave, appreciated muchly 🙂
Dave, thanks this is great to see, when triathlon is so bogged down in nutritional BS!