I Was Surprised How Easy It Was….

Testimonial written by: Melissa C.

 

Hi Robb,

I happened upon your book about a month ago when browsing some health related material on my Nook. My two oldest kids (I have 4) do crossfit, and I heard about the Paleo Diet through the newsletters I would receive from the crossfit team. I never actually tried crossfit myself (funny that I would sign my kids up for it, right?) because I felt I was much too heavy and out of shape. An embarrassing story: A few months ago, the Crossfit Kids component had to move the location of their gym due to a fire. The new location is in a downtown warehouse that also holds an industrial scale (likely to weigh large goods, I’m guessing), and one of the coaches invited me to test it out to see if it worked. Well, it did… and I tipped the scale at a whopping 226 pounds. Needless to say, I was mortified…

Four weeks ago, I started the Paleo Plan outlined in your book. I enjoyed my ”last meal” at our favorite neighborhood pub (cheeseburger, fried clams, and a Fat Tire), then gave up all dairy and grains cold turkey. I was surprised how easy it was… other than turning down my mom’s homemade brownies or having to forgo my husband’s homebrew (his hobby – he’s really good at it too!), it’s been surprisingly painless. The hardest part has been turning away foods that other people are trying to offer you. ”Why not?” ”Are you feeling okay?” ”You’re not on some weird diet, are you?” I’ve had some digestive issues leading up this point, so explaining that me and my doctor are trying to rule out allergies satisfies most folks.

First, I want to tell you one of the changes I noticed almost immediately. I’d been experiencing pain in my left foot for several months, which I’d attributed to me being overweight. However, within a couple of days, the pain was gone – completely. I even started walking 2-3 days a week (something I had trouble with before because of the pain in my foot and intermittently in my right hip) and was completely pain free. In addition, the headaches I’d been having (which I assumed were due to seasonal allergies) were gone within a week (I haven’t taken Sudafed or Benedryl for 3 weeks now). In addition, the diarrhea that had troubled me for years went away, again after about a week. This last issue had been so significant previously that I’d been to see a GI doc about it, who scoped me and determined that my colon was ”A-OK” other than a couple of hemorrhoids (big surprise after giving birth to 4 kids). He recommended that I increase my fiber intake with Metamucil or something similar. When I asked how that was going to help the diarrhea, he just shrugged, and said that Imodium should help clear that up. Well, gee… glad it only took going through ”the cleanse” and getting scoped to hear that sage advice…

Finally, I knew I had lost some weight because my clothes were getting looser. When my mother-in-law made a comment that my face looked thinner and that my body looked smaller (she isn’t one to dole out compliments lightly!), I knew something was happening. So today, I got up the nerve to step on the scale (i.e. the Wii). I have lost 18 pounds in 4 weeks! I was floored.

Of course, I’m thrilled about the weight loss (as is my husband, who I think I’ve almost convinced to embark on this diet with me) but I’m not sure which provides me with the greater incentive to continue with the Paleo Diet – the fact that I’m losing weight, or the fact that those aches and pains that I was attributing to ”getting older” (I’m 41) disappearing. I’m motivated to see what this middle-aged body of mine can do! 🙂

Cheers,

Melissa

Squatchy

Christopher Williams (a.k.a. Squatchy) is a paleo aficionado, educator, personal trainer, wellness coach, and hobbyist chef. He also works as part of the Robb Wolf team.