Testimonial written by: Michael L.
When I was 23, I went through a big break up. At the time I thought it was the worst thing I had ever gone through. In hind sight, it turns out to be the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
Go back five years earlier, I was a skinny guy, who thought he was fat. I hadn’t been in a relationship until that point and somehow I had come to the conclusion that it must have been because I didn’t look how I ‘should’. Granted the two years prior, I had lived a life where on the way to school I would be eating all the goodies from the local bakery and slamming energy drinks like there was no tomorrow. So if anything, I was skinny fat.
When I started dating this girl, that five years later would kick start the greatest game changer I had ever seen, she had noticed that I didn’t eat. I in fact had struggled with the smallest amount of sushi on our first date. The thought of food made me ill. And I hated myself for it. I had stopped eating. By that point, it had lasted for about 6 months.
Gradually, I would begin eating again with her encouragement and support. I went back to normal eating habits and progressively, I began to enjoy food again.
Unfortunately, I began a new job a long distance from home, with long and odd hours. Sometimes I would leave the office at 2am only to be returning at 8am. This put a number of pressures on me and I turned to eating copious amounts of take away, eventually reaching all meals of the day in take away form, in all its, salty, sugary, trans-fat filled goodness.
Needless to say, I ballooned. By the age of 21, I was sitting around 110kg, 242.5lbs(yes, i did a lot more sitting back then), then slowly but surely getting to around about 120kg, 264.55lbs by my 23rd birthday. Ironic, because now clearly, I was what I was most afraid of being no less than 5 years before.
With this newfound girth, I had a multiple of chronic issues rear their ugly heads. Depression, insulin resistance, shin splints, back pain, insomnia, migraines.
Listening to Joe De Sena the other week on the podcast(and reading his book), these are all great things for me to remember for framing my point of reference. Because life was rough then.
When the break up happened, I was in denial. I thought everything was ok.
One day, while I was dealing with those changes. I looked in the mirror. A real good look, for about 5 or so minutes. I looked like hell. And I hated it. I hated myself. And I hated everyone for letting me become this person.
Luckily, I had a friend who was a PT at the time and he said to me one day, “Mick. You need to look into this thing called ‘paleo’. its right up your alley. It’s based on historical research and stuff. It’s pretty nerdy. You’d love it!”
Turns out he was right. I bought Robb and Mark’s books, read them both in the quickest amount of time I have ever read anything. Woke up one morning and made the switch. Pulled the band-aid off in one go, jumped right in and never looked back.
The First of August will mark three years since I’ve made this change. Within my first six months of my lifestyle change, I dropped 45kg, 99.2lbs to get me down to 75kg, 165.34lbs
I spent the majority of the last three years training with body builders but recently in the last six months slowly moving to a more functional training and now including crossfit sessions twice a week. Which is great because the inclusion of gymnastic work lets me go back to some of the stuff I always loved to do as a kid!
I study Nutritional Medicine and I’m now a manager for a local supplement retailer chain. It gives me a platform to help people in my local area with the use of paleo as a great starting point for long term health and an approach to tweaking athletic performance. I know I have a long way to go but I think I’m on the right track
Every time I see that girl now, I thank her. Breaking up with me is definitely the best thing she could have ever done for me.
This is such an inspiring story! Happy to hear about the positive way that Paleo impacted your life!