50 lb Before and Afters - my story

Oh Lordie I can't believe I am going to do this. I'm going to post my 50 lb before and afters. I should start by saying that I am now 10 MORE lbs down from the after picture. I have put on a fair amount of muscle in that time also so my body is significantly different in just 10 lbs. 50 lbs was a milestone for me though and I thought for the sake of transparency I'll post it.And I'll add my story in for kicks.

As a kid I wasn't ever heavy. I played highly competitive soccer so the endless exercise kept my think enough. In my early twenties I was super active (as we lived somewhere with no electricity and hitchhiked or walked miles into town lol) and got super thin. To thin. I even did okay as I started having babies as I jumped into fad after fad trying to find health. 100% raw food anyone? Juicing anyone? Vegetarian? Endless whole grains? Even then I was okay. I felt pretty healthy because well I was young :) Then my husband got sick. As I attempted to deal with his recovery from a severe drug addiction, I gained weight with a vengeance. I gained 60 lbs in only three months! I destroyed my metabolism, destroyed any proper insulin response I had, destroyed any healthy relationship emotionally and mentally I had with food. I tried to diet on and off through the last few years, Weight Watchers, calorie counting, etc. but all I ended up doing was getting fatter and fatter and hated myself more and more. Diets make you fat. Nuff said about that.

I found myself at a rockin' 245 lbs. As I type this I sit at 191 lbs.

This health journey for me began in October last year (2012). By the recommendation of a friend I read the book "Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It" by Gary Taubes. That man is amazing! I think anyone starting from a place of eating processed carbs, or even way too many healthy carbs like homemade bread, etc. like I did should read that book. He's not totally paleo or anything but the way he lays out the science of blood sugar and weight gain, it's gold I tell ya. I jumped in with both feet and started going low carb. The weight started melting off. By the end of the year I had lost 25 lbs. I couldn't believe it~!

But I still felt old. My back pain was coming back in full force. I have a malformed vertebra in between my lumbar and sacral part of my back. It has been malformed since birth. I had a bad back injury when I was 12 that left me in physical therapy for months. That injury coupled with my birth defect caused my disk to start to degenerate. A couple of years ago I spent most of a year hardly able to walk. It took my until about noon before my back would loosen up enough to walk. I have six kids. I was scared to death that I'd be in a wheelchair raising my kids. When I got pregnant last the pain subsided due to my Relaxin kicking in and loosening my joints. But last fall, it came back. I was losing weight and yet my back was starting to get worse by the day. And despite low carbing it I still did lots of stevia treats and had sugar, I mean stevia lol, cravings were a tad on the insane side. That's not really what I wanted for long term either. So I started hunting for answers. And I came up..... what for it........ Paleo of course LOL~!

I found the Whole30.

 I read all sorts of amazing claims about the Whole30 and nabbed the Hartwig's amazing book It Starts with Food. I joined the forum and started right away. The Whole30 template has you eating vegetables with EVERY meal and wow was that something! Nutrient dense veggies even with breakfast. Breakfast? And low and behold I found kale was my new favorite breakfast food. Kale! Who knew? But I'll get into W30 food in a different post.

Within a couple of weeks I noticed an amazing thing happening........ My back started to not hurt! What?! Those claims about inflammation going down were true? Believe you me, I'm a skeptic. I didn't really think I would get relief. I had been going to the chiropractor once a week because it was all I could afford. I wished I could go more. Within weeks my chiro told me I didn't need to come but once every two weeks. By the end of my W30 it was three weeks. I read and read and learned about Omega3 and Omega6 ratios. I started trying to eat less nuts and started taking Fermented Cod Liver Oil to up Omega3s. It was a miracle! My back pain was gone. Gone. I started going to Crossfit and was scared to death that deadlifts, weighted squats, pullups, etc. were going to make my back hurt more. I had been scared of exercise since my back pain. I only did isometric exercise since I hurt my back. But low and behold my back pain was gone! My long nagging knee pain was getting better not worse as I squatted. This thing really worked!

And the weight was melting off. I didn't count calories, I didn't restrict myself, I had lots of saturated fats, protein, ate fruit with meals, and weight was melting off. I was feeling vibrant and strong. I was a new woman! I have no gallbladder and my stools were getting better. Loads and loads of fiber and my stools were getting more normal? This whole thing was odd. My body in general was getting healthier right before my eyes. It wasn't weight loss that was driving me feeling better, it was from the inside out! My skin, my hair, my joints, my bowels, everything was feeling better. Why would I ever want to stop?

Then my Whole30 ended. The day after I thought I'd splurge and ate pie. Yes pie. Don't judge me. I ate two pieces of pie. What drove that I don't know. I was feeling amazing and hadn't had any cravings in a couple weeks. Why would I do this? Anyways.... literally the next morning the inflammation in my back was back in full force. I was shocked. Shocked! I had been doing hundreds of squats a week for almost a month and one single air squat that day after the pie wrecked my knee and the inflammation was crazy. I guess I needed that kick in the rear to remind me that I wasn't just making this anti-inflammation thing up. I was a believer through and through now. I went back to total paleo and have been for the last few months since that slip-up.

So 50 lbs. I lost 50 lbs. I'm almost at 60 lbs down now but these pics mattered to me at the time so I'll post them.

I have some observations though. This woman in the befores didn't care. She hated herself. I looked like that day in day out. Terrible bra, slovenly clothes, and hair. She was just someone who had gotten to where she didn't care about herself at all, and I'd venture to say she was disgusted with herself. I am sad for her when I look at the pictures. And look at my shoulders? They were so tilted from my terrible back pain.

Now in the 50# after pics the weight isn't what I see though that's great and all. I see her smile. It's proud and happy. Her shoulders are straight as her back isn't wracked with pain. She shines from her face. She doesn't hate herself. She feels good. She feels strong. Good on her. And look at that squat booty forming. Oh yeah baby.

So there it is. Oy. Pictures.

And the rest of my story will play out here. I've been paleo now for four months. It seems like forever. And it seems like just yesterday I started. Some things are second nature and some things are still a struggle. But I'm muddling through and will muddle through here on this blog. This is my health story.

Doctor Oz and Paleo

So today was the long-anticipated Doctor Oz episode that talked about the "Paleo Diet CRAZE". Yes I watched. What kind of stay-at-home paleo mom would I be if I weren't watching Dr. Oz in the afternoon? (A normal one with concern for true health actually!).

I had watched the episode where he had the amazing Gary Taubes on and it was pretty terrible. Dr. Oz was combative IMO, and he did this terrible week-long low carb thing that was just so preposterous and nothing like a good low-carb diet should be. Low and behold he didn't feel great after and preceded to tell everyone how it's not that great for you. So I was not expecting much. BUT..... I was pleasantly surprised.

I knew they were having good well spoken credible guests on to talk about paleo but hey Gary Taubes  rocks my socks off and Dr. Oz still went at him. But good old Dr. Oz seemed pretty pro-paleo. It left me a tad stunned and still I am wondering what happened. I mean clearly that guy HAS to have some sort of agenda right? How can he go from whole grains will save your life to "paleo can heal health problems!" overnight? Whiplash much? So he seemed to really like the whole concept. And he was very clear that the most preconceptions that people have about it are false. Paleoista did a good job of showing that veggies, good proteins, and good fats aka nutrient rich foods are the core of eating paleo.And Dr. Loren Cordain is so intelligent and well-spoken and came across BEYOND credible. Woot woot.

Now I did have a little pet peeve..... So I'm not a paleo nazi. I'm a normal struggling mom like the rest of the moms out there. But it still rubbed me the wrong way when Paleoista lady started talking about three cheat meals a week. I don't hear anyone in the paleo community saying things like that. Do people eat things that may not be 100% paleo? Sure. Are there occasions where even famous bloggers out there eat a raw organic dairy ice cream with no guilt? Of course. BUT they never say things like "three cheat meals a week is allowed' because eating paleo is not a diet. I wanted to chuck a shoe at the screen when she did that because she threw the entire notion of paleo eating being a way of life and made it sound clearly like a diet. And 75 pounds in 6 months? Oy. Diet wording number 2,992. Not a fan of all that.

And the food was okay but where were braised short ribs? Or something that looked a little less like chicken over salad and more like delicious amazing food that makes everyone salivate? It looked a tad like diet food. Oh well, can't win em all.

The best part were the two ladies with hard-core health issues that had their lives changed through this amazing anti-inflammatory diet we all call paleo. It has changed my life and pain and I am over-the-moon that people are going to go Googling "paleo" to help with their health issues. So many lives are going to be changed simply because Dr. Oz decided he was going to be pro-paleo this time. So good on you Dr. Oz!

They have a little article/write-up on the Dr. Oz site that pretty much sums up how the episode went. Read it here:
Dr. Oz. Paleo Article

The best part of that article thingamajig though is the comments. I am so thrilled for the endless comments of people with inflammation based disorders that are convinced that trying paleo may help them. AMAZING! Ah-mazing.

Convenience Paleo Food or lack thereof?

 I had just done the unthinkable that evening. I had thrown three bags of frozen raviolis in a pot for a quick two second meal. My "must be paleo" 13 year old was at a campout and I didn't need dinner for him and I have no problem throwing some kale and eggs in a pan for me, so I had grabbed three bags of horribleness. The entire time I was lamenting about how I just can't get this "I need quick paleo food" thing together. And let's face it. Stay-at-home moms of 6 kids NEED, and I mean need, quick easy dinners. I can't possibly be the only one who screws days up and doesn't have dinner ready when I need dinner ready.  And let's be real here. Most of these women on paleo blogs show the most amazing 10-star meals at every meal and here I am freaking out with my stupid bags of raviolis because I am having a meltdown that I ran out of time getting my son's camping stuff ready and literally have 5 minutes to have a meal made. Yeah, I didn't have short ribs sitting in the crockpot that came from the local butcher shop. I needed a life line.

As they ate the horribleness, my sweet husband watched the kids so I could go for a nice walk. 3 miles with just me, my iPhone, and the most recent episode of the Paleo View. If you haven't listened to these, you are missing out. Combine Sarah's scientific prowess with Stacy's down-to-earth wise cracks and it's just my cup of tea. It has the best of both Kim worlds, sarcasm and science. Be still my heart. Anyways..... click the image to find the podcasts:

I started it and within moments realized this episode was kismut. Wait for it... Paleo convenience foods via a chat with the fab duo from Rich Food Poor Food and Naked Calories. OH and Vitamin D of course! So between convenience food and getting sun I was ready for a good time. Anyways so they ask them about Paleo convenience foods. And sigh.......... big sigh.............. they say the one thing I knew they'd say that I wish they didn't. Basically that there is no amazing frozen food to just grab and throw in a pot like my horribleness raviolis. I literally sighed as I was walking. I almost wanted to scream that I just can't do this! I can't move my family completely to eating this way if I can't have something on days where I am kind of a mom failure in the meal department. They had suggestions like a sous vide and don't get me wrong I wish I had $500 for something like that but I don't. I'll revisit that cool device another day. I had really expected answers. These two moms who have lived this way for years had no answers, and neither did the two authors who scoured the stores looking at nutritional information for their book.

So I'm left without the best answers for paleo convenience foods. Yes, I need to cook extra and freeze it. But alas I needed to do that before paleo. And I need to make sure and always plan ahead so that doesn't happen, but I needed to do that before as well. I need answers on that front. I may never be perfect menu planned mom. And I may never be "I never screw my day up and am super late for life" mom. BUT I also don't want to be "throw a few bags of crappy raviolis" in the pot mom either.

And now the world, aka the no one who knows my blog exists LOL, realizes this isn't the "I have all the answers" blog. It's the "I'm trying to figure this paleo mom thing out" blog. But I'm inspired. I need an arsenal of quick family paleo dinners. An arsenal! Because well... this certainly won't be the last time I need to quickest paleo dinner in the history in the world so my husband and kids don't freak out. My brain is going going going right now with ideas. Those should be coming soon soon soon.

AND there are so much more from that episode of the View. The Vitamin D talk had me reeling and reeling. I need to relisten to it though. I'm not quick enough to gain all that goodness the first time around. It's my new favorite micro-nutrient and need to learn about it more! Until next time folks.

It means I got lots of Vitamin D right? Ouch.

Even typing hurts. This is one of those moments where I am almost afraid to type all this out in fear of looking like an idiot but that's never stopped me before so....

So we went family camping with my daughter's American Heritage Girls troop. So when Saturday morning rolled around I brought out the sunscreen. I put it on my kids' faces and arms and necks and sent them off to their activities. I'm a good mom right?

Then.... Mrs. Paleo Crossfit Health-Obsessed Pretending I'm Super Mom had this internal dialogue with herself. And keep in mind that I had already slathered my children down. It went something like this:

"You haven't really been getting outside much and could use the Vitamin D. Those podcasts with those amazing looking paleo women who know everything that you listened to the other day were talking about how you won't get Vit. D if you slather sunscreen on. And all those chemicals all over your skin? Eek. That's so bad for you! Okay so maybe just a little on my face, ears, and back of the neck so I won't get burnt. You know you don't want to have to take Vit. D supplements Kim. Yeah you don't have the money for Vit. D supplements. You definitely know more than most people about how great Vit. D is for you so you need to set an example and not slather that all over yourself. Only those who don't read about Vit. D put sunscreen all over."

It went something like that. Some famous paleo person told you not to do it (though I doubt any of those amazing people said to go get burnt to a crisp), pride, vanity, you will look awesome being too cool for sunscreen. Pride cometh before the fall right? And yeah I look awesome alright. Awe-some.

Well no one has to guess that I'm an idiot and burnt to a crisp head-to-toe. Head. To. Toe. Face, chest, arms, legs, burnt. A picture? Okay off to grab my phone because well the only thing that really interests anyone is a picture of just how sunburned someone is. That's the fun part right?

The irony in it all? All that Vitamin D my body made? Yeah well it's now being devoted to help repair the insane damage to the largest organ in my body that I managed to accomplish. And I get the honor of going to the box and looking like a big sunburned fool to do my WOD.