How I came to the Paleo Lifestyle
In the Spring of 2012, I was dabbling with Crossfit, having heard about this new fitness program from a variety of sources. I got serious about it in May when I started training with Chris, an old family friend and co-owner of Crossfit Threshold in Miami, FL. Chris coaches me virtually, sending me workouts and reviewing videos of my movements. So after about a month of working with him, Chris says, “We need to talk about cleaning up your diet.”
At first I protested – my diet was fine! I had become lactose intolerant in my early 20s, and gave up a lot of refined carbohydrates when I did P90X a year prior. Chris challenged me to focus on eating paleo for 30 days, just to see how it felt. Okay, I thought, I can do anything for 30 days.
I gave up my morning oatmeal, did my best to conquer my sweet tooth, and started avoiding bad oils and legumes. I ate lots of good protein, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and healthy fats. The first two weeks were rough – I had headaches and cravings all the time. But then, all of a sudden, I started to feel a lot better. The biggest difference that I noticed was my energy; I had consistent energy throughout my day, no more 3pm slumps. At the end of the 30 days I felt so good that I decided to keep it going, and it has now been well over a year of clean paleo eating!
The results of my changed habits were externally visible too. After about 6 months of my new lifestyle, I lost about 15 lbs and went from a size 6 to a size 0. This is not to say that losing weight was my goal, but I think it speaks to the fact that my body is happier this way. In fact, my new goal is to put on lean muscle mass so that I can get stronger and lift heavier things.
As I became more devoted to this lifestyle, I also began to change some other aspects if my life, like my skin care routine. I will use this blog to explain and chronicle those changes as well.
I want to emphasize that my blog is a personal chronicle, nothing more. I am not going to focus too much on the science of this lifestyle; there are others who do a much better job of that. I’m also not perfect – I cheat, and I enjoy life. My goal is to simply share my personal experiments, what works for me. If you learn something, great! If you disagree, that’s fine too.
Another Paleo Blog 