1. Drastic Lifestyle Changes

In my last post, I gave ten things I did to go from overweight and unhealthy to a fit powerlifter. So I am now going to cover each step in more detail.

Step 1. I made drastic lifestyle changes.

I had been a skinny teen…my knees were bigger than my thighs. If I turned sideways and stuck my tongue out, I looked like a zipper….yeah picture that. But then I went to college and got married at 19. I never cared about eating healthy, so I had a field day with the junk food. Then I became a vegetarian….I gained and lost, and gained and lost…then I got pregnant!

I have 4 kids, and I was pregnant or nursing a baby for eight years straight. And while pregnant, I definitely decided to eat for two, or three..ok maybe four. Being vegetarian went out the window….eating anything healthy went out the window! I figured I would loose the weight after baby was born…had to keep baby fed, right? Let me tell you, when people say nursing a baby helps you loose baby weight, THEY ARE LYING! My body held onto every ounce of fluffy soft baby cuddling fat that it could. I hit just over 200 pounds with my last pregnancy, and lost a whopping 10 pounds when he was born. 190 on a 5’4″ frame did not flatter me at all. This was my wake up call. My days of Cheez It’z addiction and eating full pizzas by myself were catching up to me! I included a pic of me with 3 of my 4 kids when I used to feed them terribly….look at what I am feeding them! So wrong!

My good friend came to my rescue at just the right time! She drug me kicking and screaming to a weight loss group where they taught the low glycemic lifestyle. We learned to record everything we ate, we learned how to regulate our blood sugar for weight loss, and we learned to eat every two hours….WHAT!!! How was I going to loose weight eating every two hours!! I had always lost weight by NOT eating! But I was willing to give it a try. There was a biggest looser contest, and I am competitive…..so boy did I comply!

The first three weeks required us to give up grains completely. I did this and dropped a TON of water weight! And I lost weight while eating every two hours! I was having a hard time eating so much! WOW was I impressed. After the three weeks were up, we were allowed to add more grains back…and I started gaining water weight back! So I went to the doctor, explained how I lost water weight without grains, and gained it back with grains. Basically I paid him to tell me “well don’t eat grains then”. Thank you doc…here is my $35 co-pay! So I backed off the grains a bit and ended up loosing 50 pounds winning the the biggest looser title!! WOOHOO!

I lost weight, I had energy, I felt the best I had in years! What could be better? I thought I was doing great! But apparently the friend who made me go to this group didn’t think that was good enough! She started trying to get me to step it up and convert to paleo diet. I read about it and thought she was nuts!! What would I eat? How would I live without bread?? One day while she was visiting, she went to my Amazon account on my tablet and purchased and e-book on my account and said “You just bought a book, now read it!” This book changed my life. It was an eye opener and I started making the change. The Paleo Solution

Within this time frame, my then 7 year old son had developed blinding migraines and passed a kidney stone. We spent so much time in the hospital. The first migraine blinded him for a week…and the kidney stone? Yeah, it took him 22 excruciating days to pass that vile little pebble of torture. His kidney doctor sat us down with a nutritionist and explained the diet change he would have to abide by for his kidney health….guess what? It was pretty much the paleo diet! So I committed the entire family to making the change to paleo, even my reluctant husband who was only willing to give it a month.

I had the moments where my pantry was empty, and I didn’t know what to eat! I called the friend who introduced me to paleo in a panic about the crisis of being lost with what to feed my family! I found a great website that I still use today for recipes and was able to make some of our favorites in a much healthier way. Wellnessmama

So what happened with this family lifestyle change? I stopped needing my glasses that I had needed since I was 20…because apparently grains made my eyes retain water, affecting my vision. I now have 20/20 vision. My thyroid started healing…I decreased the thyroid medication I had been on for much of my life. I had energy and started sleeping better. My back pain started improving. My blood work impressed my doctor, because I was the healthiest person he had seen, according to my numbers. My husbands high blood pressure normalized and he felt the best he ever had. My kids, three of which have Elhers Danlos Syndrome like myself, also improved. My daughter stopped having hives every day. Her tremors stopped, her daily joint pain started getting better, her radical heart rate problems ceased. She no longer had to carry a portable EKG with her everywhere she went. Her circulation problems improved and she stopped having sever stomach pain and bloating. My son also stopped having daily hives. My son with the migraines and kidney stones? He went from a severe blinding migraine every 1 to 2 weeks to none! He also never passed another kidney stone. He is now 12, and has only had 2 mild migraines since the diet change, and they only lasted a couple hours and did not take his vision, nor were they debilitating.

How on earth could I ignore these drastic improvements to my families quality of life? I was hooked. I will eat paleo the rest of my life, because eating paleo gave my family back their life! So if you are considering going on a diet, I encourage you to rethink that. Don’t diet…a diet is a temporary thing. Commit to changing the way you eat….make it a lifestyle change. I promise the cravings do go away. It takes about three weeks for you to feel the cravings decrease, but it is well worth the wait. I can be in a room full of pastries and not even have a twinge of wanting to eat them. It is wonderful! My 8 year old is the only child who has only eaten paleo his entire life, and boy will he turn his nose up at a cupcake! You will get a lecture if you try to get him to eat junk! If he can do it, so can you! He, by the way, is the only child to not exhibit Ehlers Danlos Syndrom symptoms….coincidence? Maybe, but I may discuss what I have researched about switching on and off genes using diet in another post.