Primal Blueprint
Is Wheat Bad for More Than Just Your Health?
Apr 11th
This kid is mad. And looks like Patton Oswalt.
Since I wrote it less than a month ago, my post entitled “Is Wheat Bad For You?” has been far and away the biggest driver of traffic to my site. This is fascinating to me, because while I write about following the Primal Blueprint on occasion, this is not the main topic area of my blog. But in less than a month, it’s coming up on 1,000 views.
People aren’t coming from direct links, either. They’re searching Google. They’re trying to figure it out. They want to know what the deal is with wheat. This tells me that this is an issue that is rising to the level of public consciousness. I’m willing to bet (prediction alert!) that within the next five to ten years, the problems wheat is causing in the Standard American Diet will be major health news. It will be the kind of thing you’re hearing about in major news outlets. It will become a focus of healthcare providers, in much the same way that a low-carb diet has become an increasingly standardized part of weight loss. Hopefully, we’ll even see additional science on this, which will shed further light on wheat-related health issues.
But until then, if you’ve chosen (choice being the key word here) to cut out wheat from your diet and you haven’t been diagnosed with a gluten issue or celiac disease (which would mean you have no choice), be aware that what you’re doing will appear to be nothing short of crazy to almost everyone around you. And you’re going to upset people. Your dietary restrictions will cause conflict. You will be a pariah at parties. I’m going to start busting into alliteration if I don’t stop now.
You can’t eat sandwiches. You can’t have fresh bread. No toast, bagels, or muffins. Crackers are a no-go. You can’t eat pasta. You’ve broken up with cakes, cookies, and doughnuts. You can’t even eat many cereals. If you’re like me and you’ve also given up (except for the occasional indulgence) all other grains, legumes, and most sugars, you also knock out anything made with beans, or rice, or potatoes, or oats, or barley, or rye, or…you get the picture. It’s not that there aren’t lots of things you can eat, it’s just that most of us have grown up eating most of the things that are on the forbidden list. Those are hard habits to break, especially if you don’t believe that it’s important.
Wheat is a staple in the lives of most people in Western Civilization. Taking out the daily bread is a big deal. Asking people not to bring wheat products over when they visit (this is especially important if you’ve taken your little kids off of it; I’d be less strict if it was just myself) or trying to politely tell people that you’ll have to avoid many of the foods they make can offend people. It can hurt feelings. It can break family traditions. It can cause fights.
When I chose to give up wheat, this was never what I intended to have happen. But I am strict about it – have to be strict about it – because my health and the health of my family is extremely important to me. My kids don’t know why they had to give up pancakes and spaghetti and rolls and cookies and cake and so many of the things that they loved. They don’t understand that with their family history of early heart disease, diabetes, and ADD (among other things) that it just isn’t worth it and the habits will be easier to break now rather than later. They can’t fathom why something so common in most people’s kitchens can be so bad. And they’ve been good sports about the alternatives we provide to them. My wife does a great job with the substitutions, and she’s a fantastic cook no matter what ingredients she’s working with. But if I put an almond flour cookie or a pumpkin pancake on their plate next to a plate with the real thing, I think they’ll still choose the real thing. If I have the option of giving them real spaghetti with meatballs or spaghetti squash with meatballs, I’m pretty sure they’ll pick the real spaghetti. So I try to keep those things off the table entirely until they’ve really adapted to this way of eating for the longer term. And when you have get-togethers with people who don’t get it, or don’t care, you’d be surprised how upset people will get.
When I commit to something, I go all-in. I’ve lost almost 30 lbs. in three months, and I’m not stopping. I feel better, I have more energy, I get more done. I have the desire to exercise on a regular basis, which is also new. I feel confident that I have vastly improved my health, and have improved my quality of life and life expectancy as well.
But I’ve started some arguments and hurt some feelings as well, which I regret. I’m passionate about this, and that’s sometimes good and sometimes bad. If you’re making this change in your life, expect some resistance, and plan to deal with it as diplomatically as possible. Wheat is something that millions of people are used to eating (and probably addicted to) and while choosing to eat it can be bad for your health, choosing not to can cause problems with your family and friends.
My advice? Try to tread lightly. And let the proof be in the results.
Is Wheat Bad For You?
Mar 16th
That’s the question I typed into Google this morning. The results were interesting.
Before I get to the results, let me back up a step. Since my family and I have gone primal, one of the chief differences in our lifestyle is the elimination of grains – particularly wheat. This wasn’t an easy step. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who loves wheat as much as I do. I mean, there have to be hot French Baguettes in heaven, next to a spread of triple-cream brie, dry Italian salami, prosciutto, and gallons of red wine, right?
We’ve discovered how much better we feel now that we’ve purged grains from our diet. I’ve lost 25 lbs. in two months (with relatively minimal physical activity – I work a sedentary job and don’t always find time to go walking) and Jamie has lost 20 lbs. This isn’t just weight loss, but actual fat loss. I’ve slimmed out far more with this drop in weight than I could have hoped. I was definitely rounder, for lack of a better word, the last time I was at this weight. I’ve lost at least 4 inches off my waist, and I can’t even wear my wedding ring anymore.
In addition, Jamie’s arthritis and chronic back pain have cleared up. My back pain is also gone (I have mild scoliosis and it causes serious issues in my neck and shoulders.) We both have fewer headaches in general, and Jamie never gets migraines anymore. We have greater mental clarity, strength, stamina, and energy. Mood levels have stabilized substantially. I’m prone to bouts of depression and anger, and those are just about nullified. The kids are more focused and less spastic. Not to be gross, but we hardly ever suffer from gas anymore. The chest pains I used to get on occasion (or sometimes frequently) are gone. I won’t know until I get to the doctor, but my guess is that both my blood pressure and cholesterol levels will be down. The list goes on.
Now, we haven’t just removed things from our diet, we’ve added things in. We’re eating more fat and cholesterol (the horror!) and in particular medium chain fatty acids like those found in nature’s wonder food, coconut oil. We’re also getting all of our carbs from vegetables and fruit now. We also eat a great deal less than we used to. This week, I’ve been skipping lunch altogether and eating a meal around 4PM, which holds me over (with the addition of a light snack) until bed time. I’m not hungry enough to eat three full meals a day anymore. And because of that, I’ve been dropping close to a pound a day this week. This is a good thing when you still have 40lbs. to go.
So let’s get back to the subject at hand. We believe a large part of the reason why we’re losing fat, feeling better, and generally feeling like we have a new lease on life is the elimination of grains, particularly wheat. That’s a hard sell to most people who’ve grown up on the USDA food pyramid. Americans are wheat eaters. We love our bread, cereal, cookies, cakes, etc. And you find wheat in a thousand other things you’d never expect, like pre-packaged meatballs and cans of tomato soup. It’s in everything. And considering it’s been one of the building blocks of civilization over the past 10,000 years, it’s got a bit of history to it. Not as much history as the hunter/gatherer lifestyle, but that lifestyle ended for a reason: it was freaking hard. And not conducive to building cities.
I’ve had discussions with people lately about how if we feel better because we got rid of wheat, it must be because we have a problem with wheat, not because wheat has a problem with humans. We must be celiac, or have gluten sensitivity, or be otherwise allergic. I will grant that any of these things could be possible, though I also find it strange that I lived my life gnawing on sandwiches and home made bread and having toast every morning for breakfast without having any major issues before I eliminated it from my diet and now suddenly I’m celiac. It could happen – people who are slowly poisoned by things don’t always get gravely sickened by them until they stop building up an immunity (think Iocaine powder) and it’s possible that eating wheat all the time kept me oblivious.
But I think there’s more to it. I’ve been reading things that lead me to believe that wheat might actually kill you dead over the long term. And that was worth finding out more about.
So back to my Google search. I’ve excerpted a few articles below and highlighted some of the salient bits. It’s a lot to read so I won’t blame you if you don’t.
The Incredible Shrinking Steve
Mar 14th
As any fat person can tell you, taking a profile picture for your Facebook or Twitter account is daunting. You have to throw so many away. You want the one that makes you look just ever-so-slightly less fat. And you tend to update often, being unsatisfied with what you had before. (If you’re like me, and hate seeing yourself in pictures anyway, it’s even worse.)
So, I was going through some profile pictures I took over the last month, and I had an idea. I decided to make this:
Now, these are just camera phone pictures. That I took of myself. And I’m guestimating at the weights, because I haven’t been keeping a journal or anything (though I should have – I need to find a good tracking site for weight loss.) Also, it is not an intentional psychological trick that my head is closer to the camera in the first (looking larger) and further away in the last (looking smaller). I just picked the pictures that seemed to be in generally the same position, so a comparison could be made.
When I put these side by side, I can see it. I am at the phase of weight loss when people start to really compliment you. It’s a good place – 21 pounds lost, and about 4 inches off my waist – but I still look at myself and see how far I have to go. So it’s helpful to look at myself and see how far I’ve come. And if there’s one place in particular that I am glad I’m slimming out, it’s my face. I’m tired of being a fat-head.
What I don’t have is a picture of me at 304lbs., which is where I started the year. (For that matter, I don’t have a picture of me at 312lbs., which is where I was at the end of 2008, and the most I ever weighed.) I do have a nice collection of pictures of me just being fat, though. Like this:
Or this:
Or even this, where it appears that I am dangerously close to transmogrifying into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (notice how the camera can’t even focus because I’m so globular):
Once, to put things into context, I made another comparison image. Years ago. Because for the last decade I’ve been constantly freaking fat, but I didn’t always used to be:
Oh, the Huge Manatee!!
Granted, I don’t want to be that skinny anymore. After high school I was healthier:
And even in college, not so bad, despite that tent of a hideous shirt I was wearing:
And actually, that last picture is right around my goal weight. Around 240. That picture was taken in Europe, in the Fall of 1999, and it was a very good time. I ate like a horse, but I hiked the world, and I had the stamina to do it. I wasn’t carrying around an extra 60 lbs or so, which is how I started the year this year.
The Primal Blueprint has been good to me. I’ve been at it just a couple days shy of two months, and it’s not getting harder. If I knocked out the few drinks I have on the weekends, I’d probably lose weight even faster. But slow and steady, right?
To be honest, I never post pictures of myself. Certainly not the unflattering ones. The only reason I’m doing it now is because I’m convinced that I will not be that guy anymore. I’m not going back to the fatty fatterson club. Life is too enjoyable to ruin it by eating the wrong things, laying around, and feeling and looking like crap.
275 lbs. is the next major milestone. I’m hoping I can hit it by April.
Barefoot/Minimalist Shoes – The Search Continues
Mar 9th
The primal movement and the barefoot/minimalist shoe movement go hand in hand. Mark Sisson, who is the author of the Primal Blueprint, also promotes the use of shoes like Vibram Five Fingers, but makes mention of other good minimalist shoes. It’s all about going back to a more natural way of eating, living, and exercising.
I try to walk every day of the work week for at least 30 minutes on the trails around my office. The problem is, I haven’t had a pair of decent shoes for walking in years. If you believe the barefooters, I’ve never had a decent pair. So I wind up walking in my dress shoes, or in a pair of beat up old Sketchers that give me blisters. They’re also about 3 years old.
So I’ve been looking for good barefoot shoes. I figured it’s worth a try. Jamie ordered me a pair of Merrell Trail Gloves, and they arrived two weeks later. I opened the box, excited about how light they were. I put them on…and they were way too tight. They were a regular pair, and I have wide feet. I don’t always need to buy wide shoes, because some are just made that way. The Trail Gloves were not. They felt good, I loved the way they hugged the floor, but they just wouldn’t be comfortable. So we packed them up, brought them into Dick’s brick-and-mortar store, and were told that they didn’t have the Trail Gloves in 2E. Instead, we exchanged my pair for a pair of womens’ Trail Gloves for Jamie. That was a couple weeks ago, and I’m not sure she’s taken them off since. (OK, I exaggerate…but not by much.)
She can’t stop talking about them. She loves, loves, loves them. They’re comfortable, quiet, and understated. She can wear them all day without her feet getting sore. They look and act like ninja shoes – she got the black ones.
So I’ve been trying to find out how to get a pair that fit. I’ve heard rumors that Merrell is releasing wide width versions of the shoes this month. The website has a page for a “wide” version, but it doesn’t say if it’s a single E or a 2E shoe. I want to try them on in the flesh and make sure they fit before I have to go through another multi-week process of ordering, waiting for shipping, receiving, trying on, and having to send them back if it’s not right.
In the mean time, I continue to walk without decent shoes. Which is bad for both my feet AND my shoes.
Today, I decided to take another look around the Internet, and I found some shoes by a company called Altra. Altra makes the Adam – which looks like a slipper/aquasock hybrid but gets rave reviews from everyone who buys them, as well as the Samson, which is basically the Adam with a different upper and laces. I found this review of the Adam (and later the Samson) at Birthday Shoes in particular to be helpful, and in addition, it comes with a chance to win a pair from the manufacturer. Since I have a feeling I’m going to want to own several different pairs of minimalist shoes from different manufacturers, I’d love to win these so I can try them out while spending my limited shoe budget on something else. I like the look of the Trail Gloves a lot, but the reviews of the Adam sound like it’s probably going to be the best fit for me.
At the end of the day, I really prefer to try a shoe on before I buy it to make sure it will fit. It’s lovely that some of the online stores have easy return policies and free shipping, but it still takes time. I’d rather not spend the next month walking around in work shoes, work boots, or clunky Crocs. I need to settle on one of these and get moving.
21 Days!
Feb 7th
Today marks the final day of the 21 day Primal Blueprint challenge for Jamie and me. I’m not sure that I mentioned the time frame before, but phase one of this plan is spread out over three weeks. Three weeks for your body to adapt to the new way of doing things, three weeks to convert your system from a carb burning, bloated, slow-ass hulk to a lean, mean, fat-burning machine.
I suppose that I started moving toward this the week before we started. I had an insatiable craving for vegetables and healthier foods, after indulging for a solid month or two on office cookies, junk food, homemade pizzas, jalapeño poppers, you name it. And the drinking. I enjoy alcohol, and I can seriously put it away. The Christmas season was full of Benchmark Bourbon and Kraken Rum, along with derivatives thereof like the unbelievably delicious Milk Punch. (I’m not going to link to the recipe because you don’t need a combination of Bourbon, Milk, Half-and-Half, and powdered sugar. Trust me. Oh wait, I kind of just gave it away…) I lost three pounds that first week, and after going Primal, I just kept losing. I’ve lost 14 pounds total since New Years’ Day, and I’m still losing.
More than the weight loss, though, I feel better, I look thinner, I stand taller, I have more energy, and my overall moods have improved. I’m eating far less now that I’ve adapted to this new way of eating. I’m way more satisfied after meals, and they taste good. I can have a breakfast of bacon and eggs at 6:45AM and go straight through until 1PM without being hungry. That never happened before. I was always snacking by 10AM.
I’m also moving every day. I walk for 30 minutes at lunch. I’m doing pushups and other exercises, and I take the stairs instead of the elevator now.
The changes I’ve experienced since switching to this diet (I hate the word “diet” – it’s a lifestyle change, but that sounds just as stupid) I can only describe as positive. Most times I’ve tried thing like this – The South Beach Diet comes to mind – I have lost weight, but I’ve given up on the program at my first opportunity. This isn’t something I even want to change. I get my cravings, don’t get me wrong. I actually had a bite of rice tonight, and a spoonful of honey in my tea – things I’m allowed in sparing moderation, but not until I hit my ideal weight. But I don’t want to jeopardize the success I’ve had. I have another 60 or 70 pounds to lose before I’m at a really healthy weight, and I want to get there. My kids deserve a dad who can get his fat ass off the couch and go play with them. A dad who will be around for more than the next 20 or 30 years. Frankly, I deserve better than allowing food and drink to be my only “acceptable” vices for coping with life, stress, and whatever curveballs come my way. This is a diet for foodies anyway – you can eat lots of great things, you can eat as much of them as you want, you just can’t eat every kind of food you want. That’s a fair trade.
And if the health benefits are as big of a deal as it seems – my wife isn’t in chronic pain from her arthritis and back problems anymore, and this woman claims that eating primally got her out of her wheelchair and helped her to live with MS – then it’ll be even more worth it in the long run.
The conclusion is that I have no intention of quitting this any time soon. I’m in it for the long haul. I half-jokingly told my wife I was going to lose 30 pounds this year back at the beginning of January. Now that I’ve gone primal, I’m already half way there. I didn’t honestly think I can do it. I’m a zero-motivation kind of guy.
If I can do it, you can too. If you’re looking to eat better, lose weight, have more energy, and just feel better than you have since you were a kid, you should seriously check this program out.
Are You Following Paths or Blazing Trails?
Jan 31st
I mentioned that in my house, we’ve “gone primal.” We’re 14 days through the 21-day challenge, and the results are impressive. I’m ten pounds lighter, my belt is a notch tighter, and I feel better. Part of the routine is, of course, exercise. This is something I’ve always been bad at, because I can’t make the time. But being primal doesn’t mean killing yourself on a treadmill 60 minutes a day. That’s actually counterproductive. The principle form of recommended exercise on the Primal Blueprint is to “move frequently at a slow pace.” That, I can handle.
I’ve carved out about 30 minutes every day at lunch time to go walking. I eat at my desk every day anyway, so it’s a welcome break to get out of the office for a bit and get moving. And I’ve discovered that despite my office not being in the most aesthetically pleasing part of Fairfax, there are some decent trails behind the building that allow me to do a couple of laps before heading back to the grind.
The trail behind my office.
Usually, I listen to audiobooks while I’m walking. Yesterday, though, I was audiobook free. I had not only just completed Neal Stephenson’s epic new book, Reamde, but I also forgot my headphones. So I was left with nothing to listen to but silence. And in the silence, I realized how much and how often I distract myself.
Why do I distract myself? Because life often feels out of my control, so I’d prefer escapism. I’d rather listen to that book, watch that show or movie, play that video game, read that article, waste that time on Facebook – you name it. The busier I am, the less bandwidth I have to think about the dissatisfaction that I often feel.
So there I was, walking along, my mind humming. Thinking about where I am in my career, what I need to do differently, what steps I need to take in order to grow. These were good, constructive thoughts, despite how long I seem to have been avoiding them. Change is hard, especially when it involves personal or professional development. Because that kind of growth is often painful. But I found that taking the time to just think things through, I was filled with a new energy. I had new ideas, and a new sense of direction. These were just the first steps, of course, but as the proverb says, the longest journey begins with just one step. So why not take it?
Nothing to see out there. Keep your eyes on the road ahead!
As I walked the trail, I found that the kind of metaphors I was looking for were unfolding in front of me, so I pulled out my phone and started snapping pictures. I knew that there was a story being told right in front of me, perhaps even being told to me, and it was a story I wanted to share.
I think that many times, we feel like we have no choice in life. We have to go to this school, take this job, live in this town, follow this certain, prescribed path. We feel as though circumstances have forced our hand. And once we’ve committed to something we felt we had to commit to, we feel like there’s no turning back.
But with very few exceptions, we have a great deal more freedom than we think. We believe we have this narrow road we are forced to go down, and there are no exits in sight. And there’s a reason why we believe that. Because we’re told.
Follow the rules of the road, or you will be penalized!
In rhetoric, we’re told that the argument from authority is the weakest argument. But in reality, we know how strong those arguments can be. We’re raised by parents who use their authority to instill a way of life into us. If we are religious, our faith in God dictates certain precepts that are non-negotiable, and others that are highly recommended if we want to be happy or reach the prize. And frankly, our willingness to submit to authority isn’t entirely a bad thing. Except when it is. We need rules to live productive, happy lives, but we also need to exercise critical thought and independent judgment to live productive, happy lives. But because our earliest impulses are shaped by authority figures – parents, priests, teachers, police, the IRS man – you name it – we are, I think, by nature more prone to doing what people tell us, as long as they can stamp their orders with an official seal. We are less likely to question what we’re told and find out if there might just be a better way.
And that can be a big problem if we really want to achieve our potential. I was listening to the radio yesterday morning, and the DJ was talking about some medical issue. He said, “They say the two people you should never lie to are your doctor and your lawyer…” and as I was listening, I was thinking, “Yeah, he’s probably right. You should…wait a minute. What if I don’t want to tell them everything? What if I don’t appreciate their probing questions? What if I don’t feel like telling them that I have three drinks a night (I no longer do, but I used to) or that I’ve switched to a somewhat controversial high fat, zero-grain diet because I don’t want them harassing me? What if I don’t want to tell them that yes, I may just have another kid even if they think I’ve had enough?”
But my first impulse, the impulse that’s just bred into me, was the desire to do what I was told. As far as I’m concerned, that type of instinct is a huge liability.
Rules are for people without pocketknives.
Sometimes, the rules keep you safe. Sometimes, they keep you trapped. You need to develop the wisdom to know which thing is true, and when. But you also need to develop the ability to break the rules that need breaking. To step off the path and blaze a trail. To do something different than the thing you feel like you are under an obligation to do.
I’m not advocating irresponsibility. I’m not giving my blessing to leaving your wife for your favorite intern at the office. I’m not saying you should stop feeding your kids, or going to church, or trying to live a virtuous life.
I’m simply saying that if you feel trapped by choices you’ve made, opportunities you’ve missed, and forks in the road you didn’t take, stop and figure out if you can do things differently. Pull your eyes of the narrow path and look for a shortcut through the woods. Carve your name on a tree. Golf where you’re not supposed to golf – if you’re into that sort of thing. You may be pleasantly surprised with what you can accomplish.
And if life tells you a story, pull out your phone and take some pictures. Write down that story, and share it with other people. It’s probably good advice, which is the kind of thing you should never just keep to yourself.
Going Primal
Jan 28th
The title of this post is about as cliché as it gets for people doing what I’m doing. Google “going primal” and I can only imagine how many blog hits you’ll get. But I can’t think of a better word for it.
After reading about it from Tom Woods (oh look, he uses the same post title!) I decided to look into the book. It didn’t take many reviews before I realized this may really be something worth checking out. I won’t spell out the whole thing (if you want to, check out some of the articles here) but the basic premise, as I understand it, is that our bodies aren’t designed for the diet we eat in modern American life. Known pejoratively as the “Standard American Diet” (or SAD, natch!), our bodies are being cram packed with complex carbohydrates derived from grains, processed or not, and even legumes, which cause insulin spikes, increase appetite, exacerbate inflammation, and even cause conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
Going primal means going back to a diet our ancestors would have recognized. And when I say ancestors, I mean way, way back. Meat, fish, fowl, veggies, seeds, nuts, berries – hunter/gatherer stuff. And since, as the theory goes, our bodies are designed to burn fat, not carbs, all this carb eating is making us get fatter because we can’t deal with all the rapid energy sources we’re putting into our faces. It’s too much pure fuel, and we don’t need it. It’s also bad for us.
Also novel is the idea that saturated fat and cholesterol are really not bad for you, provided they’re not eaten in conjunction with massive amounts of grains. So not only should you have that steak and eggs (with yolks) that you’ve been craving, but go ahead and cook them in butter or coconut oil. Go ahead, it’s good for you.
Considering that fats play a vital role in brain function and in appetite suppression, I can tell you from experience that you don’t need to eat nearly as much as often. And when you need a boost, veggies are what you should reach for. They have the carbs you need in a way you’re meant to process them.
I’m 14 days into the program as of tomorrow. I’ve lost about 9 lbs., though the first 3 came off the week before I started when I went all crazy almost vegetarian for a week just because I was craving natural, non-jalapeno popper foods. I’ve experienced days with huge energy boosts and massive mood enhancement, and I’ve had days when I’ve been headachy and irritable as all hell. I’m walking every day for 30 minutes to an hour, and I’m also throwing in minor amounts of strength exercises, which I rarely seem to find the time or energy for. I have not yet adopted the entire fitness regimen that is part and parcel to the program, but I’m working toward it. What I like about it is that it’s attainable for someone like me.
When I say “someone like me,” I mean it. I’m a big guy, and I’ve never been very active. I have a desk job, and a sedentary life. The government says that at 6’4″, I should weigh in at about 190lbs. I can tell you from experience that 190 is way too skinny on me. My ideal weight is about 220-230lbs. That’s where I was when I started college. When I left college, I was at 245. A year after college (my first year sitting behind a desk) I was up to 275. A year after that, I hit 295. 295 is where I still am today, 8 years later. I’ve gone up (as high as 312 lbs.) and down (as low as 260 lbs.) but I’ve never consistently been able to manage weight and fitness, and much of this owes to the fact that I’m non-athletic, don’t care much for sports, and have always had very low energy levels. I used to always joke that I don’t even have a metabolism.
It’s my hope that this will finally improve, because this isn’t a diet, it’s a life change. Though much of what this way of living recommends contradicts conventional wisdom, the more I read, the more convinced I become that much of what we take for dietary and health science is actually junk science – lots of correlative relationships spun into causal assertions. By and large, this country is full of people eating “healthier” and exercising more than they ever have, and obesity keeps going up. Something isn’t working with the way we’re being told to take care of ourselves.
Time will tell how big of an impact this will have on our lives. I’m not the only one doing this – Jamie and the kids are on board too. I’m seeing changes in everyone – Jamie has seen the most drastic uptick in mood and energy – and I think it’s worth giving this process more than the initial 21 days to assess the final impact.
For my part, I do miss some of the pasta, rice, bread, and sugars, but I’m slugging along. I’m also not drinking much alcohol at all, and seem to be doing fine without it. It’s tempting sometimes, but I’ve noticed the ways in which it sets me back, so I’ll forego it and drink plain ol’ tea.
Or like this morning, I’ll have a decaf coconut milk latte. Not bad. Not bad at all.
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