A Cereal Addict Goes Primal
Many of you may relate to the story of Derek and his wife. It’s not a tale of dramatic weight loss, but a story of discovering an ideal body hiding within the body you’ve grown accustomed to.
If you have your own Primal Blueprint success story and you’d like to share it with me and the community please contact me here. Have a wonderful Friday, everyone, and thanks for reading!
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Hi Mark,
Love your website and all the success stories. Our story is a little less profound than some in regards to total weight lost, but eating Primal has significantly improved both my life and that of my wife’s.
I’m 38 years old and my wife is 36 years old. I’ve been athletic my entire life, nordic ski racing, bike racing, climbing, backcountry skiing, endurance running, etc, etc. My wife, since she has been married to me (10+ years), has been very active as well. With my athleticism, I always had a ferocious ability to consume food, with my staple being Frosted Shredded Wheat, home made bread, pasta, and a myriad of other wheat based foods. I’m 6 feet tall and have weighed 200lbs for the past 15 years. I could run a marathon off the couch or ride a century, endurance was my specialty. I was always really aerobically inclined and just assumed that 200lbs was my ideal weight. But then I saw a picture of myself one day, then my mother joked to my wife that I was “getting a gut”, then I hopped on the scale and it read 204lbs. That was the beginning of the end for me.
My wife, when I met her, was a “skinny fat” product of the standard American diet, weighing in at a paltry, protein deficient 105lbs at 5’3″ tall. Over the years, her activity level rose and she became quite athletic and a strong rock climber. During those years, her back went south and she suffered with sciatica and eventually had a microdiscectomy to correct a bulging disc. After surgery, and even before, her weight steadily crept up to an eventual 135lbs despite being very active. She too just considered that her homeostasis.
So last February I decided to measure what I ate for breakfast every day. I was shocked when I realized my morning bowl of Frosted Shredded Wheat with 1% milk was 900 calories! I have been a cereal addict my entire life. I could eat it three meals a day. So I started simple by eating 1/3rd less, then eventually 1/2 less of my cereal. I cut out the big cookie I had at lunch, then quit snacking throughout the day. Eventually my breakfast self-evolved into egg whites, 1 piece of toast, and some ham. Then it was usually flat bread, tuna or lean meat for lunch, and a light meat diet for dinner. I was burned out on back country skiing and skiing in general that winter, so I spent 3-5 days per week lifting. Needless to say, my weight plummeted by about 1lb per week or slightly more. I was pretty excited.
As time progressed, my diet continued to self evolve into a more Primal diet. I stumbled across your website, and upon first read, I thought it was a little extreme. But after more and more reading of this site, and others like it, I decided to gradually eliminate all wheat and processed foods. The weight continued to come off, I felt very healthy, did far less “chronic cardio” and primarily lifted and did aerobic hiking/cycling about 4 hours per week total. Last spring I reached 175lbs (lost 25+ pounds) and have stayed there since, fluctuating by a few pounds lately due to increase muscle mass. I have absolutely no difficulty maintaining.
Besides the pleasant side effect of losing weight, the biggest improvement in my health has been no more acid reflux and no more exercise induced asthma. I used to have terrible acid reflux that would keep me up at night and plague me throughout the day. It is now ENTIRELY gone, but will come back in a hurry if I get tripped up in eating wheat to any extent. I also used to have terrible cold weather, exercise induced asthma leading to frequent winter pulmonary infections, a constant cough, wheezing, and the need to take Albuterol and inhaled corticosteroids, and often times antibiotics for mild pneumonia following otherwise benign chest infections.
My summary: Eating Primal and exercising “smarter” allowed me to be leaner, fitter, and stronger in everything I do, it has also rid me of asthma and acid reflux. The benefits of eating paleo are in no way subtle for me, they are night and day.
At the time I started changing my diet, my wife obviously did too. It was winter, and she doesn’t ski much, so she started doing P90X. Her weight plummeted as well, about 0.5lbs per week by simply eating less processed foods, counting calories, and doing strength training. Her goal was initially 120lbs, which she reached fairly easy in about four months, with a few plateaus along the way. She eventually phased out wheat almost entirely as well, only eating small amounts very infrequently. Over last summer, she reached 115bs, was very lean, looked great, and was an aerobic machine when we went hiking or biking. It was pretty amazing. I would be hiking my normal pace, which was usually quite a bit faster and out of her comfort zone, but last summer she was absolutely killing it. Always right behind me, charging away, even sometimes with a heavy pack on longer trips.
Intelligently losing 20lbs and gaining muscle on her already small frame was impressive, but this wasn’t the most significant gain for her from eating paleo. We have been trying to conceive for the past four years with absolutely no success, none at all. About mid summer last year is when she eliminated wheat/grains almost entirely from her diet and had reached a comfortable set point in her weight, and was doing mostly strength training with some light cardio. This last September, she announced to me that she was pregnant. There’s no proof, but it seems suspicious that we had no luck with this at all until she started eating Primal and eliminated wheat. Perhaps it’s just coincidental, but I don’t think so.
During her first trimester she had significant nausea and vomiting and a highly erratic palate for foods. During that time, she pretty much ate whatever she could, which often times was processed foods, lots of sugars, etc. But it was that, or eat nothing at all. We didn’t worry about it in the slightest. She is now in her second trimester and back to mostly eating Primal, getting her carb cravings from potatoes and fruits. She looks great and mostly feels great. The funny observation about her “diet” is that of her coworkers. They are all convinced she should discuss her “diet” with her doctor, because apparently, eating whole foods isn’t healthy. Hahahhaha! I love the logic of the ill informed.
My wife’s summary: Eating primal and exercising “smarter” has allowed my wife to become a lean, fit, healthy woman, and we think, was a significant adjunct in her being able to get pregnant.
We are looking forward to busting myths that having a child means you have to eat processed foods and live in the drive through window. I’m sure we’ll both be just as fit at forty as we are now. Maybe more so.
Best regards,
-Derek
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
As always – Awesome, Inspiring..!
Grok on ! everyone!!
Congratulations, and best wishes for a fabulous pregnancy and delivery! Very happy for both of you. Thanks for sharing your story.
Your story sounds pretty darned profound to me. You and your wife both look terrific, and your health gains are impressive. Congratulations all around!
I am always amazed! Congrats!
nice story – i too have watched gut/reflux issues disappear in the past year i ve been primal.
Very inspiring story — thanks for sharing! You both look great. Congrats on the little one!
What a wonderful story! Very inspiring. Primal living is about so much more than losing weight. Congratulations on the pregnancy, you must be so thrilled. I wish I’d known more about the adverse effects of carbs when I’d been pregnant… Wishing you all the best!
Hey where are those pictures taken? It looks a lot like Kings Peak in Utah…
you both look younger now than in the first pictures. Congradulation on expanding the family!
I think that sometimes it is more dificult for those that are not significantly over weight to see the primal logic.
It is great that this couple did and got such awsome results.
Well, Derek, I raised 4 children and rarely hit the drive through window. Couldn’t afford it, although we did have some processed foods, lunchmeat, spaghetti, homemade mac and cheese, hotdogs every now and then. They were all competitive swimmers through high school and one even went on to swim in college. We pretty much survived.
One thing I’ve learned from my 7 year old grandson is feed your kids a variety of foods even when they are little. He rarely ate jarred babyfood. He was eating salad at 4 years old and today eats sushi, asks his daddy to buy him lobsters (which he called hamsters when he was a little guy). Eats oysters, mussels and clams – brussells sprouts – just about anything, except he doesn’t like sloppy joes.
My daughter will eat those little dried and salted whole fish that they sell in Japanese restaurants. The whole thing, eyes and all. She’s six.
We still have to contend with finickiness but she eats things that would horrify the average kid her age. I think it’ll work out OK in the end.
You guys are having a girl!!!!
This happened to me, well not the conceiving part, but the nausea and couldnt eat anything first trimester part. It was horrible! I was so so so sick for about 12 weeks. A little bit of beef soup with some bread, I dropped 8lbs. I ate whatever I could, and went back to primal in my second trimester. I swear its the excess estrogen in the body from a female fetus that makes u sick =P
I love fridays because I love these stories and pix
I was sick as a dog with my first, a boy – chicken, mashed potatoes and stringbeans were my food. With my twins, I took bread, a slice of cheese and fresh tomato with a little oregano and some fresh chopped garlic and ran it under the broiler – settled my stomach right away.
I was terribly sick my first trimester and had a boy…I think it’s very individual. I also ate some non-primal foods during my pregnancy, especially early on, but was about 90% primal and had a healthy pregnancy and baby. I also found that primal eating helped me drop the baby weight very quickly.
Darn it cut out a little of what i was saying in there of what i could hold down for food. oh well, doesnt matter that much.
Wow, thanks for sharing your story. Very inspirational and congrats on the pregnancy! You all are going to make great parents of a healthy child!
I hear you, my brother! I was vegan for 18 years and used to snack on my “healthy” cereals–handful after handful. It got so bad that I–literally–put a small padlock on my pantry door to make it more difficult to get at the stuff.
I went Primal in Mid-October and am LOVING the “dont-have-to-watch-what-I-eat” thing. Although–full-disclosure–I went to eating handfulls of walnuts and almonds like I used to do with the cereal!
I just LOVE crunchy. Instead of locking the cupboard again, I’ve just stopped buying the walnuts and almonds…
Yes, I like almonds. My jaw gets tired chewing them long before I can eat too many!
yes! I’m sure the pregnancy is not a coincidence at all. Congrats.
Congrats on the little one! Can’t wait to see what primal kids end up like in the future.
Howdy there, love the article nice to see people shake nasty habits. I do have a question, has anyone out there came across some convincing literature on the dangers of diet soda ? My mom will not stop drinking the stuff no matter how hard I try. The only thing she seems to be really concerned about is loosing weight. Anyone have any articles about diet soda causing weight gain ?? A nudge in the right direction would be great, thanks!
I’m in the same position. My mom drinks diet soda at all times of the day, and it has me worried. A synthetic imitation of something that is already not healthy can’t be good, but I haven’t found any studies saying so. Anyone with any leads?
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diet-soda/
also try putting diet soda in the box top right to search the site and in the forum search facility too.
Dr. Mercola has many articles about artificial sweeteners and how dangerous they are for our health.
http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?k=sweetener
Here’s an interview with Dr. Russell Blaylock about aspartame http://www.whale.to/v/Aspartame_Truth.pdf
I think a lot of the arguments against diet soda are bogus, personally. It’s just people being hateful about the obese because they want any excuse they can get to make fun of them (us–I’m still well overweight). Like the remark I often run across that “the only people I see drinking diet soda are fat people”–well no s?!t, Sherlock, we’re guilt-tripped about every calorie that goes into our mouths, you think we’re not going to cut those where it’s easy to do so?
I know people think I’m ridiculous on the rare occasion I ever drink a mainstream diet soda anymore (see below), but full-sugar soda makes me sick. I think I’ll take not being sick over worrying about looking ridiculous. Anyway…
At most I could buy the idea that aspartame/Nutrasweet might screw with the metabolism, but it is an amino acid based sweetener, and amino acids are the basis of proteins and certainly could screw up metabolic processes if they’re not in balance.
But that alone is pretty important, even if fizzy water itself is harmless. So you might suggest to your mother that overdoing one amino acid is probably not going to be good for her health in the long run even if she does succeed in weight loss.
Here’s what worked for me, as a former full-sugar soda addict.
If your mom is addicted to caffeine:
-Try switching to coffee. I know, I know, not Primal, but she won’t need to drink much of it to get her caffeine allowance for the day. And coffee, unlike diet soda, contains nutrients. I was surprised to learn this–it’s a relatively decent source of potassium.
She can sweeten the coffee with anything she likes–Splenda, stevia, and there’s even a xylitol-based sweetener now under the name brand of Ideal that I just tried for the first time and like a lot.
Bonus? Encourage her to put real cream, or at least half and half, in her coffee if she likes it lightened, and that way she’ll be sneaking in some healthy fats along with the caffeine. I’ve seen people use coconut oil the same way–works best when the coffee’s hot, obviously. (I drink it cold half the time, so this isn’t academic to me.)
-If your mom can’t stand coffee and doesn’t mind spending a little extra, Zevia brand diet soda includes two caffeinated flavors. The caffeine is derived from coffee. Their cola and Dr. Pepper knockoff flavors are really good.
If the diet soda consumption is NOT about caffeine:
-Diet Rite makes a decent line of sucralose-sweetened diet colas in a bunch of different flavors. None contain caffeine.
-Carbonated water can be purchased by the two-liter; under the store brand, it is dirt cheap. It can then be flavored with sugar-free DaVinci or Toriani syrups. This may turn out cheaper than the Diet Rite, though I haven’t run the numbers and can’t say for sure. It certainly would allow for a wider variety of flavors. Grocery stores don’t carry a lot of those flavors but you can find them online, especially during the summer. (Some online retailers won’t sell SF syrups during the cold months because they contain no sugar–which lowers the freezing point–and the bottles would freeze and rupture.)
It’s down to that 80/20 principle. It’d be harder for your mom to make healthy lifestyle changes if she had to do away with everything she enjoys, all at once.
But with adopting coffee as a caffeine source and occasionally buying Zevia or Diet Rite if I’m having a fizzy-water craving (it does happen), I’ve been able to kick things like Diet Mountain Dew entirely, and my aspartame intake is down to just about zero. I’m about at the point that even when I go out to eat, I stick with water as often as not, rather than suffer the mild headache I have discovered that I get in response to Nutrasweet intake. (Amazing what you can learn when you stop bombarding your body with outright poisons on a regular basis.) I also tend to drink more water at home now since I’m not constantly self-medicating.
Hope some of that helps. If she can kick the major name brand diet sodas, it may be easier for her to get off soda entirely later on.
Guess I should have read this before I posted my other comment. A lot of great ideas. Thanks Dana! Your posts are always awesome, informative, and long enough to be to be truly helpful. Don’t ever go away!
I have a severe addiction to Diet Soda. It is my one vice, and the biggest true barrier in front of me and true Primality.
I would be curious to see studies too – real ones that address specifically WHAT diet sodas do health-wise, and not in comparison to regular sodas. We’ve all heard fake sugars give cancer to rats, and I am always annoyed when I click a diet soda link/story/study and it is the same old, same old “Drinking sweet beverages increases one’s desire for sweet foods” BS. I, for one, looove my diet soda and drink it often but still never find myself craving cheesecake.
Somebody please help me cure my horrible addiction! I tell myself it’s not that bad but I feel it’s even worse than eating grains occasionally, or grain-fed meats vs. grass-fed. Sigh.
check out EFT {emotional freedom technique} it looks weird, but it works. I’m an RN, by the way, so I’m not too “new age”.I’ve used this myself for some serious sugar cravings.
I’ve been doing this diet for about two weeks now, and most of my sugar problems are gone. I spit out a bite a cupcale at church last week!
Please be careful with artificial sweeteners.
This is not a “study” but a personal anecdote. I had HORRIBLE migraines while using protein powder sweetened with sucralose/acesulfame K mix. Knocked out for three days, nausea, crazy psychedelic visuals, etc. It got worse and worse over about 18 months, and started to happen a couple of times a month. I read online that sucralose could be a migraine trigger and chucked the protein powder in the trash — and the migraines vanished completely. (That was about a year ago, and not even a hint of a migraine since.)
My mother became very ill with chronic fatigue syndrome after acquiring a diet sodas habit in the early 1990s (with an otherwise very clean, healthy lifestyle) and she is certain that the diet soda contributed.
No, I have no scientifically significant evidence here, and I cannot “prove” that the sweeteners caused any of this – but they are way too new on the scene, have way too many unknown factors, and I personally am staying FAR away from them.
Amazing photos and nice story!
Excellent stories you two! I’ve just started on my primal journey, and am enjoying every minute of it. And, congrats on the little one!
When I mentioned to my dental hygienist I lost all my weight eating a primal/paleo diet she told me her reproductive endocrinologist recently recommended her read The Primal Blueprint. In that doctor’s mind there must be something to this crazy lifestyle. Go figure.
Congratulations! I’m so pleased that switching to PB helped you to conceive. I wouldn’t be surprised by it in the least.
You know this means you have to send in primal baby pictures too, right?
Wow, loved the post!
Yayy, what a happy story! Congrats and be sure to keep us posted on the Groklet! Definitely send in pics!
Does the dog only have three legs?
GERD (Gastric EsopoghealReflux Disease) is a real pain in the arse. Glad you are not bothered by it anymore. Going Primal really has a lot of diffrent benefits.
Wow, Derek, congratulations to both of you! I am not surprised you were able to conceive after fixing your diet, Robb Wolf discusses this phenomenon in his paleo/primal book that recently came out. And it IS possible to raise a primal baby! My son is 19 months and has never eaten any grains or sugars, he eats 100% primal and his health is spectacular. Wondering if, with your acid reflux, you were affected at all by acidic foods. I have been trying to convince my mother-in-law to try giving up grains just for one month to address reflux but she insists it’s caused by things like tomatoes. Did they worsen your reflux, and can you eat them now that you have given up grains?
I just pointed my sister toward http://www.everydaypaleo.com to help her with getting her kids to eat Paleo, great resource for those with families.
The best theory of acid reflux I know of is that it’s caused by too many carbs. Carbs create gas when they’re digested, which pushes up stomach acid into the esophagus of susceptible people. (Google Norm Robillard.) So yes, too much grain is bad, and so is too much tomato or any other fruit.
A primal or paleo diet helps acid reflux because it reduces carbs; the Atkins diet (which is basically what I follow) does the same thing.
As for acidic foods, I can have as much coffee, tea and spicy food as I like now that I’m low-carb. And my reflux was so bad that I had an esophageal ulcer.
I don’t think it’s acidic foods in themselves that cause reflux. If that were a problem we’d constantly have reflux since our stomachs contain acid. Rather, something’s triggering that upper sphincter in the stomach to open up. I’ve also noticed that wheat seems to cause reflux, which is a PITA since I have been a wheat addict most of my life and occasionally still eat Dreamfields pasta. Guess I will just have to give it up. Meh. But I wonder what precisely it is about wheat that triggers that opening. Hm…
Bloating can trigger the upper sphincter in stomach to open up.
Another great story. I’m planning on being one of these stories myself by summertime. I know I’m going in the right direction and I just need to live the lifestyle and let things happen.
When we do what we meant to do in the nature we always great great results. Great story. Thank you for sharing!
I loved this one! Congratulations!
I love this story! I’m so happy for your improved health and fitness and congratulations on your pregnancy!