What was your wake-up call? page 6

[SarahChzBurg]

What WASN'T a wakeup call for me?

• I had a C-Section when I planned for a natural birth
• I weighed 228 at 5'8" (after losing all baby weight)
• I was obese
• Weight Watchers never worked because I ALWAYS cheated, no matter how many "bonus points" I got
• I loved whole foods
• I started getting HORRENDOUS heartburn, which I thought felt like a heart attack (severe chest pains, sweating, vomiting, anxiety). That's probably what really put me over the edge.

I'm only 28! I want to be an active mom and have lots more babies...naturally! I started getting into "natural" things when I was pregnant and became totally fixated on natural childbirth, and the over-medicating/hospitalizing of women during pregnancy and birth. I would always say that "women have been giving birth for THOUSANDS of years. Many of them in caves." I also have a good friend who has lost 80lbs by going primal. At first I made fun of her gluten free ways, after all, it is pretty fad-ish right now. But here I am...Grokking it up and proud!

[leighlu]

Overweight my entire life. Never understood why. Compared to everyone else I always ate healthy. Wholegrains for everything, skim milk. My friends ate all kinds of junk and I never did and I got fatter and fatter.

When I turned 41 I weighted 286 pounds. I got down to 250 by the time I turned 42, through CW. I was miserable. I worked out two hours a day and I was starving all the time.

I found Mark's website by chance. It made sense. I started the primal diet and I have not looked back. I now weigh 140 pounds. I feel great and I look amazing. It took me 14 months to lose 110 pounds. I hear it all the time, about how I should stop losing weight. People are also amazed at what I eat.

I still have a little to go, and it is coming off slowly but surely. I share it with anyone who really wants to hear it. But as others have said, until you are ready, it makes no difference.

[sbhikes]

Trekfan, here's what you do: At some occasion where you and this girl are both there, sit down next to her and talk with her. At some point, let your leg touch her leg ever so slightly. If she doesn't move it away, you have the answer you want.

[trekfan]

I was a nervous guy, too. Lost a lot of good opportunities when young to those second thoughts. Got to act like you own the place. Polite, confident, and able to listen for a long time to stupid long stories about nothing with a smile on your face.

I can do two out of those three! I'm polite and I can listen forever about stuff. Confidence ... eh. Owning the place ... eh. But it's a good strategy, better than the one I'm currently using.

trekfan, here's an urban legend you might like: A guy living in Manhattan stands on a corner every day and asks every pretty woman who walks by if she wants to get laid. As you can imagine, he gets quite a few expletives tossed at him, and even gets slapped occasionally. But he gets laid every day.

So, while I'm not advocating that kind of behavior, it does kind of show that you have to put it out there. The worst that can happen is getting turned down. That's not the end of the world.

You're right, no doubt. I've worked on that over the past few months, trying to "put it out there" and I've done it ... well, twice. Neither worked out but I did it twice and that's twice more than I had done it in the 4 years previously. It's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress but getting turned down doesn't scare me nearly as much as before.

Trekfan, here's what you do: At some occasion where you and this girl are both there, sit down next to her and talk with her. At some point, let your leg touch her leg ever so slightly. If she doesn't move it away, you have the answer you want.

That's kinda mind blowing. I don't have a whole lot of physical experience with girls (nearly 13 years of being the fat guy kinda killed any chances of that) so your strategy sounds radical ... but what do I have lose, right?

[EyeOfRound]

I didn't really have a "wake-up call" per se. I guess I was finding it a bit tougher to keep my weight from climbing up, so I was looking for a way of eating that would help with that and be sustainable in the long-term. I was always against eating fake foods and preferred real cheese and high-fat yogurt to fat-free crap, so I was already open-minded in that sense. A few people at my gym have had success with paleo, so I started exploring that philosophy and with a medical background, it just made sense.

I've come across docs who are either grain-free themselves or at least well-aware and seriously thinking about this way of eating quite a few times recently, which is encouraging.

[Mainer]

Having to place my newborn son on antacids and such then have him scoped to find out if anything was physically wrong only to learn there wasn't. Much research and reading and ended up here and at other great resources to learn the true secret and see the amazing transformation of our young child from a sick, disconnected being to a lively, thriving, completely different child who was able to reach his true potential. You could say those of us here that now possess true nutrition knowledge have taken the "red pill" (to steal a metaphor from a popular movie).

[Legbiter]

I had people make the most roundabout remarks about me being "stout" I suppose is the best way to translate it. But when grandmother grabbed hold of my protruding beer gut, wiggled it around and said "you're fat, you need to lose the blubber, sweetie" and smiling kindly I realized something was up.

[LauraSB]

I had just turned 49, was 75lbs overweight, was starting to wonder if I had fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis and thought, "This is only going to get worse." I started on a calorie restricted diet and as I paid attention to which foods kept me full and which left me starving, grains became less and less a part of my diet. I followed a link from LoseIt to MDA for a recipe, and so it began. I started shopping at Whole Foods and local farmers. I felt better and better as I cut the crap from my diet. I'm at the point now where I'm more interested in body composition than weight. I have the energy and enthusiasm for physical exertion that I hadn't had for years. I'm thinking the next 10 years are going to be way better than the last 10.

[Crabbcakes]

The Universe sent Primal to me. I was googling around one day looking for more recipes to feed my SCD-diet daughter (Specific Carbohydrate Diet - helps with gut issues) and ended up on the MDA. Having not ever heard of it, and also being insanely curious, reading tons was a given.

I decided to adopt it for myself because I was portly (a first in my life), recovering from depresssion, hooked on sugar, low-energy, pasty-faced, and just generally blah to look at and blah-feeling to myself. In the meantime I have adjusted diet-daughter's fatty acids to match the Primal, and daughter is doing better than ever. And so am I.

[Kochin]

I saw Mr deVany's "Evolutionary Fitness" video. Bought, watched, thought. Forced boyfriend to watch. Thought with him. Went grain- and legume-free. Felt better, although I was previously healthy. Decided it must be a good thing if it makes me feel better.