I Started to Take Measures Into My Own Hands
It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!
My story starts long before I had kids, even before I got married. I struggled with my weight as soon as I started college. It was always a game of gaining weight all school year and then losing some of it during the summer. On and on that cycle went.
I met my wonderful husband, Mike, after I finished college and came to find out that he too had been struggling with his weight for a long time. He even joined Weight Watchers when he was 19.
During our relationship, I had gotten myself down to about 145 (on my 5’1” frame). Not good, but better than the 190 I had reached when I was in college! Mike had continually talked to me about joining Weight Watchers too, and I was always reluctant to do so. I really hated the idea of counting calories. I still hadn’t joined him there when we got married in 2006. It was a beautiful wedding, but I still look back on the pictures and wished I had been in better shape!
Not too long after we got married we decided that we wanted to have kids. We knew that kids were going to be a big part of our lives and wanted to get that part started quickly. Eight months after our wedding we found out we were pregnant with our first baby! It took us four months to get pregnant, and I didn’t think too much about it.
It was a pretty uneventful pregnancy. In the last two weeks I struggled with severe edema and high blood pressure. They began to worry about preeclampsia and I was monitored every other day until I went into labor…26 hours of labor to be exact! After all the hard work we had a brand new baby boy! I was thrilled to start this part of my life.
It was about two months later when I realized that the large amount of pregnancy weight I had put on (on top of being overweight to start) had landed me back around 165 and I was standing for one of my best friends in her wedding! I bought the dress when I was about five months pregnant thinking that would help me fit into it when I was two months post delivery. LOL. Not the case. It took two people, a lot of holding my breath and praying – lots of praying – to squeeze into that dress! I did, but in my head I looked like a pig in a blanket. A fancy black bridesmaid blanket! Nonetheless, it was my first experience of feeling really bad about the effects of pregnancy weight gain.
It was about four months later that I finally gave in and joined Weight Watchers. I started that journey at 162 pounds.
I did have weight loss success with this process, but not the kind I like. Although the weight came off, it was a long hard journey and I hated counting “points”.
Even though I eventually got down to 123, if I even thought of eating “normal” or not counting my points I would easily and quickly put the weight back on.
That is were I was come the late Fall of 2008. We had moved to Minnesota from Michigan the summer before and had really been wanted to start trying for another baby. So in November of 2008 after we had finally sold our house in Michigan, we started trying. I had no idea at the time what was in store for me, or the emotions we would have to go through to have our second kid.
I did get pregnant the first try, but ended up losing that pregnancy at 6 weeks. We were very sad, but thought that it was normal. We always heard that miscarriages are very common. So we decided to chug on! By this point I had already gained 10 lbs back of the weight I had lost (not “counting points” and being sad about the pregnancy loss didn’t help).
We again got pregnant in December of 2008! We were thrilled. Yet something seem very off to me. I didn’t feel pregnant. There was no nausea, no tiredness, no moodiness. Then at the end of January 2009 I started to spot and went in for an ultrasound where they told Mike and I that there was no baby and I was going to miscarry at 10 weeks along. We were devastated. We were just getting ready to start sharing the happy news and our hopes were dashed.
Again, I put on more weight, and we waited a month before we started trying again. Finally in May of 2009 we did get pregnant. This time it stuck! But I was weighed down constantly with worry about losing the baby for the first 16 weeks.
Just when we thought we were out of the woods and the pregnancy was going well, I had to take my usual Gestational Diabetes test at 28 weeks. I didn’t have gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy, so I thought it wouldn’t be a problem this time. Boy was I wrong. I failed my 1 hour glucose test, and then really, really failed my 3 hour test. My 2 hour number was way over 200!
So for the rest of that pregnancy I stuck my finger four times a day to check my blood sugar levels. At first my “dietitian” made sure to tell me to eat according to the food pyramid, making sure to get 2-3 “carb counts” (a carb count = 15 grams of carbs) with each meal and 2 carb counts with each snack! So I was taking in upwards of 195 g of carbs everyday. And I was diabetic! This was not working. Even though she told me that carbs will raise my blood sugar here I was being told to eat a ton of them!
I realized this and as my numbers climbed on my daily checks I started to fear them putting me on insulin. This was the last thing I wanted. If that happened I would have to stick myself with a needle each day and I would have to leave my midwife care for that of a doctor. So I started to take measures into my own hands.
Turns out that decision would change mine and my family’s life forever!
We didn’t know that I had started to eat Primal, but that is what I had to do to keep my blood sugar low and even. High fat, high protein and low carb! It worked. My blood sugar levels evened out and stayed low (I even lost 6 lbs the first week, my midwife was not happy, but it must have been excess weight my body didn’t need) and I kept the dietitian and midwife happy. I never told them what I was eating. They even had me taking ketosis pee tests every other day, and I always told them they were normal, even though I was in ketosis half the time.
I felt great! Even though I had to stick my finger all the time, everything seem to be normal when I ate that way and I felt energetic and happy. Around this time my husband had started doing P90X (which was brutal and he hasn’t done it since). In watching those DVDs he was introduced to someone by the name of Mark Sisson. And that started it all…Mike ended up buying the Primal Blueprint and it has helped us change our lives for the better. We realized that the way I was eating was Primal indeed.
After the induced labor (they wouldn’t let me go past my due date with the gestational diabetes) and delivery of my second son I did have some more weight to lose. For some odd reason I went back to Weight Watchers. Conventional wisdom is hard to break down. After a few months of that and not losing much weight, my darling husband finally convinced me that we needed to go back to how we had been eating.
By the Fall of 2010, we had started to make Primal changes in our life. We had always wanted to eat a clean whole foods diet and we were making that change. It was slow at first but we were making good changes and losing weight more effortlessly than ever before.
After doing a Primal 30-day challenge for ourselves in January 2011 we really started to take control over what we were eating and how we were living our lives.
In March of 2011 we decided we must be crazy…so why not try of a third kid! As I thought about what that meant I began to fear the loss possibilities and all the problems we went through with the second pregnancy. So we decided to start trying a little “earlier” thinking that it might take a while like the last time.
Boy were we wrong! Little did we know that the positive changes we had made in our lives would affect our fertility so very much. We got pregnant the very first try! And it stuck, much to our happy surprise.
I am now 21 weeks pregnant with my third baby! Easy easy! I was tested last week for gestational diabetes since my likelihood of getting it again after having it once was very high. Well my midwife called me yesterday with the news. Not only had I passed the 2 hour glucose test…I CRUSHED IT!!!
Here are my numbers:
Fasting: 87 (needs to be under 100)
1 Hour: 137 (needs to be under 180)
2 hour: 88 (needs to be under 145)
Insert happy dance here! I will take the glucose test again at 28 weeks to make sure it doesn’t onset later, but I have high hopes now. The changes we have made by eating Primal have had so many great benefits, from weight loss, to energy, happiness and of course the ease of getting pregnant and the healthy pregnancy I am enjoying!
My story doesn’t end here. Baby #3 is due December 13, 2011. I will have some weight to lose, but this time around I am not worried about it. I know that through my eating and way of life now the weight will come off easily.
Primal has changed the way I look at my life, from normal everyday to the joys of having kids. It really has made things easier. We are all happier, my husband has lost weight and feels great, and my little Primal boys love their eggs!
~ Joanne
UPDATE: 09/27/11
Hi Mark
I am so excited to share this update. I am 29 weeks pregnant today and as I told your readers in my success story, I had passed my 20 week gestational diabetes test with flying colors. Well, I had to take the 2 hour blood glucose test again at 28 weeks (last week) to make sure that the diabetes did not onset later, like it does with other GD pregnancies.
I am happy happy happy to report that I passed yet again with flying colors!!
Here were my numbers:
Fasting = 87 (needed to be under 99)
1 hour = 147 (needed to be under 179)
2 hour = 115 (needed to be under 140)
I am so excited!! I have gotten a lot of comments on twitter and facebook from other women, saying they were inspired by my results and fulling intend on going or staying Primal to help with their fertility issues, and with hopes to prevent gestational diabetes themselves!!
Cant’ wait to share more good news in about 11 weeks!!! Will it be a Baby Grok or Grokette??
Here is me today – 29 Weeks:
UPDATE: 04/01/12
I am thrilled to up date my Success story here on MDA!! This past December Mike and I welcomed our first baby girl into our Primal Family!!! After two little boys we just couldn’t believe that we were now the parents to a girl!!
She is now almost 4 months old we are all doing so wonderfully! Mike and I have been working very hard for the past two months getting us back into living a vibrant Primal life!! Pregnancy gets us almost every time with unneeded weight gain, but as I have said before I don’t worry about it, because we know how to reset and get back on track.
My last weigh in before I had our baby girl I was 183!! Yikes!
At the start of the New Year we hopped on the scale and took our measurements….I was down to 160.2! I took a pic of that, just to have another “BEFORE” pic to keep me motivated!! Notice the sarcastic thumbs up!
Well today (4/1/12) I weighed myself and I am down to 151.2 lbs!! That’s a 31.8 lbs loss since the middle of December! I am always amazed at how easily and quickly the unnecessary weight just falls off while eating Primal and how awesome I feel while doing it. I hope to be back into my fun summer clothes very soon! I will get you all an update and BETTER picture when I get there!! I guess you could say I am still a Primal Success Story in the Making!! 
Grok On Kids!!! Grok On!! We are blessed to be a part of the Primal Blueprint Family!
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
Joanne, what an inspiring story! Thank you for sharing! I am so happy for you and your family. Many blessings…
Thanks!! It was fun to write this story, and I am so happy to share with the all the Primal friends!
Congrats, Joanne! It’s very inspiring to read your story
Joanne- what a great story. I was also on weight watchers for many years and I also had 2 miscarriages before a successful pregnancy. Your story gives me hope that the next time around will be easier!
There is soooo much hope. By changing the way I ate, I took control over reprograming my body and that made the fertility better. The miscarriage loss can be hard and sometimes we don’t know why it happens, but changing you body to healthy can take a step forward. I wish you tons of baby dust luck!!
So glad that you were able to get pregnant again quickly and everything is going fine so far.
My husband and I are still struggling to have our first. I’ve had 3 m/c so far and sigh, it’s devastating to say the least.
Anyway, congrats on your new healthy life and your beautiful growing family.
Keep up with the healthy changes and things can turned around for you. Miscarriages are very devastating and I wouldn’t wish them on anyone. I hope that you find success soon!
Wonderful! That is a great story! I love hearing from the other primal women.
What a great story! Congratulations on your coming baby and I hope the rest of the pregnancy goes as smoothly as the beginning!
I’m amazed at the common theme in so many of these testimonials–how people just get lucky and trip over the primal lifestyle. I’m so glad the word is spreading so that finding this great information keeps getting easier.
We did just sorta stumble upon The Primal Blueprint. I started eating that way without even knowing what I was doing. That is what makes it so much easier to explain this way of eating to family…I have very real life tangible experience with the Gestational Diabetes and the effects of carbs on insulin.
I love to hear stories of how people stumble upon the Paleo diet. It’s awesome how it changes lives so dramatically.
Yes it is!!
Way to go! By being a shorter lady, such as your self, it gives me great mconfidence that this is the way to go. Woot!
Three babies! Congratulations!!! (and on your weight loss!)
And you’re using a midwife… awesome.
I have had a midwife for all three pregnancies and wouldn’t have it any other way!!!
I really like the stories about women losing weight eating primal, because I am one! lol Thanks for sharing!
People can’t believe I’ve had three kids (ages 6,4,2) because I am thinner, healthier, have clearer skin and a more vibrant smile. THANK YOU MARK AND THE PRIMAL COMMUNITY!! I am so happy that you have been able to join the “hot mama” clan, Joanne, we all deserve it! Now if only living Primal could give me back those beautiful boobs my three breastfed kids took from me….lol
Oh yes, beautiful boobs would be nice, but alas somethings can’t be changed!! LOL…..but we can dream right!
Joanne – congrats on your baby and lifestyle change. You and your DH look so healthy and happy.
Thank You!!! We are in the best place in life right now!!
Congratulations, Joanne, you and your young family are looking great! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for sharing your story, I really enjoyed it. Sometimes, we have to go back to go forward, down to go up. I love being Primal, and I love this community. AND hey, I’m a fellow Michigander (though I now reside elsewhere) I grew up in a place called Gladwin about an hours drive North of Bay City.
Awesome!! I grew up in Escanaba!!
No Way! My family is from Escanaba and Gladstone! Most of them are still there although I live in Seattle now….Congrats on the new baby on the way!
So cool, yeah my Mom and Step Dad, & Grandparents live in Esky and my Dad, Step mom and grandpa live in Gladstone!! Small world!!
At the end of the day, I guess it is a small world.
Joanne, congratulations on your many successes! Nothing is more primal than raising a family, and there is no better motivation to take proper care of yourself. Our world needs many more moms like you.
That is such a nice thing to say!! Thank You!!
You’re very lucky.
My wife and I went through hell with two pregnancies following the medical establishment’s idiotic advice. After the first c-section due to gestational diabetes she was left infertile, which was rectified with surgery. After the second child she was unable to have any more.
We’re lucky to have two beautiful girls, who now eat primal like their parents do, but the experience left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.
I am so very sorry! I really try to encourage anyone going through pregnancies to take things into their own hands. Its hard the first time around with conventional wisdom at large, the advice especially when dealing with Gestational Diabetes is stupid in my mind, which is why I told a lot of half truths to my care team during the last pregnancy!
Many blessing to your wonderful Primal family!
Joanne, I had my wife read this when I got home. While she was frustrated to read this, given our experience, we are both happy to know that our daughter will know better, and won’t have to go through the experience that my wife and her mother both suffered through.
My wife shared that our little daughter is afraid to have children because of what happened to my wife.
We’ll be reading your story to both our daughters to assure them that they can have happy, healthy, successful pregnancies folling the Primal Blueprint.
We thank you for sharing your story.
I can’t imagine the frustrartion you both have gone through. But the hopes for your daughters is beautiful!! I am so thankful that my story can help you in some way! All my best to your family!
What a beautiful and happy story! Thank you for sharing. You’ll have to give us an update when the new baby arrives, I can’t wait to hear how well it went.
yes, I second that… an update next Spring or Summer for sure
I will for for sure!!
You and your family are radiantly beautiful. It’s wonderful that you found a way to nourishes you and your growing baby that also nourishes your growing family.
“nourish” (part of an infinitive, not “nourishes” (present tense of the verb).
Wow, I JUST watched a documentary on Netflix about some of the modern hassles modern medicine and CW put on pregnancy these days (Pregnant in America) and it immediately got me wondering how Primal would affect pregnancies. I immediately assumed that risk of gestational diabetes would be a lot lower, and I am very glad to have at least one anecdote to back that idea up.
Congrats on your happy and healthy family!
Thank you!! Its all about eating and being as healthy as possible, and really being an active role in the pregnancy care team!! I also highly recommend Midwife care!
Congratulations, Joanne!
As someone who struggled with fertility and went the conventional route (fertility treatment) and only found paleo/primal when it was too late to add to my family, I am so pleased to hear other women are being successful naturally. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your pregnancy.
And by the way, I have yet to hear a positive story concerning a ‘dietician’ during pregnancy. My own experience was totally useless!
My dietician (although she didn’t know any better) was a joke!! But she is certified through the American Diabetes Association….HA HA…..look up who are the many $ contributors to the ADA….its sad really.
Thanks for sharing your story. My husband found primal while I was pregnant with our 3rd. I wasn’t ready to try it while I was pg, even though he was seeing great results. I’ve never struggled with my weight (was a healthy, relatively fit 135 lbs at 5’5″ before this 3rd pregnancy) but, for some reason, I’ve been dreading losing this baby weight. Now, with my baby 4 weeks old, I’ve just started to make the switch to primal but I’m holding on to some old habits. This story was just the inspiration I needed (thanks to my husband sending it to me!)
I am so glad my story can help you!! That is exactly why I wrote it!! Its the best way to eat!! Good Luck! I have a bunch of recipes on my blog too, if you ever need something new to try!
My goodness, Congratulations!! Doesn’t it just feel great when you finally find a way of living your life that doesn’t involve so much WORK? (i.e. Points, etc..)
I see many parallels between my story and yours.
Wishing you many successes in the future!
Thanks!! Yes, I am soooo happy to never ever again Count “Points”!!!!!!
Thank you so much for your story. It’s such a relief to know that primal eating is safe during pregnancy since my endo has tried to convince me otherwise. I have a similar story to you. During my last pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and unknowingly started eating primally while my OB and dietician started fretting about how I was losing a few pounds and not eating enough carbs.
Sadly however, the gestational never “went away” and after delivering I was diagnosed with full blown Type II. Whenever eating very low carb/primal I maintain absolutely normal blood sugars. (Admittedly, however, I have had several PMS fueled excursions that I’m not proud of).
Anyway, I’m planning on trying again for another child in the next month or so. My endo insist that I will indeed need to be on insulin. He also insists that I must eat a 150 g of carbs a day to maintain a healthy pregnancy. He’s also said (and I’ve read) that ketones are detrimental to a growing fetus. It’s all BULL as far as I’m concerned.
I’ll be following your lead if/when I get pregnant!!!
I truly 100% believe that eating Primal is very healthy during pregnancy and that eating that many carbs when you are diabetic is not ok.
Robb Wolfe wrote a good article on GD :
http://robbwolf.com/2008/06/25/gestational-diabetes/
That might help you talk to your doctor. Also suggest to your endo that he reads Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes!
Good Luck….this is not professional advice by any means, but when my dietitian and care team started to worry about me eating so low carb, I just stopped telling them what I was eating. And ketosis never seems to bother my pregnancy at all.
It’s such a relief to know that primal eating is safe during pregnancy since my endo has tried to convince me otherwise.
LOL. What do they think women were eating, pregnant or not, during the Paleolithic? Foods that hadn’t been invented yet?
I also ate a low-carb diet while I was pregnant, after buying my own glucose meter and discovering my blood sugar levels were high after eating carbs. I also lost 3-6 lbs after I changed diets, then gained wait more slowly. I found that around 22 weeks, my blood sugar levels became even more sensitive to carbs, so I started taking a tablespoon of coconut oil 4 times a day, when I ate. That took the edge off of cravings, and lowered blood sugar levels by ~10 points. It also encourages ketosis, so every time my midwife checked my urine, there were ketones. For very occasional “cheats,” I took alpha-lipoic acid after, and that also helped to lower my blood sugar, in addition to coconut oil. I had a healthy baby girl 3 weeks ago!
Congrats on your third blessing!
congratulations! I work in Labor and Delivery at the hospital and am always amazed at what the nutritionists serve the ladies who are diabetic… really? waffles and syrup for breakfast?? Good job taking responsibility for your health- have a GREAT pregnancy!
thank you!!
OMG waffles and syrup for a diabetic?? I swear its all about keeping them diabetic so they can just keep selling them insulin!! AHHH That just makes me angry!!
Joanne, great story! Congratulations on #3. I have 8 kids and dealt with gestational diabetes with the last three (I’m not overweight and don’t have any of the other risk factors other than being an old fart so I attribute it to the stress pregnancy puts on the body). With this last baby, I did what you did and cut out pretty much all carbs except for green vegetables. Like you, I went into ketosis and my midwife didn’t like that much so I was interested to see that you went thru it as well and lived to tell the tale. : ) Good luck with #3, hope your labor is quick and painless! God bless you!
Joanne,
What an inspirational story! I also found that eating high fat, moderate protein and low carb helped with my health issues. I didn’t even know it was called paleo! haha!
You give me hope that I too will be able to get pregnant too. I know that eating paleo is the best way to nourish my body.
Hope everything continues to go smoothly with your pregnancy! God bless!
Same here. I have PCOS and the Dr. said I couldn’t get pregnant. Well, I did, while eating a paleo-type diet. I didn’t read about the low-carb effect until years later.
Good for you! What an awesome story!
And hurray for midwives!
I’m going to be having my third midwife-attended homebirth this coming February…. once you’ve had a midwife, there is no going back to OB care. Ever. Good luck with your birth!!!
Congrats, Joanne!
Great to see more Primal Pregnancy stories!
Blessings for a beautiful birth…
Thanks Sondra! Your article on Primal Toad’s blog was great!!
Oh~ I forgot to share my recent Primal Pregnancy guest blog post on Primal Toad’s blog for those who may be interested:
http://www.primaltoad.com/primal-pregnancy/