It’s Not a Matter of If, It’s a Matter of When
It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story. 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!
For as long as I can remember I have been on the heavy side. I remember going through grade school being made fun of and teased because of my weight. I was raised in a traditional Hispanic household where almost everything we ate was either fried or refried. I grew up on sweet breads, sodas and gallon jugs of sugar overloaded fruit punch. Life as a teenager for me was a living hell. My life was headed in a direction that I could not imagine. I turned to food for comfort. I was an emotional eater and I was such a wreck because of my weight. I quickly ballooned up to 250 lbs. by the time I was 18.
At the age of 20 I had found my career calling. I wanted to be a police officer. I knew that getting into a police academy would be difficult. So I went on the traditional crash diet of malnutrition, severe calorie restriction coupled with hour long extended cardio sessions. I quickly dropped the weight in a very unhealthy manner. I was weak, very agitated and had the appearance of being sickly.
After only a few years of working the streets as a police officer and the need to constantly eat on the run – going through drive thru windows swallowing 2-3 hamburgers in one sitting – I quickly ballooned back up to 285 lbs. I was miserable. It not only affected my work performance but my personal relationships at home and my overall health was in jeopardy. I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes and high blood pressure and was immediately put on a daily regimen of medications.
In January 2011 at 265 lbs. my life appeared normal and I gave the perception of being happy on the outside but inside I was a living a life of turmoil. I was ruining the relationship at home with my fiancé. I didn’t feel happy about myself and how I looked so we seldom went out in public and I began to have feelings of self-consciousness in our intimacy. I finally said enough is enough and I started a new journey of getting a hold of my life and health. I started a quasi-paleo diet. It was more of a high protein, low carb quick fix. I started walking on the treadmill 3 days a week and did some light resistance training with a power band on alternate days. I gradually was able to start running again and started to see some weight loss. Around the beginning of February 2011 I had gotten my weight down to about 230 lbs. Then the unthinkable happened. My fiancé and live in girlfriend of 7 plus years dropped a bomb on me and ended our relationship abruptly. Again my life was a wreck and again I immediately turned to food for comfort. In less than a week I gained a quick 5 lbs. and felt like crap.
With the help of some good friends I decided it was time for some life changes. I had to move into a new apartment which allowed me to cook for myself and finally eat what I wanted – which meant I could control my own destiny. I could either fall into the same old rut or keep moving forward. I survived!
With the help of Mark’s Daily Apple I immediately switched to a complete Primal lifestyle. I got my life and diet straightened out. I started shopping at local farmers’ markets and preparing Primal meals on Sunday night for the entire week. I joined my local CrossFit box and worked out 3 days a week and started high intensity interval training on the treadmill at work on alternate days. The fat started to melt right off and I was building some muscle. My overall mental health improved and I was finally able to cope with the loss of my fiancé.
I recently purchased the 30-minute Primal Blueprint recipe book and use it regularly to help plan my weekly menu. I’ve learned great lessons about not only eating Primal and living Primal, but making the lifestyle change I needed to overcome my emotional eating habits and improve my self-consciousness.
I am proud to say since going completely Primal that I am down to 180 lbs. and I am starting to build lean muscle. My doctor has completely taken me off the medications I was taking. I lost a total of 85 lbs. of weight in about 5 months. I still have about another 10 lbs. to go to reach my goal weight. Living the Primal lifestyle I no longer have to worry about losing weight and constantly weighing myself. It’s not a matter of “if I get there” it’s just a matter of “when I get there.”
Jose
Grab a copy of Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals for over 100 Primal Recipes You Can Prepare in 30 Minutes or Less
Posted By: Mark Sisson
Getting your bod and your head together at the same time can be a truly daunting task, but you’ve managed to do both. I really think you’ll find that things just seem to fall into place better emotionally when you feel good physically and look good, to boot.
Dealing with your previous eating habits from when you were a kid can be exhausting especially if your family doesn’t understand what’s going on with you now. (Believe me, I know, having come from an Italian family raised on bread, pasta, bread and more pasta.) However, your primal lifestyle will become so automatic it won’t even be a consideration anymore except when you have to answer the countless questions about “how you did it”!
Congratulations and thanks for sharing your story. You’re a wonderful inspiration.
Congratulations Jose…very inspirational.
Awesome job!! It’s a pretty amazing journey to finally get into great health. I hope that your success brings you optimism on what the future holds.
Good luck and keep up the good work
Talk about a success story. Great job, man!
I just started this month and I have been amazed at what a calming effect it has had on my mood and my ability to deal with the stresses in life. I am glad that you were really able to maximize on that benefit yourself to reshape your life
What a great big smile. I love it !!!
awesome job Jose!!! congrats on your well deserved new look. you did it!
and a little plug here for God….He rocks too! what you believe about yourself really does matter. i think it all starts in minding your mind!
u da man!
Congrats! Me so happy for you!!
Congratulations definitely for being able to get off your medications.
Also for being a fit police officer.
Congratulations, Jose and thanks for sharing your inspiring story.
way to go Jose, You look great and truly happy.
Food can definitely effect your mood and behavior.
Awww, yay! I’m so glad for you.
religion does not make wars – people do.
real faith is not in using bad things like using religion for bad things. real faith is in love, energy, positivity, creativity and childish play (:P). god migth be a thing human made, and a thing only beying real in our brains, and a thing that people have used for good and bad, but if you ever tried practice prayer and meditation .. oh boy. i mean go try it. im really not in on all that american bullshit like buuhuuuh i am the atheist in the world and got the “real” answer, or i am the religios holy person who knows everything and is cured of all evils and engels is in the sky.. (but thats whats cool about our differences, i can learn from some people who is religios and at least not talking down to people who is it) i fail a lot im only human.. god yeah god is fucking energy .. to me ! to you something else.. about nutrition yeah at least there is some universal earth LAWS about the human body and what we eat that we in a way have to follow… god made or something else scientific.. the answer is the same, and in front of us, for us to choose.. action speaks.
Am in AWE! Congratulations and yeay, very happy for you. Inspiring. You know now there´s no going back to the ´old´ you.
85lbs in 5mo?! O.O You may just be the inspiration that pushes me forward! It’s so daunting when I look down and realize that I have a person and a half to lose and it’s all just fat. Depressing and daunting. Especially when I figure that most people would say to take 2-3yrs to even get all that off!
So thank you for your inspiration.
It will melt right off eating primally
Just remember NO grains of any kind, NO beans of any kind and NO processed, man-made sugars of any kind.
Buy only fresh, REAL foods and get busy cooking. The cooking and doing dishes every day will burn extra calories as a bonus!
I commend you on taking control of your diet and congratulate you on your accomplishments, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say that the beginning of your story frightened me. Picked on as a kid and teen because of your weight and then you decide to become a cop? I sincerely hope it was from a desire to protect and serve.
I would not want to be a criminal in this dude’s neighbourhood. or any neighbourhood but you get the point, good work.
Gosh, if everyone is feeling SO much better with the paleo diet and how it affects their brain and attitudes and outlook on life, why do people here still put the butt-hurt on other people about ANYTHING? Don’t you all feel there is enough room on this planet to make allowances for other beliefs, perspectives, and ideas? I for one am grateful for the wonderful effects and benefits of the paleo diet, and I might be high on meat or something, but I don’t mind just reading these inspiring stories and feeling thanks for living long enough to do something as basic as learn how to eat better. Anyway, amen.
Great job! Primal really works, and it’s pretty low carb naturally so don’t be afraid of that. Keep it up, you’ll shed those ten pounds in no time at all. Glad to hear you’re off meds. Have some fun, you deserve it:)
Terrific job!! If you wouldn’t mind, could you share what the meals you prepared on Sunday nights contained, and did you track calories and nutritional composition at all?
Mark, if you catch this post…I know PB isn’t about “counting calories,” but I know it’s important to at least get a handle on them. I have been primal for two weeks, and using Fitday on your recommendation. I got digital kitchen scale and weigh (or measure) EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth. To start out, I wanted to get a good sense of calories and ratios of Fat/Protein/Carbs. It has been a very worthwhile exercise to do so. Interestingly enough, just like you promised…It’s tough to get much over 50g of carbs a day by sticking to only leafy and colored veggies, and little fruit. Like you, my daily mainstay is a huge salad full of everything, including a few Tbs. of Olive oil dressing and chicken, beef or fish for protein. Other meals are eggs, beef/fish/chicken with vegetables; and I have a helpings of almonds.
Almost like clockwork, my calories are coming in around 2,000 give or take a couple hundred, and calories from fat are always mid 50% range; protein 35% range; and carbs 10-15% max. Can you comment on the ratio for a PB diet. I manually calculated it from your post on the PB diet, and it came out about at this ratio.
My goal short-term goal is to get down from 240 lbs (I’m 6′-2″) to 200 lbs, which is where I feel I need to be and felt my best (including some added lean body weight). 11 pounds came off the first two weeks, which was a thrill.
I’ve cut out ANY grains, starches, sugars, except maybe one piece of fruit per day.
I just wanted to double check on the amount of fat my diet should include in terms of the ratio of fats/protein/carbs. I can’t seem to find this anywhere; someone did post on here for Jose to get fats up to 80% of his calories, that seemed high; I seem to think it should be in the 50-60% range?
Thanks, and sorry for the verbose post. And Jose, CONGRATS again…very inspiring.
Great job
I’ve been low carb for 10 months, but am leaning toward primal. Your transformation is an inspiration. Well done.
WTG Jose. Well done. You’re an inspiration to all of us. Hopefully, your family is on board now too.
Jose,
One LE to another, keep up the CF and diet. Awesome drop of weight and energy. Only gets better.. Take care.
Nathan
Well done. Fianc’e eat your heart out. Looking wonderful
Erin
Wow – there seems to be alot more “stuff” to push through on these comments than I remember before….God, opinions, etc.. I had to go back and re-read Jose’s story to try to figure out what I missed that the comments section read like a religious blog.
That’s before getting to the important part:
Jose – you did a phenomenal job! You look fantastic and very happy!
It’s an admirable story when someone can take adversity and turn it into something good – and making the move out on your own could’ve been your reason to “comfort” yourself with familiar foods for a while.
Instead you grabbed on and created something wonderful for yourself! GROK ON !!!!
Inspiring and emotional story. Keep up the great work.
Way to go! If I could get all my young patients to get this serious about their health so they don’t have to spend the rest of their life coming to see me! You have inspired me and I feel even more stronger that this message will work for those who choose it!
Fantastic story and achievement Jose!
These Friday inspirational stories are one of my favorite features of MDA!
Mark – most “dieters” put the weight back
(and more) within a year or two. Although it would not be a true “study” …would love to have the “evidence” of following up with your Friday stories to see % that have maintained their weight 2,3,4+ years out.
This would be so cool!!!