There Are No Limits, There Are Only Plateaus

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Updated on November 14, 2013

Steven is almost forty, and his story can be traced all the way back to high school. It is my pleasure to share with you Steven’s long road to Primal living and the incredible result that followed.

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,

I used to be a relatively fit guy back in high school and college… constantly staying active and spending a lot of time training in Martial Arts (which I’ve done for most of my life).

Even though I was broke and ate terrible, having the metabolism of a young active guy really helped in keeping the fat off my frame.

When I got my first “real” full-time job after college I had started to put on a few pounds from eating a lot of pizza and ice cream (I admit it, I was totally lacking any and all will power). Plus, the change from not eating hardly at all to eating a high calorie “standard American diet” was not terribly flattering to my physique.

Fast forward ten years and I had ballooned up to 237lbs (yikes)… way above the “ideal weight” for my frame (I’m 6′).

And honestly, I was ashamed of myself. I hated looking at myself in the mirror. I never went anywhere where I had to potentially take my shirt off (like the beach or the pool, and mind you, I live in Southern California).

This was the breaking point! And I decided to do something about it.

Fast forward another five years…

Over those five years, my weight had fluctuated wildly. Going 237lbs to 200lbs and back up again and… you get the idea. I admit it, I was non-committal and had a hard time staying on a “healthy” diet (by normal American standards).

Three years ago I picked up a copy of P90X (yep I joined that bandwagon), and had pretty good results going from about 220lbs to 195lbs… gained more muscles and lost some body fat.

It was great, but I got burned out and got injured by over-training. I got discouraged, my weight ballooned back up to 225lbs.

Then came 2010.

I had been relatively active over the years (teaching and training in martial arts), but honestly, I’d given up on getting that “really fit” look. Plus, I wasn’t getting any younger (I’m pushing 40).

The thing is, while nobody ever said I was “out of shape,” “fat” or “chubby,” my self-image said I was. And I still avoided going to the pool or the beach like the plague.

I honestly didn’t think I could ever shed that layer of fat around my body.

And it was seriously messing with my mind.

I was eating “healthy” but unable to shed the weight or the pounds.

Seriously, I’ve read tons of books on the subject of weight loss and exercise, but I just couldn’t put two and two together.

Then I stumbled upon MarksDailyApple.com and the Primal Blueprint.

It was interesting, and different and I devoured all the material I could find on Primal living, Paleo and Evolutionary Fitness.

The ideas behind Primal completely resonated with me, and in May of 2010 (May 3rd to be exact) I decided to finally take the plunge.

I jumped in with both feet and cut out all the crud in my diet! I was proud of myself for being able to do that (considering my diet was pretty heavy on carbs).

And I felt…

TERRIBLE

I got hit by the “carb flu,” BIG TIME.

And it lasted for about two weeks. I was tired, cranky and just not an all around fun guy to be around for two weeks. But, I (and my family) endured it and all of a sudden it all cleared.

And I felt AWESOME!

By the way, when I started I was about 225lbs…

And by the end of September I was down to what many have called a “ripped” 175lbs.

And the best thing about all of it was that I didn’t exercise myself to death, nor did I worry too much about exactly what I ate from day to day.

Some days I do an intermittent fast, other days I snack all day long.

Because I had a relatively carb-centric diet I thought it would be difficult to rid the habit of eating brown rice and bread, but that proved not to be the case.

In any event, here’s a “Before and After” photo of myself: