JohnMassie.com

Well folks, we’ve reached that one month mark of 30 Days on Paleo.

Results? You better believe it.

• I lost 14 pounds in 30 days!
• I sleep through the night now
• Less muscle soreness and ache after workouts
• No more sick feeling after eating
• Consistent energy

So as I said in Day 1 – I would try this for 30 days and if it didn’t work for me then I would try something else. Well, for the first time in my life something in regards to my eating works and I enjoy it and don’t find myself dreaming of all the foods I can’t have (I’m writing this article while eating some organic ice cream made from fruit and coconut milk with agave syrup. Yum).

Now I’m issuing myself a new 30 day challenge – consistent workouts. That weight loss all came without any consistent workouts. I’ll be interested to see what type of results I experience if I’m working out on a regular basis. I did commit tonight to start working out with a trainer once a week and tonight was the first session – I’m really pumped!

At the end of the week I’m going to be heading to South Carolina for the first bike ride of the year and it is a doozie – 200k! Go big or go home? Yep…

I’m going to release my before and after photo because I think you can see a pretty big change. (Click the picture for a full size picture)

Comments welcome as always…

Night,
John

I’m happy to report that Paleo has become a regular part of my life. I’ve informed all my friends, family and even co-workers of my intent to eat Paleo and live a better lifestyle and everyone has been very kind about the whole process. People have been more considerate and ask me where I’m able to eat when we go out, friends adjust their menu when they cook for me to make sure they have something for me to eat and the support all around in this decision has been overwhelming and I really appreciate it.

So here we sit at Day 17 and everything has been going well. I had a small mishap on Christmas day and encountered some gluten and I was sick within minutes of eating and was sick for the next day. It motivated me to make sure I’m paying attention to my diet and to stick with it. I feel like I’ve mastered eating out and I branch out and try more items because of Paleo (If I can get Avocado or Guacamole on it – I do. LOL) Overall I find myself continuing to have a sense of clarity and lacking that “afternoon slump”. I also sleep more soundly and wake up when I’m supposed to (many days beating my alarm).

I did try at least one recipe and that was Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies (Found: Here). I sadly couldn’t find finely ground almond flour so I used the course stuff and granted my cookies look a little funny but they taste great! When I really want a dessert or something sweet to munch on I reach for one of these cookies and they’re super simple to make. I think I’m going to attempt a homemade Paleo bolognese sauce with spaghetti squash for my next Paleo cooking experiment.

Working out has been spotty – I did try my first Sufferfest Video on my new Bike trainer (from Cyclist Connection – the best bike shop – ever.) You can see the craziness of the video here.

Thanks to Goose for motivating me and inviting me over to his place to spin. From the sound of the conversation I had tonight with Dustin it sounds like I’ll be visiting “Sufferland” all throughout my vacation this week. I might not be able to walk the first week of January but it’s all good because what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger – right?

I did not do any resistance training like I had hoped I would. It’s still on the agenda but I’ve just been slacking and with the holiday I didn’t get the gym schedule memorized. Excuses… excuses… I know. I’m hoping that this week that will all change (that is if I can walk up to the gym after my intense spinning).

Weight hasn’t changed much – (as of last week) I dropped an additional pound bringing me to 223! Here’s to hoping by New Years day I can start 2012 at/around 220. I’m trying to not be obsessed with the scale and concentrate on how I look/feel so I’m going to take some measurements and start tracking inches lost and focus less on the weight (but keep checking in for progress purposes).

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a Happy New Year! I’m excited that I started my journey before January so it doesn’t seem so “New Years Resolutionish”.

Night!
John

I made it one full week without cheating! I also made it though the terrible sickness and I feel so much better now. I find myself waking up easier, having consistent energy all day and I sleep much deeper at night. I’m figuring out more and more how to cook Paleo at home and even have found recipes for foods that I love that I thought couldn’t be made Paleo (Meatloaf being one). Working on my menu today and going to try one or two new recipes this week. I also discovered that when I’m dying for pop that I can drink Izze “Sparking Juice”. It is essentially sparking water (read: carbonated) and actual fruit juice. No added sugar or even artificial sweetener. I don’t drink a ton of it because fructose is just really natural sugar but I feel it’s better than drinking regular pop or diet pops that are essentially a can of chemicals.

I’ve been eating out with people and learning how to catch stuff on the go. Thanks to the internet and common sense I’m pretty much back to a normal routine and when invited out to dinner I don’t shy away from it anymore or freak out. So what is on the horizon for this week?

• Try at least two new recipes at home and if a success I’ll share them on the blog
• Begin working out with “strategically placed” cardio. Based on a recommendation from Adam at work I’m going to add a cardio routine in the morning before breakfast.
• Try out one resistance training from NerdFitness.com

Oh and last but not least – I did do my traditional Sunday morning weigh in and I’d like to announce that I’m now 224.0 (so I essentially weight less now than I did during biking season). I’m sure it’s mostly water weight but it’s always nice to look at the scale and see that you’re down 8.4 pounds during a week where you felt like you were dying for at least half of it and to see it all wasn’t in vain.

Time to go – I have to get ready to leave for church.

See ya!
John

… at the end of the tunnel. However I will say that even after the last post I felt there were some moments where I felt like I was seeing that bright light that precedes death in the Hollywood movies – HA.

I am quickly learning how to improvise at restaurants and stick to my diet and what places are more “Paleo Friendly” than others. I also resisted my biggest temptation – free bread. Last night for dinner a friend of mine and I stopped at O Charley’s. I was able to get steak, salmon and some veggies (Thanks Adam for the recommendation of no fruit after 4PM!) The waiter literally brought 6 or more rolls to our table for two people. I looked at the rolls for a long time and told myself that I was stronger than that and to just continue to drink my tea and just continue to talk to my friend. The food was terrible – which shocked me for O Charley’s but at least I ate most of my dinner.

My sleep is getting better but I was awoken this morning with a slight fever and that sickly feeling. I did some more research to figure out why I am struggling with this change so much and to figure out how much longer this was going to last. I ended up stumbling across a lot of great articles around “Gluten/Wheat Withdraw”. Essentially your body experiences the same withdraw as someone who is going through withdraw for drugs and about 30% of people experience it. I guess I’m one of those lucky ones in the 30%. As I’m sure you can assume – no one would say exactly how long the symptoms. So I went back to bed and continued to hope and pray that it would be over soon.

Fast forward about three hours and I woke up right as my alarm went off and I truly feel 100% better. I have energy, appetite and don’t feel like it’s 1000 degrees in the house. I also noticed that I’m sleeping better than I ever have before. My body still aches just a bit but I feel like this might be a turning point today.

As you can imagine, I haven’t made it to the gym yet. With being as sick as I have been the past few days I was lucky to walk between the car and my office let alone attempt running on a machine (I could just see me face-planting on a treadmill and go flying off.) So if this upward trend continues with how I feel I will introduce the gym starting next week.

Well, I’m off to enjoy my day off. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll be checking in soon!

Later,
John

I. Am. Sick.

It all hit me yesterday evening after I returned from dinner. I was preparing to sit down at my hotel (I was traveling for work) and watch some Glee and New Girl before going to bed and something just didn’t feel right. Suddenly I was very cold and found myself with a huge headache and I started to ache all over. To be honest – I felt like I was bonking on a bicycle… but wasn’t riding a bike. So instead of watching TV I laid down and just went to bed. This resulted in the most restless sleep I’ve ever had – I felt like I was on fire and at times was wondering if I was dying (lol – yeah, I was delirious).

Finally sometime this morning I goolged Paleo + my symptoms and discovered something called the “Low Carb Flu”. Essentially if you’re used to eating to SAD (Standard American Diet) standards and then drastically switch your diet to one where your carbs are coming solely from lean meat, veggies, fruits and nuts – I guess your body can flip out. Well, mine did. Finally around 5:30 AM I was able to get two solid hours of sleep before leaving for a client. It was truly by the grace of God that I made it through the day and pulled it off without looking like death warmed over.

So that’s the downside – the upside is that I’ve managed to stick with it even though I had a serious moment of weakness when I felt like I was dying this morning to go eat something horrible for me in hopes of making this all go away. Then I realized that things like changing your diet are never going to be easy – if it was then we’d all be skinny. Granted I’m sure I’m experiencing  more pain than those on a simple calorie reduction plan but I also can eat all the time and actually find myself struggling to meet a reasonable daily calorie intake sometimes and I’m never hungry.

After coming home from my trip and sleeping for four hours I feel better but I don’t think I’m out of the woods quite yet. Thankfully I have some vacation time so I can sleep and get some rest as I adjust to this new diet. I will say that outside of last night I do feel better overall. Even with the lack of sleep I wasn’t dead tired like I normally am and even though I ache a bit my body just feels better. So… I’m looking forward to the weekend and continuing past this stage.

Night!
John

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways

That’s part of my before picture. Me staring blankly into the mirror and I decided to start a change in my life. The complete picture and side profile shot is pretty horrifying. If we’re Facebook friends you can get an idea by looking at my cruise pictures – some people did manage to catch me shirtless and well… it’s not a pretty sight.

So I know it’s only 6:00 pm on Day 1 but I wanted to get my writing in before I wind down for the evening. Today has been challenging – typically on Sunday I would grab a quick breakfast out and then go to church followed by a big lunch and then normally would either cook some big meal at home or go out. Instead I prepped meals for today, ate whenever I was hungry and drank copious amounts of water. I am not normally one for cravings but I figure it was a “I want this because I know I can’t have it” type thing that hopefully will subside as the days pass by.

I am trying to set myself up for success as much as I can. I went shopping yesterday and stocked the fridge and cabinets full of food that I can eat and plenty of it. I tried to make everything as easy as possible to keep me from using the “but a drive-thru will be faster” logic I tend to resort to. I didn’t make it to the gym today as I decided to catch up on much-needed chores and decluttering for my upcoming move.

One thing I noticed is that I stopped being hungry quicker but would find myself hungry in a few hours. Not sure if that’s a result of changing how I eat or what but normally I could gorge myself at my three main meals and never need a snack in-between. Today I found myself eating about every three hours – automatically.

Tomorrow I start my fitness routine… which I’ll be honest – I’m nervous about. I can ride a bike, run on a treadmill or work the crap out of an elliptical machine but put me in front of a set of weights and I’m clueless. Thankfully I’m going to be doing cardio tomorrow so that will be easy. Tuesday will be the hard day where I start my resistance training.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and encouragement. One day down… 29 more to go!

Later,

John

I’m going to let the cat out of the bag – I’m overweight.

There – I said wrote it.

I sometimes will step lightly around the issue and not talk about my weight but the matter of the fact is that I’m overweight and even at my young age it has began to limit what I’m doing in life. I suffered medical consequences post-Pelotonia due to my weight and to this day I’m still feeling the effects of being overweight and the issues that it has caused with my back. I’ve been advised by my chiropractor that I can fix my issues and live a healthy life… if I’d drop some weight. In the condition that I’m in today the weight around my stomach is pulling me forward (thanks gravity…) and thus causing issues with my back.

I’ve never really talked about my weight because it’s always been a sensitive subject for me. Growing up I was always either tall, heavy or both. I think I endured a good amount of bullying in school because I was the typical nerdy kid who was overweight and was the teacher’s pet because I was quiet and always knew the answer. As I’ve become an adult I just don’t like to talk about my weight (even though you can clearly see that I’m overweight). Instead of doing something about it for the last few years I spent my time reading about weight loss methodologies and essentially studying the science of weight loss. I’ve encouraged many other around me to change their life and give them resources to do so (and some have done very well with the advice I’d given) yet I would just continue to read and not change anything.

Today I woke up and just decided that I was done reading and wanted to stop studying and start doing. After a lot of study I realized I would need something that would be a change in the way I was eating for the rest of my life and not just a fad diet. I decided to go with the “Paleo Diet” – if you don’t agree with me then that’s fine, we’re all entitled to our opinion. I’ve looked at the science behind it, the typical results and discussed with people who have moved to a “Paleo Lifestyle” and it seems to work. Also one of the other main reasons I chose the diet is how dead simple it is to figure out what you can or can’t eat. I told myself that starting (officially) on Sunday, December 11, 2011 I would eat Paleo for 30 days and see how I feel at the end of the 30 days. If it isn’t working for me then I’ll go back to the drawing board.

So to help keep me accountable and so I have a place to record this – I’m going to blog about it. Much like my summer training series I’m going to write about my progress with this 30 day challenge (which will also include me working in a fitness routine from NerdFitness.com). I need to get a measuring tape to take initial measurements tomorrow but I will tell you that my weight is 232.4 and I have a whole set of before pictures to prove it. Scary stuff… If you can actually see a difference after 30 days I’ll post before and after.

Encouragement is always welcomed and hopefully you’ll join me for this journey as I work through this Paleo challenge.

Later,
-John