Unplugging!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Hey guys, I've wanted to do this for a while but kept putting it off because unplugging feels truly weird! I've been blogging for 5 years and doing the social media thing for 2-3 years so it feels unusual to feel in a place that I feel ready to unplug. To be honest there's a part of me that will miss the attention. When you post your photo and hundreds of people tell you you’re so amazing, it's one hell of an ego boost. It’s truly quite addictive. I need to get back to my simple self and find my inner peace and let go of my ego and find some balance. Also I've given all I have to give for now, that's not to say I won't pick it back up in the future but right now I'm not feeling it and I need a serious break. This isn't me having a break from eating well and staying healthy, I've changed my lifestyle permanently and can never envision this changing. This is me just having a break from the health and fitness world, low carb, primal, paleo, clean eating etc etc and a break from hearing my own opinions and thoughts. I am removing all apps from my phone and taking up other interests that I used to do before I became all consumed with Blogging and Facebook. When I feel the need to update my blog I will but for now I'm taking a Sabbatical! My blog and all social media outlets will stay up but won't be active on them while I'm taking a break. I thank each and every one of you for helping to make my experience with blogging and social media a positive one, I have learnt far more from all of you than I ever thought I would and I am truly thankful. See you in the next episode!
This is not the end!
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Hey guys, I know I don't post as much these days but I am still here and to be honest there's been quite a bit happening for me behind the scenes. If you follow my Facebook or Instagram then you'll probably know I've bought my first house so things over the last couple of months were very hectic, I took many a break from technology and I loved it, making me reassess the excess of time I spend on technology and trying to keep up to date with all the social media outlets I have.
Most of you will recall my wee confession back in March about the fact I do eat potatoes and white rice on occasion and I'm sleeping better and feeling much better for it! Call the Paleo Police if you want ;)
Essentially the way I'm feeling right now is I wish I could de "label" myself sometimes! People know me as Primal Journey and look up to me as an example of Paleo/Primal living. I am far from perfect and I have always considered myself a 80/20 follower of Primal, people forget that and then question why I'm drinking milk and eating some potatoes. Ever since putting myself in the public eye it can be a lot of pressure to try and stay perfectly consistent all the time. I'm in Mark Sissons book, I was on the Good Morning TV show 4 years ago and I have an avid following because of it, I appreciate all of it, truly so thank you for all of the support I receive, it doesn't go unnoticed.
I feel relieved, nervous and determined all at the same time! I am relieved that I have given myself permission to not care so much whether I eat something "non-primal", I'm nervous because of course I don't want to gain my weight back and then I'm determined because I know that I can and will gain a sense of peace with this all eventually.
I had to give you all an update to let you know where I'm at, I had big ideas to do all sorts of things like writing a recipe book and doing YouTube videos but I think where I am at right now I need to work on reforming my relationship with food and my body and I am doing so by by reading good books like "Sexy By Nature" by Stefani Ruper "Health at Every Size" by Linda Bacon
“Celebrating the unique beauty within you does not mean that you cannot set goals. It does not mean that you give up on weight loss, fitness, clear skin, or any of the other external markers of health and sex appeal…. It means only that you embrace your body as it has been designed." - Stefani Ruper
Most of you will recall my wee confession back in March about the fact I do eat potatoes and white rice on occasion and I'm sleeping better and feeling much better for it! Call the Paleo Police if you want ;)
Essentially the way I'm feeling right now is I wish I could de "label" myself sometimes! People know me as Primal Journey and look up to me as an example of Paleo/Primal living. I am far from perfect and I have always considered myself a 80/20 follower of Primal, people forget that and then question why I'm drinking milk and eating some potatoes. Ever since putting myself in the public eye it can be a lot of pressure to try and stay perfectly consistent all the time. I'm in Mark Sissons book, I was on the Good Morning TV show 4 years ago and I have an avid following because of it, I appreciate all of it, truly so thank you for all of the support I receive, it doesn't go unnoticed.
Ok guys I'm gonna get real here.
So I had my experiment with nutritional ketosis and it still remains one of my hottest topics on this blog, it's everywhere at the moment, just do a quick google search and everyone is talking about it and how it's the cure all. When I originally lost all of my weight back in 2008/09 I knew that ketosis was what happens when you drop your carbs low enough but I didn't actively seek it and I would dear say that over that year I would have dipped in and out of it, never staying in deep ketosis 24/7. Last year when I started my actual experiment of testing my ketones and ramping up my fat, dropping my protein and carbs a LOT lower is when I started running into problems. For us women our hormonal levels are mighty complicated and for some of us we require more carbohydrates. I thought over the years that this was hogwash but it turns out that now that I've experienced a few issues I have found myself back peddling and trying to find my sweet spot once again.
When I started this blog, I was all about Low Carb Primal and I was determined to lose weight, I did that and have successfully kept off the majority of my weight. I struggle with keeping it real here and also trying to help people at the same time, I get emails daily asking for help, to look over food diaries, to help with food issues and all sorts. The truth of the matter is I am no diet guru, I don't have any nutrition degrees, psychology degrees, I haven't written books and I haven't got the magic pill that so many are wanting.
I've blogged over the years about the evils of grains, legumes, too many nuts, the miracle of saturated fat, I've demonised starches and sugars, warned against too many paleo treats and the likes of anything that I've had an opinion about, I've lost sight of what I wanted for myself, my quest for better health.
Over the years my eating was sometimes insanely over restrictive to find the best way in which I could lose weight and get a baggin bod. You know deep down I still want that but I don't want it the way I want good health, without your health you have nothing, this I have learnt the hard way. Some would argue that in order to have a baggin bod you have to be healthy and I personally do not agree, I think health comes in all shapes and sizes. Many of you know I have been every different size imaginable and yet I have forgotten somewhere along the way that when I was morbidy obese and struggling to tie my own shoes laces all I ever wanted was to be healthy again. The goal post moves the closer you get to it.
Looking back at all the posts over the past 5 years and the person I was when I started my weight loss journey, I was a person who lost a LOT of weight following a low carb primal diet and I did it relatively effortlessly. The real struggle has been in maintenance and my underlying desire to want to get even slimmer. Over the years I have had periods of being completely off the rails for a couple of weeks only to spend months making up for it by measuring every morsel of food that went into my body. I've counted the carbohydrates in cucumbers while justifying the copious amounts of butter in coffee and I have fasted when in fact I was really frikken hungry! Typing that out makes me think, holy shit that's some messed up relationship you have with food. I tried the Whole30 and only lasted 14 days because I had too much food chatter going on in my head and realised I really don't need to add any more restriction.
In my quest to find more balance with my relationship with food I have just gone back to the way I used to eat before I started experimenting with nutritional ketosis, whole30 etc. etc. Now I believe these programs wholeheartedly have their place and for many people they are life savers. For me I don't think I had a positive outcome.
When I restrict too much I start weighing myself everyday and sometimes more than once and my day is then determined by it, if myfitnesspal pie chart looks like perfect macros then I'd be happy . I would obsess over the stupidest food choices like whether or not I should eat a damn sweet potato, because those carbs might tip me over the edge and knock me right outta ketosis. On the crazy train!
However when I loosely follow the "guidelines" of Primal, and for me that means eating mostly plants and animals with some dairy and starch and I allow myself a little 20% indulgence foods I feel completely normal and like I do not have any type of issues with food. Beyond that I cascade into a complete crazy lady on the hunt for my next sugar hit!
See Paleo/Primal is an awesome way of eating that I truly enjoy and I feel so damn good when I follow it, I managed to make it a misery by going on a "strict 100% compliant" version of it. I tend to take everything to extremes, I've never been much of a fan of moderation because I have thought I couldn't do it. I still struggle with it and I'm trying to work on it, I kind of like the challenge now of just trying to eat one cookie and then stop, yeah I'm still not there but I'm trying.
I see this whole thing as a bit of a break through for me, here I am 5 years down the track of losing my weight and I have been terrified of gaining it all back. For anyone who has lost a substantial amount of weight I'm sure you can relate to some degree.
Now in reality my life is pretty damn great, I look good, I can pretty much shop at any shop I want, when you have been obese this doesn't ever get old! I have an awesome marriage to the most amazing man who has always been there being my biggest cheerleader and loved me no matter what size I have been. I remind myself if he can love me so much with all my imperfections then how come it's so much harder to love myself?!
I don't think the lesson of self love is something you learn and all of a sudden decide to love yourself, I think it's a long winded journey of self discovery, I hope that once I reach my mid life then I can stop caring SO much about how I look and truly love the skin I'm in 100%!
So that's where I am at! I am trying to eat intuitively without "rules", I am nourishing my body with micronutrients so plenty of vegetables. I am eating in a way that feels right for me at this stage in my journey. I feel like my diet is more balanced now, I'm not trying to actively lose weight like I used to, I feel like I am a healthy weight and my clothes fit me and most of all I feel normal!
So I had my experiment with nutritional ketosis and it still remains one of my hottest topics on this blog, it's everywhere at the moment, just do a quick google search and everyone is talking about it and how it's the cure all. When I originally lost all of my weight back in 2008/09 I knew that ketosis was what happens when you drop your carbs low enough but I didn't actively seek it and I would dear say that over that year I would have dipped in and out of it, never staying in deep ketosis 24/7. Last year when I started my actual experiment of testing my ketones and ramping up my fat, dropping my protein and carbs a LOT lower is when I started running into problems. For us women our hormonal levels are mighty complicated and for some of us we require more carbohydrates. I thought over the years that this was hogwash but it turns out that now that I've experienced a few issues I have found myself back peddling and trying to find my sweet spot once again.
When I started this blog, I was all about Low Carb Primal and I was determined to lose weight, I did that and have successfully kept off the majority of my weight. I struggle with keeping it real here and also trying to help people at the same time, I get emails daily asking for help, to look over food diaries, to help with food issues and all sorts. The truth of the matter is I am no diet guru, I don't have any nutrition degrees, psychology degrees, I haven't written books and I haven't got the magic pill that so many are wanting.
I've blogged over the years about the evils of grains, legumes, too many nuts, the miracle of saturated fat, I've demonised starches and sugars, warned against too many paleo treats and the likes of anything that I've had an opinion about, I've lost sight of what I wanted for myself, my quest for better health.
Over the years my eating was sometimes insanely over restrictive to find the best way in which I could lose weight and get a baggin bod. You know deep down I still want that but I don't want it the way I want good health, without your health you have nothing, this I have learnt the hard way. Some would argue that in order to have a baggin bod you have to be healthy and I personally do not agree, I think health comes in all shapes and sizes. Many of you know I have been every different size imaginable and yet I have forgotten somewhere along the way that when I was morbidy obese and struggling to tie my own shoes laces all I ever wanted was to be healthy again. The goal post moves the closer you get to it.
Looking back at all the posts over the past 5 years and the person I was when I started my weight loss journey, I was a person who lost a LOT of weight following a low carb primal diet and I did it relatively effortlessly. The real struggle has been in maintenance and my underlying desire to want to get even slimmer. Over the years I have had periods of being completely off the rails for a couple of weeks only to spend months making up for it by measuring every morsel of food that went into my body. I've counted the carbohydrates in cucumbers while justifying the copious amounts of butter in coffee and I have fasted when in fact I was really frikken hungry! Typing that out makes me think, holy shit that's some messed up relationship you have with food. I tried the Whole30 and only lasted 14 days because I had too much food chatter going on in my head and realised I really don't need to add any more restriction.
In my quest to find more balance with my relationship with food I have just gone back to the way I used to eat before I started experimenting with nutritional ketosis, whole30 etc. etc. Now I believe these programs wholeheartedly have their place and for many people they are life savers. For me I don't think I had a positive outcome.
When I restrict too much I start weighing myself everyday and sometimes more than once and my day is then determined by it, if myfitnesspal pie chart looks like perfect macros then I'd be happy . I would obsess over the stupidest food choices like whether or not I should eat a damn sweet potato, because those carbs might tip me over the edge and knock me right outta ketosis. On the crazy train!
However when I loosely follow the "guidelines" of Primal, and for me that means eating mostly plants and animals with some dairy and starch and I allow myself a little 20% indulgence foods I feel completely normal and like I do not have any type of issues with food. Beyond that I cascade into a complete crazy lady on the hunt for my next sugar hit!
See Paleo/Primal is an awesome way of eating that I truly enjoy and I feel so damn good when I follow it, I managed to make it a misery by going on a "strict 100% compliant" version of it. I tend to take everything to extremes, I've never been much of a fan of moderation because I have thought I couldn't do it. I still struggle with it and I'm trying to work on it, I kind of like the challenge now of just trying to eat one cookie and then stop, yeah I'm still not there but I'm trying.
I see this whole thing as a bit of a break through for me, here I am 5 years down the track of losing my weight and I have been terrified of gaining it all back. For anyone who has lost a substantial amount of weight I'm sure you can relate to some degree.
Now in reality my life is pretty damn great, I look good, I can pretty much shop at any shop I want, when you have been obese this doesn't ever get old! I have an awesome marriage to the most amazing man who has always been there being my biggest cheerleader and loved me no matter what size I have been. I remind myself if he can love me so much with all my imperfections then how come it's so much harder to love myself?!
I don't think the lesson of self love is something you learn and all of a sudden decide to love yourself, I think it's a long winded journey of self discovery, I hope that once I reach my mid life then I can stop caring SO much about how I look and truly love the skin I'm in 100%!
So that's where I am at! I am trying to eat intuitively without "rules", I am nourishing my body with micronutrients so plenty of vegetables. I am eating in a way that feels right for me at this stage in my journey. I feel like my diet is more balanced now, I'm not trying to actively lose weight like I used to, I feel like I am a healthy weight and my clothes fit me and most of all I feel normal!
"Eat sufficient protein, fill in the rest with carbohydrates and fat, don't snack much, don't starve yourself, and develop a healthy relationship with food and with yourself". Amen Stefani Ruper!
I refuse to weigh myself anymore, I am not counting calories or macros (carbs, fat, protein). I am enjoying myself and my life without food restrictions. My mindset has changed quite drastically and I know that this isn't the end.
I refuse to weigh myself anymore, I am not counting calories or macros (carbs, fat, protein). I am enjoying myself and my life without food restrictions. My mindset has changed quite drastically and I know that this isn't the end.
I feel relieved, nervous and determined all at the same time! I am relieved that I have given myself permission to not care so much whether I eat something "non-primal", I'm nervous because of course I don't want to gain my weight back and then I'm determined because I know that I can and will gain a sense of peace with this all eventually.
I had to give you all an update to let you know where I'm at, I had big ideas to do all sorts of things like writing a recipe book and doing YouTube videos but I think where I am at right now I need to work on reforming my relationship with food and my body and I am doing so by by reading good books like "Sexy By Nature" by Stefani Ruper "Health at Every Size" by Linda Bacon
“Celebrating the unique beauty within you does not mean that you cannot set goals. It does not mean that you give up on weight loss, fitness, clear skin, or any of the other external markers of health and sex appeal…. It means only that you embrace your body as it has been designed." - Stefani Ruper
These books are both life changing!
Happiness comes from within
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Happiness comes from within. It doesn't come from a number on the scale or the size of your clothes or having a flat stomach, a thigh gap or a "perfect" derrière.
I have been every scale number between 54kgs-107kgs and every size from a NZ6-NZ22 over the span of 10 years. Today I sit at 69-70kgs and a size NZ10-12 and I have been here for almost 5 years. I feel my body has reached its happy place, while it's a higher "number" or "size" than what my so called ideal is (or was) I can truly say I love my body in its entirety with all my physical imperfections, because I am beautiful the way I am today.
I've never had the desire to achieve a flawless body because I know that I couldn't achieve that without going to a place of crazy (for me anyway). But I am letting go of wishing for my perfect body...why?
Because I got tired of waking up everyday and deciding how happy I was based on the scale number. I got tired of my life revolving around making a perfect food choice. Most of all I got tired of attaching my self worth to what I looked like. We live in a world that is so obsessed with how we should look.
Health to me now is finding balance. It's moving my body everyday and doing something I love, not exercising in a punishing way or trying to "burn calories". It's eating food that nourishes me and that I enjoy, not just focusing on macros. Food that makes me feel good!
The more you love and respect your body and find happiness with where your body is right now the more you will want to take care of it.
Be thankful for your whole body and appreciate what your body can do. You are not flawed so give yourself permission to be happy with yourself no matter where you are on your journey. If you think that waiting until you reach a perfect "weight" or "size" until you can be happy you will be sadly disappointed because your goals will always shift and it will never end if you can't accept and love your body right now.
What I will say is that I have to work on this mindset daily, happiness and self-worth isn't something you can buy. Everyday I visualise a healthy body/mind relationship and over time it is happening. I didn't just wake up one day and everything changed, no, this has been in the making for a long time now.
Think about all the amazing qualities you have, think of your character. You don't love your best friend or your mum because of they way they look. Give yourself the same love that you have for others.
Losing weight isn’t going to make your life better if your only goal is to lose weight. Instead focus of the feeling of being healthy and nourishing your body and mind with the things that you love, the things that bring joy to your life. Surround yourself with positive people.
Don't only work hard to change your body but work hard at loving yourself, the two can co-exist. It takes time, practice little steps towards loving yourself a little more everyday.
I'm challenging the ideals us women have about always wanting to "look different", when does it stop?
Challenge yourself! Imagine living in a body that each day you wake up and truly love yourself, how would that feel?
Maybe I was wrong!
Monday, March 31, 2014
I know by writing this that I may very well lose some of my avid keto followers or some hard core paleo followers and I'm ok with that. The whole purpose of my blog was always just a platform for me to go through the motions of this weight loss journey without driving my family crazy with information they found boring, it was also to share my ups and downs as many of you relate. It's never been about popularity and although my facebook page and this blog has become relatively popular in recent years it's never been my driving force, I am always grateful for the followers I do have and I hope that my authenticity and open mindedness is what keeps you reading.
Most of you know of my history with Primal, I've been primal for over 5 years and I've always classed myself as an 80/20 follower because I have a love affair with dairy and chocolate and lets face it I've never really been 100% compliant because I just don't want to live like that and I haven't felt the need to, I take my hat off to those that do Primal/Paleo 100%, I'm not one of them. I have had my fair share of macro-nutrient adjustments over the years, plenty of trial and error and I've learnt a great deal about myself and my relationship with food in the process, it's something that cannot be taught, it comes from experience in living it day in day out.
I lost 40 kgs back in 2008/2009 following a very low carbohydrate diet of around 30-50grams a day which I did for a year, then for the past 5 years I've mostly stayed around about 50-70gms most days with a few higher carb days thrown in for good measure and a few intermittent fast days also. Last year I played around with nutritional ketosis here and here, I dropped my carbohydrates and my protein levels a lot lower and ramped up the fat, it was fantastic for dropping weight fast but I am becoming convinced that it's not a healthy state to be in 24/7. At the time I felt amazing and had so much energy it almost felt unnatural. Fast forward to the last couple of months and I felt my body screaming at me to change something, I couldn't go on eating such a high fat, low carb diet, not because I didn't enjoy it but because I feel like it was taxing my hormones. The one important thing I have learnt from my journey with weight loss and trying to obtain perfect health is that hormones and gut health are at the core of it all.
I was noticing that my sleep was becoming very erratic, my energy was lagging big time (even while in ketosis) when previously I was bouncing off walls, my gut health started to become very bad to the point I was struggling to digest vegetables, and my menstrual cycle was becoming very out of whack and extremely painful. I made sure I had bone broths, I kept the salt, potassium and magnesium high but none of it made a difference. I thought it would all iron out but it didn't. Once I started doing the research in places like Paleo for Women, Paul Jaminet, Chris Kesser, PaNu, Free the Animal and listening to all sorts of podcasts from Balanced bites, Robb Wolf and Dave Aspery etc..I have started putting a few things together in order to untangle the web I had spun myself. I read forums, blog posts and comments, more books and taking all the information in, I found myself feeling conflicted and confused and a little bit angry, had all this keto dieting I had done recently been doing the damage, after all the studies I read on it had me convinced that Keto was amazing for long term health, the success stories alone are enough to make anyone make the change. I thought it wasn't that far of a stretch to what I normally do. I was wrong.
So in my long journey of regaining my health and maintaining my weight I gave the Perfect Health Diet another whirl, the last time I had done it I found I would binge on carbs all the time, what was different this time? I believe it was not going crazy on the fat while I was eating potatoes and rice, if you add tons of butter to starchy carbohydrates it makes it really hard to stop eating them, if you have them with only a little bit of fat and keep the meal much simpler it's much easier to only eat the amount you need. From the data I've read on the subject it has a lot to do with food reward and our ability to listen to our real hunger cues. Most of us find it hard to stop eating overly processed foods like pizza, cakes etc because it's the combination of sugar, fat and salt that keeps us gagging for more. I have always struggled with moderation and felt like I have an addiction to these kinds of foods, especially when on a very low carb diet. The most unusual and awesome side effect I have noticed since I have upped the starch in my diet is that I do not crave these foods like I used to and I can have a small amount and stop, that was unheard of for me and the reason I could never do moderation.
I still haven't formed a strong opinion about whether I think that strict nutritional ketogenic dieting is something that I agree with, I've had a pretty good stint with it and I have since changed my stance on it - hence why I'm writing this. However I cannot deny that I had wonderful results in the weight loss department, in terms of health I found myself becoming unwell. Dropping carbs below 50gms per day undoubtedly works for weight loss, it was how I got off my 40kgs relatively effortlessly so I cannot deny that. Would I recommend others do the same? I think it really depends on what kind of health you have, many people are much more resilient and can possibly handle the stress that low carb puts on our hormones, others might not be so lucky.
So what does my daily diet look like now? Well I still consider myself very much Primal, the way I always have been, I'm still 80/20 because of dairy and chocolate and while the area or "safe starches" is still very controversial I am happy to include them in my diet. I still stay away from wheat and excess sugar.
My day usually starts off with a decaf coffee with cream, at about 10am I generally have brunch which is almost always eggs 2-3 of them, I love them poached, scrambled, fried, an omelet and I'll add some cooked and cooled potato or sweet potato fried in ghee (clarified butter) and some sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), some avocado, maybe bacon if I feel like it. That meal generally keeps me going most of the day until about 4-5pm and then I'll have a small snack of fruit, say a banana or apple with some nut butter. Dinner is normally some meat, green vegetables and either some potatoes, kumara (sweet potato), rice, rice noodles and some days I just stick to zucchini noodles, cauliflower rice or mash because I like to change it up, everyday isn't the same otherwise I get bored. I find myself cooking from cookbooks lately for new ideas. My macros are probably about 100gms of carbohydrate a day, give or take, sometimes it's 150gms and other days it's 70gms, my protein is normally always around 70gms and my fat intake is roughly 70-80gms. In terms of Percentages each day I'd sit around 45% Fat / 30% Carbs / 25% Protein, all very rough estimates. My weight is fairly stable at 69-70kgs, (5'7") and I feel happy here, I could probably do with losing a few kgs but really have you ever met anyone that doesn't say that?! Mostly I'm just thankful that I have managed to maintain my weight loss while enjoying delicious food.
I personally think the following are really great websites to help get you on a good path to health and weight loss, I have no affiliation with any of these recommendations.
http://marksdailyapple.com
http://perfecthealthdiet.com
http://whole9life.com
https://chriskresser.com
New Zealand Pages:
http://www.rapidfitness.co.nz
http://paleozonenutrition.com
http://mikkiwilliden.com/
http://thatpaleoguy.com/
Please remember I'm not a doctor or dietitian and everything I have stated above is all from my experience, before diagnosing yourself please speak with a medical professional you trust.
Most of you know of my history with Primal, I've been primal for over 5 years and I've always classed myself as an 80/20 follower because I have a love affair with dairy and chocolate and lets face it I've never really been 100% compliant because I just don't want to live like that and I haven't felt the need to, I take my hat off to those that do Primal/Paleo 100%, I'm not one of them. I have had my fair share of macro-nutrient adjustments over the years, plenty of trial and error and I've learnt a great deal about myself and my relationship with food in the process, it's something that cannot be taught, it comes from experience in living it day in day out.
I lost 40 kgs back in 2008/2009 following a very low carbohydrate diet of around 30-50grams a day which I did for a year, then for the past 5 years I've mostly stayed around about 50-70gms most days with a few higher carb days thrown in for good measure and a few intermittent fast days also. Last year I played around with nutritional ketosis here and here, I dropped my carbohydrates and my protein levels a lot lower and ramped up the fat, it was fantastic for dropping weight fast but I am becoming convinced that it's not a healthy state to be in 24/7. At the time I felt amazing and had so much energy it almost felt unnatural. Fast forward to the last couple of months and I felt my body screaming at me to change something, I couldn't go on eating such a high fat, low carb diet, not because I didn't enjoy it but because I feel like it was taxing my hormones. The one important thing I have learnt from my journey with weight loss and trying to obtain perfect health is that hormones and gut health are at the core of it all.
I was noticing that my sleep was becoming very erratic, my energy was lagging big time (even while in ketosis) when previously I was bouncing off walls, my gut health started to become very bad to the point I was struggling to digest vegetables, and my menstrual cycle was becoming very out of whack and extremely painful. I made sure I had bone broths, I kept the salt, potassium and magnesium high but none of it made a difference. I thought it would all iron out but it didn't. Once I started doing the research in places like Paleo for Women, Paul Jaminet, Chris Kesser, PaNu, Free the Animal and listening to all sorts of podcasts from Balanced bites, Robb Wolf and Dave Aspery etc..I have started putting a few things together in order to untangle the web I had spun myself. I read forums, blog posts and comments, more books and taking all the information in, I found myself feeling conflicted and confused and a little bit angry, had all this keto dieting I had done recently been doing the damage, after all the studies I read on it had me convinced that Keto was amazing for long term health, the success stories alone are enough to make anyone make the change. I thought it wasn't that far of a stretch to what I normally do. I was wrong.
So in my long journey of regaining my health and maintaining my weight I gave the Perfect Health Diet another whirl, the last time I had done it I found I would binge on carbs all the time, what was different this time? I believe it was not going crazy on the fat while I was eating potatoes and rice, if you add tons of butter to starchy carbohydrates it makes it really hard to stop eating them, if you have them with only a little bit of fat and keep the meal much simpler it's much easier to only eat the amount you need. From the data I've read on the subject it has a lot to do with food reward and our ability to listen to our real hunger cues. Most of us find it hard to stop eating overly processed foods like pizza, cakes etc because it's the combination of sugar, fat and salt that keeps us gagging for more. I have always struggled with moderation and felt like I have an addiction to these kinds of foods, especially when on a very low carb diet. The most unusual and awesome side effect I have noticed since I have upped the starch in my diet is that I do not crave these foods like I used to and I can have a small amount and stop, that was unheard of for me and the reason I could never do moderation.
I still haven't formed a strong opinion about whether I think that strict nutritional ketogenic dieting is something that I agree with, I've had a pretty good stint with it and I have since changed my stance on it - hence why I'm writing this. However I cannot deny that I had wonderful results in the weight loss department, in terms of health I found myself becoming unwell. Dropping carbs below 50gms per day undoubtedly works for weight loss, it was how I got off my 40kgs relatively effortlessly so I cannot deny that. Would I recommend others do the same? I think it really depends on what kind of health you have, many people are much more resilient and can possibly handle the stress that low carb puts on our hormones, others might not be so lucky.
So what does my daily diet look like now? Well I still consider myself very much Primal, the way I always have been, I'm still 80/20 because of dairy and chocolate and while the area or "safe starches" is still very controversial I am happy to include them in my diet. I still stay away from wheat and excess sugar.
My day usually starts off with a decaf coffee with cream, at about 10am I generally have brunch which is almost always eggs 2-3 of them, I love them poached, scrambled, fried, an omelet and I'll add some cooked and cooled potato or sweet potato fried in ghee (clarified butter) and some sauerkraut (fermented cabbage), some avocado, maybe bacon if I feel like it. That meal generally keeps me going most of the day until about 4-5pm and then I'll have a small snack of fruit, say a banana or apple with some nut butter. Dinner is normally some meat, green vegetables and either some potatoes, kumara (sweet potato), rice, rice noodles and some days I just stick to zucchini noodles, cauliflower rice or mash because I like to change it up, everyday isn't the same otherwise I get bored. I find myself cooking from cookbooks lately for new ideas. My macros are probably about 100gms of carbohydrate a day, give or take, sometimes it's 150gms and other days it's 70gms, my protein is normally always around 70gms and my fat intake is roughly 70-80gms. In terms of Percentages each day I'd sit around 45% Fat / 30% Carbs / 25% Protein, all very rough estimates. My weight is fairly stable at 69-70kgs, (5'7") and I feel happy here, I could probably do with losing a few kgs but really have you ever met anyone that doesn't say that?! Mostly I'm just thankful that I have managed to maintain my weight loss while enjoying delicious food.
I personally think the following are really great websites to help get you on a good path to health and weight loss, I have no affiliation with any of these recommendations.
http://marksdailyapple.com
http://perfecthealthdiet.com
http://whole9life.com
https://chriskresser.com
New Zealand Pages:
http://www.rapidfitness.co.nz
http://paleozonenutrition.com
http://mikkiwilliden.com/
http://thatpaleoguy.com/
Please remember I'm not a doctor or dietitian and everything I have stated above is all from my experience, before diagnosing yourself please speak with a medical professional you trust.
Rebecca's Transformation!
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Meet Rebecca, she has been following me since May last year and she asked if I would share her story. I feel incredibly honoured that she wanted me to be the one to share it, Enjoy!
The photo to the left I was 82kgs and the photo to the right I am now 60kgs, I was a size 14NZ and sometimes a 16NZ in tops, I hated them clingy and now I'm a comfortable size 10NZ.
I was a bridesmaid at my sisters wedding 30th October 2010, I was so unhappy with how I looked. I had no hobbies, no interests and ate meals the same size as my partner who has a physical job. I felt extremely down and was so miserable and moody.
I joined the gym for 6 months and only lost 2kgs. I ate more than usual as I thought I could because I was working out. I left the gym and downloaded my fitness pal. I was given 1200 calories a day and they weight started disappearing! It took me about 2years to lose 15kgs but then it stopped, I got stuck at 67kgs and soon enough bumped back up to 72-73kgs. I felt happier I retrained my stomach to be full of smaller meals (normal size) and got back into horse riding which has always been my number one hobby.
I got annoyed and frustrated and wanted the extra kilos gone. I stumbled across Paleo, did a lot of research and started eating that way in May last year. I found Michelle Martangi from Primal Journey and followed her journey. I loved checking in daily seeing her food, it gave me motivation daily. Seeing other people food pics gave me ideas and made me want to push harder. By October 2014 I had hit 59kgs! I now sit about 60-62kgs and I am comfortable.
My goal now is to increase my exercise and tone up. I am more than happy with my weight but I just want to get rid of the last of the “jiggly bits”. I have a kettle bell arriving Thursday and I cannot wait to get started.
You can find Rebecca on Instagram "beccisully"
I was a bridesmaid at my sisters wedding 30th October 2010, I was so unhappy with how I looked. I had no hobbies, no interests and ate meals the same size as my partner who has a physical job. I felt extremely down and was so miserable and moody.
I joined the gym for 6 months and only lost 2kgs. I ate more than usual as I thought I could because I was working out. I left the gym and downloaded my fitness pal. I was given 1200 calories a day and they weight started disappearing! It took me about 2years to lose 15kgs but then it stopped, I got stuck at 67kgs and soon enough bumped back up to 72-73kgs. I felt happier I retrained my stomach to be full of smaller meals (normal size) and got back into horse riding which has always been my number one hobby.
I got annoyed and frustrated and wanted the extra kilos gone. I stumbled across Paleo, did a lot of research and started eating that way in May last year. I found Michelle Martangi from Primal Journey and followed her journey. I loved checking in daily seeing her food, it gave me motivation daily. Seeing other people food pics gave me ideas and made me want to push harder. By October 2014 I had hit 59kgs! I now sit about 60-62kgs and I am comfortable.
My goal now is to increase my exercise and tone up. I am more than happy with my weight but I just want to get rid of the last of the “jiggly bits”. I have a kettle bell arriving Thursday and I cannot wait to get started.
You can find Rebecca on Instagram "beccisully"
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