Or, How I Gave Up the Standard American Diet and Started Loving Life
It has been almost exactly 4 months since I started eating paleo and exercising regularly. In that time, a lot of things that have nothing to do with those lifestyle changes have occurred: I have left my job, transitioned my private practice to online therapy, moved across the country, started shacking up with my parents (temporarily), and begun my new job search. So obviously there have been a lot of big changes in my life that have nothing to do with working out or eating Real Food... but after Friday's post, I decided to look back and see what else has changed as a result of my food and fitness changes in the last third of a year. And to my surprise, I was able to list 10 things.
1. Weight Loss
Obviously, this outcome wasn't unanticipated. If I had to say one thing that drove me to start thinking about making these changes, it was wanting to lose a few pounds. I've never had major weight problems (thank goodness) but I was a little bit overweight and wanted to make some changes before I get older and it gets harder.
I have no problem sharing things like my weight on the internet... so here are my stats before and after:
Before:
Weight - 156 pounds
Pants size - 14
After:
Weight - 139 pounds
Pants size - 10 (but loose fitting - might be about time to go shopping for size 8)
Alternately, they say a picture is worth 1000 words, so here are some of those:
 |
| October 1, 2013 |
 | |
| December 15, 2013 |
Nothing earth-shattering, but not bad, eh?
2. Attention Span
I'm not going to spend too much time on this one because I wrote extensively about it the other day here, but long story short in case you missed that one - I've struggled to varying degrees with ADD my entire life, and I think eating paleo and exercising regularly has really helped me overcome some of the symptoms.
3. Increased Energy
I wake up earlier and with more energy. Accounting for variables, I typically feel strong and happy throughout the day. I need less sleep to feel equally refreshed. Some of this might be related to increased strength from working out my muscles, but I think a lot of it is also that when I eat a slab of meat and a bunch of veggies, my body takes less energy to process that than the grains, dairy, sugar, and processed stuff I used to eat - so guess where that energy goes? Yep, you guessed it - me!
And exercising is also a huge contributor to my increased level of energy! Here's a research-based article that validates what I've experienced firsthand in this regard.
This doesn't just affect my ability to run farther or the amount of sleep I need... it also affects my ability to engage in lots of different kinds of recreational activities with more stamina and endurance than I've ever had in my life!
4. Pop your bones?
10 points to anyone who got the Izzard reference there.
As long as I can remember, I have been a very crackly human being. Sitting in class, I'd crack my neck, my back, my elbows, my knees, my knuckles. I'd hyper-extend my arms in the middle of a therapy session and watch my clients cringe in reaction. One client used to be so attuned to it that I would straighten my arm and pause, and he'd say "oh, just do it," so I would and then we could get on with the session. Isn't that awful?
I'm not saying I've stopped popping body parts entirely, but I definitely feel a less frequent need to do so. My body feels less tense and more limber, so I don't need to do that as often... which is nice, because I think it really grosses some people out.
5. Mindfulness
I don't eat anything unless I know what's in it - or at least I try not to. This makes me really annoying at restaurants. I'm that girl saying, "oh, can you ask the chef whether this is cooked in olive oil or canola oil?" and "do you mind finding out whether this salmon is wild caught or farm raised?" Sometimes, depending on my mood and a lack of desire to annoy whoever I'm with, I suck it up a little. I'll eat grain-fed steak or farm-raised salmon if I'm at a restaurant with four other people and I didn't have a chance to call ahead. But across the board, eating paleo has made me more aware of every single thing I put in my mouth.
 |
| Like this, fresh from the tree |
Related and equally as important, I'm mindful about how I choose to spend my time. Do I really need to sit and play Candy Crush (not my stated priority), or would that time be better spent going for a walk around my neighborhood or cooking or doing squats and push-ups? My time is valuable, and I get to choose how I spend it... so perhaps it would be better spent on my health (or intellectual pursuits, or job search, or connecting with the amazing people in my life) than on something frivolous.
I'm going to make a somewhat radical statement here - I actually think mindfulness is the cornerstone of all effective diets. If you eat paleo, great! But if you count calories or go vegan or eliminate sugar... that's all that matters, really, is that you're making a change that causes you to think about everything you put in your mouth and ask yourself "where did this come from? What's in it?"
6. Internal Locus of Control
Ok, a quick psych 101 lesson on competence and empowerment: Basically, in every situation, each person has what's called a "locus of control." What this means is that we look at a situation and decide whether or not we have any ability to impact it. Here's a graphic demonstrating that continuum:
So let's say, for example, that I'm going to a job interview and I believe that I have 100% control over whether or not I get the job. That would be an internal locus of control. The converse would be if I believe that there's nothing at all that I can do to exert influence over whether or not I get the job, which would be called an external locus of control. In most situations, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I can prepare for the interview, research the company, wear something that makes me look presentable, do continuing education to accrue knowledge that would help me in the job, etc. But on the other hand, I don't know who else is interviewing, I don't know whether they're leaning towards promoting from within, I don't know if I look like the interviewer's wife's sister who he hates... there are a lot of factors out of my control. So it's important to keep a balanced perspective.
What the research shows, though, is that happy, optimistic, and empowered people have a more internal locus of control. They believe that there are things they can do to change the outcome of their situation. This makes a great deal of sense, because if you feel that there's nothing you can do to better your life, you learn to feel helpless. (I suppose some Buddhist-leaning folks would disagree with me on that, but in any event it rings true to my experience.)
So here's how this all ties in: I've always conceptualized myself as an unfit person. I hated PE in school, I didn't have anything inside me compelling me to play sports or go to the gym... and as long as that was a Truth rather than a Thing That Was True In The Moment, it was going to drag me down. But when I decided to eat right and exercise, suddenly I found that I wasn't an unfit person. (Well, I was at first but I got over it - which is actually my whole point.) Instead I was a person who had never really tried to be fit.
Well if that's true... if I can lift heavy things, have greater stamina and endurance, be thinner, and feel healthier... what else can I do? Can I learn a language? An instrument? Master a new topic in my field? Having achieved what I have so far (and, mind you, I still have a long way to go) builds my feeling that I have the ability to learn things and improve through regular, deliberate practice. In other words, I feel more motivated to take on anything I want to learn, because I'm not bad at it - I'm just a newbie.
7. Decreased interest in junk food
 |
| "I'm going to eat this whole bag through the course of one movie!" |
I've always had quite the sweet tooth. The answer to the question "Candy?" has always been "Yes, please." When I first started eating paleo, I had to avoid the junk food aisles at the grocery store. If I had to pick up walnuts from the baking aisle or tea from the aisle that also has candy, it was an extreme exercise in self-control.
Now that stuff simply doesn't interest me. When I think about the Skittles in the picture above, I think, "wow, there's a lot of junk I can't even pronounce in those." I expected avoiding junk food to always be hard - and to a degree, especially with baked goods, it can be. But not grabbing a handful of Cheetos or binging on sweets is kind of a no-brainer for me at this point.
8. Digestive Health
I'm going to spend only minimal time on this section because I can already hear people reading this and thinking "yuck, TMI!" But I will say, in as non-scatalogical a way as I can think to describe it, that I have struggled with digestive issues for several years. Close friends knew that I would regularly be on the phone with them driving home and I would suddenly get an immense urge to use the bathroom, with no warning or prep time. I always made it fine, but sometimes just barely.
Since eating paleo, I have not had this problem. Not once. In fact, initially the opposite happened. My doctor recommended a probiotic, and I started eating bacon (making sure, of course, that I could pronounce all the ingredients) on a regular basis so that the fat from it would get things moving. I've already spent too much time on this topic here, but I thought it was too significant a change to not mention it.
9. Strength
I brought a box to the post office about 2 weeks ago. It was a little bit heavy, and I was certainly glad to set it down on the counter, but it was also pretty manageable and didn't feel like the maximum capacity I could have handled. I lifted with my legs rather than my back and carried it to the teller. She looked at me, dumbfounded, and asked, "did you carry this inside by yourself?"
"Um... yes?"
"This box is over 50 pounds!"
Whoa.
Cognitively, I knew that when I started doing strength training, I would get stronger. I mean, that's the whole point, right? I was frustrated at first because I'd go to the gym and struggle to do barbell rows with 30 pounds while right next to me was a girl deadlifting 180. Since my move, my gym membership has ended and I've been doing workouts at home with my bodyweight instead of at the gym with barbells... but I've noticed a significant increase in my strength.
When I started my strength training regimen, I couldn't do a full squat. Instead, I found myself doing what Nerd Fitness calls "power curtsies," which means that my thighs were at a greater than 90 degree angle to my calves. Now, not only can I do squats, but for the first time in my life, I can do push-ups! Honestly, prior to starting this, I would huff and puff just doing knee push-ups... now I can do at least 10 consecutive regular ones!
Again, deliberate practice yields results! Awesome!
10. Long-Term Health Benefits
Ok, this one might be cheating because it isn't something I've noticed yet... but all I know is that if I keep up the good work, I'll be healthier in the long run. (Also, 10 was a really nice, pretty number for this list.)
Any time in the past that I've wanted to whip myself into shape and prioritize diet and especially exercise, the thing that has motivated me most is reading studies about cognitive decline later in life. Everything I've read on the subject says that if you exercise regularly in your 20s and 30s, you're less likely to develop Alzheimer's and dementia in your senior years. They've studied this. There's a definite link.
And, well, I like my brain. It's where I keep all my thoughts and memories, and it's where I store my analytic ability. I use it to win at strategy games, remember stories, think about laughter, sunny days, first kisses, songs I've sung. And so if spending a few hours a week doing something active is going to help me hang onto all of that... you bet I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing!
