Paleo what now?

It was just about four summers ago when my weight was down to about 172 pounds.  I had been doing MMA training for just about one year and in August of 2009 completed our 90 Day Challenge.  At the time I started I was at 185 and my goal was to get down to 170.  I made a radical change to my diet and dedicated myself to going to MMA training at least 4 times a week for the entire 90 day period.

I continued to train hard throughout the fall and early winter until January/February of 2010.  Two things changed.  First, my MMA gym completely changed the way they trained.  It was entirely a "making money" type of move as MMA and training in MMA was becoming a major cash cow.  However, the classes went from being really fun to very boring almost over night.  Even worse they eliminated the power core class on Saturday mornings which was my favorite thing.  It was two hours of intense training where often times we learned some of the more obscure moves, kicks, punches etc that you could try in a fight.  It really is/was tragic because I LOVED going to train.

At the same time something inside of my body was changing too.  I started having a hard time waking up for work even after a good 8 or 9 hour sleep. Often I would find myself desperately wanting a nap regardless of how well I slept.  I lost energy, motivation and stopped training at Tiger Schulmann's.  I didn't know what was wrong but I kept thinking it would eventually go away and I would feel normal.  Sadly it never did and before I knew it two years (and 25 pounds) came and went and I still felt like crap on most days.  Never bothered to go to the Dr because I just didn't know what it was and I didn't think a Dr. could help me.

Finally last year once my weight reached closer to the 205 mark than the 200 mark I decided I better see a Dr.  I was diagnosed with an under-active Thyroid and given medication.  I was told I would feel better and lose at least a little weight and even more if I worked out.  To make a long story short, I didn't feel better, didn't lose weight and didn't regain energy.  Worse yet the pills resulted in my back hurting so bad I could barely stand up.  The Dr's didn't tell me that one of the side effects to the medication (especially if you are over medicated) is severe muscle pain and/or tightness.  The only reason I found out was because CVS refused to refill my prescription for two weeks so I had no pills for 14 days.  During that time my back finally felt back to normal (although I still have some pain) so I stopped taking the pills.

During this whole ordeal Sharlay (my wife) and I started dating (July 2011).  After we had been dating a while Sharlay became painfully aware of how unhappy I was with how I looked and my weight gain.  I mean 35 pounds in almost three years is a lot of weight to add.  Sadly, due to my energy levels I still lacked the motivation to work out.  All I wanted to do was come home and lay around, play PS3 or watch television.  I wasn't happy to be honest but I literally couldn't get myself to the gym consistently.  Prior to this I loved going to the gym, both MMA and the regular gym.  Now I had no interest and that wasn't helping.

We tried several different things to try and help me feel normal and lose weight but nothing ever worked.  To say I was getting frustrated is an understatement.  If I was being truthful I was bordering on depression.  Most of my life I have always been able to control my weight and the few times my weight has gone up it was easy to lose 5 or 10 pounds to get back to where I needed to be.  Not this time.  I had always promised myself since I was a little kid if I ever started to look fat like my uncles and cousins (sorry guys!) I would do whatever it took to be sure I lost weight and got healthy.  However, at this point in my life it seemed literally impossible to lose weight.  At one point I put myself on a 1100 calorie diet (often less) per day and worked out 3-4 times a week for two months.  At the end of the two months I had lost one pound.  ONE POUND!! It was very sad and I gave up.  To eat that little and work that hard and only lose one pound was daunting.  I thought I would honestly just have to live with being fat the rest of my life. I know it sounds silly but that was where my head was at.  I had never been more unhappy with how I looked but even more how lethargic I felt.

Then one day my beautiful  wonderful and stubborn wife heard about the Paleo diet on Dr. Oz.  Now if I had a dollar for every time she heard about some new ground breaking thing from Dr. Oz I would be wealthy  but no better off.  I don't want to bore you with the details but basically this diet is a nut, fruit, vegetable  meat, seafood and egg diet (see picture above.)  The idea is to eat the same foods our ancestors (i.e. cavemen) ate.  You can read more about the Paleo diet here. You can also find additional information and great recipes here.

To be honest I scoffed at the idea.  I was convinced nothing could possibly work outside of cross-fit classes which I had no interest in doing.  However, I was also desperate to lose weight.  Despite my pessimism (I know you are shocked by it!) I agreed to take this journey with Sharlay-if no other reason than prove her wrong.  Her and I started this diet around May 5th (the Sunday before Mother's day) and have done a really good job keeping it up and being consistent.  After only 4 days I felt AMAZING.  I couldn't believe how much better I felt after only a short period of time.  I had more energy, felt better about life and generally was happier than I could remember being in almost 4 years.  That honestly would have been enough for me.  It just felt great to finally feel back to my old self.  If I lost weight great but if not I was just very pleased with my energy levels and change in attitude etc.

However, much to my surprise I have also been losing weight.  Nothing crazy mind you.  I started in weighing about 208 pounds and today when I weighed myself I was down to 197.8.  That is 10 pounds in 1 1/2 months.  Here is the thing that will probably shock you the most: I have worked out very little during that period.  Swear to God.  If I counted the number of times I had gone to the gym since May 5th it would be less than 10 but much closer to 5.  I can tell you for sure I haven't been to the gym in the last 2 1/2 weeks, not even once.

Don't get me wrong.  This is not an easy diet to adjust to.  No sugar, no pasta, no rice, no bread, no carbs (mostly).  Just a lot of meat, seafood, fruits and veggies.  I had a severe headache for a solid week when I started which I know was the sugar withdrawals but I was able to give it up entirely.  I used to eat at least one major "sweet" thing (i.e. cupcake, brownie, scone, fistful of tootsie rolls etc) EVERY day.  Usually several times a day.  On this diet I went COLD TURKEY.  I almost died.  But I didn't.  Now I still do have sweets here and there.  The best thing is now that Sharlay and I are learning more about this diet we have learned there are lots of things we can eat that are sweet but don't have processed or refined sugar in them.  Yet I don't eat them often.

Before this diet I HATED eating banana chips.  Thought they were the worst thing ever.  Now, we cannot keep enough of them in the house.  I think they are great and taste awesome.  I am sure a large part of that is because I weened myself off sugar.

If any of you have struggled with the same kind of issues I outlined above I would highly recommend you try this diet.  You still get to eat a lot of tasty stuff, you don't have to starve yourself and you lose weight.  Best of all though you will feel great if you can cut out the carbs and sugars.  There are Paleo versions of pasta and rice but Sharlay and I haven't tried them yet.  I am afraid to be honest.  There is also Paleo bread (although it isn't great) that you can purchase or make yourself.

I hope we are able to keep it up and I hope I can continue to lose weight and feel great doing it.  I am sure if I was working out even just 2-3 times a week I would be losing more weight.  Maybe later this summer when I am not so busy that can happen.  Please feel free to contact me about this diet if you want but I am not an expert and honestly it isn't a diet it is a change in lifestyle.  It will make you feel better, help you be more healthy and likely help you lose weight!

Good luck and thanks for reading!

Andrew

Precedent Setting Author?

As promised here is a new blog!!  Life can be very strange at times that is for sure.  Sometimes we do things or participate in things/events that don't seem to have any real significant meaning only to learn later on in life exactly how significant it is or was.  This is an example of that very thing, although I still dispute the amount of significance this has (despite what my beautiful wife says!)

In 2011 I co-authored an article (along with my boss and another co-worker) that appeared in the November/December issue of The Journal of Multi-State Taxation and Incentives.  The article was about New York's new discretionary tax incentives program which is called The New York Excelsior Jobs Program.  It took us probably 6 or 7 months to write because the article is very technical (and not terribly exciting) and it went through a number of revisions and edits before we submitted it to the publisher.  Unfortunately, I am unable to provide a link to the article because I don't believe it appears anywhere online.  If you want I can email you a copy for your reading pleasure.  I promise it will cure even the worst case of insomnia!

While it is always exciting to see something you have written appear in print (this was my third time being published) I didn't think it was anything to get too worked up about.  I mean it wasn't an earth shattering article that was going to change someone's life or anything.  It appeared in the Journal with limited (and that is being generous) fanfare, even here at the firm.

Thus it was with great surprise that last Sunday night while sitting on my couch watching The Killing (which looks to be an amazingly better show than last time around) I received an email indicating our article was cited in a recent court case (a fairly significant one at that!) In addition, myself along with my co-authors were cited in such a way that our article now has the weight of legal precedent and as an authority on how the Excelsior Program should be administered.

The case involved Fresh Direct and its recent move from Brooklyn to the Bronx which involved the securing of a very generous incentives package from New York State.  The whole project (i.e. moving to the Bronx) was highly controversial here in New York, especially after New Jersey got involved and tried to steal the project from New York by offering a very competitive package to lure Fresh Direct to Jersey City.

Eventually a "citizen's rights" group got together and sued Fresh Direct and everyone they could think about in New York State to prevent the move.  If New York City residents aren't good for anything else you can guarantee they will have no problem whining about something incessantly and then file a lawsuit over their perceived slight or offense.  As an example, residents of New York City have been bitching about the new bike sharing program here in the city (Citibikes) because it ruins the aesthetic look of their apartment building and it is going to drive down the price of their condo.  As if there aren't more important things to worry about!  Ugh! Okay sorry...I digress...back to the court case.

I won't bore you with all the details of the lawsuit but basically the plaintiffs brought the lawsuit under four different causes of action.  The fourth cause of action was a claim that Fresh Direct didn't qualify for the Excelsior program because it is a retailer (i.e. grocery store) and said industry is not "strategic industry" allowed to take advantage of the program.  However, as our article (and the program regulations) stated, it is not the industry of the parent company that is controlling, rather it is the type of industry/business that is going on at the specific site in New York.  In this case Fresh Direct was moving a distribution center to the Bronx. The regulations make it clear that a distribution center is a qualified industry as long as the taxpayer is creating enough jobs.  You can read more about it here.

The entire lawsuit was dismissed on all four causes of action.  Our article simply was used as precedence for dismissing this fourth cause of action.  However, it was very cool to see something that I didn't think was such a big deal used in a court case that was significant here in New York.

Not to be undone of course I am sure "Citizens Unite!" will appeal the decision and it will be interesting to see what the appeals court has to say about the District Court's decision.  The bottom line is that this project is badly needed as part of the economic development of the Bronx in an attempt to revitalize the area.  I would be shocked if the court reversed the decision but we will see!