A group a of Primal/Paleo/Grain free women who blog about their experiences/life/benefits without grains. It’s a great way for others (who may be wanting to lose weight, reverse an acute/chronic health trend, and/or transition from commercial weight loss programs) to read about real life women who are living the life and succeeding!
I find there is a lot of fear, misunderstanding, and a lot of general questions about eating grain free. I'm telling my story along with 4 of my other blog friends from around the world. ( links at the end of this post). Being grain free is just one part of weight maintenance. By sharing our stories, I hope that others may learn more about the benefits we have each found. We are stronger together.
1. Introductions: Hello: I'm Karen P. and I've been using a Paleo-ish food template to maintain 68-70 pounds over almost 2 years. I transitioned from commercial weight loss plan(s) where I lost my weight, to a Paleo-ish continued weight maintenance. My main goal was to maintain my weight loss, and I found many more health benefits from becoming grain free.
I'm 47 years old, 5'1", I weigh between 113-118 pounds since Feb 2012. During the first year of weight maintenance, I went completely through menopause! with few symptoms during my first year of weight maintenance. I also had auto-immune thyroid disease in 1997, and struggled with emotional eating, and yo-yo dieting my whole life, about 40 years. I was overweight as a kid in the 1970's, then on and off again between the 1980's until now. I consider myself in long term remission from emotional/binge eating since June of 2013.
I'm a single parent, head of household. I work in health care. I earn my money, and buy my pastured bacon ,and fry it up in a pan.... for my daughter. LOL! I have a pork sensitivity so I don't eat much bacon. I do most of my cooking at home.
Read and listen to my story
2. Why I went Paleo/Primal/Grain free: I went grain free so I could finally find permanent weight loss. I had read in the book "Refuse to Regain" by Barbara Berkeley, MD. I was on a mission to make my 3rd weight maintenance try a success. When I read about a "Primarian" diet, it sounded great. I already knew I was lactose intolerant. When I checked around for more reading, I found Robb Wolf's "The Paleo Solution". The anti-inflammatory message really hit home for me. I went to an Everyday Paleo seminar in Feb 2012 with Sarah Fragoso and Jason Seib.
3. How long I've been eating this way:
1. July 2011: Gluten free
2. June 2012: Diet Soda free
3. Jan 2013: Dairy free and grain free (I stopped eating food supplement bars)
4. Feb 2013: Grain free
4. May 2013: Nut free
4. I removed different food items for health reasons, as a slow progression to the new normal. Having thyroid disease in the past was a big factor for me removing gluten,dairy and nuts. Not only does it keep my weight stable, I'm in great health and I feel better emotionally. Normal weight, lower blood pressure, hs-CRP went from 6.8 to 0.4, better lipid panel, better sleep and very few menopause symptoms. One stop shopping!
Read Gwen, Jeanette, Leigh, and Lynda's introductions and their health benefits being grain free. We'll back once a month to blog on the same topic. We are stronger together! Feel free to share our stories with friends and family who may also benefit from the grain free life. Customizing the grain free life is one of the best advantages.
Reading about real life people and real life health benefits is awesome! It's time we told our stories so that more people can learn and change their health.
Gwen S http://www.skynsurf.com/
Jeannette C http://wolfforlife.blogspot.com/
Leigh C http://poonapalooza.blogspot.com/
Lynda S http://achangeoflife.blogspot.com/
Karen P http://gardengirlkp.blogspot.com/
Hi Karen
ReplyDeleteGood way to start 2014 - look forward to more individual and group posts
All the best Jan
Thanks, Jan! So glad to share our stories. The more we share, the better understanding of the health benefits- IMO.
DeleteThanks again, Karen, for coming up with this idea, inviting me, and putting this all together! One more proof of what a great grain-free mentor you are!
ReplyDeleteThank you Gwen! With misunderstandings and the label of a "fad" or "bad" diet, it's now more important than ever to share our successes. I know that one of our stories will "pop" for people still on the path to finding their own good health.
DeleteThe most awesome thing is sharing what works. We'll all have different stories and paths, but with the same result- long lasting health benefits and weight maintenance. That's why the grain free life style is very powerful- IMO- the customizing of the food and life template!
The banners you created are awesome! They looked good on social media, great colors, and I pinned one on Pinterest today, too. :) Thanks again for your work and your sharing.
Thank you Karen for asking me to share this with you and the other amazing ladies. You are all incredible and hopefully we can help others through this.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lynda! If even one of our blog posts encourage one person to pick up Wheat Belly, The Calorie Myth, The Primal Blue Print, The Paleo Solution or even google those websites because they wanted to think beyond those top rated diets and even just try taking out wheat for a while... then we've done a great thing by sharing our stories.
DeleteThanks for being part of the group. Honored to be blogging with you.
I have read many a post (other people) talking about all that we (lower weight, long term) maintainers "give up" in the form of food groups. These are the people who have been trying (for years) to eat everything in moderation. They tend to still be at higher weights and have a lot of physical symptoms. Every time I read those posts I leave a comment that says - if you look carefully at most of us, we gave up food groups because of secondary conditions (migraines, inflammation, GI, female issues, acne, asthma, allergies, etc) and the fact that it helps us maintain is just a bonus.
ReplyDeleteVickie- great points... if I could go back to the 23 year old me having migraines so bad I couldn't hold my head up or the 34 year old me who had GI issues but kept eating wheat and dairy and change things, I would. But that's all in the past now.
DeleteLife is so much better now.. no migraines, very little acne, low blood pressure. No cupcake, garlic bread or cinnamon toast is worth that. So glad I hopped off the moderation merry-go-round. I know functional medicine docs will tell their thyroid patients about wheat and dairy and nuts.... but why not the mainstream docs??? The weight maintenance is the great "side effect". Glad to be blogging with you.
Absolutely loving you guys' intro posts! Great to come back to!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Rae Rae!!! :)
DeleteThanks so much for including me in this wonderful group of women Karen! I feel so honored and I can't imagine a better group to be linked up with! I also love the guidance and support you give to me. You are an amazing mentor and I hope that we all get to meet one day!
ReplyDeleteLeigh, you are welcome. I'll bet that we will someday meet. Thank YOU for sharing your post weight loss story . I'm glad not to be the only one switching from a commercial weight loss plan to Paleo-ish. :)
DeleteI love that you guys have banded together to share the narrative of how this way of eating has improved your weight and health! Enjoyed reading every single one of you guys' intro posts. In a way I am only now starting to take action, but I truly hope I can be a "Junior Member" of your tribe before too long.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wanted to add that you inspired me to hunt down the broccoli slaw at the one Trader Joe's in this city, and it is so good sauteed with a little healthy fat!
Hils, I feel like there are a lot of people who would do really well on a real food diet ( without processed sugar and wheat) post weight loss. I was so beaten down mentally by re-gain on the past two major attempts at loss.
DeleteGlad you found the broccoli slaw. I love it and sautee it often for my meals. Placing it in the pan after cooking grass-fed beef or ground bison is a great treat for me.
From what I read about this, the reason for Paleo being ranked "worst" was that it's "too restrictive for most people to adhere to." The issue wasn't with the plan or the foods themselves, just that people are basically TOO LAZY and won't push outside their comfort zone to follow it with any consistency -- people don't want to "give up" their junk food and sugar to achieve the goal of weight loss and health...they want to have their cake and eat it, too. They rank plans like WW higher because people are more attracted to a plan that promises they can still eat crap. Well, compare the success of WW members to the success of Paleo lifestyle followers and you'll see how "great" WW is.
ReplyDeleteI still go to WW once or twice a month to weigh in on a calibrated scale outside my home. I still qualify because I am under my "goal weight". I almost have had to get up and leave because the leader said in a mesmerizing voice "And you know we can eat ANY thing we want because we can count the points.... " Ughhhhh! That idea kept me soooooo sick for many years.
DeleteI know if I did not prioritize buying, batch cooking , clean up and food prep in my week, I would have every "excuse" in the book to buy frozen burritos and "lean" frozen meals. Ugh! Until more families (parents) do that for themselves, our kids won't learn that before they set out on their own. I figured not cooking at home might be the best way to bankrupt myself from medical bills for myself and my kid! Buying 5 frozen dinners for $10 would cost me thousands in the long run!!! Sigh.
There is a reason that people seek other plans post weight loss.....