{"id":345,"date":"2011-04-19T10:52:10","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T17:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engrevo.com\/blog\/?p=345"},"modified":"2011-04-22T14:58:31","modified_gmt":"2011-04-22T21:58:31","slug":"real-results-fta-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.engrevo.com\/blog\/real-results-fta-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Results – FTA Feature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard at Free the Animal posted a great feature about me<\/a> today. Big thanks!<\/p>\n

Below is the full version of the story I sent Richard. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have always considered myself athletic. I was active as a child and throughout high school, and I never had any issues with my weight or physique, nor did I ever worry about what I ate.<\/p>\n

When I went to college, my focus shifted to academics and social matters, and before long I had stopped exercising completely. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize it at the time, but I was headed down a risky road in a poorly maintained vehicle.<\/em><\/p>\n

My junior year in college, the wheels fell off.<\/strong> Mounting personal issues, paired with a heavy load of engineering coursework, resulted in severe stress, and my friends and I medicated with beer and video games. I became more sedentary, slept less, and was constantly worrying about one thing or another. My lifestyle led to significant weight gain, and by the summer, I was at 200lbs with very little muscle on my 5\u00e2\u20ac\u212210\u00e2\u20ac\u009d frame.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I moved back in with my parents and was set to take a few quarters off from school for an internship in the bay area. The week I was set to start work, the company all but went under and I was stuck with nine free months and no job. Suddenly I lacked purpose and began doubting my self-worth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Salvation came in the form of pick-up hockey and home cooking.<\/em> My parents had been low-carb for years (my brother and I complained for years about the bacon smell originating from the seemingly unhealthy diet), and though I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize it at the time, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure my carbohydrate intake dropped significantly during this time period.<\/strong> I was lucky enough to find another job, and spent the remainder of my time at home working and playing hockey 2-5 times per week.<\/p>\n

I lost roughly 40 lbs during my stay at home.<\/strong> I looked better, felt better, and regained the confidence and sense of self-worth I had lost.<\/em> I returned to school last March, determined to maintain my rediscovered health (and waistline). Shopping for myself again, I ate nothing but salads and pasta. School limited hockey to once per week, so I started jogging and mountain biking. I watched my portions and used low-fat pasta sauce and salad dressing.<\/p>\n

Over three months, I gained almost ten pounds<\/strong>. My new clothes were getting tighter, I was losing stamina on the rink, and I was hungry after every meal. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make any sense. This was the first attempt I had made at watching my diet and I was exercising more, but I felt worse and was gaining fat. Now I realize I was starving and getting fat at the same time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went home for a week in June before starting summer school, and my dad was in great shape. He told me he had been eating a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153paleo diet.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em> He pointed me to Mark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Daily Apple<\/a>, Robb Wolf<\/a>, and Free the Animal<\/a> – I was off and running. I bought The Primal Blueprint<\/a>, and the science of insulin management struck a chord with me. I looked back at the cycles of body composition I had experienced in my young life, and it seemed to hold true \u00e2\u20ac\u201c carbohydrate was a problem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I scheduled my birthday at the end of July for a last Neolithic hurrah, then embarked on a low-carb paleo\/primal lifestyle on 8\/2\/10. For the first six weeks, I tracked my dietary intake and body weight, and wrote a post every day on a blog constructed for that purpose (now indexed here<\/a>). The leftmost pic is early August (a few days into my primal\/paleo diet), the middle is the six week mark, and the rightmost is the six-month mark.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In those six weeks, I lost 13.6lbs, and got my abs back<\/strong>. I had boundless energy and no crippling hunger. It was easy to get out of bed every morning, and I found I actually enjoy cooking when the food tastes good. I was actually excited to see people I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in awhile, instead of embarrassed to show my added pounds. For the first time since high school, I craved activity. Suddenly, the couch wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough for me; I wanted to be enjoying the sunshine and challenging myself athletically<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This lifestyle has also had the unexpected, but certainly welcome effect of lowering my stress. I used to worry about everything. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure how it happened, but now I am an expert at letting it go; I truly release the stress of everyday issues from my body and mind.<\/em> Perhaps it is because I feel confident in my health in a way I never have before.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The paleo\/primal diet has been like a drug for me. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get enough of the science of nutrition and diet; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m constantly thinking about how the body works. Since those first six weeks, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been experimenting with my health and fitness, all on a strong paleo base. Most recently I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been experimenting with Leangains<\/a> and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve added quite a bit of muscle (shown below).<\/em> In addition to this passion for knowledge, I developed a love for writing, a rare romance for an engineer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I just started a new blog<\/a> where I aim to, among other things, combine my engineering insight with evolutionary health and fitness.<\/p>\n

I likened the paleo\/primal diet to a drug, and like any good drug, it has a way of spreading. Just like my dad advised me on the virtues of a paleo diet, I have drawn in my girlfriend and a few friends<\/a>. It seems natural that such a simple solution to the widespread problem of diet should spread like wildfire. <\/em>This gives me hope that some day the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153food pyramid\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will look a lot more like we all think it should.<\/strong><\/p>\n