February 2012 - What a Paleo diet and CrossFit once or twice a week can accomplish!

I’ve known Kristin for a while now – on Facebook anyway! She’s been doing a lot in the Paleo community and there’s even a pic of her and her sister with Mark Sisson in Mark’s new book.

One thing I wanted to mention – something you guys hear from me all the time and something I hear more and more the more people I talk to – is that Kristin is taking charge of her health by reducing her stress and changing her lifestyle. It’s not just about “Paleo” as a diet or going to “CrossFit,” she’s working on the WHOLE PACKAGE to get where she wants to go and nurture her body…

But, I digress.. Here’s Kristin’s story in her own words along with some Questions and Answers at the end!

Kristin Jekielek…

My Primal journey doesn’t have a dramatic before & after story. I don’t have a fat pants photo. I didn’t recover from a debilitating disease. All that happened on the outside was a few pounds lost with hardly any effort (while eating bacon, cream, and red meat). On the inside, though, I felt BETTER…. I can’t think of another way to put it simply. My thoughts were clearer, I was more energetic, I liked the way I looked, my skin cleared up, my food cravings disappeared, I learned what it meant to be hungry again (and not just tired), and I came to LOVE cooking. Everything just kinda got….better. This all happened in July 2009 when I first learned how to work WITH my body instead of against it by eating a Paleo diet. Six months later I joined a CrossFit box and fell in love with Olympic Weightlifting. The positive changes I saw increased exponentially.

Paleo Just Makes Sense…

The Paleo lifestyle just makes sense. This has become more true for me as I keep learning about our bodies, food, health, and illness. It gives the greatest results for the least amount of effort once you get over the learning curve. Fats and protein work WITH my body to let me know when I’ve eaten enough, and I no longer experience hunger-inducing insulin crashes from gag-inducing low-fat whole grains.

I have become passionate about providing new, useful Paleo tools that help others. For when you’re on the go, I created PaleoGoGo as an iTunes & Android app that provides recommendations on what to eat at chain restaurants. For when you’re at home, I partnered with James Gregory to create FastPaleo, a paleo recipe sharing site where anyone can upload and share a recipe, no blog required. I also give Paleo nutrition seminars at CrossFit gyms across Philadelphia and work on-on-one with clients. I really want to see people succeed with this lifestyle.

A Twist to the Story…

However, my story does come with a twist. I gave myself an iodine deficiency. Your thyroid is dependent on the stuff, so methodically removing all dietary sources of it over the course of a year and a half causes it to misbehave. This is bad because your thyroid impacts all sorts of little things like metabolism and hormone regulation.

So what happened? Since I was eschewing processed foods, eating strictly grass-fed/pastured animals at home, and cooking 90% of my food with sea salt instead of table salt, I was unknowingly omitting all iodine from my diet. The very first day I supplemented with iodine I saw a remarkable recovery. It seemed like an easy fix, and I continue to supplement with iodine daily.

Several months down the road my condition had improved to where I was about 75% better and eating 95% primal because cheating still made my symptoms worse. More blood work identified yet another thyroid problem. I was diagnosed with autoimmune Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, a disorder that causes hypothyroid symptoms while the immune system slowly destroys the thyroid. It’s likely that I’ve had it for years and that it was exacerbated by the iodine deficiency. Hypothyroid symptoms include extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating, brain fog, acne, change in body composition, depressed mood, sleeping a lot more than normal, zero libido, and more.

I see it as a blessing that my Hashi’s was brought to light at this point. Otherwise, it would have continued to destroy my thyroid for years and may not have been diagnosed until there was very little left of my thyroid. Right now I have the chance to actively manage my condition and try to preserve my thyroid for as long as I can. It turns out that staying Paleo is a crucial aspect of this, along with stress reduction, stress management, drastically reducing high-intensity workouts, and getting 9 hours of sleep every single day. If you want to read more about my experiences with diagnosing and managing Hashimoto’s, I wrote a blog post about it here: http://fastpaleo.com/what-the-doctors-didnt-tell-me/.

May 2010 at a Tough Mudder event - YES, that's FIRE in the background

 Learning, Growing and Changing…

I have had to completely change my life to accomplish my goal of managing Hashi’s. It has been unbelievably difficult, but it’s my only choice since I have made health my top priority. I don’t go out nearly as often as I’d like because I need my sleep. When I do, I have to make sure to keep alcohol consumption to a minimum or I’ll be laid out with hypo symptoms the next day. I changed jobs because the stress was causing me to relapse, with a huge decrease in pay. I can’t work out often because my body just can’t handle that added physical stress, so I go to CrossFit about once/week. I’ve learned how to ask for help from others, and more importantly, I’ve learned that I can’t and shouldn’t always try to do everything on my own.

My dedication to overall health has really paid off. While many women with hypothyroidism experience uncontrollable sugar cravings and weight gain, my body has maintained itself at a fairly consistent body composition even though over the past year I’ve lost 10 pounds of muscle because I can’t work out like I used to. I have less definition and a little extra flesh, but it’s not a drastic change. Eating Primal has even helped me to retain a surprising amount of strength during this time. This experience has really driven home the saying that “body composition is 80% diet”.

Is my body where I ideally want it to be? No. Do I think I’m doing really well for the circumstances of the past year of my life? Absolutely. We have to look at the big picture if we want the motivation to truly succeed. Because of this, I will continue to put my health first and make a strict, clean diet my priority.

I’m currently in a transformative phase. I’m beginning to feel like myself again after a year and a half of serious health issues that kept me from being able to think and act normally, but I still have to take it day by day. I can’t set my expectations too high for each day because sometimes the hypothyroid symptoms come back with a vengeance, leaving me weak and unfocused. I have instead learned to be grateful for each good day I have, to get the most out of each day, and to be kind to myself so that I can have more good days. The future holds many possibilities, and I will continue to focus on my health so that I’m in the best place possible each day to take on new challenges.

Some Q and A…

You’ve been really active on Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook for a while now. What does “Strong is the New Skinny” mean to you?

At the heart of the message is empowerment. To me it means taking back the definition of female beauty. Instead of following the cultural norm and spending time, money, and energy on attaining the warped ideal of “skinny”, women are using their bodies to the fullest extent to create bodies that are truly works of art. Instead of hating their bodies for not conforming, women are taking action to make their bodies into powerful forces that uplift their spirits and self-confidence. Women are taking pride in what they can do, and they’re showing us that they can do a whole hell of a lot more than they ever thought possible.  

Where do you see yourself physically, mentally and health-wise in the next few years?

This is a difficult question for me to answer. Living with Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism requires that I release my expectations day to day because sometimes I am physically unable to exercise. However, within a few years I hope to be in a place where I’ve nurtured myself back to my full potential and am off the Synthroid. I want to be CrossFitting 4 times each week, mixed with a nurturing exercise like yoga. I understand recovery time and mobility are essential for continued strength gains. I’ve started to incorporate relaxation tapes and meditation into my daily routine, and I expect to have these formed into a solid habit by then.

My ideal state of being is active and focused while being mindful and calm.

[A note here for Kristin and anyone else who might be interested in guided relaxation/meditation is that I LOVE Hypnotica's Yoga Nidra Mediation as well as his other work. Definitely check his stuff out on CD Baby!]

You’re really active in the Paleo community and CrossFit communities online. Do you have a vision for where you want to see these communities in a few years?

Both communities are set to explode in the next couple years. CrossFit is really gaining popularity through the Reebok sponsorship in addition to word of mouth, and the knowledge of the Paleo diet will spread with it. However, Paleo is also spreading to other demographics based on its own merit. We’re already seeing greater acceptance of Paleo principles in mainstream media. The results are real, and we’ll see more attention being drawn to this.

The Paleo community is absolutely thriving online. There are small groups already doing this across the country, but I’d love to see more in-person meet ups happening. The power of numbers will go a long way towards getting better food options at local stores and restaurants, which will clearly help people day to day.

And… Back to Me…

Thanks SO MUCH for being a SINS Angel and for ALL that you do in the Paleo and CrossFit communities, Kristin! Good luck and I’ll see ya on Facebook!

ttys

Adam

I don’t have a lot of them left, but if there’s enough demand I might print more – time will tell on that one.

The hard copies are $40 plus $10 for UPS shipping. If you’re interested in one, send me an email (adam@practicalpaleolithic.com) and let me know and I’ll send you a PayPal for the payment.

(If you’re rather have an eBook version of “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link”, you can still download that for $27 right here.)

BTW, the event was absolutely awesome and I had a great time at my booth signing books and meeting all my new friends – like Torrey – and hanging out with some old ones like – Tom and Bryce. The IKFF East Coast Kettlebell Beast Competition that I ran was a great time!

Here’s a pic of me and my girlfriend, Michelle, with our friend Torrey from New Jersey in front of our booth…

ttys

Adam

Here’s a question from Raphael in Australia:

“Hey Adam,

Just came across your website (saw a link on the IKFF Facebook page).
Some great articles to read – and just finished going through your
ebook!

Paul Chek’s book got me quite interested in general health. Then onto
Mark’s Daily Apple, and other paleo resources.
I’ve definitely moved to a more paleo eating regime, although still
love a bowl of oats in the morning, and always look forward to a visit
to the patisserie every other week. (I’m on the skinny side, so weight
loss is not a goal).
I’m actually trying to put some weight on again, this time in a more
healthy manner. Last time I put on close to 10kg eating a lot of junk
food (and heavy weights) – was definitely a good amount of muscle, but
too much fat!

Anyway, just wanted to pass on my thanks, as your site looks like a
great resource!

One thing I struggle with (I haven’t gone through all your articles)
is what to eat?? Organic animal + vegetables is a good staple, but
some people say bacon + eggs are also paleo (of course eggs are, but
processed meat such as bacon.. who knows).

My point is – It’d be great if you included meal ideas.. Maybe what
you eat.. It’s always good to see what others are eating..
I think a good strategy is to not think of breakfast as a separate
meal – organic animal meat + vegetables 2 or 3 times a day would
probably be the true paleo way.

Warm Regards,
Raphael
(Sydney, Australia)”

Thanks again for the question, Raphael – and all the kind words!

Here are the links to my past posts that will help out:

http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/practical-paleo-tip-day-2

http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/practical-paleo-diet-tip-of-the-day-sauces

http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/perfectionism-and-self-sabatage-paleo-style

http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/practical-paleo-diet-tip-of-the-day-green-smoothies

And here are links to my friends James and Kristin and George – BOTH are great recipe sites:

http://fastpaleo.com/

http://www.civilizedcavemancooking.com/

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

At the urging of a new friend who started reading my book “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link” a few days ago, I’ve decided to post the preface of the book here on my blog. My journey from where I was to where I am was long and difficult and full of setback, disappointments, shady characters and people who were all to willing to push me into accepting less for myself, my life and my health. Here’s how I got from where I was to where I am…

My book, “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link“  is a book I knew I was going to write for a long time.

In the fall of 2004 I owned a big house with a big mortgage, worked a high-stress corporate biotech job, slept fewer than 5-6 hours a night and had just started an evening MBA program. I drank tons of coffee. Everything about my life was rushed and stressed. Of course, everyone would have expected me to remain healthy despite the schedule and the stress – after all, I was working out all the time, jogging almost daily and eating a “very healthy” diet of chicken breasts, protein shakes, whole grains, protein bars, granola bars, name brand yogurt and taking plenty of vitamins and supplements.

I soon found out I was far from healthy.

After nearly dying from Ulcerative Colitis, I began a long battle with digestive illness, chronic fatigue, depression and a lot of other health issues. Of course, I (at the time) and anyone in the mainstream establishment I knew, attributed my problems to “bad luck.” All the conventional doctors I saw (save for one) couldn’t – and wouldn’t – do anything but medicate symptoms with drugs that usually made things worse or caused other problems. I was told over and over again: “There’s no known cause for your illness and no known cure. All we can do is ‘manage your disease’ with drugs. Diet has nothing to do with it.” I even had the head of Gastroenterology at a major university hospital recommend I eat “bread” because my diet of only raw fruit smoothies and steamed vegetables – which seemed to be making me feel better and reduce the pain of digestion – wasn’t of adequate nutrition and nutrient “deficiencies” might result without bread. Bread…

I also made the rounds to various alternative medical people. All of them proved useless as well and were only interested in selling high-priced supplements or advancing their own dogmatic ideas. None had any answers, but all were more than happy to accept money in exchange for a useless opinion, some tests and some useless bottles of crap that didn’t help or made me feel worse.

I spent years sick and exhausted. My usually boundless creativity and energy were gone. I had all I could do to drag myself in to a job that I hated so I could sit at a desk and collect a paycheck. I still worked out and did Karate, but my training was lackluster and always interrupted for various time periods by digestive problems from moderate to severe. I made more than one trip to an emergency room due to dehydration, anemia and sever inflammation of my intestinal tract. Each time it was the same story: “Diet has nothing to do with it. You’ll need to be on medication for the rest of your life to ‘manage your disease’.”

That’s me, sick and miserable sitting at a desk doing a job I hated. The company I worked for was failing and I was surrounded by difficult and negative people…

My grandfather once said about me: ”Adam is over-confident and over-optimistic, but he usually turns out to be right.” Looking back it was pretty crazy – I stopped taking the prednisone and other crap they were loading me up with, stopped going to anyone for help and began reading everything I could get my hands on and experimenting. I experimented with all sorts of diets, fasting, positive thinking, meditation and everything else that had even a remote chance of helping me. Every so often, I’d show up in an emergency room because things got out of hand. I’d do just enough conventional treatment to get back on my feet and get back to my still-stressful job and resume my dietary research and trial and error.

This was all nearly 7 years ago. It’s relatively easy to talk about, but the day to day process I went through was excruciating. Over that 7 years I examined every aspect of my diet, my past, my goals, my thinking, my friends, my relationships, my work and my life. It was a battle and I was literally fighting for my life. And not just my “life” as in not dying, my life as in having a good one that I enjoyed and actually wanted to live. I have no doubt that the doctors could have kept me alive – but I’m certain the life I would have had under their care would have been a living hell.

I reached the point where I was determined to regain my health and live the life I wanted or die trying. There would be no lifetime of drugs and surgeries and emergency rooms and gastroenterologists who could barely speak English. They all told me I would die if I didn’t take their medications and do what they told me. They told me that nothing I did with my diet or lifestyle would help.  It was a risk I was willing to take. Life on my terms or death, those were my options. At times, I really didn’t care which one it was.

Things began to really turn around in 2008, even though I was working yet another stressful and miserable corporate job and still had plenty of negative people and situations in my life. I was doing relatively well on a diet of meats, fruit, vegetables and goat yogurt and had been eating that diet for years. I was still far from healthy, though. At this time, I still thought my training days were over. I was too tired and too out of shape to want to do much of anything. I used to be big and strong and fit and live in the gym. College, then corporate life and then illness changed all that. I had lost all of the muscle and strength I built from a lifetime of weights and training. And now, the diet I needed to be on to stay healthy wasn’t anything like the one I “needed” to be on to get strong and train again. Or so I thought.

Like most, I was deluded by marketing and mainstream nonsense. I thought there was a specific diet you ate for each health problem, a diet you ate to build muscle, a diet you ate to burn fat, a diet you ate for psychological health, a diet you ate to run marathons and on and on. Special diets and special supplements. Like everything else in our modern world, everything was specialized and fractionated as far as I could tell. Something Paul Chek’s work helped me realize is that there’s a basic, foundational way to eat for health – and that health is a foundation you build on for specific needs. Eating to heal a digestive illness may have been my priority at one time, but it was entirely ignorant of me – and of our culture in general – to think that the diet that healed my digestive system wouldn’t be the diet that would help me achieve strength and performance or psychological health or any other goal I had. Certainly the application of certain principles or foods might change, but a healthy diet is a healthy diet regardless of goals or specific circumstances.

A healthy diet is a healthy diet and is universal.

Let me say that again in a different way:

There are solid, unchanging principles that make up a diet that is healthy for humans. This is a fact. There is a right and a wrong way to eat.

Yes, there is latitude within the context of “what is a healthy diet to eat” and there will be differences and variations depending on goals, individual health, tolerance for certain foods, genetics and a million other details, but the question of what to eat is not as complex as many would like us to believe. In fact, science tells us – with absolute certainty – what is healthy for us to eat and what is not healthy for us to eat. It’s just that the science that tells us this isn’t medical science. The science that gives us the answers to the questions we ask about what to eat is anthropology and the related disciplines. To see our way to a healthy future we need to use science to look at the past.

The idea of this diet vs. that diet, the 1000’s of diet books, the experts and doctors and pundits and arguments and conflicts on The Dr. Oz show and most everything else within the commercial diet landscape are nothing but distracting nonsense, bullshit, hype and manipulative marketing efforts.

Evolution tells us how to eat and how to live. History shows us what we were designed to eat and how we were designed to live and history shows us how we’ve declined as a species the further we’ve drifted from what is natural to us. The future of health and of medicine is in this evolutionary concept and it will someday be the commonly accepted way to understand and treat health and disease.

**********************

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer

**********************

Everything changed for me in 2009 when I read Randy Roach’s book “Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors. Volume I.” In this outstanding history of bodybuilding and Physical Culture, Randy showed the diets and nutritional philosophies of the strongest and healthiest from the 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s. This is before modern medicine was what it is now, before marketing and medicating symptoms were what they are now. The early strongmen ate the things we eat now and consider “Paleo” in many instances.

For the first time, I was aware of athletes who were capable of moving weights I couldn’t have dreamed of in my best training days – and they were doing it long before anabolic steroids, “advanced” protein shakes and bars, pre-workout drinks and stimulants and all the equipment “advances” we’re told we need to be strong and be healthy. Many of these men drank raw cow or goat milk, ate foods straight from the farms they were grown or raised on and practiced a lot of the “strange” things I read about in many of the very fringe books I was reading about health and healing. Many of them fasted, they obsessed about food quality. Many avoided grains. Most avoided alcohol. This is the first time I really saw the connection between eating for health and eating for strength and performance.

I also saw the connection between lifestyle and health or the lack of it. Once I started making these connections, things started to really pick up momentum and change in my life. I quit jobs and ended relationships. My friend Chris Wright-Martell let me start training clients as a strength coach out of his school, Modern Self-Defense Center in Middletown, CT. He had a few kettlebells at the school and I started using them. I got hooked. A few months later I got certified as Kettlebell Teacher by Steve Cotter and Ken Blackburn from the IKFF. I started training harder and feeling better.

It wasn’t too long after this that I found my way to the CrossFit community when I taught a kettlebell seminar at CrossFit Relentless. I became good friends with the owner, Merle Mckenzie, and he encouraged me to get into CrossFit. I did. And that’s when I came full circle. CrossFitters were eating Paleo and doing it for performance. I started following Robb Wolf’s work.

In 2005 all my friends and coworkers wanted to know when I would be able to eat “normally” again. Girlfriends were annoyed and frustrated because there was “something wrong with me” that kept us from taking day trips to Sturbridge Village to eat fried seafood and ice cream. They wanted to stay out all night and drink in loud clubs and I wanted to be home sleeping at 10pm – because there was “something wrong with me.”

Today, I’m healthy. I’m happy. I live in the tiny beach cottage in Old Saybrook, CT that my great grandfather bought for the family as a summer home. I run at the beach. I feel good. I eat good local foods. I do yoga in the yard in the sun with humming birds flitting here and there. I go to bed early, I get up early and I lift heavy things in a little barn behind the house. I write constantly. I have a wonderful, spiritual woman in my life. I actively avoid negative people and places and practices. There’s nothing “wrong with me” anymore…

And this is me NOW (Summer of 2011) – Strong, happy, healthy and doing what I LOVE…

Me and my great friend Carrie.

That’s my AWESOME girlfriend Michelle in the beach pic above. She has a great new blog called “Chalk and Chi!”

In truth, there never was anything “wrong with me.” There was – and still is – something wrong with a culture where health isn’t a priority, foods we’re told are healthy by “experts” aren’t, disease is rampant, lifestyles are out of control with stress and strife and no one will look at the facts, tell the truth, drop the politics and create change. Misinformation in the diet and health fields is ubiquitous. Almost no one tells the truth. Almost. Change is coming and there will be many established power structures that suffer and disappear when it does.

The “Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link” is my contribution to creating change in the way we think about health and diet and the way we eat and live. Some of the things I say in the book are risky and unpopular. It’s a Paleo diet book but, as I’ll show you, Paleo is a diverse diet genre. It’s not a single diet made up of black and white principles to follow without question or individualization. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to help you understand Paleo and related approaches in a way that they’re not typically presented or explained. I want to empower you to make your own decisions, ask your own questions and find your own answers. I want to make connections and integrate knowledge from different places and different historical periods. I want to help you understand health and diet on a much deeper level than it’s currently presented.

I had to understand diet, health and lifestyle to heal and live again. I understand it on a very deep level because of the stakes I was playing at. I had to because I couldn’t have turned that mess of a life I was living around any other way. Many people still don’t get me or my lifestyle or my diet, but that’s really OK. I don’t care. I’m living my life the way I want to live it and that’s what’s important. I’m living life on my terms…

ttys

Adam

This question is from Ajay:

“I practice Jiu Jitsu with Gracie Barra four days a week. I recently started very strict paleo. I’m having trouble finding the right amount of foods to eat the right ones to fuel that workout (2.5 to 3 hours a day, four days a week). I love the way my body is working for me now and my goal is to shred about ten more pounds or so but the lack of fuel for my fights is getting discouraging. I’m not eating fruit in great amounts b/c of the sugars, only half an apple b4 and the other half at the end to replenish glycogen. about 2oz of nuts a day. I need advice, this thing is rad but hard to figure out. Great work on getting some jitsu on the blog. Geeyah, Parabens!”

Thanks again for the question, Ajay!

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

Today’s question came to me from Francis and it’s one that I have a particular passion around. As I talk about in the preface and intro of my book “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link,” I struggled for a number of years with Ulcerative Colitis and eventually recovered and regained my health. The video above details some of the things I learned during my struggle with the illness.

Here’s Francis’ email:

Hi Adam,

Got your book, and have been reading through it (and Robb Wolf’s book)
with great interest.

My son (now 12), has had colitis for 3-4 years. It had been under
control until a few months ago, and a recent colonoscopy showed the
first 15 cm of his rectum/sigmoid are completely compromised, and
nothing but bleeding lesions. Needless to say we’re panicked as
parents, as the GI doc’s next step is steroids.

We don’t want to go that route – and are moving him to paleo like diet
(I’m convinced all the wheat/grains he eats has got to have an effect
on him).

My question(s) to you:

- I want to go paleo with him, but he’s in a huge growth spurt; should
I go strict at first, and then loosen the reigns after we get his
current crisis under control? I will cut out wheat / grains, but what
about brown rice?

- I have been reading a ton about kefir, and would like to make daily
shakes for him with organic goats milk kefir / fruit smoothies, do you
think it’s OK to have this dairy in his diet and see where it goes?

- In general, any comments or thoughts you have in going from a
“normal” western diet to a paleo diet for disease mgmt (especially
with kids) is appreciated.

- I don’t see how we can be successful if we have to cut out
simultaneously all grains, eggs, nightshades, and dairy. I think I can
come up with an eating plan if I could include limited dairy (kefir),
and eggs, otherwise, it becomes meat and veggies exclusively.

Thanks for your book and your blog – it’s inspiring and brings hope to
us.

Francis

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

I finally realized today that it DOES get better. If you put in the time and you put in the work it really does. I’ve always had FAITH that it got better, but today I could actually SEE that it DOES.

Every so often, my mom and I end up near this donut place in Niantic, CT. Mom has a “thing” for bakeries and that stuff, so she always stops and gets herself something. When we were there about 2 months ago, I was pretty stressed and miserable and I got about 6 of those glazed chocolate donuts I love. I ate them ALL at one sitting and had some of mom’s stuff as well. Needless to say I felt like complete SHIT the next day and even the day after…

Yesterday we were in Niantic again. Mom wanted to stop. Even though I wasn’t getting anything, I went in with her – this is after nearly 2 months of 100% clean eating. And you know what? I didn’t even want anything! Yeah, it all looked good, but my stomach started hurting and feeling sick just thinking about eating that stuff. There was NO WAY I was going to mess up my nice long stretch of eating clean with a bunch of crap and then feel like shit today. No damn way!

Building Momentum…

At the end of April 1011, I decided to do the entire month of May 100% clean and nearly all Paleo. I DID IT. And what did I want to do when I got to the end of May? KEEP GOING! I committed to doing the ENTIRE SUMMER 100% clean. And I’m doing it. It’s EASY too.

I have enough momentum built up that it’s easier to keep going along the track I’m on than to change gears and eat garbage. I have a good training schedule forming up and a bad day of eating will throw it off. Why would I do that? It would be stupid…

The momentum thing is becoming huge for me. The more momentum I build, the easier it is to build more.

It’s Really Just Physics…

I studied chemistry and engineering in college. In physics, when you get into 2-Dimensional motion, you learn that, for something to reverse direction, it has to slow down to the point that its speed and acceleration are ZERO in the original direction BEFORE it can start moving in the opposite direction. I think this is what trips people up in training and in life. If you’re heading in the WRONG direction and not getting where you want to go, you have to put in work just to slow and eventually stop your movement in the WRONG direction and then completely STOP before you start moving in the direction you want to go.

I think a lot of people give up too early because they “don’t see results.” Really, they ARE getting results it’s just that the early results are a slowing of movement in the wrong direction. You have to put in a ton of work to slow your movement toward where you DON’T want to go, THEN come to a complete stop and ONLY AFTER YOU STOP COMPLETELY do you start slowly moving in the direction you want to go in.

Of course, once you get headed in THE RIGHT direction, it’s just as hard to reverse direction as it was when you were headed in the wrong direction. It gets EASIER to stay on track and KEEP going in the right direction. You just have to hang in when it feels like you’re not getting results and keep making positive change and taking positive action.

BTW, when the Buddhists talk about “burning up negative Karma” or “Karmic debt” this is essentially what they mean. The negative stuff keeps coming even after you change your behavior to more positive and appropriate behavior because your “momentum” is still heading in that other direction…

But, You Have to Know What You Want…

Here was one of the keys for me: I had to get CRYSTAL CLEAR on what I wanted. And I mean CRYSTAL CLEAR. I’ve been doing a TON of work on my goals and my vision for my health, training and life lately and it’s paying off. It’s paying off because I weigh ALL my decisions against that vision when I’m making them. That’s why it was easy to pass on the donuts. “Will eating those donuts get me closer to what I REALLY want?” Of course, the answer is NO! Decision made, problem solved…

Here’s What I Want…

I want to achieve the best health and performance of my life. I want to compete in Jiu Jitsu and possibly Mixed Martial Arts and CrossFit. How bad do I want that? How about I ditched my entire old life and changed virtually EVERYTHING to build a life where I had the time and opportunity to train every day and obsess about my diet and rest.

Last week, when I was training with my friends at Modern Self-Defense Center, I realized that I was THERE. As in, I’ve gotten to the point where I can train as often as I need to and WHEN I need to. My life supports my goals and my training and my efforts. Yeah, there’s still a metric crapload of work to do, but I have the time and the energy and the OPPORTUNITY to do that work. Even just a year ago I didn’t…

Speaking of a Year Ago…

It still messes with my head when I think that, at this time a year ago, THIS BLOG DIDN’T EXIST. I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do and how I was going to do it. And my book “The Paleo Dieter’s Missing Link” was just a bunch of ideas in my head and a bunch of notes in MS Word. I had NONE of this a year ago. Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook didn’t exist until September 1, 2010. I wrote the original “Is Strong the New Skinny?” blog post just a few weeks before that. As of today, there are 19,084 friends following SINS on Facebook and the blog post that started the whole thing has been read 14,344 times.

That all happened in less than ONE YEAR. LESS THAN ONE FREAKIN’ YEAR.

That gives me one hell of a perspective. And it makes me think about what I can accomplish THIS year…

What can YOU accomplish in a year?

ttys

Adam

Today’s question came from Joe in a private message he sent me on the CrossFit discussion board. Joe’s question was basically related to problems he’s having with lack of appetite and weight loss on a Paleo Diet. Joe is also dealing with Adrenal Fatigue.

Thanks a lot for the question, Joe and please be sure to post some follow up questions if you need to!

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

The first question in this video is from Carissa regarding Hemp Protein powder:

“Hi Adam!

I can’t seem to find the Q&A link on your site but I was wondering if
you know anything about hemp protein powder?

Any info would be great!

Thanks!

Carissa”

The second is from Dana about Fat Burners:

“Hey Adam,

Thank you so much for your response to my previous question
and for the downloads! They have been very helpful! I have another
question for you if you have the time!

My question is, along with my workout(right now just using Jackie
Warner videos & running 4x/week incorporating intervals), should I be
taking any supplements to boost fat loss? I’m not taking anything but
a mulitvitamin right now. I see various fat loss aids at the drug
store or GNC but just have no clue what to be looking for ingredient
wise.

Thanks!

Dana”

Thanks Carissa and Dana for the questions!

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

This question came from Donald by email and is about the results one could expect from 12 weeks on a Paleo Diet and CrossFit program. Here’s Donald’s question:

“Hi Adam,

Thank you for the free downloads I got from you.

I have been doing Body for life recently, well I did it a few years ago, lost weight, then stopped(crazy but I did) and put it all back on again PLUS extra.
Had a moment when I stepped on the scale and it said “error”. Stupid thing only goes to 330 pounds, yeah right stupid thing. Man that made me wake up real quick. So anyway in about 6 months I have dropped about 25kg or 50 something pounds.
I have been enjoying BFL because it is structured and I don’t have to think too much. Just do.
I have also started looking at crossfit, A LOT. Obviously at 125kg pull ups and burpees are not my favorite or even possible, but you got to start somewhere right?
I have SINS on FB that’s where I found your stuff.
So I went to a nutrition seminar at the local crossfit, obviously all paleo. And as I am new to this is am trying to find what/where how etc. Breads are my weakness, hell anything from a bakery. So I am keen to get into the Paleo style of eating.

The 1st 12 week challenge on BFL I lost a lot quicklym,, then I had very slow results for 8 weeks, and the last challenge finished last Saturday I only lost 6kg in 12 weeks, and I was busting my ass in the gym, but I suspect not doing well in the kitchen. I say I suspect because most of the time I actually thought I was doing well, I didn’t pid out on freedays, I don’t drink booze at all so no liquid carbs, it just gets demotinvational when you really try hard for 12 weeks and have a poor result. Lets be honest at 130 kg I should of lost more than 2% fat, and that what my measurements add up to, so that why I’m thinking crossfit and paleo, change things up completely.

Ok so now I’m going to ask how long is a piece of string, so I wont hold you to your answer, I’m just asking for an “guesstimation” based on your experience.

If I started doing paleo style eating(note I didn’t say diet) and sign up at crossfit and do a WOD 5 days a week what sort of weight loss would be fair to expect in 12 weeks.

I’m 6 foot tall, have  arresting heart rate of about 65, run 2 miles in about 20 min.

I know I’m asking you a hard question, I just need to dial a number in my head and be happy when I get it\, because I’m really bummed at what I achieved in the last BFL challenge.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks
Donald”

Thanks again for the question, Donald!

Here is the link to the “What is Fitness?” article from CrossFit Journal:

http://journal.crossfit.com/2002/10/what-is-fitness-by-greg-glassm.tpl

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.