Low Carb Paleo: Weight Loss 50 Pounds

Courtesy Shouts

A couple of acknowledgements to my uber COOL blog buddies...

Thank you NephroPal for being an amazing party-geek pal!! The above lovely SPOOKY graphics are courtesy of Dr. T.

Thank you Jimmy Moore for the recent shout-out at Livin La Vida LOCA! Jimmy, you are my HERO . . .


*evil laugh* HAAA HAA HE

Thank you Gentlereaders, today I am going scare the cr*pola out of you.


I haven't posted any 'before' vs 'after' pictures until now. I hope it might possibly inspire people to make and reach their goals. Truly NOTHING is impossible.

Transformation is about releasing what is already inside. One of the best tools that I found to motivate myself is to visualize what I want to transform myself into... like... gentle yoga-ites, wicked Angelinas, bad*ss DC comixxx superheroes.

OK so now you know my secret... mind over matter... mind over MASS... mind over the MIDDLEGUT. Feel free to share yours...


AFTER: Low Carb Paleo 19% Body P H A T

I've come a long way BABY... and I intend to stay that way. As a former fatty (yeah I can say that but you can't) like many others, you get into a mindset where you know what behaviors may trigger a so-called relapse back to former fattiness. For myself I have found through many trials and errors that certain things work. What works without fail is having good hormone control by exercising frequently (low intensity, long duration + high HIGH intensity, short short duration... yeah s*x counts unless your cardiologist told u 'no') and watching the intake of carbohydrates (fruit, ice cream, rice, potatoes, french fries MY DOWNFALL, etc). All CARBS. I indulge only if I know that I will be doing some workout later, otherwise I'll pay for it by gaining 2-5 lbs the following week. Yeah, that is just the mitochondrial biomechanics of my formerly thrashed pancreas and the intense quantity of adipose cells that I have from being 50 lbs fat.

Fat cells shrink but never go away...





BEFORE: High Carb USDA S.A.D. 38++% Body Fat

Being overweight since my teens makes me really appreciative of the transformative changes that other individuals have gone through or are currently going through. It is not easy sometimes.

Hurdles and obstacles can be like running a Navy Seal gauntlet. Holidays are even more brutal! Summers can be cake to stay active doing jogs and summer sports but I find for myself winters absolutely require strategic planning. I organize going w/friends to half-marathon events to guilt myself into not flaking on them (and me). The cold freezes my BOOTAH off. (And I live in Cali, sorry!!! *aaah*) Another deterrant for bad habits creeping back is scheduling 'rewards', for instance, going to day spas for relaxing massages. In fact, calming massages helped me to lose weight and improved athletic performance. Is everyday too much? j/k.





Diet Diet Diet

At my all-time high weight, I became committed to embrace changes when I could no longer fit into size 10 jeans... Vanity can be a great motivator. Whatever floats your boat. No I don't really care about heart disease or strokes. Just. My. JEANS.

First I started jogging again. What a cr*ppy lame*ss way to lose weight. Didn't lose more than 10 lbs per year the first three years. I had to discontinue my oral contraceptive at one point because it was giving me irregular skipped heart beats (from high insulin/ glucoses) which prevented exercising beyond a threshold.

The weight really came off when the diet came into line.

I stopped nearly all CARBS (1 carb = 15 grams high glycemic index):
--rice (2 cups daily = 6 servings carbs)
--bread, chocolate croissants, granola cereal (1-2 servings carbs)
--cranberry juice (O M G 2-3 servings carbs)
--caramel walnut sticky buns (bottomless pit)
--Peet's mochas XTRA LARGE (7 servings carbs incl HFCS)

Kept the meat, seafood and non-starchy veggies.



Low Carb Paleo Reverses Obesity

Inadvertently I went low carb Paleo though I had not even heard of Paleo back in 2005. My main grain was rice (coz I am Asian). In the beginning, it was hard to stop but when I felt lighter, stronger and less HUNGRY, it wasn't difficult.

For Asians, Pacific Rim and Indo-Asians, BMIs of 27 or greater than are considered obese (HERE). As you can see from the above 'before' pictures, no doubt about it I was obese. Metabolic syndome. Low HDL, high Triglycerides/sdLDL and blah blah blah. Back then, I would've failed any glucose or insulin tolerance test... if I didn't know how to cheat and pass (e.g. no carbs x2 days prior; I educate diabetes patients).

During pharmacy school I learned how to jog with my drinking buddies and girlfriends... but when I strained a hamstring and didn't know how to heal it, I turned to a 10 lb box of See's chocolate and regained 20 lbs. I was lucky enough that after re-injurying the same pathetic hamstring, my wonderful doctor gave me a referral to physical therapy. The skills from physical therapy changed my training and conditioning forever. I learned the benefits of stretching, strengthening and yoga, and learned that I could re-build my physical body.

Rebuild my brain? Gluten, omega-6 and obesity are toxic to the brain. Diet, yoga and fish oil rebuilt my brain.



Saturated Fat Grew My B**BIES Back

Like any anal retentive pharmacist, you go to the nth degree. I chronically ran a lot (really hard, really far) because I thought it was 'healthy'. My lowest weight was too low (lost lean mass, sarcopenia). My diet was too low saturated fat... though back then I 'thought' it was sufficient and actually high.

The result was I got really sick. In 2004, I developed asthma and coughing spells for 6-8wk durations annually. The birth control contributed (raised insulin, decreased B12, lowered estrogen and testosterone which maintain healthy bronchodilation and lung immunity). I was a stupid pharmacist; I didn't know. A couple of courses of antibiotics likely j*cked up the inflammation further by imbalancing the gut flora and biofilms. Later I was fortunate to discover vitamin D in 2007 (via the heartscanblog) and cured myself and my kids. We are now all off inhalers, antibiotics, steroid tapers, albuterol breathing treatments and same-day urgent care visits. THANK GOD for the stellar Dr. Davis, his healing strategies and opening my eyes to the lies behind the fairy stories. When my daughters were on steroid inhalers, I noticed that they stopped growing for 3 months. I always wonder if my oldest is permanently stunted from the effects of antibiotics and steroids. Now... the only steroid we do is vitamin D!

When I lost 50 lbs of weight by 2007, I also lost some feminine A S S E T S . My BMI at the time was 18.2-18.6 and weight 108-110 lbs (lifetime low). Took 5 years to lose 50 pounds. And the t&a. Bra size: (---) A ! (normal: D). When I started blogging February 2008 for Dr. Davis, the timing coincided with the beginning of my personal trial with Crossfit and high saturated fat diets for the purpose of attaining and regaining health benefits. Petro turned me on to Hyperlipidemia.

It worked.

My muscles and mammaries all grew (back). I started Crossfit shortly afterwards in March 2008 after reading Volek, Drs. Eades and Robb Wolf. At my DiabloCrossfit affiliate I met several others who had also lost 50+ lbs in only 1-2 yrs (not 5). Our family went gluten-free July 2008 and threw our first Paleo princess bday party (albeit high carb) in August for our daughter. Got Xfit nutrition certified in October 2008. Got more sat fat in and did some more Xfit, gained some muscles... some gluts... more mammaries... good stuff. What a rollercoaster of the best times of my life!

Muscles and mammaries net GAIN: 11 lbs ! Boo !

Prior Posts:
--What To Do After You've Lost 50#
--Get Into My Genes


Pubmed Reference (THANK YOU nocarb! Will try out ur COOL handy dandy TOOL):
Prevalence of overweight and obesity and their association with hypertension and diabetes mellitus in an Indo-Asian population. Jafar TH, Chaturvedi N, Pappas G. CMAJ. 2006 Oct 24;175(9):1071-7.