Sad days... Paleo troubles

mandabrett

I've been having a really hard time with my paleo lifestyle lately. It's been so hard that yesterday I had Chinese buffet for lunch. I want to lose the last 10-15 and have been at the same weight for 2 years at least. Im 5 ft 3 in and 151#. it is not that i dont need to lose the weight. My body doesn't want a change! It makes me so sad. I have considered going back to sad way of eating but I know my body hates that lifestyle. I am scared of the desperate feeling that I have had recently regarding my weight. 4 months ago I was focused on health. I can not even see that anymore and it makes me feel sick to think about what a mess I've become emotionally just because of the numbers that show up on a scale.

I've been seeing a trainer since January who follows cw approach of calories in calories out, and she is a chronic cardio junkie giving me homework assignments of like burn 2000 calories on the arc trainer this week. my body screams at me afterwards because that exercise doesnt fit our lifestyle at all! It sucks. I think I'm going to have to fire her because it is not working for me. I loved this lifestyle and was not worried about the scale but she weighs me weekly. I started journaling some which gives me anxiety and sucks the joy and convenience right out of this lifestyle for me. I'm stopping that! Stress is not healthy and that causes me excessive amounts of stress. We have a crossfit here I plan to join in August when my contract is up at my gym. I feel a huge lack of community and support since I have no one in my life that is trying to live this lifestyle. At crossfit there is a paleo community here. August can not come soon enough! Thank you guys for always being there with feedback and support. This is the only paleo community I have and I appreciate the way you have supported me these past 6 months. This journey is so hard but you have made it easier. It's about health. I have to get back to that. Paleo is the way for me. I just need to be healthy, and the rest will happen. I feel like after the past few weeks healing is definitely the most important issue. I'm taking the scale to visit my parents this weekend indefinitely until I'm healthy enough to have it in my house again.

This was a bit of a rant. Thanks for supporting me!

LavenderBouquet

You can surpass this obstacle Sometimes it gets rough, but you'll make it through just fine. I don't have much support for primal lifestyle in real life either, but I am super happy I found a group of people on MFP that understand and are going through the same things. Do what you feel is truly best your body and mind :flowerforyou: Sometimes I feel myself losing motivation, and what has helped me is reading through success stories on MFP or on marksdailyapple.com, maybe that could help you as well?

divemunkey

Fire the trainer. Get one that will help you learn to safely lift heavy (free weights, not the stupid machines) instead. You don't really need to do any cardio. Eat in the manner that makes you feel best. Stop journaling if it makes you anxious, or change how you do it so that it has information you can look back on to see what is helping you and what isn't, but doesn't make you nuts. August will come soon enough, and you will be ready.

caribougal

It's so frustrating when the scale doesn't move and you feel like you've been working really hard. I think joining Crossfit will be a good change for you where you will find a community of people who support your choices.

Don't give up. Maybe reassess your mindset towards Paleo and exercise.

1. Why wait until August? Fire your trainer, and you can do simple body weight Crossfit workouts yourself, and join the Crossfit forums. Let your local CF box know you'll be joining in August when your other membership expires. They might invite you to some of their social stuff anyway. My box holds less skill-based WODs on weekends so people can bring friends. Maybe they do too?

2. I can't see your diary, so I don't know what your cal goals are. But, if the scale isn't changing, it's time to change things up. Recalculate your TDEE, maybe get a scan to see if it's truly what you think it is. Then figure out 20% below, and see if that cal goal matches what you've been doing. If you've been undereating for a long time, it might be time for a break. Eat at maintenance for a few weeks and then restart.

3. Get your thyroid checked.

4. Give yourself a freedom within Paleo that will help you feel like it's sustainable for you. For example... we eat Chinese take-out about every other week. It's one of my favorite meals in the world. For a long time, I tortured myself trying to eat a Paleo version of it. I finally decided that if I eat well most of the time, I can "treat" with my Chinese meals. I don't worry about the soy sauce or the sugar. I usually skip the rice, or just eat a small serving of white. I enjoy the sesame balls. Sometimes... gasp... even an eggroll. It's my treat, and I don't feel guilty.

Good luck. Hang in there.

mandabrett

Thank you so much for all the support! I have considerd an eplifefit subscription. There is one month included in that special package that is available right now. Do any of you have and experience with eplifefit?

amanda6393

Hi! Feeling your pain :flowerforyou:
It's so dang frustrating to be surrounded by CW peeps. Have you thought about advertising locally to find some like-minded people (e.g free advertising on a local bulletin board, on Facebook or in a free newspaper)? You could start a paleo community!

Do you feel comfortable opening your food diary to friends? I'm not perfect and don't claim to know it all, but some feedback might be useful for you. Don't feel that people will judge you on what you eat/don't eat. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter what people think, only what YOU think and that you benefit from it :bigsmile:

mandabrett

I thought my diary was open. It used to be public. I'll fix it!

mandabrett

Journal is public now

each_day_stronger

Another happy reminder that scales can be pretty silly, especially as you get towards the last 10 lbs: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

TS65

It's so frustrating when the scale doesn't move and you feel like you've been working really hard. I think joining Crossfit will be a good change for you where you will find a community of people who support your choices.

Don't give up. Maybe reassess your mindset towards Paleo and exercise.

1. Why wait until August? Fire your trainer, and you can do simple body weight Crossfit workouts yourself, and join the Crossfit forums. Let your local CF box know you'll be joining in August when your other membership expires. They might invite you to some of their social stuff anyway. My box holds less skill-based WODs on weekends so people can bring friends. Maybe they do too?

2. I can't see your diary, so I don't know what your cal goals are. But, if the scale isn't changing, it's time to change things up. Recalculate your TDEE, maybe get a scan to see if it's truly what you think it is. Then figure out 20% below, and see if that cal goal matches what you've been doing. If you've been undereating for a long time, it might be time for a break. Eat at maintenance for a few weeks and then restart.

3. Get your thyroid checked.

4. Give yourself a freedom within Paleo that will help you feel like it's sustainable for you. For example... we eat Chinese take-out about every other week. It's one of my favorite meals in the world. For a long time, I tortured myself trying to eat a Paleo version of it. I finally decided that if I eat well most of the time, I can "treat" with my Chinese meals. I don't worry about the soy sauce or the sugar. I usually skip the rice, or just eat a small serving of white. I enjoy the sesame balls. Sometimes... gasp... even an eggroll. It's my treat, and I don't feel guilty.

Good luck. Hang in there.

^^This! Toss the scale. Fire the trainer. Start Crossfit now while you're motivated. Go out for chinese if you want to - then just hop back on the next meal. (pssst.... I just got home from a mexican restaurant. I can still have mexican, I just choose healthier options. or not... I even had chips/salsa and a couple of bites of a cinnamon vanilla sopapilla... soooooo NOT paleo/primal) You may find yourself searching for healthier alternatives at the restaurant solely because you're ALLOWED to eat out. There's something about "forbidden" food that makes it appetizing. If you are allowed to have it, you may not want it. It's such a brain **** :drinker:

booyainyoface

one big thing i learned is to stop self sabotage myself. it is so easy to think well this happened so it is OK.. and for me one self-sabotaging behavior often leads into a feeling of guilt and continued bad choices...

i would def. fire the trainer and find one that does circuit training with weights/plyometrics, or just say eff it and go to crossfit. i did and "threw away" my last few months at the gym... it was SO worth it.

edited...

also you might need to eat more, especially if you have high calorie burns. (maybe you don't track everything?) im 5'5 150 lbs and eat 1900-2000 daily and am still losing and don't do any cardio outside of crossfit (which is mostly short/weight workouts). i don't factor in exercise and just eat around constant (sorry im horrible at tracking daily for ideas)

amanda6393

Hey again
Just had a look at your food diary. A couple of thoughts. I'm not sure if you're intentionally not logging food (I know a lot of people don't for primal/paleo), but it may help if you do it *really* thoroughly for a couple of weeks just to see exactly what you're eating/drinking. I could only see sporadic logging in your diary and most of those days were really low calorie (I would be absolutely starving on so little food if my calories were consistently this low).
Not sure if you're exercising much (not much logged), but you really need to fuel those workouts if you are. How are your energy levels? Are you bouncing off walls? If not, you're probably undereating. Hope this helps :bigsmile:

mandabrett

I did stop logging. The days seem low calorie because I don't often remember to log everything hence the stress from logging. Good news is I focused my attention on the things I like about this lifestyle am feeling much better. I also fired my trainer and joined eplifefit. I bought that special package, so I joined for a penny. I'll let you know what I think of the workouts.

sirphilipe

Hi Mandabrett, I couldn't agree more. Get away from that trainer as soon as possible and try and get into a crossfit box. try and make sure that the coaches are teaching correct lifting techniques.

I don't even bother recording my food most days any more, because on Paleo there is no way I will hit my calories required.

Just remember, NO Sugar, No Grains/Pasta etc and No Dairy. - check every packet you pick up, as they hide sugars everywhere...

Good luck!

Mummyadams

Ditch that trainer and stop journalling your food if it makes you anxious. Why don't you download some travel WOD's? http://crossfitdurham.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Travel-WODs.pdf is one that I use when I don't do CF - I do these in the gym (not the sprints) and while I may look demented while I do it - I am getting a serious sweat on!
I have pretty much stopped trying to log my food becuase I kinda know what I shoudl and shouldn't be eating.
Good luck! There is a Crossfit Love group here that is awesome if you haven't checked it out yet.

Fairysoul

I don't koow where you live but you can find paleo trainers, my friend here in colorado is one of them. Maybe this is an option? Your right being paleo does not require that sort of burn...

mandabrett

Just in case you are wondering if you fire your trainer the next day the gym will post an article bashing paleo on their Facebook page. Coincidence? Maybe. Probably not. It makes me so glad I'm doing my workouts on my own.

spirit80

Mandabrett.... Just do it...... Look in the mirror ... And do it.

shar140

Just in case you are wondering if you fire your trainer the next day the gym will post an article bashing paleo on their Facebook page. Coincidence? Maybe. Probably not. It makes me so glad I'm doing my workouts on my own.

hahaha, WIN!

Happy that you've decided to make some changes, and I hope you find what works for you!

scsooze

Manda, where do you live, if you don't mind my asking? There are quite a few paleo-supportive trainers where I live. SC. I think it's kind of funny (ironic) that they posted that the next day. Whatever! Find someone who will support your health the way YOU want.

Akimajuktuq

My suggestions: more food, way more fat (assuming that you are following your macro goals?), a little more protein, and far less carbs. Dump the trainer. It's time the "professionals" reassess their faulty beliefs. There's way more to health/weight than calories in and calories out and chronic cardio will not only not help, it's detrimental to health. Strength training!

You also don't need a membership for strength training; it can all be done at home. Yippee.

What would you get from returning to a SAD diet? I'm still 30 pounds over-weight and my weight loss has slowed a lot. However, even if I don't lose another single pound I would not go back to SAD (Sick And Dying. No thanks. It's really just a matter of time and since I have no finish line, there's nothing to worry about. I feel awesome already, so weight loss is just a pleasant side effect.

I live in the Arctic. I have no trainers. I have limited food choices (but have the added bonus of some access to wild food). I have zero support. Yet, I am still perservering. Compared to how I felt before, this is much prefered.