Paleo success story

As I alluded to in the previous post, I took a leap of faith with this challenge - not knowing if it would succeed by the definition of "losing 5% bodyfat and normalized cholesterol numbers in 30 days" as what seems to happen with most people who do paleo challenges. We followed the Whole30 template but added penalties if anyone ate grains, legumes, processed foods, alcohol, etc. To some it seemed overwhelming to change SO MUCH, but those who took on the challenge were open minded and jumped in feet first with me.

I had an athlete - Myra - who struggled early. At the start of the challenge I gave the okay to Lara bars as snacks in an emergency, which she interpreted to half a box of Lara bars when hungry. This was usually chased with a handful.. and another handful.. and another, then half the bag of almonds were mysteriously gone. She did well the first week, but the next few were rough. We communicated a lot via email and I checked out her food log of a couple weeks to see the documentation of the Larabar/almond binges. We talked about her living/shopping situation (boyfriend not paleo and could live on Lucky Charms and Pringles *which I've tried - delicious! *sigh*), foods she liked/disliked, and what new foods to try. She was eating a lot of chicken and veggies, but light meals (in calories/nutrients/fat) early and mid day led to the late day binges. Slowly got her onto avocados, coconut milk, and protein other than chicken breasts and she started feeling better. I think a direct quote is "1,000% better".

One thing I couldn't get her to do is eat whole eggs instead of liquid eggs due to a history (and fear) of high cholesterol in her family. She was able to kick the Larabar and almonds habit so I gave her a break. And what also helped was being more strict. She'd done a challenge before at another box that was pretty lax with the instructions, delivery, and follow up and didn't see much success. A draw with ours was the penalties, but that just led to substituting something not allowed (ex. Snickers) with something that was allowed (Lara bars), and going overboard. So I put her on Zone (10C, 12P, 35F). I wouldn't (and didn't) suggest this for anyone else, but she has done challenges before and I felt she needed more guidance and more structure and would be able to follow it without getting too OCD.

She wasn't able to attend the pot luck, but I received an email from her the Monday after with !!!!!!! as the subject line. I couldn't tell if she was yelling at me or excited until I opened and read the email with the following results.

Weight - 141.6 -> 132.6 (down 9 lbs)

She's a runner and injured her foot and hasn't been able to keep up with her normal running routine, so this weight loss (mostly in the last 3-4 weeks) was after going from 20-30 miles a week to 0-3 miles.

Additionally, she had some some blood work done and had these results to share comparing her lipid profiles from 2009 to 2011:


Cholesterol - 222 --> 217 (<200)
HDL - 71 --> 105 (>40)
Chol, non HDL - 151 --> 112 (<150)
Triglyceride - 82 --> 30
LDL - 135 --> 106


I would say it's better represented in interpretive dance, but all I have is a graph.




In summary -
Overall cholesterol DOWN (5)
HDL (good!) UP (34)
Non HDL, chol DOWN (39)
Triglyceride DOWN (52)
LDL (bad!) DOWN (29)


This is from eliminating grains/dairy/gluten/legumes/added sugar, and eating red meat, chicken, fish, nuts, avocados, and almost a can of full-fat coconut milk a day. Oh, and her doctor suggested she eat a diet low in fat to get her total cholesterol number down.

I know results vary from person to person and things might've been different if she ate whole eggs, but that's left to speculation and for her to (maybe) try during another challenge. In the meantime, I know she's happy with these results.

Here's Myra on her way to a deadlift PR. Congrats on all your success!