Going Paleo: Week 3
by Jason Godesky
Download new Excel spreadsheet
I’ve finally broken the 280 barrier with this morning’s weigh-in at 278.5. I’ve now officially lost 21.5 lbs. since the beginning of March. Soon, I’ll be hitting my first big milestone, 275, at which point I’ll be one quarter of the way to my goal of 100 lbs. lost.
Yesterday, Giuli and I baked a chocolate and macadamia nut cheesecake from the Foundation Diet’s recipes section. You’ll find two slices already listed in my meal log, in the spreadsheet above. Giuli may not be terribly impressed with the results, but I sure am!
My tea now takes lemon juice, rather than Splenda, and my sugar cravings are starting to diminish. Cheesecake might be helping that. Obviously, I still have some ground to cover on that.
At the beginning of the month, I needed to suck my stomach in to zipper my jacket. Today, it’s actually loose. On Friday, I wore a pair of jeans that I could not fit into on March 1. They were snug, but they fit. After doing the laundry on Saturday, I wore them again today. They weren’t snug anymore–they fit perfectly. By this evening, I needed a belt. I tend to think that’s just breaking them in again, but Giuli thinks I’m losing weight that quickly. We’ll see what the scale says tomorrow morning.
The other negative effects continue. I’m constantly cold, and my butt hurts. I haven’t noticed much in the way of improved mental acuity yet, nor energy. I did notice a spell of improved energy briefly, before a cold snap set in, making me wonder if I might indeed have more energy, and simply not feel it yet because it’s being countermanded by the cold. With luck, perhaps we’ll have some more seasonal weather soon to confirm or deny that hypothesis.
It might just be my twisted sense of humor, but somehow the idea that the worse things you have to say is that you don’t have any more energy and your layer of protective fat is decreasing amuses me.
Comment by Benjamin Shender — 27 March 2006 @ 2:11 AM
How long do you think those negative effects will last?
The paleo diet is something you want to do longterm yes? So I presume these effects are only short term.
Well done on sticking with it so far. I’m sure it requires tremendous willpower and congrats with the weightloss!
Comment by Floyd Soul — 27 March 2006 @ 4:34 AM
They’re not so much negative effects as they are consequences of having less fat. Like Ben said, Jason’s losing his layer of protective fat. He’s not used to feeling the hardness of the chair he’s sitting on, or to getting cold. (Ha ha! Now he knows how I feel!) It’ll take a while for him to get used to it.
Comment by Giulianna Lamanna — 27 March 2006 @ 10:07 AM
Ben–the humor is not lost on me.
Floyd–Giuli got it right. These negative effects are merely the result of my body adjusting to a sudden loss of a significant amount of its subcutaneous fat. My metabolism slowed down, to keep my body temperature normal underneath the warmth of all that fat. Now the fat’s suddenly gone, but it’s going to take a while for my metabolism to adjust to that and speed back up. In the meantime, I’m cold.
It’s supposed to get intos the 50s here in Pittsburgh, today, and go all the way up into the 60s and 70s by the end of the week, so perhaps I’ll get to see if my hypothesis bears out about the paleo diet’s claims regarding greater energy.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 27 March 2006 @ 10:16 AM
Hey –
I think that what you’ll find, Jason, is that the energy levels you are experiancing will continue to be somewhat limited so long as you are in ketosis. When I was doing paleo sans fruit, I would occasionally fell really good, but I also had a lot of weak knees/spinning head etc particularily on days that my total caloric intake tended to the lower side.
However, once you get onto maintenance and are back to eating fruit… that will change DRAMATICALLY. But hey, basically you are stripping off significant quatities of body fat,quickly, so you have to expect there to be some discomfort as a result. Otherwise, it really would be the ‘magic’ diet that everyone is always looking for… when, really, its just effective
Janene
Comment by Janene — 27 March 2006 @ 10:38 AM
Janene is probably right about that. As far as your hypothalmus catching up, at least for me, it didn’t until I had leveled off for nearly a year. My change was only half as drastic as yours, I don’t know that will effect your adjustment. Will it be slower due to bigger change needed, or faster do to the increased differential? We’ll just have to wait and see. Have you considered adding padding to your work chair? Like one of those stadium seating pads? Might help out a bit.
Comment by Benjamin Shender — 27 March 2006 @ 11:09 AM
I said it hurt, I didn’t say I’d suddenly turned all French.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 27 March 2006 @ 11:11 AM
“I’ve now officially lost 21.5 lbs. since the beginning of March.”
That’s a truly impressive weight loss. Almost a pound a day.
Comment by Peter — 27 March 2006 @ 12:29 PM
Long underware/layered clothing is your friend. Even though it’s technically spring…
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For a brief compare and contrast, pick up a 25lb bag of kitty litter and carry it around with you for a hour…
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I bet that one of the upsides of not always eating your favorite foods at every turn - is that less-than-perfect cake becomes a relative masterpiece!
Comment by JCamasto — 27 March 2006 @ 12:31 PM
Hey, I wonder if Peter Jackson did the Paleo?
2 years ago
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/scrapbook/25/Sbk/25/lotr3_nzp_08_007A.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Jackson,%20Peter%20
Today
new peter- after finishing king kong:
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0360717/Ss/0360717/00141R.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Jackson,%20Peter%20
Comment by Peter — 28 March 2006 @ 3:29 PM
From: http://barrymoltz.blogs.com/barryblog/2006/03/lose_weight_thr.html
“The Chicago Tribune reported last Sunday that HP is now introducing a new camera with a feature that will make you look 10 pounds lighter! The “slimming mode” compresses the pixels like a “digital girdle”. Now if I could find a camera that could make me 4 inches taller, I would be all set!”
:o)
Comment by Peter — 30 March 2006 @ 2:46 PM
how is week 4-5 going?
Comment by rob — 4 April 2006 @ 10:50 PM
I guess I do need to compile my next report, eh? I just hit 275 this morning.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 5 April 2006 @ 7:50 AM