Why I started this

Two years ago (2009) I began researching everything I could find on health and weight loss (reading science news, blogs, books and medical journals, watching lectures and listening to podcast) one or two hours a day. 

This quest started in part because over the course of  seven months, my mom had a ruptured brain aneurysm, my father died suddenly of a heart attack, and my husband was taken to the ER two times for what turned out to be A Fib.  My mom had been a vegetarian, and only ate organic and whole foods. My father was skinny, had low cholesterol, and a month earlier said he had never felt better.  My husband was physically active every day, ate mostly low fat and whole foods, didn't drink or smoke, and otherwise was perfectly healthy.  

I was also greatly inspired by my struggle to lose weight. After being a size 6 or 7 without any effort all my life, I was fed up with 11 years of carrying the 50 extra pounds pregnancy left on me and the health concerns I had accumulated over those years as well.   My idea to find out for myself how to lose weight, to avoid my parents cardiovascular history and other family members` obesity struggles was probably a result of the fact that I wasn’t getting any success from doctors’ visits and that I grew up surrounded by people who showed me that alternative medicine and self-education were the main paths to knowledge about health and diet.

Before this research project I tried Weight Watchers (three times) and even when I did follow it perfectly, it didn’t work. It also left me miserably hungry and grumpy. I tried working out hard for 6 months but was still exhausted, hadn’t lost any fat and was even hungrier. I felt like I was a failure for not eating less (I also felt it was my fault that I had not resolved my fat related health issues). I was hungry all the time and I turned to food for energy. I believed that there was a physiological cause behind - the constant hunger, health problems, hormone imbalances, sweet cravings, frequent low blood sugar feelings and lack of energy.  

In the process of discovering what worked for me - I discarded 99% of the conventional medical advice for preventing heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It was not my intention, but the more I learned and the more it worked for me, the more I rejected previous convictions around healthy diet and weight loss.    

I went low carb/grain free April 11, 2011, by June I lost 25 pounds (without exercise). My health improved - my triglycerides were halved and my bad cholesterol decreased 30%, my edema disappeared, allergies improved, my face broke out less, and my candida symptoms disappeared (despite going off my anti- candida diet) and weirdest of all, I needed less sleep.  In July my doctor put me on beta blockers for tachycardia which I stayed on until November. In that time period I stayed low carb and also adapted to a more Paleo lifestyle (real, unpackaged, whole foods) but my weight loss plateaued. On the bright side, most people gain weight while on beta blockers. I may have plateaued anyway, but as I continue with this diet/lifestyle, med free, my clothes are becoming looser and looser (I no longer have full confidence in the scale as indication of body change). 

This diet/lifestyle is the yummiest food I have ever had, hunger is a non-issue now (I went 5 hours comfortably without eating, more than two hours was impossible before). Most impressive for me is that my shaking low blood sugar feelings are gone (with the exception of the first two weeks when I was transitioning). Now I see that I am much more affected by sugar or refined carbs than I realized.  (When I “cheat” it makes my heart race and brings back edema and other symptoms.) I believe there are some "across the board" improvements everyone can benefit from with this lifestyle, I also believe that our bodies are very individual and that there is no "one size fits all" diet for everyone. 

I have started this blog to add my voice (Canadian style) to the voices of the early adopters of paleo, primal, low carb, and LCHF (low carb, high fat) who feel that there is so much unnecessary heartache and suffering real science and food choices/diet can solve. My intention is to share this information in hope that it might improve others’ lives.  

 "Yes, genetics loads the gun. But environmental factors — diet chief among them — pull the trigger."

Tom Naughton