Naomi goes paleo, week 4: results
The hard time I had last week on the paleo lifestyle seemed very far away today: when I measured my results of 4 weeks strict paleo eating, better known as The Whole 30. (I still have 2 days to go). The challenge deserved it's name today: my body fat percentage went down with 30%! It was 20,5% and now is 14,5%. If I had only known this method when I was still doing bodybuilding! I have decided to go through with the paleo lifestyle. Although I will loosen the reigns a little bit in comparison with the last month.
I think my dwindling appetite in week 3 had everything to do with a lingering flu, which I ended up not getting. Because this week my appetite was back! I would even say I was hungry from time to time. That might also been caused by me somewhat cheating a little bit with the rule that my food shouldn't look like my non-paleo favorite dishes. I had oven roasted parsnips 3 times this week... and they maybe look a little bit like fries. Just a little bit... By the way: just in their
Goals My goals for this paleo challenge were: getting stronger, to have more energy, lose fat and give my body a reset.. Goal 1 and 2: getting stronger and to have more energy. I have no real way to measure this. After the bad week 3 I even had to skip some training sessions in the beginning of the week because I just lacked the energy. When appetite and eating picked up, I recovered pretty quickly. That is one thing I noticed over all: I recover faster. After training sessions, muscle aches disappear quicker, so I can train the same muscle group more often. Following that line of thinking, I should be able to train more and harder, so I should get stronger. Only after these 30 days, with a hint of a flu, I have no proof of that. So I will report back on it in a few months. Goal 3: lose fat. For a month I did not weigh or measure myself. But judging from how my clothes fit and how my reflection looked in the mirror, I knew I was getting results.
My six pack was popping a bit more and the lines on my upper legs were showing. My wife was pretty pleased with the part of me I have trouble seeing myself: my bum. But I was not prepared for what the Tanita-scale showed this morning. It gave me a big smile, I wasn't expecting that! My body fat percentage went from 20,5% to 14,5%. That is 6 procent points, almost 30% of my overall body fat. (Note: These are results from 2 different scales. So there might be a difference in the measuring. But I am still happy).I did end up losing 1,7 kilos, so that is not too bad. I now weigh 53,2 kilo's. I would like to gain some weight, as long as it is muscle. My goal weight is 55 kilo, keeping my body fat percentage in the 14%-range. I will work on that coming year. Goal 4: give my body a reset. This really was a revelation for me. Before the challenge I ate healthy and 'clean', as it is called in sports. I didn't really expect any detox effect. So when I noticed less bloating, I was surprised. I didn't know I was feeling bloated to begin with (expect the occasional fart...). I really never have that anymore. So I might not be as dairy and/or grain tolerant as I think. I am going to test that: which food group(s) is causing the bloating and the culprit will be eliminated.
Eating out Changing the way I eat completely was a good experience for me. It also made me more understanding towards the people who have to deal with one of my food schedules and have to change everything. Getting used to new things is just hard! When I discovered in week 2 I was not allowed to make pancakes with ingredients that I was allowed to eat, I was really disappointed. Also: spelling out all the labels on food again was so annoying. So much sugar en e-numbers where you don't expect them... it is disheartening sometimes. Also because it meant I had to do groceries at different shops. I hate doing groceries, so I did not enjoy prolonging it. But is was worth it! The meat from the ecological, free-range butcher is tastier and he doesn't add dextrose and preservatives
We also didn't think that going out for dinner would be an option. But we did, on our wedding
Conclusion I am very happy to have done the paleo challenge and I will continue the paleo lifestyle. Some things are going to change though, like searching through the internet for delicious
Want to read more?
These are the other episodes of this series:
Naomi goes paleo kick off
Naomi goes paleo, week 1
Naomi goes paleo, week 2
Naomi goes paleo, week 3