by Mark Sisson Mark's Daily Apple
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It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!
Dear Mark,
I am writing to add myself to your list of PB success stories. The pictures I’ve attached above pretty much tell it. The first three were from the last few years, and they show me at my heaviest. The one in the pink gown was taken at about three months into the PB plan, and the last one, of me with the kettlebells, was taken a few days ago, at 7 months into the plan. I am holding 40 pounds worth of kettlebells and that’s how much weight I’ve lost since February of this year, with your help.
I am currently 54 years old, have struggled with weight gain and loss for the last 35 years. The yo-yo started going up and down in college, and I would gain and lose over and over. I have tried every fad diet there is, including starvation, and have done Weight Watchers three times. I was active over the years, but my food intake was typical of the standard American diet you refer to all the time. SAD indeed. I was lazy when it came to food preparation and I ate a lot of cereal, bread products, and protein, power, or granola bars. I would never have thought I could go without it like I do now. Cereal and toast or an English muffin was a favorite breakfast, and dinner of mine. I drank a lot of coke over the years.
I gained more recent weight after I had a hysterectomy in 2005. My hormones got messed up. I had a few job changes, life stressors in excess (sick parents, a son in college, financial issues), and a terrible, wheat, other grains, and sugar filled diet. If I managed to lose some, I would gain it back, plus more. I worked out with a personal trainer for close to a year in 2010. I managed to lose about 18 pounds by counting calories, carbs, protein, and doing excessive cardio, and a very strict lifting schedule. The minute I lost focus, back it came.
I had a physical exam summer of 2011 and I was unhappy with my weight (high 170s) and lab results. My cholesterol and triglycerides were high, and my HgA1C was borderline for Type 2 diabetes. I had asked my doctor to run one, because I wanted to see what my numbers were. As a nurse, I was seeing a huge increase in the number of diabetic patients and it worried me. I felt like I was headed to being a Type 2 diabetic if I didn’t change things. I didn’t feel good, I felt sluggish, and was really self conscious about how I looked.
I moved to Tennessee in August of 2011, (knowing no one, to start a new job) and joined a gym for something to do. I dabbled around at it, then the holidays started and I got heavier, and hit 183, my highest ever. I made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, yet again. In January 2012, I got a free session with a trainer, who was sympathetic to my tale of woe. She listened to my frustrations, and then she told me she had something for me that she thought would really appeal to me. Her words were, “as a nurse (I’m a registered nurse for 34 years) you will like the science behind this plan.” She wrote your website down for me, and I was interested enough to look at it.
I studied your website for about three weeks. I read every article, every link, several success stories. I signed up for your emails, and started having many “aha” moments. I ordered the 21-Day Total Body Transformation, read it, and committed to trying it. I endured “low carb flu” and detoxed off sugar and learned how to shop differently. I started taking my lunches to work, and got a lot of questions about what many perceive as an odd eating style. Weight did not come off fast at first. I almost gave it up, about four weeks into it, because I was not seeing results like I wanted to see. I remember reading in your books, though, to stick with it and be patient and that eventually, without the constant influx of carbs my body was used to, it would HAVE to start burning my stored fat. At last, slowly but surely, pounds started dropping off.
