The Paleo Diet: Back to Basics
Certified CrossFit Trainers, Evan and Lauren Derveloy of Ruston, LA.
My husband, Evan, and I live by the saying, “You can’t out-train a bad diet.” We believe good health requires a foundation of proper nutrition and we have found that foundation with the Paleolithic Diet. Because the name ‘Paleo Diet’ is new to many people, some consider it a “fad diet.” However, eating unprocessed foods as close as possible to their natural state is not a fad. It’s a concept that’s been around since the first humans walked the earth!
So what does it mean to eat Paleo? Paleo consists of meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, berries, some fruit, limited starch, no sugar, no grains, and no alcohol. The first thing most people ask after hearing the do’s and don’ts is “How will I get the carbohydrates my body needs for energy?” And the answer is this: all vegetables and fruits are made of carbohydrates. The concept of the Paleo Diet is quality over quantity with the main goal of maximizing efficient macronutrient intake.
My husband was first introduced to the concept of eating Paleo at a CrossFit Trainer certification course in 2008. At that time we were following the standard American diet: high in processed foods, low in complex carbohydrates, low in plant-based foods, and high in simple carbohydrate sources. We were having difficulty reaching our weight loss goals and certain health conditions began to surface: high blood pressure, obesity, and inflammation. It seemed no matter how many calories we cut or how many additional hours of cardio we did, our weight loss goals were still unobtainable. Since we began eating Paleo exclusively in 2010, we have seen wonderful results in our overall health and positive body composition changes.
So how can you incorporate the Paleo Diet into your daily life? Surprisingly, it’s easier than you think. The following steps will make your chances for success greater.
- Don’t treat it like a transitory diet that you will quit after a few days or weeks. The success of this diet is changing your lifestyle. Think of food as a fuel that makes you better instead of treating it as a reward.
- Next, clean out your kitchen and pantry of all junk food and buy whole foods.
- Last, commit to this change for a lifetime of good health. You will be thrilled with the wonderful results!
There are lots of resources and recipes online. Here are two good websites to help you get started:
Related articles
- Paleo Diet: Blueberry Spinach Smoothie (mainebelle.com)
Sharon Jackson Says: “The Key to Weight Loss Success is Mindset!”
Sharon Jackson
I have been in the fitness business for 12 years. And the more I work with women, the more I find that a woman’s opinion of herself is the most common reason some succeed in their goals and others don’t.
Losing weight, eating healthy and exercising consistently are not always easy. My experience has been that the women who have decided in their minds to lose weight are the most successful.
Your mind and spirit must be in agreement. This means the internal power that is inside drives you to do and be more than you thought possible! You must continually see yourself exactly how you want to feel and look.
Image created by Kirstin Pals
Remember you determine your success! Don’t be distracted by the obstacles that will definitely come your way. Obstacles are a part of life! Instead, keep your mind flowing with positive thoughts, and you can’t lose! Teach yourself to think like a champion!
About Sharon Jackson, PTS
Sharon Jackson is a Certified Medical Exercise Specialist & Certified Personal Trainer. In June 2008, Sharon Jackson founded Sharon’s Slammin’ Bootcamp. Her credentials include:
• Bachelor of Science in Fitness and Wellness
• Master of Science in Exercise Science Exercise
• Exercise Physiologist in Physical Therapy for 15 years
• Certified Personal Trainer by ‘National Strength and Conditioning Association’ for 10 years
• Group Exercise Instructor
• Certified Medical Exercise Specialist
• Post Rehab Conditioning Specialist (American Academy of Health, Fitness and Rehab Professionals)
• Pilates Mat Certification
From The Doctor’s Desk: New Year Solutions
Dr. Nathan Goodyear, MD
We are just days away from putting on silly hats, drinking champagne, and kissing the one we love as we bid goodbye to the year. What an amazing year 2011 has been and how quickly it has come to an end! Soon, we will wake to January 1, 2012 resolving to do something new, to do something better. We will all take the plunge into New Year’s resolutions.
So, why do we make resolutions?
The need for a resolution implies that a problem exists. That a need for a change of directon is required. With a resolution, we have a resolve or determination to do something better. The way I see it, we should be focusing on solutions. And in the battle for our health, we need a solution-focused approach.
To find a solution, we must define the problem. The greatest obstacle to health today is disease. The problem is that our current health care disease model doesn’t work for health or health restoration. It does do a good job of managing disease, but we are not interested in disease management, as it relates to obesity. We are interested in disease resolution.
So, what does the research say in response to the above statement?
The future health of Americans is bleak. According to a recent article from the world’s leading general medical journal, The Lancet, 50% or more of Americans will be obese by the year 2030. The same article showed that 12 states have an obesity rate exceeding 30%. The healthiest state was Colorado, but its obesity rate just clipped the 20% mark. In fact, no state had an obesity rate less than 20%. Another article from The Lancet revealed that 86% of American adults will be obese or overweight by 2030.
We need a resolution to focus on solutions, not band-aids.
But, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, it will happen before 2030. The OECD says that 75% of Americans will be obese or overweight by 2020. And it is worse for men, where 82% are estimated to be obese or overweight.
The impact of obesity? According to the International Diabetes Federation Foundation, 1 in 10 adults will have diabetes by 2030. That equates to 552 million adults worldwide. In the US, money spent or lost on obesity has reached an estimated 1% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
What has our current disease-model paradigm done for the obesity battle? If you look at the statistics, nothing. In fact, we are losing the battle. Yet we continue to pour money into a failing medical model for obesity, that studies have shown doesn’t work.
What we need is a solution-focused approach to the obesity epidemic. We need a resolution to do better as a medical community. We need a resolution to focus on solutions, not band-aids. We need a resolution to focus on health and health restoration, not on disease management.
At Seasons Wellness Clinic, our approach to wellness is solution-focused and addresses the obesity epidemic head on. We work every day to offer our patients and clients the tools they need to pursue wellness. Questions? Spend some time on our website getting to know us and what we do. Then call 318.255.3223 and speak with one of our Patient Relations Specialists. We look forward to a New Year full of health, wellness, and solutions!
5 Keys to Long-Term Weightloss: Gimmicks vs. Wellness
Dr. Nathan Goodyear, fellowship-trained Metabolic Specialist
Obesity is described as the #1 health problem today. But what exactly is a health problem? I’d like to define it this way: a health problem is an obstacle to good health.
As I have said many times, obesity is the doorway to disease. Sixty-seven percent of Americans are either overweight or obese today. And for the first time, obesity exceeds those that are overweight. Approximately 34% of Americans are obese. Just think about that for a minute. What a hopeless statistic.
And the numbers, unfortunately, are not improving. Look at our children. More children battle obesity than ever before. The statistics in children is alarming, with up to 17% of children and adolescents being obese. Worse yet, this is a three-fold increase in just one generation.
Metabolic syndrome is in many ways the result of obesity. Metabolic syndrome, once only an adult disease, is now frequently diagnosed in children. As obesity goes, so goes metabolic syndrome. As metabolic syndrome goes, so goes disease. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is 39.7% in moderately obese children and 49.7% in severely obese children.
All this to say, we, as a nation, need to lose weight. But we need to lose weight the right way. The reality is this: helping people lose weight is not difficult, but helping people to lose weight and maintain the weightloss proves to be very difficult. If it was so easy, everybody would do it.
Just look around us. There are weight loss “gimmicks” all over the place. According to the free dictionary, a gimmick is defined as “a device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick.” Gimmicks come in all forms: prepackaged meals, shakes, prescription drugs (Adipex, Xenical), HCG and even weight loss surgeries. All these gimmicks have in one thing in common – failure. Yes, they will help you lose some weight, but they fail miserably in the maintenance department. The short-term success of weightloss through gimmicks results in long-term failure due to a train-wrecked metabolism, making your long-term weight loss that much more difficult.
Let’s look at a few examples. Adipex is commonly prescribed drug that helps people lose weight. It is an amphetamine-like compound that speeds up the metabolism and suppresses the appetite. It works short-term, but without lifestyle change, rebound will occur. The rebound is worse as Adipex alters the body’s ability to lose weight through muscle loss and thyroid dysfunction. Oh, and did I forget to mention the addiction?
Let’s look at HCG. So if you take HCG, does that mean the cause of your obesity is a deficiency in HCG? Throw in the fact that the HCG diet consists of 500 calories daily. A diet of 500 calories daily will cause starvation and actually changes your thyroid metabolism, triggering a slowing of metabolism. So when you come off the HCG and the 500 calorie diet, rebound weight gain occurs. Who can maintain a 500 calorie diet anyway?
And the worst gimmick? Weight-loss surgeries. Let’s objectively think about this. What do the numbers say about weight loss surgery? A recent 10 year study of Lap Band, considered the safer weightloss surgery, revealed only a 42% weightloss maintained over 12 years with a quality-of-life scale unchanged. Let’s contrast that with the risks. Up to 50% of the patients required removal of their lap band with a repeat surgery risk at 60%, up to a third of the bands eroded, and over 40% encountered serious complications. Couple this with the bone loss seen in adults and children with weight loss surgery, and the question asked should be this: What are we doing to ourselves and our children?
Now that we’ve discussed the gimmicks, let me offer a solution: the Wellness Weight Loss program powered by Seasons.
Why “Wellness Weight Loss?” Our primary objective at Seasons is to provide solutions for you to be healthy and well! We don’t just want to help people lose weight. We want to help people lose weight and keep it off. That is the only path to long-term health and wellness.
The definition of a successful weightloss program is not whether weightloss occurs: it is whether the weight-loss is maintained. One of the greatest obstacles to wellness is inflammation. Fat itself produces systemic inflammation. Fat cells trigger inflammatory signals, called cytokines. Fat cells have been shown to release the cytokines: TNF-alpha, IL-1, and IL-6. To reduce inflammation, one must lose weight. Only through weight loss and long-term maintenance, can wellness be achieved.
Why powered by Seasons? At Seasons, we want to glorify our creator in all that we do. To do that, we must look to His creation to find the answers. His creation is our bodies. His signature is our biochemistry. That should be where we are looking, because that is where the causes are. And yes, there are always multiple causes. And no, a one size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. God created us to be unique and different. Our causes of weight gain will also be unique and different. And our solutions for weightloss need to be unique and different – customized for your particular metabolism and circumstances.
Wellness Weight Loss powered by Seasons follows the 5 Points of Wellness that we’ve established as our guidelines to achieving optimal health.
- Nutrition
- Exercise
- Hormone balance
- Inflammation
- Detoxification
These 5 Points of Wellness are the keys to proper metabolic functioning. They are God-created and they are the only means to long-term weightloss. Through the 5 Points of Wellness, a customized program is created to meet your exact metabolic dysfunctions.
Contrary to what you see today, healing can and does occur. But, healing only comes through our creator. To do that, we must look to His creation first, our bodies, for the means to achieve healing.
Why not glorify God in all that we do, including weightloss. Lose weight. Live well!
Peaches: A Sweet Approach to Weightloss
Valerie Costanza, RD
At Seasons Wellness Clinic, we know wellness is not about taking a prescription medication to control a symptom. True wellness is the result of balancing five key points: nutrition, exercise, hormone balance, inflammation reduction and detoxification. The Wellness Weight Loss program, offered at Seasons Wellness Clinic, addresses each of the five points of wellness to help you achieve not only weight loss goals, but more importantly your health and wellness goals.
As a dietitian, it is very rare that I see a client that does not have a symptom of some sort. For example, most people tell me they have heartburn, gas, bloating, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, headaches, fatigue, insomnia or sinus pain. Any symptom that you are experiencing is a sign your body is telling you that something is not right. Our bodies are very efficient at telling us we need to address a problem. Wellness Weight Loss will address each of your symptoms by correcting the cause not just covering it up with a medication.
Whole body transformation starts with a willingness to change. From my point of view, nutrition is the best place to start (being a dietitian, I may be a little partial!). One of the best things for your health is to eat local foods. Living in the south, we are blessed with the ability to grow beautiful and nutritious peaches. Not only are peaches great for reviving your skin, but they have benefits that include aiding weight loss, preventing heart disease and high blood pressure and they contain an abundance of antioxidants. This month, take advantage of the local harvest and enjoy a fresh peach or two!
Blueberry Peach Crisp
This quick and easy dessert takes only a few minutes to put together. It’s a delicious way to enjoy nutrient-rich blueberries. For a twist on the recipe, top with a little vanilla yogurt. This dessert recipe is good enough for company and easy enough to prepare regularly for your family.
Prep and Cook Time: 10 minutes, cooking time: 45 minutes
Directions:
- Preheat over to 350F (175C). Place blueberries in the bottom of a square 8-inch baking pan. If you are using frozen, make sure they are completely thawed and drained of excess water. Place peach slices on top of blueberries. If they are frozen make sure they are also thawed and drained of excess water. Drizzle ¼ cup apple juice over fruit.
- Remove pits from dates and place in the bowl of a food processor along with oats, almonds and cinnamon. After running the food processor for a minute and the dates have blended with oats and almonds, add apple juice, and mix well.
- Place mixture evenly over peaches and blueberries, and bake uncovered for about 45 minutes. Serve warm or cool.
