Testimonial written by: Diane Smith
Hi Robb,
I don’t contact people I’ve never met to tell them about myself but I kinda felt moved to do so given how I’m feeling.
I’d been pondering all things paleo for sometime before being encouraged by a colleague to take the plunge about 2 months ago and man, I’m glad I did!I started preparing paleo meals and snacks (my husband being the testing ground and he hasn’t refused to eat anything yet!) when I found myself cursing my pantry and fridge. I couldn’t see what I could eat for all the things I couldn’t. So I asked my husband for a large box which he gave me with a quizzical look and I proceeded to remove the ‘poisons’. He thought that was great until he realized his favourite biscuits and cereal were gone (why do men love eating cereal at night?) he looked positively alarmed!
The next day I made ‘almond crackers’ just for him so he could eat his chilli tuna again. He loves them and comes to me shaking the tub to let me know it’s empty, bless his cotton socks.
So we kept this up, eating like royalty and – after the initial apprehension of learning what good poo looked like – found quite quickly that we could taste food again, my skin was clear, I was sleeping better and was, strangely, not cranky anymore. We bought a blender and drink the veggies we don’t love eating for breakfast. My husband didn’t eat breakfast previously.
Husband still snacked on cereal and lollies which I couldn’t understand. Thankfully one of his best mates has been doing the paleo thang for a couple of years and lent me your book The Paleo Solution. I can’t stop yabbering to my friends and family about it and the fact that I’ve lost 8 kilograms in 2 months and have clear skin made it visually more credible to them. I’ve just started regular exercise again which is much more enjoyable having shed a small animal! I gifted myself some new workout gear today and told the salesman all about you! He didn’t looked scared, in fact, started sharing his story of health and fitness showing me he was open to a better way. I intend to go back and share a bit more now that the seed is planted.
So far the biggest challenge has been throwing out all the old ideas about nutrition and fitness and starting from scratch, particularly learning to listen to my body. I eat when I’m hungry, run in the middle of a walk just because I feel like it, and love having mini ‘picnics’ as I learn what ingredients to combine to ensure I’m getting protein, carbs and essential fats in every meal.
My husband is asking me how he too can improve his health beyond the food I prepare. He was diagnosed with bi-polar spectrum, adult ADD and anxiety before I met him. He takes very strong medication which, on the advice of his psychiatrist, I tried some years ago and almost melted my brain. I took half of one pill, he has 8 per day as prescribed! He has developed a ‘sweet tooth’ over the past couple of years too which baffles him still. I shared your example of that typical professional man who appears to be doing everything right but with little sleep, grains and high stress levels was actually putting himself at risk of CVD and other diseases not to mention being unhappy in himself and his marriage. When my husband heard the bloke put weight on and developed a ‘sweet tooth’ in the middle of what should have been peak fitness he was intrigued. That’ll be our biggest challenge, working with his medications which are stimulants while trying to create good sleeping habits without using prescription sleeping pills, from his psychiatrist again.
Thanks for your life altering book.
Cheers
Di