A couple of weeks ago, I had my annual physical and the required blood draw. Every year I go through this and every year, my GP tells me, "You need to lower your cholesterol level. (I'll point out that it never was extremely high, but high enough that I was out of the normal range.) You need to eat more fruits and vegetables. Maybe get some exercise." Are you kidding me? Even in the year when I ran three 5K races, my cholesterol levels were up there.
This year was different: ALL of my lipid levels were in the normal range. So what's changed? There are two things to which I can attribute this change. One is, I've basically been following a paleo lifestyle. The other is that I started taking SafSlim after watching a segment of Dr. Oz where he was talking about safflower oil and its role in fighting belly fat--unfortunately something with which I've struggled since hitting, ahem, let's say 40+, okay 50+.
Let's start with paleo. Before I started paleo I was pretty close to living that lifestyle. Since I discovered that eating wheat and a few other grains caused me to have eczema, I pretty much gave up eating wheat, but I did eat other gluten free products, like rice and quinoa pasta. Like a good girl, I ate brown rice instead of white. I ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. About once or twice a week, I'd eat red meat, but most of the time it was chicken, fish, and turkey. I didn't eat a lot of sugar. I never drank soda. I rarely drank fruit juice. Sounds pretty good, right? But still my cholesterol was in the higher ranges--so now you know why I was asking, "Are you kidding me?" And while I would like to have been working out more, I was running pretty regularly, doing hot yoga regularly, walking every day, lifting weights, etc.
It's fair to note that I've not ever had a huge weight issue, but still I had gained about 30 pounds after I lost all my post-childbirth weight. It started when I was teaching and I barely had time to sleep much less work out during those years. Then I took a desk job and I was less active and then I turned 45 and then 50 and my metabolism ground to a halt. I went to Weight Watchers and was SO focused, I dropped 20 pounds pretty quickly. There are so many GOOD things about Weight Watchers: The weekly meetings help keep you motivated. You learn portion control and how to incorporate more fruits and vegetables. One thing that I wasn't crazy about, though, was the products they sold were full of sugar and, because of all the Type II diabetes in my family, I knew that wasn't good. So after those 20 pounds and with 10 or 20 pounds to go, I bailed on WW.
In the past week or so, the World Health Organization made recommendations that people should limit their intake of sugar to only five percent of their total daily calories. What that means is about six teaspoons a WEEK. Americans average approximately three POUNDS of sugar a week. (Just to give you some perspective, a single can of soda has more than six teaspoons of sugar.) The recommendations also apply to honey, syrups, fruit juices, and fruit concentrates. It does NOT apply to fresh produce. Eat all the apples you want!
So last fall I was sitting in the bleachers at the University of Redlands watching Katie cheer during a football game with my husband Mike and my cousin Barry. Barry adopted the paleo lifestyle, mainly to help him quit smoking. It worked and he looks great!! So that inspired me. Really, what I needed to do was give up sugar entirely, give up grains, gluten, legumes, and dairy. Not too challenging considering I was mostly off sugar and rarely ate dairy, except maybe yogurt once in awhile. Now legumes, that's sort of a challenge, because I do love beans. I bought a copy of Paleo Magazine, right before Christmas--mostly because of the yummy looking chocolate pie on the front cover made with coconut cream and chocolate with dates as sweetener, and a crust of ground walnuts and dates. Yum! I loved their recipes. Yes, it takes a different style of cooking and eating, but my blood tests are living proof that it works. Upon starting paleo, I dropped five pounds immediately and am still working on the rest--back to some portion control and getting back to running.
When Katie came home for Christmas and spring break, we tried some other paleo-style recipes--like whirring up a banana, chia seeds, and almond milk in the blender and waiting for it to thicken like a pudding.. Something similar to what we tried in San Diego at True Food Kitchen (and if you haven't been to one)--you must try it! Their motto is "Real food that tastes really good." We both have a sweet tooth, so finding these yummy treats were the saving grace. Katie finds that eating almond butter calms her sweet tooth.
The other change I made was to take SafSlim. It is pre-emulsified high linoleaic acid safflower oil that is fruit flavored for easy consumption. I wish I'd measured myself before I started taking it, but the mirror and my pants never lie! I have noticed a difference for sure. Studies show that it helps reduce the percentage of body fat--particularly in the stomach area, which is my challenging spot. Reducing stomach fat has all kinds of benefits, not the least of which is reducing overall inflammation in your body.
Aside from the blood results, I feel great! My hair is shiny and my nails long and strong. I don't have the annoying racing heart that would happen after consuming sugar. My blood pressure--threatening to challenge the bounds of the recommended ranges--is normal. I guess I'll probably live forever--or at least long enough to spoil the heck out of my grandkids!
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