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In the first of our series of Paleo Pieces, long-standing FK.UK forum member Matt Mecham tells us why Paleo eating has quashed his appetite for destruction once and for all…

I’m pushing my trolley through the supermarket. I look down at the pile of fruit and vegetables and allow myself a moment to reflect. I walk past the rows of donuts and freshly baked bread and I have no urge to grab a packet and sling it in my trolley. I’m not denying myself. I just don’t want it. When you’re in a supermarket shopping for good nourishing food you walk past rows and rows of food that you have no interest in.

Do I have superhuman will power? Not even close. Actually quite the opposite; for 34 years I’ve been addicted to sugar.

It would be a cliche to say that I’ve always struggled with my weight. It doesn’t make it any less true. A fairer assessment would be that I sometimes struggled with my weight and sometimes I couldn’t care less. From chubby kid to obese teen to a morbidly obese twenty-something, I finally took control of my weight in 2004. I tipped the scales at just under 23 stone and ran most of that off until I had sore knees, chronic sciatica and no upper body strength. I didn’t know any better back then. I just did what seemed ‘normal’. I ran, I ate low fat and denied myself the food I enjoyed. Just like millions of us do day in, day out.

From 2006 until this Christmas I settled into a binge/purge cycle that saw me switch diet and exercise plans a half dozen times. From the Men’s Health mentality via a sports nutritionist onto CrossFit and The Zone and finally calorie counting. I had moderate success on each plan but I never got to the root of the problem: my addiction.

The sugar junkie in my always found a way to make excuses. A little chocolate as a ‘reward’. A dessert after a hard week’s worth of workouts. A handful of sweets after a long run. You gotta have a sugar buzz after a run, right? I did fairly well on The Zone but I was constantly denying myself the foods I craved while drip feeding my body sugar. A bagel as a post work out meal (5 blocks carbs). A bowl of oats for breakfast (5 blocks carbs). A protein bar when short on time (4 blocks each). Bad food. Carefully measured out bad food. Compliance waned and the flood gates would inch open again.

Calorie counting can work too. I did it for months. I had a cool little application on my iPhone and I could log all the food I ate which immediately presents two problems. The first is that no one wants to log everything they eat all the time. It’s depressing, time consuming and monotonous. The second is that it’s easy to lie to yourself. Half a bag of nuts isn’t a handful unless you’re the jolly green giant and I suspect that you are not.

All this effort and depravation put me 30lb heavier than where I was in 2004. Sure I had a bit more lean tissue and I can string together push ups and pull-ups into double digits but I was still adrift and land wasn’t in sight.

I’d read a bit about Paleo and gave it a shot in early 2010. I didn’t read enough and didn’t understand the basic concepts and ended up on the classic Faileo diet. Chicken salad, beef stir fry. Diet sodas, sweeteners in my coffee, sugar covered dried fruit. Boredom and lack of sugar control lead me once again to failure.

A copy of “The Paleo Solution” and the realisation that the inertia of youth isn’t going to carry me much further allowed me to re-evaluate my life. As a man approaching 35 with a young son, it’s time to sew the seeds for the rest of my life. Do I want to continue bouncing from diet to diet; accepting the gradual decline of my health and the gradual increase of my waist? Or do I want to embrace a new lifestyle. One that eschews the modern convenience foods in favour of a 10,000 year old eating plan?

I chose the latter. I devoured the book and finally understood the importance of getting insulin under control and the trail of destruction grains make through your digestive system. I cleaned out the fridge and bought in loads of fresh foods and ditched grains, sweetener and sugar. I won’t say it was easy to start with. Quitting sugar after a life long love affair hurt a little. While my body learned to use fat and not glucose for energy, I felt tired, irritable and a little crazy but it soon passed.

A few months in eating paleo / primal I feel really good. My energy levels are stable; I have my taste buds back; I rarely feel “starving” and I simply do not crave junk food anymore. I spend no more than 30 minutes a night cooking and I really enjoy it.

A typical evening for me after the boy’s bedtime routine is sticking on a frying pan to heat up and then opening the fridge to see what I have and what needs to be used up. Sweet potatoes take a few minutes to cut into strips and roast with olive oil and rosemary. Steak only needs four minutes a side to be medium-rare and broccoli can be steamed quickly. I’m usually in and out of the kitchen in 30 minutes with a meal that I’m proud of. It really isn’t hard.

If you’re thinking about taking the plunge, I urge you to get informed and then dig in 100%. Don’t find a list of excuses. This is your health at stake. To quote another cliche: If I can do it then you can too.

Matt Mecham

Check out more musings and mouthwatering meal-ideals on Matt’s blog: http://mattspaleoblog.tumblr.com



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