Being a first post and all, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Scott Arbit, nice to meet you!
I was born about 28 years ago to a super awesome Mom and Dad.
At age 8, I developed Juvenile Diabetes, also known as Type 1 Diabetes.
This disease is an auto immune condition where you body attacks your
pancreas, resulting in your body not being able to produce insulin.
With supportive parents and a great doctor, I was quickly able to
gain control of my diabetes and continued to have
a relatively normal childhood. By age 15, I
had developed another autoimmune condition called Vitiligo. This is where
your immune system attacks your skin pigmentation cells. A
frustrating disease, I learned to be okay with being a spotty colored kid
and just wore plenty of sunscreen.
During my
'development years' I kept a lean body weight of about 145 pounds, and I was
about as skinny as they come. No matter what I did, I was unable to gain
weight. I had an unparalleled amount of energy and was
extremely hyperactive. I often think of that time as one of the best in
my life, where I felt physically energetic and was happy with my body and its metabolism.
My diet during this time was all over the
map, primarily similar to the S.A.D. diet but
even more junk food than most.
Around age 21, I
started to gain weight at a pretty fast pace. My endocrinologist thought
it may be related to my thyroid gland and
we eventually discovered that I had Hashimotos Thyroid disease.
I started on synthetic T4 (Synthroid), which elevated some of
the symptoms of the disease, but had no impact on my body weight.
Around age 25 and
feeling worse and worse, I decided to have some
food intolerance tests done. My 'wellness' doctor was able
to determine I was Gluten intolerant and Casein intolerant. Like any
middle aged 20 or something, I ignored the test results, and
cracked open a beer with a marble rye ham sandwich I
ignored any of the symptoms I had always felt when eating either gluten or
milk, and decided it was the way it was.
For the next
handful of years, I got in and out of exercise and diet programs. I went
low glycemic index carb high fiber for a while, with no real weight change.
I began to run a few times a week, with no real change in body weight but
a bit of an energy boost. I fell out of the running habit and
then started eating more whole foods, raw agave nectar, protein shakes,
and a whole lot more soy. I was still putting on weight and
really not seeing anything change. I even tried to cut down on
my meat intake and replace it with plant based proteins but still had
issues controlling my energy and body weight.
Fast forward to
age 28, where I realized I was feeling about the worst I have ever felt in my
life. Completely drained of energy I was putting on weight at an
incredible pace. At my worst, I weighed in around 192 pounds and had
blood sugar swings all over the map. I would eat a meal, and watch my
blood sugars skyrocket until I was able to get them back in control. I
was still able to maintain an A1C of 6, but my sugar spikes were from very high to
very low. This made me extremely cranky, frustrated, and downright crazy
feeling.
When I last saw
my endocrinologist I lamented on how hard it's been for me to get my
control tighter and lose weight.
He suggested that I try eating better and exercising. I have
always hated both, but figured, at this point I
need to do something or I'm going to get sick.
I started by doing
the P90 workout DVD. In the course of the 3 months that I did it, I
didn't lose any weight, but started to feel better and looked a bit more 'fit'.
During this time I ate somewhat better, but still had a
diet primarily consisting of starchy carbs, protein, low fat,
highly processed.
After spending
some time on the internet, frustrated with how little things were changing, I
found out about Paleo eating. I started to
read everything I could about the diet, and how our 'food pyramid' is
way off. I also learned that my macro and micro nutrient contents were
not correct and I was eating tons of bad food. Further research lead me
to Dave and his Bulletproof
Diet. Dave's diet closely followed Paleo, but helped
categorize foods based on scientific research and health benefits. After
collecting more and more information, I decided at first
to completely cut out gluten. After 3 weeks, I lost a handful
of pounds and stopped sneezing or getting sleeping after eating. Holy
****, this is great! I then decided to cut out soy and other grains.
I kept feeling a health improvement Around January I
decided to go full modified Paleo (more info on what this means in a later blog
post). I also decided to go low carb due to the health benefits which I
will discuss in further posts. I have got my weight down to 172 pounds as
of today and have more energy than I have had since I developed thyroid
disease.
In addition to
switching my food lifestyle, I began Crossfit for exercise. I work out 4 times a week and
have noticed a crazy surge in energy and body physique I’ll
discuss why Crossfit rocks in some later posts, but if you haven't heard Crossfit
is functional high intensity workouts geared at making you overall fit (not
bulky or ripped).
The combination of
eating well and exercise has started to slowly transform me into a much
healthier and happier person!
Since I come from
a scientific background and love emerging research, I wanted a place to
collect my personal discoveries and experiments with food, fitness,
and health. In addition, I plan on keeping my posts
research centered and hopefully well vetted articles to clear up
the plethora of misinformation that plagues health and fitness.
I dedicate plenty of time reading research journals and cross examining
information, and would love to share that with you, my readers.
Please feel free
to comment with your story and how food and fitness has changed your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment