My Paleo Story

In high school, I weighed 139 pounds and wore a size 10. When I served in the Army, I weighed 139 pounds and wore a size 8. I knew I gained weight when we lived in Germany, eating and drinking through this amazing country. When I moved home to California, I needed new clothes now that I wasn’t wearing a uniform. Since I didn’t know exactly how much weight I gained, I grabbed some shorts in a size 12, 14, and 16. The 12 barely made it past my knees. The 14 couldn’t get over my hips. The 16 wouldn’t even pull together in an attempt to zip it up. I cried-literally. I sat down in the changing room and cried. 😭 I refused to get an 18 size, so I walked out to my husband and said we’re leaving. When we got home, we made a plan to lose weight. Decision 1-join LA Fitness Gym. Decision 2-only go out to one fast food meal and one sit-down restaurant per week.

We stuck to our plan for a couple of years and I stayed between a size 14 and 16 the whole time. We took a lot of classes: step aerobics, Zumba, spin, H.I.I.T. boot camp, and even yoga. I loosely followed a diet called Eat Right for Your Bloodtype by Peter J. D’Adamo which did not help me but in fairness, I was not committed.

Weightloss #1- My uncle got a job with a company called Lindora, a weight loss clinic focusing on extremely low carbs and low calories (basically a keto diet) while giving a daily shot of Vitamin B. We went to the clinic every day to weigh in and go over our food intake with the LVN nurse and get the shot. Bo and I both were finally back to the weight before moving to Germany. I was finally in a size 8 again. 🙂 Then I had to stop Lindora because I was unexpectedly pregnant. 😳

Side note-My OBGYN doctor said the fat in our body affects our hormones, so when I lost all that weight, my body was working properly and the hormones were normalized which was why I my body was ready to be pregnant. I was 35 by the way in 2007 when we delivered and I was considered “elderly” by hospital.🤣

Weightloss #2- My husband had unfortunately gained weight right with me during the pregnancy so here we go again. This time my uncle wasn’t working at Lindora and it was too expensive for us without his help. We tried eating the same way as we learned on Lindora without the nurses’ help. The problem has always been for us that we LOVE 😊  going out to eat, and now with little sleep neither of us wanted to cook. I stabilized between a size 10 and 12. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Finally, we went to the gym again and really focused on eating and exercising. We also got back on our bikes for long rides (something we learned while living in the foothills of the Alps), and when we didn’t have a babysitter, we put the baby in a backpack and went hiking. I was a solid size 10 and then we were pregnant again 🙃 which means we both gained weight…again.

After giving birth Feb 2009 at age 37, I was determined to not take two years to lose that weight. I was telling a friend in my step aerobics class about my new focus, and she said our instructor was doing CrossFit from her garage on Saturday mornings. ☀️ I went, tried it and LOVED it!!! I brought my husband and we were hooked. Neither of us have ever gone back to a global gym setting since. We loved it so much that Bo started coaching and in 2011 we opened our own affiliate which we operated for 10 years.

Weightloss #3- The intensity of our workouts was enough that we were losing weight just by making the switch to CrossFit, but we needed to work on our diets. We were making small changes. For example, we still went out to eat but now we ordered one appetizer OR one dessert, not both. 🙅🏻‍♀️ We also stopped having fast food altogether and only had pizza if we went for a long bike ride that day.

Back in 2009 CrossFit supported The Zone Diet by Dr. Sears. Bo and I were 100% committed to this diet and we saw results. 🎉 It’s about the balance of your meals and snacks. Protein, carbs and fats need to be consumed together. The American diet is so often a bag of chips (carbs and fats) as a snack for example. Before too long we were back to our pre-pregnancies weight which was a size 8 for me, and that’s where I stayed.

An attempt of weight loss #4- A couple of years later, CrossFit adapted The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, Ph.D. but lead by Robb Wolf, The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet. At the time our understanding of Paleo was that it did not focus on the balance of meals (like The Zone) but rather the quality of food, the real foods, and not the processed in a box type of foods. We took this as a “free for all” of those good choices, which meant instead of portion control of our meat, fruits, and vegetables we had tons of it. 🥗 For example, a meal for me on The Zone would be 3 oz of meat, ½ an apple, 1 cup of broccoli, ½ of a slice of bread, and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. With our “freedom” on Paleo, I didn’t weigh the meat and easily doubled it. I’d have the whole apple, still have about a cup of broccoli, no bread, and a whole handful of almonds. We gained weight, not a lot, not enough to buy new clothes, but enough that after a month we realized that we needed the portion control. We went back to The Zone, but we took some things we learned with us.

On our road to following a Paleo diet, we learned to be gluten-free, which meant for us to replace bread and pasta with gluten-free options at first. Over the years of course, we cut that out of our diet completely with a once in a while sour dough exception. We also learned on that first attempt that breakfast doesn’t have to be breakfast food. Leftovers from the night before are great time savers for mornings. 😉 Now we follow more of a “100% Paleo 90% of the time.” Rice and potatoes and a little dairy sneaks in a meal or two.

Recipe side note-Although strict Paleo says no potatoes, my husband does not like sweet potatoes and since he has such a high number of carbs to eat, he will have a 1 cup serving of potatoes once a week. He also loves rice. Therefore, you will find a few recipes I use for potatoes and rice on this website.

My Macro Story

Another attempt of weight loss #5- After maintaining for a couple of years but still needing to lose weight, we were excited to try counting macros. This was the latest buzz word in the CrossFit world but the more people we spoke to about it, the more confusing it became. We found a coach online, downloaded My Fitness Pal and started keeping track of our food: counting proteins, carbs and fats. 🔢

After a month however, we had no weight loss. We changed our numbers with our coach and after another month, we still had no loss. Although we did not lose interest, we lost motivation and stopped.😔

Weightloss #6- We found another macro coach. This time we had some loss, but it was difficult many nights to eat that much. We tried keto during this time too which did nothing for me except give me leg and foot cramps. 🤬 Over a year of minimal loss and feeling our numbers were too high, we found our third coach. He listened to us for our current lifestyle, our goals, and our frustrations, then he decreased our numbers. 💪 Bo has learned a great deal from these coaches and started coaching his CrossFit athletes about macros, learning more and more about different body types and personality needs. He has a separate page on this website for his services.

We would both like to lose 5-10 pounds but we still struggle with our cheats. Currently (2022) I am a size 4 unless I’m bloated I find my size 6 pants. I still weigh 139.🤷‍♀️

My IBS and FODMAP Story

I had my first heart burn at 17 years old. I didn’t know what caused it and how to get rid of it. When I came back to California after becoming obese, the doctor (who was obese herself) prescribed heartburn medicine for me and high blood pressure medication for Bo, who also became obese and only 26 years old. 🤬 She never once spoke to us about losing weight. As we went through our weight-loss journey, we both stopped taking those pills. CrossFit is absolutely correct when they speak out against chronic illness and obesity.

Even after years of following the Paleo diet and three rounds of The Whole 30, I was still suffering from bad bloating, heart burn, and irregular bowel movements albeit it not nearly as bad or as painful. My new doctor helped me try autoimmune diet, SIBO, and a few others, but it was when he had me try FODMAP that changed my life. All that time I thought I was eating healthy by having onions, asparagus and apples only to find out that even healthy food is not healthy for every body. 🤷‍♀️ I count my macros, follow a Paleo diet, and select even further for what is “safe” for me. I call it “my no list” and I rarely make exceptions because the price my body pays for that apple or onion is just as bad as that cake or brownie. Listen to your body and take care of it. 🥰 There are very few foods that are worth hours of discomfort for minutes of enjoyment.

My Childhood Story

When I was eight years old, our parents divorced. My Mom remarried a man named Warren, whom I also call Dad. I hate referring to Warren as my stepdad, so I don’t. 😡 I’ll say Dad unless I need to clarify which Dad and I’ll say, “Warren Dad” = stepdad or “Ken Dad” = biological dad. I will also never refer to my biological father as “my real dad,” because that implies that Warren was my “fake dad.” Both men were/are the best dads ever and I will forever honor them both as I am honored that they loved me and took care of me. 🥰 With that said when I say my parents, I mean mom and Warren dad.

Now that you’re caught up, I’ll continue 😆 My parents moved us from the beach community (Long Beach) to the mountains (Lake Arrowhead). My parents had three more children, and Ken dad married again, settled down in Irvine and had a son. Visiting them in Orange County is why I swear we are separated more by money than by race. It was during middle school years that I was learning that Warren dad was different however. I knew he looked different, but it wasn’t until years of other people’s comments that I realized he was black and that was a bad thing. 😓 I didn’t understand why people made it sound bad. He was the stay-at-home dad who played football with the neighborhood kids after school. He was the dad who cooked, cleaned, and helped with homework. He was and is an amazing dad, but in the 1980s, society had a hard time with interracial couples. Plus, it was not heard of to have the woman work while the man stayed home.

My Adulthood Story

I was 17 when I graduated high school and I had an apartment two weeks after graduation. By that time I had taught myself American Sign Language and was socially in the deaf and hard of hearing community of Huntington Beach, CA. We spent our nights being young adults “finding our way” through bad decisions of bars and house parties. Therefore, I spent the day sleeping and failing college.

After two years of this path, Ken Dad did the best parenting move ever. He cut me off. I knew I needed to get my life together. I got a job at Red Lobster as a server and passed four classes at the local community college 🥳 🎉 Two years later when I was ready to transfer to the four-year college, a friend of mine said she was moving to Pittsburg, KS for college. I said I’d move with her. 😳 That night I went home and looked up where Kansas was. 😂

I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living, but I didn’t want to waste any more time than I already had. I figured I should major in English because no matter what major I would choose later, everyone needs to know how to read and write well. I never found anything I enjoyed more than English, but when I was ready to graduate I still didn’t have a direction for my life. 😒 Both dads served in the military and it was Ken Dad who suggested I look into it.

At 26 years old I left for the United States Army. My only fear of basic training was how often I got heartburn and how could I still do the physical activity if my chest was in pain. We had the greatest opportunity to live in Germany for two years, where I gained 40 pounds and lived with heart burn and constipation as my normal part of life.

After the Army, we settled down in Southern California 🌊 and we started a family. We were foster parents to nine teenagers over the years and adopted three of them. Actually, we adopted two boys, unexpectedly had two biological boys, then we adopted one of my students, which made our middle son was our last son. 😂

My Professional Story

While we lived in Germany, I earned an MBA thinking I’d go into corporate America, and when we were relocating to California from Germany, I interviewed with all types of companies and with school districts. Ken Dad said I should be a teacher for the first year because banks love teachers and I can buy a house. I was hired as an English teacher for 9th and 12th grade at a large high school in Fontana, CA. Turns out I really liked teaching and I was good at it. 😃

With the encouragement of a great principal, I earned another Masters in Educational Administration followed by a third Masters in Educational Counseling. At work, I transferred to the continuation high school teaching English to students who had been kicked out of the regular high schools for either behavior or for lack of credits (meaning they failed too many classes which is the main reason for kids moving to continuation high schools.) I found “my people!” 😁

After seven years and two bad principals back to back, I knew our students and teachers deserved better, so I went into administration. 💪🏼 The last five years I have been an assistant principal at a middle school while I earned my Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Social Justice. I have worked at a comprehensive (regular) high school, continuation high school, adult school, middle school and elementary, which means I have now had experience at literally every level of TK-adult. 😁

My Website Story

During the shutdown of COVID-19, 😷 I really wanted to focus more on FODAMP foods that follow a Paleo diet. I did The Whole 30 again and only ate what was “safe” for me. This of course was extremely limiting. After that month I opened up my diet choices to all of Paleo. At first I was following Paleo recipes and making them FODMAP friendly. Then I was following my love for other cultures and food from around the world. Since Bo is Ukranian, I started with holubtsi (cabbage rolls). Since one son loves fried rice, I started playing with that, and so on. One dish led to another and I was sharing my meals with our CrossFit members and Facebook FODMAP groups. Now that we sold the gym, I would LOVE ❤️ to share what I’ve learned with the world.🗺 Since it is quite difficult to take some traditional, cultural dishes and make them Paleo, I enjoy the challenge and the creativity. It is my hope that people around the world will follow a Paleo diet and still enjoy their favorite meals. It is also my hope that people around the world will try foods from other countries and explore other cultures. Enjoy 🤗😋🍽