Hei dere! Det er mandag igjen og tid for nok en suksesshistorie. Er det ikke bra at det deles og inspireres? Om du har en historie å dele, send meg en mail! Du trenger ikke være «ferdig fiksa», men på vei. Opplever du forskjell etter noen dager, feks, er det en ypperlig grunn til å sende meg noen ord.

I dag er det Ivy, som driver Paleo in Melbourne, som forteller om hennes vei til paleo. Om du ikke har tatt turen innom hennes nettside, gjør det i dag! Hun skriver godt og har masse kunnskap. Facebookpagen anbefales også, mye bra deling der. Ivy er norsk, men har bodd så lenge på andre siden av jorden at norsken er rusten. Derfor er mine spørsmål på norsk (antar jeg har bodd så lenge i Norge nå at min engelsk er rusten, heh) og hennes svar på engelsk.

When I was 30, I had my 3rd child. During the pregnancy I was gaining weight rapidly, as much as 1 kilo per week from the 6th week! A lot of it was bloating, obviously I was not only pregnant but hormonally completely out of balance. The baby was born in November 2010, and I lost a lot of the fluid-rentention. But I was still 25 kilos heavier than usual, and I couldn’t just breast-feed the weight off like I did when I had my twin-boys at 26. I got frustarted and tried to return to eating healthy, wholesome foods, but every time I did, I experienced strong burning stomach-pains. After 3 months of this, I decided to see a doctor. He couldn’t find anything wrong with me, and sent me off to a gastrointestinal specialist. Despite x-rays, ultrasound and even gastroscopy, all test-results came back negative. No one knew why I experienced burning stomach-pain every day, 2 hours after each meal, and no one could tell me why it got worse week by week.

In the end I asked the specialist if he had any idea at all… and he casually mentioned that I could have possibly developed a food allergy towards foods I had eaten my entire life. In my search for answers I realised that I did indeed react strongly to certain foods, and it all seemed to be foods where phytic acid was in issue, like nuts, quinoa and brown rice. I stumbled upon the term «leaky gut syndrome», found a naturopath (much more helpful than my doctor!) and started looking into healing my gut by adding some supplements and eating a clean diet. Around the same time I found the Mark’s Daily Apple-website, and didn’t stop reading the articles and forum there for the first 8 weeks. It changed my life and it made it easy to stick my decision. I was never going to return to conventional wisdom and «healthy wholegrain».

As I described above, my health had gone downhill and I had no energy, stamina and joy left in me. I had develop burning stomach pains that left me with no energy to enjoy my life or young kids. It just made sense to finally start paying attention to the signs my body was desperately trying to give me, and I was very keen in not only losing weight, but improving my health- my gut health in particular. I felt obsessed on this, to achieve good health and finally feel good again. A famous and well-known Australian journalist mentioned the term ‘Paleo’ on her blog around the same time I decided to fix and heal myself. That got me onto Mark Sisson’s website and eventually I also read all the big books on the topic, including Rob Wolff, Sisson, Gedgaudes and Cordain. I haven’t really stopped reading since, and it’s been more than 2 years!

I lost 6 kilos in my first month of eating Paleo/Primal. I experienced so many changes, big as well as small, its hard to mention them all! But I lost 23 kilos in 14 months, gained lean muscle, no longer suffered asthma or hayfever (this returns when I consume dairy), no more dandruff or calusses on my feet, no more PMS or ovulation-pain, no crazy mood-swings, my sleep and energy has improved tenfold, I’m happier and mostly in very good health. My cholesterol-numbers, which use to be slightly elevated due to a high-carb/sugar diet, is also perfect.

Hvordan du lever i dag?
After 25 months of eating Paleo I have eased up a bit on my own rules, I definitely cheat more and have more carbohydrates than I did a year ago. I’d say i moved from 90/10 to a 75/25-rule. I was very rigid back then, now I feel more relaxed in what I do and how I eat. I also seem to tolerate paleo carb-sources quite well, so I have higher amounts of carbs on my training-days. I like to lift heavy weights and I also do yoga. Up until very recently I was also walking daily. This winter has been hard as the whole family has been sick several times over with gastro (mageinfluensa) and the common cold, so I am feeling a bit lower on energy than what I normally do. I focus on stress-reduction and deliberately reduce the amount of exercise I do if I feel unwell- I have learnt that stress is a major factor in health, and can over-write a good Paleo diet if you let it go on for too long. So my focus remains on a good, anti-inflammatory paleo diet with some safe carbs thrown in, eating seasonal, fresh and local produce, and I always make sure I get good sleep and plenty for recover time between my lifting-sessions. I don’t let stress rule my life despite being busy, and I enjoy educating others on the ways of Paleo eating and living through my own company; Paleo in Melbourne.


Evt annet du vil fremheve?

Sometimes it feels like it is slow going and little results, but don’t give up. You might not see it on the outside, but on the inside your body is busy repairing and healing itself through years worth of damage that needs to be fixed. I try not to let the bathroom scales rule my life, but I measure results by photos, clothes and measuring-tape. You’ll also find that the longer you eat clean for, the more in tune you will be with yourself.