I have spent the last two years learning about the Paleo lifestyle. After 4 decades of overeating and over-exercising I was no better off than your average couch potato. When I was younger I looked to be in phenomenal shape, but never really felt that good. I weight-trained 2 hours per day, trained in martial arts 3-5 hours per day, plus hiking and biking on the weekends. While I have competed in various sports at very high levels across North America, nutrition was never taught to me. I relied on my innate athletic ability. In university they teach from the Canada Food Guide, which is woefully inadequate, and to be blunt, just plain wrong. Even in medical school it is an elective for doctors. 

I now wonder what life would have been like had I always eaten like this; would I had to have taken allergy shots and pills for 30 years, would I need prescription antacids, would I have to exercise like a maniac just to maintain a modicum of health, would I suffer from debilitating headaches and neck pain, would every joint in my body ache, would I catch every single cold going around? After nine months of loosely following this diet I noticed significant improvements and biomarkers of health (higher testosterone, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, lower cortisol, dramatically reduced illness). Once I committed 100% the changes were amazing, losing 20lbs in 4 weeks. Now, some may argue that this is a fringe diet, when in fact it is the complete opposite. It could be renamed the “original human diet”, “the anti-inflammatory diet”, “the eat clean diet”, or just plain “the eat real food diet”. 

Now, I just try to lead by example. The hardest people to convert are family and friends. As I continue to look and feel better as I age, I am sure some will eventually see that I am doing is not so radical, and in fact the right way to eat. 

I must admit, all my knowledge on this has been gained through extensive reading of others works, blogs, podcasts, websites, books etc. But it works, and I am thankful to those willing to do the research. 

What was the biggest challenge to adopting a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet?
We are inundated with foods that are so carb-laden, it's impossible to eat out or with friends. The world has been brainwashed into thinking grains are necessary. 

What advice (if any) would you give to someone interested in trying a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet? Were there any obstacles that you overcame that could help future dieters?
When trying to explain to people about this diet, I try to read them and see what level of commitment they might have. If they seem committed I recommend a full 30 day 100% clean diet. If they waffle about it, I recommend they take slow deliberate baby steps, maybe just changing one meal at a time, like breakfast, which is often the worst of the day.

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My Talk (link to video here) at the American Society of Bariatric Physician's Obesty & Associated Disease Symposium. It was given to a group of doctors, many of which treat their obese patients with a very low calorie diet. It is 15 minutes long, followed by 2 minutes of Q & A. For more on the conference, go here.

I'm a fairly smart guy. I have a Ph.D. in Rhetoric. I taught college. I like to think. 

Which makes it sound really stupid that at age 40 I was 300 lbs. and really had no idea what to do to fix my weight. No idea. I was overweight and unhealthy pretty much all my life -- growing up in Kentucky, eating suburban food -- and had tried forever to fix my weight issues myself. It wasn't until I realized that I was ignorant -- I'm from Kentucky, you would think I would recognize ignorance -- and that I had no idea what to do -- until I literally said to myself, "I'm being stupid!" -- that anything changed for me. I had to do something different than what I had been trying over and over, which was basically eat less of the same food, and get more cardio.

So I went looking around in the media and saw that vegans were getting a lot of play, and specifically this guy John Mcdougall (via Bill Clinton), was doing something "different." That was definitely a different way of eating, super low fat, no meat, lots of grain, fruit, vegetables. I'll go radical, I thought, I'll try that food. So I switched everything, dove right into it, ate like that for 18 mos.. And felt awful -- hungry, bloated, lethargic, moody, with gout pain. I lost weight, about twenty-five pounds, but then started gaining it back. 

So, back to looking around, but this time, I went to the small small media -- podcasts. And found Robb Wolf's stuff. And listened. And knew immediately, oh, this fits me waaay better. I'm a dude. This is actual food. And somewhat normal people. And they lift weights. There's no airy/agey "morality" driving this, it's just, "Hey, there's a science-logic here, it's probably better to avoid these foods, and eat these foods." 

That was my second big food change. And I knew immediately it was right. My weight dropped in about four months down to where it is now, around 185. I stopped weighing, in fact, because I don't care. I look right, I dropped multiple pants sizes, and I'm not hungry all the time. 

And I'm a comedian for a living, so I started talking about this stuff on stage, and it grew, and grew, and I learned more and more, and the ex-professor in me kept organizing and explaining the information, and the comedian in me kept turning it into comedy, until it was a one-man show about, essentially, Paleo eating.

That's it.

What was the biggest challenge to adopting a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet?
At first sweet cravings. Giving up beer. But then finding good replacements -- dark chocolate, straight bourbon-- made those not really a problem.

What advice (if any) would you give to someone interested in trying a carbohydrate-restricted or paleo diet? Were there any obstacles that you overcame that could help future dieters?
Get around other people who are into this stuff.

After one year, we are happy to announce that nearly 3,000 people from over 52 countries around the world have registered and shared their experiences eating paleo or low carb. With data from as far away as Ho Chi Minh City,  we are learning a tremendous amount about what it is like to eat this way, directly from the source. The beauty of crowd-sourced data is exemplified, as hundreds of similar stories and reported benefits and/or side effects begin to appear.

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