What Happens When an 87 Year Old Woman Goes Primal/Paleo?

      I am a sucker for success stories. I love watching The Biggest Loser and Extreme Weight Loss. (Don't you just love Chris Powell?) I also love to read Paleo success stories on Mark Sisson's blog. He features reader-submitted stories which mostly involve weight loss success, but there are also many stories of average-weight individuals who are so glad something finally "clicked" and they can stop yo-yo dieting. There are also a few stories submitted from readers who struggled with eating disorders, and they found that the primal lifestyle allows them to have a healthier relationship with food and exercise.
      A few weeks ago, I read a paleo/primal success story written by an 87 year old woman on Mark's Daily Apple. This story in particular caught my attention. I would suggest just about anyone try the paleo/primal lifestyle, but I would be wary to tell my grandmother, who is also 87, to try it. I guess I would worry how a drastic lifestyle change would affect someone that age.

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     This is Faye. She was born in 1927 and grew up during the Great Depression. She was told as a child she was "pleasantly plump." So she was always a little overweight, but it wasn't until she left her job and became a stay-at-home mom with no drivers' license that her weight became an issue. She said she was an emotional eater. "I would eat when I was bored, lonely, mad, or happy." Her emotional eating grew worse once her children grew up and left home. 

   When she turned 63, she learned she had diabetes. She tried to lose weight the typical way: low fat dieting. She tried Weight Watchers and Weigh Down programs. Nothing seemed to work. Then in 1999 she had a heart-attack, so she increased her dieting effort with little success. 

    Something changed when her grandson began working for Mark Sisson's blog. Her grandson convinced his parents to give the diet a try, and in turn they convinced her to change her diet. I suppose this makes me an ageist, but I would be afraid to give an elderly person a high fat diet. Sure, if you've followed this lifestyle your whole life, your body is fat-adapted and burns what it consumes. But can an 87 year old adjust? 

    When Faye researched the paleo diet, she said "something just clicked." She found that the weight came off very easily, which is not something you would hear most of our senior citizens say. A year after she began the diet, her doctor was able to take her off insulin, even though she still has diabetes. He gave her the clear to manage it through a primal/paleo diet and exercising a few times a week.

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     This success story doesn't pull on my heart strings like others have, but it did make me think about this diet/lifestyle that I've chosen for myself. Over and over again, people who read The Primal Blueprint and other primal/paleo research say that something just clicks. And that's how I felt, too.

     Last November when I began to dabble with the paleo diet, something did click. It actually felt right. (What doesn't feel right? Plain chicken breast and a side of spinach. No flavor? No satiety? Bleh.) I am someone who is easily bothered by a few upward ticks on the scale, not because how much I weigh really matters all that much, but because I felt like I had no control over what the scale displayed. I don't want the scale to uncontrollably go up and up for the rest of my life. My weight (and how I feel about my weight) has been very consistent since changing the way I eat. I feel like know I have control. And that's an enormous relief. 

    I am happy for Faye. She found an answer and will have a higher quality of life. I hope I can look as happy as she does in that picture when I'm 87 :)

Question: What do you think of Faye's story? And what's something you want to change about your lifestyle right now? I would like to be more positive about my efforts :) We always beat ourselves up so much!