I don’t know how it happened, but somehow I put on a few pounds last year. It might be that my metabolism is just slowing down with age (I’m somewhere between 21 and menopause, let’s just leave it at that.) Or it could be that the stresses of work and raising three kids.  Whatever it was, I made the decision in September to get a gym membership and go 2-3 times per week. In two months, and I lost about 6 lbs. I was proud of myself, until I saw what my sister-in-law pulled off in about the same amount of time.

My sister-in-law and brother had their first child in late August, a beautiful boy which a head of huuuuge curly hair.

Basically what ny nephew looked like straight out of the the womb, glasses and all. (He’s way cuter than Danny Masterson, but the hair is the same.)

Sis-in-law was never in great shape, in fact, she could have stood to lose a few before she got pregnant. After pregnancy, she definitely had to do something. She and my brother live a bit far, but her and I kept each other filled in on our exercise commitment. She started following this “Paleo/Primal diet” thing that tells you to eat and exercise like a caveman. I thought it was just another fad (no offense to her, but tends to be a sucker for marketing).

This past Thanksgiving was the first time I’ve seen her since my nephew was born, and my jaw hit the floor. She lost over 20 lbs and is in better shape than I’ve ever seen. The only thing more obvious than my sister-in-law’s new hourglass figure, is my brother’s obnoxious grin. She claims to have never starved herself, and only worked out twice a week. I literally spent half of our Thanksgiving party asking her about her fad diet. She gave me some “Paleo rules,” that I thought I’d share. (Caveat: I don’t know how long she will keep the weight off, and some people say losing weight super-fast is unhealthy. All I’m saying is she looks amazing right now and this is how she said she did it.)

1. Get most of your calories from Healthy Fat and Protein

I thought this one was ridiculous, but a lot of online resources support this with scientific stuff that I’m not interested in enough to delve to deep into. Their rationale is that eating good fat trains your body to burn fat for energy, so your body will naturally burn fat more.

2. Avoid all processed starch (including bread, pasta, and even rice.)

Avoiding sugar and lots of carbs is obvious, but I was confused about the rice. The Paleo folks say that eating starches do the opposite of #1; they train your body to use carbs for energy, so you don’t burn as much fat naturally. They also said our genes are designed for wheat. Humans invented bread and pasta relatively recently, and our bodies haven’t evolved to digest it yet. That’s why so many people are allergic to wheat.

3. Do high-intensity workouts instead of slow cardio

They say that slow cardio trains your body to store fat for endurance. Sprinting and lifting weights is supposedly to turn fat into muscles because tells your body “I’m going to do intense stuff for short periods of time, so I don’t need extra fat.” That’s why sprinters have way less body fat than marathon runners.

Again, I’m not yet sold on this relatively new diet. But I’ve seen good things so far so I’m certainly exploring it. I just bought this book, The Primal Blueprint, which my sis recommended. I’m about a quarter of the way through, and it seems to make sense. Have any of you guys tried Paleo?