Athlete Profile: Arun Dev

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference.

When I look back at my last three decades, I remember Robert Frost’s words on taking the road less traveled that has made all the difference in my life. Taking the road less traveled can account for me being an Engineer, how I ended up in Austin, discovering Crossfit and the Paleo/Primal lifestyle.

In the Fall of 2008, I was a struggling endurance athlete. I was past 30, my times were getting slower, my training regimen included loads of LSD (Long Slow Distance), a diet that was primarily carbohydrates, minimal protein and no fat. I was constantly hurt, falling sick and had no energy most days after long workouts. I kept telling myself I was fit and strong as I could run 15 miles, ride 30 miles and spend an hour in the gym lifting weights. One of my friends and fellow TLSP’er Eric introduced me to Crossfit and the world I know came crashing down. I barely survived my first Crossfit workout which was all of 12 minutes long. It included swinging a  kettlebell, followed by dead lifts and burpees. At the end of the workout, I ended up on the pavement outside the gym light-headed, out of breadth and ready to pass out.  When describing this scene to friends later, the only constant seemed to be I needed to quit. However I was hooked and over the following months, I immersed myself into Crossfit despite all the doubters. The more I got into Crossfit, the greater the changes I started see in my body and training methods. My diet was no longer able to sustain my workouts and recovery on empty carbs. My coaches at Crossfit Central started encouraging me to play with diets starting with the basic Zone and slowly moving towards un-weighed  un-measured paleo/primal food. The list of doubters in my life doubled when I start playing with Paleo and I was (I still am) constantly attacked on my food choices. I’ve tuned out the negative nay sayers out of my inner circle of friends and replaced them with this amazing group of people on this blog (affectionately known as TLSP’ers). Their support, encouragement and camaraderie  is what kept me going through the transition to a Paleo/Primal lifestyle. I offer doubters my results as proof for what a paleo/primal lifestyle can do for someone.

With the move to the Paleo/Primal diet and Crossfit style training, I’m no longer tired, my energy levels are constant during the week, I’ve not been sick in a long time and my quality of life is much better. My performance has improved  and I’ve dropped over 3 minutes off 5K times, 6 minutes of my 10K. I wasn’t slow by any means before but I’m competitive again in my age group – not bad for someone who took up running for the first time in my early 20’s. I can lift heavier than I have my entire life from the dead lift to heavy front squats.

They say the proof is in the numbers. To verify what I was feeling and seeing with my body, I had blood work done recently to compare with my pre-crossfit/paleo/primal days. When the doctor’s nurse called to discuss my results, she wanted to know what I was doing. The changes were dramatic across the board compared to my old lifestyle – lower resting heart rate, lower BP, doubled HDL’s, huge drop in LDL’s, Triglycerides and blood sugar levels at an all time low, body fat down 13% to single digits and the list goes on …..

The food we put in our bodies strongly dictates how we feel and perform. If we can use this blog to influence one person to change their eating habits, we would consider that a step forward in the right direction. Going Paleo or Primal is not easy at times and the road is filled with challenges and doubters. Using a support group and being creative with food choices is one of the key to successes. We hope this blog helps you on your journey to a healthier lifestyle.