Are you Paleo? Marine Corps Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro writes about how Lt. Col. Sean Riordan, above right, got lean.
Lt. Col. Sean Riordan used to consider himself chubby. It never kept him from meeting the Marine Corps' height and weight standards or from scoring in the 280-plus echelon on his physical fitness test. He just chalked up his less-than-desirable physique to genetics.
But Riordan's not chubby anymore, and he has one man to thank for inspiring him to change: a portly Iraqi sergeant major who smiled broadly and remarked to Riordan that he was getting fat, patting his own round belly to accentuate the point.
That was in 2008, after a yearlong deployment in Iraq. Today, Riordan has washboard abs and says he feels healthier than ever. His secret lies in a new fitness regimen — and a drastic dietary shift that calls for cutting out grains, legumes, sugar and dairy products, and eating more protein, fruit and greens. It's called the caveman, or paleo, diet.
