9 Days Paleo

Now that I've gone through most of 9 days on strict-ish paleo, I feel great, energized, and awake.  I checked this morning and I'm down ~5 pounds, but I don't know if that's just water weight.  I feel like I could easily lose another 7, based on my my compression shirts fit.  Still, feeling better is worth it.

Hunger issues are much better the last week.  I was able to make it past the 2-3 PM wall without craving sugar.  Almonds and apples have come in handy, but it's hard to stay full without consuming lots of additional fructose / fat.

Finding paleo foods at lunch is still kind of a challenge, even if it's outright free, much of it is covered in sauces with wheat, dairy, or sugar.  I can have a salad, and there's usually a protein or two that I scrounge up like avocados or hard boiled eggs.  We do have a few pretty paleo salad dressings, which makes the salads much more palatable.  I would bring my own chicken breast, but there are no microwaves anywhere (a downside of having a place that gives you free food.)  At home, we've been eating power supply which is both tasty and useful to have right on hand.

Coffee and tea are rough without milk, and most of the almond milk I can find is laden with sugar or sugar substitutes.  So we've been trying some coconut cream and it's pretty close.  So far, our favorite paleo food has been a coconut cream pie, drizzled with a little lime flavor.  Score!

I haven't seen a significant difference in my workout performance yet, but that may be because the workouts vary so much, and we haven't done any benchmark workouts.  But I am feeling much less soreness than usual.

9 days down, another 23 to go!

1 Day Paleo

Day 1:  Got through the first day, which is always the hardest!

• Lunch was my biggest concern, since most of the food in the cafeteria is not paleo.  Instead, I had a salad with lots of greens and a bug chunk of avocado (not my favorite, but I'll eat it for the challenge.)
• I found that I went strong through most of the day, but hit a wall at 2-3 pm, when I got very hungry.  I ate almonds and an apple, and still it didn't feel like enough.
• Paleo cookies are great, but get addictive as a food to fill up on when I'm hungry.  I end up having 3 instead of 1.  I learned to eat lots of good stuff before I have any.
• Raw almonds are easy to choke on without water.

On to day 2!

Start of the 30 day paleo challenge

Tomorrow, the wife and I will be embarking on another 30-day challenge: to eat only strict paleo for 30 days.  There are several reasons for wanting to try this, including trying to lose some weight, feel better and more awake, and cut down on bad behavior (for me, drinking so much.)

The goal is pretty straightforward:  eat only paleo food for a month.  The only exceptions are one cheat meal per week, and one floating cheat meal (5 total in 30 days) -- the fourth of July weekend excluded since we'll be on vacation, so that will be one, three-day-long, continuous cheat meal.  No dairy, no wheat, no sugar, etc. -- we're allowed one 6 oz glass of red wine per day (replaceable with an ounce of chocolate if we want to trade).  For me, no beer, which is a big change.  If we complete the challenge, we each get to go on a trip-vacation of our own devising.

I'm excited to start, mostly because this week has been a binge week of eating and drinking up all the bad stuff in the fridge (I had what seemed to be an entire keg of beer to drink).  So every morning, I've felt queasy, tired, unmotivated, but frankly really looking forward to not eating bad anymore.

My goal for myself is three-fold:

1. Look better in the mirror.  On the eve of the challenge, I weigh 179.4 pounds, and would like to hit 170.
2. Raise my endurance and physical performance.  Some measure this in benchmark workout times and weights, but for me, it's probably more like regularly performing near the top of my class, 5 days a week.  My 400m/800m times would probably be the benchmark I care about most.
3. Stop drinking as much.  I love beer, and it probably shows :)

Anyways, I plan to use this blog to document how I'm feeling, what recipes we're using, what we're finding difficult, etc.  Wish us luck -- in 30 days, we'll hopefully be much stronger!