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!