Paleo Challenge Wrap-Up

As the paleo challenge comes to a close, I hope it has become more of a lifestyle choice than a challenge. For many of you, I know it has. Enjoy a day of cheating, if you desire and jump back on the bandwagon! BUT before you cheat, schedule a time to get your measurements redone, re-test your wod and get your "after" pic taken! I'm excited about the changes I have seen over the past month! Call, email or text to let me know what works for you for re-measure. Appointments Thursday - Sunday!!!! Get it done!

Intermittent Fasting

Did I lose you at "fasting". I know, I know... we have been pumped full of the idea of eating every 2-3 hours. Hey, your body will go into starvation mode and what? eat the fat stores? Whatever, I think we (me included) enjoy that line of thinking because we like, scratch that, love to eat. We eat because we are happy, hungry, sad, depressed, celebrating and on and on. I'm not telling you don't eat but to try different timing of your consumption. I'm not even saying to cut calories, just balance them through the day differently.

There was an interview/article on my favorite news source (yahoo - I know, whatever, no comments) about Gweneth Paltrow, talking of her aversion to Botox and other strange ways, for example, when she feels like her body is out-of-wack she will eat only fruits, vegetables, lean protein and nuts and seed, she cuts out breads and sugar!!! Oh my goodness, weirdo! I'm paraphrasing but that is it in a nutshell (haha).

The person writing the article made it sound like she has peculiar antics such as these but then said she is actually like the rest of us when she admitted she eats like the "rest of us" normally but just switches for 8-12 weeks when she feels sluggish, run-down, and like her oxidative stress is at an all time high. WOW! Gweneth, how about trying at least an 85/15 paleo diet instead of 50/50. Why wait until you feel like crap?

Oh, we were talking about fasting. In this months edition of Paleo Magazine (check it out, I love getting mine!) the article states "The established benefits of intermittent fasting derived from animal studies include a reduction in oxidative stress, more resistance to acute stress in general, reduced blood pressure, reduced blood sugar, improved insulin sensitivity, reduced incidence of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and improved cognitive ability." Doesn't that all convince you to give it a try?

Suggestions would be try eating your last meal at lunch time - by 1 pm, don't eat for the rest of the night and then have lunch the next day. Feel free to start your day with coffee or tea to satisfy your morning craving. If that seems like there is not chance in... that could work for you, try a 4 pm meal and go until 9 am without food, at least that gives you a good 17 hours of fasting but you won't really feel like you missed a meal.

Naturally, I could go on and on about this. Feel free to comment about fasting - not about my long-winded-ness. I am happy to offer suggestions or discuss it with your further. But a better wealth of info... look it up!!! You will see I'm telling you straight. Better yet, just try it! What better proof?

FOOD DRIVE!

I just got this email from my daughter, Samantha's, teacher. I thought it might help you guys since you are half-way through the Paleo challenge. I am SURE you won't want to go back to eating those "non-perishable" food items, so you would do best to serve someone else who has not been able to adopt your healthy eating and who needs the food. Bring items up to the gym in the next day or two and I will get them to the school for donation! Now you won't be tempted to make yourself a bowl of mac 'n cheese or canned soup!!! Blek!

SOUPER BOWL FOOD DRIVE

   

It is time once again for the Souper Bowl of Caring!  We will be collecting non-perishable food to deliver to our local Douglas County Food Bank.  Students are encouraged to bring in their food items Wednesday, February 1st thru Friday, February 3^rd.  Last year Timber Trail collected over 450 pounds of nonperishable food for the food bank.  The weight total was sent into the National Souper Bowl of Caring organization and included with a national tally!  Once again, our numbers will be submitted to be part of the national Souper Bowl of Caring!  Our goal for this year is to collect over 500 pounds of food!  Thank you so much for your support.



What did I eat today?

Yes, Shara, today's foodee post is awesome! It must be a re-post because it has been on my list of "to makes" for awhile. I will get those done in the next few days, sounds yummy. Tonight, I made a salad and spaghetti. No, I did not take pictures but trust me, I did not use noodles. I went to one of my favorites, of course, I absolutely love spaghetti squash, which I make the same way I make my sweet potatoes. Yes, sweet potatoes with spaghetti sauce (with green peppers, onions, ground beef, oregano and garlic).

I have talked to a few of you about the rating system. Again, I stress that we are doing a self-rating which is going to leave a little wiggle room for opinions. I think a 90/10 diet is a "5" but even that opens doors for opinions of what 90/10 is, unless we are truly calculating numbers. I won't waste your time or mine going into it again but you get the idea.

There are recipes galore out there, I have some on my blog and when I want something new I usually search what I want to make and see what comes up... like "paleo chicken recipes" or "paleo crockpot recipes". It usually leads to me printing a dozen or more of "someday" recipes and gives me ideas for the weeks ahead of what I want to try.

I hope that helps a little. Keep up the great work!

How do I rate?

The discussion of "how to score" my eating has come up. Originally, I told Foos to not count protein shakes etc as a cheat but then again that gets into some dicey areas. Do you count a cheese stick as a cheat off the paleo diet, yes. Do you count a protein bar? I'd say yes, because there are so many crap bars out there and most are not paleo. So there lies the question... as Shara stated, rarely are we going to see a score of "5", especially consistently. A "5" is a day without excessive fruit and with absolutely nothing off topic including cream in your coffee or your protein shake, just lean protein, veggies and a handful of nuts/seeds. So if you have a great day and you had a protein shake and you feel great, that would be a "4". If you added a beer or two to an awesome day of eating, maybe throw out a "3". If you had a burger with the bun, a piece of chocolate cake, a few drinks... you probably shouldn't even get a "1" but we are scoring 5-1... so throw a "1" on the page, enjoy your meal and start again after you savor every bite of that chocolate cake... then if it was really wonderful, let me know where you had it from so I can get some too!

I know it is a vague system. The point is to be aware. We all like the gold star. By rating our day (without justifications) we are more aware and may limit what we choose to consume.

I get the question of travel constantly. I, personally, do not have to deal with travel for business. When I travel to see family or to go on vacation, I will often make modifications to my diet (and usually feel like crap because of it). I choose to make those modifications. I choose to eat the meal that my mom did her best to accommodate my "picky" ways. I choose to indulge with a drink and dessert with friends because they think I'm a "fitness freak". Personally, I take that as a compliment, although, I don't really think that is the way they mean it. Our clean eating often makes people uncomfortable, guilty, annoyed etc. Don't tell them they are eating wrong, just do your best to eat right.

That, however, is my limited travel... if you travel on a regular basis, you cannot afford to deviate like that. Try to plan ahead. Go to the grocery store instead of fast food. Bring a small collapsible cooler with your to store fruit, meats and veggies. Be sure to have trail mix/nut mix with you. You can easily make that at home and bring it in a bag with you... I prefer my trail mix to anything I can buy. Lunch meat (good quality) isn't something we cook, keep it on hand when you travel. Worst case if you drive through a fast food restaurant without throwing up and order something, try the salad without all the extras and some chicken, throw away the bun and move on with your day.

Dessert Anyone?

After lunch (paleo chili with sweet potatoes) I not only decided that I wanted more food (not uncommon) but I was hit with a sweet craving... what to do? We just started this challenge and all plus I have been without "sugar" since January 7th. I am out of almond butter so a half of banana smeared with almond butter was out. So I sliced up a third of a small banana, grabbed a handful of blueberries and 3 strawberries... topped with some coconut milk and sprinkled with cinnamon! I thought I was in heaven. Now I have to be careful not to do this everyday! Why hadn't I been doing this before? Weird.

BODY MEASUREMENTS

A couple notes on body measurements:

First of all, don't obsess. My measurements of you are ONLY a unit of measure, a starting point and ending point, this includes the body fat measurement. Calipers are not that accurate. The person (me in this case) may not be that accurate. Plastic calipers are less accurate than metal calipers and measuring only one location is definitely less accurate than measuring in multiple locations.

Your body fat may actually be 3-6% lower or higher. Again, if you measure at 24%, I don't care if you are really 20% because at the end of our 30 day challenge, maybe you measure 20% instead of 16%, either way you lost approximately 4%. But you also need to take into consideration what the body measurements say and maybe the scale but don't obsess about that too much either because you may have lost inches but gained pounds due to gaining muscle.

This is also why we are asking you to evaluate your eating on a daily basis including how you feel. AND, in addition, we are asking you to do a quick "test" wod for even one more unit of measure.

As always, you are looking for your gains and losses, not someone else's. You are looking for your best. Not being better than someone else. I don't care if someone else measures 4% less body fat than me or 10 lbs lighter than me. I want to be comfortable in MY clothes and in MY skin. I want to look great naked, okay, let's keep it "PG" - I want to look great in a bikini. I don't care if I look good next to you, I want to just look good. I don't care about your weight, your measurements, your height, it is about MY PERSONAL BEST. That is it.

I also don't care what your measurements are from another gym, from another decade, on another scale or from another trainer, we are using what we have for a unit of measure. You are the same size you were when you walked into the gym, me telling you a number doesn't change that. I am not trying to alter your perception of yourself. I am definitely not trying to make you feel inadequate or inferior in any way.

So everyone get your measurements done, the scale, calipers and tape measure are being stored away for the next month!

One more note... I am not posting your pictures, so please stop threatening my life :-) the before pictures are for your to see your difference at the end of 30-days. We hope to be able to post some rad before and afters but still with your permission.

You guys rock! And I am so excited for you to see and feel the difference of some clean eating! Let's have fun with this!

Monday, January 16th, 2012

How did you do today? Any questions? There is still time to get signed up. If you signed up and had measurements, make sure you also do the Challenge WOD and start keeping track of your daily score on your paleo eating, oh and did I mention "pay". It is only $20. There I go using that word "only" again. Trying to get it out of my vocabulary. Don't worry I didn't say 20 Burpees... I guess you already did 30 today. Great job on the wod today!

Sunday, January 15th, 2012

Did you decide to sign-up? Okay, it is almost 7 pm on Sunday evening! IF you think Paleo is about major deprivation than go for it. Load up that martini glass, fill a bowl up with popcorn, find the best chocolate cake out there and load it with ice cream and hot fudge and then order yourself a pizza! Just kidding, don't kill yourself with it.

Paleo is not about depriving yourself it is about changing the way you think about food.

My dinner (and that of my children) included chicken, asparagus wrapped with bacon, sweet potato cubes and a salad. Yes, our sweet tooth (teeth) did appear, so for dessert we had an apple with a little almond butter spread on each piece. Okay, the kids like peanut butter better so they broke and had peanut butter. Weak little buggers. Just kidding. I do feel they have made a lot of progress recently. We have all been off bread and sugar for a week now. They are doing pretty well. I'm fessing up right now, I do have a vacation coming up at the beginning of February and I WILL be indulging in whatever my heart desires. So don't judge me if / when I come home several pounds heavier or you see a picture of me on facebook and there happens to be non-paleo food surrounding me. I am doing PALEO with you, just not for that weekend. Just bein' truthful.

Tomorrow is the START DAY!!! Clean out your cabinets so you are not tempted to fall back into old habits! We would be happy to take everyone's food donations at the gym and donate all of it to one of the Denver Food Pantries.

Is it in a can? Awww just get rid of it, unless it is tomatoes because I like to cook with those and don't like the taste of fresh tomatos :-)

Is it in a box?

Does it have a shelf-life of more than a couple days?

You get the idea, right?

Bring in those processed food items! You don't need them!

If someone truly has a box of twinkies out there (not by going to the store and buying a box) bring them in! I will make you some paleo snack mix for a trade. Get rid of those non-food items!!!! Really? Does anyone buy twinkies? I'm not judging, just curious.

See you tomorrow. Let me know when you can get in for measurements and before pictures by Wednesday! Email milehighcrossfit@gmail.com or shoot me a text!