Final Weekend Report

Lets hear it. How did things go? We had an interesting weekend. A couple of months ago we were sitting at a friends house, having a couple of beers around a fire pit and someone says, "Hey, let's do the Polar Bear Plunge this year." It sounded like a good idea at the time so we both said we were in. Long story short, we jumped into the bay, in the middle of the snow storm Saturday. It was so cold, we did not get any pictures, but there is possibly a video of the whole thing, if we can get it, we will put it up. We both could have used the excess fat we had at the beginning of this month. It was one of those bucket list things everyone should do once. The plunge itself was not so bad. Dealing with the thousands of other people was a pain. Below is a picture of Joe Flacco heading out of the water. He plunged right after we did. It gives you an idea of the conditions.

It's kind of ironic that the official last day of the challenge is Ground Hog Day. The best way to make this thing work is to keep repeating it until you get it right(have you seen the movie?). We hinted in an earlier post the the challenge does not really end and it's true. The only way to continue to experience the impressive results that many of you are experiencing now is to change your relationship with food for good.

With that said we have been on a very strict version of a nutritional plan with the intention of finding out if you have any allergies or other aversions to foods that you typically eat. It will be a waste of the last 30 days if you wake up Wednesday and have cinnamon rolls and cereal for breakfast, a sub for lunch and pizza for dinner. We can guarantee how you will feel but will have no way of knowing what made you feel that way.

Start things back slowly. Introduce one eliminated food at a time. Maybe cheese with your eggs the first day and see how things go. Many people report that when they let their eating slide the foggy headedness and energy levels are the first things they notice. If you have a food allergy the symptoms will be more pronounced and can range from minor bloating and the gut issues Julie dealt with early in the challenge to symptoms similar to that of seasonal allergies such as sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, itching, & hives. The trick is to pay close attention to your body and how it reacts after each introduction of an eliminated food. You may be able to run with a small amount of dairy, or some oatmeal in the morning with no ill effects. Sugar is bad no matter how you slice it and should be avoided as much as possible.

The other option and one we are working on, is staying on the challenge, or slightly modifying the challenge to work with your lifestyle. Don't eat something just because you can, eat it because it means something to you. We are going to stay on the challenge with the exception of Friday night pizza. It has become a ritual that we enjoy with our kids and we miss the experience more than we miss the pizza. The idea of ahhh now the challenge is over, I can eat what I want will land you not only back where you started but more than likely, heavier than you were before and quickly.

Please let us know how things went for you. We will continue to put up posts and workouts. Going forward, we are looking at throwing in a few 5 to 10 day challenge refreshers in the coming months, to get things back on track if they start to slip. We will send out e-mails for those otherwise just check back in on the blog to see what we have going on.

What is Normal?

As we head into our last weekend, we truly hope that this challenge is beginning to reshape your idea of what "normal" is as it relates to your nutrition. Kim commented earlier about how this second time around things just seem easier. It is. We fall into habits in everything we do and the longer we continue these habits the harder it is to change them. You get into a habit of having something sweet after you eat, you get into the habit of having cream and sugar in your coffee, you get into the habit of having bread with your meals, etc. This is "normal." When you try to change things it just does not feel right. This 30 days is all about breaking those habits and resetting what "normal" is for us. Everyone is at a different point with that, but understand that it is a process and it takes time.

We eat fairly clean(paleo) most of the time, whether we are on a challenge or not. At first we did it because we heard it would be good for our health and athletic performance. Our mantra was "the food is here to nourish you, not to entertain you" and we would struggle through meals that we did not like because we liked the results we were seeing. After two years of this we are now at a point where we enjoy the taste of our meals and actively seek new ways of trying out different foods. We have no desire for grains, sugar, or dairy. They are not "normal" for us. But, it has taken two years for us to get to this point. We hope "normal" is starting to shift for you as well. Be patient, it takes time.

Just a quick one today, I stepped on my laptop earlier in the week and shattered the screen so getting up posts has been a challenge. I am going to try to replace it myself as soon as the new screen arrives and hope to be up and running full steam soon.

We are five days away from the end of the challenge. Monday's post will deal with coming off of the challenge. Have a great weekend!

Stress

Have you ever; almost wrecked your car, had to speak in public, been in a fight, bounced a check, stepped on your laptop, had a difficult conversation, failed a test, got lost, had plans change unexpectedly, have someone speed up when you put your blinker on, have someone say no to you? All of these are stressors and whether they are serious issues or not, the body responds the same way physiologically. The degree of the response from the body is relative to the stressor but there is a response.

If any of the above have happened to you(they have all happened to me)think back to how your body responded. Your heart rate speeds up, you get that hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach, this is actually your body slowing down your digestion, you flush because blood is pumped to the muscles readying you for a response. If you do not need to respond physically, you sit there shaking. Sound familiar? We have all been there a time or two. This is called the fight or flight response and is a very helpful response, if we are being attacked and have to fight for our lives. Not so helpful if we are constantly bogged down with little stressors with no plan for dealing with them.

Take a look at the picture below? Notice anything about the stress response and what we have been preaching about the ills of processed foods?


They are almost identical. The point is, you can get your nutrition dialed in, exercise frequently and still have all of the same issues because of stress. Often, these things that are causing you this constant stress are not in your control. What you do have control over is how you react to these things and what you do to reduce the stress in your life. Stress management strategies may include: Exercise , relaxation techniques, fostering healthy friendships, getting plenty of sleep,professional counseling or psychotherapy. How you deal with stress is a personal thing, as what calms and soothes one person can be very different from what works for another.

We just want you to be aware of the effects of constant stress and it's effect on your health and fitness goals. If you have been following our nutrition prescription and not seeing the results you would like, this could be the issue.

Monday Check In Day 22

Holy Guacamole!



Found this recipe last night on Marks Daily Apple. A great web site for nutritional info. We have not tried them yet but they look awesome and we will give them a go this week.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fat-guacamole-devils/#more-10313

How did the weekend go? We took advantage of some gift cards and an offer to babysit, to go to Outback Steakhouse Saturday night. We both got the Outback Special a 6oz Steak, with steamed veggies and a sweet potato. It's hard to go to Outback and not have one of those huge frosty mugs of beer, but it's unbelievable how much money you save when there are no drinks on your bill.

We have a couple of new exercise posts up and more in the works. This month is mostly about nutrition, but remember the three areas that must be addresed in order to achieve fitness. Nutrition, exercise and recovery. I know I said this last week, but we will look at the effects of sleep and stress on our bodies this week. Stay tuned.

Swings

The next exercise in our movement series is the swing. Everyone loves the swing, and it is a great exercise for strengthening the hips, hamstrings, quads and muscles that make up your core. Notice that I did not say shoulders. The swing, when done correctly, should involve very little shoulder effort. Kettle bells have become popular recently and are commonly used for swings, but you can use anything and get the same benefit from the exercise.

• Start in your squat stance with your feet just outside of your shoulders, toes pointed slightly out, and your knees bent.
• As with all of our exercises it is important to maintain a neutral spine, meaning chest out shoulders back, and a solid arch in the lower back.
• Hold the load with both hands, just under your butt.
• Use your hips and legs to jump the load up over your head
• Keep your arms straight and control the decent of the load back to the starting point
• Keep your weight on your heels
• Repeat.

Here is a video of Dawn performing dumbbell swings

Not having a kettle bell or dumbbells is no excuse. Get creative! I figured out a good use for that 2008 Falcone Reserve I am not drinking these days.


As usual look forward to this one showing up soon in a workout.

Thrusters

Another great full body functional exercise is the Thruster. It combines the squat with a press and requires the recruitment of a large number of muscles along the way. We like to introduce this exercise using dumbells, as most people lack the upper body flexibility to maintain proper form with a barbell and not everyone has a barbell laying around. If you do not have dumbells the wine bottles work well or cans of food, bricks, bags of flour(you better not have bags of flour in your house)etc.

• Start this movement the same as the swings, in the squat stance, feet outside of shoulders toes out
• Hold the weights up over your shoulders with your elbows in front of the load
• Neutral spine with chest out shoulders back
• Push your hips back and down into the bottom of the squat keeping the weights over your shoulders.
• Drive up out of the squat and jump the weights up over your head.
• Return the weights to your shoulders
• repeat

Friday Check In

Day 19!
How are you feeling? Have not heard from Keith since the first week? Just sayin.... It is our hope that you are growing accustomed to this way of eating and are not holding on by a thread until you can get your hands on that pizza, bread, cheese, cake, ice cream, etc. We don't want to let the cat out of the bag too early but there really is no end to the challenge. If your goals are health, fitness, or even just looking good naked, some changes to your way of eating are going to have to be permanent. We will discuss in more detail how to come off of the challenge in the coming posts.

What can you do about that stubborn abdominal fat?

Below is a link to a study done in Spain that demonstrates the connection between weight loss, insulin resistance, carbs and abdominal obesity.

The study compared a diet high in carbs with a diet high in monounsaturated fats (avocado’s, nuts, flax) and a diet high in saturated fats.The diet high in carbs showed a strong propensity to redistribute fat towards the abdominal region. Conversely, the diet high in monounsaturated fats showed just the opposite; a tendency to prevent abdominal fat deposition. For many people seeking weight loss, losing abdominal fat is extremely difficult. This study is of interest because abdominal obesity is strongly correlated with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a condition where your body has to make abnormally large amounts of insulin in order lower blood glucose levels, this condition is also termed pre-diabetic.

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/30/7/1717.full

The Mid Point!

We are at the official halfway point of our challenge. We hope you are able to enjoy the long holiday weekend. We had a great one where we tried a few new paleo friendly dishes, enjoyed a great dinner, and faced our demons (well at least mine).

We experimented with almond meal pancakes and they turned out incredibly OK. You are not going to mistake these things for IHOP, but they do satisfy that want for something different for breakfast. This was an experiment so we don't have exact measurements but here is what you do.

In a bowl mix:

About a cup of almond meal(crushed almonds, we got ours from Trader Joe's)

2 eggs

About 1/4 cup of unsweetened apple sauce (I dumped in a little more when Dawn wasn't looking)

A few dashes of Cinnamon

we used water to thin it out to pancake consistency. (the thinner the better)

Fry them up on the griddle top them with a dab of sunbutter and you have something different and surprisingly edible for breakfast. Remember that almond meal is a fat and not a carb, so you will still need some protein and carbs to complete your breakfast. We had some bacon and spinach.




We went to our friends Megan and Joe's house for dinner Sat. night. We had spaghetti(squash) and meat sauce. Megan is an awesome cook and takes it as a personal challenge to come up with paleo meals that taste as good as the original. We have not had her original, but it is hard to believe it can be better than what we had. We will be heading back over after the challenge for comparison purposes. We also had some seltzer water spritzers that would satisfy any one's urge for soda. We finished off the dinner with several paleo cookies that Meg made in her super deluxe 5000 food dehydrator. Not one cookie remained!

After dinner I headed out to face my demons. I met a couple of friends at the bar to watch the Ravens game. I wanted to see how strong the desire would be to have a beer. Historically, I have not spent much time in a bar, sober. It is an interesting way to spend an evening. I definitely wanted a beer but did not have to fight back this overwhelming, hand shaking desire. I settled in with an iced tea and enjoyed the company. I had a good time and the real benefits, and difference, in my opinion came after. When I got home, I read for a little bit, fell asleep well after midnight and was woken up at 6am, but felt great!

Using the crutch of the challenge certainly made not drinking much easier. As I am sure it does for many of you when someone offers you a tasty treat. Would I not have had a beer if not on the challenge? No way. But, the experience further solidified for me that what we are doing is so much more about our behavior than it is about a diet. One beer leads to 10 just as easily as one cookie leads to the whole box and the effects on your health are surprisingly similar. Saying, "I can't go to a bar and not drink a beer." is the same as "I can't have my coffee with out cream and sugar." You can do both, but you don't want to. Understanding this and taking personal responsibility for your choices is key.



Enjoy your week and check in for new posts and workouts. We will take a look at the effects of stress this week.

How are you holding up?

12 days in and close to the halfway point! Around this time people usually fall into two groups. The first group is seeing some positive results such as mental clarity, more energy in the afternoons, weight loss, better complexion and better digestion. They are thinking, this is not so bad, I will be able to see this through. The second group is not having as good of an experience, they are foggy headed, tired, not losing weight, and angry. They are wondering why they are doing this and are teetering on giving up. Which group are you in?

If you are in the first group, the results are usually all the motivation you need, but for the second group this is a pivotal point. We want to offer up five reminders of why you are doing this and try to encourage you to stay the course.

First of all, you have to keep in mind that many of us have spent several years eating a certain way and you are making drastic changes to that way of eating. The body may need more than 12 days to adjust to these changes. Everybody is different.

Second, keep in mind the main purpose of the experience is ultimately your health. We are a society of instant gratification. It is easy to get wrapped up in what the scale says rather than focusing on how you feel. We are trying to change the way we look at food and it's impact on our health. Sacrificing 30 days of your life for your health for the rest of your life, in the grand scheme of things, is not such a big deal.

Third a huge and often overlooked benefit from this experience is a gain in self confidence and self discipline. This gain does not come from losing weight or looking better, but from you taking control and gaining power over something that you did not have power over before. Food. One of the most frequent comments we received last challenge was how empowering it was to go into a situation where you would normally eat a bunch of crap and politely refuse or pick through to find things that you can eat. This gain in self confidence and self discipline has positive implications in many other aspects of your life.

Fourth, there is a strong link between how you eat and your mood. Many people who completed the challenge last time reported an improvement in their mood. They were more calm, had more patience, and were just in a better mood. This was even more pronounced as they came off of the challenge. I know for us bedtime after pizza night is always a nightmare, with everyone snapping at each other.

Finally, because of your participation in this you will become a more informed consumer and may in fact turn crunchy. When we started looking into nutrition as a means to improve our athletic performance we had no idea we would turn into tree hugging weirdos who run around proselytizing about the virtues of clean eating. It did not take too many google searches for us to realize some crazy things are going into the food we eat. Now along with our new wool socks and Birkenstocks we have knowledge of how real food can effect how you look, feel, and perform and it is hard not to share it.

Have a great weekend and stay focused on the bigger picture. Keep us posted of your progress.

Yeah Burpees!

Burpees are wonderful and horrible all in one. If you are looking for one movement to give you the most bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time, than burpees are it. This is the next exercise in our movement series, which means that they will probably show up soon in a workout.
Here are a couple of videos of Dawn and I demonstrating burpees(with the space heater we were able to get the garage up to 37 degrees!)


We will break down the movement and show you some ways to scale it or make it easier for the beginner.
The movement starts in the standing position.

1. Squat down and put your hands on the floor.
2. Kick your feet out so that you are in a push-up position.
3. Perform a push-up.
4. Jump your feet back in under your hips, trying to land on your heels.
5. Stand up and jump.

This movement takes your body through the largest range of motion it can possibly go through.

The most basic form of the burpee would be to squat down, walk your feet out, place your knees down in the modified push-up position and perform your push-up, then walk your feet back in stand and jump as shown below.

If you have issues with upper body strength you could also take the push-up out of the movement and just walk your feet out and then back in. Stand up and jump.



When you can perform ten of these, you are ready to move up to the next variation. Here you will perform a full standard push-up.


Once you have that down you are ready to go full steam ahead with standard burpees. Here you can speed the movement up with full range of motion being, thighs on the floor at the botton and hips fully open at the top. Burpees are great to add into your warm up, or they can be done as a workout by themselves. Below are a couple of videos of Dawn and I doing burpees at full speed.

The Mystery of Lectin

Bare with us here as we try to take an extremely complex issue and put it in terms that are more easily understandable. We try hard not to come across as, "nutrtition is both the problem and answer for everything", but the more we dig into it, the more amazed we are by the possibilities. There was a comment by a reader of a blog we came across, I can't remember which one, I have tried to find it again and can't, but it resonated with us and our evolving phiosophy of health and fitness. The person said something to the effect of, "The complex system of our body is perfect in it's nautral state. It is through the introducation of various foriegn substances that we bring about change and dysfunction to this perfect system. Our bodies respond to this change with the protective measures of diabetes, arthritisis, MS, etc. These conditions are our bodies cure to what we have done to it." Again I am paraphrasing, the person said it much better than I did, but the point is the same. Our bodies want to be healthy and we have done our bodies a disservice by relying on processed food stuff rather than whole, natural foods for nurishment. With that in mind...

What are lectins?
Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are found in most plants, particularly seeds and tubers such as cereal crops, potatoes, and beans (legumes). Most lectins are not harmful to humans. However, there are a few that are proving to be problematic. Some lectins are considered potentially toxic because they can pass through the gut lining and into the blood stream. This condition has been termed "leaky gut." When this happens the body does not recognise the protein and mounts an immune response to it which can lead to any number of autoimmune diseases.


The most common potentially 'toxic' lectin containing food groups are

>Grains, especially wheat and wheat germ but also quinoa, rice, buckwheat, oats, rye, barley, millet and corn.

>Legumes (all dried beans, including soy and peanuts),
>Dairy
>Nightshade (includes potato, tomato, eggplant and pepper).

Each of these groups has a history of being implicated as allergenic. As well as all foods made from these substances, such as, milled grains, flours, oils, vinegars, peanut butter, cereal or legume oils (soy, canola, corn), additives, thickeners, grain vinegar and products containing grain vinegar, grain alcohol including grain based vodka, and all beers and ales.

Many people are allergic to one or more of these types of foods and do not even know it. Symptoms can range from an upset stomach, to sinus issues, to serious autoimmune issues, such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, peptic ulcers, celiac disease, crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, and others.

Lectins are in all foods and not everyone suffers from these conditions. The little bit of research that has been done on lectins and their role in disease has shown that often a secondary infection such as influenza, or streptococci combined with the leaky gut lead to the overly strong autoimmune response.

Very little scientific research has been done, using a dietary approach to address these diseases, however alternative medicine, and holistic practitioners have years of anecdotal evidence of patients with the various conditions mentioned above responding well to the removal of lectins from the diet.

If you are still reading you probably want to know what the implications are for you. Many people want to know why they can't have beans or peanut butter and this is why. Again, you may be allergic and not know it. This 30 day removal will cleanse the body of lectins. You can then reintroduce them individually and monitor your response.

We threw in the disclaimer at the top because of the far reaching implications of lectins with regard to autoimmune disease. The research is sparse because funding is not available. The cynic in us believes that is because there is little money to be made from having people eat healthy. Who knows, but the possibilities are mind blowing.

Lets Hear It?

How did the weekend go? Let us know how you are holding up. We have not heard much from the newbies this time around. Don't be shy, post what's going on. There is a good chance someone else will benefit from you experience.

We had a birthday party for our 3 year old niece. Those are always a challenge, but our sister in law was so considerate, she provided paleo friendly foods for the party and she is not even on the challenge. We had lettuce wraps with chicken and a large assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables. The kids still had their cupcakes, but what can you do?

We wanted to address an issue that was discussed in the comments on Friday. Julie talked about relying on dried fruit during the last challenge and she was right in her assessment of it hampering weight loss. The prescription is for "some" fruit. Meaning most of your carbohydrate consumption should be in the form of vegetables. Fruits should be looked at almost as a dessert. We don't go into this early on because some sugarholics would openly revolt without something sweet throughout the day and fruit can provide that. But, as you work through the challenge you want to start scaling back the fruit intake. Dried fruit can be especially troublesome because the dehydration process removes all of the water but none of the sugar. They are also very calorie dense, meaning they pack a lot of calories in a small amount. For example, 1-cup of grapes has 60 calories while 1-cup of raisins has 495 calories. Also the fiber content of dried fruits is not adequate to satisfy your appetite. That combined with the psychological process of thinking, "It's fruit, it's good for me" leads you to eat the whole bag. So, dried fruits can make your weight loss program a complete disaster and should be avoided.


We also came across some interesting info on lectins this weekend and will devote a post to it this week, it may help explain some of Jim's success with the glucosime.

We came up with a couple of new ways to love chicken and wanted to share. The first is a coconut and cashew crusted chicken that we swear tastes like fried chicken, especially if you wait longer in the month to try it. We took unsweetened shredded coconut from Trader Joe's and mixed it with some cashews that had been chopped up in the food processor. We then took the chicken and dipped it in egg and pressed it into the mixture. We baked it on a rack at 400 for about 15 minutes. (they were thick pieces of chicken) It was easy and very good. The picture is below.




Tonight we were trying to make some chicken nuggets for the kids. We mixed some of our Kirkland (costco) Brand no salt, organic, seasoning, some onion powder, some garlic powder, & some paprika, into some almond meal. We did the egg trick mentioned above with chicken breast we had cut into small pieces, then pan fried them in olive oil. We made enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, but the kids ate them all tonight. We might have helped a little, they were really good.


We have had some positive feedback on the workouts posted. We will keep it going, as well as post some video and explanation of some new exercises as we move along. Remember, intensity is the key to seeing results with your workout program, but not at the expense of form. If you are doing the exercises incorrectly, the result can, and often will, be injury. We are happy to answer any question you have. If you are just starting out it is OK to scale the workouts down by doing less repetitions or fewer rounds than are stated.


Have a great second week! You will look back on this and wonder how it went by so fast. Keep checking in on the blog as we have several posts lined up for this week.


Stay strong.

First Friday Check in!

Lets hear it, how did the week go? We would love to hear about any successes, transformative moments, or struggles you have had. Make sure you are checking the comments, we have had some 30 day veterans chiming in with some good advice. As unpleasant as Julie's (i.e. Jim's)experience may seem, it is very common and we have heard from others who have experienced the same this week. This along with the headaches and fatigue will pass as your body gets used to your new lifestyle. Keith and others, who really miss cream in their coffee, almond or coconut milk is an option but you need to check because many of them have large amounts of sugar.



For many, the weekend presents it's own challenges. Many of us have a set schedule during the week and it is easier to stay focused when on our weekly routine. On the weekends things get thrown off. You are running around getting things done and next thing you know you are starving and the dollar menu at McDonald's is looking very good. Don't do it. There are many other options in the way of fast food where you can still stay strict. Most involve salads of some sort. Subway, Panera, and Chipotle all offer great salads that can be made challenge worthy with little effort. Believe it or not, people don't look at you as strange as you would think when you ask them to hold the bread on any sub or sandwich combination. This can help transform many sub shop options to paleo friendly meals. Another way to handle the weekend is to plan for it and pack your food for the day. Either way stay strong, we will be checking up on you Monday.

Remember to scroll down and catch up on the posts for the week. Have a great weekend and we will be back on Monday?

Answering Questions

We had a comment come up in a previous post that asked some good questions. We thought we would make it into a post, as many of you might have some of the same questions. We don't know who left the comment but they mentioned that they had experience with the Paleo diet and wanted to get others views on some issues thay had. We copied and pasted their questions here and answered in red.

1. How do you reconcile the relative health of the meditterenean peoples? North Africans (cous cous, flat breads), Italians (wines, pastas), French (breads,cheeses), Greeks (cheeses, wines) etc are healthy, have nice skin, don't have a lot of degenerative disease, etc. But they're not doing paleo. is the problem grains, or is the problem processed food? The long answer to this one is that we don't reconcile any of it, because we don't care. We are not nutritionists or anthropologists. We are a couple of trainers who have tried several nutritional approaches on ourselves and have found that we run, look, and feel better on one that resembles a Paleo approach. We have shared this way of eating with many of our friends and all have had a similar experience. We are not strict Paleo followers per se. When we do these 30 day challenges we stay strict, otherwise I would say we run at about 85 to 90% Paleo for me and 95% for Dawn. We will devote a whole post to food allergies soon, but Dawn (along with an estimated 70% of the worlds population) has an undiagnosed food allergy. The proteins of lectin (beans) and casein (dairy) cause her severe gut issues, as well as aggravate her asthma, and sinuses. We have done substantial research and readings on exercise and nutrition and I can say with confidence the one thing that jumps out at me about the cultures that you mentioned is that they all consume far less sugar than our western culture. So I guess the short answer is processed food.

2. How strict are you on artificial preservatives or ingridients? For example, sometimes the smoothie might be completely paleo except that the shredded coconut has some preservative. Or you might be drinking a drink with sucralose. Speaking of which... One thing that eating Paleo has done for us is made us more conscious about what we eat. We read food labels and try to stay away from anything artificial, but it is difficult.

3. What do you drink? It appears virtually everything other than water is forbidden.
We pretty much stick with water and coffee or tea. When not on the challenge I enjoy beer and wine on occasion but Dawn's allergies make it almost not worth it for her. We also supplement with emergen-c, when training hard or if we feel run down.
4. For someone that's active, and lifts weights, how should one diet? One problem I have since trying out the Paleo diet is that I am always hungry.
Paul does a lot of our blogs, but I wanted to chime in on this one:) I was also concerned about eating clean and maintaining my level of fitness! I lift heavy and go hard and I used to be hungry all the time. I was like a ravenous animal and felt like I could never get enough. I have finally found the best balance for me and have continued to get stronger. I eat about 3 ounces of protein(sometimes 4), lots of veggies(zucchini, broccoli, etc.) and nuts with every main meal. I have a snack of meat, fruit(sometimes no carb at all), and nuts between lunch and dinner and then a snack of meat, grapes, and sun butter before I go to bed. I am only hungry when it is my normal times to eat. I am stronger and faster than I have ever been and it is definitely the combination of clean eating and my exercise program. The best part is that I am energized all day even after a kick butt workout and can play hard with my little ones. I hope this helps:)

5. About about fruits. Are bananas, mangos, pineapples, et al allowed?
Fruits are allowed but they should be treated like desserts and severely limited if you are trying to lean out.
6. Last question is how do you add variety in your meals? I'm fine so far, but I'm fearful that at some point I'll go crazy from eating nothing but leafs and vinegar. Things like this challenge have been a great way for us to find new ideas for food combinations. We have recently discovered winter squashes and shuffle them through our dinners. When we are not on the challenge we do have a family pizza night every Friday. This usually makes us feel bad enough to want to get back on track Saturday.

7. I'd like to ask is what your opinion is on a cheat day. Is relaxing your rules on Saturday or Sunday very bad for results? Cheat days will set your training back but are sometimes needed to maintain sanity.

8. Lastly, how bad is dairy compared to grains or legumes? This depends on the individual. I find that I can handle most dairy without any issues, but grains and legumes leave me passed out on the couch with gas. A state the kids laugh at, but Dawn doesn't appreciate. As we have said before they all bother Dawn. This is the main reason for the super clean 30 days of the challenge. We are trying to clean the slate so that we can slowly reintroduce these potential irritants one at a time and find out which one we have issues with.

We hope that helps. Let us know if there are any other questions.

First day in the books!

As the first day draws to a close we wanted to check in and see how you feel and let you know about a couple of things.



We are usually strict Paleo during the week so not much of a change for us. I (Paul) did miss my cheese in my eggs this morning. We took a picture of dinner it was good! We had baked chicken breast with Texas Pete and black pepper, some rainbow chard sauteed in olive oil and some kirkland brand no salt organic seasoning, broiled asparagus, and mashed avocado. How did your first day go?




First off, it is important to understand and expect some strange things this first week. If you are transitioning from a nutritional approach where your primary source of calories were from carbohydrates, especially processed carbohydrates, you will go through a withdrawal period. It is not uncommon to experience headaches, dizzy spells, fatigue, and a strong desire to shovel Twinkies, bread, pasta, etc. down your gullet. Resist the urge and know that this will pass and is often followed by a huge swing in energy and gut calmness. The most consistent reports of people who transition to a Paleo way of eating are an increase in energy and the resolution of intestinal issues like gas, heart burn, and irritable bowl. However nothing comes without a price and the first couple of weeks can be hard.


Second, as if trying this new way of eating is not enough, we have added a three day body weight workout to the right hand side of the blog. Several people have asked for a workout and we wanted to provide something that everyone could do with little or no equipment. We will post workouts up on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's throughout the challenge. Use our past movement blogs to make sure your form is correct when performing the exercises. We will sprinkle some new ones in throughout the challenge. If you want to jump in on the workouts do so, if not, no worries. Proper eating should take precedence, but when combined with exercise and good sleep, there are no limits to the results you will see. We will try to provide instruction for any unusual exercises shown, but if you have any questions please ask.

Off We Go!

Found this video on CrossFit Asheville's web site and thought it might provide some motivation as we head into our first week.

Be sure to scroll down as we will often post multiple blog entries.

Just a quick review of the rules. Starting tomorrow, for the next 30 days you can have NO,

• Grains or breads
• Sugars
• Dairy
• Processed Foods
• Alcohol

You are to eat only, lean meats, vegetables, nuts, seeds, some fruit, and no sugar. Got it?

We find it helpful to plan our weeks out so we know what we are having for dinner each night. This then becomes lunch for the next day and our breakfast stays the same. So it really makes things simple. It can get boring after a while, but we are only shooting for 30 days. There are many days when I stare at my cold leftovers for lunch and have to remind myself that the food is there to nourish me not to entertain me.

I have cut and pasted our weekly menu from the last challenge below. You can use the archive tag on the left of the blog to look through the last challenge. There are some informative posts there and we will try not to duplicate information unless it is necessary.

From the last challenge:
Here is our secret to success, we are boring. We have a rotation of food and we stick to it and that is going to be our plan for this challenge.


Breakfast - Its the same everyday, we do switch up the meat we throw in our eggs but basically we have scrambled eggs with some sort of meat(bacon, ham, sausage, shrimp) on a bed of spinach, with a handful of nuts. We took a picture today, it is at the top of the post. Dawn's on the left and Paul's on the right in a to go bowl as it usually gets eaten in the car on the way to work. We often hear, "I don't have time to make something like that." I timed it this morning and it took me 7 minutes to make both. That could have been shortened if I had beaten my eggs and made the bacon the night before. We try to get our kids to eat Paleo also. A pic of their breakfast is posted as well.(Kylie thought this was very cool!)

Lunch
Another trick we have come up with for lunch is to make extra at dinner the night before and pack our lunches for the next day as we clean up dinner. We take a Tupperware bowl line it with salad, throw whatever meat we had for dinner on top, along with the leftover vegetables, and some nuts. When we do not have enough leftovers ,we grab a can of tuna or canned chicken, which I forgot to put on the shopping list of this mornings post. This is what I did today in the picture up top. It is left over shrimp with tuna, sprinkled with old bay a few carrots and almonds. This will hold me over till about 3 when I eat a snack.
Snack: 2 or 3 pieces of deli turkey or Ham, a handful of frozen blueberries, and a spoonful of Sunbutter.
Dinner:
Here is where we change things up slightly. We have a different meat and vegetable each night. It varies, but looks something like this.

Monday: Steak and broiled asparagus
Tuesday: Shrimp and steamed broccoli
Wednesday: Top round roast and broiled yellow squash
Thursday: Grilled chicken and Cauliflower
Friday: Usually pizza night, but now we are going to go with taco meat and chard
Saturday: We usually try to clean out the fridge and eat whatever we have left over
Sunday: We sometimes go out on a limb on Sunday's and try some type of fish or if we are feeling lazy, it's burgers and dogs or some of the chicken sausage.

We will crank out several posts in the next few days, but, will only e-mail with the scheduled updates on Friday's and Monday's. Feel free to share the blog with anyone who you think might be interested.

Use the comment section for any questions that come up these first few days and we will answer right away. If you do not want to set up a g-mail account, you can comment using the profile of anonymous but remember to leave your name in the body of the comment.

Good luck and enjoy your last meal. We are having pizza.

A Trip to Sams

As we said before, your shopping habits will have to change in order to be successful in this challenge. The idea is to eat fresh foods, in their most natural form. Fresh foods do not last long, so if you are not in the habit of weekly trips to the grocery store, you will be. A good rule of thumb when in a typical grocery store is to stay on the perimeter of the store. All the good stuff is found in the deli, meat, seafood, & produce departments. All the processed junk is found in the aisles.


Our produce buying habits used to consist of buying a bag salad and throwing it into the drawer at the bottom of the fridge until it smelled so bad we had to throw it away. We would then buy another bag and repeat the process. Now we buy the mega bags of produce from Sams and still run out before the week is up. Sams and Costco are great for buying large quantities of produce for cheap. If money were not an issue, Whole Foods and Trader Joes would be our main go to. But since that is not the case, we shop at all three as well as Safeway and Giant. We will go through what we get at each. Today we will look at Sams.


We hit Sams once a week for the staples. Our cart looks like this.


2 cases of water

2 bags of nuts (pecans/almonds/walnuts)

Large bag of dunkin donuts coffee

large bottle of extra virgin olive oil

2 bags of med. pre-cooked shrimp

2 large tubs of spinach

2 bunches of asparagus

1 large bag of broccoli

1 tub of grapes

1 tub of strawberries

90 pack of large eggs

1 bag of avocados

1 bunch of bananas

2 large packs of boneless skinless chicken breast

1 box of emergen-c

1 bottle of 600mg fish oil
Here are a few pics of the cart, sorry for the quality, I was using my phone.

We supplement this with the meat from the cow we bought and usually more produce from Giant and Safeway. We are heavy into squash of all kinds. Yellow & Zucchini squash are a weekly staple and we have recently included acorn and spaghetti squash in the mix.

Cleaning Out the Cabinets and Stuff

This exercise is going to be hard enough without having to stare down the enemy every time you open the cabinet. Some people have enough discipline to have the cookies, chips, soda's, bread, etc. sitting around the house and not touch them for 30 days, most don't. You would be putting yourself in a better position for success by cleansing your house of anything not allowed on the challenge. Completely remove the temptation. If it hurts too bad to just throw it away, you still have a couple of days to finish it off before the challenge starts. If it is in the house during the challenge, you will be tempted to eat it, so get rid of it. Check into your local food bank and do something useful with all that junk.

A couple of items as we get close to starting:

• We are getting ready to kick this thing off and we will have several more posts this time around. The goal being daily posts. We will only send out e-mails for our twice weekly check in. Book mark this page, save it as a favorite, or join as a follower to keep up with the blog.
• We have had several people who are not getting the e-mails. Our distribution list is growing and e-mails may get sent to your bulk folder. If this is the case you will have to allow our e-mails on your end.
• If you are joining us for the challenge please leave us a comment in the comment section to let us know. This experience will be further enhanced if everyone participates in the give and take along the way.
• We will take you on a shopping trip with us to Sam's club tomorrow as we gear up for the challenge. If there are any lingering questions or you just want to know why something is the way it is, let us know and we will work it into a post.

Enjoy Your Weekend