The venerable South Hills Crossfit gym where I've been working out for the better part of the last year has started a 30 day Paleo Challenge. The 30 second explanation of Paleo is that it tries to follow the Hunter/Gatherer type of diet that was consumed by our ancient ancestors. For anyone wishing to learn more, I've provided a set of links to some useful Paleo websites. Throughout the challenge I'll interject some of the principles and guidelines of the Paleo diet but I don't want to drive y'all away so soon. So for right now I'll just steal a line from my nephew's favorite movie (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) "Blah...blah...blah...science...science...
While I'm not about to make a religion out of this diet - you do need to live a little bit - I do believe that it follows some sound principles for improving your health. Namely:
1. Eat lots of vegetables
2. Don't eat a lot of empty carbs
3. Avoid non-foods (prepackaged things that contain a list of ingredients that is a mile long)
I have had some success in reducing carbohydrates in the past. Following a high protein, reduced carb diet allowed me to get from about 230lbs down to my current weight of about 185lbs.
The challenge is to last for 30 days and I'll be keeping a journal of this experiement through this blog. The gym is conducting a series of benchmark workouts that will be completed before and after the challenge to estimate performance improvement. In addition to the performance benchmarks, I'll be tracking the following metrics: body weight, body fat %, body measurements (chest, waist, hips). I'll also post pictures of myself throughout the challenge. (Note: any comments containing the phrase "muffin top" will be deleted).
What will be the hardest thing to give up?
Without a doubt, diet soda. I drink probably about 4 cans of the stuff a day. It is the way I get my caffeine fix and satisfy my sweet tooth. The good news is that all of the Paleo acolytes that I have read from assure me that by cutting out sugar, I'll start craving it less and the sugar substitute is just a crutch that is keeping my cravings in place.
Get that sugar while you can
In light of the impending challenge, we decided to celebrate Valentine's day this past weekend (rather than on Monday aka Day 1). With this in mind, I'll allowed myself to indulge a little bit over the weekend. Nothing too bad...you know...pizza...ice cream...chocolate chip cookies...cinnamon rolls. :p
Wish me luck and I'll keep everyone posted.
M
You can do it! ;D
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