PALEO IS OVER…OR IS IT?
By
River checking on Malzone - post Badger.
Who loved Paleo?!! (crickets..crickets) Miguel?! Personally I got a lot out of this month and hope that you all did as well. First and foremost, I learned that on my own, I never would have stuck to anything close to the Paleo Diet for any longer than 2 days. This speaks again to the power of our community and the positive influence that we have on each other. Kudos for that!
I definitely learned that life without hot sauce is no fun and I’m adding it back in, in droves, starting today. I also learned that life without bread, tortillas, sugar, caffeine, ice cream (this one was tough) and all the other crap I would snack on is completely doable. The power of momentum rang true for me in that once we got underway, the first week was hell, the second week wasn’t so bad, I felt great at times during week three and at the time of writing this (10-30-09) I still feel good but miss certain things like chips and salsa and red wine.
As I said on Friday, my plan from here on out is to continue eating according to the Paleo Diet for 80% or so of my meals. Two buffalo burgers with eggs and an avocado is a great Paleo dinner that I plan on eating more of. If the lovely ladies of CFV keep bringing in Paleo muffins, I’ll never eat a regular muffin again! All in all, I’m really glad that we did this challenge and that we can now all speak more from our own experience when talking to people who are interested in eating a healthier diet.
Eric and I are really proud of you all for stepping outside of your comfort zones yet again and giving this challenge your time, energy and focus - and most importantly for doing it together and supporting each other. Thank you all for that.
We’d also love to hear all of your emotional reactions to the month – the good, the bad and the ugly. Did you miss the foods, or the feelings that come with certain foods? I know personally that I didn’t want to drink a beer until the first day that I realized that I couldn’t have one! How did it feel to be on a restricted diet? Did it last for the whole month? How did your friends and family react? Other people outside of our gym may read this and get useful information from your stories. Do tell.
Today’s Post Halloween Workout:
AMRAP 20 –
3 Knees to Elbows
6 Box Jumps
9 Burpees
6 Comments
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 am
Attempting Paleo was just flat out hard for me. It took a lot of will power to keep myself from eating things that I shouldn’t. The fact that I went a whole month without certain foods, in retrospect, is a big deal for me because I am one of those that will eat anything, not including junk food, at anytime.
Throughout the month I experienced a whole range of emotions regarding this game. There were a lot of times that I felt good about it, when I was in the kitchen cooking and feeling productive. There were a lot of times when I was frustrated and just wanted to say to hell with this, when I would look in my fridge and that paleo food just didn’t seem to cut it for me.
My friends and family reacted in a lot of different ways, everything from “wow, that’s interesting” to “why the fuck are you dieting”. I think they all believe I’m nuts to a certain extent but I feel some were more responsive to the ideas behind the paleo diet once I explained it a little further.
I’m simply glad that it’s over. For me one of the worst things you can do is to tell me I can’t do or have something, cause that’s the first thing I’ll do and I’ll do it with a smile on my face.
It’s far easier for me now to make these types of eating choices knowing that it’s more voluntary and I am making the choice rather then being on restriction.
In the end I’m glad I participated because it’s through trials like these that we learn what we’re capable of and I’m glad I did it with such a great, supportive group of people.
Thanks everyone.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Paleo is definitely not over for me. This past weekend I enjoyed a variety of non paleo foods such as pie, bread, candy, vodka sodas, and chips and guacamole. Candy gave me major stomach pains as well as a headache. Bread and pie made me feel bloated and uncomfortable. Chips and guac were awesome, as well as the vodka soda’s although I loved them so much I drank a few too many.
I have no desire to have a head or stomach ache, and want nothing to do with candy or bread. Last night I felt like a savage because after a weekend of debauchery against my healthy eating habits formed from the last month all I wanted was meat and nothing else. This morning I woke up looking forward to eggs, meat, and some fruit.
When I started Paleo the first week was hell, I wanted everything I couldn’t have they day we began the challenge. As time went on it became much easier, but I’m not going to lie, there were many times where I wanted to cry and give up because I just didn’t want to cook any more and I had to walk away from the office kithen because of the goodies people had brought in.
I have learned a lot about food and will always look at the labels in everything now. I will seek out healthier alternatives when cooking certain recipes.
I would not have been this strong throughout the challenge without everyone being so supportive and going through it together. I’ve learned a lot about my willpower and now I know I actually have some willpower! I’ll continue with a Paleo-ish lifestyle because it makes me feel good.
Many people were skeptical about this way of eating. I got a lot of diet remarks and when I explained it really isn’t a diet just a way of eating super healthy, people would always then ask what I made for bfast/lunch/ dinner, and now they are interested to know how I feel to be off Paleo. I’ve told them the stories about stomach aches and head aches and they find it very interesting. I think it has opened some of my co-workers eyes to how food affects our bodies. I’m very glad I did this challenge as I will never eat the same way again. Don’t get me wrong I will eat chips and guac, and drink alcohol sometimes, but for the most part, I just don’t want to feel like crap and I know that certain foods make me feel that way.
My next mission is to get a grasp on how to bake Paleo style, as currently I suck at the baking part and rock at the cooking meat part. Mmmm meat!
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Great posts Baker and KJ!
For the record, this weekend I ate: pizza, doritos, ice cream (3 different kinds), a bag of Halloween candy that KJ gave me, the Halloween candy that Malzone bought for trick-or-treeters (the little bastards never showed up so we had to eat it all), guac, chips, salsa, sushi, sake, beer, and red wine.
I woke up this morning with a stuffy nose, chest tightness, a cloudy head, no energy and generally feeling like crap. All I could think about was a clean breakfast of eggs, meat, mushrooms and avacodo. It’s time to crawl back into Paleo’s loving embrace!
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 pm
(1) Jeff – I command you to never give me money under any circumstances whatsoever.
(2) Traver – Buffalo, eggs, and avocado… delicious, but come on dude, ZERO carbs? At least have a beer with it or something.
(3) KJ – Damn meat is awesome.
(4) Paleo was really awesome for me. But to be fair, it wasn’t a huge change. My body has always seemed really sensitive to the food I put in it. Over the years of feeling like absolute crap after eating like crap I learned to not eat like crap. Which oddly enough led me a diet that was very paleo-ish. Still, this month had some surprises for me… namely, I am even more sensitive to crap foods now then I was before I went 99% paleo. Man, crappy food sucks.
On that note, I went to In & Out yesterday and got 2 double-doubles, a hamburger, fries, and a chocolate-vanilla shake. I obviously felt pretty sluggish… but I would, and just might, do it again!!!
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November 2nd, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Haha, nice one cross but the Bank of Baker still hasn’t received it’s bailout money.
Just thought you guys might like to know, for my end of Paleo celebration I ate Mexican for lunch on Saturday. It was steak, cheese, onions, rice and flour tortillas. For dinner I ate a whole large pizza plus bread sticks with dipping sauce, I promptly followed that up with a good sized container of chocolate pudding I had made for this momentous occasion. Then on Sunday I ate half a dozen doughnuts and not just regular doughnuts, the large chocolate glazed, cream filled and brown sugar coated, apple pie filling filled kind. Oh god it was amazing.
I actually didn’t feel that bad after eating all that. I felt some initial discomfort after eating all that pizza but it passed rather quickly. Aside from some congestion I can’t say that it was really all that bad. However, I do know that paleo is what I’ll stick with for the most part because it did make me feel better both mentally and physically.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 pm
River! Can’t wait to see you on Wednesday!