One of the ladies that works out at my CrossFit gym, who is pretty much the most beastly person I have ever met, sent me some awesome documents to help me on my own Whole30 Challenge. In a nutshell here's what eating "Paleo" means: eat what humans used to eat before we started processing and making it in bulk. My meals have consisted of: eggs, green veggies, turkey, lean beef, chicken, some fruit, and nuts (NO peanuts, unsalted). I know it sounds bland, but I'm going to do it. I'm not doing it for the weight loss or fat loss. I'm doing it because I know that I have become WAY too attached to sugar and grains. Even those pesky sugar alcohols and "fake" sugars are off limits!! Approved drinks are: black coffee, unsweetened tea, and water..lots and lots of water!
Here's some simple charts that explain the nuts and bolts of Paleo:
I've told just a few people I'm doing this and their response has been (mostly because they've never done it or heard of it), "That sounds too hard." "That's a lot of dedication." That's when I started to re-think this decision before I started, but I did anyway. Then today I got a real nice reality check. I was looking up on the internet tips to getting through the Whole30 with sanity left and similar topics. That's when I ran across what the woman, Melissa Hartwig, who started this program said, (just a summary) "It's not hard..Fighting cancer is hard, losing a child is hard." I then thought WOW she's so right. This isn't hard. It's 30 days, that's it! This isn't even that much dedication. Dedication is training for 4 years for a 15 second race that you don't even know if you'll win!
I'm on Day 2 and so far so good. I found this great article written by Whole30 Challenge: The Whole30 Timeline. It's spot on these last two days- Day 1 I felt amazing and thought, "Wow this will be great. I feel awesome, hello walk in the park!" Day 2- REALITY CHECK! The author wrote, "the suck is proportionate to the amount of crap you put in your body before the program." It's so true, I ate pretty healthy, but I did eat a lot of things (including endless amounts of gum) that had sugar alcohols and other fake sugars. I woke up this morning for spin class and WOW! I somehow put a smile on my face and was energetic during class, but the minute I stopped the music I wanted nothing to do with human interaction. The only motivation I had was food and COFFEE!! Coffee has literally saved my life people's lives...by me not wanting to KILL them. Today I wanted nothing to do with conversation until I had coffee and once that one wore off I needed another one. I'm not too worried though because the timeline said that after a while this phase will fade away. I also noticed that WATER (imagine that) helps SOO much with my energy levels. When I start getting exhausted I just guzzle down a glass of water and I'm good to go.
To help curb a little of the sweet tooth I have half a handful of dried fruit (organic, natural AKA no sugars or salts) or a spoonful of this amazing organic almond butter I found..all it is is crushed almonds- NOTHING ELSE. I think I may have died and gone to heaven!!
I'll be sure to update on how this awesome timeline pans out and I'll post some pictures of the meals I eat. Here's the first one from Day 1: breakfast after CrossFit, so I added a banana for a little help recovering. Of course, I had a big cup of black coffee on the side :) I just keep thinking..less than 30 days; I can do anything for 30 days!
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| 5 eggs and banana |
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