Week 3

Keep posting your food here. Remember that if you fall off the wagon for a meal, that it isn't hard to get back on. Worst thing you can do is say that you had a bad meal therefore you can't do this. Keep eating well, keep training hard.

I say this to you and myself.

Week 2 -- The Paleo Solution

Here is the start up guide that Robb Wolf has put out on his blog. His new book The Paleo Solution is available now at www.robbwolf.com. Robb is widely regarded as the top nutritional mind in CrossFit even though he no longer is affiliated with HQ.

The Paleo Solution Quick Start Guide
 
1-Clean out the Pantry
2-Go shopping
3-Cook!
4-Go for a walk
5-Sleep!

1-Clean out the Pantry
We do not have self-control. PLAN AHEAD! Don’t have tempting foods in the house.
Remove the bread, rice, pasta, cookies, crackers, puddings, ice cream, waffles, juice,
sodas, cereals, oatmeal, artificial sweeteners, yogurt, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, canned
soups, apple sauce, noodles…all refined, packaged foods. Bag it all up, take it to a food
bank or homeless shelter. No, the kids do NOT need crackers and Goldfish. They might
actually be healthier if YOU are healthier!

2-Shopping
Now it’s time to fill your cupboards with food worth eating.

Protein-
Ideally these options are grass fed or wild caught. If you cannot find those should
you eat a bagel? No! Conventional options are fine. Beans and rice do NOT count. 
Land-Pork, beef, lamb.
Sea-Trout, salmon, shrimp, crab. You know…fishy type stuff!
Air-Chicken, turkey, duck, ostrich. I know, ostrich is flightless don’t get cheeky.  

Round things out with some good quality bacon, omega-3 enriched eggs and
some items like chicken-apple sausage to help you with breakfast on busy days.

Veggies-
Ideally these are local and organic, but again, this should not be a deal breaker. Our local
mega-food chain actually has the best produce outside of the farmers market, and at an
amazing price. Shop with the season, which typically means what is on sale. Mix up the
colors.

Fruit-
Limit fruit to 1 serving per day if fat loss is your goal. A serving is not a whole
watermelon. If you want to screw things up and not make progress, eat all the fruit you
want, it’s your nickel, ride the ride as you like. In order of preference: Berries, melons,
citrus, apples, pears. Bananas, papayas and mangoes are great for athletes post workout
but dodgy for folks who want to lose weight.

Fats-
Olive oil (extra virgin) coconut, avocado (oil and whole), macadamia (whole and oil),
almonds, walnuts. If fat loss is a goal limit nuts to 1-2 oz. per day.


Odds & Ends
Marinara sauce, herbs, spices-curry powder, garlic, ginger, cilantro, garam massala, chili
powder, black pepper, lemon zest, allspice, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, and basil. Get
at least 20 herbs and spices to keep your cooking lively. Stock up on espresso, teas and
mineral water as these are your beverages of choice. 

Cook!
The majority of your meals look something like this:
● 4-8 oz of lean protein such as chicken, lean beef, turkey, pork loin or seafood.
● Several servings of vegetables, either raw, steamed, or lightly cooked.
● Finally, round out the meal with good fats from Avocado, olive oil or a handful of
un-salted nuts such as almonds, pecans, macadamias or walnuts.

Keypoints:
-Protein every meal
-3-4 meals per day
-Limit fruit to 1 serving if fat loss is a goal
-Limit nuts to 1-2 oz if fat loss is a goal
-Beverages are coffee, tea, minearal water. Unsweetened, this includes stevia.

Go for a Walk!
Get outside and move. Gauge your fitness level and act accordingly. If you need help,
find a trainer or coach.

Sleep!
Black out your room. No, REALLY black out your room. No LED lights from alarm
clocks, fire alarms, TV’s etc. Do not watch TV or check email for at least 1 hour before
bed. Go to bed early, get at least 8-9 hrs of sleep. You should wake up without an alarm,
feeling refreshed.

Questions? Confused?
If you are curious about these recommendations read The Paleo Solution. Or just follow
this guide, reap all the benefits and don’t bother with the details. That’s up to you.

60 Day Challenge Starts Today

Leave your week one food, daily on the comment section of this post. Also please leave what your game plan is. Get out the Whole 30 diet for information on the recommended diet or just google Paleo Diet.

Good luck and lets get fit together. God knows I will need all the support you can give me. This is a big 60 days for me. I have some big goals and I want to achieve them.

Day 24

I would apologize for being late again in the posts but my sorry ass excuses probably aren't worth much at this point. Proud of you all.

Day 19

What a beautiful day outside.....Why is it easier to eat well when the weather is good? Maybe its because its easier to do everything when the weather is good.

Day 17

Over half way done kids. I have heard a lot of great stories so far about how this way of eating is effecting people in a positive way. That is really exciting, especially since they say it takes like 60 days or so before you really feel what this fuel can do for you.


Keep it up.

Day 16

I have been eating more pickles the last couple of days. Been craving them. Is that weird?

Monday Day 15

Chelan Recipe
"Garlic Prawns, Asparagus, Strawberries and Avacado"
You don't really need a recipe here but Chelan cooks the prawns with 1 tbs of olive oil, two garlic cloves minced and a half lemon squeeze. Enjoy.

Day 12 -- Stupid Chris

Sorry guys for the late post. Thought I did this at 6:45am. Obviously not.

Day 11

How is everyone doing out there? Love to start to hear if people are feeling a difference in how their body is interacting with food. Are we enjoying certain foods more now than you did a couple of weeks ago. Do you see yourself being able to maintain this long term?
What foods are you craving the most? Has that changed in the last 11 days?

Day 10

Going to try and post some of Chelan's recipes here later today. Stay tuned. Keep posting.

Day 9

Sorry for the late post here for day 9 but here we go. People should now be feeling like their sugar cravings are going away and the transition to good food is getting easier. If you are not, fear not, that day will come.

Day 8

Wow I have a lot of burpees to do. I did 150 or more up in Tofino and I owe 200 more ish tomorrow. Good lord.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Week one in the books. Week two begins.

Day 5,6,7

Keep the food post coming people. This part is key to success, I promise you. This post will be where you will log your food in for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not sure what kind of computer access I will have up at Tofino but I will post from there if I can.

have a great weekend of eating well.

Day 4

Really pumped on how well everyone is doing. Keep it up. As long as you keep your fridge stocked with good food its easy street.

If you have good recipes, please post them to comments.

Here is the dinner Chelan made for us tonight.

Baked Chicken breast cooked w/t 1/4 cup of chicken stock at 400 degree for 20min ish
fresh salsa guacamole: 3 tomatoes diced (seed removed), half an onion diced, 3/4 cup of cilantro diced, juice of two limes, two cloves of garlic minced, pinch of sea salt, 1 avacado diced, 1 tbs of olive oil.
1 yam cut into fries w/t 1.5 tsp of olive oil brushed over, pinch of salt on them. baked at 400 degree for 20min.
Asparagus, five spears wrapped in prochuto baked at 400 degree for 15min.

Day 3

Alright guys we are coming into the toughest part of the challenge. You body is getting off the sugar and is likely craving the crap you have been throwing in it. Stay strong, I promise that this feeling goes away in a few days as your body adjusts to eating as you were meant to.

Couple of answers to questions that are being asked. Yes you can have chicken stock. You can have any fruit you like. You are allowed to have natural, no sugar added almond butter. You are not allowed peanuts.

If you are hungry, eat food. Especially in the beginning. Don't allow yourself to go too hungry as mentally it will be really hard to keep after it. You will gradually start to eat less as you get used to this type of food.

Great posts and please continue to keep this up. Its important and it helps. Going to eat some more before bed. Good night kids. 

Day 2

How was everyones day 1? Not too bad I hope. I slept great last night and am really excited about this going forward. Keep the comments coming and keep logging in your daily food.

30 Day Paleo Challenge Start Now!!

I want to start by saying the point of this exercise is to get people thinking about what they are shoving in their mouths. It is such an important part of the puzzle. This blog will be an important resource and support for you efforts. 

Okay boyz and girls. The 30 day Paleo Challenge starts today. See the below post for rules for the Whole 30 program and what you can eat on the Paleo Diet. Note you can eat as much of the good food as you want, just don't go crazy on the nuts. This is an important part especially during the first few days. Your body won't be used to the decrease in calories and you to make the transition a little easier you can up your food intake.

The Whole 30 program is the A+ of the 30 day diets that you can do. I strongly recommend that you attempt to do this program. The effect it will have will be great. If it doesn't seem possible for you but you want to try and improve your eating habits than you can still do a Paleo Challenge. Only difference being that if you cheat and eat shitty carbs than you have to perform 1 burpee for every gram of bad carbs consumed or you must row the calorie amount that the food had. Trust me if you do this once on a big cheat meal you won't want to do it again. This will be done in the gym. If you don't want to do that for your cheats than you at least have to post them on the blog so you are accountable for them.

Everyone who is doing the challenge has to post their foods in the comments section of this blog. You can either do this at the end of the day or within the day as you eat. This is a key point and will really help in your quest.

30 Day Paleo Challenge Rules and Outline

The premise:
Man has been wandering around this planet in one form or another for a couple million years (Cro-Magnon, Homo-erectus, Homo Sapiens) living a hunter gatherer lifestyle. Agriculture, as we know it, is at most about 12,000 years old. We've built a food industry based on grains that our ancestors wouldn't have been able to access in the abundance they are now available. Nor would we have eaten them as they were difficult to digest since they are essentially grasses - best left to the consumption of our food sources in order to turn them into more useful proteins. Genetically we are almost identical to our ancestors. However, our foods no longer resemble what they ate. The intent of a paleo way of eating is to nourish our bodies as they evolved to be nourished - not the way that grain producers and General Mills, Kraft Foods and Nabisco tell us we should.

The goals:
Give yourself 30 days to repair the damage processed foods have inflicted.
Improve how you look, feel and perform.
Regain insulin sensitivity.
"Reset" your taste buds to enjoy the flavor of real foods.

The approach (in Melissa's words):
The only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days. Anything less and you are selling yourself, and your results, short. You may start to see and feel improvements within just a few days, but according to Robb Wolf and Mat Lalonde, the healing process takes significantly longer. And… no cheating. Just ONE cheat could irritate your digestive tract, promote an inflammatory response, upend your insulin sensitivity and send you running for the nearest Dunkin Donuts. It will ruin the effect of the “reset button” you are trying to push. This isn’t me being a hard-ass, or insisting that you tough it out to prove to yourself you can do it. This is a fact – the only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days, no cheating.

The "rules" (as taken from Melissa Urban's Whole30 blog):
Eat real food – meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, some fruit, and good fat from nuts, seeds, coconut, olives/olive oil and avocado. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re fresh and natural.

1. Do not eat dairy. This includes butter, cheese (hard and soft), yogurt (even Greek) and milk (including cream in your coffee or tea).

2. Do not eat grains. This includes bread, rice, pasta, cereal, oatmeal, corn and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains like quinoa and sprouted grains.

3. Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (soy, black, kidney, etc.), peas, lentils, and peanuts. (No peanut butter, kids.)

4. Do not eat or add sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, xylitol, stevia, etc.

5. Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, processed bars (like Zone bars), dairy-free creamers, etc.

6. Do not drink alcohol, in any form.

7. Do not eat white potatoes. It’s kind of arbitrary, but one, they’re a nightshade <http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=62> , and two, sweet potatoes and yams are a more nutrient-dense option, so go for those instead.  (On that note, if you have serious inflammation issues like arthritis, you may want to consider avoiding all nightshades for 30 days.)

8. Most importantly… do not try to shove your old, crappy diet into a shiny new Whole30 mold.  This means no “Paleo-fying” existing less-than-healthy recipes – no “Paleo” pancakes, pizza or ice cream.

A few concessions. These are less than optimal foods that we are okay with you including in moderation.

1. Processed Meat.  On occasion, we are okay with organic <http://www.applegatefarms.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?id=2942>  chicken sausage and these types of things (provided they are nitrate, dairy, gluten and casein-free), and high quality bacon, deli meat, and jerky.

2. Nuts.  We do not want you cracking out on nuts and nut butters, people.  Almond butter is acceptable – buy the organic (no sugar added) if possible.

3. Dried Fruit.  In general, careful with the fruit.  Use dried fruit and Larabars in serious moderation, and only if it doesn’t send you running for the nearest candy dish.

4. Non-”Paleo” Vegetables.  We’re fine with green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas.   While they’re technically a legume, they’re far more “pod” than “bean”, and we want you to eat your veggies.

5. Coffee and black tea.  We’re okay with coffee (black, or with a little coconut milk) in moderation, and only if it doesn’t interfere with sleep.  Usually, that means none after noon.  If you really want to go hardcore and reset your body’s sensitivity to caffeine, skip the coffee/tee for the 30 day period as well.

6. Vinegar.  While it’s technically not “Paleo”, we’re fine with using it in small quantities as a salad dressing. But use lemon or lime juice when you can.

7. Salt. While some “approved” foods like olives or bacon will have some salt in them, go easy when adding salt to your food. And if you must, go for sea salt.

Pick your pony:
Decide what your personal goal is. And stay focused.
If this is about leaning out for you go easy on the nuts and added fat.
If you want to gain some size, do some research and find Robb Wolfs 3000 calorie curry recipes - you've got some eating and heavy lifting to do.
If this is performance/ metcon based... you've got more than 30 days. Typically you will feel a crash during your 3rd week. Its temporary. Don't quit. Push through. If it's lingering, look at upping your fats (depending on goals) and reassess in a week.

Include these supplements:
Fish oil - go here and calculate: http://whole9life.com/fish-oil/ - do what it says
Vitamin D: Robb Wolf recommends 5,000+ IU

Resources:
www.thepaleodiet.com <http://www.thepaleodiet.com>
www.robbwolf.com <http://www.robbwolf.com>
www.whole9life.com <http://www.whole9life.com>
www.everydaypaleo.com <http://www.everydaypaleo.com> (great recipes)
www.marksdailyapple.com <http://www.marksdailyapple.com> (not a favorite of the Whole30 crew as he tends to water things down and make it easy for people to stray by "allowing" Neolithic foods)