Rounding Third.......

I think I've shared that I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Home of the Reds, Bungles, Greater's Ice Cream, Larosa's Pizza, and Skyline Chili.  While Indianapolis is home, I remain connected to a few of my roots.  I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I love the Reds.  As I near the end of my 30 Day Paleo Challenge, I can hear Joe Nuxhall with his famous line saying, "This is the ol' left-hander rounding third and heading for home" as he did every.....single....game.

I remember listening to games on the radio and watching t.v. just to hear him say that.  

Well, I'm rounding third and headed for home.  I feel like I'm heading for home like this......

Man....for a jerk who messed up, he was a great player to watch.

I feel great after eating so clean for 30 days straight.  I set out to go 100% Paleo and log all the food, snacks, workouts, etc. for the entire time.  I did have one night, one meal where I was......

CAUGHT STEALING!  

Beer and cheesy potatoes with the bbq sauce on the duck.  Click here to see and scroll to Day 14. 

So I have to say.  I followed the Paleo Way as prescribed by The Whole 30 (part of The Whole 9 Website) 99%.  

The first time I did this I made several observations about my eating habits and the impact of the 30 days on my health and fitness as I was a guest blogger for Crossfit Carmel.  You can see what I had to say here.

That post was dated December 6th, but I had already completed my 30 days several weeks prior.  A couple of months later, I have the following thoughts:

1.  I just flat out feel great:  no stomach bloating.  I'm full most of the day.  No major food cravings.

2.  I have more energy, and I see it in my workouts.  To note (and not bragging here):  Just yesterday at CFC the workout was the baseline.  That is the workout you would first do if you were just joining Crossfit.  Aside from rowing, the exercises are all bodyweight stuff.  It's a "baseline" of your fitness.  

500 meter row

40 air squats (to a medicine ball)

30 sit ups

20 push ups

10 pull ups

My time a couple of months ago was 4:57.  My time yesterday:  4:09.  Huge, huge gain.  Now....I work out 4-5 days per week, and that has something to do with it, but I've also paired that with an almost impeccable diet the past 30 days.  

3.  Paleo is not hard.  Feeling like crap every day is hard.   

4.  This is a sustainable way of losing weight.  I started these 30 days weighing 246 lbs.  Today, as I'm rounding third and heading for home, I weigh 237 lbs.  A lot of that was water weight, I imagine, and remember....I work out consistently.  For some of the four weeks, as you can see in my journal notes, I did not work out as much as others. 

5.  While there are many ways to eat well and be successful, this is just one way.  I believe it's a good way to go if you can commit yourself to it....if you are ready.  Again, check out the Whole 9 if you think you may be ready.  I can't say enough good things about them as a resource!

My plan is to allow some foods back into my diet to see how I react to them.  I can see some pasta and other grains, legumes, and alcohol in infrequent, small quantities making their way back.  The trip to Chipotle, out for sushi, drinks with friends, etc......all those things that I found ways to avoid or politely say no to can have their place.  The weekly cheat meal is also a must.  Food deprivation only leads to food yo yo'ing in my opinion.  But the old me would string too many of those cheats together.  I've come too far to let that happen anymore.  

Well......rounding third and heading for home makes it sound like there is an end to this.  Quite the contrary.  The key for me now is to take this momentum and live it.  It really is a long term lifestyle.  The goal I have is to determine what foods I absolutely will stay away from because they impact me negatively while finding the others I can add back in that work for me.  

This is the almost-40 right-hander.....rounding third and headed for a lifetime of wellness.

On and off the Wagon

Yesterday started a bit differently for me.  My normal Saturday routine is to get a cup or two of coffee and head to CFC for the Saturday Hopper workouts.  Check out the link if you are unfamiliar with Crossfit.  However, since I'm heading out of town next Saturday to the Whole 9 Foundations of Nutrition Workshop in Chicago, this was my morning to be Mr. Mom, so my wife could head to the downtown Indianapolis Farmer's Market.  Check out her very non-Paleo find here.  If you like marshmellows you should check it out.  At least she brought back some sweet and spicy buffalo jerky for me.  

Upon my wife's return, I headed out to spend just a couple of hours at the Great Lakes Crossfit Invitational at a nearby Crossfit box in Noblesville, IN, just down the road.  What an event by Crossfit Indy North.  I've been Crossfitting since July and it's changed my life as I've written about in post after post, but I can not begin to describe to you what I experienced in as just an audience member and cheerleader at this event.  

The intensity of the athletes!  The endurance of the athletes!  The passion of the athletes, men and women alike!  The athletes!!!!

These folks started competing at 8 a.m. and had 4 workouts to try to finish in the top 20 which allowed them to compete in the final WOD.  I watched one guy do the following in just six minutes!!!!!

3 Rounds of...

20 back squats (115 lbs)

20 toes to bar

20 double unders

And that was after 3 previous workouts!!!  Unreal.  

Made me think of this....

An intended two hour stay turned into six hours of me cheering on the CFC folks who have become my workout friends.  Here's some of them.........

Reijo doing toes to bar

Kevin and his toes to bar

Keith getting ready to squat and Nick in the back right.

Kyle fighting through his toes to bar

I wish I would have felt like Superman a few hours later as I knew I was going out to eat with friends.  We went to one of the best places around our area:

Bonges Tavern

In the wam months this place encourages tailgating outside while you wait on a table.  While it's "controlled and civil" tailgating, it's a blast.  And the food inside..........Check out the menu.

This was my second trip here.  No tailgating, but our friends are neighbors with the lead chef, so we walked right in and probably pissed off the fifteen people waiting in the foyer near the space heater.  Anyone who knows me needs half a second to tell you what I ordered......

If I was tech savvy I would enter an mp3 soundbite here of the Pac Man sound when Pac Man get eaten.

While the cheesy horseradish potatoes are obviously not Paleo, the duck....yes....duck!  That heavenly tasting rolled duck with bbq sauce on top and stuffed with some kind of cheese that delicately oozes out of each slice......NOT PALEO........ok folks.......and neither were the three Sun King We Mac Brown Ales that I had.  

Not quite part of my 30 Day Paleo Challenge.  I've logged the food in my daily journal and today.....well.....I move on......No guilt.  No worries.  Just back on the wagon and off I go.  I don't feel any real impact to my digestion or how I feel this a.m.  It's one meal.  It was a damn incredibly good meal from start to finish.  Not what the 30 Day Challenge prescribes, but.........

While I'm a life-long fan of R.E.M., I'm not Superman.  I'm human.  Today is a new day and I can't wait to get to Crossfit tomorrow.  

Halfway There.....

Well these guys dominated the 80's and today......it's hard to discount that Jon Bon is still relavent.  I was not a real fan of Bon Jovi back then, however when I am able to consciously hear the music during a Crossfit WOD, this one always gives an extra kick to my motivation.  Come on......It's Bon F*%CING JOVI.  

Well......I'm just about halfway there.  30 days of strict Paleo.....cleansing all the crap from my body and eating as clean as possible for 30 days on my way to feeling better every day and hopefully performing better when I work out.  


Here is my food log for the 30 days to date.

I've done this before and it was somewhat challenging to start, however now it just feels like the way I eat.  Like a lifestyle.  Have there been sacrifices?  I guess.  I have come to not wanting eggs every morning, but I know how to make them, it takes little to no thinking for me, but my morning tastes are changing.  I crave sweet things in the a.m., and let ME TELL YOU.....if my wife is reading, she has probably fainted or fallen over in her seat, and if you are reading and you know my wife you are either laughing out loud or you have fainted because you know it takes an act like this to make her react like that.  Point being....I never, EVER....NEVER used to want fruit or anything sweet in the morning.  NEVER in my almost thirty-nine years on this planet have I wanted anything other than eggs, sausage, bread, oatmeal, or any other traditional breakfast food in the morning.  If fruit was ever served, I deflect it like this.....

GET THAT FRUIT OUT OF HERE!

BUT NOT ANYMORE!!!!

My tastes have changed.  It's not that big of a deal.  I feel clean.  My digestion in the morning is better.  I don't have big periods of hunger where I roam the kitchen for things to eat when I am really not hungry. I don't feel like I'm on a diet, rather it feels like this is the way I'm supposed to eat.  I feel stronger when I work out.  Perhaps it's because I'm don't feel sluggish and have the energy.  I don't think eating this way makes me stronger.  I think eating this way 24/7 provides energy unlike the way I ate before, thus I have more fuel stored away to perform better at the gym.  

I'm halfway there.  I've given thought to foods I may creep back in and see how I feel.  

I know the occasional spirit is in order

I know I'll add cheese here and there (raw cheese)


Those are the ones that glaringly stick out.  But the point is to add things back in and see how that feels, not to just start in and eat the excluded foods in mass quantity.  That's what a diet prescribes.  This is a dietary lifestyle.  

Stay tuned for my first trip out to eat.  Tonight we are joining friends to one of the best hidden gems in this state.  Bonges can only be described by seeing their website.  It's the kind of place you must have a drink, so stay tuned to see how I do.  Quite frankly.....I'm not sure.    What I know is DUCK is on the menu I can't wait.  

This duck deserves to be eaten!

Aggie

I'm not a big multiple post per day kind of guy, but I wanted to share a little bit more of what happened today.

It's Sunday and usually a rest day, but given my back injury, yesterday was my first WOD in 7 days.  See previous post, Annie for details.  Today, my buddy Mike asks me to come over and make up a WOD together given that Crossfit Carmel is closed on Sundays.  We come up w/the following:

25 double unders

25 air squats

25 push ups

4x for time 

Mike was jealous I showcased my pooch this a.m., so he dubbed today's WOD, Aggie.  He does have a freakin' good pooch as you can see, however she has not taken a bullet, is not blind in her eye from being stabbed, and her tail is in superior shape.  But this post and WOD was bigger than Aggie (sorry Mike and Jayme) which I will explain......

...........Last night I veered of the Paleo path and found my family and me at a gem of a restaurant in Carmel, Indiana.  Pizzology!  While I had the best bowl of muscles in this history of my life, I added two very scrumptious hoppy ales from The Victory Brewing Co. later that night with my trusty neighbor, Don.

1 Hop Devil and 1 Hop Wallop

Some of the best food and pale ale I've had in awhile.  But..........remember Aggie.....this story was bigger than that pooch right???!?!??!

Here goes......I spent 30 days on a strict Paleo diet.  I felt great.  I saw gains at Crossfit, and I JUST.  FELT.  GREAT!  I woke up this a.m. and I'll spare you the details of how my stomach was acting.  After the newly dubbed Aggie WOD, I felt reflux in my chest and my stomach ached a bit.  A far cry from how I felt after WODS while on my 30 day challenge.  While I believe in having that cheat meal or even a cheat day (whichever you can handle w/out going overboard), I don't like how the food and beverage made me feel the day after.  Granted, I've been off Crossfit for a week, I still know my stomach, and I know how it felt when I was not eating those foods.  So I've made the following conclusions:

#1:  Pizza is a food I often can not control, so I can not have pizza and beer together as a cheat meal and expect to feel good and perform well during a WOD a day or two later.  I'm not 17 anymore.

#2:  Beer can only be a treat once per week at the most and not in huge excess.

#3:  I don't like how I feel after beer and pizza now that I know what it was like during my 30 day challenge.  

#4.  The contrast b/t how I felt today versus how I felt when eliminating such foods/drink is incredible.  

#5:  It's easy to slip on dietary habits when injured or coming back from an injury.  

Thanks Aggie!!!