Yeah Paleo!

This is me before I started Paleo (yeah, it looks like I woke up after taking about  pound of heroin, what's the big whoop?)

 

 

6 weeks later, and I am well on my way to caveman status!

 

 

 

 

Haha, yeah.  Thanks to the Museum of Natural History in DC for this wonderfulness!  Interestingly enough, I stopped there with my cousin when he was in town, and when I saw this I knew it would be perfect for a little Paleo/Nutrition post.  So, let's get a little serious already.  Haha, I freaking love that picture!

So, upon reading a bit more I learned that it is not uncommon for a person to experience fatigue throughout the day, low energy and tougher sleeping patterns when going Paleo.  And while this is not the normal reaction for people, it will tend to happen to people who have diets very high in carbohydrates, dairy, sugars, and processed foods.  Well, I never had a diet very high in any of those things, and I still spend the middle of my days fighting to keep my eyes open.  But for some reason I still have not turned to the grains.  Two days ago I went to a mexican food place with Ori, had no chips (pretty impressive if you know me and how I love my chips and salsa), and asked for extra veggies instead of rice.  Why the hell am I refusing to consume grains and sugars if I feel so tired all the time?  And I am pushing well into my 7th week of pretty steady Paleo.

Chicken, olives and grilled veggies.  A soon to be regular spot of mine and Lindsey's in Burlingame, CA

Well, it is more intrigue than anything.  But I have decided that I will hold out for the rest of this week and next, this time around I will be super strict with it.  So, absolutely no form of grain, no added sugar, no legumes (I already do not eat dairy as i am sure has been made pretty clear).  It is touch for me because I have a hard time with red meat.  In fact, from my macrobiotic viewpoint, red meat is probably just as difficult to digest in the human body as dairy.  While the benefits are greater, they definitely come a pretty bog cost in terms of effort to actually break the substance down.  When next week comes to a close, I will begin adding minimal grain-formed carbohydrates to my diet, such as: race, oats, flax, quinoa and cous cous.  I will still be wheat/gluten free, and I will give that a try for a good long time to see what happens.  Here is the additional info on how I am going to approch this.  I will only eat the the grains in the morning and the middle of the day, and only on days where i know i will be expecting the most amount of energy.  Now, I will not stick to this perfectly, as I am a bit of a non-believer is having an overly structured life.  But I will probably not be having a bowl of oatmeal o my off days.  I will save them for days I have longer metcons or endurance workouts scheduled in.    Besides that, legumes will make a come back for sure.  I like peas, soy, and beans, so I will eat them.  Peanuts and peanut butter, well, I don;t care all that much, but if I have it, I have it; I won't stress out.  My appetite for almond and cahew butter is through the roof anyway.  

Lastly, I still need to work on getting more veggies into my diet.  I have no idea why this is so hard for me, but i struggle with it so much.  So, what I am doing now is trying to get at least one serving of those colorful plants into my mouth every time I have a meal.  Hard, but a good reminder and habit-forming process.

Whatever happens, I want to avoid a pate that looks like this:

Holy not so appealing!

Ha, shouldn't be too hard at all.  And yes, that is macaroni and cheese pizza.  Wow.  Shouldn't be a problem.  This was an option at one of those all you can eat pizza and past places the baseball team went to in North Carolina.  I had three plates of salad.

Never Stop, GET FIT.

Josh Courage