Paleo Challenge: Day #15 & 16

Mondays are my especially long days. I teach until past 10:00 p.m., and when I made it home last night, I went straight to bed.

So, the last two days I have made peace with this diet. Instead of trying to fit it into my normalcy, I have just given up and gone with what feels right. So, instead of 3 meals and two snacks each day, I feel like I am eating constantly. Yesterday, I had a several pieces of fruit, some steamed vegetables, some turkey, plenty of nuts and two poached eggs. They were pretty much spread out and nothing was really a "meal". But, I wasn't hungry and I felt fine through my marathon four hour math class.

Today was pretty much the same, except we did have a sit down dinner of crock pot roast, sliced pears, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. It was very tasty and I am full.

I didn't make it to the gym yesterday and I usually don't on Mondays, but I did make it this afternoon. The WOD was:

5 Rounds for time:

400m Run

15 KTE’s

20 Wall Balls

25 Push-ups

I finished in 32:15, which was about in the middle of where most people finished. I wasn't using quite as heavy of a medicine ball on the wall balls as I should have, but I think it was right for me today. Wall balls have always been a weakness of mine - along with anything that requires coordination.

Paleo Challenge: Day #14

I am writing this on Monday. I've been pretty good to post on the day of so far for this challenge, but I was not feeling well last night and ended up on opting for an early bed time.

Breakfast yesterday was a banana and some walnuts. I spoke in church and had to hurry out the door fast to make sure I was there with time to spare. Lunch was some turkey, a salad, a peach and some orange juice. I had a snack of a pear and some almonds before dinner.

Dinner was an interesting mix of experimental food. We had a salad with tomatoes, carrots and sweet habanero peppers. We also ate grilled portabella mushrooms, asparagus, sauted baby eggplant, and grapes.

I had an evening snack of a peach and some almonds.

Paleo Challenge: Day #13

Well, the challenge ends two weeks from today. I will make it.

Breakfast this morning was a pear, some nuts and two eggs. There wasn't much in the house, so I just scraped together what I could. Then I headed off to the gym for the 9:30 WOD. The WOD today was:

2 Person team will complete:

800m Relay Run

80 Wall Balls

80 SDLHP

80 Box Jumps

800m Relay Run

80 Push-Press

80 Burpees

80 Sit-ups

800m Relay Run

The girl I was paired up with is a Sargent in the ROTC and was a lot better than I was. We ended up on having to take some of the weight off for the SDLHP and Push-Presses, so that I could complete my part. We finished up in 43:15.

I made it to the store before lunch and so I had a bunch of fresh fruit and veges along with some turkey for lunch.

My afternoon snack was some nuts and a peach.

We had dinner out with the rest of the crossfit people at BD's Mongolian Grill. It was quite a feast and good times with our fellow gym friends, though some were almost unrecognizable in their made-up non-gym state.

I was stuffed after dinner, but in the spirit of the challenge, I am currently eating an evening snack - a single golden delicious apple.

Paleo Challenge: Day #12

Food was running low and there was a lot going on today. I don't think I really had enough to eat today, mainly because the Paleo options left in the house were not necessarily fast or easy. I had to be up to Breckinridge Elementary at 8:00 this morning for more assessments on Michael, and I woke up later than I should have, so I just grabbed a bag of pecans and some grapes on the way out the door.

We made it back home around ten and Michael was acting a little under the weather. I let him watch TV for a while and then had a few slices of turkey with a nectarine and called it lunch. We both went down for a nap after that. I had a small snack before the gym - just some nuts and some grapes again.

The WOD today was:

For time:

400m Run

2 Hang Power Cleans

4 Push-Presses

10 KTE’s

4 Hang Power Cleans

8 Push-Presses

10 KTE’s

6 Hang Power Cleans

12 Push-Presses

10 KTE’s

4 Hang Power Cleans

8 Push-Presses

10 KTE’s

2 Hang Power Cleans

4 Push-Presses

10 KTE’s

400m Run

I started with a 75 # weight, but ended up on just going down to the 45# bar for the last two sets of Cleans and Push-Presses. I've got to make it to the gym tomorrow as well to get in my last WOD for this week. The challenge ends on October 3rd, which is two weeks from tomorrow. So, I am almost halfway there.

Dinner was some poached eggs and veges. And I had an evening snack of walnuts and another nectarine. Now, I'm off to get my 8+ hours of sleep - the part of the challenge that I am really good at.

Paleo Challenge: Day #11

So, this morning started out with a not quite ripe nectarine, nuts and some turkey. That seems to be the breakfast for me lately since it is as quick as cereal and still fills me up enough to last a few hours. Lunch was another salad with turkey, strawberries, pecans, grapes, and carrots topping romaine lettuce. Dinner was poached eggs and fruit. I had several small snacks scattered in there as well - mostly nuts, fruit, carrots, and meat.

I taught this evening, so this has been another busy day. It has been inconvenient to not be able to grab a bowl of cereal or a granola bar, but we've had plenty of alternatives and I've felt pretty good.

I didn't do a workout today. I do plan to do the WOD tomorrow and Saturday.

Paleo Challenge: Day #10

Hey, we're into double digits. I will live. This morning I woke up after a full 10 hours of sleep to a breakfast of applesauce, turkey and walnuts. It has been 4 days since the shopping trip and food is starting to get scarce. I went off to teach and had an interesting morning in my Math class. I am starting to believe that no matter how hard I try there will always be students that stubbornly refuse to learn. Still, that belief depresses me some, so I try not to actually go there.

Lunch was a salad of romaine lettuce, carrots, chicken, pecans, and purple grapes. As weird as the combination may sound, it was actually quite tasty. Then after carpools, homework and piano practice, and a fast snack of grapes and turkey we were off to the gym. The WOD today was so convoluted that I am forced to cut and paste it from the gym's website. Here it is:

21 KB Swings 53/35 lbs

100m Run

21 Pull-ups

100m Run Backwards

15 KB Swings

100m Run

15 Pull-ups

100m Run Backwards

9 KB Swings

100m Run

9 Pull-ups

100m Run Backwards

100m Bear Crawl to finish

Yeah. It wasn't as bad as it looks though. I finished up in 11 minutes 35 seconds.

Dinner was pork chops, the rest of the grapes, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I was able to stop at the grocery store this evening for some more fruit. Hooray. We now have pears and nectarines and strawberries in the house.

Evening snack was some fruit and nuts.

Paleo Challenge: Day #9

What a crazy day. I usually post some through out the day, but here I am at the end of the day eating pecans at my computer and trying to remember what I ate today.

Breakfast was applesauce, nuts and some turkey. I went out to lunch with Brig to Chick-fil-a and got the same salad that I did on Saturday - not filling, but it meets the requirements. The rest of my "meals" today have been snacks. I've had applesauce, grapes, carrots, all kinds of nuts, and three poached eggs at various times between about 2:30 p.m. and now. I have not had anything that doesn't fit the list of foods we were given and even though my meals were not defined, I believe I get all points for eating under the spirit of the law.

The workout today was short, but difficult for me. One of the hardest moves at the gym for me is the basic squat. While others jump in and out of these like there's nothing to it, I am slow. Maybe it is because I am so tall and have a long way to go down. That must be it. Anyway, the workout was:

4 rounds:

400 meter run
50 squats

So, for those of you doing the math, that is a total of 200 squats. The coaches watch carefully to make sure that we go "all the way down" every single time. They put a medicine ball under us and make sure we touch it each time. Pure torture for me. I finished the workout in 17:45. I was the second to last person in the group to finish which meant that I got to be cheered on by all of the other who were done with their workout first. Hooray!

Still, in the spirit of optimism, I must say that while I totally suck at squats, I am an ace number one sleeper. While the others at the gym complain about their inability to sleep for 8 hours, I still feel deprived after 9. Sleeping 8 hours a night has been the easiest part of this challenge for me. Go me.