Paleo Challenge

Hello Friends!  Hope your hump day is going well, mine technically could be better… but I am alive and well so let’s run with that!

So, my Crossfit Gym is currently doing their second Paleo Challenge and I decided to hop on the bandwagon for this one.  The first time around I was pretty much eating ‘Paleo’ with the exception of Greek yogurt every day and a few carbs before my long training runs.  The challenge was the same month as my marathon last year, so I was also afraid of tweaking anything too much since I was feeling really good at that point.

So fast forward to now, I have no excuse.  Let me first say something  important, I am VERY much AGAINST diets in general.    I have never put myself on a diet, I just eat healthy and clean, workout like a banshee and have an occasional overdose in chocolate or candy.  However, since I have a history of low iron levels, putting more meat into my diet as the Paleo lifestyle requires, I know will only help me.  But I am also super curious to see how my workouts, runs and body composition is affected after 30 days of strict Paleo.  We did a benchmark workout this weekend that we will do again at the end of the 30 days and then of course we got our measurements, weight and pictures taken.  If I am able to get a copy of them, I will definitely share pictures post challenge.  Not that I am super excited to show the world myself in shorts and sports bra biggest loser style, but I think it will be cool to show the results (fingers crossed that I have some good ones).  COME ON SIX PACK!  Also, I promise if I do someday  get a six pack, (even though I will be really excited) I will not take a picture of myself in the bathroom and post it.  Sorry, but that is just weird.

See? Just weird (sorry random girl off the internet, you look great).

I should also mention, I am a person of extremes.  If it is just any other day and you put a bag of sour patch kids in front of me, I will own them.  However, if I am putting myself on a challenge or I have a big race coming up and need to be extra clean, I am hardcore and prettty impossible to break. My friends love to test me on this.   I just wish I could be like that all year long, stupid holiday season treats.  Oh and did I tell you that the winner of this challenge gets CASH MONEY?!  So there is another motivator right there!

In a nutshell, the ‘Paleo Lifestyle‘ is also known as the Caveman diet.  So anything that you would not be able to “hunt and gather”, you cannot eat.  No dairy, no bread, etc.  It consists of meat, fruits and veggies.  I think the hardest part for most people is the carbs, I am lucky that I have somewhat of a gluten intolerance,  so this portion was not really an issue for me.  But MAN do I love me some yogurt and fatty coffee creamer!  So that has been a struggle to try and change, but I have been working on it for a few months in hopes that by the time the next challenge came, I would be good to go.  However, just as I anticipated the hardest part of this challenge so far is my snacking.  I am limiting myself to one snack in between breakfast and lunch and one snack in between lunch and dinner.  Sounds normal right?  Well I am a snacking machine.  Even though I snack on healthy things, I snack way too much.

So wish me luck! I am sure I will be posting something about how I am going through processed sugar withdrawals, but other than that I am excited to see what this challenge brings!

Christmas Abbott=my inspiration