Testing the Waters

When I first started eating Paleo, the hardest thing was to keep a well-stocked kitchen. On average you will be grocery shopping 1-2x times a week (and thats if you can buy in bulk most of the time). Without grains, dairy and legumes in your diet, you will be needing to consume a ton more vegetables, protein only in meat and egg form and ideally the same amount of fruit. So I am going to post a sample grocery list as a starting point for those of you up for the challenge. Don't be alarmed! Plan a little bit and your body/performance will thank you :)

Have you eaten at McDonald's lately?

Here is a disturbing video on fast "food". You can pretty much get the idea from the first 40 seconds. Takeaway: 4 year-old burger looks like a day old burger; no decomposition. What does your body do with this brick of ???, store it, stick it to your waist/legs/arms...disgusting.

Source: http://weightoftheevidence.wordpress.com/

Paleo Challenge begins 4 January

The CrossFit Bolling 30 day Paleo Challenge is set to begin on 4 January.  For those of you who were at the gym this morning and might have missed it Casey announced it this morning.  For those who might have missed this morning, this is your official announcement.

As someone who has been Paleo diet for several months, I can tell you that the hardest thing to overcome while starting the diet was the complete elimination of all grains and beans. It’s important to remember however that just because you are eliminating grains and refined sugar does not mean this is a low carb diet, because it’s not. The idea is just to get all your carbs from fruits and vegetables instead; which means eating a ton of salad. While on this diet, I basically eat what my body is craving, as long as it was acceptable for the diet.

There is much more to come on this blog as we get closer to 4 January.  We will have someone else posting on the blog with me.  If you have been coming to CrossFit Bolling for awhile I’m sure you all know Mac.  She will also be posting on the site.

Below is a link to a paper the Robb Wolf recommends on the nutritional characteristics of a contemporary diet based upon Paleolithic food groups,  It is a pretty quick read:

 Paleo Nutrition Paper

What is the Paleo Diet

For many people new to CrossFit the Paleo diet is a new term, quite simply it is a way of eating that closely mimics the way our Paleolithic ancestors ate. This quote taken from The Paleo Diet Website gives you a good quick introduction to the Paleo Diet.

The Paleo Diet is a way of eating in the modern age that best mimics diets of our hunter-gatherer ancestors - combinations of lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.

Notice anything that the above quote left out? For many people this is where the Paleo Diet seems impossible, you do not eat grains and you do not consume dairy. Now before you shut down your browser and think the diet is too hard and you will never be able to stick with it let me reassure you from my personal experience with this diet that you can start this diet, you can stick to this diet, and it will completely change your life.

The first part of this diet is the hardest part; I talked to Casey about this and I would like for CrossFit Bolling to do a 30 day Paleo challenge to start off the New Year. So the question, would you give up 30 days to completely change your life and the way you look at food? On this blog I will post recipes and links to help keep people motivated. If you have Paleo questions just ask and I will get you the answer.

I hope that this can become a place for us to ask nutrition questions and help each other stay on track when it comes to nutrition, because I don't think any of us have the time to ask these questions while we are there with Casey.  There is much more to come on this blog I just wanted to get this quick post out because I talked about the site (and wrote it on the white board) at the noon class.