The Challenge...We need all the help we can get

Hopefully at this point a good amount of you have dove head first and accepted this challenge.

Today is DAY 2 and this is what I would suggest:

1. Take and front view and back view Picture of yourself (set the timer, put the camera on a table...no excuses)

2. Start a Food Log (not to get wrapped around the axle but to make sure that you are getting enough food, namely protein)

3. Sleep (try for 8 hours- I know for the 0600ers its really hard to fit it in but keep on reading and you'll see the importance)

4. Prepare (if you haven't already go grocery shopping tonight, pack a lunch, boil some eggs, slow cook a chicken, cut up some broccoli/cucumbers/red peppers etc.-- get some easy food prepped to grab-and go)

5. Get Excited, whatever your reason, motivate yourself and anticipate the success and benefits of 30 days of discipline!!

Ok, so you took the pictures, started a food log... now go get ready for bed ;)


TIP #1 Sleep: Appetite

Briefly, I wanted to touch on the topic of sleep. Starting this Paleo Challenge we will need all the help we can get and that includes not being artifically hungry throughout the day. Adequate sleep will be one of your best resources for keeping that appetite true.

Below, I included some articles that come from sciency-people (one of whom I am definitely not).

We have to "listen to our bodies" but when sleep deprevation registers our homones and appetite get all thrown out of wack (read articles). I'm not going to speak to the science part but I can shed some light on the subject through...

My Personal Experience:

I had a hard week last week...Filthy Fifty, Fran and 12 days of Crossfit...plus two CrossFit Endurance workouts (tabata and 6x400m). Come Jan 02, I was BEAT...and it was supposed to be a double day. I ended up not able to fit in the workouts (due to my better half returning from Thailand and blustering artic-tundra-like winds) so I rested. What? Rest? Yes, I needed it.

Friday, I got something like 9+ hours of sleep (is that a record?)

and then Saturday, I wasn't planning on it but I slept for 10.5 hours

This is absurd for me. Usually I am trying to fit in between 7-8 hours. When I get those 4 hour nights I can turn off the appetite the next day. I could have done no physical activity and I am ravenous, no fair!

I know some of you are rolling your eyes because this is way more sleep than you can fit in your schedules but its important.

So with this sleep behind me, yesterday I showed up at the 0600 and had one of my better workouts yet.

I attribute it to the sleep and rest!

Read the articles and post comments.

GOOD LUCK!!

Lets get this show on the road...

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20041206/sleep-loss-feeds-appetite

http://www.sleepdex.org/appetite2.htm

http://www.uchospitals.edu/news/2004/20041206-sleep.html

EDIT (10 Jan 10) I recently found this posting on Paleo Diet Online and wanted to retroactively include it on this post. The title is Stress, Cortisol, Sleep and Their Effect on Health.

Tomorrow it Begins

Tomorrow is the start of our 30 day Paleo Challenge.  If you’re still on the fence at this point, I suggest you jump down off the fence and start Paleo with everyone starting the challenge tomorrow.  It is not just CF Bolling doing a Paleo challenge; there are hundreds of CrossFit affiliates across the country starting Paleo challenges tomorrow, including CF Alexandria.

Before we kick off tomorrow, I want to state something.  Some of you doing this challenge will not lose a ton of weight.  But you will see your body composition change pretty dramatically.  This is not a fad diet that is built to have you shed water weight and make you feel better about your progress.  This is a diet that if you buy into it completely will fundamentally alter the way you look at food and what it does to your body.  I know personally I feel better, I sleep better, and my CrossFit performances have taken huge leaps since I have been on the Paleo diet.  Since I started doing Paleo 4 months ago I have taken a minute off my Fran time.  I know the Paleo diet is not solely responsible for that, I credit Casey and Rudy's programming as well but I do not think it would have made that big of a jump if not for the Paleo Diet.

So tomorrow is the big day, I hope that you have enjoyed the blog so far.  Mac and I have worked hard on getting a lot of information out quickly so everyone can jump on the Paleo bandwagon 4 January.  Yuki will be bringing her scale tomorrow so everyone can have a solid starting point.

P.S.  We are not doing before and after pictures for the challenge, but I encourage everyone participating to take a picture of themselves (men: shorts no shirt. women: shorts, sports bra) tomorrow so you can have a before and after picture.  This is something I wish I would have done.

Paleo Beef Stew

On cold windy days like this, I like to have to have something warm and hearty to eat. I found this recipe for Paleo Beef Stew on the CFSCC Eat This website. I have made it three or four times in the last few months and it never fails to disappoint.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. lean stew meat, left in big chunks!

about 3 T olive oil

32 oz. low sodium beef stock

1 -14 oz. can stewed tomatoes, no added salt

1/4 C almond flour

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

veggies:

1 large rutabaga, cut into big chunks

1 large parsnip, cut into large chunks

1 large turnip, big chunks

3 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 C baby carrots, whole

1 C pearl onions, pealed and left whole (added in the last 1/2 hour of cooking)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

In a plastic bag, combine almond flour and spices. Add stew meat to plastic bag and shake until meat is well coated. Heat about 2 tsp olive oil in pan (I used my favorite cast iron pan). Brown meat in pan... this may take two batches. Add a little more olive oil if needed. When browned, put stew meat in crock pot and add everything else (except pearl onions). I cooked this on high for about 3 hours, then turned in down low for another 2 hours. Add the pearl onion about 1/2 hour before serving. If they are added too soon, they break down too much.

This is total paleo, and 1 C is about a 4 block meal (for those who might be zoneing).

Break-Fast

Imagine going through your day, maybe just sitting at your desk...for eight long hours...without eating. I would be Miserable. Starving. Grumpy. In dire need of a snack. Well, you do this EVERYDAY (give or take a couple hours) except its nighttime. What I'm getting at here is you guys have to break this overnight fast in the morning! I'm not necessarily saying to eat before you workout, except that I have been eating a little applesauce lately with protein powder and loving the results. You guys do need to eat in the morning, preferrably as close to the workout as possible (again, a whole other topic). This blog is about eating Paleo so I wanted to post some really simple breakfast options:

Smoothie
Time: 30 seconds in my Vita-Mix
Ingredients:
CARB 2-4 cups frozen fruit from costco, mix berries and strawberries
PROTEIN 2-4 TBS protein powder ( I use Hemp Protein from Trader Joes...its doesn't taste bad and no it doesn't make me high)
water
FAT I bring along almonds in a ziploc and munch on those throughout the day

Leftover Meat and Butternut Squash
Time: 2 seconds to grab the leftovers and about 30 mins for the butternut squash @350F
Ingredients:
CARB about 2 cups of butternut squash (if you follow zone portions 3/4 cup is one block)
PROTEIN a piece of meat the size of the palm of your hand (in thickness and diameter)
FAT later on I will eat an avocado or more nuts as I get hungry...

Egg Muffins
Courtesy of Performance Menu

Make these in muffin cups and they are easy to grab and go for breakfast—either hot or cold. This is the doubled version, which makes about 16 muffin cups.

· 1 whole package of ground turkey or turkey sausage, over 1 lb.
· 1 yellow, red or orange bell pepper, chopped
· 1 whole medium onion, chopped
· 1 package of sliced white mushrooms
· Salt and pepper
· 10 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup (or two 6-cup) muffin pan with paper baking cups. Using only one paper baking cup per muffin is best.

In a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, cook the turkey, pepper, onion and mushrooms for 5 minutes or until the turkey is no longer pink. Add salt and pepper (a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper is fine). Spoon this mixture into a larger bowl and cool slightly, about 5 to 10 minutes (if the turkey is not cooled it will cook the egg, which is bad). Stir in the eggs. Evenly divide the mixture among the prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, or until the egg is set.

Remove from oven. Let the egg cups cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Remove the egg cups and place them in a Tupperware container and refrigerate. The egg cups will last for up to a week.

Reheating instruction: Leave the egg “muffin” in the paper cup. Heat in the microwave loosely wrapped in a paper towel for 25 to 30 seconds. Peel off the paper cup and enjoy! Two egg cups makes a great breakfast.

Pumpkin Paleo Pancakes
(2) 5 block meals (approx 35 gm P, 45 gm C, 45 gm F /person)

Courtesy of Steve "Paleo" who has the most delicious recipes EVER!!

2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves (my addition- remember, I love spice!)
1 tablespoon honey (Steve's recipe called for agave but I like honey better)

2 tablespoons chopped pecans - topping
2 tablespoon real maple syrup - topping

Coconut oil - for the pan

Mix everything up real good - sometimes that nut butter is clumpy - and make pancakes as usual (except you're gonna use the coconut oil in the pan) and add the pecans and maple syrup at the end. The recipe above makes 2 good size pancakes.

On the side you can up the protein and the carbs by:
12 extra egg whites to bring the protein up 35 gms/person
~ 4 oz of berries to bring the carbs up to ~45 gms/person

Watch This / Read This

One of the things I wanted to do with this blog is give people suggestions on movies to watch and books to read that might change the way you look and think about food.  The first movie I would like to suggest is Food Inc., this movie was given a nationwide release earlier this year but I have not run into many people that have actually seen it.  This is the movie that pushed me into eating Paleo and I think it might have the same effect on other people.  Below is a synopsis from IMDB.

"The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and technology, but often have negative side effects. The answer that the companies have come up with is to throw more science at the problems to bandage the issues but not the root causes. The global food supply may be in crisis with lack of biodiversity, but can be changed on the demand side of the equation"

 Like I said at the top this movie completely changed the way I looked at food.  I switched the grass fed beef and bison as my main sources of protein and adopted the Paleo way of eating.  In a later post I will supply links to the farm where I order my meet from, they deliver to many locations in the National Capitol Region, so you do not have to worry about driving to far to pick up orders.

If you have seen this movie please share your thoughts in the comments section.


If you have Netflix this movie is available for streaming on your PC, XBOX360, Blu-ray player, etc.

Food, Inc. Trailer from TakePart on Vimeo.

WHY MEEEEE???

Ok, people keep asking me to post a simple blurb on WHY?

Now, everyone has their unique motivations and that is exactly why we are curious, there are so many different reasons...why deprive yourself of steaming, sticky cinnamon buns and that ever-present cheese and crackers? Maybe because it just makes me more hungry (among other things)...and I HATE being hungry.

In an effort to organize this posting, I have come up with my top five reasons (not in any particular order) why I eat paleo:

1. Athletic Performance; WHY IS THE PALEO DIET ERGOGENIC?

Source: The Paleo Diet for Athletes by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel

• Increased intake of branched chain amino acids (BCAA). Benefits muscle development and anabolic function. Also counteracts immunosuppression common in endurance athletes following extensive exercise.
• Decreased omega-6:omega-3 ratio. Reduces tissue inflammation common to athletes while promoting healing.
• Alkaline enhancing. Reduces catabolic (breakdown) effect of acidosis on bone and muscle while stimulating muscle protein synthesis.
• High in trace nutrients. Trace nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are necessary for long-term recovery from exercise and for health. The most nutrient-dense foods are vegetables and seafood. On average, vegetables have nearly twice the nutrient density of grains.

2. Ideal Body Compostion

• Initial weight loss (I was 150lbs since age 16; now I have weighed around 135lbs for almost a year)
• Lean muscle, loss of body fat (last time I checked I was at 14 %)
• Actually, had to go out and buy a bunch of new clothes ($$$ ugh)

3. Sleep, Energy (I lumped these together because they may be interrelated??)

• Sound, continuous sleep that happens right after my head hits the pillow
• Alert, energetic mood from the start of my morning...it can be very obnoxious! haha
• Naturally my body sleeps for 7.5 hours -8.5 hours, I really have to force myself to stay in bed longer.

Straight to the Bar's Scott Bird also had this unexpected benefit:

"After only a few days of Paleo eating, I noted that I was getting markedly better sleep. Factors such as a constant loud noise or a particularly hectic day were having less of an impact, and I awoke feeling refreshed regardless of the starting point. This change alone has major carry-over benefits to other activities throughout the day.

4. Food Choices

• Believe it or not, I LOVE the unique, crazy combinations I find using paleo only ingredients
• I am confident that I take in far more nutrients than pre-paleo
• Never have that insulin spike, sugar craving, hunger feeling! I can't tell you how much I hate that feeling

5. Comfort that I am eating the way I should be eating

• This is probably the most personal reason. By eating paleo, I know that I am naturally fueling myself.
• There is something to be said about quantity but I think this should be addressed in another post.
• I love that it is a lifestyle not a discipline thing...I eat what I need and I am satisfied!

I hope that this post spoke to some people...Your reasons might be completely different. You may want to

1. lower your blood pressure

2. clear up acne.

3. work on your focus/concentration

4. joining the challenge in morale support for a loved one!

Please,

if you have any thoughts about it, suggestions for the blog or questions that need answering...LEAVE A COMMENT :)

Are We Crazy??

To a lot of people the Paleo diet is the complete opposite of everything they have been taught about dieting and nutrition. This is especially true of someone has been trying to follow the misguided nutrition advice of the government approved Food Pyramid.

According to Harvard scientist Dr. Walter Willett, the food pyramid is not up-to-date with current nutritional research. He states six faults of the food pyramid that are misleading American people, and adding to the growing epidemic of obesity:

1. All fats are bad.

2. All complex carbohydrates are good.

3. Protein is protein.

4. Dairy products are essential.

5. Eat your potatoes.

Do you really want these people guiding your nutritional future? Remember these are the same government agencies that did nothing but send a letter that threatened an investigation to the food industry when the food industry was trying to implement their "Smart Choices" program. If you have not seen this program; the program is a way the food industry is trying to help consumers make bettter choices when it comes to food.

This all sounds noble, but when you see that sugary cereals and heavily salted packaged meals receive the smart choices check mark, it should really make you question what the food industry is trying to do to you. If you would like more information on this you can check out this piece in the New York Times.

Smart Choices?

If you still need convincing about the Paleo Diet, please read the below article by Robb Wolf that was posted on the NorCal Nutrition site. Please ask Mac and me quesitons about the Paleo diet.  Leave your comments below.

Are We Crazy?