Crossfitting Austin

I started CrossFitting almost one year ago.  And while I’ve seen tremendous gains in my capacity for work and strength, I still have along way to go.

Especially in my body. While I have lost nearly 30 lbs and 15% body fat in the last year, I should have/could have lost quite a bit more.

As my trainer at CrossFit Central keeps harping…diet is at least 90% of the equation.

So, I’m going to give this “eating clean” thing a real, honest try. On Monday, July 27 I started eating Paleo. Also known as the “caveman diet”:

The Paleo Diet is a way of eating in the modern age that best mimics the nutrition of our evolutionary and genetic heritage – an ancestral, Paleolithic diet. For millions of years our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate combinations of lean meats, seafoods, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. But today in America, more than 70% of our dietary calories come from foods that our Paleolithic (Stone Age) ancestors rarely if ever ate … and that modern humans are not genetically adapted to eat. The result is epidemic levels of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, arthritis, acne, gastrointestinal disease, and more.

So, I’m going to accept Melissa Byers’ 30-day Paleo challenge (her challenge started at the beginning of July, but I’m jumping into it now).

I’m 5 days in, and so far so good. I was eating pretty clean about 60% of the time before Monday…but that is obviously not good enough.

The hardest part thing to give up for me won’t be the sugars, breads, grains, or starches. It’ll be cheese — I eat cheese on almost everything.

But for at least the next 30 days, no cheese for me.

Just lots of lean meats, lots of veges, nuts and seeds, and some fruit. Although, I’ll probably end up eating a lot of fruit (our company provides nearly unlimited fresh and free apples, oranges, and bananas in our company kitchen, so I usually eat 2 pieces of fruit with breakfast and an apple for my afternoon snack).

Where I’ve “cheated” so far this week:

• Protein Whey — For the last year or so, I’ve been getting my morning protein from protein whey (mixed with water). I still have about 1/2 gallon of powder left. I’ll keep using it for breakfast (along with an apple and some almonds) until it’s gone.
• Honey — there’s some debate about it, as it was a paleo food, but is still high in sugar. I’ve used it a few times this week. I should probably cut it out.

Any how — I wanted to post a record of this, so I’ll remember the dates of starting.