Paleo Challenge
bostonwolf
Posts: 3,038 Member
We started our month-long paleo challenge Monday. A few thoughts so far.
1. I feel so damned good when I eat Paleo. Better and more consistent energy levels, no bloating, etc. I don't know why I forget it so often and eat processed foods.
2. As long as I do some planning, keeping to it is no problem for me. I honestly don't crave sugar, bread, rice, etc. If I get the craving for something sweet one of my friends showed me a brilliant thing to cure it. Take 2 frozen bananas, a few tbsps of cocoa powder and some coconut water and blend them until you get a soft-serve ice cream consistency. It's just sweet enough to put the demons back in the cage.
3. The thing I missed most is beer. And not really the beer itself, but I've been having one beer a night just to reduce the amount I have, and I'm also not buying any more. Just the habit of sitting down and having a beer is the ONLY thing I've actually missed since Monday.
In terms of performance I'm not really sure how the diet affects me. It is definitely low carb, but I can only remember being "out of gas" for a workout a few times, and they were longer met-cons.
1. I feel so damned good when I eat Paleo. Better and more consistent energy levels, no bloating, etc. I don't know why I forget it so often and eat processed foods.
2. As long as I do some planning, keeping to it is no problem for me. I honestly don't crave sugar, bread, rice, etc. If I get the craving for something sweet one of my friends showed me a brilliant thing to cure it. Take 2 frozen bananas, a few tbsps of cocoa powder and some coconut water and blend them until you get a soft-serve ice cream consistency. It's just sweet enough to put the demons back in the cage.
3. The thing I missed most is beer. And not really the beer itself, but I've been having one beer a night just to reduce the amount I have, and I'm also not buying any more. Just the habit of sitting down and having a beer is the ONLY thing I've actually missed since Monday.
In terms of performance I'm not really sure how the diet affects me. It is definitely low carb, but I can only remember being "out of gas" for a workout a few times, and they were longer met-cons.
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Replies
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well done and I agree, I forget how good I feel. I am so torn at the moment about continuing paleo or not. I just need to sort myself out, but good for you.0
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So how do you combine this with Eat To Perform? I know plenty of people do but it always seems like a lot of sweet potato to me.
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Pretty much going low carb for the month.
As of this morning I have lost 7 lbs since we weighed in on Monday, though a lot of this is water leaving as I cut my carb intake. . And yesterday I ate 2784 calories. 99g of carbs, 151 grams of fat, 246 grams of protein. Monday I ate 2833 (65/174/237), Tuesday just over 2000(69/115/187.)
Haven't been hungry too often and when I am I just grab a handful of nuts.0 -
After dying during last night's WOD, I will ramp up carbs a bit more pre-workout. Yes, lots of sweet potato.0
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The idea of going paleo is so horribly anxiety-producing for me that I would never do it. No diary? Low carb? It's like my personal circle of hell.
Shudder.
I am always so super impressed by those who do it so willingly! Good luck!0 -
it's really not that bad. And I do it this strict for our challenges but I'll add in some cheese when it's over. I really just need to avoid breads, etc. They tend to bloat me and make me feel like crap.
Beer does that too to some extent but I'd rather die than give that up.0 -
I've eaten high carb my whole life, so I'm probably in a perpetual state of bloat. And I'm okay with that. hehe
I don't think I've eaten fewer than 200g carbs on any day of my life. But I do try to do a bit better about hitting my protein macros so I can gain some muscle too. And it's worked well. It's so fascinating and awesome how everyone's bodies react so differently to things--from gluten to carbs to protein to fats...in a different life I'd be a "real" doctor (instead of a PhD) and study how they all intersect. haha0 -
My wife is the same. Once I get back to ETP I'll pretty much eat the same but ramp up the carbs on workout days with rice, potatoes etc.0
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It is really easy for me, Paleo diet is really easy, except following ETP diet adding rice for pre and post workouts is working perfect for me! Think of it this way, you need to enter your workouts with a full tank of energy (rice add) like a car, fuel tank to excel during the WOD!0
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Today I'm trying to keep my carbs below 200g. The struggle is real.
My awe of you guys knows no bounds.0 -
I’m not sure why you think paleo is low carb. It can be, but doesn’t have to be. In fact, I’m pretty certain our ancestors would have tore into some fruit and root veggies if they found them.0
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no no no no..."root vegetables"? Nah, man...I want some BREAD. And cereal. And chocolate.
lol
And I bet you money every caveman in the world would have sold his loincloth for some lucky charms.
(for real--I eat for joy...and meat and veggies do not make me joyous hehe)0 -
(like I said--more power to those who do it, and I think every meal and diet plan has its place and its purpose...but they're not the same for everyone. and Paleo just ain't for me.)
:-)0 -
I'm with bethlivi (mostly) on this one. Paleo is a non-starter for me. In the past I've lasted about a day before I give in to cravings. Fruit and root veggies (aside from sweet potatoes) might be mostly carbs but they aren't good fuel sources. I think that's to do with fibre content. I think that it's historically been because I just wasn't eating *enough*
Actually since I've had to go gluten free I'm finding that a lot of my diet is paleo anyway. Yesterday I made banana bread with coconut flour and pumpkin bread with almond flour. I eat a lot of sweet potato already, just because it's tasty and easy to prepare. It's just the convenience food, like my pre-bed rice pudding (dairy) and the Quorn chicken pieces for lunch that I can just stick in the microwave and eat.
Cooking everything completely from scratch on Eat To Perform is not something I can achieve. It's a lot of food. I have a full time plus job, Crossfit, rowing, a house to keep from getting *too* messy and occasionally a social life. I struggle to get to bed on time with the amount of food prep already
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I have no real problem with the cooking, I just do it in bulk. I cooked a few pounds of chicken tenders last night and portioned them off, so now I have 4 meals worth of meat that can either go in a salad or get heated up to eat with some vegetables for dinner. I also use the crockpot to make large portions of chili or tikka masala that I break out for lunch. I can usually get 10 or 11 servings per batch which is lunch for two work weeks.
I make eggs almost every morning. that only takes 10 minutes or so.
Now, if you don't eat meat, I'm not sure how you'd do Paleo since soy is verboten.0 -
I've eaten high carb my whole life, so I'm probably in a perpetual state of bloat. And I'm okay with that. hehe
I don't think I've eaten fewer than 200g carbs on any day of my life. But I do try to do a bit better about hitting my protein macros so I can gain some muscle too. And it's worked well. It's so fascinating and awesome how everyone's bodies react so differently to things--from gluten to carbs to protein to fats...in a different life I'd be a "real" doctor (instead of a PhD) and study how they all intersect. haha
Yeah, people react differently to various macro ratios. I think some people do really well on low carb or high, but low carb didn't do anything for me and high carb is a struggle anyway (I'm a protein and fat lover).
I actually like how paleo seems to be moving away from the low carb version (at least based on various podcasts I listen to and my CF box), although my brief experiment with paleo is long over since I decided I do better with legumes and dairy in my diet and don't get any negative reactions to grains (although I tend to cut them a lot when cutting calories just because I don't tend to miss them much).
My box doesn't do a full-scale paleo challenge, but only no gluten, no sugar, no booze.0 -
bostonwolf wrote: »I have no real problem with the cooking, I just do it in bulk. I cooked a few pounds of chicken tenders last night and portioned them off, so now I have 4 meals worth of meat that can either go in a salad or get heated up to eat with some vegetables for dinner. I also use the crockpot to make large portions of chili or tikka masala that I break out for lunch. I can usually get 10 or 11 servings per batch which is lunch for two work weeks.
I make eggs almost every morning. that only takes 10 minutes or so.
Now, if you don't eat meat, I'm not sure how you'd do Paleo since soy is verboten.
I've been doing a lot of cooking in bulk too lately but it takes up most of my Sunday, and this weekend for example I won't have a Sunday for it to take up...
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bostonwolf wrote: »I have no real problem with the cooking, I just do it in bulk. I cooked a few pounds of chicken tenders last night and portioned them off, so now I have 4 meals worth of meat that can either go in a salad or get heated up to eat with some vegetables for dinner. I also use the crockpot to make large portions of chili or tikka masala that I break out for lunch. I can usually get 10 or 11 servings per batch which is lunch for two work weeks.
I make eggs almost every morning. that only takes 10 minutes or so.
Now, if you don't eat meat, I'm not sure how you'd do Paleo since soy is verboten.
Will you share your crock pot tikka masala please?0 -
Cooking is never the problem... but who’s going to wash the dishes? J/K0
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I usually just cook proteins on Sunday, and use frozen veggies with it for lunch or dinner. So i pack it all Sunday and by like today, the broccoli is unfrozen and a minute in the micro yummy lunch.0
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bostonwolf wrote: »I have no real problem with the cooking, I just do it in bulk. I cooked a few pounds of chicken tenders last night and portioned them off, so now I have 4 meals worth of meat that can either go in a salad or get heated up to eat with some vegetables for dinner. I also use the crockpot to make large portions of chili or tikka masala that I break out for lunch. I can usually get 10 or 11 servings per batch which is lunch for two work weeks.
I make eggs almost every morning. that only takes 10 minutes or so.
Now, if you don't eat meat, I'm not sure how you'd do Paleo since soy is verboten.
I've been doing a lot of cooking in bulk too lately but it takes up most of my Sunday, and this weekend for example I won't have a Sunday for it to take up...
That's where the crockpot is key. Less than an hour of prep then 8 hours later you come back and divvy it up.
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We are in the middle of a "nutrition" challenge (box owner isn't a huge Paleo fan) and it's seriously killing me. No alcohol or sugar is making me cranky, no dairy would be the end of me.
If ya'll have some yummy crockpot recipes you'd be willing to share, I'd love to see them. Chicken is getting boring.0
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