Day 11 – “Mostly” Paleo Challenge

We are moving along on the "mostly" 30-Day Paleo Challenge. Marc surprised me with a dinner dish that was a combination of leftovers and some veggies, which I really appreciated. It was definitely one of those "make it up as you go along" type of things, but it consisted of leftover pulled pork (thanks to our friends who we saw over the weekend), onions, green beans, coconut aminos and broccoli. Coconut aminos are a soy sauce substitute. It tastes just like soy sauce without the soy or gluten, and you can pronounce all of the ingredients. LOL.

Breakfast so far this week hasn't been too much of a hassle in terms of meal ideas. I've been shuffling between an omelet, an avocado with crab meat, and some almond butter spread on an apple or two. All are relatively easy to make. It's more of just getting into the whole "eating breakfast" mindset. If I have been working out on a particular morning, I found a Lara Bar that is "Paleo-compliant" and so right after the workout I gobble one of those just to give my body something to take in after exerting it pretty hard.

I probably spent about 2 hours on Sunday prepping lunch for the week so I wouldn't be tempted into making bad choices in the cafeteria. Overall that seems to be the most time consuming task. Most of the ready-made frozen meals at Whole Foods contain something that is not Paleo, which I knew anyway. And most of the prepared foods counter at the supermarket fall in the off-limits category so that means I need to rely on home cooking/leftovers from previous dinners. But this will become part of my routine on some level even after the 30-days are up.

Getting more questions about Paleo, and again, the responses are mostly supportive mixed in with some skepticism. Obviously there are the folks who think I am crazy to do this, and that I understand. The skepticism is more around when I say that this isn't about weight loss or hitting a goal weight. It's about modifying some bad habits, which will hopefully lead to healthier food choices and feeling stronger when I run or do other activities such as Crossfit, hiking, etc.

Tonight, we re-did the Basquaise sauce recipe that we used last week and tried some fresh Alaskan Halibut to go with it (last week we did Alaskan Pacific Cod). Happy to report that Marc cleaned his plate. And then this weekend, we are having some friends over and we're going to try out a chocolate chip scone recipe that is Paleo-friendly (thanks to one of my running buddies)! I am also excited about a sweet potato recipe that I found online – and in case you're wondering, other ingredients include sage, bacon and chestnuts. I think the friends we are having over will really enjoy it.

As far as energy levels go, it was a tough start for week 2 because of the "spring forward" lost hour. I'll admit that the alarm going off at 5:30am on Monday did suck because it did feel like 4:30am, but I'm glad I made it out of bed and over to Crossfit for the morning workout. The 7 or 8 of us were feeling that lost hour, but we were all glad that we made it through. The only issue with energy this week was with this morning's workout. I started feeling a little light-headed, which happened once before, so I think I need to incorporate more things like sweet potatoes and yams into my evening meals if I am going to workout first thing in the morning.

And just for some humor, this was my outfit that I wore to Crossfit this morning in honor of St. Patrick's Day.