Paleo Challenge!

Today (as of about an hour ago) marks the first day of the paleo challenge!! I’ve been eating about 75% or so in January, with a few hiccups here and there. Hopefully my transition into 100% paleo will be a smooth one. I’m gonna start the challenge with an intermittent fast (IF). I’ll post more tomorrow, but I need to sleep tonight. But, I just wanted to get this thing going again.

It’s been a while, old friend.

So the challenge has been long gone, and now I’m just in the process of maintaining all that I have acheived. The results of the 6 week challenge have been subtle, but the roadblocks and speedbumps along the way really tested my willpower and drive. Coming out about 8 pounds lighter, and feeling better is a huge accomplishment. Now, I just gotta zero in on the last few pounds (even though overall weight isn’t as important as body fat percentage…but until I get on a Bod Pod, then weight will have to do) in order to really feel like I have changed. Though injuries have slowed me down, I have learned how to compensate and thrive. My elbow has been bothering me, as my bursitis still has not subsided completely, and the mere thought of extraneous activity to my left arm causes my elbow swell up to the size of a golf ball. But now, instend of stopping and allowing two or more weeks of rest I simply move to working out one handed. Sometimes its not about rest. Sometimes it’s about functionality and getting stronger. If we had to hunt for our food, and an elbow injury prevented me from doing work, then I would starve. Sound a little farfetched? Probably. But if the day comes when we have to harpoon fish in order to eat, then don’t blame me for the fact that you rested both arms when only one elbow hurt while I trained my good one. Yea, I might need to catch up with my left arm after my elbow heals, but at least I’ll still be able to kick ass with one arm.

July will be my hardest month of work. Since the few of us started two-a-days (Slim, Chubs, & Pao!!) I’ve felt better than ever. My workout regimen is more strict, so I just need to focus more on 1) diet and 2) sleep, both of which have given me problems all my life. It’s also tough too since I’m working a lot on the weekends, and studying for the NCLEX-RN (my board exam to get my RN license).  Can’t complain though. Life is good. Actually life is great. Plus, I keep telling myself that the work I’m doing now is for the future. Pao and I had that conversation in the car on our way to one of the workouts after reading an article Dru posted. As much as it hurts now, the sacrifice that we are enduring will put us in a better place in the future. I want to be able to die never having to use a walker. I want to climb the stairs without feeling like I’m scaling Mt. Everest. I want to keep up or outrun my future children and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. I’m gonna keep putting in the work so that I can build a good FOUNDATION for my future.

Good work to all those who have been working out mad crazy. Your dedication has motivated me to try harder. I notice each time how all of us have things that make us better than at one thing than another person, in particular, ME (Winchor with your insane 20 Tabata Squats, Pao with your freakin’ muscle-ups, Sheena with your 69 Tabata This score, and Slim with your ever increasing back squat PRs). All of you make me want to be better. Hopefully, I motivate you too. As we have developed into a core unit it really does feel like we are on a team rather than personal competitions with each other. Even though we push each other to work to our full capacity, the idea of each one of use working as a group to accomplish goals makes me proud to be a member. So let’s keep it going and move on to bigger and better things.

[DROO]

Challenge Day 24

Sleep: 7 (I have the best alarm clock.)

BW: 178.8!!

WOD:

Nutrition:

Challenge Day 23

BW: 180.8 (that’s better)

WOD: 50 each of: squats, right arm push press (50#), sit-ups, db swings (50#), push ups, left arm push press (50×20, 40×30), walking lunges, broad jumps, v-up, burpees (yay burpees!) [30:29]

Nutrition:

7:30 – 8 oz of skim milk

11:30 – 2 string cheese, 1 large apple, 1 pint of skim milk

12:00 – 16 oz of water

17:00 – 1 large orange, 12 oz of skim milk, 2 0z smoked turkey

20:15 – 3 oz smoked turkey, 12 oz of water, 1 string cheese, 1 apple

21:30 – 1 honey flavored Greek Gods yogurt

22:45 – 2 scrambled eggs, 2 tablespoons of salsa (good stuff, not the chemically enhanced stuff), 24 oz of skim milk

The workout today was pretty tough. However, it was something else to be able to be indoors with such a huge crowd. Really awesome! I can’t wait for the official grand opening. I’ve been feeling really good lately with how my fitness has improved. I’d like to see some better results weight-wise, but I think it’s getting there. Especially if I can get the Zone diet all started up. Hope that’ll happen within the next couple weeks, at least just to try. I’m still learning how to get creative with my meals, so I guess I’ll just keep working on variety. It’s cool that people are starting to become aware of how much my body has changed. Hope it doesn’t stop!

Challenge Day 22

BW: 183 (wow.)

WOD: Cory — 21 Hanging Power Cleans, 42 push ups, 15 HPC, 30 push ups, 9 HPC, 18 push ups [45# db, all honest push ups, 11:4x]

Nutrition:

6:30 – 12 oz of skim milk

12:30 – 4-5 strips of bacon, 1 cup of mandarin oranges, 1 cup of cottage cheese, 1 large orange, 10 oz of skim milk

21:30 – 5 oz smoked turkey slices, 2 fuji apples, 3 string cheese, a few handfuls of nuts, 8 oz of water

Not much to eat today. I’m really considering starting Zone pretty soon. I think i’m getting used to Paleo, so now it’s time to take it to the next level. I want to work on getting my weight even lower and I want to see vast improvements in my performance, so I need to get more work in. We really only got a couple weeks left in this challenge. Not that my journey ends there. I’ll keep researching Zone. Yay burpees!

Challenge Day 21 – CHEATER PT. DEUX!

WOD: Rest. Well, if you call my second straight 13 hour work day rest. If you do, then you’re sick.

Nutrition:

7:45 – 16 oz of skim milk, 1 pastry

8:15 – 8 oz of orange juice

10:15 – 4 poached eggs, 3 1/2 strips of bacon, 16 oz of water, 4, pieces of ham, 1 english muffin, some hollandaise sauce. Basically I had 3 eggs benedict, but I only at 1 whole english muffin, and the cook hooked me up with an extra egg.

13:20 – 2 cups of mixed fruit, 3 slices of pineapple, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese

16:50 – 1 piece of Salmon Wellington – puff pastry stuffed with spinach, mushroom, and salmon, topping with a saffron cream sauce. Hella bad for me.

18:00 – 16 oz of water

19:15 – 1 large bowl of cream of roasted red pepper soup (maybe around 8 oz or so), 1 cup of cookies and cream ice cream (actually less than a cup, but still)

Another day of cheating. BLAH. I feel sick just looking at it. Time to buckle down again.

Challenge Day 20 — CHEATER!

BW: 179.4

Sleep: 6 hours

WOD: About 30 minutes of football at Relay for Life — until Jason got selfish and wanted to quit playing. JK, SLIM!!

Nutrition: (here we goo…)

7:30 – 16 oz of skim milk

8:30 – 12 oz of orange juice

10:15 – 2 omelets (maybe like 6 eggs or so. hahaha!) with onions, tomatoes, bell pepper, 4-5 oz of salsa, 4 strips of bacon, 16 oz of orange juice

12:30 – Soda. Damnit. I had a variety too from the soda fountain at work. Maybe ~ 10-12 oz total today.

15:30 – 2 bowls of cream of tomato and cheddar cheese soup, handful of the tortilla chip topping, 16 oz of water

16:30 – 16 oz of water

22:00 – 2 Capri Sun, 2 packages of fruit snacks

Man. I cheated. This sucks.

Day 19

BW: 179.8

WOD: 15 burpees (on the floating dock thing), 1 sprint up the bleachers, 5 rounds for time [12:53]

Nutrition:

9:00 – 12 oz skim milk

12:30 – handful of nuts, 5-6 turkey deli meat slices (~ 4 oz), 1 cup of yogurt, 2 oz flax seeds

20:00 – 1 string cheese, 12 oz of water, 1 Lara bar, hella nuts

22:00 – 1 chicken deluxe siopao, sans entire bread (woo hoo New Town Bakery!!), 24 oz of skim milk

No Dru today at the workout so Max, Winnie, and I had to make up our own. Dru said we shoulda added pull ups. Damn. I thought it was pretty damn hard already. Haha.

Challenge Day 18

Sleep: 6 hours

BW: 179.8!!

WOD: Tabata Intervals (Squats, One-arm DB Push Press [30#], Tuck Jumps, Pushups, KB Swings [16kg]) [56]

Nutrition:

6:30 – 12 oz skim milk

9:30 – 1 string cheese, 1 large apple

14:45 – 1 sting cheese

16:00 – 1 apple

21:00 – rotissere chicken from Albertson’s (1 drumstick, 1 thigh, some of the breast, tabasco sauce), 24 oz of skim milk, 1 slice of turkey deli meat, ~5 oz of coleslaw

I did it! I finally did it! I got under 180 pounds! Seeing that “7″ in the tens place really made my day. I started getting a little discouraged that I wasn’t losing more weight, and that all my hard work was for naught. Alas, here I am, sitting at over 25 pounds lighter than I was 9 months ago; 7 pounds lighter than when I got back to the Philippines in January. Yeah, that doesn’t seem like much. But I don’t think that weight is the only way to measure how much my body has changed. At any rate, it is definitely a good ass feeling to be where I am now. About 11 more pounds til I reach my goal!! (I think I can lose about 6 of those during the rest of the challenge. Lets hope so, at least.)

Challenge Day 17

WOD: 5 burpees, 10 pushups, 15 squats, 400m run, 4 rounds for time [11:15]

Nutrition:

8:30 – ~4oz of chili (leftover from yesterday), 12 oz skim milk

9:15 – 1 hard boiled egg, 1 string cheese, 8 oz of water

12:15 – 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 string cheese, 2 handful of mixed nuts, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, 6 oz mandarin oranges, 16 oz of water

19:30 – 1 hard boiled eggs,  2 string cheese, 1 handful of nuts, 12 oz of water

20:30 – <1/4 cup of cottage cheese, <3 oz of mandarin oranges (my leftover from lunch), 12 oz skim milk, 1 string cheese, 1 apple, some nuts.

Meals aren’t very creative, I know. But everything is within the guidelines AND I’m feeling full and losing weight. And I’m still satisfied with everything. The weekend is coming!