I just signed up for a Whole Life Challenge. This includes a paleo diet as well as lifestyle: working out daily (active recovery on rest days) and stretching, as well as drinking water etc. I'll be guest blogging about my experience over at paleo snobs. But after writing my intro/background, I thought it was too long for tumblr, and I would just link to it. Here's a recap of my short history. Enjoy!
A little background on myself: I’m a graduate student at UCSB, one of the founding members of Mission City Brawlin’ Betties, and casual crossfitter at Crossfit Santa Barbara. I went from inactive, to distance running after starting grad school. Then roller derby finally made it to SB & I jumped at the opportunity to grow in a team sport. Unlike most people who get in shape to start derbs, I gained about 15 lbs, from all the time I spent on non-exercise derby things like drinking, fundraising, coaching, and drinking. I also had the mentality that you can eat whatever the hell you want as long as you’re willing to work it off. I’m not lazy, I need calories! Calories = Energy. Spend 4 hours or more on the outdoor track on sunday (and maybe ride your bike to and from) and you need to eat more. I got my kcals from delicious things like burritos and hamburgers. No post workout protein shake for me, it was post workout BEER!
I first heard about Paleo from a colleague who happened to be a crossfitter, who happened to have the name Crossley. I found that entertaining. Anyways, I think I laughed in his face when he told me ‘no beer, no bread, and no dairy.’ ...Fast forward to a couple years later, I’m out of derby on injury. No idea what’s wrong; the orthopedic specialist says everything is fine, return to normal activity. “Hey Dick, Everything is NOT fine. It hurts like hell.” I play roller derby, I ran a marathon, I know how to work through pain. This is not okay. So I take a break from derbs (broken heart, but lots of time for finishing dissertation).
But I don’t work well if I can’t exercise, luckily there’s a Living Social deal, crossfit intro and a month of free workouts. Score. So I start crossfitting. This is right around the beginning of the year, and my running partner mentions that her crossfit gym is doing a ‘paleo challenge’ for 30 days and that I should do it with her. This friend, let’s call her KK, somehow has a weird control over me and gets me to commit to stupid ideas. I look into this paleo thing and its supposed to help inflammation (Hmmmm, if my knee inflammation goes away, maybe I can skate again!). I’m still not convinced I can live without grains or dairy. I mean, how bad can this stuff really be? I have energy, I don’t have bad skin, I sleep like a rock after a nuclear fallout. Then my crossfit coach said his daily paleo diet was: bacon and eggs for breakfast, lunch meat and salad for lunch, and steak & veggies or sashimi for dinner. Sure. I can eat that for a month. Sign me up. Interestingly, after making it through the sugar detox phase, I don’t even really miss the foods I expected. I did miss dairy & sushi (the kind with rice). Oh! My knee did heal. I still have to pay close attention to my left IT band, but I bouted last week, so that’s cool!
Relapsing to eating gluten makes me feel hungover and break out. I ate a bunch of pasta and cake one day at a family function, I had an allergic reaction and could barely open my eyes the next morning. And allowing tolerances for grains also leads to me eating less fruits and veggies.
I’m about to start a 60 day ‘whole life challenge’ that includes eating ‘strict’ paleo, daily workouts and stretching. I’ll post about it weekly to let you know what is happening, but I just wanted to give you some background before we dive in!
XoXo
Viva Violence!
i didn't know that paleo was what helped your knee so much! as much as i make fun of it, i have heard a number of people have really have amazing health situations improve with the diet. My belief (as a vegetarian) is that its less about the meat and more about the gluten and processed food, but whatever works for people.
ReplyDeleteAlena had to cut out gluten because adrian was having a severe digestive reaction, and we recently started introducing it again through breastmilk to see if he has a permanent allergic reaction or if it was just an immature gut. And we're totally seeing the same thing - that the idea of bread is better than bread itself once you're off of it for a while. its actually been kindof a chore for alena to eat a serving of bread daily now, and we're considering just being gluten free full stop anyway. so far its just been a few days so he hasn't had any major digestive reaction, but i'm wondering if he feels kindof hungover like you described. he's been pretty frustrated and irritable. i'm starting to feel like its just not really worth it (except it does seem like a good idea to know HOW allergic he is to it, for future purposes). and frustration is also super normal 1 yr old behavior, so who knows.
anyway, I'm really glad i read this. good luck!
Riot