25 January 2014

It is not all about the calorie


I was just talking to someone about this the other night and I know I touched on it in a post the other day. But, as fate would have it, it was shoved in my face yet again today and I feel the need to expound upon it. Since switching to Paleo, one thing I have found is that I am no longer consumed with the thought of food. When I counted calories or points or whatever, it seems that food was all I ever thought about. I would literally be eating one meal and thinking about the next. I could not go very long without food because my blood sugar would crash and I would become a raging maniac. It was sad. Since starting Paleo, I've discovered a whole new way to eat. I no longer think of food constantly. I no longer need to have food at certain intervals or risk becoming Mr. Hyde, in fact I have forgotten to eat meals and lived to tell the tale. I don't worry about eating before a workout because, even if a little hungry, I know I have fuel for the workout and won't die. Also, because with paleo I've switched to a fat metabolism and not a carb metabolism, I can do a really brutal workout and not suffer because of lack of energy. Your body can only hold a certain amount of carbs, but it can hold a whole lot of fat, therefore if you are burning fat for fuel you can last a whole lot longer than someone burning carbs. The only thing I have to worry about is not eating too close to a workout because then I will throw up. There have been days where I have gone to a WOD at 8 am, come home, and not eaten until noon. When your body has it's own fuel supply you just don't need to eat as much.

At this point, I do not count anything. Not calories, protein, fat, carbs, nothing. I am developing intuitive eating. I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm satisfied. Many times that is way before I am full. I like the way it makes me feel and I like the way it makes my body feel. I no longer get those mid-afternoon energy slumps. Sure, I get a little tired after work, but it's super easy to shake it off now. I'm also feeling awesome in my workouts. I'm killing the WODs and PR'ing my lifts, it's fabulous.

Which all leads me to my opening statement, it is not all about calories. It is about what kind of food you put into your body. Good food nourishes your body and provides benefits far beyond what calorie counting does. If you want to put processed food in your body, you can go ahead and spend your day justifying to yourself and everyone else that you eat healthy. You probably spend a considerable amount of mental time on food. I'm over that and it feels good to feel free of that. It also feels really good to lose those feelings of guilt that came with eating the old way. Now, if I chose to have something that is not paleo, it is a conscious decision and not something I regret later. Oh right, I no longer eat mindlessly either. When food enters my mouth, I am always very aware of it. Once in a great while I will mindlessly stick something in my mouth and my immediate reaction is always to spit it out because I wasn't thinking about it. I like that reaction.

Okay, off the soapbox.

I feel like I'm changing


There are a number of events that have occurred over the last week or so that really make me feel like I am changing. A while back I connected with an ex-husband on Facebook. I have not spoken to or even heard from this guy in over 30 years. We reconnected and I thought it would be cool. Wrong. Turns out his mental age is about 20. He posts these ridiculously stupid things, many of which are very degrading to women. Now I do not mind a joke at female expense, but these are horrible. I had to block him so that I wouldn't see that stuff anymore. All I could think of was, really? You are 55-56 years old and these are the things you find funny? Also, he's very condescending towards me and Crossfit. He doesn't know me. He has no idea what I have done in the past 30 years and yet he thinks he can tell me that I shouldn't be doing Crossfit? Sorry, that is an attitude of I know what's good for you, typical chauvinistic male. Nope, don't need it. I am smarter than most males around, so I do not need someone who doesn't know me telling me what to do. So while I'm still friends with him, I don't think there will be much interaction.

There are some other things too. Things I used to enjoy reading are no longer enjoyable. I'm not sure if the people writing them have changed or if I have. Since much of the writing is still the same, I can only assume that it's me that changed. So it seems to be time to drop some of these readings.

Change is good. I like change and am usually pushing for changing things. But the comfortable and familiar are good too. It's nice to read the same things everyday or connect with someone who knew you when. But it is wise to know when to move on. I can't change them, I can only change me. And that change is to stop interacting with people or things that no longer fit my life. Change can be scary, but it can also open up lots of new opportunities and adventures. So it is definitely time for a change.

No limits just ephiphanies


Just a week ago I thought that some things would be impossible in my near future. I'm beginning to think that is not true. I ran in a WOD this week, actually, I think I ran in two. My knee has not been bothering me at all. Even my shoulder is feeling a lot better. So time to change things up and set some goal.

First, I want to run. I love to run, though I hate getting started at it. So running. I can easily run on Sundays and Thursday because those are my days off of Crossfit. But I need at least one more day of running. Maybe Tuesdays since that's poker night. Then I could run Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. It's a good place to start.

So next week is the end of January. I think my goal for February will be to run three times every week. At the end of February I will reassess and see where I want to go from there.

I also want to ride my bike. I miss riding it and I could ride it around town here. So this weekend I will get out my bike and all the accoutrements and prep it to ride. Then I will ride it whenever I can.

I also want to start walking the dogs again. I'm not sure when I can work that in, I'm thinking of starting on the weekends. They would just love to get out, even if it's only on the weekends. Plus, I could use the extra activity walking.

Okay, I have a couple of goals for the coming month. I will reassess at the end of February. It feels good to have goals.

23 January 2014

Energy roller coaster


When you start paleo, or any program where you are eating super clean and removing sugar and wheat, you have ups and down in energy levels. This is the part most people can't survive. There are headaches, exhaustion, cravings, and you generally feel like crap. I have been lucky this time and am avoiding most of those things. I have kind of stuck to paleo so the adjustment isn't as huge as it was the first time. I've gotten into the habit of not eating rice or starchy veggies, and I never went back to wheat. I would have it now and then but I never went back to eating it the way I did before. So I think this has helped me have an easier transition. The energy though is like it's on a roller coaster. On Tuesday I felt great. I PR'd my clean and jerk at Crossfit and I killed the WOD. Last night was like a moving through mud. I had no energy and the WOD was insanely killer. Today, eh, kind of bleh..... No Crossfit tonight, it's a rest day. So that's probably a good thing.

I have read some stuff about people bashing Paleo and I don't get it. I just don't get it. They have probably never tried it so, there's that. Also, think about it. Most of the food the average American eats was not consumed by our ancestors. That right there makes it suspect in my book. Our ancestors ate food, not energy bars, or protein drinks, or whatever. They ate food. Real. Honest. Food. That is what the Paleo diet is. Real. Honest. Food. No I don't eat wheat, but I discovered - through Paleo - that wheat is not my friend. So there you go. I have discovered this time that milk is not my friend and that makes me sad. But it is what it is. People can say that things don't bother them, but until you have cleaned your system out of those things - you don't know. It takes 30 days to clean your system out completely of all the crap you've spent years putting in it. So if you try anything for less than 30 days, you really don't have any answers. I never believed that sugar was an issue for me until I kicked the habit. Then I found that sugar is a laxative. I mean seriously. I eat it now and I make a bee-line for the bathroom. Ugh!!!!

Okay, enough. I'm too tired to really think right now.

22 January 2014

Rethinking my goals


At the beginning of the year my goal was to just get healthy. Now, having found out that I'm not as broken as I thought, I want to make some new goals. I work better if I have goals. I work better with a focus and something to work towards. So I need some goals. My goals for this nutrition challenge is 25 lbs. and I've already lost 3 - not a bad way to start. But I want some other goals. I want to get a real pull up in this year with no bands. I want to be able to do 10 push ups with no bands. I want to work on getting really strong this year and killing it in the open next year. I want to be extremely athletic and strong and qualify for regionals at least. So I need some real, concrete goals to work towards this year. I'm going to work on that.

20 January 2014

Amaze Balls


I am on day 6 of the 45 day paleo challenge. It is going well. Really, really well. The one thing I absolutely love about Paleo, is that if you follow it and don't cheat, you just don't get hungry. I talked about this the other day. I also don't get cravings. It is amazing how once you stop eating crap you stop craving it. The body knows what it is doing if you give it the right fuel. In spite of all that once in a while I want some treat. Sometimes grapes will do it. A common treat for me is plantains fried in coconut oil, OMG, so good. Yesterday as I was at Whole Foods looking for plantains, not everyone sells them, I found the above items. They are dates and unsweetened coconut. That is all. And they are heaven. Sweet, but naturally so, coconutty, which I love. Just awesome. The perfect small, quick treat. Not only are they completely awesome, I can make them. They are so easy to make it is not even funny. And good for you. Holy moly, don't even get me started. So that was my grand discovery of yesterday. These will make the perfect little treat or snack.

My energy is back but I'm waiting for the boost. Usually my energy increases and I end up bouncing off the walls. Waiting for that.

Going to try and find some grass-fed liver today. I really, really want to start taking liver and see how it works. Going to make that a priority today. Other than that, it's Crossfit this morning, cleaning, working on school work, etc. Nothing exciting at all for the holiday.

19 January 2014

Amazing


When you actually devote time to schoolwork and not just cram it in on the last day, it's actually a lot easier to do. Last weekend I had two papers due. I did not even start to look at them until Saturday. They were pretty lengthy papers and one of them, I had no idea how to do. Of course starting them on Saturday left me no time to ask the instructor. So I struggled and struggled and struggled and finally ended up turning something in that was garbage. With a vow that I was not going to do that again, I worked on my assignments a couple of times during the week. I spent a few evenings working on things, reading, looking them over, just to have it in my mind what I needed to do. I sat down to do the one paper that's due and I finished it within an hour. That is awesome. By looking at it during the week and playing around with it, when I sat down to write I pretty much knew what I was going to write. Awesome sauce. That sure takes the stress out of writing a paper. I have to redo the paper I did last week and start working on next weeks paper. But I know how to do it now, so I'm feeling good. I can devote a few hours to it today and tomorrow and should be well ahead of the game.

So, since I finished my paper so quickly, I guess I'll go to Crossfit this morning. No reason not to. It will throw off my schedule a bit though. Today will be day 3, which means I should take tomorrow off. Then go Tues, Wed, Thurs, and take Friday off. I don't like that. I like my schedule the way it is. I like going Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, off Thursday, Friday, then Saturday, off Sunday. Decisions, decisions.........

Conversation with Hubby

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