Day #2 - 30 Day Paleo Challenge

Slawtastic!

Breakfast
2 Hard Boiled Eggs
1 Small Turkey Sausage
Banana

Lunch
Slaw - green & purple cabbage, zucchini, carrot, radish, lemon zest, lemon juice, dash of EVOO
Grapes
3 Dried Apricots


Pre-Workout: Banana
Post Workout: Primal Protein smoothie with kale, banana, frozen strawberries, and flaxseed

Dinner
Burger Lettuce Wrap. Much like last night

Tonight we are on day #2 of our Starting Strength reset. We have established our starting point for the Squat (part of every workout day), but we still have to determine the difficulty for press and pull/chin ups.

We are on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. Eventually we'll start filling in those rest days with runs, crossfit workouts, rock climbing, etc. For now, though, we are focusing on strength.

I forgot to mention my weigh-in on Monday. While I am not focusing on the weight too much, Paleo eating has a great weight normalizing effect. If you couple that with some physical activity, you are destined to arrived at a natural weight for your body type.

I'll normally weigh in around once a week, but I wanted to illustrate how quickly you can drop excess water and undigested food when switching to clean eating:
Monday: 174.6lbs
Wednesday: 169lbs

Day #1 - 30 Day Paleo Challenge

I'm gonna eat ya!

Last night Nate and I reset the Starting Strength program and performed evaluations again. We think we increased our weight too much, too fast and caused some strain. Now we are dialing back the ego a bit (*ahem*) and starting from where we can truly do the movements properly and still be challenging.

Last night I went on a cooking frenzy -- and it didn't even take me long! 

Baked Salmon - my father-in-law caught a bunch of fish in Alaska and brought them back for our enjoyment. I love them because they thaw fairly quickly and can be prepared in a number of ways. I just chopped up some onion, pepper, and carrot and tossed it in a baking dish with the salmon. Rubbed some spices and added a bit of water to keep it from getting dry. 40 min at 350 degrees, amazing!!

Pork Sautee - Pork cutlets on sale, heck yes. I diced that up with some onion, pepper, mushroom, and can of tomatoes (no salt added). I made up my own concoction for the sauce, and it turned out amazing. 

Hard Boiled Eggs - We've finally perfected the hard boiled egg... let's hope so, we've made them so many times. Throw a dozen eggs in the bottom of a pan (ok, maybe don't throw, just lightly place). Add water until the water level is about 1 inch above the eggs. Put on high until you get a rolling boil - usually about 8 min or so on my stove. Immediately remove from the heat, cover and leave for 12 min. Quickly, but still gently, pour them into a colander to strain. It's a rule that we always eat one to make sure they're cooked to perfection. I mean...they could be really awful, right?? Plus, they are delicious when still warm. 

Day #1 

Breakfast

Hard Boiled Egg

Turkey Sausage

Banana

Lunch

Pork Sautee
Orange

Dinner
Baked Salmon
Burger Lettuce Wrap w/red onion, grated carrot, tomato

Today is a Rest day since we did SS yesterday. We decided we would work on our flexibility on our off days. Our lifting and other activities would be greatly improved if we just greased the ole gears again.  

30-day Paleo Challenge

It's been a while since I posted. We were doing very well with Starting Strength; making serious gains in our abilities to do the lifts properly and in the weight used. We were also doing great with maintaining the Paleo lifestyle.

However, weeks ago we both felt injured at the same time that our kitchen remodel began. These things together complicated our situation and slowed our momentum. This is what life does -- it throws a wrench in your self-improvement cogs over and over. You have every desire to improve and stick to a healthy lifestyle, but the old always comes back. You just have to decide if you let it take over or not.

After 3 weeks of little to no exercise and plenty of eating out -- we have decided to rekindle that fire and start over. We are doing the 30 day paleo challenge again, just as we did years ago when we first started. I will chronicle our journey including our workouts and meal planning.

This 30-day period begins tomorrow, August 16th, and ends on September 14th. This means that we'll eat Paleo foods for each meal: Meats, veggies, fruits, and nuts. Thus we leave out processed foods, dairy, alcohol, grains, and starchy foods like potatoes. We have decided to allow occasional legumes, but the focus will remain on superior protein sources like turkey, chicken, fish, and beef. We are going on vacation during that time period, so it will be challenging -- but that's why it's a challenge.

Tonight we'll be preparing and cooking for the week to ensure success!

Starting Strength

I'm still refining my voice and purpose in Enjoy Nature's Bounty... it is intended to be about more than just eating naturally provided foods (as natural as we can get now)! I want it to also be about enjoying what nature gave YOU, aka your body. Diet is an important part of being healthy, but so is physical activity. I am a firm believer in using your body weight and free weights rather than machines in the gym. Machines improve your ability to use that machine and not much else.

My husband and I have been doing Crossfit, Primal Blueprint, and Never Gymless workouts for a while now. The Crossfit gym we used to be members of (the cost became prohibitive) piqued our interest in weightlifting. When we left the gym, we started to build up our home gym to support a weightlifting and crossfit workout habit.  We now have a squat rack, bench, two Olympic bars, weights, dip station, two kettlebells, and a few other small  items. I have a weight rack on the way that will allow us to properly do presses.

We felt like our weightlifting abilities weren't such that we could easily and effectively do the Crossfit WODs (workout of the day) that involved lifting. So, we decided to do the program suggested by Starting Strength, by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore. We do lifting 3x a week and rest the other 4 days. Those rest days are sacred as we are really working hard during these weightlifting exercises. Each day we increase our weight for each movement by 5-20 lbs, depending on the movement.

Here's our current schedule with two different workouts, called A and B.

A Workout
Squat
Bench Press
Deadlift

B Workout
Squat
Press
Chin-up/Push-up (Alternate grips each time the workout is done)

We alternate these workouts each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This Wednesday we are starting on our 9th day with an A Workout.

I had a few set backs as we have large increments of weight for my abilities. We ordered a package of fractionals from Iron Woody that allows me to properly increase my weight and make gains without breaking down my form. So far we've make great improvements in our weightlifting and form! We will follow this program for as long as it continues to work. Once we can no longer add weight and improve our limits, we will start back with running, Crossfit, and our other favorite exercise methodologies. I will post some of my stats soon.

Interested in Starting Strength yourself?  Starting Strength (2nd edition)
Also, check out their website for a wealth of resources at their Starting Strength Wiki.

My favorite Paleo dressing

As I've said before, salads can be hard to eat consistently. I find this to be true for many people. I often see coworkers at the salad bar attempting to "be good" by choosing the salad route instead of a burger or pizza. However, at the end, so many load up on ranch or ceasar dressing and the oils and vinegars go unused. This act of dousing your greens in creamy goodness almost entirely counteracts those attempts to eat well.

 I admit that I've had a hard time giving up my favorite, french dressing. However, I've found quite a few delicious, simple and easy dressings. Below is my favorite:

Tahini Lemon Dressing

• Equal parts tahini and water
• Fresh lemon juice, to taste
• Fresh garlic/garlic powder
• Cracked pepper, to taste

You can also chop up parsley or other fresh herbs. I sometimes spice it up with some cayenne or paprika.

I love using tahini because it is a natural source of calcium and it creates a creamy texture. My husband and I make multiple servings at once so we can dress up our salads throughout the week with minimal effort.

What's your favorite dressing?

Paleo Meatloaf

Excuse the phone photo!  

Dr. Loren Cordain has published a number of Paleo Diet books, all of which have quite a few recipes. I've experimented with many of them and one of my favorites is the Paleo Meatloaf. Ever since switching to the Paleo Diet, I crave meat and veg instead of breads and sweets. Nothing is more satisfying to me than a hunk of meat!

This Sunday I prepared, among other things, meatloaf to get us through the week. I modified Dr. Cordain's recipe slightly:

Paleo Correct Meatloaf
1lb Ground Turkey
1lb Ground Beef
2 finely grated carrots (water squeezed out)
1/2 green pepper, diced
2 onions, finely chopped
1/2c chopped parsley
1/2c chopped cilantro
3 eggs, beaten (omega 3)
Homemade Taco Seasoning

If you don't squeeze the excess water from the veggies, your meatloaf will fall apart. It'll still be yummy, but hard to eat with a fork! Sometimes we make meatballs with the same recipe, but meatloaf is much less work.

Assisted Pushups

I have been working towards several things in my quest for better fitness:

• 1 true pullup
• 1 true pushup
• 1 full squat

In the video below I show how I am able to prepare for the pushup motion by using elastic bands and a dip station. I love using multiple methods of progression so my muscles are always guessing. As I improve, I will reduce the band size. I do knee pushups as well, but I am still having issues with the correct arm angle. I have the BEST personal trainer: my husband! 

Later I will post a video of me learning how to do squats and pullups as well. Progressions and assistance are the key to success!!