Paleo Challenge

I've been trying to eat healthy for about 2 months, and it's paid off so far.  I'm down 28 pounds and I am fitting into clothes a little better.  I've been doing what everyone says I should.  Counting calories, logging everything, avoiding fatty foods, etc...  My gym, however, has issued a challenge to its members (and non-members too).  Can you eat like a caveman?


It's called the Paleo diet.  I had never heard of it until about a year ago when my good friend joined a CrossFit gym and did this same challenge.  It's the simplest of simple when it comes to how to eat.  "Paleo" refers to paleolithic, as in cavemen.  Back in the good ol' days when neanderthals ruled the land, there were only a few sources of food: anything they could hunt, or anything they could pluck from a tree/shrub/root.  That's pretty much it.  Supposedly, the human digestion system hasn't truly evolved enough to process all the crap we eat today.  Everything is either pre-packaged with tons of chemicals, or covered in pesticides, or injected with hormones.  You see where I'm going with this?

Our challenge is to mimic the caveman diet, with a few modern updates such as fire and cooking.  This means no dairy, no grains whatsoever, no sugar except what is naturally in fruits and vegetables, no legumes or starchy foods, and no alcohol.  This may sound pretty extreme and hard to do, and it is, but once you get going with it, you realize how much simpler it really is.  We started in our house officially on Saturday, while the challenge started on Sunday.  We had been eating probably 80% paleo already but hadn't cut out the grains or dairy completely.  What can I say?  I love my cheeses.  We are now getting our calories from eating a lot of lean, protein filled meats, all the vegetables we can, healthy fats from olive or coconut oil and avocados and nuts, and some fruits and berries.  That's it.  Nothing else necessary.  We are drinking water exclusively, although coffee and tea is ok, and we are trying to pick the freshest possible options.  Best part of the paleo diet?  Bacon!  Bacon has been rising in popularity in the past year or 2, and why wouldn't it?  It's the best tasting food in the whole damn world!  I dare you to disagree...  Seriously...  I DARE you!



The goal is to go 8 weeks and measure the changes in our body.  Sometimes that can be hard to quantify, so we all did a baseline workout at the start of the challenge.  In 8 weeks, we will redo the same workout and compare our times.  We also took a few body measurements and weighed in.  Just in case anyone was wondering, I weighed in at 303 but I'm pretty sure I was a little less on my scale at home.  No matter!  I have my starting point set and 8 weeks from now, I'm going to demolish my competition!  I mean that in the friendliest, most sportsmanlike manner possible.  I weighed in this morning at 294 and I believe it!

I have a very good feeling that Maria and I will be making this a permanent change.  We may not be 100% strict, but it'll be close.  We are out of town all week and holed up in a hotel, so we have to be extra careful with the diet.  It's just too easy to say "screw it" and head out somewhere to eat rather than staying in and taking the time to prepare something healthy and proper.  We are lucky enough to have a small kitchenette in our room and access to a few gas grills.  I also have a pool and weight room I can get my exercise in.  I still feel like this is a trial by fire though.  If we can pull it off in a hotel for a week, we can do it forever at home.

I've been thinking of creating a video blog.  I have no idea what I'd talk about yet, so I'm open to any suggestions.