Final Paleo Thoughts

So if you happen to be looking for my last post, which used to be my PIB AMFAT Essay, well... you won't find it, I deleted it.  Why?  Well, new evidence and experiences have come to light.  First of all, most of the essay, was true, but I'll admit it was slightly embellished as I wanted to win the challenge.  My new experience is that since switching back to cycling (and no Crossfit) I've found that Paleo alone doesn't cut it.  So what does this mean?  Actually, I've been bewildered since trying to figure it out.  So first let me clarify this point:

 

"Strict paleo is not adequate for endurance sports"

 

 

There just isn't enough carbs in strict paleo, I suppose it's possible I wasn't doing it right, but let's face it, the definition of what's paleo and what isn't paleo is a very blurry line.  One point I want to make about the PIB system is that as the name suggests, it's designed for Crossfit, and actually if that's all your doing for fitness, then it's a great system.  The key is the 4:1 carbohydrate to protein shake, all those carbs make up for the lack of extra carbs in the paleo diet.  So if you're contemplating whether or not to try the system, I would say go for it, you'll learn a lot about nutrition.  Especially if you're a cross-fitter, but if you're an endurance athlete, then I would advise that you proceed with caution.  Paleo is great nutritional plan, but the lack of carbs will cost you in performance, big time! 

 

I'm not really going to get into much detail on this, but here's what I've found works.

 

1.  Paleo really just amounts to EAT WHOLEFOOD (no processed foods, no fake additives)

2.  The key to losing weight on pale, you're not going to like this but its:  NO SUGAR !!!!!

3.  The PIB system keeps your performance up by prescribing the shakes after WOD's, works great for Crossfit

4.  If you're an endurance athlete, then I suggest stay GLUTEN FREE and ADD RICE back in for carbs, also add in any of the other grains, I suggest minimal corn, but you can make your own mind up on that.

 

So where should you get your info for my suggestion of #4, your go to book is " Feed Zone Cookbook" and "Feed Zone Portables"  by Dr Allen Lim and Biju Thomas.  Awesome selection of recipes and great on the bike food.

 

Essentially, these books promote, whole foods too, same concept just geared toward endurance cycling.  Besides the books, you'll also want to start using the hydration mixes by Skratch Labs, which is also Dr. Allen Lim's company, the ultimate food and nutrition combo!

 

My conclusion is you have to decide what you want to do for fitness, but your diet has to be tailored to it and capable of supporting it.  Lastly, I'll say that if your trying to just lose weight, then keep battling, I'm not sure there is any easy plan, other than staying consistent with the battle and continuing to improve your nutrition everyday.

Lastly, I'll note that I came in as one of the 3 runner's up in the AMFAT Challenge!  Scored me a hundred bucks and a free pair of custom Reebok Nanos!  Super cool.

I chose black toes to hide the scuff marks and then a red, white, blue America theme:

 

 

 

AMFAT Challenge Week 12

Continuing the story from week 10...

So I just recovered from being sick, The Open was finished and this weekend was the first local Mountain bike race, and better yet the weather was going to be nice.  The weather actually turned out to be the best day we've had so far this month!

Since I need time in on the bike, I decided I would race the Marathon category, which is a 4 to 4.5 hour race, in total I ended up riding 5 hours, with a practice/warm-up lap.  Overall my performance was good, I rode harder than I thought I would be able to for 3 hours and then for the last 1.5 my legs cramped up and I went into survival mode just to keep moving, not a great finish, but I was glad to find out what my legs could do and where I was at for the year.  I was actually really happy with how I performed.
Sadly I revereted back to sugar gel packs and drinks for this race, I do have Paleo recipes to replace these, but I just wasn't organized enough to get everything ready this week.  I will be posting in the future as I switch to all Paleo nutrition on-the-bike!

I expected to be hungry after the race, but my hunger was uncontrollable!  I'm talking ridiculously uncontrollable.  I would eat until I was full, then an hour later I would eat until I was full again and so on, I did this for several days and it was frustrating because I knew I was overeating, but why, and how come I couldn't stop? 

Despite gaining weight by the day, the good part is that this pattern is identical to what happened after the indoor tri, (although much more severe) Wow! I'm an engineer and it's a good thing being able to identify a repeatable pattern, especially when you have somewhere you can go to help identify and fix it:  I immediately went to the PIB VIP group on Facebook and posted this problem.

I got some good responses, and even more awesome I got a direct response from Justin via video blog, he had been getting a lot of endurance questions recently, and with my question, he decided it was time to post a capture-all response.

To put it simply, I wasn't eating enough carbs, seems way too simple, but there was no way I would have been able to identify this myself.  It was now about 4 days after the race and I was still suffering the constant eating, although perhaps a bit less frequently, so I decided I would go home and eat some carbs, better late than never.  Here's the response I posted to the group after doing so:

I don't think I need to say anymore!  Only real bummer is that I wish I could have identified this issue the week after the Indoor Triathlon.  Then I could have made a lot more progress in the second half of the challenge.  Now I'm only days away from the end of the challenge, my performance has flat lined and I've gained back a couple pounds.  Even with the anti-progress, I'm still way ahead of where I was at for the start of the challenge, but I really wanted to post some amazing results and win this thing!

That's the competitor in me speaking, stepping back and looking at the big picture, this discovery is monumental!  "revolutionary" as I quoted above, this unlocks my future potential and looking at the long term, I now have all the puzzle pieces figured out to apply the PIB system to Endurance Cycling which is my primary sport/hobby/passion!   Sure I would like to have won the AMFAT challenge (and who knows maybe I still will), but this knowledge is a far bigger prize! 

Just for the sake of arguement, lets say I hadn't figured this out and did win the challenge, that actually would have been really bad, a great short term battle won for sure, but I would have lost the war...  In that scenario I would never have even known I had lost the war.  That is what makes this discovery so great, it was something that I didn't even know I needed to figure out!

So for the rest of week (after eating lots more carbs), I was feeling better by the day, but was I still drained for my benchmark WOD's, so they are nothing to get excited about for performance gains. Well, actually I've made a lot of performance gains, but they are just not apparent in the benchmarks.   So stay tuned, I'll be posting my final essay for the Competition soon!

The essay I wrote is like a term paper, quite a few pages, graphs, pictures, and lots of pictures (yes, before and after photos)!

AMFAT Challenge Week 10 and Week 11

I'm clumping these two weeks together because this is the timeframe where things didn't go so well.  Just like in the movies, where the hero has to be down on his luck and have reached the bottom before he can rise up to the challenge and succeed.   Well, this was that dark time period for me...

As the Crossfit Open continued on, I never felt I performed as good as 13.1, in fact everything was off, I was tired, and in the back of mind mind I knew something was wrong...  I ended up trying to catch up on a few other things in week 10 and in doing so I stayed up later than usual, and because I was tired I skipped a few workouts, not to mention that the weather outside has not been cooperating at all... 

Week 11 is when things really got bad, after running myself down for the past week I ended up sick over the weekend...  SICK ??!!!  WTF?  I'm Indestructable!  How can this happen?  I wasn't super sick, but my nose ran constantly and my energy levels were depleted.   I din't miss any work and after 2 days I started feeling better everyday, but it was Wednesday before I got back to the Box for a WOD, not to mention I hadn't swam, biked, or ran since Saturday... 

Being sick for awhile, I had a lot of time to think about what might be going on and really I just couldn't place it what was happening?  I had pretty much decided I was overtrained and then next week the tide changed and major breakthrough's were discovered!!!   So hurry up and get to my next blog to continue the next dramatic installment of My Paleo Lifestyle.

AMFAT Challenge Week 9:

This week, I'm actually going to write about some events that happened over the weekend and last week, mostly because lots of interesting stuff happened last week and not a whole lot this week.

Over the weekend I traveled to Colorado to hang out with friends, we pretty much tend to eat out all the time while when I visit.  I wasn't about to go off the deep end and order anything non-paleo and actually it turned out to be quite easy to stay within Paleo requirements.  Hamburger's I ordered without buns and side salads (none of the food I'll mention is fast food it's all sit down restraunts of nice quality).  Went to a steak house one day and that was real easy of course.  Large salads were also easy to do just by skipping the croutons and bread.  I did include a few cheats like some good Colorado micro brews and a few glasses of wine, but hey, I was out and about and few cheats were well deserved at this point.

While I was in Colorado, I missed doing The Open 13.1 workout at my local box so I did it at Crossfit VIM in Lafayette, CO.  A great Box, lots of super nice people, and 13.1 is now my most memorable WOD ever!  It was awesome for a few reasons, one I was at a different box, next 135 was a new PR for snatch, and lastly because 135 was a new PR and so heavy it took a monumental amount of Beast Mode to just do 1 rep, and I managed to get in 8 reps at that weight!  The crazy part is the thinner air at 1 mile above sea level.  After each 135lb snatch, the whole room went dark and even sound faded out, it was a wild sensation, after a split second for my body to catch back up on oxygen I was fine and ready for the next rep!  I got to experience that euphoric state 8 times!  Super crazy, I definately felt super strong and made for a unique experience.  This week I was feeling back on my game and mentally back in it!

Paleo In a Box: Week 8 BP PR

This week I had an absolutely amazing PR, that I wasn't expecting at all!  I was at the doctor's office for my annual checkup and as is routine the nurse checks your weight, blood pressure, and ask's a few questions.  After she checked my blood pressures she was really impressed that it was so low!  She then tells me it was 100/60!  Even I was impressed with this number, normall my BP is always around the normal 120/80, maybe during the peak of racing season it will be as low as 117/78, but that's it, I've never had it as low as 100/60.  This is concrete evidence of how Paleo is affecting my health and overall wellness!

The more I thought about this, the more amazing I think this is, first of all I'm thinking why was better HEALTH not my goal instead of losing weight?  I suppose they are related, but really how much? it isn't like I was overweight to start with.  Next, I'm thinking my health is worth more than improved performance.  Certainly there is a relation between the two, but just because you are physically in good shape from exercise doesn't mean you won't get sick or any diseases.  It seems to happen fairly regularly that a great athlete dies from a heart attack or cancer... when it happens people just say, oh yeah he or she had bad genes, it was hereditary, and there was nothing they could do...   I would now argue against such a statement, perhaps a Paleo diet won't eliminate the risks of cancer or coronary disease, but after seeing the quick changes to my system in just two months, I guarantee paleo does drastically reduce the risks, even hereditary ones!

The annual doctor's visit included all usual bloodwork check and nearly every other biometric measurement was better or the same since the last time I was checked 6 months ago.  I'm going to publish that data in the final write-up for AMFAT Challenge Essay. 

PIB AMFAT Challenge: Week 7

So the indoor triathlon is over, and I'm sort of in a post event depressed mode.  Need to refocus on my next event, I have lots planned, I'm just feeling a bit out of sorts right now. 
The Crossfit Games Open starts next week, it's going to be really awesome, but hard to really think of it as a training goal.  It's one WOD per week for 5 weeks and I really can't treat it much different than just another workout.  So that's really not motivating me.  I need to be cycling, but the weather stinks and I've lost so much bodyfat it feels even colder out!  I need to review Rule #5, but I'm just not feeling that hardcore to do so.

One super cool thing happened this week though, and that is during swim practice we've started working on other swim strokes besides freestyle today we practiced BUTTERFLY!  Last year, I could not even make a reasonable attempt at this stroke as it takes a lot of energy and core power, just to do something that resembles the stroke.  Today, I swam a full 50m of something that looked and felt like the fly, it was like a mini-WOD in BEAST mode. I can only give Crossfit and PIB credit for having the energy, strength, and power to accomplish this! 
Definately a highlight for the week!

Paleo In A Box AMFAT Challenge: Week 6

Week 6 finished with a bang!  Saturday was the Indoor Triathlon I have been training overtime for. 
As I suspected the swim would be my weakest leg, normally this is not an issue, but for an indoor tri, this is a major leg of the race, the reason is the bike leg is done on indoor stationary bikes and it's all about spinning fast, nothing to do with strength or power, so basically all the top contenders are within seconds of each other... 
Here's how the race went,  out of the pool I was around 2 minutes behind the leader.  This was good as I had just swam my first official 500m in 9:46, a respectable swim for an intermediate like myself.  It's a PR in that I have timed myself in the past and last year I would have been around 12 minutes.  So good, but I was a long ways back.  The bike went like I expected, I turned a cadence of around 140 to 150 rpm, but probably only good enough to gain back 10 or 20 seconds on the leader at best, but I did gain a lot on everyone else and was the second one off the bike, therefore now in second place!  The run is done on an indoor track where 13 laps is one mile.  Lots of turning,  the run ended up being my strongest part of the tri, I ran the 5k in 20:39, which is a definate PR,  about every 10 laps I was gaining a lap on the leader, the race was super close and I was down to less than 1 lap, but I just ran out of time!  Came in second by about 20 seconds. 
Of course, I wanted to win, but I'll never complain when I performed at my best.  I definately did that, and shocked a lot of people too as I don't think anyone really took me serious about being a contender. 
As far as Paleo goes, not a whole lot to report this week. I was definately fueled and ready for this triathlon though, certainly have to give the PIB system credit for the proper nutrition!

6 minutes of your life you'll want back!

Here's a video blog a made talking about the PIB system and the progress I've made.  As a disclaimer, I'm not responsible for you wanting 6 minutes of your life back if you watch it all, I'm not that great in front of a camera.  This is my first Vlog I've ever done.

AMFAT Challenge: Progress Update

Here's the first piece of information that I'll post.  While this may not look all that impressive, it's important to consider that I don't have a whole lot to lose.  Also, I'm sure that I'm building muscle mass, which this graph doesn't tell the story of.  Overall, I'm super happy with the results.
I'll get some measurements next and post an update for those too.

Note I forgot to weight myself on the first day, but fortuneately, I had a measurement relatively close to get a starting point. To be conservative, I'll start with the red line, even though I know there is no way I lost any weight the week before the challenge...  So, I've gone from 181.5 to 177.5, which is a very noticeable 4 lbs, primarily off the waist.
Other than switching to Paleo, I would not say I have once tried to eat less than I normally do, if anything, I feel I'm eating more.  These same eating habits of non-paleo food, would have kept me at the same weight of approx 183 lbs.
All of last summer I tried "dieting" to get rid of the last few lbs, and while it did lose some, it was probably mostly water weight and I put it all back on in no time at all.  The old school techniques I used last summer was plain and simple calorie restriction/starvation.  That method also cost me valuable fitness on the bike and definately didn't help my overall health and well-being.

Paleo Secrets Revealed III

There's actually a lot of bad/wrong Paleo Food pyramids out there, do a google search for Paleo Food Pyramid and you get lots of pyramids almost as bad as the governments one.  Here's one I found that I liked and thought was spot on.

If there was anything I would change about this one I would reverse the locations of fruits block with the oil block, but close enough for the point I want to make.  No where do you see grains, no where do you see processed things that come in a box.  Also, there's no drive through block or vending machine block.  What you do see is whole, natural, and preferably organic food.  Wow, it's amazingly simple!  Also notice what the biggest 3 blocks are!

Paleo Secrets Revealed II

Here's another FB post that I liked, it expands on my last one and gives you some visuals to go along with it.  I don't think any more explanation is necessary.

Paleo Secrets Revealed

Warning, explicit language 

This will be the first I've ever posted something with cuss words in it, but, I think this needs to be reposted and I can't say that I feel the language is too strong.  If anything it's not strong enough.

 

The key to the "Eat More Fat" statement is to eat good fats, like grass fed butter, ghee, olive, avocado, and coconut oil.  Also, don't forget to add in an Omega 3 supplement. 
The mechanics or theory of this statement is this: Grains = Carbs => Sugar => Fat on your belly or thighs!  Hmmm, the government and fat free advertisers don't mention that.   As an example think about the vending machine foods that are advertised as fat free (aka: healthy)  Let's see... those would be pretzels, twizzlers, and gummy "fruit" things.
Another point to think about is processed food = man made ingredients = no nutrition + chemicals = toxins.

Paleo In A Box, AMFAT Challenge: Week 5

Alright, week 5, similar to week 2, I'm caught back up and blogging in real time!  This week, PIB introduced some of the real keys to eating Paleo on the run, at work, traveling, or where ever you end up during the middle of the day that might cause problems eating healthy.  It's a simple concept and very crafty in that it works great!  I'm not going to give away any secrets here, because even if I told you, without the rest of the information, 1 piece of the system doesn't do you much good.  

This idea about only have some of the information is what I want to talk about now, in daily conversations as people learn what I'm doing and I tell them about my results they are immediately interested and want to know what they should do, and I found that I can give them pointers and possibly send them in the right direction, but without the whole system, the effectiveness of 1 piece of information just isn't going to get them to where they want to be. 

I've also noticed this trend in random Paleo FB posts, for example, I follow several Paleo FB pages and they all seem to have maybe 1 or several things figured out and they will make a post about it, and then the trail of comments that follow it are sadly ignorant and mis-guided,  here's how they go:  one person will comment with a classic wives tale or government mis-information "fact" and then another person says no, that's not right and proceeds to re-explain the situation with another "fact" that actually isn't quite right either, but perhaps closer to the right thinking.  And the discussion goes on and on and actually a lot of the commenter's are partially right... but in reading their comments, I realize that without understanding the whole picture none of them will ever get it.  Before I started PIB, I was one of those people, blindly searching for the answer and just never getting there, because even if I were to figure out one piece of the puzzle I would botch another one and the whole thing would go pear shaped. 

Next I need to confess: it was actually this week, that the eating raw vegetables story happened (I wrote it in week 3), thought I better come clean on that one, just in case your reading my blog and comparing it to your experience.  I promise I haven't taken any other timeline liberties in the writing of this blog, but the story just worked out to tell in week 3...

This week, I have to admit has been challenging, despite my new ability to eat vegetables, I still have a mental challenge to actually do so.  Raw is best, raw blended in a shake is equally best, and lightly cooked is next best.  Right now I have no problem with cooked vegetables or the shakes, but despite my new ability to eat raw vegetables I haven't quite transitioned into doing it with no mental challenge, but I'm making progress one day at a time, and that's just fine! and actually it's just how the program is designed, to do things at my own pace.  Next week I will do better because I am not about to give up, and small steps add up to lots of progress.

Paleo In A Box, AMFAT Challenge: Week 4

I'm sure your expecting me to talk about all the amazing things I learned this week, but guess what?  There are no modules this week.  WHAT?  Yes, it's catch up time, I'll admit I was bummed out by this, I mean really, I want more, I want more.  Information that is, definately not carbs or sugar! 

So why the break?  Well, the program is designed to not just dump the info, but to transition you into Paleo slowly.  It seems a lot of the things they have had me do so far are simple and the fact is they are, but have I actually done all them...  Well, not fully... Perhaps I'm a bit behind on a few things, and I should maybe review the info and make sure I didn't miss anything.  It turns out I was actually pretty much on top of things, but I'm a single guy and besides training, I don't have anything else to focus on other than integrating the PIB system into my life!  There's several of us at the Box doing this program, and each person has different challenges they face to implement the changes,  busy at work, family, time constraints, etc...  Everyone is doing extremeley well and I've learned a lot from everyone no matter what part of the program they are working on.  One great benefit we have seen, doing the program simultaneously is that we all pick up on different aspects of the program and have different viewpoints on what things should be a priority or how we should implement them.  Besides that just having a group support is awesome! 

If that isn't enough, there is also the PIB Facebook VIP group, which is awesome, and the added bonus of the AMFAT Challenge is the FB AMFAT Group, more or less the AMFAT group is all about at the same stage, and level of implementation.  The amazing part of this group is how similar our experiences are and while everyone's situation is different we are all following a similar pattern and learning at the same time.  I love this part, because I read posts and I think: "exactly, I just noticed that too", or "yes, of course, that's happening to me too" 
One of these moments I'll share, is my ability to now eat a wide range of raw vegetables, (yes I said raw), several months ago I could not have fathomed eating such things! As I was learning this, another fellow AMFAT group member posted this same thing!  It turns out, your body wants healthy things, but modern day processed foods have contaminated it with toxins and those toxins trap you in a bad cycle of thinking you want more toxins and then this is reinforced by the FDA food pyramid (which is very wrong btw) and next thing you know your in circle you can't get out of...  I was just about to go off on a rant, but nope, stopping now, still have important stuff to get to.
Also, during this catch up week, I got all the ingredients ordered for the Post WOD shakes, here's one part of the program that applies some modern day products, to mix up your own Recovery shakes.  I should have paid for overnight shipping, I was so impatient this week waiting for the ingredients to arrive.  I felt like every WOD without them I was losing some of that hard work I had just put in... and actually I probably was.  It really wouldn't have been that long of a wait but I ran out of all the inferior products I was using up, which were better than nothing. 
In terms of results I would say similar to last week, slightly lower on weight and more definition, nothing amazing yet, but I'm gaining everyday, and more importatnly, I'm still training hard and recovering fast!

Paleo In A Box AMFAT Challenge: Week 3

Wow, I have been super busy training and just haven't taken the time to get my blog updated.  The last couple weekends I had to make the decision to have clean clothes or an updated blog.  Well, that really wasn't much of a choice.  I would like to say I chose the blog but instead I had to go for the less fun option and make sure I had clean clothes for work.

In week 3, I received more amazing modules from Paleo In a Box!  I am continually excited with every new piece of information.  I'm sure I've said this before (definately to my friends and coworkers that will still listen to me) but it is so awesome to learn the truth about nutrition and good health, something I've been searching for, it seems like forever.  Up to this point, somethings I've done right, but so many things I either wasn't doing quite right or just would never have figured out.  There's just too much mis-information out there, and sadly nearly all of it comes from so called reliable sources like the government, ...wait a minute! that's not a reliable source at all! Dang it, I've been duped by just following along in life and believing the way it is, is just the way it's supposed to be.  I hate it when that happens a major pet peave of mine.

OK, so your now finding out that I like to rant a lot in my blogs, but back on track now.  Week 3 introduces Greens Drinks and Pre and Post WOD shakes.  These modules are overwhelminly favorites of nearly everyone in the program and I know why they are certainly my favorites too.  My whole fitness career I've known I was supposed to have a recovery drink after working out, but I never knew why, and if I did decide to have one, I might do it after a race, or maybe the workout before a race...  I think I had some logic behind my strategy, but looking back on things, there was none, I just didn't know any better. 

So from a learning aspect lots of cool info this week, but what about results you ask?  This week didn't have any major landmarks, like gaining another belt hole, but I have noticed some new shadows on my stomach, which if you need me to spell out means the ab definition is starting to show, so while I don't have smaller waist, I am still losing weight, and the scale proves it, down another lb or two.  I promise I'll start posting some data of the results soon.  While I do plan to get down to ripped abs and minimal body fat, the overhealth benefits are skyrocketing.  I feel great, and I am recovering UNBELEIVEABLE FAST between workouts, that's really the amazing part this week because I am training huge hours at intensity! 

The training I've been doing is for the indoor triathlon coming up, and I'm swimming almost every morning for an hour, still doing 4 WOD's at the box after work and a couple nights of running and cycling!  On average I put in 2 hours a day of actual exercise, and I'm not counting driving time, or changing clothes, or prepping shakes, thats actually on the bike, in the water, or crushing a WOD! 

OK, since I'm behind on these blog updates, I'm excited to get on to Week 4, so let's see, I got side tracked by a rant, raved about the PIB program, and I think all I'm missing is a self promotional clip about how awesome I am.  Ok, done, now on to week 4

Week 2: Paleo In A Box AMFAT Challenge

Today is the end of Week 2 and I'm actually writing this blog in real time, so no more future insights like the last post.  However, the adventure is just revving up and it's going to incredible!  I am hooked, I've drank the Kool Aid (figuratively that is, as I now know Kool-aid is the devil -It's pure sugar...)  Actually everything with sugar in it is super bad and even worse is substituting in some sort of fake sugar AKA: Toxic Waste.  Those are my descriptions!  PIB does not phrase it that way, I've taken some artistic liberties in my above statements, but I will tell you I'm telling it how it is, and that's known as the TRUTH.

OK, this isn't a rant about sugar.  Back on track now:   Week 2 has been amazing, I really didn't expect to see any results this early, I spent all summer trying to diet by starving myself and all I accomplished was being desperately hungry, losing performance on the bike, and barely losing any weight.  HOWEVER, my pants are looser, yes, I would estimate a half inch off the waist!  The best part of that statement, I didn't eat any more or less that I normally do, I just changed to healthier food,  aka:  Whole food.  In fact, I ate more grease and oil than I ever have!  Sure, it was the right types and kinds, and just for interest, did you know that you can eat coconut oil right off the spoon and it's healthy for you!  How's that for a teaser!

So, I'm losing weight, maybe your not impressed.  Wait for it....   I feel awesome!  I have more energy than I ever have, I'm recovering extremely well from my workouts and yes this is all real, I am not smoking crack, this is really happening.  The crazy part?  There's still lots more to come!  4 more weeks of diet and health improvements!  I can hardly stand it, I want to do it all today!  Also, I should mention, I have not once been hungry, if anything I've been eating more than usual...

Week 1: Paleo In A Box AMFAT Challenge

The PIB system is set up as modules that arrive every 3 days and it takes about 6 weeks to complete the whole program.  It seems a bit slow waiting for the modules to arrive, but this is by design.  If they just dumped on the information on you at once, you would have no idea where to start and would fail.  That would be bad, so each module gives you the theory and then the practical.  The changes they ask you to do, seem simple on the surface, but really take some effort to properly put into place.  Not hard, it's just that you have to actually do it!

The purpose of this blog is to capture my progress in this adventure, and since I'm now catching up on a backlog of blogging, I can tell you straight out that that the system is going to deliver and I'm seeing results already!  But I'm getting ahead of myself, back to week 1.

First things I had to do was take pictures of myself.  That's a fun one for sure, even though I really only have around 10 lbs of fat to lose, I still wish I had the ripped out abs of an underwear model.  OK, so pictures done, sorry, but not going to post them here.  Next, I had to benchmark several Crossfit workouts.  Keep in mind this is a performance oriented program, not just a diet (actually it's way more than either of these, as overall health is the main benefit, but this will become more obvious in future posts.)

The benchmark workouts are:
FRAN 8:08 (and I have to use a band for pull-ups due to my shoulder tear)
Death By Burpees: 15
Fight Gone Bad: 305

Additionally, I had to take a bunch of measurements, waist, hips, arms, legs, etc...  Perhaps at the end of the challenge, I'll post the before and after pics and dimensions...

One of the biggest things I had to do this week was clean out all the processed toxic crap from my cabinets and fridge!  Knowing how bad this stuff is for you, I felt guilty for even giving it away, but unless you have the insigt and motivation that I now have, this was regular food approved by the government as healthy for you!

It's hard to say that anything is really happening in just a few days, so from a performance and weight loss standpoint, I'd have to say I'm the same.

Paleo In A Box AMFAT Challenge

This is the final frontier.  I've been doing everything possible to increase my performance and the only thing I don't have a handle on is my weight, which has to be directly related to my eating habits.  I've been making lots of improvements, but honestly the last several 10 or so pounds aren't coming off.  Not only that, the amount of will power required and calorie deficit I have to go into just to lose a pount or two is ridiculous, and doing that has really bad effects on my performance.
So far Crossfit has delivered more than I could have ever hoped it could, and Paleo is pretty much synonamous with Crossfit, so why not buy in all the way...? 

Timing was perfect about the time I was thinking this, a couple other's at the Box were talking about the Paleo In a Box system, and PIB was starting a 90 day AMFAT Challenge.  I can't say that I was thrilled with how PIB set up their website.  It's done in an identical layout as many scams, which compromises it's credibility right off the start, but I kept researching and then the day before the challenge started they hosted a webinar (for free), I had already decided I was going to join, but the webinar was excellent, and if the whole system delivered half the information it claimed it would, there is no doubt it would be amazing.

The challenge started on Jan 14, and so far it's been everything it promised to be.  Weekly updates to follow!