Day 14

Woohoo! Halfway through the challenge and feeling great! I forgot to do my measurements this morning so in the interest of consistency, I will do them tomorrow morning along with taking some pics. Though I don't see any real difference in my body composition, and don't expect to see any real weight loss, I feel good and I've learned a lot. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I think I've been overdoing my carb intake, which is keeping me from losing this stubborn belly fat. So, my plan is to monitor my carbs and shoot for <100g/day for the next 2 weeks. I still think paleo is a great lifestyle, but it is so important to tailor it to your specific dietary needs. Yes, it would be lovely to not have to track everything I eat, but that may not be realistic for me right now.  In order to loose fat, I have to stay light on carbs, even when I'm working out 5 days/wk. Its just the way I'm made.

I had my usual for breakfast but was careful to measure exactly 1/2 cup of blueberries, and use a 4inch piece of banana in my breakfast cake. My carbs for this meal came out to 42g. Yes, this is almost half of my daily allowance, but I generally eat most of my carbs in the morning anyway. I was super hungry after CrossFit this morning, as our WOD was pretty taxing. Here it is:

DYNAMIC WARM UP-
SAMSON STRETCH – 30 SECONDS
KARAOKE- 45 SECONDS
WALKING HIGH KNEE PULLS – 45 SECONDS
WALKING QUAD PULL – 45 SECONDS
SHOULDER CIRCLES- 45 SECONDS
20 PRESSES 10LB. BALL
SKILL- SPLIT JERK DELIVERED BY THE CLEAN
WOD- “3 BARS OF DEATH” OR “LINDA”  - FOR TIME
10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1
POWER CLEAN- RX 75% BODY WEIGHT
BENCH PRESS OR PUSH UP-RX BODY WEIGHT
DEADLIFTS- 1.5 X BODYWEIGHT

For lunch I had leftovers from last night: grilled chicken (5oz), grilled veggies (zucchini, peppers, onions), romaine, salsa, and 1/4 of an avocado. This brought my carb count up to 70g. If I would have cut out the onions, the carb load would have been less, but I thought about this after the fact.

I snacked on leftover grilled chicken and had two scoops of my "almond butter" heated with two tbsp of coconut milk.  Last night I attempted to make almond butter but alas, my blender was not gonna hack it, so I ended up with a very loose interpretation. The good news is that I should be able to use it to make Paleo "oatmeal" tomorrow.

Tonight I made sweet-potato carrot cakes, grassfed beef burgers and kale chips. I was skeptical about the cakes but they turned out delicious! Here is the recipe:

1 cup sweet potato grated
1 cup carrots grated
1 tbsp coconut flour
3 egg
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt

I formed 8 patties out of this mixture and stuck them in the fridge to firm up. This step probably wasn't necessary but since the mixture was so wet, I was worried they would fall apart. After about 30 minutes I removed them from the fridge and heated a skillet to medium low. I melted about 2 tsp of coconut oil in the pan and then added the patties, allowing them to brown on both side (about 4 minutes/side).

 I coated the kale with olive oil and salt and allowed it to cook for 20 minutes at 275. The chips turned out great but I elected to save them for snack tomorrow.

 Dinner was awesome! I used the carrot-sweet potato cakes almost in place of a burger bun. I also topped mine with a fried egg, and finished everything off with homemade ketchup and fresh jalepenos.

My goal was to stay under 100g of carbs today and once I added dinner into my diet log (I use My Fitness Pal on my iphone) I was at 90g. I don't love that I'm having to track meals again, but I'm really curious to see what reducing my carb load does to my body.

Day 13

Happy Monday and happy MLK Day! When my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, I reluctantly rolled over and attempted to wake Chad. He started complaining of a stomach ache last night, so I wasn't sure how he'd feel this morning. He still wasn't feeling well so we skipped CrossFit and slept int til around 7:30. I'm really getting used to this whole sleeping in thing... and I'm also starting to like evening workouts. Never thought I'd say that! I rolled out of bed and packed Chads lunch while cooking breakfast. I had my usual, as did Chad. After breakfast I turned on coverage of the inauguration and started to do a little research regarding the macronutrient breakdown of the paleo diet. Prior to my wedding in October I was meticulously counting calories (my target was 1500) and shooting for 35-40% carbs, 30-35% protein, and 25-30% fat. I was drawn to paleo because you aren't meant to track these things, however, I was really curious to see what my macros were amounting with paleo. I knew I was consuming a much higher amount of fat, but I was unsure about my carb and protein intake. So today I went ahead and tracked my meals. The breakdown was 25% carbs, 30% protein, and 45% fat. Originally, I was thinking that I should cut back on nuts/nut butter intake, to cut weight. However, carbs are responsible for insulin release and insulin is what makes the body store, or hold on to, fat. I ended up finding a really great blog: Primal, and it reminded me how essential carb intake is in relation to fat loss. Here is a great table further demonstrating this point.
 

• 0-50 grams per day: Ketosis and I.F. (Intermittent Fasting) zone. Excellent catalyst for rapid fat loss through I.F. Not recommended for prolonged periods (except in medically supervised programs for obese or Type 2 diabetics) due to unnecessary deprivation of plant foods.
• 50-100 grams per day: Sweet Spot for Weight Loss. Steadily drop excess body fat by minimizing insulin production. Enables 1-2 pounds per week of fat loss with satisfying, minimally restrictive meals.
• 100-150 grams per day: Primal Maintenance zone. Once you’ve arrived at your goal or ideal body composition, you can maintain it quite easily here while enjoying abundant vegetables, fruits and other Primal foods.
• 150-300 grams a day: Insidious Weight Gain zone. Most health conscious eaters and unsuccessful dieters end up here, due to frequent intake of sugar and grain products (breads, pastas, cereals, rice, potatoes – even whole grains). Despite trying to “do the right thing” (minimize fat, cut calories), people can still gain an average of 1.5 pounds of fat every year for decades.
• 300+ grams a day: Danger Zone of average American diet. All but the most extreme exercisers will tend to produce excessive insulin and store excessive fat over the years at this intake level. Increases risk for obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

So my takeaway is that if I want to see significant fat loss (for me that means getting my six pack abs) I need to stay below 100g of carbs/day. I'm certainly not piling on the carbs now but between blueberries and a banana for breakfast, plantain chips for snack, and sweet potatoes for dinner I'm at about 150g. The good news, this is an EASY fix! So for the remainder of the challenge I'm going to be monitoring my carb intake diligently to see if it makes a difference.

For lunch I sauteed broccoli slaw and leftover ground turkey in coconut oil and then made a scramble with 1 egg and 3 egg whites. I also had a mixed green salad and topped it with avocado and salsa. After that I made two different marinades for chicken, to use for dinner and lunch tomorrow. I made one "Mexican" inspired and one "Asian" inspired marinade.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning like a mad woman. I left the house around 4 to head to the grocery store (I'm totally over budget for the month btw) and then to CrossFit. Here is Today's WOD:

DYNAMIC WARM UP- 5 TO 10 MINUTES
STRENGTH: COMBO OLYMPIC LIFT
POWER SNATCH + OVERHEAD SQUAT 3-3-3-3-3x @ 65% snatch 1RM
WOD- TABATTA WORK
TABATTA – 20 SECONDS ON / 10 SECONDS OFF (8 CYCLES)
TABATTA #1:
WALL BALL + PUSH UPS PLUS + SQUAT JUMPS + BATTLE ROPES
TABATTA # 2:
RKB SWING + AIR SQUATS + MED BALL SIT UPS + LUNGE CURLS
STRETCH/COOL DOWN

When I got home I pulled the chicken out of the fridge and chopped up 2 bell peppers, half an onion, and two zucchinis. I coated the veggies with olive oil and S&P and threw everything on the grill.

While I waited, I decided to attempt to make some "paleo bars." Chad and I were looking to order some online a few nights back and they were crazy expensive so I figured I'd try to make my own first. I'm reluctant to post the recipe because I didn't measure anything, I just kept playing with the ingredients and hoping they'd come together. So here's what I used:

pumpkin seeds
ground almonds
sunflower seeds
chia seed
raw honey
shredded coconut (unsweetened)
coconut oil
egg whites

I mixed all these ingredients together and pressed them into a baking pan lined with parchment. I baked them until golden brown, which was about 20 minutes and immediately cut them into bars, this yielded 10 good sized bars. I allowed them to cool before removing them from the pan and wrapping them individually with plastic wrap. I stored them in an airtight container for use this week.

 Dinner ended up being chicken and grilled veggies, along with roasted purple cabbage. Yummy!

Sorry for the long post, I just had a lot to say :)