Summer Clothes

Today is the first warm sunny day here since....September 2010? I wish I was kidding. Seattle is a funny place. There is no taking the sun for granted, so each sunny warm day becomes a cliche of bright white people laying out on any patch of grass, bbq's, lawn mowing, car washing, etc. I can't say that I am immune to being a cliche...I spent nearly the whole day lounging in a plastic Adirondack chair in my backyard, with bouts of yard work and house work between. Also? I took my summer clothes bin out of storage!

Twice a year I do a clothes swap. In the fall I put shorts, t-shirts, short skirts, and capri's in bin and replace the holes in my closet and drawers with sweaters, dark long sleeve shirts and dark trousers. In the spring, I switch back. The past few years, I haven't been too excited about the spring swap, meaning more skin will soon be showing. This year, it has been awesome! Shorts and skirts that haven't fit for years went on with ease. I also discovered my body has succumbed to the CrossFit curse...pants and shorts are snug in the legs and gaping at the waist.

I've always had huge quadriceps, but a huge mid-section to match. Its a weird thing for my legs to over take my mid-section, but I love it! I'm finally achieving the body my genetics dictates, and losing the body that I continued to abuse and mistreat.

Yay for sunny weather!

Everyone NEEDS to See This. NOW.

I love the internet. Everyday I find something new that inspires me. I've blogged many times about Gary Taubes, and his book Good Calories, Bad Calories. I've written about how it basically rocked my nutrition and exercise world. Well, today on the internet, I found a battle between Gary Taubes (who is FUCKING AWESOME) and Dr. Oz (aka the worlds biggest douche).

Gary Taubes was brave enough to go on Dr. Oz's show where they totally set him up and never let him get a word in edgewise. He STILL was impressive, if you listen to him and not jump to all the broad sweeping conclusions that Dr. Oz did. Oh, and Dr. Oz? The last time I checked Oprah was still fat, and so are all those housewives that hang on your every word. CATCH A CLUE AMERICA, IF YOU ARE FAT, STOP EATING REFINED CARBOHYDRATES AND SUGAR. If you don't have a weight problem, eat what you want.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/man-who-thinks-everything-dr-oz-says-wrong-pt-1

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/man-who-thinks-everything-dr-oz-says-wrong-pt-2

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/man-who-thinks-everything-dr-oz-says-wrong-pt-3

I love Dr. Oz's 24 hour trial (sarcasm). What a joke. If there is one thing I have never been since going Paleo its tired after eating. On the standard American diet, I used to be so full and lethargic after a meal. Why? Cause of the blood sugar spike and the insulin crash. Paleo doesn't cause that, so if you are tired after you eat a meal of protein and veggies, you simply ate WAY TOO MUCH which is never a good thing, no matter what diet you choose.

Insatiable

For the life of me I couldn't seem to keep my hunger at bay today. It wasn't real hunger, it was just boredom and me longing for that high feeling I used to get from eating a large meal, or eating something I shouldn't be eating. Some days I just want to say "fuck it" and eat whatever I want. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had come home tonight after the gym and there was a pizza or cake, or some other god awful food I would have eaten it. Nutrition challenge and all. That's how I felt.

Instead, I focused on what I knew I did have in the house. I focused on what I could give myself that would seem like an indulgence, but in reality, wasn't. I came home and immediately started cooking up some ground turkey tacos. I would let myself eat them on corn tortillas instead of lettuce (still gluten free, but a grain none the less) and I would top them with avocado and sour cream (dairy, but organic, high fat dairy). I was getting excited for that meal. Once things were cooking up, I went into the TV room to turn on the news, and saw 4 Reeses bunnies sitting on the coffee table next to a 85% organic chocolate bar. It was like the chocolate gods had answered my prayers for junk being in my reach!

I decided I would eat the Reeses bunnies after my dinner. Dinner was amazing. I looked at the bunnies. I unwrapped one. I bit its head off. I broke off a small square of the dark chocolate and took alternating bunny/organic chocolate bites until the bunny was gone. It was heavenly. Then the strangest thing happened. I was fully prepared to eat all 4 bunnies, but I was done. I was finally satiated! All notions of eating the remainder of the bunnies disappeared. In the past I would have just eaten them because they were there, and I could. But tonight? For whatever reason, I had given myself the green light to eat all 4, but I'm satisfied, truly satisfied with one.

I guess sometimes its ok to give yourself the green light, you may surprise yourself. I did!

Off With Their Heads!

Other stuff happens in my life besides trying to eat well and exercise. I'm going to share with you all what I think is an awesome story about my engagement, and how perfect my fiance is.

If you are a girl, you likely have ideas about how you want every major detail in your life to go down. First kiss, sweet 16 birthday party, 21st birthday party, meeting your future husband, getting engaged, wedding, planning a family, etc. Some girls are more obsessive about this stuff then others. I don't care about typical girly crap like the stuff mentioned above, however I've always known what kind of engagement ring I want.

So, when my boyfriend proposed to me, I got the ring I had been envisioning forever. Solitaire, square, shiny, platinum, etc. It was perfect. It fit perfect, it was so...me. Which is weird because if you know me, I'm not a jewelry girl. Immediately I spent so much time staring at it. Within about 10 minutes of having it on, I noticed something. I tried to ignore it. But I knew what it was.

In the bottom left corner, barely perceptible to anyone unless you had been staring at the ring for an hour straight in every possible angle, was a black dot. A tiny piece of un-diamonized carbon was trapped inside my ring. Did my boyfriend know it was there and was just waiting for me to say something? I didn't want to be a bitch, so I found a way to embrace it. I tried to make it my favorite part of my ring...showing it was real. It was rare, everyone has rings without pieces of the original carbon in them. But I was terrified someone would notice. I was also terrified to find out if my boyfriend knew about it, and got some sort of deal on it.

On Saturday we were headed out shopping, and my fiance was doing his daily ring check, and I decided to say something. I said "you know what my favorite part of the ring is?" "What?" he asked. I said "look, there is a little black dot in it, carbon...showing its real." "WHAT?!" he exclaimed. I assured him it didn't bother me (lie) but really, for the most part I was in love with my ring. He examined it more, and said it really bugs him. When we got home, he immediately (and secretly) called the jeweler where he bought the ring and told them what happened. The jeweler said to come down, pick out a new diamond, and they will switch it out. He told me that he was going to go down to the store and pick out a new diamond.

I was instantly relieved. I'm so happy that the black dot bothered him so much that he took immediate action. I know that being engaged is not all about the ring, and I don't really think that this story is about the ring. Its about my fiance knowing what I want, even when I'm not saying it out loud, and also that the same things that bother me, bother him. If those aren't excellent reasons to marry someone, I don't know what are.

I got my ring back with the new stone, and its gorgeous. Meanwhile, word is spreading throughout my family that I am planning a destination wedding most likely to Mexico. How does my family respond? "Um, are we going to get beheaded?" Yeah, I can't make this stuff up. I can already tell this whole me getting married thing is going to get really annoying once my family starts throwing their ideas out there. What's that you say? It's not their wedding? HAHAHAHAHAHA. You've never met my family. Sigh...maybe beheadings would be a good thing?

Teamwork

The amount of support and teamwork taking place at the gym right now to get everything back up and going is so amazing, inspirational, and awe inspiring. People are coming out of the woodwork in the strangest (but good) ways to help out. As far as the workouts? Yeah, they still kick my ass.

Today we worked with a partner and had to complete the following:
50 tire flips (400+ pound tire)
500 punches
1 mile run carrying a 30lb sandbag

Who says you need fancy equipment to get a workout?

I'm sure we will look back on these days in a few months and laugh. One thing is for sure, I'm never going to take a single kettlebell, pull up bar, olympic bar, floor, or bucket of chalk for granted again.

Closed for Business

That's right, I'm engaged.

Onto other news, shortly after I was celebrating my new change in relationship status, I learned that something horrible happened to my gym.

The CrossFit I got to is relatively new, it is just shy of a year old. There are two owners, one owner that knows his shit and is amazing- I've talked about him before, and the other owner that put up the funds (on credit) to get things started, but has no talent, no brains, and now I realize, no class.

For the past few months, the awesome owner has been pretty open about needing investors since the no talent owner wanted out. He kept pushing forward everyday, from 5am to 8pm, running workouts and doing everything. The no talent owner hadn't set foot in the gym in over 4 months. What she was doing, no one knows.

In the middle of the night on Wednesday, the no talent owner came in and took everything. Every single piece of equipment. She took out the floor mats, the pull-up bars that were bolted into concrete, the boxes we jump on, every weight, every kettlebell, the computer, the phone, the t-shirts, sweatshirts...EVERYTHING.

The news spread fast, and instantly the members of our gym sprung into action. I have every bit of confidence that the owner can get the gym up and going again in short order. After all, he is the one with all the talent and vision. The only thing he needs are people to believe in him. I believe in him.

I'm going to help him in any way I can, because I want to keep going at pace I am. I have good momentum, and this will not interrupt it. As for the other owner, she will get what is coming to her one day. I have no doubts about that.

My Kryptonite

Red velvet cupcakes. Specifically mini red velvet cupcakes from Cupcake Royale. I’ve
mentioned before that my office caters breakfasts and lunches. A LOT. In January,
when I started here, I tried to be good. I resisted the temptations of free delicious lunch for a week, and then slowly started caving in. It started the day we had a full taco bar and they had tres leches cake for dessert. I HAD to have it. So I did. Then I started having all the desserts, and sampling from the morning pastry trays. Some things were good, some things were bad, I ate them all the same. One day sticks out in my head like it was yesterday. The mini-cupcake day. I don’t remember what the lunch was, but I remember seeing a bunch of cute little cupcakes on a tray. I grabbed one of each flavor (chocolate/chocolate, vanilla/vanilla, and red velvet/cream cheese- hey, they were mini!) I took them back to my desk. I sample the chocolate one. It wasn’t as good as I hoped, so I tossed it in the trash. Then I tasted the vanilla one. OMG. It was seriously like the best thing I’ve ever had. Then I tried the red velvet. Even better then the vanilla! I snuck back and got 2 more of each. Now I was crazy...I had that same feeling I used to get all the time,
wanting to eat as many as possible, knowing that I was doing something horrible, and
having to hide it all at once. I got my punishment later that day when I went to CrossFit and the workout was Murph.

In the grand scheme of things during this period of trying everything that was brought in here, I was not eating anywhere near the amount of carbs that a typical American diet consists of, but it was enough to stall any scale progress for 3 months. When I started to see repeat lunches I knew I had seen everything, and therefore knew what was worth having and what was not. I’ve always had an issue with wanting to try everything once. Buffets are a horrible place for me.

Until 3 weeks ago, I was taking liberties with treats and carbs and essentially spinning my wheels. Enter nutrition challenge. The large monetary prize has proven to be a huge incentive for me to stay on track. I wrote a few days ago about finally being in that place where treats no longer appeal to me. All last week work did not cater one single breakfast or lunch. It was like a gift from the gods…making my day so much easier.

This week is different. There has been catered breakfast and lunch everyday so far. Each day seems to chip away at my will. Here I am writing down everything I eat diligently to post to the nutrition challenge message board, but the real victory is all the stuff I DIDN’T eat. So far this week I have passed up French toast, biscuits and gravy, French dip sandwiches and French fries, cheesecake, breakfast pastries including chocolate croissants and cinnamon rolls, raviolis in cream sauce, tiramisu, and today...the mini-cupcakes have made an appearance.

It is physically painful for me to not have one. But I know I can’t stop at one. I keep trying to think of a rationalization to let myself have one (read: six). I know I will feel so much better if I resist. I can be smug in my decision. Last time I gave into them I had to do Murph. If they made an appearance before, they will certainly be back, so why do I need to torture myself? After all, isn’t it me that said I’ve had enough of that stuff to last a lifetime? Isn’t it me that decided I needed to give up sugar and grains because they were killing me? Isn’t it me that tells everyone who asks how they should be eating?

I resisted. I waited in my cubicle until I knew they would be gone. I have to admit though, when I did finally venture out to go to the bathroom, I was sad to see the cupcakes were really all gone.

A Paleo Dream

A big part of why I strive for a diet free of Neolithic foods is because of the lifestyle that accompanies it. Before I get all hippie crazy on you (heh, I did go to the University of Oregon) a lot of the things I enjoy are rather old-fashioned. I'll list them to further embarrass myself...baking (from scratch), nature, knitting, house work (both remodeling and cleaning), gardening/yardwork, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and Murder She Wrote. Ok, not the last one. And to keep my street cred...I will swim in any water body, taste random white powders with my tongue like the police do on TV (story for another day), and still make an ass of myself at any friends wedding.

My perfect vision of my food life includes growing a garden of vegetables to eat during the summer months and can/freeze for the winter months, raising chickens for eggs, eating as clean as possible by purchasing humanely raised meats. I like food. I really, really like food, and I want my food to taste the best it can. I feel in a lot of ways we as a society, have put too much separation between ourselves and where our food comes from. For me, a true Paleo diet connects me back to my foods and inspires me to take action. See below:






My perfect vision of my body life includes being stellar at functional movements. Or as the CrossFit unofficial motto says- "specialize in not specializing." I want to be able to lift heavy things, throw heavy things, run out my back door for a quick 6 miles, sprint 100's of meters fast, do pull-ups, jump on stuff...basically anything I might need to do if I'm hanging out with Bear Grylls. Or running from a bear.

What can I say? My old fashioned interests set me up for a true appreciation of eating Paleo and creating a more "Paleo" lifestyle. It just makes sense to me, how it all ties in together. In trying to simplify everything, we have made our worlds just the opposite. Thousands of miles for our food to travel. Complicated ingredients in processed foods. Crazy exercise machines that teach the body no functionality what so ever (elliptical, ah-hem). Shoes that are supposed to shape us up. Oh, and my new favorite ridiculous Neo-lithic example (don't get me wrong, I've done 1,000's in the past) bicep curls! When on earth do you EVER pick something up with that movement (besides maybe and apple off your desk to put in your mouth, and apples aren't heavy!)? Sometimes the irony is just too much for me.

This is still a learning process for me, but as I clean my body of toxins, my mind seems to free up with grand ideas of how to live out my Paleo dreams with a modern spin. You'll still find me shopping at the GAP and glued to my iPhone, but just as you've never known me to make a cake from a box, I won't be wasting my time trying to "simplify" anymore.

Great Link

I stumbled upon this on the internet today:
http://www.fitbomb.com/p/why-i-eat-paleo.html

If you are curious about why I eat the way I do, and want other types of information besides what I post, check it out. Its long, but full of great information.