We Made it!

Whit and I successfully made it through the 30-day Paleo Challenge... and it feels good to have stuck it out even when we really wanted to give up and devour some chips & queso or any of other "non-allowed" foods that we had to pass up along the way. Also, it feels good to have broken much of the physcological power that food had over us (that's probably more me than whit as I was more of the "emotional" eater). The toughest days were definitely the ones where I was worn down and frustrated and was looking for something to make me feel better. Although there were some times when I found a decent snack (banana + cashew butter = mmm...goodness), most often I tried to take a few moments to rest and let go of the junk and acknowledge that I needed God's help to be the person I wanted to be (that whole "cast your cares upon the Lord" thing really does work...).

Another obvious measure of success was the physical changes that occured. While neither of us lost much weight, we both lost some size, especially around the waist. I've always had a nice "storage-spot" on the sides of my waist (ie. love handles) and those are now pretty much gone. Whit noticed that all of her pants were fitting much looser by a few weeks in and this is with only the occiasional bike ride for exercise. I have scaled back my workouts a great deal the past month as I dealt w/ the fatigue issues, even taking a whole week off and doing nothing. So for both of us to have lost size with such little physical effort, proves the importance of diet all the more. I read today that physical conditioning & weight loss is as much as 80% diet and only 20% exercise and I'd say our experience with this would confirm that.

Our next step was to slowly try different "dirty" foods to see how they affect us; but overall, continue eating "clean" most all of the time. Our first test was dairy, in the form of some cheese. We both ate a decent amount of cheese before this and while I did not have any obvious GI issues, Whit has had more than a fair share. I had a slice of cheese on some tuna for lunch and within 15 minutes my stomach was making unpleasant sounds. For dinner, we included some grated cheddar in our stuffed burgers and again, we both felt a pretty immediate unpleasant reaction (Whit's was more severe and this is after not having any issues for weeks). We want to try cheese again this weekend to be sure, but it sure looks like it may not be the best thing for us to eat anymore. This is something we would not have been able to know without letting our bodies reset and then eating consistently enough to single out an individual food.

My next test will be a beer, which I'm really hoping goes down smooth because that is something that I would not be excited about giving up. Also up for trial this weekend: tortilla chips - previously one of our main food groups.

I now present the challenge to anyone that will listen: try it for yourself, do your own 30-day challenge! You are worth it and you can do it. It's less effort than going to the gym and trying to push yourself through a 60-minute sufferfest trying to make up for the donuts and crappachino you downed for breakfast. As Byers so wonderfully said:

"It’s not that effing hard. (Yes, I wanted to throw an f-bomb in there.) Don’t you dare tell me this is hard. Giving up heroin is hard. Drinking your coffee black is. Not. Hard. Substituting Sunday morning French toast in favor of a giant omelet and side of crispy bacon is not hard. Eating fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables every day is not hard"

So, what are you waiting for?

up next.... what to eat and how much of it to eat...