Progress and poetry

Worked out again this morning at CrossFit South Bay. Which wouldn't be unusual, except that it was Forrest's first class as the instructor!
We did squat cleans -- a tough movement to teach. But he did it really well. So cool to see... So now that he's training, he's also sharing the responsibility for writing blog posts up there. To commemorate his first day, I wanted to share the post he did right after going through last weekend's level 1 certification.
Feeling super tough, he decided to blog about it ... in Haiku.
This one is my very favorite:

Functional movement
I need help off the toilet
Not so functional

You can read the rest of them here if you're interested....(And in case you're wondering, yes he did Photoshop his head on top of one of the winners of the CrossFit games. He's the one in the pink glasses...)
In Paleo news, I'm feeling like I'm at the point where I can't imagine returning to my old eating habits. Last night at AJ's going away dinner, Justin ordered onion rings and I was surprised at how surprised I was. I mean, I realize that as time goes on, I'll have a fry or a cupcake from time to time just like Justin occassionally can order onion rings. Just strange how right now, I'm really not feeling like eating any of that stuff. The results are too good to ignore... My clothes are super loose and earlier this week I hit a two-rep deadlift max of 200 pounds. A month ago, my one-rep max was 180.

Mind games

Work and life have been crazy lately.
And as explosive and exhausting and intense as CrossFit is, it has provided the calming balance in my life.
Take yesterday: Brutal day at work. I filed three blogs and a front-page story. I had a blowup with my boss and a confrontation with a woman who has been a thorn in my side my entire career. It's politics, and I'm used to it. But when there's a lot going on all at once, sometimes all I want to do is punch someone or .... shoulder press and row?
First, we worked up to our two-time max shoulder press, when Lindsay became a perfect example of the power of mental strength. I failed at 85 pounds, and she got it up. Then she added 10 pounds more -- a pretty big jump considering we were approaching our maximum capacity. She actually thought there were only 90 pounds on the bar when she started the lift. She also thought she had put up the same weight a couple weeks ago during a work out that involved picking up a load from the ground and heaving it over your head any way possible. So no sweat lifting that much again, she told me.
So she did. Twice.
It wasn't till she dropped the bar and Justin complimented her on the 95 pounds she lifted that we realized how much weight she had just put up. Then Lindsay remembered that when she did the WOD a couple weeks ago, she was using a 15 pound junior bar that was 30 pounds lighter.
If she had realized before she tried to do the press, she said she doesn't know if she would have been able to. Now she knows she can, and I think that's awesome. (In appreciation, I posted this photo so you won't be the only lifting weight with a funny face on the internet.)
Anyway, after shoulder pressing, we did three 500 meter sprints on the rowers.
I have never felt more at peace, more unburdened by life's bullshit, than laying on the ground after my third sprint. Quads and glutes were still spasming. A sweat angel growing on the ground. My friends wheezing to catch their breath by my side.
It's crazy how pushing to the point of physical exhaustion can actually clear your mind.

F*$@ Yeah!

Excuse my language, but I fucking love these girls and this gym.
Last night was box jumps and burpees. And every single one of these women dominated. Awesome.

Technical difficulties

Apparently when I added this new blog skin, I deleted the ability for people to leave comments or sign up as a follower. (I'm sure all eight of you wonderful people who read this are just dying to leave comments!). Anyway, I'll figure out how to fix it tonight ... Until then, if you want to leave a comment, you can email me at jennifer.r.muir@gmail.com, and I'll post it in a blog.
Thanks for reading, friends.

Domestic violence

I accidentally let it slip last night to my brother that I'm on a Paleo diet.
That wouldn't be a problem if I was talking to anyone but Russ, who's an athletic trainer, likes to argue and has an over-developed sense of outrage for anything he thinks is a health and fitness trend.
I said the word Paleo, and an alarm sounded in his head, blaring that Paleo eating must be ill conceived and I must be stupid for trying it out. By the time his mental rant was finished and he opened his mouth to ask a question, I'm sure he already grouped Paleo with Atkins and hippies and Prius drivers and all the other stereotypes that set him off.
So instead of continuing the discussion, I told him I'd send him some links to websites about the thinking behind Paleo. It's not the bold stand I could have taken, but I figure that given some more time, and even more positive results, he'll come to accept that this is a good lifestyle change -- one i'm definitely not giving up when the two-month Paleo challenge at our box ends.
At this point, though, he either thinks it's fucking up the nutrients in my body, or that Forrest is beating me.
About an hour after our conversation about food, he looked at my legs and noticed a line of bruises up each of my shins. If my shorts were any shorter, he would have seen them on my mid-thighs. There are some on my shoulders, too.
"Are you eating ANY red meat on this diet?"
Lots of it, I told him.
See, I did Elizabeth at CrossFit South Bay on Tuesday. And I came in early to practice because I've been struggling to get my front racked position right -- whether I'm cleaning or pressing. Justin has been working with me on making sure the bar hits on my shoulders instead of leaning back and letting it slam lower on my chest when I'm doing a push press. On Tuesday, Mariessa also helped me with the breakdown transitioning from deadlifting to the clean, where the momentum should start and how to get a full extention. (The woman in this picture isn't me -- she's from CrossFit Winnipeg. But I'll post mine as soon as it's in the gallery.)
Anyway, I was exaggerating every movement and repeating a lot, so I got a little black and blue. Honestly, looking at them makes me feel proud. So I smiled when answering his question.
"Those are from power cleans."
The look of surprise on his face was priceless.

Stocking up

This is Forrest's fridge. And I had to take a picture because it's pure Paleo heaven. I share my fridge with roommates who still have not bought into my new eating lifestyle. So our cupboards are packed with granola bars and crackers, our fridge contains all different kinds of cheese and sugary drinks, and inside our freezer, there are four different kinds of gelato and sorbet.
So I have a much deeper appreciation for how clean and nice a purely paleo-filled refrigerator can be.
He's got eggs, chicken, tons of veggies in those drawers. The OJ is freshly squeezed and used very sparingly in delicious paleo smoothies (this morning's had frozen blueberries, a splash of heavy whipping cream and a splash of OJ). There's tuna and nuts and the juice boxes on top are coconut water, which F loves but I think tastes like armpit.
In other news, after a couple days of fight gone bad dreaming, we did a slightly sideways version of the workout yesterday at CrossFit South Bay (subbed hang cleans for SDHP and double unders for rows). I know it's a different WOD with different goal marks, but I still redeemed myself by scoring 302. And at the beach on Sunday, I randomly ran into a woman who goes to CrossFit Laguna -- one of the boxes hosting the Fight Gone Bad fundraiser Justin recently wrote about. Felt sort of like it was a sign that it's going to pay off to confront head on the stuff that hurts the most. This is one, so I'm thinking I'm going to see if I can move my schedule around to attend this event. (And I already signed up for Race for a Cure. Please do the same!)
Alright, back to work. I'm in the south bay again tonight, back in my home box on Wednesday.
Until then...

Compliments

So last night I went up to Hollywood to see Point Break Live! with a group of friends, many who I haven't seen in a couple months. And before most of them even said hi, they commented on how skinny I look. None of them really knew I've been working so hard at Crossfit or following a paleo diet. But they said it so often that I thought Forrest had told them.
He swears he didn't.
Honestly, the compliments felt great. But it was also a little strange because while I've been focused on eating better and getting stronger, I haven't taken very much time to think about what I looked like before I started Crossfit. Inside, I feel the same. Outside, apparently not so much.
Some time this week, I'll find some photos from when Forrest and I went to Maui earlier this year and post them. It was just a couple weeks before I started Crossfitting. And I'll take some more this weekend to show the difference.

Crossfit dreams

Fight gone bad yesterday was brutal. It was my first time doing it, and Justin prescribed a lighter weight in hopes we'd be able to do more reps. Which worked for everyone -- but me. I scored 254 or something -- compared to all the other girls who had scores at least higher than 280. I know I shouldn't compare myself to other people, and that I should focus on my form and technique and finding ways to push myself harder. Still, I couldn't stop replaying the WOD in my mind all day, mentally telling myself I could have easily done more reps at each station, playing out how it would have looked and felt.
Apparently my subconscious likes that game because it didn't stop when I went to sleep. I woke up all night long, thinking I had just completed a one-minute station and needed to move on to the next. It was so strange. Even stranger was in the morning, Forrest said he had a similar dream.
Then he told me about the one he had a night earlier, which I think wins for best yet. In it, he was chasing after a bad guy or something, but every 400 meters he had to stop and do squats or push ups or sit ups.
Are we crazy, or does Crossfit get in anyone else's head like this too?

MIA and more

I have been such a slacker on this blog lately. And it's not because I haven't had stuff to write about.
For example, I ate dinner at the Crawfish House in Garden Grove on Wednesday, where they bring you bags full of deliciously steamed crab and crawfish and shrimp and sausage, bathed in oil and spice. Eating it was about as pretty as today's fight gone worse WOD is going to look.
Even worse was what happened later that night.
It's clear my body is loving clean, paleo eating. So much so that when I stuffed my face with the oily rich shellfish, my stomach was confused. The meal I ate technically fit within paleo guidelines. It was just a lot greasier than I'm used to eating. So I puked all night. That was fun.
Fastforward to last night. Went up to Echo Park to visit a friend who just moved and we ate Mongolian barbecue. So yum: You get to pick the meat, and all the fresh veggies you want, and they grill it all up on a gigantic circular hot plate on the spot.
A couple other things I've been meaning to mention on here all week:
1. Fish oil is awesome. I shouldn't be able to lift my arms after all the push jerks we did on Wednesday. And yeah, they're sore. But not nearly as bad as they would have been.
2. I can't thank Justin and Mike enough for their support and guidance at the gym. The other night when I was warming up, Justin noticed my squats were off. He was running a WOD and standing across the parking lot, but he still had his eye on everything that was happening -- another example of how he's a complete Cross Fit machine. Later that night, Mike stayed late -- even though he has to wake up super early Thursday mornings -- to help Pinky and me get our form right. He watched until we were done. And afterward, we talked about the beauty in failing at your heaviest weight: You know you're going to be able to do it next time.
I can't tell you how good it feels to know these people have my back every time I'm there, watching to make sure I don't get hurt and offering encouragement to push me to my highest potential. Lifting heavy weight has been scary for me lately. I think I got a little frightened after getting hurt. That fear has been subsiding this week. And it's all thanks to Justin and Mike. Thanks guys.
And finally, Punky and I were talking the other day about one of the few negatives that can be associated with Paleo eating: the cost of food. She said she's been spending $100 a week on groceries and challenged me to figure out how to reign in costs. I'm going out of town this weekend, but next week, I'll break down the cost of my eating every day. I don't know how much I spend each week on food, but I do know that it's less than that -- thanks largely in part to the Vietnamese grocery store around the corner from my house where I can load up a cart full of vegetables and pay less than $10. That's including a bag full of avocados.
SO: Stay tuned. Next week I promise I'll be more consistent. Until then, the Green Market is on Magnolia and Edinger in Fountain Valley if you want to check it out.

Scrambled eggs and fish oil

Thank god I actually went to the store yesterday and followed through with the fish oil promise.
Because this morning Justin wrote an impassioned rant about why we all should be taking it. And I'm relieved I can count myself among those who have already manned up.
The bottle up here isn't from Costco. Von's was having a deal -- 2 for 1 -- and these pills have 360 mg of omega 3 instead of 300, so I don't have to take as many.
I started with 10 at breakfast this morning. My breath tastes a little fishy, but other than that, no big deal...
And P.S. -- this breakfast was freaking amazing. Whole Foods sells a mix of chopped up garlic, onions and shallots for us lazy people who don't have the time or forethought to do it ourselves. So, we cut up some bacon, when it was ready, added the breath busting concoction to the mix with a bunch of mushrooms and cilantro. Added some eggs, and it became the best-yet morning scramble.

A PULL UP!!!

I got my first unassisted pull up today!
I can not explain how happy I am. I have always the weakest upper body, never an ounce of definition on my arms. So when I started Cross Fit, I immediately decided a pull up would be one of my biggest goals because honestly, it seemed completely unattainable.
It happened when I dropped in at Cross Fit South Bay this afternoon. Forrest and I went in about 45 minutes before class started and did a really long warm up -- stretching, practicing double-unders, doing overhead sqauts against the wall with a PVC.
We had some time to kill before the WOD, so I practiced kipping. If you don't do Cross Fit, then you might think the way we do pull ups is strange. We swing on the bar, using momentum and core strength to help out our arms. Up to now, I've always used a rubber band to give me the extra help I needed to do WODs with pull ups.
Then today, after about 10 tries, it suddenly made sense. I kipped a couple times, then went for it, and my chin actually made it over. I was so surprised that I let out a yelp, then shouted, "I did it!" To a room full of mostly people I had just met. I didn't even care, though. I was so happy I could have cried.
So I've done my first pull up. Problem is, I couldn't do a second tonight. It's like when I was learning how to gleek as a kid. Every once in awhile I could get my mouth to do it right, sending a skinny stream of saliva onto who or whatever. But I never quite knew exactly what I was doing, and I could rarely do it on command.
Right now, for the pull up, it's the same. The difference is I'm not giving up on this. I know I'm close to getting the rhythm right. I know I have it in me to do one. And if I can do that, it won't be long till I'm doing two, then three.
This picture is from after the WOD today (we did 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 kettlebell snatch, kettlebell swing, goblet squat). I was determined to do just one more, but my hands were already raw from the kettlebells. Got close on two then ripped my hand. Which is another first.
The other two hands are Forrest's -- he effed them up doing power cleans yesterday and the snatches today. Tough love...

Supplement suggestions

I have a confession.
I know I'm supposed to be taking handfuls of fish oil every day. And some days, I do. But others (and by others, I mean most), I forget. Which also could be contributing to some of the more annoying changes I've experienced since starting Paleo a month ago.
(I've written about the girl issues. Here's another weird one: Every once in awhile after a day when we're working with heavier weights, my fingers will swell the next day. And sometimes my knuckles will bruise, even though I haven't knocked them on anything.)
SO, I know I should be taking fish oil religiously, and that it will help my body weather some of these changes and just BE healthier. And I'm going to Costco today to buy the gigantic bottle Justin told us about when we all started. I was feeling pretty good about the newfound committment to taking supplements this morning when I peeked at the South Bay Crossfit website and saw a really thorough and interesting post about even more supplements I should consider taking.
Mariessa makes some good suggestions, and I love how she explains what each supplement is and how it's supposed to help you change. I don't think I'm ready to fill my medicine cabinet with funny-smelling pills just yet, but I think I'll try some of them out. This one is first:
"Consider adding ALA (alpha-lipoic adid) at 500mg per day. ALA is a potent antioxidant and is key to glutathione production in the body (yet another antioxidant). It may also help improve insulin sensitivity, especially when transitioning from a heavily carb-based diet."
So which supplements are all of you taking? And how do you decide which are right for you?
(Oh, and that's Mackenzie in the picture up there. She just beat all the girls in the totally cindy challenge. Awesome work, girl!)

Poop-plantation

Why I was at Souplantation the other night is a long story.
Let's just say it involves one of my favorite friends Vanessa turning 30 and wanting to revisit a place where we loved to pig out growing up.
So a group of girlfriends (including two of their small girl kids) met up at the Souplantation in Garden Grove. Over the years, Vanessa started calling it "poop plantation" because the food always made her have to go. Like immediately after eating. Which is obviously gross and should have been a red flag long ago to stay away.
STILL, when she decided "poop plantation" was the place where she wanted to celebrate her 30th, I was relieved because I figured, being a salad bar and all, that there would be plenty of paleo stuff to eat.
Not so.
The garbage they offer up disguised as healthy food is a perfect example of why America is fat. The idea here is that you build your meal around a heaping salad. Problem is, there's no protein. Anywhere. Not even the little cups of chicken you used to be able to buy for some outrageous additional price of $3 bucks.
Instead, they fill up hungry customers with starch and sugar, from a bakery bar with muffins and pizza and all sorts of gooey mystery cake to a pasta bar where you can choose from cream sauce, and oh, more cream sauce.
I remember eating here as a kid and feeling like, it being a buffet and all, that I had to eat my money's worth. At more than $10 a person now, I'm sure plenty of cash-strapped people in the working class neighborhood where I grew up are going back for seconds and thirds.
And I'm sure plenty of them feel like it's healthy. "Sure, I had a couple small squares of pizza bread dipped in ranch, but I had a salad for dinner. And it was frozen yogurt for dessert. I might wither to nothing."
I guess I never realized just how much bad for you food replaces quality nutrition in an effort to keep down overhead and increase profits.
Literally everything came with a side of carbs. Which is why my friend Michelle was surprised when she saw my plate, piled with salad -- some spinach and green lettuce, mushrooms, olives, tomatos and oil and vinegar -- and wondered why it looked so healthy.
My plate isn't healthy, I told her. I need meat. I tried to find it at the soup bar, where two of the chicken and veggie broth-based soups said there was meat inside. But even those were loaded with noodles or rice or both, so dinner felt more like a search for submerged meatballs than having a meal.
Then I went home and made a turkey bacon and egg scramble. And the world was right again.

Strange changes

A warning: Do not read this if you're uncomfortable with girl issues, e.g. you're a guy.
Seriously.
This is your last chance to stop reading.
So I debated for awhile about whether to write something about this, but since this blog is supposed to be about adjusting to paleo and tracking all the changes that come with it, I decided I should, especially in case this is happening to others.
Mid-way through the first month on Paleo, I started spotting when I wasn't supposed to be. Heavily. That's never happened to me before, and since my diet and weight loss (11 pounds since starting Crossfit, woohoo!) are the only things that have changed in recent months, I figure that might be the cause.
So I've been looking online and found a couple message board discussions (here is one, and another) about women on low-carb diets experiencing the same thing. But so far, I haven't found anything from a trusted online source about why these changes are happening.
So I asked Forrest to talk to his CrossFit trainer Mariessa about it. While she could easily kick my ass with one arm, she's also one of the nicest people around. Mariessa says spotting is normal as my body adjusts to the changes in my diet at the same time it's handling the shock of intense exercise. Nothing to worry about, and it will go away soon, once my body gets used to life without sugar highs and lows.
Another friend heard that eating Greek yogurt would help -- something about girls needing the enzymes. Mariessa disagrees, and suggested not to stray from the diet until my body adjusts. Eventually, you can start adding back foods to see how you feel and what works for you, she says. But at first, better to go all or nothing.
To be honest, my review of info online about this topic is pretty limited, and I'm interested in learning more. So if anyone has had a similar experience, or read anything about this, post it here. And if you're all completely grossed out, sorry. But don't say I didn't warn you!

God bless this food.

Seriously. Nothing is better than a $5.99 lemon roasted chicken from Albertson's.
Today, I cut off some pieces, sliced some avocado and doused the whole thing in Tapatio. Yum. For dessert, I had a white peach.
Another paleo favorite is shabu shabu. Lindsay mentioned her favorite spot in Costa Mesa. I love Sakura Shabu Shabu in Huntington Beach. What is shabu shabu, you ask? Read this review I wrote awhile back.
This picture is from last night.

Done with days: Fishy breakfast, busted body

I slept in my own bed in my own house for the first time in two weeks last night. Felt great.
What did not feel great was coming home from CrossFit this morning and realizing that I also hadn't been grocery shopping in two weeks. I'm going to take care of that after work today. But that was no help this morning when the only paleo food I could scrounge up was a warm can of Whole Foods tuna and a plum.
I don't know if it was "Elizabeth" or the breakfast that made me want to puke more.
On another note: I've been nursing a couple injuries for about a month now. The first happened when I fucked up a hang clean. The second is a knee injury. I didn't really know the cause of that one until Saturday night when I asked my brother to take a look.
Some background: My brother is the head athletic trainer at a local college and has been on staff for several college and professional athletic teams. So he knows what he's talking about.
I asked him to take a look at my wrist and explained how I thought I injured it. Turns out, my injury isn't in my wrist at all. Apparently I strained some really small muscles in my forearm while incorrectly trying to heft up a lot of weight with them. That caused caused the tendons to swell. It was most painful in the wrist because the tendons run through a smallish tunnel on the way to my hand. When they're swollen, they've got a lot less space to run through, which amplifies the pain. (If I've got terminology for tendons and muscles wrong, forgive me. You get the gist.)
Anyway, in the process of rehabbing that injury, my brother asked to see some of the other movements we are doing in CrossFit. Generally, he's stoked on the work outs, loves Olympic lifting and the other basic exercises we do. He does have some concerns about the body's natural tendency to sacrifice form for speed in a competitive atmosphere.
And his example of that was my squatting. He could immediately tell I my left knee is injured because I was favoring my right one every time I squatted. And he said that injury likely occurred because I was squatting incorrectly in the first place.
That's no surprise to me. Every time I squat heavy weight, my knees tend to buckle in. My trainers have pointed that out and told me to stop it, but I guess I never understood the consequences of not being extra careful while following that advice. In addition, I guess the alignment of my knees (and being a woman with wide-ish hips) make me predisposed to this sort of problem. The solution is to be extra conscious of pushing out my knees (ie, pointing in the same direction as my feet) when I swat and narrowing my stance.
So usually I wouldn't write about my aches and pains -- I'm not a pansy or anything. But I guess I just realized that we have to take a higher level of personal responsibility doing these intense workouts. If something hurts, it's important to ask for help figuring out what might be the cause. The trainers at CrossFit are awesome and really knowledgeable, but they can't be everywhere and see everything all the time.
I'm really looking forward to building momentum at the box this week. How's everyone else doing on Paleo?

Day 1: Again....

Back from Nicaragua, and I'm starting this post as a second day one because the diet was pretty impossible to maintain while there.
I spent most of my time in one of the poorest towns in one of the poorest countries in the world. I was staying in a small, stark surf bungalow, and there was one option for every meal: what the cook there made. There was no grocery store within 30 miles of where I stayed. The chef did a good job at thinking of vegetarian alternatives, but those usually consisted of rice and beans. So there were several days when the only thing for me to eat was a lean protein. I brought along almonds and beef jerkey and was able to stick to paleo foods for the first four days, but the proportions were all off and it was doing some not so pretty things to my body.
The rest of the trip, I ate mostly paleo, but where I had to cheat to be full, I did. I also allowed a cheat day to try some native food -- the most gigantic tamale I've ever eaten.
I can't tell you how much I could feel the difference when I stopped eating paleo food. Felt sort of like when you quit smoking, then have a cigarette. Maybe the first drag is good, but it leaves you feeling not so great afterward.
I'll be back in the OC Crossfit gym Monday. Can't wait to see you guys.
I'm in the south bay for the rest of the week. Going to drop in a Xfit gym up here.
On another note: An anonymous commenter wrote the other day that I should read up on paleo, and I totally agree. So I'm starting "Paleo Diet for Athletes" by Loren Cordain, PhD. so I can have a better understanding of this.
That being said, a three-month paleo challenge is hardly "drinking the Kool-Aid." It's an experiment, a way to see whether this makes me feel good and gets positive results. Part of the reason for blogging about it is to document that, and to clarify things I might not understand with the help of people who read this. So if you see something I'm eating that isn't paleo, let me know. And please explain why it's bad. But telling me that I'm somehow brain washed and that my CrossFit instructors' advice is way off just because I post a photo of some organic turkey meat is hardly productive.

Day 8: In awe

Justin blogged the other day about the philosophy of CrossFit, the healthy competition and drive to improve that catapults members into better shape.
I started CrossFit with my good friend Lindsay (that's her after Saturday's workout -- photo courtesy Orange Coast Crossfit), and I love it when we get to work out together because with every workout, she's so determined to push through and lift more and go faster. It keeps me honest and motivated. And being able to see how we improve together has been awesome.
Well, except when she completely kicks my ass during a workout like she did this morning.
Lindsay did the workout today Rxd, which means it's the prescribed weight for all around bad-ass girls. I've been able to rx a couple workouts, but I'm still not strong enough to do the majority of them. This morning's WOD was 21-15-9, burpees, push press and kettlebell swings.
The rx for push press was 65.
I started the workout rx'd just like Lindsay. But after struggling through four push presses on my first round, I had to drop 10 pounds. And even then, I was still dumping weight throughout the WOD. Meanwhile, Lindsay just got it done in what I'm sure were painful sets of four.
Great fucking job this morning, Linds. You killed it. And now you have me imagining how I'm going to do shoulder workouts in Nicaragua.
(And cheap plug: Lindsay is a top wedding/party planner, so check out her website if you know anyone who's walking down the aisle soon.)

Day 7: Carnivorous cravings

So today ends the first week of paleo challenge. I'm feeling great. And just now noticed, that instead of craving frozen yogurt or nachos, all I really want to eat is meat.
Anyway, I like lists. So I'm going to list some of the paleo foods I'm really loving so far.

• Sparkling water: It cured my cravings for diet coke quick. And it's so much more refreshing. Squeeze in some oranges and it's like a virgin paleo mimosa.
  
• Almond butter: So good on fresh apples.
• Paleo smoothie: Frozen blueberries, strawberries, a small splash of fresh squeezed orange juice with no sugar added and heavy whipping cream. Blended. Forrest's CrossFit trainer told him the heavy cream is ok because it's not pasteurized and processed the way regular milk is. Let me know if you hear differently.
  
• Turkey slices with avocado.

And here are some things I'm still missing.

• Hummus
• Cheese
  

Day 6: Paleo-friendly fiesta

What? We can have margaritas, and it's not cheating?
Lindsay just sent me this photo and a recipe for these margaritas.
I think we need to have a paleo fiesta soon. Who's in?
Strawberry Margaritas:
Fresh strawberries
100% Agave Tequila
Agave Nectar
Ice
Cointreau
Fresh Lime Juice

Day 6: After the marathon

Ok, so I'm not talking about a real marathon. But the past two days have felt like one: Up before 6, in bed after midnight, with jam-packed days.
And miraculously, no need to cheat.
I owe a big part of that to two people who helped me out huge this week.
First meet Laylan, my roommate and dear friend. I had one hour after work on Thursday to pack for a trip, shower, take apart my bed for the new mattress delivery guys and eat before I had to rush to LA for a meeting. Laylan to the rescue.
I've got to start by saying, Lay is a great cook. And part of the reason for that is she's not cheap with the ingredients that make things taste delicious, such as olive oil and cheese and cream and bananas fried in butter with ice cream and Nutella. So when I first told her I was doing paleo, the conversation went something like this:
"What about rice?"
Me: "No rice."
Lay: "But you can have tortilla chips?"
Me: "No."
Lay: "Golden Spoon?"
Me: "I wish"
Lay: "Good luck with that.."
So fast forward to Thursday, and Laylan tells me that she's going to have dinner ready so I can just eat really fast and leave. She grilled cod topped with a homemade sauce of pureed garlic and spices from her garden. Then she baked cauliflower with spicy red flakes on top and made a paleo version of caprese (without the cheese, but add pine nuts). Um, hello five star restaurant in my living room!!












So awesome person #2 is Forrest. Let me start by saying that Friday was equally nuts. I was up at 5 a.m. to get to the airport for a quick work trip up the coast. Didn't have time to eat before I left, so I ended up having this sort of disgusting scramble at LAX:
I also grabbed some almonds and water at the airport for snacking later that day, and I raised some eyebrows at lunch, when, at this fancy restaurant with a pretty limited but very specific menu, I was ordered my meal with tons of modifications and turned down the waiter's offer for a free dessert.
My returning flight was delayed and didn't get in until 9. But I hadn't eaten anything but coffee and almonds since 2, so Forrest picked me up from the airport, and when I was showering and about to pass out, he was grilling steaks and veggies: broccoli and artichoke hearts. It was so good, and I'm bummed that I was too tired to think of taking a picture of it.
So this brings me to a new dilemma: I leave next week for a week-long surf trip in Nicaragua. I'm going to pack a couple bags of nuts, maybe some nut butter, and beef jerky in case the villages where we go don't have enough paleo food. Anyone have some suggestions for what else I should do to prepare for that?
When I can find a computer, I'll update from there about how THAT's going.

Day 4: Going nuts

I haven't been sleeping well this week. Not sure if it's because of eating paleo, or because it's hot in Fountain Valley or because I've been sore lately from the workouts.
Regardless, my restlessness at least has one benefit: I can remember what I dream. And last night's was nuts.
Even though today is a rest day for me, sometimes I'll dream about what the workout will be at CrossFit. It's like my subconscious is anxious about what grueling workout awaits when I wake up.
Today, I dreamed that our WOD wasn't a workout at all and that instead, we had to make paleo food for old people. Justin had brought in these old 1950s grimy ovens, and we were supposed to be baking meat. But some people added beans and sour cream -- like they were making a cassarole -- and the food blew up in the oven. I woke up so confused, not because we were asked to bake at the gym, but because I thought for a minute that I might be allowed to eat bean burritos after all.
I definitely didn't eat burritos yesterday:
Wasn't feeling good in the morning, so I didn't eat until lunch. Had a shrimp salad during a work meeting with tomatos and almonds.
Then at 4, before crossfit, I was starving again so I went to this sandwich shop by my office and asked them to scoop some tuna in a cup and throw in half an avocado and tomato slices. I thought I might throw that up during the second round of lunges yesterday.
Then I met some girlfriends for day-after-birthday dinner and had a chicken salad with avocado and almonds on top.
Here's the lunchtime salad:

Day 3: Afternoon motivation

I only have a few minutes to post, but I had to write something today because I'm so stoked after tonight's workout. I usually go to CrossFit in the morning, so I've never met the crew that comes at night. Still, seeing their names and times on the white board each day makes me feel like I've known them all this time. CrossFit is like that. It fosters a sense of community that I love. So tonight I finally got to meet a bunch of the crew that I've been seeing, and watching what they can do gave me a whole list of stuff to envy. Like Punky, who can cross her jumprope while doing double unders. And Mel, who can do real pullups.
Our WOD (workout of the day) tonight was named after me. And it was rough.
100 m walking lunges
21 pullups, 21 handstand pushups
100 m lunges
18,18
100 m
15,15
100m
12,12
100 m
9, 9
100 m
6,6

My legs are burning after finishing that (my time was 20:30, with some modifications -- I used a band with the pullups and did pushups on a box), but I feel great. Better than I have in a long time...

Day 3: Good morning guilt

Had the best birthday celebration last night with some great friends at Shik Do Rak in Garden Grove. If you've never been, you must try. It's basically a meat-eating frenzy.
And while the beef we're grilling up isn't exactly lean, it also doesn't contain sugar or carbs or any of the other stuff that's not allowed on Paleo. The meal comes with tons of delicious little side dishes, such as seaweed salad and kimchi. The only thing I really love that I couldn't eat was some bean sprouts.
Well, that and the chocolate cake my friend Cindy brought for my birthday because she didn't know I was on this diet. And now comes my confession -- I have wasted my first cheat day. I couldn't say no to a double chocolate cake topped with candles just for me. So Forrest and I split a small slice. (Forrest is my boyfriend who works out at CrossFit South Bay. He's also doing Paleo.) And I might have had some beer, as well.
Then on my way home from dinner, I saw a facebook post from Zac about how he came home to a freshly baked batch of brownies and didn't eat them. And this morning I saw that Justin made up a "Jen" WOD for my birthday today. So I'm feeling guilty. But also really determined to see this through. And grateful that I work out at a gym and am going through this with such encouraging, all around awesome people.

Day 2: Dejavu

Today has been ridiculously busy so far. Usually, that's pretty standard when I squeeze in CrossFit before early meetings.
But what I learned today, is that without pre planning, this diet could get really boring, really fast. Here's why: This morning, I wanted a hard boiled egg before working out, but I didn't have time to make a batch last night. So instead, I grabbed a handful of walnuts.
When I got back, I ate half an avocado, some slices of turkey and some fruit -- which is exactly what I threw into a bag for lunch before bolting out the door this morning. (That's a photo of the lunch spread, plus some more walnuts. The dollar is to buy water since I forgot my bottle.)
Anyway, I love avocados. And turkey. And pineapples and kiwi. So for today, the lack of variety is no big deal. But next week I'm going to try to make a batch of lunches at the beginning of the week so I have at least SOME eating diversity. Any ideas?
In terms of workouts: Lindsay and I both felt a little weak this morning. I'm glad Justin -- all around awesome guy who owns Orange Coast CrossFit -- blogged today about the adjustment period for this diet. Made me feel slightly less like an ass when I couldn't front squat more than 90 pounds because I thought I might pass out.
On another note, today is my birthday. And I'm especially happy that one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures is not prohibited on this diet (or at least I think it's not). Korean. Bar. B. Q.
I'm going to look up some of the side dishes to see what's legal and what's not (e.g. can I eat bean sprouts or the thinly-sliced daikon radish that you use to wrap up the meat).

Day 1 recap

So it's the end of day 1 Paleo challenge, and already some delicious foods have tested my willpower. I went to the movies with some girlfriends tonight, and the smell of buttered popcorn was hard to resist. Then we went to Daphne's Greek for dinner, and I watched my friend eat spicy hummus and pita -- one of my favorites.
Still, after the meal when she was saying how uncomfortably full she felt, I was feeling satisfied and reenergized from my chicken kabob, glad I had passed on the starch. (My kabob was really good -- came with grilled onion, red and green peppers. I ordered it with a salad, minus the feta cheese and dressing. Instead, I squeezed some lemon on top of the lettuce and added salt and pepper. Was so yum!)
My goal for the week is to get the balance and portions of the meals right. I felt great after breakfast around 8:30 this morning, but I didn't eat again until after 2 p.m. (turkey slices, fresh kiwi and pineapple and a tablespoon of almond butter). I was feeling hungry again just a couple hours later, so I ate more turkey with avocado. Then I took some walnuts and water with me to the movies. But I felt tired for most of the afternoon -- until I ate dinner really. I don't know if that's because my body is adjusting to life without sugar, or because I'm eating too much or not enough of a particular food group, or because I had a long day at work and my brain was tired of being awake.
It's definitely tired of being awake right now....

Day 1 Paleo Challenge

Hi everyone. I'm starting this blog to track my food and fitness during a three month Paleo challenge at Orange Coast CrossFit in Newport Beach.
I never thought I'd do something like this. I'm a total foodie -- even freelance dining reviews when I'm not working. So the idea of eating only what the cavemen had available (ie: no breakfast burritos or gelato) has always been slightly horrifying.
But for the past two months, I've been working out at CrossFit, and I'm in love with the challenging workouts, the encouraging people who are sweating next to me every day, and how strong I feel after only a couple months.
If I can feel this great without watching my diet at all, imagine how trying this diet will feel! Plus, I'm going to try to take photos and describe the food I eat to see if Paleo is as limiting as it sounds.
Judging by breakfast this morning, I'm going to do just fine:
Three eggs, scrambled with turkey bacon, shallots, red and green onion and fresh cilantro. Half an avocado on top.
Yeah, it's a big meal. But I had a big workout this morning.
3-3-3 Deadlift. My last round was at 160.
After that we did five rounds for time of 7 pullups, 7 dumbbell thrusters (#20), 7 ring dips and 30 double unders.
Today I weigh 147.5. I'm 5'8.