Posts from — October 2009

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul

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Part 2 of Katie C’s First Guest Post

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In terms of how to make the diet work, it’s not as hard as you would think.  You can find TONS of paleo recipes on the Internet, and if you ask around at the box, I’m sure people would be happy to share (I have a bunch and am always happy to pass them along).  Sometimes things don’t always turn out, but when you start with real foods–fresh meats, veggies, and fruits, it’s pretty easy to make a tasty meal.  Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and bacon fat are your friends.  Also, eggs are an easy protein source, and it’s super quick to scramble some up with some meat or veggies.  If you’re serious about sticking to this, get rid of of the crap at your house that isn’t paleo.  When you’re hungry, you’re going to eat what’s there, so it’s easier to eliminate the temptation.

One thing  I did that I would definitely recommend is to do a bit of meal planning if you can.  I’m a lawyer and work long hours during the week, so over the weekends, I try to plan out meals for the week, pick up what I need at Costco and Whole Foods, and spend a number of hours cooking up most of what will get us through the week.  I’m partial to pork and beef roasts (either in a roasting pan or crock pot), roasted chicken, paleo coconut chicken or shrimp, cauliflower mash, steamed broccoli, chicken soup, paleo chili, pecan- or almond-crusted chicken, or chicken salad for meals.  I usually try to make enough for Dave and me for lunch and dinner most days.  I know that you won’t always have time to do this, but it can be enormously helpful, especially when you’re first starting.

A typical daily menu for me might be a couple scrambled eggs and a few strips of bacon for breakfast, sometimes with a handful of berries.  Some beef or pork roast for lunch with cauliflower mash and a handful of almonds/pecans/walnuts.  If I’m hungry at dinner time, I might have some sauteed shrimp over salad or a hamburger patty topped with a fried egg with a side of sauteed spinach.  I also sometimes throw in a paleo cookie, piece of almond meal “bread,” or other paleo baked treat.  If I’m not hungry, I just don’t eat.  I mostly drink water, although I do usually have a cup or two of caffeine-free herbal tea in the afternoon.  I try to supplement with fish oil when I can, although I tend to have a sensitive stomach and hate the lethal fish burp, so I don’t take as much as I should.

I finished the 30-day challenge a couple weeks ago, and since then, I’ve allowed myself a “cheat” here or there but mainly am sticking to a pretty clean diet.  It really isn’t even hard for me anymore–I know how bad those foods make me feel, and I actually like what I’m eating and don’t get the sugar crash in the afternoon like I used to.  I did reintroduce vinegars into my diet for salad dressings, red wine, and a small amount of cheese, but I don’t use a lot of them and they don’t really seem to hurt.  One thing I would suggest is to try reintroducing foods one at a time after you’ve acclimated to the paleo diet to find out what you react to most.  I found out that anything with gluten in it makes me REALLY sick, like back to the first couple days of the clean, head in the fog, nauseous, sick.  But pure sugar doesn’t seem to affect me as much.  The only way to find out what affects you is to try it out in isolation.

Here is Katie C killing it during Fight Gone Bad.

This is Katie's husband Dave. I can't seem to track down a picture of Katie....

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I have asked Katie C to write something for Barbells and Bacon. She has a valuable view point, and has become increasingly knowledgeable on Paleo cooking and Crossfit in the last several months.
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My Perspective on a CrossFit and Paleo Lifestyle

I started CrossFit in January, and for the first three months leading up to my wedding, I pretty consistently worked out 4 days a week.  I noticed great improvements at first (I hadn’t lifted weights or done anything but jogging since high school), but just never seemed to be progressing like some of the other people I saw regularly.  I knew what I was doing wrong.  My diet was pretty bad.  When Aaron explained to us the “prescribed” diet for CrossFit during one of my first foundations classes (eat meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar), it made sense to me.  I have a bit of a background in science and knew that my body can make all the carbs it needs from protein and fat.  But I still just wouldn’t give up my bread, cookies, pasta, pizza, Hostess cherry pies (one of my favorites), sandwiches, etc.

To give you a sense, I was probably eating pretty close to the diet prescribed by the USDA food pyramid–usually a bagel or oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch with a piece of fruit, and evenings were kind of a grab bag (I work pretty late, so more than not, it was some kind of takeout–Chinese, subs, pizza, etc.).  Oh, and of course, I always ate the assorted cakes/cookies/pies/brownies at my work for meetings, people’s birthdays, going away parties, and seemingly any other event that involved more than 2 people.  After my wedding in late April, I completely fell off the wagon for awhile–I was only CrossFitting on weekends and my diet got worse.  Two months later and 10 pounds heavier, I decided it was time to act.  I started coming into the box more regularly and started reading up a bit more on diet and nutrition.

When Jon posted about doing the 30-day caveman challenge, I decided I was in.  My husband, Dave, wasn’t so sure, but he figured I’d be doing most of the cooking, so he’d come along for the ride.  Let me tell you, the first 72 hours are the WORST.  I was addicted to Diet Coke, and since I couldn’t have that, I decided to give up caffeine along with the grains, dairy, and starches.  We started on a Sunday, and by Tuesday evening, I had an atrocious headache, had no energy, and just generally felt like my head was in a fog.  I started thinking I was crazy for agreeing to do the 30-day challenge.

My first CrossFit workout on the new diet was on a Thursday, and although I was starting to feel a bit better, I felt like my body was a lead weight.  I had NO energy and just barely muddled my way through the WOD.  In the mean time, I started reading up on everything I could about paleo nutrition.  Mark’s Daily Apple, Dr. Eades, and Robb Wolf are a few of my favorites.  With Mark’s Daily Apple, I literally just went to the oldest post and started reading my way forward until I was caught up.  As I began to learn about why grains and legumes are so bad for us, I also started to see the results from eliminating them from my own diet.

I dropped the extra 10 pounds I had been carrying without any effort at all.  And then I just kept getting leaner and stronger.  After about 2 weeks of just trying to get through CrossFit workouts, I started noticing that I was feeling more powerful and less winded.  There was one burner we did that started and ended with a one-mile run, and I was terrified of it but actually did really well.  That was the point at which I realized that I was never going back to eating how I used to.

Stay tuned for Part 2 and 3 later this week….