Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Week 3 of the Fall '13 Paleo revival

Week 3 - Monday's food log:
Breakfast - omelet with veggies, and side of bacon
Lunch - Spinach and mixed greens salad (with other veggies), topped with salmon
Snacks - Nugo Organic bar, and Tanka bar
Dinner - hamburger with mayo, frozen veggies, a few almonds

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Nugo Organic bar (lame!)
Lunch - Spinach, mixed green, veggies salad, with 4oz salmon
Pre-workout snack - 1/4 cup blueberries
Workout with Steve - Following the bad ass workout this weekend (clean ladder! See previous post), Steve took it easy on me. Sets of 8 trap bar deadlift. Worked up to 140kg x 8 reps. Then did 20 Minutes EMOTM, 1 tire flip with the 900 lb tire. Right up my alley. Finished with dead bug core strengthener. I had a egg white protein shake after the workout, before dinner. 23g Protein.
Dinner - Chicken adobo (one breast) made with splenda, a few slices of summer sausage, 12 stalks of asparagus, and about 6 almonds after dinner. Did 3x15 OHS with the PVC afterwards, to get the heart rate up a bit. That's what Tim Ferriss says to do.

Wednesday morning:
Day 16 of the revival! 183.3 this morning, down 7.5 lbs...not a bad first 16 days.
Breakfast - omelet and bacon, as per usual at the cafeteria
Snack - Nugo organic bar
Lunch - usual salad with 4oz of fish on top.
Snack - Nugo Organic bar
Snack - Steve's Paleo Jerky when I got home
Dinner - 6oz grassfed steak, ~1/4 cup blueberries and 12 almonds
After dinner, did what has become my active recovery workout -- 3 sets of 15 Overhead Squats with the PVC. In between, I used the softball to roll on my glutes, the roller on my quads/IT bands, the 7" ball on my abs/psoaz, ankle mobs against the wall. Lots of mobility stuff for me to do OHS. When I was done, I watched a video on how to learn to do a back tuck in 10 minutes (sent it to Steve). The last 2.5 minutes of the video, I was in a pretty deep squat. 1/4 of the way to finishing the Starrett 10 minute squat challenge! I've done it before, with 5 2-minute squat holds. I think I could do more now. I couldn't get my ankles quite on the ground in the full deep squat, but had I been in lifting shoes, they woulda been. Calling it a victory for now.

Thursday:
Started the day with bacon and eggs at the cafeteria
For lunch, went to the sushi place, but rather than get the high GI rice sushi, I had a bento box with beef yakinimu (or something like that) and kalbi beef. There was some soy sauce (with gluten) in there, but overall not too bad. Went trick or treating with the kids at work today, and the beverage buyer offered me "Zevia" and Diet Tonic Water from her stash. The Zevia had sugar alcohol (erhythritol?) along with Stevia in it and the Diet Tonic Water had Aspartame in it. It pays to read the label! I had a few sips of each before leaving them behind. Had about 10 almonds when I got back to my office.
For dinner, we're going out to a pizza place and I'm going to have crustless pizza, which consists mostly of mozzarella, pizza sauce and toppings (pepperoni and jalapeno). There's a lot of calories there, but I'm due for a cheat day so my body doesn't adapt to the low calorie input. So I think I'm going to do it! The plan is to do some OHS or something to burn a little bit of calories after dinner.
Man - that crustless pizza was yummy! I coulda eaten two of them...instead I came home and did some OHS, but weight will probably still be up in the morning!

Friday!
I started the morning with a workout with Steve. We did some mobilizations and then the workout was "5 minutes of work." How hard could that be? 1 min - 20 seconds AMRAP push press, 20 second AMRAP Box Jump, 20 second AMRAP burpees. Then get 5-6 minutes of rest, and do it again for 5 rounds. I was able to stay consistent at 19-21 push presses, 9-10 box jumps and 7-9 burpees. Apparently the longer it takes to recover, the more elite you are, because you are able to work at higher intensity during the minute.

I got home and didn't have time to eat, so I had Steve's Paleo Jerky for breakfast when I got to work. I didn't have time for lunch either, so ended up having some almonds and an "attitude cleanse" veggie juice at the juice bar, and then another pack of Paleo Jerky at the end of the day, along with about 4 almonds.

Dinner was corned beef, asparagus and "cabbage noodles" which is a recipe my mom found in a paleo cookbook. Yum!

Saturday:
Went to Mike's L2 class on Saturay morning. WOD:
AMRAP 10 Min: 5 60kg C/J, 7 Toes to Bar, 9 20lb Ball Slams. 5 rounds + 2 reps
Then stuck around for Dave's Mobility class. Dave said he's "really excited" about the progress I've made on my handstands! And Dave does not give praise lightly...
Post-workout meal - El Diablo omelet at Hale's with goat cheese instead of cheddar jack, and extra veggies.
Snacks throughout the day - omelets, beef jerky, blueberries around the house.
Dinner: Pizza from Razzi's with Gluten Free crust.
OHS after dinner, 3x15 with PVC pipe.

Sunday:
Breakfast - several slices of summer sausage, left over corned beef, and 1/4 cup blueberries
Pre-workout snack - trying a new idea today. Had an egg white protein shake, 5 almonds and a 1/4 cup of blueberries before the two hour "competition class." It will either ensure I have plenty of energy during class, or go horribly wrong...we will see.
Great workout with Steve and the competition class
Started with 4 rounds of:
AMRAP dips (2020 tempo, aka slow up and down)
2 rope climbs (I finally was able to do them. Did two sets of 2, 2 sets of 1)
Max Freestanding handstand with a spotter

Then moved into the team workout. Team Event 4 from 2010 CF games.
Each team consists of 2 men and 2 women, women start, and go through:
75 Backsquats (40kg)
40 Pullups
25 Shoulder to Overhead (40)
75 Front Squats (30)
40 Pullups
25 Shoulder to Overhead (30)
75 OHS (20)
40 Pullups
25 Shoulder to Overhead (20)
Men hold the bar during transitions, and during the pullups. Bar never hits the ground
Then repeat with men at weights 60, 40, 30, with women holding bar during transitions and pullups.

Our team ended up winning with a time of 36:37. My partner was a pullup machine, but I paid him back with doing extra push presses on the first two sets. All in all a fun workout. Was happy I could knock out several sets of 10 OHS at 30kg. I couldn't do that a few months ago!

Post workout, I had another egg white protein shake, and a few glutino gluten free pretzels. Probably not the best thing, but I wanted a little bit of carbs. For dinner, organic uncured hotdogs from applegate and kale and goat cheese salad!

Monday morning weigh-in::183.8, plus half a pound or so from last week :(
That's what happens when I cheat a little too much on the pizzas....


Monday, October 21, 2013

2nd week back on the strict paleo

Last week, I recommitted to the Paleo diet after spending the weekend in Chelan drinking wine, eating gluten and other crap, and eating sugary "trip snacks" while driving home. The first week was very successful, as the first week of diets usually is - down 5 lbs from 190 to 185. Goal weight is 175. I expect that I will not lose another 5 lbs this week, but I would like to lose 1 or 2, so continuing with the food log to keep myself focused.

Started the morning with an omelet at the work cafe, with a side of bacon. For lunch, we went to Flying Fish, and I had a steak (about 4oz), hold the udon noodles, double down on the veggies, with hoisin sauce. Upon returning to my office, I supplemented the lunch with nine almonds.
I got out of work early, so I grabbed a builder's bar when I got home and ate half of it on the way to the crossfit. This was my third day in a row, so I thought active recovery was in order. I went to Mike's snatch class, thinking that the light weights would be perfect for this. Unfortunately, I saw the other guys doing deadlifts, and got jealous. So Mike let me do my own deadlifts. Did Wendler 5/5/5, finishing at 135kg x5 reps. That seemed like enough for the day. I am now finishing the rest of the builder bar, and getting ready to eat dinner, which looks like a 4oz grassfed steak, and the rest of the mashed sweet potato. I had a tsp of almond butter and a couple fiber choice tablets to get some fat and fiber.

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Another omelet, and a side of bacon, 3 almonds in my office
Lunch: Corned beef hash (root veggies, no potatoes) with eggs on top. Ate half of it, boxed up the rest. Had 9 almonds as an afternoon snack.
Dinner: I had some beef jerky when I got home, along with a few tsp of almond butter. Jen heated up some brisket (about 4oz) with bbq sauce, so I ended up with double the protein I needed, and less carbs than needed.

Wednesday:
Skipped breakfast (intermittent fast!)
Lunch: package of paleo beef jerky, and about 16 almonds
Snacks in the afternoon:  Nugo organic bar, tanka bar...not a good afternoon. Need some good carbs before Steve/Jim's class tonight! This is the first time I've been hungry over the last two weeks.
More snacks when I got home: 4 slices of sweet potato and half a bowl (<1/4 cup) blueberries.
Went to Jim's class and it was what we call a "grinder!"
Start out with five rounds alternating between power cleans (45kg, 55, 60, 65, 70) and 3x muscle up negatives.
Then the workout:
EMOTM for 12 minutes
Power cleans at 80% 1RM (70kg) then 10 DU and jump rope for rest of the minute, no rest.
Then
EMOTM for 16 minutes
ODD 200m row
EVEN 12 situps
Then Partner 2k row

After class, for extra credit I did 2 muscle ups on the high rings.

Then, home for dinner:
6oz grassfed ribeye
Kale salad with goat cheese crumbles and balsamic vinaigrette
The rest of the 1/4 cup of blueberries from earlier. I felt healthy with every bite I was eating!

Thursday:
Omelet and bacon for breakfast
Spinach salad with 4oz salmon for lunch
About 12-16 almonds for afternoon snack
Dinner was a chicken breast (with bone and skin on) and some mixed frozen veggies. I supplemented with a hunk of brisket and a bowl of blueberries.

Friday:
Took the morning off of work, went to Jim's movement class. Did lots of goblet squats and broad jumps, and finished with 1 MU, for extra credit!
Tried my egg white shake in water, very yummy and 23g of protein, when I got home.
Then Jen and I went to the Ballard Skillet for brunch. Deconstructed corned beef hash, hold the fingerling potatoes. Yum!
Dinner: two hunks of brisket (10oz?), 1/4 cup blueberries and 10 lime and chili almonds

Saturday:
I got up and went to the Level 2 Crossfit class down at the gym. Great workout today -- A reverse clean ladder (10, 9, 8...1) cleans, with a round of Cindy (5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats) between each set. I did the Rx weight, 55kg, on the cleans, and was pretty much dead after the 17 minutes it took me.
Came home and had an egg white protein shake mixed up in Coconut milk. I had never had coconut milk, but it's pretty thick and about 90% fat. I don't think I'll be doing that again! It seems to have taken its toll on my digestive system too...not sure if it was the coconut milk or the xylitol that they snuck into the protein powder. Will have to experiment with that.

Then I had a hunk of brisket for good measure while I watched the Crossfit Invitational, live from Berlin! Team World, including my favorite Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet upset the Team USA team. Pretty fun stuff! I had several slices of sweet potato along with that. For snack later I had about 6 slices of summer sausage with mayo.
For dinner, we had leftover chicken breast and kale salad with goat cheese and vinaigrette.
Family is having ice cream for dessert, but I'm going to pass. It is tempting to have a "cheat day" or even a cheat meal, but it seems to take several days to recover from that (weight  up, cravings for sugar return, etc). So I'm gonna go ahead and abstain. Week 2 weigh in on Monday morning, hope to at least maintain the 5 lbs loss from last week.

Sunday:
Had a 3 egg scramble with goat cheese, and a couple slices of summer sausage for breakfast. Mid morning snack was some beef jerky and about 10 almonds (lime and chili).
Lunch: The rest of the brisket (8oz?), 10 almonds, and a 1/4 cup of blueberries.
Monday morning weigh-in: 184.0, down 6.8 pounds in 2 weeks.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

1 day at a time...

In the many months since I stopped my food journal, I have gained about 14 lbs, from 176 to 190. I've gotten a bunch stronger as well. I can now Deadlift 400 lbs, overhead squat 110 for a set of 3, and can manage a muscle up at this heavy weight. My squat has also gotten deeper.

So now my friend Annelisa (who is in Phoenix) and I are going to start keeping track of our food intake, and I'm going to try to get back to about 175. If so, I think I will like what I see with all the extra muscle!
Another friend of mine, who spent some time at AA, told me you don't have to take it one day at a time, you have to treat your diet like alcoholism, one hour at a time.

So, after a weekend in Chelan including a bunch of wine and a little gluten.  And a long drive home with sugary "trip snacks," I resolved to get back on the straight and narrow as of yesterday, Monday 10/14.

Monday morning, I got up and had a 3 egg scramble with peppers and onions (not nearly enough carbs) and a side of bacon. This is my standard breakfast when I eat at the work cafe. Along with a glass of (fresh squeezed 2 wedges) lemon water.
We had an all day "offsite" with my staff and I have now trained our department assistant that no food aside from lunch is allowed in the conference room, because I will stare at it for six hours then eat 14 cookies. So I was clean all morning and afternoon.
I had a tanka bar for snack at about 11am, then a spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, topped with 4 oz of steelhead salmon.

In the evening, we did a "team-building event" on an electric boat. There was beer, wine, meat on a stick, veggies on a stick, and potato salad. I had several kabob like things of beef. It was marinated in soy sauce, so not quite gluten free, but better than potato salad. I also drank talking rain water rather than beer or wine. Good on me! I ended up having a scoop of peanut butter in the middle of the night to help me get back to sleep.

Tuesday, I had the same breakfast -- bacon and scrambled eggs, with peppers and onions. I also had a scoop of organic almond butter before I left home to provide the fat. I had a tanka bar for snack around 11, then 2-3 oz of beef jerky and another tanka bar in the afternoon. a little soy sauce in the jerky, but again maybe not the worst thing I could have.
After work, in preparation for the gym, I had an ounce or two of sweet potato, a GU packet, and a spoonful (1-1.5 tsp) of almond butter.
For dinner, Jen made savory roasted chicken and mashed sweet potatoes. Yum! Two days clean...one hour at a time.

Wednesday morning breakfast, I had leftover peppers, onions and chicken from our meal at La Brisa, so fried these up in walnut oil and scrambled three eggs with them. Instant Paleo omelet!

For lunch, I again had a spinach salad with various veggies, balsamic vinaigrette, and 4oz salmon. In the evening, I went to the bar with some friends for several hours, but was able to stick to water for the whole time! On arriving home, I had a tsp of almond butter, a leftover chicken sausage, and a big spoonful of mashed sweet potato. Unfortunately, this is at about 11pm. 

Thursday morning, day 4!!
I weighed in this morning 3 lbs lighter than Monday, 187.5. Part of this was small dinner last night (not really sustainable), but part was that I didn't drink any wine! I drank about three big bottles of pellegrino. This morning, I had an omelet at work, with a side of bacon, and for lunch, a spinach salad with some sweet potato and other veggies, topped with 4oz salmon and balsamic vinaigrette. I threw in a package of Steve's club's Beef Jerky (28g protein, 4 blocks).

I worked out with Steve tonight...presses, bench, 1 min rows...
Dinner was an organic grass fed hot dog (56g), big scoop of mashed sweet potato and a tsp of almond butter. Still no wine! 
Update: Didn't eat enough...was up at 11:30 and had another tsp of Almond butter, and then again at 1:30 for several slices of sweet potato.

Friday (Day 5 of the 1 day at a time plan!)
Breakfast - Omelet with side of bacon at work
Snack - Steve's beef jerky
Lunch - Corned beef hash with three eggs up. I could only eat half of it, which is very sad, and then I forgot to take the leftovers with me!
Dinner - It's Shabbat dinner, which means there's wine and dessert, so I'm in the danger zone again, but I think I can hold out! Update: held out...no dessert. We had brisket with yummy, ketchup-based bbq sauce. Very yummy, but kinda sugary from the bbq sauce. :( Salad along with that.

Saturday
Got up and headed for the gym. Did Mike's 9am class, which consisted of Romanian Deadlifts (up to 80kg), and then for the WOD, we did 7 min AMRAP with a partner, I go you go. 5 deadlifts, 4 cleans, 3 front squats. Started with 50kg, but moved up to 60kg and did some extra rounds because my partner went slow. I stayed for Dave's 10am mobility class where we did lots of ab work. Always fun. Finished with a couple muscle ups on the high rings after class.
I then headed over to Hale's for brunch of an El Diablo omelet (sub goat cheese for pepper jack) and a side of bacon. Yum!

Afternoon snacks - tsp of almond butter and a bowl (1/2 cup?) of blueberries.
Dinner - Three pieces (about 10oz) of brisket with bbq sauce. After dinner, a couple tsp of almond butter. 

Sunday 
This will be one week of good eating! Started the morning (around 10am) with an onion and goat feta cheese omelet (3 eggs). Headed for the gym at 3pm for Steve's "performance" class. That usually lasts two hours, and then will have dinner. 
Snack - 1/4 cup blueberries and 1 tsp almond butter
Had a gu packet before crossfit then headed off to class. We started with 4 rounds (not for time) of 5 hspu, 3 rope climbs and then AMRAP double unders. I could only do about 1 rope climb at a time, although Steve taught me how to do the Spanish wrap which should make it easier.  And I did 40 singles instead of doubles. 
Once we finished that, we did 1RM close grip bench press (102kg) and 1RM power clean (90kg). Steve gave me a larabar to keep me going...
We finished with a bunch if prowler pushes. 5 rounds of 50m @90% with 90s rest.Then 3 rounds of 75m @100% with 5 min rest. The final rounds kicked my ass.

After class, I had a veggie protein shake (23g protein) and a small piece (2oz?) of brisket. Then we went out to dinner at Georgia's and had Macedonian peppers, lamb souvlaki, a little falafel, hummus, 6 Kalamata olives, and some grilled veggies. I'm stuffed!

Final tally for the first week of renewed dieting: 185.2, down 5 lbs from last Monday! Starting a new post for week 2.