OMG, Di has a new post!

Hello, my 3 followers. Sorry for keeping you in such suspense! Sit back off the edge of your seat and stay a while: I'll fill you in on February.

"Paleo" is now in air-quotes. I am definitely cheating at least once a week. At first it was for my sanity, then it was because I was ill-prepared. Earlier in my posts I talked about trying to find a balance, and I just can't seem to get a handle on anything. Not to digress to my real-life too much, but I just feel like something is always getting the short end of my attention and efforts. Lately, I've had to put this blog and my sleep on the back burners to make things work. I'm starting to gain some ground at work, so I hope to be finding a better situation soon-- because I am tired and my fans are neglected!

While I am a little disappointed that I cannot come out of this saying "totally did strict Paleo" I am pretty excited about the balances I have found. My "cheats" have not been too far from what we're doing here, for the most part. One meal with grain or cheese or yogurt or a glass of wine or a soup with corn in it-- these have become my cheats... so I can't help feeling like my eating habits will have improved even after this is over in a few short weeks.

My family never ate poorly, in my opinion. Now that there is such access and wealth of health information, I see some missteps that we took, but by a national standard I would rate my youth as relatively healthy. We didn't do the fast food thing often; we always had meat, veggies and fruit for dinners. The effects of quantity, white flour and "hidden" sugars (in breads, ketchup, etc) I think were the major enemies we are facing later. A few summers ago, my parents and I decided to take a big leap in our overall health and follow the South Beach Diet. This opened our eyes to our food addictions, to our hidden habits and to a healthier path. I would equate this venture on my own to that leap we did together. The knowledge I am gaining from articles, books and friends (not to mention experience) is fascinating and making a large impact on my lifestyle.

My mom came over today and we were just talking about the things I've learned and found interesting. While I was talking to her, I realized what is so satisfying to me about all the knowledge: it's vindicating!!! The frustrations with weight, the confusion with foods, the difficulty trying to explain reactions... it's as if by reading and answering questions, I am being fed the words to explain what I've been unable to describe about myself. My body's reluctance to go under a certain weight but I knew it wasn't the ideal weight for me-- body fat set point. My gall bladder's severe responses to fats-- the wrong fats paired with starches; I've had little to no issues with my gall bladder since I have increased my water and vegetable intake. This is even with an increase in fats! I am still careful to drain my ground beef and blot my bacon, but it's a huge difference from before this eating change. The soreness from exercising-- I wasn't eating enough protein or fat and I wasn't eating soon enough after exercising. The list is a long one (and this is already a long post), so I'll stop here. The point is that I just keep finding that what I learn from others reinforces what I am seeing in myself.

We're in the home-stretch for this little experiment (definitely not the end for me), so I'm going strict for the remaining time. I think these last few weeks are the result of my lack of effort in the cooking department.

I ate: 1)eggs, turkey bacon and half an apple 2)other half apple, 15 walnuts 3)4 cups spring mix lettuce, half an avocado, 3 pieces turkey breast/chicken breast 4)protein shake and 3 cups of broccoli, 1/2 cup frozen cherries... EVERYDAY for weeks! I'm not a creature of routine. I think had I found ways to vary my food I would not have felt so restricted. This, however, requires the foresight to plan as well as the time to prep everything. What has become apparent is that this diet does not lend itself well to scraping together something on the fly or last minute, so I ended up spending almost as much time trying to "wing it" as if I had just handled it before the week started. Ugh. Silly me.

Holy crap, Di can cook?!

Poached eggs, Olympic bacon (jk), eggplant and South Beach Hollandaise Sauce

It was good, but it tasted more like deviled eggs than eggs Benedict. It wasn't a bad taste; it was just unexpected... and strange with the eggplant.

Good news is that I have doubled my efforts at Crossfit. I have been attending often and fairly consistently. It's impossible to credit my gains to attendance alone as I have seen the improvements since the food changes. All I know is that Quasi-Paleo-Di is way stronger and faster than Lazy-Half-Ass-Di.

I plan on keeping this blog at least another month and a half because I have signed up for a new challenge--yes, I'm overlapping-- with the encouragement of fellow female novices, we have signed up for our first Crossfit Competition!