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start preparing.
you need to shop and prepare in advance. If you stumble out of your office for lunch, and blunder around the city hungry, you will eat crap!
stock up on plastic containers, plan your food, have emergency snacks at work ( tin of fish, bag of nuts)
http://paleosoul.com/?p=525 introduction to paleo
just had my second lunch today and I’m still hungry! I have made good decisions in eating out though, but should plan out my meals starting next week (unfortunately my fridge is empty coming from Dublin over the weekend)
well, its the day before we start!
you probably need to know now what you are eating tomorrow.
Good luck
Just had an experimental snack of chicken breast and carrots. It was nice.
I’m excited for tomorrow!
@Andrew, can we put a link to this thread and the recipe thread on the side of the page for quick access? We had something similar for the 100 days of burpees. Would be handy….
DAY 1: Breaky: Two egg muffins (will I eventually get sick of these?), a handful of nuts, a small handful of blueberries – and weirdly a large handful of raw spinach and a mug of green tea. Feels a bit like filling the car up versus enjoying a nice breaky! (Don’t worry – I wont post every meal!)
Breakfast: nada, easy.
Well not really I really love my mug of tea i do about 10 cups a day. I feel like a smoker trying to give up. Still, lunch, chicken salad with sage leaves.
I am going to try and be as hardcore as possible. I mean if its not hurting its not good for you, right?
Slow cooker worked a treat last night….Beef Stew enough to last me for lunch for the next few days
Threw all my instant capuccinos and mochas in the bin last night. I know – revolting, but it was pretty much the last really sugary, processed, fake foodstuff in my diet. Have been drinking them for years and felt dependent on them – so it was weird to just have regular coffee this morning.
Only an hour to lunch – feel fine, not starved.
3 pm, ok. enjoyed ny 2 blocks of bread with my egg and bacon brekkie. Up really early and could only manage a cup of tea with 1 sugar ( so balance that out in breakfast). 3 block lunch, so that leaves me 5/6 blocks for a few snacks and evening meal. Horrible to think Ive only had 4 cups of tea rather than my 9 ( but I have sugar in tea, so each cup is a block1. had a nice pile of rocket, watercress and other leaves with my lunch time mackrel, plus Pharma Pure omega 3.
Feeling like a smug little F***er.
Btw, Alex, you may post every meal! This is your diary, and for some, making it to the next post may be your only way of surviving this challenge. Make sure you use the information to learn.
Lesson 1. Make friends with Kirsty.
Baby – I bear good news!
2 tsp of sugar = 1 block carb. You can have more cups of tea
How many blocks a day are you on? I’m on 11.
Kirsty, can you make Crossfit London UK size batches please? We can all turn up to the box as if its a soup kitchen.
Last night goodbye meal of 2 pints of Hooky followed by a delicious kebab of Kofte, Chop, Shish, Lamb ribs washed down with Efes, mopped up with meaty bread seems a long way away. Love that meaty bread (as the meats are cooking, the Turkish griller periodically wipes the bread over the kebabs soaking up the juices – giving the bread a delicious meaty crunch). As Kat would say, I will miss you meaty bread.
However, my fairly rocking salad of tinned mackerel (who knew it was so tasty?) with spinach, nuts and a pepper was delicious and cheered me up.
An afternoon snack of a couple of nuts and an apple washed down with another mug of green tea will keep me going I hope.
Ha ha this may be my new business venture….it was a treat having something hot for lunch! The main problem i have is that i have 3 tuppaware to carry around one for breakfast, lunch and my snacks of nuts and blueberrys.
Had some funny looks off colleagues as I microwaved my eggs and spinach this morning. Was quite tasty though…
Breakky – eggs, bacon, tomatoes, salad, black coffee
Snack – 3 dried figs (am I allowed them) and some alomonds
Lunch – salad with chicken, drizzled with walnut oil
Snack – figs and canned tuna with black pepper
Dinner – (still at work so update later)
Feel ok it’s just the thought of no chocolate makes me sad…
@Alex M – like it – meaty bread
@kat – I ate figs when I was strict paleo. A delicious starter for entertaining is a baked fig wrapped in parma ham with just a touch of balsamic syrup (prob cheating with the last bit but whatev)
good luck everyone!
Tonight’s WOD was a near death experience, so it was a joy to have dinner after of pork steaks, cauliflower and new potatoes in lovely gravy. Hurrah for the Zone
Thanks Brie, not a fan of balsamic anyway but will try them baked.
Dinner – chopped chicken breast with peppers wrapped in egg wrap (suggested by Lindsay) with salad and tomatoes drizzled with coconut milk, walnut oil and flaxseeds. Hungry for chocolate though.
Kate – tell me about it! Total train wreck of a WOD to come back to. At least I didn’t have to lift anything heavy (other than my own ass).
Stir fry with Salmon last night which was delish – thanks Lindsay. Here’s where it starts getting weird for me.
Breakfast DAY 2: Juicy rib eye, with some spinach, grilled tomatoes and a mug of green tea (reminds me of working on oil rigs – sometimes had my breakfast at midnight and dinner at 6am).
oh yea….and I had a horrific sleep. When to be bed before 11pm (unheard of!) shattered – straight to sleep then woke up a whole bunch of times.
Kat, I bought a bag of cocoa nibs to get through the chocolate deprivation – they are rocket fuel, great stuff and according to marksdailyapple website good for you too
I always liked the super bitter dark chocolate so I find them really tasty as well
Dinner last night – pork chops stuffed with leek and squash with roasted parsnips.
Eggs&spinach combo for breakfast today with some fresh fruit and mixed nuts.
Parsnip & Thyme soup as mid morning snack.
Looking forward to homemade chicken stew for lunch.
nuts and fruit to nibble on this afternoon…
Am hoping parsnips are ok – I had a bunch that needed using from my veg box and I loathe throwing good food away!
hey peeps
paleo diet has become intermittant fasting for me without me really intending to
terrible experience at work yesterday am and today. everything i like for breakfast is banned (cereal, porridge, yoghurt and granola, toast) so i just had a coffee instead. Really oddly found that got hungry by 11am as per usual but not more so than if i’ve had breakfast. Swapping latte for filter was ok actually. Mid afternoon espresso also seems to have more of a kick than with milk in
having two bigger meals works better for me actually although i probably eat too much fruit.
i am missing bread though
Been wondering on the fruit front, how much is too much? I’ve had 400g Strawberries + 100g nuts as my mid morning snack.
Had a banana + 3 boiled eggs for breakie too.
brekkie fine with my 60g of bread! nice lunch, 4 block mixed cold meats and a 3 block pile of salad, leaving me “tea and coffee” sugar. ( fat in a little bit of dressing and 3 blocks almonds
Feel ok, although very disturbed sleep last night. 1st try at games wod today: 83 burpees ( id be 4th on the leader board (50-54 group) if i posted that now), Suspect I can do 13 emom, so will try for the 90/91 on saturday.
off to prepare a fish supper for kate…
raurie!
re strawberry /nut amounts, possibly worth considering a zone perspective for quantity guidance… look at the journal link in
http://crossfitlondonuk.com/2012/01/the-zone-foundations-class/
(im assuming the block charts are too small to read in the post)
I totally effed up, was halfway through a Hawksmoor jam and custard donut before I remembered that I was not supposed to be eating such delights
Bad, bad times. Back on track now ….
@raurie, Zone portions are a must i use to eat way too much fruit although i aim for low GI fruits
so your berries are fine
http://paleomg.com/ some of the food on this website looks awesome
Harriet – that’s funny!
Doing ok with my usual chicken salad/fruit/nut lunch. Normally I get pretty twitchy and hungry arounf 4, but fine today. And always amazed that when I turn up to the gym starving, I leave with food last thing on my mind.
Burpees and fish supper tonight
Let my day be a lesson to us all. Do NOT go on train journeys to Nottingham (or any other midlands destination) and back without taking packing up. Buffet cars and station platforms are not paleo friendly at all. Today I have dined on a whopping 1x crap egg muffin I ruined the other day, 2x apples and (randomly) 1x carrot. Tired and grumpy
Has anyone else been feeling really lethargic today? Yesterday I felt great, but today I’ve been hanging (could be a number of things, but interested to know if it could be my body adjusting to paleo…)
@Ruairi: if you are new to paleo I think there is no need to be a fundamentalist about fruit. I switched to paleo when I started crossfitting and it took me a good month till my two lattes a day became two espressos, till my morning cereal with milk converted to salmon and eggs, till the bread accompanying my salad completely vanished and most importantly till I managed to abandon sweets which I love. How hard the switch is going to be is a function of the starting point in your diet. If it is a complete mess like it was in my case, it will already make a lot of difference if you manage to abandon processed foods, refined sugar, grains and dairy. If you tend to indulge in all these things worrying about the amounts of fruit becomes secondary. I was eating tons of fruit in the beginning to help me deal with the cravings for all the stuff that I dropped. Once I got somewhat used to the new way of eating I started slowly cutting down on the fruit. During my most extreme period which lasted about a month my mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks consisted of one apple, three almonds and three macadamia nuts. The three remaining meals were composed of about 30g animal based protein combined with a pile of low GI vegetables. Even though, I also saw the fastest weight drop, highest energy levels and fastest recovery from workouts during this period, the results already started showing pretty obviously in the fruit overload period and continued (at a slower rate) after I returned to eating in a less strict way including re-introducing starchy stuff like bananas and potatoes but keeping out grains, candies and dairy. I mean all I want to say is as long as you stick to eating fresh paleo-friendly foods you will see results and unless you are eating three kilos of bananas a day I would not worry about fruits too much.
finding it pretty easy so far but i’m eating bananas by the kilo lol
added abs routine every morning too for added monk like regime
all fine yesterday! broken sleep again. Decided I couldn’t be bothered to disrupt my training to seriously do games wod 1 again, so Ive posted my 83 score.
breakfast 3 blocks scrambled eggs, 1 block ham, 3 blocks bread ( remainder blocks into my tea account!) assuming 1 block of oil in pan, so off for 9 almonds! ( and a 2nd cup of tea(
For dinner I jointed a chicken and made coq au vin (half normal wine quantity with half home made chicken stock) with left overs for lunch today. Served with sweet potato mash (bake them don’t boil them – they will taste of nowt) with chopped spring onions through and a salad.
Shocker of a nights sleep, although I have this down to Andrew inflicting glute pain (fnar fnar) on wednesday and brain wired about new projects.
Today the cheating begins until Sunday but not until I have done 100 burpees at least.
And I am under 85 kg for the first time since running the marathon in 2000! I was 86.6 last week. I figured my ass is my largest source of remaining blub.
So this morning i forgot my breakfast…popped into pod and managed to get some scrambled egg (dairy free), Avocado and seeds Yum!! Then i got this email…
I’m sure you’ll all agree it’s been a long week – what better way to round it off than with a slice of strawberry cheesecake?
so i am locking myself in a meeting room, hopefully where i can get some sleep, i am super tired today and think i am getting the silly cold going around my office
So I have gone for the whole Paleo penance thing, no tea, coffee and dairy. been really interesting reading about what exactly paleo is. I now have some serious doubts and questions. But I will try and stick at this as long as possible. I too am feeling very tired in the evenings alseep by 930pm! Thought it was caffeine related but Janie got me thinking about my calorie intake and having done a count it really is too low. I have been skipping breakfast for an early lunch followed by snacking until dinner. I will think about re introducing breakfast and upping the snacks. Janie has been seriously cold turkey and she is currently writing down her experiences. I am really enjoying mugs of hot water, really odd. I don’t look like Giselle yet but its early days. I am concerned about my calcium intake, I am that age now, so looking to snack on sardines (thanks Andrew) and load up on broccoli too (thanks Janie).
Breakfast: rumpsteak, salmon, pineapple, pear, teeny bit of bread (bad girl) and almonds. Strange combo, but nice 4 blocks total.
Having weighed out boiled new potatoes (prob for the first time), I’m finding evening meals pretty huge, which is great. Feeling battered and shattered by training, but otherwise awake and responsive.
My weigh in last sunday must have been skewed by huge meal night before and giant breakfast, as I was 4lbs lighter by the start of the challenge on Wednesday. But I’ve lost another 2.5 lbs since then. Pretty chuffed.
Starting a new Day 1 today after the Donut debacle yesterday. Slow cooker has also arrived and I’m planning a weekend of stew cooking for next weeks packed lunches. (Although I’ve also discovered a mulled cider slow cooker recipe ….)
So far today have had raspberries and cocoa nibs for breakfast, along with black coffee and coconut oil (to replace my sugar in the coffee). Looking forward to massive salad at lunch. Breakfasts at work are pretty rubbish – cereals and toast so will be bringing my own from next week.
@Harriet…for breakfast i have been grabbing food from Pod you can ask for no bread so its really good, boiled eggs, but i am conscious that if i eat too many eggs it restricts my weight loss so i am going to get slow cooking and having some of that for breakfast. People in work mock me eating steak or cooked chicken in the office but its better than toast
Thanks Kirsty – there is a Pod just round the corner so will give it a go one morning next week.
@Colin My calorie intake is too low as well due to me skipping breakfast but i dont want anything paleo as a breakfast so i guess that will have to continue. Think I may add milk in to the mix for some easy calories. My thoughts on this diet thus far are it’s just an effective way of restricting calories, nothing more. I’ll continue for lent as per the challenge but i don’t really believe in the hype on this diet at all
GROUCHY today
Yesterday I worked very late with no time (read: inclination) to cook. Settled for a kebab in the end. I went for a lamb sheesh with salad and no pitta with a bit of chilli sauce. I can’t confirm absolutely but I’d wager it wasn’t grass fed… I did enjoy it though. Paleotastic!
@ Patrick…you dont want anything paleo for breakfast…whats your email and i will send you some paleo cookbooks the breakfast one is awesome
@ Pat: not eating is not one of the requirements of Paleo and neither is calorie restriction. I lost 10 cm (4 inches) of my waist in about 2 months by eating 1700-2000 calories a day which is almost double of what Zone would prescribe for me.
@ anyone having troubles to get the calories in: remember that fat is your friend. I mean don’t eat butter with a spoon, but pour olive oil liberally over your salad, eat nuts, nut butters (spread them on fruits!), salmon, bacon, avocado and drink coconut milk. If for breakfast for whatever reason you don’t want to eat eggs and (paleo friendly) sausages, bacon or salmon, you can try to make a smoothie with coconut milk. Throw in half a banana or some frozen mangoes and berries, add one or two raw eggs (if you can get over the idea) and you have a really nice calorie dense breakfast right there. Or you can experiment with paleo pancakes based on almond flour. I am not really a fan but those can be very high on calories and pretty filling too.
At a mates birthday dinner last night Helen and I were informed by a fellow diner that you can die by stopping eating bread! Word of warning to all you cave people out there!
I am dying to eat bread
@veronica- yep I know that but I was never really a breakfast person anyway. I only ate it because of all the scaremongering. Best way of me not going mental and eating fro sties by the truckload is simply not to eat breakfast
Pat – what breakfast scares are we talking about?
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