I can’t believe it’s already been a week. I can’t believe I didn’t cheat. And I can’t believe how well I did *as I pat myself on the back.*

A quick review of what Paleo is / The challenge I’m doing:

• Eat like a caveman did; essentially just meat & veggies
• No dairy
• No wheat/grains
• No sugar
• No processed food
• No legumes (including peanuts)
• Yes to high, natural fats: bacon, avocado, oils, coconut, etc.
• More in depth description found here

Summary of the week

• Monday: Wahoo! Day 1 of Paleo. This is exciting. I am a prepping all-star. Go me.I am awesome. Self high-five.
• Tuesday: Still excited. Seems fairly easy. Wait.. easy, but work. Yay for Paleo! Today is a public holiday; big test, but passed quite easily. Key may be to always have paleo food ready to grab (hard boiled egg, nuts etc.) and tell everyone I know.
• Wednesday: Okay, okay. I feel like I’m dating my kitchen, but it’s cool. It’s cool. Still rocking the challenge. Head still in a great place. Actually trust myself. Know I will not cheat.
• Thursday: Easy… wait… ohmigod I want something… hmmm… to bite into. Hmm burger. Hmm fries. No Liz, no! You got this. Can see how this challenge has potential to get REALLY hard…
• Friday: At 3pm I want to eat all the sugar in the world; pleased my work doesn’t have vending machines. Mind still in a good place, but definitely feeling a real sugar/carb/bad-food craving. Scared about the weekend…
• Saturday: Crossfit ninja + brunch with crossfit people = still feeling motivated to stay on track and not mess this up. I’ve come so far. Super duper proud of myself. At 7pm a HUGE, MASSIVE, OHGOODLORD migraine hit me. I wondered if it was from the lack of Coke Zero/caffeine/sugar?
• Sunday: As if I made it to day 7! And so it starts again, must prep food. I spent a good 1/2 hour planning out my meals for Week 2 and went to the market feeling motivated. Also, went to the beach with Matt and felt bad we couldn’t get ice-cream together. Or something. Anything. He was hungry. Dinner out was hard too, hmm the smell of other people’s french-fries. Too much Fruit. Must cut back.

Overall thoughts

• It works. Without a moment’s hesitation, Paleo works. Eating meat & veggies can get boring very quickly, but I’ve already found that coconut milk is the best thing ever (oh hai there delicious chicken curry I had for lunch today), and a way to fool my mind into thinking I’m eating carbs.
• It’s easy, but very time consuming. However, I can see how if I stuck with it, over time I’d refine my system. I learned a lot of things this past week (like what to buy less of/more of), and that I need to prep even more than I’m doing (ie. actually cook the chicken/meat). 
• I also learned that paleo cooking is fairly simple (with little mess!), so I can actually attempt lots of recipes.
• I’ve also found doing paleo this week has forced me to listen to my hunger. Why am I thinking of the cookies or chips or whatever when I AM SO FULL?! Weight loss and eating is all in my head (but we all already knew this, didn’t we?)

The Dirty Deets / Stats

• I debated sharing this because I’m worried it’s more of a “hit the ground running” weight loss, but nonetheless, it’s awesome, and I am proud (see chart below)
• Also, I got my first, “I think you look smaller” comment and I did a cartwheel on the road. Not really, but I did do one in my head. AND. My pants (especially these pants from NYC) fit a lot looser.

The Food:

• Paleo is a ”no portion diet.” Which yes, my friends, means that each and every piece of paleo food is limitless. Ba. Ba-hahahah. Last week I gave the whole “no portion” thing some serious side-eye. I mean, c’mon, I can eat two avocados easily in one sitting, and bacon on e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.? Good God yes please! And we all know how HIGH those foods are in calories. But nonetheless I listened to the advice I got, and ate what I wanted, when I wanted, and get this, it turns out it’s pretty much physically impossible to over-consume a calorie quantity of food on Paleo. 
• So what am I saying? Paleo maximizes your calories and really gets you the best bang for your buck; you stock up on foods that will fill you up (natural carbs, high fat, high protein food) that keep you content for hours.
• Which means… my theory of, “a calorie is a calorie is a calorie,” and “it’s impossible to gain weight if your intake is higher than your outtake” stands it good form. Note: people still argue me on this.
• Second note: these are all my views, from my experience, remember that :)

The Money

• Paleo is expensive. The first week (above) cost me $120. But I believe (hope) that that was simply initial start up costs. I will keep you posted on this as I’m tracking the money side and plan on doing a a summary at the end of the month.

So, how do I feel?

• Good. Better. The same? I will say that usually when I do five crossfit sessions a week I am POOPED on the Saturday, but this past Saturday (despite coming last by a lot) I felt really good - not tired, but like I could still push myself.
• Other than that, not a huge change. TMI: I’m going poop like a ninja, but I believe that’s good. Will keep you updated if I magically get lots of energy and feel great.

Exercise

• Chart Below —> Green = Complete, CF = CrossFit Attendance Goal
• Also, I know I look like a complete baller with the below chart, but know that CrossFit = my friends = I want to go. Apparently that is the key to exercise.
• Performance wise? I found no difference. Hopefully this will change.

Plan for next week

• To continue with the challenge (duh), but try to refine my system. I need to prep more food so I’m not in the kitchen every night, and learn more quick, “go to” recipes. I also think this coming week is going to be the “I REALLY WANT SUGAR & CARBS” week, so I’ll need to buck up and fight my way through that.
• I’m also hoping to research more about Paleo - benefits of certain food, and create a list of resources for myself.