Are we there yet?

We're one month into the challenge, and I've hit a slump. And I won't name names, but I know I'm not the only one at the gym who's feeling it. Why did I ever think a 30-day paleo challenge would be difficult? Piece of cake compared to this marathon.

Dietwise, I thought I'd been good. Okay, maybe I'd pushed a little on my corn tortilla allowance. Maybe I treated myself twice in one week to delicious bready goodness. But I didn't think I was that off track until I got a message from Will on my food log with the subject line: "Whoa!" Yikes. You don't want to see that from your coach. Yes, it's been a slog this past week. Meal planning has fallen by the wayside. The kid ate Gordon's fish sticks for dinner on Monday. I had to stop at Starbucks for breakfast. So I need to get myself back on track with the diet, but I haven't been that bad.

In terms of workouts, it's just the opposite. I've worked out a lot this week, hard workouts four days in a row, including some two-a-days. It beat me up. Today, I was totally exhausted. I need to schedule more recovery days and remember that rest is just as important as exercise.

I'm looking forward to month two. Lots of good stuff happening including a CrossFit competition. I've avoided weighing myself or doing any interim measurements, but I'm going to post my new measurements shortly and hopefully, I'll have seen some improvement.

Figuring Out My Pre- and Post-Workout Eating

I had originally titled this post "Screwing Up My Pre- and Post-Workout Eating" because that's what it feels like I've been doing.

I've been working out a lot more since starting the Challenge. And I've been eating better, no gluten, few grains if any, lots of homecooked meals. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm now struggling with how to get in enough good calories (not quick and easy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) before and after my workouts.

For example: On Monday nights, I do the Olympic Lifting class at 7 pm, which is an awkward time for me. Last week, I ate a smallish dinner before going, around 5 pm. Then after class, I had a protein shake. That's it. I didn't feel like eating anything more substantial so close to bed time.

Last night, I did the crazy nearly 40-minute cardiofest with very little in my stomach. And afterwards, I had a protein shake and about a cup of tuna salad. I felt a little hungry when I went to bed but figured I'd sleep through. Instead, I developed a massive headache, which lingers into today. I probably won't be able to workout because I feel like crap. The same thing happened to me last week.

So I need to figure out my pre- and post-workout nutrition before it further affects my training. Ideas?

Gearing up for week 3

This week's going to be tough, because I'm at a conference Tuesday and Wednesday, and then the rest of my week is packed with meetings, which means limited opportunities to sneak off to the gym on my lunch break. I'm most worried about my diet. At the conference, I won't be in charge on my own schedule and won't have access to normal snacks. Plus, I'll be tempted by the carb-heavy pastry and continental breakfast spread. So I'm packing a ginormous purse tomorrow:

You can see a bag of trail mix, sliced apples (eating sliced apples is way quieter than chomping through a whole apple during someone's presentation), dry roasted almonds, and a big container of water. And my real purse. Yes, a purse within a purse. I'm becoming my grandmother.

The coolest kitchen appliance I've had all along!

Historically, I've not been much of a cook. That hasn't stopped me from collecting a kitchen full of small appliances. There's the coffee grinder that I swore I'd use to grind fresh coffee beans every morning (yeah, right), the fondue pot I had to have so I could make fabulous fondue experiences every weekend for our friends, the George Foreman Grill that was so easy to use but not, however, easy to clean, and the chocolate melter, which believe it or not is different from the fondue pot.

Then there's the biggest, bulkiest one of them all - the food processor. Now I'm not one for "instruction manuals" or "proper use" of a machine, so every time I've used the thing, I just throw in a bunch of random ingredients and set it to blend, sort of like a sadistic Mixmaster. But as I discovered yesterday, the food processor actually has some finer points, and it's coming in very handy as I try to find new and exciting ways to eat the same healthy foods. You can grate! You can slice! You can shred!

In less than an hour, I made three side dishes, starting with cauliflower rice, which is ridiculously easy, just throw the whole head in there and process, microwave until tender. Then, I got crazy with sweet potato, wanting to experiment with all the cool food processor blades. First, I shredded it. Then, I sliced.

To the shredded potatoes, I added two eggs and fried them in extra virgin olive oil to make sweet potato pancakes. I wasn't sure what to do with sliced potatoes, so I just tossed them in some EVOO and roasted them at the 425 degrees until soft. Not bad.

I had the sweet potato pancakes this morning for breakfast paired with paleoish quiche and fruit. (Before you think I'm a big fatty, I used an 8-inch diameter plate, not a full dinner plate).

Even the kid is digging his new and improved paleo-inspired breakfasts. Here he is chomping down on bacon (he can't get enough of it). He did, however, gag on the quiche. The kid knows an impostor crust when he tastes it.

Day 14. Getting my diet in check - after I eat this quesadilla.

Yesterday was kind of a bust. After doing the Olympic Lifting class at 9 a.m., I came home, ate a banana, and then started running around, so I didn't eat a decent meal until more than two hours later. By that time, I was feeling achy and sick, and I'd lost my appetite. The only thing I could get down all day was kettle corn. I swear. Anyway, I chalk it up to being the 13th day of the challenge.

Today, I woke up feeling better and went to train with Will. I'm starting to see how it will help me. But I'm also understanding that it's going to be a slow, gradual and probably painful road to improvement. I was talking with Mark Levy the other night about making gains, and he has a really good perspective on it. Slow, steady progress is the way to go, he says. I've got to believe in it because I'm in a long haul, and I may not even be where I want to be at the end of this Challenge, six months from now. But I have to start somewhere.

Will and I also talked nutrition today. He says I should be eating 25% carbs, 25% protein and 50% fat. The fat percentage sounds really high. When I look at my food logs, I'm more in the range of 45% carbs, 35% protein and 15% fat (it doesn't add up to 100%, I know, leave me alone). And most of my carbs are coming from fruit. I eat a lot of fruit. It's no wonder - fruit is easy, ready to eat and requires no preparation. I can grab a banana or an apple and go. If I have an offsite work meeting, I can stuff a bag of dried apricots in my purse. At this point, I'm not going to freak out about eating fruit but at some point, maybe month 2 or 3, I'll take a look at cutting down.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to boost my fat intake for the day, I ate Mexican for dinner. It was a well-deserved cheat meal.

Day 12. Back to basics.

So now that Will's been helping me improve my squat form, I've completely forgotten how to squat.

Today I went to the gym on my lunch break to squeeze in Wednesday's workout, back squats at a 30x0 tempo. Even before I walked into the cage, my brain was racing - should I do a low-bar back squat? Or a high bar? Usually, I'm closer to a low-bar squat, relying heavily on my posterior chain, but Will's trying to force me to better engage my quads with a high-bar position. But I wasn't sure if I was always supposed to use high-bar or just in my training sessions with Will. Unsure, I opted for something in the middle with the bar lodged uncomfortably below my neckline.

As I lowered into my squat, I assessed every awkward movement. Was I pressing back with my hips too much? Were my knees too far out in front? I hefted the weight upward with the same uncertainties. Should I be pressing up with my quads or pushing back into my hamstrings? Was I coddling those lazy quads with too much glute action?

By my last set at 145#, my hips were shooting up well before my chest, my upper back curled inward. My knees were buckling. And my last reps were of dubious depth and even more questionable tempo. It was a humbling experience. The only bright spot was that I was still squatting more weight at a far lower depth than most of the men at 24 Hour Fitness.

Lesson learned. For the next six months, as I turn myself over to the amazing Karma CF trainers, I have to recognize that this is, in many ways, a re-learning process. Which means I can - and should - scale back, not worry about how much weight I'm lifting, and focus on technique. I've been trying to break through barriers on my own for months now, and it hasn't worked. I may as well try something new even if it means lifting less.

So that's what I learned today. Also, I had a dream that I was eating a cupcake with peanut butter icing. That must mean something.

Day 11: What I've learned about my diet.

Over these past two weeks, I've learned a lot about my diet. By cutting out grains (mostly), avoiding processed sugar, and eating more protein, my less desirable nutrition habits have become startlingly clear. Some of the things I've noticed about my diet:

1. I'm addicted to popcorn. Apparently, I eat it almost every night. For the Challenge, I've switched from the chemical-laden, faux-butter microwave popcorn to air popped popcorn - that's an improvement, right?

2. Wheat bothers me. Case in point: Today I ate a sandwich and felt gross afterward. But I don't think I have a problem with gluten. I actually think the problem is soy. I've known I was soy intolerant for about a year now, discovering it after almost a decade of being a vegetarian and not understanding why I always felt so bloated, gassy, and run-down. After I cut out tofu and soy protein bars, I felt much better. But I've still been eating bread, and bread - it turns out - is loaded with soy. In fact, it's almost impossible to find breads and cereals that don't have soy in it. So moving forward, I'll need to remember that bread makes me feel as crappy as soy.

3. I have weird food fantasies, now more than ever. A few of them: Eating a cheeseburger, french fries and a strawberry milkshake. Scarfing down a dozen doughnuts in one sitting by myself. Consuming an entire heart-shaped box of See's chocolates by myself in one sitting (for the record, I tried this once: I got four pieces in and developed a migraine).

It'll be interesting to see what else I discover as the Challenge continues.

Also, I've switched to an online food log that logs my calories, protein intake and other stats so check it out.