Day 30

It is day 30 of another round of Whole 30. This is the third time I have done Whole 30 and I am excited for what will come next! My previous experiences with Whole 30 ended right before a major holiday (first Thanksgiving and then Christmas) leaving me with little opportunity to phase items back into my daily life to see how it was really impacting me. I will try and write more about the days the follow this whole 30 and what I notice.

Also coming later this week the thoughts and experiences of 3 crossfit girls who just finished their first Whole 30 challenge. All took on the challenge for different reasons and all rocked it. I am impressed with all of them! Nice work Jenn, Tami, and Brittany!!!!

You gotta do what you gotta do….

It is 6pm and I just finished off a plate of veggies and a good size serving of protein. I am going out to dinner with friends at 7:15pm. Why did I just eat if I am going out to dinner you might ask. Being paleo for the last year I know it is always a challenge when it comes to eating out. While I have found a lot of great places here in Portland with great options it is never “perfect paleo” in terms of enough veggies and a “clean” enough source of protein. I am also currently doing another round of Whole 30 and it being day 29 I didn’t want there to be any slips or cheats or bites of someone’s french fries or of my husband’s chocolate mousse dessert (he always gets it when we go to this place!).

So I am will arrive at the restaurant having already eaten and ready to enjoy the real reason I am there, to hang out with friends. I will order something and eat, but I will not have to worry about it having that perfect balance of macro-nutrients or being wild or grass fed, grass finished. Don’t get me wrong I will still eat within the Whole 30/paleo guidelines but going in having already had a balanced meal makes it a lot easier to avoid temptations or concern that my meal didn’t have enough of something in it. And while I know I can order something reasonably good and gluten free this is not the last time I will eat. This is also not the last time I will go to this restaurant as we frequent it often. But this is the first time we will get to see some friends we haven’t seen since the holidays and I want to have a good time and not be stressed and worried about what I am eating or hungry!

Gluten in Tea!!!

I was surprised last week to learn that there IS gluten in some tea!!!!

Whenever I look at a paleo web site or listen to people talk about the paleo lifestyle the mantra is that "coffee (black) and tea" are fine. With there being very few options for clean beverages coffee and tea seems a fair route to take when you want something with flavor or something hot, or just something that isn't regular water.

I found some tea at work and was about to have a cup after lunch but before I did I happened to go to brand web site just to see what the ingredients were (this particular brand was Celestial Seasonings). The label for the tea said "all natural" and I am finding that so many labels say that, but what really are they talking about? and is it really natural (and/or paleo?). The label did not say anything about gluten.

My first clue should have been when the label said "dessert tea". There really is never an easy answer for a "paleo dessert", even in the packaging of tea! When I looked on the brand web site and looked at ingredients for this tea it said right there: Contains Gluten. I was really surprised by this and then searched some other flavors on the site. While most said "Gluten Free" there was more than a handful that in fact did contain gluten!! Most of the time they were the special holiday blends and not the regular herbal variety.

I then went to the site for a brand that I use often (Tazo) and found in the Q/A that all of their tea is gluten free EXCEPT for: Green Ginger, Honey Bush, Lemon Ginger, and Lemonade.

While it seems most tea is still "paleo friendly" if you are trying something new or see a special blend it might be worth it to do some research on the brand site before you sit down to enjoy that cup of tea!

83 deadlifts! Was it worth it?

The sign above should say “Do not dead lift 83 times in 3 minutes”. Last night the WOD (crossfit term for workout of the day) was this:

AMRAP in 3 min – Deadlift 95/65lbs

rest 3 min

AMRAP in 3 min – Push Press 95/65lb

rest 3 min

AMRAP in 3 min – Hang Power Clean 95/65lb

rest 3 min

AMRAP in 3 min – Thrusters 95/65lb

While the weight was relatively manageable (I am a women so I used 65lbs) it did get heavy near the end. The first movement was the easiest for me and even though I told myself ahead of time not to go too hard on the first round (so that I could keep try to keep a consistent pace throughout the entire workout) I ending up going faster on the dead lifts than anything else. It is hard to say if the extra dead lifts caused me to have a few less reps on the push press or power cleans but the extra reps DID cause me to have poor form near the end.

I could feel my form breaking down but was moving too fast to correct it and was too focused on adding up the reps that I didn’t stop and reset. I should have!!!

60 or so reps with proper form would have been worth more than 83 with broken form near the end!! I hear so many coaches tell us this time and time again, that it is “quality over quantity” but it can be hard to remember when the music is on and the WOD has started. I guess one good way to remember it is that Crossfit is training us for our individual sport. That might be the actual Crossfit games, or running, soccer, ultimate Frisbee, etc. It might also just be training us for life and if so what we do each time we step into the gym is just practice for the “big day”. Whatever that “big day” might be form and quality will go a lot further than just reps for the sake of reps on some random Monday workout!!!

My Whole 30

I wrote this a few weeks ago for the Crossfit Portland blog. With the start of a new year and many friends starting the paleo challenge or Whole 30 challenge I thought it would be a good first post for my blog! I also started another round of Whole 30 on January 1, 2011. Happy New Year!

I have been paleo for about a year. Paleo for me included 1 grande, 1 pump caramel, non fat latte every morning. From the start of paleo I refused to give my morning latte up and always felt that it was “just 1” and “how bad could it really be”. Paleo also included the occasional glass of wine, piece of dark chocolate, and the occasional baked good (usually made with almond flour or coconut flour and maple syrup). I attended the Whole 9 workshop at Crossfit Ft. Vancouver in October because I was curious as to what they (Melissa and Dallas of Whole 9) had to say and interested in hearing about their tricks of the trade.

The workshop was centered on the idea of the “Whole 30” which is a more restrictive eating program then paleo and a program that people commit to for 30 days at a time. The idea is that you eliminate certain things from your diet in an effort to really clean and repair your system so that it works the way it should and you get the maximum benefit out of all of the good for you do eat. When the owner of Crossfit Ft. Vancouver asked a question about a paleo birthday cake made with coconut flour and Melissa said “what is coconut flour, we don’t bake” I knew I was in for it!

Whole 30 is very similar to paleo (lean meat, veggies, limited fruit, nuts and berries) but also eliminates all forms of alcohol and any sugar at all (so no dark chocolate, no maple syrup, no agave, etc). Whole 30 also focuses on “good food choices” so making a “paleo” pizza from almond flour or a “paleo” cake from coconut flour is not allowed as pizza and cake are not the best food choices to make. It is restrictive but the idea is that you stick to the plan for 30 days and then at the end of the 30 days you add food groups back in to see how they affect you. By doing this you can then decide what the best long term plan is for your body. You can also decide what your body can handle either on an everyday occasion or as a “cheat”. This idea is similar to the Robb Wolff “look, feel, perform” test as you add items back in.

I was interested to see what would happen if I eliminated certain things and then added them back. I was especially interested in the morning latte and wanted to see if “just 1” really was OK. I was also interested to see if this would help me lose the last 10 lbs I wanted to lose and I was tired of being “paleo but….” (paleo but I have my latte and wine and dark chocolate, etc). I started my first 30 days the Sunday after the workshop and it ended 2 days before Thanksgiving. I then was off the Whole 30 plan for Thanksgiving Day and the 2 days after before I got back on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The first 30 days:

The first big adjustment was the morning latte. This was hard, but within 3 days I noticed I lost any bloating in my stomach that I had previously and didn’t have any of the mild stomach irritations I was having after the latte and certain foods. In terms of the “look, feel, perform” test I am fairly certain that even though it was “just 1” it was affecting how I looked and felt.

Week 1

Right away it hit me how restrictive this was. While I didn’t think I was eating dark chocolate a lot or having a glass of wine that often it was hard to resist these when the person next to me was enjoying them (thanks Brian!-husband) I found myself thinking about chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. This wasn’t happening while just paleo in the days prior. However, overall I was feeling good, feeling more lean and
strong.

Week 2

I was frustrated and thinking about cake non-stop. There were actually a few nights I sat with the computer looking up pictures of cake. I wasn’t doing this when just paleo a few weeks earlier and think it was more the idea that I was doing something really restrictive that was causing the cake craving and not just because I was “whole 30” now or really craving cake. Also this week, overall I wasn’t feeling too well
and was sick for a few days. I did notice that when I was sick for 2 days and all it really did was make me tired and sleep for 2 days straight. My husband was sick for 2 days and he had it worse than I did and got really sick, with a fever and throwing up. Maybe we had different bugs but maybe it was the same bug and it affected us differently because of our gut health and what we were eating.

Week 3

I was still thinking about cake and found it hard to leave the house while on Whole 30. Cory’s tee-shirt party was during this week and I made paleo brownies for everyone and didn’t even have one! They looked really good and it was really hard not to eat them. It was also hard not to drink when we all went out to the bar. I think I even said “this is stupid” to a few people who asked me about how the Whole 30 was
going when they saw me in the gym that week. I didn’t want to slip because I didn’t want to have to start the 30 days all over and knew that I needed a clean 30 days to really see what was happening. And even though I wanted treats and cheats because they were around I didn’t feel a strong craving for them like I have in the past at times on paleo.

Week 4

I felt good and started noticing the difference in eating before and after a WOD (crossfit term for Workout Of the Day). Whole 30 does suggest eating before a WOD (protein and a little fat) and post WOD (good carbs and protein). Because of when I have to leave work to get to the gym and the commute home to Beaverton this means I have to eat in the gym right before the WOD and right after to eat within the suggested time frame to get the benefit.
Not sure if anyone noticed but in doing this sometimes I was eating baby food after a WOD. The guys of Whole 9 suggested it as an easy, portable source of clean carbs (baby food squash or sweet potato). I felt more in control about what I wanted to eat and treats around the office or at home didn’t
phase me.

Final days

I thought I would be counting down the days until I could have a glass of wine or some dark chocolate but I wasn’t. I actually counted incorrectly so when I thought I was on day 30 it was actually day 31! I wasn’t craving things like I was in the earlier weeks. . I then started thinking, “why not do this again after Thanksgiving?” I was also down 5lbs and noticed changes in my body composition.

I am back on for another 30 days because I wasn’t able to really isolate foods and treats to phase them back in slowly or one at a time for the “look, feel, perform” test and want to be able to do that. Thanksgiving provided too many choices and resulted in eating a big mix of the foods I just spent 30 day taking out. I don’t think the first 30 days was for nothing though and didn’t even feel sick or get any bad side effects
from eating feely on Thanksgiving which tells me I have good gut health!

Overall when I look at what I pulled out of what I was eating I noticed I looked and felt better without the latte. I am not sure there is any look, feel, perform change for wine and dark chocolate, but I will see for sure after my next 30 days.

If someone is on the fence about paleo or currently doing a version of paleo but wants to change things up I would suggest doing Whole 30 or some other type of paleo challenge. It is only for a period of time and if you hate it you can go back to eating how you were before you started but chances are you will learn something new, even if you learn it is OK to eat certain “treats” and “cheats”.