Whole 30

Tuesday will mark day 30 of my Whole 30 challenge. For those of you who just began following my blog, I have been practicing a Paleo diet for the last 28 days. In a nutshell, the Paleo dietary template is based on the idea that for optimal health, modern humans should eat in the way our hunter-gatherer ancestors did. The Paleo diet replicates what cavemen ate, I mean it is 2013. There are many different approaches to becoming Paleo but the general idea is to eat whole, unprocessed, nourishing foods and avoid foods that will harm you by causing inflammation/destroying your guts/disturbing our natural metabolic process. By practicing a Paleo diet, you reduce your risk of numerous disease while improving your general health, body composition, and energy level.

My journey began on January 7, 2013. For 30 days I would eat clean. I hit the ground running by purchasing a Paleo LivingSocial deal. It came with grass-fed fillets, shrimp, cage-free chicken, spinach, brussel sprouts, mangos, strawberries, almonds and pistachios. My biggest worry was breakfast. I'm not a huge fan of eggs, specially if you can't melt cheese on top of them. My breakfast was usually cereal, yogurt, or oatmeal all which are not paleo. Turns out breakfast was the easiest part.

I owe it all to Almond milk. Breakfast now consists of a fruit smoothie of some sort or an egg with a few slices of bacon. If you haven't given Almond milk a try, I highly recommend it. Almond milk is dairy and soy free making it paleo friendly.

Eating clean for 30 days was not easy but not nearly as hard as I expected. I had some slip ups including candy, taco bell, checkers, and a few cookies but overall stuck to a paleo diet. I did however, successfully cut out alcohol, legumes, grains, diary, and soy.

I am looking forward to having my measurements retaken on Tuesday. Since I have more energy, I have been working out more often. My normal "light" weight, used for overhead shoulder work, has gone from 4 lbs. to 5 lbs. My main goal of going Paleo was to become more lean and strong. I enjoy challenging myself but am really looking forward to being restriction free for a while. I am kind of bummed I won't be able to partake in Super Bowl festivities today. I'm going to make some hummus and possibly some avocado chicken salad as alternatives to the typical Super Bowl snacks.

I'm not sure what challenge I'll take on next. I'm open to any and all suggestions! I've registered for The Color Run and should probably start taking my training more serious. 106 days and counting!

What challenges are you taking on this year?