Well, this is interesting

You know a "movement" is gaining steam when the number of critics start to increase and make their way into the mainstream. Paleo-diets, welcome to the big time!

NPR Article: The Paleo-Diet: Not The Way To A Healthy Future

I'm sure there's paleo, and then there's PALEO. I see her point but I'm sorry, I really do have to disagree with how "(l)ike most anthropologists, though, I don't think there's good science behind these claims".

As most paleo people have noted, they have seen nothing but good results since they tried it. They've lost weight, their allergies have gone away, they no longer have IBS, they no longer have migraines, aches and pains, their bloodwork is better... How could you say that you could be left "wondering what's the payoff to be had for pushing a popular diet as rooted in a mythically homogeneous, predictable human past" when people simple FEEL better.

To be honest, I would worry less about what someone is telling you what to eat and more about how it makes you feel after eating it. What the paleo diet does for people is to make them aware of the body and the effects of what something does to your body once you remove it. It never hurts to try and I bet the author did not give it 30 days. Sure we have no idea whether 30 years from now if it's really the best thing you can do for yourself but can you really say that about a vegetarian diet too? I don't think so. If someone chooses to eat a vegetarian diet for reasons other than choosing the healthiest option for their bodies, then I get it (political, social, etc.). But if you're going to argue that vegetarian diets are healthier than paleo diets, then I'm sorry, you need to have an open mind.

I know that when I eat a vegetarian meal, I do not feel satiated. I know that when I eat a crap load of grains/sugar, I genuinely feel sick and I get all stuffed up in a matter of days. I know when I eat good quality meats and fats, I feel full and happy. I regularly joke about how I never evolved to wear contacts (dries my eyes out), wear mascara (it makes my eyes itch), wear heels (makes my feet hurt)... but really, I never evolved to stop listening to my body.

Costco Marinara Sauce

I know most of us don't have a lot of time and must resort to simple and quick meals. If you don't mind nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants,...) and just want a quick meal, one of the things we do is make pasta sauce without the pasta and make it meat and vegetable heavy.
We brown a huge batch of ground beef, throw in chopped garlic, whatever veggies we have (broccoli, squash, mushrooms, peppers, whatever), and dump in Kirkland Marinara Sauce if we don't have time to make (or have run out of) our own tomato sauce. Comes in packs of 3 jars and it's pretty "clean"... no weird ingredients I can't pronounce. It's basically what we would make on our own minus citric acid (helps preserve for distribution and shelf life purposes).
It helps to make a huge batch on the weekend and have meals ready to go for the week. Keeps pretty well too.

Breakfast!!

I LOVE breakfast! I love talking about breakfast! I love eggs! JJ and I go through about a dozen a week and we buy our eggs either from Meadow Haven Farms (Green City - $5/dozen) or Tempel Farms (Logan Sq market - $5.50/dozen).

Breakfast on the weekday is almost always:
- 2 eggs: over easy or scrambled (and always with Kerrygold butter)
- some kind of meat: 2-3 strips of bacon, ham, leftover chicken/steak
- Americano (2 shots, made at home - the white is not cream but it's the crema)

Weekend breakfast can get kind of fancy b/c we have a bit more time: chopped veggies, frittata form... one time, we had paleo crabcake eggs benedict (recipe and pic later).

Weekend breakfasts are usually larger than weekday breakfasts and given the timing, it's sometimes big enough that we end up eating 2 meals/day on the weekend.

Yay Paleo Challenge!

It's funny how paleo challenges always kick start my blog back up even though I'm not participating in the actual challenge. Started going paleo again (with a few cheat meals sprinkled here and there) about 4 weeks ago but since everyone's getting in on the challenge this time around, I thought I'd join in the fun. Besides, I could probably use a bit more discipline sometimes.
As I've blogged about before, I'm not cutting out all my dairy or salt or carbs. I eat butter, salty bacon from Meadow Haven Farms, and squash (butternut, delicata, whatever we get from Granor Farms... including the little bits of potato). To minimize the risk of us eating out (our real goal is to eat at home as much as possible), we do incorporate a bit of basmati rice into maybe a meal or two a week (hey, it's good with curry!). One thing that we can probably do better is to watch our portions... it got a little out of hand over the summer.
Anyways, happy as always to have challengers on board the paleo wagon, old and new. Hope you find this blog helpful.

Weight: 122.5#
Deadhangs (over-grip): 3 (YAY!)
HSPU (2 ab mat... might be closer to 2.5 since I had 1 ab mat and a pillow): 11 (okay, I feel like it had to be closer to 2.5).
I did attempt a 1 ab mat HSPU and I got a big fat zero.

Quick note on the HSPU... I've been avoiding these due to wrist pain. Given that I've been off CF for 5 weeks due to ankle, I was able to crank out 11 of these before I started feeling something in the left wrist.

Update!

Ask and you shall receive :)
Well, not a whole lot to report exercise-wise as I am hitting my third week of inactivity. I skipped FGB to rest up my toe and the same night, I roll my ankle walking down the stairs (and proceeded to roll to the basement... wonderful). This is a re-injury!!

Two weeks later, I am finally walking again and on flat surfaces, I am maybe 90% back to walking like a normal person (with an ankle support). The bruising is finally going away and the swelling is maybe 80% gone. There is still swelling where the bone fragment is supposedly located so I guess that's to be expected. Doc said that I'm okay to walk on it and that there isn't much they can do about the bone fragment at this time (see him in 6 weeks if I am concerned that it's still bothering me). He gave me some ankle circles and toe raises to do which have been helping... said I'd be doing the same thing at PT anyway. He also said that not a lot of blood goes through there so healing will be slow.

Walking down stairs is still giving me some trouble as it still hurts to track my knee over my toe. I've got a bunch of places that are still tight and sore (among them, the inside of the foot just under the inside ankle bone near the heel) but I am grasping onto every bit of improvement that I can come up with every day.

I still have 3 strict pull ups in me though so that's good but my neck has been jacked for the last 3 weeks now. You know that stiffness and soreness you get when you sleep in an awkward position? Mine hasn't gone away for 3 weeks... maybe some serious case of stiff/sore neck or I may have actually had some strain from falling down the stairs!

Resting sore stuff

Thanks Rudy for the big toe article. That is how I jammed my toe so I'm almost sure that's what's wrong with it. I still have flexibility though and not a lot of pain regularly... only soreness when I run/jump. I think it's improving but it's not quite there.
On top of that, I think my body is punishing me for eating badly lately... neck is stiff, groin still tender, and right knee is stiff and clicky. As a result, I have decided to bail on FGB this weekend since I don't want to risk further injury of my toe or start any other injuries resulting from these sore spots.

Monday:
Tabata row: max: 87, min: 84 (84/87/87/86/85/84/84/84 = 681m)

8/3 tabata (post wod): max: 84, min: 78 (84-84-83-79-79-78-78-80)
3/23 tabata:
Round 1: 84/83/82/80/80/80/80/80 = 649m
Round 2: 81/81/80/78/78/77/79/80 = 632m

Wednesday:
4x500m: 2:05.4 (damper 7)/2:07.0 (damper 7)/2:19.6 (damper 6)/2:16.7 (damper 5)

Ew... what are those last two sets all about :(

Sigh... that's it from me this week

Wednesday's WOD
Metcon (double purple for strict pullups): 5:40
Trip ups in the 50 round of DUs, tripped at 37 on the 40 round, the rest unbroken! Could have used "less band" given my time but when I tested out just one purple pre-wod, I wasn't sure I could make it. Mixed grips through the 8 round, underhand for the rest... no fails.

Post: 5x200m (3min rest): 47.3, 45.5, 46.5, 47.0, 46.6
My butt hurt after this :(

Was planning on getting another WOD in today but apparently, I pulled my left groin from running last week and during the warm up yesterday. I am not quite sure what is wrong with it but it was painful enough to stop running. Acts up anytime I try to propel myself forward (walking fast included) so it needs rest. On top of that, I am about 90% sure I fractured my big toe about 2 months ago playing tennis. Bruising under big toe nail doesn't appear to have improved and after last night's DUs, it's definitely not 100%. It's time to bite the bullet and lay off it... no running/jumping/etc... though right now, I am still planning on doing FGB...