Competition day round 2.

Bacon, eggs, and spinach. Eggs cooked in the leftover bacon fat as I mourn the loss of ghee, my most favorite cooking fat. In other news, I'm really freakin sick of eggs. Going to try spinach and sausage "muffins" as this weeks easy to go breakfast food. Can't be worse than facing another hardboiled egg.

Kind of forgot about the post-workout meal I packed, so that didn't happen.

Started ripping in to my Good Stuff before I remembered to take the picture.  Nom.  I miss cheese already.  (cheese is my ultimate love/hate relationship)

Ugh.

Not feeling it today.  It's not that I feel bad.... it's that I just don't feel *good*.  A little foggy/hazy, parts of me are sore that I didn't know deadlifting made sore, ankles are stiff, and I'm breaking out.  This is pretty much the exact opposite of how I felt when I was finishing up the November Whole30 when I was all bright and shiny and clear-skinned and bushy-tailed etc.  I know it's an adjustment phase and in a couple weeks I'll be back to feeling awesome.  And this is why I shouldn't deviate so far in the first place.

Update: combating the soreness with a pedicure after work (already scheduled) and some yoga probably.  Non-food rewards for the win.

This is crap.  I know I'm whining but I just want to go home and lay on the floor with a lacrosse ball and some soup.  But instead I guess I'll just drink more water and stay at my desk and think about what I'm going to get for lunch.  I also made it a goal to try 4 new recipes next week, so I'm looking in to those.  So far I've got spinach and ground beef muffins as a breakfast food in the line-up.

Also I miss pull-up Fridays, which I've temporarily suspended in favor of saving my grip for Saturday competitions.  I also miss Oly training.  Mainly just everything about my routine has been shot and it's making me irritated.

I ordered some fish oil from Stronger Faster Healthier.

Leftovers for breakfast. The lady at 7/11 where I stopped to get a big cup of ice for my sparkling water called me "friend" and told me I could bring the same cup back for a refill and not have to pay.

Lunch.  Got out of the office for a bit.  Vietnamese chicken/pork salad with lots of cilantro (my fave) and this caffienated water that I'm not 100% sure about but definitely helps when I need a boost (contrary to how this blog may look, I am not a caffeine fiend -- I will go weeks without any, which I find makes it way more effective when I do need a boost anyway.  coffee I just enjoy the taste of occasionally.  like on Saturdays.  Saturdays are awesome days to have an iced coffee with coconut milk and nummy cinnamon after a deliciously hard WOD.)

No snacks today. Post-pedicure dinner in the movie theater and a liter of sparkling water. Acceptable substitute for Friday night goals WOD.

"You can't want a McFlurry, you're eating a meatza."

So this conversation with my roommate just happened:
me: "I really want a mcflurry."
her: "You're eating a meatza.  You can't want a McFlurry."
me: "but I just want paleo plus more delicious."
her: "you're always talking about how delicious paleo is though."

so I shut up and made some pan-fried apples.

Breakfast again.  This was my last bag of pre-packed veggies, so tomorrow will be interesting.

Not pictured: pre-lunch snack of yogurt with fruit and coconut.  Meh.

Lunch.  Yes that is blue cheese on there.  This week I just went with it.  It was actually tasty.

Not pictured: pre/post workout snacks.

"Meatza" and "zoodles carbonara"

1/9

You'll probably notice that I take most of my meals at my desk....

My go-to breakfast.  Next week I plan to get guac instead of more avocado with a spoon.  Keepin' it interesting.

More of this leftover stuff.  Fine whole food meal, but it was a lot better fresh than on the third day.

The fact that you can buy these makes me excited.

Wasn't really hungry so I made something I knew I could get down -- coconut shrimps!

Somebody else can't want it for you.

There are a lot of awesome people in the CFSA group taking on the nutrition program introduction, also known as the reason I will be updating this blog daily for the next 8 weeks.  We all have our reasons for taking this on.  I've done a Whole30 before (Oct-Nov last year), but CFSA's version is both longer and more strict.  I think that's a good thing though, because while yes, I am doing the program because I know it gives me awesome energy, there is another overarching health reason for me: I want to get off my blood sugar medication.

I was diagnosed with PCOS and insulin resistance when I was 18 (after gaining around 70 pounds in less than a year.  Think something might be wrong, doc?).  For those of you who aren't familiar, polycystic ovary syndrome is a hormonal condition that is becoming more prevalent in America and is suspectedly genetic.  When I was diagnosed, a lot of things fell in to place and made sense.  So you'd think it would be easy to treat, right?  Wrong.

Me, pre-prom 2007, circa 137 pounds.

Throughout my college career, I rode the careening train known as metformin.  Engrossed by the company I owned at the time, my studies, and later my developing career, I kept swallowing the somewhat unpleasant white pills.  Metformin is frequently prescribed for those with type 2 diabetes as well as insulin resistance, and the short story is that it makes your cells more sensitive to insulin.  However, not really knowing much about how it worked or how to eat around it, it kind of kicked my ass.  Every meal made me tired.  Breakfast especially, and carb-heavy especially.  A pasta meal or toast could knock me in to a headache and deep sleep. I was keeping a crap sleep schedule on top of it, and though I did work out, it was mainly cardio.  Later I would dabble in powerlifting.

Paleo was the first thing that really "clicked" with my body.  I've always struggled with my weight, though as evidenced above there were times when I had it under control.  For me, losing weight isn't a pure measure of vanity.  It's a means of treating a condition without medication, of living a healthy life.  Because my weight and my insulin resistance feed each other in a vicious cycle, I need to disrupt and change them both.  I used my Whole30 as an opportunity to get off the anxiety medication I was on, and coupled with a religious exercise schedule and some positive self-think, I'm thrilled to be off it and doing well.  I was also able to take my metformin dosage down by 1/3 and eliminate my migraines.

On this nutrition challenge, resensitizing my cells to insulin and sugar (don't try and tell my family "natural sugar" in fruit is still sugar to my body.... *headdesk*) will hopefully get me off the medication entirely.  Once I've cut down by another 1/3, I plan to start substituting cassia bark tabs (cinnamon) for the final 1/3.  Ultimately I plan to get off the cinnamon, but I figure it is a much healthier place to be than the drugs.

I also plan to nerd out a little and read some of the academic stuff Whole9 references.

CFSA Team Black, last Saturday

I have faith that this will work... Because it has.  Because I want it to, and because I need it to.  I've proved to myself that I'm done making excuses and I'm up to optimizing my performance and my health.  Yeah, it sucks sometimes to not be able to eat some delicious pineapple or a glass of wine.  But it's not forever.  And when I'm in the swing of it, it feels AWESOME.  And I owe it to me -- because if I won't fight for me, who will?  I want to help people positively change their lives -- but I have to change mine first.

Feel free to stick around for the ride.

xx Becka

1/8

Breakfast: 2 pieces of clean bacon, two eggs cooked in the bacon fat, large handful of spinach. Early morning good food before a work breakfast. Only had an Earl Grey tea at the event. Not pictured: sparkling water and a digestive enzyme tablet.

Snack: around 10:30. I am not usually a snacker but I was starving today, maybe a result of the super-early breakfast. Paleo cream of mushroom soup and a pear. (the soup looks unattractively oily in this photo -- when I chilled it, the EVOO/coconut milk separated.  The pear was mediocre.  Also that huge bottle of sparkling water.

Lunch: fried cauli-rice with salmon (leftovers) and the crudites pictured.  Also a kombucha and a digestive enzyme tab.

Pre-workout meal.  Bleh.  I made these burgers (6 out of a pound) with a ton of garlic, which is tasty, but not that awesome before a WOD.

Post-workout dinner (I know, I know).  Chicken breast, avocado, sweet potato (pre-cooked) and some paleo creamed spinach that didn't hold on to the "cream" very well.  Basic but filling and tasty.  Will probably finish off the evening with more kombucha.

It's not about the new year, new year, new year...

It probably sounds really chintzy and contrived that I'm doing a Whole30 (Errrrr.... Whole60. Whole62.) starting on January 1.  But I mean, it's just a date of convenience.  I got to enjoy the holidays... and I say enjoy loosely, since having done a Whole30 until about Thankgiving and a couple more weeks and days in between, all the non-clean "goodies" I put in my body made me sick.  They also threw my performance off, though I made a point of continuing to push in the gym.

Since this is my second take at an extended stretch of perfectly clean eating (I am still amazed sometimes that I made it through the first one!), I want to set out some goals that I don't think I was as effective at last time.  Mainly, I want to focus on pre and post workout nutrition. Because I usually just shove a workout in between lunch and dinner and call it good, maybe with a handful of almonds before leaving the office.  I think I can optimize my performance by being more careful with this, which will take a little more effort in preparing my meals.

I'm also going to go an extended stretch without fruit.  My compromise with myself was that I was allowed to use fruit to work my way back in to clean eating -- so one week -- then drop it back out. 

Finally, I'm also trying some digestive enzymes (finding clean ones = not fun) because as I progressed in my last Whole30, I had some gut issues I think these can solve.

I'm extra-excited about this clean eating challenge though, because I'm doing it with a couple good friends of mine.  I have a coworker I started with today (....err, right? Courtney?), and one of my good friends who lives in Florida will be starting tomorrow.  And of course, CFSA kicks off next Monday, so that will help too.  It's just more fun with people supporting each other.  60... ish... days of clean living, clean eating, and letting my body heal.

The next week will shake down like this: going to PA tonight and finishing some freelance for this week, back to work Thursday, chiropractor later this week, and first CAL competition on Saturday -- then the CFSA nutrition kick-off on Saturday evening, and new semester starts Monday (yay my first elective!!).  2013, you got a lot to live up to, but if it continues like this, we'll be fast friends.