01/07/2012 Day 1 Paleo Challenge

Today was the first day of the Paleo Challenge.  It was insane the number of people who showed up, it’s unfortunate most of them will only know defeat.  My first day of going Paleo didn’t workout to perfection, but it was surely better then most.

What I thought was Paleo, and what is Paleo are different, in that the true Paleo is essentially Meat, Fat, Veggies.  So for the next five weeks I’ve eliminated all forms of sugar including Fructose found in fruits.  This morning when I woke up I had bloodshot eyes, and my body felt like it did after the third day at the Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu. 

Yes people even with avoiding sugar, refined carbohydrates such as bread, rice, noodles, I am stilling struggling through sugar withdrawal.  All I can say is what the fuckity, fuck?

I think one of the main culprits of my sugar crash is the discontinued use of my Nuun Hydration tablets.  I’ve never the labels on these things, because even with my new found vigilance to ingredients and food labels, I never took the time to read the label.  They sold these at the Biggest Loser Resort, where Sugar is a no-no, so I assumed it was all good.  Turns out these things have dextrose.  I have been using these fuckers throughout the day, sometimes 8 times in a day after an intense workout. 

Who the fuck knew I’ve been basically sucking on a sugary tit?

The packaging of these tablets and the use of the name “Natural Hydration” had me fooled, I am such a sucker.  The truly good news about discovering this early on is that all other Paleo Challenge contestants can eat it, because it is officially over for you!

As result of the turnout we broke up into teams of 4, I ended up with Matt R., Tim A, and John A., who happened to also be part of a small cult who is having a cow slaughtered for our own devices.  I also think that Matt is a closet wicken so I’m sure he’s going to use some pig blood in a freaky way…you sicko. 

The first WoD involved a minute each of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and air squats.  I went first and ended up scaling my pull-ups to ring rows, everything else was as prescribed.  This is progress because when I started Crossfit I could barely do a push-up.  I ended up with the following scores:

• Ring Rows – 26 (20.8)
• Push-Ups 27
• Sit Ups 28
• Squats 43
• Total Score of 124
• When scaling number applied  118.8

After the first WoD we spent an hour listening to Brian lecture about the Paleo Diet.  Brian for being a smart ass, even tempered Ex-Marine turnouts to be a descent public speaker, all I thought Marines could say was “Hoorah”, and “Get Some” as they mow down unsuspecting Asian People.  It was clear after his presentation the only way to win this thing is to not veer off the reservation and just stick to the staples of the Paleo, Veggies, Meat, and Fats.  I made a decsision yesterday to stick with this plan.

The second WoD involved doing Power Cleans to reach a one rep max.  Here is some video below of myself and my partners working on power cleans.

My three partners and I were in the same ball park in terms of weight, we each warmed up with 135 lbs, then moved onto 185 lbs.  This was a crucial mistake. 

When working on your one rep max, you really have to build up to the weight which will be your 1 rep max attempt.  A 50 lbs jump is too much.  After we stepped back down to 155 lbs, and then 175 lbs, I realized had we done the progression as you normally should that I would have gotten the number without a problem.

Here is video of John A, then Tim A. doing Power Cleans, and myself doing 175 lbs. 

The third and final WoD was a bitch, a 6 minute AMRAP of 5 burpees, 10 kettlebell swings with 53 lbs kettlebell, and 15 push presses with the bar. 

Here is some video of Tim A. in the foreground, and Matt R. in the background.  There wasn’t much time to setup a tripod, so I didn’t get my own video, but I finished doing 5 rounds plus 9 reps, for a total rep count of 159.   In the battle of ancient skills know as rock paper scissors, I lost and ended up doing the swings with a 55 lbs dumbbell instead of the kettle bell, it's a different experience. 

My total weighted score was 443 (combing the total from each of the three rounds), after the scaling deduction it’s 437.8 but we’ll see how they actually score these, not bad for a start. 

Challenges of Going Paleo

Going Strict Paleo is tough.  There are quite a few food items, and types I have to avoid for 5 weeks.  This was put to me in ever so polite terms by Brian Wilson.  Every time I would ask him something he would say “Do whatever you want I have your money”.  Then if I asked can I have this, he would say something like sure, “Eat Meat and Veggies”. 

In the end I eventually figured out for the challenge, I have to eat Meat and Veggies.  My first day of Paleo did not go so successfully.  I had to eat two Quest bars which are made of Milk and Soy Protein, and have sucrose to sweeten them, I had to eat these because I didn’t plan well for the Paleo Challenge time, and started the morning with the wrong idea of what I can and can not eat.  I had to eat these things because between the choice of starving my body, and giving it something I chose to eat something, which wasn’t a pile of shit. 

After I picked up my dog, which was about an hour after the Paleo Challenge kick-off event ended, I went to Trader Joe’s, and bought some eggs, carrots, celery, spinach, and arugula.  I want my fridge full of shit I can eat, and I wanted to pack carrots, celery, and hard boiled eggs with me. 

My concern is now that I’ve eliminated all of these convenient ways of adding calories, and proteins that I have to make an extra effort to make sure I eat enough.  I am also going to buy some sliced deli meat, making sure the labels only have ingredients of Paleo Friendly foods like, Beef, Water, Salt, and Seasonings.  This is going to be my replacement for convenient bars. 

On a scale of 1 to 10 on my first day of attempting to eat paleo it was a solid 7.  Didn’t go of course in terms of what I ate other than the two quest bars, but clearly lacked proper preparation for the day, I feel I get a bonus point for not drinking my protein shake after the WoDs.