I love 30 day challenges and trying new things so when my friend Jared mentioned doing the Paleo 30 day challenge I was game. I’ve been avoiding meats for quite some time. This was a flip I had to switch in my head. But I’m willing to experiment with foods so I went with it. I saw this as a great opportunity to see what the difference was between eating raw vegan to eating the Paleo way. There are all kinds of really good websites out there that focus on this lifestyle very well. Some of my faves are robbwolf.com and marksdailyapple.com.
What’s Paleo? Basically eating Paleo involves eating grass fed meat, fish, vegetables, a little fruit, and a touch of nuts and seeds. Whole foods that are organic, local, and seasonal. No dairy. No grains. No legumes. It’s popular in the CrossFit community.
Ok so what really made me want to try this? I figured since I was starting Camp Gladiator, trimming my menu would probably give me some great results.
Week One
The first week of the challenge I had a headache that lasted about 3 days. This usually happens when I stop eating sugar so I’m use to this and got through week 1 with no problem. I have been taking it easy on the fruit because I usually eat a ton of it.
Week Two
Week two was good, but I started getting a little sick of eating meat. Going from eating meat every now and then to daily 3x a day was a bit much. I probably should have eased into it. 20/20. But I committed myself to this so I followed through. I figured if I stick to grass fed beef 1x a week, chicken and fish for the most part I’ll make it.
Week Three
I officially had no cravings for junk food. This made me super happy. While I was doing a raw vegan challenge I didn’t have any cravings either. So this got me to thinking about cravings and why they exist. It obviously is not because of animal protein.
Week Four and beyond
I breezed through week four and now that the 30 day Paleo challenge is officially over, I’m still keeping to my no grains, no legumes, and no dairy protocol. It was easy sticking to the Paleo way of eating even while I was out of town. I did drink alcohol after the 30 days, but I’m back to eating clean again and am diggin it. I took my measurements before and after. I find this better to track than weight, especially since I’ve been working out, muscles have been gained. Turns out I lost 5.5 inches in 30 days. Not bad for never feeling miserable or deprived ever.
Results
Here are some results from a couple of blood tests. For the most part the numbers went down. But my ratios went up slightly. This has me researching if this makes a difference either way.
Jan 2012
Cholesterol , total 198
Triglycerides, 105
HDL Cholesterol (“good” cholesterol), 79
LDL 98
LDL/HDL ratio, 1.24
Cholesterol/HDL ratio, 2.5
Glucose, 90
Alkaline Phosphatase (liver), 81
March 2012
Cholesterol, total 155
Triglycerides, 35
HDL Cholesterol, 54
LDL, 94
LDL/HDL ratio, 1.74
Cholesterol/HDL ratio, 2.9
Glucose, 80
Alkaline Phosphatase (liver), 60
