01/31/2012 Paleo Challenge Day 25
Feelings On Paleo Challenge
After three weeks and some days I have mixed feelings about the Paleo Diet. I have been strict, as strict as I think is possible. My eating has been clean, I’ve gotten good sleep, and I’ve done everything I can to keep my stress levels low.
In terms of my performance in the gym, I am clearly getting stronger, and I am getting better at Olympic Lifts. During the longer Metcons I am able to maintain a nice energy level throughout the work, but I don’t have the reserve gas tank that I do during the home stretch, there’s normally a small window of time where I use my sheer desire to succeed to push harder than I did in the opening minutes, but it just hasn’t been there… When we do shorter Metcons I’m not able to maintain the intensity for more than a couple of minutes. In a 4-5 minute workout in the pass I had far more juice than I do now.
I think there is a combination of things going on here, because I am doing heavier weights, I know I am reaching the verge of muscle failure faster, but I also feel a part of it is a result of my low starch intake. When we did Murph I did consume some starch the night before, and morning before. This proved to help me get through a 40+ minute workout, and a little bit to finish my second mile in a close time to my first mile.
In general overall performance is up, but how I feel during metcons is down, so to some degree I feel like my strength is growing yet the endurance is dropping.
The area for me which is making me a little unhappy is clearly the weight. For those people who are trying to be encouraging I appreciate your concerns, I really do, to take the time to post to my blog and say something means a great deal; be assured the weight frustrates me but not to the point of doing something drastic.
And I post to the blog how I feel during any given time, I don’t want to filter anything because this evolution is a process which is a tough one.
When you spend a good portion of your life obese, you want nothing more than to not be obese, so when you put the effort forward, and do what is recommended and nothing happens towards a goal it’s frustrating.
Irrational as it maybe, I have to be comfortable in my skin, and in my own head. I just want to know what causes the body to actually shed weight, and what causes it to retain body weight. My body composition is changing, yet I don’t want to be a 250 lbs guy who is ripped, that’s just not what I want in my life.
If this is the new norm, fine, when reflecting on the overall month, losing 10+ pounds is not bad. Staying at this rate for the course of a year I would lose 120 lbs, so I got that going for me…
WoD
Today’s WoD was a single 15 minute AMRAP (as many reps as possible), 5 power cleans at 145 lbs, 10 toes to bar, and 15 wall balls with a 20 lb wall ball and a 10’ target. When I read the workout the night before and the metcon involves moves that I have to scale I get frustrated, but then have to think about which movements I can do as prescribed. The nice thing occurring over the last month is that more times than not I’m able to do at least 2/3 of a metcon as prescribed, so I got that going for me.
After warming up, and doing a few power cleans at 135 lbs, I felt like this would be a good weight. That’s when Coach Jay and Loren goaded me into adding the 10 lbs to the prescribed weight of 145 lbs. My response was something along the lines of kissing my ass, as I added the weights.
When the clock started I felt like the right decision had been made in terms of the weight for the power cleans. I made progress in the toes to bar as I was able to bring my knees further up just below my chest. I wore my lifting shoes, and found that the wall balls were easier to do, and that I was able to pop up the bar up. When wearing my Pure Ugly’s I could feel my feet moving every time I would go into the squat with the medicine ball, but with my New Nikes my feet were planted perfectly, thus allowing me to drive the ball harder, and making it feel lighter.
I finished 7 rounds plus 5 reps in the fifteen minutes. I figure once I am actually doing toes to bar that I would have probably finished 5 rounds, but I could be completely pulling that out of my ass.
Paleo Meals
Recent Comments