“Mostly 30-Day Paleo Challenge” – Over, But Not Really…

Well we are past the 30-day mark in my "mostly 30-day Paleo challenge", and I am happy to say that things went really as good as I could have hoped. I was able to hit the 85% goal that I set out for myself and learned some new cooking methods along the way. The thing that was the most challenging is probably just the fact that I need to allocate time on Sundays to cook lunch in addition to cooking dinner that will serve as a leftover during the week. So maybe it's not challenging – it's just a time allocation issue, which is doable. You only have a certain amount of hours in a week, so how you spend it is up to you. Since I enjoy cooking, it's not a huge sacrifice on my end to spend a little bit more time on the food prep end considering the results.

I didn't do the Paleo switch to lose weight as I have mentioned in the past. This still seems to stymie people because I guess that is the only tangible reason for most folks on why you would modify your eating habits. I will say that while a couple of pounds may have been shed that my clothes feel looser and some new belts may be in order. More importantly, I am up'ing my weights at Crossfit little by little and I am feeling stronger on my runs. And since I am back to running more regularly since I injured my foot in late January, it is key that I feel good when I am pounding the pavement. But my strength in terms of running and Crossfit is the main barometer for me in terms of if Paleo has been a good move for me, and so far, so good.

The timing of the challenge also worked out once I decided I wasn't going to race in early April because of that injury. It allowed me to integrate the food changes into my life when I wasn't under a lot of pressure to do heavy training. If something isn't working, I want to be able to isolate what the problem is so it can be rectified quickly.

The past couple of weeks have been much better for me with respect to my running and fitness. My heart rate zones are coming back to where they were pre-injury, and this morning I had a good run with a couple of friends (and teammates from TN Multisports) along Alki Beach. I should also really call out Kim, who is my running coach, for being so awesome and having the attitude to keep me patient on my recovery, as well as focused on what my true goals are for 2011.

I've posted another Paleo-friendly food picture from a recipe that that I modified slightly because Marc and I were tasting barrel samples from our newest creation – The "Teeth Rinser". It's a modification from Ming Tsai's One-Pot Meals cookbook and I thought it would complement the Viognier well, which it did. The recipe will be posted on the Purple Teeth Cellars site in the next few days, so look out for that plus some other fun things going on over there!