Day 27 - almost done!

Ok, I must say that this has been a pretty easy endeavor. But I must also admit that I had a beer. One beer :-) Also, I spent 7 hours at BattleBorn CrossFit helping setup the equipment the other day and the owners bought us gluten-free pizza and I ate that. Otherwise, I've been very strict. Here's what's crazy, I started at about 181 pounds. I weighed in this morning at 168.8 pounds. So, I've lost over 12 pounds. What's even crazier than that is that I've gotten a LOT stronger because I'm doing the "Starting Strength" program in the evenings at home. I started out doing my back squat working sets at 235. And it was HARD!!! Monday, I did 5X5 back squats at 255 and it felt NO HARDER than when I did them at 235! This program is amazing. It causes rapid muscle adaptation, resulting in major strength gains quickly. You want to know how quickly? Monday was day 1 of week 2 on this strength program. So, I squatted 235 on Monday, 245 on Wednesday, 250 on Friday, and 255 on Monday! If someone is not getting stronger in the gym, it is because they are either at elite strength and pushing their limits or it's because they are not methodically pushing themselves to the limit each time they workout. Like Rip says in "Starting Strength", before you walk into the gym, you should know exactly what you will do from the warm-up to the last lift. If you don't, you aren't working out, you are engaging in an activity. So I'm getting significantly stronger while losing weight. This is a good diet...

Day Ten... Another Weigh-in

No more rhymes now, I mean it.... anybody wanna peanut?!

So, amazingly, I have actually lost more weight. I weighed in this morning at 170.3. I have officially lost more than 10 pounds!! It makes me want to workout today. Especially since today is an olympic lifting day (my favorite!!). Death by clean and jerk. The good news is that I was going through the power-clean movement last night with a buddy and I was demoing the power-clean with relatively light weight and my elbow didn't throb at all. I think I may finally be out of the woods on my elbow pain. If I ever arm-wrestle again, it will be after a proper warm-up :-P

Obviously, my weight loss must plateau at some point. But I'm at a loss as to when that will happen. I lost over a pound last night. I'm eating lots of protein, plenty of carbs, and lots of fat. But I'm not eating any processed foods, no sugar, no dairy, no grains, and no beans. Most of my meals have been quite tasty. So no complaints. I'm looking forward to my once-a-week cheat days though.

Ahh, tomorrow's WOD is supposed to be run 10k. Sooo, I think I'll have everyone over to run that on Saturday morning. We'll turn it into a fun event complete with a pot-luck style breakfast after the run. And that means I'll get to make up the death by clean and jerk tomorrow. But for everyone else I'll need to find a good substitute. Hmmm. Muwahwahwah!

I should start taking bets on how much I'll weigh each day until it starts tapering off. It could be "Ty's fat-loss sports book". People would bet against each other and I just take a little profit off the top. Brilliant!!!

Day Nine and feelin... fine :-)

My energy level is way up today! We've got my nemesis workout today: Cindy. For some reason, this simple little amrap beats me up every time I do it. I hit a wall on the push-ups and I just can't keep going. Well, this will be a fantastic test of how I'm really doing on this diet. I've wanted to break 20 rounds on Cindy from the start. Speal cranks out 39 rounds in 20 min. Surely, I can do at least 20 today! I don't know, we'll see... It makes my palms sweaty just typing this. It's not fear of pain. That, I can handle. It's fear of failure. I HATE hitting that wall and knowing with perfect certainty that I can't achieve my goal. That sucks! But maybe today, when I dig in and look for a little something left in the tank, I'll find something....

I weighed in this morning at 172.8! I've dropped another pound!! Where will it end?! 170? 165? 160? Will I just keep shrinking until I disappear?! I'm pretty psyched, because this should really help me with my body weight exercises.

Well, Cindy pretty much beat me down. I got just over 15 rounds. The energy just wasn't there. But it was my sixth straight day of working out. So I was kind of falling apart. I'm taking tomorrow off!

Day Eight - Ain't no thang!

I'm a day late on this post, so I'll refer to everything in the past tense. I got up and ran a 5k with my dog. I was a bit tired since I had done the wall-ball, ghd situp, back extension 20 min amrap (as many rounds as possible) from the main site the night before. But I was still able to eek out a 24 min 5k. Speaking of that amrap, it was a nice experience. On the 20 min amraps, I always hit a wall at 10-12 minutes. I just run out of gas typically. Amazingly, that didn't happen with this one. I was nervous that it would, but I had gas the entire time. The situps were, by far, the most difficult thing. I thought the wall-balls would be tough, but they were easy. The back extensions, of course, were cake. Anyway, I was late getting Ava to sunday school, so I didn't have time to get my coveted all-fruit smoothie from Jamba Juice that I can have immediately following a hard met-con. And I didn't have time to make breakfast, so I went hungry :-( This is probably not the healthiest thing, but it happens. I got to church and had some black coffee to get something in my belly and occupy my hands. I didn't end up getting lunch until close to 2pm. I had some leftover beef stir-fry we made last week. I was very hungry by now, so it tasted awesome! I followed it up with a tiny amount of blended frozen berries for "ice cream".

For dinner, I scrambled a couple of eggs, ate a scoop of almond butter, and had a little watermelon. But the most significant thing about today was that I cooked breakfast for the week, and vaccuum sealed it in the foodsaver. I also found an incredibly cool paleo recipe book in pdf format. I'll link to it tonight when I get home. So I made a chicken marinade and grilled some chicken breast for the next couple days.

Day Seven- Flying by

This diet just isn't that hard to follow. I once did the master cleanse. That was hard. I didn't eat anything solid for 10 days. The paleo diet is full of tasty options. So, sure, I can't have a donut. But I can live with that. The good news is that I started at about 181 pounds (naked) a few days ago. I finally weighed in this morning... drum-roll please..... 173.8 pounds (with shorts on) today. Holy crap. I'm shedding weight faster than I every have in my life. This is incredible. My buddy Greg broke the 190 pound mark this morning at 189.8 pounds. This is quite the experiment, I must say. Eggs, bacon, an apple, and raw cashews for breakfast this morning. And I'm just about to heat up some leftover stir-fry for lunch. I'm intrigued by the effectiveness of the paleo diet. And again, my energy levels don't seem to be wavering. Even if they did, I think I could tweak things out by adjusting my fat and carb intake a bit. I'm quite sure I don't NEED processed sugar, gluten, or dairy to perform well. It's just that my body acclimated to getting all that junk and now it's acclimating to not getting it.

Day Six - Temptations

I took the day off because Soupha is in Las Vegas with her sisters. I've got the kiddos and it isn't exactly routine for me. But we do ok :-) I had the typical egg breakfast this morning. But I was in such a rush to get out of the house that I didn't have time to pack anything for myself for lunch. I had a meeting at work, and then it was off to "Cops and Kids" at the park. Ava and Reid had a really good time climbing through ambulances and petting the police horses. And they were very excited about the ice cream. Now I never found out if there was ice cream there because the food line was VERY long. So we bailed and went to A&W. I got them some chicken strips, fries, and a root beer float. They sucked it all down, but by this time I was ravenously hungry. So it was tempting to stuff a couple fries in my mouth. I abstained though :-) When we got home, I put the kids down for a nap and then had the leftover avocados and shrimp and an apple.

Tonight, I have a babysitter and I'm going to the movies with my mom. I'm sure the popcorn will smell good, but its awful price combined with a little willpower will be enough deterrant :-)
I'll probably just pack a simple dinner of turkey breast, nuts, and an apple for the theater. Down with the man!

Day Five

Breakfast was the typical eggs, fruit, and avocado. I feel totally normal. I mean, my energy level is what I'm used to. At lunch, I had to get my teeth cleaned, so I missed the workout at the gym. No matter, it was "DT" and I'm still trying to lay off my elbow a bit.

Lunch was somewhat of a disappointment. I made some lamb-shank stew in the pressure cooker. I think I was supposed to have the bones cut length-wise to expose the marrow. Apparently, that would thicken the soup up and make it crazy delicious. I didn't have the marrow exposed. So the meat was tasty, but the stock was thin and bland :-( I'll try to get it right next time. Got my fat from some sunflower seeds and had some strawberries too.

I did 7X1 backsquats today. I got 285, but failed twice on 295 (my PR). I just haven't been squatting heavy. I think I'm going to do the Starting Strength program mixed in with the daily WOD's. I am dying to break 300 lbs! But with my newly improved deadlift of 374, I can finally break 800lbs on my CF total. 145 + 285 + 374 = 804 And that's even if I don't get my previous PR on the backsquat.

Soupha left for Las Vegas tonight. So I made dinner. I tried something easy that looked tasty and it didn't dissappoint. I made shrimp stuffed avocados. Just steam some shrimp, cut some avocados in half and peel them. Removed the shrimp tails, and pile the shrimp on the avocados. Last, squeeze some lemon juice over them. Tasty! And super easy.

My buddy Greg that is doing this with me is getting stunning results. When he started crossfitting, he weighed about 225. Over the first few months of CF, he dropped down to 195/196, and just hovered there for several months. But going strict Paleo, he has dropped a pound a day on average. He weighed in this morning at 191.4! He'll be down to his fighting weight in no time!