You've Got Questions....I've Got Answers

Thank you all for the questions that you submitted, here is the first round of answers - please feel free to continue to post more and I'll pull them through into a future post.

Laura - Hey, I've got a question for ya! I have been doing a 21 day challenge of strict paleo and while it's been going really well, I have found that I am craving gum. I can't seem to shake this and have been giving in to it. I am chewing like 6 to 8 pieces of gum a day. I am assuming it's because I am craving sugar? Thoughts?? -- Melinda

Fitness minus the Sugar with Jennifer Fugo

Check out my interview with fellow health coach Jennifer Fugo about how to work out and train, without relying on sugar in her piece Fitness minus the Sugar. Jennifer lead a 10 day sugar cleanse and wanted to share with her group that it is possible to train without sugar. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

Paleo Resources Support

Crossfit King of Prussia is using the natural motivation of starting a New Year to kick off a primal challenge, to see details of the challenge click here. To help support you on this journey we’ve gathered some of the best resources to help you better understand what you are doing and why you’re doing it. For those who selected to try to Paleo Perfectionist level the material below will be especially helpful. 



Some of my favorite and easy to understand resources on the web are: Whole 9 and Mark’s Daily Apple. I am also super geeked-out on Robb Wolf’s podcasts – although these are a bit science-y so they aren’t for everyone. Personally, I get excited every Tuesday when the new one is released.


Good luck, happy reading, and post to comments if there is something that you’re looking for that you don’t see any references to.


Help from Whole 9, how to explain what the heck you’re doing with this nutritional challenge:

The Paleo Pitch. Whole9 helps you explain how you eat to friends, family and co-workers.


Whole 9’s Perspective on Paleo via the Whole 30: Why to avoid gains, legumes, and dairy - found on the Whole 9 Resources Page:

The Grain Manifesto. Whole9′s simplified explanation of the trouble with grains.


Cereal Grains: Humanity’s Double-Edged Sword. Published by Dr. Loren Cordain


The Dairy Manifesto. Whole9′s simplified take on dairy products.


The Adverse Effects of Milk. An analysis from Dr. Loren Cordain and Pedro Bastos


The Peanut Manifesto. Whole9′s simplified take on peanuts.



Robb Wolf’s Perspective on Paleo and Getting Started:

Paleo Overview -What is the Paleo diet?


Basics of the Paleo diet - Answers about diabetes, cardio vascular disease, autoimmunity, calcium, acid/base balance, and more


Get Started - I want to give Paleo a shot. How do I do it?


Mark’s Daily Apple Resources:
The Definitive Guide to Grains – Why are grains not part of a primal lifestyle and Why Grains are Unhealthy


The Definitive Guide to Dairy – Why dairy is problematic and how to incorporate it (or not) into your primal lifestyle


The Definitive Guide to Sleep - Why sleep is important, and why you need to get more of it!


The Definitive Guide to Fats – a primal lifestyle goes against conventional wisdom of eating a low fat diet, if increasing your fat intake is concerning you, check out this post and see why fat is good for you!

Summary

Need a quick visual of what your food should look like, use the Balanced Bites food pyramid as your Paleo Food Guide.

Cleaning out your pantry

Its approaching that time of year again when you start to see charities collect food for families in need for the upcoming holidays.  This year, I suggest you take a look into your pantry and think about what you can donate - but instead of giving away your can of beans, soup, and box of pasta and then replacing it - make it a challenge to be healthier and remove the package food that you know is not making you healthier from your repertoire for good. 

After you have made the commitment to change your food, to eat cleaner and healthier, you've probably noticed that when you're hungry you're reaching for something in the fridge or on the counter verses stored in a package in a cabinet in your kitchen.  So take the opportunity this season to say goodbye to all of the package foods that are sitting in your cabinets tempting you, and donate it to a local food drive.  If you don't have it around, then you are less likely to eat package foods.  I recently made a donation of pasta, pasta sauce, canned soups, canned beans, rice packets, and about 20 gluten containing bars to a local food charity in the Philadelphia area.  I am sad that food drives can only accept non-perishable packaged foods (which tend to make them unhealthy) but I was happy that I was able to give the food to someone instead of throwing it away.  Make cleaning out your pantry part of your commitment to becoming a healthier person or family today.

On the home stretch

Those of you who are doing a 30 day challenge - how are things going?  What new things have you incorporated into your life and foods that you like?  Are you finding it hard to adjust or easier than you thought?  How do you look, feel, and perform?  Have you noticed any changes in your mental clarity, your athletic performance, how you feel when you wake up in the morning?


This 30 Day challenge has been the easiest its ever been for me, since now that I've consistently cleaned up what I eat I have found that when I do go super strict that the things I do miss are the occasional Paleo treat and being able to enjoy a glass of wine  - but its not so bad knowing that I can have them again soon.  I have definitely seen benefits from my clean eating so far - on Sunday Sept 12th I competed in my first Olympic Distance Triathlon (1.5K/.93m Swim, 40K/25m Bike, 10K/6.2m Run) and did great finishing with a time of 2hr 45min in the top 12% in my age group and top 12% of females in the race. The race was The Nation's Triathlon in Washington DC and we actually set a Guinness record for the most participants in an Olympic Triathlon with over 5300 athletes competing.  I felt great during the race, and was back to doing a hard crossfit workout on Tuesday.



Laura Left-Center Red Shirt, Kristin Right-Center Pink shirt



This past Sunday Sept 19th I decided to jump in and run the Philly Distance Run - Half Marathon with a friend,  Kristin, that is training for a full marathon in November.  I was taking a small leap of faith that I'd be able to run that far since the most I'd run was 8 miles 3 weeks earlier.  I had just completed the Tri and knew that I could do over 2 hours of "work" so I decided to give it a shot.  Kristin did great and turns out she would have slammed that 13.1m run on her own, I was just along for the ride :)  I was a little sore on Monday, but by Tuesday felt great again.  I really think that the combination of crossfit workouts and eating a really clean diet are the two contributing factors to helping my body repair itself so fast and push itself so often.  You don't have to do a race to notice increased recovery, anyone else noticing better recovery and performance too?  Post to comments what's going on, how you're doing, what you're having trouble with, and any new things that you want to share that others might want to try.

Keep checking out what I'm eating for ideas, the pictures have descriptions of what I'm eating:
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurapappas07/Whole30Food?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-J8P753eS34QE

Another Option for a 30 Day Contest

Looking for a different twist on a clean food challenge? Mark Sission (from Mark's Daily Apple) announced today the start of his 30 day Primal Challenge - this is similar to the Whole 9's Whole 30 program but may be something that is a little appealing to you. Check out his blog post that he released today for the details - oh and he's giving away prizes!

Mark's Daily Apple 30 Day Challenge

A few additional things I'm incorporating into my 30 day per Mark's recommendations:
1. Eating Clean and Organic as much as possible
2. Getting adequate sleep - going to bed earlier
3. Intellectually challenge myself - through getting more blog posts research and posted in September

What I'm eating

This time for the Whole 30 that I'm doing for September I'm not going to keep a food journal but decided that I would try to take pictures of my meals and post them to a web album to give anyone else giving this a try some ideas on other things to eat.

I'm trying to take a picture of everything...but can't promise I'll get everything but I'll do my best.  Post to comments if you try anything or want to add suggestions for others.

Here is the web album where I'll be uploading my food pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurapappas07/Whole30Food?authkey=Gv1sRgCM-J8P753eS34QE

Staying on Track

With Labor Day weekend fast approaching, I've been doing some thinking about how to stay on track over a holiday weekend.  For me, staying true to my food choice of no grains, dairy, and legumes is pretty easy since when I eat grains I don't feel well and when I eat dairy I break out.  Beans are not that tempting for me so they are pretty easy to pass up.  I still have occasional treats and indulgences, and with my first Olympic Triathlon coming up on September 12th I decided to clean up my diet and stay super strict for the next two weeks prior to the triathlon.  So how do I get back on track, well this is a first for me so what I'm thinking is that I"m going to go back to the Whole 9's Whole 30 program and cut my current 'vices' which are wine, dark chocolate and paleo treats like paleo cookies and fudge babies.  Starting officially on Sept. 1st (since that's easiest to count from really) I'm going to go strict with my diet because I know that it helps increase my athletic performance and makes me feel great - plus I think its a great way to get in tune with how your body processes food and how it really makes you look, feel and perform. 

With the official end of summer nearing, is anyone else willing to try to shape up and get back on track...or just tweak what you're doing to be a little better?  Post to comments if you're in and let me know what kind of information you want as I go through my journey for the next 30 days.