Two Months and Crazy

Two Months and Crazy

I must admit, I have gone a little crazy.

It has been over two months (almost three) that I have been eating Paleo and strange things continue to happen; new behaviors continue to emerge.

When I originally decided to eat like this (meat, fish, nuts, seeds, fruits and veggies only), I thought that it would be a neat experiment for a month. However, my life quickly changed (see previous post) and I have continued on this trajectory for much longer than I intended because it works for me.

First, my progression as an athlete has not halted. Although I have now lost about 13 pounds, my strength continues to increase. For example, I have improved 32 pounds on my thruster in the last four months (now my PR is 100#). The 34 second drop on my 5k since the last time I ran it at crossfit in April is also notable (now my PR is 20:26). My deadlift continues to increase (5 rep max has gone up 15 pounds to 190#).

Second, although I did SUPER strict Paleo for the first 30 days, I have surprisingly allowed myself to cheat once in a while. Take for example the day I ate ten chocolate chip cookies at Crossfit Ventura. Or the time I put almost half a stick of butter on a tiny piece of bread. And the night I bought two gourmet cupcakes, asked for extra frosting, then ate both of the cupcakes (along with the frosting) in my car on the way home. Or the afternoon I ate half a pack of gum...oh yes, I do mean EAT! I tend to swallow gum accidentally and the excitement that engulfed me upon ingesting so much sugar via gum caused many mis-chews.

And now to the strange...
I get monster headaches after eating any amount of sugar, so when I eat sugar I go BIG. The headache isn't going to hurt less if I eat less (I have experimented, trust me).

Dizziness overcomes me when I drink caffeine. I have found that this has not cured my addiction to soy chai lattes though. I have remedied this by taking the time to practice handstands and forward rolls after ingesting caffeine. These things make me dizzy independent of caffeine, so it goes along with the same concept as the sugar and headaches...I am already dizzy so why not get as dizzy as possible?

My eyes get blurry when I go off Paleo. I know I will not be able to see as well if I do ingest artificial sugar or complex carbohydrates, so I tend to indulge in sugar-laden luxuries in safe environments like moving cars (of which I am driving).

I once ate an entire jar of almond butter in a 24 hour period and promptly could not swallow for almost another 24 hours.

So folks, I am still doing Paleo and it still rocks. If you were wondering :).