LuRong Living Paleo Challenge
2 weeks ago, I joined 30 other athletes (ha, still can't put myself in this category... I'm sure it will come) from Crossfit Michiana on a strict challenge. The LuRong Living Paleo Challenge is an 8-week challenge that makes us accountable for our health, nutrition, and performance (compete) through weekly WODs. You are scored on your diet and WOD performance (based on your age and level) where you can earn prizes. On their site, You can keep track of your measurements, data, goals, recipes, and useful information on their closed site.
What is Paleo?
The Paleo Mom describes it the best here:
“A Paleo Diet is a whole foods diet based on what the most current, high-quality nutrition and biomedical research suggests in the best way to eat for optimum health.”
"We eat only the most nutritionally-dense and sustainable foods while avoiding any foods that promote inflammation, cause hormone imbalances, and have been conclusively linked to chronic disease.”
“We don’t eat the foods that scientific research has shown to be linked to chronic health problems like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. So, we only eat whole, unprocessed foods with no added sugars. We are very mindful of eating high quality protein sources and good fats that help control inflammation. And, we don’t eat foods that cause inflammation or irritate the lining of the digestive tract like grains (especially those containing gluten), legumes or dairy products.”
Basically, we'll eat clean whole foods, and we're avoiding dairy, soy, grains and legumes.
Why am I doing this challenge?
I'm doing this as a tool:
To make myself disciplined by getting rid of all the processed foods, the cravings, and stop eating out 3-4 times a week.
To gain more knowledge in the type of foods we're eating.
To maybe better my performance at Crossfit.
To prove myself that I don't need rice to be Asian (inside joke.)
A way to restart a healthier lifestyle by getting rid of all the junk. Kinda like a rebooting a computer. Sometimes when a computer is running slow, sometimes it's necessary to scan and get rid of all the junk, deleting cookes and a reboot/restart to make it run more efficiently.
To make myself disciplined by getting rid of all the processed foods, the cravings, and stop eating out 3-4 times a week.
To gain more knowledge in the type of foods we're eating.
To maybe better my performance at Crossfit.
To prove myself that I don't need rice to be Asian (inside joke.)
A way to restart a healthier lifestyle by getting rid of all the junk. Kinda like a rebooting a computer. Sometimes when a computer is running slow, sometimes it's necessary to scan and get rid of all the junk, deleting cookes and a reboot/restart to make it run more efficiently.
My husband is doing this because if I can't have ice cream, he can't either. (kidding. sort of.)
My goals during the challenge:
*Not finish last in any of the WODs nationally... There are 7,000+ competitors, this should be easy to do, right? Well, not quite. Currently, I'm 5th to the last out of 1,969 athletes in my age group (Women Open) for WOD #1 at Level 3 (the toughest one!). I'm at about 60th-ish percentile in WOD#2 at Level 2, and 50th percentile in WOD#3 at Level 1.
*To finish the challenge with 90% or better with my diet schore. While we don't have to log in our every food intake, we get 2 points for a clean meal and -3 for a cheat meal. As a fellow LuRong-er said, I may not do well with the WODs being a novice Crossfitter, but the diet part, we can control and do well in.
On the challenge there is a part where you can choose personal goals in the categories of Nutrition, Performance and Lifestyle (or add custom goals) and here are what I chose:
My goals during the challenge:
*Not finish last in any of the WODs nationally... There are 7,000+ competitors, this should be easy to do, right? Well, not quite. Currently, I'm 5th to the last out of 1,969 athletes in my age group (Women Open) for WOD #1 at Level 3 (the toughest one!). I'm at about 60th-ish percentile in WOD#2 at Level 2, and 50th percentile in WOD#3 at Level 1.
*To finish the challenge with 90% or better with my diet schore. While we don't have to log in our every food intake, we get 2 points for a clean meal and -3 for a cheat meal. As a fellow LuRong-er said, I may not do well with the WODs being a novice Crossfitter, but the diet part, we can control and do well in.
On the challenge there is a part where you can choose personal goals in the categories of Nutrition, Performance and Lifestyle (or add custom goals) and here are what I chose:
Some of the pre-made goals made me laugh:
"I will give up all chocolate." I'm a woman. #notgonnahappen
"I will give up caffeine." I'm a mom of a 3 month old and 1st grader who work full-time and decorate cakes on Friday nights sometimes till 4am... #notgonnahappen
"I want to sleep at least 8 hours uninterrupted per night" see above! #duh
"I will take my significant other on a date at least twice a month" Hmm. I wonder if Patrick chose that as one of his... #heshouldhave
(p.s. #ilovehastags)
My goals after the challenge:
While I don't think I can completely get rid of grains, beans, dairy and soy in our daily diet, I would like to aim towards a balanced 80/20 diet. Where we can eat clean 80% of the time and indulge in cravings (or have something convenient when it's truly needed with our busy schedule) 20% of the time.
My victories so far:
- resisting Rise and Roll Caramel Cinnamon Donuts (powdered with melt-in-your-mouth-cinnamon-powdered-sugar that we Michiana folks lovingly call "Amish Crack")
- going to an outdoor rock concert and not having a beer or concession foods like burgers and hotdogs and Dippin' Dots
- drinking coffee BLACK! (I miss my Starbucks)
-no eating out!
My victories so far:
- resisting Rise and Roll Caramel Cinnamon Donuts (powdered with melt-in-your-mouth-cinnamon-powdered-sugar that we Michiana folks lovingly call "Amish Crack")
- going to an outdoor rock concert and not having a beer or concession foods like burgers and hotdogs and Dippin' Dots
- drinking coffee BLACK! (I miss my Starbucks)
-no eating out!
