How did we end up here?

I first heard about the paleo diet sometime in 2009, when Ryan’s roommate began crossfitting. I borrowed The Paleo Diet book, gave it a glance, and then left it on the night stand to gather dust, a lot of dust – eventually returning it without really reading it. In April 2010 Ryan and I moved in together and began eating paleo and working out on a regular basis. Ryan was already a regular at the gym, and I found it so much easier to get there with someone rather than just on my own. I cannot pin point why we decided to try eating paleo. Ryan had already dabbled in it a bit and I had a general feeling of wanting to be more fit - I also finally made myself buy the book and read it.

In the beginning we tracked the fully paleo days on a calendar, marking down a P. If we had any element of a meal not considered paleo, you would not get the P. We also tracked workouts with either a C for cardio or W for weights. We set monthly goals for how many P’s, C’s and W’s we wanted to achieve – with often slightly differing goals. This eventually evolved to tracking O’s, open meals, instead of P’s. With new goals set on limiting O’s per week. Over time, I have found that I feel 100% better about everything when I am eating paleo.

In December of 2010. Ryan had a surgery resulting in many weeks of recovery time. He has just recently gotten back to the gym. For now it’s just getting on the treadmill to move and walk (and get used to our new Vibram five fingers)! During Ryan’s surgery and recovery I became more focused on being a caregiver – as well as preparing for and living the holiday season - than ensuring I was getting to the gym and grocery store. So our paleo living goals took a dive.

That brings us to our upcoming 45-day Paleo Challenge! The plan is to eat 100% paleo and commit to a consistent fitness plan, the details are still in the works on that one. Not a bit of sugar shall pass these lips, no grain will I know – bring on the meat and veggies! We’re working on truly defining the ‘rules’ of this 45-day challenge; are we going to allow honey? If so, how much? – once the rules are final we will post them. It will help keep me honest.

Day one of the challenge is February 7th – until then we are busy planning our menus and workouts (and maybe sneaking in a last bite of pizza that I know I will regret but somehow still think of as a comfort food – this is Chicago after all!).