A Reflection on the 30 Day Paleo Challenge

When I first started this challenge 30 days ago, I knew that it would be good for me, but had no idea exactly what benefits I would be reaping. I didn’t know if I’d lose weight, be able to run faster, jump higher, lift heavier weights…I had no idea what to expect. Well, here’s what actually happened:

For the most part, I was very strict with my paleo eating. My meals consisted of meats, veggies, fruits and various nuts. For my breakfasts, eggs were my best friends. Pretty much every breakfast had some type of eggs, whether they were eggs I cooked at home, eggs that came from a pre-made 7-11 or Panera breakfast sandwich or eggs in an IHOP omelet. Eggs were ABUNDANT. And they were GOOD! Towards the end of the challenge, I started mixing in egg whites with my eggs, to add a little volume and cut out some fat. I’m pretty sure I’ll still do that in the future, although I have no problem with eating full eggs. I sometimes added veggies with the eggs when I cooked them myself, and towards the end I was even adding sausage to the mix. Whatever I did, I always had some fruit with my eggs. Yummy breakfast!

Lunches were all over the place. Depending on if I was home for most of the day or if I was working or if I had my trucks class, sometimes I ate pre-made meals from home and sometimes I ate out. When I did eat prepared meals, I had lots of veggies, maybe a little fruit and some type of lean meat. When I ate out, I always tried to get some meat and veggie combo and leave out the bread, cheese, beans or whatever other non-paleo food came with the dish. When I would find myself at Chipotle, I would get the salad with a meat, grilled peppers and onions, tomatoes and the other sauces (minus the corn). One time I ate at Taco Bell and the only thing I had was meat and lettuce!

Snacks consisted mostly of a piece of fruit and some nuts. I liked that as a snack and will continue this.

Dinner was pretty much the same as lunch…I ate well when I had full control over my meal and had to do some fancy improvisation when eating out. Nothing too crazy though…I just made sure I got plenty of meat and veggies and tried to leave out the rest.

I will admit there were a few times when I ate some things that the “caveman-ness” of the food was definitely suspect. Namely, one or two days I had some salad dressing with my salad (though I kept it in small doses). One day, I ate eggs with cheese in them (although I didn’t know they had cheese in them, to my discredit, I didn’t ask). Towards the end of the 30 days, I would put reduced sugar ketchup on some of my meat. While not keeping to the strictest standards of paleo, I ultimately don’t think they made that much difference.

Now for the benefits…the other day at work I got on the scale and couldn’t believe what it said. I normally fluctuate between 180 and 185lbs and have stayed in that range for years. YEARS. So when I looked at the readout of the scale, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing:

172lbs.

“What? Really?” I had to seek a second opinion. A few days later, I was working at another fire house and weighed myself there. 175lb. A little closer to what I was used to, but I was wearing lots of clothes. I would seek one more opinion. I went home and used Bryant’s electric scale, wearing only workout clothes. 172lbs! At a minimum, an 8 pound loss! It’s not like I was Crossfitting extra hard during this time…I was working out about once or twice a week with maybe another workout thrown in there somewhere. That’s the power of diet for you!

My energy level stayed pretty consistent throughout the day; I never felt any dramatic spikes or drops. Now there were several days towards the end that I had some SERIOUS cravings for burritos, pizza and sweets. I was proud of myself though and never gave in…even when I was at Sean LeFrance’s house with plenty of pizza, sweets and a meat and cheese dip that looked absolutely delicious. I’m proud to say I saw it through to the very end.

So the only question now is, where do I go from here? Well, to give you an idea, for lunch today I had a Chipotle burrito. Delicious, as usual, though I admit it did sit pretty heavy in my stomach. This was mostly to prepare for the chipotle burrito challenge I’ll be participating in with my roommates this upcoming Monday. I had some homemade cinnamon bun and store-bought ice cream at the firehouse. Overall though, I can honestly say that I don’t feel a huge desire to eat a lot of the junk that I had to cut out to do this challenge. I think I will continue to eat in the caveman tradition, but will have a designated “cheat day” once a week. I don’t want to completely give up Chipotle, or pizza, or some other various treats. I’m gonna play with my diet for awhile and find what works for me, so I can keep up my current body composition and physical fitness level.

All in all, I HIGHLY recommend the paleo diet. If you want to see just what it can do, take up the 30 day paleo challenge for yourself and see the results for yourself.