scotticus - diversify the diet / pull-up progress

[scotticus]

This is my first challenge, and I'm ready to go.

Health & Fitness

1. Quit Smoking.

I've been cutting down over the past couple of weeks, but tomorrow the patch goes on again. I'm determined to make this happen.

2(a). Eat Paleo for more than 90% of the challenge.

I'm fairly new to paleo, but have been managing this level or better for the last two weeks. I'd like to keep it going. It might get tough though, because I'm already sticking to too few "tried and true" foods. Hence the next goal.

2(. Discover and prepare at least 1 new paleo meal for each week of the challenge, for six new meals in total.

Recommendations are most welcome!

3. Be able to do at least one pull-up, from a dead hang, with no cheating.

I'm currently at zero, and I find it's the beginning of the movement that's the toughest. It's hard to get those things going!

Life

1. Save up enough cash to pay for my next chest tattoo session, book it, and git 'er done.

I'm about halfway, but the finances are tricky right now. I will have to be dedicated in order to pull this off. If Gears of War 3 comes out in the next six weeks, I may be in trouble. In fact, I don't even want to check the release date now...

2. Finish at least two more books on the Time 100 Best Novels list.

I'm slowly working my way through it. Fun times.

3. Automate my bill payments in order to maximize the travel miles that I collect each month.

Note to self:

A couple of simple measurements, just for some basic comparisons after the challenge. Weight: 193lbs, BF%: 18.

[Mama T]

i love the "quit smoking" goal! i have a friend who quits just about every other week, and i always try to encourage her by reminding how much she'd save and how she'd feel so much better if she stuck with it. I guess quitting would go hand in hand with saving up money for the tattoo as well... maybe put a picture of the tattoo you want in your wallet to remind you what you're saving money for if you go to buy a new pack of cigs? good luck!

[scotticus]

i love the "quit smoking" goal! i have a friend who quits just about every other week, and i always try to encourage her by reminding how much she'd save and how she'd feel so much better if she stuck with it. I guess quitting would go hand in hand with saving up money for the tattoo as well... maybe put a picture of the tattoo you want in your wallet to remind you what you're saving money for if you go to buy a new pack of cigs? good luck!

You got it. Smoking is for the double win, and as I have previously quit for a period of a couple of years, I know that it will have the biggest +ve effect on my life of everything in my challenge. Also, good idea on the tattoo photo. I should probably post one here as well so that I see it every time I update my progress.

[Loren Wade]

Man, these goals look life-changing!!! I'm excited about your goal to quit smoking. That's huge!!!

[Hermione Gainser]

Pull ups are hard! But we can totally get to 1 in 6 weeks! I'll be cheering ya on! Also: quit smoking-ftw!

Also, I love your reading goal! I might steal that for next challenge

[Crooked]

GOOD LUCK on the smoking! I'm excited for you. everydaypaleo, theclothesmakethegirl, nomnompaleo, chowstalker and marksdailyapple are all really good sources of paleo recipes - I hope you share the ones you make!

[scotticus]

GOOD LUCK on the smoking! I'm excited for you. everydaypaleo, theclothesmakethegirl, nomnompaleo, chowstalker and marksdailyapple are all really good sources of paleo recipes - I hope you share the ones you make!

Thanks! I knew about MDA, but had never heard of any of the others. Will definitely check them out. My plan is to report back with pictures.

[Crooked]

Nomnompaleo.com is the BEST. She is super creative and a lot of fun to read. May I recommend you try her crab cake recipe?

[scotticus]

Nomnompaleo.com is the BEST. She is super creative and a lot of fun to read. May I recommend you try her crab cake recipe?

I think that I may have found my first recipe (shrimp + veggies)!

[scotticus]

Day one. so far so good.

Smoking: none.

Eating: clean, except for protein shakes (which I don't count). I will confess to eating the better part of a bag of fuzzy peaches just hours before starting the challenge. After my first two weeks of almost 100% paleo, I was dying for some badness before saddling up for 6 more weeks.

Recipe: found one that looks good, bought supplies. Tomorrow we eat Mark's shrimp grokamole (http://www.marksdailyapple.com/shrimp-“grok-amole”-salad/)

Workout: 5 x 100m sprints @ 100% effort, with 100m walking rest in between. 1km warm-up, 1km cool down @ a light pace. (Barbell training yesterday, with focus on rows and negatives for both pull-ups and chin-ups, also managed 120lbs for bench press, 80lbs for seated overhead press, and 120lbs for deadlifts - I'm taking it slow because I don't want to trash my lower back).

Otherwise, I said no to a surf trip, even though it would be the first chance for me to ride a chambered wooden board that took me the better part of 75 hours to build over the course of a year. Trying to keep that tat session at the forefront on the fun expenditures for now. I also read a bit on the bus to/from work today. I will probably procrastinate on the bills for quite some time.

[Kain]

Great job so far. You can quit smoking if that is what you want to do.

[scotticus]

Day 2, feeling good.

I prepared the first of my six (minimum) new paleo meals for dinner tonight. Following the recipe on Mark's Daily Apple (see link in my previous post) for Shimp Grok-a-mole. It was really, really good, so I'm quite encouraged to try another sooner than later. It took a little longer than expected, mainly because there's a lot of chopping AND peeling of shrimp (that part sucked). But all in all, it's a very satisfying meal and the recipe made enough for my wife and I to eat twice and still have a little left over. I'm looking forward to having this for lunch tomorrow, that's for sure. I've attached a few pics, as promised. It's worth noting that the serving pictured (white bowl) was enough to really fill me up.

I also ate super clean throughout the day, and I'm looking forward to my (rather late) workout in about an hour (deadlift, bench press, overhead press, -ve pull-ups, rows, planks).

Still no smoking! My wife is jonesing for a butt hard, and there is some small threat of temptation if she breaks. If all goes well though, we'll successfully quit together.

[Mama T]

I want to reach through my phone and eat your dinner. looks dee-freaking-licious. and kudos to day 2 of no smoking!

[Hermione Gainser]

That looks delicious. I know how I'll be using the shrimp in my freezer now.

[scotticus]

Rest day & Cheat day today. I went pretty hard yesterday, and since tomorrow is another lift day I figured that this would be an opportune time to rest and regenerate. Yoga and running planned for the weekend. Also, I ate a sanity preserving Cinnabon and it was delicious!

[scotticus]

A couple of post-cheat day observations:

- after almost three weeks with no processed sugars carbs a couple of niggling problems miraculously cleared up (tongue plaque and sinus issues). After having a couple of slices of pizza and a cinnabon last night, both are back full force this morning. This leads me to believe that my system REALLY doesn't like those things to begin with (very encouraging).

- over the past three weeks my appetite has been pretty well regulated and easy to manage. I never felt starving. After last night's "treat", I woke up STARVING. As in I felt like I would fall over if I didn't eat anything. Interesting.

Otherwise, I still haven't smoked a single puff. I'm starting to feel the benefits of that as well - looking forward to tonights training session to see how it feels. Although I can't see it, my wife says that my pudge is starting to get noticably smaller, which is certainly good news.

[Hermione Gainser]

Very interesting post cheat day notes, Scotticus. Tomorrow is my first cheat day. I have no idea what I'll eat but I kind of want to eat something ridiculous (like a pint of ben&jerry's cinnamon bun ice cream) whereas, when I was cheating a little more regularly, I ate better cheats. I'm a little nervous about it.

Congrats on the lack of smoking! That's big!

[Wolfman]

Otherwise, I still haven't smoked a single puff. I'm starting to feel the benefits of that as well - looking forward to tonights training session to see how it feels. Although I can't see it, my wife says that my pudge is starting to get noticably smaller, which is certainly good news.

I'm thinking if you can quit smoking I can probably manage to stop drinking...

[scotticus]

Ugh. Seriously bitchy today, but still haven't smoked.

Wasn't too hungry for most of the day today, so I just went with it. Ate good clean paleo when I did. Negatives coming along good, really struggled with bench press, set a new pb for deadlifts @ 150lbs x 6. I'm interested to see where I hit a wall with those. Overall, I think I'm on track.

[scotticus]

I was hard-up for a good paleo snack this evening and came up with a variation of what something that I found here http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-snacks/. I call it the neapolitan shake.

To make it you, you mix the following:

- either 1/2 can (for small shake) or a full can (for large) of coconut milk

- a pile of strawberries (fresh or frozen)

- 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder (my favourite is BioX Xtreme Power Whey)

Then just blend the crap out of it, and enjoy. It's amazingly creamy and REALLY filling. If you're really hungry, this might be the fix. I'm about half way through mine right now, and I think I'm going to have to put half in the fridge overnight.

[scotticus]

OK, so I'm on fire with the recipes. At this rate, I will crush my goal of 1/week.

I'm in the middle of making this (sweet potato and zucchini frittata):

http://everydaypaleo.com/2011/06/03/family-style-frittatas/

It's pretty easy, and looks like it's going to be pretty good. I plan so share this with Jr.

Will report on how it tastes later.

Update: It tastes great. Looking forward to having it for breakfast again tomorrow.

[scotticus]

Full disclosure: I broke down and had a smoke. My wife bought a pack, and I was temporarily without patches. It just hadn't been long enough for my will power to kick in and save me from the FAIL. Anyhow, I picked up another box of patches, and I'm back on the wagon. Although this is a bit of a setback, going from around 1/2 a pack per day to 1 smoke in a week is pretty good progress. I'm still confident that I'll be totally smoke free by the end of the challenge.

[scotticus]

Weekend Update:

- managed two very long walks with the baby, and a yoga session on Sunday

- ate clean throughout the weekend

- started incorporating daily pull-up practice (as per Pavel's Naked Warrior) in order to boost my chances of actually doing one from a full dead hang by the end of the challenge.

[Wolfman]

Full disclosure: I broke down and had a smoke. My wife bought a pack, and I was temporarily without patches. It just hadn't been long enough for my will power to kick in and save me from the FAIL. Anyhow, I picked up another box of patches, and I'm back on the wagon. Although this is a bit of a setback, going from around 1/2 a pack per day to 1 smoke in a week is pretty good progress. I'm still confident that I'll be totally smoke free by the end of the challenge.

I'm officially giving up drinking altogether for the rest of the challenge, as per your encouragement.

[scotticus]

I'm officially giving up drinking altogether for the rest of the challenge, as per your encouragement.

Sweet dude! Keep me posted on how it goes. I'm back on the wagon with the smoking, and my plan is to stick with it for the rest of the challenge. My wife actually feels pretty bad for tempting me at my weakest point, so I think that she's on board. In other news, I really want to smoke right now. I just received a bill for $21,000 from the city, for the property tax that the previous owners of our house apparently didn't pay (approx. 5 years worth). So now, I have to deal with the lawyers again. It's a great house, but the previous owners suck - this is not the first time the lawyers have been involved since we moved in a month ago...