making a change

[nicolakgreen]

I've been thinking a lot about this challenge since I pretty much quit out of the last one. Well my fitness goals were a bust, but I finally figured out that sheer bloody mindedness won't get me through it and decided to go paleo so I'm counting it a win.

Word is it increases your energy levels and I currently use all I have just getting through the day, so let's see whether it's true. I'm now two and a half weeks in and still lethargic, but no worse than usual. Although today is the first day in a week I haven't had a headache, so that's a nice change.

I've spent some time and mapped out a program to take me to where I want to be - weekly for this challenge and in overview for the next six months.

Fitness goals

• 1 proper pushup
• 1 proper pullup
• 30 second handstand
• 60 second plank

Life goals

• I want to work on my writing, so this goal is to write one article a week for my blog.

[nicolakgreen]

I did a new set of measurements on saturday and after 3 weeks paleo I have dropped an inch each from my belly, hips and thighs, added half an inch to my neck and waist and lost a quarter inch from my bicep.

So that's progress of a sort considering I've been working out once a week if that. I am having real trouble with the eating though - meat hasn't gotten any more appetising. I'll keep it up till friday which'll give me the full 30 days, but unless the feeling good has kicked in by then I think I'm dropping it. I haven't felt any worse than usual on it, but I feel pretty terrible usually so that's not saying much. I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping the past few days too, although the headache has gone thank goodness.

[MrHyde]

I wouldn't be so quick to drop it. If you are having trouble sleeping, try not eating a few hours prior. Works wonders for me. I would also make sure everything you are eating is truly grain free. It's ridiculous just how many things have some form of grain in it.

[nicolakgreen]

I was just eating chicken, bacon, dairy (butter, milk, eggs, cheese), salad (lettuce, toms, cucumber, bell peppers, celery), tuna, prawns, frozen veg (cauli, broccoli, carrots) and the odd avocado. Oh and a square of 70%+ dark chocolate in emergencies.

I had a cookie this afternoon and it tastes like pure sugar though - won't be doing that again in a hurry. Pizza tonight though, I can't wait.

I am actually feeling much better today - my mood has improved beyond measure. Whether that is due to ending the experiment, or new fall tv starting up again (new Vampire Diaries tonight) or whatever it's amazing.

I wrote the above yesterday and am feeling very down again today, so I think it was the excitement of new TV that was helping my mood.

However I have been googling because the biggest thing about my paleo experiment was the cramps I got - they haven't been that bad for more than a decade, it was horrendous and that more than anything is what is making me stop. If there is any chance of going through that again every month it's not worth it. Anyway, I just found an article on histamine intolerance and looking at the list of symptoms a lot of things match up for me, and a lot of the foods that make it worse are things that I had increased my consumption of to take the place of the grains - bacon, tuna, shellfish, avocado. So, after more research, I will be trying a low histamine diet to see whether that helps.

[nicolakgreen]

So that was rubbish. I didn't do anything. I'm feeling like signing up for the next challenge would just be setting myself up to fail again. But not trying would be worse?