Straying too far from your normal healthy routine will land you in a major rut. It will make you feel terrible. During the holidays no one wants to feel terrible. The holidays are meant for being happy, being with family and friends, and honoring traditions. From Thanksgiving through the New Year we are subjected to parties, open houses, and gifts of food and treats from holiday bakers and candle-stick makers. Who’s the other person in that list? Oh, the butcher, that’s right! Too bad all of us Paleo people can’t receive gifts from the butcher instead of the baker! So since that’s not reality what the heck should we do to make it through the holidays?

1. Remember Your Goals. You started your healthy lifestyle journey for a reason. Maybe it was to lose some inches and pounds, maybe it was to become a better athlete, or to be more physically active in general. Getting too far away from your normal routine is tough, especially when it comes to food, sleep, and working out. Deviations from a routine will cause a reaction and when you are used to a very healthy, structured routine the reaction tends to be negative. I try to remember why I live the way that I do and that usually helps me to stay the course. My goal is performance; I want to be the best CrossFitter I can be. I know that if I miss a few hours of sleep one night, my training for the next day (or couple of days) will be affected, and the recovering that my body would have done during that missed sleep is lost forever. I know that eating too much sugar or drinking booze also disagrees with me and disrupts my sleep so I choose my poison carefully. One drink or glass of wine is usually good for me and then I switch to water or seltzer. Stick with Paleo-friendly treats and limit your intake. Think one or two cookies, not 10. Always remember that you have the control, not the food. You are a strong person inside the gym, be strong and hold your ground outside of it.
2. Make a Plan and Stick to It. When you know that there is a party or event coming up it’s a good idea to plan ahead and stick to that plan once you’re at the party. For example, make a plan to have one glass of wine or allow yourself two Paleo-treats but then be done with it. When you are indulging really try to enjoy what you are eating. Eat it slowly and enjoy each bite. If your issue is that you’re finding it difficult to make it to the gym with all the holiday obligations, make a pact with yourself or a gym-friend. Agree that you WILL make it to the gym three days each week come hell or high water. Have that person hold you accountable. It simply must be a priority or you will let other things get in the way. You’ve got to be prepared and plan ahead. Tell yourself that you must fill up on meat and veggies before you can have dessert; or only have a glass of wine with dinner; maybe you could avoid the appetizers all together. Try some different things and figure out what works for you.
3. Enjoy the People You’re With. It’s easy to become caught up in all the yummy food. The next thing you know you’re like a horse with a feed back on it’s mouth and you don’t know what happened. Instead of ending up in this unfortunate situation, think about socializing more instead of eating. Make a goal to visit with each person at the gathering and really listen to what they have to say; engage in the conversation, ask questions, and remember what your family and friends say. We can’t (or shouldn’t) be stuffing our faces when we’re in conversation. This will give you a feeling of satisfaction and will allow you to leave the party feeling closer to people instead of sick or guilty because you ate too much. 
4. If you slip, don’t fall! If you end up getting off track, don’t let yourself plummet deep down the ravine. Have you ever had the thought process of, “Oh well, I already messed it up, so I might as well just eat whatever the heck I want from the rest of the day”? Please try to rid yourself of this mindset. In the big picture, a few treats isn’t going to make much impact. If you throw the whole day away because of those few treats, you run the risk of the slippery-slope effect. So maybe you had a perfect plan, but you strayed from that plan. It’s OKAY! Forgive yourself and move on. Don’t let it influence your decision-making longer than it should. If you miss a few sessions at the gym get back in AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. You will feel better once you walk through the door, but you have to walk through the door.
5. If you can, avoid having treats at your home. Whatever your weakness is; whatever tempts you, avoid having it in your home where it will, without a doubt, stare you down and haunt your brain as long as it’s there. Learn how to politely turn down the plate of goodies from “food-pushers”. If you’re the host, be a food-pusher and send bags home with guests. If you end up with extra goodies, bring things to your workplace and share. Why do co-workers love junk so much? Mmmmm cake? Don’t mind if I do! You know you’ll receive a bag of Lindt truffles at some point. Don’t open the bag. Re-gift them immediately! 

It’s been about nine weeks. Nine freakin’ weeks of NO grains, dairy, legumes, or sugar. Minimal alcohol; a glass of red wine here or there, if any. Lots of vegetables, meat, and tiny bit fruit. WOW, nine weeks! There were days that were more challenging than others. Most days flew by and I didn’t have time to think about what I wasn’t eating. To be truthful, the challenge didn’t really require me to change a whole lot, just to reign it in. I definitely changed up my carb sources, I drank much less alcohol, and I didn’t eat any Paleo treats, nuts, or dark chocolate. Believe it or not, removing those things from my weekly food intake made a HUGE difference. I feel frikken amazing.

Here are my measurements: September 17th to November 15th:

Here are my before and after pictures from the 9-Week LuRong Paleo Challenge:

Here’s what I looked like 2.5 years ago and 7 months ago:

We embarked on this journey together, I want to move into the future strong and driven, with all of you by my side. So, let’s do it!

Post comments here or on Facebook. What are you going to do on November 19th?

Disclaimer: I will not stop being your friend if you go on a bender. I just won’t ask you to be my partner for the WOD the next day. Sorry…

This post is going to be a little bit rant-ish. I have a few things I want to address:

1) A challenge is called a challenge for good reason…
All 45 of us probably questioned our ability to successfully complete a 9-week Paleo challenge. I don’t know all of the reasons for why folks chose to sign up, but I know why I signed up. I signed up because I had a summer full of booze and foods that do not help performance or body composition. All summer I felt guilty about food choices I was making. I chose to ignore the voices in my head because summer is precious to me and I wanted to have fun. I don’t regret any of the choices I made food-wise. But now that fall is upon us it’s time to detox. Nine weeks is a great amount of time to make some serious changes. At this point I know that I have a long winter of CrossFitting ahead of me. I want to be the best coach I can be; I need to practice what I preach and be the example for the awesome people I work with everyday. It’s simple: do or do not. I am choosing do.

Yes, there are going to be hard days. Believe me, if I could eat 4 paleo muffins every day I would. Just because it’s made with Paleo ingredients does not make it okay to eat all the fracking time. A muffin is still a muffin. Our bodies gravitate to fatty and sweet foods. So when we mix a shit load of ground nuts (fat) with a “natural” sweetener (sugar!) we have created the perfect storm for fueling our evolutionary instinct. When I eat a muffin I want another muffin. Soon I am in a muffin-coma and I wonder why I can’t lose body fat! Hmmmmm. I am not a detective, but I can probably make an educated guess.

2) Don’t stess, just do.
Stress is terrible for our bodies. A Paleo challenge takes us away from foods that put stress on our insides. When we are less stressed by our food, we are less stressed in general. We are even better off if we can fight to alleviate other stressors in our lives. Easier said than done, I know. Some of you have expressed to me that you are nervous (stress) about the challenge. I know that when others were signing themselves up there was a lot of peer pressure flying around. Please know that if there wasn’t something inside of you the KNEW YOU COULD DO THIS you would not have signed up! YOU CAN DO THIS! Stop shitting your pants about how hard this is going to be and eat your meat and vegetables. Try your absolute hardest in WODs and leave it all on the rubber mats. Call me if you need a pep-talk.

3) You are stronger than shitty food.
You mind if more powerful than you know. You have the power to to say, “No, thank you” when someone offers your some cheese and crackers or a Big and Toasted from Dunks. You can silently (or loudly depending upon where you are) tell grains, dairy, legumes, and sugar to f*ck off whenever you see them or they happen to temp you. As you walk around the grocery store you have permission to completely avoid the inner aisles. You shouldn’t need much down there, anyway. If you avoid looking at it you won’t be likely to buy it. If you need to be a bitch because you are withdrawing from sugar, then be a bitch, but don’t eat the sugar! Believe me, after 2-3 weeks without non-Paleo foods you won’t really care about them anymore. Stay committed to the reasons you signed up for the challenge. Even if you clicked the button because “everyone else was doing it” you need to stay with it. You paid the $50 bucks. Follow through and be stronger than the shitty food.

I love you all.

So the Paleo Lifestyle Challenge at The Fort CrossFit is over. You feel amazing; you’re crushing WODs, your body has changed, and you’re getting more sleep. WONDERFUL! But now what do you do? Keep going; go back to your old ways; try to stay on the wagon when you can? How do you find a balance between eating paleo and the temptations that will surround you in real life? In other words, how do you stick with it when you’re not in a competition; where will the motivation continue to come from?

I have a few suggestions and depending upon what kind of person you are, you might find some more appealing than others. Remember, figure out what works for your, find your balance. It might take some time – it’s a process.

Percentages of the Day
If you stick to the paleo diet 85% of the time, you will feel and look better. Dr. Loren Cordain said this when I saw him speak back in February and I agree. You will be much better off eating paleo 85% of the time than not at all. That last 15% can be used at your discretion. In this article, Mark Sisson talks about the 80/20 Principle. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Every now and then we do challenges to eliminate the last 15-20% and usually end up feeling better and looking better as a result. We realize that those little things add up. We chose to add things back in wisely. This is part of the learning process.

Time Frame
This option might work well for those who lean more toward the “all-or-nothing” mindset. With this scenario, for example, you allow yourself to eat or drink non-paleo foods on Saturday nights from 6-10. This allows you to plan a dinner out or a night with friends knowing that you can choose to eat what you want and not feel restricted. Once 10:00pm rolls around, though, all bets are off, you’re DONE! These planned cheats work well for many people and it could be used to motivate your goal of staying strict the rest of the time.

Cheat Day
Some people use a whole day each weak to “cheat” on their diet. I tried this briefly and it does not work for me. I found that I would go way overboard and end up feeling like ass for 2-3 days as a result of the full cheat day. It was doing more harm than good and I was having trouble getting back on the wagon after eating such a large quantity of junk. This is when I began to realize that I am more of an all-or-nothing person. I guess it works for some people.

Use “Paleo” Cheats
If you’ve been eating paleo for an extended period of time you know how a bout of crazy cheating will make you feel – pretty dang terrible. I’m talking about a steady stream of pizza, beer, ice cream, soda, etc. You do your best to avoid those kinds of foods, but every now and then you really want something naughty. Usually all it takes to find a paleo replacement for a favorite treat is a simple Google search. So, if you want brownies, type in “paleo brownies” and about 10+ recipes should pop up. Get yourself some coconut milk ice cream and you’ll be good to go – brownie sundae “paleo-style”. You’ll get a substantial sugar spike, but much less than if you were to eat grain/gluten-filled brownies and dairy ice cream. My note of caution here would be to not get in the habit of having paleo cheats everyday. Maybe once a week, maybe! Once every other week or once a month would be much more favorable.

Some other observations about this topic:
Try not to allow your diet to become your obsession. Unless you are an elite athlete whose performance goals warrant being obsessive or a person whose livelihood depends on your body composition, an obsessive frame of mind will set you up for feelings of guilt and failure. There needs to be a certain level of commitment here, because if you were not committed to this lifestyle you would not stick to it; it’s a lot of work! It’s so worth it though, right?!

Over time you will learn your limits. I have been eating this way for almost 3 years and it’s taken me almost 3 years to understand what I can and cannot do. I tend to avoid gluten like the plague because it completely wrecks me. I get achy, depressed, and fatigued. I am a little more lenient with sugar and dairy, but my acne flares up if I go overboard with those. Over Memorial Day weekend, I drank alcohol (vodka and tequila and wine) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The booze was my cheat, not the food. By the time Monday came around, I felt pretty crappy – tired and bloated. On Monday I made the commitment to get back on the wagon; I drank tons of water, took extra fish oil, and tried to eat a lot of good food. I have no problem getting back to “normal” because I know how much better I feel when I eat well, get enough sleep, and mobilize consistently. Also, when I am staring at a table of non-paleo foods, I literally think to myself, “If I eat that right now, how will I feel in 20 minutes?” I then weigh the options and consider whether dealing with the aftermath is worth the pleasure of eating whatever is staring at me.

I also keep my goals in mind. Although I am not an elite-level CrossFitter I feel an obligation and desire to be the best I can be. I know I will not reach this goal by cheating on my diet every chance I get. I also have body composition goals that will not be achieved or even maintained by constant slips. Additionally, I need to lead by example and continue to be my own n=1 experiment. I cannot in good conscience tell people they should be doing something when I don’t even do it myself.

Making the decision to “go paleo” is one you should be excited about. There will be ups and downs as you navigate conflicting information and opinions, and battle societal norms by going “against the grain.” Commit to fighting the good fight; stand by your lifestyle and be proud that you’re making healthy choices for your body. When it comes to moments of weakness, remember why you began this process in the first place. When you falter, forgive yourself and know that there are always people in your corner, waiting to catch you, and here to support you the whole way through.

Here’s to good food!