What I eat

I've been asked by a few people to share what I generally eat over the course of a day. I'm looking forward to going into detail about several of these foods in future posts, but I'm happy to share an overview of my diet now. This is for a typical workout day. I'm not a nutritionist by any stretch, and I'm constantly tweaking and experimenting, so it's just a snapshot.

Breakfast: 

• 2 hard-boiled eggs over 2 big handfuls of spinach, chopped bell peppers (try to have variety in the colors, since each color provides different nutrients), and pecans. Tossed with a couple teaspoons of olive oil and salt and pepper.
• 1 serving of oatmeal (1/2 cup for rolled; 1/4 cup for steel cut, since steel cut is denser). With one tablespoon of smart balance coconut butter, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, a big sprinkle of unsweetened shredded coconut, a teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/8 cup whole flax seeds, about 1/2 cup almond milk, and 1/4 cup berries. 
• NOTE: After perfecting my oatmeal recipe to the point that I crave it all day, I'm going to cut it out for a week and see how I feel. Get ready for a fascinating and entertaining post all about breakfast next week! 
• ANOTHER NOTE: Don't be phased by the above description. I can prepare that entire breakfast in the time equivalent of hitting my snooze button once (ten minutes). I'll discuss in my post next week. 

Morning snack:

• A fistful of almonds and an apple. If I'm hungry, maybe a can of sardines. If I'm very hungry, a scoop of whey protein isolate too. Whey protein isolate is the purest form of protein powder, has the best essential amino acid content, and is virtually lactose free.

Lunch:

• About 8 oz of rotisserie chicken. One chicken lasts me three or four days. It's an awesome deal compared to cold cuts. And they're $2 off on Wednesdays at Whole Foods. (at least in Albuquerque).
• A huge monster salad with kale, lettuce, or whatever greens are on sale at the store or farmers market. I usually include cucumber, mushrooms, bell peppers (try to have variety in the colors), carrots, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds. If I can get them on sale, I will also include hemp hearts. I toss it with olive oil and red or white wine vinegar. Sometimes I'll be crazy and add in grapes or strawberries.

 Afternoon Snack:

• A large avocado (don't complain about the cost. Even organic is usually cheaper than the snickers bar from the vending machine.) Sliced and topped with some cashew butter, with a fistful of blueberries on the side. I also have a pear or other fruit if I'm hungry.

Pre-Workout

• A scoop of Cytocarb 2 and a scoop of whey protein isolate. Amounts vary based on how I'm feeling.
• A packet of Emergen-C. Way more vitamin C than our ancestors ever had, but it gets me in the mood to work out. There are far worse things. 

Post-Workout

•  A banana (or other high-carb sugary fruit) and a half scoop of whey protein isolate.

 Dinner

• This really varies. I try to cook a big meal on Sunday that will get me through a few weeknights. When that runs out, I'll generally grill a few salmon fillets or grass-fed beef patties, and steam some broccoli or cauliflower in the microwave. Sometimes I'll have rice too, especially when I need more carbs after intense workouts. Sometimes I'll quickly saute greens like chard or spinach. 
• If I'm really in a bind, I go for the rotisserie chicken. It's always there in the fridge ready to go as a last resort. 

Below is a calorie consumption pie chart in Fit Day, an easy-to-use resource for figuring out what the heck you're eating. On workout days, I usually get between 3700 and 4000 calories. On non-workout days, I'm not drinking my carb shake and I'm having less protein isolate, so I probably get 350 fewer calories.

A higher protein and fat intake is recommended in the paleo diet than American Dietary Guidelines. My CrossFit coaches encourage consuming at least your body weight in grams of protein per day. I've found that it's tough for me to consume more than 30% protein and 20% carbs from paleo sources. Fat supplies the rest of the calories. I know this looks scary. We've been trained to think fat is bad. To try the paleo diet is to take a leap of faith here: fat does not necessarily make you fat. There is a very detailed chapter all about the benefits of "good" fats in The Paleo Solution, but it's something you need to try to see if it works for you.

Some guidelines and justification for higher protein consumption can be found on one of my favorite blogs, Paleo Plan. That said, I'm surprised that this post recommends 40% carbs. That would be A LOT of vegetables. I'm at about 20% carbs, and that is with oats and a carb shake! In reality, I see paleo dieters consuming around 10 to 20% carbs, 20 to 30% protein or higher, and 50 to 70% fat. People really trying to lose weight push their carb count even lower. Not ideal for me, but it works for some.

Everyone is different and needs to tweak the ratio to what works for him or her. I think it's best not to pay too much attention to the specific percentages. This way, you get some variability and cyclical rhythm in your macronutrient intake. Focus on quality more than quantity.

Fitness fanatic first, paleo fanatic second

My flight was really delayed on Friday so I wrote this one at the airport too. But I didn't want to drop too many knowledge bombs all at once so I paced this one out. This post gets pretty deep into the Paleo CrossFit niche, but I promise more practical applications are coming soon!

The first Crossfit Games Open workout was a few weeks ago, and I wanted to do well. It was pretty much the end of my strict paleo month, so I cheated and had a scoop of Cytogainer beforehand.

Cytogainer is a weight-gainer shake that I've used pretty much as my one gym supplement since high school. (I dabbled with NO-Xplode in college, but that is all). It's a combination of whey protein and carbs from maltodextrin, which is a complex carbohydrate processed from corn. Cytogainer has always gotten me in the mood to workout. But when I started CrossFit, I found that Cytogainer gave me stable and consistent energy -- not just for weightlifting, but even for the high-intensity workouts (called Met-Cons, for metabolic conditioning).

During that first Games workout, with the Cytogainer fueling me, I felt great. I wasn't lightheaded, my legs didn't feel like bricks, and I didn't need to eat fruit in the middle of a workout just to keep my strength up. After a month of dogging it on paleo, I was back, baby.

Also, after the strict paleo month ended, I started having one serving of oatmeal along with my breakfast of hard boiled eggs and greens tossed with olive oil. Voila, I no longer felt like I was going to faint during my bike commute to work.

The supposedly evil processed foods and grain-derived carbs were working for me in the gym. What did this mean?

I haven't read The Paleo Diet for Athletes, but I've learned that the authors advocate cheating with carbs after workouts, but only in a specific recovery time period, and only for endurance athletes like cyclists. The authors make these recommendations for post-workout...but what about before workouts, which is when I was benefiting from carbs?

One of the authors, Joe Friel, is an acclaimed U.S. triathlete coach and is fully behind the Paleo diet. It took him 2 months to get used to paleo. So maybe I just needed to wait it out another month, and then I would no longer need the carbs for workouts? I didn't want to suffer another month. I was confused.

I googled combinations of terms like "crossfit paleo carbs" and "crossfit paleo grains" to see if other athletes were in my position. I found this excellent post on the CrossFit forum, which referenced an email from a Nutrition PhD. It really opened my eyes. Take a look. The PhD notes that CrossFitters, with their brief intense workouts, can really benefit from carbs -- rather than fat -- as a fuel source. (Some more than others, of course. Every body is different). Also, the email says high amounts of carbs -- even from grains -- can provide the most benefit when breaking the fast in the morning, and before and after workouts. An otherwise paleo diet with these carb infusions could be an optimal regimen, according to this PhD.

What was really interesting, though, is the four pages of comments that follow the post. All from CrossFitters, they were nearly unanimous in their full agreement with the PhD's email, opining that "good" grains such as rice and oats, in moderation, are useful to provide energy before workouts and to flood muscles with glycogen after workouts. Many offered that paleo is a great starting point, from which athletes can move toward whatever works best for them.

I spoke to my coaches about it, who had previously advised me to find a pre-workout paleo meal that works for me, such as fruit and sweet potato. "Great," I had thought at the time, "more sweet potato." This root vegetable is one of the very few high-complex-carb sources allowed on a strict paleo diet, and is therefore consumed by the pound by some hardcore paleo athletes. 

My coaches were reasonable. They told me, yeah, if I needed some carbs to power through the WODs (workout of the day), then I could use maltodextrin. It isn't ideal, but I should remember 80/20.

80/20. Eighty-twenty. The Pareto Principle. You may have heard this ratio used before, by talking-head management gurus, McKinsey analysts and Tim Ferriss. The mantra goes a few different ways, a few of which are: 80% of results come from 20% of effort and time; 80% of sales come the top 20% of clients; 80% of a society's wealth is produced by 20% of society's members.

The ratio can also be used in the opposite sense, and that's what I want to focus on here: Nearly all value is created in the first 80% of effort, and that last 20% produces much-diminishing returns.

Robb Wolf and Loren Cordain both say that, unless you have serious health problems such as auto-immune disorders, you can ascribe to Paleo 80% of the time and gain 95+% of the benefits. (This equates to 3 meals, or one "cheat day," per week). For the paleo die-hards, this is intended to provide leeway when you're at a cocktail hour, or you're traveling, or you just need a guilt-free cheat day full of ice cream and chocolate cake in order to stay on the wagon.

My coaches and many other CrossFitters, on the other hand, see 80/20 differently. In their view, that non-paleo 20% is indeed a beneficial -- even necessary -- element of the diet. Instead of "cheat" meals cashed in during moments of weakness or circumstance, carbs are used strategically, as a tool for performance and an essential factor in an overall comprehensive clean diet.

Further, hard-gainers like me need to fight for every ounce of muscle mass. It's really hard to get enough complex carbs to grow when you're eating vegetables like a rabbit. Again, it's a conscious, strategic use of non-paleo carbs at specific times. And also just being sick of sweet potatoes after a while.

On a related tangent, I know some CrossFitters who eat greek yogurt a few times per week, as a probiotic and general digestive aid. A healthy dose of pragmatism within the framework of a clean diet.

Right now, I eat a quarter cup of steel cut oatmeal with my otherwise paleo breakfast (a post all about breakfast is coming soon). Before workouts I have CytoCarb, which is the maltodextrin from Cytogainer without any of the other stuff; and whey protein isolate, a high quality lactose-free protein. After workouts I have a banana and more whey protein isolate, and then a serving of sprouted rice with dinner. Sorry, paleo extremists. I feel great, I'm performing in the gym, and I'm getting stronger.

Traveling nutriciously: Do's and Don'ts

UPDATE: After a couple months, I've discovered some additional items to pack in your suitcase. One is plain old salad. It keeps very well even without a fridge. I make a couple tupperwares of kale and lettuce salad, and when I'm ready to eat I ask any hotel restaurant for oil and vinegar. Presto. I also bring a bunch of carrots to munch on. Refrigeration is not needed for carrots, and washing and peeling are luxuries, not essential. The other obvious good one is beef jerky. American Grass Fed Beef sells online. It's expensive, but it's good non-perishable protein.

--

This will be a short one and another one is coming soon, but I'm sitting in the airport and wanted to give some thoughts on my first trip on the new diet. I had traveled down to TorC once during my month of strict paleo, but I was driving and so was able to pack a cooler full of chicken curry, baked sweet potatoes, fruit, and salad. I had to fly this time, so I had to pack food that would fit in my pack and didn't need refrigeration.

I departed ABQ on Wednesday evening. It's now Friday evening, and I'm in the airport in Los Angeles heading home. So just over two full days.

This is what I brought:
2 avocados
2 cans of sardines
Leftover rotisserie chicken and leftover half can of salmon over kale salad (to eat on the plane ride or soon after)
2 Clif Builders bars (totally processed and soy-derived, but just as a worst case scenario)
1 sandwich bag full of almonds

Here are my lessons learned:

DO keep a few sources of each macronutrient on hand at all times. (Fat, carbohydrates, protein). Especially fruit. For the sake of traveling light, I left fruit at home because I had already eaten a lot that day and figured I could swipe some at the breakfast bar each morning. But the flight to LA was on a crappy little plane, followed by a long bus ride in traffic from LAX to the hotel downtown. I had eaten the salmon and chicken earlier, and was really craving some fruit. I had already had a ton of almonds that day, and the avocado would have been messy on the dark bus (both of those foods are really more fat, anyway). I had nothing but one of the Clif bars. My headache was getting worse. I broke down and ate the Clif, pledging to bring fruit from the get-go next time. 

DO bring an avocado for every day of travel. When on the road, it's tough to access good fats. I would have been in trouble if I hadn't gone to Grand Central Market today and gotten a few more avocados (never mind that one got squashed in my jacket pocket!). Also, be sure to order olive oil as a dressing for your salad whenever you can. Maybe next time I'll bring some coconut butter along with me.

DON'T be afraid to mix and match from the menu. I've found the chef is happy to oblige if you want the grilled shrimp over the endive salad, or whatever combo you want, as your main course. I usually just get charged for the price of the more expensive item, which seems fair to me.

DO stash anything you can from breakfast bars, buffets and reception areas. You need to keep your munitions topped off. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Fruit, veggies, and sometimes hard-boiled eggs are the main opportunities here.

DO bring canned goods (see my post on the subject here) with pull tops, so you don't have to lug around a can opener. The sardines were great for this.

DON'T eat the sardines unless you have a game plan. Now, sardines are tough at a conference. You can't just whip out your can in the middle of a session unless you want to be known as the smelly fish dude. That would not be the best career move. But if you're in a bind and need good protein, there's nothing better than sardines. If you're starving and are feeling tempted by the glutenfest that is conference hors devoirs, just go into a bathroom stall. You've done things much worse in one of those. You can also go up to your room to "grab a document." Both the above options allow you to rinse out the can and recycle it. You'll thank yourself later for resisting the fried mayonnaise puff pastry.

DO brush your teeth after the sardines. You're already in the bathroom, so this is convenient. And have some mints on hand or paleo substitutes. 

DON'T worry that your strange caveman diet will put people off. This conference was the Good Jobs, Green Jobs summit and I was going on behalf of the Sierra Club. I'll admit that I was worried that a lot of hemp eaters would take issue with my meat consumption. But most people with whom I ate were carnivores themselves, and were interested in hearing about the paleo diet and how I'm trying to make it sustainable. On the other hand, I work for a company that does renewable energy for mine sites. When I'm at a mining conference, I'm pandering to red-blooded steak eaters who don't always hold veggies in high esteem. But I still think I'll be ok ordering a manly cut of rib eye to counteract my salad, distracting them by talking about my max deadlift. 

DO bring numerous packets of plastic silverware. I thought I would be green on this trip and re-use one set, and it wasn't fun. Packets also come with napkins, which are an essential commodity on a train or bus.

A few other quick thoughts, since my flight is delayed.

I went to a greek restaurant yesterday for lunch and had a gyro salad. It came with four pita slices and some hummus, which I went ahead and ate. At the afternoon session, which was very interesting, I felt foggy and sluggish and I actually dozed off. For the first time in a while, I felt the need for coffee. This may have been a coincidence, but I think the pita and hummus may have diminished the sharpness and mental clarity that is now the norm for me. Then again, I may just have developed a contrived intolerance now because I'm no longer accustomed to these foods. I don't know, and I'll continue experimenting.

Due to the sluggish feeling, I had a cup of coffee -- my first in a couple months. This was not a good idea. I've never been much of a coffee drinker, and do continue to drink tea every so often, but that jolt of caffeine yesterday made me feel nasty. I should be able to feel energetic from my diet, so that I don't need coffee.

Wow, this post wasn't so short after all.

I'm not sure if anyone besides my mom and grandparents are reading this blog yet, but if you are a paleo dieter and have read this post, what travel tips do you have? What do you do to keep it Caveman when you're a Road Warrior?

Fun with Canned Fish

During my thirty-day paleo period, I was grumpy and hungry, and often had headaches in the afternoon. When you cut out grains, you lose an inexpensive and easy source of abundant calories. (Never mind that those calories, even from whole grains, are relatively devoid of nutrients compared to paleolithic carbohydrate sources, such as fruits and vegetables). Besides needing to work harder to meet my calorie needs, I had another disadvantage -- I no longer could achieve the bloated, false "full" feeling provided by grains and dairy. So I needed to boost up my calories with lots (I mean LOTS) of vegetables, "good" fats and lean protein.

By "good" fats, I mean Omega 3 fatty acids, which you hear about a lot these days. Omega 3's generally act as an anti-inflammatory on the body, while their counterparts, Omega 6's, act as an inflammatory. Both are essential to the human body, in balance. Historically, hunter-gatherers kept their Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in a ratio between 1:1 and 1:2. In modern times, the ratio is closer to 1:10! We get plenty of Omega 6 from vegetable oils -- such as corn and soy, the building blocks of most processed food today -- but we get little Omega 3 within the Standard American Diet (SAD). This could be an underlying cause of heart disease, cancers, and even depression. Because plant-based sources of Omega 3, such as flaxseed and hemp hearts, need to be converted by the body into the Omega 3's found in animal sources, and that conversion process is very inefficient, I needed to focus on foods like fatty fish and grass-fed beef.

Also, in examining my pre-paleo diet, I discovered my protein intake was nothing short of pitiful. A couple slices of turkey on my sandwich, a gainer shake, and a protein bar with soy-derived protein was sometimes all I got for the day.

So my mission, Ethan Hunt, was to consume a lot more of everything paleo, focusing on carbs from vegetables, fats containing animal-based Omega 3, and protein -- without breaking my bank. And the food had to be easily accessible, whenever hunger struck. Impossible? Maybe.

I had the produce section more or less conquered, and after some research I chose the Kirkland Brand fish oil supplement. I then set out to compare and contrast Omega 3 protein and fat sources, zeroing in on dollars per pound or cents per ounce. On several different occasions, I walked the grocery store like a zombie, zig-zagging the aisles. Coconut "spread" vs. coconut oil vs. coconut butter vs. coconut flour, along with canola and olive oil...local grass-fed beef @ $9 per lb, fresh wild-caught salmon at $15 per lb...Omega-3 fortified eggs. Everything super expensive. Just when I began to lose hope, I honed in on the canned fish section.

My first big discovery was sardines. A nutrient powerhouse, sardines provide the Omega-3 fat, the protein, and the accessibility I needed. And I found the Wild Planet brand to be a delicious, low-mercury, sustainable choice. One problem, though: at $3 per 4 oz can, they weren't cheap. I could use them once in a while, buying them whenever Sunflower had a sale, storing them in my desk drawer and bringing them along on business trips when needed, but they couldn't be used on a daily basis without pushing my food budget far past my $100-per-week limit. (This budget was self-imposed after my food expenses went through the roof on paleo). 

Canned tuna is the ubiquitous choice, but I could only do it in moderation. While relatively low-cost, even for wild-caught sustainable brands, I have to consider the mercury, and I'm not a fan of the taste.

Wait a minute, what's that next to the canned tuna? They have canned salmon? Wow. At $3.50 per 15 oz can, the Whole Foods 365 brand pink salmon is $13 to $18 cheaper per lb than the fresh salmon. I tried it, and it's delicious. One 15 oz can gives me three days worth of healthy snacking, and is packed with Omega 3, calcium, and protein! You need to monitor the high sodium content, but that was a small drawback to an otherwise elegant solution. Success!

Just when I was clinking my mental champagne glass in victory (mental, because champagne ain't paleo), I read something on the Wild Planet Sardines label that made me hang my head in despair: "Certified BPA Free."

Cans have BPA in them? I thought BPA was just in plastic bottles! I got online and learned that BPA, or bisphenol-A, is a chemical found in some plastic sport bottles and most cans, and it's very bad.

So, if Wild Planet labels its products as BPA free, and the Whole Foods cans don't, does this mean that the Whole Foods canned tuna and salmon aren't BPA free?? I quickly got online to do some research, and the answer to my question is, yes, but only 27% of the time.

That's right. Whole Foods is "committed to helping our customers protect themselves and their families and as such are concerned about the growing body of research which connects BPA and other estrogenic compounds, including phthalates, to certain negative health effects." In other words, "we're working on it, and we'll get back to you." As of right now, 27% of Whole Foods' 365 brand cans are BPA free, but -- get this -- they have no idea which cans those are. Whole Foods' excuse is that cans are a commodity dominated by a few large companies, so the transition is going to be slow.

I was losing hope. My solution to all my paleo problems was disintegrating before my eyes. Refusing to give up, I did some more digging. I found a few organic companies have indeed made the transition to BPA-free, taking on their suppliers and forcing positive change. One company, Eden Organics, was an early pioneer to switch over, and has published its incredible story here. Eden deserves congratulations, but they're all about beans. And the other canned seafood companies listed as BPA free do not stock the shelves of any stores near me.

An unlikely hero emerges. Trader Joe's, the grocery store chain that at one time was called "Traitor Joe's" by some environmental groups and has been accused of very questionable practices, has quietly transitioned toward BPA-free. While TJ does not label its cans as BPA free, I've copied and pasted an email response from a customer service rep below:

Thank you for contacting us.  Here is the deal with BPA. First, regarding Tetra, all Tetra Pak is BPA-free.
 
Second, every glass jar item has a metal lid. All metal lids do have a layer of BPA coating. However, there is another coating put on after that. There is no direct contact of BPA to food. We have multiple supplier testing results showing there is no BPA detected from metal lids.
 
All our canned fish (and our canned chicken and beef too) are now in BPA-free cans EXCEPT: Sardines, Crab, Cherrystone Clams & Oysters (our suppliers are working for a 2012 solution).
 
All our canned fruits and vegetables (including tomatoes, and the Organic Canned Pumpkin when it returns this Fall) are in BPA-free cans EXCEPT: Mandarins, Hatch Chilies, Artichokes, Organic Baked Beans (expecting transition this Fall).
 
All of our canned Soups and Stews (and including Joe’s Os) are in cans that DO have BPA. Some of our suppliers are expecting they will be able to make transition next year.
 
Lastly, Coconut Milk is in a BPA-free can.

So, due to the proactive measures of Trader Joe's, I can safely and inexpensively meet my daily protein and fat needs. I highly recommend TJ's wild-caught canned salmon. The 14.75 oz can includes skin and bones, which are excellent sources of calcium.

Other resources for BPA-free canned goods can be found here and here.

I'll be posting about other cheap, sustainable sources of paleo nutrition in the near future, so stay tuned!

Introduction: Ruminations from a long-time fitness freak, first-time nutrition freak

Hi, I'm Zack. Long-time fitness freak, first-time nutrition freak. I've never blogged before; I never felt the need to publish my thoughts to the world. But as my obsession with researching and learning about nutrition continues, I'm finding a lot of useful information tidbits, and generating ideas, that I want to share with friends, family, and anyone else. I figure a blog is the best way to do this. I think you're going to benefit from reading my blog, which is why I'm spending my time writing it.

I've played sports all my life, and at the age of 25, health and fitness remain my top priorities. Until a recent diet experiment, in which I maintained a strict paleo diet (explanation later), I thought I ate pretty healthy. Much healthier than my high school days, when I had half a key lime pie after tennis practice each day, and much healthier than college, when many of my calories were from beer and pizza.

Healthy -- as a description for eating habits -- is certainly relative. I thought I was healthy. When I had to eat fast food I chose Subway instead of McDonalds. I always tried to buy organic, and did everything else Michael Pollen told me to do. I avoided "junk food." I cooked a lot. I minimized cream, butter, and fat. I dabbled with vegetarianism here and there, because, in addition to environmental and humane reasons, I thought a vegetarian diet was healthier.

But that style of eating doesn't equate with health, especially health up to my fitness standards. Until recently, my general nutrition philosophy was, "I'm lean and in good shape, so I eat what I want. I like to eat, and I like to work out, so it works." Never mind that I rarely used leafy greens or other fresh vegetables as more than condiments, got most of my nutrition from grains, relied most weeknights on frozen tamales, and was deficient in protein. There was a large discrepancy between my exercise habits and my adherence to the standard american diet (SAD). Tony Horton, creator of P90X, makes the analogy between good exercise and poor diet as purchasing the shiny model year Ferrari, but treating it like crap and filling it up with Mexican gasoline. That was me, minus the Ferrari.

Under the above philosophy, I maintained a willful ignorance of nutrition and diet information. I steered clear of all the diets out there, and all the conflicting gurus touting ever-changing information, because there was no easy way to evaluate the claims besides becoming a human guinea pig.

Example: One year, eggs are good for you. Next year, eggs are bad for you. Then, eggs are good in moderation. Then, more than 6 eggs per week will drown your heart in fat. Carbs are a similar phenomenon.

And, besides, I didn't need to try any diet...I was in good shape. And I kept telling myself that. 

My perspective was turned on its head a few months ago when my CrossFit gym invited me to a 45-day Paleo Challenge. Eliminate sugar and processed food in the first 15 days. Then, eliminate grains and legumes. And, for the final fifteen days, get rid of dairy. The premise behind the paleo diet is that "neolithic foods," i.e. foods introduced with the advent of agriculture, have not been around long enough for the human body to adapt to them. These foods are said to have anti-nutrients that cause inflammation, obesity, digestive issues, auto-immune disorders, and other disease. After Crossfitting for a year, I was very skeptical of the paleo (or caveman) diet. I'd been taught my whole life that beans, dairy and whole grains were essential to a well-balanced diet. I did not buy the idea that you should remove these food groups simply because they only became prominent 10,000 years ago.

But I gave it a shot. I didn't sign up for the challenge, but I read The Paleo Solution by Robb Wolf and went strict paleo for thirty days as an experiment. And I was miserable. I had little energy, got frequent headaches, and was often grumpy. I'm surprised my girlfriend didn't issue an ultimatum -- "either paleo or me." I imagine she was considering it.

Even worse than any girlfriend issues, my performance at the gym suffered greatly. I had no fuel in the tank to get through my workouts. Worse than even that, I was becoming a member of the growing population of CrossFit Douches. Subsets of this group are people that take any opportunity to rip their shirt off, and people that never stop talking about the paleo diet. I was both.

I tried to take solace in a couple blogs that said a "detox" occurs during the first month. I upped my calorie consumption on the advice of my coaches, and after a few weeks I did indeed begin to feel great. The mental clarity, well-being, and mood stability promised by the paleo proponents began to materialize.

But I was still dogging it in the gym. And despite the negative biological symptoms disappearing, my quality of life was still diminished. I was spending large amounts of time, effort and money planning and preparing every meal and snack. It was stressful. Although my body felt good, I found that the negatives still outweighed the positives.

Once my month ended, I quickly reintroduced my carbohydrate shake before my workouts, and I was back stronger than ever. I stopped fretting about "cheat" foods, adhering to paleo 80% of the time and feeling 95% of the benefits. And, most importantly, I finished the month with a body of nutritional knowledge and insights into the way my body works.

Currently, I'm not paleo, and I don't plan on it. I would call my diet "paleo style," or "nutrient dense," at least in comparison to my prior eating habits. I eat some grains and grain-based carbs here and there, mainly at breakfast and before and after workouts. I've discovered I'm mildly lactose intolerant, or at the very least my body runs better without dairy, so I've cut it out almost entirely. And beans, well, I eat them when I eat them, but they were never a part of my everyday regimen and still aren't. Most importantly, I've gained a lot of knowledge, and the experiment isn't over. Now that I realize, golly gee, there's actually a link between the foods I ingest and the way I feel, I'm going to continue tweaking my diet.

In finally beginning to pay attention to nutrition, I've learned -- and continue to learn -- so much. This blog is my attempt to share my newfound knowledge and insights. I hope you enjoy it.