Baby cavegirls!

 
Since today is Halloween and also something people keep calling "Throwback Thursday," here's an adorable and paleo-tastic photo of 7-year-old me (right) with my friend Melanie (left) dressed as cavegirls in awesome dresses my mom sewed for us!  I guess my paleosity (yep, I'm calling it, that's a word) has been in me to a degree for sometime!

No major post today, but I have some quick updates:

1. I'm on week 3 of barbell training, and I feel much stronger.  I started off bench pressing 45 pounds (just the bar) and doing all the other exercises with 18 pounds, and now I'm doing exercises with 30 pounds, and today I tried adding weights to the barbell and bench pressed 50 pounds.  The most notable change is - remember those hanging leg lifts I struggled so much with from the article "I Am A Weakling"?  Not only can I now hang from the bar - I also did 3 sets of 8 reps on that exercise today!

2. When I weighed myself on Monday, the scale said 142.5 pounds - my lowest yet!  I wish I'd done a better job keeping track of how much I weighed at different times in my life so I could mark each milestone, but in any event, I haven't weighed this little since at least before I moved to Massachusetts.  When I started eating paleo and working out beyond just jogging, I weighed about 153, to give you some perspective.  My peak weight was 156.  Nice to know I'm back on track!  I had plateaued there for a few weeks, but I've started monitoring caloric and sugar intake as well as eating paleo, and that's really helped get me back on track.

3. Speaking of sugar intake, today was not my brightest, shiniest moment.  Since I bragged a bit in items 1 and 2, I think it's honesty time: I really binged on Halloween sweets today.  I have a colleague who is an incredible baker and very festive, and she pulled out all the stops... so when I got to work today, the break room was filled with caramel chocolate chip cookies, brownies, cakes, cupcakes, etc.  Plus there was a going away party for me and another therapist who's retiring, and they had the most amazing, moist, delicious cake for us...  When I deviate from the plan, I *really* deviate from the plan.  I don't think it would be hyperbolic to say I ate 10 different baked goods today.  So what do I do on this?  I come home, eat a sensible paleo dinner (paleo bacon chili over a sweet potato), and remember that tomorrow is a brand new day.  I love the Nerd Fitness stuff about this - We don't cheat; we make mindful decisions to eat something that isn't paleo.  Also, never two in a row.  That line of thinking probably merits its own blog article, which maybe I'll write sometime soon... especially in light of the fact that all the holidays at the end of the year do tend to bring out my sweet tooth.

That's pretty much it for today!  Hope your day was filled with a couple of treats and a bunch of adorable kids in cute and clever costumes!

A Massive List of Recipes

A friend of mine, who is dancing with the idea of going paleo, asked me for some recipe recommendations, and I thought it might be fun to post the email here for anyone who's interested.

Hello! I am emailing you links to some of my favorite Paleo recipes!

Also, if you look at the first entry on my health blog (http://ieatpaleo.blogspot.com) there are links to some of my favorite health and fitness websites. As we discussed the other day, I have the luxury of time, which I know is a thing you lack, so all the health and fitness tips I have to offer come from that perspective. I'll star ones that are fairly low-maintenance to prepare. (Low-maintenance doesn't necessarily mean fast - some of these have longish cooking times.)

Without further ado, some of my favorite recipes:

Breakfast -

Pumpkin Bread French Toast - http://paleomg.com/pumpkin-bread-french-toast/

*Sausage and Eggs To Go - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/sausage-and-eggs-to-go/

*Baked Egg in an Avocado - http://www.fitsugar.com/Baked-Eggs-Avocado-Recipe-30787252

Brussels Sprouts and Spinach Frittata - http://paleomg.com/brussels-sprouts-and-spinach-truffle-frittata/ (Takes some doing, but will provide about 8 grown-up servings of breakfast.)

Blueberry Breakfast Stuffed Sweet Potatoes - http://paleomg.com/blueberry-breakfast-stuffed-sweet-potatoes/

Banana Vanilla Bean Pancakes with Mixed Berry Compote - http://paleomg.com/banana-vanilla-bean-pancakes-with-mixed-berry-compote/

Fish -

*Baked Salmon - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-salmon-ii/

*Almond-Dusted Cod - http://pcospaleogirl.com/paleo/paleo-dinner-recipes/paleo-almond-dusted-cod/

Paleo Thai Coconut Lime Shrimp - http://paleomg.com/thai-coconut-lime-shrimp/ (One of my Top 2 favorites ever)

Blood Orange Salsa over Pecan Encrusted Tilapia - http://paleomg.com/blood-orange-salsa-pecan-encrusted-tilapia/

Poultry -

Kickin BBQ Shredded Chicken - http://nomnompaleo.com/post/61326007449/stupid-easy-paleos-kickin-bbq-shredded-chicken

Chicken Bacon Alfredo - http://paleomg.com/leftovers-chicken-bacon-alfredo/

*My I-Don't-Want-To-Cook Meal - http://paleomg.com/my-i-dont-want-to-cook-meal/

Chicken Coconut Curry Noodle Bowl - http://paleomg.com/chicken-coconut-curry-noodle-bowl/

*Turkey Basil Artichoke Meatballs - http://paleomg.com/turkey-basil-artichoke-meatballs-egg-free-nut-free/

Turkey and Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potatoes - http://paleomg.com/clean-it-up-mondays-turkey-and-spinach-stuffed-sweet-potatoes/

Date and Shallot Rosemary Chicken - http://paleomg.com/date-shallot-rosemary-chicken/ (Absolutely delicious)

Paleo Chicken Pumpkin Curry Sliders - http://paleomg.com/chicken-pumpkin-curry-sliders-paleo-recipe/

Beef -

Teriyaki Beef Stir Fry - http://paleomg.com/teriyaki-beef-stir-fry/

Butternut Squash Shepherd's Pie - http://www.primallyinspired.com/healthy-butternut-squash-shephards-pie/ (I recommend substituting sweet potatoes for butternut squash and peas for celery.)

Coffee Marinated Steak Fajitas - http://paleomg.com/coffee-marinated-steak-fajitas/ (My other absolute favorite recipe I make - it takes a bit of preparation, but is soooo worth it)

Veggies -

Watermelon and Cucumber Mint Salad - http://paleomg.com/watermelon-and-cucumber-mint-salad/

Salt and Pepper Sweet Potato Fries - http://www.hollywoodhomestead.com/salt-and-pepper-sweet-potato-fries/

Sweets -

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins - http://paleomg.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/ (I am literally incapable of overstating how delicious these are. I've made them 3 times.)

Blueberry Lavender Jam Ice Cream - http://paleomg.com/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-muffins/ (You may have to purchase the lavender in the floral aisle.)

Berry Cream Bars - http://paleomg.com/berry-cream-bars/

I have also begun to try to incorporate salad into every meal. I have some homemade dressings that I make... my favorite is a raspberry vinaigrette, which is just 1/2 cup of raspberry vinegar, 1 tbsp honey, and 1 tbsp of chopped mint leaves.

Hope this helps you on your journey!

Training Myself to Stay On Track

 I recently read a book called What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage by Amy Sutherland.  The book is based on this article by the same author from The New York Times, and its premise is that humans have a lot to learn from animal trainers about how to elicit desired behaviors from others.

I think that's true.  If you look at behavioral psychology, the premise is exactly the same as what you find in animal learning.  People respond well to positive reinforcement and unpredictably to punishment.

(Before I go any further, yes, that is my cat on a toilet seat-shaped apparatus.  I was inspired by a friend to teach Lily to use the people potty, and she rebelled horribly by leaving lots of presents all over bathroom mats... but as long as this article is about training myself, I thought the photo was appropriate.  And also funny.)

I've read some articles (on Nerd Fitness, I believe) about ways to keep yourself motivated after you get past that original "I'm doing this because I'm super excited about it since it's brand new and I have a ton of momentum!!!!!!" stage.  They recommend external reinforcers, such as giving a trusted friend $100, which you only get back if you meet your fitness or diet goals.  A really extreme example is designating a large amount of money to be donated to a political party you dislike.  My brain goes straight to the Tea Party, but in Drop Dead Healthy, AJ Jacobs takes it a step beyond that and asks his wife to donate $1000 to the American Nazi Party if he has another slice of the dried mangoes he's addicted to.  That would certainly do the trick!

A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with some friends, and one of them mentioned that in college, when money was really tight, he took up jogging three times a week.  In order to motivate himself, if he missed a run, he would put $1 in a jar that could only be used towards fitness-related expenses.  "I should do something like that!" I thought.

But then my mind started grinning.  (Do minds grin?  Mine does, I think.)  Ah ha!  If I had a bank like that, I could save for the Vibram 5-finger shoes I want!  Or I could buy a pull-up bar so I can do bodyweight exercises without going to the gym!  Or... ooh... special fitness classes.  Or maybe a food processor - does diet count as part of my fitness stuff?

So clearly that's a terrible plan for me.  Seeing as right now fitness is my obsession, I'd deliberately skip workouts just to be able to save for the stuff I wanted.

So I flipped it on its head.  Now, any day I eat 100% paleo and stay within the calorie parameters of My Fitness Pal, I get $1 towards fun fitness purchases.  And any time I do whatever exercise is on my weekly chart (see my previous article about organization), I get $1.  So I can earn up to $2 per day.  That's not that big of a burden on me financially, and I'm saving for things I might otherwise decide I don't have the money to invest in.  And with the exception of a (reasonably priced) gym membership and the Broadway Bodies class I want to take once I move, that's the ONLY money I can spend on that stuff.

And it works, too!  The other day, a coworker set out a plate of brownies in the break room, and I took a plastic knife and cut off a sliver.  "Just a small piece," I thought.  But then I thought of the Vibrams I want and left the brownie slice for someone else.  I don't get my $2 every day, but I usually earn at least one or the other.

It's self-perpetuating in a positive way, which is just what I was hoping it would be.

Organization for Good Health

 

It's no secret from those who know me well (or even from those who know me a little bit) that I thrive on organization.  I have ongoing to do lists at home and work at all times, as well as huge Excel spreadsheets to track tasks for major things like setting up my private practice and moving to Los Angeles.  This isn't something that works well for everyone, but it works well for me.

And for me, this organization has been the key to staying loyal to being paleo.  I used to go to the grocery store and buy 5 onions, a chocolate bar, some chicken, and toothpaste.  I'd spend $100 and then get home, put everything away, and immediately open the fridge and think "I have nothing to eat."  It's because I wasn't being strategic, you see.

So now, I use the spreadsheet you see above.  It tells me what I'm eating when, and grey connotes a major cooking project.  This spreadsheet actually isn't even the norm, really, because it has a lot of leftover (L/O) meals.  That's because last week I overcooked and wound up with a ton of yummy leftover food in my refrigerator.  But regardless, the spreadsheet helps me plan.

Basically, every Friday night I figure out what I'm going to eat for the week.  I take into account other life obligations, as you see in that last column, in order to figure out what will realistically fit into my schedule.  Then I use the chart to create a list of groceries that I'll need.  I list everything, even if I think I already have it, and then I take it downstairs to the kitchen and cross off items already there.  Then when I go to the grocery store, I know exactly what I need.  Sometimes I buy a few extra things.  For example, this week my local store had grass-fed sirloin steak, which they don't always carry, so I picked up some.  Plus when I went to buy the cod for Thursday's dinner, I thought it might be nice to make salmon next week, so I grabbed a filet of that.  But usually I'm pretty loyal to the list.  This saves me money (though I still spend an obscene amount on groceries), it saves me a return trip to the grocery store when I realize I need something I don't have, and it saves me the annoyance of purchasing a duplicate item I already have at home.

Don't get me wrong - this is tedious and extremely time-consuming.  And it's definitely not for everyone.  But it's kept me on track so far, so until it stops serving its purpose, I'll keep doing it.

And then there's exercise.  I list exercise on the chart, as you can see, but here's the schedule I generally try to stick to:

Monday - Water aerobics

Tuesday - Barbell-based weight lifting routine #1

Wednesday - Jogging & water aerobics

Thursday - Barbell-based weight lifting routine #2

Friday - Step aerobics OR Zumba OR Water Aerobics (depending on when I get to the gym)

Saturday - Barbell-based weight lifting routine #3

Sunday - Zumba

I try to do something every day.  Granted, this routine is quite subject to change.  When I move to LA, the classes I've been taking won't be the same as the ones offered at whatever new gym I sign up for.  Also, this routine is a huge time suck, and once I'm reestablishing myself in a new city, I may not be as willing to devote so much time and might choose to pare it back to just the 3-day strength training routine.  But for now, this is what I aspire to do.

Some people do really well just doing what they feel like doing and eating whatever healthy thing they're craving, but I know that if I do that, what I feel like doing is probably watching television, and what I'm craving is probably chocolate ice cream.  So for me, this system is absolutely a key (if not THE key) to my success.

My first 5k!

I suppose if you were looking for a decision I made that was the first step on a path to prioritizing health, it was the decision to start running.  I never enjoyed running.  In fact, I downright hated it.  About 3 years ago, I tried to start running using Couch to 5k but gave up around week 3.

Then, in April, I had a conversation with my friend Lauren and she told me that she and her husband Matt had recently completed the program.  She told me she felt full of energy, and that she was planning to go out jogging at the con where the conversation was taking place.  I knew they had been on a health kick from Matt's vlog, 34 Percent (alluding to the percentage of his peak body weight he was trying to lose) where he talked about eating more real food and turning his life around with healthy choices.  And thanks to this conversation, I decided to give jogging another try.

And I did Couch to 5k, start to finish.  Using an app called "RunDouble" I got off my butt every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday morning to jog before I started my day.  I ran my last day of the 9 week program (30 consecutive minutes of running) while visiting Ashland with family for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  But then something happened... Intending to keep up my jogging regimen while on vacation come hell or somewhat literal high water, I went for a jog through Ashland in the rain.  About a minute into my jog, I slipped, skidded on the ground, landed in the mud, and scraped my elbow badly enough that I still have a scar people ask about over 2 months later. 

And then I lost my mojo.  I got sick.  I didn't jog for a whole week.  When I did, it was for 20 minutes, not 30, and I had to work my way back up to the full jog.  I sporadically skipped jogs.  A bellyache was an excuse, as was the decreasing outdoor temperature.  As I got into eating paleo and doing all the other fun fitness things I've written and will write about, I realized jogging was the thing I enjoyed least.

But for some reason I don't understand - maybe to keep motivating myself, or maybe because it was only $20 - I signed up for a blacklight run 5k.  That had been the goal all along, right?  That's why the program is called "couch to 5k."

As this week progressed, I became whiny about the upcoming race.  I didn't like running.  It was the only thing I was doing that wasn't fun.  Maybe after the race I'd stop.

But here's the thing - while jogging by myself has lost its fun quotient for me, jogging in a group of people is a whole different story.

When I arrived at the race, I found myself walking behind a group of people.  I started chatting with them, and they quickly made me feel included in their group.  We lined up and shivered with anticipation... and also with cold.  :p

The jog started, but slowly.  There were a TON of people there, and they all kind of bottlenecked.  Also, it was a pretty casual event, so there were young children, older people... I even saw someone in a wheelchair.  I love the inclusiveness concept, but I didn't train all that time to walk behind slow people - I wanted to RUN!  So I headed off with some people from the group I had found, and we dodged and weaved around the walking contingent.  Sometimes this meant jogging next to the roped off course rather than within it, but I was dedicated to staying at a jogging pace rather than a walking one.

The gimmick of this particular 5k was that they splash blacklight reflecting powder on you at a few stops.  If you're familiar with a Color Run, it's like that except at night and with powder that glows under blacklights.  At the first glow powder station (pink), I kind of jogged through hoping some of the powder would just naturally make its way onto me - but alas, not much.

At the next station (orange), I was determined to get more powder, so I walked right up to one of the volunteers (employees?) who was spraying people with powder.  I got a splash of powder right to the t-shirt - that's more like it! - and then right to the face.  There was powder in my eyes, powder in my nose, powder in my mouth... blech!  I had to stop while I spluttered and ineffectively rubbed my eyes with my powder-covered hands.  Here's a photo that might give you some idea of how much powder was on my face:

...and that's after rubbing my eyes, blinking them repeatedly, finishing the race, dancing for awhile, and then driving 45 minutes home!  See it in my eyelashes??

At the last station (green, or maybe blue), I found a happy medium.  I ran right up to the people splashing powder, but I made a tunnel with my hands around my face.  That worked quite well.

I had lost my jogging buddies when I stopped for water at the halfway point, but I found them again after triumphantly crossing the finish line.  After meeting up, we went to a giant dance party where we threw packets of powder at ourselves and each other and danced to top 40 songs. 

Party photos!

So the party was fun, and the company was fun... but the most unexpected thing was that RUNNING was fun!  Furthermore, I didn't feel exhausted at the end of the 5k.  By contrast, I probably could have kept running.  Towards the end of the race, I overheard someone cynically comment, "I thought this was supposed to be a 5k... more like a 25k!" and I thought to myself, "I'm not even tired!"  What a revelation for someone who could barely run for 60 seconds back when I started in April!

I guess the takeaway here is that maybe I won't stop running.  In fact, maybe I'll train for a 10k.  When I get out to LA, I have some friends who are really big on running (though maybe too big into it - the two people who spring to mind have both done marathons) and maybe we'll do some races together.  I think that would be fun.

Running... fun... What a different mindset than I had a few days ago!

What the heck is paleo?

Before I jump into today's blog post, I just want to say:

There was a girl at the gym deadlifting 180 pounds today.  I want to be her when I grow up.

ANYWAY, I bring you: What the heck is paleo?

The day I decided to "go paleo," I told my sister, and she looked at me with half-mocking big eyes and inquired, succinctly, "BONES??"

A slightly more prefix-savvy friend asked, "does that mean eating like cavepeople or, like, literally eating rocks?"

The answer is neither.  Well... mostly neither.  Although I have yet to try bone broth or any other food made from bones, my sister wasn't too far off from what some paleo people do make a regular part of their diet...

Check out that photo - that's me with my groceries from a few weeks ago.  I get that it's hard to see a lot of the items because all the produce is bagged... but basically what you're looking at is meat (antibiotic-free chicken, grass-fed beef, etc), eggs, fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, and seasonings.  The canned stuff?  That's coconut milk, and the only ingredient is coconut.  This is basically what I'm eating these days.

The premise is that back when we were cavemen and cavewomen, these are the things we ate: animals and animal products, produce, nuts, and seeds.  We didn't eat grains, which are the product of agriculture, nor legumes, nor refined sugar, nor processed foods.  And since the advent of all that stuff, obesity rates have skyrocketed, heart disease and diabetes have become increasingly prevalent, and people are, generally, less healthy.  Granted, part of this is our increasingly sedentary lifestyle (which I'm addressing by going to the gym, and also I'm planning to set up a walking desk when I get to Los Angeles), but a great deal of it is what we put in our mouths. 

There's a lot of science that explains why this is healthy, too, but at risk of being a Bad Feminist, I'll disclose that I'm rather science-phobic, and reroute you to Mark's Daily Apple for your more technical explanations.  Also really great is this video about how fat isn't what makes you fat. Honestly, all I know is that eating Real Food (rather than processed food) makes a lot of sense to me, and that I feel really energized and healthy since making the transition to paleo.  Plus I've lost 10 pounds and 2 pants sizes.

The next question I frequently get is, "isn't that boring?  What do you eat?"  And the answer is that thanks to some absolutely amazing recipe websites, I eat pretty friggin amazing stuff, and some of it is stuff you'd never expect me to be able to eat on a paleo diet.  For example, my friend came over yesterday and we made paleo French toast.  It was delicious... and although it was legitimately paleo, I must admit that it was a bit of a stretch because it was loaded with honey, which is on my diet but should be eaten in small quantities.

On a less push-the-envelope day, here are some of the foods I eat:

I think most people expect my food to look like this salad, and some of it does, but not all of it.  Besides, isn't that a pretty salad?  Kale, blueberries, strawberries, walnuts, olive oil, and vinegar?  Yum.

MEATZA!  My favorite new discovery that I just tried this week.  Basically, it's grass-fed ground beef in place of bread crust, with pure tomato sauce and a bunch of really awesome veggies piled on top.

Paleo pancakes!  Yet another pushing-the-envelope food that my brain is still trying to understand is truly grain free.  Basically the trick is replacing conventional flour with coconut or almond flour, and using coconut milk instead of regular milk.  And the berry compote is just berries fried in honey.  Delish!

Curry coconut shrimp - just shrimp dipped in egg, a curry/coconut flour mix, and shredded unsweetened coconut.

My favorite paleo dish I've made so far, but a huge ordeal to make.  First, I have to cold brew coffee overnight.  Then I have to marinade the steaks in the coffee and some other stuff for a day.  Then I roll the steak in coffee grounds and spices, fry it up, and toss it on top of mixed peppers and onions.  I can't begin to tell you how amazing this dish is.

 

I ate a smoked turkey leg at the county fair.  I was pretty impressed with how many paleo-friendly options were available there!

For eating out, sushi places are my favorite, since I can just order sashimi, which is literally just raw fish.  I don't eat soy products, though, so I bring my own coconut aminos (a soy sauce substitute) to season the fish.

I am a weakling.

No, scratch that.  Let's say it differently:

I am weak.

I know, those two statements may not sound that different, or else the difference may seem semantic or picky.  But there really is a difference.  Consider the two following statements:

Jennie is snarky.

Jennie is being snarky.

The difference is an implication of permanence.  The Spanish language differentiates between these ideas by using "ser" to describe a permanent or set state of being and "estar" to describe a state of being in the moment.  But in English, we have to solve that problem by using precise language.  So the difference between "I am a weakling" and "I am weak" is that I view this as a temporary state of being, not a permanent one.

In other words, this is my starting point, but I'm working on it.  Or, in the rhetoric of Nerd Fitness, I just need to level up.

After all, in Kingdom Hearts, I stuck around the island until I was Big Powerful Leveled-Up Sora... but I didn't start the game that way.  I had to lose to Riku a bunch of times before I could beat him.  #geektangent

Until today, my exercise has been predominantly cardio training.  I've been running, doing water aerobics, which has some muscle-building benefits but is also largely cardio-based, and some Zumba.  All that stuff gets my heart pumping, which is great.  Cardio has great cardiovascular effects (hence the name) and increases stamina and has been linked to great stuff like not getting Alzheimer's later in life.  (Side note: decreasing the risk of Alzheimer's and cognitive decline is a HUGE motivator for me, because I'm a pretty cerebral person and the idea of losing my cognitive capacities as I age is basically the most terrifying thing I can imagine.)

But the thing is - everything I've read talks about how for real weight loss and long-term fitness-based health, strength training is a really important core piece.  Plus, I'm sick of being weak.  I'm sick of offering moving help for friends and then being the girl carrying a stack of pillows while the guys lift the heavy stuff.  And if I never had to ask someone to open another jar for me again (barring wet or greasy hands), I'd be pretty thrilled.  So yep, strength training.

Well, ok, so I'm not being totally fair to myself.  When I joined the Y about a month and a half ago, someone helped me get set up on the weight machine circuit.  I went three times a week, but with the weight levels we had set, I saw no gains.  I felt no DOMS and I didn't feel any more competent with the weights than I had when I started.  I increased the weights to try to get at that day-after hurts-so-good feeling, but all that did was make me unable to do the number of reps I was trying for and I *still* didn't have much soreness the next day.

And then I read this article about the problems with machines.  Basically, they isolate a specific set of muscles and move them up and down or side to side... which means they have no real life application, because that's not how people actually move in real life.  If the goal of strength training is to be able to bend down, use my legs while wielding a heavy box of books with my arms, and lift it up a flight of stairs, those machines don't really prepare me for all the different ways my body moves at once while doing that. 

So better than machines - bodyweight strength building, barbells, and dumbells.

So today I decided to try the first set of barbell training in the Nerd Fitness Academy for Women. 

I started with a dynamic warm-up, which included jumping rope for 3 minutes, 50 jumping jacks, 10 pushups (I did incline pushups since I can't actually do a normal pushup), swinging my legs back and forth a lot, squats, and a few other things.  When I finished the warmup, I felt pooped.  "Ok," I thought, "Time to call it a day.  Good workout.  Go team."

Except that wasn't really true, because all I'd done was warm up.  Oops. 

So ok, now time for the actual workout.  First was 5 sets of 5 reps on the bench press machine.  This was the scariest thing for me to try, because I've never bench pressed so much as a pillow.  (I know, second mention of pillows.  It might be approaching bedtime.)  But I used just the bar, and honestly it was totally manageable.  I felt my arms getting a little weaker towards the end of the 4th set, but it was pretty doable.  I still think I'll stick with just the bar for awhile, but I was surprised that the motion itself wasn't all that challenging.

Then, 5 sets of 5 squats with a barbell.  For this, I ditched the heavy duty metal stuff and used an 18 pound weighted bar.  Hey - I'm just a beginner here, and until yesterday, I don't think I'd ever done even an unweighted squat... so this was a big step for me.  Around set 3, my legs started protesting pretty strongly, but I made it through ok.

I won't walk you through the whole workout, partially because a lot of it wasn't that eventful and partially because Nerd Fitness Academy is a paid service and I don't want Steve Kamb, who I admire and respect greatly, to think I'm trying to make his labor of love available for free.  So I'll skip the middle of the workout and jump to the last two exercises.

Ok, now we come to an exercise that should be pretty simple, especially for someone who lives in a second-third floor walkup and works on the third floor of a building and therefore does lots and lots of stairs every day.  Literally, this exercise consists of step up onto a thing, step down from the thing.  So I picked a thing to use that was about halfway up my calf.  And I stepped onto it - or tried to - and my legs, still sore from squats went NOPE!  So I picked a smaller thing, about ankle high, and did the exercise on that.  Much wimpier, but at least I didn't throw in the towel.

And then the last exercise was this thing where you hang from a bar and do crunches by bending your knees up towards yourself.  I know, the hard part of this is supposed to be how it works your legs and abs... but for me, the hard part was hanging from the bar!  I used to do monkey bars like they were nothing when I was a kid, but I got through about two not-otherwise-difficult knee lifts and I think my arms started to come out of my sockets. 

When I left, I thought, "maybe I'm not barbell ready.  I'll start with bodyweight-based exercises."  But actually, very few of the exercises in this barbell rotation actually used a barbell, and the ones that did weren't the hard part.  So I think I'll stick with it, and just replace the hanging leg lifts with simply hanging for as long as I can, and doing 3 sets of just... hanging and counting to 5 or 10 or 30.  Gotta start somewhere, yeah?

So... here we go.  Time to get rid of weakling status.  Onwards.

My First Post!

So I've been blogging for quite some time (though not very consistently) about therapy stuff, but lately I've been really focused on health, fitness, diet, and weight loss.  I know that when I start to get interested or involved in something, it takes over my life and most of my conversations, and I would guess there are lots and lots of people on my Facebook who don't really care what the awesome thing I just cooked looks like, or that I discovered that LARA Bars are an easy paleo snack, or that I'm going to be starting a barbell training routine this week.

But people have commented that I look like I've lost a bit of weight (and I have - though only a bit... I need to prioritize decreasing the amount of natural sugar I eat), and some want to follow what I'm doing.  Other people are just glad to see my start to fight the possibility of becoming a 400 pound diabetic lump by the time I'm middle-aged.  (More on that in a second.)  And some are curious about what a paleo diet is.

Ok, I promised more on the possibility of becoming a 400 pound diabetic lump.  Maybe inevitability is even a reasonable word.  Because before all of this stuff, I wasn't grossly overweight (though I was over my recommended BMI, though BMI is a quite troublesome and problematic way to gauge health)... but there are a few things that were true.  These things were:

• I basically ate whatever fell in front of me.  This involved a lot of sugar and bread-type things.  It occasionally, though not too often, involved fast food.  It definitely involved cake.  I used to joke that if I stopped eating cake and cookies, there was probably about 10 pounds just waiting to fall off of me.
• My regular exercise involved walking down the hall to get my next therapy client.  Don't get me wrong - it's a long hallway.  But I hardly think it constitutes exercise.
• I constantly felt guilty.  I knew I "shouldn't" (and boy do I hate that word, Should) be eating the way I was and I know I "shouldn't" be so sedentary, but nothing had really clicked.
• I constantly felt like the "chubby person" in photos with many of my friends, or even standing in a room talking to someone who was fit.

So how did all this start?  I'll post a more thorough story later, but basically every time I travel home to Los Angeles (where I'll be moving next month), I have a conversation with my parents acknowledging that I need to make some serious lifestyle changes or else I'm going to have health problems as I get older.  Last time I saw them (in Oregon, where my "before" photo was taken), I decided it was time to stop saying something and start doing something. 

So I googled "how to get in shape."  Honestly.

And I found Nerd Fitness, which talks about working out, but it also talks about the Paleo diet, which appealed to me because it's based on just eating Real Food and being omnivorous and avoiding processed junk and things that could not exist without contemporary agriculture, such as grains, legumes, refined sugars, etc.  And at the very next meal I sat down to, I declared that I was "going paleo" and became a huge pain in the butt to our server, who looked at me like I was the worst thing to happen to her all day.  (Also, that's a look I'm getting used to at restaurants, but I don't dread it anymore because I feel confident in my decisions.)

Jeez, as I've been writing this, I've had to stop myself from going off on a bunch of tangents, because I see a bunch of things that are going to be future blog updates.  Here are some things I'll hopefully get around to writing about that I've brushed by in this intro:

• My "success story" to date
• What the paleo diet is
• My current exercise routine
• What I'll be eating while on the road to LA
• Problems related to a job that requires me to be sedentary
• My issue with the word "should"
• Feeling better about myself
• Eating at restaurants versus cooking at home
• The websites that have been the keys to my success

Actually, I'll give you the websites list now.  I think it's pretty great stuff, and if you're reading this because you're interested in trying some of the things I've tried, this should give you a wealth of information to start with:

• Nerd Fitness - just what it sounds like, fitness for nerds.  The writing is incredibly clear and accessible, and the nerd verbiage appeals to me because he talks about things like "leveling up your life."  This was my starting point for every other link on this list except the last one.
• PaleOMG - Juli's recipes are amazing.  Seriously, amazing.  If you think you know that you can't eat certain things (french toast, for example, or pasta dishes) on a paleo diet, her recipes will flip that notion on its head - she basically just modifies Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) foods to be paleo-friendly.  If I hadn't discovered this website, I'm not sure I would have stuck with paleo eating as long as I have.
• Nom Nom Paleo - More recipes, illustrated with adorable cartoons and mouth-watering, step-by-step photos.  I prefer PaleOMG's format because the recipes are easier to print, but there's some awesome stuff here too.
• Mark's Daily Apple - Articles and information about paleo eating, exercising right, incorporating play into your life, dispelling conventional wisdom, finding inspiration, and living primally
• Couch to 5k - A running program for people who have never run before, or for people who hate running but think they really ought to try it.  Thanks to this program, I went from getting winded walking up a flight of stairs to running for 30 solid minutes without a walking break.  You don't HAVE to work out by running - there are a million other ways to get exercise - but if you want to give running a fair chance, this is a good introduction.

Enjoy!