Paleo & Tao Chapter 76 (Remain Flexible)

We all know that things change. Chapter 76 of the Tao Te Ching reads:

"While alive, the body is soft and pliant

When dead, it is hard and rigid

All living things, grass and trees,

While alive, are soft and supple

When dead, become dry and brittle

Thus that which is hard and stiff

is the follower of death

That which is soft and yielding

is the follower of life

Therefore, an inflexible army will not win

A strong tree will be cut down

The big and forceful occupy a lowly position

While the soft and pliant occupy a higher place"

~Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths in 2006


Flexibility…and acceptance of change. We innately know this, that change must happen but yet we still fight for sameness, for things to remain as they are. This happens in everything: you pray you don't get downsized out of the job you hate because although you hate it, you're comfortable there. Or you don't want to end a not-so-hot relationship because at least you have someone, you're somewhat comfortable. You don't want to give up grains because getting a bagel on your commute each morning is easy, it fills you up even though it makes you tired later. But you're happy enough, loved enough, and healthy enough right? Thankfully we as People are flexible, we evolve. Find any movie love story and there's a line in it about how one will love the other for the person they are now and who'll they become.

If everything about us evolves shouldn’t then our diet? We were satisfied with breast milk when we were babies, then we grew to like solids and then grew to like still different foods. Who gave us the idea that suddenly because we've reached adulthood that our tastes and our diets should stagnate? If we use our governments age of adulthood of 21, then I supposed to have the same tastes that I had at 21 for the next 80 years? I think not, I’d still be eating vegetarian bologna! When I was 21 I HATED margaritas and tequila with a violent repulsion. Today, a NorCal Margarita is one of my very favorite alcoholic drinks. Maybe not the healthiest of examples, but you know what I mean, my tastes are still evolving!

Growing up I had one brief run in with food allergies and was told I was allergic to chocolate and something in Doritos. After I grew out of those allergies, I really had zero trouble with foods. Well, that is if you consider gaining alot of weight to be "no trouble with food". What I didn't know then was that I had plenty of sensitivities to certain foods but because my diet was so full of inflammatory foods my whole system was inflamed. I had no way to tell which foods in particular were causing trouble as there were so many alarms going off I couldn't tell where any single one was coming from!

So fast forward to 4 years into Paleo and my personal discoveries include finding that I seem to have reactions when I eat;

- eggplant (oral allergy (?) causes lips to burn),

- roasted nuts, including almonds, (get a rash & tingling skin)

- milk, even raw & even raw goat (get itchy neck rash)

- corn chips, I used to consider non-GMO corn chips about once every 4 months to be a good cheat food (causes rash)

I went into Paleo with the idea that I really didn't know what I was doing and I allowed my body to teach me the lessons I needed. Since then I've learned a ton about what food is TO ME. Most importantly I've learned that learning doesn't all happen at once and that getting reactions to things you've eaten doesn't mean you're getting sick, it means you're becoming more aware! If you've been eating very clean then if your body says, "hey, that food you just ate? That wasn't a good idea", now you're in a position to listen....and to do something about it.

I suppose what I'd like you to take away from this is to remain flexible in your journey. Allow yourself to be wrong and allow yourself to change your mind later if you want. If you think you'll never NOT love ravioli or Oreo cookies and that you could never love vegetables, allow yourself to be surprised. There may come a day that you think Oreos taste like sugary-iron-plastic stuff (my opinion now) and that pesto is God's gift (also my opinion). You may discover a staple maybe doesn’t agree with you anymore and that one that you never thought about is now your favorite.

Life is exciting and oftentimes very surprising! Let it be so, go for the ride and discover what you may!



Best :)

Michelle

COMING UP: How did I discover what food do and don’t work for me, and how you can apply this to YOUR Paleo diet.

Why Do a "Paleo Challenge"?!

Seems like any time you google Paleo you get a bazillion links to gyms and blogs tracking people's experiences with a Paleo Challenge. Our box is even doing a Paleo Challenge: 6 weeks of clean eating for anyone who wants to submit a food diary to one of our coaches. Why do we bother to bug you about what you eat? Are we coaches trying to make you feel like shit? Do we think you need more "character" and so got together and devised this deprivation diet just to piss you off? Are we seeing just how much you'll let us get away with? Very simply put, you joined this gym in order to get healthy and we promised to give you the tools to do so.

Tool #1: Moving, has been addressed. Now comes Tool #2: Nutrition

Sometimes I wonder if you really understand the purpose of the challenge, of having to dedicate yourself to eating according to Paleo-food rules for four-six weeks. The idea is that we've all been on a junk food diet our entire lives. We really have NO clue how our bodies feel if it could be fueled by the purest fuel. This is our chance to find out. Cut out all the junk, see what happens. You have got absolutely NOTHING to lose and everything to gain.

Do you remember being young and being distinctly TOLD something like, "honey, the stove is hot." Words are nice and all but we didn't really KNOW the stove was hot till we touched it and got burned. Some learning needs to be experiential in order to sink in and make an impact. These Paleo Challenges are your learning experiences. All the testimonials in the world won't mean jack until you experience the goodness for yourself.

You know to eat vegetables, meat, some fruit, some nuts, some seeds. Already, if you're new to Paleo, you're starting to panic because that list looks awfully short. I assure you, it isn't! If potatoes, peas, carrots & the occasional leaf of iceburg sums up your knowledge of the produce department you have got ALOT to learn (hint: it's all good stuff). So you see this seemingly short list and start to panic and start to devise clever "paleo" alternatives. I can hear you musing, "there must be paleo-french toast, there must be."  It's similar to vegeterians eating soy-bologna sandwiches with vegenaise. Yup I'm sure you, at some point, thought it was funny that vegetarians eat things manufactured to resemble the very foods they strive to avoid, meat. Foods like Tofu-rkey, TVP "bologna" and other lunch meats made of soy & gluten, no-tuna salad and so on. So how is it any different for a Paleoterian to make meals out of Paleo-ified muffins, paleo-ifiedpastas and breads?

I've heard "because I miss those foods" as reasoning for eating this stuff each day. What is the point? What are you gaining by pretending? Think about it this way; isn't it hard to forget about eating cookies if you have your hand in the cookie jar? Carrots will never get a fair chance if you eat them always wishing they were pizza. You’re not about to throw your husband away because he isn’t Rich Froning right? So let’s be mature about this and not throw a fit about faux-bread not being on the menu J

The things I want the most for you to learn:

·         You CAN free yourself from your lifelong junk food diet & all the cravings if you dare to embrace Paleo completely.

·         The grass IS indeed greener (& not treated with RoundUp) on the Paleo side of the fence.

Take these six weeks and go unapologetically head first into eating Paleo and dare to be be the healthiest you've ever been. Don't eat clean just so you can feel better about an all out Cheat Day. Don't eat Paleo because you want to justify pizza and cake. Don't apply conventional ideas (ie: no fat is good fat) to your Paleo-challenge. Don't Paleo-ize foods to mimic junk food. Don't eat Paleo and wish you were eating "normal”. THIS is normal, eating PALEO is normal!

Bon appetit,
Michelle

My Dear Sweet Larabar!

Larabars.
When they came on the scene all us food naturalists were pretty stoked. Here was something that looked and tasted like candy but without all the hydrogenated oils, stabilizers and lab-created flavor coatings. With choices like "Key Lime Pie", "Cherry Pie" and "Chocolate Coconut Chew" we were just too excited to discover that they didn't contain any added sugars. No citric acid. No natural fruit flavoring. No added fructose. We could follow our Paleo rules but feel like we were cheating! It was kind of exciting.

But years have passed and we are so accustomed now to grabbing the newest flavor like "Blueberry Muffin" and knowing that there isn't going to be any sugar in it. We know because it's Larabar. They've been psyching us out for years with flavors that sound like they should be loaded in added sugars and bits and glazes. So we let down our guard. We stopped checking the ingredients.

WHAM!!

Sugar; it's in Larabars now. While part of me is a little bummed that they too submitted to demand to adding sugar and making "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough", I realize that this is business. And I'd be lying if I said I'd never had one. I just know that these are indeed CANDY BARS and she be used as an occasional treat. They are not meant to be eaten everyday and certainly not to be mistaken as "just as good" as a whole cup of fresh picked organic raspberries splashed with coconut milk or pastured heavy cream!

This is a good reminder here that no one has your best interests at heart more than you do. 
YOU are responsible for your food choices and none of them are safe, not really. This isn't a bad thing, it's a natural environment thing. Even our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to look upstream before they drank to make sure no herd of animals was wizzing in the water just then. It didn't mean that stream wasn't EVER safe, it just meant it was smarter to assess a food/beverage source every time before consuming it.

Just in case you're a comparison kinda kid, next time you go to eat a whole Larabar as "just a little snack" remind yourself that an average Larabar has the same amount of sugar as an entire sweet potato.
Just saying :-)

All the best,
michelle

The T.M.I. Post

We have just started Week 2 of our Paleo Challenge and so far my team is kicking BUTT! Only one week done though. That was the easy part, like doing a WOD with 6 rounds. Round one through three are okay. Somewhere mid-round (or week) 3 or 4 is starts to feel never ending. But it's all down hill and easy as paleo-quiche once you hit week 6.

So reading the first week's food diaries allowed me to get to know my team a little better. So now I'm going to start asking, "how do you feel". How do you know if you feel funky because you're basically in the middle of a sugar detox or if your body dislikes broccoli? How can you tell that? Experience. Trial and error. Above all, patience! Also though, don't be afraid to ask!

Starting a new dietary plan can be spooky. You dont know what to expect really and what happens if it doesn't work? And no one likes to feel crappy, what if this plan makes you feel crappy? But knowing really IS half the battle and that's why you have a team and an experienced team leader on your side. Any 'oddity' that comes up you can immediately figure out how to handle. You can identify, adapt and move forward.

Don't you worry about if a question may be TMI for me. I would like to help you tweak your diet if you're experiencing bouts of diarrhea or constipation. You can't improve your health if something like that is holding you back! It also helps to be able to ask someone a question and hear, "oh dont worry, that's normal and nothing to be worried about." Or maybe, "okay, do this instead." It's good to know, to feel assured that you're on the right track right? The only way you can improve your health is to be open to change and it certainly helps to have someone around that can give you confidence to keep going and to stay the course that you are on.
So how have you been feeling?
Are you sleeping better or worse?
Are you ravenous at night or are you satisfied after dinner?
Are you ravenous in the AM or not at all?
Do you feel strong? Or weaker?
Do you feel bloated or gassy?
Are you more/less thirsty?
Are you craving Gatorade?
Are you craving sugar? Or just....something?
Is your stomach grumbling? Or has it STOPPED grumbling?
Do you feel woozy? Or alert?
Are you getting menstrual cramps worse/less?

If ANYTHING has changed or is changing you can discuss it with me. I want you all to get the most from this challenge that you can. If you aren't sure what something new means, then ask me or one of your other coaches!

Best of health,
Michelle

Lettuce Pisses Me Off...

Don't get me wrong, I really like vegetables. I even like the lesser appreciated veggies like brussels sprouts, beets and collard greens. The funny thing is, I really like salads at other people's houses and out at restaurants (I'm not including the taco salad in the fried taco shell here as a salad!), but as soon as it comes to home? Nope. Not happening. It bugs me to have it in my fridge. It annoys me because it never fits in any of my normal bowls. Lettuce pisses me off, and I'm not really sure why.

For the next six weeks our CrossFit box is running a Paleo Challenge (ie teams of eleven people support each other as they all eat strict clean Paleo for 6 weeks to see how their bodies and performance changes). I'm not technically in the Challenge as I'm one of the team leaders but I'm taking this opportunity to eat clean again. Eating clean for me really means just removing cheese and wine, so I've set myself some separate goals all involving salad greens.

My goals for the next 6 weeks:

1) Eat raw salad greens with at least one meal per day, five days a week

2) One day a week eat all raw vegetables and fruits.

3) Each week try a new leafy green/source. Ie I can't eat Foxy Lettuce for all 6 weeks...puke.

So to get started? RECIPE TIME!!!!!!!!! The following recipe is for a salad dressing. The bacon and shiitakes give it substance and the balsamic vinegar's usual tang gets mellowed out a little by heating it up. You end up with this lovely caramel colored, sweet, smokey and salty dressing that is magic on tomatoes. Hope y'all like it!

(Disclaimer: I did not make this up, I wrote it down out of some garden veggie magazine at B&N and can't remember which one, nor can I find it. If you know, let me know so I can give credit where its due!)

Warm Bacon-Shiitake Salad Dressing

(serves 2ish so the recipe said)

2 Tbspn Bacon grease (drained from baked bacon)

2 Tbspn Olive oil

8oz (about 8 mushrooms) Shiitake mushrooms, sliced

6 Green onions, chopped (or 4 Tbspn chopped onion)

1 Garlic clove, minced

8 Tbspn Balsamic vinegar

4 slices Bacon, chopped/crumbled

In a sautee pan, put the grease and oil, heat over medium heat. Saute mushrooms for 1-2 minutes, add onions and garlic and continue to sautee until onions are cooked. Not so long though that garlic browns. Turn burner to lowest setting and stir in vinegar and the crumbled bacon. Warm through and pour over salad.

I poured this over a whole head of Boston lettuce with sliced tomatoes and it was fantastically good. Sadly, the picture I took didn't do it ANY justice. Just trust me, this will make your kitchen smell fantastic and will make your mouth happy.

Cheers to Paleo and Salad Greens!!

Making a Come Back...

It seems like in the last two months everyone has been beat up by something. People were coming down with all sorts of silly combination illnesses including flu-like symptoms, bronchitis, pink eye, strep throat etc. I myself was taken out of the work force for nearly 3 weeks due to a fever that turned into strep throat,  turned into dual earaches, turned into dual pink eyes. In addition to viral/bacterial infections it also seems alot of people were having surgeries or getting out of casts that kept them out of the fitness loop for months.

Going from 60 to zero and then being kept there for weeks or even months can mess with your head, not to mention your body. So what do you do? My first bit of advice is, "don't beat yourself up." It's easy to finish your first workout back and feel hopelessly weak and out of shape. It's easy to be mad at yourself for not feeling as fit as you once did, but lets face it, right now you aren't as fit as you once were. Yup, reality is a nasty little fish that bites you on the ass when you're skinny dipping.

You can't build a house on an imaginary foundation. Finding out how un-fit you now are is pretty crucial in knowing how to get started again. At our CrossFit we erase all of your 1-rep Max numbers and best times to wipe the slate clean and to give you a fresh start. You are now free to do work without feeling like you're working in the shadow of past achievements. You are free from feeling like your best effort isn't good enough until it matches what it said on the board.

Before you took a hiatus, you must have spoken with a new kid at least once. They said, "ugh, I feel so out of shape. I couldn't even do one thing in that workout as Rx." How did you respond to them? Now you're on the receiving end of that advice.You're the new kid, but with AWESOME form. One or one hundred scaled workouts doesn't make you hopeless, each one is just a point on a time line. More of a fit line. So plot your point and move on.

I didn't do a workout for almost three weeks. My first attempt at a workout and I did one round, 36 total reps in a CrossFit Open WOD, went home and took a 3 hour nap. The next workout back included a near-cry during and a 2 hour nap after. Only three weeks out of the gym and I still needed to slowly work my way back up to where I had been before.

Think again about that new kid. They didn't do any excercise before coming to your gym and now they're so excited they want to come every day even though they can barely roll out of bed in the morning. Did you tell them not to come in? To go away and not come back till Thursday? You remember hitting a WOD well 4 times a week, but now that's you! Getting back into it often requires easing back into it.

I like to remind myself that I got sick because I hadn't been listening to my body's needs. I pushed too hard for too long and got wolloped. But whether you were sick, injured, on vacation or otherwise removed from action, you can absolutely get back what you've lost. Don't concern yourself with where you were and how much you could lift. Focus on what you can do today. Ease back into your regimen and listen to your body when it says to back off. It will also tell you when you can floor it :-)

Yours in health!
Michelle

Bakin' and Burpees Baby!

Okay, okay, I'm kind of kidding. I think alot of us like to bitch and moan over burpees, but we don't actually hate burpees. That being said, however, they're not exactly groovy after doing them steady and fast for 7minutes (thanks HQ xoxo).

I did the CrossFit Open WOD on the morning after the workout was announced (7min AMRAP of Burpees to a target in case you missed it). My friend and I went back and forth about who was going to do it first (you, no you, no I insist you!). I "won", went first and did a miserable job of keeping the aftermath to a minimum (I haven't been that close to crying from a workout in a loooooooong time).
Even though the worst part of it is minute 7 to 8, when you've stopped moving and everything tightens up, it wasn't bad enough to keep me from wanting to try doing it again on Saturday.

This brought me to thinking, we CrossFitters are SO fun! Typically Friday night is thought of as a "let loose" from the work week night. Hey, go grab your friends! Let's drink and stay out late because we can sleep in tomorrow! Let's be irresponsible because we've been UBER responsible all week at the office! CrossFitter's fridays don't look like that, especially during the Open. Tonight I'm getting dinner early (5pm kinda early) with a friend. There will be no booze. We will probably go to the grocery store together, because we are WILD WOMEN! and I'm going to get almond flour, figs and honey because I am going to see if I can make a Paleo-ish approximation of Fig Newtons! Our box typically holds a post-WOD potluck barbecue and I thought Fig newtons would be a fantastic food to indulge in after those bazillion (hopefully) burpees.

My goal for this weekend is to add 7 burpees to my score and to revel in newly developed Figgy thingies (fun name to be developed whilst mixing, rolling, baking). Saturday night I shall again go to bed early so I can recover! Oh yes, we CrossFitters are SO fun! It's just that our fun is another (wo)man's torture and usually happens during daylight hours.

For this weekend, bakin' and burpees for all!
(Yes, of course I will share the recipe with you all...IF and only if it is decent!)
:-)