The Body that Paleo Built

I finished the final component of CrossFit SISU's Challenge today, the Bod Pod body composition testing.  It's time to set down my final thoughts on the challenge, and to compare today's "body that Paleo built" with last month's "body that PopTarts built."

I will (of course) provide many more details, but the short answer is:

I.  Am.  Ecstatic.

Really and truly, I could not be happier with my results from the challenge, and they have exceeded even my most far-out hopes for making positive changes for myself.  Here are the high points:

1.  Diet.  I have pretty much done a complete 180 on my eating--and it was easy.  Just for a refresher, remember that I'm the one who thought two poptarts and a Diet Dew were good pre-workout fuel, and who routinely hit McDonald's for my pre-race meals.  My diet resembled what you'd get if you handed a 10-year-old a $20 bill and turned her loose in a 7-11.  I never ate vegetables and rarely ate fresh fruit, and dinner (when I wasn't skating in the evening and I bothered to cook) was something to be gotten through to get to desserts.  Yes, there is an "s" on that.  I was a carb addict and a binge eater and, at age 50 after trying for 35 years to change that, I had given up.  I ate what I wanted and hoped I could exercise enough so I wouldn't have to keep going out and buying bigger pants.  I still wanted to change but really didn't think it was possible--and I almost didn't do the challenge because I didn't think I could give up grains, dairy, legumes, and (most) sugar.

Strangely enough, I never really missed them.  When I did have a brief urge for something, it's was a behavioral trigger rather than a true food craving--like walking through the Cub bakery on my weekly Saturday shopping trip, because I would always go through the bakery last and pick out a donut to go with my Diet Dew for the trip home.  These urges were easily dismissed, and the huge thing for me is that I can eat small amounts of Paleo treats (even with honey or real chocolate chips in them) and stop at one small piece.  "Stopping at one" has never been a part of my eating; as my grandma used to say, "one bite is too much and the whole pie is not enough."  I finally understand how people can crave something, eat it, and then be satisfied.  In the past, one always led to more.

I'm very glad that the SISU coaches chose a more relaxed nutrition challenge than something very rigid like the Whole30.  I was able to come up with a version of Paleo that worked for me right away at the start of the challenge, and thus there's no "wow I can't wait until these unreasonable restrictions end," and no trying to figure out how I'll eat from here on.  In fact, I didn't even have the urge to have a "cheat meal" when the challenge was done.  True, I'll have to figure out how I'll handle situations that include non-Paleo meals--I know for a fact that my parents are planning takeout pizza for Thursday dinner when my sister and I are visiting them later this week--but I'm hoping to be able to eat the occasional "off plan" meal without messing myself up.  I think making the challenge more flexible from the start was a good step towards this.

I'm also delighted to see how good real food tastes once you get rid of the crap.  I did not expect to actually like meat and vegetables and fruit--but I do.  I've figured out easy ways to "cook ahead" and I've got lots of tasty lunch and breakfast options that are actually good for me and that I truly, really think taste good, which will go a long way towards helping this diet change become a permanent thing.

2.  You've already heard about the fitness part of the challenge at length, so let's skip to...

3.  Body composition.  Here, too, I got a huge and wonderful surprise.  My home scale said I was down 9 pounds this morning from pre-challenge weight; the Bod Pod tech got me at 7 pounds down later this afternoon.  Either way, I'm thrilled.  I wasn't expecting to lose much if any weight, and certainly not this much.  I am now at the weight I was back in 2007, before hypothyriodism and perimenopause entered my life.  I truly thought I would never get back to that weight, and certainly not this easily.  I really wasn't consciously restricting my food intake, just eating when I was hungry (that in itself is a novel idea for me).  Anyway, my body fat is down .9%, from 18.6 to 17.7% (lower than it was when I had it measured almost 10 years ago).  True, some of the weight loss was lean body mass, but I expected that since the challenge was during skating off season and I had dropped from 4-5 hard skating workouts and 1-2 CrossFit workouts a week to just 2 CrossFit workouts a week.  I'll get the muscle back when skating season starts (with dryland, next week), and in the meantime I'm thrilled to be wearing pants that I haven't fit into in 10 years.  (This would be a problem if I had any concept of fashion, but since I don't...hello, 10-year-old jeans!)

So there you have it.  I am profoundly grateful to the CrossFit coaches for running this challenge, I'm glad I managed to get myself to give it a try, and I'm happier with the way I look and feel than I have been in almost 10 years.

So I'd say it was a success.