Day 8: Stress + Sleep Deprivation = Poor food choices, agian

I had about 6.5 hours sleep last night. And on a scale of 1-10, it was about a 4. I just haven't been sleeping so great lately. I think it's just from some stress in my life! :(

4:00AM Wake UP

4;30AM Already off to a non-paleo start. I ate a "Mojo" bar. I think it's made by Cliff bars, with whole food ingredients, but not all grain-free. I also had some baby carrots.

8:00AM 1 egg and 4 egg whites, broccoli, and ketchup (containing HFCS - yuck!)

9:00AM Apple

11:30AM this is about the time of day my lack of quality sleep began to hit me. I ate a salad of romaine and spinach, about 5 cut up strawberries, and some grilled chicken. There was no salsad dressing. I also had some salted, lime-flavored peanuts that I grabbed at the gas station, along with the Mojo bar this morning. Has anyone ever had these? They are yummy!

2:00PM I got a white-meat chicken with veggie bowl at Flame Broiler. No rice. I'm glad that is what I ordered because one of our clients was eating lunch there at Flame Broiler too. Sometimes I'm worried that I'll be ordering something totally unhealthy (well, that's actually unlikely to happen) and get caught by one of our gym members! LOL

3:30PM 5 dates rolled in coconut. I get these at Mother's Market. They make a great "Paleo" dessert. Yes, my lack of sleep had the carb-cravings kicking in.

4:30PM More carb cravings, but totally paleo. I had a Lara Bar, a gluten-free nut ball thing I found at Mother's. And some baby carrots.

8:30PM 4oz. chicken breast and some sweet potatoes

I didn't have time to work out today. I trained 7 clients. And I was sleep-deprived. Stressful days like this make it hard to stick to the diet. At least I get to sleep in tomorrow.

Macronutrient: 1995cals, 149 g. protein, 186 g. carbs, and 60 g. fat.

Day 7: Pork Loin Recipe and battling boredom/carb cravings

Pork Loin with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Onions - a recipe from Everydaypaleo.com

Sundays are a day of "rest" for me. I sleep in without an alarm, go to church, and spend much of my day relaxing, or getting caught up on other random things around the house. I read. I spend time with friends and family. But I try to take the day easy. It's rejuvenating. It's MY day!

In the past, Sunday's have always been my "cheat" day. When I'm trying to minimize stress in my life, I just find that sitting around the house, I have a tendency to mindlessly eat whatever may be in my cupboard. Today turned out to be no exception! :-/ It wasn't an over-the-top carb bender, but I could have made better food choices. Boredom and anxiety of the upcoming workweek tend to lead to me eating a little more!

So here's how the day went!

8:45AM wake up! I had 9 hours sleep. Quality was about 8/10.

9:30AM Blueberries and 2 dark chocolate squares

11:00AM 2 oz. haddock, 4 pimento-stuffed olives, baby carrots

2:00PM After church, they often hold a "Linger Longer" with food and so people can hang around and socialize. I had a small handfull of tortilla chips (oops! I love tortilla chips.) Then I wised up and got a small bowl of fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe, and mango).

2:15PM On the way home from church, I ate the apple I had sitting in my car. I always like to keep a smart snack like this in my car.

2:45PM Had pork loin with some sauteed veggies (one of my pre-made meals from earlier this week). Pork loin is kind of high in fat and it also has a tougher texture that I'm not used to eating with meat products. I haven't had much pork in my diet since my pre-vegetarian days. I have to say it was quite yummy! I also had some salad (romaine and spinach), chopped roma tomato and some avocado with lo-cal (not paleo) salad dressing. A better option for a Paleo salad dressing would be EVOO and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice.

4:00PM HAVING MAJOR CARB CRAVINGS! I found a packet of that Ocean's Spray Cranberry/Orange oatmeal, and I thought who cares at this point. . . I made it. I ate it. And I was unimpressed. This also reminded me of a good article I read about oatmeal on HealthHabits.ca CLICK ON THE LINK BECAUSE YOU REALLY NEED TO READ THIS ARTICLE!!! I used to LOVE this flavor of oatmeal! Ever since cutting grains out of my diet, I have found I have little cravings for grains! I also ate some delicious strawberries, 4 dark chocolate squares, 1/4 c. raisins, and 2 of my fruit snacks which are supposed to be for long runs! Yeah, this whole meal/large snack seemed unneccsary! Mindless eating. . .

6:30PM Grapefruit and 5 large strawberries

I have a SIXTEEN HOUR WORKDAY TOMORROW! It's good because it will be my busiest, most-profitable day yet. I have 7 amazing clients I am training, but, that will definitely take a lot out of me. I have a few breaks in between clients where I can rest, and get my own workout in. Tomorrow is another strength day! 5x5 back squats and 5x5 bench press. And then some other strength exercises. I might have to put off my run until Tuesday.

Macronutrient breakdown: 1830 calories, 73 g. protein, 265 g. carbs, 72 g. fat

Now, I'm off to prepare a day's worth of food because I will be spending my ENTIRE day from 5AM to 8:30PM at Equinox! It seems like everyone likes to work out on Mondays! Yes! Start the week off strong!

Will write more manana!

Day 6: First long-ish run on Paleo!

I fell asleep around 10:00PM last night. Throughout the night, I kept waking up to the sound of rain. My thoughts kept on turning to the 10 mile run in the morning with the Equinox Road Running Club, of which I am one of the coaches. We have about 35 runners training for the OC Marathon and Half Marathon, many of whom are relatively new to running. And all week long, I had my eye on the weather forecast, which was for a cold winter storm--REALLY cold for Orange County. They were actually predicting SNOW down to the 500 foot level, which meant snow in the foothills. Our run this morning was in Crystal Cove State Park, so along the coast. We definitely didn't have to worry about snow at sea level, but I really hate running in the cold. I'm such a wimp when it comes to cold!

So when my alarm went off at 6AM, I immediately turned on my computer to check the weather forecast for the morning. Turns out we were SUPER LUCKY! We had a break from the rain from 7AM until 1PM! When our group started off on our run, the clouds were breaking up and we had some sun. It was cold and windy, but the scenery along the coast was beautiful! It ended up being a great run! Our runners were champs! No one complained (which is something I would do, lol), and I had the chance to run with and meet some more of our runners. I absolutely love running with these people, and I love coaching!

So, after one week of avoiding grains, legumes, and dairy (except for my 2 Golden Spoon cheats), I was curious to see how I would feel and perform on a long-ish run. I had a fruit snack at the 8 mile mark, which was made of different fruit purees. Paleo? Probably not. Rather than carrying Gu's or Jelly Belly Sport Beans, I want to try to fuel myself with whole foods. So the fruit snack probably wasn't the best choice. I want to try more things like dates and bananas. The problem is figuring out how to carry them. The fruit snack fit into the pocket on my handheld water bottle. Does anyone reading this have any suggestions? A waist pack is out of the question. I felt great throughout the entire 10 mile run, except for the cold headwind.

So, here's how my day went. I decided to go for Cheat #3 today, since I had that 10 mile run. I was definitely hungrier today too. But at the end of the day, my calorie intake was still about 1,800. I'm trying to figure out how much more I should be eating when I work out more. I try to listen to my body and eat to satiety, which is what is recommended in the Paleo Solution book. When you are eating lots of fruits and veggies and lean proteins, it feels like you are eating all the time and eating lots of food, but it's not the most calorically-dense.

6:00AM Wake up. Eight hours of sleep, but sleep quality was about 6/10.

6:30AM Blueberries, imitation crab meat, 1 dark chocolate square

7:30AM 10 mile run, with a little fruit snack thing at mile 8

9:30AM Banana and Heed electrolyte drink

10:45AM 1 egg and 4 egg whites, sweet potatoes

11:30AM apple

4:00PM ground turkey, spaghetti squash, marinara sauce, baby carrots

5:00PM CHEAT#3 Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt (8oz)

6:30PM Salad (romaine lettuce, 1/2 roma tomato, 1/4 avocado, 4 oz haddock fish), lo-cal salad dressing, 2 dark chocolate squares, 5 strawberries

Macronutrient breakdown: 1810 calories, 91 g. protein, 296 g. carbs, 41 g. fat.

After one week, I don't feel any leaner. I don't like to weigh myself, since the number on the scale does not accurately reflect body composition. But it's only been a week and I am feeling really good! I could definitely use a good night's sleep though!

Day 5: Sleep Deprivation can ruin your diet!

Woke up at 4:00AM. Didn't sleep well last night so I probably had 4 hours sleep total. Not a good way to start the day. :-/

4:30AM raisins and raw almonds
8:00AM 1 egg and 4 egg whites with 4oz sweet potatoes, and more raisins and about 1T raw sunflower seeds
8:45 10 minutes cardio, single leg lying hamstring curls, lateral tube walks, high bar rows, bicep curls and lateral delt raises
9:20AM apple
9:30AM 1 hour yoga
10:30AM narrow grip lat pulldowns, rear delt flys, DB Bench Press, foam rolling, stretching
11:30AM Salad made with Romaine, 1 chopped roma tomato, 1/4 avocado, and 4 oz chicken with balsamic vinegar salad dressing
2:30PM spaghetti squash, 4 oz ground turkey, 1/2 c. marinara
4:00PM CHEAT #2: Small Golden Spoon. I met up with my friend Megan. I feel like my lack of sleep and long workday and workout left me feeling major carb cravings!
7:30PM 6 oz blueberries, 8 strawberries, 4 egg whites with chopped onion, 4 dark chocolate squares! and some more raw almonds and some pimento-stuffed olives.

Oh no, I'm kinda binging! I've noticed I tend to overeat when I am super exhausted. My body actually may need the extra nutrients. My workout today sucked since I was feeling smoked from everything else I've done this week. Well, I'm going to be early to try and remedy that. I have a 10 mile run and another long work day tomorrow! Time to regain control! I have my premade meals for tomorrow all ready in the fridge for tomorrow.

Random: I've never seen gas prices this high! Seriously. . . $3.75/gallon for regular unleaded, sheesh. And it's cold and raining and predicting SNOW tomorrow morning in the foothills of Orange County. Yes, bring on the long pavement run in the rain/wind/cold. (Sarcasm).

Lights out!

Day 4: How to cook spaghetti squash!

Sometimes I'll be eating lunch at work and my co-workers will look over my shoulder and ask, "What's that? Spaghetti?" And I'm like H NO! I wouldn't eat that fake, processed, made-from-enriched-bleached flour "food". Long before the whole high-protein, low-carb diets became the latest craze, I just was never a big pasta fan. I mean, it's good, but I always thought it tasted plain and was unexciting. So when I go out to an Italian restaurant, I usually look for any non-pasta dishes. However, I must say I LOVE garlic bread. . . but I digress.

So. . . SPAGHETTI SQUASH! It is FAR healthier for you than regular spaghetti. Click here for the nutrition facts in 1 cup cooked regular spaghetti, and then compare it to 1 cup cooked spaghetti squash. It's a vegetable, and not pasta. When I tell my co-workers what I'm eating, they usually ask how to make it. It's easy! So here's how!

BEFORE (left) and AFTER (right) cleaning out the insides of the spaghetti squash.

Step 1: Wash the outside of the spaghetti squash, and then use a butcher knife to cut it in half. Then cut each half so you have quarters. The insides will have some seeds and stringy stuff. It reminds me of cutting jack-o-lanterns. And just like with pumpkin (another squash), you have to scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. So I take a spoon and hold each quarter over the trash can and scrape it all into the trash.

Step 2: Take the cleaned-out quarters and place them in a large pot with a vegetable steamer and lots of water in the bottom. Bring the water to a boil with a lid on the pot. One thing to watch out for: Spaghetti squash takes longer to steam than other vegetables, so make sure to check periodically to make sure the water in the bottom is not boiling completely away. (I once burned a pan and ruined a steamer while my spaghetti squash was undercooked and scorched! Grrrr!)

Step 3: Check the spaghetti squash with a fork to see if the strands start to pull away from the rind. I find this usually takes 7-10 minutes with the water boiling.

Step 4: Remove the spaghetti squash and set them on a plate to cool off. Cooling off takes about 15 minutes.

Step 5: This is the FUN part! Take a fork and start to scrape the spaghetti squash "noodles" out of the rinds. If you cooked the squash thoroughly enough, it should come out completely and easily!
This was the "noodles" I pulled from 1/4 of the spaghetti squash.

There are different ways to eat it. You can eat it with some butter and salt and pepper. I like to eat it with ground turkey and marinara sauce, just like regular spaghetti! I'm sure there are plenty of other good and much more creative ways to eat spaghetti squash, but I'm too lazy to make anything fancier! LOL But I would like to try something new eventually.

Here I have portioned out 3 meals - 1 cup spaghetti squash, 4 oz ground turkey, with 1/2 c. marinara sauce. Yum! About 240 calories and totally filling!

So here's how the day went!

4:00AM Wake up after about 6.5 hours sleep.

4:30AM raw almonds and raisins

5:00AM Six miles of trail running! In the dark! With a headlamp! It has been at least 2 months since I got up before dawn to run trails. It was my friend Jeff, and I. Our buddy rePete was supposed to join, but apparently had alarm clock issues. We ran into a few other crazies out running as well. My legs were smoked from some earlier workouts this week, so it was a struggle. I'm afraid I whined too much this morning! LOL

6:15AM apple

7:15AM 1 egg and 4 egg whites with some sweet potato

8:30AM raisins, raw almonds, baby carrots

9:00AM Spin Class with HEED in my water bottle (ok, so Heed is not Paleo, but whatever)

10:15AM Grapefruit

11:30AM Pork Loin with some veggies (bell pepper, garlic, mushrooms, onion)

12:00PM 2 1/2 Hour Nap (I really needed that!)

3:30PM Well, I'm allowed 3 cheats a week. . . so I decided to indulge in a small frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon! Sooooo good! But didn't sit so well in my stomach for the next couple hours. It's funny to see how the body reacts when you really clean up your diet. I used to eat Golden Spoon, literally every day. . . sometimes twice a day!

7:00PM chicken breast with broccoli, blueberries

9:00PM Dark chocolate square 88% (yes it's very bitter, but still chocolate-y!) and 8 fresh strawberries!

Macronutrient breakdown: 2065 calories, 120 g. protein, 261 carbs, 61 g. fat

So I definitely ate more today. I think my body really needed it. I could have done without that frozen yogurt, since it's mostly sugar. Overall, right now, I'm feeling pretty good! Now I have to go to sleep since I have a long work day tomorrow!

Day 3: A cooking frenzy!

About 2-3 times a week, I have cook all my meals for the next few days. Here I have some veggies sauteeing on the upper left. Upper right I'm cooking up some lean ground turkey. And in the front pot is spaghetti squash!

So I woke up today feeling great! I got 7.5 hours sleep last night and slept like a baby!

8:00AM Woke up.

8:30 AM 1/4 c. dried apple, raw almonds

9:00AM One hour spin class

10:45AM raw almonds

11:30 1 egg and 2 egg whites with 4 oz imitation crab mixed in, baby carrots

I stopped at Sprout's this morning to buy some more food. On a Paleo diet, and not spending much time at home, you have to plan and prepare your meals ahead of time. Yes, this is very time-consuming. Twice a week, I go into a 1 1/2-2 hour cooking frenzy. . . washing, chopping, cooking, steaming, measuring, and portioning all my food into little Tupperware containers or plastic baggies. That way, in the morning when I head out to work, I can grab a few ready-made meals, throw them in a bag, and then keep them in the fridge at work. Or, during the day, if I come home for a few hours, rather than fishing around in the cupboard for something to eat, and noshing on dried fruit or raw almonds (which are healthy, but calorically dense), I already have some yummy meals ready to toss in the microwave ready to eat in just a few minutes. It's like I'm making my own "convenience foods"!

The time I take out of my day to prepare everything is SO WORTH IT! People say it's expensive to eat healthy. Sure, some healthier options out there (like coconut oil vs. vegetable oil) cost more. But in the long run, planning ahead and preparing your meals at home will save you beaucoup bucks, since you're not grabbing Subway or Flame Broiler, or eating whatever else is in the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.). So, in my mind, it's almost like I'm getting PAID for my time in the kitchen because it is saving me money in the long run!


1:00PM 2 oz chicken breast, 6 oz fresh blueberies, 2 dark chocolate squares

2:30PM 1 Hour weights. Today I did some 5x5 deadlifts and 5x5 overhead press. I got up to 135# in the deadlift (traditional) and failed on my last 65# overhead press. I began arching my back too much and it became more of a push press. (Sigh, I've forever been stuck at 65# and can't get more than that much weight over my head. Oh well, gotta keep on trying!)

3:45PM Branched Chain Amino Acids


5:00PM 1/2 of my spaghetti squash, ground turkey, and marinara sauce dinner

6:00PM 45 Minutes Tread & Shred Class

7:45PM The other 1/2 of spaghetti squash/ground turkey/marinara, more baby carrots, and 2 pimento-stuffed olives!

Macronutrient breakdown: 1194 calories, 73 g. protein, 121 g. carbs, 49 g. fat. I realize this is UNDEREATING and I DO NOT recommend this! Especially for my level of activity. I honestly did not feel that hungry today and when I totalled this up tonight, I was shocked and irritated with myself. Not eating enough will cause your body to start eating into muscle mass. Muscle recovery is slowed down and you risk overtrianing. It can also slow down your metabolism as your body can go into starvation mode. I do have some rice protein powder and might make a little protein shake with some frozen blueberries before I go to bed, but I hate eating anything this close to bedtime because when I have food in my stomach, it is sometimes hard to sleep.

9:30PM LIGHT'S OUT! Got an early morning trail run tomorrow! El Moro rocks my world!

Paleo Challenge: Day 2

7:00AM Wake up. Got 8 hours of sleep and felt great!
8:00AM raw almonds, 1/4c. raisins, 5 egg whites with chopped onion, cooked in coconut oil, and 1/4 avocado
9:30AM apple
10:30AM Ran 3 miles to the HB pier and back with my friend Sarah. Then we did a metabolic conditioning circuit of 25 KB swings, 25 pushups, and 25 Ab-mat situps for 3 rounds. Awesome!
12:00PM A big salad of romaine lettuce with 4 oz chicken breast and cilantro salad dressing.
3:00PM Banana, 1 88% Dark Chocolate square, and 2 scrambled eggs
6:30 PM Raw almonds, 1/4 c. raisins, 4 oz chicken, and 1 c. broccoli

Macronutrient breakdown: 1465 calories, 103 g. protein, 153 g. carbs, and 53 g. fat

So, 2 days into the "challenge", I feel good. But I'm sure I could still be eating more. Especially since tomorrow is going to be a big workout day...And I also need to find some good Paleo recipes since I am getting bored of eating the same foods! (I've been eating a lot of this stuff for the last month already!)