All Good Things Must End!

Call it! Time of death: 1830 hours, Friday, 12 Dec 2008. That date marks the premature end of yet another nutrition experiment. The No Sugar/No Grain Train has come to a screeching halt. While I'm disappointed that I didn't make it all the way until Christmas Eve, I won't call it a complete failure. I learned a bit about myself in the short 2 week life of the challenge.

First, let's talk about what brought on the death of the challenge. All week long both Amy and I struggled with urges to eat sweets. It started with that gruelling WOD on Monday. I was so smoked from that workout that I felt I "deserved" something naughty for surviving. We held form though and refused to compromise. The rest of the week though, that thought was still in the back of our minds. Also, I was not sleeping well. I was going to bed too late and waking up too much throughout the night, so by the end of the week I was exhausted and my defenses were really starting to crumble.

Thursday night we finally broke down and decided to dig into that caramel, nut covered apple that had been sitting on the counter for a week. We cut into it and Amy immediately declared it inedible. I didn't even get a bite. The apple was just simply no longer ripe or fresh, it certainly was not worth the guilt that would follow. At that point though I was past the point of no return, I had to have something. So, I dug into "The drawer" and pulled out some dark chocolate and had several chunks with a glass of red wine. That helped.

Amy also confessed that she had eaten some quiche and half a donut at work on Thursday. So, it was clear that the wheels were starting to fall of the challenge, the writing was on the wall.

By friday the fridge was starting to look a little bare and our protein options were running thin. I broke down and had a Purefit bar for a snack at work, Chocolate Brownie, no less. The final death nail came down Friday night when we decided to go out for dinner and then hit Barnes & Noble. Initially we were going to go to Outback Steakhouse and order off the Gluten Free menu, although we both admitted we would have had a hard time resisting the warm bread and butter, but we were going to try. We got to the restaurant a little later than anticipated and the wait was 35 minutes and I was starving. So, we decided to hit Chipotle. I didn't even try. No bowl for me, just give me the damn burrito in the ginormous ass tortilla and don't skimp on the rice. Hell, I'm even gonna wash it down with a little bit of Coke. If you're gonna fall, fall hard. We then went to B&N and of course finished that off with a trip to the Starbucks where we sat down to a decadent chocolate fudge cupcake, small red velvet chocolate truffle cupcake and a chocolate peanut butter cookie. Mmmmm...it was good. Didn't feel guilty, but did feel a bit sick. Definitely over did it.

So, now that the challenge was dead, now what? Just jump in with both feet and start pigging out on grains and sugar again? Not exactly. My goal now is to stay as sugar and grain-free as I can. I felt good when I was doing it. I feel like I leaned out a bit more, not that I really needed to, but I think I did. Saturday we went out for Thai food and requested "no rice". It was still a damn good meal, and I got plenty to eat. We learned something from this challenge. I also think it puts us in a good place for the Oceanside CrossFit 60 Day Zone/Paleo Challenge that will kick off after the New Year.

Okay, so I'm sorta caught up. I'm going to try to keep up with the blogging and logging my food and workouts. Should be interesting over the holiday, but that's what this is all about.

One workout worth noting over the last few days: Saturday we hit Angie (100 pull-ups, 100 push-up, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats) and I finished in 16:36.