New Year, New Challenge

Happy New Year to all, can you believe it's 2009 already. With the new year, I will embark on a new nutritional challenge. I'm not doing it alone, I'm joining a big crew from Oceanside CrossFit, and we are doing a 60-day Zone/Paleo challenge. The idea is to do either a strict Zone or a strict Paleo/Zone diet for 60 days, starting January 3rd (today) and finishing on March 3rd.

My plan is to go serious Zone and mostly paleo. I will resurrect the no-sugar/no-grain challenge that I struggled with last month. Now, I am saying this, knowing full well that at the end of the challenge I will be cheating a bit. Let me say that again, I WILL be cheating toward the end of February. In mid-February we are going to Keystone, CO for 5 days of skiing at my Mom's condo. I think I will be able to stay mostly Zone and probably even mostly Paleo there, but I'm sure there will be some mild cheating going on. The real issue is the 3 days that we will be in Solvang, CA meeting some friends who are coming in for some California Wine Country fun and to watch the Tour of California. This will not be a Zone-friendly weekend. I have resigned myself to that fact, and I actually am embracing that fact. I will enjoy this weekend in February.

So, because I know that I will not actually make it through a full 60 days of staying strict to the challenge, does that mean I shouldn't embark on the challenge? Absolutely not! The whole idea of this is to improve my diet as much as I can over the next 2 months and hopefully develop/strengthen dietary habits that will last a lifetime. I wholeheartedly believe that this will be a great challenge and that we will all learn a ton during it. I also believe that at the end of it we will be amazed by the results and encouraged to continue down this path.

Good luck to all that will be joining me. I hope to keep this blog updated as much as I can. i will also be trying to post to the OCF blog as much as I can. I encourage those of you who are also doing the challenge to post comments to the OCF blog and/or my blog. Tell us your frustrations/successes/favorite recipes/whatever comes to mind. It's going to be a good 60 days.

Today's weight: 157.4 (ugh, rough holiday season)

Breakfast
2 eggs poached
1 apple
handful of almonds
1 cheddar cheese stick

OCF WOD: Fight Gone Bad - 335 (new PR!!!)

Lunch
Spinach salad
4 oz Rotisserie chicken
Tomatoes
Feta cheese
Almonds
Kalamata Olives
Roasted Red Peppers
Bragg Healthy Vinaigrette
1/2 banana smeared with peanut butter

Snack
handful almonds
1 clementine orange
Turkey Jerky

Dinner
4 oz Sirloin Tip Roast
spinach salad (tomatoes, celery, carrots)
Sauteed Broccoli
Kimchi (homemade...mmm)

Snack
1 oz turkey jerky
handful macadamia nuts, 6 almonds
1 Firestone Walker Pale 31