Speaking of 100 day challenges. . .

this girl is about to start one of her own.  It's high time to get back into gear. While moving, I tried to eat paleo, but I was nowhere near the 80/20 mark.  This means my poor little stomach is very very SAD, and now that I'm in a new place, with a new job, meeting new folks, it's time to kick it into high gear on getting back into fighting shape.

Because living paleo means making it work for you, this challenge is less strict than the Whole 30.  But the point of it is to solidify this as a lifestyle, and I think the rule changes get me on that path. So here goes.

The 100 Day Challenge

The Food:

• Basics: Eat meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fat, no sugar.  (No grains, legumes, or dairy.) Nut and dairy disclaimer -- I'll be cutting dairy except for heavy cream in my coffee. This challenge is about solidifying the lifestyle. And that's part of it for me.  I'm also going to restrict nuts as much as possible.  They upset my stomach, and I need to find more reliable snack options.  I may still use some almond butter here and there, but no more buying of nuts for nuts' sake. 

• Special Occasion Meals: Out of 100 days, you may eat 20 "special occasion meals."  No more, no exceptions. This is less than the infamous "80/20" rule.  By that rule, you'd get up to 4 non-paleo meals a week (assuming you eat 3 meals a day.) That's too much.  I figure 20 meals over 100 days (300 meals) is much better, and fairly realistic.  Personally, I'm going to make a point of not wasting any SOMs on processed foods.  If it's a special occasion, it had better be celebrated as such. 

The Workouts:

• Short and Fast: Workout hard 5 times a week. While I won't have crossfit here anymore (though locals tell me they know some folks. . . ), I'm going to shoot for 5 days a week of lifting/muay thai workouts. 

•  Long and Slow:  Build long, slow-paced walks into your routine. Following Mark Sisson's advice on low level aerobic activity, my daily commute is going to become integral to my well-being.  Currently, I live about 2 miles from my new job.  So far, I've been walking to work, though I intend to start biking.  In the winters, I'll take the bus. My commute, plus all the walking that comes with living in a real city is bound to add up. Unless it's a dire storm, there's no excuse for me to drive anywhere now. 

• 100 Burpee Challenge: Complete the 100 burpee challenge. You may have remembered Meagan's successful completion of the 100 burpee challenge.  Watching her rock it for 100 days straight makes me wonder if I, too, could exhibit that amount of perseverance.  From Unfit to Crossfit is also planning on starting on June 1, so I'm on board.  Rumor also has it that Crossfit Genius may be starting something soon. . . 

The Community:

• Recipes: Try 1 new recipe per week. Per Meagan's suggestion, we will be creating and posting a new recipe each week.  We're still posting on the Crossfit Genius Paleo Cookbook, but we'll link here.  (Also, can I tell you how much I love the fact that googling "generally badass paleo" brings that up?)

• Social events: Attend (or host) 1 social event each week.  Humans are social creatures.  We need social interaction to thrive. Or at the very least, to help reduce stress.  Because I've moved, and because it's easy to just throw myself into my work and ignore the world around me, I'm building a social component into this challenge.

• Blogging:  Post or check in once a week.  I've been derelict in my blogging duties.  Because this challenge, the move, and the new environment should be giving me plenty of fodder for new blogging goodness, I'm aiming for a new post every week.

So that's it.  The 100 day challenge.  Perfectly reasonable, and definitely do-able. While I'm starting to eat paleo again immediately, challenge officially starts on June 1.  Who's with me?

Whew!

Today marks the end of the 100 day burpee challenge that I engaged in. Because I have such a supportive gym, guess what today's WOD is?

The 100 day challenge has stunk. At around day 55, I started thinking, "OK, thanks, I get the idea, I've built up my burpee strength, I think I can quit now." There were more than a few days, I'll admit, when I had over 100 burpees to do because I'd missed the day(s) before, whether because I was on the road or it just slipped my mind. I lost many workout days to catching up on my burpees.

So now it's over, and like any goal you set for yourself, I'm glad I proved I could do it. I'm glad my burpees are strong--no more squat thrusts for me, thankyouverymuch--but I am so ready to get back into normal lifting and WODs and joining in with the rest of the gym.

And, just in case anyone was worried I was going to start slacking now that I'm not doing burpees at every turn, today Whole 9 posted their 30 day challenge again. Who's in with me? (I was looking for an excuse to go to Bourbon Steak this weekend anyway...)

Fighting Shape

It's been a stressful few months for me.  I don't want to admit it -- I think we all lead stressful lives -- but some things have been getting the better of me. And that means I haven't been doing as well on the eating, sleeping, having fun, working out front as I'd like. I was pretty hard on myself about it, because I know I can do better.  Thankfully, several people have pointed out to me that I'm using the wrong rubric -- I've been comparing myself to me without stress, and that's not fair.  Really, I should be comparing myself to someone with equal amounts of stress: someone else in the middle of changing pretty much everything about their life.  We can only juggle so much, and if people keep throwing more balls up in the air without giving an extra hand to keep them going, we're going to drop some.  So, I've dropped some stuff. It makes sense. 

While I've been trying to pick everything back up, I've started thinking -- what is it that I really want? What is the purpose that is driving my actions? I know there are all kinds of good reasons for being healthy, but I'm not very good at doing things just to do them.  I try to choose my actions to keep in line with a goal.  And for now that goal is to get back into "fighting shape."

I can hear you now. Fighting shape? What are you talking about?  As much as I like to remember the brief periods I dabbled in boxing and muay thai, I'm a lawyer not a fighter. (Though if I were a client, I'd hope they mean the same thing.)  Like the term "home," "fighting shape" means a lot of different things to different people.  So here's what it means to me.

Being in fighting shape means

• feeling strong when I walk into a ring, be it a physical, legal or personal arena;
• being rested and alert enough to face any challenge;
• being guilt free about the choices I make and the values I hold to walk with swagger no matter where I go;
• having a corner of talented folks who have my back;
• having a gameplan, but being able to change it depending on what my opponent throws at me;
• not being afraid to get hit.

It's simple stuff really, things I'm sure everyone wants.  But it's a heck of a lot easier to think about preparing for a fight than preparing for life, so I'm going to stick with the analogy and roll with it.  Strangely, just thinking about it in these terms has helped me come up with the plan to get where I want to be.  I'm rolling out a new personal challenge soon, and would be delighted if anyone else wanted to join.  Details will come shortly.  For now, just know I'm glad to have y'all in my corner.