Paleo week 1:
Days without grains, dairy, legumes, or anything processed: 7
Days grumpy: 7

My thoughts overall are this. Paleo is great for short term. It’s got me thinking more and more about food as nutrition. And is helping me make much better food choices. But it’s hard yo. And a boat load of work. For instance, I went to the beach on Saturday. The beach is a thing in my family. Because we live so close I was raised to always have my beach bag ready to go and we’ll grab a bagel on the way and bring sandwiches and everyone will be happy. Well. No sandwich for me. Instead I had to pack a salad, cut fruit, raisins, almonds, and, no joke, 86 ounces of water/seltzer. We went later than I’ve gone in a long long time so breakfast was at home. No easy bagel, had to make eggs. And cut fruit. The salad was good. And so was the fruit. But my Mom’s special K chips looked so much better. We left around 6:30. It’s at least an hour ride home. I was starving. But there aren’t really any Paleo options around, it’s sort of a trashy boardwalk full of mostly fried stuff or pizza. Normally I would have gone for the pizza. Instead I bought a lobster, came home, cooked it, and made this salad. Yes, the salad was much better for me than the pizza would have been. But I didn’t eat until after 8:30. Hungry me!

I also wake up tired every day. And not tired like I want to go back to sleep, but tired like I have no energy. And I’m pretty sure it’s because I cut out complex carbs. My body has no fuel to run on until I eat breakfast. Usually around lunch time is when I’m starting to feel energized.

Yes, my 4 mile run was actually pretty good on Sunday. And yes I lost a lot of weight last week. But at what cost. I’m hungry all the time, I have no energy, and during mile 4 of that run I had nothing nothing left in the tank and could maybe have hurt myself if I had run much longer. I’m going to stick with this, but next week I’m adding sweet potatoes. I also might eat a few servings of grains. I’m walking 26.2 miles for the Jimmy Fund and I don’t think I can walk for 14 hours with so little energy. I’m going to evaluate this weekend.

The rules:
Something Old: Songs that are at least 5 years old. (I know that isn’t too long to be considered old, but music turnover happens quickly.)
Something Current: Songs that have been released within the past year.
Something to Consider: This is the wild card category. Feel free to list any song: old, current, guilty pleasure, underground, whatever.

As promised. Here’s the big news. Half Marathon training officially kicks off this week. Ok. That’s not the big news. The actual news is I’m going Paleo. Before everyone jumps on to tell me how poor a decision this is, or how fad diets don’t work, I understand. But, here’s the thing. Nicole inspired me with her post about diet and nutrition choices and leaving each other alone. I am a Weight Watchers fan. I understand that with portion control and exercise I will lose weight healthily and will be most likely to keep the weight off. However, right now, my will power is zip to none. I’m at a point in my life where most of my social interactions are around going out for drinks. Or have people over for dinner. Or meeting for dinner and drinks. And it’s so easy to tell myself to have one glass of red wine and then get to the bar and someone else ordered a large beer and then I want that. Also, I work sort of long hours (not crazy long, but not just 40 hours a week). And some days I don’t want to cook. So I eat overly processed food. And then “treat” myself to an ice cream bar. And then one more because I have Weight Watchers points left for the day. In making the decision to try Paleo, I checked out some naysayers. And they had some really valid points. The one that really stuck with me as a reason not to try Paleo was this. If these foods I’m supposed to be avoiding were really what was making me fat, then everyone in Asia would be fat. But the Japanese are some of the healthiest people in the world. And right here at home, I have a friend who eats cheese, beer, wine, bread, peanut butter, and beans to her heart’s content and she’s one of the healthiest people I know. So I don’t think this will be a super long term plan. But for now, I need some strict rules to get me back on the weight-loss, feed-my-body-well track. And boy does the Paleo have some rules. I like rules, though. So at least for a little bit, Paleo is my diet. And we’ll see how this goes. Living without grains, dairy, and legumes. Plus no processed stuff. Including Diet Coke. You might want to avoid me in the mornings for the next little while.

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Walking the Jimmy Fund Walk for the 4th time to raise money to help kids with Cancer
Please consider supporting me in this cause.
Donate here: www.jimmyfundwalk.org/2012/liz_kinnal

What up homies, friends, family, and random internet strangers/friends?

line finishers. All to raise money to help sick kids be more like kids and less like patients. The Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber work hard to rid the world of this horrible disease, cancer, all the while remembering that treatment, doctor’s appointments, and hospital stays are interrupting a childhood. Money raised for the Jimmy Fund goes to brilliant scientists working diligently in labs to fight this disease and goes to creating an environment for these kids to get better in. When my Mom was sick in 1972 she stayed in an adult Oncology ward, there was no child ward, my grandparents could only visit during visiting hours, there were no cots for parents to stay with a scared child, and she survived through her strong will and the luck of living in New England in the back yard of some world class physicians and surgeons. These days kids get better with other kids, parents can stay all night and hold the hand of their son or daughter, and those kids are all there to see the best and brightest surgeons Boston and the world have to offer. And not just by luck. Boston has some of the top hospitals in the country. The Jimmy Fund supports it all.

I’ve been wanting to write one of these posts for almost 6 weeks, but I keep being far away from a computer on a Thursday. So I haven’t. This week I’m fixing the situation. And bringing you my Playlist Thursday. Head on over to Pavement Runner for the scoop on his list and a list of other bloggers participating. But first, here’s my list. The rules are like this. It’s Thursday; I give you three songs on my current playlist that fit each of these categories. This week Pavement Runner’s theme is “Local Flavor”

Something Old: Songs that are at least 5 years old. (I know that isn’t too long to be considered old, but music turnover happens quickly.)
Something Current: Songs that have been released within the past year.
Something to Consider: This is the wild card category. Feel free to list any song: old, current, guilty pleasure, underground, whatever.

Well, that’s my list. I hope they’ll bring a little pep in your step! Anyone else got some faves from Boston/MA? Anyone not friends with me anymore for liking NKOTB more than BSB?