Fuel Challenge

30 Day Paleo Challenge – Week 1

Posted by bronick on June 9, 2012
Posted in: Food Log, Fuel Challenge. Tagged: .

Week number 1 is done! And overall I think I did pretty good. While didn’t do so good with packing food to bring to the office, I did try to make some smart choices… like getting a carne asada salad rather than a pastrami sandwich. I did do much better with breakfast and dinner having finally cleaned up my kitchen and did some cooking at home. Here are a few snapshots:

Another area I didn’t do so well with is the drinking, as I did continue to have some wine with dinner throughout the week. But in spite of this, I did still manage to make process according to the scale (which I know is not always a good measure, but it is nice to see progress there).

With regards to starting on a Friday, I think it works out well. As my weekends tends to be a little off when I’m being social, so rather than finish up the week that that way I get to start off the week that way. Speaking of the next week… its time to bump things up. I’m going to make an attempt to limit the amount of nuts and fruits, as well as not eat out so much.

Oh, here is the complete menu for the rest of week #1…  Read more…

30 Day Paleo Challenge

Posted by bronick on June 4, 2012
Posted in: Food Log, Fuel Challenge. Tagged: .

So once again I fell completely off the wagon, MIA from the gym, and was living off pizza. When will I learn :-(

With the start of the new month (June), I decided to try and get back on the Paleo/Primal track. Since I don’t seem to be doing so good with the “trying to just eat better”, I’ve decided to join in with a few other folks on http://robbwolf.com who decided to do a 30 day challenge for June (read here).

I was a little weary of starting on a Friday, as I usually like to start fresh with the beginning of the week on a Monday. However, considering that the weekends are usually my downfall, I figured decided it was a good thing after all. And for the most part I made it through pretty well, aside from a few glasses of wine and some cheese. This included resisting the pizza they provided for a meeting and later birthday cake at the office on Friday.

Here’s a sample of some of the meals which I make:


And here is the full meal log… Continue Reading

Paleo Challenge 2011 – Finish

Posted by bronick on February 16, 2011
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After a workout at the gym yesterday, it was off for the post-paleo dunk! And the hydrostatic results are…

2011-01-01 2011-02-15 Change
Weight 190.0 lbs 180.2 lbs -9.8 lbs
Bodyfat 21.6% 18.49% -3.11%
Fat 41.04 lbs 33.32 lbs -7.72 lbs
Lean 148.96 lbs 146.88 lbs -2.08 lbs

(View more photo progress here…)

I’m pretty happy with the results. The guy from FitnessWave said 3% change in BF was good. On the down side, I did lose some lean mass as well. I have to say that this time around I didn’t feel that I had quite as much energy as the last challenge. Not sure what all plays into that, but talking to the guy it might have been underfeeding. He said a lose of 2-3 lbs lean mass is a good indicator of that. So I guess I need to eat more ;-P In the past I did more snacking which I didn’t do this time around.

I am definitly planning on sticking with mainly paleo eating going forward (after a few indulgences ;-D ), as it definitely does seem to work well. But there are few things I will be adding back in now that the challenge is over… like a post-WOD protein shake.

Looking forward to hearing how other folks did at the post-paleo party at the gym this coming Friday!

Paleo Meals

Posted by bronick on January 10, 2011
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A little review of my meals from last week…

Its nice to be cooking at home again, although the dishes drive me nuts! Its a never ending task when you have a small kitchen. Bulk cooking helps… alot! My attempt at crock-pot beef and veggies turned out ok, but it needs alittle something-something. I’ll need to look up some recommendations. My attempt at Paleo Shrimp Scampi (recipe below) on the other hand turned out great!

I did take some time to look up some Paleo recipes and decided to try the Thai Chicken Soup as my first one. Overall it is very good, however, it does seem to be missing something. You check out the recipe below along with my notes. Next up Paleo Butter Chicken… we’ll see how that goes!

I did eat out a bit this week. Breakfast was from the office cafe since I slept in or out with friends over the weekend, just because I wanted to be social. Either a omelet or scramble with some fruit. Did eat dinner at Una Mas on Sat because I was attending open house for my drum corps (San Francisco Renegades) and it was a fundraiser. I got the steak fajitas, just meat and veggies w/ gauc and tomatoes.
Continue Reading

Hydrostatic results…

Posted by bronick on January 7, 2011
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As part of the Paleo Challenge, I got a hydrostatic body composition test tone from FitnessWave. Its nice to know that my home scale is WAY off, as the number was kinda frighting… granted I’m still not terribly thrilled with the more accurate results:

Home Scale 30.9%
Hydrostatic 21.7%

According to their recommended percentages, this puts me at the very upper end of the “average” for men. One of these days it would be awesome to get down to single digits, but for now I’ll be happy to drop down into the teens.

The ironick part of it is that I’m basically the same percentage as I was two years ago (21.4 on 02/20/2008), but my weight has gone up. Which means I’ve been adding lean mass, as well as adding to the spare tire unfortunately.

Paleo Challenge 2011

Posted by bronick on January 4, 2011
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With the start of the new year, I’ve started the Paleo Challenge with the gym again. Its a bit different this time around, as its a point/penalty based system and a bit more strict than the one from last year. I’ve been wanting to start paleo again for some time, so this will be a good jump start. I’m only committing to Level 6, as I have lots of meat at home which I should use which doesn’t qualify for Level 7 as it is not grassfed/freerange/etc… But I’m planning on trying to eat at Level 9, just skipping Level 7.

So far, so good. I spent some time this weekend cleaning up my kitchen since I’ll be doing a lot more cooking again. Here are a few of meals I’ve started off with:

Paleo Day 31 – Almost…

Posted by bronick on April 1, 2010
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Bunless Burgers, salad, and beer.

Bunless cajun burgers, salad, and beer.

So the Challenge is officially over… but I am planning on continuing eating mainly Paleo (or Primal) going forward. However, I treated myself last night to some beer and 1/2 price burgers at St. John’s Bar & Grill.  For the burgers I did do lettuce wraps with no cheese to avoid going overboard right away ;-)

Breakfast
Cajun turkey omelet w/ veggies and salsa
Strawberries
Macadamia nuts

Snack
Turkey slices
Red bell peppers
Baby carrots
Almonds
Few slices of dried fruit

Snack
Turkey slices
Red bell peppers
Baby carrots
Almonds
Pear

Dinner
2 Cajun burger lettuce wraps
Side salad
IPA been

Snack
Coconut Bliss ice cream

Paleo Day 30 – Final Day

Posted by bronick on March 30, 2010
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Steak, broccoli, pumpkin, and tomatoes

Steak, broccoli, pumpkin, and tomatoes

Breakfast
Cajun turkey omelet w/ veggies, guac, and salsa
Orange

Snack
Turkey slices
Baby carrots
Red bell peppers
Almonds & Pecans

Snack
Apple w/ almond butter
Turkey slices
Red bell peppers
Almonds

Other
PWO Smoothie – Strawberry, banana, egg whites, coconut milk & water.

Dinner
Grass-fed longhorn steak (New York Strip)
Steamed broccoli
Roasted pumpkin
Fresh tomatoes
Banana “ice cream”

So the challenge has finally come to an end… Today was my last official day and was finished off with a nice big paleo dinner. Finally got around to trying the grass-fed longhorn steak I bought from the farmer’s market the other week. The meat itself was good, however, I think i was little to well done for me and I bit peppery… as I apparently used a bit too much Ms Dash seasoning. Do I finished off the meal with some banana “ice cream” to cool my mouth down. I love this stuff!

What’s the plan for tomorrow? Well, the same as I’ve been doing…. with one exception, I am planning on going out and having a beer ;-) There was lots of talk of beer over the week and all I could say was “2 more days”. But I do plan on trying to continue the paleo diet, however, maybe not quite so strict. I’m also thinking of checking out the Primal diet as well. But definitely planning on keeping up the eating clean for a while… its nice to be losing weight again. And my energy is good. The fact that I haven’t needed caffeine or an afternoon map in 30 days says something!

I did update my progress page with my photos and some stats, the rest will be filled in tomorrow and then the workouts hopefully Thursday.

Paleo Day 29

Posted by bronick on March 29, 2010
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Lamb meatballs w/ kelp noodles and sauteed greens

Lamb meatballs w/ kelp noodles and sauteed greens

Breakfast
Veggie omelet w/ salsa and avocado

Lunch
Turkey slices
Red bell pepper strips
Almonds

Snack
Turkey slices
Red bell pepper strips
Almonds
Strawberries

Other
PWO Smoothie – Strawberry, banana, egg whites, coconut milk & water.

Dinner
Paleo lamb meatballs (made with almond meal) over kelp noodles w/ no salt added tomato sauce
Sauteed greens

After reading the post about kelp noodles on the cfscpaleo blog, I decided to give them a tried. They weren’t that bad, but I think I prefer the spaghetti squash for “spaghetti”.  I might try a noodle bowl or stir fry with them later in the week. The meatballs turned out good though.

I also tried a different approach to lunch today, basically doing what I did over the weekend while out at the qualifier… just much throughout the day without having  a real meal. Worked out pretty well and will probably just go with that tomorrow as well.

Only one more day to go! I can’t believe it’s been 29 days already…