When: Tuesday, September 3rd – Tuesday, October 1st (4 Weeks)
What: 29 Days of you embarking on a food journey through delicious, power-packed, performance enhancing sustenance!
Cost: $20
How: Pay, plan, post, and perform!
The Challenge:
Practice Paleo eating habits for 29 days. Each meal, take a quick photo of your Paleo-deliciousness, and include your name, date, and meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack) in the photo itself. Send this to paleo@crossfitcypher.com.
Points will be earned for each Paleo meal submitted. However, you cannot repeat a meal. That’s right, you cannot submit twelve pictures of chicken and broccoli. This is the true challenge. We are creatures of habit and convenience, however, this evil routine is a sure fire way to become bored and frustrated. So, put those thinking caps on and get creative. Swapping out or adding one item makes a ‘unique’ meal (Example, chicken and broccoli for dinner on Monday is okay, chicken, broccoli and an avocado for Tuesday’s lunch is also okay). You can submit three photos per day, and must send photos by midnight on the day they are consumed.
Points for meals will increase throughout The Challenge as follows:
Week One (9/3 – 9/9): 1 point per photo | 21 points available
Week Two (9/10 – 9/16): 2 points per photo | 42 points available
Week Three (9/17 – 9/23): 3 points per photo | 63 points available
Week Four (9/24 – 10/1): 4 points per photo | 96 points available
In addition to scoring points for your fabulous photography, points will be awarded based on performance improvement as well. During the first week, we will test a particular workout – to be announced. At the end of The Challenge, in true CrossFit fashion, this workout will be re-tested and you will be scored based on relative percentage of improvement. This score will count for 1/2 of the total amount of points available.
A Paleo lifestyle can be intimidating at first! However, there are many resources available to you, and several resources right here within the gym! We will post a sampling of photos on the Cypher facebook page – please feel free to post recipes, tips, and best practices. We are in this together! When someone pokes fun at you for photographing your food choices – just smile and think someone else at the gym is holding a post-it note with their name on it next to their bunless burger too.
Here are the general Food Rules:
• Eat the heck out of meat, fish, seafood & eggs
• Eat the heck out of all non-starchy seasonal vegetables
• Bacon! Bacon is its own food group. Discuss. But seriously, get the thickest cut, low to no sugar if possible.
• Moderate starchy vegetables (yams, sweet potatoes)
• Moderate fruit. Watch out for high sugar (particularly fructose) fruits, as sugar is sugar to your body.
• Eat as much fat as you can, particularly animal fat (yes, seriously). Lard, olive oil, coconut oil, and in some cases ghee butter are your primary Paleo cooking fats.
• Moderate nuts and seeds
• Coffee is okay. Use coconut milk as a milk/cream substitute.
• No grains: bread, rice, cereal, pasta, bran, gluten-free pseudo grains, etc.
• No legumes (beans, peanuts, soy)
• No dairy products – eggs are not dairy and are a must have. Butter is OK for the purposes of this challenge.
• No sugars. Agave, organic honey, maple syrup, molasses, pure spun golden sunshine….it doesn’t matter. They are all out.
• No artificial sweeteners. Aspartame, Sucralose, Stevia, etc.
Click here for detailed information from the last Paleo Challenge, which lists some tips for becoming a caveman.
Here are your next steps:
1. Pay your $20! This will go toward awesome prizes at the end of the month.
2. Plan. A Paleo diet requires some planning. Try to look at each week as a whole and plan all of your meals and snacks. The toughest moment for Paleo-peoples are moments when you open an empty fridge. Convenience food is rarely Paleo-friendly.
3. Post your pics! Do not forget to send your photos of your meals to paleo@crossfitcypher.com. Include your name, the date, and which meal is shown. Also, be sure to post recipes, articles and fun tips to the Cypher facebook page – we are all in this Challenge together.
4. Perform! Get ready for the workout re-test at the end of The Challenge.
In true Cypher tradition, we will organize a Paleo Potluck to celebrate our success. More on that to come later. Any questions – be sure to ask!
Best of luck – hugs and steaks,
Leslie
