30 day Challenge - Day 1

WOW... I am SO not a writer, but here I am starting a blog. How the heck does that happen? Well, it happens when people start to ask questions regarding my lifestyle changes... especially regarding my weight loss and fitness. I guess one other reason this is happening, is to be accountable to someone other than myself with going further on this journey. So... first blog... first day.

I decided to begin the 30 day challenge that Mark Sisson, from Mark's Daily Apple http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ , advertised to begin on Sept 12th, 2011. My only problem was... he's in a different timezone and I was confusing myself yesterday wondering if I should start my challenge today... or with the east coast time in America - crap, no, that'd make me start at night time here in Japan!! Well, he says you should start any lifestyle changes on a Monday... so, though 13 hours ahead of the east coast, I started when I awoke this morning.

What should I do? How do I begin the challenge prior to the first posting on MDA?? I decided to just go about my day in my new 'typical' primal way. That meant 2 eggs and bacon with an apple for breakfast, sushi with friends at lunch (no rice and really limited the soy sauce as I realized I, yet again, forgot to bring my gluten-free soy sauce!!!), and a lovely blueberry and cherry smoothie for dinner. I had a jewelry party to go to this evening and didn't give myself time to make a 'real' dinner, so I opted for a smoothie. My favorite way to make smoothies are with my Magic Bullet... haven't measured anything yet, but I fill up the cup with frozen blueberries and cherries, then put 2 dollops of homemade organic Greek yogurt on top and fill the rest of the way with Almond milk... whir it up and drink or spoon up. :) YUM!!

Anyhow... yet again, I was at a party with desserts and none Paleo!! So, once I got home, I decided it's time to look for recipes of Paleo desserts... ones I can make and bring with me to parties or gathering. So... get ready... gonna start cooking this week to determine favorites!!

At the party, I mentioned I was thinking about blogging about my Paleo endeavors to one person. This person was SO interested in my recipes (I've recently made a few salads and main dishes for parties that have gone over well), that I thought "Well, Deb, perhaps a blog is one way to share your recipes". So... here I am. Documenting the 30 day challenge AND the recipes.

One more thing: The other lifestyle change I've made is to do the Couch to 5K program http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml . It is an amazing program that literally takes a couch potato and gets that person to run a 5K within 9 weeks!! I have totally amazed myself, and though I've repeated weeks 3 and 4 for a few weeks while doing them (due to healing from a surgery... more on that in my "about me section"), I did Week 7 Day 3 today. That was a 5 min warm-up walk on my treadmill at 4% incline at 3.0mph, then run for 25 mins still at 4% and did the first 5 mins at 4.5mph then had to drop speed to 4.2mph and then ramped it back up to 4.5mph for the last two mins, followed by a 5 min cool-down walk at 3.0mph.

Why 4% incline?? Well, us PTs have to figure out ways to make treadmill running/walking as challenging as outdoor running/walking, so a few bot together at the Army Baylor program and decided that 4-6% incline ramps up the workload to be similar to the difficulty of running outdoors... I decided to use that as I run almost exclusively indoors. Living in Japan... during the summertime? INDOORS!! I am looking forward to the cooler weather of fall and the decreased humidity so I can get my bum outside!! In the meantime... running indoors it is.

What now? Right now, though it is early morning back in the good ole US of A, it is past my bedtime here in Japan... so I will get my 8 hours of sleep in a very dark room, hopefully to wake up before my alarm goes off. Tomorrow, I'll work on getting links and explaining this Primal/Paleo stuff!! I also promise those two salad recipes I've brought to recent parties.

Good night!! Don't forget to sleep in a cave!