For the last three weeks, I have been apart of the Lurong Resolution Challenge at my gym. This challenge consists of completing workouts, trying new recipes and eating a specific clean diet. The recipes I've tried have been phenomenal! They have already replaced some of my staples. The workouts have been rough and tough but I've completed them. The one thing I have not been laser focused on is this strict diet.
This diet consists of three tiers: starter, pro, elite. You can choose a tier based on what foods were in your meal. For example, if I have beans in my meal, It would be flagged as pro. There is a whole list of foods that show you exactly what tier your meal would fall in. Seems simple enough right?
Except it's not. If you know me carbs are a staple, I repeat STAPLE, in my life. Whole grains but still carbs. This diet is to designed to cut those grains out completely. Leaving you with a very high protein, high fat diet (cue in your thoughts of thinking, oh so it's paleo).
For the first week, I was focused! There was nothing on my plate that week that could have constituted as anything less than elite. Lots of veggies, tons of eggs, meats and the occasional fruit. At the end of the week I lost five pounds(!) and I lost my sanity. I was grumpy. Everyone around me heard me groan about how hungry and miserable I was.
Week two and I decided not to be as elite and maybe focus on the starter and pro sections of the diet. Again, almost every day ended with me complaining about this diet. At the end of week two I decided this is just not the lifestyle (because a diet should be a lifestyle not a fling) for me.
At the end of this challenge, I guarantee you the first thing I would have eaten would have been a huge bowl of pasta! Because that's what I did in week three. And then I would have gained every pound I lost back, almost instantly. Which I did in week three.
I'm not saying that this diet [paleo] is wrong. For some people it works. I've seen those people at my gym. Fitter than Rich Froning, well almost :) but for me I want to maintain a healthy diet with all the major food groups and not lose weight just because I cut out one of those food groups.
Yes I know I didn't give it a fair shot and I really messed up this challenge but I learned something about dieting in that it does matter. 80% of your physique is built with nutrition and (sadly) only 20% is made with exercise. Therefore, I plan to focus my attention on eating whole foods that will fuel my body in the way I feel my body needs fuel. I needed week three to realize that just because I gave up does not mean I can't start again.
If you don't succeed, try try again!
-Kayla Preston
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