30-Day Challenge #2: Paleo

I have been keeping up with my Fitness Challenge, though you would only know that if you are also my Facebook friend. Last week, we went to St. John in the Virgin Islands and it was fantastic! We were active for multiple hours of every single day. I discovered that open water swimming in a still ocean bay is kind of amazing and I wished I had brought my goggles with me. I told Jason if we lived there, I would pop down to the beach every morning and do some ocean laps before work. Rhode Island has nice beaches, but not so much in January.

Because of the cruddy weather since we've been back, I haven't made it to the gym and I can't really run or walk outside because the plowing and shoveling in this town is dismal at best. Walking anywhere = dodging traffic. Jason and I have been jogging in place inside to get our daily step counts up to 10,000. I would like to note that my ankles hurt just as bad when I fake indoor jog as they do when I jog outside on the path.

Basically, yesterday was the first time in almost 2 weeks that I haven't had 30 minutes of activity. Today is day 29 of my 30-day fitness challenge, and even though I wasn't perfect, I know that challenging myself made me more aware of fitting activity into my day, even if it was just a walk. I think I only missed 3 or 4 days of activity in the past 29, and that's pretty great, in my opinion.

So I've decided on my next challenge, and this will focus on my overall health, rather than just fitness. February I'm going to go Paleo - or pretty close, at least. It's pretty much how I eat anyway, when I'm focused on eating healthy. Whole foods, no grains, no sugar, no processed foods. They also say no dairy, but I'll probably weave some in here and there (what is my roasted broccoli without the parmesan? Well, probably pretty tasty, but I do love the parmesan.) I'll shoot for carbs under 100 g per day.

I'm also focusing on Paleo exercise. Strength training, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and some low level cardio (meaning long walks). I'm still going to try to get in 30 minutes of activity a day.

Ideally, I would like this to be the way I eat and live forever. But I'm setting it up as a month-long challenge right now to really focus on it and get myself into these good habits for 4 weeks.

Day 1: Tuesday, February 1, 2011