February 24

Happy Monday!

Today I started my day off with a little Starbucks and research. I had a meeting with my URF mentor, so I had to finish up a few things beforehand. 

I also have finally decided to get back on my fitness kick. I was so busy the past week and a half that my exercise and eating habits fell to new lows... 

Luckily, the great thing about fitness is that even if you've been doing terribly, any given day you can decide to make a change and start seeing results (again). 

So after my (regrettably) unhealthy breakfast, I decided to make a change.

For a week or two now, I've been planning on "going Paleo" for Lent.

Originally I was just going to give up sugar and try to eat healthier, but after thinking a little more about it and researching the Paleo diet, I decided to give it a try. 

When you do CrossFit, like I did for about a year at CrossFit Maximus, they recommend the Paleo diet because it's supposed to be better for your body overall, and you still get plenty of protein... you just give up sugar, dairy, and grains, and you try to eat "clean."

The idea is that you eat like you would if you lived in paleolithic times, so you're just supposed to eat the basics (meat, veggies, fruit, nuts). 

Anyway, since I've been doing so badly lately, I decided to start my fitness plan a little early. 

So, after class I went straight to the gym for about an hour and a half, ate a Paleo-approved salad for lunch, lifted with the soccer team, then went straight to Kroger to get some goodies. 

I ended up getting lots of good stuff, so after I got back I went straight to cooking up a little meal. I have a slight obsession with anything spicy, and with asparagus, so that's what I made. 

I actually didn't look up any recipes or anything like that. I just took a (very) little olive oil, threw it on the veggies, and started cooking. I added a little pepper to the asparagus, and a little garlic powder and oregano to the peppers. 

I also heated up some ready grilled chicken with the peppers, then coated the mixture with a little sriracha sauce.

Sadly, Sriracha is not technically Paleo since the second ingredient is sugar, but I (1.) didn't realize that until after I ate, and (2.) didn't care that much since it's such a small amount... 1g per serving.

Still, once Lent rolls around I'll probably be making dinners like this with Frank's Red Hot rather than Sriracha since Frank's actually is allowed based on the Paleo diet. 

Maybe I can eat a little Sriracha on Sundays or something... I also want to point out that I don't intend to perfectly stick to the Paleo diet. 

I'm going to do my best to eat within the parameters as much as possible, but I don't want to make life too hard on myself (or anybody else) just because I'm going Paleo...

The other soccer girls already think I'm crazy for trying, but I'm ready for a change and tonight's dinner was delicious anyway. Time to get healthy and in shape! (finally)

I'd also like to mention that technically I don't think pre-cooked meats are supposed to be a part of the Paleo diet, but there's really no way for me to spend hours every night (or even every week) cooking all of my own meat... So I've decided that's one way that I'm going to give myself a little leeway once again.