A Carboholics Take on Paleo

I love bread. And beer. And pretzels.

Man, there’s nothing like plowing through a whole bag of Bachman pretzel rods during a long road trip.

Yep, I loves me some carbs.

I started working out at Crossfit Legitimus on-and-off last April, and pretty regularly since August.

While many of the folks in the box were eating paleo - Brian, Izzo, Dave and Kat, I didn’t really consider it. After all, I figured the WODs were already physically challenging enough without piling on the pressure of eating paleo. There’d be time for that later.

When Jen issued the Paleo Challenge in September, it seemed later had arrived.

Without completely thinking it through, I decide to try it – largely because of Jen’s inspiring blog post. [Full disclosure: I started a few days late, missed the “before workout”, and didn’t even get a paleo buddy.]

For a committed carb-avor like me, the first two weeks were tough. I get pretty irritable going through carb withdrawal. Just ask my wife. But thanks to Brian’s assurance that the grumpies go away, and Izzo sharing the secret of almond butter, I pushed through.

Soon things got easier.

I started seeing some benefits in less than a month.

I dropped fat, my clothes got looser, and I discovered previously unused holes in my belt. I also saw performance benefits during WODs.

Contrary to my earlier concerns, eating paleo was a net boost to my workouts.

Previously, pushups, burpees, and other press-type movements were painful, due to a torn labrum in my left shoulder. I was heading for surgery in November. But over the past three months, I’ve built shoulder strength, and am now passing on the surgery.

In fact, the only time my shoulder really hurts is when I skip workouts for a few days (“That’s what you get for skipping WODs!”, I can hear Jen saying).

Overall, my WOD times have decreased, and my lifts have increased.

I even started to enjoy burpees. Well, maybe "enjoy" not the right word….

Beyond the gym, there are real-world benefits to the Paleo Challenge.

When the big October snowstorm toppled trees all over my neighborhood, I spent a lot of time chainsawing them up. A seventy-foot-tall birch fell at the base of a hill near my house. After cutting it into firewood-sized chunks, I “wallballed” them up the hill to the woodpile, effectively moving an entire tree in a few minutes. Pretty cool.

The Paleo Challenge has paid off for my family, too.

Sometimes it’s in the form of the good natured mocking I get from my daughters for, “eating like a caveman” (they cut the comic below out of the newspaper for me). But it’s also in the food we eat; more fresh, less processed.

There’s still bread on the table, still beer in the fridge.

And I still love those things, I’m just not eating them. After 90+ days on Paleo, I want to keep a good thing going.

By: Charlie Neagoy