Anyone up for a challenge? A healthy eating challenge! I’m going to try something new for October. My local cross-fit gym is running a 30 day challenge for October where we have to focus on healthy eating based on Paleo or Primal foods. You’ve probably heard of Paleo. Up until recently I thought this was the reserve of the beardy hipster types. Quite frankly having given a beard a daycent attempt and with it itching like bejaysis until I shaved the thing off, I decided Paleo probably wouldn’t be for me either.  I joined Guerrilla Fitness in Clonakilty a couple of months ago, and low and behold this Paleo thing cropped up again. My sister in law is hooked on it and my wife had begun to dabble in it as well. So if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em I guess. So I did a bit of reading and discovered that Paleo makes a lot of good sense, it has less to do with its mascot cavemen and how they ate, but more to do with how our grandparents ate. I don’t have time for fancy recipes or hard to find ingredients, so I am going to try and make it as simple as possible for anyone that would like to give it a try. I’ll post up what I am eating along with how I feel I am progressing. In short, I will be cutting out processed foods, grains and sugar, and focusing heavily on fresh vegetables, proteins and healthy fats. If you want to be extra strict, you can also cut out dairy.

I also took the obligatory pre-challenge selfie to see if there is a noticeable difference. I’ll spare you that photo for the moment, but after 30 days, I might post a before and after photo.

For an idea of what types of food you can eat and those you can’t, check out this handy guide I found.

http://crossfitbda.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/30-Day-Paleo-Challenge-Packet.pdf

If you fancy an extra challenge, you can follow Guerrilla Fitness Clonakilty who will also be posting a daily challenge.