My First Week Eating Paleo

Greetings,

Today is the end of my first week eating Paleo.  I weighed in this morning and went from 196.4 pounds last week to 197.8 pounds this week for a gain of 1.4 pounds.  I tried to eat my regular daily calorie intake but I believe since my energy was down so low I didn't get the calorie burn I normally do with my workouts.

I'm not too disappointed and my energy seems to be coming back so I guess it just takes a few days for your body to get used to the paleo diet.  I have always included dairy and a wide assortment of grains in my diet so that may be why my energy was so low all week.  My assumption is that it takes your body time to adjust to a new routine and getting the energy from fruits and vegetables instead of dairy and grains may have something to do with it.  I will see as I enter Phase 2 of P90X starting tomorrow.

Today is my rest day and I feel pretty good.  My energy seems to be stable and I have been getting a good amount of sleep over the past week.  I will say that I have slept better this week than in the past.  I'm not sure that has to do with the paleo diet but I would be willing to bet it does somehow.  I will continue on the diet for at least 3 more weeks and see what effects it has on my body fat percentage and overall weight.  I hope to be down to 190 pounds by the end of this round with about 15% body fat.

My diet is not perfect paleo.  I have been drinking my Shakeology every day and feel like I need those nutrients to keep my body supplied with the best nutrition I can get.  I just read a pretty comprehensive article in the May issue of Oprah Winfrey's magazine, "O", which goes into great depth about the superfoods provided in Shakeology.  If you want to read a detailed review of the ingredients provided in Shakeology, I recommend picking up a copy of the May issue.  If you want to find out more about Shakeology and see what doctors are saying about it, check out this link and go through the tabs at the top of the page.  Not only is it chock full of the superfoods outlined in Oprah's article, the best thing about the drink is the taste.  I think I will do some posts about the individual ingredients in Shakeology in the near future.

Overall, I am glad I started the Paleo diet on my Phase 1 recovery week of P90X because I don't think I would have had the energy to get through the workouts.  Hopefully, I will have the energy to push myself through Phase 2.  The first week is another "adaptive" week so I will lighten up the weights and lower the reps somewhat and see how well I can get through the week.  My daily calorie burn target is 700 calories.  I usually don't have a problem burning 700 calories in the P90X workouts except for Kenpo X.  My body has adapted to Kenpo better than any of the other workouts so I have to push myself really hard to get 700 in that workout.  When I did my first round, I was easily burning over 800 calories in that workout.  It is still a good workout to build up a sweat, but I have to push hard and my recovery is really fast at the end of the workout.  It is a sign that my overall health and stamina has improved greatly since I started using Beachbody workouts.

I will post again soon and let you know how my week goes doing P90X and eating paleo!  In the meantime, keep bringing it!

To your health and fitness,

jw