Exhibitionism Update

Here we are, noon on Day Four of Project Svelte (only one of its many names) and here’s what’s happened so far:

First thing in the morning, fasted metcon. The first two days were just rowing intervals so I could re-find my rowing technique (day 1 was 4x 500m, day 2 was 3k for time, day 4 was 250m, 25 burpees, times 4. Where’s day 3, you ask? Hush.). I’m surprised and delighted to find that I can row at a 1:57/500m pace at a 25 strokes/minute rate. I used to have to fling myself around at 32-40 strokes/min. There’s a FGB video out there somewhere where it looks like I’m trying to row the damn thing across the room. For any cardio junkies in the audience, please note that the morning metcons never last more than 20 minutes, but are an 8-9 out of 10 for intensity.

Don’t row in socks. You’ll get blisters from the foot rests.

Food: breakfast is eggs and back bacon, lunches have been chicken & greens either in salad or soup form, and dinners have been steak and broccoli. There’s some coconut milk in coffee from time to time, and I stole a prune from Etta yesterday… Silly move. To battle the resultant sugar cravings (and to avoid eating the BROWNIES that a certain husband made. BROWNIES. I say again BROWNIES) I had a bit of almond butter last night. I’ve only had one incidence of “brain fog” which was quickly dealt with by eating a whole whack of cucumber. Turns out my caffeine tolerance drops when I’m eating clean, too! I suspect coffee sends my insulin for a ride, but I’m not willing to give that up just yet.

Tally to date: no wine, no chocolate, no grains, no sugar, no potatoes, no beans. Feeling good.

Anybody out there working a similar plan?

Armpits and Sugar

I saw this in the comments over at PaNu:

I have noticed substantially less absolute need for personal hygeine with paleo or at least VLC eating. I have stopped using deodorant completely. My shirts could easily be worn several days in a row before washing. On VLC the glucose in your sweat, sebum, etc must be much lower. Less sugar – less bacteria.

And at the risk of oversharing… I have to agree! I used to think stinky sweat was due to the amount of coffee in my life, but found when eating super clean (meat, fat, green veggies, nuts and seeds, in that order; no sugar, grains, or dairy) I could drown myself in caffeine and not get smelly. Jittery, yes. Smelly, no. (I’ll talk about the caffeine-insulin-cortisol trifecta in a later post.) Curse you, sugar! You make my armpits reek!

Yet another reason to avoid the stuff.