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AIO Paleo Challenge 2016

By April 13, 2016 No Comments

For the month of May, we’re going to be starting our first ever Paleo Challenge! Since you’re working out with us, you have your exercise in order and those of you who came to our seminar on the Power of Paleo (if you weren’t able to make it, the slides are available here), have an understanding of what the Paleo diet is and why we like it. So now it’s time to kick it up a notch and get your nutrition in check as well!

Remember that nutrition has importance beyond just health and wellness. The better we eat, the better we perform as well. We have improved energy, a better ability to gain muscle and lose fat, as well improved recovery from our workouts. So what’s stopping you?! Let’s get this challenge going!

The rules are simple. Your diet will be comprised of whole foods (foods that had parents or grew from the ground) such as vegetables, meat, fruit, nuts and seeds. Little to no sugars and enough starch to support your exercise. You’ll have the choice of signing up for 30 days or 10 days, with the option of carrying it on to 30 days after the 10 days passes. Foods to avoid are all grains, all dairy, all legumes and processed foods (food that didn’t have parents or grow from the ground, usually with long ingredient lists). For liquids, you can have plenty of water, herbal tea and FRESHLY squeezed juices. Soft drinks, packaged juices, alcohol and other processed liquids are to be avoided as well. Coffee can be limited to one per day (you’re welcome 😉 ).

For scoring, you will start each day with 8 points. If you follow all the rules and eat a strict Paleo diet, you’ll end the day with 8 points as well. For every rule that you break, you will subtract one point from your daily total. For example, if you eat a serving of wheat bread, you lose one point. If you eat two servings of wheat bread, you lose 2 points. If you drink a can of pop, you lose a point (although you should be losing 8!). The goal is to try and end the day with as many points as possible.

To keep things simple, here’s a chart to follow.

Allowed Foods/Drinks Food/Drinks to Avoid (-1 point each)
-Vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, etc. -Processed foods (foods with ingredient lists, foods that didn’t have a mother or grew from the ground)
-Meats, such as beef, chicken, pork and fish. -Alcohol
-Fruits such as apples, oranges, berries, pineapples, etc. -All grains such as wheat, barley, corn, rice, kamut, amaranth, quinoa, etc.
-Nuts and Seeds such as almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, etc. -All dairy (except for butter)
-Water, preferably spring or filtered -All legumes such as beans, peas and lentils
-Herbal Teas -More than 1 serving of coffee a day.
-Freshly squeezed juices (consumed within 10min of juicing)
-Butter

 

So why do we not allow grains, dairy and legumes? Most people have a hard time digesting these foods and when it comes to nutrition, digestion is key. It doesn’t matter how nutritious a food is, if you can’t digest it well, it’s not nutritious for you. We want you to try to eliminate these foods for 30 days, so that your body gets used to how it feels to not eat them. Then, if you choose, you can re-introduce these foods after the 30 days, to see if they agree with you or not. If they don’t, it would be a good idea to eliminate, or drastically reduce, these foods from your diet. If you find that you’re okay after re-introducing these foods, then you can have some, but maybe just not too often.

Okay, so now that you’ve decided to join us in this challenge to become more awesome, after all  why wouldn’t you, let’s go over how to get started. First of all, you’ll need to join our super exclusive and incredible awesome All In One Paleo Challenge Facebook Page at

https://www.facebook.com/All-In-One-Paleo-Challenge-285448498453085/

Here is where everything will be happening. All participating members will be required to post their score at the end of everyday as well as their total points for the month. For instance, if on May 7th I scored a 6, then I would post my score for the day as 6 and I would include my total points for the first 7 days of May. Yes, this is necessary, as we want everyone to be accountable for their actions. We know that this makes it scarier, but we want you to be motivated to stick with it. Why do something like this and have an easy way out? That benefits no one. We want to leverage the power of our super supportive community to help you stick to this and accomplish your goals.

To help you out further, we want you all to help each other out, by using our Facebook page to share supportive tips, tasty Paleo friendly recipes and ask any questions you may have. Carlo will be on the page when he can to answer them for you. He’ll also be sending out weekly emails, giving advice on how to follow this diet and be successful with it.

Now that you’re unbearably excited to sign up for this, here’s how you do it. It’s simple. The next time that you come into the gym, sign our registration form at the front desk and then like our All In One Paleo Challenge Facebook page, so that you can record your daily results and take advantage of it as your support system.

 

Let’s do this!!!

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