My Paleo Health Challenge

Ok, so let's pretend we are in a little booth separated by a screen, and I am going to tell you all my dirty paleo sins. I haven't just lusted after cupcakes in my heart, either. My impure thoughts have often turned into cupcake orgies. What I want is for you to just tell me to say 5 "Hail, Mark Sissons" and 5 "Our Groks" and then I will be fit and healthy and lean by magic.

But as you may know, I'm not into all that sinning and forgiveness and stuff. The health of our bodies doesn't work like that, any more than the health of our spirits does. Eating well and making exercise a part of my life won't happen by magic, and though I have improved some by hard work, I haven't come as far as I would like to.

So, I am having a paleo health challenge for myself. I am hoping that choosing some goals, forming a small support group, having some accountability through blogging, and setting a motivating assessment and reevaluation deadline will help me get more serious.

Priest and food gurus aside, I do want to do some confessing. I want to list my weaknesses, partly to help me identify and learn to overcome them, partly to help other who may share them.

Here are my major problems:

1) I eat out too much. Even when I eat fairly well at restaurants, I know I am eating way less than optimal food cooked in way less that optimal ways.
2) I still eat sweets and grains too frequently. I am not terrible, but I really do need to eat way less of these.
3) I eat too many of the less detrimental carbs for losing weight (potatoes, sugary veggies, etc). 4) I sometimes still eat when I am not hungry.
5) I have been fairly sedentary for a while, not lifting weights and not doing very many active activities (like hiking or playing).

So, with those in mind, my goals are these:
1) I will make an effort to cook at home more often, especially at lunch, which is my eating out downfall. I will try to make eating at home fun like a restaurant by setting the table and reading my book, just as if I were out. I will take my time over meals, as I do at restaurants.
2) I will stop eating grains and sweets. Not only are they bad for me, but they aren't ever even as good as I think they will be. I will have to come up with a coping strategy for Mexican restaurants, which are my favorite and where I just love the chips.
3) I will rarely cook with potatoes at home, and I will limit onions.
4) Before I eat, I will stop, drink a little water, and think about if I am hungry. I will stop halfway through every meal, drink a little water, and think about whether or not I am full. I can always save anything I haven't eaten for another meal.
5) I will do the Body by Science workout once a week, and I will be more active just for fun, especially on the weekends. Downloading some audio books will make it easier to follow through with the hiking.

I have found some health buddies from the OEvolve list, and I hope that some extra support will help me. My plan is to report at the end of the day about what I did well, what my challenges were, what I ate, if I was active, and what kind of help I need. I am also hoping to have some texting buddies from that same group who can talk me down from throwing myself headlong off a bridge into a vat of M&Ms.

I've decided to set a deadline, not for being skinny or for being perfect, but for reassessment. We have an Objectivist Mini-Con here in Atlanta planned for the 4th of July weekend. Since I want to look good and be feeling tons of pride about my changes at that conference, I am setting it as my deadline. I am not setting an amount of weight to lose or anything like that. That is not my focus, though it would be rockin good. I want to be at the Mini-Con, thinking back over the last 3 months, feeling great about the progress I have made.

I will be periodically blogging about my progress. Partly, I think the accountability will help me. Partly, I just think everyone on earth needs to know all my business.