CrossFit & The Paleo Diet

I recently began taking CrossFit classes at the Merritt Athletic Club in Downtown Baltimore. Recently as in last Monday. I was so sore following my first class that I could barely lift my arms to shampoo my hair in the shower. But I decided to go back on Wednesday...and again on Friday...and the soreness has since waned. Needless to say, I bit the bullet and signed up for six months of classes. Here goes nothing!

Here's a little background about my recent diet and exercise habits. I moved to Baltimore almost nine months ago and moved in with my boyfriend. We'd been long distance for a couple of years, and had a lot of date-night catching up to do. So--naturally--we ate out. A lot. And drank. A lot. We've gotten better about cooking at home, but still indulge pretty frequently. As far as exercise goes, the BF works at JHU and was able to obtain a free gym membership for me. So for the past eight months, my exercise routine has consisted of 30 minutes on the elliptical machine a few times a week. Better than nothing, yes, but still pretty pitiful.

On our way home from a recent joint bachelor/bachelorette party weekend with some of our best friends, which included a massive amount of booze and some pretty indulgent eats as well, I decided it was time for me to amp up the workout routine. A 30-minute elliptical machine workout simply couldn't be enough to compensate for all of the eating and drinking I've been doing!

I had my mom, a certified Les Mills instructor, take a look at the Merritt Athletic Club group fitness schedule and customize a workout for me. And wouldn't you know, she gravitated straight toward the CrossFit classes. She's gotten into the Les Mills version of CrossFit, Grit, and has raved about the workouts. So here I am, committed to six months of CrossFit and actually really excited about improving my workout routine and hopefully getting stronger and leaner.

Last Monday, during my first session, I noticed a poster on the wall with an infographic depicting the CrossFit diet. I asked our instructor about it, and he said that CrossFit goes hand-in-hand with the Paleo Diet. I'd heard about it, but didn't know much, so I went and bought the book. If I'm gonna be working my ass off in these classes, a few tweaks to my diet can't hurt, right?

So here's my plan. While I'm doing this CrossFit thing, I'm going to give the Paleo thing a shot as well. I think I'm realistic enough to know that this is going to be a pretty challenging feat. Especially since the diet is largely based around lean meats, and our current diet is typically meat-free.

Anyway, the whole point of starting this blog is to give myself a sounding board to track my workouts, meals, progress successes, failures (bound to be a few of these!) and to inevitably bitch from time to time because I just want to sit down with a large pizza and pint of Ben & Jerry's. Overall, I'm excited to change things up a bit and hopefully see some positive results (physically, mentally, emotionally, etc.).

For those of you who are familiar with the Paleo Diet, I'll be starting out at Level I. This allows three cheat meals a week. With my current lifestyle in mind, this will be very challenging! I'm also a beginner in CrossFit, but this isn't as daunting to me. The diet is what's going to be the struggle for me.

If you have any tips, advice or encouragement, let me know. I'm all ears!

Lindsay