The Downward Spiral: November - March

The end of September 2008 ended up being a peak for me (or very near that). I had a good October, but come mid-November ALL spare time dried up. Initially this meant that I didn't have time to leave work early and visit my crossfit gym. I was able to keep some activity level by following the Starting Strength program in my local NYSC.

My membership to the NYSC expired on December 30th, but I had stuck with the program well and was feeling as strong as ever. Come January I was disappointed to find myself even busier than the last two months. Fortunately an office move put me very close to another NYSC; I can literally leave my desk and be in a locker room in two minutes. I signed up for a month-by-month rate, hoping to quit soon and return to crossfit, but maintain some strength (and sanity) until then. Although I didn't care for the lack of real equipent (dozens upon dozens of treadmills but only one 'rack') or the trainers (yes, I know how to squat safely), I kept at it. For about two weeks.

Then I learned what working a lot really meant. Slowly (quickly) but surely I ran out of time to even think about going downstairs to work out. At my desk at 10am, barely look up until midnight, go home, sleep a solid 8 and repeat. There was no lull in the day, no chance to workout, and all I could think about was how much more work there was to do. This continues today.

Needless to say, cooking my own, paleo food stopped a long time ago. I tried a mostly paleo friendly diet for the rest of 2008 post-Thanksgiving. This was also a Starting Strength geared diet. Actually, I would buy a gallon of milk and a whole roasted chicken every day and eat it all. I also cooked some eggs and sardines or something for breakfast. Occasionally I ate other things. Overall, mass amounts of protein and fat. It was great actually, and suits SS well.

Come 2009 things started to slide A LOT. The new office put me a bit farther from Whole Foods, and no where near an office refridgerator for many weeks. Enter: taco salads, pizza, sandwiches, kebabs. Enter deli-style egg/sausage/english muffin breakfast. Enter pizza/burger/pizza-burger/burger-pizza dinners with the whole team at the office Enter 20 more pounds of me since that sober September. And enter a shit-ton of coffee. In all, I've made up for a good month or two of clean eating and living with several more months of American-style slow death.

Fortunately, a solid grounding in paleo and zone principles has reduced the damage. I rarely eat sugar and never take it in my coffee. I never eat carb-majority meals; although the quality (and quanity) of the fats and proteins that I intake now are questionable. I could definitely be worse off. And I was a fanatic about long, high quality sleep. I kept my room perfectly dark and got at least eight hours a night. Until about March, then I needed to be at my desk before the market opens, eg 9am.

Today it is March eighteenth. Its probably been two solid months since I've stepped foot in even my NYSC. Its been three since I've been to Crossfit and four since I've crossfitted regularly. Its been six months since the sober september (holy shit), and three since I've been able to eat any degree of paleo/zone/healthy.

So now I am overweight, weak, out of shape, probably under-slept, and can't remember how to cook for myself. Crossfit.com emailed me yesterday because I had to pay the rest of my $1k registration fee for the Level 1 certification at cfsbk this week, or forfeit my spot. I had hoped to be on the road back to fitness by now, but time flies when I can't believe its almost spring already, so... whatever. I think this absurd crunch-time at work may be easing up soon (which I've thought ever week for almost half a year now), which is great because I really shouldn't go to a Level 1 cert without having seen a barbell in the last fiscal quarter.

Regardless, the last several months, as destructive as they have been for my fitness goals (see you never, 2009 East Coast Qualifier), work has actually been really great. I've grown and learned and done so much that I barely missed hitting the gym everyday, or, you know, the changing of the seasons. But now (please let it be now) its time to find a balance. Work isn't as much of a goal or committment as it is an adventure/challenge/fun time/disaster/awesome/chance to make a difference in something (that something being efficient trading processes). I love the job. But I don't have a five year plan in my head that involves making it to a certain point in my career. I don't have a career mapped out. I love what I do and I want to keep on doing it and grow my company in outrageous ways.

Ever since I found crossfit though, fitness and health have become part of my long term vision. I knew after the first few workouts-probably even before that-that I wanted to be a part of this. And that this is how I wanted to live. And I'm really looking forward to getting back to that.

So, with any luck, and, or, effort, and, or sacrifice on my part, I will return to that very soon. Hopefully soon enough that I don't embarrass myself at the certification that I'm definitely attending and have paid in full.

And the moral of the story is: at least I loved what I was doing 100% percent of the time, whether it was getting fit and learning how to take care of myself, or getting fat and learning how to be awesome at work. Seriously though, can't I have both?

Taking a Running Jump Off the Wagon

So the first lunch wasn't bad, and actually dinner wasn't either. The beer was though.

I went to the Petite Abeille, a Tribeca Belgian restaurant with a great burger. Its a big burger, plenty of protein, ok. However, the bun is probably all the carbs you need after that, the fries take it further, and the beers skew this meal towards 80% carbs.

I actually started drinking at the office after-hours and was definitely feeling it after two beers, although that's not completely unusual when I'm not eating. I had four or five at the office, another three or four at the restaurant, half a beer tower (beer towers are 100 ounces of beer) at the Mudville and I think I split a pitcher at the Patriot.

It was a lot of fun and I'm glad to be back in the drinking game. Drinking is fun, and although sometimes I'll make real sacrifices to pursue some fitness or dietary goal, I doubt I'll ever want to live a life without alcohol.

I don't know how late I drank or what time I got home, but I slept like a rock until 10 AM, which comes in as "quite late" for getting to the office. I was definitely still a little drunk on waking and have been dealing with that off-balance feeling all day. I don't usually get anything resembling a hangover, but a high-volume drinking night and waking up drunk usually makes me feel kind of out of it, like I'm not fully strapped in on a roller coaster or something.

Other than that, I really haven't felt any adverse effects from the change in diet. My alcohol tolerance is down a bit, but I don't think its affected nearly as much as most of my friends predicted.

Now I'm off to start a weekend of non-stop drinking and meat eating at Notre Dame. Should be fun.

The Irresponsible-diet October

Not the full month, just through the first weekend.

Yesterday's lunch was the first real meal off-diet. I went to Joe's, a great, local steam-tray pay by the pound style deli. I used to eat a Joe's all the time pre-diet; their stuff is good and seems like its prepared well, without a bunch of crap like HFCS and trans-fat oils.

It was weird. I laid down the ceasar salad base that I usually get--the vinegar in this would be my first highly acidic food. They were out of the salmon so I went with the sesame chicken for protein. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of sugar in the sesame glaze they put on this stuff, so that would be my first sugar.

Looking around I had a hard time finding other stuff to throw in; usually I'm piling on chicken salad and tuna. My eyes found the steamed broccoli and carrots and I literally got excited. This has never happened before. It was like finding something familiar that I knew I'd like, almost like comfort food. The same thing happened with the raw peppers, onions and strawberries. The real food just looked so good and appealing. I knew the other stuff was good--I've had it all before--but the fruits and vegetables just had that appeal.

Although Joe's has the best cottage cheese I've ever had, I decided to re-introduce these food groups slowly so I could see if they produced any interesting effects on my body.

Now I usually go for zone-like portions from Joe's, and I realized when I got back to my desk that this lunch was definitely not too close on the zone front. Way more than five ounces of chicken, and besides the sesame glaze, probably light on carbs. I don't know how much fat was in the dressing, but probably not enough.

I had a few surprises while eating; for one the croûtons were weird. Its hard to describe, they didn't really taste any different than I remembered and they were good, but they felt really foreign.

Also, despite getting close to a pound and a half of food, I felt hungry as I finished the meal. I think this was the insulin response (from the sesame glaze) that I've read about didn't fully understand until then. My stomach wasn't empty and definitely should not have been sending "feed me" signals to the brain. Maybe I just got really used to eating something north of six cups of raw vegetables and expected to be more full. What I think happened though was that my body kicked out insulin to deal with the sugar, which is known to make you feel hungry, even if you've just eaten. I'm not doing a great job of explaining this, but that reaction to the first meal has changed the way I think about dieting and insulin's role in it. I'll probably reread some parts of Mastering the Zone to expand my understanding, but I can really see how insulin can play such a major role in the metabolism.

The Morning After

I woke up to October today and started thinking about all the non-paleo food I've planning to eat, all the completely un-zoned meals, and all the booze I've been planning to drink.

This morning I felt no desire to eat anything other than what I've been eating for the last month. I've gotten great results (maybe not dramatic results though) from this month, and I've enjoyed the luxury of not having to worry about the effects of a single thing I ate. Once I figured out how to do it, it was really quite easy and I've eaten very well. Its really great to know that NOTHING you're eating has any ill effects on your long term health.

This morning sticking to the diet just seemed so much easier than going off. Its really become part of my lifestyle, and excluding social factors and possibly the huge lunch salad, I could live like this indefinitely.

I'll see how I feel when I'm facing sesame chicken and cottage cheese at Joe's buffet today. The next five days are probably going to be a dietary wash no matter what, but I'm forming an idea of how I'll live after that. Today I've got the drive to keep 90% of my meals clean and balanced; hopefully 5 days off the wagon doesn't diminish that.

The Last Day of September

Breakfast: the usual, bacons, egg, onions and I think only about three strawberries, so quite light on carbs.

Lunch: Ran out of chicken Monday, and Joe's was out of salmon, so I had eat the 4.8 ounces of turkey I had left for afternoon snacks. I prepared four blocks of the usual salad (spinach, green pepper, red onion, cucumber) but didn't have time to finish it before I had to run to an out-of-office work meeting. I ate an apple on the way, so carbs were probably close to five. Almonds and flax oil for fat.

Dinner: more steak and fried apples. Also a whole onion this time.

After work I picked up a new pair of jeans, my old pair--which was too small to wear comfortably to work a few months ago--are falling off me, literally. I almost need to punch a new hole in my belt to keep those on.

Before going to bed I shaved the beard I've been growing the entire month, probably the longest I've ever let it go. I went to bed and September ended, no cheats.

Steak and Fried Apples

Last night was kind of hard mentally. I was really wanting a beer and something easy for dinner, but managed to drag myself to Whole Foods to pick up some good whole foods for the last two dinners.

8 oz steak (8 blocks protein)/.5 onion caramelized (? blocks), 2 Gala apples, 'fried' in coconut oil with nutmeg and cinnamon (4 blocks)/olive oil, fish oil?

Slightly excessive in zone calories and too many fruits at the expense of vegetables.

Breakfast today:

2 slices bacon, 2 slices canadian bacon, 1 egg/~4 cups red chard (2 blocks), .5 onion, both sauteed in bacon fat/3 almonds, fish oil

Probably a block short of carbs, but I think right on for protein and fat.

Last Weekend

Zone adherence degraded over the course of the weekend, but I managed to hold onto strict paleo.

Friday night: ~10 oz steak/1 apple, 1 peach, .5 onion, half a bunch of asparagus/plenty of olive oil

Saturday morning: no breakfast, but FGB workout at the gym (score of 305)

Saturday post workout was the first time this month that I've eaten out. I realized sometime last week that I've cooked or prepared every single thing I've eaten this month, with the occasional exception of lunchtime salmon. I had half a mind to keep that streak going so I could say that I once went a month without dining out. This may not be much of an accomplishment in some locations, with some lifestyles, but for a busy person in New York, it doesn't typically happen.

After FGB everyone from the gym went to Maria's, a Mexican restaurant across the street for lunch. I checked out there menu and was able to find a few things that fit strict paleo. The place is actually great for paleo; they make almost everything they serve themselves using real foods. I decided to end my streak and eat there to round out the month and see what its like to eat strict paleo and attempted zone at a restaurant.

I ended up having a salmon fillet with a mango and jicama salad and orange sauce. I was pretty hesitant about the orange sauce, which I could just imagine being some kind of orange duck-sauce-like goo loaded with high fructose corn syrup. The waiter told me that they make it in-house with oranges and spices, so I went for it. The dish was pretty good, though not as good as the food I've been making myself this month.

For better or worse, the rest of the weekend also helped round out the experiment. Occasionally over a weekend, or a couple of week nights, I'll be extremely lazy; too lazy to go out and buy food or cook anything. I usually end up eating whatever I can find in the house after about twelve or so hours of this behavior, but this weekend I had nothing left that could form a paleo, zone meal. My other answer to this behavior is to order food from somewhere, which was clearly out of consideration.

So the rest of the weekend breaks down like this. I did go out to pick up some food later on Saturday.

Saturday dinner: .71 pounds skirt steak/half an onion, two apples (fried in coconut oil with nutmeg and cinnamon)/maybe some other fats, don't remember

With only two meals and no snacks, intake on Saturday probably didn't break 10 square blocks.

Then on Sunday, post-workout lunch: 3 slices bacon, 2 slices canadian bacon, 1 eggs/2 cups broccoli, 1 carton strawberries, half an onion/fish oil?

Not bad, but then that's all I ate Sunday. Not ideal after a FGB and heavy deadlifts. I did end up eating a handful of almonds after midnight--the only paleo thing I could find.

This morning I felt like crap: weak and tired with an empty fridge. I ran to the store and cooked the usual breakfast, plus one egg, minus broccoli and forgetting my APA, fish oil and almonds. I'm not sure if its the slightly short night of sleep or the insufficient recovery calories over the weekend, but I was definitely feeling it this morning. I wonder if that's what I have in store for the morning of October 2nd.

The diet reboot this morning did help though and energy is almost back to normal. Mental energy has been good throughout the weekend, but physically I haven't been feeling it. I remember the ride back from the deadlift workout being particularly difficult on my legs.

Today's lunch was the usual, with red onions and a peach to round out carbs and a flax oil and lemon juice dressing.

End of Week 4

I'm finished with all the tough (meaning at-work) meals for week four, and only two more of those to do next week. This week was pretty good (until today), but the zoning fell apart a bit. Improv and zone can be challenging; I think it probably takes a lot of experience and knowledge of what constitutes a zone block to get good at it. From what I've read, it seems like a lot of the people who get great results out of the zone have a very regular diet--eating almost the same thing every day.

My typical complaint with this is that its too boring to eat the same thing all the time. I realized though that I've done just that for months at a time without trying to. My second complaint is that I figure your vitamin and mineral profile could get a little lopsided if you're eating from a small group of foods. This isn't the end of the world, and could probably be evened-out with a multi-vitamin, but its kind of contrary to the spirit of paleo and optimal health. It might not matter much for optimal performance, but for health and longevity I doubt its ideal.

I started getting into food blogs this week, which was really tough at the beginning, since most of the great things they show and write about are completely unaccessible for me right now. By today it was a lot easier; it seems that exercising willpower does make it stronger.

I also found time to weigh myself yesterday. I was 187 pre-workout and 185 post-workout, which is weird because I didn't really sweat at all in the workout. Anyways, this amounts to a 4 or 6 pound loss from the Thursday before Labor Day, which was exactly four weeks ago.

A 6 pound loss is about what I expected. I don't feel much lighter and definitely haven't noticed anything bodyweight being easier in workouts, though I think I definitely look leaner. Of course, its possible--and probably--that I put on some lean mass during this month too. I still need to calculate my body fat percentage, but I'm pretty happy with how my body's behaving and looking right now. Going forward I'd be happy to maintain this level of leanness, possibly even add a little fat without worrying about it. I think if I ever want to get really lean, I know exactly what I need to do (zone) and I know that I can do it. Now, my new passion is increasing strength and hopefully adding some mass.

Salmon, Bacon, Pepper Salad

Last night:

.71 lbs salmon (too much) = >5 blocks protein
2 cups broccoli/.5 onion sauteed/~2 small bananas smashed and chilled with almond extract = at least 5 blocks carbs
kind of forgot the fat, maybe I grabbed a few almonds. I was going to make guacamole, but my avocado had gone bad.

This morning:

2 slices bacon/2 slices canadian bacon/1 egg = 5 protein, 3 fat
2 cups broccoli/.5 onion sauteed in bacon grease/maybe .5 cup blueberries = 3 or 4 blocks carbs. I need to figure out what these onions really are, I've been guessing for a while.
almonds and fish oil to round out fat.

I'm getting kind of sloppy with the blocks here...

For lunch today, I ran out of salad ingredients, so I improvised (by which I mean, I just threw in everything I had).

5.1 ounces chicken = 5 blocks protein -- couldn't find the pieces that would give me exactly 5.0 oz
2 cups red pepper (1.5 blocks)/2 cups spinach (.5 blocks)/1 cucumber (1 block) = 3 blocks carbs
1 macadamia/~9 almonds/'Russian' salad dressing = at least 5 blocks fat

I ran out of salsa so I had to go with the paleo-Russian dressing alone today. I don't like it much, the tomatoes make it too acidic. It reminded me of the tomatillas a bit (puke-flavored) and made my teeth feel sticky.

So, a bit light on the carbs today. It probably won't get any better with my typical Friday night steak-fest either.

Salsa Chicken Salad, Strawberries

The usual salad, almost forgot the almonds though, ate 16 for 5 blocks. The salsa has almost gotten better with age; that's probably because I threw in the rest of the anaheim pepper yesterday.

1 cup strawberries to round out carbs. Also, I went to a specialty/hippie food store that's closer than Whole Foods to refill on peppers and cucumbers--never again. $3.99/pound organic cucumbers are ridiculous; my two cost over $6.

Bacon-fried Kale with two kinds of Bacon

I didn't feel like going to the store last night, so I had to make due with my remaining kale this morning, instead of my usual broccoli.

Protein: 2 slices bacon/2 slices canadian bacon/1 egg = 5 blocks + ~3 extra fat blocks

Carbohydrates: half onion/at least 4 cups raw kale, both sauteed in bacon fat/1 pear = 4 or 5 blocks, I need to get more precise here

Fat: excess bacon fat/3 almonds/fish oil = 5 or 6 blocks

Zone-like precision and improvisation don't mix that well. I've definitely been eating zone-like meals, but there's usually a block or two margin of error for the fat and carbs.

A day of nothing exciting, followed by Sauteed Kale and Seared Salmon

Yesterday was the same old: bacon, canadian bacon, egg, peach, something else, something else for breakfast. Exact same salad as Monday with chicken for lunch. A not-so-great (aging) flank steak, peach and watermelon for dinner.

Today was a bit better. Two slices bacon creates a lot of liquid fat on the skillet; this is great for cooking the canadian bacon AND frying up a half onion. I might have mentioned this before, but I've learned this month that the key to sauteing an onion in a pan is to get all the pieces covered in fat. Its the hot oil that cooks the onion, not so much the onions contact with the pan. And the onions don't have to be swimming in fat, just a little bit all the way around each piece will go a long way. I've watched a chopped onion sit in a pan for half an hour and get no where near brown in previous years; now I know the secret.

So, since most things are better when cooked in bacon fat, I gave the onion a try. Couldn't really tell a difference, but it does use up that excess fat and makes cooking breakfast that much easier, so I'll continue this way.

Ended up a little light on carbs, I think I ate a peach on the way out, so probably 3 blocks or so. I was fine with that since I definitely needed to be alert this morning, and forcing 5 blocks of fruit in the mornings can cause problems for me.

Lunch was unremarkable, the exact same as yesterday. Still liking the salsa salad better. Need to pick up deli turkey for 5pm snack. I got some macadamia nuts the other week to try as snack fat; they're ok, but one macadamia definitely isn't as filling as three almonds.

Dinner tonight was great, a perfectly seared salmon fillet (~8 oz =~ 5 blocks), 1 red onion and 4 cups kale sauteed = ~2 blocks + ? blocks (I thought kale was 4 cups raw = 1 block, but now I can only find 1.25 cooked = 1 block). So if I call that three the small banana can bring me up to five. PLENTY of oil used to cook all of this, plus fish oil and 2 almonds = at least 5 blocks.

Then I tried to puree my remaining bananas in my smaller food processor, unfrozen this time. Still didn't work at all, it liquified a bit of the banana (which wasn't that appetizing) and didn't touch the rest of it. So I mashed them up pretty well in a bowl, mixed in some almond extract and threw it all in the freezer. There's a good chance its rock hard tomorrow (although I think something about the high sugar content might actually mean it doesn't freeze hard...), but I'm giving it another try.

Also, beef jerky was a huge hit with everyone who had it; I'll have to make it again soon. That reminds me, I have some steak odds and ends that have been marinating since Sunday night. I wonder if those are still edible...m

Salad, Salsa, Chicken

The usual salad, but with just salsa as a dressing, no fake russian dressing or flax oil/lemon juice.

4 blocks carbs = 4 cups spinach/1.25 cups green pepper/1 cucumber/~.5 cups salsa

I did squirt some flax oil on the salad to see what that was like, but couldn't detect it at all later. This salsa salad was definitely a nice change of pace from the usual flax oil/lemon juice dressing. One thing I'll definitely be jumping on post-paleo is vinegars. I'll probably start making my own salad dressing with a simple oil/vinegar pair.

I rounded out the carbs with ~1 cup strawberries.

5 oz chicken = 5 blocks protein. Cooked last night as usual; salt, pepper, olive oil and some garlic thrown in. I could definitely try to punch up this recipe a bit, but its fine for now. When you're working your way through what seems like half a cubic foot of greens (and isn't far off), each little morsel of protein is like candy.

I had to make up some fat because the salsa is carbs only, so I threw on a good 3-4 dozen pine nuts and a 2-3 blocks of almonds.

Then I ate a dozen or two pistachios because they were there and I couldn't help it, which easily puts me over any fat requirement.

Overall, the salsa is a great change of pace from the boring dressing before. Still a ton of greens to eat though. The jerky went over well at the office; I'll probably have to make this again soon. Meanwhile, some browsing on Mark's Daily Apple now has me curious about home brewing (beer). This do-it-yourself approach to food is addicting once you get started.

Pureed Frozen Bananas with Almond Extract, Real Bacon!

I aimed for zone this morning, but I have to do the math now to find out how close I was.

2 slices REAL bacon @ 4g protein, 5g fat each = 1 block protein, ~3 blocks fat
2 slices canadian bacon @ 11g protein, 1.5g fat each = 3 blocks protein, ~1 block fat
1 egg = 1 block protein

Now, in the zone, each block of protein is assumed to have 1.5g (or 1 block) of fat. You don't count this fat against your fat blocks though.

So 4 blocks of protein should be 28g protein and 6g fat. My meat this morning totals 30g protein and 13 g fat. So that's about 4 square blocks of protein and 4 extra blocks fat. Not too bad, going forward I can just add some fish oil to that and be at a good fat level.

For today though, I added 9 almonds (unnecessary) and fish oil, plenty of extra fat.

~2 cups broccoli = 1 block carb
1 peach = 1 block carb
3 small frozen bananas, 'pureed' and mixed with a dash of almond extract = technically, 9 blocks carbs. Bananas are listed as 1 block = 1/3 of a 3" banana, and on the less favorable source of carbs list. These bananas were small, but that's likely still excessive for carbs.

I heard from a friend at the gym that frozen, pureed bananas taste like ice cream, so I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately, my blender wasn't able to handle these bananas the way it needs to to get that texture. They ended up like lumpy chopped bananas, not smooth at all. I realized that the very powerful, very expensive food processor my friend has probably makes a big difference here.

Although frozen mangled bananas are good enough to eat straight, I tasted them with a few different flavors. I overdid the vanilla and they ended up tasting bitter. Nutmeg and cinnamon were ok, but almond extract kicked ass.

For the rest of this bunch I'll try the recipe recommended by the paleo book: blend the bananas and vanilla (or almond extract) first, then freeze a bit. Carb heavy, but still pretty good while being technically paleo.

Salmon and an Apple

Simple dinner:

~8 oz salmon fillet seared with olive oil, salt pepper = 5 blocks protein
1 cup watermelon = 2 blocks carbs
1 apple = 2 blocks carbs
1/2 onion sauteed = 2 blocks carbs?
9 almonds = 3 blocks fat
fish oil = 2 blocks fat
olive oil = more blocks of fat

I thought I might be under on the carbs, but that looks like plenty.

Also managed to cook my chicken for the rest of the week. Now to bed in hopes of making the early workout.

Homemade Salsa and Salad Dressing

Nothing special today, besides a lack of preparation. Woke up a bit late for breakfast, ended up with 5 protein (1 egg, 2 slices canadian bacon, 1 slice turkey bacon), but only about 4 carbs (2 cups broccoli, ~1.5 cups watermelon). Almonds and fish oil round out the fat.

I also didn't get around to cooking chicken for the week last night, so I had to get Joe's salmon for lunch, which I can't complain about. I tried to improve my usual salad with some homemade, paleo Russian dressing from the paleo site. Mostly olive oil, lemon juice and tomato, with some spices and stuff. Its all right, not fantastic.

What ended up being better was the 'Anaheim Salsa' I did make last night for nothing in particular. I saw some of the directions as unnecessary, so I went off-road and chopped everything and blended nothing. This was a mistake, the 2 cups of salsa the recipe promised was a lot close to 3 quarts. I blended it down, added some salt, and the salsa turned out not too bad (kind of bland before).

Today I actually found an Anaheim pepper to throw in at Whole Foods, and that may have helped a bit too.

So I threw both of these on the salad which definitely made for a better carb bowl. The rest of the salad was the same as usual (4 cups baby spinach, 1.25 cups pepper, large cucumber) except I kept out the snow peas. The zone block list says half a cup of salsa is one block of carbs, so thats what I went with, even though I could have calculated the blocks based on the recipe.

Also, an unforeseen turkey shortage kept me under my protein allotment, which rarely happens. Oh well.

Then, as I sit at work reading Serious Eats, quite disappointed that I have to miss snatching at crossfit tonight, I come across a terrible, terrible article for someone on week four of paleo about pepperoni pizza.

Ignoring the fact that the article maligns pepperoni pizza (blasphemy), that picture is devastating.

I've pretty much conceded that my first meal out will be a feast of pizza. There are a ton of things I could go for, but pizza has definitely lingered in my mind the most. On October 1st, I will be very grateful for the past month and the experiment that I've finished, but a life without foods like pizza is not really an option for me.

Beef Jerky and Genesis

The jerky's in the oven, looking great. I marinated it for a solid 24 hours, which might be excessive. I'm used the marinade recipe from Mark, and combining technique from Mark and the Paleo book.

Meanwhile, I've been needing to credit Mark Sisson's "Mark's Daily Apple", primarily for two key posts.

The 30-Day Primal Health Challenge - I read this while back, before I even started thinking about doing the Sober September. It wasn't until about a week ago that I found it again and realized how much it had inspired me in this. Mark's challenge here is right on; exactly what I was trying to do in September. The original concept was to be very healthy for a month to see what impact it had on my physical fitness. As September approached and I worked through the first week, it immediately became obvious that a month of no compromises would be the real challenge and benefit.

The Primal Blueprint - This boils down the 'evolutionarily correct' lifestyle into ten bullet points. I really like the first seven and have tried to incorporate them into my everyday life, both during and outside the Sober September. A few of them are obvious, but the advice to engage in lots of low intensity activity and getting some sun every day are great cues to give your body what it needs. (The last three are pretty non-optional for me, so not that helpful).

Mark's Blueprint is great, it helped me lay some groundwork for living as healthily as possible. Of course, we still have a lot to learn about optimal health, but this experiment has really advanced my understanding of my diet, and definitely taught me a lot about how to implement this understanding.

Chili Scallops, Paleo Guacamole, Fried Apples

Big change of pace tonight. I tossed a half pound of greenmarket scallops with some olive oil, chili pepper and black pepper, then sauteed with half an onion. I'd never cooked scallops before, but they ended up pretty well. I think I could do better, maybe something with garlic next time.

Half pound = 8 oz =~ 5 blocks protein

My avocado was finally ripe today after buying last Sunday, so it was time for guac! I started with my boss's recipe as best I could remember. I muddled two cloves of diced garlic, a good bit of chopped cilantro (i love cilantro), some non-jalapeno pepper (that farmer lied, it wasn't spicy at all) and pepper. Then I mixed that in with 1 mashed avocado and half a diced heirloom tomato.

At this point the guacamole was OK. I only started to like guacamole in the last twelve months, and I don't have it very often, so I'm no connoisseur, not at all. Fortunately my roommate was LA bred, she immediately recommended lime juice and much more salt. Big difference. In the end I think it was pretty decent guac. Next time, maybe onion and a real pepper.

Most of an avocado = at least 5 blocks, but probably pretty close, at 1 tbsp per block.

Finally, I decided to attempt part of a zone book recipe. I picked up some gala apples from the green market, so I cut very thin slices and 'fried', or slowly cooked them in plenty of olive oil with nutmeg and cinnamon. I ended up making four or five batches, playing with the method. Some of them I tossed with oil and cinnamon, some of them I just threw in an oiled pan and sprinkled with cinnamon. A longer cooking time at lower heat works well, it breaks the apples down and makes them soft, which takes longer than I had anticipated.

Completely paleo, but probably a bit high in fat and carbs. Hopefully close to 5 blocks in the end. Those apples would kill on vanilla ice cream by the way. Take them straight off the pan and throw them on a ball of ice cream and eat immediately. Hot + cold, cinammon apples + ice cream. Excellent.

Oh, and you really can't taste the olive oil at all. There's probably a better oil to cook them in though, but I didn't have anything else on hand. Coconut oil maybe.

Canadian Bacon and Watermelon

A little one-block breakfast 30 minutes before workout of ~1 oz turkey breast/.5 cup watermelon/3 almonds

Felt weak at workout today, perhaps because of recent effots, perhaps because of the quite un-zone-like meal last night.

Real 'breakfast' (at 2:30 pm) of 2 slices canadian bacon, 1 slice turkey bacon, 2 eggs (6 blocks)/3 cups watermelon (6 blocks)/12 almonds, 1 tsp fish oil (6 blocks).

A bit excessive in calories. I couldn't stop eating watermelon, so I just tried to balance it out with protein and fat.

Meanwhile I scored big at the Grand Army Plaza Green Market. Paleo guacamole and salsa coming up, as well as something involving scallops, and something else involving lots of apples.

23 oz Grass-fed Porterhouse, Sauteed Onion and Asparaus, White Peaches

Although quite paleo, this meal probably wasn't close at all to zone. If I ever let loose a bit, its usually Friday night, so I let this one slide.

I didn't eat the whole steak, and a good bit of it was bone and fat, but it was quite a bit more than the five ounces of steak I'm suppsed to eat in one meal. I'd say at least twelve, maybe a pound (I shared some with a friend).

I pan fried it with a light rub of olive oil and a good amount of sea salt and pepper, nothing more. Oven for a few minutes to finish. I've not had a porterhouse in my modern steak-eating career, but I learned today that it contains by tenderloin and strip meat. This was helpful to know going in, the tenderloin was the tenderest piece of steak that I've ever cooked. The strip was very flavorful.

As for the grass-fed aspect, it definitely tasted different from the typical steak I get at the store. Its a very deeply rooted difference in the taste; I have to admit that it feels like you can taste the difference in the cows diet. I'd quite easily be able to distinguish grass-fed and grain-fed in a taste test.

That said, I'm definitely used to grain-fed beef. Probably all of my great stead experiences have been on grain-fed and its what I've come to expect from steaks. This steak was great, but that flavor was a little something I didn't expect. Nevertheless, I love the idea of grass-fed for lots of reasons beyond just taste; I'll definitely be buying more from Grazin' Angus. I'd wager that after three or four more steaks, I'll more fully appreciate the extraordinary qualities everyone else loves about this beef.

The rest of the meal was 1.5 large onions and a bunch of asparagus, sauteed to near liquid-stage in more than enough olive oil. Followed by the last two great white peaches from the green market. After that I got drowsy watching the Bourne Ultimatum. First paleo-induced food coma?