Mid Week Update

We are on day twelve. Twelve! Can you believe it? I honestly never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would ever go twelve days with out a piece of bread or a stick of string cheese. There are just a few things I want to talk about today so I will try to make it short and sweet. Good luck to me! Remember, if you have struggles post about them. It is good for others to read about what you are going through. The ten minutes after CFJ workouts have slowly turned into "paleo updates" with fellow CFJ'ers. It is great to share your experiences with others!

Are You Eating Enough Protein?
I'm not. That has been made clear to me 1. by how I feel and 2. by my FitDay journal. It is widely accepted by many in the paleo and zone world that you should be eating close to your weight in grams of protein. I have entered everything into FitDay that I will be eating until my CrossFit workout. I am only up to 70 grams of protein. Believe me, I don't weight 70 pounds. I don't weigh 100 pounds. My goal is to get up to about 120 grams of protein a day. No, I don't weight 120 pounds either, but for me I think that is a good goal. How much protein do you get a day? Are you keeping track? Do you incorporate into every meal and snack you eat? I am swapping out my afternoon snack of blueberries and walnuts for a hard boiled egg and carrots. I'm interested to see what will happen now if I decrease my fruit intake and up the protein and veggies.

Are You Getting Enough Calcium?
My mom keeps asking me this question. She is very intrigued by the paleo diet. I let her borrow my paleo book and she recently bought The Paleo Diet for Athletes which I plan on stealing from her this weekend. She has always been worried about my calcium intake. I never liked milk much as a child. She forced me to drink a glass of it every night with dinner and I always had to hold my nose. It was a battle. Anyway, according to FitDay I'm not getting the RDA % of calcium. Is this bad? I'm not sure. Here is some information Dr. Cordain has on calcium intake. I plan on increasing more leafy greens. This means at least two cups of spinach with dinner at night. I love salad, so this won't be a problem. Make sure you are incorporating some sort of leafy green into your diet every day. Cook it in with eggs in the morning, have a big green salad topped with chicken or shrimp and other veggies for lunch or dinner or steam some up with some garlic and have it as a side dish. Make sure to get your greens!

New Veggie Alert
Last night I tried eggplant for the first time. I grilled it on my George Foreman Grill with some mushrooms. I was pleasantly surprised. It has an interesting texture and nice flavor. Plus, the purple is pretty. I like pretty food. What new veggies have you tried since you started paleo?