Another Paleo Challenge

Anna and I officially started our Whole 30 challenge yesterday.  The plan was to start on Friday, I was all set, and then got to my training at a Waikiki Beach Hotel in Waikiki.  All was going well, I ate my eggs and went to lunch with some coworkers.  Unfortunately, even though I ordered my burger with no bun, there was no getting away from all of the fried stuff.  I just texted Anna that we would start the next day instead.  To me it's a relief to be back on a "challenge."  I have poor impulse control, so when the brownies are sitting on the counter, I eat one.  Sometimes two.  And sometimes I have a difficult time stopping myself from eating way more than is socially acceptable.  With paleo I always start off wanting to snack a bunch, but I actually remember the healthy snacks that I have available.

View of Waimanalo from the Pillboxes

Yesterday started off fine, Anna made some bacon and eggs.  I went off to hike the Pillboxes with Keysa and Ananda and while I was gone she left for work.  She only took two bananas and two eggs, so I went to the store and got her some roast, some salad, cashews and coconut water.  It was nice to bring her her lunch at work.  We talked for a little bit at the bar, had some cashews,  and I headed home for my own lunch.  I'll definitely stop by there again one of these days when she's working there.  Bars are so different when they are empty during the day.  I had ahi tuna for lunch when I got home.
Dinner was steak, okinawan sweet potato and asparagus.  I am a damn good cook sometimes.  It was really tasty.  It was also a big dinner, so I didn't feel like I needed to snack on anything during the usual "dessert" time of the night.  We watched TV and made plans to run the beach and watch the sunrise.  Well, she's been working hard and hopefully she's finally having a good night's sleep.  It's 7am and she's not up yet.  Surprisingly, the sound of the dogs and I moving around out here didn't wake her up.  Hopefully she's still passed out pretty good.  There will be other mornings for sunrise beach walks.
I love this kind of morning.  I've got Gizmo on my lap, and Titus is on the couch all cozy, but keeping his eye on me.  I can hear the birds chirping outside, the usual air conditioner noise from the bedrooms and our neighbors, and the fishtank gurgling away.  Not too shabby.  I'm gonna make some coffee, then I haven't decided yet whether I will turn on the TV, read, or write in my journal.  I think I will just relax and take this day as it unfolds.

Yoga

I'm going to round out this week with a yoga class at the Y.  It's been a while, hopefully I won't embarrass myself too bad.  I am the proud owner of some new t-shirt yoga pants I made last night, though, so it shouldn't be too bad.  I may stop at the Salvation Army afterwards and grab some more XL or XXL t-shirts.  These pants are super comfy and only took me a little while.  I've got to field test them today, then I'll make a few more if they're good for stretching.  I didn't even finish off my edges.  Last night when shopping I picked up a 90% cacao chocolate bar.  I had one square of it and that was perfect.  It's just bitter enough that you don't want to down a whole bar, but it satisfies that craving.  I'm starting to enjoy a lot of my food in much simpler form.  My coffee black, my chocolate more and more cacao and less sugar.  A good rare steak, a burger with a fried egg on top.  Veggies with salt and nothing else.  This year has been an awesome wake up call for me, to pay attention to my food and what exercise I'm doing and WHY.  I've learned to question conventional wisdom in all of it's forms, from what popular doctors say to do or take, to what religious leaders in different religions tell you to do, to what the government tells us to eat, to what exercises are good for you and why.  I've been questioning everything and trying to get to the root of it.  Why is it important?  Do I need all of this excess?  Is there a way I can simplify it and have it be just as awesome/tasty/effective?  Turns out most things in life can be way simpler and just as great.  Okay, on my way to yoga.  Have a great afternoon!

Update: Yoga was cancelled because the instructuor was having a tough day.  She was crying and I can only assume that something happened recently, she thought she could teach the class, but she was crying and couldn't do it.  So, I hiked the pillboxes.  I did the whole thing on my own for the first time, all the way around to the end of the Loop and back to the parking spaces.  The pants were fine except that if you are going to use t-shirt pants for hiking/jogging/running, you will want to add a tie to the waist.  As I got sweatier the pants got a little looser and they started to fall down a little.  Not too much, but enough for me to be hitching them up every once in a while.  The fold of material held my keys well when I rolled them up.  I ended up rolling down the waist band a whole bunch so I could pull them up easy every time they sagged a little.  Good pants, great I'm sure for yoga, some modifications necessary for running/jogging/hiking.

Here's where I got the initial pattern