Epic Eating Experiment Results Are In!

Well, after 12 weeks of a very strict Paleo diet (with the occasional break), including extremely strict holiday feasts, the results of the Elm City CrossFit Epic Eating Experiment are in: My wife and I found ourselves in a 4-way tie for second place! The other two co-seconders were a couple, too! The guy who took first did an amazing job, trimming down and going full beast mode in his workouts. Huge kudos to him, as well as to all my second-place co-winners!

In the aftermath, we've decided to maintain the changes we made, at least for the vast majority of them. Gluten is completely out, dairy is completely out (though we are maintaining the exception made during the entire EEE: full fat cream for coffee. Mmmmmmm....), grains are out, sugar is out, probably a few more things I'm blanking on.

I've experimented with a few things in the aftermath. The fried calamari at my weekly Monday night gig knocked the crud out of me (but then again, so did a completely paleo-ified bunless, cheeseless burger, so maybe its just the food there. Corn tortilla chips appeared to be perfectly fine. Beer was consumed at the closing party, and I did ok. Not looking to add a ton back in, but good to know its there. Legumes, or at least peanut butter, will probably reappear, since its so dang versatile. I just want the chance to test it before wasting money on a jar of something that I won't be able to eat.  Popcorn was ok. I put a lot of cayenne and Old Bay on it, and if nothing else, the resulting salt content is a bit high, so that'll need to be tweaked.

The other part of re-adding food is this: It will be in strict moderation. Even if popcorn and peanut butter are ok, I don't want them to become staples of my diet. Those would be my once a month (or so) treats, not something to "cheat" with on EVERY meal (not really a cheat then...).

The before and after pictures are pretty revealing (unable to get a copy of the worst before picture... the front view...):
Before: (Official weigh-in = 220#)

After: (207#, down 13 pounds in 12 weeks!)

Elm City CrossFit's Epic Eating Experiment

90 days. Full paleo. No sugar, no grains, no breads, no legumes. No beer. Nothing.

One hour in:

This was basically me the day before the Epic Eating Experiment started:

But replace the (not horribly unhealthy) butter with beer, ice cream cake, more beer, and some chips and pretzels.

Woke up feeling like death, and ready to actually try to tackle this thing like a boss. First challenge? My weekly gig at a seafood and burger place, where we get free drinks and food (under a certain price). My go-to meal for over two years is a burger platter (sweet potato fries and cole slaw) and a couple beers. This week? Turns out the only option (with protein) under the $10 limit was a crappy salad with some chicken on it. Ugh. May have to go for the bun-less burger next time. Replace the fries with... even more cole slaw?! No, it probably has sugar in the sauce. Damn. I tried a NorCal marguerita, which is just tequila (silver, since it has less sugar) with seltzer and lime juice. Damn... that's a tasty beverage. Not a great choice, but not a terrible one either (compared to my usual gluten-bomb beers, at least.)

So, the upshot of an eating challenge? First of all, I have team-mates to not let down. I have coaches keeping an eye on my food choices. In all, it feels like this:

But in a really nice kind of way. Alons-y!