I have now official started the Paleo phase of my diet experiment.  Earlier in the year I spent several posts reviewing the paleo dos and don’ts.  Rather than trying to comb through all of that, I figured I’d summarize it in one convenient place.

On Monday I finally knocked out my first try at the USAF physical fitness test.  I didn’t go through the trouble of trying to get a licensed administrator.  I simply followed the the instructions for administration and tried to stay true to form.  First I did push ups, then I did sit-ups/crunches.  I followed that by pull ups (my addition) and then a treadmill 1.5 mile run.  The results?  Not so great, but I technically passed.

Yes, there is a lot going on but I’m really looking forward to getting back on track with the experiment.  The first thing to do is get my baselines.  I had originally planned for this to happen on the quarters of each year.  Obviously that’s now shifted a month.  It’s certainly not the end of the world, but maybe I’ll change the durations so I can get back on phase later.  As for right now, the big things I need to have are my baseline monthly body measurements, my baseline physical fitness metrics and maybe some starting pictures.

I do love some good turkey, and despite all the hoopla about tryptophan it’s probably the carb crash from the rest of the trimmings and your system needing to process the overeating that hits you.  Turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey in whatever form is delicious.  What about the country?  I’ve never been.  I do remember the first time I even knew there was such a country.  It was fourth or fifth grade and we were identifying blobs on a map as a whole class.  The teacher pointed to one blob that none of us knew and this girl, I believe her name was Theresa L., bursted out in a somewhat timid manner, “Turkey?”  The entire class, me included laughed at the ridiculousness of it.  Who names a country “turkey” and why would she think such a place existed?  The teacher came back with a, “no but very close!”  I sat there stunned.  Once again, who names a country after a bird?!  It turns out it’s the other way around.

People need goals to actually get somewhere. If you don’t have some idea of what your target is, how are you going to hit it?  At the same time if all we do is jump from goal to goal, what we end up doing is burning out on goals and actually never achieving a point of contentment.  We spend all this time trying to achieve some goal while the actual goal itself will at most be a fleeting moment.  There is some irony in the fact that 99% of the time we are chronically not at our goal.  In fact if we are setting ambitious goals it’s possible we will never achieve them.  Does that make a person a failure because they didn’t achieve it?  I think that depends on if they are looking for enjoyment at achieving a goal versus from going through the process of trying to get there.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of podcasts.  The quality is very up and down between one producer and another.  Some people have been doing it for years and have big budgets while others seem to be using their computer microphones and just uploading almost unedited content.  Production quality aside it can be enjoyable to get the diverse set of perspectives on various topics.  I listen to podcasts on everything from gardening to running to general health.  Unfortunately with the demands of my schedule I’ve been stuck in the car the better part of a day for the past couple weeks.  I’ve therefore needed to amp up and podcast list to not run out of things to listen to.  A quick scrub of some related podcasts brought back a wealth of new producers, but with it a discovery of some dubious advice.

Several years ago I skipped on my Sirius/XM Satellite Radio subscription and decided to start indulging in podcasts.  I wanted something to keep me occupied while I was working out, which I couldn’t do with satellite radio anyway.  I figured I could find some fitness or cooking podcast so searched the iTunes store for those.  At the top of the list were all these Paleo podcasts, and at the top of that list was the Paleo Solution Podcast.  Listening to the podcast taught me a lot about practical Paleo implementation but also how it has helped people overcome major illnesses.  One of the more dramatic stories came from none other than the podcast host, Robb Wolf.