We are 7 days into this "Paleo Awareness" challenge.  Are we having fun yet?  Actually, the first week seems to be the hardest.  You are adjusting to a whole new way of eating, old habits are being tested, and you're still unsure if you're getting it right.   Let me start  by saying "congratulations" for even giving this a go.  You are one step ahead of so many others who still believe that the Standard American Diet (SAD) and food pyramid are the only way to health.  In fact, I was reading an article yesterday by a nutritionist who, in her infinite nutritional wisdom, chided those who cut "whole food groups" out of their diet.  Her concern was that people were missing out on crucial B-vitamins without grains.  Wait...I don't think you need fortified inflammatory grains to get your B vitamins.  I'm not sure this nutritional genius knew that the best sources of Vitamin B12 come from mussles, clams, oysters, liver, eggs, and beef to name a few.  And while many grainitarians choose to believe that whole grains are the supreme food choice for wholesomeness, fiber and vitamins, they are sadly misguided.  But who can blame them...rarely can you find a good article in the mainstream that "goes against the grain" so to speak.  For a great read on why we exclude grains from our paleo diet, check out the Grain Manifesto by The Whole9.

Now, off the soapbox, I want to give you a few resources for your weekly reading.  First, if you haven't gone to The Foodie for help with recipes, you're missing out.  There are a ton of great recipes to try...you just have to know what you like.
http://www.thefoodee.com/post/6262/

Here's another link I'd like you to read regarding soybean oil (it's everywhere) and High Fructose Corn Syrup (oh, it's everywhere too.)  Cutting these two things out of your diet is a must.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/23/united-states-health-ranking.aspx?e_cid=20130123_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130123

An article on the Whole30 and paleo:
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20130122/LIFE04/301220029

A google chart showing the increased interest in paleo:
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=paleo%20diet

A Science Bite from Robb Wolf:
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=51021876189adc8125a6a9578&id=a3f7df4c81&e=cbdc0d1ad4
I listened to his podcast featuring John Kiefer from Dangerously Hardcore http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com/category/nutrition/
and was fascinated with his take on partitioning most of your carbs in the evening.  Haven't we always been told to eat the bulk of our carbs early in the day?  More conventional wisdom gone awry.  I ended up purchasing his book Carb Nite and am finally getting a chance to sit down and read it.  I think it was written in about 2002.  On the podcast, he said he has changed some of his recommendations (as far as eating better, higher quality carbs as opposed to just junk carbs) since then but the theory is still the same.  I am playing around with this on myself to see if I notice any difference.  Essentially, I am eating about the same amount of carbs as I would have otherwise, but just saving them for the evening.  A sample day FOR ME might look like:
2 eggs, 2 cups spinach, 2 pieces of bacon for breakfast
mixed green salad with olive oil and red wine vinegarette and a piece of salmon for lunch
snack - rolled up ham with 1 T. homemade mayo
Dinner - baked or roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed greens, grilled flank steak, mushrooms and peppers, frozen banana and a few plantain chips.
All carbs are paleo and I will eat more or less depending on my activity that day. So far, my hunger has been pretty contained all day.  The protein and fat in my first two meals keep me satiated and the low carb approach during the day allows me to access stored fat easier since insulin secretion is drastically reduced.  Sugar highs and lows are diminished.  If I get hungry, I grab a protein/fat snack.  A hard boiled egg is a perfect example of that.  So I am accomplishing a few things at once...I'm becoming more insulin sensitive and more fat adapted as I rely on fat instead of carbs for energy.
I'm really just playing around with all of this for now, but find the science behind it intriguing.  We are all little experiments (N=1) of one so tinker with things to see what works for you. 

Check out those links, especially the Dangerously Hardcore link.  He has some great articles on his blog.  I hope I'm not overwhelming you with information, but you gotta learn about this stuff.  Can't rely on the the conventional widsom because they are consistently wrong!

Also, here are a couple of links for some great free ebooks.  The Flinch is a great one about changing behaviors.   F*** calories is a funny, irreverant view of food with a lot of good quotes. 
http://www.amazon.com/The-Flinch-ebook/dp/B0062Q7S3S
http://www.stumptuous.com/fuck-calories

This should keep yall busy for a few days!   Strap your seatbelts on for Week 2.  Remember why you're doing this.  It takes effort to learn and make change, but it is worth it.  You are worth it.

Starting today, Tuesday January 15th, we begin day one of our Whole30 challenge.  This is a stricter form of paleo, meant to be used for establishing a baseline of health.  In the next 30 days, we will be restoring our gut health, decreasing inflammation, and maintaining a consistent hormonal response as we enjoy a wide variety of quality proteins, veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds, and healthy, good quality fats.  We will avoid all grains, dairy and legumes as well as sugar in all its forms, artificial sweeteners and alcohol for thirty days.  This is going to give us a good, hard reset and show us how feeling good really feels.  Making this transition can be tough because bad habits can be so hard to break.  Our bodies have gotten used to running on refined carbohydrates for fuel so switching gears can be hard at first.  But did I tell you how worth it it is?  As the weeks go by, you will eventually come to see how healthy feels. 

At the seminar, someone asked, "What can you drink if you're cutting everything out?" Personally, I like to use flavored sparkling water and add a small amount of fruit juice for flavor.  Just a quick pour gives it that extra little somethin' somethin'.  Citrus, mint, cucumbers, or strawberries also add nice flavor to sparkling water.  Iced tea can be a great option.  Fool around with different types of flavored teas and brew them with your regular tea.  I like the Mr. Coffee iced tea pot to make a fresh batch every day.  Yeah, I like it that much.
Mark Sisson also has some good tips for tasty beverages that you can read on his blog at Mark's Daily Apple.  Also, the Whole9 website posted something today about drink options on a Whole30.  Read about it here.

I am leading another wonderful group of people from CrossFit St. Louis and CrossFit Xtra Mile through a 30 day Paleo Challenge that started this past Monday, August 13.  We kicked it off with a nutrition seminar and then got busy taking pre-pictures and measurements.  When the gig is up on Sept. 11th we will take our after pictures and measurements and then bask in the healthy glow we will have developed after the thirty days of clean eatin'.
So far, I think everyone is on the right track.  We've had a few people succumb to the "carb flu", feelings of sluggishness that are common in the first few weeks, but usually subside as the month goes on.  We are trying to become more "fat adapted" and shift our metabolism away from being a "sugar burner".  For more on this, Mark Sisson has a great article and so does Nora Gedgaudas from Primal Body Primal Mind.  You can find her article here.  I just want people to be reassured that this decrease in performance, tired, sluggish feeling doesn't last forever.

I think the biggest problem people have is trying to figure out what the heck to eat since the grains and dairy have been removed.  Wheat is in everything!  But with some creativity, some good recipe websites and some planning, you will find that your effort pays off in spades in the way you look, feel and perform.  I have to use my sister-in-law as a prime example of how much better you can feel once you ditch the grains, especially wheat gluten.
Natalie (not her real name) and I have been tennis partners for years and I've also encouraged her to join our CrossFit gym to work on strength and endurance.  She has complained about her knees bothering her and would find lunging, squatting, and deadlifting painful.  It was frustrating as a coach, because I knew she needed to do these movements to strengthen up her quads and hamstrings, but with limited mobility our strength gains were at a standstill.  I talked to her about changing over to more of a paleo type diet, but she, like so many other people, didn't really attribute her joint issues to anything else but age. 

Finally, after one particularly sugar and flour laden Easter, she woke up the next day in full body pain.  She said even the joints that normally didn't bother her were hurting.  I told her that she had a choice...cut out the gluten, which is a known gut irritant and plays havoc on your immune system and adds inflammation to the body, and cut out the sugar for just a WEEK, or continue to be in pain all the time.  "What have you got to lose?"  Long story short, she did as I asked (FINALLY!) and has since sworn off gluten.  She is a new person.  She is almost pain free.  She doesn't even need the knee brace she used to wear to tennis.  And I don't have to her her whine! hehe
So now Natalie is my new spokesperson.  She isn't completely paleo, but the changes she did make work for her and have allowed her to continue the activities she loves without the joint pain.

So there you have it.  You really don't have anything to lose...except maybe that tire around your middle, and the acne on your back, and the joint pain...the list goes on!  Here's to all of you challengers brave enough to embark on this nutritional journey and to ask the hard questions about what is really healthy.  We don't need no stinkin' food pyramid.