I’m in love ooooooo I’m a believer

Last night I dipped myself in oil, covered myself in bread crumbs, and jumped into a deep fryer.

Ok so, not really, but that probably would result in my feeling LESS uncomfortable today than I do given last night’s festivities.

I derailed my Paleo train last night, and if I wasn’t a believer in the health benefits of that particular nutritional model before, I am now.

Long story short, I was invited to attend a Spring Training baseball game last night in a fabulous VIP suite where they had as much Corona and Stella as you could drink, and as many chicken fingers, mini sliders, smothered hot dogs jalapeno poppers and brownies as you could eat.

I have been following a pretty consistent 90/10 Paleo diet since the first of the year, and have been very strict about deep fried and sugar filled goodies.

Beer… well beer has been part of the 10%.

Last night I went into the event with good intentions.  I ate a salad before I left the house and had some leftover grilled chicken for when I got home and was actually hungry.  I gave myself a pep talk the whole way to the ballpark that I could stick with water and no one would judge me, we all have to work the next day and no one would think anything of it.

The whole walk to the suite I ignored the scent of popcorn and hot dogs thinking how unhealthy all the people standing in the lines at the concession stands must be.

And then I entered the suite and promptly fell of my high horse.

All I could smell was hot dogs and chicken fingers.  The work colleagues I was meeting there had their plates loaded up and were each holding a beer.  The gracious host remembered how much I like Corona and had one in my hand before I could even get thru my hellos.

My willpower fell right out the window.

Luckily, one absolutely beautiful thing I have learned over my Crossfit/Paleo journey of the last several months, is not to feel guilty about food.  I think so often in the past my “relationship” with food has been something that has caused a bad choice or two to go from bad to worse as I beat myself up about it.

I am past that.  I don’t feel “guilty” about one single greasy morsel.

I do, however, feel like crap today.  God’s honest truth, I weigh 8 POUNDS MORE  this morning than I did yesterday morning.  My fingers feel like sausages.  My wedding ring is too tight.

My “comfy” jeans are cutting into a fat roll that hasn’t shown its face in months.  My sinuses are going crazy, I have enough cream cheese covered mucous that I could probably say I have the flu and get sent home from work without question.

My joints hurt.

And on top of it all, I was 8 seconds/500 slower on the rower this morning and way weaker on my push jerks than I’ve been in months.

I’m positive someone is reading this right now and thinking that this is in my head and there is no way that one night of indulgence (ie eating CRAP) could have a negative side effect this extreme so quickly.  Perhaps there is even someone reading my side effects who believes that something like joint pain is unrelated to eating wheat and dairy.

To you I have to say only one thing, try it for yourself and make up your own mind.

I was adamantly against changing my diet for months, but once I did I realized near instant health and performance benefits.  While I’m human and still struggle (uh, see above), I am a true believer in Paleo and the changes it can make not only to my body, but to my health.  I FEEL better when I eliminate dairy, wheat and sugar from my diet.

And man let me tell ya, I feel like CRAP when I eat it.