Day two

Bit of a rough second day, but as we come to the end of it, I think things are starting to fall into place a bit.

Food today was a bit awkward. Because I was sufficiently hungry/calorie-starved to eat all my chicken on Monday night, I was left to see what was out there for lunch (after another several-egg breakfast). There's a buffet-type place in my building that did have some relatively unadorned meats (I had a piece of baked ham, a couple pieces of roasted turkey and a tilapia fillet with a little paprika and parsley seasoning), and even if it probably violates the full spirit of the paleo diet a little, I think I can live with it (much more so than with a Vitamin Water). Aside from that it was mostly almonds and water during the day, although that will fill you up more than it might sound because of the almonds' high fat content.

Then it was off to the gym where I got my butt absolutely kicked in 45 minutes of circuit training. After wanting to die by the halfway mark, I actually hit a bit of a second wind on the final group of exercises and finished strong, although even after a 15-minute cooldown walk on the treadmill my heart rate was still over 120. I did put in a few minutes of stretching this time, so hopefully I won't be as sore tomorrow. Either way, after circuit training, an hour on the elliptical sounds just dandy, thanks!

I had to return to Whole Foods for dinner and picked up some frozen beef and lamb patties, plus some organic chicken/turkey sausage as a morning alternative to eggs (still cholesterol, but a good deal less). Dinner was one of the lamb patties (lamb is so delicious), plus a few ounces of raspberries and then a couple ounces of almonds to at least push me over the 1,500 calorie mark for the day. The final tally, admittedly a bit rough since I didn't have precise measurements on lunch: 1,654 calories, 74 g of carbs (falling into the "sweet spot" described by Mark's Daily Apple), 94 g of fat, 130 g of protein. And, well, 1,081 mg of cholesterol. While red meat should be a nice little supplement, it's clear that the majority of my calories need to come from plant-based sources - and if I'm to have any hope of not piling on the cholesterol while still getting the necessary fat (the paleo diet should be at least 50% fat, and quite possibly more, apparently), it's gotta be high-fat plant sources. So, nuts. And I may have to talk myself into avocados.

Well, it's a process. I knew I probably wouldn't get this perfect from day one, but at least I've got my carbs way down and my exercise way up. That ought to help almost no matter what else I'm doing.