Fail... Except Not.

So, I failed pretty epicly at this whole blog thing =P

I got through my 30 days at the first of the year and to this day I am still going strong with Paleo. I did have a few week long periods of struggle in there because I "didn't have time for Paleo" or "it was too expensive", but I have come to find those were just excuses I made because of my old, "bad" habits. Currently, I will have 1-3 cheat meals a week depending on what is going on, but the rest of the time I eat pretty strict. I have found if I do several meals a week instead of 1 full day of gorging myself on crappy food I don't feel quite so disgusting or bloated.

Note: I have decided to give my cheat meals purpose. I don't use a cheat meal just because "pizza hut sounds really good right now", but rather to keep up with social connections and gatherings. Because lets face it, who wants to invite the guy to the bar who sits there drinking water and judging everyone else for drinking other things? I have found that if I create some ground rules to follow, I am much less likely to "cheat" on my lifestyle.

1.) If my dad calls me up and wants to go to lunch - fair game.
2.) If a friend is going to the bar and calls me up - 4 beer max.
3.) If my wife and I are going on a date (and yes, this is pretty rare) - fair game.
4.) If coworkers invite me to lunch - fair game if I haven't had more than 2 cheat meals that week.

Other than that, I don't eat things that would not be acceptable to a Paleo minded individual. and frankly, the less of the "bad foods" that I eat, the less I crave them. There is a part of me that would love to completely eat Paleo 100% of the time, but that just isn't very realistic. My reasoning for that is that now, if I drink a coke, for the next 4 days all I can think about is coke (which I was addicted to soda, so it is EXTREMELY rare that I will have one). But the same goes with other foods. If I eat pizza, it is something I crave for the next several days and it is much more tempting than it was before I ate it. All I can say it, make it manageable because if you don't, you will fail.

For those of you who have been wondering, here are the numbers I had at the first of the year compaired to now:

Weight - 226.3 - 190
Chest - 44 - 40
Arms - 14.75 - 14
Stomach - 40.75 - 34
Waist - 37 - 35.5
Hips - 40 - 37
Thighs - 24.5 - 23.5

I have lost just under 37 lbs
I have reduced my chest by 4 inches (and the man boobs I've had my whole life are going away)
My arms are more lean and my biceps and triceps are bigger than ever
My "beer belly" has reduced a whopping 6.75 inches!
I have taken 1.5 inches off my waist and now my "skinny jeans" are getting a little big...
My hips (aka "fat ass") have gone down 3 inches
And I have taken an inch off my thighs

I still have work to do, and a ways to go to get where I want to be. I plan to continue on with this journey and continue eating this way and keeping up with my CrossFit regimen. I will be taking 6 month pics at the end of this month so come back and check em out!