What a Difference a Week Makes

Week one of the I Am CrossFit EPOC challenge is behind me. Some observations...

- Energy level: High, no radical ups or downs throughout the day.

- Hunger: Only first thing in the morning, the rest of the day I'm comfortable.

- Belly: Flatter. I've never had a big belly, but before the switch to paleo (and adequate water consumption), I'd get kind of a pooch. No more.

- Skin: I don't have to use near as much moisturizer on my face or body. Biggest improvement? The skin under my eyes, which is the first place to give away that I'm dehydrated, because the skin shows ALL my wrinkles if I haven't had enough water. Huge improvement there--still have wrinkles (and I've earned every one!), but water and proper diet have reduced them in a way no skin cream ever could.

- Bread, pasta and sweets: Paleo apple muffins (Melisa's recipe) put a combo kebosh on the bread and sweets craving--the muffins have a bread-like consistency and just enough sweet to be extremely satisfying. I've also found a couple of excellent "ice cream" recipes. Pasta? Still miss it, but have learned to do without.

- Booze: Beer, sweet nectar of the gods, I miss you. But sparkling water has the same fizzy and cold sensation as beer, so I can kind of sort of fool myself. Sort of. The thing is, when you're eating properly (or at least, when I'M eating properly, i.e. paleo) beer gives me a bitch of a headache the next day (found this out Saturday morning). Negative reinforcement is better than no reinforcement at all, I suppose.

- Workouts: I did six CrossFit workouts this week and two runs! I can't remember the last time I worked out six (well, eight, really) times in one week. Very pumped about this!

- Sleep: Going to bed earlier, getting at least 7 hours of sleep, and waking up at 5:30 a.m. without too much effort, and once I'm out of bed, I'm not sluggish at all.

- Fat pants: I have a pair of fat pants. I still fit into my skinny pants, but not well. My fat pants I've always saved for when everything else was in the laundry and, well, when I was feeling particularly fat. I hadn't put the fat pants on since probably September, but everything was in the wash yesterday, so I broke them out. Okay, not a massive improvement, but the fat pants are definitely looser. Hands down, the biggest victory of them all for the week!