Anyone who knows me well, can tell you that I have an issue with control as in I need to be in control of my schedule, my time, my environment at all times.  I could go into all of my self-psychoanalyzed theories on why but I won't bore you with such nonsense.  Over the past few years at the suggestion and encouragement of Mr. X, I've been working on this and I'm making progress. 

This weekend my family visited from Georgia, Dallas and El Paso.  We are a group of strong personalities, all with our own ideas and agendas.  For this reason, family visits can become a huge source of anxiety for me.  Don't get me wrong, I love my family dearly and truly enjoy being with them but the loss of control over my "life" is very uncomfortable for me.

My family is originally from the the south, and I mean the REAL SOUTH, as in Alabama where all family get togethers center around food and not very healthy food at that.  I knew there would be dinning out experiences with limited options for me and food sources that might not be ideal.  As an exercise of letting go of my need for total control, I decided that during this visit I would go with the flow while maintaining my paleo diet as best I could without obsessing over whether all the ingredients in the food where organic, free-range, grass feed or pastured and to put family time first working in the 4 additional Spartan 300 Challenge workouts I had been assigned for the week during any free time I had.
 
Family time began Thursday evening with a trip to Guerro's for Tex Mex.  Since I work my day job until 4:00 and then teach yoga until 7:15 on Thursdays I originally planned to start family time on Friday with dinner.  I had planned to go home and knock out one of my 4 workouts but my family chose a restaurant close to where I live and it was my sister's birthday so I went to dinner.  I felt a tinge of panic at the idea that I had these 4 workouts to get in over the jammed packed weekend but rationalized that I still had Fri, Sat and Sun and it was possible to double up on a day if I needed to.  I wasn't too worried about the food situation at Guerro's since shrimp fajitas with guacamole sans tortillas is always a safe paleo bet .  The only stumbling block I could foresee was the alcohol during the week rule.  It was my sister's 40th birthday and how could I not drink a margarita in celebration with her?  So I made a deal with myself to limit myself to 1 margarita. 

My family ordered chips and queso for appetizers which pre-paleo was my FAVORITE thing in the world to eat but by the Grace of God I no longer have a desire for.  Some of them ordered enchiladas for dinner which used to be my 2nd favorite thing in the world to eat but also no longer have a desire for them.  I was content to eat my shrimp, onions, green peppers and mushrooms with a side of sliced avocado instead of guacamole since Guerro's for some reason beyond me puts sour cream in their guac!!!  Thank god I confirmed with the waiter while ordering that there was no grains, dairy, legumes or sugar in anything I had ordered.  I was shocked when he filled me in on the guacamole secret ingredient and glad I went through the litany of "no-no" foods with him.  So far so good, I stuck to paleo.  YAY ME!!!  But the night was young and we were all having such a good time and the 1st margarita was so good, that I rationalized ordering a second because this was a special occassion.  Not so good of me but at least I stopped at 2 and they were paleo meaning just tequilia, lime, water and salt.

Day 2, Friday, I didn't meet up with my family until dinner.  I was able to get in my endurance and overhead press workouts, 2 down, 2 to go.  My sister made the family's dinner plans at a kid friendly restaurant.  It was an Italian restaurant that specialized in pizza, pasta and panninis.  I checked out the menu on line to establish my eating game plan and decided to go with either a side of meatballs with marinara or grilled Italian sausage with a salad or a side or grilled veggies and 2 glasses of wine max.  When placing my order, I went through the "no-no" list and discovered that the meatballs had cheese in them :-( so I went with the sausage.  The grilled vegetables, zucchini, squash, mushrooms and onions sounded more nutritious than then salad choices so I went with that.  I was pretty hungry and didn't know how long the food would take so I ordered Affettati for an appetizer and offered up the none paleo items to my family while I enjoyed the prosciutto and salami.   I was surprised that the grilled sausage and veggies were actually tasty and the wine was delicious, so delicious that I went over my 2 glass max.  Shame on me!  :-(

Saturday, Day 4 started out well.  I managed to avoid breakfast at my family's hotel even though my mother was all but begging me to come have breakfast with them.  I knew that our trip to Fredericksburg that day would offer less than the best choices for quality food for lunch so I knew I better stay home for breakfast.  That was an excellent call on my part because I ended up eating a questionable hamburger patty with tasteless guacamole and a pityful side salad for lunch.  Thank God for Larabars!  I had 2 that day to stave off hunger as my mother, aunt and sister induldged in sugary sweets from a bakery to make up for the crappy lunch they too had endured.

My mother and aunt who shop for sport but should make it a profession took our trip to Fredericksburg into overtime so I did not make it back in time to squeeze in the 2 remaining workouts I had left for the week but I reminded myself I was going with the flow, doing well with the food thing and could double up the workout on Sunday.

My mother had asked that I select a restaurant for dinner Saturday night.  I chose Perla's.  They have incredibly fresh seafood and are willing to prepare anyway you like.  Everyone in my family loves seafood so this was a win-win for us all.  We started with raw oysters that were incredible.  My family also nibbled on the hushpuppies that I remembered being absolutely delicious from my pre-paleo days but thankfully was not tempted by that night.  I had grilled sea bass with chimichurri sauce on the side and split a side of spinach and brussell sprouts with my sister.  Good job ME, I had been able to do Paleo all day, no problem.  However my 2 drink max rule went out the window, not so good me :-(   A pre-dinner margarita followed by an incredible malbec at dinner then after dinner drinks at my favorite bar Peche with Mr. X, my sister, brother-in-law, aunt and uncle was a casuality of going with the flow but a great time with my family!

I woke up Sunday, Day 5 exhausted from going non-stop, lack of sleep and overindulging in good wine and tequilia.  We all met up at Magnolia for breakfast were I promptly ordered a coffee, proceeded to add sugar in the raw and milk which I have not had in 2 months.  It did give me a little pick me up but also a slight case of the caffeine and sugar shakes.  I stuck to the paleo plan avoiding pancakes and ordered an egg white omelet full of veggies and a side of bacon.  Still dragging, Mr. X and I ran by Starbucks and picked up another round of coffee before heading over to my family's hotel to just hang out even though those 2 workouts were looming over my head. 

The inevitable caffeine and sugar crash ocurred so Mr. X drove us home for a nap.  By the time I woke up it was time for dinner so we made the trek out to the Salt Lick.  I hadn't eaten at the Salt Lick since becoming a carnivore.  I don't know who was more excited about me eating real Texas BBQ for the first time, me or my family.  I'd always taken my own food or eaten pickles and slaw sandwiches with bbq sauce and potato salad.  It was humorous to think that I would be avoiding the bread, bbq sauce and potato salad but gobbling up ribs, sausage and brisket.  I didn't realize that some of the meat would actually be pre-sauced and was a little diappointed to ingest hidden sugar.  I tried not to think of where the meat was from, if it was grass fed and grown with love and if the cabbage in the slaw had been sprayed with chemicals on the farm before it made it to my family's dinner table.  I did drink a liter of water I brought from home with my dinner and avoided dessert like the plague but managed to focus on the joy of being with my family and the crazy happiness they felt over my consuming meat along side them.

Following tearful goodbyes in the dusty parking lot of the Salt Lick, and feeling my heart being pulled out of my chest as I watched the tail lights of my family's car head west as Mr. X and I drove north, it hit me that I had actually had an incredible time, free of most of the stress and anxiety I typically felt during visits.  I suddenly realized that letting go of my need to control my "life" completely in the past 4 days had actually been an act of gaining control.

As I pushed my shopping cart through Whole Foods that evening filling it with all my paleo staples for the week, it occurred to me that this new way of eating has already become 2nd nature to me.  I was able to make it through a special occassion weekend without veering too far off course and getting back on track was a piece of cake :-)

Last night's workout was a killer!  We started with the usual warm-up minus the run as it was about to storm.  Our strenth practice was 3x5 deadhang pull-ups and then we did 10 medicine ball clean and jerk to prepare for the barbell c&j in the WOD.  Then it was off to the races, 10 rounds of Cindy:

5 pull-ups
10 pushups
15 air squats

Coach Crystal upped the ante and added in a set of clean and jerks to each round of Cindy.  She had us start with 10 c&j's for the 1st round, 9 for the second round, and continue on until we finished with just 1 in the last round. So in its completed state, that's a total of

50 pull-ups
100 pushups
150 air squats
55 clean and jerks

We had a time limit of 20 minutes but Crystal had to cut us off at 18 because we ran out of time.  RX weight on the c&j was 95# but I went with 50# which was plenty heavy for me!  I finished 5 rounds and did all but the last 5 pushups on my toes!  I also did all 30 warm-up pushups on my toes so I did a total of 75 toe pushups in my workout!!!  I did all my pull-ups during the WOD on the blue band with the exception of the last 5 which I used the green band for.  I did 25 pull-ups, 50 pushups, 75 air squats and 35 clean and jerks in 18 minutes.

Fuel Log for 5/17/10

Breakfast 7:45 a.m.
Paleo Pancakes

Lunch 12:00 p.m.
4 slices of lean briskets
field greens salad with beets, cabbage, carrots and dressing made of basalmic vinegar, olive oil, garlic salt and honey

Snack 4:00 p.m.
1/2 c canteloupe
1 oz salami

Snack 6:00 p.m.
1/2 Lemon Larabar

Dinner 8:45 p.m.
3 oz oven baked salmon
1/3 baked sweet potato mashed with 1 tsp coconut butter, sprinkled w/cinnamon
oven roasted asparagus tossed in olive oil and garlic salt
1/4 c Coconut Bliss Dark Chocolate

Tonight is Black Swan Vinyasa Yoga class with the lovely Lilyana and I hope Malia Scott and her magic hands are there blessing us with adjustments :-)