Melissa Lashley

It just about took a sledgehammer to the head for it to finally sink in, but last week I finally understood what would allow me to successfully remain on a ketogenic diet. I needed to just do it. Not think about it, not talk about it, not research it to the point of complete redundancy. I needed to just do it. Simple.

Let me back up a couple of steps. What is a ketogenic diet? It is an extremely low carb diet that allows your body to reset itself and start burning fat instead of carbohydrates. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on it, so I’ll leave my definition at that.

Why do I want to be on a ketogenic diet? I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and a ketogenic diet is one proven method of reversing the symptoms. I’m very lucky, my symptoms are really pretty mild. One area where I continue to struggle is weight loss.

Since I started CrossFit in mid-July I had only managed to gain weight, not lose it. Granted I gained a lot of muscle, but that is still pretty discouraging when you’ve learned to use the scale as your gauge of success.

This was one reason I stopped weighing myself altogether. After I stopped weighing myself I did see some improvements in how my clothes fit and, of course in my progress at CrossFit. But I was a little concerned that I wasn’t dropping sizes and was worried that, at that rate of progress, body weight movements would remain a daydream.

With these thoughts in my head, I listened to others in the challenge talk about their successes with weight loss and decided to just take a peek at the scale. I had gained five pounds since the last time I had weighed in.

I wasn’t as discouraged as I was just straight up frustrated. I wasn’t eating perfectly but I was eating well. I was working my ass off during the WODs. Things didn’t add up. Long story short, I knew my PCOS could be a factor in the lack of weight loss so I did some research and came up with the solution – a ketogenic diet.

Even though I knew this was the route I needed to go, I kept up with the research. I even asked about Zone in the challenge’s Facebook group as a possible alternative. It was suggested there that I go to my doctor, get bloodwork done and then see a coach to go over the results.

Duh.

I was making things way too hard by doing it on my own and doing excess research when 1) I was already pretty sure what I needed to do, and 2) I had a way of finding out what the right nutrition path would be for me. But I’m good at overcomplicating things.

I decided that I would start the ketogenic diet before going to the doctors. The appointment I made was a couple of weeks out and I just couldn’t wait that long. But I was anxious about it. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to stay below 50g of carbs a day and while I had a good attitude starting out, I could see myself getting frustrated down the road.

When Jay set up the meetings for the 90 Day Challenge people I decided to go because of that imagined frustration. I’m not sure what I was expecting. Maybe some words of wisdom that lead to some enlightenment and allow me to sail through these next few months without out batting an eye. Well, I’m hoping that’s exactly what I got.

When I explained why I was attempting a ketogenic diet to Jay he said, “Well then you kinda need to go on a ketogenic diet.” It didn’t hit me right away, but a couple of days later I realized that’s what I was missing. I was treating this as an option. It’s not. This is what works. Finally I realized how I could keep it simple.

I’m a lot less fearful about down the road now. I’m just taking it day by day and telling myself to Keep It Simple, Stupid whenever I start to over-think. And of course, the fact that it’s already working is helping a lot too

Fear keeps us safe. It’s what keeps us from walking into that dark alley where bad men or monsters may be lurking. It’s what keeps our feet firmly planted on the ground at the edge of a cliff. It keeps us alive.

Fear can also keep us from living. If we let irrational fears control us, they can prevent us from pursuing our dreams, undertaking tasks that will help us grow or become stronger, or, in extreme circumstances, they can even keep us from leaving the house. Irrational fear traps us. We may be safe, but at what price?

The key to living a full, rich and LONG life is knowing to listen to good fears and ignore the irrational fears. It seems like such a simple concept written out nice and neat. So why do I seem to have such a damn hard time figuring out when I should tune fears out?!

I went to the Tri-State Throwdown last Saturday. I sat on the sidelines and watched with complete admiration as beasties of all shapes and sizes threw themselves through push-ups, deadlifts, and continental cleans.

Okay, I didn’t completely sit on the sidelines. I was out there throwing around weights between heats and actually had fun doing it, but the entire time the fact that I could have competed kept gnawing at me. And the worst part of it was knowing that the only thing that kept me from it was irrational fear.

What did I fear? Looking stupid mostly. But what I realized watching these people of all ability levels is, no one looked stupid out there. They looked like they were busting ass. Which makes sense, since that is exactly what they were doing. And I could have been right out there with them if I had chosen to ignore that little niggling fear instead of listening.

I’m nothing if not a good student. So I’ve put that niggling fear on mute and signed up for the Garage Games in March. It doesn’t matter me to me if my partner and I are unable to complete every WOD, it just matters that I’m out there busting ass and facing my weaknesses head on so I make myself stronger for the next time.

I tell people I’ve been doing Paleo (well Primal, if we’re getting technical) on and off for a year. That is true, but I have to say it has probably been more off than I’d like to admit.

I was really strict for the first month like Robb Wolf’s book The Paleo Solution suggests. And I felt fantastic. My allergies were remarkably better, my energy level was up and consistent throughout the day, my mind seemed more clear and my mood improved. It was a no brainer to continue this way of eating, but I never seemed to be able to make myself stick with it.

I now realize I was having such a hard time with a long term commitment to Paleo because I was alone. Anyone I told how great I felt was usually congratulatory but I would sometimes get the comment, “Well, it’s only been a month.” Or, my favorite, “Yeah, I heard Atkins works that way too. After a while people feel horrible.”

I soon learned to keep my excitement to myself. I understand that talking to people about eating habits is a touchy thing, so I resigned myself to quietly congratulating myself on progress and shut everyone else out.

After a while of swallowing every success, my motivation was depleted. I certainly don’t need the approval of everyone in my life over every little thing (though the people pleaser side of me would be ecstatic if that were possible), but I’ve found that I do need that mutual respect that develops when people go through a challenge together.

This was the reason I was so excited about the 90 Day Challenge. I would finally have people to talk to that could relate to what I was experiencing and may even have some words of wisdom to share with me.

I was even more excited when I found out two co-workers would be doing the challenge as well. I figured we could support each other, borrow Paleo snacks from on another when one of us forgot to bring something, that type of thing. And that is exactly how it is working out.

This last Friday our office has a Pizza Lunch. Our receptionist, who was ordering the food, was kind enough to ask us what we wanted to eat. We settled on Chef’s salads for each of us. When the salads arrived for lunch, they were obviously made for three four year olds, not three grown adults who crossfit. The receptionist was heartbroken.

The man she had talked to on the phone had told her that a small salad was for one person and a large salad was for two people. So, she ordered the smalls. I told her that I would have done the exact same thing, hopefully she took it to heart and it made her feel a little better.

Needless to say, we were all starving a couple of hours after the lunch meeting. Between all of us though, we were able to pool our resources and have enough snacks to make it through the rest of the afternoon.

I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to experience something like this a year ago and it has made it light years eaisier to stay on track. When I’m not physically around someone that is doing the challenge, I always have the Facebook group that I can ping for ideas and moral support. I’m very grateful to have so many people i can share experiences with. Thanks to everyone for helping me through! You are all Tonto to my Lone Ranger.

Here are my food stats for the week:

This week has started off right. I rowed my ass off during the 1k meter row yesterday (not sure of the exact time as my team rowed in 500 m shifts, but it was around 4:30) and finished all 150 wall balls for Karen tonight in 4 minutes less than the 125 wall balls I finished in September. I’m a happy crossfitter.

I’ve definitely seen improvements these 20+ days in both my performance and my ability to recover from tough workouts. While I am concentrating more on mobility than I was before, I know that the food has a lot to do with it too.

I knew I would see improvement in my performance, but I didn’t realize how quickly it would happen. I feel like a complete idiot for not being more strict with my diet all along. Needless to say, lesson learned.

Even in the last week I’ve had moments where I wanted to just walk out of a WOD. Just the thought of walking lunges has me breaking out in a cold sweat. But more and more I’m having those ‘hell yeah’ moments where the momentum kicks in and I’m accomplishing things I thought were beyond my capability. These moments are why I love crossfit.

My food stats for last week:

I log my food daily on BeyondTheWhiteboard.com. Because I already log it there and I’ve already had a hard time blogging daily I figure I will use the site’s overview functionality to show how I’m doing with my food intake each week.

The one major challenge I had this week was traveling yesterday. I armed myself with Paleo Stix and a Paleo Krunch bar and that made my life a lot easier. Other than that it was a pretty easy week, the second week is always the tough one for me. I’ve prepped to set myself up for success, so now it’s all down to in-the-moment decision making.

I never really went into what my goals are for the 90 day challenge. My official goals are:

I have other unofficial goals but one goal you won’t see in either list is a weight goal.

I decided a few months ago to stop concentrating on weight so much. There are so many other measures of health that I can apply to measure my progress that are much more meaningful than weight.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to lose weight and know that I need to. But I’m not going lose three inches from my waist by gaining it, and if I do then I’ve made a crazy amount of progress in 90 days and should probably be tested for performance enhancing drugs.

One of the major reasons I have decided to stop weighing myself is that it was no longer a source of motivation for me. As long as the weight dropped off, I was fine. But if the scale didn’t seem to budge for a while or if it went back up even though I was eating well and exercising, it made the effort seem a little pointless (even though I knew, rationally that it wasn’t).

If weight is what motivates you during challenges like these and general life goals, then go for it. But if you find it discouraging from time to time like I do, maybe focusing on other goals will help you stay on track over the long run.