Partnering

As with many people, I do better with things if I have someone to hold me accountable. Unlike many people, I want that someone to be right in the thick of it with me, no pun intended. My husband is a level-one certified CF trainer and owns his own gym. He introduced me to paleo as well as the concepts of CrossFit. While I love his depth and breadth of knowledge he is naturally thin, loves working out, and really feeds on the level of control he can maintain with his eating. I, on the other hand, am naturally chunky thanks to a great stack of genetics and habitual behavior. Part of that habitual behavior is the result of having been bullied for many years to the point that just going to the gym takes a goodly bit of emotional preparation. It is now a bit of a one-off, admittedly, as I have earned a second-degree black belt in karate but that took some work of its own.

All this is to say that Frank is not the person who best motivates me because my inner victim speaks up and says he doesn't know what I'm experiencing because he's worried about being too thin. Bastard. Nila, my paleo partner, on the other hand has walked a similar path to the one I currently walk. We both want to be healthier. We both want to be leaner. We both think that eating paleo and moving more are the best ways to accomplish this. Her rock bottom was that night of alfredo-drowned pierogies. For me, it was a more calculated week in Ireland. January 3rd was the date that we officially re-entered the stream of paleo living. We had a couple months of clean eating save for 4 cheat days. I dumped a bunch of weight and inches and was feeling great. We continued on but allowed for a couple extra cheats after that. At some point, I plateaued with my weightloss and got really frustrated. We were still eating pretty clean but I was pissed about it. 

We decided that our week in Ireland would be a week of delicious, poison and then we would get back to it. I managed to not gain weight on that trip but I certainly didn't come home feeling my best. Going back to clean eating has felt good since then but I've not been able to get myself to the gym. I am finding that I may not be able to win that battle right now and have decided to find other ways to move my body around. I know plenty of body-weight exercises. I'm regularly in the garden. And, I've maybe overcome my fear of riding my bike on the street. I don't know where that one came from. 

I'm excited to see how this partnership unfolds and how closely we can keep each other to accountability. My finally getting my fingers on the keyboard for this first post is the official beginning. I'll be here to report successes and fails. I'll pass along other resources that help like this one and this one. I just ordered a couple of copies of Everyday Paleo so that my partner and I could both have one. Shhh... don't tell her. It's a surprise!