I’ve been doing CrossFit since the beginning of March here in the Netherlands. I was doing it sporadically since August of last year back in Annapolis but always had other classes to check out and my obsession with bikram yoga was in full swing back then. However, I always knew it was the workout for me since my basketball days were over.
When I first started CrossFit and was doing the introduction classes, the folks over at CrossFit Annapolis told us about the paleo diet and how it can really help with your CrossFit training. They called it the Whole9 and suggested we try it out for 30 days. I looked through the packet they gave us and on the second page it showed what the diet consisted of: meat, fish, eggs, fruit, veggies, and nuts. No dairy, no beans, no grains, no sugar, no alcohol. Nothing processed.
Everything looked good except for the fact that you couldn’t eat beans and I you had to eat meat and fish in order to benefit from the diet. I thought about trying it out without eating animals but realized that was a ridiculous idea and nixed that right away. It would be quite silly for me to go for it because I’d be nutritionally deficient and wouldn’t have the energy that apparently the diet gives you.
Fast forward 8 months later and I’m now completely obsessed with CrossFit. I go at least 4x a week and love the community that is being created at Mobilis CrossFit. It definitively gives me a balance with my life at Knowmads.
If you hang around crossfitters long enough, you start to get curious about this paleo thing. Everyone who’s on it can’t stop talking more highly of it. They all say it has helped them so much with their training and they’ve never had more energy in their life.
The thing is I’m a vegetarian.
Can I go back to eating meat and fish?
As I’m contemplating this paleo diet, this vegan thing is in my face too. I’m hearing people going on a 30 day vegan challenge, other’s are turning vegetarian, I end up watching a 70 min lecture on youtube about veganism which reminds me why I want to be vegan in the first place, and then I find this 72 yr old woman who looks like she’s in her 50s and she claims it’s the diet. Oh the internal struggle!
After really contemplating it for a week, I have decided to go completely paleo for 8 weeks starting the first day of summer, June 21st. It’s extremely weird to think about eating meat again. As I think about it right now I wonder if I can do it. I may just eat lots of eggs for the first week or so. Maybe have a piece of bacon or sausage to ease into it.
Mmmm bacon.
Not really sure if I can withstand eating fish. Currently the smell of fish makes me want to vomit and there’s lots of that around here because of the herring or whatever the heck I see people eating on little rectangle plates with tiny pitch fork utensils (you also smell a lot of weed depending on how the wind is blowing).
My goal is to test how my body reacts to this new diet. Will I have loads of energy? Will my body feel it when I have pasta, sugar, or dairy? The goal for the first 8 weeks is to go as strict as possible. So no dairy and no sugar. The alcohol thing will be my 10%. I also won’t beat myself up if I end up having some of this or some of that. It’s the “summer” and I’m on a European adventure so of course living life to the fullest is key.
Compassion for my body and the animals is the focus for the next 8 weeks starting Thursday. I will be conscious of the animals I eat but I think I will end up eating mostly fruits and vegetables anyways. Time will only tell. We’ll see how my body reacts.
kristin goes knowmadic 
I was a long time (10 years) vegetarian and vegan for two and have never felt better eating Paleo. I was prescribed the SCD back in the fall by my naturopath for a bacteria overgrowth in my small intestine. The SCD is very similar to Paleo, except more dairy is allowed. I don’t tolerate most dairy, so it basically meant eating Paleo. I stuck with being vegetarian for the first month on the SCD, but was having a really hard time getting enough protein, especially since I’m so active, so I decided to start eating some chicken and turkey, in addition to the occasional fish I already ate. It made a huge difference and I didn’t do it until I felt ready. I just recently started eating grass-fed beef and have come to terms with that too. I realized meat is something my body needs at this point in my life, so I learned to bless it, accept it, and carry its essence within me. I focus on high quality meat (grass-fed, local, etc.) which makes a big difference too. Honestly, I’ve never felt better in my life. My long-time vegetarian diet was wrecking havoc on my system and I wouldn’t go back!