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Since beginning this diet, to me its become very obvious about how much more meat I consume. As a former vegetarian, I still feel an ethical obligation to the animals I eat. I try to eat as organic as possible (cage-free, antibiotic free, etc.). I've kind of mandated a new 2/3rds rule to my diet, where 2/3rds of my plate is veggies/fruit. A lot of paleo recommendations are that we subsist on at least 1/2 protein. If I could get away with it I would subsist on a lot of veggies; however from my own personal experience, I would quickly get anemia (despite consuming a lot of iron from spinach). I have calculated how much protein, that I'd need to consume daily using this calculator it gave me just under 300 grams of protein (which for a body building website is obviously going to be higher than my needs). So using a reference I was able to calculate that I'd need about 2 lbs of lean chicken breast a day. I can think of this as the "upper bound", which I probably won't hit even on work-out days. After reading about "rabbit starvation" and noticing my hunger is much less these days, I don't think I'll consume more than 1 lb of lean meat per day.

To help ease myself on the ethics of being an omnivore, I'll try to consume kefir (buying when on sale in bulk) and experiment with lentils (which seem to be the lesser of evils, that are legumes). It might be that, it comes back and bites me in the ass (much like returning to non-organic milk did. and organic milk to a much lesser degree). Regardless, I've really come to enjoy both organic meats and lots of veggies in the last few months.

2013: Week 2

Weight: 189.4 lbs
BMI: 23.6
Body Fat: 11.8%

Through out this past week, I was either sick or recovering so I ate some less than healthy foods and a drank a lot of kefir to help my gut's flora. My gym partner and I have decided to not sign up for the gym until February, so that we can pursue some of our own interests while the gym is super packed with people that won't be there for a long period of time. I'll be reading the next book on my list, using my hang-board, walking 10,000 steps a day (Just bought a pedometer that will help me gain points with my work's system). Towards the end of the week I made paleo spaghetti, which was good, except that the pre-made pasta sauce I used had too much sugar in it. I found an article, which inspire me to make my own pasta sauce.

My pasta:

Noodles
Gluten-free Noodles (I think that they are brown rice based which isn't paleo friendly, but certainly better than whole-wheat noodles. The article I linked previously uses spaghetti squash, which is what I'll try next time)
(Add to boiling water and then drain when noodles achieve ideal firmness, the noodles I got never got too "soggy")

Sauce Portion
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 6 oz cans of tomato paste
A dash Italian seasoning
(all simmered over low in a 1 quart pot)

Meat Portion (I did this in my wok)
About a teaspoon of Olive Oil
1 yellow Onion
2 cloves of garlic
(heated at medium high for about 4 minutes and then add meat)
1 lb of (grass-fed beef)
A dash of Italian seasoning
(heated until meat is cooked, and then add the Sauce)

Pasta Concoction
Add Sauce (to meat)
Add Noodles (or whatever to the meat)
(cook at medium low so that everything mixes well together)

2013: Week 1

Weight: 190 lbs

BMI: 23.7

Body Fat: 12.4%

Update: I survived my family vacation and actually came out in better health than when I left, we had a hotel suite so I was able to cook my own food for 8 of 9 days that I was on vacation. The first night and second day, I drank some generic milk and noticed that my acne quickly flared up. I haven't got a clue as to whether this was from the antibiotics passed to the milk or lack of milk in my diet. My acne disappeared over the following days, after I "detoxed" from milk. During the vacation, I drank some of my protein via casein protein shakes. Milk's protein is roughly 80% to 90% casein. I think that I'll add casein powder to my exception list, but only consume it on days that I work out. Speaking of working out, my ipod recorded an average of 8,000+ steps per day while I was on vacation and one day I managed to go climbing/bouldering for about 3 hours. I think that I'll strive for that magic number of 10,000 steps per day, by the end of the month, with a legit pedometer. My plans for this year are 4 days of working out (2 weight training and 2 climbing/bouldering days). The weight training days will be distinctly different.

Day One: I'll hit 6 muscle groups with 3 different exercises of 3 sets that will contain 5 reps (to increase my strength) (Solo)

Day Two: I'll hit 6 muscle groups with 2 different exercises of 3 sets that will contain 12, 10, 8 reps (to increase my endurance) (Solo or Partner)

My climbing goals will be a bit different:

Climbing: I've progressed very well on climbing (even while wearing a weighted vest), I'll cut back a bit.

Bouldering: I know that I should do more and be better after starting this hobby up a year and a half ago, but I'm still no where near my level of expectations. My points of failure seems to be finger strength and some core/balance issues. I bought a hang-board with mid-level holds to help me get stronger fingers. I'll try to boulder twice a week from here on out.

End of year goals

Climbing: 5.10 successful climb (at 5.9+ right now)

Bouldering: V3 successful problem (at V1+ right now)

Bench: 12 reps of Body Weight (71% right now)

Squat: 12 reps of Body Weight (n/a)

Deadlift: 12 reps of Body Weight (n/a)

Of course loosing more weight will make all of these goals much more obtainable, but only if it is fat. So I'll continue my paleo lifestyle. I've lost just over 12 lbs in 2 months and I am nearly half way to my "ideal weight."