Sunday May 8, Day 21

OK, the dreaded drive home day. Again, my body is getting messed up. Sleeping at the moment is interesting. I went to bed (actually couch) last night at 10pm. I saw the most amazing display of stars and was expecting to watch a bit more of the Canucks game, but ended up falling asleep before I could get either done.

I still don't know who won the Canucks game. Meh, I was really saddened by the fact that I saw the most incredible show in the night sky for about ten minutes, then promptly fell asleep.

I go to bed early, so I wake up early. Stupid early in this case. I saw some pre-sunrise stars too, but they weren't as nice as the night ones. It was still pretty cool. One of the advantages of getting to go to a cottage in a dark part of the country.

In any case, I got up early, took the kids for a drive and got some pictures done.




When I got home, I had two of the kids, as the middle child had to swim. So, I hung out with my children, watched movies on Youtube as we've given up cable. Eventually, we're going to go without a land line, putting that money towards debt. I hate debt.

I got the kids in bed and did this for three rounds before being interrupted by domestic needs: I needed to get groceries then off to bed.

30 BW squats
30 feet up push ups
6 chin ups
20 two handed KB swings
10 Kb snatches each side

This is going to be along week, man. I'm hoping that the little break I got on the weekend will be that thing that gets me 'till Friday.


...and this is the last post. On to the APA style report...

Saturday May 7, Day 20

Saturday I woke up at the usual time, 5:50am. So did my kids, so I rounded them up and took them out of the cottage so that others could sleep. I have a newborn, so we drove. When we got back I did a workout best described as "MovNat" ...

Did five rounds of this:

walk up 8m of hill in low crouch, leaping from rock to rock
free climb big rock
30 BW squats
30 push ups, various hand positions/ feet heights
continue up another 15m free climb of hill/vertical rock to top of hill.
Sprint down to start (about 50 metres)









Seriously, it was pretty cool and tiring. There is a path, which I must say that last year, made me cringe when I got to the top. This time, no such problems. Lots of trips up and down, lots of cut down saplings brought up... there was even one I canoed out from under a tree, hoisted it onto the dock and then up to the top of the hill within a few minutes. I'm in not bad shape, man.

My diet was simply awful, though.

Breakfast: fruit and coffee

Snack: doritos, water to drink (yeah, I know, I will mention this in the report)

Lunch: chicken caesar salad - light on the chicken, heavy on the salad

Dinner was a glorious steak, grilled red and green peppers with grilled zuchinni, too. Desert was a piece of pecan pie.

Friday March 6 Day 19

Friday was a training day - that is, I was given a day to catch up on work. ;)

I ate this:

Breakfast: steak and eggs, coffee to drink

Snack: water and walnuts

Lunch: tuna on salad, water to drink.

Dinner was salmon and veggies, huge salad, water to drink

I drove to a cottage for the weekend on Friday, so my workouts were 20 minute goes of lifting stuff to the van and packing. Or unpacking.

Day 18

Right. Tough day - allergies are just kicking my butt right now ... and I'm starting rugby.

I ate this:

Breakfast roast beef and poached eggs. Awesome. coffee on the way in

snack: walnuts, carrots. water to drink

lunch; tuna, carrots, no salad, walnuts, water to drink.

dinner: one small piece of roast beef, asparagus. water to drink

after rugby snack: beef on a bun

Rugby started at 7pm, went until 8:30. After that finished, did this for four rounds:

50 m sprints x 4
20 two handed kb swings
10 kb snatches each side
30 push ups
30 BW squats

I got it done. I got it done.

And someone else commented on my ability to get around the pitch, which I thought was pretty cool.

Wed May 4, Day 17

I'll have to check, but I have rarely felt this lousy. Seriously. The youngest is just not letting me sleep and I'm not sure about a lot of things, but my diet is not helping me at all. I'm guessing now.

Am I not eating properly because I'm tired, or am I tired because I'm not eating properly. I was tired three weeks ago, stressed with work and with the newborn ... is that was is not letting me sleep? Is my insomnia coming back, along with all of the wonderful mental health stuff that brings with it. Ugh. Perhaps its the complete lack of any sunshine that is making me this way. I'm arriving at work in the mornings and I'm just barely able to drag myself over the threshold to get in there. This isn't like me.

I skipped tonight's workout, too. Just had no stuff to get off of the couch and get it done. I really wasn't on the couch. I was cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, making sure my kids were ok and the like. Getting stuff ready for work tomorrow and making my plans to get the heck out of dodge for the weekend.

Yeah, not hanging around here, waiting for people just to dump on my head, thanks.

I need some time to recover, or at least some time to start to recover, as I'm not quite done yet.

I ate this today:

Breakfast: small piece of salmon and poached eggs. Water to drink, coffee on the way in.

Snack Water and more water.

Lunch: water. Tuna sandwich with hummus, carrots, walnuts and more water.

Dinner: roll, home made pizza with my daughter. Lots of Scottish rugby video podcast on the Apple tv. Those were some fun games to watch.

But, I just didn't get into my gym today. Rather off-putting, to be frank. I mean, it's a circle of self defeat if I keep thinking about it.

So, I'm not going to. I'm off to bed. Hated today, loved my family.

Tuesday May 3, day 16

I can barely recall what day it is by now. I keep having to check on the top right hand of the Macbooks' screen to make sure.

I ate this today:

Breakfast: canatlope with coffee on the way in.

Snack: walnuts, hummus and carrots. Water to drink.

Lunch; the usual, tuna, salad, carrots, hummus... prunes. Water.

after work snack: bread and chimichurri sauce

Dinner: chicken breast, rice and a huge salad.

There was no workout today - just some stretching and recovery work. Back and shoulder are hurting today.

Monday May 2, Day 15

It was a long day today, man. Anyway, it was a decent day for my health.

Ate this:

Breakfast: sliced cantalope. (one buddy of mine was speaking to me on Saturday night about too much meat in my diet. I took his advice and altered my diet today.) Coffee to drink.

Snack: I was hungry at break, so I ate some walnuts, had an apple and some water to drink.

Lunch was the usual; tuna on salad. Carrots with hummus with some prunes.

Dinner was chicken cassarole. I made the chicken in the slow cooker, my wife put in some veggies. I added some hot sauce before eating it. Veggies on the side, too.

Snack after my workout was veggies, dip and a can of tuna. Meh, whatever.

I did this for five rounds before I got the election results:

30 two handed swings, 20 kg KB used
10 KB snatches each side
30 push ups
10 TRX rows
10 bicep curls, 50 lb used
10 triceps extensions, same barbel used
30 BW squats
10 ab roll outs

I had a some difficulty getting my butt off of the couch and get it into the garage to get this workout in. I did it, though.

Sunday May 1, Day 14

Sunday I felt like crap; the youngest one kept waking up during the night. Three times that I can recall. Perhaps more. My wife was exhausted. And the bills keep piling up. I'm pretty sure that by week's end, I'm going to be done with Bell and with cable in my house. I just do not see the reason for it.

Sunday I ate this:

Coffee before church.

Breakfast was black coffee with a half a bagel from Timmy Horton's. I shared with my daughter.

Lunch was tuna on salad. Water to drink.

Dinner was pizza; green pepper, tomato, olives and mushrooms on my small slice.

I like my meals through the week waaaaaay better. I just can't seem to get my family to eat better with me. hmmmm...

Money's tight this week, so I will be eating well, for sure. Going to be abusing the coffee maker at work and at home, no more coffee trips for me.

Overall, though, this week was a C. I got most of my workouts in, played a game of rugby, too. But I'm getting away from my diet, and worse ... I know why and just don't seem to want to tackle that issue.

How DO you get a family to change when they don't want to change?

Sat April 30, Day 13

Man, this was a short weekend.

Saturday was a rugby day. A weird and wet one, to be sure. I got about 60 minutes of playing time in, which was quote a workout. I noticed I'm in decent shape, just need to shake off some of the rust from the off season. Lots of runs, a lot more contact and some nice comments from my teammates about my ability to get around the pitch.

The pitch, yes. It wasn't very dry, to say the least.

Anyway, ate this:

Breakfast: roast beef and poached eggs. Coffee to drink

Lunch/post game recovery: tuna on salad, carrots with hummus. I had four chocolate eggs (small ones, relax) from my kids' Easter stash. I did get an awful lot of chocolate from my parents and in-laws for some reason. I'm taking it all to the rugby club. I just don't need it in my house

Dinner: Salmon, veggies and water to drink.

Saturday night was the UFC 129, which my rugby club showed. I was there for about an hour, got to see up until the start of the GSP fight. Then I went home to watch the ESPN feed of the fight. Man, that last fight was a bit of a let down. Almost boring, man. Ah well, there were some exciting fights, too.

Thursday April 28, Day 11

I ate this:

Breakfast: roast beef and poached egg. Water to drink, coffee on the way in

Snack walnuts and water to drink

Lunch: tuna sandwich with tuna also on salad. Not carrots no green pepper left, so I went without. Water to drink.

Snack ... water.

Dinner: he he he .. it was only really well prepared roast beef. that's it. It was awesome. I only had one hand to eat ... so I ate beef. Water to drink

After rugby training snack: more roast beef when I got home.

Workout for the day was a rugby training session at my local club. Started at 7pm, ran until dark, about 8:30 these days. I did four rounds of this at the end:

50 m sprint x 2
30 BW squats
20 feet up push ups
20 lunges

I was pretty tired at the end of that. The 90 minutes of rugby were fun, but muddy and tough. Lots of contact, lots of running and physical contact. I almost missed that stuff.

Friday April 29 Day 12

I ate fairly well today, despite the party to celebrate the British freaking wedding at work.

Breakfast: juicy roast beef and poached eggs. Coffee on the way in

Snack: more coffee and six meat balls.

Lunch: buffet in the lunch room. It was good: veggies, meat balls (I prepared those) vegetarian samosa, two salads of green leafy stuff and a small piece of Williams' chocolate cake. Yeah, the last one was less than the size of my thumb.

Snack: water and more veggies.

Dinner: small bowl of pasta, water to drink.


I did get a workout in, although a short one, as I have a game of rugby tomorrow.

I did this for four rounds:

30 BW squats
10 bicep curls
10 triceps extensions
30 two handed KB swings, 20 kg kb used
10 snatches each side
30 regular push ups

It felt good afterwards. Now for a relaxing night with my wife to try and recharge my batteries for tomorrow and tomorrow night. w00t!

Wednesday April 27 day 10

I got to check out a local butcher on the way home from work today ... I had quite the time finding the place again, as the rain was coming down in buckets. I got into Florence Meats and poked around. Lots of stuff for sale that was mentioned in Paleo Solution. I'm not sure I'm brave enough for Cow Tongue or Cow knuckle but it might happen sometime later. In the end I bought some steak dipping sauce and headed home.

I ate fairly Paleo today:

Breakfast: roast beef dipped in ketchup. Yup, dry and getting worse. Almost done. Walnuts, water and a banana. Coffee on the way in

Snack: Walnuts and carrots with hummus

Lunch the usual, tuna on salad, carrots and green peppers on hummus, water to drink.

Snack after work: chimmichurri sauce and steak. Kicked major butt

Dinner was a small piece of homemade lasagna, walnuts and a huge salad. Water to drink.

After dinner, I had a nap with my boy to get him asleep. The sun came out, and I asked my wife if she wanted to go for a walk. She said no, so I jumped at the chance to get out of the house and go to the local park for a workout. Simply awesome.

I did this five rounds:

30 TH KB swings 30 lb kb used. Need to get heavier KBs in the van
20 one handed snatches
10 one handed flips
20 feet up push ups
30 bw squats - also used the 50 lb backpack for two rounds
20 lunges

This took me about a half hour; I got all muddy, too. But the mud was warm, so it was all good.

Tuesday April 26 day 9

OK, looks like I'm going ot have to go back and fix some of the days' numbers. Man, I hate when I mess up like that.

Speaking of messing up, I cheated a little on the Paleo diet today. Nothing huge, just a little disappointing.

Here's what I ate:

Breakfast: roast beef and poached eggs. I need to stop overcooking the pot roast. Seriously.

Snack water and a handful of walnuts.

Lunch: the usual of tuna on salad, hummus and carrots and green pepper. Water to drink.

Snack: stress. and two slices of pepperoni pizza with hummus. Meh, that'll be my cheat for the week.

Dinner: small - I mean tiny bowl of pasta with a huge salad. Water to drink. I saw this as punichment for me - I wasn't going to make my kids each stupidly dry meat. I am the only one that needs to suffer in that way...


All in all, not a great day for a Paleo type of diet. I am liking it, even if I am a little bored with what I am offering myself. However, I will be taking advantage of Robb Wolff's recipes, and those of others in the know, and getting a varied menu shortly. Seriously, it's good.

My wife asked me to get my son to sleep, so I do what I do best... I fell asleep with him in the rocking chair. My wife came in about 9pm to wake me up and put my son in the crib. We'd been like that for almost two hours, she said.


I did this five rounds for a workout today:

20 BW squats - should make this a bit harder next time, perhaps with a sandbag/BTB
20 regular push ups
10 bicep curls
10 triceps extensions
8-10 deadlifts 190 lbs
10 TRX body weight rows
10 ab roll outs
20 two handed KB swings
10 snatches each side 30 lb KB used.

I'm glad I got the workout in, even if it was a bit late. I'm going to go upstairs, grab my copy of the Paleo Diet and read the thing with the hockey game in the background.

Monday April 25 day 8

I ate this:

Breakfast ... bowl of chilli ... with had lentils in it ... beans, peas, corn, ground beef... delicious, but not Paleo as I later found out.

Lunch was a black coffee with some roast beef.

Snack was a handful of walnuts with some grapefruit juice

Dinner was roast beef, potatoes, corn, peas and a large (I mean large) piece of carrot cake leftover from yesterday at my parent's place. I was kinda sick after sticking it in my gaping wadi.

I finally got a copy of The Paleo Solution today. Kind of an interesting read - the sections I read covered the whys and the whats... I get into in later on this week.

I did this workout five rounds:

20 BW or with 50 lbs extra squats
20 feet up push ups
20 two handed kettlebell swings (30 lb KB used)
10 KB snatches each side
10 overhead presses with a 60 lb backpack
10 ab rolls outs.



what a lousy day outside ... but I had to get out there or suffer the rest of the week...

Sunday April 24

Happy Easter!

I had a tough time keeping to the Paleo diet today ... my mother likes to cook with cheese.

Breakfast was late, as I was up with my son really late. Had pieces of roast beef. With some grapefruit juice.

Snack was walnuts with coffee

Dinner was hummus with veggies. At least I think it was hummus. Veggies were all over my plate; potato, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower ... they went on an on. Pork with peas with a salad was the main meal. It was good, and surprisingly paleo in nature. Where I fell down was the dessert, carrot cake. Lots of sugary icing, man.

No workout today, as most of the day was spent at my parent's place, hacking into my nieces' facebook accounts and enjoying the havoc.

saturday April 23 day 6

Oh, man. I'mma keeping this brief:

Saturday was just not a great day, either

Breakfast was some left over steak while holding my son and watching Super 15 rugby on my laptop.

Lunch was more steak on salad. Water to drink.

Dinner was some paleo chilli I put together: ground beef, corn, peas, beans, mushrooms. pretty good. White wine to drink. Yeah, I know.

Did this workout for five rounds on Saturday, finally:

20 BW squats
20 feet up push ups
10 ab roll outs
5 chin ups
10 TRX BW rows
20 two handed swings 30 lb KB used

I had no idea that beans and peas were on the borderline of being considered Paleo ... interesting stuff, man.

Friday April 22, day 5

This was a pretty nice holiday plan - but I didn't stick to it.

Nope, no morning workout today for me, nor did I get an evening one in, as a buddy came by needing help with their macbook. I did what I could for them; later reports are that what we did together worked as a band aid solution and my permanent solution was also recommended by the fine people at Creative Technology. Seriously, they are a cool store, man.

Ate this;

Breakfast was salad and tuna about 10am.

Snack was black coffee, waluts

Dinner was steak and salad. Chicken breast, too. Rice, veggies on the side. LOOOOTSA of leftovers as both my wife and I were putting stuff on the table to eat.

Not a lot of calories on this day. Which is nice in that that means there are less calories to work off later.

Didn't do much in the way of reading today as most of the day I was confronted with small domestic situations I had to solve. Ah, it's joyful being a dad...

Thursday April 21 Day 4

OK, going through my food journal and research notes from last week.

Ate this:


Breakfast was coffee on the way into work

Snack was walnuts and water to drink

Lunch was not good, a tim horton's chilli and bun.

Dinner was lasagna - pasta, lots of ground beef, cheese, spinach and other veggies. Salad. water to drink

I was supposed to go to rugby, but it was called off as the fields were too wet. I hate that, especially when I was kinda looking forward to it all day. I didn't work out, I'm sorry to say.

I did listen to some of Rob Wolff's podcast and plan to pick up his book on Monday.

Day three

I did eat fairly well today, at least until I got home for dinner. Still everything is still cool, although I still need to pick up the Paleo Solution, I did listen to a few of the episodes of Robb Wolf's podcast today on the drive in. Interesting stuff.

I ate this:

Breakfast: chicken and salad/veggies. OJ to drink

Black coffee on the way in (no dairy in a paleo diet)

Coffee with milk as a snack, with prunes and a handful of walnuts, carrots with hummus.

Lunch was the usual of tuna on salad, carrots and hummus, walnuts, water to drink.

Dinner was a very meaty lasagna; spinach, ground beef with some cheese.

Yes, kind of disappointed with the amount of dairy in today's meals. However, when presented with a gift of coffee, one doesn't turn it down. I also don't turn down lasagna when it is made by my six year old daughter. If you turn down either one, it is just bad karma. I also am getting rid of the almonds in my diet, as they as just too many calories; I really really like them, and I just have to put them to the side, at least for this week. Walnuts look like brains to me, by the way....



he he he he ... zombies... I hate them, but they are just so "there".

Did five rounds of this:

20 Bodyweight squats
20 feet up push ups
20 kettlebell two handed swings
10 kettlebell snatches (both hands)
10 ab roll outs
20 step ups with 10 lbs in each hand - 20 inch step
10 bicep / triceps with 50 lb barbell

a good workout; I would still like to be able to afford to do some Bjj, but between childrens' stuff and a mat leave, there's just no coin left over for it. Meh, I know I need to start running again. Cheaper and probably better for my sore neck in the long run.

Day two April 19

Breakfast: chicken breast and poached eggs, water to drink

Coffee on the way into work

Lunch: tuna, green pepper with hummus, prunes and almonds, water to drink.

Dinner: stewing beef, broccoli, carrots, other assorted veggies slow cooked. It was pretty good. I ate early, thinking I was going to rugby training. I was wrong.

Instead, I held a barfing boy for a few hours while he, well.... barfed. He's getting pretty good with his aim, I must say. The other two children were out of range for a four month old stomach, but he was close to getting them.

I did do some more reading online and some listening to robb Wolf's podcast. He's rather inane during a lot of them - talking about a lot of stuff that isn't directly related to his book or the topic at hand. Random.

I did learn that I can't have milk in my coffee, though. Meh, whatever.

I guess I'm just used to Gary Vanerchuck's really good podcast ... kinda spoiled, I guess. I'm going to have to make up the training session during the long weekend. Before I get there, though, there is another two tough days ahead.

Day one April 18

Yes, that WAS as good as it looks. The funny thing is that I really could have scrounged up enough money to get a Belt at Tim Hortons, but didn't. I could have set up another tab with the cafeteria lady, but didn't. I dunno why I didn't perhaps it was fate helping me keep to my diet today. Whatever else it was, it was also delicious.

Breakfast: coffee, 6 almonds, 6 prunes

Snack: that awesome bowl of unified fateful fruit seen above.

Lunch: tuna (no salad) almonds, prunes. Water to drink.

Dinner: meat casserole; ground beef, veggies (a lot of veggies) with some spagetti sauce and a few crumbles of cheese.

I did this very simple workout for four rounds

20 BW squats
20 push ups, feet level
20 lunges
10 knee to chest while on chin up bar
20 kettlebell swings to catch to two handed press

after this, I rolled on my ITB bands, my quads ... legs were rolled all over. Man, they were just balls of hurt.

So, I was working on building this blog today. I found a few videos ... I posted one on the other blog, for example. I did look around for the Paleo Soltion by Robb Wolf ... it's at the local Chapters. I'm thinking I'll pick it up on the way home tomorrow. I'm kind of concerned that I could only find the dead tree version, but alas, that is what I could find.

I did also find Robb Wolf on Facebook, but he as too many friends. I did go down his wall and read a few of the links posted there and also was kind of please to discover that we share 51 friends. I'm kind of proud of that ... ;)

I also did a #Paleo search on twitter. Yes, I did write that, really. For a research project like this, it is sometimes useful to gather as much information and opinion on an idea as possible. Twitter does that really really easily. I took a few minutes ... minutes .... and got a few ideas about how to eat Paleo ... not the least of which was "work the edges" - that is, when going ot a grocery store, don't shop in the middle of the store. Instead, work the outside aisle of the store. I'd not heard it put that way, but I know what the idea means. Go to your local store and see for yourself.

In any case, the last thing I did before going to bed was to watch this TED talk about the discovery and use of cooking. It did sound kind of lame, but he does make a compelling case for the importance of cooking.

Imma thinking 'bout food

OK, so ... I went looking around the intewebs tonight and found ... a website I already knew about.

Greg Carver's blog and gym is something that's pretty cool. Good recipes, too. I think one of the recipes is something I'm going to have to look into for this porject.

Oh, and there is the link I wanted to park here; I'm goin to Whole Foods to look into their supplements aisle at some point.

The purpose of this

Ok, I'll admit this right off: I'm curious what it is to eat like a cave man. In the readings I'm doing, the stuff that is pounded into my head my the people I have friended on facebook, they all tell me that I need to eat better to live a healthier life.

Well, my diet isn't bad. I try to eat as healthy as I can as often as I can. But I know that I can do better.

I know I can do better. Really, I have to. I'm a dad.

So, given the excuse, the opportunity and the time to research what it is/means to eat like a caveman ... I'm going to take it and run with it.

I love doing research projects like this: you never know what really cool stuff you're going to find out about. The fancy name for such learning is called "Project Based Learning" ... wait, I'll wikipedia it for you ... lol ...

I'll be listening to podcasts, reading books and watching stuff on Youtube. I just know it. I'm also going to be talking to people to try and get my head around stuff that I just know is going to come up. I just don't know who or what we'll talk about.