So I’ve decided that it’s time to refocus my diet once more and start eating paleo for a thirty day period. Today was day one.

Ribs are delicious! How can you say no?

I woke up this morning and weighed in – 214.3 pounds. I had been hovering around 208 for the past several months, and 214 isn’t unexpected nor even why I’m doing this. I’ve noticed a slow and general decrease in my overall sense of ‘wellbeing’, that nebulous term for “How do you feel at this very moment?” In addition, I had been letting some small amounts of wheats and grains into my diet from time to time, which I knew I wanted to guard against, but because ‘it was easy’ or ‘convenient’, they were slipping in with increasing frequency. Not good.

One of my big tells, from a health and wellness standpoint, is that as my grain intake increases so to do my allergy symptoms. When I originally started on this trail over a year ago now, I was taking Claritin daily to help keep my sinuses open. Having decided to change my diet and eliminate grains and legumes from my diet, my daily required Claritin was needed more and more infrequently, until I went months without taking any at all. But that was changing.

As I sit here, having already taken my compulsory Claritin this morning, my sinuses feel full and enflamed – unhappy with me for something. As near as I can tell, it’s because I’ve been letting those pesky grains trickle in more and more. It’s my body telling me that I need to focus and rethink my priorities. I am of a mind to listen to my body. As such, I felt it was time for a change in my food intake. It was time to once again ride the dragon of paleo.

My goals are simple: feel better, gain performance, increase fitness and be happier. I’ve experienced this all before, and choosing to clean up my intake and food choices helped immensely. I have no reason to believe that this time will be any different. Last time, I experienced major physical changes as well – I lost over 20 pounds. This time, it will be harder to see. Hopefully I will see physical changes as well as the physiological changes that I am expecting, but I only expect to see those through changes in body composition, if at all. Other than that, what I really want is some good performance gains and for my sense of ‘wellbeing’ to rise.

For those of you that would like to follow along, I’ll be chronicling my 30 days at least once a week. I will be MOSTLY following the whole30 challenge, but I will be adding in some small amounts of butter (for cooking with only). That’s the only change that I want to make. Giving up cheese will be tough for me – I’ve been using it as a readily available source of fat and protein. I’ll post my “start” pictures soon.

If you would like to join me, I’ll post a brief outline of how I’m doing it. Let me know if you do in the comments below!

Wish me luck!