3/8.....James P

Sleep 10:30 - 5:45am
Stress better this afternoon

pre wod: protein shake
6:30am WOD FGB 270ish first time I ever went after it goal is over 300 next time.
post wod: Hard boiled egg, decaf coffee
10:30am 5 turkey meatballs
12:00pm Chicken Cobb Salad, carrots and celery
2:00pm 1/2 serving of Raw Almonds
3:30pm sliver of red velvet cake didn't qualify as a piece according to the people in my office. had a sliver to make someone feel good.
5:00pm hot tea
6:30pm wife made a great salad for dinner to night with 5oz grilled chicken. mixed greens, grape tomato's, orange bell pepper, snap peas.

Overall, I feel great. Diet really changes everything. I really was upset with myself for taking a bite of the cake because I really want to avoid sweets for a while. Another reason I like to avoid sweets is because it always seems to bring on anxiety or increase my stress level at work. A few years ago out of no where I had a panic attack. I do not wish this on anyone. I never had anxiety issues in my life. Then Bam out of no where at 80mph on I95 my first full blown panic attack. After a stressful day of work, a few red bulls, and a bunch of processed junk that day it helped my body learn to say screw you James I am going to make you lose your sh&t today. After 1..came 2..and so on. It increased stress in my everyday life, relationship, work, and avoiding I95 for the longest time (someone traveling for work this becomes a major challenge). You may be asking yourself why the hell is James babbling about a panic attack on this year long fitness assessment blog. Well the answer is really simple..... diet and exercise. When I started to get these panic attacks I was eating poorly, drinking like a fish, for the first time in my life wasn't exercising at all, starting my masters degree, getting married, and selling/buying our new house. I had a ton going on and I was doing nothing to help counter the stress I was bringing on. As I started working with my ND to help support my adrenals and started working out at CrossFit everyday is better than the day before. Learning how to fuel my body properly has made such a difference. Yes I am still on edge sometimes, but as I focus on ways to help manage stress by helping improve my diet I can say that I have had more anxiety free days. I have not felt this good in such a long time and it all comes back to diet and exercise.

So that's my little story which I am sure I will get more in depth about over the next ten months. I wanted to mention this because we have a big box at CFM. A lot of people have a lot of different issues or things going on. Some live the stress free life while others may have an issue to what I developed. Eating poorly really helped my body develop a negative trend in producing a panic attack. Yes, I had a ton of stuff going on but if my body was fueled with a lot of the things within the Paleo diet I am almost positive my anxiety would have been at a manageable level.
I AM PUTTING IT ALL OUT THERE!
Diet and exercise may not take the stress out of my life, but it will certainly has helped me manage it. At 31 I think I felt like I was 41. Now at 34 I feel like I am 21 again (without the 21 shot bar crawl!) I guess my point of this story was simple....eating properly and excersing can do wonders beyond just looking great!