Paleo Challenge - End of Week 1

After years of coaxing, prodding, sharing, and encouraging from my dear friend, Shasonta, I finally started to listen.  On 31 January 2011, me, my husband, and our other dear friends, Michele and Bart, all kissed conventional eating habits good bye and launched into a Paleo/Primal eating journey.  Good bye bread and pasta.  Hello meat, veggies, and fat (the good ones).  For me, the scale didn't change much, but I certainly could tell that I was just "feeling better".  For my husband, Neil, he probably lost about 15 pounds.  Men!
Then, on 24 October 2011, I took the really big leap and went to my first CrossFit class (something else that Shasonta had been urging me to try).  Not to be alone, I dragged my husband and Michele along for the ride.  It was scary - hell, who am I kidding - it's STILL scary!  But I love it.  It's an addiction of the strangest sort.  (more on that later I guess)
So this "box" (aka: gym) that I belong to is CrossFitX and they have organized a Paleo Challenge... 35 days of clean eating.  We were put into teams of 3 and the goal is that whichever team loses the most body fat wins.  Sounds awesome... let's go!
To be strict Paleo means, in addition to the no bread/no pasta concept,  they take it further to say: no dairy, no sugar, no booze.  WHOA - say what?  But what about my post WOD (crossfit-speak for Workout Of the Day) glass of chocolate milk?  uh uh.  What about those blue cheese crumbles on my beautiful salad?  nope.  And for Heaven's sake... no wine?  Sniff the cork Lady and get over it.
Hmmmmm.... THIS is going to be a challenge!  It is indeed, but I'm a week in and yes, I will admit that I've had a few faltering moments.  But I've also had some successes and it's definitely made me conscious of what I'm eating and the choices before me.  I know once the challenge is over, that I'll go back to my chocolate milk and my cheese, and yes, my wine.  But I will definitely stop and THINK about how much I'm consuming... and maybe even make a different choice.
So, because of the challenge, I've been digging through the cookbooks and blogs to come up with some very  paleo-friendly alternatives to snacks and beverages.  I'll get my act together soon and get those posted, but in the meantime... only 21 days to go!