Eating can be Hard Work

I recently came across this blog post about Melissa Byers. She struggles a lot with food and overall has a good way of looking at eating and Crossfit. She recently wrote an article for the Crossfit Journal about how its very easy to turn the Zone into an eating disorder.
Some people think The Zone and Paleo or as I like to say Proper Nutrition is hard. Its not, people just make it hard.
Here is 1st hand experience with dealing with such situations.
Easy for you to say
As you know, I've been talking about diet an awful lot lately. I'm posting my thoughts here, responding to emails and doing some nutritional coaching for a few folks. I'm in danger of becoming the "Eat More Girl", I'm afraid, as it seems like that's what I start 90% of my conversations with.
People are responding positively, especially when they take my advice and it works. But I'm also getting a little bit of the, "Easy for you to say..." too. As in, "Easy for you to say, you're already lean." Or, "Easy for you to say, you're not trying to lose weight." So I'd like to set one thing straight here, and hopefully provide a little tough love inspiration.This diet stuff was NOT easy for me to say. I did not start off with the perfect diet, I did not start off lean, and I did NOT start off strong. I started off, as Dallas puts it, "Really weak and skinny fat". My muscles were non-existent, I thought 10# dumbbells were heavy and believed bagels with light cream cheese to be a good breakfast food. Getting started on a diet that would support CrossFit was NOT easy for me, nor is it going to be easy for YOU. In general, your diet is HARD WORK. It requires constant attention, evaluation, refinement. It requires research, education, dedication. And it requires the patience of a hungry, cranky, information-overloaded saint. I started improving my diet in small steps. At Dallas' urging, I began eating vegetables, tried to get in more regular meals and upped my overall calories. I hung out there for a while, until that felt comfortable and I started to feel and see some positive effects. That motivated me to do some more research, and ask Dallas for more help. I started eating more "real" food, started cutting back on the grains and sugars and began to eat some good fat. Making those quality improvements led to fast results... but I had so much success (dropping fat and building muscle) that I became a little overzealous. I got mixed up in all that Zone Gone Bad nonsense and backslid for a few months. I was eating too little and training too hard, and I got scary skinny and lost a bunch of strength. NOT the progress we were looking for.I regrouped, and started over. Grains, sugars and dairy - gone. More vegetables. LOTS more fat. My quality was dialed in, but I was a little off in my proportions. I was eating too much fat, and after a month, I started getting soft. But my lifts were better, and I felt better, so I stayed there until I rid my brain of its "six pack" obsession. Then, I started experimenting again. I cut my fat back a little, upped my protein and started slowly cutting back on carbs. I hung out there for a while, tweaking my proportions gradually. I leaned out a little, and continued to gain strength.Then, I started bonking on some workouts, and noticed some energy flags throughout the day. So I started adding more fat (again), and implementing IF (intermittent fasting) a few days a week. I played with my meal times and fast times, made sure I got all my calories in every day and hung out there for a while. (Noticing a trend here?) IF seemed to pull it all together. My lifts kept getting better, I was happier with my new, more filled-out frame and my energy was super consistent all day. I stayed there for a LONG time.But, of course, there is no stasis. My body continued to change - more muscle, more weight - and eventually, my gym performance showed me that my food intake and macronutrient proportion were no longer "ideal". Time to rework it... again. My latest plan includes more fat, higher quality protein, a reduction of IF days, and the introduction of a higher carb post-workout meal. I'm a week into it, and will stay here for another week or two and see how things go.See where I'm going with this? None of this has been "easy". It's hard work, and an awful lot of effort. I black box on myself CONSTANTLY, to figure out what's going to work and what isn't. There are so many factors - dairy or no dairy? More fat or more carbs? More calories, or less calories? It can, and frequently does, get overwhelming, and it would be so much easier to throw up my hands and just EAT. But my diet allows me to perform, and be healthy, and be fit, so I put in the constant effort.If you CrossFit, you are no stranger to hard work and effort. A few months ago, I wrote about putting that same hard work and effort into your recovery... and today, I'm writing about putting it into your DIET. I'm not saying you have to weigh and measure, track and analyze. But I am saying you need to educate yourself, be patient and be prepared for an awful lot of trial and error before you find the exact combination that works for you. And even then, be prepared to repeat the cycle ad nauseam, because things are always changing.I'm happy to answer your questions, and REALLY happy to be able to help you skip some of the mistakes I made with my own diet by pointing you in a better direction. But as for any of this being "easy for me to say", I assure you, there's a lot of grief, frustration and more than a few mistakes behind every last piece of advice I'm dropping on you. But I'll also say this... When you get it right, and things just click, it's like you won the lottery. So stick with it. Be patient. Keep experimenting, slowly, tweaking one thing at a time. You'll get there. And when you do, for a while at least, it WILL feel easy. "

To me, this is over complicating certain issues. Yes, there is a lot of tinkering that has to be done to a diet to make it work for you, but it doesn't need to be as emotional. You have to aim for a goal and then change your eating habits for that goal. EVENTUALLY your body will turn into its own little yin-yang center and balance out. But most of you come in with the aesthetic goal: I WANT TO BE LEAN!! After getting your asskicked and having another crossfitter beat your times or you come in last during a workout, you change the goal to:I WANT TO PERFORM!! And then ensues this mental and physical tetter-totter. This is a very humbling experience, BUT, it can turn a lot of people off in a lot of different ways. Pick a goal and chase it down, trip it, and then kill it with a sharp stick. Once you've claimed your prize move on to a different goal. Honestly people I wish there was a diet or exercise that accomplished all goals (Six pac abs, crazy strength, amazing times, perfect health, sexy legs, chiseled chest, huge arms etc etc) But there isn't. The Crossfit Balance, in which we try to balance the 10 basic fitness skills applies also to EATING. We cant lift REALLY heavy and run fast. If we focus on one skill others will naturally start slacking. Same thing with eating; you can not eat to get big AND lean.
Stick to your goal, get there, and then move on, or get left behind.

Cheat Day - Rest Day

Oh! Finally something fun and tasty talks about.

Lets clear some air right now. If you consider the Zone or Paleo a "diet" you are not playing to win. These are, ultimately, proper ways to eat. Proper according to who? To me dammit!! Just kidding, proper in the sense that as we know there are tons of "additives, chemicals and by products" that either end up, or worse, are placed into our foods. Such an example is HFCS or better known as High Fructose Corn Syrup. There has been study after study, case after case, proof after proof that this stuff at the end of the day is terrible for us as humans. Yet its in almost everything super tasty and everything in general. If you are interested in what this does, we can sit down and talk about it. If you are checking your ingredient labels, like you should, this HFCS should be one of the first things you are "watching out for." If the product you wish to purchase contains HFCS, just put it down and say "Sonofabi**H!!" like I do every time.

Onwards:

Cheating :)

Its not really cheating. Its actually a calculated attack, planned to consume things of which I know are unhealthy for me. Calculated how? Here is how.
One of the faults people (i.e. ignorant morons) have with the zone is that it doesn't work because technically a Snickers is zone (it contains protein, carbs and fat). Awesome! and true. But if someone really believes that that is the basis for zone or even how to eat zone then that person deserves the "diabetic-heart failing-cancer ridden-body" they will get. I'm sorry, but its called population control and we need it.

But its not a bad "cheat." (the snickers not the cancer, heart failure thingy).

So I had a cheat day planned in my head: 6 days on zone 1 day off. And boy it was a tasty day.

I had a Robeks, french toast, beer (not at the same time people) and this bad boy:

Yes the duck is back!!

BUT! Before I get a thousand comments. I had the robeks prework out (workout was: 4 Rounds
30 x 1 Arm Kettle Bell Swing (15 each arm) 53# x Wall Ball20 x Box Jump: completed in: 12:24) After which I had the wonderful, stomach aching, fetal positioning, new Snickers ice cream from Baskin Robbins.

Here is the point: "cheating" is ok. Actually in some ways its necessary. Some of you who are eating well will fall of the wagon, as they say, only to wake up the next morning and either look leaner or perform better. This will unfortunately entice you to "cheat again" soon after and that's where most people get into trouble. My next morning Bfast was:

The problem is when we start feeding the insulin monkey, he likes it and he wants more, SO in turn you crave, which means you snack, which means you snack often and with bad choices, which means you are loosing. This stuff (stuff being food) IS addictive, it IS a drug.

(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090421/ap_on_he_me/med_healthbeat_overeating_5).

If you are going to cheat, plan it out, enjoy every bite, don't inhale, try not to cheat really freaking bad. When I have chocolate cravings I will make a protein shake. That's technically not even bad for me, in fact most of the fitness population does that multiple times a day because they are too busy/lazy/misinformed/special.

Cheating becomes necessary because of a lot of chemical reactions taking place in the body. A newsletter I was recently reading said the following:

There is an important hormone in the body called LEPTIN which "communicates your nutritional status to your body and brain. Leptin levels are mediated by two things. One is your level of body fat. All else being equal, people with higher levels of body fat will have higher leptin levels than those with lower levels of body fat and vice versa. Unfortunately, when you're attempting to lose fat and begin to restrict calories, conditions are anything but "normal" and the body responds accordingly by lowering leptin levels. Again, under normal conditions leptin levels are normal and the brain gets the signal loud and clear that nutrition intake is adequate. Metabolism is high and the internal environment of the body is one very conducive to fat burning.Until you start dieting.Go on a diet and leptin levels quickly plummet (by 50% or more after only one week), sending a signal to the body that you're semi-starved and not consuming enough calories. This puts the breaks on metabolism and creates a hormonal environment extremely conducive to fat storage. Thyroid hormones (hormones extremely important to metabolism) respond by taking a dive and the abdominal fat-storing stress hormone cortisol skyrockets measurably.HELLO belly fat.And if that wasn't bad enough, the appetite stimulating hormones ghrelin, neuropeptide-Y, and anandamide all hop on board to make your life even more miserable.

The solution is "more calories and more carbs.

We know that leptin levels decrease by about 50% after only one week of dieting, but fortunately, it doesn't take nearly that long for leptin to bump back up with a substantial increase in caloric intake. So, the answer to the fat loss catch-22? Strategic high-calorie, high-carb CHEATING. By strategically cheating with high calorie foods (and yes, even stuff like pizza, ice cream, wings, cookies, burgers, fries, etc), you can give leptin and metabolism a major boost mid-diet which sets you up for plenty of subsequent fat loss when you resume your reduced calorie eating regimen.This means greater net fat loss week after week, and ultimately, a much more realistic, maintainable way to bring you to the body you truly want and deserve.So what's so special about carbs?Well, leptin, carbohydrate and insulin have been shown to have very strong ties.Calories alone don’t get the job done, as research shows that overfeeding on protein and fat has little effect on leptin. THIS is why strategic cheating with your favorite foods is so powerful. THIS is why you truly can use your favorite foods to lose fat faster than you ever could with restrictive dieting. THIS is freedom.Essentially, it's everything "typical" dieting isn't.With regular dieting, come week two, you're screwed. It's important to note that although I agree with cheat meals to increase fat loss, I don't agree with cheat meals involving deep fried foods, anything with high levels of trans fats, or high fructose corn syrup laden items like sodas or candy.There are plenty of ways to strategically overeat while still avoiding horrendously processed foods. That means foods such as heaping plates of pasta and meatballs...oh yeah! but sodas, fries, donuts, and fried chicken - still a BIG NO for me!"

Really there is a lot of truth to that but some bs. There are healthy ways to cheat and their are better carb options. Want to know more? Then freaking ask me.

NOTE: Don't think I gave ya'all some privilege to go nuts and eating everything and anything you want. Stick to your goals, if you need something to satisfy a craving, do it, just don't be a glutton about it.

Its funny cause its true

That's a whole lot of tastiness!!

Those are all McDonald's cheeseburgers.

Its never really funny to laugh at death. But sometimes its just ironic as hell (no pun intended).

After downing my post workout zone meal I was headed back to my room when I passed the TV and heard someone talking about McDonald's. I stopped to hear what they had to say.

It was a program on CNBC or what have you about the history of the company and where they are headed and even about nutrition. The man on the screen was talking about how in the early 2000's the company was struggling. Stock was falling, people weren't just into it. And two of the CEO's came up with some grand ideas to bring the burger king (no relation) back to life. Unfortunately one of the main CEOs and his back up suddenly DIED!! (HA!) One of a heart attack (No sh*t you say, Ill be damned you say) (please tell me that's not ironic, or funny, somehow) the other one died of cancer.

Now that one probably makes a little less sense than the heart attack but its probably in relation to the scientific fact that high carb, high sugar diets cause cancer. I know, dammit, that's the one diet we were all hoping would be the cure to all diseases, fitness and health. Nope, its actually the cause of disease, bad health and no fitness. Literally the cause to all most all diseases. What happens is a slew of problems but they mainly start in the gut (small intestine to be exact.) Eating all those yummy happy meals probably caused this man "gut irritation" (Google that and you will be amazed at what you find). This irritation led his bodies natural defense systems to shut down, slowly, and eventually could not defend him from cancer causing agents that attacked his cells. Either way to die of these two, isn't fun, nor quick, or quite.

As the show went on they talked about taste testers. You should have seen the wide ass, thick legged, big belly, triple chin, jiggly under arm women that showed up for this. Their job for the day; test 3! - 3/4 pound Angus burgers. What a job. The men, surprisingly involved in the testing, weren't as big as the women but did have some thickness around the waste.

When one of the marketing CEOs (who has 1 billion dollars to work with each year for marketing, not just what he makes, what hes allotted to use) was asked about people making healthier decisions he said that its an individual preference, that its up to the person to make the right choice. This, in Logic and rationality, is called blame shifting. When he is basically accused of causing child and adult obesity and health related issues, he shifts blame and says its not his fault he makes and sells the products, its the consumers fault for buying them. (Nice guy, nice)

speaking of the kiddy's!

GET'EM WHILE THEIR YOUNG!!!

That's basically what the marking geniuses of the company have figured out. The food is addictive. We know this as almost fact. (WHAT?! WHY?! HOW?!) Ill tell you. If you remember the grain paper written by Robb Wolf: "Grains also have a highly addictive nature beyond the carbohydrate content. They contain opiate-like substances that can be very problematic. Not surprisingly, these opioid constituents can be concentrated in dairy. Makes one look at pizza in a new and frightening way." Whats a good McDonald's meal, 3/4 pounder with cheese and a milk shake. Interesting.... So the kids eat this stuff, its addicting. The advertisements (1 billion dollars worth) is spent trying to relay the message that eating McDonald's is not only OK, BUT its what they are SUPPOSE to eat. Every time they eat it they get a toy too. Kind of a deal huh? Imagine an adult restaurant that handed out things if you ate there, like a cell phone, or money back, or a member of the opposite sex, or a car, I bet sales would be pretty high up there. One of the women interviewed in the program at a McDonald's said that she brings her kid, a small boy maybe 10ish, twice every week. (I'm sure she is lying). She said if she doesn't he gets cranky, throws a tantrum until she gives in and takes him. Sounds like a fracking drug addict if you ask me. The reason she does this, besides the kid needing a fix, is explained that its cheap, easy, and shes tired. So killing your kid because you want to save money, because its easy and because its cheap, cause you're tired are good reasons. OH my god!! Seriously?!?

Some clients tell me when trying to stay on the righteous path "I couldn't help myself."

WHAT!?

Now I understanding planning a cheat meal, but there is a designated time for that.

Giving in because you could resist the drug addicted urge, or peer pressure is a completely different. Why doesn't this parent, or you, buy and use crack. Hell you will lose weight and save money and time. You will get more done, you will feel better. Whats the down side?? Oh, yeah, eventually it will freakin kill you. Well sorry momma, so will those happy meals.

Food is a drug, don't get it twisted. That's how you should look at it. Its the most important, helpful and potential dangerous drug you do.

The program ended with it showing that they have opened chains in Korea (communism meets capitalism they said). Its going to be an interesting experiment. We now have a control group. Somewhat of a population that has been untouched by the clown has now injected this dangerous substance into the population. We will see how they do overtime. Anyone want to start a pool on this one??

Maybe this is the governments secret way of killing Koreans over time. Pretty sneaky if you ask me.

By the by, none of these people working for McDonald's have/had no problem killing you, or your kids (if you have them) or your friends, or parents, neighbors etc. They will do it for the money, they wont change their ways. They will do it because it keeps them rich. They will do it with a smile. They are doing it, "Because they're loving it!"

A Day of Zone

So I zoned all day to day and I just wanted to share with those who are interested. Supposedly I require 18 blocks. 18 blocks of protein, carbs and fat. (If you don't know your block count you need to speak with me for those who are interested. I think, as do others, that the Zone requirements are too high in carb. So what is recommended is carb blocks subbed for fat blocks until the individual reaches their own zone. I went lower carb today because it was a rest day so here is the day.

Breakfast:

Egg=3, spinach=3/4 cup, salami=2oz, almonds=15.

Lunch:

Chicken=5oz, lettuce=2 cups, applesauce=3 tbs, almonds=15, peanut butter= 1 tsp.

Snack:

Talapia=2oz, applesauce=3tbs, almonds=6

Dinner:

Turkey=5oz, mushrooms=1 cup, almonds=15, peanut butter= 2 tbs.

Snack:

Crabmeat=1 1/2 oz, peanut butter= 1 tbs.

I also recently found this thing called "FitDay" in which you can use to plug in all of your food for the day and find out what you did and where you are at. Its a pretty interesting site. I don't know how often I will use it or for how long. I plugged in my food for the day and my activity. They even have an option to find out how many calories you used while performing *cough* certain activities *cough...which I thought was interesting...if you catch my drift.

So here was the daily total according to Fitday:

Calories= 1904

Carbs= 54.2

Protein= 155.5

Fat= 124.6

Percentages: 57% Fat / 32% Protein / 11% Carbs.

According to activities and calories burned during: total for the day was: 1132 calories......interesting......

Also sense we are on the topic of paleo eating, here is some good advice from nikki, a paleo master:

1) Enjoy eating paleo. Enjoy what you eat. If you are unhappy with what you are eating you are unlikely to continue to keep eating that way, and once the nutrition is gone, staying fit and healthy becomes much harder.
2) Pre-cook food. Spend a few hours at the beginning of the week and cook big batches of food. This will allow you to minimise the amount of time that you have to spend cooking during the week.
3) Cook more than you need. This is similar to the previous tip, the idea being that if you cook more than you need for one meal then you can eat it later, or the next day.
4) Rather than cutting yourself off from all of those foods which you enjoy that aren’t 100% paleo friendly, simply eat smaller amounts and be moderate.
5) Do not keep junk/unhealthy food that you know you shouldn’t eat, in the house. For most people, if it is in the house they will eventually eat it.
6) Do not run out of food. This is horrible. Do not let it happen to you.
7) Try planning out your meals for a week. This comes easily to type one personalities, for the rest of us it can be a nuisance. Though this has the benefit of ensuring you know what you need in the house for the week, and eliminates that time wasting period during which you try and figure out what you should cook for dinner.
8) Keep a handy meal replacement shake/can of tuna in your car/office/desk/bag for a paleo friendly snack in case plans change.
9) Learn to use spices; this will do wonders for you and will offer variety and different flavors to your meals.
10) Eat lots of vegetables; try and eat a good variety with many different colours.

Chris goes Caveman

Hey there,

So Ive been doing pretty strict zone (pretty strict only means 1 cheat meal, and it hurt so bad I don't know if I ever want to cheat again) and the results have been interesting to say the least.

Over the past Easter vacation my mother cooked a ham. this ham damn near fed me for a week and made life so much easier. When it came time to eat, I didn't stare at the fridge trying to figure it out. I weighed it and I ate it, and damn it, it was good. Some of you would get sick of eating just ham for a week, but I don't care. It saved me time and money and gave me a chance to focus on other things than cooking. So I started thinking....like a caveman.

A complaint I commonly hear is: "I don't want to diet because I don't want to eat the same thing everyday."

My response: "Awesome!! Everything is always the same thing. Meat is meat! Its only flavored differently, it only has additives and is masked by other things that make it taste different than another type of meat. Hence the saying (if something is eaten without additives) "it tastes like chicken!!" Because everything will taste like chicken unless you flavor it.

So with my caveman mind set I thought that old hunter gather cultures didn't have too much variety when it came to food, especially meat. The Tokelau tribe used to live off a diet of solely fish and coconuts AND guess what? They were healthy, fit and disease free (until the Europeans showed up). Talk about variety "what are we gonna eat today mom?"

So I thought, if I was a native American living on the plains I would hunt and kill an animal and eat that animal until there was nothing let to eat of it and then go and repeat the process. So.....I went hunting......

Doesn't it look delicious?!? :) There's the majority of my meals for the next few days (hopefully week). BUT I did also go shopping recently and Sean, who will be zoning shortly, wanted to know what I bought. So here is the rest of my food list until it runs dry and I must hunt again:

List:

Broccoli - spinach - apple sauce - lettuce - sweet potatoes - mushrooms - butterball turkey - strip steak - turkey patties (they were buy one get one free, you cant pass the up) salami - bacon - crab = yummy in my tummy.

Great Paleo Explanation

This is a great video I found explaining the Paleo diet for those of you who might need a better explanation.




Note: I just cant wrap my head around that idea that there are people out there that are willing to kill me to make a dollar. I know that there are a lot of people because of religious or political reasons that want to do the same but when it comes to food, it just amazes me. There are companies that are out there that will posion us because it makes them rich. Not just you but your friends, your family, your neighbors. They will give you cancer, heart disease, diabetes etc. They will give it to everyone you know if the price is right. Even more terrifiying is that some of these people have medical degrees. Scientists and researchers that our bought and paid for, ignorant and stubborn, worse than our current government, who will hand us potentially fatal health problems. Hand it to us because we think its healthy, because they tell us its good for us. What are we going to do about it?
On the same page: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090420/ap_on_re_us/pharmawater_factories

Some damn good Motivation

Following excerpt from John Gleason of Again Faster and former trainer of Crossfit Boston:

Dedication

You think you know pain, but you have no idea. The heart thumping, chest expanding, lactic acid burn of your last workout was a walk through the meadow.

Somewhere, there’s a guy who did it in half the time it took you. He suffered. Plasma forced its way into his lungs, causing him to hack on repeat. He choked down bile halfway through, and ended on his back, pupils dilated to the size of dimes.

While you were walking around, telling your friends how hardcore your workout was, Guy Number Two was still collapsed, the prospect of driving home as daunting as climbing K2 during a snowstorm.

When he finally stood up, he didn’t say a word.

CrossFit is a decidedly masochistic pursuit. To be any good at it, you have to enjoy the pain. You have to push back the threshold day after day, until last year’s traumas feel like an hour-long rubdown at the Canyon Ranch. One day, you find a threshold that takes the whole thing just a little too far, and you get scared to go back.

The men and women that decimate your times are not superhuman. They’re not particularly genetically gifted. Hell, most of the top CrossFitters in the world would get absolutely pummeled in your standard game of rugby, buried by larger athletes begat by larger parents.

What differentiates these individuals is not a gift, but an unreasonable desire to push self-imposed suck beyond its logical limits. What comes out the other side becomes legendary.

Like any human pursuit, we seek ways around the hard part. Limited range of motion and new techniques. Dropping the deadlift from the top, bouncing it off the floor. Squatting above parallel and not standing up all the way. Chicken-necking above the chin-up bar, and reviewing the tape to see if we made it.

We want the reward (speed) without the sacrifice (pain).

This is not conscious cowardice. It’s pure out-and-out rationalism. Atsomepoint, the next threshold is the one that takes it too far, leaving us in an exercise-induced hallucination that lasts a few moments too long. Our hearts bounce around our insides for one beat too many, and our lungs beg to explode for an unwanted extra second. Every exhalation coincides with a constriction of vision, and the cold taste of copper.

No sane human being would enjoy such a feeling.

Still, the glory beckons. Surely, with enough training and the right supplements, there’s a way around the Hard Part. Enough sleep and enough vitamin B will get you the sub-whatever time without the attendant pain. There’s no need to redline your heart rate or pop capillaries. No need to ache so badly at night that you can’t sleep. Surely, there are ways around this.

Fortunately, the steroids are a no-go, and the exercises are done correctly or not at all. The only way to legend is through ever-mounting piles of pain. The meadow has to tilt at 45-degrees, and he rubdown at the Ranch must be done with Brillo Pads. If you can talk, you’re not trying hard enough. If your nerves aren’t frayed and ready to rebel, you’ll never get there.

Do yourself a favor, and realize that there’s no technique in the world that will save you. There are no pills, no secrets, no passwords on the path to greatness. You’ve got to embrace the pain, push the threshold, and feel the suck, and then you’ve got to muster the courage to go back six times a week.

After all, the world is a lot brighter when your pupils are the size of dimes, and massaging your sternum with your heart starts to feel good after a while. The plasma finds its way out of your lungs, and eventually you’ll be able to drive.

Sometimes, lying on the floor is its own reward.

Dave Castro takes his kettlebell for a walk. Picture courtesy of CrossFit.com.

Some damn good Advice

For most of us we are completely used to ending a workout, collapsing to the floor, trying to breathe, praying to something for air all the while our eyes are jammed closed and there is this enormous thumping in our ears that sounds like an Indian Pow Wow (our hearts). For most of us we believe that this is the effort we need to expend in order to get a "Result." By result I mean anything, physical, atheistic etc.

Unfortunately this is not true; Performance does not equal result. You may get a result, but only half and therefore not a complete result, ergo not a result. Most (meaning all) of the results we wish to accomplish are solely going to be accomplished by nutrition. I have to agree with Glassman in that "I wish it wasnt true." I wish a steady diet of beer, ice cream and pizza would provide me enough protein, carbs and fats to give me an 8pac, 277 clean and jerk, and a sub 3 fran. The truth is, there is no way in hell thats gonna happen.

So if you are one of our members who isnt getting the "result" you came to us to get, then you need to start focusing on "what youre putting in the tank." If youre killing yourself and not reaping the reward or not reaping it quickly enough, you need a gut check (no pun intended) and you need to make some changes to your game. The following excerpt is from Robb Wolf's amazing wife Nicki Violetti who recently posted the following on their website:

Ditching Liquid Sugar

Posted by Nicki on April 07, 2009

Last night one of our little sugar addicted On Rampers (no names necessary ☺) was asking how she could lose her little “pooch” of a belly. My response: nutrition!

I wish it wasn’t the case! I wish we could just make the workouts harder and just kick people’s fannies day in and day out and they would have perfect body composition. The truth of the matter however, is that no matter how hard you train, you won’t reach your potential with regards to performance and body composition if you don’t dial in your nutrition!

Step #1: DITCH ALL LIQUID SUGAR!
This means NO soda, NO diet soda, NO mocha’s, NO adding sugar to your coffee and tea, NO juice, NO flavored aspartame water, NO Gatorade or other sports drinks…NO LIQUID SUGAR!
Intake of dietary sugar elevates blood sugar, which in turn causes the release of insulin in the body. Insulin is a FAT STORAGE HORMONE! Therefore, the more sugary foods and drinks you consume the more you tell your body to store fat...and prevent your body from using your body fat for energy.
If on the other hand, you keep dietary sugar intake low you will improve your body’s insulin sensitivity and you will be able to access body fat for energy…i.e. YOU WILL LEAN OUT!
I know it’s not easy, the sugar habit is hard to break! But, if you can navigate Step #1 you will be well on your way to being a lean ass-kicking machine!!! You can do it!

---Very smart, true advice from a very smart woman. That and once you can pass the insulin and sugar addiction cravings, its really easy to ignore this kind of crap in your diet.

--Robb spotting Nicki with the back squat in their gym. (it looks like 185lb but i could be wrong)

Things get SERIOUS!!

Oh thats right....dont think your eyes are playing tricks on you....that's a scale...and a measuring cup....things just got personal.

Andy keeps threathening me with Fran. Im way out of shape to even get sub 5. I can feel it in my gut (pun intended). How do I know. Well I took my new scale and put it to a test when I got home. I usually buy a 4 piece package of turkey patties. The back of the package says 4 servings, 4 ounces per serving. So I weigh it..1 pattie = 2 ounces. So here is some old SAT math: 4 oz recommended for 16oz day + 1 pattie = 2 ounces +16oz day / 2 = 8oz = Chris under eating.

I dont eat only turkey patties all day, but you get the point. If im off in one meal, I could possibly be off in others. Possibly though becomes probably once I start thinking more about it though.

I thought this might be happening because after finishing my meals I was still hungry. I chopped it up to my stomach adjusting to not eating as much as before. Nope, I actually wasnt eating the correct portions. Which means my protein intake was low, my fat intake on par for what it should have been anyways and my carbs low to normal depending on circumstance (how hard I performed during the WOD, another post on Post Workout Nutrition coming soon, I have to let people catch up first.) This was a harsh realization. Suffering for nothing. Being too high in carbs meant screwing with my insulin, fat storage and other important health factors. Too much fat meant too many calories not properally earned. Too little protein meant little muscle gain or replenishment and jesse getting better times than me. (Keep it up jesse, im coming :)

Well now things get serious.

So here is a familiar way to look at it:

1 diet scale from walmart: $4.97

1 measuring cup from walmart: $1.50

Better health, performance and longevity: PRICELESS.

For those of you who dont know portion sizes yet, here you go:

http://journal.crossfit.com/2004/05/zone-meal-plans-crossfit-journ.tpl#featureArticleTitle

Easter Bunny is NOT my friend

Hey everybody,

First off..Happy Easter!! And if you were feeling guilty about your eggs....DONT!

Check it out: Eggs are GOOD for you --->http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7882850.stm

Also,

I probably should have posted this last night (because I got an oodle of text messages today with fellow CrossFitters screaming for help, saying "the temptation is becoming too much!!") but try to refrain (replace "try to" with "DO!") from turning "a cheat meal" into a "cheat day." Typically there is a downward spiral..... Cheat Meal = Cheat day = Cheat couple of days = Cheat week = just quit.

If you are starting to clean up your nutrition, preforming better, getting RESULTS, why would you want to sacrifice that for something that is literally going to hurt you (physically or mentally (physically being gut irritation, mentally being your love handles becoming less lovely and depression setting in)).

Its best to keep cheat meals portioned and quick. Sometimes the can actually be healthy. I have been able to solve chocolate cravings with protein shakes, sweets with fruits and more! (I will get into that in another post). So far, it sounds like the Easter bunny was kicking everyone in the ass today. I myself am 5 Peeps, 1 marshmallow egg and a Reese's cup into it. As of now....i dont feel good. I feel kind of like a herd of wild, angry, fat rabbits are in my stomach playing rugby. So tomorrow, low carb for me and some readjustments of my insulin levels. BUT! I did have those sweets right after a 5k row and a WOD..so I didnt take too many steps back.

By the way, if you are going to have a cheat meal, pay serious attention to how you "feel" and "act" afterwards for at least an hour or more. You should feel some interesting things you might have brushed off as accusing Taco Bell for not cooking your burrito long enough. NOTE: Taco bell actually does NOT have a kitchen, they have a microwave, in which they reheat your order. Most fast food places actually dont have kitchens. Look for one the next time you are in a fast food hole and ask yourself "do i really want to give someone money to punch me in the stomach?" (replace "punch me in the stomach" with "make me fat!?!" or "give me cancer?" replace "cancer" with "hearth disease" or "diabetes" or "Alzheimer's" etc)

I will be in charge of a few of the classes this upcoming week, SO if you were bad, I will try to provide enough ass-whopping to get some of that stuff out of your system. :)

Take that!! You tasty yellow bastards!!!

On The Go Snacks

Howdy y’all!!
So one of the most common things I'm hearing at the moment is that people are finding it hard to find a quick snack or meal. Well frequenting sites that I normally do I came across a link to http://paleokits.bigcartel.com/. There it listed the ingredients used for these so called “kits” which contained natural ingredients some how crammed together for an “on-the-go-situation.” So I wrote them down and hit up the local TJ! (Trader Joes for y’all that aren’t privy). What I bought was the following:

1) Dried fruit - freeze dried - Strawberries.
2) Super Cranberry and Pomegranate blend.
3) Natural Beef Jerky - Teriyaki.
4) Blue Diamond Natural Oven Roasted almonds-no salt (I bought these buggers at Ralphs)

Here is what I did to make my own little paleo snack kits. I tired to cook it into my own kind of cookie or bar, but really didn’t have a binding element, so nothing stuck. I basically just ended up cooking it longer and it just turned out crunchier. Feel free to mix in whatever the heck you want as long as it contains the basics. (Basics= lean meat, veggies, some fruits, seeds and nuts, no sugar.) If you can think of a binding element or a better/ more creative way to put this stuff together please let me know, any advice is wanted, this was just an experiment.

NOTE: Notice the list and the pictures, nothing but natural, fresh ingredients. Hhmm, meat, fruit, nuts….pretty basic…pretty easy for all of those “i-don’t-know-what-the-hell-to-eat-people” or “IDKWHEP.”

Step 1: Bought ingredients.











Step 2: Cut the ingredients up.











Cut the ingredients up. I did this for the sake of things fitting on the fork/spoon and for possible use of just doing multiple shots of food while say driving or walking without choking or looking silly.

Step 3: Added the ingredients.










NOTE: I did not weigh or measure, I guess-ta-mated (I know, bad caveman Chris, bad!). I used 2 spoonfuls of the cran/pom berry mix – 1 handful of the dried strawberries – about 30+/- almonds and ½ small plate of cut jerky.

Step 4: Packaged and Ready to Eat on the Go!!:








Here is the final product in their containers, waiting for me to leave the house late and hungry. Why is there a duck? Because that duck is BADASS!! And I have two more just like him guarding my meals in case other “foragers” happen to roam by. Don’t f*k with the duck, trust me.
Final:
So there you have it. Again, there was no weighing or measuring involved. Rough guess-ta-mates puts this at about 2 block protein/2 block carb/3 block fat (or at least that’s what I was aiming for, for those zone Nazi’s out there). I might have come up somewhat short but this was literally my first trail. Feel free to make them out of what ever ingredients you want as long as they contain the basics. Also, feel free to make these as big or as small as you want. I picked the containers first and then just filled, next time I will probably make some what bigger ones in case I am real hungry. If you come up with snazzy and tasty ideas, please share! We are a community. Any questions please email me (xfitnut@yahoo.com) Thank you for reading, enjoy, take care and keep eating well and training hard.
Other Notes: Regarding meat: try to buy grass fed – no hormones – no preservatives – pretty much natural meat which hasn’t been screwed up by man and their little experiments they play on each other. It will be stated on the package if the meat is “clean” and with out additives. Do this for your beef, chicken, turkey etc. Also try to buy products that don’t contain WHEAT or SOY or even MILK. The products that contain those listed above could have effects on your body that are harmful and unbeknownst to you at the time. Trust me, finding products that don’t contain those additives is a tough and annoying process, but hey, sorry, that’s the way it goes. You don’t like it, write your congressman and join my cult.

The Truth About Grains

Anatomy of the Grain-- By Robb Wolf

You have likely heard terms like Bran, Kernel and Germ as they relate to grains, but I want to take a moment to cover what exactly these structures are and what they contain. This general diagram from the Linus Pauling Institute illustrates the normal grain constituents. Here is what we find in the grain:
Bran: The tough outer coating that contains proteins, vitamins and minerals. That’s the standard ADA position. (Eatright.org… what a damn farce. Keep your eyes open for that topic and others at our new blog… Sorry, back to bashing grains.) So the bran appears to be a bountiful harvest of nutrition. We will take that fallacy apart in greater detail later. For now just know that bran is also home to most of the antinutrients and gut-irritating protein constituents.

Kernel: This is where most of the nutritional action is, at least with regard to caloric content. This is where we find most of the carbohydrate in grains. If you have seen white rice you have seen the kernel.

Germ: This is actually the plant embryo and it contains a fairly dense source of fatty acids, mostly n-6, some protein and assorted vitamins and minerals. This is your average grain, and it is representative of grains ranging from wheat to rice to popcorn. A detailed understanding of grain taxonomy and structure is not my intent here, but it is important that you understand the components grains, as we will be talking about processing methods that may remove certain problematic fractions but inevitably leave others.

The Real Problems: Most of the problems related to grain consumption can be lumped into one of two categories: those related to hyperinsulinemia and those related to irritant/toxicant properties inherent to the grains. It is interesting to note that these properties of irritation and inflammation via hyperinsulinemia may be multiplicative with regards to deleterious health effects, i.e. one makes the other worse. Did the food pyramid make all the Dieticians Chubby or did the Chubby Dieticians make the food pyramid? Possibly the longest introduction for a paragraph you have ever seen but it is at the crux of the first problem with grains. Grains are mostly starchy carbohydrate, and starchy carbohydrate, when consumed in any amount, causes the release of a significant dose of insulin.

The starch in grains can be subdivided into two basic forms, amylose and amylopectin. Amylose is a long chain of glucose molecules and amylopectin is a highly branched, interwoven structure also comprised of glucose molecules. Think of amylose as a rope and amylopectin as a dust bunny. Grains are made up of differing amounts of amylose and amylopectin, and this variation accounts for differences in the glycemic index of various grains. Starches are digested by the enzymes salivary amylase and pancreatic amylase. Amylase acts on the last glucose molecule in the polymer, whether it is amylose (rope) or amylopectin (dust bunny). I think it’s pretty clear that the rope has far fewer locations for the amylase to attack in the digestion process than the dust bunny does. The more locations for the enzyme to attack, the faster the digestion, the quicker the rise in blood glucose levels, and typically the larger the insulin release. Any type of processing (cooking, milling) breaks up both the varieties of starch molecules, thus facilitating digestion. Easier digestion means a greater insulin response. The making of pizza crust fractures the starch grains in such a way that the body produces more insulin in response to pizza crust than raw glucose!

No one knows why, but the processing inherent in most grain products can increase the insulin response far above what would otherwise be expected. So grains can have a fairly wide-ranging glycemic index and thus insulin response and various forms of processing can greatly increase both those numbers and consequently their impact on our health. One of the fallacies that is still spewed forth by the likes of the ADA is that slow-releasing carbs (beans, whole grains) causes a flat insulin response and consequently do not pose a problem. This is true only if one is consuming grains as condiments, as in a tablespoon here and there. Eat them a cup at a time, and not only does blood glucose level rise dramatically, but it stays elevated for a long time. Research is pretty conclusive that the insulin spike is more detrimental than the lower level chronically elevated insulin, but the end results are the same: Syndrome X, AKA the Metabolic Syndrome (You always need multiple names for things in science and medicine to ensure that as few people as possible have an idea of what is going on).

Grains, both processed and unprocessed, are a major player in metabolic derangement in that they are almost entirely carbohydrate and they are typically consumed in large quantities. Now that we understand the relationship of grain consumption and the inevitable and deleterious rise in insulin levels, let’s look more closely at what Syndrome X is. The word Syndrome is defined as “A collection or group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular disease or abnormality.”

The signs and symptoms of Syndrome X include high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, high risk of stroke and heart attack… and a bunch of other stuff. Professor Loren Cordain wrote a paper that sheds some light on some of that “other stuff” Called “Syndrome X: Just the Tip of the Hyperinsulinemia Iceberg”. That other stuff runs the gamut from cancer to myopia, but many diseases that have been associated with Syndrome X and hyperinsulinemia are slowly being put under the umbrella of Chronic Inflammation.

We know that we are onto something hot when Barry Sears has a new topic that allows him to re-hash his Zone offerings. The Anti-Inflammation Zone is his most recent contribution to the Zone book club. [Just a small digression here, but I think we are going to adopt Barry Sears’s approach to rehashing material and combine that with the consistent subject lines of my Spam and we will start re-releasing the P-Menu with catchy titles like “The Anti-Penile Dysfunction P-Menu” or the “Better than Cialis P-Menu”. No new content… just a new topic to hang the material from.] Anyway, inflammation has many factors, including antioxidant and essential fatty acid status, but one of the key contributors to the condition we call inflammation is insulin level. Here is a detailed look at what happens with elevated insulin levels (Scroll down to insulin dysregulation). The insulin and inflammation topic is absolutely huge and far beyond the scope of this article or publication for that matter. The main point is grains pack a potent impact with regards to insulin response and that can lead to a variety of problems. Irritant/Toxicant The next broad category I want to look at falls under the irritant/toxicant label. Let’s look first at antinutrients. Grains are essentially a reproductive structure and contain not only a dense energy source for the developing embryo, but also a number of control mechanisms that prevent both predation and abnormal germination. Sequestering away key nutrients like calcium, zinc and magnesium prevents abnormal germination.

One of the main antinutrients is a chemical called Phytic acid of which there are several varieties, all going by the general term “phytates”. Now the phytates are powerful chelators; that is they bind to metal ions very tightly. This is postulated to be the main reason why cultures that consume large portions of their diets as grains and/or legumes tend to be shorter than their westernized transplants. The Okinawan vs. Japanese story is clearly illustrative of this. Okinawans have historically been significantly taller than their Japanese counterparts. The diets of the two groups differed in that the Okinawans consumed more protein and most of their carbohydrates in the form of highly nutritious tubers and only a modicum of rice. Japanese Americans show a markedly different phenotypic expression than their rice and tofu-eating ancestors. Just look at Jeff Oji.
It is interesting to note that phytates are used in some alternative medicine circles as an anti-cancer agent. Apparently phytates exert some influence on the growth of tissues by removing metal ions such as calcium, magnesium and zinc that are important for growth. This seems like a nice closed system: feed people grains, let them get cancer from the elevated insulin levels then use grain extracts (phytates) to try to treat their condition. This antinutrient concept is found in all eggs including those of birds and reptiles. Avidin binds to biotin, which is an important growth factor for bacteria. Hide away the biotin and it’s hard for the egg to spoil. These antinutrients are so powerful that avidin has even been genetically engineered into some grains… to extend their storage. Avidin is destroyed with cooking but phytates are not. Bon appetite! Another sub category of irritants/toxicants includes items such as gluten.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains. It is also categorized under a huge family of molecules called lectins. Many of these lectins actually damage or destroy the gastrointestinal tract. In the small intestine we have structures called microvilli that interact with the food in our intestines. Microvilli are covered with enzymes that help to digest and transport food particles into the blood stream or lymph. Certain proteins such as gluten found in wheat, rye and barley cause a severe autoimmune reaction in some individuals, which is called Celiac Sprue. Celiac is a full-blown autoimmune reaction in which the microvilli of the intestines are destroyed. This condition makes it nearly impossible to absorb fats, minerals and many vitamins. Not everyone shows a full blown celiac response; however, irritation is present with virtually all grain consumption.

This lower level irritation has been broadly labeled as “leaky gut syndrome” and is emerging as a primary player in all autoimmune disorders. The theory is that once the gut lining is damaged, large food particles are able to make their way into the blood stream. Once there, the immune system mounts an attack against the foreign, undigested food particles. These particles may have elements that are similar in structure to body proteins and thus antibodies are produced that have affinity for one’s own tissues. The seed of autoimmunity has then been sown (nice grain cliché, no?). This is something that has been kicked around for many, many years, but some other very interesting disease processes have been uncovered, like schizophrenia and congestive heart failure, which appear to owe their existence, at least in part, to leaky gut. Nay Sayers (read also: The Ignorant) frequently make the point that not everyone gets celiac. That is true, but across all species tested, grains cause gut irritation. Check PubMed. This knowledge has even allowed the design of experiments looking at gut permeability and autoimmunity.

It is worth mentioning that dairy is a potent cross reactor for celiacs. It is fairly easy to assay dairy and get high concentrations of grain lectins. It has also been noted that grass-fed dairy shows little or no cross reactivity in celiacs. I’m going to look at some of the other deleterious effects of grain consumption for animals later, but this is obviously a source of grains that most people would not have considered. Just to completely beat this into the ground, let’s look at quinoa. Quinoa is similar to a grain in its carbohydrate content and layout as a reproductive structure, but quinoa is botanically a fruit, and if you remember your botany, is a dicotyledon, whereas wheat, obviously a grain, is a monocotyledon. Relevance? They differ phylogenetically at the class level. To put that in perspective, mammals are a class, as are fish, as are reptiles. This is a huge difference and denotes ages since a common ancestor. Despite that fact, quinoa still has a protein fraction that can cause problems with celiacs. What I take from this is nature found a similar answer to reproductive strategies with quinoa and grains, and not surprisingly, quinoa presents similar potential problems. I want to mention just a few more things here. Grains also have a highly addictive nature beyond the carbohydrate content. They contain opiate-like substances that can be very problematic. Not surprisingly, these opioid constituents can be concentrated in dairy. Makes one look at pizza in a new and frightening way.
Grains are not just bad for humans; they give livestock some serious problems as well, ranging from creating heat and acid resistant forms of E. Coli to completely altering the fatty acid and nutrient content of meat. Grass-fed meat should contain significant amounts of n-3 fatty acids, alpha lipoic acid, CLA, Vitamin E and loads of carotenoids. Grain fed meat is the protein version of cardboard.

You Have It! So, there you have it! Likely more than you EVER wanted to know about grains. But considering that our mission with the Performance Menu is to provide the best possible information on how to feed, water and exercise your person to optimize performance, health and longevity, avoiding such thoroughness with the topic would be a dereliction of our responsibilities. We advocate a Paleo/Zone approach to nutrition and jazz that up with some Intermittent Fasting. We feel strongly that both anecdotal and scientific research supports these positions. Grains obviously play a major dietary role for many people, but I hope this exploration helps to clarify why they may not be a wise choice for optimized health.