It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness!
April 12, 2012 Leave a comment
So a very dear friend of mine, Elena, through 2 1/2 years of incorporating Crossfit and Paleo as a lifestyle is now off her osteopenia or osteoporosis meds! Today is a huge milestone for Elena! Congrats my friend! I am so happy for you! Check out Elena’s story here: Elena’s Story
April 11, 2012 Leave a comment
What Foods Should I Avoid? Excessive consumption of high-glycemic carbohydrates is the primary culprit in nutritionally caused health problems. High glycemic carbohydrates are those that raise blood sugar too rapidly. They include rice, bread, candy, potatos, sweets, sodas, and most processed carbohydrates. Processing can include bleaching, baking, grinding, and refining. Processing of carbohydrates greatly increases their glycemic index, a measure of their propensity to elevate blood sugar.
What is the Problem with High-Glycemic Carbohydrates? The problem with high-glycemic carbohydrates is that they give an inordinate insulin response. Insulin is an essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been positively linked to obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure, mood dysfunction and a Pandora’s box of disease and disability. Research “hyperinsulinism” on the Internet. There’s a gold mine of information pertinent to your health available there. The CrossFit prescription is a low-glycemic diet and consequently severely blunts the insulin response.
Caloric Restriction and Longevity Current research strongly supports the link between caloric restriction and an increased life expectancy. The incidence of cancers and heart disease sharply decline with a diet that is carefully limited in controlling caloric intake. Just remember to restrict calories from the foods you should avoid and increase the calories from the food you should be eating. The net outcome, for most, is a decrease in calories overall. This is because, most, eat so many calories from the bad side of the road so to speak.
February 4, 2012 Leave a comment
Hi all, this weekend I am competing in the NEXT LEVEL INVETATIONAL IRON WILL COMPETITION with 5 other Crossfit by BodyFit athletes (Lynay, Meagan, Rachel, Kevin, & Phillip) . I wish them all well and know that they will crush it! I am super excited to put my Crossfit training and all the progress I have made in my lifts, gymnastics and endurance to the test and see where I shake out. I have been training hard and have maintained my nutrition well for the past 4 to 5 months. I feel I have added some strength and lean muscle as of late (eating more protein and good fats and taking a post WOD shake after each WOD). I am registered in the Masters Division 40-52 class. WOD #1 is at 10:30am, Floater WOD is at 1:30pm and WOD #3 is at 3:30pm. Should be fun day! I will try Sunday or Monday to post up my Saturday competition experience and nutrition.
Regarding my pre comp training & nutrition the week before, it looked like this…
Nutrition – Maintained my paleo nutrition strict, adding in some additional protein & good fat daily. I plan to eat the exact same breakfast, snacks and lunch as I normally do as well as take the same pre & post wod nutrition that I do daily.
Monday – Trained at 100%
Tuesday – Trained at 75%, reduced weight on lifts
Wednesday – Trained at 60%, reduced weight on lifts, worked skills
Thursday – Rest
Friday – Rest / foam roll / light rowing and loosening up
Saturday – Competition
Sunday – Rest
February 2, 2012 2 Comments
Here’s some key concepts for life and fitness. I think these are right on the money. Remember refined sugar is the enemy! Work to eliminate refined sugar and all processed foods from your diet. While difficult to do, it is very doable. Once you have done this, consistently over time, your body will feel fantastic! It’s amazing the difference in my body and the way I felt back when I ate crap vs. now eating clean/primal! Huge difference in my athletic performance and in my general physical well being when eating clean. Remember consistency is the key. Complacency will defeat you!
A Health and Fitness Lifestyle: Key Concepts
adapted from The Primal Blueprint 21 Day Total Body Transformation
1. Genetic Expression – Your natural genetic expressive tendencies can be triggered, turned on, and turned off by signals you provide through your lifestyle choices. Lifestyle choices including, but not limited to, nutrition, exercise, sleeping habits, fresh air/sun exposure, etc.
2. Healthy and Fit by Design – Your body was designed to be fit and healthy. You were designed to eat whole foods, to move (exercise) with variety and intensity, and to move consistently and continuously throughout the day at lower levels of intensity. Your body was not designed to carry 40 pounds of extra weight (fat).
3. Fat as an Energy Source – Your body was designed to burn fat for energy. The standard American diet (SAD) has artificially created a sugar and carbohydrate based metabolism. The syndromes associated with living as a sugar/glucose/carb burner (or addict) are pervasive, substantial, and potentially deadly.
4. Body Composition is Driven by Nutrition – Moderating your exposure to elevated insulin levels is crucial to your body’s ability to efficiently burn fat and metabolize excess fat. Elevated insulin causes energy system failures, immune deficiencies, systemic inflammation, and poor hormone regulation (which can affect stress, appetite, thyroid, etc).
5. Grains Are Not a Healthy Base – Basing the bulk of your calories on grain based foods, as taught for so long by the “food pyramid” and what is a by-product of an over abundant and subsidized grain food industry is detrimental to health. Grain based foods tend to be cheap sources of calories that easily convert to sugar. The base of the pyramid with regards to quantity should be vegetables and leafy greens. The base of the pyramid with regards to calories should be protein (meat, fish, dairy, eggs).
6. Saturated Fat and Cholesterol are not the Enemies – Several cultures have been the subject of studies because they confounded food scientists by being based on saturated fats, yet their people experience little, if any, of the heart disease and syndromes that plague the SAD. The reason is that the true heart disease risk increases are driven by polyunsaturated fats, simple sugars, elevated insulin levels, and stress.
7. Traditional ‘Cardio’ to Burn Calories is Ineffective – Bruning calories through cardio type exercise does little to change your basic metabolism, fitness, or body composition. The “Cal In – Cal Out = Change in Body Weight” equation is a faulty and inefficient model. Chronic use of rat wheel exercise machines (treadmill, stair master, elliptical, etc.), chronic long slow distance biking/running/swimming/etc. can lead to lean muscle breakdown, systemic fatigue, injury, and burnout.
8. CrossFit is the Key to Optimal Fitness – Regular training with constantly varied functional movements across broad time and modal domains will promote your optimal genetic expression while delivering a high state of general physical preparedness and physical readiness.
January 30, 2012 Leave a comment
For those of us that are new to primal/paleo or need a push in the right direction. I think this might be helpful!
Paraphrased, Inspired, and Adapted from The Primal Blueprint 21 Day Total Body Transformation and Justin from Crossfit Roseville!
Bad Habits that Got to Go
1. Processed Carbs and Sugars.
Insulin is a killer. If you have a habit of eating processed food and items sweetened with sugar then you are living with elevated insulin levels and a low sensitivity to insulin. This is a deadly condition and not a condition that you want to spend any length of time in.
2. Industrial and Polyunsaturated Oils
Heavily processed, “snack”, and frozen foods tend to have trans and partially hydrogenated fats. Any deep-fried menu item, packaged snack, margarine type spread, and things with oils in them to add thickness, texture, or taste promote oxidation and inflammation. Inflammation and oxidation set up environments for cancer. Oils like canola, safflower, corn, etc. are bad news. Better check your ranch dressing bottle
3. Chronic Exercise
Too much, too often, for too long isn’t the answer. The answer is quality of movement, intensity, and variety. Think quality over quantity. Do the things and set a pace you can keep for 20 years.
4. Sedentary Patterns
Prolonged periods of being sedentary is bad news. Your metabolism gets slower, you get stiff muscles and joints, energy evaporates, and you lose your ability to think clearly.
5. Poor Sleep Habits
Try to schedule your rest with a plan. Monitor the quantity and quality of your sleep. Sleeping with ambient nose or light is detrimental. For example, sleeping with a TV on in the room.
6. Treating the Healthy LIfe as a Chore
Exercise is supposed to be fun and rewarding. Living an active and healthy life is what you were designed for. If you have taken on an attitude of “must do” or exercise as punishment or some other OCD approach to training (like exercise as an escape) it might be time to breathe deep, relax, and let go of that weirdness. Once you are used to living the healthy and fit lifestyle, you’re going to choose it naturally and easy.
Good Habits To Keep Practicing Until They Become Second Nature
1. Eat Whole Foods
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. If that is too confusing, eat meat, fish, fowl, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, high quality fats, a moderate intake of high fat dairy products and supplemental carbs (for heavy exercisers), and an occasional sensible indulgence.
2. Increase Daily Movement
Every time you get a chance, choose movement over being sedentary. Park far away from the door. Park and walk in instead of sitting in the car through a drive-in. Take a walk around the block to collect your thoughts, get some oxygen, and ‘relax’ before plopping down on the couch with the remote. Every chance you get choose movement. If you work at your desk, add a stretch whenever you get up. Don’t let more than an hour got by with you in the same spot. At the least, get up and grab a drink of water or take a stroll around the office.
3. Do CrossFit
The best habit you could have is regular intense exercise based on variety and functionality.
4. Relaxing Rituals
Find healthy ways to relax and unwind. Alcohol is not a good long-term plan for daily relaxation. Try minimizing exposure to digital stimulation (tv’s, computers, etc.). Try reading, walking, socializing, or praying.
5. Simplify and Enjoy Life
Learn/remember/practice how to be playful. A fun, light-hearted, playful approach to life can change everything. Life is an adventure. Hyper connectivity to technology, drama laden people, and complications can sap the fun right of life and make it hard to enjoy. Keep learning, getting fitter, getting to know your friends, watching your kids grow up, and enjoying life.
It sounds simple, right? But check yourself to make sure your aren’t blowing it in any of these areas.
December 9, 2011 Leave a comment
I know post-workout supplementation is a big issue in the Paleo community, especially among the purest. While I’m tossing out my own personal opinion and thoughts, you should take the time and effort to research this and then experiment with your own supplementation (both Paleo and Non-Paleo) if you feel so led. I’m sure when the Paleo purists read this, they will try and skewer me; but, I really don’t care, as lack of time & funds has pushed me in this simple, but very practical direction! Yep, I’m talkin the post-workout whey protein shake! Oh no!!! But, but… whey isn’t paleo! And, and… I know there are other ingredients in that protein concoction that probably aren’t paleo Mr Paleo!!! Yep, I’m quite aware of that. Here’s the dirty little secret. Ready? In my paleo life, there have been non-paleo foods and ingredients that I’ve consumed. Ope, did I just say that? There, the cat’s out of the bag! Now off of my rant and onto my rationale.
The argument always seems to focus on the post-workout shake and the nutrient makeup or the ingredients of the post workout protein shake. Most, if not all of your off the shelf products have whey or soy protein and other, non-paleo ingredients. The Paleo gods say that you can get all the post-workout nutrition your hungry body needs by consuming lean protein, carbs (sweet potatoes) and some fat after a workout (insert basic Paleo shtick here). While I generally believe that is true from a strict, pure point of view, it is actually pretty difficult to do and really not practical for most of the Paleo masses. I’ve personally struggled with this one, over the months, and finally came to the conclusion, that in order to get the quantity of nutrients my body actually needs, in a simple post-workout snack, of say chicken, eggs, a yam and an avocado or something of the like, I would blow my time and budget out the window. Plus a meal of that magnitude becomes more of a large heavy meal instead of a quick snack.
As I stated, I really don’t have the time, nor the added funds to prepare another Paleo meal for my post workout nutritional experience day in and day out. So, I have chosen to take the easy path, to post nutrition nirvana, by tossing one scoop of what I believe is a good post workout shake, into a shaker bottle, shaking the darn thing and consuming it. Easy, yes, Paleo, no not so much. But, this is one of those times in my Paleo life where I have chosen to exercise the “Paleo Totem Pole” (thanks Travis Schefcik). Am I 100% Paleo, no, but 95% Paleo is just fine by me and now I have the quick nutrition my body so desperately needs.
My post-workout drink has essential nutrients that my starving body and muscles need right after my hard workout. Nutrients such as protein, creatine, BCAAs, and glutamine, all of them bundled into one single scoop serving! When consume, this concoction immediately goes to work feeding my body during that import 45 min window of recovery. I’d have to consume a lot of meat to get the protein uptake my shake is providing. I am not endorsing one post-workout shake brand over another. This is not my intent here. I just simply am point out that you should think hard about adding some sort of post-workout nutrition to your training plan. For me and my fortress, I have determined that it is a necessity and getting it quick and easy is more important to me than PURE PALEO.
Here’s a great read on the how’s and why’s for post-workout nutrition.
Enjoy! Anyone interested in the Pre or Post workout supplements I take, hit me up in a personal message on my FB.
After you read it, don’t you dare bug me about my coffee 
November 29, 2011 Leave a comment
This is by far the simplest approach to eating Paleo that I have come across. So simple even a kid can do it! Use this approach and then adjust accordingly to your physical output… meaning, you might need to add protein and fat and reduce carbs and natural sugars (ie: fruit) based on your needs and/or goals. For me personally, I almost can’t get enough protein and fat. I’ve adjusted that aspect of my Paleo/Primal diet.
Simple Instructions!
Look at your plate, make a fist, eat that much meat every meal; turn your hand over and fill it with nuts and seeds, eat that much good fat, fill the rest of your plate with stuff you found in the fruit and vegetable aisle. Fill your plate this way at every meal, don’t eat more. Start smart and simple.
November 18, 2011 Leave a comment
So tonight we ended up at Rubio’s. Did you know you can have a near perfect paleo meal there? 2 orders of grilled chicken breast over grilled peppers and onions over shredded cabbage in a bowl! Don’t forget the salsa over it all. Grab an unsweetened iced tea and in my book you’ve hit a homerun! So the only non-paleo aspect is simply what they cook the veggies and chicken in on the grill which is a little butter sauce! Fantastic tasting and filling meal! Next time you find yourself at Rubio’s demand it! Next time I’ll kindly ask if they can grill my veggies and chicken with water! Enjoy!
October 7, 2011 Leave a comment
Very Interesting and worth a view!
Part one of four of Cordain’s talk on Paleo Diet and MS…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x59iwc_the-paleo-diet-and-multiple-scleros_lifestyle
October 5, 2011 Leave a comment
Thought this might be helpful information for all! Let me know your thoughts?
Written by Connie Moreno
Here are some basic take-aways from the book, Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes:
1. Your body is not a bank account.
We’ve all done it. We indulge in some sugary treat and then justify it by saying, “oh well, I’ll just burn it off later”. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. It’s the hormonal effect of eating these foods that’s the problem, not so much the calories that’s in them.
I know most of you have heard me say this a million times, but here I go again…when we eat foods that are high in sugar or high in refined carbohydrates (e.g. pasta, cereal, bread) these foods are rapidly converted into sugar and enter the bloodstream where they cause our blood sugar to sky rocket (this is where the term “sugar-high” comes from). However, having massive amounts of sugar in the bloodstream can be quite dangerous and the body immediately steps in to bring your blood sugar back down to normal levels. This is where insulin steps in. Just the thought of eating that chocolate cake signals your pancreas to release a huge blast of insulin who’s job it is to pull the sugar out of the bloodstream and into your cells. This is the crucial step. Sugar and refined carbohydrates, will drive up your blood sugar levels which drive up insulin and cause you to store fat.
So even though fat has twice the amount of calories per gram than carbohydrates do, it doesn’t cause the fattening insulin spike that sugars do so you don’t really need to worry about your intake.
I should mention that in an interview Taubes does cautions readers, that even though carbs/sugar are the primary drivers of insulin, this doesn’t necessarily give you a free pass to eat copious amounts of fat and protein. In other words, it’s about quantity and quality.
2. Severe calorie restriction can backfire.
When we simply cut back on calories, the body adjusts by down regulating your energy expenditure. In other words, if you cut your meals in half, your body will get the signal that it needs to slow everything down and conserve energy in order counter balance the loss of energy (food) coming in. The result is a metabolism that’s moving a snail’s pace and hanging on to every ounce of food it takes in. Even if you keep your exercise regimen the same, your performance will likely suffer and your body will try to expend less energy while you are at rest making you feel more tired throughout the day. And finally, severe calorie restriction can have long-lasting and damaging effects to the metabolism resulting in significant and rapid weight gain the instant you return to a “normal” way of eating. So even though you may lose weight initially you’re likely to gain it all back and some.
3. You can’t cardio your way to weight loss.
This lesson is probably the hardest for people to swallow. Taubes goes in to a lot of detail discussing the role of exercise in weight regulation. The message here is twofold. First, doing tons and tons of cardio without adequate recovery may burn a lot of calories but it’s also a great way to jack up your stress hormones. One of the main jobs of stress hormones like cortisol is to release stored sugar into the bloodstream to help provide your body with the fuel it needs to escape danger. And we all know how slimming high blood sugar can be, right? The second reason lots of cardio can hamper weight loss is a no-brainer: it increases our appetite. Duh? We’ve all experienced this. Why do you think there are so many “turkey trots” on Thanksgiving day? It makes perfect sense. Think of it this way: after a hard workout or on a hot day when you’ve worked up a good sweat, you feel thirsty. This is your body’s way of replacing the water it just lost. The same thing happens when you work out. You work up an appetite so you can replenish the energy stores that you’ve just used up on your 10k run.
Why We Get Fat is a book I’d recommend to anyone who would like a primer on how the foods we eat affect our body composition (either favorably or unfavorably). It would especially be helpful for friends or family members of yours who are sedentary. That being said, if you’re currently training at CFO and are familiar with the type of eating we recommend, you’re already well on your way to understanding Taubes’s material firsthand.
MEAL OF THE DAY
