Re-Delving Into Nutrition

First off, congratulations to Jacque!! She PR'ed at this weekend's Hip Hop 5K with a stellar time of 28:22.  Thanks also to Matt who came out to cheer us on!!! 

 Also, here is a reminder to all AM boot campers. Until further notice, we will ALWAYS meet at the church on Monday mornings, do trail runs or speed work on Tuesday mornings "off campus" and meet at Stonehurst Park on Weds, Thurs and Friday mornings.

So we've got two separate systems that we recommend regarding nutrition.  One is referred to as The Zone, and the other as Paleo.  Let's start with The Paleo Diet for Athletes, from the book of the same name by Loren Cordain.

"Eat meat and veggies, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar."

That's it! If all of us could just adhere to that simple philosophy, diabetes and obesity would be a thing of the past, celiac disease would be extinct and we'd all meld into stellar athletes.

Sounds good, huh?

Yes. And ESSENTIALLY, it is that simple, but APPLYING it is another issue.

Eat meat!!! Yes. Eat meat every day, every meal. What is meat? As Robb Wolf, CrossFit Nutrition Guru and resident specialist found on www.robbwolf.com says, "it should have eyes and a soul." You know--salmon, beef, chicken lamb.  This does not mean tofurkey!

The whole premise of the Paleo diet is that we should eat basically what our ancestors ate--not twinkies, simulated meat products and flaming hot cheetos. Simply, our bodies have not genetically caught up with our diets, so we need to go back in time a bit.

Eat veggies.  We all know the importance of these. Eat green leafy veggies. They're good for you!  Do it.

Nuts and seeds. These provide our bodies with healthy fats. Fats are essential in the Paleo diet, as ultimately they replace carbohydrates as our primary source of fuel. As your body leans out, you will need to add more and more good fats to replace what was once around your middle.

Some fruit. Keep in mind that if you are trying to lose weight, you want to eat less than 30g carbs/day if you are a woman and less than 50g carbs/day if you are a man. So some fruit does not mean a lot of fruit, nor fruit with every meal. If you consider than an apple has about 27 g carbs, one apple will blow your whole carb wod for the day, so eat fruit sparingly.

Little starch. This means occasional starches like potatoes or sweet potatoes, pumpkin, squashes, rice, etc. Once again, little does not mean every meal. It means little. To me little means maybe a few times a week. This is mainly because starches (and fruit) are high glycemic carbs, thus they spike insulin levels more readily than lower glycemic carbs like vegetables. However, the one time it is desirable to eat high glycemic carbs is directly after a hard workout. This is because the glycogen stores in your muscles are lowest at this point, and theoretically higher glycemic carbs help replenish their stores more readily.

No sugar. No means ZERO. This is probably the hardest one for most people. Sugar is everywhere. It's in all the stuff we love the most--cookies, pies, sodas and cakes. Additionally, it's in nearly everything--ketchup, salad dressings, sauces and many beverages. One teaspoon of sugar has about 30 g carbs, and it really spikes your blood insulin levels.

Even though not eating sugar is difficult, if you can limit sugar intake to only one "cheat day" per week, you'll usually notice a HUGE increase in energy and performance. This is why we go to all the trouble to eliminate it from our diets.

As regard portions, the rule of thumb is your meat should take up about 1/3 of your plate, your veggies about 2/3 of your plate, and your fat should occupy only a sliver.  Another way to look at meat portions is that it should generally fit in the palm of your hand.

We'll get more into serious subdivision of portion control and food pairings tomorrow, as we'll talk then about The Zone.

 WOD

AMRAP IN 25

10 TUCK JUMPS

15 BOX JUMPS

10 PUSH UPS