Nutrition part 3

Today is Car’s On K. come in early to make sure you can get parking. We will be doing the WoD at 10 am like normal, everyone is invited to hang out afterwards for the event.

Basic guiding Principles of CrossFit Tulare’s nutrition recommendations.

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. –Gregg Glassman in fitness in 100 words or less

or put even simpler

Eat Real food, not too much, spread evenly throughout the day.

At CrossFit Tulare we are all about performance. Your performance depends on what you eat. If you eat junk your performance will suffer, if you eat good food your performance will improve. Some people care a whole bunch about their performance, they have to beat their Fran time and improve upon their Pr’s every time they come in the gym. Others, however, are ok with just coming in and working out hard inorder to improve their health and the only performance they care about is keeping up with the kids/ grandkids/ friends. If you fall in the second category step one will get you a long way to your goal. Cutting out processed food will improve upon your health, give you more energy, and help with weight management ( either weight gain or loss). There will come a time however when you might decide to slide on over to the other group for a little while, what ever makes you do it we welcome you here. This post is for those who are in the first group of people, whether temporarily or established members.

We hear a lot about how much we should eat and what we should eat on almost a daily basis. What is worse, it seems to change from day to day as well. Eat less fat to lose weight, eat more fat to maintain hormones. Eat less carbs to lose fat, eat more for energy. To much protein causes kidney failure. The truth is, very few experimental studies have been done in the field of nutrition. Which means that, while we have some ideas, and can make some observations about nutrition, we do not know a whole lot for sure.

Here is what we do know:

If energy(read calories) in > energy out  then weight gain occurs, the opposite is true ( this is what leads us to focus on calorie consumption only)

Storage of nutrients in cells like adipocytes, or fat cells (and muscle cells as well), depends on Insulin.

Carbohydrates stimulate Insulin release. ( to a lesser extent so does protein, and total calories play a role as well)

Protein and fat are vital to the functioning of the human body for many different functions. Carbohydrates are non-essential, meaning the do nothing other than provide energy, which the body can get from other sources. 

So then what does all this mean for us. Simple really there are minimum requirements for Protein and Fat, in order for the body to function ( as well as requirements for performance as well)  While carbohydrates are useful ( typically pack the most bang for your caloric buck when it comes to vitamin and minerals, so long as you choose the right ones) they serve no real vital purpose to the functioning of your body.

This is important because it drives how we choose our food, how we fill our plate, and when we have a weight loss/gain goal, what we choose to cut out or add in.

So how do we figure out what to eat? Well first we have to know we can track it. I recommend MyFitnessPal, a web based platform with a pretty good database. They offer apps for the I-pone or droid for your convenience as well. You could also simply count the calories yourself or use the zone block method. ( even if you do not stick to the prescribed ratios of the zone. ) Once we have figured out how we are going to track our intake we can figure out what we want to take in.

Remember there are minimum requirements for both protein and fat just to continue functioning as a human being.

Following the nutrition advice offered here will
greatly enhance you adaptions to training

For Protein it is around .36 grams per pound of BW just to avoid muscle atrophy in sedentary people. Well we at CrossFit Tulare are anything but sedentary and we want to increase performance, this is why I recommend at least a gram of protein per pound of BW. I count it as protein only if it had a face or came from something that did. For a 150 lb woman this recommendation would work out to around 21 ounces of protein a day. While things like soy and quinona do have protein they are an inferior source which is why I do not consider them here. If you are vegetarian/ vegan I will work with on coming up a plan that works for you, it will be more difficult and requires a little work but it is possible.

 For Fat it is a little more dicey as most research has been about how much we should consume not about how little we can. The FAO recommends at least 15% come from Fat ( 20% for women of childbearing age) simply for daily functioning. While I do not agree with most of their recommendations this at least gives us a starting point.  For me the minimum requirement for a active individual will be 35-40% of your daily calories. This translates to at least .5 grams per pound of body weight so a 150 pound women would need to be eating 75 g of fat. It is important to note that the source of you fats is very important. We want to be getting the majority of our fats from good sources like avacados, olive oil, fish, and nuts; while avoiding fake oils like partially hydrogenated oils or vegetable oils.

The question of animal fats and saturated fat always pops up here, as does the question of cholesterol. While there is plenty of research out there on this subject, here is what I recommend, unless you are choosing to get grass fed, free range or wild meat then get lean cuts of meat and try to get your fat from the sources above, this will ensure that you are getting plenty of monounsaturated fat and plenty of omega 3’s. I would also say that for every one in the gym  a steak is a great meal and the whole egg is great for you, don’t stop eating them.

Managing the types of fat you consume is where step number one becomes very important if you are eating real food, and your fats will becoming primarily from things like avocado, nuts, and olive oil, as well as from your meat intake. This will help ensure you are not eating the wrong kinds of fat; keeping your heart and brain happy and your whole body running smoothly.

We now know how much protein and how much fat we should be eating every day, so what about carbohydrate intake? Based off the info above I could say that our imaginary 150 pound women who is eating 150 grams of protein and 75grams of fat should be eating 150-175 g carbohydrate every day. Again if following the advice I have given out so far then these carbohydrates will be coming from fresh fruits and vegetables as well as any that can be found in the nuts and seeds you may be snacking on as well. If our carbohydrates are coming from these sources, and we are getting all of our protein and fat in some people may find that they struggle to eat all of their carbohydrates. This is fine, your main focus should be getting in your protein and fat and filling up with fresh veggies after. Trust me it will not take much. IF you make sure to get all your protein and all your  fat, then you are able to actually eat all the carbohydrates from the sources I have listed then this theoretical 150 pound women working out an average of 3 times a week will be eating around 1875 calories a day. This number can be adjusted depending on type and frequency of exercise.

Simple Step 3:

Institute a Meal prep day during the week. This will insure that you have all the food you need for the week and your breakfasts and lunches prepped as well as much of the work for dinner done. This means that you will have more time during the week to focus on other things, you will not run out of time for dinner with something comes up and you will be more likely to stay on track.

My usual routine is to buy a bottle of red wine on Saturday after the work out at the gym as well as any groceries we need that week. Then on Sunday afternoon, after church Neva and I will spend some time enjoying some good wine, and prepping our meals for that week usually we make breakfast bites and some paleo muffins, a whole bunch of cauliflower rice, some steamed or grilled veggies and a whole lot of chicken.  We will also do any prep work that can be done for the week’s dinners making the dinners each night a breeze. This will take us a couple hours, is usually pretty fun, and makes cooking the rest of the week super simple.

Recipe number 2

Paleo muffins

1.5 cups almond meal ( use a food processer to grind up almonds)
1tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup honey or agave
3 ripe smashed bananas
1 cup crushes walnuts
1tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 min.

You will have to play around with this recipe a little to get it to work right for you. Be looking for a few different variations to be available at the gym soon.

Finaly did you see the contest announced in yesterdays blog post post your favorite CrossFit recipe in the comments there for a chance to win a free t-shirt.  

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