Nutrition "so easy a cave man could do it" again

I can hear you now.

"Here he goes again, talking about that caveman diet, and how important it is to eat right. "

I get it. It is hard, life is busy, your friends and family don't eat this way. There are a ton of reasons why Eating right is hard.

Juan and Landon getting after some power snatches
 in the 6 am class

You however have already shown you are willing to do the hard things. You do CrossFit after all and CrossFit is not an easy thing to do especially when you see Burpees, Over Head Squats, Rope climbs, or what ever you goat may be. You, however, do it. You do the work outs because you made a decision to change your life; to start living a different way, to be healthy, and fit. to be able to keep up with you kids or grand kids, and so you work hard in the gym and even harder on the things you suck at.



Why should it be any different at home?

Here are a few tips I have for sticking to this nutrition thing.

First: Exercise your willpower in the Grocery store.
I tell people all the time and my wife can attest to it. I have great will power in the store and zero at home. If she makes cookies I eat all of them. If we order pizza it doesen't make it to the next day. So we don't buy those things. Does that mean I never have pizza or ice cream, of course not, but when i do I have to go out of my way to get it, it is at the very least inconvenient for me to eat incorrectly. This does a number of things for me first I eat more of the right food and less of the wrong, simply because that's what I have. It makes snacking a breeze because I only have healthy snacks and it makes the next tip even easier.

Second: Prepare your meals ahead of time

We make all our meals on Sunday or Saturday each week. In about an 2 hours I can make 20 or simple meals that will give Neva and I lunch and a snack on every day of the week. Now these are very simple meals, consisting mostly of meat, vegetables, and rice (GASP!!)  with a variety of seasonings, however they fill me up and are satisfying. i have even started making some extra so i have some on the weekends o make it even easier to eat right then.

Third: Match your Calorie and Carb intake to your activity level.

Atkins is probably the worst thing that could have happened to paleo. I have said it before but I will say it again now. Paleo does not equal low carb. Paleo is about improving the quality of the food you eat. which is why i recommend strict paleo for 30 days to all incoming members, however after that we get to tinker. The first things that start to get put back in are starchy carbs, Like sweet potatoes, I also add in Rice and cheese quite often for people. This give people the ability to fuel their works outs and make meaningful progress in the gym.

Fourth: match your calorie intake to your activity level

It's all good and its pretty much all carbs 

Look if you are working out at CrossFit Tulare 3 x a week running on your days off and playing flag football on the weekends, then you need to eat more. I usually start at a gram of protein per pound of body weight and work from there when figuring out how many calories to eat. If you eat to little your performance will stall, you will burn out, and greatly increase chance of injury. If you are starting out with an excess amount of Body Fat then you might get a way with this for a very short while but you have to eat to fuel your work outs. This type of eating will change your body composition and give you the ability to maintain your new body through out life instead of bouncing up and down all the time like so many of us do.

In short you need to take both your training and your nutrition seriously. You have at your disposal great coaches who want to help you improve and see you progress. We want to see you healthier and fitter, but the hour you spend in the gym can only go so far. Like most things there is no super secret formula, no magic pill. The answers are all fairly simple, but like CrossFit WoD's simple does not means easy. The tips above should help you begin and maintain a healthy diet that will lead do better performance in the gym and in life.