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.  

­­

WoD 120406

Grilled Tilapia and veggies with cauliflower rice and tequila
lime vinegar. Do you have a favorite paleo meal? 

7RFT
7 Thrusters
7 Pull-ups

Yes even MORE Squats. If you took my advice yesterday and scaled the work out to improve your recovery you will be feeling much better today. So much so in fact that the light weight on the thrusters should not present a problem. Goal today is to emphasize speed of each single rep.

Here is what I mean by that. Take each rep individually and explode through it. Then take and extra second to insure proper set up and explode again. This goes for both the Thruster, and the Pull-ups. We have talked about proper set up on the pull-ups before if you are not using it you are setting yourself up for injury.

Also as referenced in the caption under the Photo, I am looking for some of your favorite Paleo recipes Post them to comments. The best one gets a free CrossFit-Tulare T-shirt.

Nutrition Part 1

First Up we will be holding the work out in Exeter tomorrow with CrossFit Visalia. We will meet up at the same place as last time, and then head out to the actual work out location. Come Prepared to work hard and throw down. Directions are still on the right side of the blog------------------> >>>>>>>>

Now on to the real topic of this blog post Nutrition 

 

As the head coach in a gym I get asked on a daily basis questions about nutrition. I deal with each of these questions on a person by person basis, because well… everyone is different. Surprise, what works for you may not work for another. Now do not misunderstand me the best diet is fairly similar no matter who you are, however the best diet for you is not the one that science has proven to be perfect ( does such a thing exist?). Instead it is one that moves you towards your  goals and that you can stick to for the rest of your life. It has been said so many times by so many people that it is nearly meaningless for me to say this at this point, but … It is not a diet it is a lifestyle. Seriously you do not get to starve yourself to lose 10 pounds and then go back to eating the way you did before. We have all tried and it does not work.  This is why I deal with nutrition on a per case basis, some of you are ready to jump in right away, others of you will fight tooth and nail before you start to limit your intake of grains. Every person is different in their commitment, discipline, and life circumstance. Does every one benefit from reducing or eliminating grains? Yes. Gluten?  Sugar? Get rid of it and you will feel 10x better (after the withdrawals anyway) However sometimes people are not willing to give up something right away. It is my job to work with them, and figure out a way to move them towards their goals so they continue to improve. With that being said there are some guiding principles that I use to help everyone. So to keep it simple and easy here is what guides my recommendations for nutrition

                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.

If you can do this, then your health and fitness levels will be through the roof in no time. You will have more energy, shed body fat, and build muscle. Sounds great right? Well then go do it.  How you ask. I refer you to the lines above. Just do that. This is as simple as it gets, and everyone says they want simple...

 We do not want simple though, do we? We want easy, we want someone to do it for us. Or a magic pill that makes it ok to eat whatever we want and still be able to back squat 1000 pounds and run a 4 minute mile. I hate to disappoint you (actually no I don’t)  but it doesn’t work that way. You have to do the work. Coming in to CrossFit every day and going home and eating pizza at night will not do a whole lot for you. Yes you will get stronger and faster ( and probably bigger ) for a while, but pretty soon you will stop getting better ( the getting bigger will keep going though) trust me when I first found CrossFit this was how I did it. Eventually to continue improving performance you will have to start to get your nutrition under control. 

It is easy for me to tell who has taken the steps to improve their nutrition, and those who have not. The ones who are proud to show off their results in the gym and to their friends; they are committed to nutrition. the ones who ask me why “that person” or “So and So’ are seeing results and they are not, are not committed. If you are  asking that question, either out loud or to yourself  then you need to re-evaluate your commitment to nutrition. Yes it is hard. It is very hard to change the way we eat, many times comfort foods get thrown out the window, old family recipes get put away not to be seen again for a long, long time. You can, however, do this; and I am here to help.

I want you all to succeed in the gym and in life, but I do not get to spoon feed you the food you should eat. So in an effort to continue your education I will, over the next few weeks break down in more detail what you should be eating, when you should be eating it, and even throw in a recipe or two for you to try out. In the end however YOU have to put in the work. YOU have to buy the food, YOU have make the time to cook it. YOU have to say no to the cookies and the cakes and whatever else you are offered.  YOU are responsible for your own Improvement and Performance. I can only show you the way.

Fox and Nick
Two members of the gym who are committed to improving
performance through nutrition. 

So here is step 1. If it comes in a box, or bag, if it fizzes when you open it then you do not need to eat or drink it. Seriously go throw it away right now. You may have to go to the grocery store right after this but that is ok just don'y buy anything like what you tossed. This first step is a big one and can be hard, but just do it. Do not bother to stop and think just go do it.

 Next time we will get a little more specific about what I mean by Real Food and you will get you first awesome recipe. 

WoD 120305

For time complete

Just an hour or so can yield all the lunches and breakfast you need
for an entire week. Neva and I will spend every Sunday afternoon
 with a bottle of Red Wine preparing our meals for the week.
this picture is five days worth of chilie, four meals of pork strips
and cauliflower rice, as well as 7 days worth of bacon and egg
breakfast bites for each of us. it doesn't take long and is a ton of fun. 

50 burpees
40 KB Swings (1.5 pood)
30 Box Jumps ( 30 in)
20 Toes to Bar
10 Strict C2B Pull-ups


The nutrition challenge ended a couple of weeks ago. With the start of the open things got a little crazy and I forgot to post the results. People had varying degrees of success but those who had the most success took steps to follow the nutrition guidelines I have given you. Those who did things like:
Cut out fast food and
Stick to the outside of the grocery store
did very well for them selves.

One person took it farther than the rest. I have seen his meal journal and while not perfect he eats mostly paleo ( for the new people read this as real food instead of processed) as well as tracks calories and his macro nutrient intake adjusting it as he needs to in order to get the results he wants.


Shawn Fox won the first workout the second work out
and improved his score by 100% really he went from a combined score of 52 seconds to a negative 35 seconds. Hard to beat I know. some other honorable mentions are Cacy Frazier who improved by 72% and Kevin Price who improved by 54%. if you are curious about your improvements and what you can do to start or continue these gains please come talk to me or shoot me an email at info@CrossFit-Tulare.com

WoD 110919 "Shoulder Press"

The Creation of the Meatza

The Crust

WoD
Shoulder Press
2-2-2-2-2-2-2

Finisher max box jumps in 3 minutes (30in/24in)

Fresh Steamed Veggies

Home Made Sauce

Add Tomato Slices

Delish

WoD 110817

Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes
1 Dead Lift 85% 1RM
3 Dead hang pull-ups
10 Double Unders

Any round you do not complete inside of a minute count a penalty at the end of the work out do 15 burpees for each penalty
post score as number of penalties

Bryan, Iain, Fox, And Nick working through the first of three different AMRAPS
last Wednesday

What Should I eat? I want to loose some weight? I want to gain Muscle? I think being a few pounds lighter would really help my Pullup/run time/ fill in body weight movements here.

I have been hearing lots of talk around the gym about nutrition and how body weight changes could help your performance. Or about how your body weight now is limiting your performance. I have answered these questions a number of times in a number of different ways, so I thought I should address them here to give everyone a general overview of what I recommend, but first a couple quick points.

First. Body weight doesn’t matter only performance matters. You want to get stronger, wonderful then you need to lift heavy stuff. Want more pull-ups? Me too, let's add in some extra pull-up work at the end of the work out a couple times a week. Will body weight affect performance, yes but for the most part it is all mental. A great example is Chris Spealer who has not let his body weight affect his strength. At 145lbs he squats 375 and snatches over 200 lbs. My point here is to not let body weight become the end goal of your training. Instead focus on a performance goal ( in both your nutrition and training choices) and let body weight take care of it self.

Second. The best nutritional plan is one that does two things, Moves you toward your goals and you can stick with it. Do I like eating Paleo? Sure do. Have I done the zone? Absolutely. I have done both very strictly at various times and have since decided that I don't want to weigh and measure my food but that I am in fact ok with no grains dairy or legumes. My run times are decreasing, my body weight movements are improving and I am still getting stronger. Might I see faster improvements if I weighed and measured my food? Most likely. That kind of eating style just doesn't fit my lifestyle right now and I am ok with that. I am moving in the right direction with my goals and I can maintain this style of eating indefinitely. Could this change at some point. Sure could. Will I re-evaluate when it does. Absolutely.

Third Quality Trumps Quantity every time. This is probably why I like paleo so much you cut out all the processed junk and start eating good real food, and this will automatically lead to improved performance.

Ok so what do I recommend you eat? Try this. Meat, nuts, seeds, and vegetables; little starch and no sugar. How much should you eat? Maybe enough to support exercise but not body fat.

Seem really vague? Why no calorie counts or macro nutrient ratios, or talk about grass fed versus grain fed meat? Because that all depends on your training and your training depends on your goals. Trying to get stronger, well then your probably doing some extra lifting and going heavy as well so we should probably up your protein intake and possibly fat as well to maintain energy levels. Trying to run an Iron Man. Then your are probably working into time frames well outside the typical CrossFit Met-Con and you will probably be getting a few more carbohydrates than others as well as some more fat to fuel training while ensuring you get adequate protein.

Final Point. Do what works for you. We have members in the gym who follow a vegetarian, diet, and vegan diets this works for them. They are getting stronger and faster and more fit. So I will not try to convince them to change what they are doing. If it works Stick with it. If not Change it.

Last thought:

Your goals should dictate your training, and your nutrition should support your training.

WOD 110308 "Strait From the Hopper"

If you have not met Jeremy yet he just finished his OnRamp
at the end of February and is now attending the 6:30am
class on Monday, Wed and Fri
Here he is Crushing his second attempt at an OnRamp Wod
cutting his time nearly in half

dips 30
Jerk 20
KB Swing 10
ring push-ups  30
Towel Pull-ups 20
running ( alley)
Sled Pull 100m
double unders 50 (3:1)
Sit-ups 40
OHS 30 _45#/35#
20 SDHP 45#/35#
Running ( block)


I have had a number of questions recently about supplements. My general stance is that you do not need anything other than protein shakes and some fish oil. That being said there are things out there that claim to increase your performance through some metabolic or hormone magic. While there are things out there that  have been shown to work. the majority of the bottle you see at the local supplement store have next to no scientific backing and any that they do have was usually done in house and not objective. That being said i do encourage experimentation with nutrition to see what works for each individual, and after you get to a certain point you will wonder ( if you have not already ) about supplements. So I offer you this invitation and Fox has offered his help as well. If you have a question about a supplement then post it to the blog. He and I will provide research ( if any ) on it and provide it to you likely along with our thought on it ( most likely via the blog or in person) so that you can make your own informed decision.

For those who brought up some supplements today here is why I advise a lot of caution when buying things not regulated by the FDA at all.  Jacked 3D

Links I like (not all WFS)

Dan John Wants you to squat 

Only Eat it if you have to kill it first 

Paleo Meal Of the day 

CrossFit Games Open Is Coming

One CF Coaches Training For the Games  

The Transfer Effect in Olympic Lifting

Advice for Young Lifters ( everyone else can probably learn something too) 

Training With an Injury

Zen Photo # 1

Zen Photo # 2

Nutrition

My guess is that everything you have ever been told about nutrition is wrong. Very Very wrong. Why? Well because the common thought today is that Carbohydrates should make up the majority of your diet, even up to 80 % of your total intake. This my friends is idiotic without going into a whole lot of detail about how the body reacts to carbohydrates I will just tell you that too many carbs will make you fat and in the end leave you tired and mentally lethargic. Why would we be told too eat so many then? To tell you the truth I am not quite sure, there are many theories ( and conspiracy theories ) to explain this, the one I like however is simple, America was getting fatter, so the simple step from there is to cut out fat, and the thing you are left with to replace it are carbohydrates, never mind that our biggest source of information( as a nation) on nutrition comes from the department of agriculture( what do you think they would promote?) . So what is the next step for us then? To steal from Crossfit yet again, it is to change you diet to " eat lean meats and vegetables, some fruit, and little to no starch." Limiting your self to SOME fruit and little to NO starch is going to be a big change for most people. This means little to no bread potatoes, corn, ect as well as watching our fruit intake. Go ahead and give it a try. I will be discussing more specifics later but this is a simple way to think about improving your nutrition and subsequently your fitness.