Hey Coach, I am not seeing the results (as fast as I want)-
I can tell you a simple way to feel more healthy, and perform better. It is really no secret, and there are some times when it is a bit more complicated, but most of the time it is pretty simple, although not easy.
But first, lets talk about you. You go to the gym and work out hard…. You scale the weights to your current ability and you give it your all. You are even doing some recovery days (another post) and running a bit (last week) and you even roll out before class to work on your mobility (BTW…laying on a foam before class is not “rolling out”…you know who you are). But, for some reason things just aren’t working out. I know, it must be the workout programming, or perhaps you aren’t taking the right pre- workout…..or, perhaps you are like the flowers in my garden.
There have been a couple of times where we have planted flowers that just didn’t seem to thrive. We made sure that there weren’t any weeds when we planted, and we watered, but something was amiss. That something was our dog Sandy. It seems that she has a place she likes to pee, and that place is in our flower garden. As long as she is peeing there, it doesn’t matter what we plant. It won’t flourish.
To take the analogy another step Coach Glassman (Founder of CrossFit) has often said that you can try to build a race car, but it isn’t going to run very well if you “piss in the gas tank.”
If you want to be the healthiest you can be… If you want to live a more productive life… If you want THAT body…. If you want to perform to your highest level you need to address your nutrition.
The CrossFit nutrition plan is low carb (relative to the Standard American Diet…SAD), higher protein (to support that awesome muscle), and an appropriate level of fat to support your energy needs. It is not a ketogenic diet. We suggest measuring your current intake by journaling (using My Fitness Pal or similar), determining or estimating your caloric needs and using Zone proportions of your macronutrients to start. After seeing how things are going for a few weeks you can tweak your intake over time.
So you may ask me…that is great, but what do I eat? We suggest eating a whole, minimally processed diet. In his trademark article “What is Fitness”. Coach Glassman simplified it like this “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 ”
As I said before for most folks this is somewhat simple, although not easy. Some suggested resources to get started.
Links:
What is Fitness https://journal.crossfit.com/article/what-is-fitness
Avoiding Metabolic Derangement CrossFit Journal 15 http://journal.crossfit.com/2003/11/cfj-issue-15-nutrition-avoidin.tpl
Zone CrossFit Journal 21 http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf
What is the Paleo Diet https://robbwolf.com/what-is-the-paleo-diet/
If you need some help:
If you are interested in getting some help, some accountability and body fat testing we are here to help. We have several ways we work with folks from our Game Changer Challenge accountability game to individualized bespoke nutrition coaching.
