Meal of the Day!

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Baby Food!

Yes-I said baby food! Just let me explain….

A common question among those that crossfit (CF) is “what do I eat before a workout (WOD)” or “what do I eat after a workout (WOD)”. You can ask a variety of people and look up information all over the internet on this but what I find is that people generally don’t take a firm position in one camp or the other. Generally you get the “it is different for everyone, try some different things and see how you look, feel and perform (a phrase commonly used by Robb Wolf). I agree that in the end it comes down to personal preference, goals, body type, etc but please can someone just tell what to do and I will do it and start my look, feel, perform journey from there.

It wasn’t until the Whole 9 seminar that I attended that I got a straight and solid answer. While this was not the focus of the day I do remember Melissa and Dallas coming out and saying “YES!” eat before and after a workout. They then went on to provide timing guidelines and suggested types of foods for both before and after. I found this comforting and now I could go and do this and then tweak it from there. What I found was that I was eating too early (not close enough to 3..2..1. go time) and I wasn’t eating the right types of food. Even though I was eating paleo I had my fat in the wrong place and not enough carbs when I’d benefit from them. I don’t want to steal their words on this but basically they said to eat before a WOD (small amount of protein and a little fat) approx. 15-75 min and after a WOD (meal sized amount of protein and some carbs), approx 15-30- min.

Because of when I leave work to get to the gym and where I live in proximity to the gym to get these “bonus meals” in at the right time I often have to eat in the gym. I have found that hard-boiled eggs works best for me pre WOD and baby food best post WOD, yes I said baby food!

Usually when I am pealing and eating my egg in the gym different people look at me and say “Hey you are eating an egg, you must be trying the paleo thing, right, hahaha, are you like doing the challenge or something”) and with a mouth full of egg I just smile and nod. I am really thinking “Hello, do you know me, I am the paleo princess I have been paleo for over a year...I am not “trying” anything I am dialing in proper pre WOD nutrition”.

When I eat my baby food post WOD I get some strange looks for sure! Usually after the class I go to is the 101/intro class in our gym. I think one night I scared a few people as I was inhaling a jar of peaches. Yum. Usually I stick with the yams and sweet potato because those are really CLEAN and just yam or sweet potato and nothing else. The peaches are higher in sugar and from a concentrate with ascorbic acid. I just use these occasionally and as a treat.

Why am I not just eating a piece of fruit or some real actual sweet potato. I tried this. Because I have to carry all of this with me, in addition to my breakfast, lunch, and any other snacks, mini meals, etc I needed something small and portable and wanted something that didn’t need to be refrigerated. I also was bringing real “grown up” sweet potato for a while and finding it was going bad quickly and I ended up tossing more in the garbage then eating it. I know it sounds silly and even gross but really baby food is just a quick and easy, portable, post workout carb.

The last 3 weeks I have had some life changes and have not kept to my regular eating schedule including missing my pre and post WOD “bonus meals”. I have found that I don’t like WODing when I am even a little hungry and I don’t sleep at night if I don’t get my carb post WOD. No joke, I have had 2 experiences now at different times where I wasn’t eating the post WOD carb and what happens is I wake up at 3:30am and can’t sleep. I have tired eating more for dinner or tweaking other aspects of life, food or routine and all that helps is the post WOD carb. It has been 3 weeks and I haven’t touched the baby food in the closet and I also haven’t slept well. You can bet that I will be eating some tonight! It works for me and I like it because it is easy, quick, and you can keep it in the gym bag or car and always have a go to.

Do I suggest eating before and after a WOD, yes! Do I also suggest trying a few different things and playing around with it to see how you look, feel, and perform yes…there I said it.

ps. if my baby food idea isn't for you try these! I found them on the Whole 9 site! Sweet Potato Chews!

The FUN diet!

I am not a fan of calling how I eat a “diet” but it seems anytime I talk to anyone outside of the crossfit (CF) community that is what they call it so for now we will go with it and leave the “it’s not a diet” debate for another day.

I have had many discussions with many people and when I explain to them how and why I eat how I do, they say “Oh that can’t be fun”, or “Why would you do that, I like to live and have a good time”. The list goes on and on with the negative comments or reactions and they all seem to be thinking I am restricting myself to the point of misery. I find it frustrating because what people aren’t understanding is that I eat how I eat not because it is fun or not fun but because what it does for my body is beyond just fun, it is awesome!

Eating clean gives me fast recovery, the ability to build strength quickly, and the ability to attack workouts (WOD’s) how I want to. And all that is just what it does for my WOD’s. Eating clean also helps me get better sleep and helps me manage stress better. All of these things affect the overall qualify of my life everyday! In some ways I have had more fun since making the change to eating clean.

Fun for me isn’t eating a pizza and drinking beer just because it is there or everyone else is doing it. Fun is setting a new power clean max or going as prescribed (no modifications or RX) on a workout. Fun is doing 80 pull-ups and ripping the skin off of your own hands. I think the problem might be that others are getting their “fun” from something to do directly with eating or drinking and they assume that if you have boundaries and restrictions then that is bad or negative, or not fun! This is fine, I just get my fun from other places. Do I enjoy wine and dark chocolate from time to time-yes! Do I still get to make baked goods for a birthday or celebration, yes (paleo of course!). Will I occasionally eat something that isn’t “paelo” yes! All these things will happen, but the bulk of my food will be clean and that will mean that are some restrictions that I place on myself because I want to. It is my choice to eat and not eat certain things and I do it because I have spent time researching and testing how certain things make me look, feel and perform (as Robb Wolf would say!). The last time I checked eating steak and bacon and veggies and nuts and berries wasn’t boring or a chore or anything that made me miserable. And if eating that way means I can have more fun in the gym, then bring it on!

Their 30!

I attended my first Whole 30 seminar with Melissa and Dallas back in October. Since then I have completed 3 rounds of 30 days of eating “Whole 30” and had a lot of time to reflect on the last year of my life and eating paleo. As the term “paleo” is used more and more I am less attracted to it. The description of my blog first said “A blog about eating paleo” and then I changed it to “A blog about eating real food”. My experience with Whole 30 has taken me past the idea or label of “being paleo” and put me in a better place for myself and my own goals in terms of making the right food choices and eating “real food”. It has also given me information and perspective to make my approach to eating sustainable. Will I go wine tasting again, yes. Will I make a carrot cake and eat it, yes. These things will happen but I feel confident that with my foundation of paleo/whole 30/whole 9, I will be smarter when making these decisions and more in control.

Enough about me and my thoughts on whole 30. Recently 3 girls in the gym I go to (Crossfit Portland) took on the Whole 30 challenge. All started around Jan 1 and so they just finished their 30 days. I thought it would be good to get their thoughts and share their experiences. These girls really took charge in this challenge and it was fun to watch them go through this. Some nights there was more complaining then smiles in the gym, but overall they powered through and I am so excited for them to have had this experience!

Also included are the thoughts of George Corbo (George WOD’s and coaches at Crossfit Ft. Vancouver, he is also the founder/owner of Manimal an awesome Crossfit apparel company, see the link on my page!). George is fabulous! He and I attended the same Whole 30 seminar in October. Since then George has completed his own 30 day challenge and can offer some thoughts on his experience and on life post the first 30 days.

1. What made you decide to take the Whole 30 challenge?

Jenn: Weighing 159 pounds while crossfitting 4-6 days a week and eating about 85-95% paleo was my number one reason. I had weighed between 155-160 for 7 months and I wanted to see if I could get to a lower weight for my joint/overall health.

Tami: I’d been doing Crossfit for 9 months with great results, but I hadn’t adopted the Paleo diet yet. I wanted to see what all the hype was about, but I also wanted to break some bad eating habits. I thought going cold turkey in a “challenge” setting with the support of others doing the challenge would be the ideal situation.

Brittany: I had been eating paleo about 80 percent of the time, and I wanted to see how a strict challenge like Whole30 would affect my energy, training, and body.

George: I was having knee pains from an old injury and was noticing a lot of aches starting to occur especially towards the end of the week after training. I had heard that the Whole 9 approach to nutrition was supposed to help your bodies immune system handle inflammation better.

2. What were your goals for the challenge?

Jenn: It sounds lame, but my real goal was to just stick to the challenge 100%. My "fake" goal was to drop to a size 6 from a size 8 and also possibly lose 5-15 pounds. I overall wanted to be a leaner Jenn.

Tami: I wanted to find out once and for all how different food groups were affecting my health and well being. But mostly I wanted to complete the challenge just to know that I could do it.

Brittany: I wanted to see it through to the end. I knew the hardest part would be explaining the program to family and friends - I wasn't worried that I wouldn't be able to stay on course. I was also interested to see if I would lose any weight during the month.

George: I'm always up for doing anything that is going improve my quality of life and health. Especially if it helps my performance. My goals for this challenge involved completing the Whole 30 without cheating and doing my best to see if it was possible to find good quality meats that were affordable.

3. How did you feel at the start, mid pt, and end of the challenge?

Jenn: Start: Cold, tired, weak, "strung-out" for about 6 days. The second through 5th nights of the challenge, I had deep shivering and feelings of coldness that was not my norm. I set my body into ketosis on day 4 and felt majorly messed up, but once my body got used to it I started to feel leaner, stronger, and healthier.
Midpoint: Great. Strong. Leaner. Slightly bitter I couldn't even have bites of the great food my friends were eating.
End: Great, strong, leaner, healthier, and ready for the challenge to be over so I could resume my faux-Paleo diet.

Tami: At the beginning, I was lost because my usual routines were turned upside down. There was no such thing as a quick breakfast or lunch. I had to prepare everything ahead of time. I was hungry a lot and felt some slight weakness during a few workouts. It was all a matter of planning and getting used to what the “approved” foods were, so once I had several “go to“ meal plans under my belt I felt more confident.

At the mid point, I was feeling deprived, but I stuck to my guns. Before I knew it, all of my cravings were gone, I could easily walk through the grocery store or mall and not feel tempted by cookies or candy, or anything, really. Because the Whole 30 manual said that the plan was not about weight loss, I did not weight myself, but lo and behold, my clothes got baggy. I had dropped a whole size (hooray!).

I’m at the end of the challenge now and I feel stronger, leaner, more empowered, and pretty happy with myself. I complained a lot at first, but it was over before I knew it.

Brittany: At the start, I felt really good. I had done plenty of reading about Whole30 before I started, and I had decided to make a strong commitment to sleeping 8 hours a night while changing my diet, which I know helped immensely.

Midway through, I started to get a little bit bogged down by the small stuff. I worried too much about trivialities, like whether there were trace amounts of sugar in my chicken broth. Ironically, this probably wasn't helping because STRESS is obviously also a huge factor in overall health and fitness.
By the end of my Whole30, I felt really confident in my abilities to plan, cook, and eat paleo all the time. I felt more energetic and less emotionally attached to food. I will say, though, that I'm still battling the "sugar demons." I don't let myself indulge in fruit for dessert everyday, for example, but hot tea has become a nice substitute.

George: When I started the whole 30 I had a loss of energy during workouts and throughout the day. The first couple of weeks were rough. Once I found the right foods and ate enough of them I started to feel great about mid way through. By the end of the challenge I had no knee pains, no longer needed to take fish oil or glucosamine, felt like I had more energy and even noticed a decrease in acne. It was great.

4. What did you like/not like about the challenge?

Jenn: . I love my results and am really hoping I can maintain my leaner self. I disliked not being able to "splurge" or drink alcohol. It was also a little tricky to figure out how much food to cook on Sunday and make it last through the work week. I also strongly disliked not being able to lift close to my maxes and the cold feeling I had at the start of the challenge.

Tami: Con: My grocery bill went way up!

Pros: What I really enjoyed about the challenge was the camaraderie among those of us suffering through it together. It was fun to complain to each other and to share tips and recipes, but celebrating our successes was the absolute best part!

Brittany: I liked the simplicity. Since I was already totally familiar with the program, I knew what I was choosing to do, and that was that. Having said, I also spent plenty of time reading paleo forums, visiting the Whole30 comments, and looking up recipes. I didn't like how hard it was to stick to it in restaurants! There's a post on Whole30 where Melissa and Dallas talk about the slippery slope of dining out (you don't know if they cook the veggies in butter, whether they use soybean or olive or canola oil), but I do think that trace amounts of those things won't sacrifice your overall health.

George: I liked the fact that we were provided with reading material that showed the best types of protein, carbs and fats. Up until Whole 30 I was eating a lot of almonds for fat but once we reviewed the best sources of fat and put them in my diet I immediately noticed a change in my energy. (George is referring to the materials we were provided with in the Whole 30 seminar we attended) The only thing I didn't like about the challenge was having to go and find cheap sources of quality meats. It would of been awesome had Whole 9 put together a list of the best ways to find cheap quality meat. There seems to be an unspoken assumption that anyone can afford to eat as "clean" as the Whole 9 suggest. Unfortunately this isn't true, but if my wife and I were able to do it, most people definitely can.

5. What was your biggest challenge in the 30 days?

Jenn: NOT DRINKING ALCOHOL. If you know me I don't need to explain. But... If you can't stop drinking alcohol for 30 days, then you have a big problem and need to seek addiction counseling.

Tami: I hated explaining my “diet” to my friends and co-workers when we went out to eat. I had to keep reassuring them that I didn’t have an eating disorder and I wasn’t trying to lose a ton of weight.

Brittany: OK, I have a confession. I cheated once. It was on Day 22, and it wasn't even about the food, it was about the company. It was a date, you see, and Besaw's serves these complimentary thumbprint-sized scones. So when he asked, "Well, shall we?" instead of demurring, I said, "Of course!" and popped it into my mouth. Not good. My stomach hurt afterward, and I still don't know if it was the gluten or the remorse. Abstaining from alcohol was the overall worst part. It wasn't a big challenge, but I think it made my friends think twice about inviting me out on the weekends. Which makes me think maybe I should think twice about my friends.

George: My biggest challenge in the 30 days was trying to prepare food for a post meal workout. It was hard for me to cook enough food to eat and also have some for after a workout. I was very hungry right after WODs and it was tough at first.

6. What did you learn?

Jenn: I learned just how much those little cheats effect my body. You know... The daily cream and sugar in my coffee, once in awhile gluten splurges, alcohol, and other items I had come to accept into my Paleoesque diet. It's obvious they really affect my body and how I metabolize/store calories.

Tami: Eating healthy takes time and proper planning, and it costs a lot more than my usual quick food options. Mostly I learned that I really, really can do anything I set my mind to do. Erin said it best when she told me that I’m a lot stronger than I think I am, and I thought I was pretty tough already.

Brittany: Eating good food is a powerful and important component in feeling good and being strong!

George: After the Whole 30 I tested a number of foods to see how my body would react and the biggest thing I learned was that my body absolutely hates dairy. Even things like grass fed butter had enough dairy in it to make me sick. For some reason being in the NorthWest created some breathing problems for me I never had anywhere else. After being Whole 30 I remember being able to breathe better before, during and after workouts than I ever had. I didn't have any joint pains and overall I was performing better. It was very obvious to me that it is important to take care of our intestines and avoid food that over time is killing our immune system. It changed my view on food and also really showed me the importance of eating quality meats if you can find it and afford it.

7. What are your plans post day 30?

Jenn: I'm drinking on the night of Day 30. First cheat... Tequila shot with salt and lime. Mmmmmmm.... Then I will return to a slightly less alcohol-infused mostly-paleo diet.

Tami: Well, this is an evolving plan. If you asked me a week ago, I would have said that I’m only going to follow some of the Paleo diet. Ask me now and I’ll tell you that I’m adopting a lot of the Paleo diet moving forward. It’s working and I feel great, so I don’t see any reason to change and go back to my old habits.

Brittany: To keep eating paleo 90% of the time. Although, oh, I will be consuming alcohol once again. Like, tomorrow. When I do choose to eat something that's not-so-healthy, it will be a conscious decision to go out for ice cream, for example. Cooking this way is NOT hard.

George: It's been a little while since the Whole 30 and I have gone back and forth with cheating on the weekends. But, to this day I still won't touch dairy and I am very much more educated about how my body reacts to different foods. I plan on trying to be as Whole 9 as possible on a regular basis.

8. Where there any big surprises or “wow” moments during the challenge?

Jenn: There were 2 "wow" moments. I fit into my size 6 skinny jeans on Day 13 of the challenge and that was HUGE for my momentum to keep going. Stepping on the scale by force from a physician on day 23 really woke me up as well. I was surprised to find I was 11 pounds lighter.

Tami: I had two big WOW moments during the challenge. The first one was when I realized I was no longer tempted by the drive thru or the fresh baked cookies at the mall (and I could smell them BIG TIME). The second one was when I pulled down the box of “skinny” jeans from my closet and most of them fit. Today, they fit even better. I know this because I tried them again tonight!!

Brittany: Yes! I gave up coffee about 10 days in by choice! I had been drinking coffee black, and enjoying it enough, but one morning I didn't feel like making it, and before I knew it, I was going days without any caffeine. I haven't had any caffeine since January 10, and although I might have a double espresso from time to time, I don't think it will become a regular habit again soon.

George: The biggest surprise I experienced during the Whole 30 challenge was that I had leaned out and lost weight to the point where I was almost doubting what I was doing. We tested our lifts at the gym and to my surprise I was able to lift a little bit more if not the same with weighing 10 pounds less. That shocked me. My goal has always been to be stronger and faster and when I was Whole 30 that was definitely happening.

Update from Jenn from day 1-post Whole 30:

The first full day off of Whole 30, I tried my coffee with milk and sugar. I promptly spit it out in the sink. It didn't taste good to me anymore. I'm a black coffee drinker convert now.

I remember Jenn telling me this coffee habit would be tough for her and in just 30 days she kicked the milk and sugar! Nice work women!