Posts from — February 2012

CrossFit Santa Rosa is a Whole9 Nutrition Partner, and all CFSR members receive a detailed nutrition guide on how to eat for athletic performance, health, and body composition. Topics in the guide include: why nutrition is important, foods that make us less healthy, what should be on your plate, a shopping guide, and eating out.

If you don’t yet have your copy, just ask a coach or other staff member to give you one!

If you’re a backpacker you know that the traditional trail food is a heck of a lot of grains.  I recently went backpacking again for the first time since becoming a paleo/primal eater, and much to my delight…it’s do-able, delicious and lightweight. I’ll share a few of my learning points.  To begin with you need to have a general grasp of backcountry meal planning, which I’m not going to go over here, but if you have more questions for me, I’m glad to brainstorm with you.

• One word: DEHYDRATOR. Electric, solar, whatever…gotta have it. I’ll bet someone you know has one you could borrow  for all the pre-trip preparation.
• Carbs: I dehydrated a ton of veggies. Zucchini, broccoli, carrots, asparagus, onion, bell pepper, mushrooms….all dried raw.
• The two veggies I cooked before dehydrating were yams and spaghetti squash.
• Protein: cook it before dehydrating  it (except for jerky). We did chicken, scrambled eggs, and smoked salmon. I suppose you could buy pouches of salmon/tuna/chicken…but I wanted to try doing it all homemade.
• I dehydrated scrambled eggs, but would like to try powdered eggs. Just didn’t get it in time.
• Lunch/snacks: Homemade beef jerky (recipes can be found online), and trail mix (dried fruit and nuts, and lots of coconut flakes). Salami, dark chocolate, spoonfulls of coconut butter
• My personal highlight: instant yams for breakfast. At home, cook the yams, mash with salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spread on waxed paper in your dehydrator. Take the dried yam chips and powder it in your blender. On trail: rehydrate in your bowl with plenty of water, this is one you don’t have to wait more than 2-4 minutes for. Sprinkle pecans and a pat of butter on top…Oh sweet mother of god!!

• A note on rehydrating: don’t try to rehydrate it right at the time you want to cook it. You need to let it soak ahead of time.
• All the dinner ingredients got thrown into my 1.5L nalgene midafternoon, covered with cold water, stuck in my backpack, and were re-hydrated by dinner time.
• Veggies rehydrated beautifully in cold water. I think the trick to rehydrating  protein is that it needs to have boiling or hot water to soak in for several hours. For us, the protein stuff was a little chewy because I didn’t figure that out in time.
• Bring a good spice kit!
• Breakfasts: 1. Yam mush with nuts and coconut butter; 2. Julienned zucchini hashbrowns and (precooked) bacon.
• Dinners: 1. Pesto chicken on spaghetti squash/mushrooms/onions; 2. Veggie slurry with eggs (all the veggies, scrambled eggs, spices cooked together); 3. Salmon chowder (smoked salmon, dried dill, some coconut flour, broccoli, onion, yams).

I was surprised at the lack of good online info on this subject. With some creativity though, it was easy to do great meal planning. I’d say the biggest thing to remember is that you can substitute lots of dehydrated veggie carbs for all the grain carbs you’d usually eat.

Find the familiar faces of Joanna, Shannon, and Adrian in this highlights reel from the Level 10 Fall Strength Challenge in Oroville a few months ago. CFSR represents!

Did that get you in the mood for some CrossFit competition? There’s just one week left to register for the 2012 CrossFit Open, which starts next Wednesday, February 22 and continues for five weeks.

When you register, be sure to select “CrossFit Santa Rosa” as your affiliate and then again as your team. Once you register, please let Joanna know that you’re competing in the Open, as we need to know who’s on the team to coordinate scheduling. Let’s go Team CFSR!

Some pictures of life at the box these past few weeks…

On Friday  Jill PRed her 10RM Back Squat by 20 pounds then completed the WOD. Following that she performed the slowest, most controlled, and prettiest of a first strict pull up we’ve ever seen. Congratulations to Jill for the steady and hard work she’s been putting in every week. It’s paying off, and there’s surely more to come!

The Practical Paleo Seminar is for you if you:

• Want to lose weight or lean out a bit as part of a healthy lifestyle change
• Have a health problem that you’ve just accepted as part of your life: eczema, arthritis, irritable bowel or other digestive dis orders, low energy, adult acne, sugar cravings or other food addictions…
• Have tried Paleo or Primal eating but just couldn’t figure out on your own how to make it work for your life
• Are ready to be healthy and vibrant and are looking for practical nutrition tools to help you get there

Nutritionist Diane Sanfilippo of the great website, blog, and podcast Balanced Bites will be at CFSR to give you the lowdown on the whys and hows of Paleo eating. And there are just a few days left for you to get the early-bird rate. The price goes up after Saturday, so get registered now and join us!

This event is open to the public – invite a friend or family member and get the knowledge and tools you need to eat for optimal health and body composition. The seminar is February 25th, 9am-5 pm, and your registration includes Diane’s e-book The Practical Paleo Nutrition Guide.

Go check out Diane’s website to get a sense of just how much she has to teach us all. Even those of us who have been eating this way for years have something to gain by attending her seminar.

There are new rules for the parking lot at 1005 Cleveland, designed to minimize conflict between the existing businesses here. Here’s the deal:

• Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm: The bank of parking spaces directly in front of the Quonset Hut are prioritized for CFSR. If those are full, please park on the street. (Staff will be parking on the street to leave those spaces available for members.)
• All other times (early mornings, evenings after 5 pm, Saturdays) are first come, first served.

Thank you for understanding.

Big ups to everyone who submitted a score for the January Challenge: Kyle, Terri, Stock, Jessica, Taylor, Matt C, Lily, Rich, Dan, Tracey, and Andrea! I’m so proud of each of you for doing this. Here are the winners:

Men
1st place: Rich 6:52.2
2nd place: Dan 6:53.4
3rd place: Taylor 7:07.5

Women
1st place: Andrea 7:40.1
2nd place: Jessica 8:09.5
3rd place: Lily 8:11.0

February Challenge will be announced tomorrow!