I wrote an email to a number of CFSR members, asking them about why they chose to follow a paleo/primal diet, what their goals were in doing so, what paleo and/or primal eating means to them, and what impact it’s had on their lives. This response comes from Brianna, who continues to get stronger and faster each week:

The goals that I have for myself in joining CrossFit led me to paleo/primal eating. I wanted to lose weight (of course) but I also wanted to feel strong, be healthy and be fit. When Joanna recommended it, it was difficult. I mean, I once lived off ravioli with homemade pesto sauce so how could I possibly think I could give up my love of pasta?!

I made it through the first two weeks and I noticed a huge increase in my performance ability. I felt better, had more energy, and was definitely getting stronger. I will allow myself the occasional treat – a great piece of cake at my wedding, some of the homemade pizza my Dad makes – but my digestive tract definitely feels the effects of those choices. As does my ability to perform!

Paleo/primal eating has been the right choice for me in understanding how my body works and what works best for my body. I want the best results so I choose to put the best possible fuel in my body. And I’ve been nothing but impressed with the results so far.

I wrote an email to a number of CFSR members, asking them about why they chose to follow a paleo/primal diet, what their goals were in doing so, what paleo and/or primal eating means to them, and what impact it’s had on their lives. Here’s the first in a brief series of responses I’ll be posting on the blog. This one comes from Dr. Josh.

The next generation! Josh and Jeneane's son Ryan.

“I chose to begin eating this way upon the recommendations of the fearless leader of CrossFit Santa Rosa. Plus, read Sisson’s book cover-to-cover and made sense. My goals were pretty simple: feel better, lose weight, improve health and lifestyle.

I’m a dairy-inclusive primal eater, though it’s limited to cream in my coffee and raw milk (though not very often) and good cheese. My grain exposure is limited to beer, though on my occasional 20% days have included pizza and cookies. Those, however, are few and far between; beer is less and less.

My journey began with a personal trial of eating primal. At the end of December, I worked 3 overnight shifts in a row in the ER. Ate in the normal way: sandwiches, couple of cookies, chips and salsa, maybe some candy. Anything to keep the motor “running” through the dark hours. Results: felt like crap, mood swings, hunger pangs, didn’t sleep well during the day. Basically, carb hangovers to the extreme. A week later, I had another set of 3 overnights, but had gone primal. The difference was amazing: no hunger pangs, no mood swings, no energy crashes, slept well during the day, felt refreshed and energetic during my shift AND when I was off. My sleep was restful and refreshing. Even my co-workers noticed the difference!

I’ve even managed to turn my parents on to eating primal. My mom, a recovering smoker and arthritis sufferer, has had no hand pain and minimal joint pain. My stepdad has lost 15 pounds and has more energy than my mom can handle!

My difficulties are the usual: “You don’t eat rice/bread/pasta/cookies?” “Your heart is going to explode with all that bacon and eggs.” “Where are the burger buns?”

My answer is: I’ve never felt better. Never been thinner. Totally tell the difference when I “cheat” and eat grains and simple carbs (can you say carb hangover???).

It’s easy to eat, easy to do, just takes some getting used to. Once you go Primal, you’ll never look back; the alternative just makes ya feel too crappy.”

Josh recently had shoulder surgery and is rehabbing, but we’re looking forward to his return!

If you missed Good Cooking Fats, Part I, it was about ghee. Go read it.

Now we bring you:

Rendered duck fat (left) and pork fat (right)

These are great cooking fats. Make sure they’re sourced from pastured animals! I got the duck fat at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market from Salmon Creek Farm ($8 for the jar) and the pork fat (a.k.a. lard) from Marin Sun Farms at the Marin Farmers Market ($4 for the tub). The duck fat is rich and flavorful, great for eggs, vegetables, and meat, and is classically used to make confit. The pork fat I find to be quite flavorless, and has been perfect to brown and saute small pieces of meat, like chicken, in a skillet, adding whatever seasoning and herbs I wish. Anyone have recipes or other suggestions for their use?

Read “The Skinny on Fats” from the Weston A Price Foundation to understand more about why these high quality saturated fats are actually good for you, and how the modern fats (canola and soy oils, any hydrogenated oils, margarine, etc.) – touted as the solution to high heart disease rates- are actually bad stuff. Go. Read it now. Then go to the Know Your Fats article index and geek out on any of the other articles you find.

Thoughts? Questions? Post to comments.

Many people use the words health and fitness interchangeably. They have very different definitions. Many fit people are unhealthy, and likewise, many healthy people are unfit. In this country, most are neither fit nor healthy, a few are both. At CrossFit Santa Rosa we give you the tools and knowledge necessary to be both.

Health is defined as “the optimal interplay of organs”.

A few reasons to be healthy…
-Retirement, specifically RVing
-Grand Kids
-Medical Bills
-Walkers, Canes, and Rascals
-Chemotherapy
-Angioplasty
-Dialysis
-Hospital Food

Things that can make you more healthy…
-SLEEP!
-Water
-Diet
-Fish oil and Vitamin D supplements
-Protein
-Fiber
-Exercise

Fitness is defined as “your ability to complete a task”

Examples of someones fitness aren’t as readily available as they were prior to the introduction of the grocery store, automobile, boat, airplane, water department, pg&e, elevator, escalator, lazy boy, and slurpee. However, we still have not found a way to live our entire lives submerged in a tub of nutritious goo with a tv suspended over our head, so you are still required to be fit at certain times. A situation in today’s world that would require you to be fit is moving day.

Things that can make you fit…
-CrossFit Santa Rosa
-Moving Day

I would like to say thank you to all of you who are on your way to becoming more fit and healthy, you are making the world a better place to live in. By not having to call me on moving day you are making my life easier. I intend to do the same for you.

Last weekend I was having dinner with some friends, one of whom had a plate full of french fries. I started to eat a few, when one of the other people at the table called out, “Don’t do it, Joanna!”  I gave him the finger.

Here at CrossFit Santa Rosa, we’ve recommended to each of you some specific nutrition guidelines, following the major principles of both the Paleo Diet and the Primal Blueprint. Greg Glassman, the founder of CrossFit, puts it most simply in his World Class Fitness in 100 Words: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar.” We’ve told you about why grains are to be avoided, about the importance of keeping your insulin levels steady, and about balancing your Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratios to fight inflammation. We’ve defined what we believe is the healthiest way to eat so that you feel, look, and perform better.

But do you need to restrict yourself so much that you stop enjoying life? No. Are you allowed to “cheat”? Absolutely. In the end, whether and how you follow our nutrition advice is entirely up to you. Ultimately, we want you to define for yourself which foods help you and which hinder you in your efforts to look, feel, and perform better.

Most of our members who have fully adopted primal eating find that when they eat a formerly enjoyed food that isn’t paleo/primal- say it’s pizza or pasta – they get indigestion and bloating and end up crashing to sleep shortly after. And you know, I actually encourage you to try that out and find out for yourself what the effects are of eating these foods after eliminating them for an extended period. Once you do that, you’ll know exactly how you feel when you eat them, and will be better able to make the choice to eat or not eat them in the future.

So when is it okay to “cheat”? What kinds of treats are you allowed? It has to be up to you to make your own rules. But here are some basic guidelines, taken from my own experiences plus some wise advice from Mark’s Daily Apple and the Whole9:

-Treat yourself consciously, fully aware of what you’re doing and why. Having treats is an entirely normal and healthy and part of enjoying life. But you should be fully conscious of what you’re doing when you treat yourself. Dessert at your anniversary dinner, your best friend’s wedding cake, a homemade pizza your kids made? Those are special occasions, and if you want to treat yourself, go for it, completely aware of the negative effects it may have on how you feel and perform. Of course, you might be flying so high on the paleo/primal bandwagon that you choose not to partake! But if you do, it should be worth it, and an entirely conscious – not mindless – decision. Eating the donuts your office mate brings to work every week, grabbing a soda at a party or a candy bar in the checkout line at the grocery store? This is not treating yourself, and can often lead down a slippery slope to frequent “cheating” and completely falling off the wagon.

-Choose your cheats and treats wisely. They should be special, and you should enjoy every bite. Going back to those french fries I was reprimanded for eating. Let’s first remember that potatoes are not the worst thing to eat (covered in Thomas’s post about glycogen replacement). But you know, those fries were not even very good. And fries are just not a food that I care much about. I ate two and quickly realized they just weren’t worth it – a cheat, but not a treat. Fast forward to this weekend: I was dining out with some friends, and the server brought us a huge piece of chocolate cake, on the house. I tasted it, and damn if it wasn’t great. Furthermore, I had already decided that I was going to have some chocolate this weekend to satisfy the cravings I usually get around a particular time in my hormonal cycle (ahem). I ate as much as I wanted (more on that below) and it was gooooood. You should be able to really enjoy your treats.

-Don’t go crazy. I ate that chocolate cake until I was satisfied and knew that the next bite wouldn’t be as enjoyable as the last. Now, it can be hard to determine that point – especially if you’ve been eating “clean” and are so psyched to have a treat that you go crazy on it. If you find yourself binging, or you’re someone that has had that problem in the past, read Mark Sisson’s post on the 80/20 rule (linked below). Basically, you should aim to eat primally at least 80% of the time; give yourself a break 20% of the time if you need it. And if you crave foods, feel deprived, then binge uncontrollably, you DO need it. Give yourself permission to not be perfect, but still aim to follow paleo/primal eating the majority of the time. This can be a tough road to navigate, and I want to offer myself as a source of support for any of you walking down it. I’ve been there, and can help, so don’t hesitate to talk to me about what you’re dealing with.

The bottom line: having treats is entirely normal and healthy. But you have to figure out for yourself when the right time is and what the right things are. Be aware of the effects your cheating and treating will have on you. If you know you have a trigger food – the one that starts the snowball effect into mindless binging – you should avoid it. At the same time, don’t expect yourself to be perfect. Give yourself a break when you really need it and can enjoy it.

For further reading, check out:
Guide to Eating Dirty, Part I and Part II from the Whole Nine
Mark Sisson’s 80/20 Principle (read the comments section as well)
Primal Blueprint 101 on Mark’s Daily Apple

The above graphic was developed by CrossFit founder Greg Glassman. The three components sandwiched in the middle are interchangeable based upon a person’s goals/abilities. The graphic does however portray the importance of nutrition in the development of a person’s fitness. The importance of having a solid nutritional base can never be overstated.

crap in = crap out

What you put in your body as “fuel” for these workouts can either severely hamper your efforts or give you a significant boost when it comes to energy level. Someone once said, “You wouldn’t put diesel in a jet engine, would you?” What equates to jet fuel will vary slightly from person to person, but it most certainly is not pizza and dr. pepper. When in doubt revert to the old…Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Most times, this summation of a “paleo diet” provides enough good wood for the fire.

Likewise, the speed and totality of your recovery from these workouts is also heavily dependent on what you eat. The movements and intensity in these workouts provide a very potent stimulus. The building blocks with which you repair the damage your body is incurring need to be of adequate quality and volume. Eat the good stuff and eat a bunch of it.

Oh, and please drink lots of water.

TC on one of his hunting trips.

Robb Wolf, one of the more famous purveyors and researchers of The Paleo Diet, has a podcast. Robb is also engrained in the exercise community which makes him particularly interesting to listen to, as he often relates the diet info he gives to increased athletic performance as well as all-around health. The podcasts are about an hour long and chalk full of useful knowledge laced with good humor.

Directions:

Under our Nutrition Links to your right, click on “Robb Wolf’s Blog”. Once on Robb’s blog, click on “The Paleolithic Solution” podcast link. Or just as easily, access it on iTunes, where you can even subscribe to receive each new episode.

Enjoy.

Please note that we will be closed Saturday, March 27th. We’re headed to the NorCal Sectional Qualifiers for the 2010 CrossFit Games! Check that link for updates over the weekend, and also check the CrossFit main page over the next several days, as there’s likely to be some video from the NorCal qualifiers posted there.

Thomas already posted A thought, or two, on sleep, but Mark Sisson over at Mark’s Daily Apple recently posted a new Definitive Guide to Sleep. This is a must read, people. Seriously. Read it. And go ahead a follow any of the dozens of links he’s provided, ’cause there’s some good stuff there too.

Lastly, you know how Thomas and I tell you to take fish oil? We give you a formula -1 gram for every 10 pounds of lean body mass- but that means you need to calculate your lean body mass, then see how many grams there are per dose of your fish oil and, well, even I just end up taking a few handfuls every day, not really paying good attention to the quantity. Well the good folks at Whole Nine have come up with an online calculator to figure out just how much of your brand of fish oil you need to be taking, based on your current diet and lifestyle. It’s the Robb Wolf Fish Oil Calculator, named after NorCal’s own nutrition guru Robb Wolf (whose website is linked in our right column). I’m supposed to take between 14 and 20 pills a day, depending on how beat up I am. And I thought my couple handfuls was a lot!

Cheer us on from afar over the weekend! Or if you’re feeling up for an adventure, come on down to the qualifiers in San Jose. Spectator tickets are now only $15 a person for Saturday – check here for more info. If we don’t see you there, see you next week at the box!

We don’t usually think of slow-cooking vegetables. And frankly, this dish doesn’t win points in the presentation category. But it sure is tasty, and a great way to get some good extra fat in your meal if you need that. It’s definitely got that warming, hearty feel that you want on a cold night. Winter isn’t over yet, so file this away for the next cold spell.

Slow Cooked Cauliflower and Greens

Choose some hearty vegetables that can stand up to the cooking. Here I used cauliflower and baby leaves of collards, chard, and kale that I got at the farmers market today.

Chop the vegetables any way you need to fit them into your pan. This is one reason I love this dish - no need to carefully create florettes!

Put the chopped vegetables into a saute pan. Pour a generous amount of olive oil into the pan. We're talking half a cup to a cup, no joke. It should come up about an inch from the bottom of the pan. Pour about a cup of water in after that.

Add some smashed garlic and red pepper flakes (if you'd like). Cover the pan and bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are crumbly and can be broken apart with a fork.

Last step: make a little hole in the mixture and add some sardines. Cook a minute or so until they disintegrate, then stir the whole mixture and serve with a squeeze of lemon over the top. (If you turn your head in disgust at the sardines, then try a few tablespoons of chopped cured olives and/or capers. Last resort: just use salt.)

This would go best with a simply cooked cut of meat, but here it's served with harissa meatballs. Like I said, it ain't so pretty - but it's plenty tasty!