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. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.
Coach Greg Glassman, CrossFit Founder and CEO
It is no coincidence that Greg Glassman begins his ‘World Class Fitness in 100 Words’ with a sentence on nutrition. Everything we do at CrossFit, and outside of it, is supported by how we fuel our bodies. If you are not happy with your results in the gym, take a long, hard look at your eating habits. Without solid nutrition, exercise won’t get you far. So today, rather than post a recipe, I am going to take a look at the nutritional philosophy of CrossFit and how to incorporate that into your lifestyle.
So let’s come back to that fundamental principle.
Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar.
Step one is to cut the processed junk and JERF, or Just Eat Real Food. Real food doesn’t come in a box marked gluten-free, low-fat, organic, all-natural, wholesome, vegan or high-fiber. Skip the Frankenfoods and their ‘healthful’ claims and go for the items located around the periphery of the store that don’t even have an ingredients list or a nutrition information table. Eat real food mindfully and you won’t have to worry about counting calories and macronutrients. Ditch the diet mindset and embrace the power of healthy, real food.
Some would call this a paleo or primal diet. I prefer the term ‘JERF’. The paleo diet excludes all grains, dairy, refined sugars and vegetable oils and encourages us to ‘eat like our ancestors.’ While there is merit to any diet that encourages us to eliminate processed foods, some people have great success eating small amounts of whole grains and full-fat, preferably grass-fed dairy, so it is important not to be overly dogmatic and to experiment with what works for you. Cut the sugar and processed foods and never look back, you don’t need these. With dairy and grains, try eliminating them for 30 days and check out http://whole30.com for guidance. Slowly reintroduce one food at a time. A cup of yoghurt one day, a serve of quinoa or oats on another, and see how your body reacts with and without these foods. A whole foods diet will benefit everyone, but when it comes to the details, it may be advisable to work with a nutritionist who can help determine your individual needs.
So what does JERF look like? Here’s a basic guideline to how I would build my breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Start with protein. Put a roughly palm-sized piece of meat, fish or eggs on the center of your plate. Next, add carbohydrates in the form of leafy green and colorful vegetables until your plate is almost full. Shoot for 5-8 cups of veggies a day. Leave a small space, about the size of bottom of your water glass, for grains, a potato, or fruit. Top it off with a small serve of healthy fats, about the size of your thumb, in the form of nuts, nut butters, avocado, seeds, coconut or olive oil.
Serving sizes and macronutrient ratios are different for everyone, and it can be difficult when starting out to know how much food you actually need, particularly if your natural appetite has been disrupted from long-term unhealthy eating habits. If you are looking for guidance, use a program such as myfitnesspal.com to log and analyze your food for a week or so. CrossFit recommends that 30% of your caloric load should come from protein, 40% from carbohydrates and 30% from fats. Play around with your portions until you achieve something close to this. After a week you should be able to look at your plate and have a rough idea of whether you are meeting your nutritional needs. Counting calories and recording foods long-term is annoying, time-consuming and can lead to unhealthy, obsessive eating habits, so just use this as a starting point to get in tune with your appetite.
For athletes looking to optimize performance, CrossFit athletes have had much success with the Zone diet. If you are interested, check out this article from the CrossFit Journal which explains it in detail.
Beyond what we should eat, it is also important to consider when we should eat. In this regard, everyone is different. Some people do better with 3 large meals, others with 6 small meals. Some people like to work out fasted; others need to eat a pre-workout meal. Experiment with what works for you. What is non-negotiable is your post-workout meal. During an intense workout, your body’s glycogen stores are depleted, and it is important to replenish these to enable recovery. Within 30-45 minutes, and the sooner the better, you need fast absorbing carbohydrate and protein. Typically, I go for a grass-fed whey protein shake or a few boiled eggs and a piece of fruit, sweet potato or coconut water. If you know you are going to have an intense workout, pack these in your gym bag and consider proper refueling a part of your training session.
With the prevalence misinformation, the popularity of crash diets and the propaganda of supplement and pharmaceutical companies, it sounds far-fetched that it could be this simple. But the truth is, cut the sugar and replaced the processed carbohydrates with vegetables and you will lose weight and create sustainable eating habits. Stay tuned for the Monday Meals post next week, where I will tell you how to meal plan for nutrition success.
