Athlete-Torturer Masseur, Ed Rockowitz, prominently featured in .com video today.

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WOD 091128

3 Rounds for Max Reps:

Overhead Squat 95/65

Rest 3 minutes between efforts.

Post reps completed on all three rounds.

Followed By:

Every minute on the minute until failure:

95 pound Thruster, 5 reps
Sprint 75 meters.

Post rounds completed to comments.

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If you are paying attention you may notice that today's programming is a little different from what we have been doing. This sort of training (brief intense efforts, both ME and metcon back to back) will become more of a staple after we finish this training cycle in January.

This is my take on old-school roots CrossFit as first envisioned by Greg Glassman in the seminal CrossFit Journal Article, "What is Fitness and Who is Fit" from October 2002:

"One of our favorite workout patterns is to warm-up and then perform three to five sets of three to five reps of a fundamental lift at a moderately comfortable pace followed by a ten-minute circuit of gymnastics elements at a blistering pace and finally finish with two to ten minutes of high intensity metabolic conditioning."

Most of my influences and 3/5 of the top Affiliate Cup finishers use this type of training. CrossFit Central posts mostly metcon, and CrossFit Calgary uses a MEBB-type template of the kind we are using now (40%+ ME).

CrossFit Oakland (Mike Minium, L3)
CrossFit Virtuosity (Keith Wittenstein, L3)
Optimum Performance Training (James Fitzgerald, Winner 1st CF Games)
Catalyst Athletics (Greg Everett)
Northwest CrossFit
CrossFit Central (Jeremy Thiel)
CrossFit Norcal, 4th Affiliate (Robb Wolf)
CrossFit Calgary
CrossFit Invictus

James Fitzgerald AKA "OPT" gives recommendations for PW0R ratios based on body comp:

post wod fuel male:
above 12% - 40g prot/10g carb
8-12% - 40g prot/25g carb
below 8% - 40g prot/40g carb
post wod fuel - female:
above 16% - 30g prot/10g carb
12-14% - 30g prot/20g carb
below 12% - 30g prot/30g carb
eat a balanced PFC meal 60 min after post wod fuel for everyone (P=protein, F=fat, C=carb)

I'm not endorsing this of yet, but it is interesting: not sure where he is getting this from. For now I am still recommending Chocolate Milk PWO for recovery. Yes, that's right, guilt-free chocolate milk!

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When I first pitched the idea of a monthlong dietary experiment with the Zone Diet to my highly dubious wife, here was my basic angle:  "It'll just be thirty days.  We'll do it as strictly as we can and we'll completely blow it out on Halloween."  As it turns out, this is exactly what happened.  So how was it? 

Well, I can pretty safely say it was an unqualified success for both of us, well beyond anything we were expecting or hoping for.  Frankly, it has been astonishing to me.  The most noticeable change has been much higher energy levels, which has translated to much greater intensity in workouts, shorter rest requirements and far better times on the metcons (I knocked 2:30 off the Fran time I set in June).  This has come at no noticeable detriment to strength (Rebecca just matched or exceeded all of her previous strength PR's in this week's OT and CFT) or body composition (we both lost a couple pounds, but nothing dramatic).

There was a period of adjustment.  While I did ok with my 16 blocks, Rebecca started out too low with 11 blocks.  We were both feeling hungry a lot, but her hunger was more intense than mine: it affected her mood powerfully, and she was feeling underfueled in her workouts.  Bumping up a block and doubling her fat blocks fixed the problem right up, though, and her performance took off almost immediately.  The first couple weeks were also annoying with all the weighing and measuring, but (just as everyone said would happen), once we established a stable of recipes we really like that fit zone proportions, it got much easier.  And we've found some really delicious meals.

Halloween was interesting.  True to the original plan, we completely threw the diet out the window for the day.  We went to Rudy's for lunch and had french fries, french toast, and a shake.  We indulged in chocolate, candies, cookies and alcohol throughout the day and evening.  I had anticipated that I might pay a price for this indulgence, but just as I didn't appreciate how beneficial the Zone would be, I also did not appreciate how bad it would be to stop.  I felt awful.  My entire digestive system was in painful revolt, my head was thick and achey, my breathing felt shallow.  By the end of the day, I couldn't believe how eager I was to go to sleep so I could wake up and just eat some...oatmeal.  Lesson learned.

Looking forward, we are definitely staying on this path.  We still cook from our menu of zoned meals, and still come up with new ones.  Maybe with a bit less OCD about the weighing and measuring in the meals we cook, but we both have gotten pretty good about estimating and assembling zone meals of the right size in our heads, even when eating out.

And as always, the emphasis is on quality of ingredients.  Side story:  at some point last month, we went for a hike with my parents that we realized we were underprepared for - we only had a two-block snack of jerky, nuts and fruit in our packs for a full-day hike.  So we stopped off at a Whole Foods and picked up a couple Clif Builder bars, which (as it happens) are just about a perfectly-proportioned 3-block meal.  The trouble was, they didn't feel at all satisfying, compared to the jerky snacks - they just had too much sugar and other bad ingredients.  Another lesson learned.

So now Gita's happy, because the month is over and I'll finally shut up about the Zone after this post (no promises, man), but my final word is this:  try it.  Quit putting roadblocks and silly excuses in your way and just do the damn thing for a month.  Everyone's different, so I can't promise that it will work miracles for you, but I do know that the risk is so low and the potential gain is so great, that you'd be a fool not to at least give it a shot.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or need any help setting your diet up.

Man, I love breakfast.  I'd eat it all day if I thought I could get away with it.  I generally start looking forward to breakfast just after dinner the night before.  So imagine my relief when I discovered that breakfast is just about the easiest meal to make in zone proportions.  Here are two of our favorite quick-and-easy recipes we've spent the last few weeks honing to perfection.  Enjoy!

Four-block scrambled eggs, toast and fruit

3 eggs
1 oz grated cheese (monterey or colby)
2 slices sprouted flax bread from TJ's (15g carbs for two slices!)
1 apple (or any 2 blocks of fruit)
1.3 tsp butter

Scramble the eggs with the cheese in a little bit of butter, saving the rest of the butter for the toast.  Quarter and core the apple.

Three blocks of the best damn oatmeal, ever

Rebecca cannot get enough of this one.

3 blocks oatmeal (1/2c rolled or 1/4c steel cut), cooked with water
1/2c cottage cheese
1 slice bacon, fried crispy
1 tsp butter

Make the oatmeal per the instructions on the package.  Melt the butter into the hot oatmeal.  Chop the bacon into small bits and stir into the oatmeal with the cottage cheese.  Make little noises of appreciation and do a little happy dance in your chair.

If you want to make it four blocks, add a block of fruit, 1/4c cottage cheese or another slice of bacon and a little more butter (or cut back on the butter and use walnuts instead).

Skins: highly reccomended.

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Social Climbing at GWPC 6-9PM.

Come climb with the CFEB crew. If you don't know how this is a great opportunity to learn to top-rope: you don't need to own equipment, but there is a nominal fee for harness and shoe rental.

Post routes completed or attempted to comments.

So far, my dispatches from my Zone Diet experiment have been, I would say, quite positive.  I have observed good results in myself and others, and learned some valuable takeaways.  This week I want to touch on what I would consider the dark side of the Zone, and one of the main reasons I stayed away for so long:  it can be a mental trap.

I blame the numbers.  You've got blocks, grams, ounces and pounds, "activity levels," percentages of macronutrients and bodyfat, weighing, measuring, calculating - it gets very absorbing.  Annoying, at times, yes, but also very engrossing.  It is for this reason that I would never recommend the Zone to anyone with a history of eating disorders:  paying so much attention to the minutiae of what you eat and when you eat can veer alarmingly close to OCD at times.  It has a tendency to spin people off in the wrong direction.

A lot of folks have been coming up to me with math questions.  I find this pretty amusing, considering the relationship I've always had with math.  They want to know what their activity factor is, how many blocks I think they should be eating in light of their goals, etc.  I certainly don't mind the questions, and I'll answer to the best of my ability, but I want to be sure we always have our eyes on the REAL prize:  athletic performance.

The numbers you need to watch

You see, in my mind all these formulae, all this zoning, should just be tools to be used in furthering  athletic goals.  The best mantra I've learned in all of this is simply this:  Let your performance be your guide.  Because getting caught up in all the dietary stuff for the sake of body image is a chump's game with no way of winning.  Scales are unreliable, and bodyfat calculators even more so - and even if you have the "real" number, it's meaningless!  You could be in all the "right" places by those measurements and still be totally unhealthy, sickly or weak.

But if you focus on the numbers in your workouts, the body just takes care of itself.  Show me someone with a 2x bodyweight deadlift and a sub-six mile, and I'll show you someone who looks good naked.  And I don't care what your morphology is: if you can turn in a 300+ FGB and a Fran in under 5 minutes, you're hot.

So by all means, follow the Zone or whatever diet works best for you, but let your diet serve your body - and not the other way around.

This week's recipe:  the five-block salad

I don't do it as often as I did before the Zone, but I'm still Intermittent Fasting a couple days a week.  It's a lot trickier on the Zone, as it can be tough to fit 16 blocks into 8 hours, particularly around a work schedule.  I make this salad as my breakfast on Fridays, when I don't eat until around 1pm or so, and it's a great, very filling meal - I look forward to it every week.

Ingredients:

• Half a package TJ's organic baby spinach (about 3 cups)
• 1 can Tongol tuna (4.5oz)
• 0.5oz feta cheese
  
• 1 apple, diced
  
• 1 rib celery, sliced
  
• 1 green onion, sliced
  
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp salad dressing
• 2 blocks of fruit on the side

Lay down a bed of the spinach on a large plate, and sprinkle on salad dressing and feta.  In a separate bowl, combine tuna, mayonnaise, apple, celery and green onion.  Pile on top of the salad.  Enjoy!

So here we are, nearly two weeks in.  How are you doing with the diet?  Still waffling?  Just so you know:  waffles aren't part of a healthy zone diet.  How about those of you that have joined in?  From the conversations I've been having this week, it seems those who are doing it are seeing favorable results from their efforts, and some of the rockiness of the first week has evened out somewhat.

We had our first non-proportioned (ie, "cheat") meal at Alex & Rebecca's the other night - it was amazingly delicious (thanks again, guys), but as I was wolfing down my third helping of jambalaya, I was thinking to myself:  yeah, I'm not measuring it, but it's not that far off, really:  a sensible dose of protein and fat surrounded by a healthy variety of natural carbohydrates.  I mean, when the unhealthiest thing on your table is rice, you're in pretty damn good shape.

And that's the takeaway I'm developing so far with this month's little adventure:  balance.  I don't know if I'll keep weighing and measuring after October (I suspect I will, as I'm liking where this is going), but the diet so far has taught me nothing if not this:  carbohydrates can be a good thing, as long as you get most of them from fruits and vegetables and scale back your protein and fats accordingly.

It was a good week for me, workout-wise.  Yeah, the 115# thrusters on Wednesday were a disaster, but thrusters always are and I feel like I did really well on everything leading up to them.  Although my strength levels seem to be more or less the same, my mood and met-con performance have noticeably improved.  I feel like I made real strides in both double-unders and chest-to-bar pullups.  My weight has stayed pretty flat so far, but if I wanted to lose or gain, it would be a simple thing to just drop or add a block.  I've been sore, but not uncomfortably so.  One odd side effect seems to be an increased sensitivity to caffeine - Rebecca and I both had some unusual reactions to coffee recently.  I'm curious to see if this week brings anything new.

What about you?


Zone Recipe:  Butternut Squash Curry

Here's a tasty fall recipe that makes exactly 15 blocks - portion it out evenly and you've got five convenient 3-block meals.

• 15 oz meat of your choice (I used one of those Trader Joe's "Just Chicken" packs)
• 4 cups butternut squash (1 medium), either diced raw or pre-roasted and spooned out
  
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
  
• 2 large carrots, diced
  
• 1 parsnip, 9" or so, diced
  
• 1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• 2 tbsp Thai Kitchen red curry paste
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• Cilantro or parsley to garnish (optional)
  

You can really use any combination of squash, pumpkin, yams, parsnips, carrots or other winter root vegetables you want (I'd avoid potatoes), just consult the block charts to get to 14 blocks (the onion is the 15th).  This is just what I used this week.

Whisk the curry paste and coconut milk together and set aside.

In a fairly large saucepan, heat the oil and add the onions.  Saute over medium heat until the onions are soft.  Add the garlic and stir until just fragrant, then pour in the coconut milk and fish sauce.  Bring to a simmer, then add all the veggies and stir.  Cover the saucepan, turn the heat to low, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft but not mushy (unless you like 'em that way).  Add your pre-cooked meat and let simmer for a couple more minutes to heat, then remove from stove, portion out and serve!

OK, nearly a week into the October Zone challenge, Rebecca and I have learned an awful lot.  If you've joined us, I would love to hear your stories and any tips or tricks you may have picked up.  If you're sitting on the fence, I encourage you to try it:  it's really not as difficult as it sounds!  Here are some of my observations:

Performance.  I have not seen a noticeable performance increase, but it's only been a week.  What I have seen, and saw almost immediately, is a big jump in energy and attitude.  For months now, I've been fighting a tired feeling of dread at the start of workouts - I'd set out on the warmup run and immediately begin a mental argument that would go something like this:  "I feel crappy.  Maybe I'll take it easy today.  No, that's stupid:  I won't get any better if I don't push" etc., etc.  The Zone has cleared that feeling like a bad fog.  On my first day, I realized halfway through a two-mile run that I was actually enjoying myself, feeling fit and pushing my body to see what it could do.

The obvious answer for this is the increase in carbohydrates - my diet has typically been very low-carb (under 100g) modified paleo, and I suspect it was putting me in a state of permanent bonk.  Gita is no doubt laughing at me by now, but I have to concede that more-than-doubling my carbohydrates has indeed increased my supply of ready glycogen, which translates to more energy.  While that may not translate to better performance immediately, I can only think that it will allow me to attack workouts with greater intensity, and thereby reap a greater benefit.  I'd be curious to hear about this from somebody coming to the Zone from the other side (ie, a typical high-carb, low-fat diet).  I'm also very curious to see if gain, lose or stay even eating this way.

The weighing and measuring has been a bit of a pain, but quickly gets better as you get used to it.  We also tend to eat the same foods a lot, so you learn what's what and gravitate to those things that are easy (ie, TJ's makes some chicken sausages that are exactly 3 blocks of protein each).  We've also been making large meals in the proper proportions, then dividing them up into 3 and 4 block tupperwares for leftovers, which makes lunches really easy.

The carbs have been the trickiest part.  Four blocks of broccoli or raw spinach is an INSANE amount of food - far more than can be reasonably eaten in a sitting - so we've been seeking out the denser favorable carbs.  Thank goodness for yams and beans.  That there are people out there who do both Zone and strict Paleo boggles my mind:  they must spend two hours each day simply eating.

Anyway, there are some personal observations after a week.  Are you doing it to?  What have you discovered?  Still hesitating?  Come on in - the water's fine.

Here are a couple of the more successful recipes we've found this week:

Dinner: Sausage, Spinach & Sweet Potatoes (SUPER easy 3-block meal)

• TJ's Pesto or Andouille chicken sausages (3P blocks each)
• Bag of TJ's organic spinach (1C block)
  
• Half a 5-6" yam (2C block)
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
  
• Salt and pepper
  
• 0.5 Tbsp olive oil
• a little butter for the yam

I like to buy a few pounds of yams and roast them in the oven all at once (an hour at 350), then put them in the refrigerator and reheat individually as needed - I just think the texture is better this way.  But you can easily microwave them too:  puncture with a fork and put in microwave on high for 5 minutes, turning over halfway through.  Put a little pat of butter on it and mix with a fork.  Maybe sprinkle some pepper or some cinnamon on top.  Yum.

Cut the sausage(s) and saute in a large skillet in the olive oil until lightly browned.  Empty the bag of spinach over them, lower the heat to medium and cover for 2 minutes or until the spinach is soft and wilted.  Stir to mix.  Add crushed garlic and stir just until fragrant, and remove from heat.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with the yam.

Need 4 blocks?  Serve with a cup of cold milk.

Snack:  Cottage cheese and fruit (2 blocks)

• 1/2c cottage cheese
  
• 3/4c applesauce OR 2 diced peaches OR 5 dried apricots OR use your imagination
  
• 18 slivered almonds (if you don't feel like counting, just two small spoonfuls)
• sprinkle liberally with cinnamon

Just stir it all together in a bowl.  We love this, and have it just about every day.  Easily transportable.  Goes great with coffee.

Thanks to a particularly extreme workout on Wednesday, many of us have experienced a inordinate amount of discomfort this week.  Hell, it's MONDAY and I'm still having difficulty standing up.  I've already made a post about ways to combat DOMS, but there's one point in there I'd like to elaborate a bit more about.  You're not going to like it.  Sorry.

All that Naproxen (Aleve), Ibuprofen (Advil), Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and Aspirin you've been popping like M&M's?  They're bad for you, and I want you to avoid taking them if possible.

Those drugs are the most popular forms of NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs).  Which, according to Wikipedia, are:

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, usually abbreviated to NSAIDs or NAIDs, are drugs with analgesic, antipyretic (lowering an elevated body temperature and relieving pain without impairing consciousness) and, in higher doses, with anti-inflammatory effects (reducing inflammation).

Why are they bad for you?  Here's two major reasons:

Exhibit #1:  Dementia.

NSAIDs may increase your risk of dementia.  In a large-scale study of the elderly published in Neurology, scientists followed 2,736 people over 12 years.  Of the participants, those who regularly or heavily used NSAIDS were 66% more likely to develop dementia.  Granted, this was a study of the elderly, for whom Alzheimer's disease is a far more pressing threat than for the typical CrossFit athlete - but I need all the help I can get in keeping my brain sharp.

Exhibit #2:  They inhibit protein synthesis.

A study of 24 young, able-bodied men broke the group into three groups, one of which took the maximum dosage of Ibuprofen, another of Acetaminophen, and a third a placebo before performing heavy eccentric movements designed to induce muscle soreness.  Both the NSAID groups showed diminished protein synthesis afterwards compared to the placebo. 

Note that it said "diminished," not "none."  You can still gain muscle while taking pain pills, just not as much.  Which leads me to my ultimate point:

Moderation

Like with just about everything, occasional use of NSAIDs is fine - even beneficial in some cases.  It's just chronic use that can be problematic.  If you're in so much pain from DOMS that you cannot function normally in your life or job, then for God's sake take an Aleve.  Overdoing it, as many of us did this week, is an inevitable part of training and teaches valuable lessons.  Just save the big guns for the special occasions, and rely on the homebrew alternatives the rest of the time.

With the recent heat wave, I was feeling the urge for a special summer treat:  something cool and refreshing and, yes, sweet to battle the hot sun.  As you may know, Alex and I have embarked on a beer-brewing adventure together, but we won't see the results of that for a few weeks still.  I wanted something more immediate.  Ginger beer has long been a favorite of mine, but it wasn't until I discovered Reed's that I learned the pleasure of a strong ginger beer, as opposed to the extremely timid ginger "ale" that we mostly get here in America.  Even Reed's doesn't give the kick I crave, though, so I started looking around to see about mixing up a batch myself.

Ginger:  good for you

Ginger has been used medicinally for about as long as mankind has been around.  It's a mild stimulant with a unique and powerful flavor that has long been used to combat things like colic and dyspepsia.  It's frequently used to combat colds and flus, though there aren't any studies that support its effectiveness in this regard.  It IS, however, widely acknowledged as an effective cure for nausea and upset stomachs, whether caused by motion sickness, morning sickness, chemotherapy or just feeling yucky.  It has also been used historically as an anti-inflammatory, long used to combat arthritis (the studies to support this are mixed).

I can testify to the nausea bit.  I'm prone to motion sickness, particularly on boats or very curvy roads, and have used ginger supplementation to very good effect to fight this.  In fact, I have brewed up this very beverage as a prophylaxis against seasickness.  There are plenty of ways to supplement with ginger:  ground ginger in gelatine caplets, ginger tea, candied ginger or (my favorite): ginger beer.

The best tasting medicine I can make

I should warn you now:  this recipe contains sugar.  So if you and sugar have parted ways forever, you can just stop reading now, and feel free to cut loose with a smug little smile.  Go on, you've earned it.  For the rest of us, I'll borrow the wisdom of the great sage Cookie Monster and classify this as a "sometime food."  Proceed accordingly.

Ingredients you'll need:

• A gallon of water
• One or two large ginger roots (I like mine STRONG, so I use two big roots)
• A lemon
• 2 cups of sugar (I like a mixture of brown and white)
• 1/2 Tbsp bread yeast
• optional: 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar (balance the acidity)
• optional: 1/2 tsp Cayenne (pow!)

Equipment you'll need:

• A large pot
• A metal sieve or strainer
• A gallon jug (or a couple half-gallon jars)
  
• A funnel
• Several small plastic bottles with twist caps
  

I'm a huge fan of the egg.  It's a fantastically cheap source of high-quality, readily available protein, and it's extremely flexible in the kitchen - boiled, fried, scrambled, baked or mixed into a frittata, eggs have a place at every meal (and dessert!).

But stand in front of the egg section of your supermarket, and you're overwhelmed with an array of marketing buzzwords that may or may not mean anything - priced accordingly, of course.  So what do these terms mean, and which eggs should you spend your money on?

The Best Option

Well, the very BEST thing you could do would be to not buy your eggs at all.  Get some chickens, and put 'em to work!  This will ensure your eggs are of the highest quality, and come from happy hens (assuming you're not a jerk to your chicks).  I would totally do this, if I had a yard.

OK, OK, so you can't raise chickens.

I get it - not everyone has the time, space and interest to become a chicken farmer.  So that means you're stuck with the rest of us, back in front of that supermarket egg display.  Here's a primer:

• Nothing - no marketing terms at all.  Typically this means the hens are confined to cages too small to spread their wings or turn around.  Avoid if possible.
  
• "Organic" - this means the hens were fed organic feed (ie, food according to organic guidelines).  Also means they weren't fed rendered beef fat or - worse - other chickens, which is good (while chickens are omnivorous in that they just love them some bugs, they do not fare well on other animals, particularly other chickens).
• "Vegetarian" - on the surface, this is silly - chickens are great munchers of bugs, and are not vegetarians by nature.  However, since nobody PUTS bugs in chicken feed, this label is more likely to mean that there were no animal by-products in the chicken feed, which is good.  Still, I'd put more faith in "Organic."
• "Free Range" - this term is basically unregulated, and is essentially meaningless in practice.  All that is required is that the chickens have access to a door that allows them outside.  Since those who raise chickens don't OPEN this door until the chickens are at least 6 weeks old, there is no chicken brave/intelligent enough to actually go THROUGH the door to see what's outside (why would it?  food, water and flock are all inside), so it nearly always goes unused.  A prime example of what Michael Pollan calls "Supermarket Pastoral" style of marketing.
• "Cage Free" - hens are allowed to move about inside their shed, rather than confined to individual cages.  Generally better, but still not great:  in very poor conditions, the stress causes the birds to peck each other, and in order to prevent this the farmers will burn their beaks off.
• "Pastured" - if you can find it and you can afford it, get it.  This means the chickens were raised the way chickens are meant to live:  on fields, under the sun, eating bugs and grasses.  Sadly, this kind of egg is very difficult to track down.  But if you can get it, these eggs will be packed with Omega 3's and other nutrients, and much more flavorful than regular supermarket eggs.  Seriously, these eggs are much, much better for you.  If you frequent farmer's markets, they're often the best place to find pastured eggs.

Have any great egg recipes?  Share 'em in the comments!

This one started out as a 'kitchen-sink' dish - just throwing together whatever I could find in the kitchen.  It's an unlikely combination of ingredients, one I probably wouldn't think of outside of necessity, but it was so quick, easy, nutritious and tasty that it's become a near-weekly staple in our household.

I've used all sorts of different sausages.  Trader Joe's makes a wide variety of precooked chicken sausages, and we really like the pesto, andouille, jalapeno or smoked apple ones.  Vegetarians could use Tofurky or Field Roast brand veggie sausages, and I'm sure regular pork sausage would be good, too.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch fresh kale, chopped
  
• 4-5 sausages
  
• 1 can beans (can be black, kidney or cannelini)
  
• 2 oz chopped walnuts (~1/4 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
  
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• spices (salt, fresh pepper, red pepper flakes, italian seasoning - whatever works)

Preparation
In a large nonstick skillet with a lid, saute the sausage in a little oil (if necessary) until browned.  Add the crushed garlic for just a few seconds until you can smell it, then dump in the can of beans.  Stir to mix, then put all the chopped kale on top, turn down the heat to medium and cover.  Allow the steam from the beans' liquid to cook the kale for 2-3 minutes, until it appears soft and bright green.  Add a generous amount of olive oil, walnuts, parmesan and spices (I just use italian seasoning, salt and pepper).  Stir to combine, and you're done!

Makes 4 servings. Goes great with red wine or a tall glass of milk.

Nutritional Breakdown
(per serving)

620 calories
34g fat (47%)
36g carbs + 10g fiber (29%)
40g protein (24%)

The fat is easily adjusted by using less olive oil, cheese and walnuts. These can almost be omitted entirely, though of course flavor will suffer.

More than anything else (even chocolate), coffee is my vice.  Particularly now, having (temporarily) eschewed dairy, coffee is the one remaining food that I consume more of than I really probably should.  I love it so $#@*%# much.  I try to limit myself to only four shots a day (two in the morning, and two in the afternoon), but if I'm stressed out or an opportunity presents itself, I rarely turn down an opportunity for more.

Is it really all that bad?

When you talk about coffee and health, what you're really talking about is caffeine - which also includes tea (another favorite of mine), energy drinks and supplements (no.  just no.), and, in tiny doses, a handful of other foods.  As far as I can tell, the jury is still out on the health benefits/detriments of coffee and caffeine.  Depending on where you look and whom you ask, coffee is either a perfectly healthy dose of antioxidants (it does have quite a few) that can save you from Alzheimers, or it will give you heart attacks and raise your blood sugar levels.  Oh, and as far as exercise is concerned, it will reduce blood flow to the heart and/or lessen the pain, allowing you to push harder.  Every month or two someone posts a "Is coffee OK?" thread to the CrossFit nutrition forums, and it erupts into a war of opinions formed from some recent study or other.

So whatever.  Until someone comes up with something conclusive, you can pry my double americano from my cold, jittery, overcaffeinated hands.

How do you take yours?

One of the best gifts I have ever received was a fully automatic home espresso machine, given by my wonderful and understanding wife.  Push button: get espresso.  A logic both perfect in its simplicity and stunning in its effect.  For several years now, we've lived in a mild, darkly roasted buzz of contentment.

The machine is great, and we won't be giving it up anytime soon (we've already repaired it twice).  It does, however, have its drawbacks.  First of all, it's expensive to buy and, if it breaks, expensive to fix.  With all the moving gizmos and computerized whatnots it contains, there's a lot that can go wrong.

Drip coffee, the default choice of most Americans, is definitely a lot cheaper, and almost as easy to make.  The biggest downside is that, in comparison, it really doesn't taste very good.

Since we stopped dairy, we've been drinking our coffee black, and doing this has been eye-opening in more ways than one.  You see, cream does an excellent job of masking deficiencies in both bean and brew, so when you drink the pure stuff, you get more of the good as well as more of the bad.  And if it's bad, it's very very bad.  Cream also counters the acid that can dominate a hot-water brew--acid that is the primary motivator of that scrunchy-nosed wince you gave when I mentioned drinking black coffee.

Introducing cold-brew coffee

Even with the Italian wondermachine on our counter, we found that once our coffee cooled down a little, we would be grimacing at the bitter, acidic tang.  I had tried cold-brew coffee at Cafe Gratitude, and liked it, remembering something in their woo-woo menu  about how the cold-brew had less acid, so I let my fingers do the googling to see if it was doable at home.

Turns out it's really, really easy.  And soooooooo good.  Iced, hot or lukewarm, every sip is free from bitterness but full of flavor.  And it is powerful stuff, too!  I didn't know it was possible for me to feel the effects of caffeine anymore, but I made my first cup a bit too strong and spent the morning in a highly productive and somewhat bemused cloud.

You see, the extended brew time extracts about 90% of the flavor and caffeine elements, but only 10-15% of the oils and acids that make up the bite we associate with normal coffee.  It's the same drink in many ways, but remarkably different.  If you LIKE bitter coffee, you probably won't care much for cold-brew - it seems people either love it or are singularly unimpressed.  But if, like me, you love and accept coffee in ALL its glorious forms, then you should definitely give this a try.

Here's all you need to do to try it yourself.  Mix one part coffee (coarse grind) with four parts water in a container (I use one of those half-gallon glass jars with the flip-top lids).  Stir and let it sit overnight, in your refrigerator or on your counter.  10-12 hours is optimal, but anything over 5 hours will do.

In the morning, filter out the grounds.  I use an old french press I had sitting in a cupboard, but you could use a paper coffee filter or even a fine-mesh cheesecloth.

Be careful:  the resulting brew is concentrated coffee, too strong to drink as is.  You'll probably want to keep this in your fridge and dilute it again about 50% when you make your drink.  This stuff is awesome for iced coffee, as it's already cold so it won't melt your ice cubes.  Enjoy it with apple slices smothered with almond butter. 

Heaven.

Barry Sears's Zone Diet is - by default if nothing else - the official diet of CrossFit.  It is what they taught me at my certification, and it is by far the most popular eating plan of the most performance-oriented CrossFit athletes. Within that population, however, there exists an even more hardcore dietary philosophy, espoused by CrossFit gurus at the highest level and followed by the most dedicated of athletes.

While Zone may be the official diet plan of CrossFit, it only deals with proportions. There is in fact a higher commandment, handed down by Coach himself in one of his earliest Journal articles and posted at CrossFit.com - so ancient that he suggests you use "alta vista" for more information about it.  The commandment is this:

"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds,
some fruit, little starch and no sugar."

And that's it. As it happens, this is a perfect synopsis of the paleo diet.

What is Paleo?

It goes by many names.  Mark Sisson brands his version "The Primal Blueprint."  Art Devany calls it "Evolutionary Fitness."  But the source of paleo is usually attributed to one man:  Dr. Loren Cordain.  Regardless of the source, however, the core philosophy is the same:  humans evolved over millions of years to thrive on a specific diet of things that could be hunted and gathered.  Then, about 10,000 years ago - an evolutionary eyeblink - the invention of agriculture changed everything.  And as agriculture was refined and industrialized, it became an ever-increasing part of our diet, bringing with it an ever-increasing list of ever-increasing ailments: everything from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, all the way to bad teeth.

The paleo response to this is simple:  don't eat anything that paleolithic man would not have eaten.  You wind up with a menu essentially like the one quoted above.  It sounds pretty great, actually, until you get into the details of what you can't eat:  No grains, sure, but also no beans, potatoes, dairy, alcohol, caffeine, sugar... or salt?!

It's not that simple, really

A couple points that I feel need to be made here, right up front.  While I agree with the fundamental argument of paleo, in common practice I find it to be both naive and drastically oversimplified.  First of all, evolution didn't stop 10,000 years ago.  Yes, it's a tiny fraction of time compared to 2 or 7 million years, but we haven't exactly been sitting on our evolutionary asses all this time.  We've gotten much better at digesting and processing foods that would likely have killed our ancestors outright.  Secondly, as far as I can tell, all the dietary restrictions of paleo are built around a series of intolerances that are not consistently represented across the population - that is, foods that are a problem for some folks, but not others.

A more nuanced take on paleo, therefore, would suggest finding those things that YOU are intolerant of, and cutting back on just those things.  Much better, right?  So, what are the candidates?

The Intolerables

Grains
This is the big one, so lets start here.  You see, the trouble with grains is that they pack a double wallop of dietary disaster.  First of all, they provoke a much larger insulin response than they really should.  This is true of whole grains as well as processed ones, though the processed ones are definitely worse.  Second, grains contain a group of antinutrients called phytates and lectins (most specifically gluten) that, in some cases, cause a severe autoimmune response called Celiac Sprue.  Not everyone has a severe response, but everyone shows some degree of inflammation from consuming gluten.  And the hyperinsulinism and toxicity feed off each other, compounding the damage wreaked by each.  Personally, I find the evidence persuasive enough that I eat very little grains.

Sugar
We've covered this one.

Beans/Legumes
The argument here is that these require some degree of processing/cooking/blanching in order to become edible, and many of the toxins present in the raw plant remain.  It's basically the grain argument again, with the same cast of characters:  beans are high in phytates and lectins, antinutrients that can cause some folks a lot of damage.  The biggest bummer?  Peanuts and Cashews are legumes.

Dairy
I remember some authoritative and self-righteous vegan once telling me that humans are the only species that continues to consume milk after weaning, and the only one that consumes the milk of another species.  I don't know if that's actually true, but I can't think of any counterexamples off the top of my head.  Dairy and all of its many delicious, creamy byproducts are a result of animal domestication and agriculture, and therefore off the menu.  Plus:  lactose intolerance is a real thing, and not uncommon.

Nightshades
This one is so hardcore that it's controversial even within paleo.  Nightshades are a particular class of plant that includes potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers.  They contain a high concentration of alkaloids, which can impact nerve function and digestion.  Those who abstain say that they cause a kind of soreness/lethargy throughout the whole body.

Yipes!

Yeah, no kidding.  Cutting all that out would, in a word, suck.  Sure, you'd be safe from just about every autoimmune disease out there, but you'd also be a serious pain in the ass at dinner parties.  Better, in my opinion, to figure out which things really affect you and just limit those.  You don't even need to eliminate them completely - we're not talking anaphylactic shock as a consequence, here.  But at least you would know what digging into that ratatouille really means, so when you wake up aching the next day, you'll know why.  I hope it was worth it.

So how do you know?  Well, there's really only one way:  pick a thing, and stop eating it for a while.  See how you feel.  Measure your performance - does it go up or down noticeably after 2-3 weeks of rigorous abstention?  Reintroduce it, and see what happens.  If it's nothing, then yay!  You're all clear.  If you feel like a racehorse without it and a pile of horse crap after eating it, well:  sorry.  Now you have a story to tell at dinner parties when you have to explain why you're not eating whatever dish the hosts have lovingly prepared for you.  Jerk.

You see, if you've lived your whole life with a mild intolerance to a type of food, you likely don't even know it's there.  If you lived your whole life with a mild allergy to something in your environment, the constant mild aggravation to your system would just be background noise.  You'd be used to it.  Until you went on vacation somewhere else, and got a taste of life without those allergies - you'd suddenly feel phenomenal in comparison!  Same thing.*

Here we go...

So, in the interest of this personal experimentation, Rebecca and I have embarked on a journey of ridiculous difficulty:  30 days without dairy.  This was actually her idea - I swear!  At the end of which time, we shall down some cold, refreshing, achingly delicious organic milk, and pray that we don't feel a thing.

I am not a dietician.  CrossKitchen articles come from my personal experience, observations and research, and should not be construed as professional medical advice.

*Props to Byers for the metaphor.

We (ok, I) spend a lot of time decrying the evils of sugar, but sugar is not everyone's weak spot.  My wife Rebecca, if confronted with a plate of hot crispy french fries or a bowl of ice cream, would typically reach for the fries first.  Crazy, I know.

But is that really any better?  When we wince at chips and fries, it is not typically the salt that we're wincing at but the deadly mixture of fat and carbohydrates - the same as the ice cream, really.  How bad IS the salt?  Should we be concerned about it?  What's a healthy amount to eat?

It's definitely trickier to find this information in the fitness community than it is with sugar.  If we equate sugar consumption with hyperinsulinism and salt to hypertension, sugar kills far more people than salt.  But it's not really honest to lay the blame entirely at the door of one or the other - there are too many complicating factors to make a realistic cause -> effect dichotomy here.

What does it do?

The body requires some amount of sodium to function.  It maintains fluid balances, helps transmit nerve impulses, and influences muscle contraction and release.  Your kidneys are the gatekeepers, retaining sodium for when you're low and releasing excess sodium from the body via urine when you're topped up.  If you consume more salt than your kidneys can handle, then it stays in the blood and--since sodium attracts water--causes fluid retention and consequently high blood pressure.

But how bad is it, really?

Well, it ranges from pretty bad to quite bad, depending on your genes.  If you're salt sensitive (and they say about half of Americans are), your blood pressure can go up by as much as 10% after a salty meal.  Left untreated, chronic high blood pressure can lead to stroke, blindness, heart attack and kidney failure.  And for the rest of us, studies show that salt still has a measurable effect on blood pressure.

Should we be concerned about it?

You know what works great to bring your blood pressure down?  Exercise.  Not being obese (ie, not eating sugar).  Eating well.  If you're doing these things, your blood pressure should fall in line.  That doesn't mean you shouldn't keep an eye on it when you go in for your checkup - if you're eating great and exercising and your blood pressure is still higher than it should be, then your salt intake is probably the first place you'll want to look.  If you're over 50, black or have a family history of heart disease, then you should be particularly vigilant.

What's a healthy amount to eat?

The FDA recommends a daily intake of NO MORE than 2,300mg/day - roughly a teaspoon's worth.  But that's the outside level - their target is 1,400mg/day.  The average american consumes over 4,000mg/day, so you can see why they're worried.

But that average american is getting 75% of their sodium from processed foods, which tend to be extremely high in salt (have you ever looked at the ingredients for a can of cream of mushroom soup?)  So if you're following the prescription to EAT REAL FOOD, then you're hopefully not eating all that much salt anyway.

Like sugar, our addiction to salt is a learned behavior that we CAN break.  Gradually reducing the amount of salt you use will cause your taste buds to readjust and, if you were overly salt-dependent, reopen nuances of flavor that you may have lost.

How do you cut back?

If your blood pressure is worrisome, or you just suspect that you've been eating too much salt, there are some easy steps to take to cut back.

• Eat real food.  The less processed, the better.  For so many reasons.
• Cut back on condiments.  Ketchup, mustard, soy sauce and others have staggering amounts of sodium in them.
• Stop cooking with it.  Your food will taste bland at first, but then you'll readjust and stop missing it.
• Use more spices. If your tongue is busy with all those flavors, it won't be missing the salt.
• Be careful with salt substitutes - these typically work by having a little salt and some other stuff to add flavor, but the danger is that people will just use MORE substitute, winding up with the same amount of salt as before, and a bunch of other crap to boot.
• Watch what you buy.  Cured meats and brined olives contain a ton of salt.  And don't get the regular chicken stock when the low-sodium variety is right there next to it.

Rubbing it in

Salt IS associated with high blood pressure, which does cause all sorts of nasty problems.  As far as I'm aware, however, that is the only problem with it, and as such it's relatively easy to monitor.  My advice is to be aware of it, keep an eye on your blood pressure, and work on keeping your salt consumption in moderation (as with all things).

At CFEB, we work hard.  Which is great, but it can have an immediate downside if certain precautions aren't taken.  To illustrate this point, after one particularly stuffy and sweaty session in the yoga room at Ironworks, my brutally honest wife and her oh-so-expressively crinkled nose informed me of a hard truth:  I stank.

Now, nobody enjoys being stinky (except maybe my parents' dog).  So I endeavored to remedy the problem with some good new-fashioned research on the internet:  what is body odor?  and how do you fix it?

It's a delicate subject, so I'll be both vague and blunt:  you've probably been a bit ripe yourself at some point or other, particularly when the weather is warm and the quarters close.  Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, so here's a bit o' beta on keeping the funk firmly where it belongs:  on your iPod.

First, a bit of biology

We all know the cause of body odor is sweat, right?  Well, not directly.  You see, there are two types of sweat glands on the body - eccrine, which are everywhere, sweat out an odorless mixture of water and salt.  Apocrine glands, however, are located in areas dense in hair follicles (underarm/groin), combine some fatty acids with their salt and water, and it is the bacteria that feed upon and break down the fatty sweat that cause the odor.  Yummy, I know.  So controlling body odor is more about battling bacteria than it is about stopping sweat.

Knowing is half the battle

The other half is doing something about it.

• Use deodorant.  Might as well start with the most obvious one.  Most deodorants contain alcohol that turns the surface of your skin more acidic, making it less hospitable to bacteria.  Personally, I hate the smell of perfumed deodorants (since when does "fresh rain" smell like a hungarian bath house?), so I opt for the unscented variety.  I like Mitchum brand, but have heard good things about Trader Joe's brand.  If it irritates your skin, try baking soda or talcum powder, or use an antibacterial soap when you shower.
  
• Skip the anti-perspirant, though.  These work by using aluminum compounds to temporarily block your pores, eliminating your ability to sweat.  This just doesn't seem like a good idea to me - fighting bacterial freeloaders is one thing, but disrupting your body's natural processes can have unintended effects, as can smearing metal compounds all over your skin.  Also:  it wrecks your clothes.
  
• Workout in natural fabrics.  Synthetics like polyester and rayon can turn a mild "phew" into a full-blown "gah!," but cotton sucks to workout in.  The solution?  Merino wool.  It's a bit pricier, but its natural wicking and anti-bacterial properties make it something of a wonder fabric - you can wear it for days on end and then ride a crowded subway car without attracting a single dirty look.  It even comes in ultralight weights suitable for summer.  Gita and Ynez, our fashionistas-in-residence, recommend brand-names Icebreaker and Patagonia, but you can also find nice stuff by Backcountry and Smartwool.  The Backcountry outlet is a great place to pick some up for less, or keep an eye on CFEB's favorite super-discounter, Steep and Cheap.
• Cut your hair, hippy.  OK fellas, I know that some consider the idea of trimming anywhere below the neck tantamount to wearing ultra-short cutoffs with a rainbow flag patch on the ass (not that there's anything wrong with that), but it's time to embrace your inner metrosexual.  Ever wonder why guys tend to smell so much more than ladies?  All that hair under your arms and *ahem* elsewhere provides an ideal breeding ground for the odiferous little bacteria.  Companies like Gillette and Norelco are hopping on the bandwagon with products specifically (and sometimes hilariously) targeted for men, so you're running out of excuses:  it's time to man up and trim down.  You don't need to go bare skin if you don't want to, but please:  if you can braid it, trim it.
  
• Watch what you eat.  It wouldn't be a CrossKitchen article if I didn't lecture you about food, would it?  What you eat can have a definite effect on how you smell.  Both vegetarians and those who consume large quantities of meat tend to be stinkier than those with a more balanced diet.  Onions, garlic, curry, spicy food, coffee and alcohol are also prime culprits to be consumed in smaller quantities if you're a repeat olfactory offender.

I'm assuming here that I don't need to tell you the really obvious stuff (like "shower daily" and "wash your workout clothes between uses").  If I do, then you're probably beyond my help (in many ways).  But armed with these tips, even the muskiest malefactor can finish a long metcon smelling like a rose.  It has definitely helped me, if my wife's crinkled nose is any indicator.

I like telling people that I'm fasting.  The blank, quizzical stares that meet this statement are always amusing.  I mean, who fasts?  The very idea calls up images of Ghandi, political protests religious self-abnegation or radical dietary desperation.  Clearly I'm not a monk or a radical, so what the hell am I doing not eating?

Intermittent Fasting (or "Intermittent Feeding," as some are now trying to re-brand it) is nowhere near as extreme as it sounds at first, and has some solid reasoning behind it.  It isn't a diet in the traditional sense, as it makes no effort to tell you WHAT to eat, or how much to eat - simply WHEN.  Lots of folks try to overthink it, but it really boils down to one simple rule:  Eat.  Don't eat for a while.  Eat.

How long is "a while?"  Well, that's up to you.  Probably at least 16 hours, and probably not more than 24.  A couple times a week, at least, but not more than five days.  The exact timing is really a matter of personal preference and your own schedule and needs, but there is a method behind this madness of minimums and maximums.

The biggest question:  Why?

So why would you do this to yourself?  Well, it turns out some pretty interesting and beneficial things happen to your body when you stop eating for a while.  Well, the definitive source on the matter is a long article by Scott Kustes called "What Happens to Your Body When you Fast?"  It's certainly worth reading in its entirety, but I'll paraphrase some key bullet points here.

• Lipolysis.  Everyone loves burning fat, right?  Well, depending on your activity level, you'll typically burn through your body's glycogen stores in 16-18 hours.  When your body has no more glycogen to burn, it turns to gluconeogenesis (converting proteins to glycogen) and lipolysis (releasing bodyfat stores) for energy.  In other words:  you burn fat.
• Hormone manipulation.  With blood sugar at baseline, the body has no need of insulin, so those levels are minimal and insulin sensitivity is improved.  ACTH, epinephrine and glucagon (which aid in stimulating lipolysis and muscle growth) go up.  Cortisol goes up, too, but not enough to really worry about. BHB (Beta-hydroxy butyrate) -  a ketone shown to be beneficial against Parkinson's and Alzheimers, insulin resistance and free radical damage - goes up, as does hGH (Human Growth Hormone), which is primarily responsible for tissue repair and hypertrophy.
  
• Reduced inflammation.  A study of muslims fasting during Ramadan showed "significantly low" levels of IL-6, CRP and homocysteine (all markers of inflammation) during fasting, despite the inflammatory counter-effect of reduced sleep.
• Longevity and healing.  Most of the studies here are on rats and mice, since IF is still a fairly new concept to science, but the upshot is that by forcing the body to look elsewhere than the gut for energy, you encourage cellular repair - a cell will turn to its own damaged or older proteins for energy.  Not good in the long run, obviously, but when you eat again the cell will be able to use the new resources to replace the older one it consumed.  At a macro level, that leads to higher resistance to Cancer, Heart Disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and simple old age.
• Faster recovery.  As I've had it explained to me, "energy not spent on digestion can be spent on healing."  I don't know that the body's extremely complex systems and resources can be reduced to a zero-sum game, but it does make a certain amount of sense and is born out (anecdotally, at least) in practice.
• Inefficiency.  Routine is the enemy of training. The body adapts extremely well to routine, which is why we are constantly throwing new things at it in CrossFit - by keeping on our toes and always mixing it up, we provoke the greatest response in our bodies.  The same goes for diet.
  

Not too much, though

IF, like training, is a measured stimulus intended to provoke a beneficial response.  A little damage is a good thing, as it leads to supercompensation.  But, like training, you can push the stimulus too far and do more damage than you intended.  Which is why it isn't really recommended that you fast for more than 24 hours, or why you shouldn't fast every day.  By all means, mix it up - keep your body on its toes! - but know that you are, in effect, hacking your body's natural processes and that can have unintended consequences.  (Having attempted a 24-hour fast, though, I'm not really too concerned about anyone overdoing this one.)

How do I do this?

The how is up to you, but here are a couple places to start:

• Stop eating at 8pm.  Don't eat again until noon the next day.  There's 16 hours.  Try it twice a week to start, and up it to 4 days or so as you get comfortable with it.
• Have a nice big early dinner at, say, 6pm.  Then don't eat again until dinner the next day.  I wouldn't do this more than twice a week, and I'd pick a busy day with a lot of distractions - nothing stimulates hunger like boredom.
• Remember, you're supposed to eat as many calories as your current dietary needs dictate in the eating window.  IF makes caloric restriction easier, but it doesn't have to be about weight loss.  I've gained and lost weight fasting.
• As always, quality matters.  IFOC (Intermittent Fasting on Crap) will not yield the results that a diet of real, whole food.  All that energy you're diverting from digestion will instead by spent by the body on filtering, processing, and generally just trying to figure out what the hell to do with the crap you've given it.
  

Can I eat <blank>?

No.  Fasting means not eating.  No juice, no milk, no pills filled with oil, no significant calories.  Black coffee or tea is acceptable, as is lemon in water (I hear that eases hunger pains).

My own experience

I found a noticeable performance increase when I started fasting, as well as improved recovery.  When I started doing it I was interested in weight loss, and after years of trying I was finally able to get under 10% bodyfat.  I've just finished a strength cycle where I ate insane amounts of food while doing IF, and gained a good amount of muscle with only a bit of extra fat.  (Now I get to ride the caloric restriction train again!)

I have never seen fat disappear as quickly as I did with the following protocol:

• While still in a fasted state, do a brief HIIT (High-intensity Interval Training) workout.  This can be Sprint-8 (running or rowing), or just 50 burpees in hard sets of 10.  Something to spike your heart rate a few times.  This will burn through any glycogen you have remaining in your muscles after sleeping, and stimulate your body to release some fat into the bloodstream for energy.
  
• Follow this up with about thirty minutes of easy cardio - something about 60% your max heart rate, so just light jogging or some biking.  Nothing too rough - all you're doing now is burning up the fat your body released.
• By now your body will be struggling to keep up with your energy demands.  The longer you can wait until you eat, the more you'll burn, but be careful - you can bonk pretty hard.
• Do this 2-3 times a week.
  

The protein bar.  Second only to the shake in the bodybuilder's arsenal, there's quite a lucrative industry out there of bars promising to pump you up with their proprietary blend of whey, amino acids, and crunchy bits in a chocolate coating.  I have eaten my fair share of them.  Some of them are darn tasty.  Most of them are full of horrible crap.  All of them contain sugar, or a sugar substitute, and typically a slate of unpronounceable ingredients.  And at $2 apiece, they can really add up.

(If you have to buy a protein bar, I recommend the Clif Builder Bars.  Their ingredients are not as terrible as others (ie, no aspartame at least), and they're actually in perfect zone proportions.  But do not be fooled:  they are not real food, and eating them comes at a nutritional cost.)

After doing some research, I started making my own bars.  With a protein blend from Trueprotein.com, I can get a quality mixture of whey and casein protein without all the artificial sweeteners and crap that clog up store-bought mixes, and use that as the basis for my own bars. 

My first attempts were very tasty, and I still make them from time to time.  They're really good freshly-made, but tend to lose flavor and texture over time, and are annoying in that they have to stay refrigerated or else they get greasy, so they aren't great for bringing to work.

So a while back I set out to figure out a baked protein bar recipe, something a bit more transportable, and came up with the following recipe.  I don't like things super sweet, so these tend to have more of a scone-like texture and flavor, but I think they go great with coffee (even better with some peanut butter slathered on top), and are easy to make in batches that last about ten days.



Ingredients

• 2 cups unflavored protein powder
• 1/4c almond meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• optional: 4 packets stevia (or 1/4c honey or sugar)
• 1/4c butter
• 1/4c almond butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3/4c milk
• 2/3c toasted nuts (I like almonds and walnuts)
• 1/3c dried fruit (I like chopped apricots or cranberries)
  

Preheat the oven to 350, and grease a 9x9 baking dish.



Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  In a separate bowl, melt the butter and almond butter together in the microwave, then whisk in the eggs, vanilla and milk.



Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and stir until just combined.  Add the nuts and fruit and stir.  Scrape the mixture into the 9x9 baking dish.  It should have a thick, wet texture like brownie batter.







Bake for about 13 minutes.  They will look nowhere near done at this point - just a light-brown slab.  Turn on the broiler, and broil for a couple minutes until the top is lightly browned (be careful not to go too long!).  What you're shooting for is a nice firm top, but the inside to still be somewhat moist.  Bake for too long and they get... brickish.



Remove from oven and cool a bit before cutting into bars.  Makes 12 bars.

OK, it's only tangentially related to nutrition, but I can't think of anything more timely than a post collating all the wisdom I can find related to preventing, understanding and treating Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).

Even if you aren't participating in the affiliate cup training, if you've been coming to regular classes you have probably noticed an increase in our intensity and volume this week.  And your shoulders, back, thighs, glutes and everything else are probably reminding you of it every time you try to get out of your chair.  Welcome to DOMS.

What is it, how is it caused and should I care?
Surprisingly, we still don't know exactly what DOMS is.  But the most commonly-accepted explanation is that heavy training results in micro-trauma (ie, tiny tears) to muscle fiber.  Just as with any trauma, the body's response is inflammation as it sends in the troops for repair, and the pain we feel is due to the inflammation interfering with normal muscle operation.

DOMS is caused by exertion beyond a muscle's normal capacity, but it is made far worse by exercises that involve 1) a lot of repetitions with 2) a heavy eccentric movement.  (Eccentric movement is any movement that lengthens the muscle against resistance - ie, lowering slowly from a pullup).  At its most extreme, muscle strain can result in rhabdomyolysis (aka rhabdo), in which damaged muscle tissue leaks into the bloodstream, causing kidney failure.  Rhabdo is rare, and typically occurs with people who are fit but untrained doing a large number of movements that feel easy but incorporate a heavy eccentric movement (jumping pullups, glute-ham situps and jumping squats are the usual culprits).

Rhabdo is serious - potentially fatal - but regular DOMS is just part of working out.  Indeed, many of us feel that if we aren't sore, we haven't been working hard enough.  However, applying several layers of microtrauma to the same muscles (ie, working out sore) can lead to overreaching and eventually injury, so it is in our best interests to try and stay ahead of the curve and diminish the soreness as much as we can before it adds up to incapacitation.  Not just for training purposes, but also for our daily existence - I find the ability to stand up and walk around greatly enriches my quality of life.

What can I do?
There is no magic bullet to prevent or cure DOMS.  But there are many small things we can do before, during and after workouts to mitigate its effects. 

PRE-WORKOUT

• Dynamic stretching.  I would save the static stretches for afterwards, but preparing your muscles for activity with some quick dynamic stretching will help prevent damage. 
  
• Warm-up.  This one's obvious:  don't workout cold.
• Elevate your legs.  If you spend all day standing or sitting, your legs can get swollen.  Spending a few minutes with your legs up can help balance your circulation.

DURING WORKOUT

• Keep moving between sets.  If it's a strength workout, don't sit down and rest between sets - simply walking around will help keep the blood moving.
• Don't work the same muscles back-to-back.  When you're not in charge of programming, you don't have a lot of control over this, and sometimes CrossFit might demand that you hammer the same muscle groups in consecutive workouts.  But when you DO have control, try to let the damaged muscles recover while you focus elsewhere. 
  
• Recovery workouts.  Taking a workout at half-weight can help you recover faster than just waiting it out - the elevated heartrate and light activity promotes circulation to damaged muscles, clearing out waste products and bringing fresh blood to the muscles.
• Be careful about which movements you do.  Be judicious with the "rhabdo movements" listed above, as well as anything else that involves a high number of reps of eccentric movements.
  

POST WORKOUT

• Eat a LOT of Quality Food.  Your body is in dire need of all the building blocks that food provides us, so feed it.  Brandon's method of "fighting overtraining a pound of meat at a time" is good advice.  If you're doing the affiliate cup training, do not be shy:  get in there and EAT, dammit!  Like it's your job.  But make sure it's good quality food: every time you put crap in your body, you're making more work for it to no benefit.  So keep the drinking to a minimum (a little red wine is OK), avoid processed foods, sugars, any ingredients with chemical-sounding names, bad fats, and factory-farmed meats.  Stick with lots of organic fruits and vegetables, good fats, eggs, quality meats, nuts and dairy (if you tolerate it well).  I will leave the grains decision up to your own conscience and experience.
  
• Sleep.  This is where the majority of repair happens, so don't sell yourself short.  Eight hours minimum, nine if you're doing the affiliate cup training.  As dark a room as you can manage.  And try to be asleep by ten.
  
• Fish Oil. A natural anti-inflammatory agent, fish oil ups your Omega-3-to-Omega-6 ratio, which is beneficial for keeping your cell receptors open for nutrient transfer.
  
• PWO nutrition.  Remember?  Reports from the field indicate that people are noticing diminished soreness when they have a good post-workout drink.
  
• Contrast showers.  OK, I know this sounds horrible.  And it is kind of horrible.  But I've started playing with contrast showers this week, and they do seem to help.  Here's the deal:  preferably post-workout (but anytime is OK), take your usual hot shower and do your usual hot shower stuff.  Then, gradually turn down the hot until the water is as cold as you can tolerate for about a minute.  Be sure to hit your body's core as well as any sore muscles.  Then go back to hot for 3-5 minutes.  Do this cycle 2-3 times, and end on cold.  Then towel off vigorously.  This helps alleviate pain by either promoting circulation (their theory), or by distracting you from the pain in your muscles with agonizing cold (my theory).  Whatever, it helps.
  
• Epsom salts.  If you're not brave enough for the shower, toss some epsom salts into a hot bath.  They say it helps sore muscles, but I've never noticed a difference.  But then, I don't fit into my bathtub.  You can pick them up at Walgreen's or any pharmacy.  And you can even dye them and make them stinky, if you're into that sort of thing.
  
• Cool-down.  As a group, we're not very good about this, and we should try to be better.  After a very hard workout, don't just collapse - or at least collapse only as long as necessary to breathe again.  But get back up and walk around, and do some light movement (some squats, a little jog, the mobility exercises) to keep the blood flowing while your heart rate goes back to normal.  Now, while your muscles are warm, is also a good time to work on improving your ROM with some gentle static stretches.  In a sauna or a hot-tub is a good idea, to keep the muscles warm while stretching.
• RICE it.  Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation, particular if you've got a strain or other acute pain.
  
• Eliminate stressors where possible.  Exercise is managed stress, induced so that we can recover from it and be stronger.  But additional stressors distract the body from its job of rebuilding the muscles, so try to keep anxiety and stress at bay where you can.
• Massage.  A good massage goes a long way to alleviating soreness.  If you can afford it, go for it.  If you have a good masseuse or massage parlor that you can recommend, share.

THE THING I HESITATE TO TELL YOU...
...but you probably already know.  NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) such as Aspirin, Ibuprofen and Naproxen (Aleve) are highly effective in reducing the pain associate with DOMS.  Aspirin, which thins the blood and promotes circulation, can be useful before a difficult workout by assisting with oxygen transport and lactic acid removal to and from the muscles.

HOWEVER.  There are two reasons I can't recommend taking these medications, and that I rarely take them myself.  1) Exercising while under the effect of a painkiller could allow you to push further than is safe for your body, resulting in injury, and 2) Studies show that NSAIDs inhibit protein synthesis (ie, muscle growth). In other words: if you're taking a painkiller, you're not reaping the full benefit from your workout.

For these reasons, I will only take an NSAID if I am so sore that I feel it will prevent me from basic functions (like doing my job).  Thus far, this has only happened two or three times in over a year of CrossFitting.

To Sum Up
Much of the advice I've written here has been covered in earlier posts - it just so happens that the things that are beneficial are beneficial for a wide variety of reasons.  All the more reason to do them, right?  I hope you're recovering nicely on your rest days, so you can come back stronger and feistier than ever on Wednesday.  If you have any advice on alleviating DOMS that I didn't cover here, please share in the comments.

I am not a dietician.  CrossKitchen articles come from my personal experience, observations and research, and should not be construed as professional medical advice.

Ingredients:
Protein: Chicken, turkey, beef, pork or tofu - whatever floats your boat. About 20 oz or so, however you like it. If you go the tofu route, I like Trader Joe's High-protein extra firm - it doesn't fall apart, which is key.  

Curry

• One can of coconut milk (full fat preferred)
  
• A cup of broth
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (preferred) or soy sauce
• 1-2 tbsp Thai Kitchen Red or Green Curry Paste, or a couple spoonfuls of yellow curry powder
• 1/2-3/4 cup peanut butter (optional - I combine this with the red curry)
• A few leaves of fresh basil, if you have it, or 1 tbsp dried basil if you don't
• A teaspoon or two of brown sugar (optional, but worth it)

Veggies

• One onion, finely sliced
• I always use a bag of TJ's broccoli, to which I may add some combination of the following:
• A head of cauliflower
• Baby carrots
• A bag of spinach
• Half a bag of frozen peas
• Zucchini or squash
• Kale, cubed yams, green beans, eggplant... just about anything will work.  I use as much as will fill my saucepan without overflowing.
  

Preparation

• Cook the protein separately in a skillet until it is done (for tofu, I cube it and fry until brown)
  
• In a separate, large saucepan, saute the onions (and maybe some garlic) in oil over medium heat until translucent.
• Whisk together the curry ingredients separately (except peanut butter) and add to the onions. If using peanut butter, add it now so the heat will help soften it and mix it in.
• Once the curry sauce is simmering, add the broccoli and any other veggies (except peas). Stir to coat, then cover and let steam a few minutes until the vegetables are tender.
• Add the protein and stir to combine. When almost ready, add the frozen peas and let the heat thaw them.
• Spoon into bowls and top with salted cashews, if you've got 'em.

Makes approximately 6 large servings.

I don't eat much rice, so I just eat this as is - it has a very high stuff-to-curry ratio, so this isn't as soupy as the curries you get in the restaurants tend to be, and the cornstarch thickens it to form a nice coating.  The intensity of the flavor depends mostly on how much curry paste you use, so I recommend simmering the curry before you put in the vegetables and gradually add paste until it gets at a level of intensity that you're comfortable with.  Or, you could do what I do and just glop a couple spoonfuls in and hope it works out.

Bon Appetit!

Polly grinding out 22 OHS mid-WOD on Day 2 of the 2009 Norcal Qualifier

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No Dilemma Here: Read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

I must confess, I'm not much of a nonfiction kind of guy.  As a student of literature and then theatre, I always found more truth in the imaginary stories than in the real ones.  Every now and then, though, I go fishing in the writings of the real world, and occasionally get a bite of something extraordinary.  The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, is such a book.  I think it's fair to say that this book has changed not just the way I think about food, but the way I think about my place in, and interaction with, the world around me.

It's not a very new book (2006), nor very obscure.  It's been recommended to me many times, most often by meat-eaters looking to convert me from my (former) vegetarianism.  I must confess, it was for this reason that it took so long for me to actually sit down and read it - I felt defensive enough about my choices without actively seeking out arguments against them.  I needn't have worried - the book is far from a meat-eater's manifesto, and I would have enjoyed it just as much in my veggie days.

In the book, Pollan sets out to trace the ultimate source of four meals, all the way back to their (literal) roots:  a McDonald's meal, a purely organic dinner from Whole Foods, a meal made from the resources of Polyface farm in New Hampshire, and a meal obtained entirely by hunting and gathering.  For everything we eat comes from somewhere, but most of us have only the vaguest idea of where that actually is, or what we're actually eating:  "[E]ven the deathless Twinkie is constructed out of... well, precisely what I don't know offhand, but ultimately some sort of formerly living creature, i.e., a species. We haven't yet begun to synthesize our foods from petroleum, at least not directly."

In each meal, Pollan delves deep into the history of where that food comes from, and it never failed to bring astonished gasps of delight to my lips. Even if what he finds is horrifying, it's still fascinating. His recounting of the history of America's relationship to corn (and where we've wound up because of it), for example, causes me to shake my head in disbelief every time I consider it, but he manages to paint this picture without judging the portraits he paints, which saves the book from feeling shrill. It's not all horror, though - although I found the section on organic production to be somewhat disheartening, the section on sustainable farming techniques (such as those used at Polyface) is a total delight, and did much to restore my hope in a decent future.

It's not all perfection, of course. Pollan relies on the same rhetorical structures for his arguments a bit too frequently, and he's prone to shoring up his case in some of the grayer areas with philosophy, rather than science - although he usually admits to it when he does so. His brief chapter on analyzing the reasons for and against vegetarianism is interesting and well-written, but is more of a quest for a justification to eat meat than a truly balanced analysis (he basically cops out of that one).

Overall, however, it is the most cogent, eye-opening book I've ever read about food (admittedly a small subgenre in my experience), and one of the most interesting works of nonfiction I've experienced. I highly recommend it to everyone, but particularly those who want a deeper understanding of their relationship to the larger world around them - eating is such a primal instinct that it forms the foundation of a great portion of our civilization, and when you know what you're eating, you have a much clearer idea of where (and who) you are. Read it!

As a breed, I've noticed that CrossFitters have trouble with moderation.  I expect it's just another manifestation of the same attraction to extremity that brought us to the sport in the first place.  Regardless of the reasoning, it tends to lead all of us to the same mental trap sooner or later:  the "more is better" trap.

You know how it goes.  That little voice that pipes up and whispers in your ear, "hey, if one workout a day is good, then two would be even better!"  Or, "if dropping 500 calories a day from my meal plan loses a pound a week, why don't I just drop 1000 calories a day so I can lose weight twice as fast?"  And so on.  Humorous slogans notwithstanding, we tend to have an extremely high tolerance for discomfort, allowing us to push ourselves ever further in pursuit of our goals.  You think you're so smart.  Well, say hello to the check to your unbalance.

Cortisol, the stress hormone.

Although Insulin gets all the bad press, cortisol is a major player in your fitness, and is well worth your attention.  Like just about everything, it does great stuff in moderation, but too much will hurt you.

What does it do?

Cortisol is released by the adrenal glands, and is responsible for a number of general-housekeeping duties in the body (glucose metabolism, blood pressure, insulin release, immune system, etc), but these are not the things that make it famous.  It got its reputation as "the stress hormone" due to its elevated levels during moments of high stress, when the body goes into "fight or flight" mode, causing:

• A quick burst of energy
  
• Heightened memory functions
• A burst of increased immunity
• Lower sensitivity to pain

All good things.  You know what else acts a stimulus for cortisol release?  Exercise.  However, if the body doesn't go back into relaxation mode for too long, or if cortisol is released too frequently, then the body reaches a state of chronic stress.  This is where things get ugly.

• Impaired cognitive performance.  It actually makes you stupid.
• Lowered immunity and inflammatory response.  Meaning you're much more likely to get sick or to have a wound/injury that takes much longer to heal than it should.
• Decreased bone density and muscle tissue.  So now you're stupid, sick AND weak.
• Make that stupid, sick, weak and chubby.  Turns out that cortisol increases abdominal fat (particularly fat around the umbilicus).  Yes, it is possible for exercise to make you fat.  Have you ever known any chronic cardiofanatics who somehow keep a little bit of belly despite hours and hours slogging away at the bike/treadmill/elliptical?  Bingo.
  

Excess cortisol is your body's way of telling you to slow the **** down.  Remember:  "Plan your rests or nature will provide them for you."

So what can I do?

All is not lost, exercise fans.  With proper care and attention, you can beat the crap out of yourself in the gym an awful lot and still keep chronic stress at bay.  Here are some tips:

• REST.  Numero uno primo importante.  This can take a number of forms.
  
• Sleep.  Eight hours is the MINIMUM.  If you're knocking out two-a-days or training particularly hard, kick that up to nine and a nap.  If you have trouble sleeping, try to get your room as dark as possible (blackout shades or a facemask), try a white noise machine and supplement with Zinc/Magnesium just before bed.  Going to bed earlier (before 10) is better than later.
  
• Plan rest periods.  Half-volume weeks every now and then are a fantastic way of taking a break and letting your body perform minor repairs without totally losing your training.  The most common recommendation I see is 3 weeks on, 1 week half, 3 weeks on, 1 week OFF, but you can experiment to see what works for you.
• Meditate.  This does not necessarily mean chanting mantras in a dark hall thick with incense (though that works, too).  Basically, I mean just sitting and breathing and being still.  My favorite technique involves some grass, a tree, a sunny day and a cool drink.
• Light activity.  Sometimes called "lifestyle exercise," this is mostly just a form of moving meditation.  Borrow a dog and walk it.  Ride Inspiration Point in Tilden.  Grab a friend and head out to Point Reyes for the day.  Play frisbee.  Just play.
  
• EAT.  In the immortal wisdom of Gita:  "There is no such thing as overtraining, just undereating."  Food - QUALITY food - provides your body with the building blocks it needs to repair itself.  The more you're working, the more you should be eating to support that work.  Don't be shy.  If you're dieting with caloric restriction, then you are necessarily walking a thin line between healthy and overtrained, and it becomes critical that your food is of the highest quality.
• Keep your exercise BRIEF and INTENSE.  The body begins serious cortisol production at about half an hour into a workout, but it doesn't really outweigh the benefits until you approach an hour.  Over an hour and you're just damaging yourself.  Twenty minutes is the sweet spot (this is the reason many CrossFit metcons are aimed squarely at tweny minutes in length).  If you want to run or bike, that's fine, but train hard sprints or intervals.  (Note:  If you're specifically training for endurance, then necessarily you'll have to violate this rule.  Just be careful.)
• Avoid other sources of stress.  Exercise isn't the only source of cortisol production.  If you have a job, class or relationship that's stressing you out, recognize that and take what steps you can to counter the anxiety and achieve more balance.
• Get busy.  Orgasms are a great way to reduce stress.
• Make sure you're getting your C.  Vitamin C is shown to help reduce cortisol.  It's probably in your daily multi, but check the label.

Basically, it all boils down to supporting your body's recovery.  The harder you're working, the more diligently you need to help your body repair itself with quality rest and nutrition.  Nobody is superman - if you try to CrossFit at a high volume with too little sleep and food, you will quickly find yourself on your ass.  If you recognize signs of overtraining, then back off for a bit and try a different approach - eventually you'll learn your limits and the best way of pushing them without going too far.

I am not a dietician. CrossKitchen articles come from my personal experience, observations and research, and should not be construed as professional medical advice.

I'm a big fan of jerky.  Delicious, highly portable, packed with protein and naturally low-carb, what's not to love?  Well, two things:

• It's expensive.
• Most commercial stuff uses low-quality meat and is packed with sugar and other crap.

With just a little effort, though, both these downsides are easily surmounted by the magic of JDIYDS (Just Do It Your Damn Self).


Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs liquid smoke
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• Favorite hot sauce (1/4 tsp - 1 Tbs, to taste)
• 1/3c Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbs onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 pound (sliced thin), or 1.5 pounds (ground) meat (beef, turkey, whatever)

There are many different recipes out there, this is just one that I've tried and liked.  Don't be afraid to google around for something that appeals to you.

Equipment:

• Dehydrator preferred (oven works, too)
• Wax paper, rolling pin & scissors (if using ground meat)
• Jellyroll pan with wire rack inserts (if using oven)
  

Instructions:
Whisk together all the spices and liquids in a separate bowl, then mix with the meat (I use a food processor with the dull blade for this).  If you are using sliced meat, put the meat and the marinade together in a ziploc bag and leave in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.

Elaine Boulder Pull-Ups @ Death Valley

---

Understand this: every change in the composition of the body is hormonal in nature. When we eat and when we workout, we are setting in motion a chain of events that culminates with the brain instructing various glands to manufacture and release a specific cocktail of chemicals into the blood. It is therefore vital to our training--regardless of whether our goal is fat loss or muscle gain--to understand just what these chemical concoctions are, and what choices we can make to manipulate them to our desired ends. All of these hormones fulfill vital roles in the body, so none of them are inherently "good" or "bad" - they're all "good" in the sense that without them, you'd die. However, you can have too much of a good thing.

Case in point: Insulin

Insulin gets such a bad rap. It's like the Jabberwocky of the CrossFit community, with articles and lectures and books all dedicated to warning you of its jaws that bite and claws that catch. And we'll get to that, too. But first: what does it actually DO?

What insulin does

When you eat, your stomach and intestines break down the food and glucose molecules (remember them?) are absorbed into the bloodstream. This is what "blood sugar" means - literally sugar in your blood. Now, blood sugar is actually toxic, so in response to this stimulus the pancreas releases insulin into the blood stream to clean it up. You see, although your cells need the glucose for fuel, growth and repair, they can't absorb it without insulin to unlock the gates.

If the cells don't really NEED the glucose, however, or if you just ate way too much of it, then the insulin opens the gates to your body's storage shed: adipose tissue, or fat cells. Simply put, this is how carbs make you fat.

But wait: it gets worse. You see, the insulin receptors on your cells can stop working if they are repeatedly exposed to very high doses of the hormone. Picture it this way: if you are in a room and somebody sprays some very strong perfume, at first you will be overwhelmed by the scent....but gradually, over time, you will become accustomed to it until you can't smell it any more. Now, what would it take for you to smell that perfume again? You either need to leave the room for a while and come back in, or you need to be exposed to a stronger dose. If you never leave the room to reset and simply soak up more and more perfume, eventually you will never be able to smell it, no matter how much gets sprayed right in your face. (Disclosure: I stole this analogy straight from Robb Wolf.) Insulin resistance works the EXACT same way - if you continually spike your blood sugar by consuming high-carb foods without protein or fat (big-gulp sodas are the worst culprit here), then your cells require increasingly larger doses of insulin in order to get the glucose they need, until eventually your pancreas just flips you the bird and gives up. And, since your fat cells are the last ones to protect themselves by becoming resistant, nearly everything you've been eating has been going straight to storage. Congratulations, you're fat and you've got diabetes.

This is a simplified model, but as more research comes out, more and more evidence points to insulin resistance as the root cause of MANY problems, not just the obesity epidemic: lowered immunity, higher cholesterol and blood pressure, even aging itself. Insulin is vital to our health, yes, but too much of it will kill you.

I should note that it works the other way, too. The lower your insulin resistance, the more of that blood glucose is going to go into your liver and muscles, where you want it, and less into your fat cells, where (presumably) you don't. This makes for faster recovery, better muscle growth, a stronger immune system, and a sharper brain. Not to mention a longer life.

So what can I do?

Diet is your best defense against insulin resistance, and there are a number of things that you can do to keep the beast at bay:

• Eat low-carb. Bet you never saw this one coming. Although some folks are genetically predisposed against insulin resistance (Hi Elaine), most of us don't tolerate carbs very well, particularly as we get older and our metabolism slows. You need to find what works for you, but I find a diet of 20/50/30 carbs/fat/protein works really well for me. You can go as high as 40% (Zone is 40/30/30), but be sure your carb sources are from healthy, whole foods and not processed junk.


• Time your carbs. Peak insulin sensitivity comes in the hour after working out, so if you're going to have carbs, have 'em then (but you knew that already).


• Have protein with every meal. Protein stimulates glucagon release, which acts as a check against insulin, and it slows digestion, which prevents an insulin spike.


• Don't eat fat and carbs without protein. This is the worst combination you could ask for - a lot of sugar to spike your insulin, and a ton of calories with nowhere to go but straight to your fat cells. French fries, potato chips, rich desserts...keep your grubby paws off!


• Avoid sugar. Again, pretty self-evident. Sugar is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and causes a spike in insulin.


• Stay the hell away from High-fructose Corn Syrup. Really. It's bad, bad shit.


• Eat real, unprocessed foods. The glucose in real foods is tied up with fiber, which makes them slower to digest, once again blunting the spike of fast sugar absorption. So if you're going to have bread or rice, make it whole-grain or brown, and if you want something sweet, have an apple.


• Exercise. Resistance makes muscles more sensitive. Especially short-duration, power-oriented workouts. Any idea where you can find those?


• Fast. Remember the perfume analogy? Intermittent Fasting is the dietary equivalent of leaving the room for a little while. It resets the body's sensitivity triggers, ultimately leading to lower insulin resistance.


• Take fish oil. It creates and repairs the insulin receptors on your cells, as well as reducing overall inflammation.


• Eat cinnamon and turmeric. We're not sure why, but they help.


• Don't worry, be happy. Chronic stress and anger are correlated with higher insulin resistance, so put some Enya on the car stereo and quit yelling at assholes that cut you off. Also, get eight hours of sleep of night, go ahead and spring for the mani/pedi and massage, meditate and do things that make you happy.
  

There you have it. Originally, my plan for this article was to cover several hormones, but apparently I have a lot to say on this subject, so I think we'll call it a day with just insulin. I'll cover the medical marvels of glucagon, cortisol, testosterone and other hormones in future installments.

I am not a dietician. CrossKitchen articles come from my personal experience, observations and research, and should not be construed as professional medical advice.

Photo: Tom Campitelli

So now we know that a double espresso before a workout works wonders, but what about afterward?  The topic of post-workout (PWO) nutrition is a hotly-debated one over in the bodybuilding territories of the internet.  Over there, the debate is typically not whether one should have anything post-workout, but rather which super-mega-extreme frothy tanker of aspartame and diheximethylcrapalose* (now in Fruit Punch flavor with real Acai!) will get you totally shredded (or pumped, I guess, depending on your goals).  Bypassing the hype, though, is there anything that sets the post-workout window apart from any other time for nutritional benefit?  Turns out, there is.

The Why
I'm going to geek out on you here for a second.  As you may or may not know, the body provides three separate pathways for generating and burning energy:  ATP/CP, Glycolitic and Oxidative.  In the first, the body burns adenosine tri-phosphate for extremely brief (under a second), maximum-effort movements.  In the second, the muscles burn through their reserves of glycogen at about 90% effort, which lasts about 12-15 minutes.  The final is the domain of the endurance athlete, in which the body combines oxygen from your lungs with bodyfat reserves to allow you to work at about 50-70% for, essentially, hours on end. CrossFit metcons specifically target the second pathway, focusing on intensity rather than strength or volume.  We will focus on strength (Max Effort) sometimes, and will occasionally dip into volume (Murph or a 10k), but the heart of CrossFit is the short, painful metcon (Fran is a classic example).  It is here that PWO nutrition is the most useful.

You see, immediately following a punishing workout, the muscles are desperate to replenish their spent glycogen stores.  The body can supply their needs by mobilizing body fat or by converting protein to glycogen, but these processes take time!  And your muscles are thirsty!  They need their glycogen NOW, dammit!  Here's where the magical non insulin mediated glucose transport comes in.  In the period of time immediately following a workout, we can fly in an emergency shipment of nutrients and amino acids directly to the muscles in a sugar airlift.  It's the most direct line from mouth to muscle you'll ever get, so it's a good idea to take advantage of it.

Why?  RECOVERY.  As you all know, 5-6 workouts a week is brutal, and there's nothing like a bad case of DOMS to wreck your day.  And it's not just about soreness:  faster recovery means you're able to hit the workouts harder more often, thereby providing greater stimulus and growth to your muscles and central nervous system.  Faster recovery means fewer injuries, and less likelihood of illness or overtraining.  Remember:  we do not get stronger in the gym.  All we do in the gym is controlled damage to ourselves.  We get stronger as a result of our body's response to that damage, so it is in our best interests to maximize our recovery by as many (legal/safe) means as are available to us.


The What

Hopefully by now I've convinced you that PWO nutrition is a good idea.  "But what," you're asking, "should I EAT?  Which is better, Gatorade or Muscle Milk?"  The answer, of course, is neither. Sure, you could lay out $50 for a tub of chalky-tasting chemicals specially formulated by marketing agents with a penchant for the letter "X," but why bother?  There are cheaper, healthier and tastier options.

When considering your choices, these are the things you want to keep in mind:  a generous amount of carbs, a small amount of protein, and as little fat as you manage.  Now, normally I'm not a very big fan of the carbohydrate, but in PWO-land all the rules go topsy turvy, so now they're good - and the higher their GI, the better (I know, right?).  As for protein, the ideal ratio of carbs to protein is 4:1, so about a quarter of the carbs.  Fat slows digestion/absorption, so while most of the time I'm huge fan o' the fat, this is not its time to shine.  So what fits the bill?

• Chocolate milk.  As crazy as it sounds, lowfat chocolate milk is just about perfect for post-workout recovery.  It has that great 4:1 ratio and is quickly absorbed by the body.  In clinical studies, it performed as well or better than the highly processed fancy supplements.  If I were to get really nitpicky, I'd advocate one made with sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup, but whatever.
• Regular milk.  Rebecca's drink of choice.  Organic is better than not.  Lowfat versions have less fat, but whole has more nutrients, so I put that choice down to personal preference.
• Kefir.  This is what I drink.  I have my reasons.
• A sweet potato and a little jerky or salmon
  
• An apple or banana with some skim mozzarella or deli slice
• Applesauce with a little cottage cheese and cinnamon
  
• Lowfat yogurt or rice pudding
• Mix a little unflavored/unsweetened whey with some juice
  

You get the idea.  Eggs, tofu/legumes, brown rice etc are suboptimal, as the fiber and/or fat makes them slow to digest and absorb.  For 30-40 minutes of your day, fat and fiber are bad and sugar is good.

The When
Note that this little trick only works if you've pushed yourself hard enough to deplete your body's glycogen stores.  So your special PWO meal/drink will only be effective if taken immediately after a hard metcon - the harder you worked, the better it will work, and the more immediate the better.  The window is only open for about an hour - after that, your body has returned to business as usual.  This is not to say that nutrition after a Max Effort workout would be bad for you, just that it wouldn't be any different from any other time of the day.

The How
This is not rocket science.  Obtain a portable drink container and/or some tupperware and make it happen, Einstein.  Try it for two weeks and see how you feel.

Personal Observations
For the last month or so, Rebecca and I have been following up our workouts with 16 oz of milk or kefir.  We have both noticed a decrease (not an elimination - this ain't voodoo) in DOMS, and a greater level of energy in our workouts through the week.  It's great stuff.  If you have questions or your own PWO nutrition strategy, please share in the comments.

Note that if your goal is weight loss, you might consider intentionally NOT eating in the hour after a workout.  In the absence of glycogen and and food, the body's response to a difficult workout will be to mobilize fat stores to replenish its immediate energy reserves.  The downside of this, of course, is that you're missing out on the benefits of increased recovery, so you need to be very careful about walking the line between healthy and overtrained - if you push too hard, you'll spike your cortisol and your fat won't be going anywhere.

*As far as I'm aware, there's really no such thing.  Not that any of us would know.

I am not a dietician.  CrossKitchen articles come from my personal experience, observations and research, and should not be construed as professional medical advice.

By Daniel Olmstead

Hi guys! Max has generously agreed to give me weekly space for a feature on nutrition that I'm dubbing "CrossKitchen." It is my intention to use this space to provide you with some of the information that I've picked up in my nutritional research - things like recipes, DIY tips, articles and anything else I can think of to help fuel your fire. If you have any ideas or requests, please let me know! -Daniel

Trimming the Fat

Good weather is just around the corner, and like all good CrossFitters and Rock climbers, we will all soon be stripping down to our skivvies in public at the faintest pretext. It is what we do. But if the long, cold, harsh California winter has left you with an unwanted layer of fat to protect you from the elements, you may be looking to tighten up a little before emerging from your Polartec cave. I'm here to help.

The Number One Rule you must Always Obey

Get used to hearing this, 'cause I'm going to harp on it a lot. If you're into needlepoint, you might want to stitch it up and surround it with little broccoli flowers: EAT REAL FOOD.

Everything else I'm going to go into here is a technique, but this is the bedrock on which it all rests. If you ignore everything else I say, listen to this. It makes all the difference in the world. More on this at a later date.

All diets boil down to two things

All successful diets cover two bases: caloric deficit and hormone control. Most people know all about the first and nothing about the second. OK, yes, it is good to take in a little less than you burn. But it is far more important to keep your insulin in check and to maximize your HGH response. Two advantages of high-fat, low-carb diets is that they increase satiety, thereby causing you to eat less, and they decrease insulin sensitivity, the greatest cause of obesity. If you can keep your insulin and cortisol levels down and your HGH and glucagon levels high, fat should just melt off your body. The trick is figuring out how to do it.

For more information:

• http://lifespotlight.com/fitness/2008/2/25/fat-loss-101-master-the-basics/ (HIGHLY recommended read)

Diet Round-up

Here's a quick rundown of the pre-packaged diets that have seen success across the CrossFit community.

The Zone

If there is an official diet of CrossFit, it is the Zone. The basic premise behind it is that if you can eat all your meals in portions of approximately 30% fat, 30% protein and 40% carbohydrates, you will put your body into an optimized performance "zone" that burns fat and builds muscle. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the Zone (I can't be bothered with all the weighing and measuring it requires), but I cannot argue with its record: many athletes around the world have seen appreciable performance gains and fat loss when zoning, and nearly all of the CrossFit superstars (Nicole, Greg A, OPT, etc) zone.

For more information:

• http://www.zonediet.com/
• http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf
• Max has a lot of experience with the Zone - if you have any questions, he can steer you to the right answers.

Paleo

Brainchild of Professor Loren Cordain, the basic premise of the Paleo diet is this: humans evolved over many thousands of years on a fairly specific hunter-gatherer diet. The relatively recent advent of agriculture has introduced a whole new generation of foods that our bodies are not "designed" to eat, and which consequently do us harm. Grains and sugar are strictly forbidden, dairy and legumes are discouraged. Basically, if you can't pick it up or chase it down and eat it, you shouldn't. This is probably the second most popular diet among CrossFitters, particularly those who find the Zone fussy (although it should be noted that you can do both Zone and Paleo at the same time - many do).

For more information:

• http://www.thepaleodiet.com/ (in particular, Paleo for Athletes)
• http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan/

Intermittent Fasting

More philosophy than diet, IF can be boiled down to this: "Eat. Don't eat for a while. Eat." This particular topic is near and dear to my own heart, so (again) I'll go into it in more detail at a later date. But the basic premise is this: occasional fasts of 16-24 hours are highly beneficial to the body in numerous way, including (but not limited to) insulin control, calorie control, increased recovery, performance and mental acuity, etc etc. Fasting means FASTING - nothing with more than 5 calories passes your lips, and intermittent means INTERMITTENT - some folks do it five days a week, some just one, and some whenever they feel like it, but you should definitely not do it all the time. It is possible to do Zone, Paleo AND IF all at once, but at that point I'd start accusing you of being orthorexic, and the mockery would commence.

For more information:

• http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/02/27/intermittent-fasting-101-how-to-start-part-i/
• http://lifespotlight.com/health/2008/08/11/part-1-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-fast-energy-production/

The Anabolic/Ketogenic/Velocity/Warrior/Atkins Diets

There are minor variations among them, but they all follow a consistent theme: by lowering your daily input of carbohydrates to under 30g, you will put your body in ketosis, whereby you are no longer deriving your energy from glucose like the rest of us, but rather from ketones manufactured from fat by your liver. This also has the effect of turning your body's focus to its fat stores for energy, particularly since all that fat and protein you're eating has increased your satiety such that you're on caloric deficit. Some people report remarkable success on these diets, but they seem (to me) to be in the minority. They also tend to be really heavy to begin with. Personally, I think these diets can work well in the short term, but are not very sustainable and tend to kill your metabolic conditioning. There's also a danger of yo-yoing with such an extreme diet. And if you're vegetarian, forget it.

For more information:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet
• http://stronglifts.com/anabolic-diet/
• http://www.board.crossfit.com/showthread.php?t=35868

Diets that suck

You know this already. Any diet that requires you to buy their branded "food" (ie, slim-fast). Any diet that pushes the old-fashioned high-carb, low-fat philosophy (yeah, ok, it works for some people, but they are few and far between). Any diet that relies on limiting your choices so severely that you could never hit caloric surplus ("I can eat whatever I want, as long as it's pickles and muenster"). Any diet that uses fancy chemistry to bypass food's inherent natures (ie, sugar-free soda, no-carb pasta, etc). Any diet that focuses exclusively on caloric deficit with no regard to hormone control (this can work, but isn't great for athletes). Any diet that promotes starvation.

You are a beautiful snowflake

Everybody is different. What works for me may not be the best option for you. It will take some experimentation and documentation for you to determine your own optimal method of weight loss. Since everyone needs to do it from time to time, and it typically sucks, it's in your best interest to figure out the most efficient method for yourself. That said, here are some tips and tricks from my own experience:

• Eat real food. Quality trumps quantity.
• Write it down. Keep a food log. Fitday is an extremely useful tool, but it can be a bit high-maintenance. The easiest thing is to add a food component to your own workout log (you are keeping a workout log, right? RIGHT?). Blogger is free and easy, and if you give us the link we can all leave snarky comments when you break down and eat an entire box of Thin Mints. A notepad and pen is also cheap and easy. Just the simple act of writing down what you eat will make you more aware of what you're putting in your body, which is invaluable.
• Set reasonable goals. Don't crash diet. It never works. You might knock off ten pounds in one punishing week, but you'll burn yourself out and, in a fit of drunken rebelliousness, gain back twelve pounds in one night of gluttonous self-mutilation. Plus, you'll mainly be losing water, and the elevated cortisol will burn your muscles and kill your performance. I recommend a goal of ONE POUND PER WEEK. It's nice and maintainable, and easy to remember.
• Find a metric that works for you. If the numbers on the scale send you into a panic of doubt and self-recrimination, don't use them. Get a tape measure and use your waist measurement. Stand in front of a mirror naked, grab your bouncy bits and jump up and down - less jiggle, more better. Learn how to use bodyfat calipers, or get yourself tested.
• Cheat. You will get out what you put in. If you are 90% strict with your diet, you can expect to reap 90% of the reward. 90% is really, really close to 100%. If that 10% difference is the difference between sticking to it and dropping it for being too hard, I'll take it. When you cheat, cheat hard, but be aware that you're setting the rules aside for this one meal, and get back on the horse when you're done.

My own snowflake story

Before CrossFit, I lost 40 pounds by simply eating less and cycling more. I bottomed out at 12% bodyfat, though, and couldn't get below that for about a year. Ultimately, I found that the following plan works extremely well for me, and can get me below 10% whenever I want it to:

• A diet that is approximately 50% fat, 30% protein, 20% carbs, ~2500 cal/day
• Fasting 4-5 times/week, 16-20 hours per fast
• Morning workouts while fasted:

  • High-intensity intervals (either Sprint-8 or sets of 10 burpees), followed by ~30 minutes of very mild cardio (ie, running at 6mph)

I'd be happy to share more info with anyone who's interested.

Whew! That was a mouthful (so to speak). I hope you found something useful in there - if not, hopefully next week. If you have any questions or notes from your own experience, please share them in the comments.