Missed Part 1? What about Part 2? and Part 3?
Read about our 2017 Nutrition Challenge and register here.
Here are important resources I use myself for controlling my nutrition:
Google. Because of course.
Uwajimaya. The International District. Seattle area QFCs. Trader Joes. Seattle Farmers Markets. Rain Shadow Meats. These are the groceries we regularly purchase and gather our food from.
TAIKO DRUMMING WHILE SHOPPING AT UWAJI IS AWESOME! AND INTENSE!
It Starts With Food by Melissa Hartwig
A life changer. Seriously, this can change your life if you let it. A great primer on the basics of nutrition, as well as a way to see how we’ve developed our emotional relationship with food. Definitely provides a better understanding of the whys behind the creation behind the Whole30 too.
Coleena and Lillian. “Gym mamas” who helped us develop a lot of recipes during past challenges, with tips/tricks/recipes that we use today!
Lillian
Coleena
Nom Nom Paleo: Food For Humans by Michelle Nam
This book helped us change the way we looked at Paleo cooking. Michelle made it fun and fresh. Many recipes reminded us of many asian dishes we thought we’d never have. A nice emphasis on umami too!
Paleo Nick’s videos on CrossFit HQ’s YouTube Channel. Spoiler alert: going to make the following multiple times during this challenge!
Up until Nick popped up a lot of performance cooking video and picture looked super bland (Sorry MDA of yesteryear). His videos made me a bit more confident in my growing cooking skills.
NW Fit Meals. “Northwest Fit Meals is a Seattle-based Paleo/clean meal delivery service geared towards fueling Paleo athletes and non athletes living the Paleo lifestyle. We believe in clean eating to bring balance, performance, and energy to your days and workouts as well as improving your quality of life. Athletes fueled by Northwest Fit Meals, no longer have to meal prep on their days off: They can save time from taking trips to multiple stores, don’t have to prep/cook/clean, aren’t tempted to cheat on their diet, and get their Sunday’s back! We bring you only the freshest ingredients and we utilize sustainable, locally sourced and organic ingredients whenever possible.”
Gena and Jesse are really good people and their cooking, to me, is amazing. Their turkey chili is to die for. Gena figured out how to make a performance paleo Korean BBQ plate. NW Fit Meals pops up at local events as caterers, but getting their meal service is so exciting. If you’re interested contact them, say you’re FOUNDATION, and that Andrew sent you. They deliver directly to the gym. Then you can run to the office and ask if there’s a stack of reusable containers full of delicious meals with your name on it. EXCITING!
Post-CrossFit competition. These were all mine.
This video because this is the only technique I use when I make myself scrambled eggs:
Whole30 Cookbook by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig
The companion cookbook to the Whole30. Wish I had this way back when, but it’s cool to see the evolution of the program.
The Food Lab by Kenji Lopez-Alt
Even though it’s lower on this list (only because it’s not a diet-based book), it’s one of my top 3 cookbooks. Kenji is humorous but the big thing is discussing and disecting the science behind cooking techniques and how that affects outcome like appearance, flavor, and texture. I must’ve gifted this book at least 10 times the year it came out. Fantastic.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
A insightful look into how corn fcked us up, why we eat the way we eat, how culture dictates cuisine, and why we have so many options for food and “food” now. This isn’t a cookbook, but a nonfiction book on the topic of eating. You can also check out one of his other books In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto, were we pulled the “Eat Real Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.” from!
The Frugal Paleo Cookbook by Ciarra Hannah
I had the opportunity to listen to the author speak at an event and it was interesting how her approach to feeding her family eventually just led to writing this book. Great philosophy and proof that eating clean doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg as long as you’re creative and have some sort of plan in your head when you cook.
For other fun cooking tips and tricks. They’re Seattle-based! Pike place.
Ready or Not! by Michelle Nam
The latest by Michelle, and something I picked up just last week, this book is made specifically for those who live busy lives and want to respect their bodies through nutrition. Short on time? Great- look at the RED section of the book. Kinda have time? Look at the YELLOW section. Want to make some fancy meals and have set a side of ton of time for prep? Try the GREEN section of the book. I’ve only thumbed through it so far, but it looks very promising. There’s “150+ make-ahead, make-over, and make-now recipes”!
Next Thursday I’ll have my 2017 HOW TO EAT OUT WHEN TRYING TO EAT CLEAN guide.
(Note: these Amazon links are affiliate links- they don’t add to the price of the product, but I do receive some kickback if you purchase through the links.)
Read about our 2017 Nutrition Challenge and register here.
“Eat meat & veggies, seeds & nuts, some fruit, little starch.” will continue to be one of the philosophies we follow in nutrition.
There are multiple reasons we focus first on quality.
Hormonal Balance
First off, we have to think of nutrition as a way to control our blood chemistry and hormonal balance? If this is out of whack we get moody or sleepy, experience head and body aches, promote or control inflammation, and more. Quality allows us to get the right things human bodies need. Quantity can unfortunately skip some important steps we require for good health. You might be able to perform well on quantity alone, but it’s not sustainable for a long period of time. (I’m look at you IIFYM people!)
As an example if we take a regular-sized Snickers bar, no doubt thinking about one of their commercials, and put their claim of “Snickers satisfies” to the test we’ll find that one 52.7g bar yields us
33g carbohydrate
4g protein
12g fat
For a real food equivalent of this, it would take
less than a full bite of a lean chicken breast
a large banana
approximately 7 to 8 raw almonds
Since we should all know that all carbohydrates are not created equal:
click to embiggen!
and all proteins are not created equal:
click to embiggen!
and all fats are not created equal:
click to embiggen!
The Snickers bar is definitely more practical since it’s wrapped up, easily available/portable, and obviously tasty as hell, but your blood sugar levels will be much, much higher than the chicken/banana/almonds “meal”. The hormonal response: your fat-burning systems will put on hold because blood sugars rose too high too quick and the pancreas created a large surge of insulin.
The sad lack of protein in the Snickers bar sets up no amino acids to start your regular bodily functions, and in turn the body will start pulling from it’s amino acid stores.
Why is that an issue? YOUR BODY WILL BREAK DOWN YOUR HARD-EARNED MUSCLE TISSUES. This is why there are so many soft bodies that don’t improve beyond a certain point. This is also one of the main causes behind the “Hard Gainer” archetype.
TL:DR: not all macros are the same, quality-wise. By only focusing on numbers (rather than well-sourced foods) you may inadvertently be putting in chemicals and preservatives into your body that sabotage your goals.
Energy Levels = Your Mood, Fatigue, and Soreness
Piggybacking on the last part, good hormonal balance = good energy levels. You know what it’s like to show up to a Saturday morning workout after a non-eventful Friday. Sometimes you come in early, ready to bang one out so that you feel accomplished and ready to go for the rest of the day. Now contrast that with a Saturday morning workout where you went out the night before and partied, had one too many drinks, and stayed up later than you normally do. How do you feel and perform then?
We set ourselves up for success or we don’t. That example is on a small level, but it also happens over the course of a couple of weeks. Months. Years. Look at the nutrition plan of some CrossFit Games athletes. Their social media posts will show how disciplined they are with how they fuel their bodies.
If you’ve never heard us talk about MFS when it comes to journaling, I pulled it from Rudy of The Outlaw Way. From the FAQ:
What does MFS mean?
This is a scale that we use to judge our
athletesexcercisers level of overtraining…M = Mood – F = Fatigue – S = Soreness
The idea is these are the 3 things that are closely related to how you are handling the volume on a daily basis. The rating system goes from 1 being the best you’ve ever felt to 10 being on your death bed. If your post looked like this:
1-1-1: Would be ideal.
10-10-10: Would be REALLY bad.
6-6-6: Would be fucking awesome. OZZY!
Defining each quality further
Mood = your psychological state, consisting of your emotions and feelings. It’s either on a positive or negative side. Bringing anything negative to the gym generally leaves you in bad spots: missing lifts, getting sloppy on technique- potentially leading to injury, not to mention the fact that the time you spend in the gym should be FOR YOU AND FOR YOU ALONE. This is your personal time to develop yourself and while leaving your negative emotions is hard to do, it’s necessary to have successful gym days. If you cannot leave it at the door, just know you can’t expect too much of yourself. Be honest with yourself and use wherever you’re at the best way you can.
Fatigue = “a subjective feeling of tiredness which is distinct from weakness, and has a gradual onset. Unlike weakness, fatigue can be alleviated by periods of rest. Fatigue can have physical or mental causes. Physical fatigue is the transient inability of a muscle to maintain optimal physical performance, and is made more severe by intense physical exercise. Mental fatigue is a transient decrease in maximal cognitive performance resulting from prolonged periods of cognitive activity.” But it’s not only that- we can be more specific and call it Muscle Fatigue: “the decline in ability of a muscle to generate force. It can be a result of vigorous exercise … There are two main causes of muscle fatigue: the limitations of a nerve’s ability to generate a sustained signal (neural fatigue) and the reduced ability of the muscle fiber to contract (metabolic fatigue).” I’m sure you’ve felt all versions of this through heavy weightlifting, intense metcons, and long, repeated efforts. Be mindful of what exercises or exercise combinations really kick your ass so you can better prepare next time.
Soreness: specifically DOMS, Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, which are “the pain and stiffness felt in muscles several hours to days after unaccustomed or strenuous exercise.” This is the life of a fitness enthusiast. You will live sore, but for all the right reasons. Now, there’s a certain level we’d like you to feel, but it requires practice, time, and experience to realize what makes you sore and long it usually lasts. It’s not a bad thing. We just have to make sure you know how to take care of it. Endurance efforts are great ways to keep working on your fitness while getting some nutrient-rich blood back in the areas that need it the most.
Recording your workout results and variables are important. These particular variables (MFS) can help inform you of why your performance went the way it did, and allow you to better game plan what happens next.
Nutrient Timing
For a lot of people just focusing on quantity of food (counting calories, macros, blocks, etc), they miss the boat on nutrient timing by not spreading the effects of hormonal synthesis. I’ve heard conversations from people of the IIFYM ilk say things like “I guess I’ll put down 50g of protein with my dinner since I missed my last planned protein window an hour ago”.
Remember that hormonal balance and energy levels are dictated by what and how much food you’re eating. Trying to catch up and combine meals doesn’t work for many performance-end goals.
Read more:
+ Insulin Regulation of Blood Glucose – EndocrineWeb
+ IIFYM: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – T-Nation
+ Is Nutrient Timing Dead? – Precision Nutrition
*Updated 10/8
*Updated 10/17
As some of you know we were running a 6am-only Powerlifting session on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This was the only one we ran for the entire year but saw some tremendous strength increases. Some squats went up 10kg. Some almost 20kg. On average the strict press went up just shy of 10kg. All pulls went up (deadlifts, strict pullups, kipping pullups) as well. We used Rippetoe’s Starting Strength-style programming since most athletes were experienced CrossFitters, but new to lifting-only.
Many of them transitioned back into CrossFit. One athlete, who had been CrossFitting regularly for years, provided feedback:
“I loved the programing. I liked how receptive it was. The repetition each week let me think about my lifts the night before and get in the right mindset for the coming days lifts. It had been a long time since I went to the gym with so much vigor and excitement. I think that was partly due to the fact that during the cycle I could feel myself get stronger. That feeling filled me with confidence as max week approached and I KNEW that I would PR. The cycle also opened my mind regarding how strength fits into CrossFit. For the longest time I felt that my biggest limitation during most WODs was cardio and for the most part I did not give the strength aspect a second thought. In the last few weeks I have seen my biggest gains in WOD’s since I was beginner.
…
I now have lot more confidence to go for the Rx weight in [CrossFit] WODs. I no longer need to get on my tip toes at the end of press when performing wall balls. I can link more pull-ups together. I’m able to keep up, on a occasion, with athletes that I have never been able to keep up with.”
I think we’re also ready for Round 2.
Gus, Grayson, and myself recently attended the CrossFit Conjugate Methods course w/ Shane Sweatt of Conjugate CrossFit and Jesse Bifano of CrossFit Squamish. I spent a year training up at Lynnwood CrossFit following Conjugate methods years ago and it brought my squats, presses, and deadlifts up.
The Conjugate Method is just like the CrossFit method (constantly-varied high-intensity movements) with a bias towards strength and improving the contested Power lifts: back squat, bench press, and deadlift. Our split will look like
Monday at 6am or 10am – Max Effort Upper. Example lifts: strict press, bench press, floor press, jerk, Anderson press, football bar bench, board press
Wednesday at 6am or 10am – Max Effort Lower. Example lifts: box squat, conventional deadlift, sumo deadlift, front squat, block pull, overhead squats, deficit deadlift, etc.
Friday at 6am or 10am – Dynamic Effort Upper. Example lifts: strict press, bench press, floor press, jerk, Anderson press with bands, reverse bands, chains, banded kettlebells
Saturday at 9am – Dynamic Effort Lower. Example lifts: banded box squats, banded deadlifts, banded front squats, all the lifts with chains, all the lifts with chains and bands
What does max effort and dynamic effort mean?
MAX EFFORT: low-volume, high-intensity, 1RMs, 3 attempts at/above 90%, 2-4 minute rests, with no misses, constantly-varied lifts
DYNAMIC EFFORT: sub-maximal weights at maximal speed, 50-60% of 1RM, bar speed = .8-1m/second, :30 rests, 25% accommodating resistance (such as bands, chains, etc.)
Monday through Friday you have an opportunity to workout at 6am (alongside the Olympic Weightlifting class) or 10am. Saturday at 9am will conclude the programming week. For those who regularly attend Saturday’s 8am CompEx classes, the second hour will become strength hour where you and the Powerlifting crew combine for some Max Effort Lower lifts. For the CompEx athletes there is no need to rsvp for the 9am Powerlifting class. Those who “drop-in” at 9am will be denied entry to the workout and redirected to the CrossFit classes.
If you plan to participate it is important that you attend all four days a week if you want to get stronger. Simply put the program isn’t potent if the dosage isn’t there. That said you may use this to supplement your other fitness endeavors by attending twice a week: do one max effort and one dynamic effort per week.
The entrance to the program will happen in waves- next week will be the first, then about 5 week out we’ll have another.
You’ll be revisiting movements you haven’t done in a while, as well as some you’ve never tried before. It’s going to be fun.
>> REGISTER FOR THE PROGRAM HERE. <<
Questions? Send them here.
Further reading:
+ Conjugate Method – Westside Barbell
+ Conjugate Periodization: The Westside Model – Catalyst Gym
+ The Westside Conjugate Method – CrossFit Journal
Chris V demonstrates an awesome air squat
A couple of events coming up:
1. Our FALL NUTRITION CHALLENGE! It’s here for accountability and education-sake. No entry fee, just a willingness to improve yourself even further. Starts next Monday.
2. This Saturday at 11am we will be our Nutrition Challenge Launch! (No 11am CrossFit class.) We will have a short presentation before we open it up for questions and discussion. Open to everyone- members, friends, and anyone interested in cleaning up their diets.
3. This Saturday we also have another COMMUNITY CROSSFIT CLASS at NOON. Open to members and non-members alike. We’ll go through a simple, decently-long workout! Tell your friends!
4. Powerlifting Class comes back next Monday! 6am on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and 9am on Saturday- yes, it’ll be four days a week this time around. We’re going Conjugate! The details of the program will be up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
5. FCF hosts OUTwod Seattle on October 22nd in support of Lambert House. Come out to sweat and support! (More details in the link.)
It’s going to be a busy October!
ARTICLES
+ “Eat Real Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.” – The 2017 FCF Fall Nutrition Challenge
CrossFit WOD for Wednesday 10/4
“ANGIE”
for time:
100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps
100 squats
Performance does
for time:
100 chest-to-bar pullups
100 hand-release pushups
100 GHDSU
100 pistols
Post times to whiteboard!
Olympic Weightlifting WOD – Week 4/7, Day 2/3
clean complex, pause front squats, accessories
Kettlebell WOD
Primal Mobility
Shoulder packing and stability exercises
Quickly cover cleans
Detailed Snatch Focus. We will be working on varying weights to own the movement.
Squat and rows to finish
Missed Part 1?
Read about our 2017 Nutrition Challenge and register here.
What do we really mean by this?
It’s sounds really easy to follow, but is it? In today’s GO! GO! GO! society it’s hard to slow down and pay attention to what we’re really doing.
In yesterday’s post I put up a brUTE Strength podcast discussing 10 things people can do to be consistent. Look that up for tips about staying consistent with the following.
Green bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and sausage
EAT REAL FOOD
Nutrient-rich food should be perishable: fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, fresh meats, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, etc.
If you shop around the perimeter of the grocery store you’ll find most of these foods. The aisles contain food-like products (created by science!) that are usually processed and filled full of preservatives and fillers.
Broccoli, sweet potato “pasta”, and grilled chicken
NOT TOO MUCH
Americans tend to overeat. For some, the “eat until you’re stuffed” concept still exists long after high school athletics. You are now an adult who spends the majority of your day stressed out and sitting.
Our guidelines are simple. We use an eyeball method: look at the size of your hand. When building a meal, the protein source should be the size and thickness of your palm. Starches like potatoes, rice, or pasta should also be the size and thickness of your palm. Fill the rest of your plate with vegetables. Cook or dress your food with a healthy fat.
If your t-shirt size is a medium or small then eat 3 plates a day. If large or larger then eat 4 plates a day.
No snacks. Do not “get stuffed.” Do not go for seconds.
“Primalaya” contains many vegetables of many colors. EAT THE RAINBOW!
MOSTLY PLANTS
Most adults do not get enough greens in their systems. These carbs also contain the micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) that are necessary to support healthy body systems. When veggies aren’t a staple of someone’s diet we can see why all these vitamin & mineral supplements are constantly being advertised and sold by the boatload. It’s “easier” to fill in the blanks and take pills for some rather than take the time to show the body some respect and eat cleanly.
Fresh produce is best, but frozen works in a pinch. Buy locally and eat what’s in season.
As we progress through the next couple of weeks we will go in depth with each of these philosophies.
Fall is here! Chilly mornings. Warm hoodies. Wool socks. Raindrops on… everything. Pretty leaves. Pumpkins. Short days. Bike lights. Coffee, lots of Coffee. While the weather is encouraging you stay inside, we challenge you to do the opposite! It’s a great time to begin moving with us. Bring your workouts indoors, we can help!
Try it! We are offering a free Community CrossFit class this Saturday (10/7) at 12PM!
This is a free, no obligation class. All levels welcome! Come in to sweat, join for the community!
Depending on your fitness level our Community CrossFit Class can be ‘just sweaty’ or ‘super tough’. We’ll guide you through it. You can RSVP on our online scheduling system, or just show up!
Our last Foundations On-Ramp Course of 2017 will run October 17th through November 11th. The full course is 12 classes, 4-weeks. Click here for details.
Already an FCF Athlete? Refer a friend and earn a $25 credit for you and your friend! Details here.
Victor, Leah, Teddy, Matija J, and Kathy G just hanging out
We’ll be doing a lot of focused hanging work for the month of October. Benefits of hanging work, via Ido Portal:
1. Shoulder/elbow/wrist health and the recovery of the lost ‘overhead reach’ range – promoting optimal range and making use of the upper body as it was designed to be used. By simply allowing gravity to ‘do its thing’ in the passive work or “fighting it” in the active work – one can send a very intense adaptation producing signal into one’s structure. I wonder if we implement hanging work throughout our lives, from young age and into old age and without taking too large of a break what would be the results over the now lost ‘overhead reach’ range and shoulder injury rates.I suspect we would have little need to ‘stretch our shoulders’ any further. Of course shoulder integrity, elbow and wrist/hand/finger health can benefit tremendously from daily hanging as well. (See added section below on the subject)
2. Lead up to pulling work, climbing and more advanced patterns. Hanging sits at the base of those patterns, just like standing does for walking. A deficiency in hanging work will become evident at a certain stage – some get stuck early unable to develop even a single chin up. (very common female problem)
3. Active hang work is especially important tool in certain advanced phases and scenarios – as a plateau breaker for advanced pullers approaching the One Arm Chin Up for example.
4. Grip Strength and Grip Endurance. If you cant grip it – you cant manipulate it/yourself. We have grown weaker all over due to the lack in physical demands in our daily lives. Grip is no different.
5. Creating ‘Terminology’ for future complexity. Hanging work creates awareness and a language of positions that can be later used to put together sophisticated pieces of movement in a variety of scenarios from gymnastics to parkour to tree climbing to rock climbing and more. It is a tool for improvisation and play.
ARTICLES
+ The Foundation is Nutrition – FCF
CrossFit WOD for Tuesday 10/3
in teams of two, for time:
100 calorie row
100 toes-to-bar
muscle-up development
Post time to whiteboard!
HellaFit WOD
Our take on bootcamp workouts, this class challenges you for the entire hour with a blend of strength and conditioning that works all the major muscle groups and focuses on functional movement. HellaFit will get you #hellasweaty while having #hellafun!
CompEx WOD
team sled work
in teams, for time:
40 rope climbs
80 sandbag situps
120 ring dips
160 pistols
Two people working at a time. Perform in any order.
special exercises
Gymnastics Strength WOD
crawling, gatherings, foam rolling, back conditioning, posterior chain stretching, handstands, bodybuilding
