I am the perfect example of “you can’t out train bad nutrition.”  

Earlier this year, I finally found something that worked for me — a zoned paleo diet.  Success that I hardly believed myself.  After the challenge ended in Feb, I kept up with my diet for the most part (I let myself cheat a little more than during the challenge).  Throughout the rest of February and March, I felt like a friggin’ superhero. Seriously.  The workout that stands out to me most was when we did “Nicole” — 400m run with max rep pull-ups, 20 min AMRAP.  My score: 74.  I felt so light and the 400m runs felt easy! I killed it that day. 

Then May came and I can lift as much, if not more than I used to, but I feel really slow and lethargic.  I blame summer … which comes with summer drinking and bad food choices and vacations.  I haven’t weighed my food in I don’t even remember when.  I’m bored of my “tried and true” recipes.  ”Bad stuff” has crept into my diet (bread, potatoes, sugary coffees, alcohol).   Thankfully, I haven’t gained any weight (or changed size, as crossfitters know, the scale lies sometimes because of muscle gain), but I haven’t lost any either.  Coming off of a 13lb loss and then seeing month after month of zero results is getting old.  I’ve plateued again and I need to do something about it before I start back-sliding.  

So, whaddup, mid-May?!  It’s on.  

To ensure that I start on the right foot, I had www.dishbym.com prepare my first week with one of each of the entrees and an 8x8 pan of protein fudge (which will last me the whole month).  

Every week, Michel prepares a weekly menu with one option per day, in addition to some of the favorites/family sized portions listed at the bottom of her page.  She caters to your likes/dislikes/allergies and is happy to zone your portions according to your needs.   

Stubborn to a fault, in January, I was hell-bent on doing this lifestyle change without any assistance.  Now that I’ve proved to myself that I can, I am more than happy to have someone help me out.  Dish is just that.  Michel’s meals offer a delicious and complex range of flavors, fitting for an entree’ at an upscale restaurant, at a price that is comparable to a meal at Panera. My favorite so far has been beef in mole sauce served with vegetables and guacamole (sans tortillas and lettuce wraps for me).  So delicious, you feel like you’re cheating!   I give it two-thumbs way up! 

Michel did not compensate me in any way for this review.  In fact, she has no idea I’m doing this at all.  I just think she’s a pretty cool lady with an awesome business model, an excellent product, and is deserving of recognition.  If you live in the Tulsa area, like her page on  #facebook and try out one of her creations today!

An external crowd may never truly get CrossFit, but that’s not the point. The point is that we never compromise our position so that they do. Progress and improvement are only possible with integrity and discipline: two qualities CrossFit presents in spades.

Josh Bunch

A longtime affiliate owner and the Reebok CrossFit Games Central-East Regional media director

http://www.solitarywanderer.com/2012/02/date-a-girl-who-travels/

Change all the Asia references to European references and this girl read my mind. 

My motivation for starting to Zone was a month-long challenge at my Crossfit gym.  Because I had such favorable results, more and more people people are asking me,

“So… How strict were you?” 

This is the brutal honest truth:

I got off to a really rocky start.  The first week of this, I was on a ski vacation and drank more craft beer in 5 days than I do in a whole month usually (the events were sponsored by Boulevard BrewCo and it was free…so, of course it couldn’t get wasted!).   I did incorporate some changes: like, old-me would have shown up with nothing and purchased whatever I wanted from mountain side eateries (which is always deep fried crap).  New-me boarded the bus looking like the bag lady with a couple bags of spinach and other veggies, healthy things for breakfast: fruits, nuts, and cheeses. A couple of days for lunch on the mountain, I had a protein bar and a PBR.  Not really healthy… If nothing else, I saved a ton of cash-o-la.  

Two weeks later, I battled bronchitis/laryngitis for about a week and worked out less (and less hard when I was there).  When I finally was healthy, I sprained my ankle slightly while hiking … skipped one workout, modified two others (swapped box jumps for pistols and overhead squats for back squats with a rack), the next day, did an hour of “active rest” walking to let myself heal fully.  To say this was a typical month in the life of Claire would be … well, a straight up lie.  If I could recover from all that, and still see the results I saw, anyone can recover from anything. TRUTH.

So, the second week, after I really got started … Monday-Friday afternoon, my typical work days, I did really well. Monday, I typically would forget my snack or to eat breakfast, but Tues-Friday afternoon I generally hit all my meals spot on. My day was scheduled and controlled and I felt like I was lugging around a walking grocery store in my purse. Friday night-Sunday, I more often than not found myself falling back into my old routine of having 2 big meals and generally feeling really guilty… I ate out about the same amount as before, but I made better decisions and cut back on the adult bevvies (did you know that tonic water has almost the same amount of calories as soda?! What the hell?!  It has water in the name… all those years of drinking gin&tonics and thinking I was being good! … fml.  I’ll just have a water…. or a Vodka+soda water+lime, please).  

When I knew I over did it in one zone category (usually on the weekends, when I was eating out).  Instead of giving up or giving into the “well, I already cheated once today, might as well screw the whole day and eat whatever I want” feeling, I would just under-do in the same category at the next meal.

I’m generally really hard on myself — I feel remorseful when I eat 5 almonds instead of 3 — To be successful in this way of life, I found it necessary to take a mental break and cut myself some slack from time-to-time, even though I felt like I was cheating.  I made my hardest effort to be perfect at every meal, but when that didn’t happen or just wasn’t realistic, I went for more of a net daily total. 

I also wasn’t choking down nuts at all my meals to “make up” for fats… I only ate them when I actually wanted them. I’ve eaten way too many airplane peanuts in my lifetime and I figured that they would work themselves out.  I mean, I know that when I saute veggies, I need more than 3Blocks (1tsp) of EVOO, more like 9-12 (2tbsp).  Sure, I’m not licking the pan down after I’m done cooking, but I’d be kidding myself if I thought that that didn’t count. The majority of it will naturally be in the food you eat and you need to remember to count EVERYTHING.   

Most dinners, simply because I had more time, I would look through my food log book (where I wrote down EVERYTHING, even those 2 thin mint cookies that I ate as a snack) and see if I needed to balance out for the day. i.e. if I ate off the salad bar that day for lunch and was lacking protein (just can’t force myself to eat that 3rd hard-boiled egg, which is the only protein option), but ate too much fat because of the dressing I used, I would adjust my dinner to be 4zones of Protein, 1 fat, 3 carb.  This is again the “net total” philosophy.  It made me a lot happier in this process, both because I wasn’t driving myself crazy and because I didn’t feel like I was depriving myself.  

You need to check yourself before you wreck yourself … it’d be really easy let yourself cheat all the time and “make it up later.”  So DON’T.  Write it down if you need to

In summary…

Major Differences between my diet before and Zoning:

• Going from 2 big meals a day to 3 slightly smaller meals and 2 small snacks.  
• Planning my shopping trip/meals from home before leaving for the store. 
• Forcing myself to eat breakfast - To say that I’m not a morning person is an understatement.  This is huge.  
• Reducing the size of the protein at main meals from what I was eating to what a 3 zone protein should be (which amounted to a ~25% reduction on fish and chicken and ~50% less on beef at main meals, but adding it back in throughout the day in snacks) 
• Doubling-to-tripling my daily intake of vegetables.  yes, seriously.
• Eating a snack in the afternoon.  Typically, I would be starving and tired but would just tough it out… occasionally, I’d have to hit up the vending machine. Sometimes, I’d opt for a 20oz soda/coffee instead of food. <- This is the crash that Emily was talking about during the nutrition lecture.
• Vowing to never eat at the hot meal station at my work cafeteria - If I didn’t bring my lunch, I was eating off of the salad bar only because I could control what goes on my plate.
• ~25% increase in meals that I made myself (mainly lunches).
• I never turned down a meal out with friends, but I made a strong effort to order smarter off of the menu.  If that wasn’t possible, or if I just couldn’t turn down my favorite diet-busting meal (friends want chipotle, or diner sunday brunch) despite having already had a cheat meal that week, I would still get it, but only eat half of what I used to.  Which, since I was used to eating smaller meals by then, wasn’t that bad. 
• I’m not big on sweets, but those times when I have to have it, I have to have it. 2 bites though, and I’m good. I substituted my occasional snickers fun-size for a half of Zone brand chocolate peanut butter protein bar (which counted as my 1 block snack).  
• I was more conscious of my alcohol intake  - I’m generally a weekends only, social drinker (not a daily cocktail/beer/wine-o).  During this challenge I went from “many” to “a couple” (if any at all) and tried to save some carbs blocks throughout the day. Anyone actually measure 4oz of red wine?  It’s not a lot.  One of my wine glasses at home holds almost 12oz(!!)

Healthy Choices that I was doing before and maintained throughout: 

• I don’t drink my calories (never drink pop anymore, no gatorades or “recovery” drinks, no energy drinks. Not big on juices but occasionally, I’ll mix about 2 oz into a 16oz cup of water/sparkling water, etc) … except obviously alcoholic ones 
• I don’t eat fast food or pseudo-fast food (panera, applebees, chili’s, etc.)
• Severely restricted unfavorable carbs (starches, grains, rice) - they only show up sometimes on my cheat meals.  I.e. On the rare occasion that I want a cheeseburger, I want a freaking cheeseburger, and I’m gonna eat the bun and the condiments.  Emily even sabotaged me with pizza and nachos once… tisk tisk. Or was she testing me?  … either way, I failed. lol.

• I really don’t miss cream and sugar in my coffee. 
• If you let them bake long enough, sweet potatoes are sweet enough by themselves.  You don’t need to add butter or brown sugar. They’re perfect plain.
• Tofu isn’t as scary or tasteless as I thought
• Neither are brussels sprouts (esp. if you cut them in half and grill them)
• My “healthy” afternoon snack, a nature valley bar, is a two block meal… holy crap.
• I never really ate protein bars before this, but I quickly realized that…  Protein bars are MEAL REPLACEMENTS not snacks.  And they’re not all created equal.  You need to…
• Check labels on protein bars.  Some brands, holy sugar (others, holy fat)! … I still keep a Smart For Life bar or 2 in my purse, but they’re only used in case of emergency. And I know that my 1 zone afternoon snack is half a bar… which is pain enough to remember to pack a real-food snack (like an easy salad: 4 cups of spinach, 3 almonds, and an ounce of cheese — or forget the almonds and use 1teaspoon olive oil and dried rosemary for dressing) yes, that’s all equivalent to half a protein bar, crazy right? Not worth it.
• My body gives me the “I’m hungry” feeling when I really just need water - I’ve always struggled to drink enough water.
• LIES: “Cooking for one person is just as expensive as eating out”  
• YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE STARVING FOR IT TO BE WORKING…. in fact, some days I failed to eat everything I had planned.  

My New favorite meal (makes 2, ~3 zone meals).  And proof that eating healthy is not more expensive than eating out:

• $3.18    2 frozen 10oz packages of spinach  
• $0.57    half A red bell pepper and half a green bell pepper
• $0.46    Half an onion
• $0.10    3 jalapeno peppers (or more, less, none…whatever)
• $1.15    12oz of firm tofu (or chicken if you’re a chicken… use 2, 4.5oz portions - which is approx. one of the crazy-huge chicken breasts at reasor’s,  approx $1.50)          
• $1.00    3 tbsp green curry paste - or to taste (the whole jar is $2.85)
• $0.50    cilantro  (like 10 sprigs)

1. Drain and cut tofu (or chicken) in cubes.  

2. Heat 1tbsp olive oil in your biggest saute pan.  sear it on all sides (don’t cook chicken all the way, so it doesn’t dry out).  

3. Chop up all the veggies and cilantro into small equal pieces (an inch by quarter inch). add to the tofu pan and lower heat to medium.    

4.  Add the spinach and curry paste and let simmer.  (if I’m in a hurry, I microwave the spinach and just mix — but it tastes much better if you let simmer for at least 20 min).

5.  Taste it.  If it isn’t spicy enough, add some chinese hot mustard or remember to add more peppers next time. 

Grand total: $6.56 for 2 meals or $3.28 per meal… or $16.99 for Indian takeout. 

Cooking for one and don’t want to eat the exact same thing again?  Take half of a portion (a quarter of the whole thing - if you’re OCD, take out 4oz of tofu).  Mix in a small pan with 2 eggs.  Whamo, morning frittata.  You can have a little OJ or some fruit to round out your carb count. 

…and yes, I eat an entire thing of frozen spinach in one sitting and I enjoy it.  Give it a shot, it might surprise you. 

Anyone else care to share their lessons learned, or their favorite recipe?

For years now, I’ve been making all of my smart nutrition decisions in the grocery store.  I don’t bring home sodas, chips/snacks, or desserts.  My motto is, if it’s not in your house, you can’t eat it.  Well, that worked really well when I was in college and couldn’t afford to go out to eat all the time… but, once I was a professional, it kind of fell apart.  There were too many temptations (unhealthy choices in the cafeteria, vending machines, nearly all social gatherings happening over drinks or dinner somewhere) and my weight started to creep up.  

In Jan 2011, I really started to pay attention and started taking my health more seriously.  It’s hard to think that my nutritional journey started over a year ago, but I found taking little things out as I read more/learned more has made my lifestyle much more sustainable.  

Step 1: Make Substitutions - Jan 2011

The first major change to my life was caused by moving to Germany.  With that, came a lot of lifestyle changes that were mostly forced upon me, but for the better.  For example, soda.  I would get judgemental eyes, everytime I got a Coke at lunch. No German drinks a soda at lunch everyday… at least none in my office.  Once when I got a half liter (~a 24oz) out of  out of a vending machine and put it to my lips like normal, I got a “are you going to drink that whole thing?! you know that has an ungodly amount of sugar, right?” … Well, uh, yeah.  I didn’t realize that this wasn’t normal here.  A few weeks later, I saw a German worker purchase a half liter from the vending machine, go get a glass from the kitchen, and only drank about 4oz.  I quickly switched to carbonated mineral water (which most hate, but you get used to it).  At first, it was just to fit in, but then I started to like it.  It makes my skin crawl to think that I used to drink a 42oz Mt. Dew at least once a week.  It’s just disgusting. 

Another thing that helped was that preservatives are illegal in Germany (possibly in Europe overall, idk).  High Fructose Corn Syrup doesn’t exist.  I was in a grocery store and a ton of staples in my diet back then weren’t available (like light-and-fit yogurt, low-fat “butter” spreads, lean cuisines).  And then, I realized that everyone around me is eating real butter, 11g fat yogurt, whole-fat cheeses, 3% or more milk (blech, I opted out on that one), lots of meats mashed into sausage shapes with gravy, pork with gravy, potatoes with butter … almost every meal had either gravy or a butter based sauce.  Yet, everyone was smaller than me.  I ate the same food as them, granted walked a lot more than back home, and still lost weight.  I felt like everything I had been taught about being healthy was a sham.

 So, when I returned to the US, I was on a crusade to…

Step 2: Eat Real Food - July 2011

I vowed to eat small portions of whole-fat and whole-calorie foods instead of their fake counterparts.  Nothing artificially “light,” “diet,” or “non-fat” entered my cart. Later on, I learned that these foods basically just add carbohydrates in place of good fats, carbohydrates that I was already over-consuming on.  I also tried to stay out of the frozen pre-prepared food isle - freezer pizzas, lean cuisines, heat-and-eat trash.  I ate a lot of fish, chicken, and occasionally beef and tried to eat as many fruits and vegitables as possible — it was about 50/50 split.  Gradually, I removed pasta and bread from my diet, switched from white to smaller portions of brown rice.  I took lots of little steps in removing bad things and introducing good things.

Looking back, pre-prepared hot meals at our work cafeteria 2-3x per week, and having an unbalanced plate (addressed in “Zone” below), were the things that kept me from reaching high weight loss numbers despite Crossfitting 4x a week.  My body composition change over this period was gradual, but noticeable (not on a scale, because of muscle gain, but in pictures)… but nothing like…

Step 3:  Zone  -  January 2012

I have never done anything that has worked as well as zoning.  In 5 weeks, I lost 13lbs of fat and maintained muscle composition (verified through DEXA scan at a Dr’s office).  I won’t lie, it was a little bit overwhelming at first (all the weighing, and the counting, and the measuring), but if you stick with it for a few weeks, you will soon be able to “eyeball” portion sizes and make easy, balanced meals without the charts, which you can find here: 

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf  

Armed with only a print out of that pdf, for the last month, I stuck to the zone plan of 3,3,1,3,1.  That’s 3 blocks of each protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Then two, one block snacks.  Zone isn’t restrictive on the types of food that you can eat — You are allowed to eat unfavorable carbs, like breads or pasta, but the portions are so small when compared to the favorable carbs, like veggies that the choice is clear i.e. you can have half a slice of bread OR 4 cups of spinach… um, duh.  Since I had already removed these foods (and I didn’t feel like starving to death), I only chose from the favorable carbs list.  

I made my first few meals and was instantly skeptical.  I was sure I was going to gain weight.  I was easily consuming 2-3 times the volume of food that I was used to — not really changing the types of food; they were just in different proportions.  For example… 

In a typical day of the “Eat Real Food” stage:

Breakfast: Yogurt (often non-fat, despite my crusade.  sometimes it’s all that’s available) and coffee … many days just coffee (with creamer or milk&sugar) or nothing at all. 

Lunch:  On a good day (2-3x a week): a small salad composed of spinach/lettuce, mushrooms, and cucumber with a side of fruit off of the work cafeteria salad bar. On a bad day (the other 2-3 days a week): Cafeteria Hot-food station standard fare (tacos, cheeseburger and fries, pork chop with mashed potatoes, or fried chicken dinner)

Snack: Occasionally a nature valley bar or apple  - candy bar once every other week. Usually skipped this. 

Dinner: 6-8oz chicken breast or salmon with 1/2-1 cup veggies sauted in olive oil for dinner.

Typical Zone Day: 

Breakfast:  6oz plain Greek yogurt, 1 cup of strawberries, 9 almonds

Lunch: 4.5 oz Salmon cooked in olive oil on a huge (4 cups) spinach salad —  twice the salad amount as before.  And half an apple and some crasins as salad toppings.  

Snack:  half an apple, 1 oz cheese (full-fat version baby bell - mainly for it’s convenient size/packaging - it’s really 3/4oz, whatever), 3 almonds

Dinner: 4.5 oz chicken, a crapload of broccoli (like a whole large head) with 4 walnuts, 4oz of wine

Snack: 1/2 chocolate protein bar (a whole smart for life brand is exactly 2 blocks)

Like I said, it’s a lot of food. 

Step 4: Zone Paleo - Future

For those that aren’t familiar.  Paleo is also known as the “Caveman diet” — basically it’s everything that you can hunt/gather with some exceptions.  There are a million articles on the internet, so I’m not going to discuss further here.  But, this is the next step for me eventually.  Since I’m already off of almost all grains, I’m nearly here but for me to claim Paleo, I’ll have to ditch dairy and be more aggressive about sugar.

Because of Zoning, I’ve not only lost 13lbs of fat (which I still cannot even believe), I’ve had a bunch of little milestones recently: being able to consistently rock out on double-unders, my first unassisted kipping pull-up, followed by my first set of ten unbroken kipping pull-ups, a PR on back-squats and my fastest mile since high school.  Mainly, I’m amped about having been able to complete some of the “Benchmark Girls” workouts as prescribed.   

As someone who has struggled with fitness for many years, despite “working out” and doing what I thought was eating right, I hope to share my experience to provide motivation for those: who want to start to lead a healthier life, give relief to those spending hours on the elliptical with no results, and inspire new crossfitters not to give up.   

As most women are, at the beginning of all of this, I was terrified of “bulking up,” so I was running myself to death and somehow thinking Zumba and step-aerobics were going to change my life.  I mean, those things are fun, but I would hardly break a sweat.  I also thought I was eating right, which really amounted to trading calories for chemicals (diet soda, artificial sweeteners) and good fats for more carbohydrates (margarine, light and fit yogurt, anything non-fat).  

That being said, I realized the other day that I’ve been a Crossfitter for six months now, averaging 4 workouts of the day (WODs) a week.  I’ve also made some dietary changes (Zone) along this journey, which are equally as important, and I will write a separate post about.  As a teaser, I saw quick and noticeable results during my first 3 months of crossfit, but was feeling like I was plateauing during my second 3 month period.  When I changed my diet, results were ridiculous.  I finally feel like I’m making headway to being really happy with my body.  In fact, sometimes, I feel like I’m narrowing in on being in the best shape of my life. 

Crossfit isn’t easy, especially when first starting.  Ready for a laugh?  These are a few entries of my personal journal after my first workouts:  

“WOD#1 August 13th, Saturday Morning Green Ramp.  

It’s 115 degrees today. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN DEGREES.  I’m from OHIO, this doesn’t happen.  But, I went. After putting it off for two weeks, hoping it would cool off, I went.  For the first time in my life, I felt nauseated and like I might faint.  I had to take a break and sit outside for a little while.  I was mortified.  When I was younger, I played competitive travel soccer and volleyball year round.  I’ve never had that feeling before. I wouldn’t consider myself a couch-potato now, either.  I run.  I thought I knew my body.

After some water and time to catch my breath, I pushed through and finished the workout.  Including 150 squats (which is what the trainer told me to do because I was new, but was only half the requirement for the regulars).  I have never in my life sweat so much, or been so sore.

August 15th, Monday.   It was rough finding the motivation today.  I was still embarrassed from my near fainting spell on Saturday.  I’ve never been in that situation before.   Oh well.  I’m sure I wasn’t the first person that happened to this year. I went anyway. 

So, today…  Oh.My.God.  First, I’ve never done a pull-up in my life until today.  With the help of a green band, today I did 50. 

WOD:

20 pull-ups

30 push-ups

40 sit-ups

50 squats

Harley told me to do 2 rounds with a stretch goal 3.  I did 2 and felt like my arms were going to fall off.  I was impressed with my pull-ups and embarrassed by my push-ups (like really, really… and I was doing the girl version!).  But, I pushed through and did half of a third set.   I have seriously never been this sore, not even after 8hour/day week long volleyball training.  Never.   Washing my hair was torture. I almost went for some scissors to relieve myself from my sports bra.  It kills to lift my arms up that high.   Welcome to the gun show, Claire.

Day 3: Wednesday Aug 17: Benchmark Day

This was a random coincidence. It was the 30 day mark for their zone challenge, so everyone had to re-do their benchmark to see how they’d done.     I am still sore and wished I would have done this one Monday.  I was annoyed that today with the greenband, with all my might, I couldn’t even do one pull up all the way.   They set me up for green and blue —- I was the only one in the class who had to use two, which is frustrating… Plus, my push-ups were even worse.  I couldn’t keep my butt down and still doing modified. sigh, it’ll all come with time.

My time: 6:18”

It’s been a long battle, but my box completed its second round of zone challenge and second bouts of the same benchmark workout. On Friday, my time was 5:45 for one round, doing all movements prescribed (no modifications).  Unfortunately, I quickly fell apart during the second round of push-ups and had a finishing time of 13:44 (two rounds total).  However, the fact that I didn’t fall to my knees to knock out my push-ups was a mental-win for me. A feat that a month ago, I failed to accomplish.  Proudly,  I put RX’D next to my time. :)

My advice: Get in there with a good attitude, poised to push yourself every time; pick someone with good form to double-check yourself when you get tired; and train with INTEGRITY (don’t cheat yourself out of reps, don’t modify unless you absolutely have to, NEVER lie about your time).  

Mostly though, as someone who almost fainted in their first workout and used to consistently pull times in the bottom 10% of the group while modifying… Set your pride aside, be patient, STICK WITH IT, and remember to celebrate the little things. 

GOALS (from easiest to hardest):

• GOAL 1: 25 Double-Unders in a row  completed 12/19/2011
• GOAL 2: An unassisted kipping pull-up  completed 1/3/2012.  I did 6! BOOYA.
• GOAL 3: Complete the CRIM next year (August, 10 mile race, Flint, MI) or some equivalent depending on where I am in the world… I won’t be in MI, so this one will likely turn into a half marathon/tough mudder
• GOAL 4: Within the next 12 months, do all workouts prescribed