Nutrition Information

Currently I am doing Paleo. Its easier for me as I don’t have to worry about portions. I would like to do the Zone diet sometime but I don’t think I could keep up with the weighing and measuring.

So I basically eat meats, vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts. I have almost completely cut out dairy. I never thought I would be able to do this as I ate cereal every morning. Now I eat 3-4 eggs every morning, cooked different ways. My current favorite is scrambled with bacon, onions, garlic, and some vegetable. I have also started adding a cup of blue berries as a “dessert” after breakfast. For snacks I either have fruits or nuts. I have tons of almonds around. Some plain almonds or Almond Crunch. I get it from Costco. Same with the blue berries, I get the frozen ones in bulk.

I eat meat at every meal. I try and mix it up between pork, beef, and chicken. Unfortunately I do not eat as much fish as I want, or should eat. Sticking to this diet was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I also eat out easily. Mexican food tends to be the easiest. I just substitute the tortillas, rice, and beans for more lettuce and Pico D’ Gallo. Since I am not eating dairy I also do not get cheese or sour cream. If I order a steak, I substitute the mashed potatoes or what ever complex carbohydrate they serve with some other vegetable, and creamed spinach and stuff like that is not a substitute.

I have also cut out grains. So no breads, pasta, or rice. I thought this would be hard too, but its not as bad as you think. Instead of going to a fast food restaurant, go to a grocery store and pick up some deli meat and fruit, or a side salad if they have that available. I eat that pretty much 5 days a week for lunch.

It is important to have cheat days. I allow myself 2 cheat meals a week. This would keep with the 90-10 rule, or 80-20 if you want. This basically says stick to your diet 90% of the time and cheat 10% of the time. In a week there are 7 days, 3 meals a day equals 21 meals. If you eat 19 meals according to the diet you are at 90% compliance. I have been sticking to this pretty well for a few months now. I think as I Crossfit more and see more results I would like to refine my diet more.

Recently, I took a 50 day challenge and I cut out all soda. I was drinking diet soda everyday. At least a can of diet Pepsi everyday, if not more. It got to the point where I thought I was addicted to it. So it was time to cut it out. Shilpa and I also made a decision to never eat French fries again. These small decisions will benefit us in the long run.

Remember that nutrition is 85% of weight loss, 15% is working out.

Here are some interesting videos and articles:

Interesting article about carbohydrates and modern diet: Ketogenic diets and physical performance

Robb Wolfs Site - He is the guy that does the nutrition certifications for CrossFit.
Robb received his scientific training at California State University Chico where he earned a BS in Biochemistry. From here Robb worked as a research biochemist for 5 years, and includes in his CV lipid metabolism research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as well as Paleolithic Diet research with Prof. Loren Cordain of Colorado State University and author of the book The Paleo Diet. Robb is also a review editor for the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism.