Category: Eating Fit

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25. Nov
Eating Fit, Observations, The Owner's Corner

The Holidays Have Arrived and I’m Scared

The holidays have arrived and I’m scared. I hope the title of this got your attention. That is my intent of course. But, it’s not just the title of this little article. It is the truth. What am I afraid of? I’m afraid that many of my new friends will give themselves license to return to their OLD way of life. It’s Thanksgiving, shouldn’t I indulge? Yes you should. But, you should also REMEMBER. Remember how much hard work you have put in. Hard, hard work. Many of you have worked harder in the past 6 months than you have in your entire lives. So, I ask again, should I indulge? Again, yes BUT… we need limits. Primarily what I want to share with you is: HOW DO I STAY ON TRACK DURING THE HOLIDAYS? Before I give you some easy to apply tips about staying on track, let me set this up for you some. One of the things that I have guarded against over the years is to not ostracize myself because of how I eat. Let me be really clear, open and honest. I have cheat meals. I think it’s mentally healthy. And more to my point here, I think it’s the correct thing to do SOCIALLY. We live in a culture that has made mealtime, social time. Wether it’s right or wrong, this is the age that we live in. We associate good times and friends with food and drink. In my mother’s house, on Thanksgiving day, she expects me to eat some of nearly everything that she has spent two days preparing. And I will comply. It will make me need a nap but, I’ll happily and guilt free eat everything that my dear mother has made. I encourage you to do the same. But, we have to do so knowing that we have to get back on track right away. Here is where TIP #1 comes in: Plan how many cheat meals will take place over the Thanksgiving holidays and DO NOT vary from that plan. If you don’t have family close enough to visit, don’t like them or you just like to eat alone, you have an advantage here. You get to control what and where you will eat for your holiday meal. However, if you are like my family, we have MULTIPLE places that we are EXPECTED to be on Thanksgiving. So, if you already know when, where and how many of these feasts you have to attend, plan that many cheat meals and be done with it. In our case, we will go to my parent’s house and two days later, Windi’s parent’s house. That would be two cheat meals plus another cheat meal of leftovers. DONE. OVER. Back to normal. I recommend you do something similar to this. But, why? I’m glad you asked. The why is because, unless you have been eating a natural food diet (Paleo, etc.) for a year or two, you are liable to revert back…

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16. Sep
Box News, Eating Fit, The Owner's Corner

My First Competition- What should I bring?

Well, well, well. You’ve been doing CrossFit for a while now and you’ve decided to see what the competitive side is like. You’ve consulted with your Coaches, tailored your training, reigned in your nutrition and you are mentally ready to go. But, you may not be sure of the logistics of what you will need for the day long competition. This Sauturday, September 21st, we will have SEVEN 2 person teams participating in CrossFit Talon’s Takes 2 To Tango competition. This will be many of our member’s first CrossFit competition. We feel that it will be beneficial for you to have a checklist of sorts for “What to Bring”. FOOD This one gets it’s own category. Coach Greg said it perfectly: “be prepared to graze”. This will be an all day affair but, you may not feel like eating entire meals. You may even have to FORCE yourself to get something in. Everyone is a little different when it comes to how his or her food needs to happen on the day of a competition. As far as nutritional timing, you need to get something in post workout, every workout. You may have a couple of hours break between sessions. Here is a list of foods that we recommend: WATER- lots of it, NO Gatorade or the like. Protein powder (shake made with coconut water or water, water) Sweet potato chips (chop up a sweet potato, toss in olive oil, bake at 425 for 20 minutes or so) I’ll be bringing two large potatoes made this way. Grilled chicken breasts (2-3) A salad with lots of greens, a chicken breast and a healthy fat (i.e. almonds, olive oil, coconut oil). This may be the only full meal that you will want for the day but, it may not be. Athlete dependent. Fruit- (3-5) any and all Nuts- a bag of almonds or cashews will be perfect WATER- it’s worth putting on the list twice OTHER LOGISTICAL ITEMS Cooler Your gym bag http://crossfitcombustion.com/you-need-a-gym-bag-whats-in-mine EZ Up- We have two coming but, might need more Comfy chair Mobility- foam roller, lacross ball, etc. Clothing- 3-5 T-shirts, 2-3 pair of underwear (if applicable), 2-3 shorts, Lifting shoes, 2 pair minimalist shoes Camera or phone Sunscreen Athletic tape Gloves or gymnastic wraps Cash- there might be vendors there with cool stuff that you will want to take home   Please let us know if you think of anything that is not on this list that should be. Have fun!

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08. Sep
Eating Fit, Observations

Killing the Fat Roy Part 2- “Caught by Surprise”

June-August: “Caught by surprise” This morning started off like any typical day. I work from home so my normal “business attire” is really just a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt. You know the type, the shorts with the elastic band in them. Because I wear those so often, I didn’t really notice how much I was shrinking. But, that night I put on my favorite cargo shorts as we headed out to dinner. Well, my favorite shorts are no more. That night they literally fell off….as I was walking out the front door. Haha! What a surprise that was. I knew they were loose, but didn’t know they were that loose. Sometimes the things you are looking for happen when you least expect them. As my mother used to say “a watched pot never boils”. So, that thought process goes right along with the advice that my coaches continued to give me which was “avoid the scale, it is NOT the best indicator of fitness”. They even said “are your clothes fitting differently”? is a better indicator. The whole muscle vs. fat vs. weight discussion happens. More often than not when someone is embarking on a fat loss journey they expect to see HUGE results instantaneously. I guess that’s not surprising seeing as how we have become a country that wants instant gratification. This is why the “quick fix” fitness industry is a multi-Billion dollar business. People want everything instantly, but don’t want to show the patience or apply the EFFORT that it takes to achieve the desired result. People must first remember, as I told myself when starting my fat loss journey, I didn’t get this way overnight. It’s not like I went to bed one night with abs and woke up the next morning weighing 313 pounds. It was a pattern of poor choices in food day in and day out that lead to the gradual weight gain. One thing folks need to realize is it’s that pattern of bad choices that go from being choices to becoming HABITS. Once they are habits, they become harder to break. You don’t see huge weight gains over night, but with those bad choices becoming bad habits that you repeat day in and day out, you slowly start to gain a couple pounds a month. Inside of a year that is a gain in 24 pounds, now let this progress year after year, and you easily see how someone gets 50+ pounds overweight. The good news is habits can be broken. I read one time that it takes 14 days to break a habit. Speaking for myself, I walked through life like a zombie; I ate whatever, whenever and never really put any thought into what I was consuming. So it all begins with being cognizant of what you are doing. Think before you eat….. Ok that became a tangent, but as I am traveling this journey to become the best me I can become there are all these…

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23. Aug
Eating Fit, Observations

Killing the Fat Roy Part 1- “How Did I Let This Happen?”

Fat to Fit: My journey through CrossFit March 2013: So I looked in the mirror as I walked by it and said “How did I let this happen.” I was wearing a XXL Polo, trying to look nice, for my god daughter’s baby shower. I had walked into the bathroom and as I saw myself in the mirror I froze. Do I really look like this? Is this how other people see me? At the age of 36, I had tried about every diet from Ketogenic to replacing meals with shakes. As with all diets, I would lose 10-15, then once my eating habits changed, I would gain what I had lost, plus and extra five for my troubles. It’s not like I was lazy, I have loved lifting weights for years and years, however, despised cardio. When it comes to diet, I could always be really strict with my diet, but only for a short time, and then I would fall completely off the wagon and go 180 degrees the opposite way. All these things had lead to me staring in the mirror at a 313 pound version of myself. I knew at this point, I had to do something, or it was only going to get worse, the bad part was now being 36 years old and never having any REAL success at losing and keeping off the weight, I had all but lost hope. April 2013: One day while trying to learn more about CrossFit through YouTube videos, I ran across a series on the CrossFit website entitled “Killing the Fat Man”. The series now has 13 episodes chronicling the life of a man named Gary Roberts, and his journey to change his life forever through CrossFit. Prior to this I had watched the CrossFit games on TV, and although I loved all aspects of it, everyone on there was an absolute beast and I knew there was no way I could do half of the things they were doing, but after watching the “killing the Fat Man” series, I thought, “hey, if this guy can do it so can I”. That day I begin searching to find a box close to home. April 2013-The first day at the box: I’m sitting in the car watching everyone training while I watch the clock getting closer to 7pm. I have a horrible memory, but I remember seeing Louie knocking out some pull-ups, and I said “I’ve never even did one”. As the time seven o’clock grew closer and closer I was beginning to get nervous. My years of power lifting did look like it was going to help me out as I once thought it would, nothing I watched them do through the window that evening even used a barbell, I was officially TOTALLY out of my element. The time came and I pulled myself out of the car and slowly walked up to the door feeling “these people are sizing me up”, or “They are going to…

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10. Aug
Eating Fit

Let’s Talk About SOY.

So, yes, let’s talk about soy. Soy is made from soybeans. Interestingly, soybeans are not beans at all. They are legumes. Now, legumes and their negative effects on our health are a different post all together but, they aren’t necessarily good. In fact, legumes are the primary cause of a condition called “Leaky Gut”. Mmmm, sounds wonderful doesn’t it? We will talk about legumes in general and Leaky Gut a different day. Now, back to the soybeans and soy. Now, why am I interested in soy? Well, it’s in a ton of modern day, highly processed “foods” and “food products” (I find it bizarre to even put the words food and product in the same phrase). Now, when you look at soy there are two versions. The fermented version, primarily found in Asia, has some positive health effects. However, we don’t live in Asia. We live in the good ole’ U.S. of A. where the USDA won’t ban anything that profits big food companies. So, we get the other version, unfermented soy. Here are a few of the side effects of unfermented soy products: infants that are fed soy products may have more than 20,000 times more estrogen in their bodies than infants fed other formulas, soy increases your body’s requirement for Vitamin D (so they put a toxic version called D2 in to soy milk for good measure), it contains potent agents that block the synthesis of the thyroid, it interferes with protein digestion. So, let’s look specifically at protein digestion. Some weight-loss powders used in shakes and smoothies use soy in their products. They then tout the weight-loss effects. So, here is the connection, down and dirty. The soy blocks ones ability to process protein and many other nutrients correctly. Then, if you replace a REAL food meal with this shake that is loaded with soy, you are in effect starving your body of nutrients. Oh! but, you lose weight. Well, I can lose weight in that fashion in a concentration camp too. I think we can agree that, that wouldn’t be a healthy way to go about losing weight. So here is my advice to you: avoid soy and every other modern day “food products”. Trust that nature knows better than we do when it comes to food. Eat lean meats, lots of vegetables, some fruits, seeds and nuts. You will be glad that you did. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/soy-health_b_1822466.html http://www.foodrenegade.com/dangers-of-soy/

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07. Aug
Eating Fit

Milk…Should We Be Drinking This Stuff??

There are a lot of views on this topic…our view is NO we should NOT drink milk. If you look around you will notice we (humans) are the only mammals that drink milk after weaning in childhood and it’s doesn’t even come from another human being! Cows do not drink cow’s milk. Calves stop drinking cow’s milk between the ages of six to eight months. Here is a good article outlining more details on why you should stay away from milk and we encourage you to check it out and to consider the alternatives to milk for a healthier lifestyle. 6 Reasons Why Milk Doesn’t Do a Body Good.  http://julesfuel.com/2012/06/14/6-reasons-why-milk-doesnt-do-a-body-good/  

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