Nutrition Challenge 3 Rules

CrossFit Orlando Nutrition Challenge
Welcome to our Nutrition Challenge. These Challenges are designed to start you on your way to better health and performance through proper nutrition, or to help fine-tune a diet for your specific needs. Here at CrossFit Orlando, as with much of the CrossFit community, we promote the Paleo and Zone diets as the best evidence-based nutritional plans for optimal health, weight loss, and performance gains.

We like to look at this as not a short-term “diet” but more of a way of life and healthy eating that is enjoyable and sustainable.

Something to consider: We’re your trainers for 1 hour a day at best. In the other 23 hours what you do to take care of your body can have a far greater impact. You need to manage rest and recovery, and most importantly nutrition, for what you’re doing in that hour in the gym to provide optimal results. Fueling your body improperly can not only limit the results, it can actually undermine your efforts and lead to injury and illness. Calories in does not simply equal calories out, there’s a host of other things going on in between. The more you work out, the more hungry you get, and sticking more of the wrong fuel in is a pathway to sickness.

“Eat meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar. (crossfit.com – world class fitness in 100 words)

The Challenge – Rules
6 weeks of strict Paleo combined with Zone is the goal. We realize this is pretty strict and challenging, but we think it’s important to have you do both for a time to get a good grasp of how it works, and how to tweak the diet for optimal gains. Once you become used to the idea, it’s much easier to go back to “just eyeball it” measurements without strict “zoning”. We do strongly suggest sticking to paleo as a standard, but not everyone has the desire to strictly weigh and measure all the time.

Weigh and Measure:
For the challenge, you’ll need to get your block prescription, and start a food log. You can go to www.drsears.com for an accurate starting block prescription, or use the CrossFit Journal 21 (available online, or ask us for a copy). Extremely active or “hard-gainer” people may need to tweak their prescription – ask us if you think this is a concern.

Photos and Weigh in:
We’ll be taking before and after photos. Stop in the office prior to the start of the challenge for a photo shot and weigh in.

Food Log:
You MUST keep a food log. This means write everything down, even if you fall off track or have cheat meals. We need to see logs to be able to offer advice and identify problem areas. This also means you need to weigh and measure all your food. It’s an important thing to do even if just for awhile until you get accustomed to food quantities.

Trainer Advice: Trainers are available before and after classes to discuss any nutrition questions you may have. You may also feel free to email us with specific concerns or questions. Teams are also allowed a weekly team meeting with an available trainer – ask us to schedule this.

Performance Evaluation:
For the team challenge, we’ll be having a final team event WoD at the end, which will give bonus points to the winners.

Judging:
The final before and after photos will also be evaluated, and teams given bonus points based on the changes (rating 0-10 per person). Individual winner will be determined by the most improved here, but for the teams, the majority of the points will come from the weekly tally.

Price:
The cost of the challenge is $25.

Prizes:
Team prizes will be gift cards based on the amount of the initial “pot” in signups.

Winning:
Team with the most points at the end of 6 weeks wins.

There will also be a most improved individual winner, which will be voted on similar to our first two challenges.

Teams:
Teams of 5-10 (evenly split based on sign-ups)
Each team will be a mix of veteran Nutrition Challengers and newbies.
A veteran will be picked as team lead.
Teams will be composed of people who generally work out at the same time of day.
Each team picks a name.

Rules:
Weekly team points tally and weekly team winners will be announced.

Each team member MUST keep a food log. BeyondtheWhiteboard is preferred for ease of coach supervision, but any log that you can EMAIL to us and we can understand will be accepted. Food logs are due every Friday by 8 PM mailed to foodlogs@crossfit-orlando.com.

The ideal goal is for everyone to weigh and measure, only quality foods, for 6 weeks, to get both quantity and quality of food on the proper track. There is no cheating allowed, the idea here is to reset your cravings and fine tune what your body really needs for optimal health and fitness.

Scoring:

Nutrition
Each day eating strict Paleo/Zone = 4 pts
Each day eating strict Paleo only (measured and logged but not zone balance) = 2 pts
Drinking 50% BW of water (ounces) per day = 1 pt

Rest
8+ hours of sleep a night = 1 pts

Workouts
CF 3-4x per week = 4 pts per WOD (max 16 pts) (Less than 3 WODs per week = 0 pts)

Misc
Cheating (eating something non – paleo) = 0 pts for day for nutrition (can still get other points).
No journal / log =  -1 pts/day
Body fat reduction % change for entire team = number of points (e.g. 5% change total lost = 5 pts)

Bonus Points: Watch Food, Inc. or Read any of the books on the Nutrition Handout = 4 pts each (we reserve the right to add other bonus point options along the way)

We reserve the right to adjust the point scoring if we see any imbalance that needs addressing.

Helpful Tips:

1. Weigh and measure. Yes it seems like a hassle and your friends will give you strange looks, but seriously, you have to do this at some point to really know what you’re putting in your body. Get a decent food scale or postal scale. Most of them it’s a simple thing to tare or zero out a plate, then add food.

2. Leftovers are awesome. If you can get used to eating leftovers, even cold, it makes life a lot simpler. We’ll be measuring specific quantities per meal, and most packages of food don’t come in the perfect quantity we want. It’s much more efficient to cook up a large batch, then measure out the desired quantity and save the rest for later.

3. Use that log, log everything, even cream added to coffee, etc. Logging can make all the difference in the world turning a “pretty good” diet into an excellent one. For this challenge, we need logs sent to us by email, so you’ll need them in some sort of typed or online form. Also, the online workout logs we use at beyondthewhiteboard.com have simple diet logging that lets you input any data you want including zone blocks. If you want an account ask us to set you up.

4. If you’re able to get online most of the time or have a smart phone, free online diet tracking websites can be helpful to get even more exact nutrient breakdowns than the rough zone block counts.  www.thedailyplate.com has instant conversions based on however you want to weigh and measure the food, which is nice, but you have to ignore their recommendations for nutrient balance. Other sites will only let you pick food based on ounces, cups, whatever, so you have to do the math in your head. Dailyburn.com is also a good one, and fitday.com. Note: Don’t bother with plugging in exercise calories. You should be getting a block or calorie prescription from us which already includes your activity level. These sites often will tout the idea that you can just exercise more and add more food -“ it doesn’t work that way.

5. Weigh in. Weighing in every day can be useful to track progress. If you’re trying to lose significant weight it’s pretty important to do, as you’ll be able to see steady changes. We regularly see people lose around 5 lbs a week on strict paleo/zone. If you weigh in at the same time every day (suggest first thing in morning if possible), you should see steady progress every couple of days. If it’s not moving (and you want it to), you’re doing something wrong, so bring in your food log and let us take a look.

Q&A
1. I want to do X diet instead and prove to you that it’s better.
We realize you can get thin on other diets. Our contention is that many of the other ones out there have you eating things that are not healthy for the long term, and are often unsustainable as a lifestyle. The point of the challenge is to try this one, compare it to what you did before, and see for yourself what it can do for you. If you choose to go back to something else, that’s up to you. It’s not a “battle of the diets”. If you aren’t going to try it, don’t do the challenge. You’re welcome to do a weigh in and take photos for comparison if you like though.

2. What in the world do you eat for breakfast if you can’t have cereal/oatmeal/yogurt/etc.?
Eggs are ok if you can’t manage something better, but best to eat them in moderation. Bacon/Sausage/Ham is still better than grains and sugars – just measure them. Roast beef or chicken breasts in the fridge, steam some veggies, add a piece of fruit, and some nuts or coconut butter on the veggies – makes a good breakfast.

4. What do I drink?
Water preferably. Get used to it, I know we’ve all grown up in a world of sugar-flavored drinks, but I think most of us know how bad they are for us. Once you get used to it, all that other stuff starts tasting disgusting. Tea, unsweetened, or Coffee, black, is ok as well, but highly suggested to get off the caffeine. If that’s the one thing you can’t do without, get used to having it black and consider it later if you notice problems with energy levels or stall out on goals. There’s lots of herbal teas that have a nice mild taste without the caffeine or sugar. Also, a glass of wine on occasion with dinner is allowable as well.

5. I’m already on paleo, and don’t need to lose weight, why should I do the challenge?
If you’re already doing paleo, happy with where you are, maybe you don’t need any assistance, but you can certainly still win by showing gains and meeting goals. Some people like the added incentive of being in the challenge to stick with the diet strictly. For most people, adding the Zone on can help improve an already solid diet and tweak it for better performance as needs change. Also, with the team challenge, your team can greatly benefit by your assistance and advice.

6. What do I do if I have to eat out?
In general, you’re better off not eating out. Saves money, and avoids all the unknown garbage most restaurants put on their foods as seasoning. Likely suspects would be sugar and wheat, even in places you wouldn’t expect like a steak. If you want to be strict, there are always ways – carry a cooler, pack lunches, eat before you go out and then if you need to socialize have a tea or coffee. You can also do reasonably well at most restaurants if you make smart choices and ask for substitutions when needed. Most places have at least some sort of salad with meat available. Ask for oil and lemons or vinegar instead of a sugary dressing. Eggs are a decent choice in a pinch and fairly easy to come by as well. Once you get used to measuring you can even eyeball most portions and adapt the rest of your day around whatever you ate out.

7. What about protein shakes & bars?
Most bars are glorified candy bars with some sort of highly processed protein added to them. Avoid them, I’ve yet to see any “protein bar” that isn’t garbage. A few nut & fruit bars are not bad for your carbs and fats, such as Lara bars, but you’ll need to still find a protein source to go with them. Shakes – if you really must – there are a few types of protein shake available that have few additives. Try “Natural Factors” and “Jay Robb’s” available at Whole Foods. Not the best choice, but better than shorting yourself on protein.

8. I don’t like the foods on the list.
Ok, but realize that “the list” is “real food” and may not include everything that should qualify. But if meat, fruit, nuts, oils, veggies, don’t enter your idea of food, you might want to reconsider. When exactly did “what I enjoy eating” become “what I should eat”? Most of us would probably love it if candy bars and ice cream fit the bill for good nutrition, but sadly we usually know better.  Pasta, pizza, bagels, smoothies, processed flavored bean paste, and cereal would not qualify any more than the candy bars outside of modern marketing. If you could pick it and eat it, or kill it and eat it, chances are it’s probably real food and your body evolved to live on it. You might be surprised how your tastes change based on what you’re accustomed to eating.

9. Vegetarian/Vegan
You can still attempt to do the diet, though it will be much harder, and you’ll keep hearing about how animal proteins are the best for health and performance. We’re not going to argue religion here, but we can point you in the direction of humanely raised animal products. It’s very very hard to get enough quality protein without a bunch of extra calories and other things that are unhealthy from beans, nuts, or whatever other processed protein you can find. Eggs and Dairy help if you’ll eat those, but you really need at least to eat fish if you want to be able to perform at a high level and see good results from training. If animals dying is the concern, we strongly suggest reading “The Vegetarian Myth” and doing a little research. For even plants to live, animals need to die to provide the nutrients, and modern farming for vegetables kills far more animals than sustainably raised meat animals.

10. What’s the $25 for?
It covers prizes, the party at the end of the challenge, and trainer time to help oversee and counsel for the challenge.