Crossfit Norwest, Raw strength and conditioning and Barefoot Evolution Discussion Forum

[Rob]

Since everyone has had the opportunity to read some of the varies CrossFit Journals about diet I would like to see who is on the zone who is eating Paleo (hunter gatherer type food) and who just eats what ever?

For instance I am eating 27 blocks a day with 4 times the fat. I break these into 5, 5 block meals and then a 2 block snack before bed! I calculate a block by rounding so for me I take a block of carbs to be 9 grams, block of protein as 7 grams and a block of fat as 2 grams. so in a 5 block meal I have 45 grams of carbs, 35 grams of protein and 40 grams of fat (4 times remember) normally it would be 10 grams of fat. I choose my carbs carefully from a selection of vegetables and exclude all sugar from carb source. that means I eat no sugar at all. This doesn't please Leigh at home as I will not eat chocolate ice cream or lollies etc. I do not find it boring at all but now having been off sugar products for such a long time I feel very ill when I eat them. That also includes cordial!!!! I do not eat any wheat products and I stay away from gluten just by choice. I feel now I have way more energy and I never feel bloated. The only sugar I have is in my yoghurt I eat. My protein sources typically come from chicken, eggs, tuna and sometimes steak or beef when either I have the time or Leigh leaves me some left overs. I would eat more beef however the time in food prep is my problem! My fat sources somes from healthy fats, avocado, nuts or nut varients (love the natural peanut butter) and olive oil. Some cheeses mainly the cottage type stuff.

It was a pain in the bum to do at first as I had to measure everything and sometimes I still do however I have keen eye now and can usually guestimate with in a few grams. since starting the zone I have increased my performance astronomically. I do not get tired in the afternoon and just find in general I have more energy. Anyway I'll leave it up to you but if you have any diet questions throw them up and either myself or fellow members should be able to nut it out.

[John]

I stick to fairly simple diet that I find easy to maintain particularly when my wife prepares it most of the time!!!
I have 5 meals per day, which are generally spread out 3 hours apart. I do not eat carbs after lunch apart from what is contained in my vegetables. I eat protein in every meal which usually consists of chicken, fish, eggs and once a week lean red meat. I occasionally use protein supplements (shakes) to break things up. I get my fats from the fish, natural peanut butter and olive oil.
I do not eat sugar at all. I have never really had a sweet tooth so that has not been hard for me. I feel bad at my kids birthdays etc when i don't eat the cake but they know their dads a bit of a freak!! I do find I have pretty good energy levels particularly when I look at other people my age. I'm sure it has to do with the diet and training regime.
Pretty simple and some would say boring but it works for me.....

[Rob]

I'm hearing you John I think I have had one slice of birthday cake in probably the last 15 years at least. Again some would say boring but I don't find it boring at all. At easter I get given protein bars, almond mixes and nut mixes. Stuff like that. I love it. Stay away from the sugar. Worst enemy ever!

[Lawrence.McDonell]

Yeh this is one area i reckon i need to dial in a bit. Evening meals are generally prepared by wife and still occasionally include pasta and rice but i always have wholegrain pasta or brown rice. Through the day i am able to eat fairly well, veges, fruits, tuna, nuts etc. I have not been strong on the no sugar thing though especially on weekends. Am willing to give it up.. have done it before and after the initial headache for 3 days it is easy enough... Would be interested to see if anyone wants to commit to say monitoring each other for a fortnight or a month just to form the habit... ?

[Dan]

I try and keep away from the pasta etc.

I do eat weetbix's for breakfast (vita brits actually). My brekky is usually 5 of these with some plain oats on top.

Carb city but its easy for me and its brekky so I think its burnt off during the day.

Sugar. Love icecream and chocolate mousse. It was hard to get of these and I occasionally slip back, but the moments of weakness are very few and far between, the longer I go without the longer between these weak moments if that makes sense.

Still eat fruit but watch this carefully.

Lunch and dinner are usually fresh lean meat (chicken, tuna, beef) with veges or salad. I love it. Simple and plain by some standards but I actually grew to loving it.
I used to eat a lot of pasta and the like, love my pasta and rice, but now steer clear.

Like Rob alluded to, the hardest part is getting the other half to subscribe to this. She tells me today, she gives up chocolate when I give up coffee, which aint gonna happen.....

Oh and I started a vege patch to even go further with my fresh fruit and veg, because there is nothing fresh at the supermarket where veges and fruit are concerned. Heirloom varieties only, if anyone is insterested check outhttp://www.diggers.com.au for a good approach to fruit and veges.

[Rob]

Dan, that link you showed the diggers one does that show you how to set up your own vegetable patch? I would love to do that in my yard. Hell yeah that would be freaking awesome more so because my yard at the back is crap. I do not have time to look at link now but I'm going to set up my own little garden!!!

[adrian]

I try and adhere to a paleo style diet but its not without its dismal failures though... If I had to put numbers on it I'd say I'm 80% paleo.

An average day for me consists of a couple of protein shakes (I've started adding some dodgy carb supplements for pre and post WOD now), eggs, an apple, maybe a banana, veges and chicken, veges and steak, almonds, walnuts and peanut butter.. and a bunch of mayo with my meat- lots of fat..

Basically I try and keep my carbs to fruit and vegetables and some sweet potato as well.. Reasonably healthy, however last weekend I went sugar crazy cos I was away with my mates.. cake, biscuits. I noticed that felt pretty horrible, but then craved them anyway. Evil stuff.

At some point (maybe July) I want to dial it in on the Zone and really get serious and see how it affects things.

[Dan]

Hey Rob,
I have a great book on backyard vege/fruit growing I will bring tomorrow. Its written by the people at diggers, and fascinating. For instance the little things that the average joe isnt told, like we all think blue berries are good for you and full of antioxidants, but what we dont know is that they need to be picked in a manner that is simply not conducive to being sold in a supermarket - ie they need to be picked ripe, not semi ripe to ripen on the way to the supermarket, as only when they are fully ripe do they actually get their antioxidants!

I started getting into it heaps the last few months, planting organic soil improvers and a whole bunch of other things at my inlaws vege patch, which I have now taken over....

Have plans for a huge spring/summer, massive amounts of tomatoes etc. Only heirloom varieties, none of the yates crap you buy in places like hardware house etc.

There are heaps of places on ebay that you can get really good stuff. I am by no means a greenie/environmental nut bag, but I certainly enjoy good quality home grown fruit and veges.

My advice is you should maybe work on improving the soil preparing it for spring planting.

Can someone for the life of me explain zone/blocks?

The more I read the more confused I get.

Like I said my diet consists of nuts, fresh meat (chicken breast and tuna seem to be the easiest for me to get a hold of) and veges/salad and fruit. I do have a high carb wheat based brekky (wheetbix) with oats etc but am not really sure what else I could substitute this with.

I do have a couple of protein shakes a day.

[Tom]

I try to eat fairly clean most of the time and I'm not too worried if I pack in a big amount of calories every now and then as long as they're clean.

Average day is usually
Morning
3 Fish oil caps, 1 Glucosamine, 1 Multivitamin
1 Cup High Protein Muesli
1.5 Scoops Protein Powder
1/2 Cup of Milk (roughly)
1 Banana
Snack
2 Handfuls of almonds
Lunch
Usually try keep it to chicken and beans, maybe some bacon and eggs sometime (with fat taken off the bacon!), sometimes just a 6inch from subway
Snack
Peanut Butter & Banana Protein Pancake!
1L of low-fat milk
Protein pancake made by mixing 5 scoops of protein powder in to wholemeal pancake shake mix. I end up making em about 15-17cm in diameter. Cover them in say 4 tbsp of natural PB and put a banana in the middle.
Dinner
Whatever, usually don't plan this but try and eat healthy every time

[adrian]

I'm sure everyone is curious as to whats on my plate for lunch today... I think its about 180g of chicken, 370g of veges and 3 heaped teaspoons of mayo - I'm not sure of the blocks.. maybe - 5 blocks of protein and 6-7 of fat.. carbs, maybe 3 or 4 blocks? I dont really know because I didnt weigh and measure the individual components.

Thats pretty much an average lunch or dinner for me - it looks more appetising in front of me than in does in the photo.

Dan - the blocks are made up of a certain amount of grams of either protein, fat or carbs.. There's a block guide on the zone website and Rob probably has some CF Meal plan things that have block guides too. I won't quote the numbers as I am not 100% sure on what they are off the top of my head.

And dont worry - I wont be posting pictures of food too often!