NUTRITION

When a Calorie Is Not a Calorie, Part 2

 

Imagine the results (physical performance) from 2 diets which both consist of 1,500 calories per day. Diet 1 consists of 70% carbohydrates, 20% fat and 10% protein, Diet 2 consists of 35% carbohydrates, 35% fat and 35% protein. Both diets have the same amount of energy. Do you think they deliver the same results.....No Chance. Your body needs a certain amount of essential amino acids and essential fatty acids to sustain life (performance). With a diet that consists of 70% carbohydrates (think vegetarian or suger addict) you have two choices....Weak or Fat

Check out the second installment of Tony Leyland's analysis of a calorie is not a calorie.

Download Calories_2_Vancouver.doc

Courtesy CrossFit Vancouver.
         

 

When a Calorie Is Not a Calorie, Part 1

This is part 1 of a 2 part series by Tony "The Professor" Leyland, courtesy CrossFit Vancouver. Read below to discover why you should avoid high GI foods such as sugar, white bread, rice etc.

This is a downloadable word file Calories_1_Vancouver.doc          

How Do I Stay On the Zone While Eating Out???

Zone Rules for Dining Out

• Never eat the rolls. If you’re going to eat carbohydrates, save it for dessert.

• Always choose a low-fat protein entrée and ask to replace any starches or grains with extra vegetables.

• While waiting for dinner, have a glass of water.

• If the low-fat protein you order is significantly greater than the size of your palm, take the excess home.

• Determine whether the carbohydrates on your plate are favorable or unfavorable. If you’re eating favorable carbohydrates, have double the volume of carbohydrates compared to the protein portion.

• If dining out is not complete without dessert, then don’t eat any carbohydrates during the meal. Order whatever you want for dessert, but eat only half.

Carbs Are Like an Ecstasy Laden, Drunken Binge at the Playboy Mansion

Robb Wolf, of CrossFit NorCal, in Chico, CA, is also one of the editors and contributors of The Performance Menu, a fitness and nutrition journal full of educational information and recipes for fuel, performance, and health.

Robb gave our nutrition lecture at the Rainier CrossFit cert last weekend and hammered home some really excellent information and points that I wanted to share. 

Yo-Yo-Dieting

Posted on January 28, 2008

Sue left the following question which I think is important and offers some interesting insights:
Thanks for the great post. It made me think and stop acting like such a victim because of my weight gain. What do you say to the yo-yo dieters out there like me?

Sue

The dieting merry-go-round is an interesting thing. So much information and good intention, so few favorable results. One result is a sense of failure on the part of dieters that takes on the likeness of a relationship gone bad. Promises are made, only to be broken and a sense of betrayal ensues. Instead of the dynamic describing two lovers this is the personal hell that many people face. Rosy picture isn’t it!

Part of what makes this situation so difficult is that people are facing tough biological, social and psychological issues when attempting to alter eating habits. All of these issues end up stuck together and the glue, not surprisingly, is carbs. WHOA! you might be saying…that’s a lot to lay on a piece of toast or a plate of potatoes…but in my experience this is exactly the issue. Lets take these apart one at a time:

Biological- When folks mention they are yo-yo dieting they are NOT having a problem eating meat, veggies, nuts and olive oil to excess. Whatever the clueless Mcdougalites may say, it’s not being ON the low carb diet that’s a problem, it’s going off the rails and eating every carbohydrate in site down to the bark on trees! Calorie restriction doesn’t work and just feeds into neurosis. It sounds great and plays into our puritanical leanings but it is a failed venture. I’m not sure why but everyone from the government to doctors to theologians LOVE this whole calorie restriction thing…”Eat less, be prudent..have more water dense vegetables…drink a glass of water before a meal to blunt hunger.” Bullshit. None of that crap works and it just leads people down a path towards failure.

The people who have success with this stuff find a level of carb intake that “works”. This level is different from person to person but it mirrors what people like the Dr.’s Eades and others have said for years.

Social- have you ever noticed that no one says a word to the folks who eat a bag of chips and a coke for lunch but if you have a piece of grilled meat, a bag of nuts and a salad you can sell tickets to your lunch hour as a circus side show? It’s an interesting but well documented fact that people do not like seeing others change or make progress. Come from a poor or dysfunctional family? Did you work to get healthy and perhaps wealthy? Are your family members excited about your success or least bit resentful? We see this almost daily…one spouse starts training and eating differently…they start making progress and change and the significant-other freaks out. It either undermines the efforts of our client or the couple tends to split. No shit here folks…heavy stuff but we have seen this pattern play out dozens of times the past 5 years. So part of yo-yo dieting is that people undermine our progress. It kinda sucks to catch flack for trying to affect positive change and sometimes it’s just enough to slide one back to junk-food (that’s TOO MANY CARBS if you missed the section above). Where does personal accountability come into this? Glad you asked…

Psychological- for some damn reason people have some kind of self sabotage thing they get going. For some it relates to diet, for others it’s betting on football and buying shit they do not need. Whatever the issue is the individual knows better, sets their will for change…then fails, feels like crap and the cycle continues. Some people do manage to affect change…but no one knows what the hell it is they are doing differently so it’s really tough to replicate. A growing number of psychiatrists think that drugs, talk therapy and chakra balancing are not very effective at helping people change. What is effective? Sleep, omega-3 fatty acids, and a tightly controlled insulin level. I know this is dragging things back to the biological but most of the yo-yo dieting, bad relationships gambling…it’s all neuro-chemistry and you either take steps to remedy the situation…or you don’t. If you are not sleeping well (and enough), taking your fish oil and keeping your insulin levels under control NOTHING YOU DO WILL WORK.

I’m sorry if this is a bit of a downer but some things just can not be snuck-up on. Some things require a fundamental shift in how you are doing things…if you want to kill the yo-yo dieting (and most behaviors that are troubling) you need to do some combo of the following:

1-Best defense: Don’t be there. What his means is do not have crap in the house. NONE. We do not have self control, we are not wired for it. This is that deal where folks have 8lbs of beef cooked in the refrigerator and they quip “I’m hungry…I’m bored with this…” You’re not bored, you are addicted to crack and you need to decide how you are going to handle the situation. If you absolutely MUST have some, go out and eat it. Make it high quality and do not bring ANY home. No Gad-damned Ezekial bread that can be gnoshed down at 2am as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Meat & veggies, nuts & seeds…that’s what you have on hand at home. If you are not convinced, let me use this analogy:

Most people feel like they can pull off a committed, monogamous relationship.They can avoid a bit of temptation, and do just fine. Cool. What if you are drunk and you just took a whopping dose of Ecstasy…and 10 of the hottest members of whatever sex you are into walk into the room with you and insist on having their way with you. Refined carbs are analogous to an alcohol soaked Ecstasy binge at the PlayBoy Mansion. If you are OK with the consequences of that fact, fine but if you are looking to affect change you need to know that will power will fail you EVERY TIME. You need to plan and you need to keep your home free of crack.

2-Rally the troops or go it alone. Tell the people near you, be it family or friends what you are up to and that you need their help. If they rally to your aid, great, it will really help things. If they begin undermining you as I mentioned above you need to distance yourself and minimize their influence. Obviously this can suck if it’s your best friend, spouse or boss but things are tough enough. If you let the people around you undermine your activities…bad on you. Your eyes are open and you know better.

3- Give yourself a break. This may seem at odds with the ass-whooping I’ve unleashed but you are only one meal away from perfect compliance. Obviously this can not stretch into an infinity of non-compliance (unless you are my parents!) but you need to take it easy on your bad-self. You CAN do this but you actually have to DO it.

We see three basic behavious in our clients with regards to food. Some folks “get it”. They generally eat what they should, when they should. They feel good and they make great progress at more or less a constant rate. Some of our other clients are still stuck on the crack and generally eat too much of the wrong stuff. They feel like shit during workouts and make some progress, albeit slow. The final group does not eat enough. Progress is stalled and in many cases retrograde. This last group is actually a flavor of yo-yo dieting and it is hard as hell to reach these folks.

Perhaps a line from Star Wars in closing:

“Do or do not, there is no try”. Yoda

Link to this article for further comments and other nutrition information.

Sugar is the Evil Culprit, Not Fat

 

A Second Opinion 

 

    Posted on Sunday, December 23, 2007               Jon Gilson                 

       

      

My father’s cardiologist needs to have his face forcibly rearranged. I’m not one to bang heads, but I’d love to walk into that guy’s office and knock him around a little bit.

Two weeks ago, Dad had a massive coronary.  Three stents and a stay in the ICU later, he received the worst piece of advice I’ve ever heard, courtesy of a man who should know better.  With no hint of irony, the cardiologist told him to limit his fat intake.

The last thing my favorite four-heart-attack survivor needs is to stop eating fat.  Quite the contrary, he needs to swerve his runaway diet directly toward lipids. A few fat calories would serve to displace a portion of his rampant carbohydrate consumption, regulating his blood sugar levels and mitigating his fortress-like insulin resistance.

Unfortunately, there was no mention of carbohydrates in their discussion.  My dad will avoid fat like the plague, continuing his steady diet of egg noodles, bread, potatoes, and skim milk.  He’ll be eating the very stuff that’s been killing him for the last sixty years.

Even worse, his highly educated, stethoscope-toting Specialist will sleep well at night, thinking he did everything he could to save Dad’s life.  In reality, he put him on track for heart attack number five, albeit with a bit more metal in his chest and a newfound appreciation for the freedom of hospital apparel. 

Perhaps a little less textbook and a bit more common sense would’ve done the trick.  A simple lifestyle examination shows that my father’s diet is carbohydrate-based, his protein consumption is deficient, and the sum total of his daily exercise consists of getting in and out of his truck.  Furthermore, his stress levels are off the charts. 

These behavioral patterns haven’t changed a lick during the twenty-seven years I’ve had the pleasure of being my father’s son. Given the long duration of this lifestyle and the very unpleasant result, you would think that Captain Cardiologist’s advice would’ve turned Dad’s daily routine on its head.  It didn’t.  It just politely asked him to consume 80% less hamburger.

After I finish the Doctor’s impromptu facelift, I’m going to sit down with Dad.  We’re going to cut the sugar from his diet, replace those calories with lean protein and unsaturated fats, and then we’re going to exercise with as much intensity as we can without blowing his ticker.  If he has a fifth heart attack, it’ll be during a PR attempt. 

I’ll be damned if he’s going to go while eating a grilled cheese sandwich made with low-fat cheddar and a dollop of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”, staring vacantly at the ceiling while his no-fat diet drops him into an early grave.

Picture courtesy of dartmed.dartmouth.edu, the fine Ivy-League Institution responsible for my father's care.

          

     

 

Why Bother

           So the last few months I have been reveling in the fact that "I really can eat whatever I want" and hit a bit of the Zone and I maintain a healthy weight.  I think to myself "Why do I need the Zone?  I really like donuts, pizza, pasta, raw white sugar in all its blessed forms".   Why would I change?  Even Freddy C. (who's link is on the left side of the page), who chronicled his Zone experience, has apparently decided instead of "Zoning Out" he would "Opt Out".  So why should I change?  I feel good.  My WOD times aren't suffering.  I wouldn't be caught dead in a Speed-O, but operation belly-b-gone was a success.  So there we have it......why bother.

            So I was watching the Discovery Health Network.  They have a show on called "Inside the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic" where the morbidly obese chronicle their weight loss.  These are folks who are too fat for gastric bypass..again, TOO FAT FOR GASTRIC BYPASS.  I am pretty sure that this show is aired to make the mildly to moderately fat people (most of America) feel better about themselves.  So, I like most folks, think to myself - how did these folks let this happen.  These people keep Oreo's under their beds....at the Obesity Clinic.  STOP eating so F*!KING much.  So there was a huge 500 pounder sobbing about how he just can stop eating junk food, when it clicked.   There is only one reason that Ryan is not a 500 pounder - genetics.  Given the option and allowing for unchecked free will, I can easily eat a dozen donuts, wash it down with 44oz. of soda and/or beer and not think twice.

            So that's where my new found resolution to eat better comes in.  I need to prove to myself, that if I was in the position of being too fat for gastric bypass, could I do it, could I change my ways.  At the first Zone dinner, I said my sole motivation for trying the Zone was vanity.  I am over that...now I am doing it Crossfit style - reps over time.  How many meals can I stay Zone in the next year.  Keep On Keeping On.

Mmmmm!

Spaghetti Alternative

This is a great recipe for someone who loves spaghetti, but not the fullness of eating pasta.

Spaghetti - a 4 block meal in the zone (1 serving)

Spaghetti squash        1 cup  (1 block carbs)

Zucchini                     1-1/2 cups (1 block carbs)

Mushrooms                3 cups measured raw (1 block carbs)

Spaghetti sauce         1/2 cup (1 block-check label)

Chicken                     4 oz (4 blocks protein)

Olive oil                    1 tsp (3 blocks fat)

Peanuts                     6 (1 block fat)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut Spaghetti squah in half and scrape out the seeds. Fill a baking dish with enough water to just cover bottom. Place both squash ends, cut side down into baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes.

In the meantime, saute zucchini and mushrooms in olive oil with a little bit of italian and cajun spices. Grill chicken and place in pan of veggies to absorb some of the flavor.

When spaghetti squash is done, scrape with a fork (the squash will come out looking like spaghetti) into a serving dish. Top with Vegetable and peanuts.

This is a great recipe for someone who loves spaghetti, but not the fullness of eating pasta.

Spaghetti - a 4 block meal in the zone (1 serving)

Spaghetti squash        1 cup  (1 block carbs)

Zucchini                     1-1/2 cups (1 block carbs)

Mushrooms                3 cups measured raw (1 block carbs)

Spaghetti sauce         1/2 cup (1 block-check label)

Chicken                     4 oz (4 blocks protein)

Olive oil                    1 tsp (3 blocks fat)

Peanuts                     6 (1 block fat)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut Spaghetti squah in half and scrape out the seeds. Fill a baking dish with enough water to just cover bottom. Place both squash ends, cut side down into baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes.

In the meantime, saute zucchini and mushrooms in olive oil with a little bit of italian and cajun spices. Grill chicken and place in pan of veggies to absorb some of the flavor.

When spaghetti squash is done, scrape with a fork (the squash will come out looking like spaghetti) into a serving dish. Top with Vegetable and peanuts.

Putting All the Pieces Together

I haven't seen any posts here lately, so I thought I'd throw in a little refresher, in case people are needing it...

How To Eat

Since you’re here reading this, we’re going to assume that you’ve got one big piece of the fitness puzzle nailed and are CrossFitting regularly.

Now, if you want your performance, health, fitness, energy levels, and body composition to reach—or even approach—their potential, the other, even bigger, more foundational piece is diet. No surprise there.

Oh crap, you mean I have to go on a diet?

Not exactly. “Diets,” in the usual sense, tend not to work. What does work is keeping a close eye on overall consumption (calories in) AND balancing your macronutrient (protein, carb, fat) intake appropriately.

Most of you probably know what this means: yes, you have to get your carb intake under control. (And, duh, you have to get overall intake under control: Calories in/calories out. Basic laws of thermodynamics. You know the drill. As someone in the gym said the other day, sometimes what you gotta do is "Put down the fork, dammit.")

So is this a fad? Do I have to go “low-carb”? Are you going to make me do that Atkins thing?

No, this is not a fad; this is a rebalancing of intake to what the human body needs, wants, and functions best on—and has for millennia, up until the advent of large-scale farming and (over)processing of grain, supermarkets, and (over)packaged, convenient, flavor-“enhanced” “food products.” And what that looks like in this day and age is making sure you consume enough protein and getting a grip on the carbs. You need them—especially if you’re CrossFitting and/or doing other strenuous activity. In fact, you need roughly 40% of your daily caloric intake in the form of carbohydrate. But if you’re not as lean as you want to be, and you’re not just plain eating too darn much food), it’s probably largely about unfavorable carbs. (I know: sigh.) They’re good (addictive, even), they’re everywhere, and, in a lot of cases, we’ve been told they’re healthy (because, hey, they’re low-fat! Oy.).

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Why the Zone?

The best nutrition plan is one that balances macronutrients in a way that promotes all-around health, keeps hormones at beneficial levels, fuels athletic performance, and supports appropriate bodyfat levels.

The best guidelines we’ve found for balancing it all out are those described in the Zone “diet.” Thinking of food in terms of macronutrient blocks is an easy and convenient way to look at it.

A “block” is a unit of measure used to simplify the process of making balanced meals.

7 grams of protein = 1 block of protein
9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block of carbohydrate
1.5 grams of fat = 1 block of fat

Each meal or snack should be composed of equal blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. (When this is the case, 40 percent of its calories come from carbohydrate, 30 percent from protein, and 30 percent from fat—this is the ratio we always want to keep.)

How many blocks you should eat per day (and per meal) varies according to your build, sex, body fat, and activity level. Most men will need from 15 to 20 blocks per day (of each macronutrient) and most women from 10 to 14 blocks. There are complicated charts and calculators for determining exactly what your personal block prescription should be, but we can do a pretty good job of eyeballing it for you. As with most things, you can try a certain set of inputs (block prescription), stick to it for a while, and then adjust accordingly based on outputs (your body and performance).

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Oh, and P.S., no one’s going to make you do anything, diet-wise. Mistress Krista, general smart cookie and one of our favorite online fitness colleagues, says it well:

Welcome to your new mantra:

You have to do it yourself.

Nobody else will do it for you.

You make your own choices--every time you put something in your mouth, every time you belly up to the bar, and every time you check your fnish time at the end of a workout. No one else can do “Fran” for you (well, not if you want to reap the benefits, anyway). And no one else can fix your nutrition. All there is to do is take couple deep breaths and dive in. You know how to do that.
-compliments, Carrie Klumpar, CrossFit East Side, writer and motivator extraordinaire

Mashed potatoes -I mean cauliflower-anyone?

It's fall and I am craving all sorts of comfort foods, including yummy, warm, comforting mashed potatoes.  I have had 2 different restaurants serve them with my meat recently and had to painfully allow myself a bite or 2 and then shove them on over, wistfully, to Dennis or anyone else who could care less about the Zone.  Then watch him delightedly consume those yummy, comforting potatoes gooey with melted cheese and sour cream....

BUT, I then remembered a great recipe I had from last fall when I was being SO good on the Zone and felt much better having eaten this instead of high sugar potatoes!  It is suprisingly similar in texture and knowing it's better for you makes it taste that much better!

Garlic Mashed Cauliflower

A pressure cooker is recommended to cook the cauliflower most quickly, although steaming is a viable option as well.  The amount of garlic called for here is a moderate amount.  Go big for you extreme garlic lovers.

Time

• Pressure cooker:  10 min.
• Steaming:  15-20 min.

Ingredients

• 1 large head of cauliflower
• 8-12 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• black pepper and sea salt to taste

Preparation

Trim green leaves from cauliflower head.  (Set them aside, you can use them in salad or steam them as side greens.)

Cut cauliflower into florets and place in pressure cooker or steamer.  Peel garlic cloves and add to cauliflower.  No need to chop or mince the garlic as it will be mashed later.  If using a pressure cooker add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of water.  Cook cauliflower until slightly soft.  This will be 3-5 min. in pressure cooker, 5-10 min. if steaming.

One may use a hand-held potato masher or electric beaters (for creamier consistency) to mash.  Add black pepper, sea salt, and olive oil as desired.  Basil flavored olive oil lends a light herb flavor as well.

Zone Blocks

Every 200g of raw cauliflower yields 1 carb block.  Pre-weigh cauliflower to determine number of carb blocks in entire batch.  Use olive oil to meet your fat block requirements, 1/3 tsp.=1 fat block.  Approximately 1 cup of finished mashed cauliflower yields 1 carb block.

Hard Boiled Blocks

   Eggs are simple, portable and most importantly cheap sources of protein blocks.  At less than 20 cents per block, I believe they are THE cheapest.

It sounds silly, but I finally figure out how to hard boil eggs in a way that works.

Simply put the eggs in a pot with cold water covering them about 1".  Turn on the heat.  When the water get to a really rolling boil, turn it down to a steady boil and set the timer for 10min.

At 10min. remove the eggs from the water and immediately put them in a large bowl of ice water.  The ice water prevents the nasty green ring from forming, keeps the yolks nice and yellow and makes them very easy to peel.

A hard boiled egg, piece of string cheese, apple and a few almonds is a quick and easy 2 block snack/meal.