:: CrossFit and Nutrition

At the starting line for the I Am CrossFit EPOC Challenge finale

The “I Am CrossFit E.P.O.C. Challenge” ended on Saturday morning with a final benchmark workout. It has been a very successful eight weeks for me. The final results will show me losing 12 pounds, 4% body fat, and 8.5 inches net (modest 1.25 inches gained in the thighs — that’s OK). Another measure of success: I bought size 30 jeans today for the first time in more than 20 years.
(more…)

Tags: crossfit, i am crossfit challenge, paleo

Group photo after this weekend's CrossFit Kettlebell community WOD

There’s one week to go until the “I Am CrossFit EPOC” Challenge finale. Since the first week of January, more than 100 members of CrossFit Central have been taking on extra workouts, logging food and supplements, and getting results. I’ve been on a strict paleo diet and have found it much easier to adopt than I expected.

Most people I’ve talked to about paleo can’t believe I am declining to eat dairy, grains, processed foods, starches, and sugars, as these are the bulk of a typical American diet. “That doesn’t leave you much to eat,” they typically say. Well, here’s the list of foods I have eaten during the last 7+ weeks:
(more…)

Tags: crossfit, i am crossfit challenge, paleo

This morning's breakfast of bacon, eggs and paleo blueberry pancakes.

As the 7th week of the latest “I Am CrossFit” challenge opens, I thought I’d share my recipe for paleo-friendly blueberry pancakes. Since wheat flour is forbidden, most conventional pancake mixes are also out of bounds. That doens’t mean a person pursuing a strict paleo diet can’t enjoy some pancakes for breakfast.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, preferably enriched with extra omega-3
• 1/2 cup unsweetened organic applesauce
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup almond meal or almond flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 medium banana
• 1/2 pint blueberries
• coconut oil
• blue agave

Combine the eggs, applesauce, almond butter, almond meal/flour, cinnamon, and vanilla in a bowl until well blended. Personally, I use the Cuisinart but you’ll get the same consistency, eventually, with a hand mixer or large spoon. Carefully fold in the blueberries. Place a couple of dime-sized dabs of coconut oil (It’s a solid at room temperature.) into a skillet over medium heat. Cook 2 or 3 small pancakes at a time, 2-4 minutes each side. The bigger you make them, the harder they are to flip over. Serve with drizzled blue agave substituting for syrup. This recipe makes 7-10 pancakes.

Tags: food, paleo, recipes

Running 400m on a cold January morning to kick off the I Am CrossFit EPOC Challenge

The 100 CrossFit Central athletes taking on the “I Am CrossFit EPOC” Challenge are more than halfway through eight weeks of expanded workouts, food logging, and, for me, a 100% strict paleo dietary regime. EPOC means excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, and most of the WODs (workouts of the day) we’ve been doing have emphasized short but intense sessions designed to boost oxygen consumption after exercise ends. I can attest that they wear me out!

This is my third CrossFit challenge (2009’s Spartan 300 and I Am CrossFit), and I’m seeing some of the same results as with those prior efforts. As of Saturday, exactly halfway through the challenge, I’d dropped 6.2 pounds and 4.5% body fat (according to my scale), reversing my poor holiday season habits and putting me back on course for better fitness.
(more…)

Tags: crossfit, i am crossfit challenge, jeff, kettlebells, paleo

Attempting to deadlift 305 pounds while Coach Lance (left) yells encouragement (Photo by Ryan)

CrossFit produces measurable results. Over time, a CrossFitter can lift more weight, perform more reps, or complete a workout faster as he or she develops. This week, I broke five significant personal records — PRs, in the CrossFit vernacular — but still tasted the disappointment of a goal not quite achieved.

CrossFit Central held a Turkey Day Fun Run event on Thanksgiving morning. About 45 people took some time out of their Thanksgiving schedule to run through the neighborhood adjacent to the gym. My previous best recorded time for a 5km run was 30:47. My goal was to break 30 minutes. It was a crisp, sunny, breezy morning. The wind was in our faces during the early northbound portion of the route. The pack got off to a quick start, and I found myself about two blocks behind them almost immediately. The leaders pulled further away, but I kept the rest of the pack in my sights.

The southbound run felt almost downhill with the breeze, and I sprinted the final 250m or so around the last couple of corners. The first word called out to be my Coach Carey, who was keeping time, was “Twenty.” Yes! I’ve broken 30. The next word was “Five.” WOW! My time was 25:35, a PR by more than 5 minutes! I was so excited, I think I high-fived all the coaches and everyone who had already finished, some of them twice.
(more…)

Tags: crossfit, crossfit total, jeff

Push-ups during a kettlebell WOD.

My immediate goal is to complete a WOD (workout of the day) as RX’d before the year ends. The workouts are written with prescribed weights and movements, which are intended to challenge the elite athletes. Those of us who cannot do those weights or movements must “scale” the workout to our ability. The vast majority of my CrossFit workouts have been scaled in some form or fashion. Only a handful have come as prescribed, and most of those were (1) extremely short, (2) just running and/or rowing, or (3) artificially cut short, such as two-round Fight Gone Bad workouts.

Today I got that goal, but the story of this week begins with a horror show of a performance. Actually, it begins with another milestone last week, because it plays into tonight’s RX, and highlights the failure in between. I’ve never wanted to believe the old sports adage, “you’re only as good as” your last workout, but just in case ….
(more…)

Tags: crossfit, jeff

Fighting my way through Fran, while Coach Big Mike offers encouragement

This has been a month of tough workouts at CrossFit Central. All month, we have been taking on the “named” workouts, all standard benchmarks to track one’s (hopefully) improving performance. Some are named after ladies, because you’re supposed to feel like you were hit with a hurricane afterward. Others are named after fallen heroes, combining some of their favorite elements and workouts. Some are brutally short, others brutally long.

About a month ago (9/26), athletes from CrossFit Central joined CrossFitters worldwide to raise more than $1.1 million for Athletes for a Cure, an arm of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and the Wounded Warrior Project. We took on Fight Gone Bad, one of CrossFit’s premier workouts. It is designed to represent a mixed martial arts fight, which predictably goes downhill.

With a continuously running clock, FGB is three rounds of five one-minute intervals of sumo deadlift high-pulls (55# for me), box jumps (20″ box), push press (55#), row, and wall ball (14# medicine ball). There is one minute of rest between each 5-minute round. The score is the cumulative reps for everything but rowing, which is the number of calories burned. My three-round score was 213, a little short of my goal but slightly ahead of two-round paces in May and August.
(more…)

Tags: Austin, crossfit, fight gone bad, jeff, Jeff's Friends