A high visibility billboard outside of the LA Airport: "Elizabeth lost 101 pounds with the lap-band." Wouldn't it be so much cooler if it read: "Elizabeth lost 101 pounds doing CrossFit, eating Paleo, and learning to listen to her body!"

Little Starch

Continuing on with our breakdown of the CrossFit dietary recommendation, we arrive at “little starch” (eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar).

First of all, what is a starch?
A starch is a complex carbohydrate.  Humans incorporate starches into their diets in the form of corn, potatoes, wheat, beans, peas, squashes, and rice.  Starches are also used as fillers and thickeners in many processed foods.  They contain little nutritional value and in some cases (such as bread) once milled, processed, and baked, often must be fortified with vitamins and minerals so that the body can process and digest the resulting food like substance.

Why only a little starch?
Because in the end, starches become sugar. At the chemical level, starches are made up of tiny clusters of sugar molecules (clusters = the complex carb piece). When humans eat starches the molecules breakdown into sugar and voila! – another source of sugar. In extreme moderation or in sport performance instances (such as endurance event training) starches can serve a purpose.  I once heard or read (can’t remember which) Glassman state that you should think of starches in condiment-like servings.

The American Plate
Think of the typical American dinner plate – a scoop of meat atop a mound of rice, or a plate of pasta with 3 meatballs placed on top.  In both instances, that’s a lot of starches!  If your rice was served as a condiment-like portion, you would have just 2-3 tablespoons of rice on the plate.  A very different picture!

Paleo and Starches
As you can see from the list above starches are in no way Paleo.  They are food substance we don’t need to eat to live, perform, and thrive (not even sweet potatoes).  By eating Paleo we default to a no-starch way of eating.  How cool!

Cooking Without Starches
The biggest barrier to removing starches from one’s way of eating is dedication. There are countless Paleo websites that offer tons of recipes, resources, and recommendations for how to swap-out starches for better options.  So the next time you’re out at Zolo Grill, remember that you can always ask for a bowl of carrot slices to go with your chips and guac!

Graham Holmberg 16:59, Annie Thorisdottir 17:53. 

This was the second workout of the CrossFit Games.  The two fastest times are posted above.  Thoughts?

Quick - downtown - available for take out - AND PALEO! At The Cup on 15th and Pearl - order a Paleo breakfast (with bacon or sausage). We add a fruit cup and a coffee and enjoy every bite.

Making Your Kitchen and the Shop Two Separate Entities

In the past two weeks I’ve had a few people outside of Roots ask me how many calories are burned in an average CrossFit workout.  In both instances the question has caught me off-guard because I have no idea and don’t care to ever find out.  I realize that many Americans measure their progress in fitness and in health with calories burned.  It’s a natural thought process given TV shows, radio ads, internet sites, and workout machines that harp on how to burn more calories.  We do a long hard workout and we think it gives us a “free pass” to eat more that evening, we miss a workout and we think we need to watch how much we eat.

WRONG.

In the world of CrossFit what we do in the kitchen and what we do in the shop are two separate and vital components of one longterm plan for health and fitness.

Take a look at the CrossFit pyramid.  The foundation of it is nutrition.  This means that your efforts in the kitchen, out at restaurants, and on the go should not be swayed by the type, length of, or exercises in the day’s workout.

At the shop, we train for physical and neurological improvements and work to obtain a proficiency in each of the 10 General Skills.  In the kitchen, we eat for nourishment and longevity.

Training the mind to rethink its approach to food is no easy task; however, it starts with asking yourself the right questions when presented with the familiar situations.  At the forefront of your thought process should be the QUALITY of the food you are about to eat.  Does it promote health or stiphen improvement? Would it improve your blood results, or not?  Will it fuel my efforts in the shop tomorrow?  Thinking, “Would this make for more calorie intake than burn today?” is illogical, even if it is habit.

While the traditional (and scientifically bogus) thought process might be:
- Calculate calorie intake in a day
- Workout to burn adequate calories to make daily intake level “acceptable”
- Workout more to burn more calories after slip ups in the system
- Go crazy with a constant mind-numbing teeter totter of calories in and calories burned

Your thought process should be:
- Fuel your body with quality foods in the kitchen
- Use the sound nutrition to better performance in the shop
- Let better performance at the shop fuel a greater dedication to quality in the kitchen
- See the benefits of a complete health and fitness plan

We’ll leave you with CrossFit definition of World Class Fitness:

WORLD CLASS FITNESS IN 100 WORDS

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics:pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstands, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast.  Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. ROUTINE IS THE ENEMY. Keep workouts short and intense.  Regularly learn and play new sports!

Three rounds, 9-7- and 5 reps, for time of:
Muscle-up
135 pound Squat snatch

Is Paleo Low Carb?

I was eating dinner with a friend the other day who immediately called me out for not eating the bun on my burger….and for ordering veggies in place of fries.  ”Oh, you on some kinda no-carb diet or something?” they asked sarcastically.

For 20 minutes:
Run 400 meters 
Rest precisely the time of the previous run

The Roots renovation is almost complete. The main training space is done. New Oly platforms and lots of space! Thanks Eric.

This might be the thickest cut of bacon we've found. It was purchased at Whole Foods. We're not sure if it qualifies as a slice given that it was so thick. It might have been a slab of bacon.

In Search of Thick-Cut Bacon

Let the search for thick-cut bacon begin!  Ok Roots, what restaurant in Boulder has the thickest-cut bacon? This is an important piece of information for any Roots athlete to have.

Here’s what we know so far, Foolish Craigs serves up some thick bacon.

What can you add?  Post to comments.

Everyday Paleo

At first thought, eating Paleo appears to be a giant hurdle.  Like kipping pull-ups without bands, comfort in box jumps, or double-unders we often find that what once seemed insurmountable, can in fact become easy or simple.

We’re all busy people but we want to make it brutally obvious that time is not a debilitating factor in eating and feeding clean.

For starters, check out the Everyday Paleo blog.  This mom of 3 has it down and shares her habits here.

Check out the article below which states that the U.S. government food recommendations over the past 30 years may have been wrong.

Processed food, refined carbohydrates, and lengthy unpronounceable ingredient lists can be found in any American grocery store; Safeway, King Supers, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Vitamin Cottage. Even the Farmer's Market!!

Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart

“Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country’s biggest killer.“

Thanks Tracie for sending us this interesting fact!

Top five teams and point total: 
1. Wendy and Bones (73.13)
2. Martin and Greg (71.51)
3. Mary and Karen (70.38)
4. Gil and Jason (64.67)
5. Tara and Andrew (64.64)

Let’s break it down…

32 Roots athletes participated in the challenge.

Over the course of five weeks the group:

- Lost 204 pounds
- PRed all but 4 retests
- Lost 207 inches

WAY TO GO!

“Nutts“

For time:
10 Handstand push-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
25 Box jumps, 30 inch box
50 Pull-ups
100 Wallball shots, 20 pounds, 10′
200 Double-unders
Run 400 meters with a 45lb plate

Check out all the health buzz words packed into this label: nonfat, no sugar added, Splenda, Erythritol, and Sorbitol. Non-fat cream? The definition of cream: the fatty part of milk, which rises to the surface when the liquid is allowed to stand. PEOPLE - if you're going to eat ice cream, PLEASE go for the real thing.

Paleo 2.0 Info Session Number 2

Come listen, learn, and get all the juicy details regarding the next Paleo showdown set to start Monday, May 3rd.  Bring your lunch or grab a chicken after the 12:30 class to chow down and learn.  And don’t worry, Terry will help you make all of the Paleo-smart choices at Nick n’ Willy’s.

If you plan to participate, remember, you MUST log a Metcon and a Max load workout between this Saturday and the following Friday.  Here’s the schedule for next week. Plan and reserve your class spaces accordingly.

Saturday – Metcon 
Monday – Max load
Tuesday – Max load
Wednesday – Metcon
Thursday – Metcon
Friday – Max load

Paleo 2.0

The world’s newest and most advanced Paleo challenge.  Tap into your potential.

Improved. Tuned. Tested.
Paleo 2.0 brings together the best features of past challenges and introduces new features tested and tuned to make for a challenge that offers something for everyone.

Expanded Measures.
No matter your reason for participating, our measures of success take into account a broad spectrum of health and performance indicators sure to even the playing field no matter where you start from.

Support.
The newest addition to the Paleo Challenge series debuts new and improved support methods.  Coach’s office hours, email support, and athlete resources make this challenge so that lack of and mis information are never a valid excuse.

Beyond the Kitchen.
Food on a plate takes on a much greater meaning this time around.

Info Sessions

Will I be able to run Paleo 2.0 in a Grains-based family kitchen?  Is Paleo 2.0 safe from viruses?  Is it easy to learn how to eat Paleo after being with a PC diet for so many years (that’s politically correct)?

Come to an info session and learn the answers to these questions and so much more.  We’ll cover the ins and outs of the Paleo diet, how the challenge works, start date, end date, and everything in between.

You can come to either one of two sessions.  Athletes must attend one of the two sessions to participate.
Tuesday, April 19th at 7:00pm
Friday, April 22nd at 1:30pm

The 7AM crew after Murph. Too many smiles? Note, this picture was taken after the workout.

Paleo 2.0 – It’s Coming

Paleo 2.0 is just around the corner.  Come learn the ins and outs of this next challenge at one of the following info sessions.  Athletes must attend an info session to participate.

Wednesday, April 21st: 7:00pm
Friday, April 23rd: 1:30pm