Image courtesy of westmetrocrossfit.com.au
Nutrition isn’t just a component of the CrossFit model of health and wellness, it is the base of the pyramid or which everything else rests upon.
CrossFit has some great information on their website about nutrition and this is not only what Hilltop CrossFit advocates, but it is the lifestyle choice the coaches at Hilltop CrossFit practice. You can find some great information by following this link: CrossFit Nutrition, by watching the video clip, or reading the information below about Zone and Pale.
Zone
What is the Zone?
Firstly, it’s not a diet – it’s called eating healthy! It was developed by Dr. Barry Sears, one of the world’s leading authorities on the hormonal effects of food and their effect on cellular inflammation.
“It is a way of life that helps you lose fat and increases wellness by reducing cellular inflammation. It’s cellular inflammation that is the underlying cause of not only weight gain and the acceleration of chronic disease, but also the reason behind decreasing physical, emotional, and mental performance.” The Zone Diet
The Zone Diet is a way of balancing macronutrients and balancing your portions with your lean body mass and activity level. Sound familiar? It really is about putting in what you are putting out relative to your size and the exercise you are doing on a regular basis.
We have been eating the ‘Zone” for three months and haven’t looked back. However this is said with a caveat – we eat a 90-95% Paleo based diet. The downfall of the Zone is that you could potentially eat anything you like but still making sure you are hitting the right balance. of macros – just don’t go down that path! It’s about eating the healthy fats like avocado, nuts, seeds and coconut oil.
What is the balance of macronutrients in the Zone? The Zone is based on eating in blocks.
A block is made up of:
- 7g of Protein per block
- 9g of Carbohydrates per block
- 1.5g of Fat per block.
Depending on your lean body mass and activity level your overall block count for the day will determine how much you are eating as displayed in the table below:
Courtesy of the CrossFit Journal.
Paleo
The Paleo Diet is the healthiest way you can eat because it is the ONLY nutritional approach that works with your genetics to help you stay lean, strong and energetic! Research in biology, biochemistry, Opthamology, Dermatology and many other disciplines indicate it is our modern diet, full of refined foods, trans fats and sugar, that is at the root of the degenerative diseases such as obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, depression and infertility. – Robb Wolf
Image courtesy of The Food Lovers’ Primal Palate –http://www.primal-palate.com
What is Paleo?
It can be referred to as the Paleo, the Palaeolithic, or Caveman Diet. I can’t put it any better than this “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.” Greg Glassman.
To put it simply it means staying away from all processed foods, keeping to the edges of the supermarket, eating whole and healthy foods, and taking care of your body. Did I mention staying away from sugar – especially all the sugars that are hidden away in places you would never think to look. And if you can’t pronounce the ingredient list or they list numbers instead of words – don’t go there!
Image courtesy of eatdrinkpaleo.com.au
Recipe Resources
