EatPood

November 3

Weight vs. Speed

Jim posted a comment the other day regarding whether it is more important to go with prescribed weight and finish quickly or go for a heavy weight and plod through.  The answer is "yes".  CrossFit is based on principles of building a well rounded fitness.  We cater to a wide range of individuals with a wide range of fringe skills.  This is why we need to train our weaknesses, sure we may sacrifice a little of one skill, that we may be superior in, so that we can improve in an area that we may not be as strong.

WOD's are designed to push athletes to their limits, sometimes we have to scale the workout but scaling does not have to meaning scaling down.

If the work-out does not push you enough then you need to modify.  Increase the weight, increase the rep, increase depth, increase height, increase distance, increase rounds, and so on.  Sometimes we focus too much energy on our times and miss the point of why we are actually there.  This is one of the things I like about the MA WODs, these are much more focused on completion and not so much on time (unless you are Tim C. - just kidding Tim, he just likes to have his name mentioned or his picture posted).   Sure, there is no question that it feels good to see the fastest time or the highest PR next to your name but in the end, you are only competing against yourself.  

To answer the question of weight vs. speed, pick your goal.  Occasionally, you want to focus on light weight and work on speed, other times you may want to do what we call a grind using heavy weight or multiple rounds, where the goal is completion.  I can tell you that I have experienced great satisfaction both ways.  The other day I did an overhead squat work-out with a weight I was not sure I could do but it was the prescribed weight, I saw many people dropping the weight down but I stuck with it.  It took me twice as long to complete but I did it and it felt really good.  I did not care about my time but I was really pumped that I completed something that I was unsure was within my realm.

One thing that I will tell you is "DO not TAP OUT".  This is walking away from a work-out prior to completion because you feel like you cannot finish.  I did this one time and it bothered me for weeks that I did that, it is psychological devastation.  We all feel that urge but that is what will separate you from everyone else is that ability to finish.  Scale down or modify but do not quit.

October 30

This is about one of the funniest videos that I have ever seen.  Please do not watch if you are offended by foul language.

October 28

Wow, has it really been a week since I last posted.  Am I that lazy?  No, I have just been very busy with the practice, I was on emergency room call, I coach ice hockey 2 nights a week, I am going through a major transition with my business, we are opening the store at the box, I have to sleep sometime, I have to eat, blah, blah, blah.  Excuses!!!  I hate hearing excuses yet I catch myself using them all the time, why do we do this?  I think we are asking ourselves for forgiveness for our transgressions.  We even use excuses to ourselves, ones that we are not sharing with others, to justify things.  What's up with that?  We know the truth yet we convince ourselves that the excuse we give - to ourselves - justifies what we are doing or not doing.  Thats kinda ****'d up when you think about it.

When it comes to health and wellness, I hear a lot of excuses:

• "I get hypoglycemic if I don't eat carbs"
• "I can't exercise due to my bad knees"
• "I am going through a lot of stress right now"
• "I'm not in good enough shape to exercise"
• "I'm just big boned"
• "I don't eat much, I just have a slow metabolism"
• "I slipped in the shower and fell right down on that shampoo bottle"

Alright, I want to post a challenge out there; see if you can go a whole week and not make a single excuse for something...own up to every shortcoming or failure.  I think you will be amazed at how many times you catch yourself making excuses when you really make an effort to notice.

Also, let's hear from the rest of you, what are the best excuses that you have heard or used.

Finally, let's get back to posting our diets....no excuses.

Oh and I have one for tomorrow - "come on, it's Halloween, it's only one time a year, I'll throw the rest away tomorrow."

October 21 - Modern man a wimp?

Are we the worst examples of males in history?

According to a new book - "Manthropology - The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male," we are.  The author digs up a trove of anthropologic research to show evidence of how inferior modern man is to his predecessors.  I don't think that there is much question that we are physically inferior to our
 predecessors when modern man is analyzed as a whole.  It's funny because this goes along with the premise of the Primal Living blueprint.  We are endowed with a specific set of genes and these genes have not changed much over the past 120-150,000 years.  This means that the potential to be physically great is there if we just tap into it.  By doing so, we could establish our modern man as the best of man because we would have not only the physical prowess but also the mental.

Some examples cited in the book:

• 20,000 year old footprints from a claypan lake in Australia show 6 hunters chasing down a prey.  Biometric analysis indicates that they achieved speeds nearly equal to Usain Bolt's record breaking 100m sprint - and these guys were barefoot, running in soft clay!
• Tutsi  had to be able to jump their own height in order to progress to manhood (~6.3ft), higher than the current high jump record.
• Roman soldiers completed more than 1.5 marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight.
• Athens had 30,000 rowers that could outperform achievements of most modern day oarsmen.
• Aboriginals could throw a wood spear 110m, current javelin world record = 98.48m.
• Our long bones are 40% thinner than our ancestors.

It's funny that this book has stirred all kinds of controversy.  I see it discussed on several forums and the bloggers are taking offense at these allegations but sometimes the truth is painfully obvious.  I agree it is not fair to call us inadequate based solely on physical skills but the truth is, we do not treat our bodies as temples.  We have abused our genetic potential for physical performance.  I saw many tribe members achieve some pretty impressive skills yesterday and I think many doubted their own potential.  I am sure nearly all of us have seen achievements that we never dreamed possible since starting CrossFit.

We need to get the message out to the masses to get out there and live life and quit being passive observers.  I cannot imagine having a body that would limit my ability to participate in living life to its fullest and if I did, then I would be doing everything in my power to overcome that limitation.

Become an active participant in life and tap into those long dormant genes of outstanding physical achievement.

October 18 - reactive vs proactive

Reactive vs. Proactive health

 When it comes to your health, would you consider yourself reactive or proactive.  We live in a society of reactive care and unfortunately this has contributed significantly to our current health crisis and our extremely unhealthy population.  How many people do you know, and you may be one of them, that say, "I only go to the doctor if I am sick."  This is called reactive health care.  Unfortunately, most of the time this is closing the barn door after the cow is out.  Think about this for a second, do you really think it is ok to find out that you have a problem with plaques in your heart AFTER you have that heart attack, wait to lose wait AFTER you are diagnosed with diabetes, get on blood pressure medication AFTER you have that stroke.  I bet if you ask people that this has happened to, they would tell you its not ok.

What about the people that go for their yearly check up or annual physical, is this proactive.  The answer is generally no, this is preventative.  So what is 'proactive?'  Proactive care is taking control of your health and its management.  Proactive care is not just looking at things that are broke, or screening for things that might be there.  Proactive care is managing your health aggressively.  Heck, we spend more time researching, asking questions, and experimenting with our investments than we do managing our own healthcare.  People spend more time analyzing a bottle of wine than they do analyzing their own blood work.  How many times have you had blood work done and then you were told, "its all normal," and you just accept that.  Let me tell you - there is more to your medical tests than being called normal.  What is normal?  Is it optimal?  Can it be better?

I operate a proactive medical practice and I have found that there are a few tests that I am comfortable saying that they are normal but the majority of tests can be analyzed to the point where I tell people, "well, they are normal according to the references ranges but you know they are far from optimal."  I have diagnosed severe insulin resistance in people that were told that they had normal labs, I have diagnosed leukemia in people who were told they had normal labs, I constantly find severe cardiac risk in the cholesterol profiles of people that were told that their panel was normal, I even diagnosed a type one diabetic that had labs in an endocrinologists office a month earlier and he was told nothing was abnormal, yet it was.

Too many people take the word of the people in the white coats for law.  Never accept normal, always ask why.  If they want to run a test, ask them why, then ask what we will do if it shows something and what we will do if it does not.  Is this test going to change the way that you are going to treat me, if not then why are we doing it?

Take charge of your healthcare, you won't regret it.

October 17

Grains

I want to share a funny story with you that one of my Premium wellness clients told the other day.  He has just recently started our program, less than one month, and he has already lost 14 pounds.  He was in the office and told me that after his evaluation, he recalled walking out and thinking, 'you know, I really do not consume that much grain, so giving it up should not be much of an issue.'  He decided to do a little experiment; he works in an office where reps like to bring in food for the employees - not a physician by the way, and he made an effort to eat what he usually does but this day he was going to eliminate all the grains and collect what he does not eat.  He was going to take the grains home for his dog.  His day started out with two bacon and egg muffins, he removed the muffins, ate the egg and bacon, and then put the biscuits into a bag.  Lunch was a turkey wrap which he felt that based on how heavy it was, should contain quite a bit of meat.  He unwrapped the turkey and suddenly realized that the wrap was enormous, he ate the meat and put the wrap in his bag.  Next was a 12" subway sub, he took the meat off and put the bread in the bag.

Well, by the end of the day, he had an enormous bag of grains, he estimated a couple of pounds!  It was an eye opening experience for him and he told me that he really did not feel any less full.

Try this for yourself.

October 14

Green Tea

Phil had posted a question a few weeks ago about green tea and the benefits.  I will do my best to explain the current evidence without getting too technical.  Green tea, black tea, white tea, and oolong all have very similar health benefits.  Some feel that the green tea is a little better because the flavanoids are less oxidized due to a lack of fermentation.  The other teas are typically fermented but most of the current evidence suggestes that this does not alter the chemical activity of the flavanoids significantly.  The two main components that the research has focused on are EGCG and Theanine.

EGCG is a powerful antioxidant and has been shown in clinical trials to affect many aspects of our physiology.  Free radical scavenging is a huge benefit, this yields a significant amount of protection from inflammation in the body thus reducing disease risk and aging.  Increases in metabolism - weight loss, improved insulin resistance, lowers blood pressure, decreases cholesterol, improves endurance, retards tooth decay to name a few additional claimed benefits.  The studies are not large and so the definitive benefits are not set in stone, they are still mostly in the presumed benefits categories.  There are also significant lifestyle variables in these studies as most have been conducted on asian populations where other lifestyle factors have to be taken into account.  These benefits are generally equated with 2-4 8oz servings per day.  The decreased cancer risk is another area of question where studies suggest that the benefit is only seen with higher levels of consumption.  There is also a question about whether taking concentrated extracts will yield the same benefits - EGCG supplements.  The jury is out on this but the evidence is pointing toward a greater benefit from drinking the tea.

Theanine is promoted as improving immune function, cholesterol, and because it has easy transit across the blood-brain barrier, improved feelings of balance and calm.  Hard to scientifically test this claim.

Bottom line: Tea is a great addition to a healthy lifestyle and it is probably best to drink your antioxidants rather than take them in pill form.

October 12 - My Rant

Irritating video!

 Wow, it has been a long time since a news story incited such a strong response in me but this one did.  I have a compassion for overweight people, I have evaluated over 10,000 people for treating their obesity so I want to emphasize that I am not prejudice.  That said, I will admit that I have no compassion for excuses when it comes to poor health.  Anyone who is willing to take responsibility will have my respect and I will do everything I can to help guide them down that path to better health.  When I see unhealthy people grabbing a 64oz big gulp mountain dew, I have no compassion.  Obesity cost taxpayers $147 billion dollars a year.  There needs to be a personal responsibility tax for things such as obesity, smoking, noncompliance with treatments, and I will even go as far as to say for lack of exercise.

The woman in this video is not taking any responsibility for her condition.  Metabolic syndrome is not a disease, it is a constellation of symptoms that someone has put a label on.  Insulin resistance is her root problem and this is caused by her weight and poor nutrition.  She says she cannot lose weight because of her insulin resistance....rrrrright.  I would be willing to bet that if she drank only water for a week, she would lose weight despite that insulin resistance.  I am not being callous here, this is basic medicine.  I think the main problem is that she is just confused, like the majority of our population about what constitutes healthy nutrition.  I also checked out her website, www.Divabetics.com, and one thing I noticed about all of these members with metabolic syndrome that has caused their diabetes.......THEY ARE ALL OVERWEIGHT!

In the words of Steven Siebold (author of Die Fat or Get Tough):

"You are fat because it is your fault, it is not partly your fault, it is completely your fault."

We need to stop the excuses and take action.  Our tribe members doing CrossFit are beautiful examples of people taking control and responsibility.  I salute all of you and will go to the mat for you in any way I can to help you achieve optimal health.

October 7 - Water intake

It seems that the issue of daily water intake requirements comes up frequently.  How much water do we need to drink each day?  Do we need to drink during exercise?  How much water should we drink after exercise to replace water losses?

The concept of 8 glasses of water a day is one of those urban legends and no one really knows for sure where this recommendation originated.  I recent years, this concept has been challenged and daily requirements is significantly lower.  We REQUIRE about 1.5 liters (about 6 cups) of fluid per day as a minimum to maintain adequate hydration.  This does not mean that we have to drink 6 cups of water.  It is estimated that we get nearly 4 cups of fluid from the average dietary food intake.

The human body is an amazing computer and has many mechanisms in place to maintain a very strict fluid balance.  We take in too much water, we pee more.  We need water, the brain tells us to drink, the urine gets highly concentrated, etc.  Current recommendations for fluid intake is drink when you are thirsty.  In fact I read an article not too long ago that talked about the water toxicity that many distance runners induce in themselves by forced overhydration.

Exercise does require better management.  We need to consume about 8-12 ounces of calorie free fluid in the hour leading up to intense exercise and then during exercise, we should hit about 8 ounces for every 20 minutes of intense work.  After exercise, your body/brain will tell you how much you need.  If you are exercising over 45 minutes, you may want to consider a drink with some sugar in it as well.

Fluid intake does not have to mean water.  Fluids that are calorie-free and caffeine-free are fine.

Another myth to dispel - there are some that advocate that 75% of people walk around chronically dehydrated.  This is like saying that 75% of Americans are walking around calorie depleted.  Drink when your brain tells you to.

October 5 - Recovery

ouuuch!, ouuch!.....these are the words that I have been using all day as I walk around with locked knees, have to use my arms to push myself up from a seated position and have to bend my head down to meet my hands in order to wash my hair.  Yes, I have not had this sort of soreness in many months.  I could not even think about max height box jumps today without experiencing the pain from just the thought.

I did Murph on Saturday night and was somewhat sore on Sunday.  Due to the extent of the soreness, I decided not to do the hour long MA workout.  I was then shamed into doing it.  I am paying the price today.  Rob Shaul from Mountain Athlete calls this endurance/stamina efforts.  The idea is to do back to back long stamina efforts periodically.  He feels like we develop a comfort zone of recovery but that we need to leave this comfort zone occasionally in order to simulate potential life situations where you may require back to back stamina/endurance days.  I have to say, it put me through the wringer.  I believe that I will benefit from this type of training periodically - although I have a hard time convincing myself at the moment.  One premise of crossfit is to be able to perform in any given situation even if it is something outside of you comfort zone, this certainly qualified.