Testimonial by Ray Ng

I started CF in January 2009 and weighed 215 pounds. I started paleo April 20th and weighed 211 pounds. After 60 days of paleo/zone, I've lost ~20 pounds and about 4 inches off my waist. Not only have i lost a bunch of weight but I feel stronger than I ever have before. When they say that nutrition is the key to losing weight, that's not just a bunch of bullshit. (I also increased my CF sessions from twice a week to 3-4 times a week)

Give this a try for 30 days. At the end of those 30 days, your body will crave healthy foods and will feel like crap when you eat junk. This is a lot of information, so let me know if you have any questions. Grace and Tristan are great resources and I asked them a bunch of questions when I started. There are a few other people at ACF that are Crossfit Nutrition Certified so I'm sure they could help too.

Overview of Paleo

Zone Block Calculator

- Enter weight, body fat percentage and activity level to calculate number of blocks needed I sum up paleo and zone as:

Paleo - what to eat

Zone - how much to eat

Do eat:

Lean Meat - chicken, turkey, wild game, beef (grass fed) Seafood - (wild caught, not farm raised) Vegetables Fruit Fats - omega 3 fats...avacados, macadamia nuts, olive oil (not peanuts)

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

All flour products (bread/cake/cookies/scones/tortillas/pastries etc.) All sugars (including corn syrup) No Dairy (cheese/milk/butter/cottage cheese, etc) No Artificial Sweeteners No potatoes, corn beans or other starchy vegetables

Shopping-food.doc list prepared by Robb Wolf that tells you what to stock up on at the grocery store. The takeaways from this article for me were:

-what to eat and what not to eat

-eat protein with EVERY meal

-stock up on groceries and be prepared (not being prepared leads to bad food choices) -give this an honest effort for 30 days and you will see results My Nutrition Food Log.doc print this out and carry it with you everywhere. If you eat/drink it... write it down. What I did was, if i ate something that wasn't paleo, i would highlight it in red. Today is my 60th day of strict paleo and i have no red on my food log. Use whatever method works for you. Don't beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon, just don't make things worse by staying off the wagon.

A free CrossFit Journal #21 (Nutrtion) explains how to break down a meal into blocks. there's a list of common foods and how much to eat of each food. for example, if you need 4 blocks of protein, you can do:

4 ounces of chicken breast

6 ounces of salmon

2 eggs and 3 ounces of ground beef.

You'll notice when you get to carbs that you will have to consume a truck load of vegetables and fruit to get the number of carbs recommended. I followed these guidelines for the first 2 weeks and then read the Robb Wolf article "42 Ways to Skin the Zone".

This article explains how to decrease carb and increase fat intake to optimize your results. Also, you'll want to pick up a food scale to measure your blocks. I got a scale from Krogers that cost less than $10 that works fine From my experience, I was never hungry eating paleo/zone. I break down my blocks into 4 meals a day. That works best for me with my work schedule. I think the key is if you're fueling your body every 3-4 hours, you never have a chance to be hungry. If you're never hungry, you're never likely to overeat.

Sharon's Recipe

"So I have been dying eating paleo for the past 30 days and I have begun getting desperate in my kitchen creations (since I used to eat for taste and not for fuel). Here is a good recipe I changed a bit to make it mostly paleo-friendly.

Coconut Cookies
1/2 cup COCONUT OIL
about 1/4 cups agave nectar (light) (I added to get the sweetness I liked)
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (this is the only non-paleo part)
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 cups grated or unsweetened coconut flakes

Mix the coconut oil, eggs, vanilla and agave nectar together. Stir in the coconut flour and the coconut flakes. Drop spoon sized mounds on a greased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart (I used mini cupcake pan). Bake @ 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes (because I modified the ingredients, I think mine cooked quickly) until golden brown. Remove from pan immediately and let cool on a cooling rack. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

They were really good, Ray tried to eat the whole pan tonight."

- Thanks for sharing your recipe Sharon.

Can you identify what is missing in this meal?

"Indulgence"

Do you have a designated "Cheat Day"? If so, what day of the week is it? What is you favorite "cheat meal/food"?

or

Are you an "All or Nothing" when it comes to nutrition discipline?

Just A Few Tips

• Enjoy eating paleo. Enjoy what you eat. If you are unhappy with what you are eating you are unlikely to continue to keep eating that way, and once the nutrition is gone, staying fit and healthy becomes much harder.
• Pre-cook food and cook more than you need. Spend a few hours at the beginning of the week and cook big batches of food. This will allow you to minimize the amount of time that you have to spend cooking during the week.
• Check the labels. Even it's organic and has added probiotics, the portions of macro-nutrients are still important. Shop where fresh food is abundant; invest in a healthy future.
• Rather than cutting yourself off from all of those foods which you enjoy that aren’t 100% paleo friendly, simply eat smaller amounts and be moderate.
• Do not keep junk/unhealthy food that you know you shouldn’t eat, in the house. For most people, if it is in the house they will eventually eat it.
• Do not run out of food. This is horrible; you will end up eating out or munch on cereals. Do not let it happen to you.
• Try planning out your meals for 5 days or a week. This comes easily to type one personalities, for the rest of us it can be a nuisance. Though this has the benefit of ensuring you know what you need in the house for the week, and eliminates that time wasting period during which you try and figure out what you should cook for dinner.
• Keep a handy meal replacement shake/can of tuna in your car/office/desk/bag for a paleo friendly snack in case plans change.
• Learn to use spices; this will do wonders for you and will offer variety and different flavors to your meals.
• Avoid soda, pasta and bread. Let us know how you're doing after two weeks.
• Eat lots of vegetables; try and eat a good variety with many different colors. .