How important is DIET?? Millions of years of history tell us.

The New Evolution??

Funny?? Maybe at first glance, but lets get serious here!! The new leading risk of death in North America is Obesity which has surpassed Smoking. Yes, I heard it on the radio a few days ago.

I'm not going to preach, I'm just going to tell you a bit about my diet and some links to resources to read about healthy eating/living choices. Movies such as "Supersize Me" come immediately to mind, those who may be reading this MUST watch that movie, it'll blow your mind!!


When I first started crossfit I was 175# with about 30% bodyfat (heaviest I ever was = 225# = Obese for my height and % bodyfat). For years previous I ate what I thought was good food, of course I had my fair share of junk food, potatoe chips and pop were my absolute weakness. As part of the training at our local crossfit gym we get offered nutrition courses that we can buy into, when I took it I think it was $75 (The zone diet). It turns out that it will be a lifelong investment, not just because of that particular class but it opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at food. I'm not going to get into explaining the "zone diet" the link above will.
For over a year I weighed and measured food according to the zone diet and it was working fantastic for my performance and leaning me out (165# @ 5-10% bodyfat). However I recently found out I was eating far more food than I needed to ......I'll explain. Some people at our gym were experimenting with a "Paleolithic Diet" which in the simplest terms is the Caveman Diet:

My buddy Mike (Nutrition Guru and Avid Crossfitter) yes i've mentioned him several times before but he is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to Performance Nutrition and lots of other stuff........ Anyways he started the "Paleolithic Movement" (for lack of a better phrase) at our gym. I asked him one day what and how he ate, He replied: "It's nothing special I just eat good whole food when i'm hungry until i'm full"........Ok that sounds simple but what is "Whole Food"? The pyramid above is proportioned the "Paleo" way although more vegetables than fruit is the true pyramid. Anyways so I got to reading some of the many good sites on the paleolithic methods of eating and started following them. I started eating less, cut out grains, cut out dairy(although right now I do drink milk but I'm trying to gain about 10 pounds), cut out pasta, and started getting more fussy about the carbohydrate and fat sources in my diet. So in a nutshell High Protein/High Fat /Low Carbohydrate diet. Right now I take in about 1gram/pound of bodyweight of protein per day (165g) about 80-100 grams of carbohydrates and probably a couple hundred grams of fat per day. On the Zone = 147g protein, 189g carbs, lots of fat). The modified paleo is working great for me, my crossfit numbers are continually getting better, i'm not eating all the time and I feel great. One thing about eating well is that your body sure lets you know when you feed it a load of "shit"!!!

So like I said I'm not preaching just making people aware that modern day eating habits have turned North America into the "fattest continent" in the world. I won't explain the benefits of Paleolithic eating but let you seek out the information on your own, after all I'd just be plagerizing someone elses work. Check out the links to various blogs on my site and look up people like: Robb Wolf, Dr. Loren Cordain (The Paleo Diet), Mikes linked blog above. Find out how and why this diet benefits us at a nutritional level and what "Whole Foods" are. You'll find out in your research that the food guides set out by our governments really aren't healthy at all. I'm not telling anybody what to do but there are choices out there and even if following diets isn't for you;  just be more picky in your choices.

After all Millions of years of "Hunting and Gathering" and "Surviving" couldn't have been wrong!!!!