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What do CFSB Coaches Eat?-Megan’s Story

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In this interview we sit down with Coach Megan to talk about her thoughts on healthy eating. For those of you don't know Megan she is: -currently a high school science teacher -a CrossFit coach -training to be a nutrtion coach -a mom of three In this video Megan tells us: -What eating was like for her growing up -Her personal evolution when it comes to healthy eating -What she currently eats on a daily basis with concrete examples -What she's learned about healthy eating given all the different commitments in her life -What her favorite off-plan foods are -Her favorite special occasions to eat off-plan food. _____________________________________________________________________ Transcript: - Hey guys, Robby here from CrossFit South Bend today I am here with coach Megan and she is going to be telling us about her life with food. So Megan, thank you so much for joining us today. - Thank you. - So first of all, Megan tell us what food was like for you growing up. - Huh, very traditional, cereals for breakfast. My parents both came from farmers. And so they kinda were raised on kinda real whole food initially. So we, although we had processed things like mac and cheese, ramen noodles, they were always like a big favorite as a kid, and cereals. My mom usually made dinner at night. She'd kind of throw together whatever veggies, meat, we'd have lots of butter and whole milk and stuff like that. But yeah, I think their background kind of lended itself. The problem was that is they also loved food and food was always around the table. So portion control and active lifestyle was not necessarily part of our life growing up. - Right, okay, so tell us about your journey through healthy eating. Like when you first started thinking about healthy eating to how you eat now and then we'll get to you know actually how you're eating at the moment. - Okay, so yeah because we always kind of had food and was always making food that was always part of my life. Always how I ate. High school, college, you go off and there's a lot of processed, a lot of convenience, and then got married and you kinda started playing with food, I realized I liked to cook. But there was still a lot of convenience, like Hamburger Helpers in the first couple years of marriage. And so you kind of didn't have, had an idea of what things sort of were healthy but not a real clear idea. And kids, time, fast forward to about three years ago, no? - Yeah, pretty much. - I got into the Whole 90, with you and then did food journaling for a year. And took a lot of I think what a background was and then was able just to change and tweak things. And so now it's very much real whole food, minimally processed stuff, trying to get the healthy fats, the quality protein, the veggies. So yeah, the last, I would say the last three years have been, I've felt really good and confident about my food. And it was not, it's nice because I didn't worry so much about weight. You know, that was always kind of a part of food. Like it was more like food was something I had to manipulate to be a certain way or to look a certain way or and so it's kind of been a nice shift for me within the last several years to I like my food and it doesn't, I know it fuels me and I'm not so worried about having to take something out or limit yeah. - So tell us a little bit about how you are eating now. Like what typical foods you might eat and then you know you brought some meals with you. - Yeah okay, I feel like I have to preface a little bit that I don't meal prep. I have the three kids, I have three kids, a 12 year old, a nine and a six year old. So I'm making dinner every night anyway. So most of our foods are dinners, I make large portions dinner. And then I will sometimes eat that for breakfast or I'll get it for sure for lunch, Mike and I take them for lunch. So, like I said dinners are usually. This is a good one to start with. So this is a pork steak that I don't know can you see, pork steak that we had one night, roast potatoes. We love roasting potatoes. I roast sweet potatoes, potato wedges, big, little potatoes, salt, pepper, whatever seasoning. And then we roast brussels sprouts, we'll roast broccoli, and then we'll kind of have this. Often we'll have, they're like a lettuce, grains, and have a small side salad on there. If you haven't seen my video on the buffalo chicken patties or you haven't checked out that recipe, this is my go to, and we're on the Whole 30 right now so this is like, I make it and I have it in the fridge always. And I put it over greens, and then it comes with like a mayo dressing on top so the fat it's super great. This was dinner last night, cauliflower rice with the teriyaki chicken. There's some chicken down under there and it had like zucchini and broccoli and carrots and onion and pineapple and all over cauliflower rice. So it's a lot of veggies, a lot of protein, I'm very liberal on my fat when I'm cooking. I like my fat a lot so, but it varies, so we have like soup, we love soup, we have soup once a week. It's just different every night. - Yeah. - So. - Those look delicious, very well presented, very easy. - Literally I threw them, like it's just leftovers from dinners this week so. - Yeah they look great. So I always in these videos like to talk about kind of unique aspects of someone's life, you know, Andrew was a college student, and you know, Carl's a rugby coach and all of these different things. So you are an anatomy and physiology teacher. You are a mom of three, you are a CrossFit coach, you are an athlete, you have all these different responsibilities and life things going on. Tell us how healthy eating fits into and relates to that and time constraints and kids and just anything you'd like to talk about with relation to that. - I very much have taken on, in all of this, it's very easy to become overwhelmed and want to like jump headfirst into everything. So as I was thinking back about things, I've taken on the approach of like put on my oxygen mask first. So that's really where it boils down to, is I've figured out what I needed to do for me to feel better personally, better in the gym. And so I made those changes for me and then Mike was like okay if you're making dinner I'll eat whatever you're making for dinner but I'm still gonna eat whatever over here. And then he's come on board, come a long way, just you know slowly, and now we're getting into the kids. So to help with that, like for me, I like to prep, not meal prep, but like I have to have a plan for the week. - Right. - So I make my menus, it's like my thing, if I don't know what I'm making that week, and I haven't gone and bougthen the things it's just, it all falls apart very quickly and it can get ugly. So I make my lists and then, and then we just you know I try to think about what's going on in my week and the easier meals to put together go on those busy nights and then the ones that take a little bit more time is those nights that I'm not coaching. You know, the insta pot is Tuesday, Thursday. Yeah, those are the nights that like I'm coaching, you know, going on. So a part of it, like really when it comes to food, a lot of it is convenience but to keep my family happy like I have to have something that is going to be taste good and that the kids are going to be interested in. If the kids aren't interested into it then life becomes difficult. So it's kind of this juggling like I make it to the quality that I want it to be I just try to search new recipes to fit the family. The time or the picky eaters, the little ones, so. - Good and you're doing a-- - Whole 30-ish, is that-- - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, so this year was the first year at like, I said Mike kind of got on board and so this year I was like I'm gonna do a Whole 30 in February after my birthday. And so Mike has been eating really well with us and he's like I think we all should. Okay! So I wasn't quite there yet but the words came out of his mouth and then it was kind of like well let's try it, we'll see. So we are doing a Whole 30 with all three kids, ish. Now I would have to say there's certain tweaks that I've, like it's not perfect Whole 30 with kids but little things here or there that we'll let slide. Like I put some plantain chips in their lunch or something like that. But yeah the kids are on day 23, 24, something like that. So the real test is today when they come home with their Valentine's Day candy. - Right. - They know they're to put it in the cupboard and wait 'til next week but we'll see. But it's going really well, you know, the buy-in with the, we talked, prepped them a lot before, before doing a Whole 30. And then some of the buy-in was getting them to look at my recipe books and figure out what they might want to have for dinners. And so then we made the things they wanted for dinners. And sure enough a couple meals that they're like eh, lukewarm on. You know, every night they're like this was good, it was good and they haven't really bocked too much. They do like day dream about doughnuts and candy and bread 'cause you know I had taken cereal out of the house but breads, milk, sugar being the big things that they had to get rid of so. But yeah, it was, I thought I'll give it a week, we'll see how it goes and we're on week, three weeks now. - So-- - Wow. - Yeah. - That's fantastic. - For me it was a success whether it was-- - Yeah, that's huge I mean, yeah I mean to just do it you and Mike let alone you know the entire family I think, that's definitely an amazing accomplishment. - Thanks. Yeah now the tricky part is I have to figure out what I'm gonna, like where do we go after these 30 days. - Right. - So, we'll figure out that. - Cool, let's talk about nutritional off-roading. So as you know very well we typically like to talk about you know completely off planned foods in the context of special occasions. So tell me A about like special occasions that are meaningful to you in terms of food and then B like what are your favorite like, I don't care, I just want to have it. Whatever it is, it's like my favorite off plan food. - Oh, that's a good question. Special occasions, obviously the holidays. But even then I liked what Brandon talked about, you know like if I have to, if I really want it, like and where my willpower is in all of that. You know, I can have holidays and still be really good and say to the dessert. - Right. - There's a certain thing my mom's rolls at Christmas time like-- - Yeah. - Yeah, a lot of my special occasions tend to be I try to like save those for like our anniversary or date nights and usually they are to a special place that we like to go. Like our favorite like pizza is usually my thing. Or wine or something like that, but that, so those are my favorites. We have certain things like special occasions, like tailgates, oh we go camping every year. And like, actually, the last two years have pretty good though but, I don't know. It's hard because there's a context for everything just to say. - Right. - But pizza is a good one, burger, like a really good burger. And if it's baked goods like cake, I really like cake, that's my kind of, but I don't eat it all the time so like it's-- - Right, it's very infrequent. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, but those are my like-- - Go tos. - Go tos. - That's a good list, I like that list. - Yeah. - It's more me. Okay well, I think I'd like to end with the sense, you know you've already mentioned some great advice to people about you know, put your oxygen mask on first. Is there anything else, you'd like to share about your own personal journey through food or dealing with your family or any other nuggets of wisdom that you've encountered over the years that you'd like to share with others starting out maybe. - Yeah take care of yourself, that's a big one. Every once in awhile, I'll stop and I'll think about how far I've come, especially in my kitchen. I remember when I was first starting and looking at recipes and I'm like coconut amino what? And fish sauce huh? And you know all these things that seemed so foreign and my guess one of my biggest recommendations is to start little, like it doesn't have to be a huge transformation at first. It was, I took this one recipe and I tried the coconut aminos and I made this and I tweaked that and it worked out okay and then it was just little things along the way. So it doesn't have to be a complete 180 or life changing immediately. It was, I did a little bit that I could along the way. Like do your best until you know better and then you do better, you know that quote. And so I've just, okay well I'm gonna try this now and I'm gonna incorporate this. And so and there's no endpoint, like I'm still learning new things and I'm still trying new things. So I just, it's kind of a fun, it's just a constant experiment I think for me. And I just have fun kind of playing with it and learning more and trying more. I don't know, that'd probably be, yeah. - Cool, well thank you so much for being with us today, I appreciate it. - You're welcome. - All right guys, thanks so much for tuning and we'll see you next time.
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How much protein should you eat?

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One of the most frequent questions i get asked is: how much protein should I be eating? As with everything else we discuss, the answer is that it totally depends on your goals, health status, training level, etc. For example, a pregnant woman will need way less protein than a 21 year old male bodybuilder. That being said there are good general guidelines we can give as a starting point. For most active adults, who typically weigh between 100-200 lbs, a good amount of daily protein is: 100-200 grams per day. To make things simple and straight forward from a calculation perspective, someone weighing closer to 100lbs should be getting close to 100g of protein per day while someone weighing 200lbs should be getting close to 200g of protein a day. It's a bit more nuanced than this, and I would argue that for most people for health they only need about 1g/lb of lean body mass. But most people don't know their true lean body mass. So, using weight can be an easy, roughly correct, way to calculate it at home. Whether you calculate this based on 1g/lb of weight or 1g/lb of lean body mass or even based on 20-30% of total calories they're all roughly speaking going to come out fairly close to 100-200g per day for most active adults. What does this amount to in human food? An 8oz or half pound serving of most animal proteins (chicken, fish, beef, etc.) will be roughly 40-50g of protein. If it's leaner like chicken it will be closer to 50g of protein per serving. If it's more fatty it will be closer to 40g of protein per serving. So, to take an example, someone who weighs 150lbs would need roughly 150g of protein, which would be roughly 3x8oz servings of protein a day. In future videos, we'll talk about the differences between different types of protein, and special considerations to take into account weighing and measuring protein. ________________________________________________________________ Transcript: Today we are going to talk about protein. So on a previous video we did, a basic introduction to Macro Nutrients. So this is gonna be part of that series where, after giving the general review and introduction, were gonna talk more specifically, about each of the three macro nutrients. So, we're gonna talk about protein, and then eventually carbs and fat as well. And break 'em down, and make it easier for those of you, who want to start to play with your macros and, start manipulation those, in your nutrition and your diet. An easier way to do that. So, let's first talk about, since this is a, video concerning macros and amounts, let's talk about how much of these things, you should be having on a regular basis. So, I categorized the ranges into, a broad range and a narrow range. So, broadly speaking there's a super wide range, of amounts of protein you could eat. But that really becomes so broad because, on the one end, you know this, 0.36 grams per pound of body weight. That's basically the bare minimum, you need to avoid deficiencies. So for an adult male that'd be something like, 50 grams of protein a day, which is a comically small amount. And then on the upper end, technically speaking unless you have, some sort of health condition, there is no physiological upper limit, to the protein that you can consume. But you'd get pretty full pretty quickly, and it would crowd out other macro nutrients, like carbs and fats so, technically speaking, what physiologically you could consume, these insane quantities of protein, like 400, 500 grams. Technically speaking that's not gonna be, realistically feasible for most people. The other way I put it up here, is in terms of percent of calories. So, 15%, some you could potentially say as low as 10%. 15% of calories is for people who wanna maintain, a lower protein status. You'll see this a lot typically with pregnant women, where the body just sort of naturally says, to decrease protein consumption, from a health perspective, health, of the pregnancy. And then 40% of calories is really kinda the upper end, that you could go there, without starting to run into some potential issues, with balancing out other macro nutrients. The reason why I did a broad categorization of this, and a narrow categorization is that, the broad one gives you a sense of, really how far this range is. But the narrow one is much more realistic for most people. So look. For the vast majority of people, especially those watching this video. If you're doing CrossFit, if you're doing some workouts each week. Something like 100-200 grams of protein per day, is going to be a pretty good place for you to be. Now you'll hear all sorts of metrics out there, some people will say one gram per pound of body weight. Well, that would do pretty well, for people who are between 100 and 200 pounds, which again is the overwhelming majority of people. The overwhelming majority of adults. Some people will say one gram per pound of lean body mass, which is gonna be slightly, lower than, your totally body weight. So, say someone was 200 pounds, their lean body mass might be 160 pounds. So it would be one gram per 160 pounds. But generally speaking this is gonna be, a pretty good range for most of you. 100 being kinda on the lower end, depending on your size and your activity levels. 200 grams being on the upper end. But that's gonna do the vast majority of people, pretty well with what it is they're trying to do. Okay. Yes there's people like Thor the Mountain, from game of thrones who eats way in excess of this, but you are not Thor the Mountain, I am not Thor the Mountain. Most of us don't need you know, 10,000 calories a day, these super physiological doses. So, this is pretty good place for most people. What is that in percentage of calories, about 20% - 30%. That's gonna be a pretty good place. That's gonna help with things like, lean muscle maintenance, and building, fat loss, adequate replenishment of amino acid stores. Things like that. What does that break down to per meal? Well that's gonna be roughly something like. You know it's gonna depend on how many meals, but let's just talk about three to four meals a day, roughly. Four to eight ounces of, protein per meal. So let's say you're in the middle of this range, 150 grams. Eight ounces of protein is roughly 50 grams of protein. So if you have eight ounces of, chicken or ground beef or somethin' like that, that's roughly 50 grams of protein. If you have three eight ounce servings, that would be 150 grams of protein. If you're on the lower end of that spectrum, then somewhere between that, you know four to six range, again some people could maybe go as low as 75 here. But again just givin' you just sort of, a broad range of things, in terms of, how much you should be eating per meal. This is of course all gonna depend on, how many meals you have through-out the day. Some people may prefer to have, smaller more frequent meals, of smaller amounts of protein, rather than larger meals. So, hopefully that gives you a good sense, of how much protein you should be having.
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Eating Healthy as a Nurse-Emily’s Story

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In this video we sit down with Emily to discuss her experience with our one-on-one nutrition coaching program. Emily's story is unique for a few reasons. -She is a nurse, who typically works the night shift -She had actually done the Whole30 before -She was already quite knowledgeable about healthy eating Yet, she was still able to make a tremendous amount of progress during the program. Emily: -Lost 30lbs over 3 months -Lost 12% body fat -Lost 4 inches on her waist -Lost 3 inches on her hips. -Even while losing all that weight her muscle mass stayed the same But even more important than what Emily lost in body weight, inches, and percent body fat is what she gained in terms of eating healthy. Her #1 goal was to get control over food not have food control her, and she definitely did that. In the video she tells us how now off-plan food items are now a choice she can choose to make or not make rather than a compulsion. Great job Emily! We're so proud of you and all your progress! ________________________________________________________________________ - Hey guys, Robby here from CrossFit South Bend. Today, I'm here with Emily who just finished her three months of nutrition coaching. Emily, thank you so much for joining us. - Thanks. - So first thing we wanna talk about, even though it's not just about the measurements, Emily did a fantastic job. And she basically ended up losing 30 pounds while her muscle mass stayed the same, while she ended up losing 12% body fat. And then, 22 pounds of the total weight loss was basically fat. And then she lost four inches on her waist and three inches on her hips. So you did a fantastic job. - Thank you. - How you feeling? - I feel good. I just switched back to night shifts so I'm a little groggy right now, but overall, I feel that, that my body is doing more what I want it to. I'm more in tune with what it is doing. That it's not like, I just am inside of my body, I am, we're together, we're one thing now. - Good, good. So tell us a little bit about what eating was like before you started doing this? - I definitely ate out a lot more. And just something quick. I did try to pick the healthier eating out options, but that's all relative. And then, I did, I guess you don't realize until you start doing the food journal how you're really eating, so I would have probably argued that I ate healthier than I actually did. And then doing the food journal kind of showed that I was eating a lot of red light foods that I didn't have to have. Or like at work, those little mindless snacks that you don't recognize that you have because you're writing everything down. And so almost immediately, I stopped mindlessly snacking because then I had to write it all down and I didn't wanna write down all of those things. So that was like a big eye opener for me, that I was eating things that I didn't really realize that I was eating. And none of those were good for you. Someone will bring chips to work and there would be an open bag. Or occasionally, someone would bring fruit, but that's, you know, once a month versus once a week. So that was definitely a lot of bread, carbs, that like what I would eat out, that's what it would be. And now that's not the case. - Good. So take us through the journey. Take us through like, what was month one like? Where we were gradually working up, and then month two with the Whole30 and then the reintroduction. Tell us how journey was for you, that whole process. - So the first week was just, I did what I had been doing and just wrote it all down. And so, I was surprised that I was like, "Oh, this is what I've been doing." So that was a good, I wasn't terrified at the beginning. And then it was, every goal was something that was accomplishable. And I do remember missing a goal at the beginning and I was really mad about it. But it wasn't like an accusation, it was like, this is like, it just wasn't made. And then from there, it was just like, now I'm making choices of, you know, if I'm not gonna eat as many bad things, which ones would I choose? And then, the final week it was like I don't have to eat anything bad and I think it was almost like a conscious decision to have a glass of whisky with my sister. So, at that point I felt like it was already that control over food was starting to come into play, because you're conscious of what you're eating and you know that this is an actual decision. - And then, in terms of your Whole30 journey, you and I were just talking about this. You were saying you had kind of attempted it before but this time was different. Tell people about that. - So, part of the difference was I didn't do it cold turkey this time, so with the gradual cutback in the month one that made it a lot more realistic for me to believe I could achieve the Whole30. And then moving forward beyond that, my kitchen was ready to accomplish the Whole30. That was a big. I already had all the food I needed with the grocery store tour, I knew I didn't have to make a whole bunch of random sauces myself. Because plain chicken, or whatever, is very boring after a while. So they have all the different sauces that I could buy instead of trying to make them myself. That was a lot more convenient. And then, having the book resource, as kind of what to anticipate per day because it had the days marked out. So then I would read that, or if I was having a particularly bad day, it's like well, that's how I'm supposed to be feeling right now. So that wasn't as scary, and then just knowing that I had support, that I wasn't just off in no mans land doing it myself. - Absolutely. So one of the big things with Whole30 is the whole concept of not in scale victory. You obviously got major scale victories, but one of your main goals that was a non scale victory was control over food and your relationship with food. Tell people about that. - So, after the Whole30 there's been some significant life stress and in the holidays, too. But, it was really important to me to not consciously choose to send Robby an email that said, "Hey I had something I wasn't supposed to, I know you'll forgive me." It was, I know that I don't have to make this decision and it was really important to me to not use food as a coping mechanism, and it was also like I was really proud of myself afterwards because once you finally are done, it's "Okay, I've made it this amount of time without using food as a coping mechanism and now I know going forward that I have the will power and I have the capacity in education, too, to make healthier decisions and to follow up knowing that when I do make an unhealthy decision, I'm not just being ignorant. - So did you experience, besides the control over food which is fantastic, did you experience any other non scale victories like, in energy, mood, cravings, digestion, recovery from workouts, anything of that nature? - I will say I was kind of irritated about the cravings - Yeah. - Because, in relation to my menstrual cycle, they would still come, and so I was really mad because I read the Whole30 book and after you pass a certain point you're not supposed to having the cravings. So that's the only thing that I was a little irritated about but that's realistic. And so, now I know that and so can be proactive about that. Also, I definitely remember it was like October 13th, and I thought the workout here was pretty challenging. But I was really proud of myself, I felt like my body was working really hard and I knew I was taxed but I didn't feel like I was achieving. So I patted myself on the back for the capacity that my body had to achieve the workout, so definitely noticed an improvement there. Since then I got a cold but, you know, it happens. - Right. So, you work as a nurse in a hospital. One of the most overworked, underappreciated jobs in the healthcare field, but harder to be healthy. What would you say to people, and you know, you work the night shift and you're incredible working the night shift. What would you say to people who are like, "Oh my gosh, I work the night shift I can't do this," or, "I work as a nurse," "I work in healthcare, I can't do it," what were your thoughts? - There is always food, always food. And patient's family members will bring us food all the time so, that's a realistic thing that will never change. And a lot of people experience that at their work as well, that there's constantly something that someone brought to share. And so, it was just, "No I can't have that," it wasn't like a big deal and I would just walk away. Because I work 12 hours at a time, and sometimes have to stay over, I always have different nuts in my bag, an EPIC bar, or some kind of dry protein that way. And then typically, whenever like, quick grab type things I would do hard boiled eggs, and sometimes fruit. And then I always take two lunches and two snacks. And people think I'm crazy 'cause I'm like, "I gotta eat some more food," because every two hours I'm sneaking food out which is against all the rules and if anybody from JCAHO, they don't know where I work. Sometimes you're really busy and you don't have time to eat, so making sure that the food I brought was nutrient dense was important. So now I've been meal prepping more regularly I know which foods will sustain me for the majority of my shift, or for a significant portion. And sometimes, I had read, nurses had written about doing the Whole30 and eating healthy at work, and I had read about that she would bring multiple options so that if she didn't want something, she would have something else to fall back on. So that also helped me to maintain staying on track and working nights, they would only offer the night shift menu, which is typically, if they offer a salad, it's scary. And then most of the other options are fried or scary. I don't know they are prepared. So, then you have to be a lot more conscientious that you bring your food. Because a lot of my coworkers will stop on the way to work and pick up something. So it's making sure I get up in time to make breakfast. And even if I take it with me and eat it at work, I still have made it and I have it. So that's been the biggest thing, just being conscientious in that way. - Okay, that's really helpful. And then, I guess the last question I have is, do you think there's a sustainable long term? Do you feel like, I mean obviously you and I have talked about, you know of course you can have pizza for special occasions. But I mean like, generally speaking, 80 to 90% of the time do you feel like this is sustainable long term? - Now I do. If you had asked me at the beginning I don't think I would have, I would have probably lied and said that I believed that I was because that was the right answer. - Right. - But as I had success, just with one, like the meal template itself was successful, and then as I saw success in like, my clothes no longer fit. And then saw success that it wasn't a figment of my imagination either, it was on paper. Those things were encouraging to maintain the changes I was making. So now it's knowing that putting good food in my body means that I will feel better and be more confident that's like I know I'm feeling myself appropriately to do the job that I need to do at work and then to perform well in the gym, and just to live a healthier life and feel better in general. And now I know, even just as we've added the things back in, and we've talked about too many of the yellow things I can tell, it's like, "Oh you are eating too many," because I feel that heavier feeling even though those aren't nearly as bad of the foods I had been eating. So it's also being accountable to yourself that, if I choose to eat something bad I know the consequence that will have. And so, now I feel that I have the education to make an accurate decision. I have the capacity in my kitchen and in my desire to eat healthy. And then, just being persistent that I'm going to choose to do that anyways. - Awesome, absolutely. So, I know I said it before but I'll say it again, super proud of you. Think you did a fantastic job. The numbers speak for themselves, but I think even more importantly than that, just your ability to have control over food and just control your own destiny, so I think you did a fantastic job. So thank you so much for joining us. - Thank you. - For telling us your story. Alright guys thanks so much for tuning in, we'll see you next time.
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Intro to Calculating Macros

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In this video we discuss the basics of how to calculate your macros.
When a dude-bro asks you "Dude-bro, what are your macros?" they're asking what your macronutrient ratios are.
What are macronutrient ratios? They  are a a way of splitting up the total number of calories you eat per day into different amounts of protein, carbs and fat depending on what your goals are.
For example:
-The macros for classic keto are: 20% protein, 5% carbs, and 75% fat -While the macros for bodybuilding might be closer to: 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat.
There are tons of different ways to split up your macros depending on your goals. In this video we explain how to do a basic, entry-level, breakdown of your macros. This is just one way to do it, and it's not the end-all be-all. But it can be helpful as a way to start.
To do these calculations you'll need your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). If you have an InBody scan this is easy to calculate accurately. If you don't you'll have to guesstimate with something like the following calculator.
From there you can use the guidelines we discuss in the video to calculate your macros.
 
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What do CFSB Coaches Eat?-Mike’s Story

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In this interview we sit down with Coach Mike to talk about his thoughts on healthy eating. This video is definitely bittersweet because Mike and his wife Carm, who we very much enjoyed having at the gym, recently moved away. Luckily, we were able to film this video before he moved away. Mike: -is a high-level ultimate frisbee athlete and he talks with us about different nutritional aspects of his sport -works a 9-5 job outside of a gym setting where eating healthy wasn't always as easy as it would be working in a gym setting In this video Mike tells us: -What eating was like for him growing up -His personal evolution when it comes to healthy eating -What he currently eats on a daily basis with concrete examples -What he's learned from years of being an ultimate Frisbee athlete -What his favorite off-plan foods are -His favorite special occasions to eat off-plan food.
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No One Can Be Healthy for You

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After a holiday hiatus, we're officially back for 2019 with all new Wellness Wednesday videos. Here's the first one.
 
Here's a profound fact about health and wellness that makes it very different from lots of other things in life:
 
No matter how much money you have, no one can be healthy for you.
 
This is completely different from a lot of other things life. If you
 
-never wanted to do the dishes yourself again
-never wanted to clean your house yourself again
-never wanted to mow your lawn yourself again
-never wanted to do your taxes yourself again
-never wanted to drive yourself anywhere again
 
you could hire (with sufficient money) someone to do those things for you.
 
At the most extreme level, technically speaking, you could even hire someone to raise your kids for you with no involvement from you. Probably not the best idea, but, technically speaking, it's possible.
 
But health and wellness isn't like this. You could be Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook or British royalty and hire the best trainers, nutritionists, cooks, massage therapists etc. But no matter how much money you have, at the end of the day
 
-only you can eat healthy food on your own behalf to make yourself healthy
-only you can do exercises in the gym to make yourself more fit
-only you can get your butt in bed at a reasonable hour to get a good night's rest for yourself
-only you can participate in stress reduction activities on your own behalf to reduce your own stress.
 
No one can do these things for you, no matter how much money you have. This means your health and wellness can't be outsourced.
 
This is why it's so important to create healthy habits around diet, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction because no matter how much money you have you still have to be the one to do these things for yourself.
 
Looking for help in establishing these habits? That's exactly what we do with our one-on-one coaching programs, and we can help you achieve your health and wellness goals with these healthy habits.
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Best of 2018: Tiffany’s Story-Love Yourself First

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The January 2019 Whole30 is officially underway! Didn't start on Jan 1? That's okay! It's not too late to get started working with a certified Whole30 Coach at CrossFit South Bend. 
Interested in doing a Whole30 in January? Want to work with a certified Whole30 Coach? All you you have to do is contact us, and we'll set you up with a certified Whole30 coach to make the most your 2019 Whole30. You can schedule a free 30min consult with the following link: 
 
Over the past few weeks we've be highlighting some of our best stories from 2018 of people who've had success with the Whole30 doing our one-on-one nutrition coaching program.
This will be the last week we'll be doing this, and next week it will be back to all new episodes of Wellness Wednesday.
In this video we sit down with Tiffany who completed our one-on-one heathy eating program. Tiffany's story is interesting for a number of reasons, but one that really stuck out to me was the following. The main reason she decided to do one-on-one coaching wasn't to lose weight, but to love herself more and create more positivity in her life. In our society, we sometimes equate loving ourselves with arrogance or self-obsession. But there's a healthy form of self-love that Tiffany is describing where you care for yourself so that you can care better for others and be the best version of yourself possible. As she said in the video, if your cup is empty you're not going to be able to fill anyone else's cup, and therefore doing things like eating healthy, working out, sleeping and de-stressing allow you to be the best version of yourself you can be. Tiffany accomplished the following during her program. Even though she was already eating really well before she started the program she: -Lost 13lbs total -Lost 10lbs of pure fat -Lost 3.5% body fat -Maintained her muscle mass. She also got some non-scale victories: -Not anywhere near as sore as workouts -Went from a half-pull-up to doing pull-ups -Energy way better, no 2-3pm slump -Saving money because she was cooking most of her meals.
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Best of 2018-Will and Katie’s Story-Keeping up with Lil’ Wayne

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The January 2019 Whole30 is officially underway! Didn't start on Jan 1? That's okay! It's not too late to get started working with a certified Whole30 Coach at CrossFit South Bend.
 
Over the past few weeks we've be highlighting some of our best stories from 2018 of people who've had success with the Whole30 doing our one-on-one nutrition coaching program. Interested in doing a Whole30 in January? Want to work with a certified Whole30 Coach? All you you have to do is contact us, and we'll set you up with a certified Whole30 coach to make the most your 2019 Whole30. You can schedule a free 30min consult with the following link: 
In this video we sit down with Will and Katie who just finished our one-on-one healthy eating program.
 
Both Will and Katie lost 20lbs while doing the program. They did all this while being career professionals and while raising their young son Wayne.
 
Non-Scale Victories that they experienced were:
-not really eating vegetables any at all to eating vegetables at almost every meal
-making this healthy way of eating a lifestyle and regular habit
-Katie found she had way more energy with eating clean
-She also found that her gigantic sweet tooth went away
-Will felt like his need for snacks went away and he had more energy
-He also felt like his mobility and muscle soreness and tightness has been reduced significantly
 
Will and Katie we're so proud of you for all the progress you've made! Keep up the great work!
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Best of 2018-Carolyn’s Story-Down 40lbs in 4 Months

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The official January 2019 Whole30 starts in less than 6 days! Over the past few weeks we've been highlighting some of our best stories from 2018 of people who've had success with the Whole30 doing our one-on-one nutrition coaching program. Interested in doing a Whole30 in January? Want to work with a certified Whole30 Coach? Our one-on-one coaching programs can help you make the most of your Whole30 in 2019. Click the link below to schedule a free 30min consult to get your program started. https://crossfitsouthbend.as.me/initialnutritionconsultation In this video we sit down with Carolyn and discuss her journey back to optimal health and weight. Carolyn is one the most committed people I've ever worked with. I can't say enough good things about how well she did. She was nice enough to type up her reflections on her time doing one-on-one coaching, and we've shared them below. In terms of Carolyn's weight and inches lost she accomplished the following: -She lost 40lbs in 4 months -She lost 9 inches off her waist -She lost 6 inches off her hips -Now her hip measurement is the same as her original waist measurement. In addition to these amazing scale-based victories he also had a bunch of non-scale victories, which I'll let her tell you in her own words. -Biggest Revelations: 1.) Winter / Spring don’t always have to mean illness. For the past decade or so, I have accepted that in the winter and spring months, I will battle sinus infections, pneumonia, the flu, etc. I simply expected it, blaming the circumstance on the time of year rather than the dozens of decisions I was making. I started working with Robby in February and have yet (hope I’m not jinxing it here) to be sick with anything. This is unbelievable to me. Robby gave me permission to prioritize my health, which sounds silly, but I needed that. It was the combination of getting my sleep up from 5 hours a night to 7 1⁄2 or 8, eating clean, consistently working out and meditation which helped my immune system. I had to work a bit to find a schedule and structure that would support my health goals -- for example, I couldn’t do the CrossFit workout at 7:15pm because I needed to be in bed at 8:30pm if I wanted to get up at 4am. This meant I had to leave work at a certain time to make the 5:15pm class. It was a hard boundary that I set with co-workers and the demands of my job in order to make it work. -- I have been walking around with this untrue story that I have a bad immune system -- and in a sense feeling defective and weak -- believing that during certain times of the year I will struggle for weeks on end; yet, how freeing to rewrite the ending to that story. 2.)Food is not a punishment or reward or stress management tool. My relationship with food has shifted entirely. After a hard day at work, I would reward myself with a diet dr. pepper and a bag of chips from the gas station or a McDonald’s vanilla cone. At work, I would break into the birthday candy stash I had for my students and treat myself to a box. This would all happen without too much thought; it felt natural. I can remember going out to eat with a colleague and I ordered a diet coke and she said, “What a treat!” and I thought she was nuts. What do you mean pop is a treat? If I attended an early meeting, which happened a couple times a month, and there were donuts, of course I would get one. If I had a long day ahead of me, then I’d get that frappacino and pair with a slice of warm banana bread. I told myself I deserved and needed it. I interpreted the sugar rushes as signals of happiness. In actuality though, the sugar never helped me feel more full or satisfied and usually set me up for increased sugar cravings throughout the day. These patterns of thought and actions were very difficult for me to reverse, especially since the impulses are still there. The whole 30 rules set strong parameters however, and I told myself, “I can’t do that anymore...it’s not an option.” I quit those addictive habits cold turkey. Because I also had a set schedule, I had to leave work and head straight to the CrossFit gym; this didn’t leave time for stopping off and “treating myself.” I started packing my car with almonds or an epic bar instead. Changing these habits forced me to get more intune with the feeling of hunger versus cravings. Eating better helped me feel like I had more energy throughout the day too, mostly because I avoided those crashes that come along with the sugar. 3.) Workouts, while still very difficult, ultimately feel better. For the past few years, my mile time has been around 11:30/12:00 mark - especially for 8K or Half Marathons. My recovery time after these runs would be significant too and the runs themselves never felt good. This past May I ran a 5K in just under 30 minutes and felt strong throughout the race. It’s exciting to hit new PRs and watch my goals shift a bit. I have come to realize that I cannot workout in order to eat whatever I want...that in fact it will feel better if I eat certain foods in order to workout more effectively. Carolyn, we're so proud of you and we wish you all the best in the future! --------------------------------------------------- Be sure to Subscribe for more CFSB content: https://goo.gl/SSrrFC Connect with us online! Facebook: https://goo.gl/5p2b8d Twitter: https://goo.gl/6AFGFf Instagram: https://goo.gl/rsbCHh Visit the CFSB website! https://www.crossfitsouthbend.com/
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Best of 2018: Margaret’s Story

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The official January 2019 Whole30 starts in less than 13 days! Over the next few weeks we'll be highlighting some of our best stories from 2018 of people who've had success with the Whole30 doing our one-on-one nutrition coaching program. Interested in doing a Whole30 in January? Want to work with a certified Whole30 Coach? Our one-on-one coaching programs can help you make the most of your Whole30 in 2019. Click the link below to schedule a free 30min consult to get your program started. https://crossfitsouthbend.as.me/initialnutritionconsultation In this video we sit down with Margaret, who signed up for our Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® program. We talk about her journey in the FDN program, and the tremendous progress she's made in her health and athleticism as a result. Congrats on all your progress Margaret! We're all so proud of you and all that you've accomplished!