CrossFit South Bend

The official January 2019 Whole30 starts in less than 19 days! Throughout the month of December 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 Jesús. Jesús did an amazing job with our one-on-one nutrition coaching program. -He lost 26lbs in 3months -He lost 6.5 inches off his waist -He lost 2.5 inches off his hips -He dropped 9% body fat in 3 months all while maintaining muscle mass which is hard to do. He did all this while -While traveling 60-70% of the time -While being involved in a job that involves taking people out for dinner and drinks a lot. -While not really working out much at all -He said no to a $68 shot of Papi Bourbon while at one of his business dinners to stick with his goals In terms of non-scale victories -Just from changing his diet Jesus noticed that he was not sore at all when snowboarding whereas he used to be really sore. -His skin also improved a lot. Used to have a lot of bumps on his biceps and triceps and now those are gone. -Digestion was way better Jesús we're so proud of your and all of your progress! Keep up the great work!

In preparation for the next official Whole30 in January we'll be highlighting some of our best Whole30 success stories from the past year over the next month or so. Interested in trying a Whole30 in January? Our one-on-one coaching programs can help you make the most of your Whole30. Click the link below https://crossfitsouthbend.as.me/initialnutritionconsultation In this video we talk with Nayeli who did a great job with our one-on-one nutrition coaching program. During the program: -Nayeli went from 134.5lbs to 120lbs losing 15lbs -She maintained her muscle mass all the way through -She went from 34.9% to 26.9% body fat which was an 8% drop Other bonuses: -She says that her digestion feels way better than it did before -She went from 0 strict chin-ups to 3 strict chin-ups with tempo -Her energy started improving to the point where she felt more energized in the morning rather than fatigued -Her favorite jeans don't fit her anymore in a good way. We're so proud of you and all that you've accomplished Nayeli!

In this video we talk about the foods I tend to buy on a weekly basis at Whole Foods. My weekly/semi-weekly haul typically consists of the following things that we discuss in more detail in the video. -Grass-Fed Pasture Raised Beef -Ground Pork -Ground Turkey -Organic Bok Choy -Cabbage -Broccoli/Cauliflower -Organic Kale -Plantain Chips -Four Potato Hash-browns -Organic Grapes -Your Whole Foods, in your part of the country, may differ. -There's a whole bunch of other healthy stuff you can get at Whole Foods that's healthy that I just happen not to get on a regular basis ___________________________________________________________________________   Today, we are gonna be talking about my weekly Wholefoods haul. So, what I typically get from Wholefoods on a weekly basis. So, you might be seeing this at a later date, but we are filming this right around Halloween 2018 and we got Jager over there in a Superman cape, Rocket chillin' with the Captain America helmet and the Captain America shield, and then Remmy down there with the Batman cape. Got our superheroes in tow. Alright guys, so let's talk about what I typically get at Wholefoods on a weekly basis. So, again, if you watched any of my other videos or seen any of my other talks, I always talk about composing a healthy meal in terms of protein, veggies, and typically some healthy fat, which we talked about as well in the Costco video, fruits, and then maybe some finishers. So, that's kind of how I organized things today. So, let's start off by talking about quality protein. So, I think when you talk about quality protein, you know, it's important to mention things like, you know, is it grass-fed, is it pasture raised, is it non-GMO, and this is one of the places where I think Wholefoods really excels. Now, whenever I start working with people, I always tell them, "Look, you don't need "to worry about getting grass-fed "and organic and all this stuff to start," but eventually, yeah, from a health perspective, environmental perspective, ethical perspective, it does matter and it is important, and I think Wholefoods is pretty much better than almost anyone in terms of how they rank things and the type of meat that they sell. So, typically, each week, I'll get a couple pounds of some organic, grass-fed Nature's Rancher beef. If you're curious about what the holy grail of beef would look like, that would be it. 100% grass-fed, organic, pasture raised, all the rest of it. Jager really likes the ground beef and the ground pork. Ground pork is non-GMO. Harder around here to get pasture raised stuff, but this is definitely a step above like what you would typically get at most grocery stores, like, a non-GMO pork. Just for the record, when it comes to beef, you know, cows are naturally fed grass, but with pigs and poultry, you know, they're typically omnivores, so what you're looking for is the term pasture raised. That's what you're looking for if you can get it. I'll typically get a couple organic, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, and what I'll do with those is put a little bit of sea salt on them, and then roast them in the oven at 425 for a half an hour and they come out perfect. Organic ground dark turkey, that's typically the turkey that I like, and then I'll get some organic, pasture raised eggs as well. So, you know, especially from a cost-saving perspective, you know, people always think of Wholefoods as whole paycheck, but that's not necessarily true, honestly, and if you compare a lot of their stuff to other places, it's not actually that much of a difference, and the other thing to say is, you know, when it comes to food quality, it's important to get the best quality stuff you can get and if you're gonna be paying more for a little bit higher quality, getting things like ground meats or chuck roast or, you know, a whole chicken or things like that, that's a good way to save money. So, you'll notice that I don't have much in the way of, like, boneless, skinless chicken breast or in pork chops and steak because that tends to get a bit more expensive, and these are kinda the utilitarian, day-to-day meats that I'll get and I'll try to get the higher quality, but get the more usable stuff that you can use on a daily basis. Okay, so that's it for protein. Let's talk a little bit about healthy starches. So, when people think of carbs, they almost always think pasta, breads, cereal, cookies, crackers, all this other stuff, but remember, all plants are carbohydrates in one way or another. That goes for vegetables, fruits, and these more starchy carbohydrates. So, there's nothing wrong with carbs per se, you just wanna get the right kind. So, good starchy carbs to have on a regular basis, especially if you're working out, would be things like white potatoes, these are sweet potatoes. White potatoes, it is important to try to get organic, so I'll specifically go to Wholefoods to get the russets, reds, or yellows, which are all white potatoes, organic. These are the Hannah yams that they sell at, or, Hannah sweet potatoes, excuse me, that they sell at Wholefoods. One of the things I like about Wholefoods is that they've got a bunch of different sweet potatoes. Like, if you go to most grocery stores, they've got a whole bunch of different sweet potatoes, or, excuse me, they typically have one sweet potato, but they don't have a variety, so at Wholefoods, they've got the Japanese sweet potato, the purple one, the Hannah, a bunch of different ones. Now, what do you do if you're in a time crunch? So, these Dr. Praeger's Four Potato Hash Browns are really pretty good when it comes to ingredients. They're basically just white potatoes, a little bit of canola oil, which isn't, like, the greatest thing in the world, but it's a teeny bit and if you're having it occasionally, it's not that huge a deal, and some spices, and very low on sugar. So, this is a really good, kinda quick option that you could throw in the oven in the morning for breakfast. Plantain chips, I like these a little bit too much. These are really good. They've got plantains, palm oil, sea salt, really good option, so, you know, if you're looking for a snack on the go, this is gonna be a really good thing to get. Jager's trying to see if he can get a little, you want some potato action? Is that what you're looking for? Let me fix your cape. Let me fix your superhero. Okay, there we go, alright pup. Okay, so let's talk about vegetables. So, you know, by this point, when you guys are watching this, the Costco video should've already been released, and in that video, I talk a lot about other vegetables that I get there, but typically, at Wholefoods, I'll get certain vegetables that, you know, typically, it's not that I can only exclusively get them there, but that I like to get there. So, organic kale, I'll get a couple bunches of these a week, and sometimes, it'll be the organic green stuff, sometimes it'll be the organic red stuff. I'll try to switch it up to get good variety. Especially with your leafy greens, it's gonna be really important to get them organic, as opposed to conventional, so that's one of the reasons I get them there. Broccoli, sometimes I'll do broccoli, sometimes I'll do cauliflower. I'll typically throw these on a sheet pan with these, put some oil, salt, and roast them, and that's kind of my dinner vegetables. Cabbage. So, I got a red one this week, I'll switch back and forth between red and green, again, just to get some good variety in there. With the cruciferous veggies like the cabbage and the broccoli and the cauliflower, it doesn't matter as much to get them organic, but you certainly can. And then, bok choy. So, this is one that I didn't really know how to cook, but again, that typical roasting method where I just slice them up, throw them on a sheet pan, oil, salt, and high heat, and they come out actually really good. And again, I try to buy those organic. So, that's it for vegetables. Let's talk a little bit about fruits. So again, in the Costco video, I talked about how I'll typically get organic blueberries and apples from Costco, sometimes I'll get them from Wholefoods, just depending on what Costco's selling in a given week. Organic grapes, I like to get these a lot. Kinda going out of season here at this point, but these are really good. Again, with any fruit that you eat the skin of, you definitely wanna try to get it organic. Okay, and then lastly, just a couple little treats that I'll occasionally get from Wholefoods. Let's start with the Alter Eco Blackout Dark Chocolate. This is probably my favorite brand of chocolate, it's an 85%. They have a really good ingredient list where there's no, you know, crap on the inside, it's just organic cacao beans, cacao butter, cane sugar, which it's gonna have if it's not 100% cacao, and vanilla beans, and it tastes very good. And then, these guys, Better Bites Chocolate Chip Cookie Do Bites, these things are like crack. They are chocolate-enrobed cookie dough, as you can see there, enrobed. That's probably why they cost $9 for six. If you're a Prime member, they recently had these on sale for buy-one-get-one-free, so that brings up a really good point, which is if you are worried about the cost of Wholefoods or the cost of some other place, you know, typically, all these places have sales during the year, so when they have sales for things that, you know, are freezable, like meat or, you know, chocolate or, to a certain extent, you know, things like Dr. Praeger's, stock up and that's gonna be a really good way to save money. So, probably in the future, I'm gonna do a video about all the other stuff that you can get at Wholefoods that I don't happen to buy, but for right now, that just gives you a sense of the typical stuff that I buy on a weekly basis. Alright guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

In this video we talk with Coach Amy about her eating habits. Amy's story is unique for a number of reasons. -She's a mother of three. -She's the head coach for our CrossFit South Bend classes -She's an amazing athlete -She somehow manages to have all the energy she does on 5-6 hrs a night of sleep -She has a bit of a sweet tooth ;) In this video she tells us: -What she ate growing up -Her transition to healthy eating -How she eats currently -Her current favorite off-plan foods -Her favorite off-plan food holidays -What she's learned over the years in terms of eating healthy There are a lot of great insights from Amy in the video so be sure to check it out! ___________________________________________________________________ Robby:              Hi guys. Robby here from Cross Fit South Bend. Today I'm here with Coach Amy and we are gonna be doing a video talking about what Amy eats. Amy:                Oh, what Amy eats. Cookies, here. Dip. Robby:              Yeah. We just did Amy's [tree corn] so we got lots of sugar laden goods, so we like to do these videos just to give you guys a sense of what each coach eats and how they fit healthy eating in to their lives. Amy:                All right. Robby:              So Amy, tell us first how did you eat growing up? Like what was eating like with your family growing up? Amy:                Boy, let's see. Well, I loved cereal. Honestly, I'm a cereal junky, and today, I still am. I would eat it breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Honestly. Snack in between. I love cereal. So my mom never restricted me, really. If I got home, I was involved in tap, jazz, ballet, even active really all since I was a little girl. Cheerleading, different things. Gymnastics. And I think if I came home, if I ate something, it was cereal, honestly. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                Just a little bit. Chocolate milk. Not white milk. Only if it was in the cereal. I have to tell you, my favorite cereal, one of them was King Vitamin. I really don't know about it. And the other one was called Rainbow Brite. So if anybody knows or remembers the doll Rainbow Brite, she had a cereal back in the late 70s, early 80s, maybe early 80s, I think, but it was really good. Yeah. Fruity Pebbles, still up there. Robby:              They are pretty delicious. They're pretty awesome. Amy:                Yeah. I like the sugary cereals. I do, but honestly, I like not so sugary stuff too. It just depends. Robby:              Yeah. That's pretty good. Amy:                I am up on sugar. Robby:              So we'll talk in just a second about what you're eating now, but tell us about when you first starting thinking about eating healthy to now. Just kind of that journey form when you even first even thought of the concept of eating healthy to now. How did that progression go? Amy:                How did that journey progression go? Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                Well, I'm the oldest of our coaches so I might take a little more time. But no, honestly, like I said, from early on, even though I might have had some unhealthy treats, my mom would really pack a good lunch. I mean, we always have fruit or something. And yes, my mom, I love my mom, ever since I was a little girl, she packed my lunch, put a note in it, even in high school. She'd, you know, those [April's], and she'd do barbecue ham sandwich. She'd actually fry it up in the morning. My mom got up at 4:00 in the morning, made my brother's and I lunch, so we'd have a barbecue ham sandwich usually, could be peanut butter and jelly, but it was usually a turkey or a lunch meat, something like that. Chips, or pretzels, are my go to. I like pretzels a lot. Yogurt. I liked yogurt. A Little Debbie snack, Zebra Cakes. They don't make them as good as they used to, but Zebra Cakes are really good. Fruit roll ups. All natural fruit roll ups actually, back in the day, at a store called [Price Chop] where they had these big circle, and they were really good. Natural fruit roll ups. So has much as I tried to eat, lunches, that's kind of what it was. Dinners, eating healthy, pretty much growing up. Tacos, spaghetti, I think your normal foods that parents would make for kids. Pizza, every once in a while. Macaroni and cheese, did not like Kraft. I liked Velveeta. My mom would make a Velveeta macaroni and cheese. The other things, I think, then moving on towards college. Any college food, try to eat as good as you can in college. Robby:              Right. Amy:                Lots of salad bars, chicken nuggets. I mean, I didn't starve myself. Let's say that. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                But I mean, I never was ... I would say fortunately, I never was a person that had to deal with being overweight or obese. I think the time I felt like that, is I entered into being a mom. And then going into marriage and being a mom and I had always told myself I never wanted to be a heavy wife, a heavy mom, and so whether it started way back when, I really focused on trying to eat good foods. So you know, just a good protein, a good carb source, and fats. But didn't know those different macros. Robby:              Right. Amy:                I had no clue about macros until I came to Cross Fit South Bend and really started learning what really good foods where. I had wished that with my children that I feed them avocados. My mom didn't give me avocados so I didn't eat them. I never liked peas. And never liked mushrooms and eggs. I love you all, but if you have me over, I will tell you if you put mushrooms, eggs, or peas in front of me, I will not eat them. So I try to be very respectful. I do love to cook love to cook for myself too. My mom was very busy. She worked all the time. So my dad worked. My bother and I, actually, we did a lot of cooking and baking and my brother is an excellent cook out there today, and baker as well, and I probably ... You know, one of the things I love doing, [treat corner]. I love experimenting with food. And so when I came to Cross Fit and just the natural healthier food options, just realizing how good avocados were for you, for that natural fat. Different ways preparing chicken and pork and hamburger and ground turkey. That was the thing I really put in our main stay diet, I think, before I found the gym. But adding ground turkey to hamburger. You know, if you don't like ground turkey flavor taste. Robby:              Right. Amy:                Limiting bacon, but I do love my bacon still. I'm trying to, I mean, it's kind of ... I changed a lot. I wanna say I changed a lot but I maybe opened my palette more to some other sources of good eating. Robby:              Yeah. It sounds like you've always had that foundation of home cooking and knowing how to cook and liking to cook and stuff like that, so that's a big part of things. Amy:                Yes. You're right. And my mom, she actually didn't like to cook, but when she did, she cooked well. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                And I just absolutely loved it. Spaghetti, my mom, my dad made this recipe called [Bosta] and it was one of our favorites. Italian sausage, and meatballs, and make them from scratch with noodles. Fish, love fish, and fried potatoes and onions. During the summer, couldn't wait to go fishing at the lake. Bass, blue gill, perch, walleye, all those good foods too. And yeah, I do love the foundation of just being able to throw something together and cook it myself. I really like. Robby:              Yeah. So tell us about what you're eating now. Amy:                All right. So I kind of joke that I needed to have this big plate from Elf with the noodles and cocoa pebbles. You guys, I'll be real. I mean, my downfall is sugar, and if you put a cinnamon roll in front of me versus a steak, I will take that cinnamon roll any day over a steak. But I will show you what I do. I meal prep on Sundays. That's when I try to do it, and especially when I wanted to be more of a competitive athlete, I started dividing out those macros, the protein, carbs, and fat. I go through spurts just like anybody else. I'm on the bandwagon. I'll do it, and then other days I'm like forget it. I don't wanna do it for a while, because you can get burned out. For me, I can get burned out. So yes, here's my refrigerator. It's kind of barren a little bit, but I got the staples of different things, but I will putt out some of my foods here. How about I pull them out and Robby, you can take off the lids and show people. Usually, take ... oh, and there's [Oakley]. Yup, hi Oakley. She knows I'm getting food out. That's my puppy. If you've seen here at the gym you know she's gotten very big here. A couple more. Like I said, I do meal prep. All right. These. I find I like to be organized too. I keep things kind of organized. Thanks Robby. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                All right. So usually you can ask my family what I'm doing on Sunday. After church, usually grocery store shopping. I come home and I'll be cooking for three, four hours. That's not painstaking to me, I will admit, because I love to cook and I love to try new things. And when I'm in a rush, that's the hard time. So when I'm in a rush, I will get two or three crock pots out here at one time. Today, this morning, before I left for the gym to do a training session, I put pork loin in a big crock pot here. I put my sweet potatoes in another crock pot. So I had two crock pots going and then when I got home ... actually, my wonderful husband put out some chicken I had and he grilled it out there, so we had some grilled chicken for lunch. And then I use the leftovers for things. And then I was at the stove making some ground hamburger and you can add the turkey with that, and that's about three pounds there. I do cook it in bulk so have enough at least through Wednesday or Thursday. And then my veggies. I get our carbs in here. Veggies, I will take a big baking sheet and then just cut up some vegetables or anything I want. Broccoli. I've done green beans. I put them on a pan and then roast them there in the oven. That's how I like to do my vegetables. And then I'll do a big thing of ... Oakley. Sorry. Dog. She's a ... Andy. So and then I had a big thing of rice in my rice cooker here. So one of the meals, now, I'll just kind of put this all together. So I like to do a hamburger over here and then add my peppers and onions, is what I did there, and rice. And then I'll put this with lettuce into a big taco salad. Add avocados to it for good fat. I also like sour cream and salsa. So Mexican food is my favorite, just so you know. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                So that's a very good staple. Pork loin and sweet potatoes. I just grab a big spring mix of salad, cucumbers, and then I'll take that to the gym. I'll pack this all up. That's why it's packing this way, because I just bring to the gym, because I'm here most of the time. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                And then just cut it up and make myself a big salad, so I got my protein, carbs, and a good salad. Add olive oil. I put real butter in it so there is a good fat in there for that already. And I put these, I drench in olive oil, so that's another good fat. Robby:              Okay. Amy:                And then, for the grilled chicken, I took for my veggie those zucchini noodles or squash noodles and then added an organic spaghetti sauce. Topped it with my grilled chicken. And I like Parmesan cheese a lot so I just did a little sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. And there's some great meals throughout the week already for me here. And then I've got grilled chicken and whatever I want. Chicken salad, if I wanna make that, with some nuts and different things like that. Robby:              It all looks really delicious. It's giving me some meal ideas. Yeah. Amy:                Oh good. Robby:              It's fantastic. Amy:                For breakfast, that'd probably be like Kodiak cakes sometimes, or an RX bar, honestly, at the gym, because coaching early in the morning and getting up around 4:15. I'm pretty hungry, ready for lunch around 8:00 already. Robby:              Yeah. So one of the things we like to do in these videos, you know, with Andrew, we talked about the fact that he was a student, and with Chad, talked about the fact that he was a firefighter, and Carl, the fact that he was a rugby coach and rugby player, so you're a mom. You have a full-time job while you were training, and now you're a full-time trainer at the gym. What are some tips or tricks or things you've learned while doing all those different things about how to get healthy food in? Amy:                That is a good with. I always say, and I learned this being at the gym, if I can do meal prepping to get healthy food in, if I can take one day, even if you start out at you're gonna give yourself one hour. And you know, cook bulk food. Then divide that up. That was definitely a trick or a tip. And then just dividing these containers. If you already have a meal divided up for you, how easy is that just to take it with you and there you go. If you have certain macros or something you're following, do one, two, three, four. Put it on your meals and there you go. But definitely the biggest thing for me is just meal prepping. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                You have to if you have a busy schedule. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                If you don't make it a priority, it'll never happen. Robby:              Right. Amy:                And then you get stressed and I've been there before. I'm like, hey, take out, and then we find out that we've done take out five days in a row. Robby:              Right. Amy:                And that's not what I wanna do. Robby:              Right. Makes sense. Amy:                So definitely meal prepping. Robby:              So now the favorite part of all of these videos, but especially your video, let's talk about nutritional off-roading. So give me your top, I don't know, two to three, like oh my god, I don't care about nutrition. I don't care about healthy anymore. What are your top three completely off plan foods? Amy:                Completely off plan food. All right. If anybody ... Robby:              We can extend it to five to ten. We can put whatever you want in there. Amy:                No, no, no. Okay. Well, like I said, I do love the cinnamon rolls so if anybody out there ha a good place you know of a ooey gooey cinnamon roll, I wanna know it. I don't like a lot of bread, but I am bound to make myself one. I do love cinnamon rolls. The other thing I love is bananas foster waffles. When [Peep] used to, when they were Little Peep, have the best one around that I've had. I usually will try them around different places. But that, I love bananas foster. Pretty much anything, I just love bananas foster. If you don't know what this is, bananas, with caramel. They caramelize the bananas in sugar with brown sugar and so the sugars all come out and you put it over ice cream. There's bananas fosters or waffles, different things like that. As far as, yeah, I used to love ice cream growing up. I still like ice cream a lot, but my grandfather did invent the bomb pop and so we had ice cream constantly because he worked for an ice cream plant and so I do love ice cream. I like fro yo a lot. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                Kind of off-roading a little bit. But it definitely has to be a sweet for me. Any good baked, a good bakery, of a cookie, like these cookies Meg made here. Honestly, that's probably me. Definitely a sweet treat. Robby:              Okay. And I guess the last thing is, you know, you talked a little bit about meal prepping before, but we always like to ask people, if you could go back in talk to yourself years ago and if you could to talk to someone in a similar situation, someone who's a mom or someone who's scared of Cross Fit or someone who's working a certain job, and they wanna start to get into this stuff. What advice do you have for that person to start to eat healthy? Amy:                Well, if you're anything like me, and love sugar, I wish I would have known the affects different food had on you. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                And maybe not taking, I'm not ... I tried doing the vitamin thing, to replace food, but that's still never gonna replace whole food. Robby:              Right. Amy:                Vitamins aren't. It truly is a supplement, you know. Robby:              Right. Amy:                And I wish I would have known more about cooking and like I said, the variety of foods you can eat and the healthy benefits from that. And taking away the sugar. Robby:              Right. Amy:                But I would have to say because that's my thing, and as you know, it's really hard to give up. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                You know, Robby challenged me with this one time and anybody who has an addiction out there, it's hard, and sugar is in everything. Reading the labels more. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                You taught me how to read the labels. You know, that first ingredient is what's in it the most, and I will pick up and read labels every time I go to the grocery store now. Just trying to ... The other good tip I think you've always said is if your great great grandparents didn't make it, grow it, kill it, whatever, you probably shouldn't be eating it either. And to me, that's a really good tip. And you know, besides my off-roading, I wanna try to stay to those whole foods, and I wish I would have known a little bit more about the benefits of different foods and what it can do for me. Robby:              Awesome. Amy:                Especially with my kids being little. I wish I would have made them eat avocados. Robby:              Yeah. Amy:                Because they're not bad. Honestly, they're wonderful, but my daughter ... I would have to say since coming to the gym and making foods, different things, than the normal staples a lot of people do, my kids are actually trying things and they actually like it, and so that's good. Robby:              That's awesome. All right. Amy, well, thank you so much for showing us all this stuff today. It looks fantastic. Amy:                Yeah. Robby:              I might have to go home and try some of these. Try some of these meals. Amy:                Yeah. Definitely. Robby:              Guys, thanks so much for tuning in, and we'll see you next time.  

In this video we talk about the foods I tend to buy on a weekly basis at Costco. My weekly/semi-weekly haul typically consists of the following things that we discuss in more detail in the video. -Wild Alaskan Salmon -Organic Turkey Breast -Organic Green Beans -Organic Butternut Squash -Organic Brussels Sprouts -Organic Celery Hearts -Organic Spring Mix -Organic Olive Oil -Organic Coconut Oil -Avocado Oil -Organic Blueberries -Organic Apples -Other things I forgot to mention that I'll sometimes get are Kerry gold butter, macadamia nuts, and dark chocolate. -Your Costco, in your part of the country, may differ. -There's a whole bunch of other healthy stuff you can get at Costco that's healthy that I just happen not to get on a regular basis ___________________________________________________________________________ Transcript Hey guys, Robby here from CrossFit South Bend. Today, I'm gonna be giving you a tour of my weekly Costco grocery store tour haul, so as of the time of the filming of this video, I'm actually gonna be leading a free-to-the-public Costo paleo grocery store tour on Tuesday, November 13th at 6:30 p.m. That's available to sign up for for free, even if you're not a CrossFit South Bend member, and even if you're not a Costco member on our website, CrossFitSouthBend.com. So, if you're interested in that, please sign up and we'd be happy to have you there. So, today I'm gonna give you a sense of what I typically buy roughly on a weekly basis, some of the stuff I buy weekly, some of the stuff I buy every few weeks. But, this is just giving you a sense of some of the really healthy stuff that you can get at Costco. Now, before we get started, this is probably about, I don't know, maybe 10 to 20% of what you can get at Costco that's really healthy. There's a lot of healthy stuff. This is just the stuff that I happen to like, there's a lot of healthy stuff there that, you know, just for whatever reason, just my particular taste, that I don't end up getting. But, there's a lot of other healthy stuff besides what I get that you could get there that's very healthy. So, for those of you who have been listening to any of my other videos, you'll know that when we talk about creating a healthy meal, we always talk about quality protein, vegetables, healthy fats, and then some fruit, maybe as, like, a dessert or a finisher. So, that's kinda the way I've organized things today to talk about it. So, let's talk first about the quality protein that I typically get at Costco. So, just to preface this, I typically, my weekly grocery store run, I'll typically divide it somewhere between Costco and Wholefoods, so I don't get everything at Costco, I don't get everything at Wholefoods. But, this is the typical stuff that I will get specifically from Costco. So, first off, wild Alaskan sockeye salmon. So, plenty of you guys who've done research on getting good quality fish and seafood, it's a little bit of a difficult thing to do, and even if you manage to get it from somewhere like Vital Choice, which is a great company, it gets really, really expensive, so I found that Costco is the best intersection of really good quality fish and seafood, but also at a reasonable price. Like, I think for this total, it's like, 32 dollars and that's eight salmon filets, so that's basically about four dollars per six-ounce filet, where if you know anything about wild Alaskan fish and how much it usually costs, that's a pretty good deal. So, at Costco, they've got halibut, mahi-mahi, shrimp, whole bunch of other stuff that's really good. I get scallops and halibuts sometimes there, but typically, my foundational piece that I'll get is that salmon there. So, it's a really good option. Another option that I found not too long ago, I guess, maybe about six to nine months ago, is this Plainville Farms organic turkey breast. So again, turkey breast and deli meat in general is hard to find that has good quality ingredients. You know, usually there's stabilizers and thickeners and stuff like that in there. I'm just trying to find the ingredient list for you guys here. Here we go. So, ingredients, organic turkey breast, water, and sea salt. No carrageenan, no guar gum, no sugar, none of that stuff. So, that's a pretty good ingredient list as far as it goes when it comes to deli meat. Other good deli meat brands that you can get from elsewhere, Applegate, Boar's Head. But, this is a really good one that you can get from Costco for a pretty decent cost. Okay, so that's the protein that I typically get at Costco. In a separate video, I'll do probably, you know, the haul that I do at Wholefoods, which is where I get a bit more of my protein, but for now, that's what I get at Costco. Other stuff I get throughout the week. So, I will get this gigantic bag, as you might imagine, from Costco. They have these gigantic bags of produce. I get this gigantic, two-pound bag of green beans. And typically, what I'll do is, I'll put a pound of these on a sheet pan for lunch or dinner, or even breakfast, honestly, mixed in with some coconut oil and roast them at 400 degrees for about a half an hour, and they come out tasting delicious. Two-pound bag of Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts don't technically need to be organic, they're part of the cabbage family, which doesn't technically need to be organic. But, it doesn't hurt. With these, I'll typically use the same exact roasting method that I would with the green beans, only I'll typically put on ghee or olive oil. I find that pairs better with Brussels sprouts, and again, about 400 degrees for 30 minutes, maybe 425 or 450, honestly, 'cause I think the blacker, the better, when it comes to Brussels sprouts, in my personal opinion. Another one. And again, you don't necessarily need to get organic the same way you would need to get maybe spring mix organic or celery organic, is butternut squash. But again, it doesn't hurt to get it organic. It's certainly better for you if it's that way. You know, butternut squash is one of those ones that it's kind of a pain in the butt to cut up on your own and to prepare on your own 'cause it's a very odd object to cut, so it's really nice to just have this ready, and when I prepare most things on a sheet pan, this is the dice size that I'll typically use to just, you know, open it up, throw it on a sheet pan, oil, salt, high heat for 30 minutes, and it's good to go. Okay, now two of the more, so, you know, green beans, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, with these, you know, obviously, you cook them, right? You're not gonna be eating these raw. Two of the more raw ones that I will typically do on a weekly basis are the organic spring mix. You know, if I haven't prepared for a particular day for some reason or it's been a long day at the office and I just don't wanna cook anything, I'll take a gigantic heap of this, put it on a plate, olive oil, sea salt, if you're a salt lover and you haven't tried sea salt on your salad, try it, it's delicious. That's a really good way to get veggies. Another really good way to get veggies that I really like is organic celery hearts. So, I'll just cut these into little bits and just kind of have them as finger food. I remember Coach Chad at the gym saying that, remarking that celery tastes to him like fishing line. So, some people like it, some people don't, but what I found is that if you put a little bit of sea salt on this and you mix it with some guacamole, that's a really good, quick, easy, on-the-go option that you don't have to cook, and it could be used for trips or snacks for kids, or snacks for you, and that's just something really easy that you can do without very much in the way of prep. So, that's the protein, those are the vegetables that I typically get. Now, let's talk about the healthy fats. So, a lot of this stuff, I'll get on a weekly basis, but with the healthy fats, of course, they last a lot longer than just a week, typically, so these, I'll get maybe every few weeks or every couple months. Wholly Guacamole, so this is, I think, 20 mini containers and the price at Costco's, like, 13 bucks, so less than a dollar for each one of these. Really good source of healthy fat, monounsaturated healthy fat that you get from avocados. This works really well with, you know, baby carrots or celery, or jicama, if you've ever had that. It's a really good, quick option for healthy fat and it's something you could send with your kids as well. Other healthy fats that I'll typically get from Costco, avocado oil, really good for roasting and sauteing at high heat, it can go up to 500 degrees without smoking. Olive oil. Olive oil's one of those things that you have to be careful where you get it from, because sometimes, it's cut with grape seed oil and cottonseed oil, and lesser oils to make more of a profit. I know for a fact that the Kirkland Signature olive oil is really good and legit olive oil. You know, it's really up to preference which one of these you use. Olive oil will tend to smoke at much lower heat, whereas avocado oil will go up to much higher heat. So, since I roast at much higher heat, I typically use avocado oil. Coconut oil. I probably bought this, like, a year ago, maybe? So, I've used, like, 75% of it. It's a gigantic jug. I use this typically for the green beans, sometimes for plantains. This is a really good oil to saute or roast in if you like coconut flavor. Okay, so protein, veggies, healthy fats, the three main components of meals. Now, let's talk a little bit about dessert or fruit, or kind of the finisher to the meal. So, Costco's a really good place to get organic fruits. So, you can typically get two pounds of organic strawberries, organic raspberries, organic blueberries. Depends on the time of season what kind of price you get, but almost always, it's better than pretty much any other store. And especially when it comes to fruit that you're eating the skin of, you definitely wanna try to buy it organic. So, that's gonna be one of the places where getting it from Costco's gonna make a big deal 'cause they have organic for really good prices. And then, these organic gala apples I just started buying at Costco. I'd say, typically, my favorite is probably red delicious, which unfortunately, they don't sell organic ones at Costco. But, gala's pretty close, and this entire thing for, what is it, two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14, 14 apples is 12 bucks. So, for organic apples, so that's pretty good. That's really not too bad. So, overall, there's a lot of really good stuff that you can get at Costco. Yes, Costco does sell some more conventional stuff, which is, you know, fine. There's nothing wrong with that either, it just depends on what you wanna get. But, for those of you who think that it only sells conventional stuff and you can't get organic stuff there, they've actually upped their game quite a bit in recent years and there's a lot of good stuff you can get. So, hopefully you got a good sense of some good stuff that you can get at Costco. Again, if you're watching this at the right time, we are gonna be doing a Costco paleo grocery store tour on Tuesday, November 13th at 6:30 p.m. You can register for that for free online, you don't need to be a Costco member or a CrossFit South Bend member, and we hope to see you there. Alright guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

In this video we sit down and chat with the founder, CEO, and co-owner of CrossFit South Bend, Brandon Wilton about his nutrition. We talk about -5 crock pots going at a time -yacht-stuff -taco night -looking good naked -Sheet cakes from Wal-Mart -Silver beach pizza -fluctuating carbs -goals vs. fantasies Brandon tells us: -what eating was like growing up -his journey from unhealthy eating to healthy eating. -his current eating regimen -how he meal plans during the week -lessons he's learned from training at a high level and coaching others in terms of food consumption Lots of great nuggets in here so be sure to check out the full video. __________________________________________________________________________ - Hey guys, Robby here from Crossfit Supplement today. I'm here with Coach Brandon who is the co-owner and CEO of Crossfit South Bend and today we're going to be talking to him about what he's eating. Alright, Brandon, thanks so much for being with us today, appreciate it. - Thank you, Robby. - You're welcome. So first of all, tell us about what eating was like growing up. - It was traditional. I actually when I was talking to my parents last night and I called my mom to make sure that my memory was still on point. Cereal for breakfast, normal traditional American stuff. You're looking at peanut butter and jellies, pizza rolls, something like that for lunch. We always had, I remember this distinctly, like theme night. Spaghetti night, taco night, pizza night, all those kinda nights. She did cook good food. She wanted to make sure we get that out. She did make homemade chicken noodle soup which was fantastic, still love to this day. But yeah, they worked real hard for us, so that's a shout out to my parents, love you guys. - So tell us about the journey, we'll get to what you're eating currently in just a second but tell us about the journey from when you started find out about how to kind of eat healthy to now, like what did that journey look like? You know, finding out about the zone and paleo and all these different things. - Yeah, in the past it was kind of, you know, you have me growing up through adolescence and you're getting your information through marketing. You know, you're getting it through Flex Magazine or your bro that says you need to eat more protein, and you know, do whatever it is, and you stop in vitamin shops, they give you horrible advice. Now I don't wanna say vitamin shops specifically but any kind of supplement store like that they're just gonna give you, you know, some just general advice. Then we get into the Crossfit era and it made me a little more dogmatic about things. You get onto the zone and you get into things like that. I weighed and measured in the zone for two years aggressively, blocks, blocks, blocks. And then, you become less and less dogmatic, ideally, and you start to realize that there is no one size fits all. There's no right diet for anyone. There is only principles that work for some people and better for other people. So you have to be more self-aware of what works really well for you and what your goals are, in training, in life, and in nutrition and things like that, and what's sustainable for you in your life. So I think being really honest with that happened over the last three or four years since I started working with OPEX and some of my mentors and things like that, and having a ton of discussions with you and stuff like that, so yeah. - So, tell us what eating is like now. How do you eat on a day-to-day basis? And we'll talk about your meals. Tell us about everything with regard to how you're eating now. - How am I eating now? So, everyone out there in the audience if you saw Mitch's and Carl's video, they prepared, they said they prepared meticulously some meals, their stuff doesn't look like that, I'm gonna tell you that right now. It doesn't look like that, this is real stuff. So, typically, what I like to do, and what happens more often than not is Costco runs on Sundays. Bulk food, I think I've got like five crock pots at home, that's an exaggeration, I've got like three or four, but things go in crock pots. I generally have an idea of how much protein I eat a day which extrapolates to how much per month that I'll actually need, and that goes into some just general type containers. What I'm gonna do is make a bunch of proteins, my carbs are coming from vegetables and I usually keep carbs here at the gym cause I'll eat most of the carbs post-workout, fueling for that, or sometimes, depending on my training, I may not need as many carbs so it's just trivial here. Things are cooked in fat, and because I know I don't do too well with nuts most of it's just coming from oils and things like that. So I cook in bulk. And, what do we got here? We got some chicken casserole. That was in a big 'ole thing. Dump a bunch of eggs and chicken in there. I make things for fuel and for taste, it has to have a decent blend. If you ask some of the other coaches here, it's gotta be primarily for taste and what have you, but I mean, I'm cooking in bulk and I'm cooking fast and that's the way I prefer to do it. We've got some turkey burgers and check it out, rice. Half of it's gone. I cooked most of it up yesterday, used half of it post-workout. Other half's going today. So most of it, and I want to express this, and I went to Whole Foods cause I didn't have enough protein the other day. I can't tell you why that happened, but with that being said, I cook in bulk and I do it all at once. And you know, it's kind of the parent life for people who say that food is either too expensive, you go to Shelton's Farms, you go to some of those other places, you get in bulk and maybe I spend two hours cooking. It doesn't really take all that long to make a lot of it, maybe three depending on what you wanna make, but you just make all this stuff in bulk and I eat nothing fancy. - So, one of the things we like to do with these videos is, with Andrew we talked about the fact that he was a student, Mitch is training to go to regionals, Carl rugby player, rugby coach. You're a CEO, OPEX certified coach, you've trained for the Crossfit Open, you've done a 50-mile run. Tell us about what you found works best for you with performance and all the things you have on your plate, cause you got a lot of different stuff you're trying to take care of. What sort of unique things have you learned about the way you work best in terms of fueling for training and things like that? - Well I think it's important to note that a lot of people have these goals, and sometimes, very often they're fantasies, they're not actual goals. You know, I can talk about yachting and talking about sailing the world, but unless I'm actually studying how to do yacht stuff and saving up, then it becomes, it's a fantasy and it's not an actual reality. So when it comes to stuff like that people, you know they say they have these lofty goals that they're trying to eat for or trying to do nutrition for. In the past I did more competitive stuff and then being CEO and then being more aggressive with business practices, I had to pull back the goals to match that because, you know you've gotta be aware of what leavers you need to pull and how much you need to fuel yourself, cause it's a full-time job and you have to kind of pick and choose, but that being said, you know with my goals just being longevity and feeling good and performing well enough, I'm not trying to go to the games or go to regionals but I like to be strong, and you know, everyone wants to look good naked. They want to feel good, have good energy, sustained energy through the day and perform reasonably. There's no reason I have to do a triple back-flip handstand pushup, you know. So yeah, that's kind of what I'm eating for right now is just longevity and health and you know, all that kind of stuff, and then my diet reflects that. Mostly protein, as much as I can kind of digest. I pay attention to my digestion. A little under, actually a gram per pound of body weight right now. Fat winds up being about .6 grams per pound of body weight, and carbs fluctuate. I push the carbs when I'm having a heavy day, and then on a day like today I may come in and drink a little coffee with some butter in it and some protein powder in the morning and then I may fast if I'm not doing much training throughout the day and then get on to it. - So tell us about nutritional off-roading, so what are your top three to five off-plan foods and what are some of your special occasions that you like to have off-plan foods for? - So even if it is a special occasion, when I feel like my will power is high - have you ever had somebody offer you some of your favorite foods and you're like you know what I don't really want it, I take advantage of that. I take advantage of that. Will power being a depletable resource, when I have good will power, no thanks. When I'm having bad will power, we know what that's like, then what I do is I still try and talk myself out of that kind of stuff, but special occasions, you're looking at some pizza. I like pizza, Silver Beats Pizza. Some baked goods, and then tacos, yeah that kinda stuff just normal food, but it's gotta be good, can't be a sheet cake from the grocery store or anything like that, you know? - Yeah, can't be a sheet cake from Walmart. - Yeah. - So last thing is any advice? You know, you've been at this for a long time, any advice to people who are starting out, trying to change their diet for the better or any thoughts on your journey and what you've learned and what you could teach others nutritionally? - Yeah, I think it goes into a lot of what we do as a business. You know, move slow, enjoy the journey, enjoy the process, don't get obsessed with the destination. You should be aware of where you wanna be, but just because your weight hasn't changed in one or two weeks what you do is you pimp it and you change and you notice. You look for explanations. You change something. You prescribe something different, you action it, and then you just go through concentric circles of that just again and again and again until you find what works for you. You know, so one is enjoying the journey and enjoying the process and learning yourself and being very aware of that. Don't be dogmatic. Just because somebody's a vegetarian or they do this diet or that diet, if it's working for them great, good on you, that's fantastic. You know, it's kinda hard to fit all those things. Don't make nutrition sexy. Pay attention to, be wary of marketing and what marketing's doing for you. Educate yourself. Learn to flip it over and look at the back of the ingredients and start to understand that and just be aware of what you're doing. So yeah, those three things are a good start. - Awesome, well thank you so much for joining us today Brandon, appreciate it.

Are you a sugar burner or a fat burner? Well, honestly speaking, no one is purely a sugar burner or a fat burner. We all use some balance of carbs and fat for fuel. However, most people today are way more dominant towards the sugar/carb burner side of things rather than fat. Unfortunately there are some major downsides to primarily being a carb/sugar burner: -you feel like you need to eat every two hours -you feel like you're on an energy roller coaster throughout the day. -you get hangry regularly (hungry+angry) -it's harder to wake up in the morning -you wake up from sleep in the middle of the night more frequently -you never get to burn fat because you're constantly replenishing carbs with no chance to tap into your fat stores So, being predominantly a carb/sugar burner is not so great from a health perspective. We want more of a balance between fat and carb burning for most people (hard charging athletes in power sports potentially being an exception). Generally speaking you should think of carbs and sugar as rocket fuel for more explosive activities (rugby, football, wrestling, MMA, Crossfit, etc.) One of my favorite sayings from John Welbourne of Power Athlete is: earn your carbs. I think this is certainly true for most people and most people do not need a ton of carbs to fuel their daily activity. So, what about being a fat burner? what are the upsides to that approach? First, from purely rom a biological perspective we can only store a few thousand calories of carbs in our liver and muscle cells as glycogen, but even the leanest body can store HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of calories in fat. So, tapping into those fat stores taps into a major source of clean energy. Furthermore, fats are more clean-burning than carbs, meaning that fat produces fewer harmful metabolic byproducts when utilized for fuel. For pretty much any human activity that happens below 75% exertion (walking, cleaning, basic weight lifting, etc.) fat should be the primary fuel. Also, from a biological and evolutionary perspective, we're supposed to be able to go a few hours at a time and sometimes a few days at a time without eating. The only way to do that metabolically is to tap into our fat stores. Being a more of a fat burner has the following upsides. -you have more energy throughout the day -you sleep better -you don't constantly crave food (no more hanger) -you are able to burn excess body fat more easily So, generally speaking having a proper balance of fat and carb burning is very important for overall health. Most of us are predominantly carb/sugar burners, and switching our fuel source over to fat a bit more is generally beneficial.