CrossFit South Bend

Is eating less always a good thing? Put simply, no. Because we live in a society of overweight people and excess processed food consumption, we tend to think the less you eat the better. But, more often than not, I'll see people under-eating relative to what they need, and it's sabotaging their weight loss and health goals. Not only are they not getting enough micronutrients and calories, but what they are getting is harmful to them. So what are the downsides of eating too little? 1. Not getting enough nutrients like Vitamin A, magnesium, and omega-3s. Nutrient deficiencies can lead to excess cravings. 2. It can lead to blood sugar crashes because you're not getting enough in the macronutrients to stabilize blood sugar. 3. Unhealthy psychological relationship where you view food as something that's to be avoided rather than nourishing 4. You won't be able to have enough energy to exercise or to recover properly from exercise. 5. Your body starts to go into starvation mode if you consume less than 20% of your calorie needs on a regular basis and not burn. In general if you're a female eating less than 1500 calories a day and if you're a make eating less than 2000 calories a day you're probably eating too little. How do you determine your calorie needs? Check out the following video. https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=0j9LTrIDOwM ______________________________________________________________________ Today we are going to talk about under eating. You might be surprised to hear us talk about this. You might think, "Oh, well the scourge of the modern world is that people are overeating and under exercising." And obviously to a certain extent, that is certainly the case. Whereas food, quite a long time ago, used to be very scarce, and we weren't very sedentary, we'd need to go work for food, or go out and hunt for food. Now we're very sedentary. A lot of the time we don't exercise, and we tend to overeat. But I will tell you what. I see very, very, very often when people come in to see me, when we actually calculate what they're supposed to be eating in terms of calorie needs, or protein needs, or carb needs, or fat needs, or all taken together, a lot of people are actually under eating. So it's this combination of them eating too much in the way of bad stuff, and not eating enough total. That's a horrible combination. Now obviously, you wouldn't want it to be the case that they're eating too much of the bad stuff and whole lot of it. But at the same time, one of the things we will see over and over again is that people are under eating, and they're actually sabotaging their weight loss and health goals. You might be wondering, "What's the problem with under eating? Isn't eating less good? Isn't that an unqualified good that everyone should be trying to do anyway?" Well, not necessarily. There's some things that don't admit of just going to the extreme. Working out is good. But that doesn't mean that working out seven days a week, three times a day is better, right? So there's a happy medium, there's kind of a balance point. Same thing with eating less. We don't want to gorge ourselves and be gluttons, but at the same time, we don't want to starve ourselves. So what are some of the downsides of eating too little? Well, number one, when we go to food quality standard number one that we talk about all the time, not getting enough nutrition. Not getting enough nutrients. Vitamins A, D, E, K. Minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, things like that. So you just become nutrient deficient, and because of that, your body craves more food, and you end up kind of binging and eating things that you shouldn't. So you're not getting adequate nutrients to support your body's function. Blood sugar roller coaster. If you are taking in too little in the way of nutrition, your blood sugar's gonna be on this kinda roller coaster throughout the day, where your hormones like cortisol are gonna need to come in to balance things out. And this is gonna cause you being hangry, hungry plus angry, having your blood sugar dysregulated, having your stress hormone, cortisol, be dysregulated. That's not good either. It's gonna lead to an unhealthy psychological relationship with food, where you tend to view it has harmful rather than nourishing. [inaudible 00:03:04] something to be avoided. And when we talk about exercise and performance, you're just not gonna perform that well. And you're just generally gonna feel tired, and not have enough energy, won't be able to recover. So under eating is not a good thing. People assume because overeating is bad that under eating must be okay, and it's not. So you need to determine what your caloric needs are. So I did an entire other video on that that you guys can check out, but let me just use an example here to indicate how you very well might be consuming way too few calories. As I mentioned in that other video, there are a lot of different ways to determine calories, but let's just use a super simple one to show how probably a number of you watching this are probably eating too few calories. One of the ways I mentioned in that other video to calculate calorie needs was a very simple back of the envelope calculation. Where you would do, you'd basically multiply a certain number of calories by someone's body weight. So let's say we have 100 pound person, someone who's super, super light. If they wanted to maintain that weight, they would multiply their weight time 17 calories per pound, you'll eat 1700. If they wanted to lose weight, they would multiply that times 14 calories, which would be 1400 calories. And if they wanted to gain weight, they'd multiply their weight times 20. So think about that for a second. We're talking about 100 pound person, most people watching this are not gonna be 100 pounds. That's really, really light. And we're saying that for them to maintain their weight, they would need to intake 1700 calories. And even if they wanted to lose weight, 1400 calories. So those of you out there that are eating 1100, 1200, 1300 calorie diets, that is way, way, way, way too little in the way of calories for you. And especially if you're working out, especially if you're working out. We haven't even factored that into the equation yet. If you're working out, and you're aggressively hypocaloric, it can actually thwart your goals, it can actually make it so that not only do you not lose weight, but in some cases, you can actually gain weight, because your body slows your metabolism down so much that it's just trying to hoard whatever it gets. It's really, really important that you are eating adequate calories for what you're trying to do. And just in general, if you go below 20 percent of what you need calorically on a daily basis, your body will tend to go into this kind of starvation mode, and it will hoard calories. It will hoard the food and the energy that you've consumed. You really want to make sure that you're intaking enough calories. So how do you determine this? Well, I'll put a link in the video. I'll put a link in the description below to that other video. You can come in and see us, and you can do an in-body scan, and we can determine your calorie needs for you. There are online calorie calculators. But generally speaking, if you're someone who skips breakfast and then has a yogurt and a couple handfuls of nuts, and then has a salad for dinner, you're probably eating way too little. Just do a little accounting, maybe, with something like My Fitness Pal, or come in and see us here at the gym, and figure out your calorie needs, and maybe that could be the key to getting you to not only feel better, but perform better, and maybe even reach your weight loss goals.  

In this video we sit down with coach Mitch to talk with him about what he normally eats, his relationship with food, and his advice for those trying to change their dietary habits for the better. Mitch's story is unique for a number of reasons: -He's a member of CFSB's full-time coaching staff -He recently got engaged -He is one of our top athletes in the gym -He is training to go to CrossFit Regionals There are a lot of great insights to be gleaned from what Mitch has to say about how he eats. In this video we talk about: -what Mitch typically eats -what he grew up eating -his favorite off-plan items -how he navigates social situations -how to eat healthy while training for top performance ____________________________________________________________________ Robby:             Alright guys, Robby here from Crossfit South Bend. Today I'm here with coach Mitch, and we are going to be talking about Mitch's relationship with food. So Mitch, first of all, thank you so much for being here. Mitch:              Thank you, I feel like I'm in Batman's layer almost. This is like a privilege, this is great. Robby:             Appreciate it. No windows, yeah, completely cordoned off. So Mitch, the first thing I want to ask you about is, tell me what food was like for you growing up? Mitch:              Growing up it was probably your classic American lifestyle. It's a bag of chicken strips that we preheat the oven, or a Tombstone pizza. Having my mom being a full-time worker, she wasn't at home all the time, so usually it was us kids fixing our meals initially, and then when she'd get home she'd usually cook us some kind of meal that is closer to what I'm going to show you guys here in a little bit, but for the most part it was frozen foods, veggies out of a bag, thing like that. Robby:             Okay. And then when did you start getting interested more in healthier nutrition, when did that transition happen? Mitch:              So the biggest thing, it was actually brought on through fitness. After high school I was no longer playing any sports, so I wanted to fill my time with some sort of activity, and luckily my brother-in-law helped influence my fitness lifestyle. So I started working out in a gym, and then I realized, "Oh crap, I can't really get away with eating this stuff anymore, especially if I want to get to this kind of PR." Or whatever the case may be. So I just had a roommate at the time, who lived a very similar lifestyle as me, and he helped show me the ropes on how to meal prep so to speak, and I just blossomed from there. And as the years have gone on I look back like, "Damn, was I really eating that stuff back then?" And I'm sure five years from now I'm going to be like, "What the hell was I thinking at Crossfit South Bend?" Robby:             Okay, awesome. So tell us a little bit about what you typically wat now, what your food looks like, and I see you've brought some food in, what these typical meals are? Mitch:              Yeah. So with me wanting to be on the performance side of my fitness routine, wanting to compete, things like that, you definitely have to fuel your body or else you're going to crash energy wise, or your body's just not going to recover. So the things that you guys have taught me is really, really make sure that you're putting good quality food into your body day in and day out. So luckily I have a significant other who is also in the same mind frame, so we usually do our meal preps together on Sundays, and on Thursdays if we're running out of food by the end of the week. So usually that's a three or four hour process that we spend on those particular days, and I generally eat about four to five meals a day, as crazy as it sounds- Robby:             That's awesome. Mitch:              And this is how it is. So generally, it's going to be all broken down from a macro standpoint, like I have my numbers that I follow, and I try and stay within that range as best I can, and I generally try and eat every two to three hours, as long as my work schedule allows me to do that. But yeah, for instance, I have a cup of oatmeal with some chopped up apples in there, and some crushed almonds to give it a little extra crunch, and then I have egg whites mixed with white onions and broccoli, and that's a go-to meal for me for breakfast. Then before my workout, probably an hour or two before that, I'll have six ounces of some kind of beef, or maybe even chicken, just depending on what we have, some green veggies, and some rice, because that seems to be a carb that really sits well with me. I feel like I get a good energy from it, it doesn't really make me feel bloaty or anything like that, and I didn't realize how important that was until I started to really follow my diet and started noticing certain foods were making me feel less energized, or more sluggish, things like that. Then usually about an hour or so after I work out I'll have this big, big meal. That's usually where I get the main source of carbs from, and that's usually a little bit harder for me to get all that through, because I'm a cow, I'm a slow grazer, if you will. So I could just sit there and just pile it in for and hour if I have to. Then I tend to have a home cooked meal with Stephanie whenever we get home from work, so that's our ritual, if you will. Robby:             Awesome. So, one of the things I like to do with these videos is, with Andrew last time we were talking about the fact that for him, his unique situation was he was a college student. Mitch:              Right. Robby:             In your case, you are a competitive cross fitter, and working out multiple times a day, doing really hard programming. What sort of nutritional modifications have you had to make in the past few years, and what sort of things have you learned about the way you eat with all this stuff? Mitch:              The biggest thing that I've really learned more about myself is how much we're like a car. Legitimately, we're built like a car. Like we have to do our maintenance work, we have to fill our gas, we have to change the oil. Things like that, and I didn't realize how true that was until I started really making sure that I was changing my oil every couple of hours by eating food, and how skipping a meal and choosing to exercise versus eating, how big of a difference your performance can be with that, and not being in a set routine can definitely mess up your performance. For me, I'm very lucky that I can work out at the same time, generally, every single day, and my diet falls into that schedule as well. But if things are very busy in my life, I might have to work out earlier or later, or maybe only get a portion of my workout in, but I do know that if I'm choosing exercise over food, I know that my performance is not going to be that good that particular day, or maybe even that week because of that decision. So just learning how diet and nutrition is key, versus putting in a better workout. So that's probably been the biggest thing, and the most rewarding thing I've gained from doing this. Robby:             Awesome. So, we've talked a lot about good food. Mitch:              Right. Robby:             Now, let's talk about what are your favorite off-plan foods? What do you like to do when you're nutritionally off-roading? Mitch:              So, none of my athletes know this about me, they would be totally surprised when I say this, but I love spicy food. Just kidding, they probably know that better than anything. Whenever I'm describing a workout, whether it's a long aerobic piece, I'm like, "Yeah, this is like your honey barbecue flavor workout, it's just super chill. Or you've got your mango habanero, that ghost pepper, that's the 500 max row. That's going to make you hate life for a little bit." So that actually stems from me actually loving spicy food. Put a plate of wings in front of me, just sit back and watch the show. Die hard pizza lover, I definitely could eat that at any point. But desserts, I blame my girlfriend for this, but she's really got me into Ben and Jerry's ice cream, getting the little pints and just destroying that, late at night sometimes. Luckily we haven't done that recently. We've been really dialed in with diet and nutrition, things like that, but if you put those three things in front of me it's game over. Robby:             Awesome. So, yeah, that gives us a really good sense of what your diet's like now. Do you have anything else you'd like to share with anyone about food, and things you deal with related to food? Mitch:              Yeah. I think the biggest thing, and I try and relay this to our athletes as well, is that, look, I get it, if you're invested you're going to commit 100%, things like that, but we have other priorities. Some of have family obligations, job obligations, there's other things that play into our day to day lives, and I think sometimes people get discouraged when they can't sit down three or four hours on a Sunday and meal prep their food for the week. And I think that instead of making small jumps, whether that's preparing one meal a week, or whether that's ordering Meals by Maura, hashtag throwing that in there. Generally, making just a small step forward is still a step forward, that is a room of growth, and just start from there and build off of that if you can. It has to have meaning to you, you have to put value in it if that's something that you want to get towards and become. It can happen, just don't be so discouraged if you can't give 100% right off the bat. And luckily I'm very fortunate that with my job path, and the people I'm surrounded with on a day to day basis help promote this kind of lifestyle, and even with that being said, it's still hard. I still find times where it's like, "Damn, I have to meal prep today," or, "Damn, we've got to go get groceries." I understand, it is very challenging. Nothing is easy about this, but it's not just a diet, or a meal program, or anything like that, it's genuinely a whole lifestyle. So I totally get where being discouraged comes from, but don't let that get the best of you. Just start one thing at a time. Robby:             Absolutely. Could not agree more. Well, Mitch, thank you so much for being here, thank you so much for sharing this food with us too. Mitch:              Thank you, Batman, I appreciate it, and I'm going to go eat. Robby:             Awesome. Alright guys, thank you so much for-  

In this video we discuss alcohol and whether alcohol has any place as part of a healthy way of eating. One way to answer that question it to look at alcohol is in terms of nutrients, blood sugar balance, psychological addiction, etc. Viewed in that light there's no such thing as a form of alcohol that is a pure positive contribution to your health. All forms of alchohol are either a mix of good and bad aspects or just purely bad. For example, red wine does have antioxidants, but it also has alcohol, which is a known toxin so it's a mix of some good and bad aspects. Meanwhile, beer, doesn't really contribute anything positive to your health whatsoever and if anything negatively contributes in many ways (alcohol, sugar/carbs, grain-derived). However, an important perspective to keep in mind is that there is more to health than food and more to life than health. So, while alcohol shouldn't be a staple of most people's lives (yes, a glass a day is probably too much), if it's a legit special occasion and it's a form of alcohol you really like you're probably okay to have it. Tips for drinking: -Drink earlier in the day -Have a fattier meal to balance out the alcohol -Be sure to get a good night's sleep the night before and the night after to make sure your body processes the alcohol in the best way possible -Robb Wolf says "Drink enough to maximize your sex life, but not so much that you impact athletic performance" That's definitely one way to look at things. Here's the hierarchy of alcohol from least bad to just plain bad (from the book Paleo Happy Hour) -potato vodka, tequila, rum (not derived from grains, very little sugar) -wine, gluten free beer, and champagne (not derived from grains, but more sugar) -gin, vodka, whiskey, scotch, hard cider (derived from grains, have a few more carbs) -liquers, dessert wines -beer, wine coolers, pre-mixed drinks (e.g. Magaritas) (just bad news all around) ________________________________________________________________________ Today we're going to answer the question, "What about alcohol, can alcohol be a part of a healthy diet?" And just like anything else, you know nothing is either purely good or purely bad, it just depends on the context so we are going to give you some relevant considerations to keep in mind when deciding or not deciding to have alcohol. So I think it's always helpful to kind of frame things in terms of this system or framework that we've developed for categorizing foods. On the one hand, there's your green light foods, these are going to be the things that are, generally speaking, super nutritious, keep your blood sugar in line, they're antiinflammatory, they're not addictive, this is real whole food, right? So meat, eggs, seafood, fish, veggies, healthy fats, fruits, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices. Things of that nature. So alcohol, I don't think there's a single form of alcohol that I would put in the green light category as something that you would have on a daily basis as contributing to your health and yes, that includes Red Wine. I'm a fan of what the developers of The Whole30 have said about this which is, "If you really want the benefits of Red Wine, just go have some Red Grapes, you don't need the Red Wine to get the health benefits of Red Wine." So there's not really a form of alcohol that's a green light food. Now the two other categories are these yellow light foods which are things that kind of have some good aspects and kind of have some bad aspects, and then the red light foods that are just pretty much, generally speaking, pretty bad for you. So soda, pizza, cake, cookies, things of that nature. So I'd say most of alcohol fits in either the yellow light category or the red light category. So before I get to which categories those things fall into with the particular types, let me talk about some general rules for alcohol. So alcohol's one of those ones where, again, it's not a green light food, you do not need it to be healthy, you can go your entire life without a single drop of alcohol and be perfectly healthy. But I would also say it falls into the category of there being more to health than food and more to life than health. So sometimes it's a way to have more fun at a social event. Now you got to be careful with that, if someone's an alcoholic or they see alcohol as their only means to having fun, well that's not good. But a little bit here and there for an otherwise healthy person who's not addicted to it, that maybe lower their stress levels and thus contributes to their health and while alcohol might not have any nutrients in it, it could contribute to health in kind of that stress reduction way. But then we have to balance that with the fact that it negatively impacts sleep even though you might feel like you sleep better when you have alcohol, from an objective standpoint, you're actually sleeping worse and they've done a number of studies to show this. So I think alcohol can be had in these contexts and can be something that contributes to other aspects of health but it's not a nutritious food. So one of my favorite sayings about alcohol comes from Robb Wolf where he says, "Drink enough to maximize your sex life but not so much that you diminish athletic performance." I think that's a pretty good teeter totter scale to try to balance yourself on. Another thing to keep in mind with alcohol is, generally speaking, if you want to minimize the negative impacts, try drinking earlier in the day. I know you might be surprised to hear that but that allows you to not have it impact sleep and try to have a fattier meal afterwards to kind of balance out the alcohol that you might be consuming. So I'm going to go through the hierarchy of alcohol here in just a second and this comes from a great book called Palio Happy Hour, which if you're interested, you should go pickup, but they kind of talk about the hierarchy of alcohol. So before I go through the hierarchy, just make sure to make a distinction between what you hear and what I'm saying. So what you might here is, "Oh, Robby is saying there's a type of alcohol that's the best, that means I can have it every day." No, what I'm saying is that there are bad and less bad versions of alcohol. So the least bad version of alcohol would be things like Tequila, Rum and Potato Vodka. Why? Because they are not derived from grains and they have very little in the way of sugar. So they are not healthy for you in any way shape or form but they're less unhealthy for you than other things. Next on the docket would be Wine, Gluten-free Beer and Champaign, they're not derived from gains but you start to get some more carbs in the mix there when you have those. Next on the list would be Gin, Vodka, Whiskey, Scotch, and Hard Cider, they're derived from grains and they have a bit more in the way of carbs. Next on the list would be Liquors and Desert Wines. And then on the generally avoid or you might as well be having a pizza and a soda at that point would be things like Beer, Wine coolers, Premix drinks like Margaritas, yeah. Those are very much going to fall in the red light category. So Red Wine, I would say White wine, generally speaking, I would say those are probably in the yellow light category. Maybe a shot of the harder Liquors that I mentioned like the Tequila, Rum, and Potato Vodka could maybe be in the yellow light category if they're kept in check and they don't cause you to have a ton of them. Alcohol, just like chocolate or other things is something where you're really going to need to be wary of your tendencies and are you more prone to addiction or more prone to wanting it if you have just a little bit or not. But generally speaking, those would be kind of the yellow light items and then your red light items would be your standard Beer, Margaritas, things of that nature. So can alcohol be part of a healthy way of living? Yeah. I mean assuming, if you have a clinical diagnosis, obviously, you want to stay away from it if you're an alcoholic, but generally speaking, if you're otherwise eating real whole food and it's a way for you to maybe relax with friends or family or for a special occasion then it can be a part of a healthy lifestyle if kept in moderation. But just keep in mind, there is no such thing as healthy alcohol, it's not positively contributing to your health, it doesn't have any nutrients in it and it's got a whole bunch of stuff like extra calories and sleep impact and sugar content that can really harm your health. So if you just keep it in the relevant category of either a yellow light or a red light food that's only for special occasion and in moderation, you should okay. Alright guys, thanks so much for tuning in, I'll see you next time.  

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 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! ______________________________________________________________________ Robby:             Hey, it's Robby here from Crossfit South bend. Today I'm here with Carolyn and Carolyn is going to be telling us her story. So Carolyn, thank you so much for joining us. Carolyn:           Thanks for having me. Robby:             So let me tell you a little bit about Carolyn's progress. So Carolyn in the space of four months basically lost 40 pounds. She went from 196 pounds to 157 pounds. She lost nine inches off her waist and six inches off her hips and now your hip measurement is the same as what your waist measurement was initially, which is crazy. Carolyn:           It's nuts. Robby:             Yeah so amazing job. You did a fantastic job. So tell us a little bit about where you were at before you started the program? Kind of what life was like, what food was like, the rest of that stuff. Carolyn:           I would say life was pretty mindless. I wasn't really thinking about food at all, it was just something I knew I had to eat to kind of get through my day and what I learned through this process is that I have interesting rationales for some of the choices that I was making. So I was thinking like, "Oh, it'll save time if I eat breakfast in the car, maybe stop by McDonald's on my way to work." That, that saves time and I should do that. So it was a lot of fast food, it was a lot of just kind of impulsive, like I said, mindless snacking in the grocery line, taking Diet Dr. Pepper on my way home from work, maybe grabbing a bag of chips for the ride. So it wasn't very good. And I knew I needed to make a big change. Robby:             So when we initially met and I started talking about the way you were going to be eating over the next few months, what was your initial reaction, what did you initially think? Carolyn:           I had kind of knee jerk, like please don't take these things away from me. I really liked them 'cause I had formulas in my head like, stressful day at work plus Cheetos equals happy day. So I was a little nervous about that because I just wasn't sure how that would effect me mentally and so I was very nervous but I knew that and I trusted in the program and so I knew I had to just kind of quit cold turkey. I had to as soon as I started Whole 30, I just told myself, "That's not for me anymore. I can't do those things because it's not in the rules." So, for me, it had to be immediate and it had to be I couldn't ween off certain things, I had to just be done and so that was difficult. And I can remember the first month feeling like having all of those impulses still there so while I told myself I couldn't have the Diet Dr. Pepper I still wanted it every time I was in the grocery line. And I can remember going to the movies actually for the first time and not getting any other treat but being very aware of what everybody else in the theater was eating, I was like, "Oh my gosh, I can smell the popcorn and that's person's having pretzels and cheese and that guy has my favorite Raisonettes." And then telling myself, "These almonds that I packed are delicious and I'm so happy." So that was hard but as soon as the movie starts you're fine because your mind is going on something else so that was really powerful for me. That was big learning, my mind needed to be refocused on something else. Robby:             Yeah, absolutely and that first month can be a little bit tricky with the cravings still there and working your way up. Carolyn:           Yes. Robby:             Tell us about month two and beyond, tell us about doing the Whole 30 and the introduction. How did you find the rest of the process? Carolyn:           Well, I didn't know food could taste this good so I have been, my whole life, doing grilling and cooking chicken wrong so that was awesome and then roasted veggies was a life saver. So the way that the big meal that I was eating throughout the day were tasting and then filling me up, that was huge. And then it was helpful to see the results so that was extra fuel, extra motivation of this is really making a big change because I feel like before I was like, "Ah, I'll just work out and then I get to eat whatever I want, right?" And that wasn't going so well for me. That's not actually how it works so I feel like with the Whole 30 month two and three focusing on all the other elements of health like getting my sleep on track, making sure that I'm buying and stocking our house with certain things, making sure that I'm meditating and just taking more time for myself. That was huge. So it actually became something that I was really enjoying and I stopped having those dreams where I ate a whole bucket of cookies. I would have these dreams in the first month where I just gorged and I'd wake up feeling like, "Oh my gosh, did I do that? Did I just eat a whole thing of cookies?" And then I'm like, "No, you didn't. It's just a dream." And that left in month two and three and it was really just kind of enjoying the new lifestyle. Robby:             Awesome. So you obviously had many, many scale victories in terms of weight loss and inches but one of the things we like to talk about from time to time is non scale victories. So things like energy and mood and cravings, how do you perform in the gym, not getting sick. So tell us about those. Carolyn:           That was really one of the most exciting things I think about this process for me is that for the last about ten years I got sick. Every Fall, well, sometimes in the Fall but usually in the Winter and Spring I would get the flu or I would get pneumonia. The last two years I've had pneumonia, I get sinus infections and I just sort of thought, "Well, that's just how my immune system is, I get sick at this time of year," and I just accepted that story and I have not been sick once. So I started in February with the Whole 30 and I didn't get sick one time and so what that taught me is that it matters what I'm eating, it matters how much sleep I'm getting. I went from average 5, 6 hours a night to 7 and a half, closer to 8 hours a night and that probably helped immensely. And so I was really quick to just kind of accept a certain story about my health, my overall health without really thinking about the dozens of other decisions that were probably contributing factors to me getting sick. So it was really nice to have a Winter and a Spring where I could just continue to go at full energy and more energy than I'm used to having so I woke up with a lot of energy and I'm a teacher so I know that my students appreciated energy too in the classroom. Robby:             That's awesome. So I think you and I are both on the same page that you can't convince someone to eat healthy, people have to come to it for themselves but at the same time imagine you ran into yourself from 4 months ago or someone who is in a similar situation to the one you're in now, what would you say to them about kind of what you initially thought about what you'd have to go through versus what you realize now that you've gone through it in terms of like, "Hey, it's not as bad as you think," or what are your thoughts now looking back on the whole process? Carolyn:           I would say go to Whole Foods, get a level 4 pork chop and it will all be worth it. Robby:             It's kind of true. Carolyn:           It was so good but I think I would say you're not gonna miss the things that you thought you would as much as you would and those things don't have to be a huge part of your kind of emotional identity. So I was very much of a reward system person like, "Oh, I got through my work day and it was tough so I'm gonna have this treat," or, "I'm stressed, I'm gonna manage this with this food." And so if I could go back to my previous self I would say that it can look a lot different and that food can be really, really delicious. For the majority of my life I've missed out on really good tasting food and so I would tell myself to be excited about what's to come because this is definitely the way to kind of, for me, this is the way to move forward for life goals, just continue this way of eating and living and not feeling like I'm missing out. Not feeling like I can't indulge every once in a while but being really mindful about what that indulging looks like. Robby:             Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I have to say on my end, using the teacher metaphor, you're a teacher, I used to kind of an academia and there's certain A plus students that come along every once in a while and I would say you have definitely been probably one of the best people I've ever worked with in terms of the effort you've put in, what you've been able to accomplish and yeah, I'm just super proud of you and all that you've done. Carolyn:           Thank you. Robby:             So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for telling everyone your story and I wish you all the best in the future. Carolyn:           Thank you. Thanks. Robby:             All right guys, thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.  

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is: What about a cheat day? Here are my thoughts: 1. The word "cheat" is really ridiculous when applied to eating off-plan food. We typically use the word cheat to apply to academic dishonesty or marital infidelity. Who are you "cheating" on when you eat a cookie? This association leads to unnecessary guilt and shame with off-plan food. As Robb Wolf says there is no such thing as "cheating" when it comes to food. We eat things, there are consequences to eating things, and that's the end of it. No guilt or shame should be attached. 2. Blood Sugar RollerCoaster-If you go on a complete bender for an entire day you send your blood sugar and corresponding insulin response is going to be put through some hard paces dealing with that spike and crash on a routine basis. 3. Actively searching for bad food just because it's a cheat day is a bad idea. You shouldn't have off-plan food just because it's a Saturday. You should save your off-plan foods for legit special occasions for foods you really care about. Home made cookies made by your grandma for Thanksgiving is a way different context than sitting by yourself eating a bag of Doritos because it's a Saturday. 4. A cheat day results in an unhealthy psychological response to food. Half of that comes the word "cheat" itself, but the other half comes from this constant binging and "purging" on Monday (not literally purging). It's just this yo-yo back and forth, that could be dealt with in a much healthier fashion. So, if you're going to ditch cheat days what should you do instead? 1. First, let's focus more on a single off-plan meal in one-day rather than an entire day of off plan foods 2. Have an off-plan food only for a legit special occasion (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.). If this is happening more than 1-2 times a month your definition of a special occasion is too broad. 3. Make it for a food you truly care about. ___________________________________________________________________________ Today we're gonna talk about the infamous cheat day, and my thoughts on the very notion of a cheat day. So first thing, always got to emphasize, especially with these types of videos, I'm not telling anyone what to do, you want a cheat day, have a cheat day. You like your cheat day, have a cheat day. We're not in the business of being a nagging spouse, or an overbearing boss, or a parent. We're just providing information and if you choose to use that, great, if you choose not to, that's cools too. These are just my thoughts on the whole concept of a cheat day. Number one. As a whole host of people besides me have pointed out, the very word cheat is really ridiculous when it comes to using it in this particular context. We use cheating to refer typically to academic dishonesty, cheating on a test, or marital infidelity, or something of that nature. Why are we using that term for something that you are activity choosing to do, and not harming anyone else? I don't really understand, I think there's a whole lot of physiological baggage that comes along with it. I understand the idea of trying to say, “Oh, well you've made a promise to yourself, and you're cheating on that promise,” but I think it just creates all this physiological baggage that is just really really unhealthy, and I'll dub into that a little bit more in just a second. But, I think as Robb Wolf one of my favorite people in the health and nutrition space has said, “We eat food, there's certain consequences that come from eating said food and that's it.” There should be not guilt or shame or anything around this notion of cheating on your diet. It's either you make a choice to have some food, or you make a choice not to have some food, that's really it. We shouldn't be using this term of marital infidelity or academic dishonesty for cheating. Second problem with a cheat day, in my opinion. Blood sugar roller coaster, so you're going along, going along, going along, you eat nice real whole food and then you spend this entire day essentially, coming close to being diabetic. Let's say, not of course actually, but spiking your blood sugar unnecessarily with all these kind of off planned meals. I think that is really problematic, which I guess leads into the third idea. When you make it into this kind of day, there are a few things that happen. There's this image of someone kind of sitting in the corner chowing down on a bag of Doritos, saying "Oh, it's my cheat day, it's okay." Actively searching for bad stuff to eat, because it's your cheat day, I think that whole notion is problematic. I think if you're gonna have off plan food, it should be with others in a social context, it should be a legitimate special occasion, as we've talked about many other times. And it shouldn't just be because it's that day, it shouldn't just be because it's a Saturday. Realistically speaking, it's not the case that we need to have this gigantic binge once a week just because it's a Saturday. Which leads into the next problem with the notion of a cheat day is, you create this very unhealthy physiological relationship with food. Part of that unhealthy physiological relationship comes from the idea of you're cheating on someone and the guilt and shame that comes along with it. But, the other half comes from the idea of kind this binging and then purging when Monday comes around. Not literally purging, but kind of cleaning things up and "Okay, it will come back around on Saturday, so I can binge as much as I want." I think that just creates a unhealthy physiological relationship with food. So, what do we propose instead? Well, I've said in many other videos that I think there's nothing wrong with having off plan foods, like pizza and ice cream, health conditions not withstanding, there are some people who legitimately with certain health conditions can't have those things. But, health conditions not withstanding, every year on my birthday I have a pizza and I'm going to continue to do that with friends and enjoy myself. And I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but it should be for a special occasion. Had do you navigate this? So again, don't try to plan this one specific day that has no connection to Thanksgiving or Christmas, or these other special occasions, it's just a random Saturday were you're just gonna completely binge, that's just silly. There's nothing wrong with having maybe a couple squares of dark chocolate on the weekend, or a glass of red wine if that's your thing or maybe a gluten free burger or something like that. But, just from the outside, let's reduce it down from like a cheat day, to maybe a meal, which I wouldn't call it a cheat meal, because again I think the whole notion of calling it a cheat anything is ridiculous. But, something that you're sharing with others, something that you legitimately enjoy and you're not just having it just because it's "Oh, it's my cheat day." Those are for the more of you're yellow light items, like the dark chocolate and the red wine and the gluten free items that we've talked about in other videos. And then for those red light items, those things that don't actively contribute to your health in anyway, shape or form, you really should just save those in kind of our opinion for no more than once or twice a month. Only for the purpose of a special occasion and only for something you truly care about, it shouldn't be something that happens on a regular basis. And no ones gonna be perfect with all of these rules all of the time, but this can be a way to guide you. So, just in general when people ask me my thought of a cheat day, I think it creates a horribly unhealthy physiological relationship with food. I think it makes people end up eating bad things that they wouldn't normally eat just because it's a cheat day and I think it makes it so that they fail long term at keeping their cravings and appetite in check. And I think there's a whole better way to do things that involves having those off plan things less frequently and in a more special and meaningful context. All right guys, thanks so much for tuning in.

In this video we discuss whether whey protein shakes are good or bad. The answer is that whey protein shakes are neither good nor bad. Whether they should be considered "good" or "bad" just depends on the context and someone's goals. Whey protein is pretty clearly what we would call a yellow light food. It's not nearly as healthy as something like broccoli (a green light food), but it's certainly not as bad as a can of soda either (a red light food). So it has some good and not so good aspects, which is why it's a yellow light food. Good: -provides a good amount of easily digestible protein -It's very quick and easy to have on the go -increases glutathione production, the body's master antioxidant Not So Good: -Dairy is a very common food allergy and food sensitivity -If whey protein is used as a substitute for, instead of a supplement to, real whole food that can be problematic -The overwhelming majority of whey protein shakes have crap ingredients (artificial sweeteners, preservatives, and sugar) So what are some examples of contexts where whey protein can be useful -An athlete using whey protein as a final supplemental addition to an otherwise real whole food diet. -Someone who is not eating very healthy who is using whey protein as a temporary(!) stepping stone towards eating more healthy food. So, if you're going to use whey protein make sure either a) that 80-90% of what you're currently eating is real whole food or b) that you're using whey protein as a temporary tool to get you closer to that goal of 80-90% real whole food.

This video is the first in a series of videos discussing what CFSB coaches eat. In this video we sit down with Coach Andrew to discuss what he eats on a regular basis. Andrew just graduated from Notre Dame, he's getting married this summer, and he's starting a new career. He's also an all around bad-ass in the gym, and he's got a super cool coach edition shirt with a sword on the back, which is pretty awesome. In this video we talk about: -what Andrew typically eats -what he grew up eating -his favorite off-plan items -how he navigates social situations -how to eat healthy while in school Andrew, it's been a pleasure having you here at the gym, and we wish you all the best in the future! Robby:             Hey guys. Robby here from Crossfit South Bend. Today I'm here with Andrew and we are going to be talking about Andrew and food. And this is actually going to be the first in a coach series about how coaches deal with nutrition and eating and all the rest of this stuff. By the way, rocking the Andrew signature series shirt. Andrew:           Shameless plug. Robby:             It's got a sword on the back. How many shirts do you know with a sword on the back? Cop it, if you don't have it yet. Alright, so what are we going to talk about today? So, first thing I want to talk about is, what was food like for you growing up? Andrew:           Food for me growing up, I'm thinking my mom did most of the cooking around the house and she cooked pretty well 'cause she actually had celiac disease so she was gluten free for the most part. But that does not mean that when I came home in middle school I didn't throw, like, eight chicken breasts from Tyson in the oven everyday. So there was definitely that mixture of pretty healthy when she was cooking but then, you know, there was plenty of the friend foods and Chick-fil-A all the time. Robby:             Okay. So what's food like for you now? So you're a college student about to graduate, give us a typical breakfast, lunch, dinner. Andrew:           Yeah, and this is something I'm kind of working through. This school year is actually the first that I was preparing my meals and kind of figuring that out for myself. So right now my typical breakfast looks like is, I'll just cook some eggs and I'll have some toast with some jelly on it, get some carbs in there. And that's typically about it and then a [inaudible 00:02:00] and coffee. If I'm pressed for time I'll do, like, some kind of shake just with Greek yogurt, protein and then throw some fruit in there. But that's typically all I'm working with in the morning, and I kind of have to force myself sometimes. Robby:             Okay. How about lunch and dinner? Andrew:           Lunch and dinner, shamelessly, it is chicken and rice all day every day and I'm about as sick of that right now as I possibly could be. But I do a lot of crock pot chicken. I'm the terrible cook as you can probably tell from me saying this. But lots of shredded chicken, rice and trying to figure out how to do some other stuff. Robby:             Okay, so we have a lot of college students here, you know, you've been through the ringer living on campus and being off campus. Talk about some stuff you've run into, some things you've learned. Like, is it even possible to eat some of the things in the dining halls and things like that? Andrew:           I think a lot of it is the social pressures around it, and just what is the norm? Now, us crossfitters, we're probably not fitting into the norm most anyway, but when you're around people it's a lot of alcohol and a lot of bad eating. It's late night pizza. It's just the norm. So that's what the biggest challenge is for me, is kind of drawing that line, saying, "I have to do things differently so I don't fall into that." But it certainly is possible. And if you're eating dining hall, you eat like cattle. It's like anything you need just go and it's fuel and none of it tastes good. So I just had the healthy stuff. And obviously they're not always cooking it in the healthiest ways, but you can still get your rice, your chicken, your veggies, and it's actually quite easy in the dining hall setting. Once you move off, as I did, and kind of go off the meal plan, got a little bit tougher because I'm starting to prepare. And so that's kind of what I mentioned working through is, you know, preparing with my Tupperware and having my shredded chicken and having my rice and, you know, my broccoli whenever I can. But it just takes a little more preparation once you get away from that meal plan kind of setup. Robby:             Okay. So tell us a bit about nutritional off-roading. So of your favorite, you know, what are your top three favorite, like, I don't care about health, I don't care about [crosstalk 00:04:11] I just want to have a Caracas milkshake or what have you. Andrew:           So no matter how tough of that I'm following, I can't say no to Chick-fil-A. Like, that is my thing. And I've just recently been able to make the switch to grilled sandwiches and that is a huge thing for me. So if there's an excuse to eat Chick-fil-A, I'm there and it just goes down well with sweet tea. And it's just a bomb. And so that's like, just, let it go. Do that. And then if I can, you know, stay away from the Chick-fil-A and then if I'm going, like, the candy route I'm all about any kind of sour Gummies. And that's just, like ... That's tough. That is temptation, that is temptation. Robby:             Have you ever had the, not that I've ever had them before, ever had the chocolate cookies at Chick-fil-A? Andrew:           Oh, they're incredible. They come in bags of six. Robby:             Yes. That's a mistake. How about any, like, food holidays? Special, you know, things with your family these days? Anything like Thanksgiving, anything that your Mom cooks or anything like that, that you really enjoy? Andrew:           Favorite thing about going home is having the nice grill they kind of work on. So I do a lot of grilled meats. Chicken thighs are, like, my favorite thing ever. So I eat a lot of grilled chicken thighs and do any kind of veggies with those. But probably my favorite thing that my mom makes whenever I go home is, like, these zucchini boats that she does. So she hollows out the zucchini, puts it in a food processor with cauliflower and ground beef or turkey, mixes it all up in there, throws it back into the zucchini and then bakes it. And it's my favorite thing. So on a good day we've got that going and I'll eat on that, you know, whenever I'm home. So that, like, that's a good day. Robby:             That sounds pretty awesome. So one of things we want to do with this series is try to help give people advice about how to deal with different struggles that they've been through with food and, you know, especially in your case with college. If you were talking to someone, I don't know, maybe coming in fall, 2018 to Notre Dame. And, you know, it's obviously not going to be completely going to be [inaudible 00:06:23]. It's not even going to be close to that for the most part. But just, like, little things you could do, or they could do to kind of help keep them healthy. What advice would you give to, like, an incoming freshman to stay healthy? Andrew:           Most times just plan. Plan out your meals and know that there're going to be times when you want to go get pizza with your best friends, like, and I would encourage you, go do that, that's an experience. But it's just planning that. And if you can have a good meal, have a good meal. So it's just kind of taking those opportunities when, you know, if it's not a big deal, like, there's no reason for you not to be eating what you should. So it's just making sure you put parameters around that, so that you're not just kind of saying, you know, "C'est la vie" at all times. And that's something that I work on, too, is just making sure. It's, like, okay, well, if I'm going to go get pizza on Wednesday night, that means I better be crisp the rest of the week. And that's sometimes a struggle. Robby:             Gotcha. I think that's good advice. And that's one of the things we talk about in our nutrition coaching program is, like, you know, not every day is a special occasion. Andrew:           Yes. Robby:             Yeah, so it's just kind of finding those ones that are legit special occasions and then enjoying yourself. Alright, guys, so first in the series here of nutrition coaching videos. Just want to give you guys a sense of what the coaches do here. Again, it's got a sword on the back. If you don't have the shirt yet, go get it. Andrew, thank you so much for joining us today. Appreciate it. Andrew:           Thank you, Robby. Robby:             Guys, thanks so much for tuning in. See you next time.