CrossFit South Bend

Today we are going to talk about bone broth. So some of you may have heard of bone broth, some of you may have not, but it's all the rage these days, and for good reason ... it's super, super, super healthy for you. So first of all, let's start with a little explanation of what is bone broth? So bone broth is basically just, it's very similar to chicken stock, or beef stock that you might be familiar with. It's basically where you take a series of bones with some meat on it, throw in some veggies, typically carrots, celery and onion, but it could be peppers, garlic, any sort of spices that you like and you put it in a crock pot or a pressure cooker or something on the stove top and you let it cook down and what you're left with is some sort of drink or base for soups and stews that can be used to do a lot to improve your health. So I actually happen to have a cup of it right here, that I've been sipping out of. That's what bone broth typically looks like, that's chicken bone broth and that's just a melted version of this bonified bone broth that I'm going to talk about in just a second. A lot of people wonder, what's the difference between stock and broth? Well, typically stock, in a culinary context, is going to be something that you want to have really clear, and typically, it's just usually made from meat and veggies and you just cook it for about three to four hours. With bone broth, however, the goal is not necessarily clarity as you saw with that cup I have right here, it's pretty cloudy. It's extracting all the nutrients. So typically, you'll cook it for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours, if it's in a crock pot or the stove top, and you might put in some apple cider vinegar to help extract the nutrients from the bones. And typically with bone broth, while there might be some meat, there's usually a lot of bone. What is bone broth helpful for from a health context? It has a lot of collagen and gelatin. It contains a lot of amino acids that we don't necessarily get from the muscle meats that we typically eat, things like steak and pork chop and chicken breast. You don't get a lot of collagen and gelatin from those things. So collagen and gelatin is really helpful for hair, skin, nails. It's really helpful for repairing the gut. It's really helpful for immunity. Believe it or not, when people talk about how chicken soup is the remedy for all that ails you, what's healthy about chicken soup, or chicken noodle soup, isn't the noodles, it's the actual chicken stock, or chicken broth. That's the part that's really healthy for you. Bone broth is healthy for immunity, helpful for healing the gut lining, and helpful for hair, skin and nails. So how do you make the stuff? Well, like I said earlier, you can literally take the bones and meat from a chicken that you've just finished eating, throw it in a crock pot with some carrots, celery and onions, some apple cider vinegar, cook it down for 24 hours, strain it and then store it in some jars. You can do the same thing on the stove top. You can do it super quick in a pressure cooker, maybe in like an hour or two. But, what a lot of people realize is that they just don't like taking the time to do that. I'm one where I've said I was going to make it a number of times, and I've made it once or twice, but it hasn't really turned out the way I wanted. So there are a lot of great options now that will allow you to just buy it and have it ready made. Now, something to keep in mind is that if you want it as cheaply as possible, the best way to do it is to make it at home, but there are these more convenient options. So I'm going to talk about my three favorites. Number one, the one that I use all the time is Bonafide Bone Broth. These guys, I love their brand, I love their ingredients. This is real deal stuff, so in a lot of other stuff, you're not going to get that gelatinous aspect that you see in here. That goes away obviously once you melt it down. But that's how you can tell you have real legitimate bone broth. And you can use that for soups, stocks, what have you. The same company that makes Epic Bars, that a lot of you guys have seen, Epic Provisions, they also make bone broth. Now this is going to be more drinkable straight, they're not going to have as much collagen and gelatin in there. But this is also the legit, real deal. There's a lot of stuff that claims to be the real deal that is not. This is the real deal. But think of it more as something that you can sip on. And they've got chicken, they've got turkey, they've got a bison apple cider one, that I've tasted recently that's very good. Now the new player on the field is Kettle and Fire. These are the only guys out there that are making a bone broth that is shelf stable. That's actually drinkable, like if you actually bought bone broth, like from a standard stock brand on the shelf and you tried to drink it straight, it would taste disgusting. I've tasted this and it tastes really good. They're the only ones with a proprietary process, where they're able to get it shelf stable. They've got a beef broth and a chicken broth as well. No one's really better than the other, just really depends on what you want. This comes frozen and you've got to defrost it. This is shelf stable and ready. This needs to be refrigerated. It just depends on what you're looking for in terms of portability. Another place you can get bone broth? Shout out to Primal Kitchen, that'll be opening up here soon in our neck of the woods. They've got fantastic bone broth. I just wanted to introduce you to what bone broth is today, explain how it can benefit your health, and show you my top three options for bone broth that you can get in the store. All right, guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

Today we are going to try to give you some tools to figure out how committed are you really, truly and deeply to your goals? This is something that we deal with a lot here at Crossfit South Bend. Whether it's fitness goals or health goals or mobility goals. Whatever goals you might have. One of the things we always talk to people about is their commitment level. What is that commitment level and what does that really mean? Okay. First of all, why is commitment level so important? Commitment level is going to dictate the appropriate protocol for that particular goal. I'll give you an example. If someone says, "Hey I want to lose 20 pounds." Right? "But I don't care whether it's in the next two months or in the next two years or in the next 10 years." Their commitment level is maybe a one, in the sense that they just don't really care when it happens. Then that's going to dictate what we do. We don't really have to do anything majorly invasive or severe at that point because they don't really care. On the other hand, if someone comes to you and says, "Well, I want to lose 30 pounds in three months." Which is a decently aggressive goal if they want to do it sustainably and in a healthy fashion. Then we have to have a talk about how committed are you? How committed are you to that goal, because lots of people want to do something like that but not everyone is willing to put in the effort. One of my favorite all time quotes comes in the form of the following saying which is, "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die to get there." We see this over and over and over again with fitness, nutrition and mobility goals. If someone says their commitment level is a 10 to me. When we're meeting I will always check to see if that's really true. The way I'll check, and it isn't a perfect method by any means, but the way I'll check is I'll ask, "Well what are you willing to sacrifice?" Because if your commitment level is a 10, that doesn't just mean, "Oh I really really want this thing." That means that you're willing to sacrifice to get it. Just like lots of people want to be rich but they still want to spend a lot of money or people want to have a good relationship but they don't want to put in the work to get there. Similarly with nutrition. People say, "Oh well, I want to achieve this thing. I want to have a six pack and I want to lose 30 pounds in three months." But what are you really willing to do? Are you, for example, willing to stop going out on the weekends as frequently? Are you willing to stop drinking for a period of time? Are you willing to go to bed at 10 p.m. every single night and get eight hours of sleep? Are you willing to do a mindfulness practice where you're de-stressing constantly on a daily basis? Are you willing to cook for yourself 80 to 90% of the time? It's okay if you're not willing to do those things. That's fine. If someone says, "Hey, upon realizing that this is what I would need to do to get to those goals, I'm not willing to put in that effort." That's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. If people come to us and say, "Hey look man, I just want to eat pizza and chocolate chip cookies." Or whatever it is they want to eat and they don't care about the consequences. We don't see anything wrong with that. What we see a problem with and what is most problematic for us is when someone says, "I want to do X, but I don't want to do the things required to do X." "I want to lose 30 pounds in three months, but I don't want to change my diet." Or, "I do want to change my diet but I only want to cook 40% of the time." Or, "I do want to get better sleep habits but I still want to go to bed past midnight. I still want to go out for drinks." We can't do anything for you in that case. There really isn't much to do. Your commitment level dictates what we are able to do. It dictates how we're able to help you. You need to get very very clear for yourself about what your commitment level is and whatever the level is, it's fine. If your commitment to achieving financial peace or what have you is a five, that's okay. If your commitment to achieving health and wellness is a 10, well then that's going to require a certain sacrifice. Ask yourself the following question, if your commitment level is a nine or a 10 to achieve a particular goal. Let's say it's a health and wellness goal. Ask yourself the following question, "What wouldn't I do to get there?" Not just, "What would I do, but what wouldn't I do? What wouldn't I do to get there?" That would be very telling for you because if you say, "Well there's really nothing I wouldn't do." Then you're very committed. If you're someone who says, "Well I don't know about giving up chocolate chip cookies. Well I don't know about giving up my beer on the weekends or hanging out with my friends." Again, that's okay, but you're not truly committed as you say you are. That's something that you need to get very very clear on. Because there's no way to help you achieve your goal unless you get very clear on that. Depending on your commitment level, we can give you more or less intensive protocols to help you get there. The people who say, "I'm willing to do this." And we give them the protocol and they do it, they succeed. The people who say, "Well I want to do this but I don't really want to put in the effort." They don't succeed and it's because they're just not willing to do what's required to get them there. In order to get a real sense of whether you are going to be able to achieve your goals, you need to know what your commitment level is. If you think you're really committed, ask yourself, "What wouldn't I do to get to this point and what am I willing to sacrifice to get there?" That will give you a lot of insight to how committed you are. All right guys. Thanks so much for tuning in. I'll see you next time.

In this video we talk about gray-area foods. What are gray-area foods? They are foods where: Which foods are the gray-area foods? -Gluten free grains (rice, non-GMO corn, gf oats) -Grass Fed, Full Fat, Dairy from a Local Family Farm -Beans, Peas, and Lentils -Dark Chocolate and Red Wine -Natural Sweetners (honey, maple syrup, molasses, stevia, etc.) Should you eat these things or avoid them? In general -They should NOT form the vast majority of what you eat -You should try eliminating them all for 30 days and then reintroducing them to see if you tolerate them -Once you reintroduce them it's up to you to determine if the symptoms you experience when eating these foods (if any) are worth eating the food. Lastly, keep in mind that whether you tolerate or don't tolerate these foods is a very individual thing. It's not the same for everyone. That's precisely why they are gray-area foods because they're neither a clear green light in terms of having them or a clear red light in terms of avoiding them.

  In this video we sit down to talk with Corinne and her experience with our Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® program. Corinne came to see me having issues with losing weight and chronic digestive issues. Initially, as she mentions in the video, the idea of giving up grains for a period of time as well as certain other foods wasn't very appealing to her. However, once she did it she felt a lot better. One of the biggest things for Corinne was cutting out the sugar. She said she felt way better cutting out all the sugar from her diet even though it was initially difficult. She didn't crave sugar as much and developed a much better relationship with food. She also was able to lose a lot of weight without counting any calories. She was able to fit back into clothes that she hadn't been able to wear for a while. Aside from weight and sugar cravings. She's able to sleep a lot better by cutting out caffeine and sugar. She was also able to ditch her standard digestion pills that she would have to carry with her everywhere when her digestion would get upset. Corinne we're so proud of you and all of your progress!  

Today we are going to try to answer the question, “How do I convince someone who I really care about to eat healthy?” I know they have this chronic health condition that is making their life very hard to live. I know that they’re overweight. I know that they don’t feel good about themselves. How do I convince them to eat healthy and better their lives? Typically if you’re asking this question you’re someone who has seen the benefits yourself of eating healthy and you want to help others and understandably so. The first thing I want to say before I give you the answer to this question is you’re to be applauded for trying to do something nice for people that you care about. Obviously that’s something that you’re trying to do out of generosity and kindness. That being said, you can’t do this. It’s pretty much impossible to do. I know that’s probably not the answer that you wanted to hear, but both as a nutrition coach and someone who has seen this happen personally firsthand, and from some of my mentors in the field, like Rob Wolff, who is one of the leaders in the healthy nutrition community, whose parents to their dying day were smokers and drinkers even though their son was a health nutrition coach, this isn’t something you can do. It’s very understandably that you would want to do it, but you need to understand that there is nothing you can do or say to convince someone to eat healthy. They have to come to it themselves. You might be asking, “Is there anything I can do to help?” Number one, almost do the exact opposite of what you’re trying to do right now, which I know sounds kind of intuitive, but have you ever met someone who was more likely to do something the more they were told to do it? Typically as adults it’s the exact opposite. So if someone tells us what to do, whether it’s a friend or a significant other and they kind of belabor the point, and they’re dogmatic about it, “Oh you need to start eating healthy. Stop eating that bread.” We just kind of view them as a jerk. We just say, “You’re being really pushy, and this is really making me feel uncomfortable.” It’s very rare that you are going to convince someone that way. That’s really not going to work. So stop doing that in general. That’s not really going to help. What can you do instead? Number one, be the example. Be the example. Instead of talking about all these great benefits and being the proselytizer, which no one really likes just by the way, instead of being the health proselytizer be an example. Just eat the way that you think is healthiest and continue to eat your real whole food and people will see the benefits. They will understand. They will be much more likely to take advice from you just by watching what happens with you than if you repeatedly tell them what to do. That’s number one. Number two, if someone’s really genuinely interested, send them some detail. Send them some information on it after they ask you. Don’t send this unsolicited. Don’t be a jerk about it. If you think they need to lose weight, but they haven’t asked you about how to lose weight, don’t send them an article about how to lose weight. If they ask you then send them some general information. If they want to follow-up from there then you can talk about it. Number three, never under any circumstances talk about this in a food context. This is like politics and religion. The last thing you should ever talk about at dinner or lunch or breakfast or any sort of special occasion is what you should be eating. This is the worst place to talk about this. Again, I’m talking about this both from personal experience, from my mentors in the field, from the people I’ve coached, this is the worst place to talk about this stuff. You are not going to convince someone who’s sitting there eating a roll of bread in front of you not to eat gluten, because of this that and the other thing that you’re listing out right then and there. That is the worst time to do it. So don’t talk about those things in that context. Then lastly, make peace with the way things are. We’ve talked about this in other videos with regard to mindfulness and making your peace with the way things are. The truth is we all only have so much control over what we can do. You can do the best job of trying to make these rational arguments, this that and the other thing, this piece of evidence. I come from a philosophy background. Before I got into health nutrition I was a philosophy grad student. We did tons and tons of debating. One of the things we all found out was it’s very, very rare no matter how much you try to present a rational argument to someone that they will accept it just purely on the basis of reason. There’s a lot of emotion, and psychology and other things that go into it. So make peace with the fact that you may just not be able to do this. I have certainly had this many times as a health coach where I know that there are people that I can help, who’ve come to me and have issues that they need help with, but they are not willing to put in the effort to get help. They say the equivalent of, “Well, I want to get better but I don’t want to change my diet. What can you do for me?” And the answer is, “Nothing.” At the end of the day you need to make peace with the fact that there might just be certain situations where you can’t convince people and that’s okay. Do what you can for you and for your health, and for those who want to be helped, provide them with information. Don’t browbeat them. Don’t be pushy, but give information. If someone doesn’t want to be convinced that’s just all you can do. Okay. Hopefully that gives you a better sense of how to deal with these situations. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and we’ll see you next time.  

Today we're going talk about mindfulness. Mindfulness is a really popular concept these days, but not a lot of people know what it is, and even if they do know what it is, they don't necessarily know how to use it in their daily life. What is mindfulness? There's lots of different definitions out there, but the one I like the most is Jon Kabat-Zinn's. He's really one of the founders of the mindfulness movement. He's one the people who brought it into western culture and into medical research and all of the rest of that. He defines mindfulness as paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. What do the three of those mean? On purpose means that you're not just noticing things without intention behind them. You're purposefully paying attention to the way that you feel, the way things are in the world, things like that. In the present moment means now. There's a direct and very important focus on the here and now. Now on what has happened in the past where we feel guilt or shame or ruminate about what happened, and not on the future where we start to feel anxious about what's going to be the case, what's not going to be the case. On purpose, in the present moment and then lastly, but perhaps most importantly, non-judgmentally, meaning we just notice things. If you're angry about something, we notice that anger. If you're stressed about something, we notice that stress. A really big hang up that most people have with mindfulness or meditation, and I myself have had this when I've gotten into this practice, is the following. People think, well, if I'm supposed to meditate or be mindful, I have to instantly shut my brain off and not be judgmental about anything. What we have to realize is that this is something that's achieved over a very, very, very long period of time. Even the best people who've practiced mindfulness for years can still be judgmental at times, can still come out of the present moment. It's something that you have to practice. Knowing that you should be in the present moment, and that you should not be judgmental, is not enough to get you there. That knowledge is not enough to actually make those things happen. You have to practice it. How do you actually do this? How do you actually bring this into your life? Well, the first thing to recognize is again, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you just say, well, I can't shut my mind off. Well, of course you can't shut your mind off if you haven't practiced it or if you don't actually sit down for ten minutes and try to. The very first thing I say to people is you have to sit down and breathe and give it a try, even if your mind is going in a million different directions. Even if it's a pinball machine where things are just going all over the place and you're angry about this thing, or you're stressed about this thing or you are thinking about this thing that happened the other day, that's okay. That's okay. People tend to feel a lot of guilt when that happens when they sit down. One of the things we want to practice when we're mindful is just noticing that feeling. Instead of saying, "Oh, well I feel guilty and I'm not doing this right," just say, "Oh, there's that feeling." Then try to bring your attention back to the present moment. How you're feeling at that moment. It's going to happen again, and it's going to happen again. What you have to do is you have to practice taking your mind from the past to the future, which is usually where it's at and bringing it back to the present. Again, just like with training or nutrition or anything else we do here at the gym, it takes time. Saying that you want to be able to sit down for ten minutes and completely shut off your mind is kind of like saying, well, on my first day in the gym I want to squat 600 pounds. It doesn't work like that. It takes a very long period of time. Even if you've been doing it for months or years, it's not going to be perfect. You have to sit down and give it a try. You might be saying, "Well, how do I do this?" I would initially recommend some programs. Headspace is a really fantastic app. They give you the first ten sessions free and have little animations to explain what your meditation practice should be like. There are other apps like Calm on the iPhone. Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the founders of the meditation and mindfulness movement here in the West, has a number of different audios where he's got ten minute sitting meditation, 20 minute sitting meditation, 30 minute sitting meditation and lying down, and all these different variations. You can get those on iTunes. You really want to start out in a guided form. What I would say is just focus on getting ten minutes a day. Even if you're getting distracted, even if other things are popping into your head, just sit down for ten minutes and try to breathe and work through it. Another common misconception that people run into is they think, oh, well, I can't do it if there's noise around, or there are other things going on. No, that's actually a perfect opportunity. It's one of those things where you try to take your mind off of being distracted from those things and bring it back to the present moment. You have to repeatedly do this to get better at it. Mindfulness is really something that can help you deal with the stress that we all deal with on a daily basis. It can make it so that your life is actually quite a bit more enjoyable and you're not so worried about what happened in the past or what's going to happen in the future. So give it a try. What do you have to lose, right? It's free and it might actually help you out.  

  Video Transcript: Today we're going to try to answer the question, can I ever have pizza and chocolate chip cookies again? Now, it really isn't about those two particular foods, I just happened to use my two favorite off plan treats as examples, but for you it could be something like wine or lasagna or chocolate or whatever it is that's your absolute favorite off plan thing. This is a question I get a lot and in particular, I get it from people who are in the following situations. One situation is people thinking about starting the journey of eating healthy for the first time. They're like, well, if I do this am I ever going to be able to have these things again? Another set of people is people who have transitioned from eating mostly processed and refined foods most of the time to real, whole food and to the point where they're cooking and not eating fast food and processed foods as much and they're wondering, hey, when my grandma makes those chocolate chip cookies for Thanksgiving or Christmas or when it's my wedding or an anniversary or a birthday or something like that, can I have these things? Now, the answer as always with all the things that we discuss is, it depends. It depends. The general answer is something like, yes, you can have those things. But it depends. So what does it depend a lot on? It depends a lot on the state of your health. So for example, if you have a chronic health condition like an autoimmune condition, let's say celiac or ulcerative colitis or some other chronic health condition, then it may be and probably is a very, very good idea to stay away from these things long term because they can be very, very, very pro-inflammatory, especially in the case of autoimmune conditions. But also more generally. Now, if you don't have one of those things, then the decision is really up to you and I can't sit here and tell you that those things won't adversely impact your health, but that being said a point that I always try and drive home that I think is crucially important is the following. There is more to health than food, and there is more to life than health. So health is incredibly important. I think health is something that makes life all the more enjoyable and is a necessary condition for doing a lot of really amazing and important things. But health is not everything. So what are the conditions under which you would have pizza and chocolate chip cookies, even if they are negatively impacting your health? Well, a good way to think about it that I really like is the idea that save it for a really, really special occasion. The hard part here is people always wonder what does occasionally mean? I tend to think and from what I've seen from both myself and the people I work with is that true, legit special occasions don't really have much more than once or twice a month. There might be some unique months but generally, once or twice a month. Like if you planned out your year of special occasions that you thought were going to happen, real, legit special occasions are once or twice a month. Like, a birthday for a immediate family member, or your brother's wedding, or a major job promotion. Someone bringing doughnuts to work on a Wednesday or you going through the checkout counter and seeing the candy bar you like or there just randomly being nachos at a restaurant on a Saturday is not a true special occasion. So it needs to be a true special occasion, and in addition to that it needs to be a food that you really enjoy. It shouldn't just be something that you eat just because it's there. For example, if you're at a wedding, this actually happened to me at one point a few years ago. If you're at a wedding and there's lasagna there, I just happen not to like lasagna, it's just not my thing, you shouldn't go for the lasagna. You should save what you really, really want to have for that really special occasion. So you want to make sure, A, that it's a legit special occasion, and realistically if you're having more than two of these a month your definition of what a special occasion is too broad. And B, it needs to be something that you really, really, really, truly, deeply want and you're willing to accept the consequences that may come digestive or in terms of brain fog or what have you. If both of those things are satisfied, then enjoy it and have it and eat it mindfully, don't just scarf it down, have it with other people and celebrate but do so in a way that you are actually, truly enjoying it. So I would say if you do not have a chronic health condition and if it is a truly special occasion and if it's something you truly, truly, truly want, then in those instances, yeah. Your grandma's famous chocolate chip cookie recipe for Thanksgiving or that one thing that your parents always make when you go home or something like that, or if you're traveling to a foreign country and it's these folks who are making something that's their best dish and it contains something that you don't normally eat in it and you don't have a chronic health condition, just have it. It's that one thing that one time, it will be okay. Really, with these things, we can stand a little bit of it once in a while. It's when we have it repeatedly, that's an issue. All right guys, so I hope I've answered the question for you. Can you ever have pizza and chocolate chip cookies again, and thank you guys for tuning in. I'll see you next time.

In this video Tara and Anthony from the Primal Kitchen in Granger join us again to talk about the thing everyone cares about the most: the food! You guys are getting an exclusive preview of some of the food items that will be available at the Primal Kitchen such as chicken and waffles, a bison sirloin, all of the Primal Kitchen condiments and so much more. I personally got to try the bone broth the Primal Kitchen will be offering up when it opens, and it was, in all honesty, the best bone broth I've ever tried. We're super excited for the Primal Kitchen to be opening in the next couple months!