CrossFit South Bend

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.  

Today we're going to talk about a basic intro to your digestive system, and how it actually works. You don't need to be going into the medical field to know that this stuff is important. You should have just a basic understanding of how this stuff works, because it ends up being overall important. Not just for your digestive health, but for your overall health. So, let's talk about how things work when you actually eat food. What happens in between when the food enters your body, and then when it exits out the backend. First thing, your mouth. When you start eating food, your body produces saliva to basically coat that food. And, there are certain enzymes in your mouth, typically salivary amylase, which helps break down certain starches and sugars from the food that you're eating. And then of course, chewing is going to be a huge part of that start of the digestive process. You're basically taking whatever it is, whether it's a steak, or roasted vegetables or something like that. Which, by itself, if you just put it into your small intestine, wouldn't be very digestible, or absorbable in terms of extracting the nutrients out until you start this process. So, again with your saliva. You're kind of lubricating it essentially. And then with your teeth, you're basically grinding it up. Then with those enzymes, and the salivary amylase, you are basically getting it ready for future things down the line. And, that active chewing starts to activate that parasympathetic nervous system. Now, technically even though I started with the mouth. Technically, even before that there's going to be your brain. When your brain knows that you're going to eat, it starts to secrete digestive enzymes, it starts to anticipate the food. Things like smelling your food, or anticipating your food can kind of help start that digestive process. But technically, physically, it's going to start with the mouth. Once we get past the mouth, the food basically goes down your esophagus, and then it gets to your stomach. A very common misconception is that digestion takes place in the stomach. That is not the case. Really what takes place in the stomach is preparation for digestion, if by digestion we mean absorption of nutrients, which actually takes place in the small intestine. What happens in the stomach? Well, that stuff that you just chewed up basically gets down there, and then assuming that your stomach acid is sufficiently acidic, which it should be. It's typically about a PH of two, which is very acidic. Water is a seven. So, once it gets down there, that acid basically breaks a lot of that stuff down, and prepares it to be absorbed in the small intestine. Now, another thing to realize about the stomach is that, there really isn't that much in the way of bacteria in the stomach. We talk a lot about probiotics and stuff like that. That's going to be much more located in things like the small intestine, and to an even greater degree, the large intestine. Isn't to say that there isn't some bacteria in the stomach, but it's going to be a very, very small quantity 'cause it's obviously a super acidic environment. Okay, next point is really going to be the heart and soul of digestion. This is the small intestine. When we talk about leaky gut, or when we talk about a healthy gut, or we talk about are you absorbing your food. This is where the action takes place. So, your small intestine is basically where that food that you chewed up, and then was broken down by your stomach gets absorbed. And, if the acid from your stomach isn't sufficiently acidic, then your pancreas isn't going to release digestive enzymes to properly break down your food in your stomach. So, this whole chain is very important. n your small intestine, there is a lining basically of single cells called, "enterocytes," that help your body absorb nutrients from the food that you're eating, but also keep bad stuff out. This lining is incredibly, incredibly important. It's what allows good stuff into your body, and it's what keeps bad stuff out. Now again, going back to this notion of bacteria. We said that there's a very small amount in the stomach. There's definitely a bit more in the small intestine. But, you don't want too much there, because then that's going to interfere with digestion. Really where the vast majority of the bacteria is going to be, is in your large intestine. When we talk about probiotics, and healthy bacteria in the microbiome, that's really in your large intestine. Your large intestine is basically where three main things happen. You absorb water, a lot of the compounds that your body can actually absorb like fiber and other compounds get broken down by your bacteria in your large intestine. And then, you basically, you're preparing things to essentially exit your body. When we talk about probiotics, healthy bacteria, there's something like a trillion bacteria in your large intestine, and that's where you want bacteria to be. So, it's so important that all of these things are working together in harmony. And, if one thing is off, like if you have too much bad bacteria in your large intestine, or insufficient stomach acid in your stomach, or you're not chewing your food in your mouth. Any one of those things can mess up digestion. And, as we've talked about, digestion is incredibly important for the health of your overall body. I hope now you have a good sense of how digestion works, just a basic sense. And, in the next few videos we'll talk even more in depth about how this stuff works. All right guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.  

Today, we're gonna talk about how to eat healthy at local restaurants. The first idea I wanna give to you is this idea that look, if you're only doing this once in a great while, don't worry about it so much. It's not gonna be that big an issue as long as you're eating healthy, real whole food the vast majority of the time. But if you are eating at restaurants on a regular basis, that's something you need to potentially consider cutting back on and some of the tips in this video will hopefully help you pick some healthier fare. Tip number one, when it comes to eating healthier at restaurants these days, it's a whole lot easier just because menus are online so you can actually check out this stuff before you go. You can see what stuff fits in the dietary template that you're following. A lot of restaurants tend to have really good gluten free menus now. They have a lot of options and healthier fare for people when you actually go to the restaurant. Another thing to say is when you get there and you're actually looking at the menu or if you're looking at the menu beforehand, most entrees at most restaurants are meat or quality protein plus veggies plus healthy fat. Let's say steak, broccoli, and baked potato. Or salmon and rice and some sort of vegetable. That's the way it is and the nicer restaurant you're eating at, the easier it is to eat healthy. A lot of times, when you're actually looking at the menu, look at those entrees and those are gonna tend to be in a pretty healthy mold. Now what do you do about the waiter or the waitress? We have to balance between two ends of the spectrum here. On the one hand, you don't wanna be that jerk who orders the Cobb salad and then takes everything that makes a Cobb salad a Cobb salad. But at the same time, you're the one paying for and ordering the meal. Try to be nice and appreciate to your waiter and waitress but at the same time, if you have dietary restrictions, don't be afraid to ask for that and don't be afraid to say something if you wanna make the food a bit healthier. Now, here's some practical tips for eating out at certain places. If you're going to a Mexican restaurant, try to emphasize meat and veggies and then try to cut down as much as you can on the beans and rice and to the lesser extent, some cheese. If you're going to a Japanese restaurant, some sushi, you can get some sashimi, white rice isn't the worst thing in the world, and get some vegetables there. If you're going to an Italian restaurant, most classical Italian cooking doesn't actually involve gobs of carbohydrates. That's really just American Italian cooking so don't be afraid to get something like chicken with some vegetables and some tomato sauce. Hopefully those tips gave you a sense of how to eat healthy but remember, at the end of the day, if you're not doing this terribly frequently, enjoy yourself when you're out and it's not that big an issue but if you are doing it frequently, either cut down on the frequency or try to involve these healthy tips as much as you in your healthy eating when you're eating out. Alright guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

Today, we're going to talk about some super simple home remedies that you can use to help improve your digestion. In other videos, we'll talk about more advanced things but today we're going to talk about the super simple ones that pretty much anyone can do at home and these are things that you would want to check off the list first just to make sure that it's not something super simple that you've overlooked. Number one is a huge one and I would readily admit that this is something that I work on myself, but it is really an important issue. Chew your food. Chew your food. There are a couple of reasons why that's important. One of my favorite sayings when it comes to digestion is there are no teeth in the stomach. What does that mean? It means once things have essentially gotten to your stomach, there's acid to help break things down, but if you have a piece of food that basically hasn't been chewed properly and it's making a way down to your stomach and then your small intestine, it's not going to be absorbed properly if you didn't break it down sufficiently in your mouth. You want to chew your food. Chewing your food sufficiently also helps activate certain enzymes in your mouth that help start to break down certain compounds in the food and it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the so-called rest and digest nervous system that's necessary to help you digest. If you're in a constant state of sympathetic, kind of go, go, go mode, then it's going to be very hard to digest food. Along with that same idea of chewing your food, you want to sit down and eat your food. This is something, while the chewing I'm still working on, sit down and eat your food I've gotten pretty good at. Most of us today eat on the run whether it's in our car or we're answering emails. I routinely get emails from people who tell me I don't take a lunch or it's 15 minutes or they're just gobbling down food. Again, if you've activated that sympathetic nervous system, it's going to be very hard to digest in that mode. You want to sit down. Take some time out. It doesn't need to be all the way to French culture where they take an hour and a half each day for food, for lunch although that would be nice. But it shouldn't be five minutes where you're scarfing down something and answering emails and driving somewhere either. Take some time out and sit down and eat your food. Number three, water. Water is great, super healthy for you, but at the same time you shouldn't necessarily be drinking it during your meals. There are different reasoning you hear behind this. Some people suggest that it dilute stomach acid. Some people suggest that if you have cold water it's going to reduce the rate at which enzymes are going to be breaking down your food. But just in general, you want to try to eat your food and not drink it, so one of the most compelling reasons I've heard is this idea that people use water as a means to swallow otherwise improperly chewed food. If that's your reason for drinking water when you're eating, then you probably want to slow down, chew your food and not drink a bunch of water to have it go all the way down. Number four, you want to try and express gratitude or de-stress or maybe it's 10 deep belly breaths or maybe if you're religious, maybe it's praying or maybe it's meditation or maybe it's a quick laugh before a meal. Something where you're activating that parasympathetic system and you're not constantly in this go, go, go mode where you feel like you can't really properly digest things. Then number five is going to be that you want to try and cook your food or mash it. If you really are having digestive issues, one of the best things you can do is, A, cook your food. That's going to "predigest" it for you. Then in addition to that, the more you mash up the food, the easier it is to digest so something like, I don't know, white potato fries are going to be harder to digest than baked potato that has basically been mashed up. Hopefully, those things can help you with your digestion and you definitely want to try those things first before you go deeper down the rabbit hole and we'll talk about some alternative strategies for improving your digestion in later videos. All right, guys. Thanks so much for tuning in. See you next time.

Today we're gonna talk about how to have the perfect poop. So, this is gonna be yet another video in our digestion series. So, you might be wondering why would I even care about something like this, why would I even want to know about how to have the perfect poop. Well, a lot of people are dealing with digestive issues these days. So, that might be one reason. Another reason is that, how you're pooping is a really good window into your overall health, because digestion, as we've explained in a previous video, is where you absorb all the good stuff, all your nutrients. It's where you keep out all the bad stuff. So, poop is really important. And unfortunately, both when we're growing up with our parents and school, this doesn't really ever get explained to us, what things should be like. Today I'm going to give you some tools for how to have the perfect poop or how to tell if you're having the perfect poop. Let's talk about item number one, speed. So, you don't want thing to be too fast and you don't want them to be too slow, and I've seen a lot of misconceptions about this idea. So, I've had people come to me and they say, 'Oh yeah, I'm pooping normally once every three days.' That is not normal. If someone's going seven times a day, that's not normal either. A normal spot in between those two is something like one to three times a day. Now, it's gonna depend on how much you're eating, and what your training's like, and stress and all the rest of those things. But, that's a good rubric. If someone is going number two every other day or every few days, or every week, I've seen people like that, that is not good. And if they're going too frequently, that's not good either. In the too frequent case, the issue is you're not absorbing your nutrients. Things aren't staying in long enough to be absorbed. And then in the too slow case, it's that toxins are being built up and not being excreted properly. So, you want to have that happy medium between the two. What about consistency? So, again, we don't typically like to talk about this stuff, but it is a good window into your health. So, you don't want to see undigested food particles in your stool, that is not a good thing. That's a sign that you're not digesting things properly. If you look up online, there's a thing called the Bristol stool chart, that goes all the way from kind of hard and clumpy to very watery, and it kind of gives you a sense of what the best poop would look like. But basically, it should be such that it's formed, there isn't undigested food particles in it and it basically should be something where you feel like it's easy to pass, but not too quick. In terms of actual feel when you're going, it shouldn't be something that is ridiculously difficult to pass, but it also shouldn't be something that just falls out of your body. Color, it shouldn't be black. If it's black, go to a local hospital. It shouldn't be green. If it's a one-off where it's one of these colors, orange or yellow or something like that, then it's probably just a one-off. But consistently, if it's looking like that, you know, shouldn't be blood in your stool. If those things are happening, you definitely want to go get that checked out by a doctor. In general, here are the rules. One to three times a day. Color should be brown. You shouldn't see undigested food particles in there. You shouldn't feel like it's ridiculously difficult to go, but it also shouldn't feel like it's super easy. And basically, it should be something that's happening on a fairly frequent basis, so that you're eliminating toxins, and so you're absorbing the nutrients the way you should and things aren't passing out too fast. All right, guys. Thanks, so much, for tuning in. We'll see you next time.  

Today we are going to try to answer the question, how much food should you eat? A couple of things to say right up front. This is so hyper contextual. It's so contextual. Is a person someone who's 400 pounds who's trying to stop being diabetic and they're primarily sedentary versus a high level CrossFit games athlete? It's going to be super contextual, but what we're going to try to lay out in this video is just base guidelines. Typically, what we'll say to you here is if these base things aren't even in place then you shouldn't even be worried about things like Keto, and a whole bunch of different macro splits. Those can be tremendously useful in certain context, but you need this first base level to even venture into those areas. First I'm gonna talk about kind of a visual method for measuring your food. Then I'll talk about more specific amounts that could be helpful. A visual method that different folks like Precision Nutrition or the Whole 30 mention is using your hand. For protein, they typically say about a palm size. Why is that good? Well because to the extent that someone's palm is smaller, that's gonna mean a smaller chunk of protein, and if their palm is a lot bigger that's going to be a bigger chunk of protein, which should correspond to their body size. You put that palm sized protein on your plate, and then you fill the rest of your plate with vegetables. That's a pretty good start. Again, hyper contextual. Can change things up, but that's a good place to start. In terms of fats at each meal, if you are going to oils about a thumb size. That's going to correspond to roughly a tablespoon of fat to either cook with your veggies or to cook with your meat, or to drizzle over your salad. Then for things like fruit typically, one handful like an apple or blueberries. The same thing with nuts and seeds. That isn't perfect. That isn't the end all be all. That isn't the only thing to pay attention to, but that's a really good place to start. If you're not having meals with quality protein, veggies, and healthy fat as your foundation, and maybe some fruits, nuts, and seeds, herbs, and spices, as extra pieces then you don't need to be worried about all this other crazy stuff. You don't need to be worried about Weight Watchers points. You don't need to worry about calories. You don't need to worry about all of these different macro splits. Okay. That's a good visual way to help, but sometimes people ask, what about actual amounts? Can we give you guys some amounts? Here are some amounts that I like to tell people. For protein in general, if we're talking about a slab of protein like a filet of salmon, or a chicken breast, or a steak, or something like that, we're talking somewhere between a quarter pound and a half pound, so four ounces to eight ounces. Sure, someone's working out more you can go all the way up to 12 ounces or even 16 ounces, but for most people, men and women, somewhere between four to eight ounces at a meal is going to be a really good place to start. Vegetables, so non starchy vegetables, I like that rule of basically filling the rest of your plate. I wouldn't restrict non starchy vegetables. If anything, I would say a bare minimum that we like is one non starchy vegetable per meal. Meaning like one thing like kale, or cucumber, or broccoli, or cabbage, at each meal. Then in terms of your starchy vegetables, things like, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains, butternut squash. Somewhere between 50 and 150 grams is a good place to start people off. How do you figure out what that is? Well, a regular size white potato or sweet potato is going to be somewhere around 40 to 50 grams. That's a good place to start. Then healthy fats, again hyper contextual, gonna depend on who you are, but I would say somewhere in the realm of one to two tablespoons per meal where you're either cooking your meat with that, or cooking your veggies, or drizzling some oil on your salad, that usually does the trick. Hopefully, that gives you a sense of some good amounts to have with your meal. Again, we think of it in terms of what we sometimes refer to as, the twenty mile march. We want to get them to begin with this way of eating first where they even have these quantities that we just mentioned in place. Then we can move on to things like Keto, or more advanced macros, and so on, and so forth. Practical take aways from this video, guys. Number one above all else as we've said in every other single video we've ever done, food quality first and foremost. Got that in place? Okay. Well let's start worrying about that food quantity. That's all the stuff I talked about today. Four to eight ounces of protein at a meal, roughly palm size. The rest of our plate with veggies. One non starchy vegetable at a meal, and 50 to 150 grams of starchy vegetables per day. Then one to two tablespoons of healthy fat at each meal. All right guys, hopefully that gives you some direction. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.