Day 1

I'm going to do my best in having perfectly balanced meals at every sitting vs. having a balanced day overall. I hope that tracking my nutrition will make things easy for you guys when you're on the go. It's mostly going to look like meat (protein), fruit and/or vegetables (carbohydrate), nuts or oil (fat) on every plate... nothing entirely interesting, but it makes my life and keeping track very simple. Reminder 1 block of protein is 7g, 1 block carbohydrate is 9g, 1 block of fat is 3g. MMM! So if my plate equals 7g P, 9g C, 3 g F then that is a 1 block meal and will be noted as [1p, 1c, 1f].

Breakfast:
1 egg with a little bit of Pam spray [1p, 0c, 1.5f]
2 small lean chicken sausages [2p, 0c, 0.5f]
1 apple [0p, 2c, 0f]

Coffee w/ tbsp honey and a splash of milk [0p, 2c, 0f]
2oz "Just Caesar Chicken" from Trader Joe's [2p, 0c, some fat]

2nd breakfast haha:
2 eggs [2p, 0c, 3f]
2 chicken sausages [2p, 0c 0.5f]
12 0z home-made espresso --
- espresso [0,0,0] (note: caffeine still triggers a bit of an insulin release)
- 12 oz 1% milk [1.5p, 1.5c, 1.5f]
- 1 tbsp honey [0p, 2c, 0f]

Post-Workout (aka W.O.D = Workout Of the Day)
16 oz 1% milk [2p 2c 2f]
1 fish oil (the milk is just shy of an even 2 fats, so I bumped it up a little here)

Dinner (too big if you ask me):
4 oz grilled lean beef [4p, 0c, 0f]
1 medium banana [0p, 3c, 0f]
1/2 large navel orange [0p, 3c, 0f]
20-ish almonds [0p, 0c, 4f]
2 oz Just Caesar Chicken (to balance out the Carbs) [2p 0c 0f]
6 fish oils [0p, 0c, 2f]

Dessert:
1/4 cup trim cottage cheese [1p 0c 1f]
less than 1/4 cup crushed pineapple [0p 1c 0f]

When you write this stuff down, you can see what your tendencies are and if you really favor certain foods to avoid vegetables i.e. I like milk more than I thought today, and some of my carbs are coming from honey rather than fruit or vegetables. Otherwise, I'm very surprised that I did this well today. Gold star!

Today's Workout: The "Duane" for a Jogo "veteran" - Happy Birthday, Duane!
4 Deadlifts
3 Hang Power Cleans
2 Front Squats
1 Shoulder Press or Push Press or Push Jerk

That progression is "1 rep"; Do 3 reps without setting the bar down is "1 round". You may rest the bar on the ground BETWEEN rounds, but not during or there is a penalty of not counting that round and starting it over. 5 rounds for time. Men's weight was 135 lb; Women had 95 lbs... scaled to less weight if necessary.

Results: I had this huge mental block of dropping the weight after 2 reps, so I couldn't finish it off. I did it 3 times! >:( So instead of starting over and being there all day, I added the missed reps at the end (18 reps total vs. 15) Time of 14:44... then did 3 rounds of 5 Handstand Pushups after the workout. CrossFit exposes those weaknesses, now I know what to push through next time.

Zone-Paleo Diet - Paleo Guidelines

My last posts were about the Zone diet which provides adequate amounts of the macro-nutrients (Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat) to fuel for your day without bulking you up or making you feel like you live in a Third World country. That's the hard part.

The Paleo Diet putting the Quality in your nutrition, and is just eating the foods that Evolutionists believe that we would eat if we lived during the Paleolithic Era. Now, I'm a strong believer in Creationism so I just see the Paleo Diet as eating the natural foods that God put here on His good green Earth, and eating foods that are in the closest state of what they were meant to be like. Simply: Lean Meats, Seafood, Vegetables, Fruit, and Nuts. If you can hunt it or gather it, its good to eat. I think that explains itself, but things will come along as we go.

I always lean toward Free-Range chicken or beef, wild fish, and so on to avoid the chemicals and such that get into these things. Again: eating foods the way they were meant to be eaten.

Notice how Grains and Dairy arent on that list. I wrestled with this for a while... I love both! I decided to go for it anyway without knowing why. Now when I go back to grains (flour, breads, pastas and such), Jenene sleeps in the living room jk. Its kind of like I have purified myself from foods that are better for me, and when I eat grains and such... my body feels like its being poisoned. That's because of 2 reasons: First is Carb-Overload leading to a spike in insulin. Second, and more importantly, is noting that they have Gluten in them. Gluten, in short, is an anti-nutrient found in grains. They block off the absorbtion of nutrients during digestion.

Now on to Dairy. Why no Dairy? To answer this question, you have to remember that a cow has to be milked. How was early man supposed to milk a non-domesticated cow in the WILD? They didn't have the luxury and maybe not the knowledge we have today, so they say that early man didn't drink milk or eat strawberry ice cream.

However, I believe that anything that our Creator says is cool for us to eat is fair game. God said to Moses (Exodus 3:8), "So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey..." Sounds good to me! When do I get to eat it? But again, moderation and quanitity. There are vitamins and minerals more potently available in veggies and fruits that aren't in milk. Also dairy causes an increase in insulin even if it is Zone-balanced. Lastly, what animals usually drink milk? Babies - its the primary part of their diet. How do they react to the milk? They grow EXPONENTIALLY! Milk is kind of like a natural steroid. Since I've added milk into my diet again, I've gained like 5 pounds of muscle mass. Impressive, I know. Just keep that in mind.

What I like most about eating Paleo-ish foods is that its extremely easy to put it together for a Zone meal. For example:

1 oz of chicken or beef [1 block of protein, 0 blocks of carbs, 0-1 blocks of fat]
100g brocolli = [0 p, 1 c, 0 b]
1 egg = [1p, 0c, 1.5f]
1 apple = [0p, 2-3 c, 0f]
15 almonds = [0p, 0c, 5f]
8 0z 2% milk = [1p, 1c, 1.5f]

With all of that being said, I'm going to grill up some steak and have an apple with some nuts.

Until next time, check out what Robb Wolf, CrossFit Nutritionist guru, says about being Paleo-precise in this post. Read his response in the first comment.

Zone-Paleo Diet - The Zone Experiment

This post will be about the science behind it all.

Now, I've heard for the longest time that if you're lifting weights, then you need 1.0g of protein/pound of bodyweight to rebuild your muscles after exercise. That explains why Body-builders are as big and bulky as they are. No thanks. As a CrossFitter, my goal isn't to be big and bulky; rather, my goal is to be strong and quick for weighted movements such as Power Cleans, and still lean for sprints and the "body-weight" movements such as air squats, pull-ups and rope climbs. Everything that I have on here counts toward making me quick and powerful athlete with a great work capacity (read: cardio).

In the Zone Diet, that measurement of adequate protein is dependent on your Lean Body Mass (LBM) rather than total weight, as well as your activity level. As I sit in front of this computer, I weigh roughly 185 lbs with 10% body fat.

185 - 18.5 = 166.5 lbs of LBM.

Next is activity level.
0.5 = sedentary
0.6 = light training i.e. walking
0.7 = moderate training i.e. 3 days/week
0.8 = daily training
0.9 = heavy daily training
1.0 = heavy daily training 2x/day

As a CrossFitter with roughly 3 days of training, then 1 day off, 3 days on, 1 day off, and so on... I prescribe between 0.7-0.8 (5-6 training days a week). Activity level = 0.75.

So 166.5 LBM multiplied by 0.75 = 125 grams of protein/day. mmm MM!

In my last post, I talked about how the Zone Diet is watching the hormone Insulin's release in relation to carbs, and how protein slows down that release. Dr. Sears, founder of the Zone, discovered that it takes 7g of protein to counter (for the lack of a better word) 9g of carbohydrate. So there is a ratio of 7g P:9g C. He named these easy-to-use units "Blocks"... 7 gP = 1 protein block, 9g C = 1 carb block. So...

125 g P divided by 7g P gives me 18 blocks of protein per day (1.5 dozen eggs or a pound and a half of chicken or beef). Fat is where things get a little tricky so it depends who you talk to. In his first book, Dr. Sears said that 1.5 g of Fat gave you that last 30% of your calories and fuel, but then he changed it to 3 g of Fat because the fat within chicken doesn't react how an avocado would. I recommend the 3g of Fat so you can get double the flavor, double the fun!

Now to break down the full numbers for my 18-block day:
Protein - (18 x 7) 125 g P
Carbohydrate - (18 x 9) 162 g C
Fat - (18 x 3) 54g F

Its easiest to keep in mind what a Block is (7g P, 9g C, 3g F) so that you can space out those Blocks throughout the day because you shouldn't go more than 4-5 hours without something in your belly. Usually my day looks something like:

Breakfast - 3 b
Snack - 2 b
Lunch -4 b
Snack - 2 b
Dinner - 5 b
Snack -2 b

The way that this works with the best precision is to read your food labels or websites like www.nutritiondata.com, measuring cups and spoons, and/or a food scale (its like science class!).

I dont want you to be discouraged, but it will be frustrating the first couple weeks because you'll be sitting and saying "I'm hungry. I should eat!" as usual. But now, you've introduced a couple new steps in the process: read the info, measure it out. Stick with it! You'll soon be able to know the numbers off the top of your head, or give it a look and estimate it. Nothing of value comes without a little hard work!

Zone-Paleo Diet - Intro

I'll be posting this for friends and family to give you an idea of what has been leading me to getting lean and mean a.k.a. losing 20 pounds of fat in 2-3 months, while fueling athletic performance. I swear by the Zone-Paleo diet. I've lost 20 POUNDS of fat in a few months. Nothing makes more sense, and nothing makes me feel/look/perform better. I'm doing this for myself, but also to encourage to 2 new friends of mine from Jogo/CrossFit Bellingham.

Brad (one of the other coaches at Jogo) - He's got a great story of how CrossFit and the Zone-Paleo diet have taken him a long way. In short: he's gone from 353 lbs to 248 lbs since Christmas of 2007. He's my inspiration. Check out his blog.

Ben - I wish I had a blog or a link to introduce you guys to him. He's Brad's room-mate and he's amazing. In short (and because I dont know how much he's comfortable with me sharing): he had a tragic accident a few years back, but he's not letting it slow him down. He just started doing CrossFit last Monday, and said "Why not go all-out? Nutrition and all?". If only more people had this type of attitude.

Without further ago, I will attempt to explain the Zone and Paleo diets.

We all talk about "Everything in moderation." Well, the Zone is exactly that. A precise diet that gives you the moderation of Carbs, Protein and Fat according to your lean body mass and activity level. Anything less is insufficient and you'll starve your body. Anything more is either going to bulk or plump you up. The Zone Diet is a diet where you get 40% of your calories from Carbs , 30% from protein, and 30% from fat.

Carbs are good, they fuel your muscles in the quicker bursts of work or exercise. Too many carbs however lead to all types of problems from acne, obesity, inflammation (your -itis's like arthritis), and sugar-crashes which I refer to as the Carb-Coma. The reason is because of a spike in insulin (a storing hormone - too much insulin leads to too much storage of carbs/energy especially in the infamous Love-Handle region) ; I would contest that most people in modern cultures are pre-diabetic.

Proteins are the building blocks of your body. No, this diet wont make you into a Body-Builder. Muscles break-down every day simply by the wear that you give them. The Zone Diet's aim is to give you enough Protein to rebuild (then maintain) what you've lost during exercise or work. In relation to insulin, this slows down the Insulin Spike via the hormone, Glucagon > less storage hormone to the Love-Handles.

Fat is not only delicious, but essential to fueling you the rest of the day that you aren't working or exercising. The Zone Diet teaches your body to use its fat for energy rather than the carbs. This helps the blood circulate (especially helpful since I like to have my blood flowing) and helps prevent inflammation.

The Paleo Diet is very similar to the Zone Diet (Zone is much more precise in the 40/30/30 to prevent disease, etc.), but it focuses much more on what foods you eat. Some of you have here me say that "Zone is about quantity, where Paleo is about quality." I stole that quote from Robb Wolf.












Carb-sources come primarily from Vegetables and Fruits (just like your momma told you). Not only will that fill you up with your micro-nutrients (vitamins and minerals), you'll be full of adequate carbohydrate. For example, 2 slices of bread = 40 g Carbs (with little fortified nutrients) = 2 apples or 4 cups of broccoli.

Protein-sources stray away from powders or soy (bleh!), but are lean meats like chicken, lean cuts of beef, fish, and so on. MMM! I learned a little tidbit from a class in bible college... "If God didn't want us to eat animals, then He wouldn't have made them out of meat." kidding of course.

Fat-sources. MMM! Of course, not all fats are created equal. You should lean more and more to Omega-3's such as nuts, olive oil and fish oil.

Now that was an intro. Please feel free to comment. Zoners/Jogo'ers feel free to add anything that you want. My next post will be the exact numbers of grams of this or that. Science/nerdy but that's how you get the most out of it. In addition to that, I challenge you all to take this seriously to get the most out of recreation, CrossFitting and out of life in general. You're only given one life and one body that you take with you every second of it. Milk life for all that it's worth!

Stepping onto the new path

I'm sorry to keep my public waiting (haha the.. uh.. both of you?), but I've been trying to sort stuff out and have the most fun with what I do. My friend, Libby, gave me some great advice: "Make the most of your time. Do the things that you couldn't do with a busy schedule." She also told me to write a book... she thought it might be interesting. We'll see how that books goes.

Before I get started here, I'm going to put it out there - I pray A LOT. Not that creepy rocking back and forth, OOOOOOHM kinda prayer. Prayers literally sound like this, "God, what the heck am I supposed to do with my life?" Answers sound like a father to a child. Answers come back with reason and passion. He asks me what I'm passionate about... that's a good start. What do I like to do? What would I do if I weren't paid to do it? What way do I help others and find my fulfillment? In case you haven't discovered it yet, I LOVE CrossFit. I show up early, I stay late. And when I talk about it, words pour out naturally. Health, fitness and performance are my life. This body is the only thing that I take everywhere that I go. When I take care of it, I go faster, stronger and longer (long-life that is). So with that in mind, I've been praying about this whole fitness thing and taking the events as God's answers to my prayers.

These last couple weeks have been interesting. I found out that I cant go back to college for an Associate's degree immediately because I haven't finished my Bachelor's yet. Duh. So I've determined that I'm going back to PLBC in the fall to finish up my Bachelor's in Church Ministries with a Minor in Youth Ministry (kid's are so much fun, and teach you more than you think). While I do that, I'm going to the community college for a class here and there to get my Science pre-requisites out of the way and apply for the Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) program early, and get some experience early before they get flooded with potential PTAs. I'm so excited about this... it will take longer than I hoped for, but I'm still young and I've got a life of fulfillment ahead of me.

Thanks for stopping by, San Diego. Have a great day. Say your prayers!

The Road Less Travelled By...

I set my Facebook status to "Art is at a fork in the road", not to get any attention, but to just let people know what I'm up to. A friend of mine from college always pops in at the perfect times with her joy and hope that are usually hidden behind sarcasm (just like myself). She sent me a link to a famous Robert Frost poem that I haven't read in years. Robert Frost had a rough life - just like many other people Pre-WWI - he travelled all over the US to study and dropped out to teach, to go to funerals of family members, went to England study, then came back to the States during WWI. He bought his family's farm to continue what they could have lost, but with no success; it wasn't his passion.
Other family members suffered from various illness, some committed suicide because depression ran through the family. Out of his 6 children, only 2 out-lived him. It was tough, but he stuck with it. In the end he had several honorary degrees from Harvard, Bates College, Oxford, Cambridge and two from Dartmouth College. He also read poetry at JFK's inauguration. In his last days, he suffered from prostate cancer and died in Boston because of the complications of the surgery. His epitaph reads, "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."

Now, I've left out some details in his life, but its an inspiring story of passion and perseverance. After I read his short biography (on Wikipedia), I read the poem that she sent me.

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

With that being said - with my last post in view - I've been trying to figure out where to go in life. To be honest, its discouraging and it will take a little while to do what I love to do. To answer that, I found an interesting quote from the book, Emperor (a series of novels by Conn Iggulden based on the life of Julius Caesar). A politician named Julius, the father of Marcus who would grow to Julius Caesar, said something very interesting when he spoke to his son's trainer, Renius.
Renius (stubbornly): They are only in the strength and conditioning phase. It will take a couple of years to teach them how to fight and military strategy. It wont be easy.
Julius: Nothing of value ever comes easily.

That hit the nail on the head. I've been trying to find a way to say that concept for a long time so it spoke volumes to me. Nothing of value ever comes easily. Its hard work whatever it may be.

I'm at a fork in the road. Should i go this way or that? Should I go to work for a short burst of refreshment? Or should I stick it out, be tough, and work towards what I want to truly do with my life? It kind of sounds dumb now as I type it. That's enough for now. Next time, I'll give you better specifics. Thanks for your time and interest. God bless!

What I've learned thusfar...

Let me get this off of my chest: I hate how people update their Facebook statuses and they say "Bored at work, text me please!" 1. Is that the best you can do with your life? 2. There are millions of people being laid-off, you are the epitome of irony - people want to work but cant, and the people who work dont want to.

Life is too short to do things without purpose, without gratitude, without aim, and without accomplishing something to be proud of daily. I don't have much on my plate, but what I have is all I need (except for bills... I dont need those).

I wake up to a beautiful wife who shares a mutual understanding that we are the most valuable possession that we have. Everything else will fade away, but this is one thing I can count on.
I go work at a place that doesn't feel like work ... in fact, I stay longer to encourage and give pointers. I look forward to doing it, I research on how to improve my coaching, and I love watching people get better and better.
My family always has been, is now, and will always be there for me. I could go on, but sometimes the simplest of words can say it all.

I was laid-off around 2 months ago, and it has taught me many helpful points of view. The most important one is this: I'm young, and my potential is great (no self-centeredness intended). I've always seen life like a lit path. As one walks along you encounter many things - every step is in soft dirt, but as you go off the path there are rocks and vines that trip you as you come off of the path, trees with fruit, and perhaps a rare gem (like my wife! SCHWING!). Where I'm at in life is a fork... which way do I go? And its not just 2 paths to decide from, there's a third so its tough to way out the pro's and con's.

1) Find work immediately to pay my bills? This means meaningless work because no one is hiring in these times. Short-term and empty.
2) Go back to PLBC and finish my degree there? Sounds good because I'm almost done with that B.A., but its too late to start this semester.
3) Okay, now this is the "Deal or No Deal"... Go to community college, pursue an A.A. in Physical Therapy Assistance (PTA)... perhaps continue to the university to get a B.S. in Exercise and Health Science...Specialization in Heath and Fitness Specialist (I know dumb name)... Minor in Sport Psychology... possible double-major in Fitness Science?

A year ago, I wouldnt even consider #3... but the CrossFit opportunity really found me and I take that as a HUGE sign. Not only that, I've never felt so fulfilled until these past months working at Jogo. You cant teach Passion, so I REALLY want to do #3. I will be in school for a few years so here's what my tiny brain has come up with for a 3-year plan.

Year One - Move closer to Bellingham. Work towards an A.A. in PTA while continuing to coach. This will give me some immediate practice since a few people tweak a muscle here and there; I could use this to get them back on track asap.
Year Two - Work part-time as a PTA and coach... doing what I love. Work towards the B.S. in Exercise (blah blah blah)
Year Three - Finish up the B.S. (haha) and see what lines up. No rush to get out of Jogo whatsoever.

What I love most about this option is that it will be applied and practiced as I learn it. It will be a very busy few years... but again, passion is something that you cant teach and is hard to slow down. We'll see. One step at a time. Sound like the right path?