Good coaches have all the right questions

Having returned from from another CrossFit specialty certification, this one being on nutrition, you might expect me to write about the horrors of obesity, Hyperinsulinemia, gluten etc. I’m not, it would be a fair call for me to make as I’ve learned a lot from the presentation by the awesome Robb Wolf.

CrossFit Nutrition Cert: Toronto, Ontario

But what has stuck with me the most is what a great coach Robb is. He gave us great examples of how to help people with a very practical tool.  Questions. He demonstrated how three simple questions can be used separately or together to give someone practical advice and guidance.

The three he used were.

1. How do you feel?

2. How is your performance?

3. How do look?

These questions are easy and will solicit the answers you’ll need to help someone with their goals/nutritional needs.

Obviously the more you know about the person, the better but these tools can get you started or be used by an experienced coach as well.

Robb seems like no fuss kind of guy and he’s able to get skeptics to try and change they current nutritional situation, he’s quick to ask people “try it for thirty days” . While doing that he also shows empathy, because of his experience he knows how to get people kick bad habits or get them back on track if they are back to eating their old ways after a successful switch.

His sessions could easily run longer than the planned seven hours but Robb gives you all the info to get started and he’s very active on his own blog which has lots resources as well. If you get a chance to take his certification do it, you’ll not regret it.

Bigtime Breakfast

I’ve been getting questions from non-CrossFitters about nutrition lately. A common one is “what do you eat?” the reason being for that I presume is people forget about the basics and think my diet as dieting.

My responses are usually to point, and I always start with “Well I start with a big breakfast” the usual reply is a guilty look or the actual statement of “I don’t eat breakfast”. That makes me wince, skipping breakfast just sets your day up for disaster. Really. If you skip it you’ll not function at your full capacity and it will probably lead to poor meal choices for the rest of the day.

Bam! Breakfast great way to kick off the day.

I know can’t get by without a good size breakfast. I always make sure I have the time to make it, I rarely go with the quick smoothie option. I’m probably too consistent in my choice of foods but it works, Monday to Friday usually consists of a four jumbo egg scramble, in it I add some spicy salsa, 30 grams of cheese (gotta keep it sticky) which equals just a little more than five blocks of protein and after reading this post I started adding avocado in to the mix too. That covers off the protein and a large amount of the fat (I also cover the bottom of the skillet with olive oil). For carbs I’ll have three blocks worth of oatmeal and two blocks of fruit, usually blue berries and strawberries but I do mix that up according to which frozen fruit is on sale. Eating better does cost more!

You’ll note from the photo above that I also added slivered almonds, I really don’t count my fat blocks for breakfast though I do ensure I’m at least at twice the fat. Throughout the rest of the day I may measure out fat blocks but not always. I’m pretty confident I’m always between 2X and 4X fat.

So that turns into a good five block meal, I could eat more but that’s enough. I’ll admit I do add a block via glass of 1% milk from time to time but only when I’m not fully recovered from my last workout.

Oh, I can’t forget my coffee. That’s neutral on the macro-nutirent scale, I drink it black.

I think I’ll post a few more of these for lunch, snacks and supper. Amber gave me a hard time on my last photo post as the meal was far from her best creation. I agree but the point of that one was she whipped it up with non-fresh foods as we were heading away for more than a week and had not bought much… don’t want all that great food to spoil.

Zoning for Two

What kind of effect does your partner have on your diet? Is it good? Is it bad? Do you make crappy eating habits a couple’s affair or do you make excuses in your nutrition because it’s easier if you both eat less thank optimally?

I’ve been “Zoning” since December 2008, I slipped into it gradually, which I think is the best approach even if you are already eating well. I did have the added benefit of removing as much sugar from my diet as I could earlier in the year. “Getting off the crack” as some refer to it is difficult at the best of times, doing it while zoning has proven almost impossible for some and results in some negative (perceived) side effects.

I read Enter The Zone first, asked some questions, did a little research and then decided to try this “diet”. By the way, at my Level 1 Certification Pat Sherwood made a point that I agree with. The Zone is a stupid name… sorry it just sucks, it sounds like a late night infomercial. Moving on.

Since starting I’ve played around with the various aspects. I’ve weighed and measure, which I may add is easy and anyone who states the contrary needs to review how much work is really involved. I’ve added additional Blocks, I subtracted some of those. I’ve added additional Fat Blocks and the did that again this past weekend. As of today I’m now at 16 Blocks with 3X Fat. Here’s table to give visual of how it looks P= Protein, C = Carbohydrate, F = Fat. 1 P = 7 g of protein, 1 C = 9 g of carbs and 1F = 3 grams of Fat:

As I mentioned I slipped into it, this was easy for a while as I wasn’t going too strict. Once I did go strict and weighed and measure I still did not have much trouble as I was mostly eating alone. Amber and I were on separate schedules temporarily so I was left to my own devices.  This helped as I was able to do lots of experimenting on my own (I’m a scientist at heart), this experimenting only effected me so I was fine to tinker as much as I could. The results were great, I started seeing the difference at CrossFit after a few weeks of weighing and measuring and doubling my Fat Blocks.

Others noticed too and started asking what I was doing differently, I replied with “Zoning”. In reality part of it was Zoning but I also increased the number of days I trained each week. I went from four days a week to five in January.

In my discussions with my fellow CrossFitters about The Zone and whether they were following it or not the common response amongst them was “I can’t because my girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband isn’t on it and it’s too hard for both of us to eat that way” or one of my favourites “my girlfriend doesn’t believe in that shit”.

I saw a pattern, as well I started wondering how my relationship and my new found tool to keep up with the fire breathers at our affiliate would work out. I could only operate on the single guy meal system for so long, breakfast wasn’t a problem (Amber rarely ate breakfast) and I mostly packed a lunch in a small cooler bag. The big issue was dinner, since Amber and I have been dating much of our time together had been spent cooking food, we always enjoyed putting together meals and sitting down to enjoy them together.

I’m a lucky man. Amber did have some reservations and she really likes her sweets but she was on board with giving it a try. I spent some time explaining it to her, and broke up her blocks for her in an easy to follow table. I started her on 11 Blocks for the day, 3 Block meals, and two 1 Block snacks. Here’s her table:

Amber is not Zoning hard but she is seeing results and getting fantastic at either putting together well Zoned meals from recipes or coming up with new meals from scratch. You see, Amber can be a scientist and experiment too. Her passion is the food itself, putting it together and making sure there’s lot of flavour as oppose to my “It’s just fuel, I can eat it even if it doesn’t taste that good” approach.

Amber chose to use a mixture of frozen and fresh veggies for one of our meals. Wrapping in tin foil and baking the mixture in the oven makes the frozen veggies taste better.

We’ve got balance, she prevents me from eating the same thing every day and I’m getting her to approach food from a different point of view.

Proof that you can “Zone for Two”. You just need some patience… and don’t forget to do your research.

Amber made this meal* from "stuff" that was in the fridge, freezer or cuboards. It's 5 Blocks of Protein (the chicken is covered by the salsa) and Carbs. We ate some almond butter for our Fat Blocks. Since I'm at 3X Fat I got some of my fat from additional sources.

*Note: We usually shy away from foods  that have a higher glycemic load such as corn and carrots but we did have them left over so we didn’t want to waste them either.

Another Catch 22 – Sleep and Nutrition

I usually sleep quite well, and it’s not because I’m exhausted from some killer WOD or a CrossFit benchmark workout, although they can make for a good night’s sleep. However, I’m not sure if I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Tonight I have two things working against my sleep 1) I’m anxious for tomorrow to arrive,  I’m leaving for Calgary to attend a CrossFit Level I Certification (more on that in a future post) and 2) I did not eat well today. I tried to eat well but someone gave me a delicious piece of chocolate cake as late birthday present (Thanks Jeff!) . I shared it with Amber after a very well Zoned four block meal. I also had a delicious pint of Guinness as a few colleagues got together to bid our former boss good luck in a new role.

I’ve been zoning pretty hard since mid-December. Since then I’ve seen excellent results and have greater awareness of whether I’m in The Zone or not.

While those two items don’t seem like a big deal they were enough to knock me out of The Zone, just enough for me to notice anyway. When slip up in my meal plans it’s usually my sleep that is the most affected. Before changing my eating habits I thought I slept well, typically falling asleep within minutes of getting into bed. I did however often wake up throughout the night, I always fell right back to sleep but those series of “wake-ups” did not give me the “100% ” feeling I get now that I’m “Zoning”.

I’ll write more about The Zone, the results I’ve experienced and what I’ve learned in future posts but your best bet is to either read The Zone by Dr. Barry Sears or go check out Robb Wolf’s Web site www.robbwolf.com. I particularly like his FAQ section which has some great advice beyond The Zone diet.

I just read an article he wrote for the CrossFit Journal titled “On Recovery” and in it he sums it up very nicely:

“Sleep affects digestion, nutrition affects sleep.”

So simple, so true.

You’ll need a good amount of will power to start and stay on The Zone, but if you do you’ll see amazing results in your physical performance, weight loss, sleep and a list of other areas.

Will power is important because if you slip up on your meal plans you’ll find your quality of sleep decreasing, from there it’s a domino effect of other things that will go wrong and keep you out of the zone.