Happy New Year everyone!

With the start of a new year always comes new years resolutions and new goals. Whilst I don’t personally believe in new years resolutions, as they always seem to be things that are unrealistic and don’t last, I do believe it is a great time to sit down and nut out some real goals for the year ahead.

I am only give advice about your health and fitness goals and I am going to keep this brief, as what I want to say is simple.

If you want to reach new levels of fitness, I provide all the classes you will need. You do not need to find the motivation to exercise alone. You do however need to find the motivation to turn up to class! Whether you work out in the CrossFit gym or out in the park, I am there for you atleast 5 days per week. I expect you to see me atleast 3 days. I would love to see you 5 days a week, but I know life can get in the way. But, be realistic about your goals and train in a way to achieve them.

Remember that training not only affects you physically, it also helps mentally. Think of how great you feel on days when you get a good hard session in.

One of the most important things this year is to stop avoiding the workouts you don’t like the look of, because generally they are the workouts you need as it is something you personally lack skill, strength or fitness in. Do this for me in 2012, come to class no matter what the workout.

If you want to improve your health and lose weight, you have 2 options, “paleo” or “zone”. Both of these eating plans reduce insulin which in turn reduces inflammation.

Loren Cordain – the founder of the paleo diet has just released a new book, which sounds great, so my suggestion is for you to get a copy of it and start reading now. Don’t put it off, start the year off in a way that will really kick start your health and weight loss.

Here is a link to the book, but I am sure you could pick it up in many locations as it appears to be sold out in this store http://thepaleodiet.com/store/the-paleo-answer

If you would prefer an e-book version, it is a lot cheaper and never out of stock, here it is for only $12.99 http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Answer-Weight-Great-ebook

If for some bizarre reason you don’t go and buy the book, firstly reduce your overall calorie intake. After this, reduce all breads, pastas, dairy products and all refined carbohydrates. Try to get all of your carbs from fresh fruits, salads and vegetables. Increase your intake of lean meats and good fats.

I am sure everyone needs a good detoxing, so take the month of January to be as strict as you can. Call it an unofficial Paleo detoxing challenge.

Use the next couple of days to get in all the fresh food you need and then start 30 days of clean eating. No bread, pasta, rice, cereal, grains, dairy. Your stomach (internally) and your bodyfat/weight will thank you for it. During this time, you can purchase your new Paleo book and  you can understand why you feel so much better without these foods in your body.

So there it is, if one of your goals in 2012 is to get fit and lose weight, then turn up to training and cut the grains & dairy  out of your diet. It really is simple!

For some people the task of losing weight and getting fit can be quite daunting, especially if you have a lot of weight to lose.

It is easy to say ” I want to lose 20kg’s” and then never do anything about it because it is such a massive task, so why not break down your overall goal into several mini goals.

The best way to tackle weight loss for the long term is to aim for 2kg’s per month.

I can hear what you are saying right now…”2 kg’s a month isn’t much”

Well, 2kg’s a month is more than what you are losing right now and it is more than you would lose if you didn’t attempt 2kg’s next month, so if you manage to eat sensibly, exercise regularly and lose more than 2kg’s without doing anything faddish and extreme, then good for you. Otherwise, make some small changes and aim for that 2kg’s. By the end of a year, you would have lost 24kg’s. Or, don’t aim for those 2kg’s and still be the same weight or bigger in a year.

So what can you do to lose the 2kg’s each month? Here’s my top 5;

1) Eat meals balanced with carbs, protein and fat in a ratio of 40:30:30. Get the majority of your carbohydrates from vegetables, salads and fruits.

2) Eliminate as much sugar from your diet as possible. Never drink soft drinks either diet or regular.

3) Exercise regularly. Aim for 5 sessions a week. Make sure you vary your routine.

4) Limit alcohol to special occasions and even then don’t go crazy. Be realistic about what is a special event and what it you just thinking alcohol is a reward for a hard days work.

5) Be active. Live the lifestyle of someone who deserves to be fit and healthy, a lifestyle that involves going out and doing active things. Ride a bike, go for a bush walk, go swimming, go kayaking, play sport. We are coming into Summer and the great outdoors have never been better than this time of year, so get out and enjoy it.

We are only into the second week in November, so let’s aim for 2kg’s gone by the end of the month. We are coming into December and party season, so you have to be even more focussed if you don’t want to gain weight over that period.

Do you want to go into 2012 fatter or thinner?

Do you want to walk down the beach proud or self conscious?

The answer to both of those questions is obvious, so stop kidding yourself and get started now! Not tomorrow, today!

As I begin to write this blog, I am not sure how I am going to say it, but I know the point I want to make, so if it is a bit hit and miss, atleast you can take away the main point and ponder it and see if it is applicable to you.

Last week I took a break and headed up to QLD to relax and as usual, when I am away from work and I have a few minutes to myself, I usually observe all the people around me. It got me thinking about something and everywhere I looked, I had my theory cemented.

“Everybody can change their life with just a few changes of thinking and a few changes of action.”

I see so many people who’s life is heading in one direction and you just know that they are not happy, but maybe they just don’t know how to change it.

I also know so many people who have been on that unhappy road and they have made changes and their life has changed for the better.

I am not just talking about being overweight, but this would be the main one that comes to mind due to my occupation. I am also talking about being in bad relationships or bad jobs, having bad habits, having no hobbies or interests etc etc, anything that is bringing you down.

When I was away, I got up early each morning and did a workout down by the beach. I did this because I enjoy it and rarely get the luxury of exercising in the early morning when I am working. When I got in the lift each day to head out, there was usually at least 1 person in the lift and believe it or not, they were usually overweight. But not just overweight, they looked generally miserable. They also looked somewhat embarrassed when Hannah I got into the lift.

Now maybe they feel stuck. Staying the same is easy, but it is sucking the life out of them. Making a change is hard, often very hard, but the rewards can be huge.

I also went to a water park and as you know, there is no easy way to cover up there. But what I found was that so many people were embarrassed by their own skin, that they would wear a shirt or even more clothes than just a shirt over the top of their swimmers.

Again, I am sure these people feel stuck. I mean honestly, who is happy and comfortable being overweight, feeling sluggish and embarrassed by their own skin?

I just want to say that it is never too late to make a change. Sometimes making the smallest change can have a domino effect and you will make another change without even thinking about it and then another and yet another until 12 months later, you stop and think and realise that you are not the same person you were. Things in your life are better. Things are more enjoyable etc etc.

I am not saying being thinner is the be all and end all, even though it may lengthen your life and improve your quality of life whilst you are here, but what I am saying is that making one change, usually leads to another.

I’d like to give you some examples. Totally random of course

You’re stuck in a job you hate which doesn’t allow any time for the gym or to eat correctly and you’re in a relationship that is just not right and you’re hanging out because you are comfortable, even though you are unhappy. So one day, you say thats it, I’m done. You quit your job and start looking for a new one that is in a new industry. Something that will bring a spark back to your life. Something you are passionate about. You end your relationship. Let’s face it, it wasn’t going anywhere anyway. You were only hanging out until something better came along, but with the state of mind you were in, nothing better was ever going to come along. You get right into your fitness and eat healthily. All of a sudden you have less burdens. You may be lonely for a while, but now that you are a happier person, working in an industry you enjoy, looking better than ever because you are so fit and healthy and then you find a person who is equally fit and healthy and happy. You are now in a happy relationship because you feel good about your self. 2 years later, you can’t even remember that person who was unhappy in both work, relationship & life and unhealthy and embarrassed to look in the mirror. But, had you not made those couple of changes, 2 years later you could be even deeper stuck in the unhappiness… you would be a totally different person…

or

Maybe you’ve been overweight and unfit for as long as you can remember. Everyone around you is unfit, so why change. But then one day, you say enough is enough. It may be hard and you are going to make a change. You start exercising regularly. You start eating healthy. The weight falls off. You gain self confidence. You start to help others around you because you realise it was not as hard as you had once thought. You want  others to know it is just a few small changes and the domino’s roll. Does losing the weight along make you more confident? The answer is probably YES, but let’s just say no for the sake of argument. So what does make you more confident? Could it be that you now have gym buddies? You’re stronger? You have a hobby? Your social circle has expanded? You can now take up other hobbies because you feel able to do it, where once you felt physically inadequate. How about this…Now that you are happier with your own skin, even though you were in what you thought was a good relationship already, you and your partner are now happier than ever! If you love yourself more, you can love others more too! You don’t always need a new relationship, you may just need to be a happier person to be a better partner!

Does any part of either of those examples sound familiar? I have loads more stories, but I think you get it.

On my way home in the car, I heard a segment on the radio about how much weight you have lost when your partner dumped you. Most of the callers were female whose partners had cheated on them and they all had lost anywhere from 15 to 40kg’s and they all said how amazing they felt and how they rubbed it into their partners faces whenever they saw them. they made comments like now he realises what he lost. My immediate thoughts were “why didn’t you lose the weight when you were together so that he was still physically attracted to you and didn’t even consider cheating on you?”  ”Why is it better to rub it into his face that you have lost weight now that you have broken up instead trying to look after yourself while you were together?

During this same segment, a guy rang up who had been dumped when he was 19 years old. After the breakup, he lost 40kg’s. He said it was a turning point in his life and he was so grateful that she dumped him. He said he is a totally different person now. I want to imagine where he might be if she hadn’t dumped him, because at 19, weighing 117kg’s is not good and I am sure he had some pretty bad habits that may or may not have led to an unhealthy and unhappy adult. In this case, it is the may not! Awesome!

I got told today of a very successful businessman who constantly ate business lunches and dinners always containing alcohol. He recently had a little change of heart and decide he needed to lose weight. By changing what he eats on the business lunches and dinners and by cutting alcohol out of his diet and exercising regularly, he has lost 40kg’s. Do you think he might inspire others around him to do the same. It’s not rocket science!

I saw a guy on the news the other night who was a former skinhead. He had tattoos all over his face. He has recently had a change of heart and is no longer a racist and had decided to have all of the tattoos removed form his face. $35,000 later, he looks like a new man. Could his life have become any different? All he did was change his way of thinking!

So if you are unhappy, for any reason, it is never too hard to make a change, and remember, once you make one change, other things will start to happen! No one needs to be unhappy. Life is short, you better make the most of it. Sooner rather than later!

So many of my clients have made changes in their health and fitness and in turn they have changed many other parts of their personalities and their lives so please help someone else out and let them know it is never too late to make a change!

And please be honest. It is very easy to pretend to be happy with what you have got because it may seem difficult to change, but you can only lie to yourself for so long before the truth needs to come out.

Most of you will know Finn form the morning group who runs Stepping Stone House. I also train the kids from Stepping Stone House once a month to help give them some fitness in their lives. They are having a fund raising event this weekend, so please have a read of the details below and come along!

Just a quick note to let you all know that Stepping Stone House is having another fundraising event at Gazebo Building this year.

Last year – we had the casino theme – this year its a Halloween theme – and one may choose to “dress up” or go in “black tie” or “cocktail” each to their own really! Glamour Versus Halloween!

Please feel free to pass around to friends – family – work colleagues!

Its a cracker of a venue – the views are amazing!     The venue is a 360 degree round pent house – with once again amazing views!

Its great value – finger food – all you can drink ( alcohol and non alcoholic – alcohol is generally beer / wine / bubbles) – Halloween Candy Bar – and we are still hopeful for some kind of “entertainment” such as Tarot readings etc – BUT most importantly a good ole laugh with your friends!    Not to mention that it is all for a great cause – and its Tax Deductible.

More information on Stepping Stone House can be found on www.steppingstonehouse.com <http://www.steppingstonehouse.com>  - which will list and detail all the Aims and Purpose of Stepping Stone House.     It is an amazing charity – that receives no government funding or support – and relies heavily on the generosity and kindness of People!    Stepping Stone House continuously seek corporate sponsorship – this could be in the form of “charity of the Year’ or maybe a coffee morning donation to assist with purchase of school uniforms / books / dental fees etc – not to mention that Christmas is coming and all young people will need to receive from Santa! / attendance at fundraising events – organisation of fundraising events – personal donations – or maybe you have a skill that when volunteered to Stepping Stone House would be so beneficial.

Note:     Stepping Stone House has been in existence for 22 years!
Maybe this fundraising party – is the ideal way to celebrate a birthday – a celebration – celrbation of life and freindships  - have a girls night out – have a boys night out – have a “parents” night out – have an office party – get your work place donation / charity board to come along with employees – and the list goes on!
Thanking you

Cheers

Finn

So we have discussed why we are going to eat balanced meals and how important hormones are on weight loss, but now we are going to discuss how we do it. If you didn’t read part 1, here it is – Eating balanced meals for weight loss part 1

The best thing about eating in the Zone, is the food charts that come with it. They not only tell you how to balance your meals, they also tell you your portion sizes. This is a huge one. Trust me, I will guarantee your portion sizes are out of whack!

Zone uses blocks instead of calories for measuring meals and whilst it may sound a little complicated at first, it is so easy after a week or two.

1 block of carbs is 9g of carbs

1 block of protein is 7g protein

1 block of fat is 3g fat

You then determine how many blocks you would need to consume for your size, goals and energy output.

Lets say on average a small female who wants to stay trim or lose a bit of bodyfat would eat 11 blocks a day.

Now we all should be eating 5 meals a day, so you would divide 11 blocks by 5 meals.

Breakfast – 2 blocks

Morning tea – 2 blocks

Lunch – 3 blocks

Afternoon tea – 2 blocks

Dinner  - 2 blocks

This now means at breakfast you would consume 2 blocks of carbs, 2 blocks of protein and 2 blocks of fat as per the Zone charts.

At lunch you would consume 3 blocks of carbs, 3 blocks of protein, 3 blocks of fat as per the Zone charts.

And so on for all of the meals of the day.

Making sense? Very simple although it may not sound it right now without first trying it for a week.

I don’t want to make it sound complicated, but if you want to use the charts to eat in the Zone, you will need a set of kitchen scales ( about $35) and a set of measuring cups. Done!

So you go to your charts and simply pick 2 blocks of the carbs of your choice, then pick 2 blocks of protein of your choice and then 2 blocks of fat of your choice and you have a meal.

A simple 2 block dinner example is this;

60g chicken breast = 2 blocks protein

1 cup brocoli, 1 cup bok choy, 4 asparagus spears, 1 teaspoon oyster sauce = 2 blocks carbs

1/3 teaspoon olive oil for cooking, 1/3 teaspoon sesame oil for flavouring = 2 blocks fat

A simple 2 block breakfast example is this;

2 eggs scrambled = 2 blocks protein

1/3 cup cooked oats, 1 cup berries, 1/3 cup milk = 2 blocks carbs

6 cashew nuts = 2 blocks fat

I told you, simple!

A 5 block meal

Males would obviously need more, but you just work off the charts. After a couple of weeks, you will rarely need the charts, maybe every now and then you might like to check on something, but 90% of the time, it’ll be in your head.

Remember, the main things are portion size and balancing the macronutrients at every meal. You’ll generally know by looking at your plate whether it is balanced or not after just a few weeks.

My tips:

When you buy meat, weight it and freeze it down in portions.

Once you have measured your favourite foods a few times, try to take note of what a portion looks like so you don’t have to measure it all the time.

Enjoy what it feels like to have energy when you have finished a meal, not to feel bogged down and sluggish from a carb overload.

If you are used to eating huge portions, allow a couple of weeks for your stomach to adjust to what a portion size should feel like.

I have deliberately kept my charts private, so please shoot me an email and I will send them over to you asap. You can however find charts on the net, but they may refer more to foods in the US. My charts have been modified to suit the Aussie diet.

Happy eating!

Any questions at all, please post in the comments section because your question is probably the same as what somebody else is thinking and I can answer everyone together.

PALEO

Over the past year or so I have posted a bit of info about Paleo eating and we have had a 30 day challenge which went well and everybody saw the benefits.
Here is a link to some of the feedback I received after the challenge. It is all very inspiring to others to try it and even though a lot of people didn’t continue to eat 100% Paleo, they all got something out of it and most of them eat predominantly Paleo foods most of the time.

But, I know that Paleo eating is not for everybody. It can be a little restrictive, so I thought I would tell you about the way of eating I am recommending if Paleo is not your thing. Having said that, if Paleo is your thing then eating in Zone ratios with Paleo food is the best!!

I recommend you buy “The Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf which will help you with food choices. You will benefit from eating predominantly Paleo foods.

SUGAR

We have also run several “no sugar” challenges which are fantastic. I believe it is in everybody’s best interest to cut as much sugar from your diet as possible, both for weight loss and health.

Here is a link to a couple of my older articles about sugar. Please read these before reading on with this article;

Is sugar making you sick?

Is sugar making you fat?

Now, there is nothing amazingly bad about sugar, it has the same calorie content as any other carb or protein, so it is not going to make you fatter than eating anything else based on the food (sugar) itself alone or the calories it contains, but the problem with sugar is what it does to your hormones. When your blood sugar levels rise, your body pumps out insulin to bring the blood sugar levels back to normal. Insulin is a storage hormone and it is necessary to our survival, hence why we have it in our body, but what is bad for us is the levels we produce when we have sugar and cause rises in blood sugar. Insulin is related to a whole range of health issues, number 1 being type 2 diabetes, but I am not going into here, I am going to focus mainly on its effect on weight loss.

As I said, insulin is a storage hormone, so when it is present in your body, you will store fat. Eat sugar, store more fat. That’s the simplest way of putting it and really all you need to know. Once you know that, you realistically should be saying “ far out, how can I have less insulin pumping through my body?”

Well, don’t eat any carbs and you won’t, but that’s not possible. Our body needs carbs. Carbs fuel our muscles and most importantly, our brain.

So what to do?

EAT BALANCED MEALS!

I know what you’re thinking, I already eat balanced meals. I have weetbix, fruit, yogurt and coffee for breakfast. Then I have a wholegrain sandwich with salad, a piece of fruit and another coffee for lunch. At night I eat pasta, but with a tomato sauce, no creamy sauces for me, they make you fat. I also have a 200g steak and some veggies. Sometimes for dessert I will just have a piece of fruit or some yogurt. If I’m feeling naughty I’ll have a piece of chocolate. See, all balanced! I just don’t understand why I can’t lose weight…

A balanced meal will consist of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The ideal balance shown to exhibit weight loss is 40:30:30

This means 40% of your calories will come from Carbohydrates

30% will come from Protein

30% will come from fat

That doesn’t mean you eat as much fat as what you do protein, because fat has more than twice as many calories per gram that protein has. There are 9 calories per gram of fat and 4 calories per gram of protein.

So if I wanted a meal that would be 300 calories, I would get 120 cals from carbs, 90 from protein and 90 from fat

Translate this to calories and you get 30g carbs, 22g protein and 10g fat. Simple!

What you will also notice is that this is an almost perfect 3,2,1.

Now looking at your current diet above, you only ate protein at night and it was way too much. The rest of the day was carbs, balanced with more carbs and topped off with more carbs.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking again. This is one of those high protein diets right?

Wrong! Just to reiterate, 40:30:30. Or a 300 calorie meal would be 30g carbs, 22g protein and 10g fat. Doesn’t sound too high protein to me…

WHY EAT BALANCED MEALS?

Because food affects your hormones and weight loss is dependant upon your hormones!

When you eat carbs, your blood sugar levels will rise. The rise will depend on how good or bad the carbs were, or how high or low they were on the glycemic index. The higher and more bad they are, the more insulin will be released.

A lot of research over the past few years is showing that abdominal fat is related to insulin. Some people are more sensitive to it than others.

It is not only carbs that will increase insulin, but too many calories at each meal can stimulate insulin too.

Insulin is a storage hormone, it stores fat and our body needs it, it just doesn’t need that much of it!

When you increase your insulin your levels, you will not burn fat for hours after that. Any workout will burn carbohydrates, which will help them not to be stored as fat, but it doesn’t do much for the fat that is already there.

There is a hormone in protein called glucagon. Glucagon is a mobilisation hormone. It tells the body to release carbohydrate to the liver to make blood sugar to feed the brain.

This is why we need to balance the carbs and protein, so that the hormones are also balanced.

Fat has a couple of uses, it helps to slow the entry rate of carbs to the blood stream helping to reduce the impact on insulin levels and it contains a hormone called eicosanoids. Eicosanoids are a master hormone that help keep other hormones under control.

So that is why we eat balanced meals!

ARE YOU SURE THIS IS NOT HIGH PROTEIN?

This is not high protein, it is moderate protein, don’t be confused that this is high protein just because I want you to eat protein at every meal.

Most people eat high carbs, low protein. This is helping to balance it out a little.

How much protein would you eat at night?

An average female would need approximately 90g. The average male would need 120g, maybe 150g depending on size and goals.

Now if your current protein portion size at night is 200 – 250g, you now have 100 – 150g of protein up your sleeve to spread throughout the day. Make sense?

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FATS?

Fats are actually the trickiest thing, because we need to get fat at every meal, but there are limited good fats. You’ve got avocado, nuts, olive oil, flaxseed oil. So you need to plan accordingly, maybe you have olive oil on all your salads, maybe you have avocado with meats, maybe you have nuts with a snack or if you have a meal that lacked the other fats. Remember to count the fat you cook with if you are cooking a stirfry etc. but, cooking fat should be kept to a minimum.

Lets look at nuts as a very common snack food. How many nuts do you eat as a snack? Honestly!

Well, I need you to eat 6 for the average female and 9 – 12 for the average male. So if you have 20 once a day, I am asking you to eat 6 nuts 3 times a day. Get it? Can you also see from this that you may be consuming too many nuts at the moment?

BUT WHAT CARBS SHOULD I EAT

Realistically on Zone, you can eat any carbs you want, but the worse the quality of the carb, the less you can have of it. So if you want a filling meal, you should be choosing good quality carbs.

The main thing we are looking at with the carbs is the glycemic index and the impact that food will have on insulin levels. So, something like bread or potato or rice that is high on the glycemic index, you can only have a small amount. Example, an average females portion of pasta would be ½ cup with a tomato sauce. No other carbs. Lets think about how that would look on the plate and how filling it would be. Not very appealing to the eyes and not very filling.

Lets think of something like stir fried vegetable with oyster sauce. An average female could have 1 cup broccoli, 1 cup cauliflower, 1 cup green beans, 1 cup capsicum.

Now put that on a plate with your protein and see how satisfying and appetising that meal is.

OK, OK, SO NOW WHAT?

Well I think this rant has gone on for long enough, I have given you the why’s, I will give you the how’s in the next post. Here it is – Eating balanced meals for weight loss Part 2

Please go and buy “A week in the Zone” by Dr Barry Sears. This book will lay it all out for you and is a very informative easy read.

Any questions at all, please post in the comments section because your question is probably the same as what somebody else is thinking and I can answer everyone together.

This is just a quick one to try to snap some of you out of the clock trance you seem to be in.

If you post a quick time or a high score or Rx that workout and your technique is anything less than perfect, then your score means nothing.

Actually, I am wrong, it doesn’t mean nothing, it means something and that something is the injury you’ll probably suffer due to repeatedly doing something incorrectly.

If you can’t lift that weight correctly, then don’t. Wait until you have built up enough strength and then lift it.

If racing against the clock means you are not putting your knees where they should be or putting your shoulders where you should be or you’re twisting or you’re rounding out your back, then there are no prizes at the end of class that will compensate you for your injuries.

I’ll say it again. If your technique is not perfect, then your score means nothing, because the guy who did it 4 mins slower may have had better form.

It also means something else and that something else is that you’re a cheat. If you don’t squat deep enough, dip deep enough, extend your dip, pull up high enough, jump correctly, keep your back straight, swing high enough or straighten your arms overhead then you are effectively going faster because you are doing less work. Now if it were a competition, then you would be deemed as cheating.

If anyone needs reminding of the correct technique of the basic exercises, then I will be happy to cover how deep you should squat, what it feels like when your chin is over the pull up bar etc etc etc. But remember this, I am not your mother, you all know what to do, it is laziness that stops you from doing it and I shouldn’t need to treat you like babies and remind you of the basics, especially more than once in the same class.

If there is one way to injure yourself, it is this; lift too heavy, too fast with bad technique.

If there is one way to impress me and others around you, it is this; lift heavy but manageable, as fast as you can with perfect technique. Now let that be your motto!

LIFT HEAVY BUT MANAGEABLE, AS FAST AS YOU CAN WITH PERFECT TECHNIQUE

Don’t be worried if you cannot Rx a workout. If you cannot Rx it with good form then you shouldn’t try it. It may only need the smallest scaling to make it work for you.

Happy days!

One of the main points about CrossFit is the intensity with which the workouts are performed.

The quote that is often repeated in CrossFit is “Intensity is the independant variable most commonly associated with maximising favourable adaptation to exercise”. And I agree with that.

But, intensity is different for different people.

The needs and desires of the office workers differ from the emergency services which differ from the armed forces.

CrossFit is always touting that it will forge elite fitness and I do believe it will. But, is that why you joined CrossFit? Do you want or need elite fitness? Or do you just want a fitness program that delivers results, gets you really fit, moves you in functional ways, gets you away from the globo gyms and the crowds that go with them, eliminates all of the useless machines you so often see in gyms these days, makes you strong as well as fast as well as aerobically fit and keeps you interested with the varied workouts?

I know I train people who need elite fitness. I also train people who want elite fitness. I also train people who don’t necessarily want or need the elite fitness, they just want the other things I listed above.

When you commence your CrossFit journey, you should establish where you fit into these categories.

You can achieve some fantastic results by training regularly, not necessarily at full intensity all the time.

So how many sessions should you hit each week?
When you are in full swing, there is no problem to train 5 sessions per week. But, that doesn’t mean you should be going at 100% intensity all of the time. If 3 of your sessions are at full intensity and 2 are at 80%, then you are doing great.

I cannot write some higher intensity workouts a week and some lower intensity workouts a week because I never know what days everybody is turning up on. Imagine if on the days you were able to train next week, they were all lower intensity. It just wouldn’t work. My workouts vary between heavier and lighter, shorter and longer, but at the end of the day, any workout can be done at 100% intensity or less than 100% intensity and this is where your judgement has to come into it.

So how do you train at less than 100% intensity?

Firstly before I answer this, I need to say something about the competitiveness of CrossFit workouts.

The competition that drives a CrossFit workout whether it be the fastest time or the Rx’d weight or the most amount of reps is fantastic and it is what I believe sets CrossFit apart from other workouts. BUT…..

You DO NOT have to be competitive 100% of the time!

There is no problem to attend a class and know you are having a light day. This doesn’t make you soft, it makes you smart. I am in no way saying you should turn up to class and go easy all the time, I am saying that if you are feeling fatigued or you have had a hard session the day before and you know you’ll be in tomorrow, then use today as a lighter day.

So how do you train at less intensity?

Don’t go for that Rx’d weight today. Know your limits on certain movements.

Don’t worry if you are a few minutes off the pace of somebody else who may not have trained since last week.

Train for yourself! Get your diary, nut out which days you will train this week and think about which days you might go a bit lighter. I promise that if you have an easy day on day 2 of a 3 day cycle, you will be able to go harder on day 3!

If you don’t want your score recorded on a certain day because you are not going to be clock focussed, then thats fine, I will commend you for your judgement. Just make sure you go hard on the other days either side of it.

This is in no way an excuse the slack off, it is me telling you to be realistic and don’t smash yourself 100% of the time, and don’t have several days off a week to compensate a really hard workout. Train smart!

Your body will thank you for it!

Yesterday 4 of us competed in the In2Adventure Mountain Designs adventure race at The Cattai National park.

Myself, Darrin, Tristan and Jack all competed in the solo division.

Tristan did awesome and took first place!

I took 5th place, Darrin 7th and Jack 10th.

The race was awesome, we started with a sprint to the beach where we had to check a map and mark down our 3 first checkpoints.

From there it was over to transition area 1 and we had to swim across a very cold creek. We made out way on foot another couple of km’s via a couple more checkpoints to the bike drop.

After a quick spot inspection to ensure we were all carrying our first aid kits, we made our way on bike via another checkpoint to the kayaks.

A 5km kayak via 3 checkpoints brought us back to our bikes and we were off again for another 3 checkpoints which would bring us back to the creek crossing. This time however, we had to cross with our bikes. Thankfully there was a rope to hold onto as we crossed the creek carrying our bikes. Bear in mind, this creek was much deeper than we were tall. Swimming with a bike whilst fully clothed is no easy task!

We made our way back to race headquarters where we were given another map with 4 more checkpoints to collect on our mountain bikes.

This again brought us back to race headquarters where we had to mark down another 2 checkpoints on our map to collect on foot. Another nice little 3km run to top everything else off!

I crossed the line in 3hrs 45 mins. Darrin came in 2 mins after me and Jack about 15 mins later.

Tristan of course finished in 3hrs, smashing everyone!

I am going to take this opportunity to tell you how I carb loaded (not) before the race to give me the energy to take part in this 3+ hour race.

For breakfast I ate 2 boiled eggs, 3 pieces of eye bacon, 1.5 cups grapes, 2 mandarins and 20 cashew nuts. I also ate about 1/3 Purefit bar 30 mins before the race. I would have eaten the whole thing, but I wasn’t hungry.

So, 2 points to take away from this;

1. Adventure races are awesome! They are so much fun and a great way to test your fitness and navigational skills.

2. You don’t need to carb load. Get all of your nutrition from your food by combining good carbs with good protein and good fat.

Many of you already know that I have been eating in Zone ratios for about 2 years now. Originally with any food I liked and in the past 12 months using mainly Paleo foods (which I also like).

Recently I have been receiving regular updates from the Health blog of Dr Barry Sears, the founder of the Zone diet. I call it the Zone diet, but I prefer to think of it as eating in the Zone, the word diet has so many stigmas attached to it, and rightly so!

The Zone diet simply means balancing your protein, carbs and fats at every meal. It also shows you how big or small your portions should be at each meal. It has easy to read charts to reference portions sizes for protein, carbs and fat.

It is by no means a fad diet and by no means a high protein diet. The proportions that zone recommends are 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein and 30% fat. It is basically structured balanced eating. Something most of us don’t do (regardless of what we think we do).

Eating in the Zone simply means eating within a zone that keeps your blood sugar levels stable without spikes, thus reducing the amount of insulin circulating in the body and keeping inflammation in the body to a minimum. Inflammation is responsible for most health issues in our bodies along with increased weight gain.

It is a much easier approach to weight loss and inflammation reduction than Paleo eating, but when you get a handle on portion control, you should look to switch the majority of your eating to Paleo foods to get the best results for your health and weight loss.

So anyway, the reason for this post is to share with you some of the better updates I have received from Dr Sears Health blog.

I have been posting them regularly on the Fitta Bodies facebook page, but here they are for all of you to read through at your leisure. They are quite short and concise with loads of relevant info.

Enjoy!

Click on these links to read the full article;

Eat like our paleolithic ancestors
No excuses, eat your breakfast
The secret of blueberries
Coffee and diabetes
Polyphenols make probiotics work better
Blame weight gain on the brain
What’s the story on chocolate
New food trends may be dysfunctional
The latest useless fad diet
Gastric banding – admitting failure
Mythologies in treating childhood obesity
Good and Bad carbohydrates
Fish oil and fat loss
Where does fat go
The demise of the mediterranean diet

To stay up to date the easiest with all of my updates, simply join the facebook page here.