Category Archives for Nutrition

Eating Weird & Making CrossFit Funny

Making CrossFit Funny? What?

Okay, remember when I started carb back-loading? Well, for a few weeks, it was doing well for me…performance-wise.

That’s why it made CrossFit funny to me. While I was doing some intermittent fasting from morning to pre-workout/post-workout, I would slam high glycemic carbs like white jasmine rice in addition to my protein, veggies, and some fat. I was Rx’ing almost everything thrown at me. My times were ridiculous.

And you know what else?

I no longer felt that post-workout “hangover.” Yeah, that’s the best way I could describe it.

For the first week or so, my weight was manageable. I was gradually dropping some weight in the process, but there was just something about carb back-loading that didn’t really work for me. It had to be the kinds of carbs I was using. I learned all this stuff from various sites out there, so I knew that these were the right carbs recommended, with white jasmine rice even considered the “cleanest of the junky carbs” for this process.

Unfortunately, I don’t think my body can handle these carbs properly. After a while, I noticed my weight was harder to control and my gut was starting to get a little bigger and softer. Not cool.

I’m sure it’s possible to get down in body fat with carb back-loading, and while it was hilarious seeing my performance go through the roof with this kind of eating, I think I’m going back to a slow-carb/close to Paleo approach with the back-load.

As I said, I’m not afraid to experiment with things. These past few weeks, I learned that my body was simply not getting enough carbs. Since I was gaining some body fat, I think my next tweak is simply to up my intake of something like sweet potatoes. That should be a good thing to have at dinner.

Eating like Tim Ferriss suggested in the 4-hour Body is just easy for me to do. Basically eat really clean and basic stuff during the week, then go all out on a cheat day once a week. Of all the different nutritional things I’ve tried, slow-carb has provided me with best aesthetic results given the amount of effort I had to put it.

Ferriss is just all about that “minimum effective dose.” It falls under the 80/20 Pareto Principle, where 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Man…if I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned “Pareto” or the “80/20 rule” at the gym and reversed the meaning of the numbers…

…but yeah, I said “aesthetic results.” Dropping my body fat percentage is my goal right now, but it’s not easy when workouts always leave you with that hangover feeling in the end. My previous successes with slow-carb and Paleo resulted in this along with stunted progress in performance. Now I know it had to do with the lack of carbs.

There’s just that negative vibe whenever I read, hear, or say the word “carb.” Don’t some of you feel that? Especially to those of you who CrossFit mainly to lose fat and look better. I need to just let go of those fears. I’ve already let myself go for the sake of experimenting the past few weeks, so what’s the worst that could happen?

So my goals right now are to keep my protein high and to up only healthy carbs when back-loading. This should help me drop fat while providing enough fuel for those WOD’s. Gradually, I’ll figure out this puzzle that is my body.

And one last thing…this weekend, I was just like YOLO to top off these few weeks of experimenting. Had half of a homemade pizza for dinner…then I just found out tomorrow’s WOD is a 5 minute AMRAP of Fran.

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

I’m going to beat my time of 5:15 from nearly a year ago. During the Garage Games, I managed to get 5:23 after a full weekend of WOD’s, so I know for sure I can finally break the 5 minute mark tomorrow.

But…a 5 minute AMRAP? I’m only going to get 5 and change. Most people won’t even get one. I won’t be surprised if this WOD gets changed up to a non-AMRAP in the morning.

Kip it real, my friends.

Eating Weird Makes Me CrossFit Funny

Loads Of Food Consumed. Not A Single Pound Gained.

Fuck yeah.

It feels good man…either it’s a fluke or that stuff I was talking about in the last post was legit.

Neal Maddox CrossFit Doughnuts Donuts Ice Cream Carb Back-Loading Feels Good Man

I’ll admit that I didn’t follow the usual protocol on Thanksgiving day, as I previewed the mashed potatoes earlier in the day lol. So that killed my fat burning process earlier than usual. No worries. I just kept to the rest of the plan.

The Meal

Ohhhhh it was glorious. Aside from the usual Thanksgiving staples of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and whatnot, we also had some really out there dishes thanks to my Dad. Even though I said in my last post I didn’t feel a need to go crazy with my food intake, I did. Sorry I’m not sorry.

I don’t think I’ve had a food coma like that in such a long time. Towards the end of the night, my mind was getting all cloudy and I couldn’t even drink anymore beer. I was just too stuffed for that. And if I wanted to put anything else in my body, it was more dessert.

It was around 10ish when I was starting to black out. Honestly, I had no more reason to stay up, as our company left already, I was more than satisfied by the amount of food I consumed, and God didn’t want me to watch the rest of that trainwreck of a Jets game. Shit. WTF.

Due To The Severity Of My Food Coma…

…I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my promise to you guys of using that mondo Thanksgiving dinner as fuel for my noon WOD. So I just kept thinking to myself that “Yes, I’m going to workout” and “Yes, all the food I ate will help me tear shit up at the box the next day.”

Maybe you think that newage self-help stuff is a crockful of shit, but this positive thinking seemed to help.

I got up at a good time for my coffee and meditation sesh. Then I had coffee and BCAA’s before my WOD. I was wired as fuck, you guys. My mind was set on going to the gym and kicking ass, and even if I was actually bloated and feeling shitty from the night before, it just wasn’t registering in my head.

Warm-Ups Were Rough…

…only because I was still wrecked from the GHD’s in Wednesday’s workout. Other than that, I was feeling pretty solid.

Here’s what we had in store:

5 rounds for time:
250m row
10 deadlifts at 225/155

Since our class was pretty packed and there weren’t enough rowers, I opted for the 200m run instead of the row (why not work on my running, right?) and subbed down to a 185# deadlift. Despite Rx’ing the rest of the week’s WOD’s, gauging the weight to use for deadlifts is still a bit vague to me.

For the longest time, I’d always have lower back problems after a heavy back squat or a heavy/high rep deadlift sesh. It wasn’t until I started using a standing desk that I started progressing with my deads without the back issues.

Fortunately, for this workout, things were good despite having my hamstrings blasted to fuck. I could probably do 205# next time, so I’ll consider that for any similar workouts.

Once the clock started, my caffeine high and mashed-potato-fueled body went to work. The deads were smooth but not crazy fast, which was ideal for this WOD. My right hand was still healing from a pull up tear during the week, so it surprised me I managed to do all my deads unbroken.

If anything, the run held me back, but I was just going for that consistent pace. And you know what? It paid off.

Finished with 8:54. I’m pretty stoked with that time.

Now It’s Your Turn

Did any of you also workout the day after Thanksgiving? Post your comments below.

P.S. If any of you are doing any Cyber Monday shopping, it’d be awesome if you use the links below. With your help, I can put together an awesome forum for you guys.

Amazon

Rogue Fitness (they have a SWEET “5 items ship for $5” promo until MONDAY)

Reebok CrossFit Gear

You can also pick up some KippingItReal shirts and hoodies here:

How I Plan To Slam A Shitload Of Food This Thanksgiving With Minimal Damage

First of all, yeah..once again quite a hiatus. Not for over a month like last time, but pretty bad. For that, I apologize.

I missed writing for you guys, so I felt like tonight would be a good time to get the ball rolling again. And I mean LEGIT – posts every day and constantly shooting the shit with you all over social media. I see bigger things in the future for this site (more on this later). You can also thank Brad for posting on my Facebook page. That was another kick in the ass to get me writing again.

So yes, it’s Thanksgiving tomorrow. One of my favorite holidays because there’s just something about that combination of turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Thanks to having an awesome Dad as our cook, the food’s always good. Also, this seems to be the holiday that most of my friends from elementary/high school tend to be in the area, so that means fun times as well.

Carb Back-Loading Renegade Diet Thanksgiving CrossFit Dinner

Anyway…the food. Last Thanksgiving was ridiculous cause my cousins from Canada stayed for a few days, so that meant my Dad went all out on cooking every single day. And of course that meant I went all out on eating. The funny thing is, despite feeling bloated as fuck and a bit hungover, I still PR’d my power clean (was 225# at the time).

This year, I want to enjoy myself, yet at the same time, there’s really no reason to go YOLO on the food and eat until I get sick. Also, it’d be really lame to limit my eating, as it’s such an awesome holiday.

Maybe there’s some way I can enjoy the best of both worlds…

The past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with some intermittent fasting techniques. Yeah, I’ve already been doing that for a while, but FUCK was my nutrition OFF and TERRIBLE for so long. I’ve been messing around with my own version of Carb-Backloading and the Renegade Diet, and what I’ve learned so far is I haven’t been taking in enough carbs for my energy.

Yeah, I could go full Paleo and rely upon healthy fats to fuel my workouts. That’s helped me in the past. However, when I messed around with this style of fasting and having high GI carbs at night, my workouts at noon the next day were ridiculous. I was Rx’ing WOD’s for the past two weeks. Generally, I’d take things easy with weights, going only a few pounds over the women Rx.

Similar to my friend who just couldn’t handle demanding WOD’s on strict Paleo, I got a better idea of what works for me.

It pretty much involves:

1) Coffee and a small protein shake upon waking up
2) Coffee and some BCAA’s 30 minutes or so before the noon workout
3) Post-workout protein shake 30 minutes after workout
4) Lunch around 30 minutes after…basically a Paleo-friendly meal of protein, veggies, and fat
5) A heavy dinner of protein, some veggies, and high GI carbs like sweet potatoes, white rice…shit even some people can take in crap like pizzas and white bread (the “carb back-load”)
6) A 14-16 hour fast

To sum the reasoning for this, the fast helps you burn fat while your cortisol levels are still high in the morning, then the carb back-load at night replenishes your body for your workout the next day. Once again, I’m not an expert…so I could be totally wrong with all this shit.

You can learn more at http://www.dangerouslyhardcore.com/

I’m simply taking the information online and in their books and tweaking things to my own body. This stuff really isn’t for CrossFitters. It’s more for people who just doing heavy lifting routines. Not merely bi’s and tri’s, but lots of compound lifts. I’m just curious what I can do with the right tweaks.

For example, with CrossFit and my body, I know I can’t slam pizzas like some mofos out there. Not possible. Even though these guys say white Jasmine rice (which thankfully is a normal food staple for my family) is the purest of the “dirty carbs” they recommend for the back-load, I still need to watch my carb intake. The past few weeks, my carb levels have been too high. A little bit of a gut has been developing lol.

I just know with more experimenting, I’ll be able to dial in on carb intake that I can still eat white rice while staying lean AND having enough energy to crush a WOD.

Before on Paleo and Slow-Carb (Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Body stuff), I would basically feel a hangover-like feeling after a WOD. Now, I’m still beat after a workout, but I’m not a total wreck. Feels good man.

So how am I gonna crush tomorrow?

Yep, gonna use Thanksgiving dinner to my advantage. I plan on working out on Friday at noon, as ridiculous as they may sound after eating lots of food the night before. With the past few week’s testing, I’ve been able to do well with WOD’s even with a HUGE dinner, so I know I this year’s Thanksgiving will be pretty glorious.

I’ll have something Paleo-like for lunch…then just eat however much my heart desires, although not to the point of sickness as last year haha.

Just wanted to update you guys on what I’ve been up to. Experimenting’s been fun and I understand I’ll make a bunch of mistakes along the way. What’s the worst that could happen? A few weeks of weight gain? That’s fine. I’ll make the necessary tweaks to reach my goal of dropping fat while still having the energy to CrossFit.

And one last thing…

…regarding my bigger vision for this site: forums. Yes, I’m going to start a forum here, cause it’ll be pretty sweet for you readers to just shoot the shit and enjoy the company of other people in our sport.

That means I have to buy some forum software.

I know a bunch of you are already doing some online shopping this week on Amazon and whatnot, so if you want to support the growth of Kipping It Real, I’d really appreciate it if you could use my affiliate links below.

How does it work?

1) Simply click one of the links below to the the stores you’ll shop at.
2) Make the purchases you already would’ve made without these links.
3) I make some commissions off your purchases, which’ll go towards the forum software and other costs for maintaining this site.

Amazon

Rogue Fitness

Reebok CrossFit Gear

If you do use my links, I’ll really appreciate it. If not, shit…I’ll still keep writing for you all.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Stay safe and enjoy this time with your friends and family.

Kip it real, my friends.

Paleo Isn’t The Answer

Fuck Paleo. It’s garbage. Eliminate grains? No dairy? What is this nonsense?

What the hell does Robb Wolf smoke?

Robb Wolf Smoking Paleo

Look at that smoke. This bro’s so enlightened.

Don’t you get TIRED of hearing Paleo this, Paleo that?

Seriously, You Guys

Or not so seriously ๐Ÿ˜›

Troll Face Paleo Robb Wolf

Okay, okay…Paleo is legit in my eyes. It’s hands-down one of the cleanest ways you can eat and live, and most people do see weight loss and performance improvements you can’t see elsewhere.

And I said MOST people.

I’ve heard of people from my box who’ve done Paleo challenges, and despite staying decently clean, the results weren’t there. Of course, there can be factors such as sleep quality, stress levels, and the like that can throw your progress off.

Or maybe something like a food allergy can come into play. You never know. That’s why it’s pretty cool how my box has been offering food allergy tests to see what may be holding people back.

Now what about performance?

A buddy of mine I’ve known since elementary school just recently dropped out of the Lurong Living Paleo Challenge. No, it’s not because he sucks at keeping his nutrition intact.

He seems like the kind of guy who can naturally burn off fat, so losing fat wasn’t the issue for him. It’s just that under that challenge’s guidelines, it was hard for him to get enough food in his system to fuel him for his tough workouts.

Sure, he could probably up his fats and his carbs, but he does fine with throwing in some grain into the mix. The guy was a swimmer all his life, so he’s used to it.

Paleo Nutrition Isn’t For Everyone

As much as I love the results it can give most people, it’s not the be-all, end-all of nutrition.

In the end, it really comes down to what works for you.

I’m really stoked to see my friends at the box participate in this challenge, and I really hope they do reach their goals. However, from my own experience and what we know of human nature, Paleo challenges tend to end in disaster for the majority.

For the first timers, that’s fuckin awesome. Doing a Paleo challenge really opens your eyes to what’s possible. And some of you out there actually stick with it for the long run, like my loyal reader Elisa.

For a lot of people, they do well with the challenge, but then shit the bed right after. And what about the pre-challenge binge weekend…or should I say week?

As I said, if it’s your first challenge, that’s cool. Once you know what you have to do, try to find a nutritional lifestyle that works with the kind of person you are. Some people might find the lifestyle of eating 98-100% clean fine for them, while many, like myself can’t live without all the terrible, terrible food out there.

Seeing one of my friends say how much she hates the dieting she has to do during this challenge made me think of this. If you really hate it that much, do you really expect to keep this up forever?

Do you think you’ll constantly be progressing? Or will you just go through the whole yo-yo effect?

Part of the challenge is that internal battle you have. You are your own worst enemy. My take? Why pick fights when you can figure out ways to satisfy your cravings along with your goals?

For the longest time, I was having this internal struggle when it came to eating healthy. I’d catch myself blaming others and all sorts of external factors.

That’s weak shit.

It took me a while to realize, yes, this stuff is in my control. I just needed to stop finding others to blame for my lack of progress.

Why?

The only person I could really blame was myself.

Once I managed to accept that and started developing a more long term solution to my nutrition, I became a much happier, more carefree person.

Learn To Listen To Your Body

As you’re the only one who can really tell what’s right for it.

Think of Paleo as a starting point. You can do many awesome things with your health by following this blueprint, but the only way to really reach your goals and feel happy as you take upon this journey is to find a path of your own.

Kip it real, my friends.

Fatties Eating Paleo?

Thanks for the Tweet, Robb!

Robb Wolf tweeted this article yesterday from PaleoParents.com. It’s about this couple proving that you don’t need to be an “elite athlete” to see the benefits of a Paleo lifestyle. And no, I’m not trolling here. I just like messing with readers through my titles ๐Ÿ˜›

I’m actually really proud of Matthew, Stacy, and their family on PaleoParents.com. Check out their story for info on where they came from. Losing 200 pounds together as a couple is no easy feat!

As someone who was fat for so many years and has regressed a bit, I know what it’s like, especially when people know you’re on a diet like Paleo. You’ll get a lot of criticism. Whenever you regress, people will notice and talk about it. They just simply assume you’re supposed to get shredded after eating it. If that’s your goal, then sure, you gotta really work for it. However, for Matthew and Stacy, they’re doing it for the health benefits. Not long ago, Stacy was severely overweight, so taking upon the Paleo habits really did save her life.

How awesome is that?

The problem is the general public doesn’t “get it”. Matthew and Stacy are doing it the right way with gradual, long-term results. Sure, they might have regressed at times here and there, but they’re staying healthy for good. In the future, they’ll be lightyears ahead of the people who went for the quick fitness results and stopped living healthy after a short amount of time.

They went for a lifestyle change, not simply a diet. That’s when you know, as long as this couple sticks with it, they’ll be fine.

Most people want instant transformation. We’re all about instant gratification, right? Well, what you’re seeing with the Paleo Parents is something that’s REAL – everyday people who really are trying to stay healthy. While their health isn’t where they want it to be, they’ve made lots of progress and are continuing to take action.

I’m guilty at times of spending too much of my time reading than taking action. Learning and expanding your knowledge is great and all, but what’s the use when you’re not applying what you’ve learned. That’s another reason I give huge props to Matthew and Stacy. They’ve acknowledged their health issues and are continuing to DO SOMETHING about it.

I’m Also All About Health

Of course, my primary goal is my health as well, as Paleo and CrossFit helped get rid of my asthma once and is helping me do it again. Sure, in addition to that, I want to be shredded.

Then again, just because someone would look perfect on a magazine cover does’t mean he or she really is healthy. They might just have good genetics, ya know? For all we know, that person could be starving themselves or eating cookies for breakfast. Shit.

Everyone has a different story, so you can’t come up with some cookie-cutter solution or assumption about someone’s health. Only you can really unlock the secrets of your body.

Haters Gonna Hate

I think it’s ridiculous that people would take the time out of their day to constantly harass this family through email and on their site. C’mon! Your life must suck if you drop everything else you have to do and write something nasty like:

“Stacy looks a mess to me, despite her weight loss, and eating meat x3 meals a day is NEVER going to make you healthy. full stop. Even the idea of it makes me feel ill.
when I found your website I thought it was good to start with then I realised it was all about selling some book and making money. Shame really. I really donโ€™t want to hear one more word about ELaD, especially when itโ€™s followed by a post written by Stacy saying how shit her health is. How is Paleo so great if your health is still bad???????????”

I participate in a forum (not CrossFit-related) where trolling can get pretty crazy, although not to the point where feelings and families are seriously messed with. This really draws the line.

All I gotta say for Matthew, Stacy, and their family is to keep up the awesome work. While I’m not having kids anytime soon, I’m sure it’s hard enough raising a family as it is. And to instill Paleo values while doing so? Huge props.

Everyone has their own goals. Ours may not exactly be the same, but that’s the beauty of life. We all come from different backgrounds and have different ways of going about things. We all have our own story to tell. If we didn’t, life would be boring as fuck. Who would want to follow the same exact path as everyone else? I don’t know how that’d work out. Do what you want to do. Believe in what you want to believe in.

Matthew and Stacy, keep on pushing forward in your nutritional journeys. You’re an inspiration to me and have shown the world that Paleo is for EVERYONE.

Haters gonna hate.