Feeding The Machine 2: Optimum Performance
Posted on August 25, 2008
Filed Under CrossFit | 26 Comments
Here is part 2 of the 3 part series. Sorry for the spotty posting. Weddings, moving the gym and a death in the family have kept us BUSY.
Feeding the Machine 2:
Optimum Performance Time!
There are a lot of acronyms, obscure lingo and odd terminology in CrossFit. KTE, HSPU, pistols, thrusters…burpees, snatch, jerk. Is it porn? An armed militia movement? Nothing so exciting, just constantly varied, functional movements, performed at high intensity. Well, that’s one side of it anyway, the stuff that’s done. The other side involves the people doing it. Not surprisingly some of these folks run with odd names, occasionally even their own acronym. Case in point: Last years’ 1st annual CrossFit Games Champion, James “OPT” Fitzgerald. OPT is short-hand for “Optimum Performance Training” which is exactly what this guy does. Here are his vitals and a few of his benchmark WOD’s:
Age: 34 years old (That’s 25 in Canadian years)
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 165lbs
Benchmarks:
Fran - 2:17
Nancy - 10:37
Diane - 2:32
Helen - 6:59
Elizabeth – 5:14
Murph – 31:50 w/20 lb pack
Heavy Cindy – 24 rds w/ 20 lb pack
Linda - 13:01
Angie - 9:54
DL 1RM - 459
BS 1RM - 359
Max Chin Ups - 51
Tabata something else - 551
FGB - 397
Clean - 245
Snatch - 185
Clean and jerk - 229
Cindy - 32 rds
Mary - 20 1/3 rds
5K Run - 18:15
500 m row - 1:28
I first met OPT at the Feb’08 certification in Santa Cruz. This is the same event James turned a 6:59 Helen! I was cheering so hard I thought I might vomit just watching his exertion on that workout. I also had the good fortune to watch the OPT vs. Freddy “you want that donut” Camacho (YWTD) ring dip/SDLHP workout. Both guys are amazing competitors and tough as hell but it was particularly impressive that James was coming off of 6 weeks of only strength work yet he turned that WOD in 6:15! I was able to talk briefly with James at this event and he asked if we could talk on the phone and make sure his training and nutrition was “optimized”. About a week later I tracked James down and he proceeded to blow me out of the water with the level of sophistication and detail he brings to his training and nutrition. For most people adopting a basic paleo approach (food quality, little to no junk, minimizing grains legumes and dairy) or the Zone (carefully weighing and measuring food for optimum hormonal control) or a combo of this (egad!) is too much work…just too hard to do. I suspect James however had a Paleo/Zone diet mastered before he was out of diapers! He has very detailed records of performance, food, body fat distribution and he uses this information to track his progress and make decisions about his training and nutrition. He also uses the help of alternative healthcare providers such as naturopaths to monitor cortisol/testosterone ratios (a slick way to track potential overtraining ) and even blood work to determine if he is prone to a food allergy (allergens can produce a cortisol response which keeps the body in a constant state of stress, blunting recovery). There is a reason for everything James does and it taps the full complement of techniques and therapeutics I have used and am familiar with. In truth I have never worked with an athlete who was disciplined enough to warrant DOING the additional work James does…like I said, most people struggle with simply keeping the crap out of their diet combined with weighing & measuring. James wanted to make sure he was doing everything he could to optimize recovery and be ready for his next training session. Here is a snapshot of some of his nutrition:
1 1/3 cup oats + 3 tbsp macadamia cashew nut butter, 6 oz chicken sausage
1 apple, 12 macadamias, 2 oz chicken
6 oz salmon, 1 cup apple sauce, 1 orange, 1 apple, 20 cashews
1 pear, 12 cashews, 2 oz ground beef
1 cocochia bar – chocolate
4 oz chicken, 3 cups brussel sprouts, oil dressing
This was a fairly typical day for James and if you notice he includes a few items like oats that some folks with gluten intolerance may or may not do will with. I cannot eat oats, James on the other hand feels good with them and performs well. As I mentioned before his concern was largely optimizing recovery. How does one most effectively repair the muscular damage, replenish glycogen, normalize the stress hormones and quiet the immune response of a hard training session? James, like other top competitors who push the envelope of performance, is acutely aware of mood, sleep and general sense of well being. A constant challenge is replenishing glycogen without overdoing insulin release which can lead to foggy-headedness, lethargy and fat gain. I suggested that James try repartitioning a significant portion of his carb blocks to the post WO meal. Here is what that looked like, how James felt and an idea of why he likes to visit California*:
4:30 Am - 1 cup oats and mac nut butter + 4 bl turk sausage
8:00 am - 1 apple, 1 chic saus, 12 cashews
Noon - WOD - heavy Cindy - pb
Post WOD - 7 bl carbs, 6 bl prot
2 hrs later - 2 bl pr, 8-10 bl fat
Supper - 4 bl prot, 4-6 bl fat, 3 bl C
16 carb, 17 prot feels good
Felt good afternoon, better recovery, sore as shit today, but insulin
management was better, much better in afternoon, will see how recovery
goes this way, find I need that fat/prot after met cons big time
Was going to do some snow angels for that hot cold idea yesterday but
Seeing it was *- 50 deg Celsius*, thought otherwise. That is not a mis-spelling.
James reported gaining 2-3 lbs of muscle just by shifting to increased post WO carbs. James is so wired into his performance he notices the change in output he achieves for various
WOD’s based on his relative body weight. A little heavier and certain WOD’s are easier due to increased horsepower while other WOD’s are tougher due to carrying more mass. That considered he was not sure how the increase in mass would play out overall.
Initially James reported better blood sugar control, however this tended to vary more than he liked so we upped the fat a bit in the PWO meal to slow gastric emptying. This seemed to be the sweet spot which allowed for good recovery AND long term insulin control. James and I share the same birthday and although I can only aspire to performance like his we do share a few of the same issues with regards to training and nutrition. A constant need to balance a digestion that is best wired for fat and protein with the needs of a sport which is heavily glycogen dependant. For some athletes’ insulin management, food allergies and overtraining are not as significant issues as for others. Or those robust folks might be missing out on even better performance with a more scientific, information heavy approach to managing training and eating. I first became aware of concepts like paleo eating, food allergies and gluten intolerance while working through a fairly serious illnesses. Many people relegate issues like these to the old, infirm and those prone to hypochondriosis. This is an unfortunate consequence of ignorance and lack of knowledge in advanced therapeutics and diagnostic measures. Although fitness is rife with gimmicks and voodoo, James is not using these measures as a means of circumventing hard work, quite the contrary, he has built a stunning level of work capacity across broad time and modal domains…and he pays the price in a 3-on, 1-off schedule. So a question might be: “Should I do all that stuff?” Maybe, maybe not. How optimized is YOUR performance?
Big thank You!
Posted on August 18, 2008
Filed Under General | 5 Comments
A gargantuan thank you goes out to Craig Zielinski who updated the blog to the latest WordPress version and is generally helping me to get my act together with the blog. Check out his site Fast & Light and show the Scottsman some LOVE!
Celiac and Elevated Liver Enzymes
Posted on August 13, 2008
Filed Under Celiac and Gluten-Free | 2 Comments
I’ve had a slew of questions regarding elevated Liver enzymes, the Zone, Paleo, CrossFit etc. We have two clients, both pharmacists, who had stunningly high liver enzymes, particularly ALK (alkaline phosphatase). Frequently AST and ALT are also elevated, occasionally even bilirubin. Both clients have seen a dramatic reduction in liver enzyme levels with the adoption of a Paleo diet…for one individual he also had a con-founder of hyperinsulinism. The doctor of one client said: “It is preposterous… dietary manipulation cannot change liver enzyme status…the decrease must be due to another factor…” This person has had high liver enzymes for over 20 years…the only change was dietary, that mainly being the adoption of a gluten free Paleo diet. What a mis-informed IDIOT.
Here are a few links and abstracts to the topic….Sorry I can not get deeper now but this is a section I’ll flesh out in the book. Sorry also for the lack of comments processing on my part. We just moved the gym to a new 6,000sqft location and I’m pooped…only about 50% finished with that project. Here are those links:
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J Clin Gastroenterol. 2005 Aug;39(7):630-3.
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Cirrhosis in children with celiac disease.
Section of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. hudemir@hacettepe.edu.tr
BACKGROUND: Liver involvement represents an extra-intestinal feature of celiac disease (CD) and shows a clinical spectrum varying from nonspecific reactive hepatitis to cirrhosis. Here we report the association of cirrhosis with CD in 5 children. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The mean age of the patients was 9.4 +/- 2.8 years. Viral, metabolic, and autoimmune etiology of liver disease was ruled out. Intestinal and liver biopsies were performed to confirm the histologic diagnosis in all subjects. RESULTS: Three of the patients had chronic diarrhea and hepatosplenomegaly in whom diagnoses of CD and cirrhosis were established at presentation simultaneously. In the other 2 patients, CD was diagnosed following an initial diagnosis of cirrhosis. At diagnosis, alanine aminotransferase (range, 64-271 IU/L) and aspartate aminotransferase (range, 90-225 IU/L) values were elevated. After 1 to 5 years of a gluten-free diet (GFD), normalization of serum aminotransferase levels and clinical improvement were observed in 3 patients with strict GFD. The other 2 patients without improvement of the liver disease had poor dietary compliance. CONCLUSION: CD may be associated with severe hepatic damage in children and strict GFD may have beneficial effect on the course of liver disease. Serologic screening of CD should be included in differential diagnosis of chronic liver disease of unknown origin.
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Am J Gastroenterol. 2000 Aug;95(8):2009-14.
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Detection of autoantibodies against tissue transglutaminase in patients with celiac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis.
Department of Internal Medicine, Charité, Humboldt-University, Berlin.
OBJECTIVE: Endomysial autoantibodies (EmA) are specific for celiac disease. The target antigen has been identified as tissue tranglutaminase (tTG). Our aim was to study the accuracy of a newly developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for easy detection of tTG autoantibodies. METHODS: Thirty-one sera from patients with histologically proven celiac disease and 23 healthy controls were examined for EmA using monkey esophagus and human umbilical cord as substrate. IgA-tTG autoantibodies were determined by newly developed ELISA. Additionally, sera from patients with dermatitis herpetiformis (n = 20), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; n = 32), chronic liver disease (n = 36), and diabetes mellitus (n = 19) were tested. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the tTG autoantibody ELISA accounted for 90% detection in patients with untreated celiac disease. The specificity was 76% owing to positive values in the lower range in patients with IBD (15%), chronic liver disease (36%), and diabetes (22%), all of whom were negative for EmA. In dermatitis herpetiformis patients 90% were EmA-positive. Of these, only 47% showed elevated tTG autoantibodies. Preincubation of sera from dermatitis patients with tTG abolished immunofluorescent staining of endomysial structures. CONCLUSION: Detection of mid- to high-titer tTG autoantibodies is highly specific for celiac disease. However, in the low-titer range, overlap exists with liver disease, IBD, and diabetes. Tissue transglutaminase autoantibodies may evolve as a new screening and follow-up method for celiac disease. Although tTG seems to be a major autoantigen in dermatitis herpetiformis, the low sensitivity of both tTG ELISA and immunofluorescence using human umbilical cord suggests differential involvement of tTG in this disease.
These two abstracts had nice clinical data attached. A simple pubmed search with the terms “elevated liver enzymes celiac” produced over 30 citations. A google Search with the same terms produced enough reading to keep one out of trouble for a decade or two. Our general practitioners are so overwhelmed with paperwork and reticent to continue their education it’s really buyer beware with regards to health and medicine.
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Miltons Paleo Rebuttal
Posted on August 8, 2008
Filed Under | 13 Comments
I had a great question that involves Katherine Miltons rebuttal to much of Cordain’s work. Here is the question and my response:
Robb,
I’d love to talk to you about elite level athletes diets (olympian diets), and their high reliance on carbs and not so healthy food, sometime.. but too long to do here.
But on a different note, what do you think of these articles that challenge yours and Loren’s research? http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/3/665
and
http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~gowlett/GowlettCJNE_13_03_02.pdf
OH!@ that’s good shit there! Here is the conclusion from the first link:
A number of folks in the dietetics community went bananas over Cordain’s research. He does NOT advocate domestic high fat meats. He recommends low fat varieties especially if the source is not grassfed. It is this very recommendation that gets the WPF/Fallon/Eng crowd whipped into a sat’d fat lov’n frenzy. Cordain’s position is that the preponderance of cals HAD to come from animal sources…he details this via the Ethnographic Atlas and he looks at the two really interesting pieces of info: The energy expenditure of HG’s and the available foods, both plant and animal. I’ve had a post on this cooking for a while, and it is a key section of the book but the main point is: we know HG’s had a very high activity level. We also know the energy density of the foods they ate…and it’s impossible to feed that activity level with a plant based diet. The !Kung of the Kalahari have periods of time when a nut called the Monongo is very available as are numerous varieties of melon and other fruit. Robert V. Lee (who lived among the Kung for more than 20 years) found that their reliance on animal products hit about 10% of cals during this time. During their winter however, which is dry and actually fairly cold (30*F and the Kung make no special clothing to deal with this time) they rely on animal products for more than 90% of their calories.
Milton (the author of the first paper) offers NO counter point to the hard data or the mathematical underpinnings of Cordain’s work. She is a dietitian and I swear they ALL HATE Cordain because he’s an outsider that figured out their “science” and they can make neither heads nor tails of it. She concedes in the paper that the health of pre-industrial people is better in that we see none of the western degenerative diseases…then she just recommends business as usual!! It just makes my head want to pop off my shoulders!
If they really had a clue they would attack his numbers and the data…they don’t so they can’t. The damn dietitians just want to keep counting calories with not an ounce of interest in describing what they actually observe. It is criminal and completely devoid of academic rigor.
The Zone: Too Many Carbs?
Posted on August 6, 2008
Filed Under | 22 Comments
I received this message from Bian of Potomac CrossFit. Many, many people find the carb levels of the base zone to be too many carbs too often. This may be heresy in some circles, but it’s the facts. In Mastering the Zone Sears presents a flow chart for dealing with the too many carbs situation. It is interesting that Protein Power: Lifeplan Recommends a carb level of between 50-150g/day based on individual needs and carb tolerance. This brackets about 99% of people with regards to their Zone recommendation. I’ve had a number of people judiciously following the Zone yet still presenting signs of hyperinsulinism such as high blood pressure. I had these folks cut their carbs in half and they magically begin to not only loose body fat, but also decrease blood pressure to a normal level. If I did not try to keep a modicum of crossfit style conditioning I’d eat little beyond meat, veggies and nuts. Some more fruit int he summer and call it good. It seems like I had a period of time where I did fine on low carb and CF but not any more. Adrian Bozman mentioned the same thing when he was playing with cyclic low carb.
The bottom line is to ALWAYS make this stuff work for YOUR goals and needs.
Brian PCF
I wanted to second Sarena’s sliced yams recipe, that’s exactly what I used to do. Makes it very easy to cook up a bunch, then divy up into measured containers.
As an aside, I wished I’d listened to you a while back on the “Zone has too many carbs” point. I slaved away on strict 18 block zone for months. Lost a little weight, saw performance improve somewhat, but was still heavy (6?1, 215, approx 14-16 BF%).
I’m actually doing Atkins Induction right now just because I finished “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Taubes and decided to give it a try since Zone wasn’t working for me.
I’m down 7 pounds in 10 days to 208. What’s weird is that my performance really hasn’t suffered much at all. I party chalk this up to substituting a minimum of one Oly Lift WOD per week.
I sent my experience to Max Lewin, CF Eastbay. He’s got a great blog (crossfitzonediet.blogspot.com) that I’ve been following for a while and he seemed to be having the same issues I was, doing Zone, not losing BF. So he gave it a try as well and had a big decrease in BF% but also a decrease in performance.
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to let folks know about me and Max’s experience. I’m going to go buy “42 Ways” rigt now.
Feeding The Machine 1
Posted on August 3, 2008
Filed Under | 31 Comments
Hey y’all. I was asked to put together some information on a few of the top competitors heading into the recent CrossFit Games. Somehow the three articles never made it to the site but I think there are some interesting points so I’m going to throw them up on the blog. Enjoy!
Feeding The Machine:
How the CrossFit Rockstars Feed and Water for optimum Performance.
If you have ever followed Formula 1 or drag racing the topic of fuel comes to the fore quite frequently. In this context it seems obvious that top performance is as much a function of the fuel used as the engine, aerodynamics, tires and pit-crew. Interestingly, this analogy does not hold well for the fueling of human performance. Air/fuel mixture, hydration and food quality seems more often than not left to chance with the notion that harder, longer training is the key to progress and victory. This seems to be true for the average performer anyway…he or she cannot be bothered with silly details like food quality, optimized nutrient ratios (protein, carbs and fat) nutrient timing or recovery. Train hard, eat “pretty good” and be content with average performance. For some the milk-toast average existence is worse than a root canal without anesthesia…while watching Oprah. These folks will settle for nothing but their best effort and not surprisingly they know that food may hold the “secret” to better performance and recovery, the difference between 1st and last place, the difference between milk-toast and winners circle. This series will look at some of the top contenders for the upcoming 2nd annual CrossFit Games. What you may find most interesting about these elite competitors is how very much they have in common and how relatively small are their differences when it comes to fueling the machine.
Gabe “Dutch” Lowy
Age:26
Height 5’4”
Weight 150lbs
Owner: CrossFit ATM
Fran: 2:30
Elizabeth: 6:38
Grace: 5:00
FGB: 452
Total: 875
Snatch: 182
Clean: 245
C&J: 235
Cindy: 34 rounds
Mary: 14 rounds
Helen: 9:02 (450m run)
500m row: 1:37 2000m row: 7:21
I had the good fortune of hanging out with Dutch at this event and we were able to work some OL’s and talk a bit about nutrition. Dutch sounded pretty dialed in on his eating but like all top competitors he was looking for any edge that might be gained from his nutrition. He was also trying to fix a mid afternoon energy slump that felt like low blood sugar. I had Dutch keep track of his food and email that to me…good, bad and ugly. Here is that first email
“I am pretty uniform in my eating. I am strict zone with anywhere between 4
A typical day looks like this: (Not too much variety between days)
6AM 2 blocks:
1 apple (medium gala)
Half cup of cottage cheese (lactaid brand, I am lactose intolerant)
Handful of almonds. About 27 (9 blocks)
9AM 2 Blocks:
2 oz deli turkey
1 orange (large navel)
Handful of cashews. About 21 (7 blocks)
10:30AM 2 Blocks
2 oz deli turkey
1 apple (gala Medium sized)
Handful of almonds. Between 15 and 25. (sorry I haven’t counted nuts
since I started the zone over a year ago)
1:45 PM 2 blocks
2 oz deli turkey
1 orange (large navel)
Handful almonds
2:45 PM 2 blocks
Half cup Cottage cheese
1 pear with peanut butter. (There is no telling how much PB I
use… I just sit down with a spoon and a knife. Probably a quarter of the
container.)
5 PM 2 blocks
2 oz deli turkey or ham
1 apple
Handful of cashews or almonds
8PM 4-5 Blocks (usually closer to 4)
4 Oz Chicken breast
Assorted steamed veggies ( 3-4 cups)
Sprinkled with italian dressing or EVOO and maybe some crushed
almonds.
About a cup and a half of soy milk.
9:30 - 10 PM 1 Block
Half an apple
1 oz of turkey
Half handful of almonds
My Crossfit workouts have been great. I make it through even the 20 minute
like blood sugar. I get half way through the first game and become
A few things bear mentioning: This is a blistering schedule which includes school, work, CrossFit and a competitive sport. Dutch manages to navigate all of this and prioritize his food. Not an easy thing to do but it’s critical if one is to not only survive this schedule to say nothing of thrive! His performance is great but he mentions some blood sugar related foggy-headedness later in the day, particularly during handball. The Zone is by no means a high carb diet but I have noticed some people (myself included) run into blood sugar issues with the Zone if it is approached as prescribed. It can be too many carbs, too often. Sleep can and does play a major factor in blood sugar management so here is my response to Dutch:
”Looks great...how much do you weigh? Looks like you are running about
17-18 blocks, good body comp and kicking performance. Two main issues
are controlling blood sugar during handball and (as always) recovery.
Something I have found to be helpful is repartitioning up to 1/2 of ones
carb blocks to the post workout meal. Let’s say you are 18 blocks, that
would put you at say 4-5 blocks of protein and 8-10 blocks of carbs. I
would make those carbs come from mainly yam or sweet potato to optimize
muscle glycogen repletion and not top off the liver too much. You can
then puff up the fat content of other meals to finish out the day on
average where you are right now. We should see improved recovery and
less blood sugar swings. If you are doing a double day you can split
that carb feeding to both post CF and post handball. If the CF WOD is
just strength work like a back squat-1111111, I would just spread the
carbs as normal.
to perform at a high level yet it is almost enough to mess with blood
sugar. The small snack you are taking prior to handball seems like a
good idea. Keep cranking on that and see if this other tweak helps
things at all. ALSO!!! Sleep can be a huge factor in blood sugar swings.
Sounds like you are keeping a blistering schedule and if the sleep is
skinny that can really mess with blood sugar levels...how much rack time are
you getting?”
Dutch was not getting much sleep but that’s not surprising considering the schedule he is keeping. I admonished him to get as much sleep as he could without getting fired from his job or dumped by his girlfriend! He expressed some trepidation about saving the lions share of his carbohydrates till post workout but he jumped in and did it and noticed improved energy and recovery immediately. Here is an email from a few weeks later:
”Robb,
I am sitting on a bus on my way back from Springfield MO. I was at the national collegiate handball tournament where I finished in the top 16. As with anytime you lose I feel like I should have won. That is not the point of this email though. Even though it was difficult I was able to keep with the nutrition plan you suggested. I kept carbs low until I competed then would get a couple extra carb blocks with my next meal. I felt great (besides losing). I was worried about the crash coming halfway through a game and it never happened.
I am having a hard time during a normal week getting the bigger meal after training cause I am usually pressed for time and sweet potatoes don’t travel very well. If you have any suggestions of what I can fit into a backpack and drag to school I would appreciate them.
I am also starting to dabble in the kitchen and wonder if you have any good links for recipes you use. I luckily haven’t burned down my house yet which would be bad for business, since the gym is in my garage.”
I think it’s safe to say Dutch has enviable numbers whether we are talking max effort strength work or classic CrossFit WOD’s like Fran. He is also nationally competitive in handball and like I mentioned before, he keeps a hell of a schedule. His food was pretty squared away in that he was using Zone ratios while choosing higher quality foods ala-paleo eating. The only glaring hole in the game I could see was a lack of sleep that is nearly impossible to fix given the demands of his schedule. A minor tweak we made to his eating was the repartitioning of about ½ of his carb blocks to the post workout meal to take advantage of enhanced insulin sensitivity. This improved his recovery from both CrossFit efforts and hand ball while normalizing his blood sugar and thus preventing the bonks he was experiencing mid-afternoon.
It’s important to note we did not run with shakes or other magic potions. Digestion, recovery and insulin control have been uniformly inferior with liquid food as compared with things like yams and sweet potatoes. A few recent studies have confirmed this observation and I’ll talk about those in a later CFJ article. Stay tuned for that and the next installment of Feeding The Machine!
Book Outline and other stuff.
Posted on August 2, 2008
Filed Under , General | 16 Comments
Howdy folks! I can not thank you enough for the interest in both the book and the Crossfit Nutrition cert. I’m trying to stay on top of all this with what is an ever shrinking time frame to write, answer questions, run our gym and have a bowel movement or two in peace. Here are a few things I have in the works for the blog:
1-FAQ. I’m a lazy bastard and have not gotten around to building one of these. I get MANY of the same or similar questions that a little digging could answer.
2-Resources. This will be an extension of the FAQ and support both the book and the nutrition certs. I receive a lot of questions about: how many blocks folks need, what do I do if I barf when eating kashi cereal, , why is my stool smelly when I eat paleo I thought paleo fixes EVERYTHING?
The resource page will grow and evolve with time and should be a solid “go to” location for all things paleo, zone, crossfit, intermittent fasting etc.
3-Comments verification thingy. I ok’dabout 25 comments this morning and had to sift through…600 spams to get to them…I have no doubt I missed a few as I spent 2 hrs sifting through ads for Viagra (everyone knows Greg Everett has a lifetime supply of that stuff) and “sex with animals”. I feel a little giddy from the whole process. A wild Scottsman has offered to help me update the blog so I’m hoping he can help me extricate my head from my ass and get this thing more user friendly, easy to leave comments etc. I’m shitty on follow-through but I’m REALLY trying to make this whole site kick ass…please be patient!
4-Consulting. I’ve had numerous requests for phone consults. I do those for $150/hr for the initial consult, $75/hr for contacts thereafter (same as my personal training rates). I DO NOT CONSTRUCT MEAL PLANS. NOT FOR ANY PRICE…I’D RATHER KILL MYSELF. Ok, sorry…just had to be clear on that. If you want meal plans we have a RDA who is a former student of Loren Cordain’s. She’s great at that stuff. I’m good at answering questions and optimizing food and training so that’s what I’ll do.
Below is the “rough” outline of the book. I don’t think I’ve even spell checked it yet but it should give an idea of where that project is going. It’s a whole enchilada book…the closest thing I could liken it to is Protein Power:Lifeplan (absolutely amazing book if you do not already have it).
I’ve had some interest from “big” book publishers, I may self publish…not sure on either of those yet. Title is still pending. I’m writing it in my “own” voice and trying to have fun with it. I wrote 4 chapters for the book last year in a clinical dry format that made me want to retch when I re-read the drivel. I think this approach is better but it will have evolutionary biology on one line, fart jokes and lurid ramblings on the next…It may have a VERY select audience but I just need to get the damn thing done so I can yammer about another project and not start it for five years.
If y’all have suggestions about what you’d like on the blog, resources etc let me know. I hope to have an improved comments section soon so that can go a bit on auto pilot. If I’m going to get this book done I’m not going to be able to respond as frequently as I have in the past, at least for a while. Here is that outline. What in God’s name HAVE I done…
Sept 23!
Posted on July 28, 2008
Filed Under | 30 Comments
What’s the saying among self help gurus? Tell people your plans so you are accountable and it makes things “real”. Well…I’m pushing like crazy to have a first draft of my book by Sept 23, 08. Nicki pinned my ears back and threatened my life if I don’t get it done…so here it is.
CrossFit Nutrition Cert!
Posted on July 14, 2008
Filed Under | 58 Comments
Hey y’all. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I have several in the pipeline and will get them out soon. I just wanted to mention that I have started a nutrition clinic for CrossFit and things seem to be cooking along pretty well. We did a dry run in Chico about a month ago and the feedback was great. We are kicking off our first legit cert at San Francisco CrossFit Next weekend!
We will have future locations posted in a day or two but we are looking at Fairfax, Va for the east coast and either Florida or Texas for the South. If demand is there then no reason we can not do both! I just wanted to say thank you for the help and support folks have offered in this project…we have received a number of requests to host the cert and I’m looking forward to them all!
You Gotta be a Geek…
Posted on June 27, 2008
Filed Under | 17 Comments
to appreciate this.
Brad sent me this little ditty…ah, the good old days…the salad years of lab work, sore thumbs and error analysis. The girl in the video is actually pretty hot. The geeks shall inherit the Earth…
keep looking »