5 Year CrossFit Anniversary Post 2

In honor of my 5 year CrossFit anniversary, this week I am sharing five things that have changed since I started. The second is how I eat.

When I started CrossFit in 2013, my diet left a lot to be desired. I ordered Chinese from Hunan Delight thirty-eight times that past year. THIRTY-EIGHT TIMES! (There was an intervention in 2012.) ConEdison contacted me every 6 months to inform me that the gas might not be working in my apartment because the stove had not been turned on during that period. There was a lot of skipping meals followed by epic binges.

One morning I woke up one Saturday hungover and didn't eat per usual, and I pinned myself under the lady bar. I realized the reason I always felt like garbage was because the majority of the calories I consumed came from alcohol and dumplings. I slowly started cleaning up my diet.

I followed a pretty common CrossFit diet trajectory. I decided to embrace the Paleo diet after dabbling in it in the past. I tried another Whole30. I remember coming home at around 11 PM after going to the 9:15 PM CrossFit class and being so damn tired that I would throw a bag of veggies into the microwave and just cover them in coconut oil. I'm not sure I ate protein besides bacon. Someone pointed out to me that cocaine is Paleo but oatmeal is not, and I started to question if it was really that bad to eat Greek yogurt. I switched to Primal and ate a lot of Kerrygold butter.

My diet got better when I reconnected with an old boyfriend who tracked everything he ate in MyFitnessPal like he would be executed if he didn't. I still followed a mostly Primal diet on weekdays but then we would binge eat all weekend. Nothing like two former fat kids in love and let loose in a Publix. We would strategize the cocktail hour at weddings to make sure we maximized our hors d'oeuvres intake. He would beeline for the bar and get drinks while I filled up two plates and found a table. Then we would alternate returning for our favorites while the other person held down the fort.

I tried to follow macros but was still very wary of carbs. I tried using a Paleo meal service but got discouraged when I realized the macro calculations were significantly off. I started prepping my own meals, which sounds like crazy talk to anyone who knew me while I lived in New York. I ended up hiring a macro coach and had some success with her. I'm not very compliant on weekends or when I travel, and it was only after I acknowledged and embraced that fact that I started to see real progress.

I learned that I could eat anything as long as it fit my macros. I went from being scared of carbs to putting Gatorade in my protein shake and eating Jolly Ranchers during workouts.

I tried reversing and a bulk, which left me a lot heavier than I would have liked but it taught me a lot about how I eat, what my triggers are, and what I can do to set myself up for success. After being able to make almost anything fit my macros, I realized I like eating whole foods, and I enjoy chicken and broccoli. I track from 7 PM to 6:59 PM so my dinner informs the remaining 24 hours. This switch has been the most helpful.

Right now I am using macros from Affinity Athletics Coach Delta and trying to be reasonable on weekends. To be honest, that usually means eating small amounts to offset the amount I drink in the pool. I prep almost all of my own foods when I'm home, but do eat out frequently because of my work travel. I will always make room for tacos. I still enjoy margaritas.

CrossFit has made me see that what I eat (or don't eat) has a direct impact on my performance in the gym. You really can't outtrain a shitty diet, abs really are made in the kitchen, and it's really hard to get bulky because I've tried.

This is just proof that I do sometimes use my oven:

Surviving Travel Without Blowing Your Macros

I, like many other people, travel for work. My feelings about traveling for work have changed over the years. It used to be, Sweet! I get to stay in a hotel and reimburse all of my meals! Now it's more, Fuck! Should I pack a cooler bag? I like eating for free so I haven't gone as far as prepping and flying with all of my own food... yet.

Here are some tips and tricks I've learned from four years (and counting) of work travel. These also apply to any kind of travel, but most people want to indulge on vacation.

1. Make your hotel work for you. People who work at hotels are fantastic and able to make your stay perfectly fit your needs, especially if you call ahead and ask nicely. I like to call up the hotel a few days in advance, introduce myself, and ask if it is possible to have a room with an empty refrigerator and a microwave. Many hotels will put a microwave in your room for the duration of your stay if you simply ask. Some hotels only have minibars and charge you to empty it. Those hotels are on my shit list. Make sure to ask for silverware or come prepared with plastic cutlery. The plastic stuff is especially helpful if you will be eating on the go.

2. Locate healthy prepared meals. Many cities offer prepared foods geared towards the fitness community. Googling meal prep or paleo delivery (even if you don't eat paleo) and the city is usually a good way to find websites. In New York, I like to order from Kettlebell Kitchen. The only downside is that they deliver to gyms so I have to hike over to CFHK to get my order even if I'm not training there that week. While in Houston this past weekend, I found a My Fit Foods down the street from my hotel. Sweet niblets, is that place cool. You walk in and can get all of your meals out of the cooler. Jeremy, the sales consultant, told me that next time I can call him directly, tell him my macros and he'll have all of my stuff picked out and ready to roll by the time I land. If you are in Texas, California, Oklahoma, Arizona, Illinois or traveling to any of these states, you need to try this place.

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3. Identify splurges. Unless you travel with the aforementioned cooler, you will find yourself hungry in front of a menu with tempting treats. Figure out when you will splurge and prepare for it. I knew I wanted to see my friend Bailey while I was in Houston, so I made sure to eat three My Fit Foods meals throughout the day (it came to about 1,000 calories) and then went to the bar to hang out. I was driving so I wasn't drinking (no alcohol carbs) and I decided to indulge in some fried pickles and french fries. It didn't wreck havoc on my day and I wasn't starving so I didn't need to eat a full meal there, which could have easily surpassed 1,000 calories. Flying home during dinnertime is my biggest pitfall. I usually try to go with tacos but yesterday's tacos were a real fail. I should have picked something up on the way to the airport and brought it through security because I would have been happier with my choice. IAH just sucks for food and I knew that, but I saw the taco place when I landed and thought I was good to go.

4. Don't beat yourself up because you didn't hit your numbers. Last night I was annoyed at myself because I was way low on protein, my tacos hadn't satisfied me and I ate them at 5:30 PM ET, and it was 9 PM and I was hungry. I ate Cheerios and focused on the positive food choices I had made while I was away. 

Planning My Macros

It's January so everyone's on a diet. At least four people have told me they're going to lose 20 lbs by cutting calories and doing lots of cardio. I cringe. You can totally drop a lot of pounds off the scale if you eat nothing and run your little heart out, because I've done it like 9 times, and I'm not going to tell you not to do that if that's the plan you choose. I just thought you might want to know my plan of attack for 2015.

Things I know to be true:

1. I need a plan if I am going to be successful.
2. I need a tracker if I am going to be successful.
3. I won't cook vegetables that don't come out of microwavable bags.
4. High quality ingredients are expensive and then you have to cook them yourself anyway.
5. Carbs are the devil. I need to eat a certain amount of protein and fat every day to meet my goals.

I know how to eat clean. I know how to read labels. I'm pretty damn knowledgeable and yet I don't have the body I want so I've decided to make some changes. My goals are to give my body the nutrition it needs to train at high intensity multiple times a week and to change my body composition. I was looking at photos from old Weight Loss Wednesdays where I weigh the same as I do now, and I look much different, (read worse), because I had a lot more fat and a lot less muscle. I want to lose body fat while maintaining the muscle I have now AND hopefully add some more. This means that my weight in pounds doesn't matter to me but the percentage of my weight that is fat does.

Food Diaries

I took about three weeks off from tracking my food and it was one of the smartest things I've done all summer.

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Logging your food is a proven way to reach your weight loss goals. Many respected fitness experts, including Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, recommend keeping food diaries. Trainer Bob might be a vegan but he CrossFits at Brick so I trust his judgment, and I love me some Jillian even if she can't push press a 55# bar. There's been a lot of information circling about timing your eating and fitting your macros and eating for your body type, all of which requires some kind of food diary. It's a good habit to get into.

Unless it starts to drive you crazy.