"Today is a rest day for me. Hard to sit still."
The 2008 CrossFit Games
What is CrossFit Nutrition?
Our recommendation to "eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar" is adequate to the task of preventing the scourges of diet-induced disease, but more accurate precise prescription is necessary to optimize physical performance.
Finely tuned, a good diet will increase energy, sense of well being and acumen, while simultaneously flensing fat and packing on muscle. When properly composed the right diet can nudge every important quantifiable marker for health in the right direction.
Diet is critical to optimizing human performance and our clinical experience leads us to believe that Barry Sears' "Zone Diet" closely models optimal nutrition (See link below for more information).
The "meal plans" and "block chart" have been our most expedient approach for eliciting the Zone's best offering in athletes (A block is a unit of measure used to simplify the process of making balanced meals).
When a meal is composed of equal blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, it is 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein, and 30% fat.
What to eat:
1. Protein - chicken breast, turkey breast, ground turkey, veal, beef, ground beef, salmon, tuna steak, whole eggs or egg whites, cheese, whey protein.
2. Carbohydrate - oatmeal, asparagus, green beans, beet greens, black beans, kidney beans, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, chick peas, celery, cucumber, romaine lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomatoes, apples, blackberries, cherries, blueberries, grapes, oranges, raspberries, strawberries, watermelon.
3. Fat - almonds, avocado, canola oil, olives, peanut butter, peanuts, cashews, olive oil, guacamole.
4. Combo items - skim milk, yogurt, soybeans, soymilk.
Unfavorable Carbohydrates:
1. Vegetables - corn, baked beans, black-eyed peas, cooked carrots, fries, peas, lima beans, potatoes, sweat potatoes (Baked).
2. Fruits - banana, cranberries, figs, mango, raisins, all fruit juice.
3. Grains and Breads - bagels, barely, biscuit, baked potato, bread, cereal, instant oatmeal, muffins, pasta, rice, flour, granola, tortilla, noodles.
4. Condiments - BBQ sauce, cocktail sauce, honey, jelly/jam, relish, steak sauce, brown sugar, maple syrup.
5. Snacks - chocolate bars, chips, pretzels, corn chips, graham crackers, ice cream, tortilla chips, saltine crackers.
Note**: When building meals with "unfavorable carbohydrates" quantity becomes critical. To determine quantity, please see the link below for more information.
Within a week of weighing and measuring you'll have developed an uncanny ability to estimate the mass of common-food portions, but, more importantly, you'll have formed a keen visual sense of your nutritional needs. This is a profound awareness.
Please note that the Zone Diet neither prohibits nor requires any particular food. It can accommodate paleo or vegan, organic or kosher, fast food or fine dining, while delivering the benefits of high performance nutrition.
- Coach Ty (Information taken from the CrossFit Journal, issue 21)
