CrossFit Ames Club Zone

FRIDAY - ZONE RECIPES

Here is a link to a website with zone recipes!

http://www.the-zone-diet-recipes.com/

Post to comments your favorite zone meals and the recipe! Make sure you state how many blocks it is!

THURSDAY - WE'RE BACK!

There were some technical difficulties there for awhile, but we're okay now, so go ahead and get back to posting what you've been eating! I know it's been helping me turn some things down since I know I'll have to type it in for all to see!!!

This is a tough time of year to do a challenge like this, but I think it's good because even though we all feel like we're not doing great, we're all doing better than we would normally be. Keep up the good work and be really, really good when it doesn't matter and then let yourself splurge on a few occasions and you'll be just fine!!!

SUNDAY -

This is a test.

SATURDAY - GLYCEMIC INDEX

What is glycemic index? The entry rate of a carbohydrate into the bloodstream is known as its glycemic index. The lower the glycemic index, the slower the rate of absorption.

When a carbohyrate enters the bloodstream too fast, the pancreas responds by secreting high levels of insulin. While that brings the blood-sugar level down, it also tells the body to store fat and keep it stored.

What determines the glycemic index?
1. The structure of the simple sugars in the food
2. The soluble fiber content
3. The fat content

Your best bet is to eat foods that have a low glycemic index, such as fruits and vegetables, for your carbs!

--Information obtained from THE ZONE by Barry Sears

FRIDAY - GET OFF THE CRACK

If you haven't read this CrossFit article by Nicole Carroll (a CrossFit She-ro and Zone goddess), it's a must read!!!

Get Off The Crack

Are you off the crack yet? Post to comments your successes so far, your cravings, what keeps you motivated, etc.

THURSDAY - GETTING TOO LEAN

While trying to lean out with the zone, you might start to notice a decline in your CrossFit WOD performances. It is known that most people will perform better with a little more fat on them than they want aestetically. Finding the balance point might be difficult and will take experimentation. If you are getting lean to the point that you are seeing your abs and are finding that you don't have energy and that your performance is suffering you will need to kick up your fat blocks. Keep everything else the same, but add extra fat blocks. Several high level CrossFitters are eating 2-5x fat blocks to help satisfy their energy needs.

This video is a good explanation of this:

Pat Sherwood on "The Idiot Suit," by CrossFit Again Faster- video [wmv] [mov] (courtesy of www.crossfit.com)

WEDNESDAY - THE PROTEIN FACTOR

"No one would ever advocate consuming more protein than your body requires. But likewise no one should ever advocate eating less protein than your body requires. Either extreme - too much or too little - can create serious health problems.

Most nutritionists like to assume that the protein needs of all men and all women are uniform. We're told, for example, that every male needs 56g of protein per day, or that females require 45g per day. Unfortunately, the genetic and environmental diversity of humans make such simple-minded protein calculations meaningless. 56g of protein may be adequate for a male who weighs 154 pounds, has 23% body fat and is sedentary (the average American male). But if you're a male who happens to be larger, or have less body fat, or are more active, then that 56g of protein is not nearly enough to prevent protein malnutrition.

In reality, individual protein requirements are genetically different for every person on the face of the earth. One size does not fit all."

--Excerpt from THE ZONE, by Barry Sears

The Zone block prescription will get you what you need for protein... not too much, not too little!

TUESDAY - ANAEROBIC EXERCISE

Anaerobic exercise, which is what we do a lot of in CrossFit, doesn't access fat directly, however it still has a powerful indirect effect on the fat-burning process.

"If the intensity of the anaerobic exercise is high enough, it causes the body to release human growth hormone. This exceptionally potent hormone has a number of important jobs in the body, one of which is to repair the microdamage done to muscle tissue during anaerobic exercise. It takes a lot of energy to do the repair job, and that energy comes from your stored body fat. This means that, in effect, human growth hormone is the most powerful fat-burning hormone in the body." -- Excerpt from The ZONE, by Barry Sears

MONDAY - DON'T OBSESS ABOUT THE POUNDS

Remember, we are striving for "fat loss" not "weight loss". Ideally we will be losing body fat, but gaining lean muscle. This means the number on the scale will not be indicative of your success.

It's okay to weigh in occasionally, especially if you have a lot of fat to lose. But please don't get too tied up in the numbers game. Daily fluctuations in weight are inevitable and do not correlate with fat loss. Weigh yourself a maximum of 1x per week to get a better idea of where you're at. Better yet, don't weigh yourself at all. Stay consistant with the zone and your block prescription, do the CrossFit WODS and measure your progress by how you're performing, how you're feeling and how your clothes are fitting.

We are now 2 weeks into the challenge! Post to comments what changes you are experiencing so far!

SUNDAY - DON'T "TREAT" YOURSELF

Have you ever said or heard somebody else say, "I just did a really hard workout... I'm going to treat myself to something good."?

It takes a lot of exercise to negate the effects of a high carb/high calorie diet. The beauty of following the zone block prescription is that you eat the same amount of blocks each day regardless of whether you worked out or not and regardless of how hard it was that day.

Try to avoid "treating" yourself with food and negating all of the hard work you do in the gym. Follow your block prescription each day as if it were a prescription medication and the fat will keep melting away! No gimmicks... just hard work!