CrossFit Athletic Group

by, Mr. Ron. A few notes for this one: first, the intro was originally written in the email to me and not meant to be included in the post; I thought it was good so I kept it. Secondly, he wanted me to edit it because he was worried it might come off as being too pushy, which was not his intention. I decided not to edit it (except for one part, changing "you" to "I") because my goal with these Guest Posts is for people to hear a different voice. And yes, Mr. Ron's voice is heard.. er... a little more often than most, but I think the message from him and the rest of the parents (who I urge to submit these to me more often!!) is better delivered without me as a filter. Enjoy!

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Funny that this started as a comment, got longer than a post, and right into the territory of a manifesto. Take a look at what my thoughts are and if you think it can help anyone (and doesn't make me look like a douchebag), you can share. I also attached my before picture. My stomach was much more bloated and it makes me laugh. Lastly, I didn't mention any extra running I did because the extra running started after I lost the weight, swimming started in the summer, and biking just a few weeks ago. All those things happened after the weight loss.

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A few of us were talking about Chris' last nutrition post and I feel the need to share since it was some good stuff. On Wednesday (1/17) it will be exactly 1 year at being 172 lbs so I feel pretty confident what I'm about to write. I won't repeat what Chris wrote because I don't feel like there's much value in trying to just reinforce the value in balancing the protein, carbs, and fats. Chris does a really good job explaining this to all of us. I want to take a different angle at this from the perspective of one of the parents. It's easy to listen to Chris and think it's harder for us. Let's be real. If Chris can run a mile in the middle of a blizzard dressed like it's 85 degrees out, then nutrition is child's play.

Well, the following is my personal experience and what I believed help me be successful. If you really want to get your weight under control, just do these two things: simplify and prepare.

Before I get to what I want to get to, let me say I took a different approach from what all of us adults do, especially me. Instead of listening to Chris and incorporating it with what I know and what I know works for me, I just said F it. My way got me fat so let me just do everything Chris says. My way didn't work and I had proof of it weighing the most I have ever did in my whole life. Let me give it 3 or 4 months and I'll reevaluate it. It is completely unfair to Chris, who is trying to help me, to do 60% of what he tells me and throw it back in his face saying it didn't work and wasn't practical. Let me do 100% and then I can throw it back in his face if it doesn't work. I think Chris would agree.

First simplify. I've been an adult for a few years and know what we do. We buy $1000 worth of equipment to start working out. We download a few apps to make things easier. We wait for April 1st because it falls on a Monday and will need to do it in the morning because later in the day makes no sense. Basically, we dodge what we really need to do, eat better. This time around, I said F it again. Let's keep this one on point. No apps (not getting Bobby's approval), no nutrition equipment (dehydrator did come into play later to save money), no unnecessary extra work, just a bunch of half pieces of papers. I absolutely will not write down the amount I eat or make my logs look pretty in any way. Just want to write that I ate this and that to keep me accountable. I can do that in about 20 sec. After a year, these logs stopped. So now I just eat food (nothing extra). I want to point this out because the simpler it is the more this will work in the long term. It at least gives us a shot at being successful.

Secondly and lastly, prepare. To eat the diet I was going to do, I first needed to look at what I'm supposed to do. Basically, eat protein, carbs, and fats at each meal. I found that 4 meals worked for me. My breakfast consists of 3 eggs, 2 smaller pieces of bread, and almond butter. Chris said that as long as no grains for the rest of the day, he was ok to let it slide. My lunch was protein, veggies (like carrots, peppers, or tomato salad) and some nuts. Dinner was what everyone at the house ate: meat, veggies, and rice, but I would swap the rice for a pear and added in some nuts. Three hours after dinner, I eat some beef jerky or chicken breast, an apple, and whole milk yogurt with pepita seeds, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries (or blackberries). Ok, to me, I'm eating like a king now and more/better than when I was doing it my way.

The following statement is the most important part because if I didn't do what I'm about to say, I would've most likely failed. Have as much as you can on hand at all times.

There's two ways to look at your food: by meals and by Protein/Carbs/Fats. Let's start with fats. Every supermarket carries bins of nuts and seeds. Grab your top 5. Mine are almonds, salted cashews, raw cashews, and pepita seeds. I buy them and another bin that looks good along with almond butter. When a few bins start to go low, get more. Just have them at all times. They won't go bad since you'll go through them. So now 1/3 of your nutrition is done. Super simple. Restating what I said earlier, if you don't have them, you won't eat them since you're not going to the store just for nuts. That's when bad stuff happens.

For carbs, I go by meals. I know I need my special bread (13g carbs per slice) for breakfast. I love tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and carrots for lunch. We eat potatoes or some veggie for our normal dinner. I skip veggies for last meal (probably shouldn't, but I do). Now for fruit, I know I need at least 7 apples, mixed berries, and 7 others (for dinner). For me, the 7 others are normally kiwi, red pears, grapefruit, and pineapple. Now that I know what I need for the week for carbs, I always get it all at once. I normally have another chance to stock up for any additional fruit around mid-week if my fruit starts to get low. So guess what, 2/3 of everything I eat is done and available to me at all times.

Now protein is probably the only thing you might struggle with, but here's what worked for me. I go through each meal. Breakfast I need 21 eggs. Dinner Michelle handles and is usually chicken or ground beef, with salmon every Friday. My last meal is beef jerky/chicken and yogurt. That leaves us with the hardest protein meal, lunch. I've settled on rotisserie chickens (which is what I eat in my last meal when I don't want beef jerky), shish kebab (for treat), chicken or sirloin chili from Ninos, and every once in a great while some ham or turkey rollups. We (which means Michelle) hard boils 21 eggs, I dehydrate 2 1/2 lbs of beef for jerky, and Michelle handles the dinner protein, which she buys once a week. So the only thing that I don't have on hand is my lunch protein. That requires me to go to Kroger once or twice for lunch.

So of the 4 x (protein/carbs/fat) items in each day, I only need to worry what to do for lunch protein. Everything else is ready for me to eat. Once a week I have 95% of things prepared with a plan for going to grab lunch protein once or twice a week. If I was smarter, I could even prepare for that, but I don't mind running to Kroger. I'm back in 15 mins. It works for me.

I'm obviously skipping the will power part, but that's on each of us to prioritize. Do I want to reward myself a few times a week or do I want my stomach flatter and faster run times. I can't answer that for anyone, but I can say that if you don't overthink this (simplify) and make it easy for yourself by just having almost everything on hand (prepare), that you will be successful and will end up rewarding yourself with food that will flatten your stomach. To be honest, since I started this, I am always full and I love every meal more than before. Everything I wrote is something you have read before and is obvious, but I just went through it. I talk to others outside the gym that seem to make it too complicated. Trust me, this is so much easier than the workouts. I actually find it easier than what I do for mobility. January 13th at 5:00 pm is no different than the morning of Monday April 1st. Just start at your next meal. I listened to Chris and I can't believe how spot on he was. He said it's unfair for him to preach about losing weight when he's never had to lose weight. Well, if that doesn't sell it to you, not sure what will.

For the record, when I get fat in 10 years, don't throw this in my face. I know how life works and I know the norm is to gain the weight back plus more, but I really do believe I'm in a much, much better position to not gain the weight back. So, thanks Chris for helping us all out. This one feels like it's going to stick.