6-week Zone Challenge 2009

[Jerry Hill]

Full Details soon...

It All Starts Here:
CrossFit Journal 21 Print out - read - and discuss!

Expected:
2 Perfect weeks - We can make tweaks after 2-weeks. You must weigh and measure your food for the first 2 weeks - I have found a 0% success rate for those who "wing it". Those who make it through the 2 perfect weeks go on to achieve their goals and live a life of nutritional/body composition/energy bliss - You decide, is 2-weeks of your life worth it?


Plan/log Each Meal, I will give you a 6-week "done for you" chart to fill in.
You can print this out or save on your computer and fill out.
Score each day- 5 possible points if you eat 3 meals, 2 snacks within your block RX.

See Attached File on the bottom: CFOT 6-week food journal
See Attached File on the bottom: Robb Wolf Shopping Guide

Drink your water!
I have found that those who drink less water gain more weight.
I have found that those who drink more water lose more weight!
How much?
Experts say 10 x 10oz per day
That also could be 5 x 20oz which breaks down perfect with our 5 meals - DO IT!
Anything extra is a bonus.
How important is this?
Give yourself 5 points if you are perfect = 20oz with each meal
(4 if you missed one water-meal, etc...)

Hop on the scale today.
Record your start weight.
Hop on the scale each day.
Record your weight loss.
I hate the scale, I hate measuring progress through weight loss.
This is a 6-week challenge to take you to the next level - we will specialize, we will focus on the scale for the next 6-weeks.
After this we can get back to Nutrition for performance - After all, performance/living your life to your full capacity is what it's really all about isn't it?
Yes, you should lose a lot of weight quickly - How much?
2-4 pounds a week - some of you who are dialing in for the first time will lose more - some of you who have "zoned" before will lose a bit less - it's all progress!
Weight loss fluctuates so for official documentation record and post your weight loss weekly.

Take a "Before" Picture.
Reveal as much skin as you feel comfortable with - tank top and shorts?
You can keep this private.
This is powerful - do it!
Take a new picture every 4 weeks.
Have the SAME set of clothes on and the same backdrop.
In 6-weeks you will see a difference - in 6 months you will be flat-out amazed.

POST Some of your meals!
I am a simple guy.
Eggs and fruit
Cold Chickin', almonds, fruit
Cooked meat with tomatoes and veggies.
For those that need variety please post a sample meal/snack.
Give yourself 1 point a day for every day you post a meal/snack - only 1 point a day, but feel free to share more a day!

POST YOUR Resources (for meals, motivation, information...)
Surf the web and post your findings.
Robb Wolf is the Man, check his FAQ
CrossFit Balboa is all about Paleo

Bonus - give yourself 1-point for every worthy link you put up.
For the Robb Wolf Site you could link a ton - I chose the FAQ to link you to so you could explore your problem area. Down the road I could point you to a link that talks about the "Athletes Zone". So be specific in your link.
The CrossFit Balboa link was very general, because in general the info is great! However it might have helped more if I linked specific blog posts that I thought of as super-duper important.
Make sense?
Why points for this?
Education - Community - Sharing.
If you surf the web to improve your knowledge and then help guide others, you will be successful, motivated, and long-term dedicated!



More Details soon...

[Harold]

One thing that is still hard for me to understand is the emphasis on low carb diets for athletes. For example, in the article Robb posts about the Inuit, the final recommendations are that low carb diets can support SUBMAXIMAL endurance and that training in the glycolytic pathway (the dominant path we train in) is limited by ketone diets.

From other things I have read, my understanding is that restricted carb diets can support those who train primarily in the oxidative pathways. But, when explosiveness, power, speed are required in short bursts, we recruit and require glucose from muscle.

In my personal experience, I have done "normal" zone and "high fat" zone variants. Because I track my performance, I have noted that my performance is lowest when I restrict carbs and bring in more fat to replace those carb blocks.

So, I always come back to increasing my carb blocks to normal zone levels. I can also say this, when I go low carb and high fat, I do lose weight. But, for me this has also been at the expense of strength and ability to perform at high levels for the met-con WODs.

This is just my $.02. Any thoughts?

[Jerry Hill]

Hey Harold,
You are more advanced in your personal Nutrition Journey - Your discussion is a "more down the road" topic for most CFOTers.

You got results, tweaked, bonked, went back to where you got results; classic black box experimentation.

We are all the same but slightly different - we all react to food differently, but much of the framework remains the same.

You will find documentation online to support any theory (Some will search until they hear the answer they were looking for). The bottom line is results for your specific body and lifestyle. You CF, roll JJ, work, have a family...all if it shapes your energy patterns.

I'll tell you what Ive experienced over the years.
Low carb diets take weight off quick but there is a NASTY rebound.
One can maintain a semblance of strength going Adtkins style.
I can get ANYONE Strong - eating pizza and ice cream will make you fat and strong.
Most people eat way more carbs then they realize - especially "winging it" zoners.

Not sure if this helps or means anything!

-jh

[Harold]

Yup, this is helpful. I think what I have learned, and you emphasize below, is that Zone provides the right framework for us all. We can all start there. But, over time, tweaks are needed to customize it for your body.

I'm still customizing and trying to figure out what works best for me. But, here are a couple of thoughts from my journey:

1) Keep it simple. I took easy to prepare foods that I like to eat and made them zone friendly. Chicken, almonds, fish, fruit are easy to prepare, measure, and tasty.
2) Be consistent. Nothing hurts your plans than inconsistency.
3) Base your zone meals on foods you like to eat. I like Kale and I like avocado. But, if you hate these foods, don't eat them.

Just a couple of thoughts. And, by the way, I am waiting for a pizza to arrive at my door right now!!!!

[Blain Rethmeier]

Thanks for the great links. I'm sure that most everyone has seen this valuable resource, but just to save you some time, here's the Crossfit Journal Issue 21 on The Zone.

http://journal.crossfit.com/2004/05/zone-meal-plans-crossfit-journ.tpl

[Patrick Bidigare]

Can anyone clarify why Rob says dairy products are verboten? It appears that they have a nearly zone-optimal mix of carbs, protein and fats, plus much of the sugars in milk products are in the form of galactose which must be metabolized in the liver to form glucose (a slow process that doesn't spike insulin levels).

[Harold]

Hey Pat:

I don't have the "answer" about dairy, but here is a short summary of some issues I've seen:

1) 2/3 of the world's population is lactose intolerant. Most humans are not designed to consume milk from cows because, well, it is for cows.
2) Milk leads to higher levels of mucus production.
3) Milk is a highly processed product to make it suitable for human consumption, which is a red flag in itself.
4) Some research has linked it to cancer.

I do drink milk, but in very small quantities. A few years ago I took it out of my diet entirely because I had a prolonged cough (over 6 months). After taking milk out, the cough went away. Still not sure of the causal effects of milk on my cough, but it did go away.

In movies, the good guys always drink milk because of its perceived purity. I love the scene in Scarface when the bad cop drinks milk at the bar. But, I'm not so sure it is as pure as the milk lobby would have us believe.

[Patrick Bidigare]

Thanks, Harold.

I hadn't heard that milk consumption was linked to cancer -- I'd be interested to hear if you come across a reputable link you can send me. I drink a lot of milk, and have been adding cottage cheese to my diet to insure I get some protein with each meal. I only buy the hormone-free organic stuff, but you're right that it's still processed.

Your connection between coughing and milk is interesting -- sounds like you had a mild allergic reaction. I'll have to put Scarface on my Netflix queue ;-)

[Harold]

Hey Pat:

Sorry for geeking out on this too much, but I'm a bit of an academic. I did a very, very quick lit review using jstor and found a couple of interesting things. Here is one citation and abstract below.

* "Drink Milk for Fitness": The Cultural Politics of Human Biological Variation and Milk Consumption in the United States
* Author(s): Andrea S. Wiley
* Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 106, No. 3 (Sep., 2004), pp. 506-517
* Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
* Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3567615

Abstract
Cow's milk is accorded a high cultural value in the contemporary United States. Its white color, association with the maternal and the pastoral, and repeated mention in the Bible add positive symbolic weight to this major national agricultural commodity. Thus, it comes as no surprise that influential policy-making institutions in the United States recommend milk consumption for all U.S. groups. This is despite variation in adult populations' abilities to digest milk, which has been documented by biological anthropologists. This article assesses various U.S. "stories" about milk consumption and its relationship to biological variation against the biological anthropological explanation of variation in lactase activity/lactose tolerance. Many of these serve as normalizing discourses that ultimately pathologize biological difference and may undermine the dietary traditions of some ethnic groups. In particular, the close relationship between government and the dairy industry leads to policies that fail to seriously consider variation in digestive physiology among the diverse U.S. populations.

[Christine]

Harold:

Thanks for the comments on dairy. My most successful nutritional journey to date was on Eat Right for Your Type diet, which looks at the body's inflammatory response to foods based on blood type. The overwhelming majority of us are Blood Type O and almost all dairy is a no/no for that blood type. Fortunately eggs are not and I remember there are a couple of cheeses.

One thing I have been trying to do is make sure that when I pick my Zone foods I stay away from what isn't necessarily a good blood type choice. Any food can be portioned into a zone block with a glycemic index, but that doesn't mean we should eat it. Honeydew and cantaloupe are two that spring to mind at the moment. I love them but they cultivate a particular mold spore that is digestively bad for type O's. Cauliflower... touted in South Beach as a great sub for mashed potatoes and a nice large zone block at 1 1/4 cups is also banished for those of blood type O.

So you can guess, between Eat Right for Your Type, South Beach, and Zone and the wonderful quality of toxins you can get in most "fresh" fruits and veggies, I pretty much don't enjoy cooking anymore.

[Karen]

Very excited for this challenge. As I learned this summer, sticking to the Zone WORKS - makes you feel more energetic and really ups your output. I agree with keeping it simple, at least until you get the hang of things and then you can introduce some additional complexity. That said, I only introduce a bit more complexity with my dinners since I enjoy cooking and get bored easily with just the basics (and Joel can't stand the basic Zone meals). For those of you that are doing this for the first time I'd recommend just following the information that Blaine offered, it will get you through simply. For others I've found the Top 100 Zone Foods and the What to Eat in the Zone books (both by Barry Sears) helpful. I also just ordered a Zone/Paleo cookbook and will be sure to share anything that I think is good! Good luck everyone!

[Linda]

I would be interested in seeing a discussion on reconciling the tenets of the Zone and the Paleo Diet, although the former tackles consumption and performance largely from the perspective of insulin control and the other from an evolutionary standpoint.

For instance, there is the general justification of not having grains because our bodies weren’t designed for them when describing the physiological reactions (insulin and Zone) to grain-based carbohydrates. However, humans have been consuming dairy for even less time than grains (evolution and Paleo) from what I understand. I see items such as string cheese on lists of Zone menus and acceptable foods.

There is also the issue of timing and frequency which relates to intermittent fasting (IF). Do those on the Zone regard past patterns of consumption as having been sub-optimal throughout biological and physiological evolution? How does one account for eating three (or five to six) squares a day when that in and of itself is a modern concept?

What, also, are we referring to when relaying the idea that one should not eat what one’s (great/) grandmother would not recognize? One person’s grandmother would not recognize kimchi or sauerkraut, but would butter; not salmon but wheat; not avocados but potatoes; and so on. Why do we then not depend on the composition of a traditional diet as well?

The notion of prescriptive and routine foods still raises skepticism due to the unknown (issues of micronutrients, compounds not yet discovered, reconciling science with salient life, etc.) Anecdotal evidence and the overarching statement of "if it works, do it" both fall flat as the post hoc ergo propter hoc attitude offers a vague, specious, and arrogant argument at best.

Throwin’ it out there. Definitely not nay-saying, just very curious. If we are to ascribe to a practice or discipline, it is important to do so with a healthy intellectual understanding of it.

[Jerry Hill]

WOW.
I guess I should have kept this simple and included ONLY the Zone!
Paleo, IF, and more are tweaks to the Zone.

First step is to eat Zone quantities and foods for 6-weeks.
You can eat dairy, wheat, chocolate, almost anything in the zone.
Save the advanced stuff for when you give me 6 good weeks!

Remember what we want to accomplish here;
-A change in your body composition
-Get you to understand blocks and portions
-Create a framework where you can weigh and measure progress

You will lose weight, have more energy, and perform better in the zone.
Once you are dialed in you can make tweaks.
Take out diary - how did your body react?
Put it back in - notice a change?
Remove gluten - same process.
Life is one big experiment - we will eat mass quantities of food over our lifespan - why not experiment and see what fuel we run optimally on?

-jh