Do you know what barley, buckwheat, corn, fonio, millets, oats, quinoa, rice, rye, sorghum, and wheat all have in common? That's right, they are all grains.

Now that we know what is considered a grain, let's take a brief look at grains are composed of.

The entire seed itself is referred to as the "kernel". As you can see in the picture, the kernel is made up of 3 parts:

1. Bran - This is the tough outer coating of the kernel. It contains proteins, vitamins, minerals, and most of the fiber. Sounds all well and dandy, but it is also home to anti-nutrients and gut-irritating protein constituents.
2. Germ - This is the plant embryo and it contains a fairly dense source of fatty acids (mostly omega-6), some protein, and assorted vitamins and minerals.
3. Endosperm - This is the germ's food supply. It is composed mostly of starchy carbohydrates, some protein, and little in the way of vitamins and minerals.

OK, we should all be on the same page now. Let's get to the good stuff, shall we?

There are several reasons why we so strongly recommend your avoidance of grains.

• Insulin Response - Like all other carbohydrates, grains are eventually broken down into glucose which requires an insulin response. If your body's glycogen stores are full at the time, this extra glucose will be stored as fat. This taxes the adrenal system, the pancreas, and the immune system as well as causing inflammation. Besides, who wants to get fat?!
• Phytic Acid Levels - Grains contain high levels of phytic acid. These phytates are not destroyed during the cooking process and block our body's uptake of key nutrients like calcium, zinc, and magnesium. Your body's ability to process Vitamin D is also reduced by these phytates. There is a reason why most commercial grain products are fortified with so many different vitamins and minerals.
• Fiber - Fiber deserves an entire post of its own, but I will give a brief summary here. Contrary to what big business would like you to believe, fiber is NOT necessary. In fact, fiber can be an irritant to most. This is because it simply passes through your digestive system, scraping up the walls as it moves on through. Your body has no use for it. On the other hand, the nasty bacteria living in your gut, responsible for IBS, lives solely off of this stuff.
• Gluten - Gluten is the large, water-soluble protein that creates the elasticity in dough. Our bodies respond to our ingestion of gluten with inflammation. Overtime, this inflammatory response leads to dermatitis, joint pain, reproductive problems, acid reflux, autoimmune disorders, and celiac disease.
• Lectins - Lectins, by definition, are proteins which bind specifically to carbohydrate-containing receptors on cell surfaces and "do something" to said cells. The "do something" ranges from causing Leaky Gut Syndrome to Autoimmune Disorders to Lactose Intolerance.

Livestock don't handle grains too well either. Their fatty acid profiles become completely altered and they become infected with heat and acid resistant strains of E. Coli. A grain based diet requires plenty of hormones and antibiotics to keep the sick livestock alive long enough to be slaughtered.

There really is no "healthy" justification for consuming grains. They do not provide a single nutrient that you couldn't get in equal or even greater amounts from other foods and they wreck havoc on our bodies.

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I am making myself available this Saturday, after the 10am Introductory Class, to share my thoughts on nutrition with any of you who are interested. I will put a sign-up list on the extra whiteboard at the Fort and I ask that you throw your name on there if you will be hanging around on Saturday. Feel free to get some skill work in during the Introductory Class while you wait.

Please spend some time seriously considering your goals if you haven't already done so. Your goals must be realistic, observable, and measurable while not conflicting with each other, if they are to be attainable. I would also like to ask that you get some measurements taken this week, preferably before class, as Saturday will be pretty busy.

Finally, I know I will come off as a dick saying this, but I must reiterate Jennie's comments from the other day and ask that you don't waste my time if you aren't truly interested in buckling down and attacking your nutrition. There is no minimizing the fact that it is going to take hard work and discipline to succeed. Changes will have to be made. Don't expect me to simply reduce your calorie intake. That's not what this is about. I have ample studies backing up the claim that you cannot out work your food consumption. Instead, we will be targeting hormonal changes through your dietary prescription (more about this on Saturday). I know this is foreign to most of you and maybe even a little unimaginable. I'm not asking you to believe that the world is flat though. I'm just asking you to have an open mind, be a critical thinker, and make informed decisions on your own. I guarantee that working with me on your nutrition will result in improved workouts and better body composition. There is no doubt that you will have more energy and simply feel better throughout the entire day.

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Mexi-Beef

• Grass-Fed Ground Beef (485g)
• Grass-Fed Tallow (44g)
• Sliced Baby Bella Mushrooms (40g)
• Garlic (14g)
• El Pato (7.75 oz)
• Raw Grass-Fed Cow's Cream (32g)
• Chihuahua Cheese (104g)
• Lots of Cumin!

Start by browning the ground beef in the tallow and cumin. While that is happening, chop up the mushrooms and garlic. Once the meat is close to being done, add the mushrooms and about one third of the garlic. Cook all of that for a minute or two and then add the El Pato tomato sauce. Aggressively simmer everything at this point so that some of the moisture cooks out of the El Pato. Now add the cream and continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Serve in a bowl and garnish with shredded chihuahua cheese.

The picture above does not do this dish justice! It doesn't help that I had to take the picture with my iPhone.

When I started, I had no idea what direction I was headed. All I knew was that I was at the end of a 17 hour fast and wanted some ground beef before heading to the Fort for my evening classes. I just kept looking in the refrigerator and cabinet until I felt the meal was complete. Next time I will omit the mushrooms and possibly add some bacon, but the results were still terrific!

Here is the nutritional breakdown according to The DailyPlate:

• Calories - 2,148
• Fat - 178g
• Carbs - 14g (after subtracting the 4g of fiber)
• Protein - 114g

When it was all said and done, this meal took me about 15 minutes to prepare and an astonishing 7 minutes to devour!

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We care about the success of each and every one of you! That is why we are excited when you come to us, looking to take your journey a step further and make changes to your diet. There are a few things though that will stop you before you ever even start. Please try to avoid the following:

1. Don't be discouraged that you have been CrossFitting for 'x' amount of time, but aren't losing any weight or aren't seeing any major body composition changes if you haven't properly addressed your diet.  The fact that you CrossFit can not be your justification for eating that bowl of ice cream. You see, exercise alone is NOT sufficient for major body composition changes. You can CrossFit until you are blue in the face, increasing your strength and fitness, but if you do not address your eating habits, you will not dramatically alter the appearance of your body. Whether you want to get heyuge or want to shed some fat before summer, nutrition is what will get you there. In the following examples, the before shots are of 3 individuals who were CrossFitting twice per week without addressing their diets and the after shots are the same individuals, still CrossFitting only twice per week, but with their diets cleaned up. Click Here
2. Don't let your scale be the judge of your successes. Throw the scale away! The scale will become your worst enemy. You see, if you haven't done much strength training before starting your CrossFit experience, you will see dramatic increases in strength (i.e. muscle) during the first several months if not year. Even if you are dialing in your nutrition and losing that much hated fat, the scale may still say that you are gaining weight. Truth is, muscle weighs more than fat. Judge your successes by how you feel, by how your clothes fit, by how much jiggle you have when you jump up and down in front of a mirror, and by annual blood work results.
3. Don't ask us for nutritional advice and then say, "Oh, I could never give up (fill in the blank)!" If that is the case, then you obviously prefer stuffing your face with (fill in the blank) over being lean and healthy. People, there is no magic pill! There is no "easy" fix! Want to know what is easy? Being fat is easy. Look around you. 65% of the adult population in this great country of ours is overweight. 65%! You have to decide that being lean and healthy means more to you than that box of (fill in the blank). Remember, food is not your friend! Food is simply a means to an end. We eat to live, not the other way around.
4. Don't rationalize the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of your current diet because ours sounds difficult. This usually follows number 3 in a given conversation and looks something similar to, "Well, I already eat pretty clean/healthy except for the occasional (fill in the blank) so I'm going to stick to that." You aren't fooling anyone, not even yourself. If what you are currently doing isn't producing the results you are after, then you must take action. Tweak it, change it, scrap everything and start from scratch; just do something. Doing the same thing over and over though while expecting different results is simply insane.

We get it though. We understand how difficult it can be. You have to accept that fact though and pull up your boot straps.

It isn't easy for any of us. We all have to be disciplined and make sacrifices from time to time if we are going to meet our goals. Nobody is without their food demons. It is perfectly OK, even expected, for you to make some progress, start feeling good, but then stumble and fall down. The key is to get right back up, dust yourself off, and climb back onto that horse.

You are a CrossFitter! You don't shy away from a challenge. You welcome discomfort every single day that you show up to workout.

Food is most definitely physically addicting. Telling an overweight individual to simply stop eating would be like telling a depressed person to stop being so down. You have our support though. CrossFit Fire is a family and we are all here for each other. Utilize the numerous resources that we collectively bring to the table and your goals will all be attainable.

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Contrary to what many companies, farmers, and our government will tell you, soy is NOT a superfood. In fact, I would argue that soy is completely unnecessary and should be avoided most of the time. Here are a few reasons why:

1. You all know that estrogen is the primary female sex hormone. What you probably don't know is that soy contains phytoestrogens (i.e. isoflavones) which are estrogen look-a-likes. These imposters are weaker than the real thing though and like to bond themselves to sex-hormone binding proteins in the blood as well as to estrogen receptor sites. This frees up the stronger, naturally produced estrogen in our bodies to take part in stronger estrogen actions in our body such as breast cancer.
2. The same isoflavones that we were just talking about are also known to inhibit certain thyroid functions in our bodies, specifically thyroid peroxidase (the production of T3 and T4). These isoflavones may even be the cause of hypothyroidism to begin with.
3. Soy products don't just mess with our hormones though. You see, soybeans are also quite high in phytic acid which is a substance that can block the uptake of essential minerals (i.e. calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc) in the intestinal tract. The phytic acid level in soybeans is actually one of the highest phytate levels of any grain or legume that has been studied! Add to that the fact that the phytates found in soybeans are highly resistant to normal phytate-reducing techniques such as long, slow cooking and you have quite a dilemma on your hands. The only way to significantly reduce the phytate content of soybeans is a long period of fermentation. Some examples of fermented soy products are: miso, shoyu, tempeh, and natto.

A few additional facts on soy:

• Average consumption of soy foods in Japan and China is 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) per day. Asians consume soy foods in small amounts as a condiment, and not as a replacement for animal foods.
• An infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least 5 birth control pills per day!
• Megadoses of phytoestrogens in soy formula have been implicated in the current trend toward increasingly premature sexual development in girls and delayed or retarded sexual development in boys.
• Soy consumption can drastically reduce a man's libido!

With that being said, I don't see any need to include soy in your diet. Soy does not provide you with any nutrients that you couldn't get somewhere else. I would also like to point out that you may not consume soy directly by itself, but if you eat a lot of processed foods, you are most definitely consuming soy with every meal. Read all ingredient lists for a while and you may be surprised to find how prevalent soy truly is.

Ditch the soy! Your hormones will thank you.

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Rump Roast and Veggies in the Crock-Pot

• Grass-Fed Rump Roast (957g)
• Organic Red Onion (255g)
• Organic Carrots (323g)
• Organic Celery (147g)
• Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Broth (4 cups)
• Martinis Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive Oil (4 tbsp)
• Shredded Green Cabbage (140g)
• Trader Joe's California Garlic Powder
• Trader Joe's Steak & Chop Grill & Broil Seasoning

Start by slicing the onion, carrots, and celery. Put about half of this combo in the crock-pot and place the roast on top. Season with the garlic powder and steak seasoning. I used garlic powder because I was too lazy to peel and dice the real thing. Now add the vegetable broth and the olive oil. Cover and cook on low for about 8 or 9 hours. Before serving, mix the cabbage in.

The crock-pot is awesome because you spend less than 10 minutes preparing a whole lot of food and when you arrive home from a long day, you are greeted by a deliciously smelling meal. Plus, there is only one dish to have to wash later. If you don't already have a crock-pot, I suggest you go out and invest about $60 in one of these fine culinary specimens. The meal possibilities are endless.

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A few of you have asked me for book suggestions. I highly recommend reading Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival by T.S. Wiley. This is a great book to start with as it provides an overview of how our body works hormonally without being overly technical.

I own a copy of this book and have considered making my entire library available to our members. I think I will create a sign-out sheet and hang it at the Fort. Keep an eye open for this.

In the mean time, here is a link to the book at Amazon: Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival

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