Nutrition is extremely important. It is the quickest way to lose excess body fat and sculpt a lean, athletic physique. It will also increase your athletic capabilities. Yes, you can still lose weight by fueling yourself on junk in smaller quantities and working out, but these gains will be short lived & you will eventually plateau and/or return to your previous weight.

Our goal at CrossFit Hays is to enable our athletes to make lifestyle changes that will benefit them for years to come. Our approach is to take small steps at achieving your goals. It is important to understand that this is a lifetime goal that you will have to continue to work towards.

Start by tracking what you eat today. You can log your intake using pen and paper or there are some useful apps (“my fitness pal” or “Lose it”) that are available for free. Write everything down – all foods you eat, all drinks you consume, even gum! This will help to give you an idea of your current intake.

Once you have a good week of tracking, please reach out to your coach for more information on next steps to helping you achieve your fitness goals.

• Paleo
• Zone Diet

• 

  The paleo diet is commonly referred to as the Caveman diet. It consists of eating foods that can be either grown, picked, or killed. A basic list of items can be found here:

  EAT:

  • Grass produced meats
  • Fruit
  • Vegetables
  • Seafood
  • Nuts & Seeds
  • Healthy Fats (coconut oil, Olive oil, walnut, flaxseed, avocado)

  Avoid:

  • Dairy
  • Grains
  • Legumes
  • Startches
  • Sugar
  • Processed Foods
  • Alcohol

• The Zone Diet is designed to balance your hormones. It focuses on eating a healthy balanced diet of carbohydrates, protiens, and fats. Your proportions would be based on blocks.

  What is a block?

  
  A block is a unit of measure used to simplify the process of making balanced meals.
  7 grams of protein = 1block of protein
  9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block ofcarbohydrate
  1.5 grams of fat = 1 block of fat
  (There is an assumption that there is about 1.5 grams of fat in each block of protein, so the total amount of fat needed per 1 block meal is 3 grams.)
  When a meal is composed of equal blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, it is 40 % carbohydrate, 30 % protein and 30% fat.

  How do you know how many blocks you need?

  Female
  Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	Snack	Daily Total	Body Type
  2	2	2	2	2	10	Small female
  3	3	1	3	1	11	Medium female
  3	3	2	3	2	13	Large female
  4	4	1	4	1	14	Athletic - well muscled female
  Male
  4	4	2	4	2	16	Small male
  5	5	1	5	1	17	Medium male
  5	5	2	5	2	19	Large male
  4	4	4	4	4	20	X-Large male
  5	5	3	5	3	21	Hard gainer
  5	5	4	5	4	23	Large hard grainer
  5	5	5	5	5	25	Athletic - well muscled male

  * No cheating the entire duration of the challenge = 6 points

  What is a sample meal?

  Here is a sample 4 block meal:
  4 oz. chicken breast
  1 artichoke
  1 cup of steamed vegetables w/ 24 crushed peanuts
  1 sliced apple
  This meals contains 28 grams of protein, 36 grams of carbohydrate, and 12 grams of fat. It is simpler, though, to think of it as 4 blocks of protein, 4 blocks of carbohydrate, and 4 blocks of fat.

  What is a typical day?

  SAMPLE DAY	Block Requirements for small ("4 block") male
  	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	Snack
  Protein	4	4	2	4	2
  Carbohydrate	4	4	2	4	4
  Fat	4	4	2	4	4