Before I started CrossFit, I was a competitive bodybuilder. There are few enterprises that require such meticulous attention to food and nutrition. I had weighed and measured foods for weeks preparing for competitions. Each meal was on a rigid time schedule with macronutrients spread out in a very specific manner throughout the day and around my workout. Such precise detail was not required year-round, but I stuck with the general parameters all the time. You may not be surprised that a bodybuilding diet is what is considered “healthy” but the American public: low-fat foods, no pork and little red meat, starches in the morning and greens in the evening, no egg yolks, no refined sugar and lots of supplements. I ate this way for years. Every magazine, TV show or doctor I had ever met or heard advocated such a diet. Even advertisements and commercials reinforced the belief that what I was doing was the best thing for my body.
I began to hear about Paleolithic eating as soon as I joined Crossfit Aspire in January of 2011. Initially, I dismissed it. After all, wasn’t I already doing everything right? I had no desire to participate in some new fad diet that would likely vanish in a year or two — one that claimed eating bacon was acceptable! After a few months and several conversations about Paleo, I decided that I would investigate the science behind it. I thought that learning about Paleo would be a waste of time, though it could serve to cement my certainty that I was eating just as I should have been all along.
In May of 2011 I started reading articles about Paleo. The first few did little to change my attitude. As I read more, I felt a disturbing dread creeping into my nutritional thoughts. For some reason, the science behind the Paleo diet made sense. I found that I could not immediately dismiss it as junk science or a fad. The more I read, the more I felt that maybe, just maybe, I could try it. However, doing so would conflict with years of nutritional training and experience, not to mention the entirety of the American culture that advocates low-fat, whole grain and white meat only. Still hesitant, I continued reading.
What tipped the balance for me was reading the personal testimonials from our own members that were posted on the Crossfit Aspire nutrition page. Of course Justin and Alycia related their own experiences, as well as Jill Fisher, Laurie Denton, Beth Walker, Jason Holonia, Dave Hampton, Steve Kirsch, and Jamie DePolo. After I read through the transformations experienced by people I knew, I came to a realization. The purpose of my disciplined eating had been to continually improve my performance. However, my performance was not where I wanted it to be, where I knew it could and should be. If so many people could drastically improve performance in such a short time by eating Paleo, what would it do for me?
Still hesitant, I switched to Paleo in late May of 2011. Within a week I noticed that I had lost 4 or 5 pounds of fat. My clothes fit differently. More than that, I began sleeping better. I had always been a very light sleeper, never able to sleep a night through without waking up several times. After I started eating Paleo, I could get solid, unbroken sleep. Those two facts alone were enough for me to continue long enough to notice something more. I found that on the occasions when I could not exercise for several days (such as when I had the flu), I didn’t gain any fat. In the past, if I missed three days at the gym, I would add a few pounds of bad weight. After I got back into the gym, the fat would vanish. But eating Paleo added no extra weight, no extra fat, when I couldn’t exercise. Regardless, let’s hope that doesn’t happen much.
And as for performance, I have to say that I didn’t notice much improvement. Let me say that again: I didn’t notice much improvement. At least for a while. You see, I still came in, worked as hard as I could and collapsed on the floor after each WoD. Since we don’t repeat workouts often (constantly varied, right?), I just judged things based on how I felt. Since I still felt exhausted every day, I figured there wasn’t much going on in the improved performance department. However, on 16 August 2011 a WoD was posted that we had done before: 5 rounds, 5 deadlift and 10 burpees, 3, 2, 1, go. When we finished, I collapsed on the floor until I recovered. When I could breathe again I logged my time, as I always did, in my exercise journal. I wasn’t sure what my time was the last time I did that WoD and wanted to compare. It was almost three months of Paleo eating and four months of training in between. I found the previous entry on 18 April 2011 and checked my time – 8:37. Then I looked at the clock and my book once more for 16 August and saw the time – 4:01. I had to look at it a few times to be sure I was reading the right WoD. Yes, it was the right one, and I used the same weight, too.
When I pointed this out to Justin, his comment was, “It’s nice when it just kind of smacks you in the face ilke that.” I have to agree. Although I know some of the improvement was due to continued training, and Justin is an awesome coach, I think he’ll agree that it takes much more than good programming to become literally more than twice as fast in a mere four months. Finally, I had my proof. Paleo improves performance. A lot.
Now, as Alycia will confirm, I don’t consider myself to be participating in the 30 day challenge. That’s because I eat that way all the time. It’s not really a challenge when you just keep doing what you’re doing every day, is it? I’ll be participating in the sense that I’m doing it too, of course. I’ll check the message boards every day and add advice and encouragement if Steve and Jamie haven’t beaten me to it already (or maybe even if they have). I’ll be eating the same things and not eating the same things as everyone else involved, but I don’t really find it a challenge. Paleo is just the way it is for me. Kind of like the way Monday night means football in some houses.
For anyone who is still on the fence about Paleo or struggling with it, all I can say is stay with it. You’ll be happy you did. I’m here, and so are many others, to offer whatever support I can, so feel free to ask me anything or e-mail me with anything. If I don’t know, I’ll find the answer (I want to know, too). Maybe after 30 days you’ll find, like I did, that too many important things in your life have changed because you started eating only real food. Perhaps when you experience the kind of improvements that so many others have you won’t want to go back to your old habits, to the old you. You’ll be too busy eating bacon to look back, anyway.
