Zaleo!?

Ok…you’re down with Paleo, you’re feeling good about hitting the beach in the new board shorts, energy is soaring and you are rocking the WOD’s. What’s next?!

Meet Cameron!

Cameron’s jumped into the Paleo Challenge feet first. He has been sticking to lean meats, fruits, vegetables and good fats pretty consistently.

Here’s what he’s seen so far…

• Weight – down about 10 lbs
• Inches – dropped from a 36 inch waist to 31/32

Performance:

• HALF Angie time (4 months ago) was 28:37, to a FULL Angie at 23:53
• Dropped Annie time by 3:46, coming in at 9:45
• 1 rep max Deadlift went from 355lbs to 375lbs
• In the last two weeks, achieved his first muscle up and a hand stand push up

You can follow more of Cameron’s adventures in food and WOD’s on his awesomely named blog “I Wanna Be Really Hard to Kill”… at http://cfbloggers.com/users/camswodfoodjournal/

As you can see, he’s got some pretty good stats going on. And you can also see in the above photo, which we will refer to as Exhibit A, he has allowed himself a “few” cheats along the way. Overall Cameron gets an A+ for Diet 101!

Cameron has his Firefighter Physical Assessment coming up this summer and in prep for it he has decided to embark on Diet 102! Just as Crossfit believes “constantly varied” is essential in developing elite athletes, the same is true in diet. Tweaks and adjustments are often required to see what works, and to achieve your highest preformance potential. In the Crossfit Universe this is the marriage of both the Zone and Paleo Diet. Zaleo!?

Don’t panic…if you passed 101…102 is gonna feel like Home Ec class!

The Zone differs from Paleo in a few ways. The Readers Digest version is; the Zone allows dairy and some grains while Paleo does not. Paleo also strongly advocates QUALITY of food cutting all processed foods and believing organic grain-fed meats to be best. The Zone is not as concerned with quality of foods however it does focus on QUANTITY.

QUANTITY (Zone) + QUALITY (Paleo) = Darn Good Diet! Seems like pretty smart math.

Here are some great sources if you are interested in learing more about Zone and Paleo, and how to make your own smart equation.

Robb Wolf
Robb Wolf is a diet guru. He strongly advocates good diet and the link to performance, and is all knowing in the Zoned Paleo diet. He has many of his athletes prescribing to this diet, he tweaks to meet their needs and desired outputs, and has seen first hand the fantastic results. If you really are ready for Diet 102 spend time on Robb Wolf’s page.

Performance Menu
A must read is “42 Ways to Skin the Zone” from Performance Menu Journal. It looks at the different types of adjustments you can make depending on how you feel and your performance. Don’t be overwhelmed by the blocks, once you get a basic understanding of Zone they are simple and tweaking your diet is easy.

Other great nutrition sites:
Dr Cordain’s Paleo Diet site
The Zone Diet website
The LIFE Spotlight
Zone Block Calculator
Aimee’s Zone Blocks (weights) *in case you can’t figure out how to cram that asparagus into a perfect cup!

Many of our Crossfit Toronto Members and Trainers are practicing the ways of Zaleo. Ask around if you want to find out what worked for them.

You’ve made it nearly 8 weeks in Diet 101…are you ready to graduate to Diet 102!?

Workout

Complete 5 rounds. Each round is 3 minutes in which you complete as many reps as possible of the exercises and sets noted, with a one minute rest between rounds:

• 3 Heavy Kettlebell Swings (boys: 32kg; girls: 24kg)
• 6 Push Ups
• 9 Knees to Elbows