Who is ready for a Level II nutrition talk?

Mmmmm, lunch.  Half a bag of Trader Joe’s mache (or by its non-Yuppie, weed name, lamb’s quarters), 1/2 box of Trader Joe’s microgreens, 4oz leftover grilled steak, a little olive oil, sea salt and black pepper.  What does it mean to be ready for a Level II nutrition talk?  It means you have committed to taking full responsibility for what you put in your body and the impact it has on your well being and performance.  You’ve written it down and you are ready to talk about it honestly.  It means you have graduated beyond saying things like “I eat pretty well”.  It means you have moved past thinking you are eating optimally and actually assessing it.  It also means you have, at least for a few weeks. put your addiction to and reliance on “comfort foods” to the test.  The last two authors in the mainstream media that have written about the Paleo diet both concluded that it was not reasonable because it was too difficult to give up certain foods they missed and therefore it didn’t get the thumbs up.  Maybe they should have concluded with, “although there are thousands of other people following this diet and doing phenomenally well on it, I simply didn’t have the ability to do it and therefore the benefits are beyond my reach.”  More importantly than anything else when it comes to assessing what you eat and how you respond to it, honesty is important.  If you repeatedly reach for “comfort foods” even though you know they contribute to sluggishness and slow performance or weight gain, then you are not the master of your mouth.  There is absolutely a time and place for all kinds of foods, maybe even green jello and twinkies.  The key is, “Are you in control of what goes into your mouth?  Do you eat the food you eat because you really want to and you know it will benefit you? or because you can’t stop yourself, but you tell yourself and me and your fellow crossfitters it isn’t that bad to eat the way you do?”  Try keeping a food journal for 3 weeks, coming to a Level II nutrition talk and working through some of this stuff.  Or ask Lori L. who recently said that when she finally just committed to doing it, the weight started melting off and it wasn’t that hard after all.  Nice work Lori.