No.  I can’t.  You all ask me this frequently.  Once you start learning about ways to change your eating and especially learning about Paleo and Zone you want a book that will tell you what to do and how to do it.  I LOVE BOOKS.  I love learning about all of this stuff. [...]]]>

No.  I can’t.  You all ask me this frequently.  Once you start learning about ways to change your eating and especially learning about Paleo and Zone you want a book that will tell you what to do and how to do it.  I LOVE BOOKS.  I love learning about all of this stuff.  I spend innumerable hours each week reading, researching, compiling information and making sense of it.  There is a boatload of information out there and if you love this stuff like I do then by all means start reading.  However, at this point I do not have any one resource I would want my people to use as the “thing-to-follow”.  Great to read The Paleo Diet by Dr. Cordain.  Great to read one of the zillions of versions of The Zone by Dr. Sears (except the entire book he published claiming you should use soy as protein to stay in the Zone!!).  The free CrossFit Journal #21 is also a great resource for learning how to Zone. But, I hope you don’t just start following their instructions as if it is a total, complete package.  Neither of those resources is a complete package.  I don’t want you to use any nutrition or diet book like that (except of course when I write my own, or maybe when Robb Wolf publishes his).  They are all great stepping stones to figuring out what you should do with your own food, but each of you is a unique biochemical individual with a whole lifetime of unique food, sleep, movement, emotion, chemical load, and genetic code that is different from everyone else.  What you eat and when you eat it and how much of it you eat depends on who you are.  There are some basic guidelines that we can take on which with 99% positivity will be beneficial, like cutting out grains.  But there is plenty amiss in the leading books for many of you.  The low fat mantra that Dr. Cordain follows for example would put some of you into serious meltdown.  His thoughts on salt intake are also questionable as he forgets that the gross, uncivilized Cave Person did things like drink the blood of the animals they killed.  Cave Grrrl Jane may not have been following the CrossFit Endurance program here in the Sonoran Desert.  Guess what?  If she had she would have needed some additional salt.   Dr. Sears, who is, certainly a genius and a giant in the world of getting people healthier, has a whole slew of suggestions that make me cringe.  His new focus on fish oil and Omega-3 fats is great, but there are plenty of incredible researchers and writers out there who were drawing attention to the need for more careful attention to Omega-6:Omega-3 ratios when Dr. Sears was writing a book about how to stay in the Soy Zone and taking a decidedly Weight Watchers-type approach to eating which goes something like, “bologna, Wonder Bread and Corn Oil can be fine as long as you eat the correct amounts of them”.

So, apologies if I frustrate you all by not giving you “a book”.  I’ve accumulated too much seemingly unrelated nutrition information, that when it has been rearranged in my head is pretty damn enlightening, to give you one resource as “it”.

A huge thank you to Daniel and John W. for helping Carl paint this afternoon.  It should be obvious that having Daniel around would make painting more enjoyable and we wish John W. was closer and could be here more anyway.  And-in an odd twist of fate, John W. and Matt T. did “Helen” today in separate AZ cities.  Matt T. finished in just under 10min and John W. in 10:01!

On a completely unrelated note.  I’m looking for some fellow CrossFitters to join me at 5:00 this Friday to do “Angie”.  If you have a desire to do 100 of your 4 favorite body weight exercises, post to the comments.  I need to start right at 5:00pm.  Be prepared to listen to Sarah’s Old School Hip Hop Playlist until I am finished!!

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I want to add Chauncey to the list of Thank Yous! Without him staying late on Friday night and coming in early on Saturday morning to tape, float and texture the walls, there would have been few walls for me, Daniel and John to paint!

Thanks Chauncey!

Also, more thanks to Kate, Jenny, Bryon, Robbie and Janice who all played a part in getting the new Record Boards going and to Erik for helping to hang the beams for our Rings to hang from!

Everyday the gym looks a little better because of the great clients who pitch in to help!

And finally, a REALLY BIG  “Thank You” to our Supreme Blogger, Jennifer Higgins for todays excellent post, which also marks CrossFit Works “100th Blog Post”. Great work Jen! Keep it up!

Thanks again everyone!

Carl