Workout of the Day:

15 Dumbbell Snatch Right Hand
15 Dumbbell Push Press Right Hand
15 Dumbbell Snatch Left Hand
15 Dumbbell Push Press Left Hand
Run 400m
12 Dumbbell Snatch Right Hand
12 Dumbbell Push Press Right Hand
12 Dumbbell Snatch Left Hand
12 Dumbbell Push Press Left Hand
Run 400m
9 Dumbbell Snatch Right Hand
9 Dumbbell Push Press Right Hand
9 Dumbbell Snatch Left Hand
9 Dumbbell Push Press Left Hand
Run 400m

Post weight and times to comments. Rx’d weight is a 20Kg dumbbell. Compare to January 24th

Neil Foley & Big Ron of CrossFit Scotland who hosted myself, Ruairi, and CrossFitNI last weekend.

Will on diet hierarchy

If I was to embark on the entire nutritional odyssey all over again, this is what I’d do and the order I’d do it in. My personal biases are reflected in the ordering of some of the steps (I’m mostly a health/quality of life guy. If I were more performance-focused, zone weighing and measuring would probably be number 3 or so. Likewise, if I was more into longevity, fish oil would be around number 4 etc)

Each level here is basically dependent on the ones before it for success (although this gets a little murky towards the end). I’d recommend taking some time to get used to each one and making sure it’s habitual before moving on to the next.

Level 1 – Add some good stuff to your diet

Keep eating whatever other crap you want, but add in some vegetables, fruit, nuts, meat and oils. Replace the occasional mars bar with a salad here, an apple+handful of almonds there. Baby steps.

Level 2 – Ditch some of the heavily processed crap

At the very least remove sugar from the diet. Sugar is not food, and unrestricted consumption of it will eventually kill you. The only variable is how long this will take.

Level 3 – Ditch ALL the heavily processed crap

Move towards not eating anything that your grandmother would not recognise as food. Food does not come from boxes. Food comes from fields, trees and the ocean.

Level 4 – Stop being such a damn alcoholic

This one is tricky; if you quit drinking in Ireland you pretty much quit having a social life. This is unacceptable, but so is getting smashed drunk 3-4 nights per week. A good fecking session once or twice a month is probably OK.

Level 5- Prepare all your own food

If you made it, you know exactly what’s in it. No more excuses for crap slipping into the diet. If it has a food label, it’s probably not food.

Level 6 – Go Paleo

Ditch ALL the grains, ditch the legumes, ditch the potatoes, ditch the dairy. Your carb sources are fruit and vegetables ONLY.

Level 7 – Do the zone

3 meals and 2 snacks per day. Meal = Palm sized portion of protein, twice that amount of veg, bit of fruit and a handful of nuts.

Level 8 – Take fish oil

Lots of fish oil. 1-3 tablespoons per day. (NOTE: this does not say “cod liver oil”. That’s different stuff)

Level 9 – Weigh and measure your zone food

No, this doesn’t qualify you as having an eating disorder. It means you give enough of a crap about your health and performance to sacrifice an additional 38 seconds when preparing a meal. Yes, it’s inconvenient, but so is taking 1 minute longer than you have to to complete Fran.

Level 10 – Keep a food journal

Only had one cheat meal in the last month? Prove it!

Level 11 – Mess around with fancy stuff.

You now have my blessing to start playing around. Mess with your protein/carb ratios on the zone to see where you feel best. Find out if you have any food allergies. Do a nightshade elimination diet and see if you’re sensitive. Experiment with intermittent fasting. Try a cylcic-low-carb approach for a little while. Try a couple of the more sensible supplements (ZMA, multivitamin, probiotics, digestive enzymes, BCAAs, creatine etc) and see what happens. Tinker

Final step – Remind yourself why you do all this

Any long time zoner will tell you about what happens when you weigh&measure paleo foods for a couple of weeks, then go off and wash down a pizza with a litre or 2 of coke. In short: the body rebels.

The metabolic derangement that the average person accepts as normal feels indistinguishable from illness to someone who has experienced health. Make a full investigation of both sides of the fence, and decide which one you prefer.