You've gotta eat. . .

A big goal for this season is to dial in my nutrition to maximize performance. Over the past 5 months or so, I've dabbled in Paleo eating and IF. And I like both of them. So I've been looking for a way to put it all together.

My ideals for nutrition are most accurately listed below (shamelessly borrowed from Spartan Fitness Body).

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS JUNK FOOD -
"There’s food and there’s junk.
Eat food not junk. Food is what is found naturally in nature. If it wasn’t killed or picked off a tree recently don’t eat it. That’s the ideal to shoot for. This eliminates stuff like sugar, bread, pasta, donuts, flour.
Extra credit if you eliminate grain, beans, and pasteurized dairy.
Do this alone and you will see BIG changes guaranteed.
One more thing. Stop drinking junk too, water’s all you need."

Though I love donuts and cake, I'm willing to sacrifice them for better performance.

Today, I started the Zone-Paleo. Basically, I'll be eating Paleo foods in Zone proportions - 11 blocks a day. Practically, it is already making my life easier because with my crazy schedule I NEED to have prepared food with me. My plan is to commit to 2 weeks of strict weighing and measuring and then reassess. And since I've been loosely following a daily 14-hour fast for the past 3 months, my eating will likely fall within my "eating hours."

This morning, I weighed in at 137.2 pounds with a bodyfat of 27.7% (based on the Tanita scale). The bodyfat number was surprisingly high for me - I thought it would be closer to the 24% that it was back in September since I feel leaner now than I was then. But it's a line in the sand. My goal is to drop 10 pounds of bodyfat and improve my performance in Crossfit and triathlon.

I made Char Shiu chicken last night so I've got plenty of protein to build meals with. I'll probably cook again on Friday or Sunday. Today, I've had two-3block meals and one-1block snack. I'm about to have my last meal shortly and then the snack in a few hours. I was worried that the calorie intake would be too low but soo far, so good - I felt good during my workout and haven't been hungry.

3-2-1-Go!