Progress Update: Post 2011 Lean into Spring

Long Time No Post...
So I know it has been a LONG time since I last posted here. For those of you that were hoping for more frequent blog posts my apologies... Honestly though I feel like Quality is much more important than Quantity... ( and yes, I promise I will finish writing my review of Lights Out )... Now on to the good stuff...

My Progress
Last time I posted here that I had 4 goals. They were:

1) Switching out all my fatty protein sources for lean sources ( i.e. Chicken instead of Beef )
2) Cutting out Sweet Potatoes / Squash / Blueberries ( I already don't eat much fruit )
3) No more Whey Protein post WOD... Going to EAT all my protein instead of drinking it
4) I'm 211#'s... I'll be eating 210 grams of protein a day ( That's 30 Blocks for you Zone Folks)


During the 7 week period I accomplished all of these goals with the exception of the week leading up to the Garage Games. And here is a break down of a typical day in terms of nutrition.

I kept my daily kcals to around 3100, 210 grams of protein ( I don't trust the protein calculation from fitday (above) , and generally 50g or less of carb's a day. Now I did do a little experiment with a cyclical ketogenic diet, but honestly I didn't give it enough time to have an honest assessment of how well it works.
And here are the results. Before and After pictures, with dates and Body Fat percentages. I have also included last years before and after pictures as well, just to see the progress.

Results
While the calipers say that I am at 6% Body Fat I think 8% is more accurate. That being said I still have some work to do. So what are my goals? Where do I want to go from here?


You all know that I love to be a human laboratory of n=1... So here are the goals for the next few months.


1) 8 Hour Feeding window... Fast from 9pm till 1pm every day.
2) CrossFit Endurance 2-3x a week
3) Focus of Performance instead of leaning out, and let the leanness come


So as per (1) I am going to try a little experiment with Intermitting Fasting (IF) and see how well it works. I am also looking into different supplements to take in order to incorporate IF with CFE.


Honestly, I am happy when I wake up every morning and look in the mirror, and while I know I still have more work to do I'm quite satisfied with how far I've come :-)


If any of you have suggestions regarding IF and CFE with CF please let me know if the comments. I'll update you all as soon as I have an opinion :-)

Food for Thought: The First 50 Days of CrossFit

What about Your First 50 Days?
   As I was completely unable to be productive yesterday (probably because I never saw the sunshine and am still recovering from Fran) and instead spent almost all of my day reading different CrossFit websites, I was able to find some neat resources. I stole this one from The CrossFit Chronicles, and felt that with the influx of new members into our gym, it was too good not to share.
   Let us know what you think about it, and if you have any websites that you check on a daily basis. I know that The CrossFit Chronicles is going to be one that I start to check on the daily.

I Will Commit

   I just found this video on sicfit.com and thought that it was too good not to share. I think the video says enough about who you are and more importantly, who you want to become. Watch and Ponder

Ten General Physical Skills: CrossFit's First Fitness Standard

Serial Posting
   As I try and finish Lights Out, as well as write a brief review of the book and what to take away from it, I want to go back to basics when it comes to our actual fitness. Why is it that we here in "CrossFit Land" do what we do? From the way the workouts are programmed, to the range of motion that we teach, is there a method to all this madness?

   Over the next few weeks I am going to be breaking down the standards of fitness that CrossFit uses to measure an athletes ability, and discussing WHY they are utilized as well as how we can improve our performance in these regimes. From the physical, to the physiological, to the psychological aspects, We are going to take a look at it all.

Goals... They're More than Just Words

   Where am I? Where do I want to go? How do I get there? How long will this take?  All of these are questions that every serious athlete has asked themselves. And the crazy part is that it is not about what the answer to these questions is that sets us apart. Instead, it's HOW we answer the question that matters.

   Are you super skinny or a "Hardgainer" and you want to bulk up? Are you overweight or not satisfied with your bikini body ( sorry guys )? Or... do you have a really good health base, you are fit and at a comfortable body fat percentage, but you just want to make some tweaks regardless of whether those are to slim down just a little, or to get better at pullups. Regardless of who you are and where you want to get to...getting to that magical place is all in your goals...

The Purpose of Eat...Sleep...WOD

     While talking with my friend David Csonka, from over at Naturally Engineered, he mentioned that I needed to make sure that if I was going to make this blog a success, it needed to have a purpose.

   Now given that I have been formulating a future blog post in my head about goals and goal setting, I realized that Dave was right on the money. What is Eat...Sleep...WOD all about? If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right!

Final Garage Games Mock Competition

This past weekend was the final Mock Competition before we head to the Garage Games next Month. Overall I did alright. My 5K trail run time was the same as last month, and needs work, but overall I was satisfied. Hit a new Deadlift PR of 410!

Then I looked at some of the pictures from this weekend:

And I noticed that I am not nearly as lean as what I though I was...

Granted this past week I have been experimenting with 1/2 GOMAD ( all of which was raw), and I weighed myself at 211 this morning ( up 3-4 # from last week ).

So here is my solution:

1) Switching out all my fatty protein sources for lean sources ( i.e. Chicken instead of Beef )
2) Cutting out Sweet Potatoes / Squash / Blueberries ( I already don't eat much fruit )
3) No more Whey Protein post WOD... Going to EAT all my protein instead of drinking it
4) I'm 211#'s... I'll be eating 210 grams of protein a day ( That's 30 Blocks for you Zone Folks)

So there it is, my first post...Some good, Some bad, and Some resolution.