Fat Junkie

One more Zone blog became neccesary, when I realized I didn't explain my rational for my blocks. If you're still reading and interested, I KNOW you're crossfitter who pays attention to nutrition, everyone else fell asleep two blogs ago.....  


At the point in my zone experiment when I was down to 10 blocks a day, two things happened. I realized that, because I do not eat red meat, (I'll get to the aforementioned beef jerky) all my protein was coming from sources that had almost no fat. Chicken, turkey, eggs, tuna (yeah, I eat it with no mayo) are my standard sources of protein. Turns out, when that's the case, it's standard operating procedure to double your fat blocks, information that is buried in the Barry Sears book, and something Rob Wolf talks extensively about in his humorous and extremely informative essay, "42 Ways To Skin The Zone". This article, easily found on the web, is based in science and common sense, and funny as hell. It's also the article that helped me to make the zone palatable for me. I strongly urge anyone with an interest in eating for optimal performance to read this essay. So, I immediately doubled my fat blocks to twenty, and life overall became more manageable. Except I still wanted to be leaner, which is when I took Rob Wolffs advice again, who advocates trading blocks!! So because I suspected, as did Gary, that it was the carbs that were keeping me from taking off a few extra pounds, I traded 4 carb blocks for 4 fat block, in effect, leaving me with 6 blocks of carbs, 10 of protein, and 24 of fat. And it worked, I took off a few extra pounds of fat, got leaner, and quicker in the gym (although not as fast as I would like!!)  


So basically at this point, I use carbs strictly as a source of quick release energy, and I take in 50% of those 6 blocks pre and post WOD, and spread the rest throughout the day, in conjunction with 10 blocks of protein and 24 of fat, I have found my weight, and my performance, has improved. For me, it seems pretty clear that extra carbs were being stored as fat, when I whittled them down to the bare minimum, making sure that I have enough at the right time for optimum performance, I got lean. To be clear, my carbs are all complex, basically fruit and veggies, no dairy, no wheat. I do get a small amount from the 2/1 bars that I eat, (1.5 blocks of carbs for every bar, which also has 4 blocks whey protein & 2 blocks fat) other then that, it's basically a paleo diet executed the zone method, which I slowly evolved into. Which I find shocking, as I tried paleo once, and lasted two weeks, found it "too restrictive!" Yet, here I am, and this is the beauty of the Zone diet, as Rob Wolf writes, the 40/30/30 ratio is a place to start, it is not the end all, and every person, their body, metabolism, etc is different. Tinkering is imperative, for me, informed tinkering has been key. About that beef jerky. When I eat it (14 years as a vegaterian, and tear this stuff UP!) I count both the fat and the protein and add them into my blocks for the day. I eat Harry and Davids brand, and the nutritional content is available on the label. It's awesome, two thumbs up!  


I do hope someone finds this helpful, as I realize how geeky all this is.....as for me, all this zone talk has me starving, off to a cheat meal! Later!!