Eating Crossfit and Working Out Paleo

or something like that…

My friend Eric told be about crossfit a few years ago, and I thought, that sounds like a workout cult of ultra fit crazies.  The workouts looked tough in an ‘no shit humans can’t do that’ type of way.

Last month my friend Tara tweeted at Nicole Gibson of CrossFit Roots here in Boulder that she was really sore.  Like woke up in the night sore.  I thought that sounded pretty terrible.

Wait, Tara is doing crossfit?  Tara, the ‘Napa Valley of Beer‘ Ignite speaker is doing these insane workouts?

Yep.  I want in.

So I talked to her on twitter for a bit, and Nicole reached out to me for a one on one session.  After the workout, which lasted six minutes, I had to sit for an hour to recover.  Just two months after finishing the NYC Marathon I was flat on my back after a six minute workout.  I signed up for the Foundations Course, an intro focusing on form and making you not a weakling.

Today I finish the first month.  What a ride it has been.  Crossfit is a cross between Olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, full body movement in short explosive challenges designed by the middle school gym coach that yelled at the fat kid for not climbing the rope.  It is a community workout of 6 -12 people all completing a ‘challenge’ of the day.  Our last workout we did as many loops of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 ‘air squats’ (think of doing a squat with your tailbone going almost all the way to the ground) in 12 minutes.  I did 8.  So in 12 minutes, I did 40 pullups, 80 pushups and 120 squats.  The pullups are assisted by bands and the squats are assisted by tears.

I’m loving the workouts.  Tough, not too tough.  A challenge.  Full body workouts.  Good camaraderie around everyone there.  It helps that Nicole is an absolute badass (inside and out).

Last night Tara and her wonderful husband Adam invited me over for a Paleo dinner.  Paleo is the style of eating that most of the crossfit cult members eat.  Pretty simple diet: fruit, veggies and meat.  No grains, dairy, sugar or happiness.  Actually, I’m pretty happy on it, very happy with the results.  So I came over for dinner.  Adam is an amazing chef, I wasn’t expecting the amazing food on the table.  Being a single dude cooking all the time for Paleo I do a lot of simple meals, like ground beef, onions, green peppers and garlic, or omelets.  Simple foods.

Adam however, went overboard with awesome.

The reason we are eating like this is both for health and because there is a challenge at they gym.

6 weeks, eat perfect Paleo style.  No sugar, carbs (or very few) and lot and lots of real food. Everything I buy at the store can spoil.  Real food.   Winner (person that has changed the most) takes a pot of about $500.   We are one week in.

I like challenges.  I kick ass at them.  The 1/2 Ironman and NYC Marathon were just challenges, I can do this one too.  We started on the 17th, and on my weigh in today, the 29th, I’m down 10 pounds.

The combination of CrossFit and Paleo is amazing (I feel super strong and healthy), thanks to Tara and Nicole.  I take the final foundations course today and then *gulp* time to workout with the crazies.