As I don’t have children and no [...]]]> As CrossFit Kids grows so does the celebration of everything youthful. Within weeks of kids starting CrossFit parents can’t help but notice improved academics, confidence and focus. As far as I can tell, the only thing linking these households is the Paleo diet, and CrossFit of course.

As I don’t have children and no have no real source of measure I will simply take the words to heart of the Mothers and Fathers bringing their kids to WOD multiple times a week. And what hey have to say may make for an interesting argument against the validity of ADHD, disorders akin to it, and the drugs to treat it.

ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a mouthful that you can Google on your own time. I’m not interested in parroting back WebMD suffice to say often times it sounds a lot like a kid acting like a kid, and an adult acting like an adult….annoyed.

For the most part everyone seems to theorize about the cause of this disorder effecting an estimated 5% or so of children in America. Specialists claim heredity, diet, and even environment cues as substantial contributors.

Whats wrong with kids today

Nothing. Whats wrong with parents today? The first contributing factor to any disorder effecting a child is its caregiver. Before you get pissed at junior, turn that power of perception around and get pissed off at yourself.

How well can you focus? Do you play “Office Space” at work Facebook 5+ hours a day and then get pissed off at little Janie because she won’t pay attention? Is your forty hour work week much more water cooler BS, coffee breaks, and lunches than actual work? If so, maybe you need the Ritalin to be a better example for the kid your pissed off at for being a kid.

Nutrient deficient

I like this study but you don’t have to. You can Google your own opposition disproving my link all you want. Thus why I normally reference nothing. Everyone else has an “opinion”, no one is willing to test it for fear of the right answers.

My lifetime in fitness has made me view diet as the number one culprit for any and all aliments attacking us today. With ADHD, I would think the same, and as the study I Googled by simply putting Celiac’s (for nutrient deficiency) clearly shows, its a good theory.

Its well known today that humans are imbalanced. Not the buzzword imbalanced people use when they don’t know what their talking about, the kind that relates to eating to much of one thing, and not enough of another.

I like this study but you don’t have to. Omega 3 was once prevalent in our ancestors diets. Omega 6 is prevalent in today’s diet. Without the proper ratio, (1/2) we begin to initiate a host of problems stemming mainly from the gut, leading to the brain. In fact the enteric nervous system is located in the gut and without the proper ratio of n-3/n-6 we find an improper breeding ground in the gut resembling Celiacs, or Crohn’s, or UC. Once inflammation from imbalance attacks one thing, it attacks everything. All the sudden one deficiency becomes many. This is why we cannot pin-point one nutrient, by the time full-fledged ADHD has taken effect its too late.

Colorful food

Not only are most children, and adults, outside of the CrossFit world missing their “good fat”, but they are replacing it with something else. Sugar.

Its well known bathing in sugar constantly blunts the release of stored fat as energy thereby rising insulin, a storage hormone keeping us fat. The increased glucose in the blood is then responsible for insulin resistance leading to all sorts of other problems characterized by Syndrome X.

While we simultaneously drown in insulin trying to mop up all the acidic glucose from the sugar, neuroplasticity of the brain misfires creating what looks a lot like diabetes III, or more well know as Alzheimer. Excessive sugar intake makes Alzheimer sound a lot like ADHD that just grew up?

Why Paleo and CrossFit

My kid doesn’t eat 100% Paleo or anything, but after bringing him to CrossFit, and after throwing away the junk food so I don’t eat it, he is like a different person”, one CrossFit Mom told me. Not that this is a controlled study or anything, but since I have heard this for years I thought it best to give it room to breath.

Not only does the Paleo diet eradicate most allergens to the human condition, but CrossFit wears it out.

The effects of eliminating gluten, sugar, and trans fat reach far more than just a child’s demeanor. We are talking about their future as an adult. Their confidence as a human, or lack their of. We are talking about the possibility of something much greater than a life full of Doctor visits, and medication.

I don’t have kids, and I can’t tell you if they are different little people after a WOD, and Paleo meal. Their parents can in the comments below. However, I can tell you that if you have been testing pizza and pop up until now, CrossFit+Paleo isn’t going to hurt.

Anyone who has successfully changed their eating habits away from the norm (sugar and fat laden processed crap and swathes of starchy carbohydrate) to a diet which keeps them lean, fit and energetic (generally speaking, high in protein, veggies and fats, with carbs appropriate to goals) has probably encountered anything from mild teasing [...]]]> From Gubernatrix:

Anyone who has successfully changed their eating habits away from the norm (sugar and fat laden processed crap and swathes of starchy carbohydrate) to a diet which keeps them lean, fit and energetic (generally speaking, high in protein, veggies and fats, with carbs appropriate to goals) has probably encountered anything from mild teasing to outright hostility from co-workers, friends or family.

It’s important to understand that they are the ones who feel uncomfortable and threatened – there is no need for you to feel that way.

Now, why other people should feel so uncomfortable and threatened by one’s lunch is complicated, but what I’m interested in is how do you deal with this?

Most of my personal training clients have this problem, and I did too when I was an office worker. You won’t be surprised to learn that I used to try to win people over by talking about it – proselytising, even.

The problem with ‘healthy debate’ in the office environment is that it can all too easily descend into outright argument as people defend their positions. People have been fed so much misinformation for so long, they aren’t going to change their views overnight. Anyway, no-one wants to look like the loser in front of their co-workers.

Although it is always good to discuss things with people who are receptive to it, I now think that this tactic was asking for trouble on many occasions.

Nowadays, I simply say to people, “I’ve had great results eating this way and I love it!” This is difficult to argue against. If you are just starting out and haven’t got your great results quite yet, another way to put it is to say: “I want to do something different and this is really working for me.”

Rather than saying something that implies the other person is wrong – such as “it’s healthier to eat this way” – make it about your own personal choice. It’s harder to get angry with someone who has simply made a personal choice to do something a particular way (although some people will always find a way…).

You can also mention benefits that you have experienced, such as “I feel more energetic eating this way” or “I don’t get as hungry as I used to.” Again, it’s hard to argue against someone’s personal experience, whereas it is easy to argue the toss over statements like “fat is good for you” or “wholegrains are healthy”.

I’m lucky enough to have come out the other side after many years, but what strategies have you employed? Has it hampered you in reaching your goals or did you shrug it off?

One of the most utterly surprising scientific findings of recent decades has got to be that fat isn’t so [...]]]>  

One of the most utterly surprising scientific findings of recent decades has got to be that fat isn’t so bad for you after all. (Apart from, you know, potentially bringing on serious heart conditions.) In fact, if you’re looking for a reason for America’s ballooning girth, you’ve got to lay the blame on carbohydrates–in other words, bread and pasta, the very things that the government once advertised as the foundation of a healthy diet in the food pyramids we all grew up with.

The funny thing is, though, that those low-carb diets, at this point, probably feel like another fad. The Atkins rage came and passed, after all. So it’s worth recounting the science behind how carbs make you fat, and it’s all laid out in this infographic created by Column Five for Massive Health, and based on Why We Get Fat by noted science writer Gary Taubes.

The first panel illustrates some basic food science that I’ll bet you didn’t know in much detail. Namely, the long chain of events that leads to you porking up:

The biggest culprits seem to be carbs. But does reining in carbs actually make you skinnier? Yes: Even compared with traditional calorie restriction diets, low-carb regimes like the Atkins diet make you lose far more weight while keeping calories the same. Decreasing fat, meanwhile, does nothing to lower your weight:

But what’s so wrong with carbs themselves? In short, they cause our insulin levels to go haywire, and that, in turn, causes our cells to pull in more fat:

It’s crazy enough that carbs, long thought to be pure and wholesome for so many years, turn out to be the devil–especially since it just seemed to make so much sense that eating fat would make you fat. With that in mind, you’ve got to wonder how many surprises science still holds for us when it comes to food.