What should I eat?

What Should I Eat (to be healthy)?
This is one of the most common question I get from co-workers, friends, friends of friends, and family. There are a few answers that I generally give, all a variation on the same concept.

• Meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.
• Whole foods, no grains.
• Food from the outside aisle of the supermarket.
• Real food, no grains.
• Anything that doesn’t need a label to explain what exactly it is.

You get the idea. What you will notice is I don’t tell people to go out and buy a food scale, measuring cups, measuring spoons, etc. There is not gear requirement here. It is simple.

Within the CrossFit community we like to measure things: seconds, pounds, reps, rivals. But if we step back and think about what brought us to CrossFit in the first place (accept for the fire breathers and upper level athletes among us) we want to be fit, we want to be healthy, we want to feel good in our bodies, be sure of our strength. Counting our reps, counting the seconds, all of that is in the service of that larger goal, health and fitness.

Eating, for those of us who are on a lifelong path of health and fitness, should not take on a scientific lens. In fleeing from food as an indulgence, it is easy to start to see food solely as a fuel, and input, for a desired functional, measurable result. But food is much more than that, it is cultural expression, comfort, a reminder of home, even a form of communication, a source of pleasure, as well as fuel for our bodies. We need to answer the question of what to eat from a place that takes into account all of these factors, and not simply the fuel and elite fitness place.

So, for those of you wanting to know what you should eat to be healthy and compliment your CrossFit training and be human being not a fitness machine: Meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar. Keep it simple stupid!

These recommendations are made for the beginning and even intermediate athlete. Moving into a competitive or elite level would require measuring and weighing.