Recommendations
The CrossFit dietary prescription is as follows:
- Protein should be lean and varied and account for about 30% of your total caloric load.
- Carbohydrates should be predominantly low-glycemic and account for about 40% of your total caloric load.
- Fat should be predominantly monounsaturated and account for about 30% of your total caloric load.
What Should I Eat?
In plain language, base your diet on garden vegetables, especially greens, lean meats, nuts and seeds, little starch, and no sugar. That’s about as simple as we can get. Many have observed that keeping your grocery cart to the perimeter of the grocery store while avoiding the aisles is a great way to protect your health. Food is perishable. The stuff with long shelf life is all suspect. If you follow these simple guidelines you will benefit from nearly all that can be achieved through nutrition.
What Foods Should I Avoid?
Excessive consumption of high-glycemic carbohydrates is the primary culprit in nutritionally caused health problems. High glycemic carbohydrates are those that raise blood sugar too rapidly. They include rice, bread, candy, potato, sweets, sodas, and most processed carbohydrates. Processing can include bleaching, baking, grinding, and refining. Processing of carbohydrates greatly increases their glycemic index, a measure of their propensity to elevate blood sugar.
What is the Problem with High-Glycemic Carbohydrates?
The problem with high-glycemic carbohydrates is that they give an inordinate insulin response. Insulin is an essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been positively linked to obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure, mood dysfunction and a Pandora’s box of disease and disability. Research “hyperinsulinism” on the Internet. There’s a gold mine of information pertinent to your health available there. The CrossFit prescription is a low-glycemic diet and consequently severely blunts the insulin response.
Anything that has bacon on it, gets my vote.
GOBlin Deviled Eggs (Goat Cheese, Green Onion & Bacon)
This is a fantastic meal or mid-day snack. I would have a small serving of fruit and a VERY tall glass of water with this.
Ingredients
1 dozen eggs, hard-boiled
4 oz goat cheese
pinch of cayenne
salt
2-4 T mayo
2 green onions, sliced very thin
approx. 8 oz bacon
Method
While the eggs are boiling, cut your bacon into thin strips (widthwise) and crisp them up in a saute pan over medium heat. When the eggs are done, peel & cut them all in half (lengthwise). Scoop the yolks out into a medium bowl. Whisk together the yolks, goat cheese, mayo, cayenne and salt. Using a small spoon, scoop some of the mixture back into the egg white. With an offset spatula, smooth the top–the goal here is to make it look like the yolks were never taken out of the whites. ← I think this looks nicer for presentation, you don’t have to do it–but it’s definitely more portable this way. Sprinkle with bacon and green onions.
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Creole Shrimp Salad
This is perfect for work, or if you’re on the go because it’s served cold.
1 ½ lbs shrimp, peeled & deveined
2 bell peppers, diced (whatever color is your favorite–or cheapest)
4 stalks celery (and the leaves), diced
3 green onions, diced
2 recipes mayo (about ½-¾ c)
1 ½ t Old Bay seasoning (taste and then add more if you’d like, it’s quite strong)
1 lemon, juiced
s&p
Bring a pot of water to boil, add the shrimp and cook until they’re pink, about 5 minutes. Once the shrimp are cool enough to handle, chop them up into bite size pieces. Dry them off really well with a dish/paper towel.
In your serving bowl, mix together all the ingredients.
Serve cold.
