Hi everybody!  So I’m finally getting around to posting about the Nutrition Certification that I (and Alan) went to a couple of weeks ago.  Sorry about the delay.

Robb Wolf, research chemist, CrossFit affiliate owner and nutrition guru gave the seminar, and let me tell you, he knows his stuff.  The first half of the day was spent on the science of how what we eat effects our bodies.  It was very illuminating, but very technical.  If anyone is interested, I would be happy to go over my notes with you.

The second half of the day was spent on the practical aspects of eating paleo, eating zone, combining the two, and real world examples of individuals and their dietary needs.

The essence of the paleo diet is to only eat what a caveman could have gotten his hands on.  So, eat meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.  (Sound familiar?? It should, it’s the CrossFit nutrition mantra.)  The beautiful thing about paleo eating, is that there is no weighing and measuring – hooray!  On the flip side, to take advantage of the full benefits of a paleo diet, you have to give up gluten (grains) and dairy – dang it!  Robb really stressed the importance of the quality of the food  you eat, rather than the quantity or ratios that are stressed in the zone diet.  He uses the zone in conjunction with paleo for athletes that are looking to increase their performance even more, or people with some kind of very specific goal.

It turns out that gluten, which is found in just about all grains, especially in wheat, is really quite bad for you.  It irritates and inflames the lining of the digestive tract, which can cause all sorts of nasty problems.  Again, I will be happy to go over the specifics with anyone who is interested.  Dairy products have a significant insulin response in the body, and of course, even though we aren’t weighing and measuring in paleo eating, we are still keeping the insulin response issue in the forefront of our thinking.

We got to see some great before and after photos, and hear some great stories about a 7 month long “paleo challenge” that they ran at Robb’s gym (CrossFit NorCal).  The photos were dramatic, and they were all of people who did an “unweighed, unmeasured, gluten free, dairy free” paleo diet, and did CrossFit 2-3 times per week. 

There is a ton of great info on paleo eating at www.robbwolf.com, and there is a great new blog about the practical aspect of eating paleo at www.everydaypaleo.tumblr.com.

I am thinking about doing a mini nutrition seminar sometime soon, on a Saturday afternoon.  Who would be interested?  I think by now  you have all heard us talk about how important nutrition is to fitness, and to weight loss if that is your goal.  You can’t get where  you want to go with exercise alone – there is always a nutritional component – whether your goal is for weight loss, or to ramp up your performance.

Please post to comments and let me know if you would be interested in spending a couple of hours learning about paleo eating.