Thursday, March 29, 2012

Why I Train- AgainFaster



Well hello there. You have absolutely no idea who I am. And why would you? I’m just another one of the thousands of CrossFitters out there who absolutely loves putting myself through pain daily, then feels the need to talk about it incessantly to anyone who will lend a listening ear. Original.

You know what's different about me, though? I objectify myself to the world wide web regularly with stories that have nothing to do with CrossFit or food, yet I still call myself a
Paleo food blogger. I just really like to talk…about everything.

Anywho. I’m here to share my CrossFit experiences with you and maybe lead you on the path to CrossFit happiness. These experiences may include my extreme love/hate relationship with muscle ups, my battle with my ever increasing thigh size, or my painful search for Mr. Right in this CrossFit community of ours. Ok, not exactly painful, but definitely not exciting.
I’m just another one of the billions--yes BILLIONS--of CrossFitters who yearns to make it to the Games. That’s all I want. Seriously. I wake up thinking about my wods, I make dinner thinking about my wods, and I go on dates thinking about my wods. I’m not kidding.
There is an issue though. I’m not extremely strong or extremely fast. And have you checked out those freaks lately? Jesus. My thighs could increase by 5 inches around and I still couldn't even deadlift what those ladies are squatting. Effin' A. But that's why I train. That's why I wod. To become someone. To reach my own personal excellence. That's what CrossFit is all about, being inspired by others and knowing we can push ourselves just like they did. Don't you just love that bubbly inspirational feeling? If you said no, you're a liar.

So every single day is filled with coaching, protein shakes, and wods that make me and my training partners go beastmode. Not in that order. And by the way, I lied about going beastmode because that's not a real thing. Childish thinkers, those men are. Training with these dudes has made me train way harder than I ever have before though. I have dude traps at this point. We like to clean the sh*t out of things regularly. But that's what inspires me. Half naked guys. Ok, I'm kidding...kind of.

So that’s where I’m at in my life. I love CrossFit soooo much that I want to make it to the Games to bake in 100 degree weather, while I sweat so much my eyes burn, all while trying to climb a rope and clean and jerk 155#. Ha. Right. It’s true though. I have never wanted something more in my life. I’m not incredibly competitive, but I am very stubborn.

And this is what this blog is all about. My struggles with CrossFit, my passion for CrossFit, and my love for CrossFit. Ok, that just got way too deep. I honestly just want to talk about how CrossFit HQ should invest in a singles tent next year at Regionals.

But I’m also looking to chat more with the CrossFit ladies out there and start finding out some of the crap we all have to deal with regularly. Let’s be straight here, being a woman in this CrossFit community is pretty effing sweet, but it’s also frustrating.


 Whether it’s a muscle up, or a back handed comment about our thigh size, or some uncomfortable looks while we sport spandex shorts in the dead of winter, we all deal with different issues and love knowing that others are going through it too.
So what are you dealing with? Are you having trouble sticking with your diet? Addicted to almond butter? Me too. Are you wondering where the best place is to buy spandex? Or do you just want to find out how others improved their pull ups? That’s what I’m here for. To answer questions and get the CrossFit community of women to come together to support each other.


What are your thoughts? - Heather

How could I NOT post this?

Paleo Women are Phat

Posted on by
Paleo Women are Phat
 
Disclaimer: this is not a post meant to be saying that lean women aren’t healthy or fertile. I just don’t like the fact that intelligent women who aren’t lean, but are also quite healthy, are afraid to educate others about nutrition because they don’t ‘look Paleo enough’. If you choose to pursue your ideal body type, then right on! Just please don’t judge other women for not having the same goals, genetics, or life circumstances for achieving the same physical appearance. Thanks for reading! :)

This post has been a long time coming, so excuse the rant.
I think the Paleo community needs to take a step back and reevaluate our priorities as far as health and fitness go – specifically for women. I was horrified to see this comment posted by an anonymous internet user on Nom Nom Paleo’s blog post during our trip to Austin for PaleoFX:
“One question, and I know this will likely come out wrong and I may even regret going there, but I have to put it out there: I can’t help but notice that, while the men all are lean and mean, most of the female Paleo figureheads aren’t, well, quite so lean.What do you think? Am I way off the mark? If not, why do you think this is?”
So me being the excessively opinionated, doesn’t-take-sh*t-from-anyone type of person I am, I decided I had to respond:
“Maybe because women aren’t designed to be lean. Otherwise why would they lose the ability to ovulate when they drop below a certain body fat percentage? I’m pretty sure fertility is a pretty significant measure of health in a woman. Your comment is extremely ignorant.”
Ok, so maybe I got a little too sassy with that response. But seriously, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and that post just put me over the edge.
I don’t consider myself to be ‘lean’ whatsoever. Sure, I work out a fair amount and eat extremely nutrient -dense food, but I’m currently a size 8 and probably about 10-15 pounds heavier than my (completely superficial) ‘ideal body weight’. For a long time, it really bothered me that I was constantly struggling with that last 10+ pounds. I’d lose it, maintain for a bit, and then something stressful would happen and I’d just gain it all right back. Totally frustrating, and very disheartening. It really made me very self-conscious about the way I look, considering I purport to have a high level of nutrition knowledge.
These kind of “why aren’t Paleo women lean” comments are extremely hurtful to people like me who work really hard to not only be adequately nourished, but also spend more time reading and writing about nutrition than we spend working out or weighing and measuring our food. Not everyone has the time it takes to dedicate oneself to achieving a ridiculous level of fitness. And yes, for most women, getting a six pack generally takes an extreme level of dedication to restrictive eating and consistent intense exercise.
Is that a 14 pack? Can't say I've ever seen a woman in real life who looks like this...
The sad part, though, is that this extreme level of criticism about women’s bodies has been enough to stress me out about attending events like PaleoFX or becoming more prominent in the Paleo community, because I’m concerned people are going to judge me for how I look. As much as I was excited to attend PaleoFX, I was also really nervous that people would see that I wasn’t in perfect physical shape and therefore discredit the knowledge I have regarding nutrition and health. It was something that made me extremely self-conscious as I was preparing for my trip. And I’m not the only one who feels this way either; Diane and Liz discussed this issue on their most recent Balanced Bites podcast. Despite the fact that Liz is one of the most gorgeous women I’ve ever met, she still feels like she doesn’t fit people’s expectations for the way a ‘Paleo’ woman is supposed to look.
So, does it bother anyone else that women like me and Liz have anxiety attending events like PaleoFX because we’re worried about people judging us for our body size?
Is this what we want, for intelligent women to be afraid of getting involved in leadership roles because they don’t feel like they’re lean enough to fit the part? I think it’s really ridiculous that people would espouse a diet based on evolutionary biology, and yet not understand why the women who follow the diet would have a visible level of body fat. Considering how many female athletes and body builders don’t menstruate and are therefore unable to bear children, we’ve got to realize that the notion of a woman having a six pack is probably not biologically appropriate. And isn’t the whole point of this Ancestral diet to support optimum levels of health, vitality, and ultimately fertility?
Ancient fertility art. No six-pack here!
I don’t care if a woman has a certain body fat percentage goal that she’s working towards, as long as she realizes the sacrifice in fertility she may be making. And I’m aware that certain women have the genetic propensity to be very lean and muscular. That said, I think people in the Paleo community need to start acknowledging the fact that a woman who is healthy and fit for pregnancy is ultimately going to have a decent amount of body fat, which ideally should be around 26-28%. That’s a decent amount of junk in the trunk.
I’m not usually one to show pictures to demonstrate ‘what a woman should look like’, but I know we all like throwing around Marilyn Monroe as a prototype for the ideal. Well, judging from these pictures, would any of you say that Marilyn is ‘lean and mean’?
Back squat perhaps? Get it, girl!
Fortunately, I’ve noticed that when I bring this topic up to the more intellectually evolved men in the Ancestral health movement, they seem to agree that women are generally most attractive when they’re ‘festively plump’. At PaleoFX I had a pretty long conversation about this with George from Civilized Caveman, and I was shocked (and impressed) that he was adamant about women looking better when they have a decent level of body fat to speak of. Truthfully, from my own experience, I always had the feeling most men have this idea that a woman is only sexy when she has flat abs and thin, toned thighs, but it’s great that there are reasonable men out there that understand and appreciate what a woman is biologically designed to look like.
My final point in all of this is that regardless of what a woman looks like, I think we all need to take a step back and think about what is worth pursuing in our lives. I think its really easy to get distracted by chasing a certain level of attractiveness, but at some point we need to realize that there is so much more to life than looking amazing. And I personally am trying my best to move past being self conscious about the way I look, and realizing that I have more to offer the world than a ‘perfect’ body.
To emphasize that point, here is a list of all the things I would give up having a perfect body to have in my life, inspired by my favorite ‘Ancestralized’ women:
  • Having the ability to understand complicated nutritional biochemistry (while still looking 20 years younger than she actually is) like my mom, Pamela Schoenfeld.
  • Being courageous enough to be bold about demonstrating an awe-inspiring level of passion for public health and nutrition, like Adele Hite.
  • Having a wonderful husband who not only is a good man, but absolutely adores me, like Liz Wolfe.
  • Being strong enough to crank out a muscle-up, like Diane Sanfilippo.
  • Being able to make anyone laugh with an infectious sense of humor, like Nom Nom Paleo.
  • Having the knowledge and ability required to run my own sustainable, organic farm, like Diana Rodgers.
  • Being able to raise beautiful children, in spite of former life set-backs, like Stacy Toth.
  • Having cooking skills worth writing a cookbook about, like Hayley Mason.
  • Being able to take down any know-it-all scientist (or vegan) using science based epidemiological logic, like Denise Minger.
All I’m trying to say, ladies, is that there is so much more we have to offer the world than our looks, or our bodies. I’m still struggling to get past my own self-consciousness regarding my less-than-perfect appearance, but I hope all the women out there reading this post will join me in working towards valuing our brains, our strength, and our loving friends and family much more than we value our physique.
And for the general Paleo community, let’s take our intellectual capabilities up a notch when deciding what we think women are supposed to look like. If you respect nature and evolutionary biology, you should respect the fact that women are designed to have a certain level of body fat, and it’s 100% acceptable for the female Paleo figureheads to not look like Sports Illustrated bikini models.
I look forward to hearing comments from you all regarding this serious issue in the Paleo community!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Cauliflower Popcorn


This is as paleo as it gets ya'll! Thanks Sweet Freedom for the recipe!

Ingredients:
  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 20 grams olive oil
  • 12 grams nutritional yeast (or to taste) doubting this is paleo but 'ay why not try it?
  • 2 tsp cumin (or to taste)
  • 2 tsp chili powder (or to taste)
  • a few pinches of sea salt (to taste)
  • you could totally add a dab of honey and cinnamon to make this "sweet corn"
Instructions:
  1. Cut cauliflower florets into bite-sized pieces.
  2. Toss with olive oil until coated.
  3. Add spices, salt and nutritional yeast and toss again until coated.