NutritioN Guide & LoG book Featuring a Comparison of Nutrition Plans Brought to you by CrossFit Aggieland One size does not fit all Nutrition only works if you stick with it. We all have times in life when we have strayed away from following a healthy diet; life challenges can take priority and clean eating fall to the wayside. It happens. And while there are times we need to crack down on our diet, we do not encourage quick-fix “dieting.” Instead, we want to help you find a nutrition system and plan to fit your lifestyle as a long-term solution. After all, it is much easier to lock in to a nutrition system that fits your lifestyle and personality, rather than fighting yourself with a short-term “diet.” Nutrition in and of itself should not be hard. When nutrition becomes easy for you, you will find the results you desire also come easy. However, modifying your nutrition to find what works best for you can be challenging. This Nutrition Guide offers many of the popular programs designed to help you get control of your personal nutrition. There is no one “right” program, and what works best for one person might not work best for you. We encourage you to read each of the different programs and see first which one seems most manageable within your current lifestyle. If it seems overwhelming or too difficult, you will not stick with it. Remember that this booklet is only a snapshot of each program. You can research further online, finding all kinds of information, grocery lists, recipes, and more. After you select the program you think will work best for you and your lifestyle, discuss it with your coach. Identify potential pitfalls for you and tips to find success. Encourage your group to hold one another accountable, and utilize the food log at the back of this booklet to track your nutrition. Just like there is no such thing as “one size fits all,” there is also no such thing as one nutrition plan fits all. In fact, you might find that various aspects from multiple nutrition plans work for you! Be flexible and willing to adjust to figure out what is the ideal nutrition system for you. Keep at it until you achieve the results you desire, and nutrition is integrated into your lifestyle. It can be challenging at first, but once you know what works for you, the rest is a piece of cake. Whole30 Yes: Eat real food. Eat meat, seafood, eggs, tons of vegetables, some fruit, and plenty of good fats from fruits, oils, nuts and seeds. Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they’re totally natural and unprocessed. Don’t worry… these guidelines are outlined in extensive detail in our free shopping list. No: Avoid for 30 days. More importantly, here’s what NOT to eat during the duration of your Whole30 program. Omitting all of these foods and beverages will help you regain your healthy metabolism, reduce systemic inflammation, and help you discover how these foods are truly impacting your health, fitness and quality of life. • Do not consume added sugar of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, Splenda, Equal, Nutrasweet, Xylitol, Stevia, etc. Read your labels, because companies sneak sugar into products in ways you might not recognize. • Do not consume alcohol in any form, not even for cooking. (And it should go without saying, but no tobacco products of any sort, either.) • Do not eat grains. This includes (but is not limited to) wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgur, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat, sprouted grains and all of those gluten-free pseudo- grains like quinoa. This also includes all the ways we add wheat, corn and rice into our foods in the form of bran, germ, starch and so on. Again, read your labels. • Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds (black, red, pinto, navy, white, kidney, lima, fava, etc.), peas, chickpeas, lentils, and peanuts. No peanut butter, either. This also includes all forms of soy – soy sauce, miso, tofu, tempeh, edamame, and all the ways we sneak soy into foods (like lecithin). • Do not eat dairy. This includes cow, goat or sheep’s milk products such as cream, cheese (hard or soft), kefir, yogurt (even Greek), and sour cream… with the exception of clarified butter or ghee. (See below for details.) • Do not consume carrageenan, MSG or sulfites. If these ingredients appear in any form on the label of your processed food or beverage, it’s out for the Whole30. • Do not try to re-create baked goods, junk foods, or treats* with “approved” ingredients. Continuing to eat your old, unhealthy foods made with Whole30 ingredients is totally missing the point, and will tank your results faster than you can say “Paleo Pop-Tarts.” Remember, these are the same foods that got you into health- trouble in the first place—and a pancake is still a pancake, regardless of the ingredients. These foods are exceptions to the rule, and are allowed during your Whole30. • Clarified Butter or Ghee. Clarified butter or ghee is the only source of dairy allowed during your Whole30. Plain old butter is NOT allowed, as the milk proteins found in non-clarified butter could impact the results of your program. Refer to our Butter Manifesto for more details on the milk proteins found in butter, purchasing high quality butter, and how to clarify it yourself. • Fruit juice as a sweetener. Some products or recipes will include fruit as a sweetener, which is fine for the purposes of the Whole30. (We have to draw the line somewhere.) • Certain legumes. We’re fine with green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas. While they’re technically a legume, these are far more “pod” than “bean,” and green plant matter is generally good for you. • Vinegar. Most forms of vinegar, including white, balsamic, apple cider, red wine, and rice, are allowed during your Whole30 program. The only exceptions are vinegars with added sugar, or malt vinegar, which generally contains gluten. • Salt. Did you know that all iodized table salt contains sugar? Sugar (often in the form of dextrose) is chemically essential to keep the potassium iodide from oxidizing and being lost. Because all restaurant and pre-packaged foods contain salt, we’re making salt an exception to our “no added sugar” rule. Good Eating Habits • Make your plate 50% fruits and vegetables. • Drink lots of water. • Eat three meals. No snacks. • Eat breakfast before you have coffee. • Limit processed foods. Bonus points for omitting it completely. • Limit added sugars. Bonus points for omitting it completely. • Limit alcohol. Bonus points for omitting it completely. • Daily exercise. Primal Diet- This is the basic description of everything our ancestors ate to get the protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phenols, fiber, water and other nutrients necessary to sustain life. But it was a huge list of individual foods – some anthropologists say it may have been 200 or 300 food choices at a time depending upon the geographic area. The net result was a dietary “breakdown” of fat, protein and carbohydrate that was far different from what Conventional Wisdom considers optimum today. This diet provided all the necessary fuel and building blocks that, along with specific exercise, prompted their genes to create strong muscles, enabled them to expend lots of energy each day moving about, to maintain healthy immune systems, to evolve larger brains and to raise healthy children. They ate sporadically, too. When food was plentiful, they ate more than they needed, and stored the excess as fat. When times were scarce, they survived on fat stores. This random or “non-linear” eating pattern kept their bodies in a constant state of preparedness. Carbohydrate intake is often the decisive factor in weight loss success and prevention of widespread health problems like Metabolic Syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes. These average daily intake levels assume that you are also getting sufficient protein and healthy fats, and are doing some amount of primal exercise. The ranges in each zone account for individual metabolic differences. • 0-50 grams per day: Ketosis and I.F. (Intermittent Fasting) Zone. Excellent catalyst for rapid fat loss through I.F. Not recommended for prolonged periods (except in medically supervised programs for obese or Type 2 diabetics) due to unnecessary deprivation of plant foods. • 50-100 grams per day: Sweet Spot for Weight Loss. Steadily drop excess body fat by minimizing insulin production. Enables 1-2 pounds per week of fat loss with satisfying, minimally restrictive meals. • 100-150 grams per day: Primal Maintenance Zone. Once you’ve arrived at your goal or ideal body composition, you can maintain it quite easily here while enjoying abundant vegetables, fruits and other Primal foods. • 150-300 grams a day: Insidious Weight Gain Zone. Most health conscious eaters and unsuccessful dieters end up here, due to frequent intake of sugar and grain products (breads, pastas, cereals, rice, potatoes – even whole grains). Despite trying to “do the right thing” (minimize fat, cut calories), people can still gain an average of 1.5 pounds of fat every year for decades. • 300+ grams a day: Danger Zone of the Average American Diet. All but the most extreme exercisers will tend to produce excessive insulin and store excessive fat over the years at this intake level. Increases risk for obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and type 2 diabetes. General Guidelines 80% of body composition success is determined by diet.