My inbox runithover, so when I received a copy of Sarah’s latest release I gave it one of my favorite Paleo cooks, coach and head of the household Kelley Colby.  

Kelley leads one of my groups 5 times a week at 5:00 am and still manages to prepare healthy meals for her family.  I knew I would like the book but I wanted a review from a mom working the frontline.  Thanks Kelley !

by Kelley Colby

I have both of Sarah Fragoso’s Everyday Paleo cookbooks. She has tackled the somewhat overwhelming idea of changing your family’s eating habits. She is living it and now shares her experience in a simple and straight forward plan for families.

Sarah begins with The Basics explaining Paleo eating and follows up with Getting Started. The Getting Started section is my favorite for families. I think it is always helpful to be reminded to slow down and simplify. We all go go go and what many young families need is time together.

The next few chapters from Understanding Kids to the One-Week Meal Plan and Budget Guide make eating Paleo a reality for any family determined to live a healthier lifestyle. This book is an amazing resource and inspiration.

I have tried several recipes and can’t wait to try more. The sauce section alone is a reason to buy this book! The recipes are easy to follow and modify if needed…I usually leave some particular spice out for a picky kid. Each page offers insightful tips in the Something Extra box with suggestions for meal planning or recipe variations.

You’ve likely heard me say it before but it bares repeatings.  First is to make your intentions public and secondly pay the money (entry fee, lessons, equipment…).  You are more likely to complete your mission if you do those two things.

Since I ask it of my athletes its important to walk the talk.  During a 48 hour span last winter I entered two events.  This first was the annual Masters Nationals Weightlifting competition.  The second event was the inaugural Sea Wheeze Half Marathon running event that takes place tomorrow.  Each of these necessitates dramatically different energy systems and training approaches and in reality are counter productive to the one another. Not that running and weightlifting can’t coexist, it’s the explosive demands of Weightlifting vs the long slow substrate dependent demands of a 13.1 mile slog.

I decided that even with a smart training approach I needed a more sophisticated way to track my training and my recovery or I might perish.  I’ve always used a paper journal training log but I wanted to use some portable tools and ones I could interface with anytime or anywhere.  Enter the iPhone and less than a handful of affordable tools to gauge recovery.

What I want to share with you is my experience with EVERNOTE, MOTION X SLEEP, BIOFORCE HRV and the WHITINGS SCALE.  All of these are affordable and provided me with current recovery trends and some interesting data on my stressors.

EVERNOTE

With EVERNOTE your training and recovery data is always with you and seamlessly updated on all platforms.

I have a client who sells a bunch of real estate. He talked to me last year about EVERNOTE and suggested that I use it.  Shortly there after I downloaded it and proceeded to stare at it for several months.  It wasn’t until after I purchased an E book on the technology that I became hooked.  Think of it as a virtual notebook, filing cabinet, scrapbook or photo album.  Evernote can do any of those things or all of them.  As I started playing with it I found it the perfect backbone for my training log.  EVERNOTE has applications for the web, stand alone program and works on iPhone, iPad and Android phones.  Each time you update an entry EVERNOTE will sync that data across all platforms seamlessly. Make an update at the gym and it’s already available on your computer at home. You can email the entry to a friend, coach or Tweet it to the masses.

Each training log entry included a formated date entry.  So August 7th 2012 would be entered as 080712.  On each entry I provided locations to enter heart rate variability (HRV), sleep efficiency, morning body weight, desire to train, and a note section.  Desire to train is a subjective measure of your enthusiasm and with experience can reveal an overextended status.  The note section was to make any additional comments related to recovery or the days training session(s).

You can tag entries as well for faster search. So if you have a particular day you work on a particular thing say the snatch and any skill transfer exercises you can tag it with the appropriate label.  CrossFitters who don’t use Beyond The Whiteboard or a another paper journal can tag their benchmark workouts with those tags as well.

Evernote provides a number of different editing tools and allows one to attach PDF’s or JPEGS.  I found JPEGS easier to view on the iPhone than PDF’s so I always converted them while working on the computer.

MOTION X SLEEP

Sleep is king ! You will learn more about your sleep with nightly recordings using MotionX~Sleep.

The Motion X the folks famous for GPS navigation have a Jim Dandy of an application that does everything from monitor your steps per day to capturing information about your sleep using MotionX-Sleep.  Once you have set up the application to detect motion, you place your phone on airplane mode and put the application into LOG SLEEP mode.  For the next 5-8 hours it will make a call on your wake minutes, light sleep or deep sleep.  You can take that data and email it to a coach or Tweet it to your friends.

I confirmed quickly that 7 hours is my optimal number of sleep hours but if I spent less than three hours of deep sleep I was not nearly as ‘on’ as normal.  The longer you stay in bed the better your odds of capturing more sleep minutes and therefore everyone will have a slightly different sleep requirement.  Motion X sleep will assign a sleep efficiency score to qualify your bedtime hours.  MotionX sleep along with HRV became my most important measurements of the day.

Even if you are not in training I would want you to invests in MotionX sleep.

THE WHITINGS SCALE

Weight, body composition and BMI all synced to your phone with The Whitings Scale.

Each morning I weigh myself on a scale by WHITINGS that wirelessly uploads my weight, body composition (percentage body fat) and BMI to my iPhone.  Over time you can observe a trend line.  We know that this assists individuals with weight management issues.  I wanted to know my day to day changes and did not want a dramatic swing to the negative (decrease in body weight)  which is a signal of potential over extending.

BIOFORCE HRV

The most significant technology for any trainee.

Without question the single most important tool I introduced into my routine was heart rate variability (HRV) measurement available from Bioforce.  I will leave the complete study to you but essentially BIOFORCE HRV will measure the variance in your “R”  wave (QRS) and your bodies current homeostasis or lack of homeostasis (stress).  If you are adapting well to your training the ying and yang of your autonomic nervous system will balance and your HRV score will not experience wild fluctuations.

What you discover quickly is that even though you have an intelligent training design your lifestyle can toss a wrench in your recovery and HRV score.  Toss and turn all night?  Your HRV will reflect it.  Have a drink or two with friends?  Expect a negative change in your HRV reading. ALL that you encounter during your daily routine contributes to your stress levels it’s not just a function of training.  It’s your ability to manage or adapt to these stressors that is important. Tracking HRV brings this awareness to the forefront.

The software runs with an receiver that plugs into the earbud port of the phone.  Each morning upon rising one straps on a Polar Heart rate monitor strap and begins a recording interval that lasts 2:30.  At the conclusion of the  2:30 HRV will provide a realative score.  Green means Go, Amber means caution (back off 10-20%) while Red means stay in bed or consider passing on the days training.

I learned that as I become more fit my HRV score climbed.  On the morning of Masters Nationals I had a nice 72 reading, which is a sweet spot for me, in terms of sleep, hydration, recovery and athletic fitness.  While I didn’t have my best day I did match a PR in the snatch and claimed a silver medal. Coach Joel Jamieson includes a really nice book with your order so you can learn more about HRV and how you are adapting to your training and lifestyle stressors.

DESIRE

This was a subjective snapshot of how excite I was to train that day.  It’s information that is more valuable to a coach or someone who can honestly recognize an overstressed situation unless your awareness is keen.  I have had a few less that good days and interestingly enough they fell just prior to an amber or red reading with HRV.

NOTES

This is a good place to update any PR’s or injuries that might have occurred and anything else that is relavant.

I want to encourage you to explore these easy to use training aids for your health and fitness journey.  You’ll be better for the experience.

We recently concluded one of the more enlightening ‘clean eating’ campaigns in the last 11 years of group training practice. What started out as a discussion amongst the coaches turned into a gym wide project with over 55 participants. I learned a bunch about myself and I learned (confessionals) and observed a number of different things from those who participated and those who did not over the last 30 days. I wanted to share them with you today in hopes that you will become more aware and possibily help others become more aware as well. If you are uncomfortable with any of this then that’s a good thing too.

1. 30 days is more about the 6″ between your ears than the 30 days on the calendar. How soft we have become.
2. Alcohol continues to derail more body transformation than any other single practice.
3. I was using coffee as a vehicle for heavy cream. I’ll drink less coffee as a result and far less heavy cream.
4. When you seriously curtail your alcohol drinking your dream state returns and you sleep deeper. Don’t you think your brain is telling you something?
5. Even little changes add up to serious changes in fat loss.
6. Even a little sugar can be significant enough to trigger inflammation. In other words subbing a baby snickers for a regular snickers won’t cut it.
7. Reading is more fun when you run on 100% clean fuel. Treat yourself to a new book. I finished THE ART OF FIELDING in 30 days.
8. Olive Oil IS a good snack.
9. There is sugar in almost EVERYTHING pre packaged.
10. People will be snide and sometimes hateful about your eating. Eat healthy anyway. It really grinds them.
11. I now prefer a massive (1/2 pound at least) grilled ground sirloin to steak. Grass fed naturally!
12. Creamy avocado dressing is good on everything.
13. Use avocados on everything. It’s green butter
14. When they take your butter use EVOO.
15. Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) are good in your start up coffee.
16. Movie snacks are lame. Smuggle in your pistachios.
17. You can attend a birthday dinner party or a high school reunion and not drink.
18. …or a July 4th gathering.
19. One drink will really be enough because two is slippery and three means you are gone.
20. It makes me feel bad when you tell me XXXXX is sabotaging your health efforts. Be an adult and acknowledge that things are toxic with that person (thing?).
21. If your every social experience involves drinking then you have a distorted social life.
22. If you clean up your diet your hormone profile will likely improve.
23. The chocolate fountain advertisement on television is repulsive but I’ll rank chocolate as something I can’t moderate.
24. Jimmy Johns has the fastest Paleo to go meal (Unwich) on the planet.
25. Appropriate protein intake will deliver undeniable transformation results.
26. I still can’t burpee better following the Whole30 but I ran 12 miles.
27. My body fat is lower today than 1982 & my strength is at least 95% but I’m slow.
28. Coconut oil is cooking magic and might help reverse dementia. Buy your parents a tub and tell them to cook EVERYTHING in it.
29. I still don’t know what’s in GSB rub but I use it all the time.
30. Some people can moderate but others simply must abstain. Part of the secret to success is recognizing which you are in different situations.

Fortunately I have an insider.  He trains with me when he’s not putting people back together from trauma related events.  He is a great sounding board on all topics from orthopedics, his specialty, to endocrinology.  He walks his talk!  Flat belly with a respectable snatch, clean & jerk and yes..squat.

So when I saw him, I ask the question. “Is there any reason why the squat would be contraindicated? ” His response was worthy of repeating.

“Only an unstable knee would be a contraindication for squatting.   Posterior horn meniscus tear would be painful.  Even osteoarthritis, especially anterior compartment OA wouldn’t be a contraindication to squatting.  What, do they think it could be made worse, by increasing  quad strength and improving fulcrum angles be quad hypertrophy. I don’t know of any realistic reason not to squat daily!”

I’m going to make the assumption that the coach or trainer knows how to teach the movement and recognizes movement inefficiencies and can correct faults, otherwise let’s all get back to squatting and training smarter.

The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy. Those are your options ~

We eat real food – fresh, natural food, like meat, vegetables, and fruit.  We choose foods that are nutrient-dense, with lots of naturally occurring vitamins and minerals over foods that have more calories but ;less nutrition.  And food quality is important- we are careful about where our meat, seafood, and eggs come form, and we buy organic, local produce as often as possible ~ Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, Nutrition in 60 Seconds

I’m known as an eighty percenter. I work, play, eat, and participate until I reach a level of proficiency in the eighty percent range and then I’m good to go. I have little incentive at this stage of my life to seek more.

After finishing my copy of IT STARTS WITH FOOD by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, I’m prompted to reach at least another 10% in my nutrition practice.  It was that motivating

The book starts with a great framework of what they call good food standards.

1. Promote a healthy psychological response. (Think about it !)
2. Promote a healthy hormonal response.
3. Support a healthy gut.
4. Support immune function and minimize inflammation BIG ONE HERE!

Chapters 3- 7 take a more in depth look at each one of these food standards.  I like them so much I’ve caught myself a few times getting on my soap box while taking to a client.  As I read through the book it was nice to fall back on their criteria of good foods to evaluate almost all possible food experiences.

Part three takes us to the dark side of our current food options. Sugar, sweeteners,alcohol, seed oils, grains and legumes and dairy.  All of these have a tendency to appear as “Supernormal” foods or food creations.  Things that over work or confuse our body because they are not….real food. I felt they did an excellent job here relating back and explaining how Supernormal foods trip up hormonal system (See #2 in Framework) like a car on the road with no breaks.  We eat and then eat beyond satiety because of these Frankenfoods.

In part four we can start to feel better about ourselves as they lay out the components of more healthy eating and follow it up with part five, meal planning made easy.

The encore is their famous WHOLE30 elimination process.  If you are not familiar with their work this is the launching pad in my view of their approach.  Eliminate the less healthy foods and introduce a 30 day “clean” eating plan. They are wise to promote the mental part of this process as this is the real essence of the 30 day process.   Training the brain practicing self control and willpower to complete the 30 days is a big part of the conversation in this book.  We often times neglect to include this yet it’s likely the most important part of someones transformation.  They are also candid in acknowledging that there is nothing magical about the 30 days and that it might indeed take longer.

Finally reintroduction of the eliminated less nutritious foods is tackled.  I like how a schedule is presented so as to reveal which foods might be appropriate and those that might be less desirable in your diet.

They are generous with their receipe offerings and I’m already a fan of the Dreamy Avocado Dressing (pg 277) and the mocha steak rub (pg 279) is next on my weekend steak preparation.

If IT STARTS WITH FOOD isn’t the best of breed then it certainly in the top two. Do yourself a favor and order it today.

I should confess that when I meet Ashley Tudor I was a tad nonplussed about another book on diet.  Part of if has to do with my cynical attitude (blame Barry Sears and all my money he got)  and the other being that our intro took place during the surprise birthday celebration for The Paleo Solution Diet author Robb Wolf.  Certainly good company and terrific street credit, it’s not a place for a topic like nutrition especially when the Casadores was flowing like water.

When my copy arrived the first thing that struck me was the esthetic appeal of the book. In an age of hardcover, paperback and now e-books, a title might die from a lack of street appeal. Your eyes are drawn to the covers color and the interesting subtitle of smart carbs.  I liked the handy size.  It opens & lays flat should it’s owner wish to have it in the kitchen for easy reference during meal preparation.

Ashley and her editors have done a splendid job with the graphs and illustrations.  They not only thoroughly explain some difficult topics they are appealing to the eye!  Here are a few of my favorite graph and illustration pages. 42-43, 51, 82, 107, 117, 130, 180. This is the more scientific stuff kids, the recipe sections is equally good!

What I did expect when I opened Chapter 9 was to find some new ways to Sweet Potato my world.  Ashley did not disappoint.  I’ve used sweet potatoes in my arsenal for awhile but never with this much creativity. Each recipe and photo surrenders nothing to Bon Appetit. Each week I’m repeating the Sweet Potato Gratin Stackers.  They are super easy and portable!  While I like my greens the sweet potato, and there are a number of varieties, has been elevated to a new level of respect. It’s a “smart carb”.

Self monitoring and self testing is an emerging trend today.  Ashley challenges all of us to go the extra step and find out exactly how we are reacting to foods with the use of  glucometer, ketones strips & biomarkers from lab work.  Here’s a take away folks.  While there are some general statements that can be made regarding foods, everyone will react differently to macro nutrient consumption. As an example. Fasting may NOT be what YOUR body needs!  It may in fact elevate your insulin and your cortisol to deleterious levels.  Only with self testing will you know. She presents case studies on how intelligent dietary practices can positively alter our health and performance as well as looking better in our underwear.

The book looks good but the beauty lies in the pages of information that Ashley includes here.  I would not hesitate to put Sweet Potato Power in your library but don’t forget to bring it to the kitchen.

Adrian (pictured above in blue and green) has been training with coach Dan Ammon for the last several months in preparation for the upcoming season BMX season.

Adrian started in youth sports at a young age playing on travel soccer teams and an AAU basketball team. Just when it looked like she was going to enjoy a life long love affair with basketball, she asked if she could try her hand at racing bicycle motocross. At the age of 9 she dabbled in 3 or 4 races towards the end of a summer. The next season she said she wanted to race BMX full time and race a lot. By the age of 14 she had won the NBL National Championship title. Adrian has earned a spot on Team USA for the Worlds Event three years running, however funding has kept her from attending those events. Adrian has won a training camp spot at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista California from her competition in the UCI Jr. Development Program. Adrian is currently leading the National points standings in 15 – 16 Girls Cruiser and is 3rd in the National points standings in her 15 Girls Class. Training with coach Dan and the staff at Bootcamp Fitness / CrossFit Kansas City has helped her tremendously and has given her a significant advantage over her competitors.

Last race:         Desoto Texas Super Nationals

Finishes:         1st Place 15 – 16 Girls Cruiser Saturday

1st Place 15 – 16 Girls Cruiser Sunday

2nd Place 15 Girls Class Saturday

3rd Place 15 Girls Class Sunday