What I am about to share with you is immeasurable. Ok not really, but that is truly how I feel because the last 60 days have taken me further in my health and fitness than ever before. Today I complete the Performance Nutrition Experience (PNE) that was hosted by my affiliate crossfit gym, Canyon Crossfit. I can confidently say I'm healthier than I have ever been in life. I learned so much about nutrition, fitness, and more importantly myself.
Everyone is always asking about weight loss, so let me get that out of the way quickly. Since it's not the only indicator of health, I never really saw it as priority but here's how it broke down. Before I started the PNE I had already made some decent progress for the 6 months of doing crossfit, I lost 25 lbs. I began the PNE on April 27th, 2012 and I weighed 172.5 pounds. Today, as of June 27, 2012, I weigh 167 pounds. I lost a total of 5.5 pounds in 60 days, who cares. What I do care about is my body composition, the internals. If you recall a few posts back, I had my blood work done and I was dumbfounded by the results. My levels of total cholesterol and LDL (the bad stuff) was undetectable by the sensitivity levels of the machine. Meaning...my blood composition was pretty darn immaculate and everything else was well beyond optimal ranges such as HDL (good stuff), glucose, and triglycerides. Don't forget about the infamous body fat percentage. Back when I started crossfit in October 2011 I was probably well above 23% body fat. In the beginning of the PNE I successfully dropped down to 16% based on caliper measurements and today I'm about 14.2%. I haven't reached my goal of 12% but I knew that wasn't going to happen in 60 days. Patience is key to all things, including health.
Back when the PNE was first introduced, I was very skeptical. Why? Because I loved science and studied science, biology to be exact. So I figured I had a leg up on the understandings of nutrition and how the body works. That was not the case, I was humbled by my own ignorance and denial. I loved pizza, burgers, fries, and beer. I loved candy, chips, and soda. So if I ate this all in moderation, although it was more like often and too much, then I can justify that by doing a long bike ride, run, and some weight lifting. Worse of all, I would eat less during the week to make up for what I over consumed on the weekends and then rinse and repeat this process. I was hurting myself in the worse possible ways. Without getting into too much details, or this would become a scientific article, I was confusing my brain and putting my body system out of sync. The nutrition education I received in college became void, this PNE went against everything I ever learned.
Throughout the 60 days I gave up all forms of processed sugars and processed foods. I gave up grains and the typical simple carbohydrates, like rice and pasta. I avoided legumes and dairy. I supplemented with high quality fish oil. I ate all kinds of meat, including bacon. I squandered boatloads of fat from avocados. I introduced coconut oil to our cooking and consumed pounds of sweet potatoes. I devoured a plethora of vegetables and introduced some new ones like eggplant and spaghetti squash. I always had berries and other fruits throughout the day. I ate a lot and often never counting calories just being aware of ingredients. I can't pinpoint when but at one point in the 60 days the magic hit. I absolutely felt awesome, on a freaking daily basis!
I became energetic throughout the days. I slept as good as my 1 year old daughter. I was making good decisions outside of my comfort zone. Like what you ask? Like I said before I love beer and I was able to avoid it for at least the first 30 days into the experience, especially when going to Yardhouse. I wasn't 100% perfect in my nutrition but that's not expected of anyone. So Yes, I had some Mexican candy, fries, churros, bites of cake, and beer. But I never consumed them in amounts I once did. I never wanted more than the sample bites I took and I wasn't beating myself over the head with those decisions. Fitness wise, I was getting stronger and faster. My workouts weren't killing me as much as I was killing it, or so I'd like to believe. I hit multiple personal records and I made myself have rest days for my body to recover and that took a lot of discipline.
The point is, I change my life in ways I didn't think possible. I want to keep rambling more and talk about some details but that can only bore a reader. First and foremost none of this would have ever been possible without the support of my loving wife and daughter. My wife was there to put me in my place and make sure I succeeded. My daughter was there to brighten my days and even scream at me during the workouts. Also, the community at Canyon Crossfit, you all are amazing, cheering me on when I'm dying during a workout and can't breathe. Of course I can't forget about everyone sharing their impressive recipes and meals. If you want change your relationship with food and hop on this whole&natural healthy bandwagon, then come on, there's plenty of space, no judgements made here. I was able to get my brother and brother-in-law to give it a shot. You can start here with the whole30 and then for better detailed information grab this book "It Starts with Food."
My final PNE workout will be the PNE WOD. It's a good overall crossfit assessment and when I did it in the beginning, my time was 15:10. Let's see how it pans out today.
PNE WOD for time:
Run 400m
1 round of "Cindy" (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 Air squats)
21 Deadlifts, 155#
Run 400m
1 - Cindy
15 Front squats, 155#
Run 400m
1 - Cindy
9 Clean & Jerks
MY TIME = 12:32 (today I smashed it!)
Here's what I had for lunch today
Finally, the reveal. It's quite embarassing, but here's my before and after shot of the PNE.
and then here's the progress shot from when I started Crossfit.
