Who’s ready for a nutrition challenge? With the holidays over, what better time to reset and get back on track with healthy eating? Here are the details for the upcoming challenge!
Important Dates:
- Challenge Introduction and Nutrition Talk January 1/15 6:30pm The Forge
- Start date: January 19th
- End date: February 19th
Requirements:
- Sign up at Thermal with a Partner and select your challenge Paleo or Zone (or another goal of your choice – check with Vin)
- Follow the challenge guidelines (see below) for the entire 4 weeks
- Participate in the “Test Your Fitness” WOD. We will run it as the daily WOD on 1/19 and 2/19, or reach out to Coach Vin to make it up. This will be a strength feat and a Met Con workout
- Daily Food Log– You will need to complete a daily food log showing what you ate each day. At the end of the challenge you will submit your log for review. The coaches are here to help you, so don’t hesitate to ask for help during the challenge. Food logs can be hand written or emailed. Participants who fill out their logs each day have a better chance of doing well in the challenge than those who miss entries.
Optional:
- Body Measurements – we can estimate your percentage of body fat using calipers at the gym
- Before and After Photos
Option 1 Paleo – Challenge Guidelines
- All participants should aim to eat 100% Paleo for the duration of the challenge. Eat whole, unprocessed, nutrient-dense, nourishing foods. Prioritize grass fed and pastured meats and eggs, wild-caught seafood, and vegetables. Enjoy fruit, nuts, and seeds in moderation.
- Avoid foods that will harm us by causing systemic inflammation, wrecking our guts, or derailing our natural metabolic processes.Abstain from toxic, pro-inflammatory foods like gluten-containing grains, legumes, and sugars.
Option 2 Zone – Challenge Guidelines
- Zone Diet:The Zone diet is a nutrition plan based upon the idea that the right ratio of carbohydrates to proteins and fats can control levels of insulin in the bloodstream. Too much of the hormone, can increase fat storage and inflammation in the body.
- The Zone option requires more prepartion and calculation than paleo, but it also allows for more food found in the typical Amerinca diet. When selecting this option, be prepared to weigh and measure all of your food. See the “Zone” handout in the nutrition challenge packet for details.
Scoring System:
- Of course the main goal of this challenge is to learn something about ourselves. Specifically, how to we look, feel and perform when we monitor our food intake. We want to learn that we can make changes and stick to them, we want to learn how to cook, how to prepare and how to eat on the go without suffering the effects of poor nutritional habits. But in the end we will also offer a prize for the winning team!
- Each day of the challenge, both team members will have the opportunity to earn 2 points. 2 points will be earned for strict adherence to the nutrition plan of their choosing (Paleo or Zone). Slight deviation from the plan can still earn the participants 1 point. For example, eating a meal that is totally Paleo, but having salad dressing that contains sugar with your meal. This will be a subjective decision made by the coaches during the review of your log. If neither of these criteria are met than the participant will be awarded 0 points for that days effort.
In addition to daily points, participants can also earn points using the 2 optional methods listed above.
- Body Fat readings – 3 points for participation
- Before and After Photos – 3 points for participation