A New Prescription for Health

Posted by Robbie Cooper at 6:26 am Add comments

Feb 132010

My CrossFit Central coach sent us this old (July 2002) article from from the NY Times (about 11 pages, so read it in “print” format to avoid having to load 10 more fresh pages)…essentially the article asks, “What if nutritionists and scientists have been wrong all along,” about what constitutes a good, healthy diet.

For the last thirty years, we’ve been told that fat is bad, and whole wheats and grains are good. But the time-tested theory of the Atkins Diet, The Zone, and to an extent Paelo are proving that it’s not the fat that’s killing us…it’s the carbohydrates:

The alternative hypothesis also comes with an implication that is worth considering for a moment, because it’s a whopper, and it may indeed be an obstacle to its acceptance. If the alternative hypothesis is right — still a big ”if” — then it strongly suggests that the ongoing epidemic of obesity in America and elsewhere is not, as we are constantly told, due simply to a collective lack of will power and a failure to exercise. Rather it occurred, as Atkins has been saying (along with Barry Sears, author of ”The Zone”), because the public health authorities told us unwittingly, but with the best of intentions, to eat precisely those foods that would make us fat, and we did.

8 years after that article was written, I think any doubts have been erased.

The CrossFit Prescription

I’ve been “heavy” most of my life…I’ve never been a small person. Even at the height of my physical fitness, as a 23-year old Private in the US Army — when I was running 6 minutes miles and scoring 300s on my PT tests — I was a “heavy” 200 lbs (though my BMI was in single digits).

As a more sedentary adult, I’ve added some lbs that I’d rather not carry around. The most success I’ve had in losing weight has been the one time I tried Atkins (about 7 years ago), and more recently eating Paleo. More importantly than just the weight loss, however, has been the “How do I feel” test. Eating clean, natural foods void of “bad” carbohydrates (except for the carbs I get from eating vegetables and some fruits) makes me feel better, sleep better, and perform better.

I still have a ways to go to get to my ideal body weight and BMI, but I also know that exercise alone isn’t going to get me there. It’s going to take this simple prescription — also known as CrossFit in 100 Words:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

CrossFit has become popular with Soldiers in order to help keep them "combat fit"

Which is why I’ve abandoned the globo-gym and traditional exercise diet routines for CrossFit; CrossFit believes that health and wellness is a total lifestyle…nutrition and exercise. And the nutritional advice that our coaches preach (and practice) is The Zone, Paleo, or a combination of both (eating Zone portions of Paleo foods).