How To Plan For Success With Crossfit Nutrition

Choosing to become fit, and incorporating exercise into your daily routine is a really good start to a healthy lifestyle.  However, exercise alone cannot help you achieve your goal of total body fitness, and healthy living. There is no better fitness program on the market to train then Crossfit, but how is your Crossfit nutrition going to help ?

You also have to take into consideration what you put into body daily, how much you ingest and how these foods you choose to eat affect your body and fitness goals.

The honest truth about fitness is, it is not for the faint hearted, or the undetermined. Fitness is for those that are willing to change their lifestyle, consciously consider what they put into their body, and help their body be the best it can be.

Crossfit has helped a lot of individuals achieve their goal of healthier and better living, with a community of fellow Crossfit participants encouraging and providing the support you need to make your goals a reality.

If you’re new to Crossfit training, or simply just looking to maximize your body’s gain from the intense hard work, then we’re here to give you some helpful tips about Crossfit nutrition.

What diet suits Crossfit Best

When we mention Crossfit nutrition, there are two major diet plans that come into mind:

I. The Paleo Diet
II. The Zone Diet

These are the two diets that most Crossfitters use as a baseline to determine what goes into their body, and the proportion in which it is to be ingested.

I. The Paleo Diet

The paleo diet is the diet plan that revolves around food that was available for hunter-gatherer humans in the paleolithic era. The pioneers of this diet plan believe that humans in this era lived longer healthier lives without the risk of diseases that most humans are exposed to these days, because of the quality of food they ate then.

The paleo diet mostly consists of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, seafood, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats. It excludes any other food that isn’t within this group such as dairy, grains, legumes, starches, alcohol, and processed foods.

The idea behind the paleo diet’s disapproval of dairy is the fact that animals do not ingest milk past the age of infancy. This theory probably counts for the reason why a good number of humans are currently lactose intolerant.

The paleo diet does not really require you to count the amount of calories, however you do have to watch your volume intake. It simply works on the principle “eat when you are hungry, and don’t if you’re not”, and also eat only the food types that were available in the paleolithic era.

II. The Zone Diet

The zone diet, unlike the paleo diet focuses more on the proportion of food being ingested into the body. The standard recommended food ratio for the zone diet is 40% carbs : 30% protein : 30% fat. The principle is planned healthy eating, constantly throughout the day.

You are not required to starve yourself, or restrict yourself from eating, but choosing to eat healthy options throughout the day. You are required to have breakfast, lunch and dinner, with snacks an hour or two between each meal. All means have to be weighed to ensure that the food ratios are kept to, and you are eating every food type in the adequate proportion.

Basic Of Crossfit Nutrition

When To Eat?

It is mostly advised to combine both the paleo diets and zone diets together for the best results. Utilizing the Paleo-Zone diet ensures you have all the nutrients you need for a proper workout, and your muscles have the right supplements to heal and recover faster and get bigger and stronger.

It is ideal that you get your three square meals a day to keep your body constantly fuelled. If it’s not a rest day, and you are required to workout that day, eat 1 – 3 hours before you have to workout. Eating less than an hour before your workout begins is a sure-fire way to feel nauseated mid workout, and end up puking during a very tasking routine.

Choosing The Right Ingredients

It is important that we all understand that food is a drug. As we are all not keen on ingesting low-quality, bad or unhealthy amounts of drugs, we should also approach food with that same mindset.

When choosing the ingredients to work with, try to go for the highest possible quality, such as grass fed beef, or wild seafood. If you cannot afford to do so, then you can compromise a little but, try to keep your ingredients as fresh, and nutritious as possible. This helps you body function optimally, and your muscles will be all the better for it.

Supplements

Including supplements into your Crossfit nutrition is allowed, as long as you’re not replacing food with supplements. Supplements are to provide your body with specific nutrients and hormones which will improve your workout outcome, and cannot be easily gotten through food. Supplements such as Omega-3 rich fish oil, and creatine can be considered.