 Heather U., AKA Red Feather or OG has logged 86 workouts on BTWB in the past 5 months. She is our most committed athlete! Nice job Heather! For the past few Foodie Friday posts I have been focused on what you can eat. For the next few Foodie Friday posts I'll address the foods I want you to eliminate. As you recall, our nutrition plan is to eat meat, vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. This is our basic Paleo eating plan and the major food groups we are eliminating are grains, dairy, dried legumes and of course sugar. Now, before you get all uppity and argue that whole grains are good for you and are an important source of fiber. I challenge you to show me a side by side comparison of brown rice versus cauliflower rice. Oh wait! I'll do it for you. Most people eat grains because of convenience, not for the "amazing" nutritional properties of grains. Grains have supplanted vegetables for many folks. When you replace that space on your plate with rice instead of actual plant vegetables, you're leaving a lot of good nutrients off the table. Let's take a look.  The recommended serving size of cooked rice (white or brown) is 1/3 cup, that looks like this. It's about the size of a cupcake wrapper. Not very much, huh? How easy is it to pile more on your plate?  The recommended serving size for cauliflower rice is 1 cup, that looks like this. A one cup serving is about the size of a baseball. As a hungry CrossFitter I'm happier already. I get to EAT MORE! Here's the nutrient breakdown
As you can see, one serving of cauliflower rice is half the calories, more than double the fiber, and not nearly the carbohydrate load as brown or white rice. So why would you ever eat rice? Like I said, it's a convenience food. Not to mention cauliflower is loaded with nutrients like Vitamin C, Vitamin K, folate, thiamine, and the list goes on. Rice does not have any thing close to the nutrient load of cauliflower. Want another good reason to eat cauliflower rice instead of brown or white rice? When you're still hungry you can eat more! It takes a boatload of cauliflower rice to equal the caloric load of 1 cup of cooked white rice. The final reason we want to eliminate grains and replace them with vegetable is the impact of grains on our insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone that controls carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Insulin has two important roles, it removes excess glucose from the blood, which otherwise would be toxic; and when blood glucose levels fall below a certain level, insulin triggers the body to use stored sugar (glycogen) as an energy source by turning it into glucose. Insulin sensitivity is the optimal condition where our bodies require very little insulin to stimulate release of glucose into our blood stream. Not only do we require little insulin to release glucose, but the glucose comes from our cells, not our liver. This is an incredibly important metabolic shift. We want to achieve this so that we don't become insulin resistant. Insulin resistance is a metabolic disorder where the body is no longer sensitive to insulin's signals. A common symptom of insulin resistance is abdominal fat. Insulin is the hormone that regulates fat accumulation at the waist. The glycemic index is a way of measuring how fast a particular food is digested and the effect that it has on your blood sugar levels, and consequently on your insulin production. Let's compare our three rice types based on their glycemic index.
It should be no surprise that cauliflower rice is the clear winner. Some estimates of the glycemic index for cauliflower are between 0-15. It's affect on your insulin production is negligible. You can eat as much cauliflower rice as you like. Please enjoy this week's Foodie Friday recipe for roasted cauliflower rice with garlic and lemon from Skinny Taste. Click on the image for the recipe.  Want to dive deeper into why we eliminate grains on a Paleo Diet? Check out the "Grain Manifesto" from the folks who created the Whole30 program.
Click Here for the Whole 30 Grain Manifesto
HEY! We're starting a new BINGO game for June! Download and print your June Bingo below or get one from a coach at your next class. We have several NEW SQUARES for this summer game. Good luck!
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 Coach Heidi's "mighty minis." Coach Heidi is offering a NEW 8-week Class for TEENS from June 18-Aug 10 on Mon/Wed/Friday from 8:15 - 9:00am. Be sure to talk to her about all the details!
Today our Mental Toughness training returns to The Invictus Mindest. We have reviewed the First Pillar of mental toughness training which is goal setting. The second pillar of The Invictus Mindset of mental toughness is visualization. Henry Ford's famous quote, "Whether you believe you, or you can't - you're right" is a terrific reminder of the power of positive thinking. Visualization is a form of positive thinking. Visualization is a practice where you control your breathing and, in your mind's eye, perform act. You can visualize anything, a CrossFit workout, a tough conversation, a performance or public talk, etc. Visualization helps you control your nerves, helps you control stress, helps you gain confidence. According to The Invictus Mindset, visualization: 1. Visualization feeds into your beliefs about your capabilities and self-confidence. 2. Boots your immune system by reducing cortisol. 3. Engages the parasympathetic nervous system to induce extreme relaxation. Like anything worth doing, visualization takes practice. Here are a few steps to help you get started: 1. Keep your first sessions short 3-5 minutes. 2. Put your phone on do not disturb mode. 3. Sit or lie down 4. Notice your breathing for one minute 5. Scan your body from you toes to the top of your head and focus on relaxing any areas of tension. 6. Visualize your intention or goal. Go through every phase, every step. Repeat this as many times as like. Imagine how you'll feel when you accomplish this thing. Just like with CrossFit, research shows shorter duration and more frequent visualization sessions are the most beneficial. That's great news for us! All you need is 3-5 minutes a few times a day to make a significant positive impact on your life! Try it today!  Zach is our Spring Whole Life Challenge Winner! He wins $165 cash, a lean body and improved workout performance. Congratulations Zach on winning the Spring Whole Life Challenge and being the FIRST male winner! Zach had the best body composition improvement, the second best performance improvement and earned the most points over the course of the 6 week challenge. I'll admit, I pushed Zach into doing the WLC by telling him I thought he could be our first male winner. A few months ago Zach admitted he was ready to put his health and fitness as top priorities, and I thought the WLC would be the perfect accountability vehicle. Turns out, it was! Zach was primarily interested in seeing how low he could get his body fat. He started the challenge at 11% and dropped to 6%. That's a HUGE decrease and he did it by strict compliance to the WLC Performance plan, which is very strict Paleo to include no alcohol for the entire six weeks. He had only a few indulgences (on ice cream!) and stayed sober the entire time. I saw him stand firm to some serious peer pressure at the Noon Rotary wine tasting charity event mid-way through the challenge. I was very impressed with his commitment to the program. I asked Zach how hard it was to stay complaint and he answered, "It's as easy as you make it." Seriously, if you're committed to the program, no matter it it's Kickstart, Lifestyle or Performance, it will work for you. After a few weeks Zach had created the habit of eating ONLY meat, vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, NO STARCH, NO SUGAR and NO ALCOHOL. Yep, it's that easy. Not only did Zach decrease his body fat by almost half, he also started seriously kicking ass in workouts. On Monday he did Murph with a weight vest, and he committed to increasing the frequency of his workouts. In fact, in so far this month he has logged 19 workouts on Beyond the Whiteboard. So I think Zach would agree with me in that if you want to lose body fat and get fitter, watch what you eat with strict compliance and get your ass to the gym. Joining Zach in the top 3 WLC are Maelin who finished second overall but first in performance improvement (she's logged 15 workouts in May on BTWB) our third place finisher is Noah who has super consistent across all categories (she's logged 18 workouts in May on BTWB) Nice job ladies! Heather Murphy deserves special recognition for having the second best body composition improvement. She is working hard to get her pre-Saoirse body back and it shows! Keep up the good work Heather. I also want to point out that Zach, Maelin and Heather all regularly attend the 9am class, as does Glee who has won 2 Whole Life Challenges. Perhaps there's some special synergy in that 9am group. Good thing we just added a Tuesday 9am class!   The 9am class completes their May 50-unbroken kettlebell swing challenge. Remember our new Tuesday 9am class starts today! We have been swinging kettlebells everyday in class during May. We will complete our 50-unbroken swing challenge on Thursday. There are two primary ways to swing a kettlebell, either with straight arms or with bent arms. Both styles are correct, and each one has benefits. Watch today's Technique Tuesday video to see who should swing with straight arms and who should swing with bent ones. As you learned in the video, posture and body frame size are the primary reasons why some people should swing with bent arms and some with straight. Try a few of each style today during the WOD and see if you notice a difference.
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