I have been asked this question many, many....many times since starting back with an exercise routine and changing my eating habits. I workout using the Crossfit exercise philosophy. What is Crossfit? This short video should give you a small idea of what it is like to call myself a Crossfitter
as you can see, Crossfit is NOT your average "go to the gym and ride a bike casually for an hour" workout. Crossfit is a high intensity, short bursts of energy type workout. Crossfit is also very unique in the fact the philosphy is that true fitness doesn't come just from mastering 1 or 2 aspects, but an all encompassing fitness. Crossfit seeks to further a persons fitness in the areas of
cardiovascular/respiratory endurance
stamina
strength
flexibility
power
speed
agility
balance
coordination
and accuracy
The way this is accomplished is thru short bursts of high energy focusing on full body involvement mixed with isolated mobility work and weight lifting.
One of the great things about the Crossfit workouts is its adaptability. I obviously am not able to run or do other things that a standing individual can, but the workouts are easily scaled and adapted to get the same amount of physical involvement while considering a persons individual physical limitations, as well as working on those limitations to minimize them.
The other half to this topic is my eating habits. When people hear that I eat like a caveman on the paleo diet, they think i'm gonna bust out my wooden club and loin cloth. :). However funny this would be, it is not what I mean. Here is the wikipedia article on my eating changes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleo_diet
For those of you NOT wanting to spend your entire day reading that article, let me sum up. Basicly the thinking goes like this...
all the way up to the paleolithic period man normally consumed a diet that consisted mostly of meat, veggies, nuts and some fruits. The main idea being that if a hunter/gatherer wouldn't have normal access to it, its not paleo. Mans metabolism evolved to best use this diet to enhance performance. Only recently, after man started to settle and no longer were largly hunter/gatherers did man start to consume wheat, dairies, gluten, grains and processed foods. With thousands of years of man almost strictly eating meats and veggies, the addition of wheat, dairy and other things listed above has not done good things for our metabolism and overall physical well being. There has even been some personal observation that I could be allergic to certain things i've been consuming for years, like wheat, so the exclusion of these things from my diet seems to be having a positive effect on my overall health, not just the weight loss. I know there will probably be alot of people telling me that I need to add this, that, or the other into my diet, but let me just say that this seems to be working and I have alot of people who are well educated in this and who promote this way of eating. some might say "well, you need grains to help break this down" or similar statements, and let me say that 1. there are many ways to do one thing and 2. I do have my cheat day. I do not strictly follow the eating habits all day, every day. I still enjoy my rice, or pasta, or bread or even a nice, juicy burger thats chalk-full of additives. I just wait to consume those things once a week to cut down on my overall intake of those things.
so, next time you ask me "what is that?" I will know...you didn't read my blog!
