Healthy Living Challenge starts this week!

The Healthy Living Challenge starts this week.  Alison has prepared notebooks for everyone and we have a Google doc (actually Google Sheets – but what evs).  We will use the docs to track our food intake and other aspects of the HLC, like working out, hydration, mobility and more.
I’ll share a bit of my healthy eating experience.  I started CrossFit in 2006 and I was heading to overweight.  I was basically eating and drinking lots of carbs.  I started the Zone in about late 2006 and stayed with the program until 2010.  I lost weight, became lean, and saw my performance go from very good to elite.  From 2010 to about 2012, I went between an athletes Zone (more fat) and Paleo.  During this time, I was heavy into competitive CrossFit.  I didn’t drink a beer or eat a piece of birthday cake for 6 years.  I’m not kidding.  If I did have “cheat meal” it was always followed by eating healthy again.
By 2013, I was still competing in CrossFit, but the demands had become so great, it was nearly impossible to get the calories you needed and compete multiple workouts a day.  I started eating more junk just to fuel performance, and it kind of worked.  I would eat clean most of the time, but from Saturday night through Sunday, I would eat everything.  This worked for a bit, but I knew I was chasing insulin spikes, trying to time my food intake with workouts.
In all honesty, I knew I wasn’t going to make the Games.  I was happy to qualify for Regionals and do the best I could.  I think deep down I knew that I could torture myself over nutrition and finish maybe, at best, top 25 in the Regional.  Instead, my last 2 years, I basically ate whatever I wanted and finished 35th.
In 2015, as the eye of the needle for the CrossFit Games got narrower, I basically said fuck it.  I’m going to eat and enjoy myself.  I only workout once a day, 5 times a week, and now I eat sugar.  And I’m addicted.  I don’t lie and hide my intake.  I openly eat candy at work, and the insulin spike causes ups and downs.  I know this.  I know that if I stop eating 7 skittles at a time, and actually stop, my cravings will go away.  So, I’m taking advantage of the challenge to clean up my nutrition, and get off the sugar wagon.

Our river group.