Coach Greg Glassman has said : “A theoretical hierarchy exists for the development of an athlete. It starts with nutrition and moves to metabolic conditioning, gymnastics, weightlifting, and finally sport. This hierarchy largely reflects foundational dependence, skill, and to some degree, time ordering of development. The logical flow is from molecular foundations, cardiovascular sufficiency, body control, external object control, and ultimately mastery and application. This model has greatest utility in analyzing athletes’ shortcomings or difficulties. We don’t deliberately order these components but nature will. If you have a deficiency at any level of “the pyramid” the components above will suffer.”

In short, your metabolic conditioning and performance in gymnastics, weightlifting, and sport are directly impacted by and dependent on your diet. Even small changes in your eating habits can make a big difference in your health and fitness.

Starting November 1st, we’re doing a Healthy Living Challenge at Element CrossFit. Members of www.elementcrossfit.com can access recipes and other resources in the Member Resources Section to help you. It might seem like a hassle to track and measure your meals, but you get accustomed to eyeballing correct proportions of foods quickly, and it’s worth it in the end. If you don’t want to participate in the challenge, you don’t have to be hardcore about it, but if you’re taking the time and effort to improve your fitness by CrossFitting, you should at least try to incorporate some of the things we have learned from the Zone Diet and the Paleo Diet into your eating habits to improve your health. Many people CrossFit with good results and have terrible eating habits. But they don’t see results as great as those who eat well, and don’t enjoy the mental and physical benefits of good nutrition.

I’ve been reading a lot on the optimal nutrition for peak mental and physical performance as outlined by Dr Barry Sears of the Zone Diet and similar dietary prescriptions such as Protein Power. I plan to write a short summary and review on each book as I go. So far Top 100 Zone Foods by Dr. Barry Sears was the most applicable, as it gives a good introduction to the Zone Diet and interesting facts and recipes for each food. I highly recommend it for those interested in improving their nutrition, especially those concerned about diabetes and heart disease (which we all should be). More to follow, but to start, read my earlier posts on the Zone Diet and the Paleo Diet, check out the links, and read CrossFit Journal #21for the official CrossFit prescription for the Zone Diet.

I like using www.fitday.com to keep track of meals, it’s free and easy to use. Also, http://www.nutritiondata.com/ provides nutrition facts, caloric ratio, estimated glycemic load, and inflammation factor for most foods.

Keith at CrossFit Virtuosity has a great article with more guidance: http://www.crossfitvirtuosity.com/blogs/articles/18-articles/135-how-to-start-your-meal-plan