Entering the ZONE

Athletes:
 
This will give you a start.  www.zonediet.com
 
Sign up is free.  Build a username and password.  Go to the CALCULATOR tab on the front page.  Plug in the variables and you can approximate how many blocks of FAT, CARBS & PROTEIN you require daily.  This is not weight watchers and/or Jenny FUCKING Craig.  This IS a performance based diet for athletes.  More importantly, this is an eating lifestyle that will ward off Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes which can be induced by Hyperinsulinemia (google this one) and a muriad of inflammatory diseases leading up to and including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other degenerative pathologies that affect human physiology.  
 
What most athletes typically experience when they're "zoning" is an improvement in muscle, joint and injury recovery.  Furthermore, human performance is maximized.  It is for this reason that ZONE Performance works for sport specific athletes and more importantly CrossFit Athletes.  Nutrition is the biggest brick in your body composition pyramid.  It is at the base of all you do.  In other words, if you eat like shit, you feel like shit and consequently will perform like shit both athletically and in life.  It is my belief and the belief of countless professionals in the nutrition arena, that if you eat well, you eventually will feel well.  The ZONE is an ongoing science experiment with consistently positive outcomes.  Just read some of the material on Barry Sears, Ph.D. 
 
The point here is to begin bulding some personal knowledge about "glycemic index" as it relates to the everyday foods that you eat.  Furthermore, I feel it's important to "balance" your meals.....not in accordance with the food chart that you saw while growing up as a child (that fucking thing is shitty and fucked up..there I said it!)....I'm talking about balancing your primary meals with a very simple method; 30-30-40.  That is 30% Protein, 30%Fat and 40%Carbohydrate.  Additionally, the daily supplementation of Fish Oil, including 3 to 5 grams of EPA & DHA fatty acids, will improve your metabolic efficiency along with cardiovascular and joint health.
 
The methods are EASY. Yes, there are some foods that you will miss.  But the rule is 70/30 or better yet 80/20.  In other words, 70 or 80 percent of your meals should ideally be ZONE or Paleo Zone (another story).  What happens to the remainder?....CHEAT DAYS or CHEAT MEALS.  The CHEAT is exactly what it sounds like.  The key is that we indulge or go "off-plan" occasionally and not regularly.  That's it. 
 
Figure out your blocks today.  It can always be tweaked.  And don't worry, we're not flipping a light switch to the "off" position here....no cold turkey.  We are going to work on this together, gradually.  Otherwise you'll just want to choke the living fuck out of me with all the greasy hatred you can muster.....and WE don't need any more angry fuckers in this world...angry fuckers are useless.  The strong, well fed soldiers are much more useful and generally harder to kill....tehe
 
Stay Strong!
-Johnny D.