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The Open was awesome and now that everyone has the hunger to set PB’s in the gym, we think its time to start fueling that hunger with proper nutrition. We will be having a Paleo Challenge in May – the rules are pretty simple:
To make the transition into our Paleo month a little easier, we will be releasing weekly challenges. The challenges will slowly introduce you to the Paleo lifestyle, so that when May does comes around, you won’t need to turn your world upside down to accept the challenge.
This weeks challenge is pretty simple :
It’s a pretty simple challenge, and the challenge is open for interpretation. At a minimum you should be aiming to not add sugar to your drinks (coffee/tea/water). At the extreme you should be aiming to not add sugar to your daily routine (Fruit/Sweets/Honey/Chocolate/Snickers/Mar Bars/Bounties/Kit Kats/Tim Tams/ Candy, yes that includes the $1 Charity Sweets in the staff room- even though you’re helping the kids, you’re not helping yourself). The interpretation of the rule depends on your answer to the following question – do you want to lose weight or perform better? If you answered ‘lose weight’ we would recommend opting for the total removal of sugar from your lifestyle – don’t worry when you reach your goals, you will be able to reintroduce natural sugars ie fruits into your diets.
So here’s the why: According to CrossFit HQ The problem with high-glycemic carbohydrates is that they give an inordinate insulin response. Insulin is an essential hormone for life, yet acute, chronic elevation of insulin leads to hyperinsulinism, which has been positively linked to obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, blood pressure, mood dysfunction and a Pandora’s box of disease and disability. Research “hyperinsulinism” on the Internet. There’s a gold mine of information pertinent to your health available there. The CrossFit prescription is a low-glycemic diet and consequently severely blunts the insulin response.
Cheongys Translation: We need sugar/carbohydrates to survive, too much or too little sugar in our blood and we go into a coma (urk!). In order to manage our blood sugar levels, our bodies release the hormone Insulin, think of insulin as a storage hormone – it funnels the sugar out of our blood and into our liver and muscle to be used as energy. Unfortunately we have a limited amount of space in our liver and muscle, and when this space runs out insulin funnels the sugars into our fat. YES SUGARS MAKE YOU FAT. Furthermore in most cases are bodies are too efficient at this process, and remove too much sugar from our blood stream. This is commonly known as CRASHING. You know that feeling at 10am when you feel a bit drowzy, and you feel like you could do with a pick me up? This is your body asking your to top up your blood sugar levels. SUGARS MAKES YOU HUNGRY. Suffice to say this cycle continues throughout the day. Days turn to months, months turn to years, and years into a lifetime –the more and more you repeat this cycle the further resistance your cells become to insulin, and the more your body needs to produce to manage your bloody sugar levels, resulting in a Hyperinsulinemia (an excess of insulin in relation to the sugars in your blood). You can read more a bout hyperinsulinemia here – however it is a condition that has been linked to Type II Diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
According to 60 Minutes:
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