Before I opened True Spirit CrossFit, I worked as an Outreach Scientist with the US Geological Survey and as an Extension Agent for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. For the past 10 years I have been slowly integrating my love of ecology, horticulture, gardening, and local agriculture into True Spirit's message of community, fitness and my own ethic of sustainability. I have always had a garden. If you've been to my house you'll notice that my front and backyards are planted with edibles and pollinator friendly plants. Gardening is my way of providing for my family, being connected to my micro-ecosystem, and being independent from the industrial food system. You don't have to have a giant garden to gain a little independence. A few herbs and cherry tomatoes in a pot on your patio can go a long way to making you feel like a homesteader. Over the next few weeks I'm going to share a series of articles I wrote many moons ago (for the Nevada Cooperative Extension) to help you set up a garden and get growing. I'm calling this series, Homegrown Paleo and I hope you enjoy this journey! Healthy Soil is Worth the ToilThe first time newcomers try to drive a shovel into the ground here, they often notice something different. This soil isn’t like soil in many other places. Our soils work perfectly for our beautiful native plant communities, but when you try to grow something that isn’t from around here, it’s another story. Not only do we have soils with very little organic matter and a wide range of drainage issues, we also often contend with soils that have been compacted to 95 percent. Construction codes demand that the soil our homes are built upon be compacted to minimize settling and shifting. While this requirement works well for keeping our homes grounded, it is terrible for growing plants. Furthermore, most of the soil around your home may be from somewhere else. It is not uncommon to scrape off native topsoil during home construction, and replace it with fill-dirt of unknown quality and origin. We are asking a lot of our plants when we try expect them to grow and thrive with so much stacked against them. So, how do we cure these ills and garden successfully in southwestern Montana? The only way to effectively improve your soil is to add organic matter. To illustrate this point, think of a time when you hiked through a heavily wooded area, such as a douglas fir forest. Now, think of hiking through sagebrush country. Do you recall stepping on pine needles and spongy soil in the forest? Forests have huge amounts of organic matter, such as leaves, needles, etc., being added to the soil and decomposing regularly. Sagebrush country, on the other hand, doesn’t get much in the way of leaves, needles or other organic matter falling on the ground. As a result, we typically try to plant on hard ground that contains very little organic matter. Organic matter positively affects soil fertility, water holding capacity and drainage. You can work it into the soil or simply spread it on top of the soil. Working organic matter into the soil is called amending the soil. If you are planting right away, it is best to work the organic matter into the soil, rather than wait for it to work its way into the soil. Placing organic matter on top of the soil is called mulching. Compost is an excellent source of organic matter. If you make compost at home, it is also very inexpensive. You can even add organic matter to your soil by spreading shredded leaves and grass clippings on it. It might take a little time before it starts to decompose and work its way down to rooting depth, but once the decomposition starts, you will begin to see a big difference in your soil. You can also use horse, cow or chicken manure as an organic matter supplement. Just be sure the manure is aged or composted so that you don’t get a weed problem from viable weed seeds in the manure. Don’t despair this spring as you head into the garden. Turn over a new leaf by paying attention to what’s underfoot. RESOURCES FOR LOCAL COMPOST: https://www.happytrashcan.net/ https://www.yescompost.com/products This is a reprint of an article I wrote when I was the commercial horticulture program coordinator for the western area of University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. For more specific gardening and horticulture advice be sure to visit your local Cooperative Extension office.
0 Comments
Today, for Whoop Wednesday, I'm sharing a podcast with Whoop VP of Performance Kristen Holmes and Director of Analytics Emily Capodilupo who are joined by nutritionist Kassandra Hobart to take a deep dive into the science of calorie tracking. Kristen, Emily and Kassandra explore exactly what calories are and how your body uses them, as well as the difficulties that arise with trying to count them–both coming in and going out. They also discuss a recent update to the WHOOP app to improve the way we track your caloric burn, as well as some general tips for how to be smarter and healthier with the calories you’re putting in your body. 4:01 – What Exactly are Calories? “Calories are unit of energy,” Kassandra says. “They’re our fuel.” 4:26 – Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). “Your BMR is your very basic energy need for living. Anything like breathing, digestion, etc. You need a certain level of calories to function. … Your BMR is really the best baseline so that we can calculate things on top of it.” 5:39 – Factors that Affect BMR. “Your height, your weight, your age, where you’re living, you’re environment, your epigenetics,” and more. 6:07 – How Does WHOOP Calculate BMR? “We currently calculate BMR as a function of age, your reported gender, your height and your weight,” Emily says. We’re excited to improve on this with PNOE integration and using cardio-metabolic analysis. 7:56 – 3 Ways We Burn Calories. BMR, the thermic effect of food (“It’s a lot of work to eat!”) and active burn, “the calories that you expend to do anything above the bare minimum.” 9:04 – Recent Update to Improve Calorie Tracking. “Most of the literature out there has actually only been developed by data collected on much higher heart rates,” Emily explains. We updated our algorithm to better reflect caloric burn when you’re less active. “We have this really big data set that we can look at and find these discrepancies that the studies miss.” 11:09 – Food Label Inaccuracies. “The error bar on the other side of the equation is way higher,” Emily points out, “the FDA requires that all food labels are within 20% of the actual amount of calories that they claim, and they don’t even enforce or police this requirement at all.” Plus, human error plays a big part. For example, two chefs at a restaurant may make the same salad very differently. “The more ingredients you have, the more likely that it’s going to be more imprecise with the calories, even if it is whole-food based,” Kassandra adds. “It also matters how it was cooked.” 14:50 – Does Weighing Food Work? “Counting calories is fraught with issues,” Kristen concludes. “Weighing does get you maybe a tiny bit closer to understanding what’s in your food, but as far as calories are concerned, you’d have to weigh each individual ingredient, and you’re still taking an average,” Kassandra says. “Also, what you’re eating is going to be different than what you absorb.” 16:09 – Overcoming Challenges of Calorie Counting. “I think that we need to get away from this quantity approach, and more look at quality,” Kassandra states. “One thing that is good about weighing and measuring food is that it gives you a better understanding of how nutrient-dense your food is.” 17:28 – Nutrient Dense Foods. “Even at a cellular level, it’s more important to have nutrient-dense food than it is to worry about being in a calorie deficit or surplus,” Kassandra says. “Let’s worry less about being precise on your calories in and calories out, and being more in-tune with your body.” 18:16 – Eating Slowly Matters a Lot. “Getting into this parasympathetic state is really important,” Kristen explains. “That’s one thing I love about WHOOP,” Kassandra adds, “you guys really do a good job of explaining and understanding how important that parasympathetic system is. … If we want to absorb more of our food, than we need to be calm when we’re eating it.” 19:27 – Rest & Digest. “You need to be chewing each bit like 10-15 times. … You’re going to feel better because you’re a little bit more balanced as far as what happens during digestion and absorption, especially of carbohydrates.” 21:14 – Microbiome. “When we’re eating more whole foods and eating them slowly, those good gut bugs are able to grow and help us absorb more nutrients.” 22:19 – Liquid Sugars. “When we drink liquids it’s a very different process than when we’re actually eating sugars,” Kristen says. Recent studies, A and B. 22:56 – Where Should Your Calories Come From? “A good rule of thumb is 30% of your calories from protein, 30% from fat, and 40% from carbs,” Kassandra suggests. “That’s before we look at any of the other factors or your goals, but that’s a good baseline to start.” 25:06 – Daily Goals. “Glycogen storages take up to 36 hours to replenish,” Kassandra points out. “If I have an athlete who’s running on Thursday, I want them to be increasing carbs and even some protein on Wednesday, even Tuesday.” 26:25 – Performance vs. Longevity. “What is your goal, and how important is it? … If it’s a lot of volume short term, I’m even less worried about the quality because I just need you to be so fueled and calorically ready for that particular event.” But, you have to understand the consequences of what might happen long term, Kassandra says. Emily gives the example of how runners’ “goo” makes sense in the moment, but not under regular circumstances. Conversely, it also doesn’t make sense to eat a salad while you’re running. 29:12 – Food Timing. “I’m going to eat foods that enable me to optimize whatever that behavior is that I’m doing,” Kristen says. 30:33 – Keto and Cognitive Health? “Right now we only know the short term of it,” Kassandra notes. “We don’t know the long-term effect of someone doing such a high-fat diet in the endurance world.” 32:18 – Sleep and Nutrition/Calories. “We have our athletes start a ‘power-down’ routine” before they go to sleep. “We don’t want have a lot of fat before bed,” that’s going to be hard to digest. Kassandra recommends cool food as opposed to hot food prior to bed as well. “If we don’t sleep enough, our body will start to look for that energy in other forms. In particular, it’ll crave junk food.” 34:53 – Leptin and Ghrelin (Hunger Hormones). “If you’re not sleeping well, if you’re not getting recovered at night that next day most likely your metabolism is going to be a lot lower too,” Kassandra explains. “You’re now going to crave things that you normally wouldn’t need or wouldn’t want. … Your REM and your deep sleep are so important for this.” 36:23 – If You Wake Up Hungry at Night? “That lets me know that we have to increase your calories, and carbs in particular. … A lot of times if you’re waking up in the middle of the night it’s because your muscles are trying to recover and they just can’t.” 38:55 – Big Takeaways. “The way that we’re counting calories at WHOOP is internally consistent … the trends are very reliable,” Emily says. “On both sides of the equation calorie counting much noisier than people appreciate.” Kassandra adds “Quality is just so important. Calories are a unit of fuel, we do need them. At the end of the day, we all need macronutrients.” And from Kristen, “Really try to get in that parasympathetic state when you are eating.” If you are interested in joining the dozen TSCF members on our on a Whoop journey, use my link to get your first month free. If you're already a Whoop user, join our True Spirit Whoop Group with the team code: COMM-AD6416.
What is a MetCon, AKA metabolic conditioning?Our bodies utilize three energy systems when we exercise. These are the Phosphogen-Creatine, Glycolytic, and Oxidative energy systems. We are all probably most familiar with the Oxidative system and we know it by it's common name, aerobic(s) exercise. The other two systems are anaerobic. Meaning they do not require oxygen to "run."
One of the key components of the type of fitness we do is that we utilize all three energy systems. The Phosphogen-creatine system is used primarily when we do something hard and fast for less than 60 seconds. Think of a max effort lift, a box jump, a sledgehammer hit, or swinging a golf club or baseball bat. These are explosive efforts that we can do at maximal intensity. The glycolytic system is used primality for maximal efforts lasting less than 2 minutes. Think of the workout Grace, a 10, 100, or 200m sprint, a 250 max effort row, or any interval that lasts about 2 mins. The oxidative pathway dominates efforts lasting longer than 2 min. This is most of our workouts. We are always training our "aerobic" system (except when we are just lifting for load.) All three of these systems operate at the start of exercise, but one dominates until the next one takes over. One of the reasons the training we do is so effective is that we intentionally train all three of these systems. Increased efficiency in all three systems has profound and significant impacts on our hormonal balance and metabolism. That is why we call our workouts, metabolic conditioning. We are not just exercising or doing aerobics. We are actively training our metabolism to make us healthy and fit! You Are What You Eat, Part 2A few weeks ago, I shared an insightful and short podcast from The Consistency Project about the Netflix docuseries You Are What You Eat. What to eat, how much to eat, when to eat and why we overeat have been explored since the very first diet book was published in 1863. That book, Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public by William Banting encouraged people to eat meat, greens, and fruit. He avoided root vegetables, potatoes, butter, milk, pork, salmon, sugar, and beer. He lost 35 pounds and decided that his anecdotal personal experience counted as evidence and thus the psuedoscience of diet and nutrition culture was born. According to this article from Micheal Easter, About 55 million Americans are on a diet plan, and 50% are trying to lose weight. Diet and weight loss books generated $580 million in sales in 2019. WOW! That is a lot of folks who are wanting to make a change and a LOT of people and companies who are willing to sell them something, even if its silly bullshit, to help them lose weight. What's even more interesting is that we are drawn to a particular diet, or eating plan, based on our confirmation bias. Easter summarizes it this way: We often choose a diet based on our underlying beliefs about society. For example: Your personal values, your beliefs, your family food culture, and your general life view will influence what you choose to put in your mouth, and this is the most important factor that will determine if your diet and nutrition choice will actually work. What works is what you can do for the long game. If you can't stay on your "X, Y, Z" elimination diet forever, it's not going to work. Check out the entire article from Micheal Easter, "Wild Findings from an Analysis of 400 Diet Books" by clicking on the link below or reading it on Scribd. You can read the entire article below. The bottom line is that “diets are all equally terrible for long-term weight loss,” Layne explained. But when the scientists stratified the participants by how closely they followed the diet’s instructions, they found that the most adherent people lost more fat. Regardless of the diet—every diet worked when the study participants followed it long-term. |
Special EventsRecord your WOD on Beyond the Whiteboard.
Do you need CrossFit or yoga gear? Click on the links below to buy through our GORUCK, Reebok, Rogue or Affiliate share sale programs. These are affiliate links and our gym will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.
Check out our Flickr page!
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|