Blog Archive

We’re putting together a paleo recipe book of all your favourite recipes for Nutts Cup (all money raised goes to our youth at risk fundraising). And we want you to be a part of it.

Your dish has to be PaleoBear apprroved to be considered for the cookbook, so make sure you e-mail the recipe to punky@crossfit.ca

This Friday, we’re hosting a paleo feast at CF Van, starting at 7:30 pm. We have photographers coming to take pictures of the food, and of you DRESSED AS CAVEMEN to use to illustrate the cookbook.

What we need from you:

1. Bring a dish (if you’re a good cook) AND e-mail your recipe to punky@crossfit.ca
2. Dress as a caveman!
3. If you can’t cook, bring a bottle of wine for the wine raffle, or drop a donation at the door
4. BYOB

This event is open to anyone coming to Nutts Cup, not just CF Vaners. So don’t be shy. Come on by.

See you all Friday

Eunice

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So, many of us have played with a paleo diet (which is an elimination diet – restricting grains, dairy, legumes, highly processed vegetable oils, etc) which overwhelmingly leaned us up and made us look, feel and perform better.  We tinkered with ratios of macronutrients as well (depending on our situation and goals) to make significant changes in our body composition.  It’s fun and rewarding to experiment and test “this vs that” to get a better handle on your own situation.

The potential tests we’ll be considering (blood, stool, and saliva) can give us more data to play with. Alana will be here Friday night (7pm Paleo BBQ get together) to initially answer and show samples of the tests.

My Situation – 1 year ago

After being 90% paleo myself for a good 6 months I still had issues with gut health, breathing and recovery so I re-introduced many of the common non paleo foods again for 3 to 4 weeks prior to getting my food specific IgG Antibody Assessment (via blood) done.  You should do this because it eliminates the possibility of false negatives showing up in your screen.  Alana will speak on this more but the body needs recent exposure to the food in order to produce antibodies to it.  So if you have completely avoided a food for several weeks prior to testing, you will likely not have any antibodies to that food.  Also the reaction experienced might not be an immune reaction.  Chemical sensitivities and enzyme deficiencies can also cause reactions to foods (i.e lacking the enzyme lactase will inhibit you from digesting lactose in milk product).  Drugs that suppress the immune system also suppress production of IgG antibodies.   Food for thought – and another reason to get the test done this summer as we have all been indulging in most of the prime suspects.

My own panel showed I was very sensitive to asparagus, broccoli, and all forms of dairy (casein, whey, yogurt, cows milk, etc) while mildly sensitive to cranberries, pineapple, banana, and cabbage.  So even paleo foods can trigger an immune reaction.  My grain panel was very low with corn somewhat being more a bit more disruptive than all other grains.  Nuts, seeds, eggs, and all meat and shellfish were fine!!

So again, we’re just gathering data on our personal situation so we can move to a better place to make quality decisions when planning your next meal.

Warm-up:

Shoulder and hip pre-exercise mobility.  Get those bands out and address those tight spots.

Technique:

Snatch Singles

Practice the allotment of Snatches

–       Muscle Snatch

–       Power Snatch

–       Squat Snatch

–       Split Snatch

Workout – Find your Maximum Snatch – Post to leaderboard.

For some inspiration check out the IOC page for pics and vids http://www.olympic.org/weightlifting

Tbear

Are you experiencing difficulty digesting specific foods?
The symptoms of food sensitivities and allergies are quite different. A food allergy normally causes a quick and obvious reaction, such as swelling, rashes or difficulty in breathing.

The symptoms of food sensitivities are not as immediate or obvious as those of food allergies.
Fatigue, lethargy, needing to sleep after you have eaten; mood swings, depression, restlessness, headaches, migraines, joint pain, gas, bloating, and indigestion are a few examples.

Many have told me they think they are gluten sensitive. Well, I’ve read that 40 odd percent of us are. These food sensitivities can cause a variety of symptoms and lead to a handful of autoimmune conditions and potential diseases. The reactions vary for us all but can cause malnutrition, growth failure in children, osteoporosis, many autoimmune diseases (including colitis, diabetes, arthritis, and many others), and most of us are unaware of our gut health and think farting and burping are components of good digestion – NOT.

We can test for these allergies and sensitivities to immune-stimulating foods such as milk, eggs, soy, the family of grains, meats, nuts, and nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant).

Sensitivity of the immune system to milk, eggs, soy, and rice proteins has been reported to cause intestinal syndromes and damage to the gut mimicking that caused by gluten. So gluten free may be just the first step. Other food sensitivities on top of a gluten problem can cause syndromes as well, contributing to irritable bowel syndrome, and probably aggravating rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, recent research has linked antibodies to milk proteins to the development of eczema, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and autism.

So, I don’t see why we shouldn’t investigate and make proper testing available to those of us interested. I think cost and how to go about it has been the biggest burden, but when you start researching where your health can go if you keep the blinders on you may reconsider.

I’ll post more information on the variety of testing this week. I’m working with Dr. Alana Shaw, ND, MSc (c.) on an information night and how to go about getting good information and accurate analysis done. It’s a big topic and worth a little discussion this week. A sign up sheet will go up Monday for those interested in getting tested.

Tech:
Hang Squat Cleans (3,3,3,3,3)

Workout:

8 Toes to Bar
10 Alt Lunges
12 Burpees

AMRAP 10 Minutes

All the best,
Tbear

The 3rd Annual Nutts Cup is fast approaching.  In fact, it is just over 3 weeks away.  I know we’ve all seen the video submissions, and thanks to Eunice, this added element has made the competition fun weeks in advance.

Click to see the WOD Hog video posts.

For those of us who didn’t know Andy, this day in his honor is a chance to recognize the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country.  Andy was an incredible human being and could have done anything with his life. Share a moment with his parents at the Cup and you will quickly realize the type of person that he was and the terrible tragedy that was his sacrifice for our society. Andy was loved by all of those who knew him and especially by the men who served with him. He led from the front and he chose to lay down his life for the beliefs we all share as Canadians.

We intend to honor that.

We also intend to create something meaningful from his death in our local community here in Vancouver.

“Live life to the fullest.  Make a difference.”

This was what Andy lived by, and the legacy that we are carrying forward here at CFV.  This year, we will be hosting two events to do just that: Make a Difference.

Before I get to that…. I want you to know why.

Before Andy found Crossfit, he himself was, as his parents put it, “Not sure what he wanted to do with his life, but once he found Crossfit, he found his inner strength, his courage to become a platoon commander.  Crossfit was the spark, the catalyst to make him realize what he wanted and to make him excellent at it.”

Meanwhile, our beloved, big-hearted Charlie Palmer has been donating his time to coach youth at risk through the ‘Take a Hike Foundation’ for several years, and is making a big difference in their lives.   I have personally watched these teens as they battle through WODs together, and the effect on ME was overwhelming.

unsure

Imagine 10 tough, closed-off teens (imagine yourself at that age) coming into CFV, most likely tired, malnourished, and beaten down by the world.  Then watch as Charlie rallies them into a circle of love, and talks straight with them about life, addiction, friendship, and change.  This is probably one of the few adults to ever speak to them like they are real people.  They are engaged, sharing, and visibly affected by this.

Now one of the early grads (Shawn, who is now an apprentice at CFV) from this program starts to take the group though a warm up.  Everyone looks a little doubtful, but plays along.  After a few minutes, Charlie reviews the movements and starts the WOD.  Some of them power through, but most take a break at some point…Charlie prompts them to ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’…though once in a while the counseling on the sidelines with Charlie is an even harder WOD for them to endure.

From 10 grumbling, palpably resistant individuals, develops a cohesive group actually working together to learn, encouraging each other to get one more rep, and lying on the floor in a pool of sweat, grinning from ear to ear as soon as they hear that magic word: TIME!

I ask you, “What would Andy do?” if he witnessed something this profound.

Well, I think he’d help out.

To that end, we have decided to raise some funds to help Charlie, expand his program, and make a difference in the lives of more teens and youth at risk.

We know that we can make a difference.  There could be no better way to celebrate Andy’s legacy.

~

The question is, HOW?

We have 2 fundraising efforts for this year’s Nutts Cup:

Silent Auction
Wine Raffle

For those of you who have donated auction lots, or offered to volunteer your time—Thank you!

For everyone else, NOW is the time to step up.

Silent Auction: If you have connections, tickets, gift cards, feel like sponsoring a limo, or maybe even a condo in whistler that you’d like to loan out for a weekend, I’d be happy to add them to the list of auction items.  Some of these will be ‘adventure’ or ‘experience’ lots, so feel free to be creative.

Wine Raffle: I know that every person here at CFV wants to make a difference.  I also know that everyone loves a good challenge.  So here goes…  I want to raffle off a LARGE amount of wine.  What I need is: WINE.  My call to arms here is for every person at CFV to donate ONE BOTTLE.  Minimum retail value $30.  I’ll be selling raffle tickets for ALL of the bottles the week before the Cup.  Tickets will be $25 each, or $100 for 5.

Think about it…. Even 100 bottles would be a $3000 value.  Imagine if we can get 200…. 400????  (there are 500+ members here people, we can DO this!)

Each wine bottle will be personally signed by the individual who donated it.  If you win, you can call, email, text or facebook the person who is sponsoring your wine consumption for the night—probably for an entire year.

So, this is my request, and your chance to illustrate some integrity.

~Aud Squad

audrey@crossfit.ca