Ingredients

• 1 lb hot Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1 red onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 15 oz can pizza sauce
• 1/2 c roasted red peppers
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• couples leaves of fresh basil (leave it out if you don’t have it, just freshens up the sauce a bit)
• 1 small butternut squash

Method

Get your oven to 400ºF. In a saute pan crumble the sausage and brown it, along with the onions & garlic. While that’s going, cut the top and ends of the squash off and peel it. Split it into 1/4′s. What I mean by that is, right where the squash starts to turn bulbous, cut it in 1/2, width-wise. Split those two halves in half, lengthwise. This will make it much easier to cut into planks. Pull out the seeds. Don’t be anal about getting out all the strings, as you won’t even notice those when they’re cooked. Slice the squash into the aforementioned planks.

Make the sauce by pureeing the pizza sauce, red peppers, olive oil and basil. If you don’t a contraption that will puree (blender, food processor, immersion blender), chop up the red peppers and just whisk everything together.

Using a 9×9 oven safe baking dish, put down enough sauce to lightly cover the bottom of the dish. (This keeps the squash from sticking to the pan.) Next add the squash, trying not to overlap the pieces, then spoon on the sausage mixture, followed by the sauce. Repeat until all your ingredients are used up…trying to reserve enough sauce to cover the top of the lasagna.

Bake for 45 minutes. You’re looking for a bubbly pan with a crispy, browned top. Right out of the oven, the lasagna may by liquidy, let it set for a good half hour before cutting into it, as it will solidify.

• 7 garlic cloves
• 1/3 C olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
• 1 C arugula
• pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 lb beef flank steak, preferably grass fed

In a blender, puree the garlic, pine nuts and the olive oil. Add the parsley and arugula, continue blending until a creamy pesto has formed.

Cut the steak into strips about 2-3 inches wide. Lay them out on a plate, then top each steak strip with the pesto. Roll up the meat, starting at the smaller end. Shove a toothpick thru the roll to hold it tight.

Place on the grill, cooking for around 3 minutes. Turn the roll over, cook around 3 minutes more. Remove and serve.

I had a chance to sit down with CPC’s celebrity chef, Chef Joel Chapman, and ask Joel a few questions about spices. Since we hear so often that Paleo food is bland (it is), knowledge of spices is crucial to your actual enjoyment of the food that you’re hopefully going to be eating for the rest of your lives.

Enjoy the vid, we’re talking with Joel about coming back to CPC and holding another cooking class. Post to comments if that’s something you would potentially like to be a part of. Our last class with him was a great success.

Today’s Workout:
30-20-10
Overhead Squats (95#/65#)
Box Jumps (24#/20#)
PVC Sit Ups

Watch carefully during this slow motion video of Usain Bolt running. Not only is he the fastest human on the planet, but he has one of the most beautiful, effortless strides in the game. Enjoy and try to apply anything of benefit that you see today.

Today’s Workout:
5K Run for Time

Today’s Post 5k Paleo Deliciousness:

Coconut Chicken Soup
3 cups chicken stock
1 fresh thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced into thin coins
1 cup coconut milk (canned)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons agave nectar
6 ounces leftover chicken
1 cup mushrooms, rinsed, drained and sliced in half lengthwise
1 medium carrot diced
2 tablespoons lime juice
¼ cup fresh cilantro, minced

1. In a pot, bring chicken stock and ginger to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes
2. Stir in coconut milk, fish sauce, agave, chicken, mushrooms and carrot
3. Just before serving, stir in lime juice and cilantro
4. Serve

Check out this ARTICLE on inflammation by Dr. Andrew Weil, founder of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Weil is one of the few public medical figures advocating a mix of “western medicine” and “alternative medicine” which is why I like to read his work from time to time.

This article is on inflammation, a subject that if you came and listened to our seminar, you know is a HUGE problem, wealth-wise, in the US, but not a subject that we’re talking a lot about.

I’ve posted Dr. Weil’s “Anti Inflammation Pyramid” above as well for people to see what the good Dr. recommends. I don’t agree with it %100, but think that it’s leaps and bounds above the old FDA pyramid that we grew up on (and as a country, got sick on). Thoughts on the article or pyramid? Please post to comments!

Today’s Workout:
5 Rounds of the “Bear Complex” – for max load.
1 Round = 7x through the following sequence taking no more than 5 seconds rest on the ground.

- Power Clean t0
- Front Squat t0
- Shoulder to Overhead t0
- Back Squat t0
- Shoulder to Overhead

Today’s Paleo Deliciousness:

Sesame Salmon Burger

Gannon & Marcela...two people who really don't need to get any more flexible...or do they?!

How’s everyone doing so far? This is the halfway point of the 30-day challenge and hopefully the first two weeks of a permanent nutritional shift in your lives.

The next two weeks are often the most challenging as well as the best.  They’re often the most challenging because start feeling significantly better but the mental temptation to slide backwards slightly sneaks in. At this point, the slope is very slippery and a simple bite of cheese can lead to waking up with Chex Mix all over your belly and a pizza hangover.

Stay strong CPC’ers, the next two weeks are really where you’ll see the most improvement in your well-being. It’s also the period where your body will really get to feel what it’s like to move you from place to place at it’s optimal state. Don’t deny yourself the experience of the next two weeks.

Please post your thoughts and feelings on how last week was, any tips or recipes that you’ve found to be helpful and/or any complaints that you haven’t been able to air on the Paleo F Wall.

Today’s Workout:
Press: 5-3-3-2-2-1-1
Followed by:
In 6 Minutes complete:
30 Kettlebell Swings (1.5/1)
20 Hollow Rocks
and then as many Double Unders as possible in the remaining time.
Your score is the number of double unders completed.

Today’s Paleo Deliciousness

Whole30 Recipe Book: Mexi-salad with fresh guacamole

A svelt, pre McNugget eating Augie Johnson

...then and now!

Dear Augie,

‘You are strangely silent on the Paleo challenge. Do you have any words of inspirational wisdom? ‘

Starting in August, I can’t sleep, I get the shakes at inopportune moments and have wild nightmarish visions of giant marshmallows chasing me across a sea of McNuggets just at the thought that I am four months away from the next paleo challenge.

I will confess my terrible secret to my wonderful CrossFit friends that I eat badly and in vast quantities. In the three weeks prior to Paleo, I have hit for the cycle with a ‘supersize hamburger meal’ at Jack in the Box, Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy’s and topped it off with two triple patty In and Out’s and multiple equivalents from other chains salted up and down the 101. I wolf down hard, fatty, carbohydrate laden and preservative infused foods and quarts of cola in ridiculous amounts on a daily basis.  And that is just for lunch.

On weekends, our family devours huge mounds of whip cream and syrup drenched, flap jacks, eie Kuchen, Swedish crepes, waffles (both frozen and homemade), chocolate chip pancakes and French toast by the loaf followed by gallons (literally) of milk.

I offer no excuses because my diet (or lack thereof) is inexcusable. It is just what I have done since I was in high school and those gastronomic reflexes are truly hard to break. At the same time there is some precedence for my current blighted Paleo efforts.

Thirty years ago in college and for the Olympic trials, our six hour per day training regimen was such that we could not gain an ounce of weight no matter how much we ate. At the Olympic training camp, my body fat index was the lowest they had measured and below their minimum scale (Sub 3%). My college coaches were so concerned about my need to gain weight, they put me on a 12,000+ calorie per day diet (that included a chicken, two pizzas and 24 eggs per day) No weight gain. None in four years.

I stayed at 182 lbs from my Redshirt freshman to my senior year although I was on the dorm food plan for my early evening meal, ate a second meal at my fraternity, ate at third meal when finishing up the hashing at the sorority I worked for and then ate the basketball players leftover KFC chicken and the fan’s half eaten hot dogs (the uneaten ends) when I finished my chores as a night janitor after the UCLA basketball games at the Wooden center. (Note to self: even after polishing off a sixth half-a-dog in the empty stands, when you have worked up a powerful thirst, take an extra careful look at the full coca cola cup underneath the bleacher seat less you chug it in an attempt to slake your thirst only to find out it is actually wintergreen flavored chew spit)  Brrrr. To this day, wintergreen flavored gum is the only thing still banned from my menu.

Last week, a college teammate of mine visited me with his wife and four kids and we regaled everyone in our family to death with our former exploits. He then took out a picture of us when we were young and bullet proof. (age 21) After a second bottle of Cultivate wine, I thought that it would be a good idea to recreate the 30 year old picture much to the drop-jawed protests of our better half’s. The gross tally:…30 years and 120lbs of additional mass between the two of us!

Swallowing my pride through the sharing of that second picture with all of you is a small price to pay if it provides a cautionary and hopefully inspirational illumination of the insidious and slow creep of ages and the inherent need to begin a dietary discipline earlier rather than later in life!

So as you ponder the Paleo challenge and your relationship to food intake in general, think that life goes by in an instant…an eye blink and you are 30,40,50 and beyond. Absorb picture two in all its glory and with your imagination, ponder how you would like to be viewed (and feel) at a half century and beyond. Working at CrossFit is a damn good start. But it is only an entry point to a more difficult but ultimately more satisfying life of health through better eating. I am hopeful that I can find the courage to engage myself.

Warmest regards, and much encouragement, Augie

Today’s Workout:
Deadlifts 5-5-5-5-5

Followed by:
3 Rounds for Time of
20 Wallballs (20#/14#)
200 M Run

Today’s Paleo Deliciousness

Sweet Potato Pancakes

2 cups shredded sweet potatoes
2/3 cup almond flour
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 large eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
grapeseed oil for pan

Directions: Mix all ingredients in bowl. Heat a small amount of grapeseed oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Scoop about 1/4 cup of mixture in already hot pan. Flaten to shape of pancake. Cook about 3 minutes per side. Serve with a poached egg and sauteed greens.

45 Pound Bar vs. The Claw's Toes. Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue...

There comes a point in the development of any new habit or skill where the transition from “have to” to “want to” hopefully happens. This is paramount if someone wants to truly be successful in the chosen activity and CrossFit, eating well, and being healthy are no exceptions. Let’s us CrossFit as an example.

When you’re in the “have to” camp, it actually takes energy to come to class. You may have to get yourself psyched up at home and tell yourself things like, “All I have to do is drive there, then if I want to I can turn around and come home.” This actually costs you energy because you have to come up with juice to get yourself into the building and moving.

The flip side of this is the “want to” camp. When you are in the “want to” camp, coming and training actually gives you energy as you:

1) No longer need to get yourself motivated and free up that juice.
2) Are actually being energized by the people and environment around you.
3) Are more than likely enjoying CrossFit a lot more than when you had to come.

Your CPC coaches obviously want you to want to be here.  We understand that starting anything new takes some gumption, as does returning to something that you’ve been away from. It happens to all of us, coaches included.

So what’s the best way to get from the “have to’s” to the “want to’s”?

Simple, keep coming. Keep showing up, keep immersing yourself in the community, in the sport, in the health habit, in what ever it is that you’re struggling with. Just keep showing up and the shift will begin to happen.

A great example of this is the following:

Most of us went into our first Paleo Challenge kicking and screaming, I know that I did. Now however, usually around mid December, we start hearing more and more people come lumbering into the gym saying, “I cannot wait until the next Paleo Challenge….”

Enough said.

Today’s Workout:

Skill Work: Box Pistols or Pistols

Split Squats:
5-5-5-5-5 (on each leg)
8 x 30 Second Row For Calories
60 Seconds Rest 

Mile High Energy Bars

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, olive oil, or butter (to grease the pan)
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
• 3/4 cup finely shredded coconut (use unsweetened organic coconut)
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup lightly ground flax seeds (I pulse them a couple times in a small coffee grinder I use
• 1/4 cup honey or agave (agave isn’t as thick, which works better – but either one is okay)
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 2 tablespoons cocoa nibs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

What you do

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with oil.
Mix chopped nuts, shredded coconut, sunflower seeds, and lightly ground flax seeds and spread out on rimmed cookie sheet. Put in the oven and set timer for 3 to 4 minutes. Watch carefully as this stuff can burn in no time. Stir and reset timer for another 3 minutes. This mixture should be a nice toasted golden color. Adjust according to what works best for your oven. Remove from oven and cool.

Combine honey (or agave), maple syrup, almond butter, vanilla, raisins, cinnamon, and salt in saucepan and bring to low boil over low to medium heat. Stir constantly and let boil for 3 or 4 minutes. You want this thick enough to hold the energy bar ingredients together, but not so thick it’s hard to work with.

Pour over the other mixture and stir well to mix it all together.

Spread into your prepared 9 x 13 inch pan, cover, and cool in the fridge before cutting into bar sizes. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. These make great treats for when you are on the run.

This is a reposting of a post from last year, but one that we think everyone should be reading at least once a year. I recently read of a woman at another CF gym who did 150 GHD sit ups in a workout….and got to spend a few days in the hospital because of it. This shit is no joke.

Let’s talk about Rhabdo folks.  This is CrossFit’s dirty little secret, something that you “hear about” happening to someone in another gym.  We joke about it on CrossFit t-shirts but if it happens to you, it won’t be that funny.

So what the heck is Rhabdo?  Per the NIH - Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle fiber contents (myoglobin) into the bloodstream. Some of these are harmful to the kidney and frequently result in kidney damage.

What we’re talking about here in regular language is tearing enough muscle fiber to overwhelm and ultimately damage your kidneys.  Your kidneys are one of your body’s main filtration systems and are responsible for separating waste out into your urine (among some other jobs).  Myglobin will breakdown into substances that will cause blockages in and therefore the possibility of tissue death within your kidney.  In otherwords, you don’t want this happening.   Your kidneys are your friends.

So when, why and how do you get Rhabdo?  I have never had Rhabdo (remember, we’re not talking about a little bit of butt-arm, we’re talking full on Rhabdo) but do know people firsthand that have gotten it.  The most likely candidates to suffer the effects of this kind of one-shot overtraining are athletes.  It’s usually experienced CrossFitters, ex-military or other serious athletes – that (and this is the key) are coming off of a break.  The ideal candidate for Rhabdo is your CrossFitter, that after taking a month off for some reason, comes back and on his or her first day back decides to do Murph or Fran or any of the other extremely taxing workouts.  These athletes have the muscle memory to be able to perform the movements, the mindset to push themselves well beyond the healthy ranges of their physical comfort zones but a lack of current conditioning of the muscle for it to be able handle extremely high repetitions or heavy trauma.

My friend in L.A was a perfect example.  He had taken a few months off of CrossFit while traveling around the country and returned to do a workout with a high number of GHD Sit Ups.  GHD Sit Ups, Pull Ups (especially those with an emphasis on the negative) and Push Ups are the main three culprits in causing Rhabdo due to the location of the muscle used, and the movement’s inherent ability to inflict muscle trauma.

GHD Sit Ups are nasty as there is a high possibility of muscle tearing over a large muscle belly due to the stretching backwards in the movement.  Anytime that you have your bodyweight being supported through a movement by an ever fatiguing muscle through a workout, it’s going to cause damage.  We are all able to lower ourselves downward from the pull up bar long after we are unable to pull ourselves back up – it is this physiological ability that will allow us to continue to damage muscle tissue in one direction far more often than in the other.  This is why ecentric movements, like a negative (where you lower yourself downward slowly – think of slowly lowering yourself in a ring dip or from the top position in a pull up) are dangerous.

What are the symptoms of Rhabdo? The symptomology includes any of the following alone or in combination with each other:

• dark, red, or cola colored urine color (blood in your urine)

• severe muscle tenderness (not your daily soreness)
• weakness of the affected muscle(s)
• generalized weakness
• muscle stiffness or aching
• unintentional weight gain
• seizures
• joint pain
• fatigue

What do you do if you have the above symptoms and feel like you might have Rhabdo?  You immediately head to the emergency room.  Rhabdo will be confirmed or denied by detecting elevated muscle enzymes (CK) in your blood. The levels of these enzymes rise as the muscle is destroyed.  If you have it then you are going to be put on an IV of fluids and have your kidney function monitored.  This is all to prevent kidney failure and the possibility of a heart attack.

One other thing to note regarding Rhabdo that was recently brought to my attention is that it is more likely in people who are taking Statin drugs (cholesterol drugs).  As Lipitor is one of the highest prescribed drugs in this country and is a Statin, there are a lot of older male CrossFitters with a heightened risk of getting in trouble here.  If you’re on a Statin, please let us know and be slightly more vigilant in how you feel post workout.

Is this something that we should all be worried about?  Yes and no.  Eric, Jeff and I have personally done workouts that left us hobbled for days and haven’t had it.  I’ve known hundreds of CrossFitters that have trained to the point where they were too sore to move and they didn’t get it.  As a matter of fact, I only know 2 people personally, out of all of the CrossFitters that I do know that have gotten it, so the likelihood is rare.  That being said, it does happen and if it does, it’s serious so we should at least know the signs and symptoms as well as some preventative measures.

So folks.  If you are coming off of a long layoff and the workout is particularly nasty, scale yourself back.  I spent the last two weeks nursing a cold and neck injury and had to make the executive decision on Friday to jog around the block a few times and do some squats instead of the 240 reps at 135# that the master’s class was doing.  Did it suck to have to do something less fun?  Yes.  Was it the right call so that I’m not peeing blood this morning?  Yes again.

The way that we train in CrossFit is highly, highly effective.  Like any other high level training, it also needs to be respected.  Just because a workout is named after a brave ex-SEAL, doesn’t make it any less damaging to your muscle fibers.  At the end of the day, we’re all responsible for our own well-being.

Below are more good resources on Rhabdo.  If you have questions regarding this or anything that I’ve written above is unclear – please post them to comments and I’ll do my best to get them answered in a timely manner.

B MAC’S THOUGHTS

GLASSMAN’S THOUGHTS

ROBB WOLF’S THOUGHTS

Today’s Workout:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Power Snatch (115#/80#)
1 Round of Cindy Between Each Set of PS’s.
Workout ends with a round of Cindy.
Cindy = 5 Pull Ups, 10 Push Ups, 15 Squats

Paleo Bread