Nutrition 101

"eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no refined sugar"

There are two primary steps involved in getting you nutrition in order. The first is to look at the quality of what you are eating. If you stick within the parameters of the above quote 80-90% of the time you will be on the right track. Once you have got the quality side of things down and are able to consistently make the right food choices then you begin to look at quantity which is another article.

The fact of the matter is, In order to get the most out of your training you simply MUST have your diet in check. You simply cannot out work a crappy diet. Your nutrition plan is the foundation of your results!

The pyramid below is the crossfit model of training. As you can see nutrition is the foundation. Next is strength and conditioning, then gymnastics /body control followed by olympic weightlifting with sport/speciality at the top.

A weak link in any of the lower levels will ultimately effect the level above it and so on. Nutrition being the foundation it is imperative that you are eating good food to get the most out of this program.

Im going to give a basic outline of how you can start to gauge the quality of what you are eating and look at the content of your meals, then I will give some basic guidelines to follow to get everyone on their way to improved nutrition.

There are 3 macronutrients that your body needs in order to survive.

Protein (30% of daily intake) - used as building blocks for cells, muscles and enzymes, comes from animals, if it ran, walked swam or flew at some stage is more than likely a protein.

Carbohydrates (40% of daily intake) - used as energy by your cells, come from plants & grow in the ground - all fruit & vegetables. Included in this category but  are not favorable are  - grains, sugars + starches.

Fat (30% of daily intake) - essiential fatty acids are the foundation of hormones which control critical body functions. oily and greasy, usually found in plants (mainly seeds and nuts) and animal products.

Basic guidelines

• eat 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day instead of 2 or 3 big ones
• always have breakfast
• space your meals 2-3 hours apart
• make sure each meal contains each of the 3 macronutrients

If you can begin following these guidelines you will be moving in the right direction.
The key to nutrition is balance, if you eat too much you will put on weight, too little and your body can also respond by retaining weight as it tries to hold onto as much nutrients as possible from the little food you do eat but if you eat the right amount then your body will respond by adding muscle and releasing stored energy (bodyfat)
Every meal that you eat throughout the day should have a good balance of all 3 nutrients. None of this low carb high protein or low fat low carb or any of the new fad ideas that emerge will work long term, they work for a certain amount of time but are impossible to maintain as your body cannot function correctly.
When it comes to losing fat, it is more about how much sugar (or sugar substitute) you consume rather than calories or dietary fat intake. Hence, the goal is to consume as little sugar or sugar substitute as possible (including certain fruits and their juices). Why? The sweet flavor elicits the release of insulin from the pancreas to enhance the uptake of sugar by the cells so that it doesn't linger in the bloodstream. Once insulin is released it inhibits your fat burning hormone called HSL (hormone sensitive lipase). This hormone is responsible for releasing fat into the bloodstream to be utilized as fuel. If inhibited, your body is unable to burn fat and will then begin utilizing amino acids (from muscle) and carbohydrates as fuel.
This will leave you feeling tired, grumpy, and lazy toward the end of the day. Not to mention, you will become abnormally hungry. Those with large amounts of HSL burn fat all day and look thin and slim. Those who inhibit it by eating or drinking the wrong substances grow fat throughout their adult years.
Second, artificial sweeteners disrupt satiety, the feeling of being full. There was a study done recently on obesity and it showed that "mouth feel" plays a crucial role in the body's ability to count calories and that when we consume artificial sweeteners we disrupt the body's ability to count calories based on sweetness. Not able to use mouth feel to count calories, if you drink a lot of artificially sweetened drinks (diet coke) , you are actually overeating  without conscious awareness.
Diet Coke is not the only drink which has this effect. Makers of health food bars and protein supplements are either not aware or ignore the ill effects of sugar alternatives and sugar. If you look at most of the health food bars and protein supplements on sale everywhere most of them are loaded with sugar or artificial sweeteners. The belief that these bars and supplements are healthy for you is a perfect example of how marketing strategies can supersede medical science and common sense.
So with all this in mind you want to keep everything you eat natural with as little processing as possible. To re-quote "eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruits, little starch and NO sugar". keep intake levels that will support exercise but not bodyfat.
An awesome way to stick to this is when you go to the grocery store try to get everything you need from the perimeter of the store. Everything you need  is in this perimeter, fruit n veg when you first walk in, meats, nuts etc.
By clicking on the tabs to the Paleo tab on the right you can get an idea of what to start including in your shopping cart.
If you want any more detail on anything above just shoot me an email and Ill do my best to help you out.