CrossFit Total Victory

I get asked all the time: "What should I eat?"

In the interest of answering that question, I came up with the following treatise. I didn't invent any of this knowledge. These are things that I researched and tried on my own. They work for me and should not be considered the opinion of a medically or nutritionally trained person. All of the things written here are available elsewhere on smarter people than me websites. Try my suggestions at your own risk. If you choose to give this stuff a try, make sure you are honestly trying it (no half-assing) and give it a couple of weeks to have an effect.

RFC CrossFit Performance and Aesthetics Nutrition Guidelines

Foods to absolutely eliminate and/or avoid at all costs:

Refined sugar (this means all of it)

Grains (wheat, corn, rice, quinoa) Don’t eat anything made of this stuff.

Soy products

Vegetable oil (olive oil is an exception)

White potato

Beer

Beans (peanuts are a bean)

Stay away food that comes with a cartoon character/celebrity spokeperson or makes some health benefit claim. Real food doesn’t need endorsements. Stay away from processed, packaged food. Minimum packaging is a good sign that it is alright to eat. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store, stay out of the middle this is where the crap lives.

Favorable Foods
Any type of animal protein (if it has a face, eat it; minimum intake is 1 g per pound of lean body weight)

Vegetables (as much as you want)

Moderate amounts of fruit

Tree nuts (almond, walnuts, pecans etc. and all associated nut butters as long is there is no added sugar)

Fat (animal sources-this means bacon grease, lard, tallow, butter also avocado, olive oil, nut oils)

Dairy — if your body tolerates it (full fat versions only)


If eating for looks, go to fitday.com. Register and start logging everything you eat. This means you will have to measure what goes in your mouth. It only takes about a week before you will know amounts enough that measuring will become unnecessary. Eat less than 100g of carbs/day. You subtract total fiber from total carbohydrate to get correct absorbable carbs for the day. Try to aim for 50% or more of calories from fat.

Everything that goes in your mouth counts for the day. If you are CrossFitting or sport training regularly and intensely you need to eat about 500 calories above you basal metabolic rate. Fitday.com will help you figure this number out.

The site: marksdailyapple.com has information about the Primal Blueprint which is a good resource for healthy nutrition. Also google searches of the paleo diet are helpful.

If none of this makes sense, or you have specific questions just ask.