Fall 2017 GBT Challenge
Nutritional Challenge
While we are doing a challenge and looking to improve our diet as well as our exercise patterns, you should not be looking at this as something temporary for you to get through and then when it is over, it is back to the usual. You likely chose to do this challenge to improve your lifestyle in some way: nutrition, exercise, physical skills, all of the above. My goal for all the challenges I design is to help improve your health through healthy choices permanently, not just for the duration of the challenge. As most of you are well aware, fad diets don’t work. They are unsustainable so eventually fail and they do not teach you how to live healthy forever. Everything you are going to learn/ perform during this challenge is things you should be doing forever so it is important the diet you choose fits your life and will be something you can see yourself following after the challenge is over.
You will follow at minimum the Primal Blueprint diet. You are more than welcome to follow the more strict Whole 30 orPaleo diet. You should have researched these, like I encouraged you to do, and decided which one you will do is. You need to let me know which one you are doing so I know for points purposes.
You will eat whole, clean food and focus on your macro nutrients which are your Proteins, Carbohydrates in the form of vegetables and fruits, and healthy Fats. These are the foods you find on the perimeter of your grocery store. If you can learn how to manage your macros and stay away from processed sugar and foods you will never have to worry about calories or your weight again. Your macro nutrients are as follows:
-carbohydrates (these are your vegetables and fruit) should be 50-100g/ day for weight/ fat loss and 100-150g/ day for maintenance. If you are eating a lot of vegetables and a bit of fruit daily this number should be easy to figure out.
-Protein (your meats and meat products) should be 0.7-1g/ lb of lean body mass. If you did the fat tank you got a print out on your body composition. Laura gave you how much protein you should eat in your diet based on your lean body mass so this will be your macro number for protein. If you didn’t do the fat tank then you will do the following. Your protein should be 0.7-1g/ lb of lean body mass. The number you choose is determined by how active you are so if you are moderately active you would choose 0.7g and if you are active you would choose 1g. Your lean body mass is your muscle and all the rest of you that is not fat. For example if you weigh 155lb and you have 25% body fat then you have 116lb of lean body mass. You would eat between somewhere between 81-116g of protein daily. You will determine what you ideal body weight would be and use 22% body fat. That will get you a good range to be in. If you need help or don’t understand then please ask me.
-Fats- enjoy freely but sensibly for balance of caloric needs and high dietary satisfaction, ie they will help you feel full or satiated. Pay attention to this! Fat helps you feel full so you should not be hungry following this diet plan. Your diet should consist of 50-85% fat. Fat is your main energy source and has no impact on insulin so if you are following a clean diet, the fat you eat will be burned for energy as well as the fat you store on your body. FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT. IT DOES NOT CAUSE HEART DISEASE OR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. SUGAR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT.
I highly encourage you to use My Fitness Pal or something similar, at least in the beginning, so you can determine if you are hitting your macro numbers. You will need to hit your numbers to get your points. If you learn to hit your numbers initially then you will learn what you need to eat everyday to be healthy. After you have been logging your food into the app for a few days you will begin to learn how much you have to eat daily and will likely not need the app.
While eating whole clean food, you will avoid all processed sugar and limit your “natural” sugar consumption to less than 40g. Naturally occurring sugars includes those found in fruit and dairy and natural sugar comes from the earth and includes stevia, monk fruit, raw honey, maple syrup, agave nectar. You can eat these in small amounts just make sure to stay below 40g/ day. Fruit is healthy but should be eaten in moderation, especially if your goal is to lose weight. Try to limit your fruit consumption to 2-3 servings per day and eat fruit with a low glycemic index. Berries are the lowest on the glycemic index. Refer to the Primal Food guide to preferred fruits.
You will also avoid all gluten and grains including wheat, corn, rice, legumes, and soy. Refer to the article I sent you on gluten.
You can occasionally have dark chocolate (make sure it has a high cocoa content. Dark M&M’s don’t count) and alcohol, preferably red wine, as it has low sugar content. The alcohol has to be gluten free, so no beer, and if you are drinking tequila it can’t be in the form of margaritas. Remember it has to be low in sugar.
You will need to drink enough water based on your weight. A healthy person should drink 0.5oz of water for every pound of body weight. An active/ athletic person should drink 0.75oz. Everyone that works out with me would be considered active/ athletic so you should be aiming for between 0.5-0.75 oz of water per pound of body weight.
Physical Challenge
You will choose between the Plank Challenge and the Pull up challenge. You can do both if you so choose but will only get credit for one of them. They do not have to be done in the gym but I highly encourage you to do so. I will be testing these throughout to see how you are improving.
There will also be 5 daily mini challenges. These will be short and will focus on movement skills, strength, and endurance.
You will also need to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Sleep is underrated by many. This is when your body repairs itself, muscle is strengthened from the work you did during the day, your body recovers from all that it was demanded to do, and you get the rest you need to do it all over again the next day. If you want your body to perform for you then you need to pay attention to how much sleep you are getting each night.