Is It Mental?

Collin does Helen as one of her workouts to measure her progress with the zone diet.

Today is day seven for most of you who are doing the Zone Challenge at CrossFit Santa Cruz! How many people think that some of the difficulties we face on the Zone are mental blocks? I think about half of them are! Once I create a realistic goal, a plan to get it accomplished and I give in to the kinds of changes I have to make, half of my battle is won. Not to say that it is easy to do. It simply makes it more realistic when dealing with some of the physical battles such as cravings.

Personally, I am having a new experience with the Zone diet. Usually I am a big sugar craver and that never goes away. I have to admit that the last thing I ate the night before I started the Zone last Monday, was two old fashioned donuts and a glass of milk! Although I like to justify my indulgences by telling myself that I eat fairly healthy to balance out these carb binges, my performance goes down the toilet and I don't feel too hot after I fall off the Zone. Now, after sticking to the zone strictly for a week, I am starting to crave protein rather than carbs, which is a first! I now enjoy a healthy salad, a piece of salmon or a hard boiled egg as much as my last donut! Hard to believe, but true. The effects of the zone will sneak up on you without you noticing. It's not usually until I fall off the Zone that I realize that I must have been feeling really good on it because all of a sudden, I feel sick, sluggish and I get sore when I workout. I'm not renouncing sugar forever and I don't even know if this will last. I'm simply saying that right now, today, I feel like my body is becoming more balanced.

Hang in there everyone, you are doing great!

Meal Plan for Today (while on the road):

Breakfast: 3 blocks
3/4 cup low fat cottage cheese with a whole banana cut into it and 9 almonds

Lunch: 3 blocks
1 piece of Ezekiel bread with the crusts cut off (1 block) with 1/4 cup hummus spread on it and 4 1/2 oz of deli cut chicken on top
1/2 apple
A few almonds (the hummus I bought has a good amount of fat in it, so I don't add too much fat to this meal)

Snack: 2 blocks
2 oz of string cheese
1 apple
coffee with 1 tbls of 1/2 & 1/2

Dinner: 3 blocks
1 cup of celery sticks with 1/4 cup of hummus to dip it in
3 oz of grilled chicken breast
1 1/2 cups of strawberries

Snack: 1 block
1 oz string cheese
1/2 cup of blueberries
3 almonds

When you are on the road, you can either eyeball your food proportions, or bring a measuring cup for the food you put together yourself. I get a few different kinds of meats from the deli in 1/4 pound (4 oz) measurements.

-M

Workout:

Four rounds of:
400 meter sprints with a two minute rest between each round

Practice your handstand holds