'Eat Meat and Veggies, Nuts and Seeds and Fruit. No Sugar, Grains, Dairy or Legumes.’
The Challenge
The competition will last for 40 Days, starting on Monday, January 21st, 2013 and end on March 1st, 2013. A 'week' of the competition will span Monday – Sunday.
How do I compete?
Competitors will be grouped into cohorts and assigned to teams and assigned to a coach. The cohorts are called Fitness/Performance/Competition. Although they are named after our programming levels, different athletes will group themselves according to their goals. You must ask yourself if this is for performance, weight loss or both.
DO NOT ask to be assigned to a specific coach, the coaches are required to inform the other coaches of this and that will result in you absolutely being assigned to a different coach. Take your chances and you may end up with the coach you think you want, ask and you WILL NOT. There will be a $10 buy in for the competition to be applied to the prize for the winning team. This money is due on Saturday January 26th and is non-refundable. Each team will 'face off' against another team each week. Total points for the week will determine the weekly winning teams. In the event of a tie, Coach Kristen will determine the winner by looking at the participant’s food journals and making a decision based on the quality of the food being consumed. Any "questionable"component drops your score by ¼ pt. Cannot score less then ½ pt for a given day. YOU MUST KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL!
In addition, team members will be required to turn in point totals each week on Sunday to your Team Leader (your coach). After the coach reviews the points the score sheet will be sent to Coach Carla and the weekly winners will be announced on Tuesday. If point totals are not submitted, then that team will lose points. Wins & losses will be tracked on a board in the gym.
After 40 days, the team with the best record coming out of this is the overall winner. CFNH will offer the cash prize from the money collected at another gym paleo potluck cookout to the winning team.
Pre-Requisites:
1. All contestants will be required to perform a baseline workout (CINDY) at the start and finish of the competition.
2. Competitors will also need to take before and after pictures. These should be taken in the same place, with reasonably little clothing to show changes (shorts for gents, shorts and sports bra for ladies).
3. Body measurements should be taken before and after. These are tape measured! Chest, waist, hips, legs, arms and neck. Try and have the same person perform the measurements and take the pictures to keep things consistent Your OWN Coach!
4. All contestants will be required to maintain a food journal.
Points:
Daily points will be determined by the athlete's adherence to the Paleo Diet:
Each athlete starts the day with 5 Food points. If the athlete has a Small Slip, see definition below, then he/she loses a point and has 4 food points remaining. If the athlete has a Medium Slip, see definition below, then he/she loses two points and now has 3 food points remaining. If the athlete has anything more than a Medium, then the day is considered a Bopper, see definition below, and food point’s drop to zero for the day.
If The Bopper happens, DO NOT say to yourself, “Well, the day is a complete loss. I might as well have that pizza and ice cream and then finish the day off with Lenny and Joes and start fresh again tomorrow.” Each failure after the bopper will deduct 1 point from you Teams total at the end of the week! There are some circumstances where this penalty will not be applied. This is to be run past Coach Carla and she will decide whether the additional point will be deducted for the team. (i.e. Snowed in an airport, extended stays in hospital, you get it…NOTE: 2 Smalls =1 Medium. 1 Small + 1 Medium = 1 Bopper.
Small
* A Small is a small amount of non-Paleo food, & less than a standard serving size for that food.
* A few M&M's
* A small handful of Goldfish crackers
* A few French fries
* A couple of gulps of soda or beer
* A spoonful of peanut butter or hummus
* Smalls are characterized by their randomness. It’s the unconscious element which makes it a Small. “Oh, I just reached over and took a bite of that cookie.”
* “I grabbed his beer and took a few sips”.
Medium
* A Medium is a full serving size of prohibited food.
* A regular-size bag of M&M's
* A small fries from McD's
* A full beer or soda
* A single piece of bread
* Mediums are more thought-out than Smalls. 'I'm gonna eat a full Paleo meal but I've GOT to have a piece of the cake'.
Large - The ‘Bopper’
* This is the deal breaker meal. Contentiously eating an entire meal without the thought of Paleo being involved
* No fast food is allowed
* No syrups in coffee etc. unless they are of the allowed sweeteners
* No deep fat fried foods – Bopper Grains, breads, legumes, cereals, rice, pastas, Sugars, artificial sweeteners
* A sandwich with a full serving of chips and soda
* A pasta dinner with multiple glasses of wine
* A big bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips.
* A FroYo or A DQ Blizzard (yes, even the small one!)
* Boppers are like raising the white flag. 'I've already had a Medium today and jeez, I just have to have a cheesesteak sub”. Might as well get a few extra beers while I'm at it!”
At the end of the day, there is an intuitive feel to these rules that will differ from Individual to individual. Please email your Team Leader or post 'What about this?' in a blog thread if you need help on the proper definition.
Points will be self-scored and everything is done on the honor system.
Bonus Points - 3 ways to earn individual bonus points.
Individual:
+ One bonus will be awarded if the athlete performs a CrossFit WOD, up to 5 per week.
+ One bonus point will be awarded if the athlete takes fish oil AND vitamin D3 daily.
+ One bonus point will be awarded if the athlete gets 8 hours or more of contiguous sleep (point is awarded on the morning after the sleep cycle).
+ for drinking half your body weight in ounces a day (170lb = 85oz Water) (throughout the day, not 10 oz all day and 75 right before bed)
Team:
+ Team Bonus Points will be awarded if all individual team member’s workouts are 5 days per week.
+ Positive Food Team Bonus if the entire team eats clean for the week.
Alcohol Policy –
You may consume (4) of the following per week. Red Wine 4 oz. Tequila, vodka, gin – 3 oz (must be with citrus!)
ABSOLUTELY No Beer, White Wine or Cider. No discussions about it. Any more than the listed portions is an automatic (-2) Medium. Two or more drinks in a day is a (-5) Bopper.
If your day contains one alcoholic drink (wine - 6 oz, or hard alcohol - 1 shot – it cannot mix with pop, juices, syrups etc.) You will not receive a 1 pt deduction per day, anything beyond this is scored as a medium deduction.
Coffee/Tea and Condiments:
* You may drink 16 Oz of coffee or tea a day, but never after 2:00 PM
* Decaf coffee is allowed as is Green tea is allowed as much as wanted
* Coffee creamer is prohibited. (½ & ½ or light cream, all coffee mate, soymilk, 1,2 %, skim, nonfat or whole milk).
* Heavy Cream is allowed IF it is unpasteurized and/or Grass-fed (Elm City Market)
* Coconut milk and Almond milk is allowed and no points taken off.
* Butter is allowed IF it is Grass-fed or Ghee (whey proteins removed)
Rules of Play (Three WAYs to participate: Fitness (1) Performance (2) Competition (3)):
The Paleo Challenge will have three levels or tier’s based on your performance currently in the gym.
Level 1: Fitness
If you have never had exposure to eating Paleo, or are 3 months or less in the gym. This is where you begin! Answer some questions. Are you Toxic? Have you been told from your doctor that you need to loose 20+ pounds? This is a definite Weight loss option/health improvement plan with Performance Output enhancements.
Level 2: Performance
If you have been at CFNH 6 or more months, or have been at the gym and have participated in a challenge OR have had Paleo experience. Weight Loss and Performance Output. Already eating 50% or more paleo meals a week? You have less than 20 pounds you want to loose OR do you want to see where your performance areas can increase? Here is a great place to dial in your nutrition.
Level 3: Competition
You are planning on competing in the CF Opens, OR You have participated in multiple challenges, OR you are thinking about goal setting for yourself and your performance output only. This is not a Weight Loss Category! Go to Performance or Fitness if you want to experience Weight Loss.
(F, P, C) Moderate starchy vegetables: F = sweet potato, roots, squashes anywhere you would use potato, P = within an hour of working out only, C = within an hour of working out and 6 hours before bedtime.
(F, P, C) Fruit: F = 3-4 servings/day P = 2 servings, before 2:00PM, C = place fruit after each meal.
(F, P, C) Nuts Seeds Nut Butters: F = 2 TBS per serving or 9 almonds or 6 walnuts per serving. P = no more than 1 serving of nut butter per day, C = No limits
(F, P, C) Honey and maple syrupare the only sweeteners allowed. If you consume something with this in it, you can only have up to 1 TBS. Anymore used, it’s considered a ½ pt deduction.
(F, P, C) Contestants are allowed to have protein shakes in their daily diet. If you are a high end athlete! Be honest with yourself. If your protein shake contains whey, soy or peas, it’s a 1 pt. daily. Egg Whites only!
(F, P, C) 1 serving of Dairy is allowed in diet with no loss of pt, a 1/4 pt is deducted for each additional serving. Competition will be allowed an extra serving here. Must be whey free/unpasteurized/raw.
(F, P, C) Try to add very little or no salt to your food, steer towards sea salt or Himalayan Salt for added minerals. Competition may need to add more salt to replenish depletions and restore electrolytes.