Gym Belle Q & A: How to Handle Paleo Haters

@jacazia (the lovely blogger behind The CrossFit Foodie) writes: Kind of annoying when a coworker tries to sabotage attempts at my paleo lifestyle.  Any words of wisdom?

When faced with skeptics, I remind myself that it took a fairly lengthy period of exposure to the paleo diet for me to stop thinking that it was totally wacky and consider giving it a shot.  When you're paleo, you focus on what you eat (lean protein, healthy fats like avocados and nuts, oodles and oodles of veggies, some fruit, etc.)  There's nothing extraordinary about this; we eat good stuff.  What's striking to the uninitiated, though, is the list of verboten foods.  Grains are out.  Legumes are out.  Dairy (for most) is out.  Life without grains is unfathomable to many.  I get that.  Until I tried it, I had no idea that I could function without pasta.  Bread was my absolute favorite food, and I truly thought that grainy foods made my brain work better.  What's obvious to me now about the way my body reacts to different foods was not at all apparent before I was several weeks into my paleo lifestyle, so I can't fault anyone for not "getting it." 

Moreover, I don't need anyone to get it.  I'm paleo (really, 90% paleo/primal 90% of the time) because it works for me.  I have no idea if it would work for anyone else.  To each their own.

I don't know what type of sabotage you're facing, whether it's truly malicious (incessant badgering beyond mere curiousness), inadvertent (daily offers of freshly baked cookies) or something else entirely.  If someone is deliberately dogging you, though, it's their issue, not yours.  I quote the wisdom of Scott Stratten (@unmarketing) when I say, "Don't try to win over the haters.  You are not the jackass whisperer."  In other words, don't get suckered into a false debate.  Just make it clear to your co-worker that you're not going to hear attacks on your diet; it's your business.  Hopefully they'll drop it. 

If it's innocent sabotage of the cookie variety, I would thank your co-worker for their thoughtfulness, but explain that you don't eat that type of treat.  If you're lucky, they'll learn to skip you when they pass out the goodies. 

If someone's genuine, but perhaps excessive, curiosity (or concern for your health) is bugging you, consider pointing them to Lauren Cordain's site or Mark Sisson's for more information.

Maybe the best advice I could give you is to seek out a paleo friend or two.  They've probably encountered similar situations and likely have some good recipes.  If they live close by, that's even better.  Sometimes it's nice not to be the only freak at the table ordering the turkey burger with no bun.

Any other thoughts for @jacazia?  Have you ever had someone attack your diet?

-Gym Belle-

An App For That?

When I was in high school, I had a Filofax.  I loved my Filofax.  It had absolutely everything I needed to know within its worn leather and suede covers.  It contained all of my homework, appointments, contacts, everything I needed to remember and all of the notes I passed in class (many encrypted in French transcribed in Cyrillic - I was that cool). 

These days, I have two blackberries, an iPad, a Macbook, a desktop... I could go on.  (I'm still that cool.)  And I am nowhere near as organized.  As much as I try to sync, as of yet, I have found no perfect solution for my mobile life.

High school me would have kept track of her workouts in a special section of her Filofax.  Where else?  Modern me has entirely too many options: Daily Mile, my Twitter feed, Beyond the Whiteboard, my blog, CrossFit Metropolis' blog etc.  None is so amazingly perfect for me that I use it for everything, so my notes are pretty scattered.  Hence, Wednesday's dilemma.  The workout was Cindy, which is 20 minutes of as many rounds as possible of five pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 air squats.  I knew that I had done Cindy recently, but where was my score?  Eventually, I found it, but it took over 20 minutes of searching.

One of the many amazing things about CrossFit is that by scoring all of our workouts, we can objectively track our progress.  If you can't find your previous scores, that's lost.  I know some things by heart.  My one rep max deadlift is 190.  My backsquat is 110.  I can't remember everything, though.  Some people keep notebooks... it's an idea, but I no longer function linearly.  I'd prefer something searchable, and something that i had with me at all times anyway.  Perhaps I just need an iPhone...

-Gym Belle-

Mirror Image

I've got this $150 gift certificate to Equinox that I've been planning on using at the store.  It's a total jinx.  Normally, I could find $300 worth of stuff to buy there just by looking in the window.  Now that I've got the gift certificate, nothing is appealing. 

The one intriguing thing I've found are these tank tops with motivational sayings on them, like "I will persevere until I succeed" and "I am powerful" and things like that.  Only, the sayings are written backwards.  It took me minute, but, clever girl that I am, I realized that if you're working out in front of a mirror, you'll see your motivational saying the right way.  

Cute.  I think.  Unless the medium changes the message.  The sayings on their own are positive and empowering.  They celebrate strength and accomplishment.  In the context of shirts specifically designed to be worn in front of mirrors, though, aren't we really celebrating appearance?

I'm totally conflicted about mirrors at gyms.  I spend most of my time at a gym that, by design, has no mirrors.  Like a lot of yoga studios, CrossFit is decidedly anti-mirror.  We focus on the work, not what we look like doing it.  This makes sense.  A lot of the time, CrossFitters look kinda nasty.  We're sweat-dripping, heavy-breathing, shirt-shedding, grunting messes.  Also, mirrors would be dangerously distracting.  Can you imagine having half your body weight over your head and suddenly noticing that you have a new zit?  Bad idea.  It's better not to know that until the pictures surface on Facebook.  (CrossFit gyms are really into photographs.)  Also, we'd probably break the mirrors dropping weights.

One of the things that CrossFitters poke fun at other gym-goers for is admiring themselves in the mirror as they do endless numbers of biceps curls.  So, when I saw the Equinox t-shirts, my inner CrossFitter rolled her eyes and felt totally superior those Equinox narcissists.

My inner CrossFitter is a total hypocrite.  Put me in a studio with mirrors and I'll stake out a front corner spot to have an unobstructed view of both a front and a side mirror.  And, at Physique 57, I'll all but shove someone out of my way to grab a mirrored spot at the bar (and preferably one of the spots where I'm not facing a seam between mirror panels).  I learn visually, so seeing what I'm doing in a mirror is incredibly helpful in terms of form.  I also find that mirrors can be very motivational.  Just seeing my tummy in the mirror reminds me to keep my core engaged.  And, when I like what I see, I'm encouraged to continue.

For me, I think what it comes down to is that I don't have an issue with mirrors in gyms as means to an end.  I just don't want the mirror image to become the end.  There's so much more to it than that.

-Gym Belle-