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Showing posts from February 22, 2017

Want to Try CrossFit? Here’s What You Need to Know

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With the CrossFit Open kicking off later today (woohoo!), I wanted to share some of the posts I’ve written about the “Sport of Fitness” over the years. I figured having them all in one place would be useful for those of you thinking about trying CrossFit in the future. I hope you find them helpful! And GOOD LUCK to those of you participating in the Open this year! 5 CrossFit Tips for Beginners : Ready to try CrossFit? Here are five tips that will help you get started! How to Balance CrossFit and Running : Probably the most common question I receive! My 8-Week Half Marathon Training Plan (with CrossFit Workouts included) : If there’s a will, there’s a way! Spoiler: Not over-training is key! My Pregnancy Modifications for CrossFit :   These modifications worked for me during my pregnancy. If you’re pregnant, or thinking about it soon, you might find these modifications helpful to your CF workouts. Diet, CrossFit & Running: What Really Changed My Body : I received so many ques

Long Fasts: Worth the Risk?

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Intermittent fasting, schmittermittent schmasting. The hot new trend is the extended fast—eating nothing and drinking only non-caloric beverages for no less than three days and often as many as 30-40 days. A mere compressed eating window this isn’t. If fasting for more than three days sounds riskier than just skipping breakfast, you’re right. Long fasts can get you into trouble. They’re a big commitment. You shouldn’t just stumble into one because it sounds interesting or some guy on your Twitter feed wrote about it. Skipping a meal or even an entire day of food makes evolutionary sense . We weren’t always successful on the hunt or with  foraging . We couldn’t head down to the Trader Joe’s for shrink-wrapped steak , sacks of apples, and jars of honey . Reaching the fed state wasn’t a sure thing. Intermittent fasting —going out of your way to not eat, even though food is available—is a modern contrivance meant to replicate the ancestral metabolic environment. But long fasts seem mo

The Ultimate Shopping Question & Stitch Fix Review

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^^YUP. It’s been a while since I shared a Stitch Fix box! Over the years, I have bought some pieces from Stitch Fix that I love and wear over and over and over, and a few things that I thought I would love but don’t wear that much (or at all, gulp). Plus, in an effort to work on my curated, functional wardrobe , I’m trying to be really picky about what I let into my closet. When shopping, I used to ask myself, “Do I like it and does it fit well?” Now I am asking myself this question: “Thinking back on the past year, where would I have worn this and would I have liked this more than what I did wear.” This mentality really forces me not only to imagine myself wearing the clothing in public to an event, but it also makes me consider what I might already have that I would choose to wear instead. I tend to wear favorites over and over again, and they often win over something that I like, but like just a little less for whatever reason (comfort is one of the biggest reasons!). So her

Pandas, Celiac and Fecal Transplants!

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In my last blog post I put forward the Discordance Theory of disease (specifically modern degenerative diseases such as type 2 diabetes, neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease) and introduced a rough timeline of change that humans have faced over the past 10,000 years. These changes are wide reaching and affect every element of the Four Pillars of health (Sleep/photoperiod, food, movement, community). It’s fascinating to me that many people find the Discordance Theory and associated concept of Ancestral Health to be incredibly informative and helpful for everything from orienting research to making clinical decisions, while other people dismiss both concepts out of hand and find no value in anything other than reductionist, symptom-based medicine. I’m of the opinion that we will not untangle chronic degenerative disease without some nod towards the Ancestral Health template. I might be wrong about that, perhaps there is a magic bullet waiting that can “fix” poor sleep+bad food+