Are you training for performance or health?
If you are training for performance, I do not think it is entirely possible — at a high, Mat Fraser type level — to stick to a strict carnivore diet. However, if you are training for health (which most should be), then I do believe it is possible with a few things to keep in mind.
TRAINING FOR PERFORMANCE ON A MEAT-BASED CARNIVORE DIET
This is the part where I tell you that strategic carb use is beneficial. Specifically around workouts and at night. I’d suggest not falling for the typical CrossFit Games athlete post-workout carbs of pastries and ice cream. You are not them and they are not you. Your carbs should look something more along the lines of berries, avocado, white rice, sweet potato and honey.
Basically, fruit and resistant starch. But stay with me, because what I lay out in the training for health portion of this post still applies to you, the athlete that wants to perform well while still sticking to a carnivore-ish diet.
TRAINING FOR HEALTH ON A MEAT-BASED CARNIVORE DIET
Now is the part where I tell you it is entirely possible to train every day on a meat-based diet while doing CrossFit. There are a few things to keep in mind which can make all the difference:
1. CHICKEN IS A WEAK ANIMAL: EAT FATTY RED MEAT
This is a ketogenic diet after all. So most of your energy is going to be coming from saturated animal fat. This is the fat that will give your brain, muscles and hormones the energy it needs to train and recover.
The biggest mistake, which has been proliferated via the “fat is bad” era of the last 50 years, people make is not eating enough animal fat. If you eat too lean protein — like chicken -- you simply won’t have the energy needed from ketones (fat).
2. AVOID FASTING
Fasting and Intermittent Fasting have been a hot topic for a number of years. It works magic. But it also becomes chronic. It is easy to use Intermittent Fasting as an excuse to binge out on garbage. Unless you have a chronic illness or disease like cancer, you should avoid fasting; fasting is a stress on the body, and on top of your already stressful man existence, does not warrant much — and in fact, will promote muscle degeneration in most cases.
If you can, and if you do CrossFit in the mornings, try and have at least a few eggs or Bulletproof Coffee (butter coffee) before you workout. The protein/fat combo will be enough to sustain your workout.
On most days Bulletproof Coffee is my pre-workout. I have it with KerryGold Unsalted Butter, C8 MCT and Hydrolysed Collagen Powder. Sometimes I have a couple of eggs too. It all depends on what the workout is and how I am feeling. I am always listening to the wisdom of my body to guide me.
3. LOAD UP ON ELECTROLYTES: STAY SALTY
Salt (sodium) is going to be your best friend when going as low-carb as a carnivore diet. We tend to lose a lot of sodium when we exercise and go low-carb and the answer is not always as simple as “drink more water.” It is not about water so much as hydration. Drinking more water will just dilute your precious mineral stores in your cells and dehydrate you — this is when high-performing athletes suffer from hyponatremia: a dangerous and often fatal condition when the sodium in your blood is too low.
Salt has been wrongly vilified in the past (like saturated fat) for causing high blood pressure. They got the colour right but the substance wrong: it is sugar that is the enemy. Don’t fear salt.
I currently use LMNT Electrolytes from Robb Wolf’s company LMNT Labs.
4. DAIRY IS THE ULTIMATE SUPPLEMENT
If you can handle dairy and are not in the infant stages of your healing journey, by all means, use it. The calorie-dense nature of dairy can make a huge performance-enhancing boost to your CrossFit journey. Think of dairy as a supplement, not the main course. Use it sparingly.
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Your body has wisdom; it has the capacity to heal itself through an ancestrally aligned meat-based keto diet, daily movement and conscious mindful awareness. Each week I send out a short newsletter on thoughts on books I've read, a quote or two I'm contemplating and anything else I think you'd enjoy to prime your subconscious with a dose of dopamine for the week ahead.
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