United Barbell

As a mini interlude from her paleo story, UB ambassador Kelly Suzanne thought she could lend some useful tips to you Level Uppers who are walking the paleo/primal road for the first time. If you have been following her journey, you know she can be a great ally to a newbie starting the lifestyle shift.

Happy Friday! Level Up Your Life challengers, congratulations! You are almost through your first week. I hope all of you are feeling good and sticking with it. I know the beginning can be tough on the mind and body. I want to address some of the issues you may be having starting a first time paleo or primal lifestyle.

• Haunted by the terms and conditions of diets past? Are you thinking you must keep track of calories? One reason why I knew paleo was the solution for me was the simple fact I didn't have to count, weigh or measure my food. It felt like for the first time numbers did not have to run my life. There were no points to keep track of, no calories to count. All the food I was eating didn't even come with a label! From past diets like Weight Watchers and South Beach, I can roughly estimate calorie consumption, but I don't need to. This is such a liberating part of the paleo lifestyle.
• What about fats? I had come to think, through years of dieting, that limiting my fats was the way to go. I remember in the first month starting paleo, I was super light-headed and ornery. I looked at my food log and I talked it over with Olivia and Jenny. They both asked, "are you eating enough fat? Remember, you need fat to lose fat!" You also need good fats to make you happy! Thoughtfully embrace paleo-friendly fats - coconut oil, avocados, nuts and animal fats. Please do not believe the bunk that the paleo diet will raise your cholesterol. Mine dramatically lowered after 6 months on paleo. If you're worried, please watch this video (Wolf has some more great videos about paleo on the right-hand pane of Mahalo's YouTube Channel). After I incorporated fats into my diet, I started seeing positive changes and the scale really started moving. I was less cranky and my brain was happier too.
• Thinking Paleo will break the bank? Many of you may be wondering if you can sustain this lifestyle on a budget The answer is YES. NO, this doesn't mean you have to go to McDonalds and get a 99 cent burger and throw away the bun. Like all aspects of your life, you have to set priorities and Balanced Bites' Diane Sanfilippo has a great post about eating paleo on a budget. Especially for those of you making the change from relying on pasta, rice, and other low-cost filler ingredients, please read her post.
• Paleo leaving you feeling deprived? As you may have gathered from my last post, I'm a bit of a foodie. I love the Bay Area food culture and am always interested in the newest restaurant opening. However, when first incorporating paleo, dining out can be a bit tricky. Restaurants may incorporate sugar and lots of salt into your favorite dishes. Don't be afraid to ask a couple questions to your server. It seems everyone in this city has some sort of dietary restriction, so don't be afraid to stand up for yourself. If you are stuck at a client lunch, or your worried about embarrassing your friends around you, try your best to stick to your guns. You can be considerate and still get what you want.
• Feeling unsupported? Many people in your life may have a hard time with you making these positive changes in your life. Do not be discouraged by teasing, name calling like "caveman" or questions around the water cooler if you had to "club your breakfast." Misery loves company, and ultimately they are uncomfortable with you taking charge of your life because of how it reflects on them.

I hope this helps dispel some of the myths and clears up some issues surrounding the paleo diet. Stay strong and motivated! You are making positive changes in your life and you will see results!

Paleoite Kelly Suzanne, keepin' it real.

On Monday the WOD was Kelly. Kelly's definitely not everyone's favorite - a lot of running, a lot of wall balls, and a lot of box jumps means you're in for some serious work. Some of us resolved just to get through it without stopping at 3 rounds. Some of us went RX for the first time on a WOD. And some of us took a look at the top 5 whiteboard and thought "I'm going to CRUSH this and get to the top!"

Hayley B. has been a great addition to UB's roster of badass women. She's strong and fast and is getting stronger and faster at a breakneck speed. A friendly fixture in noon classes, she's quietly been destroying records never showboating the full extent of her badassery - which something tells me we've yet to see the full extent of! She's a recent graduate AND a recent bride - this woman is conquering the world one step at a time!

And in case the first paragraph came off like a cliffhanger - Hayley did indeed get the fastest women's RX Kelly time of the day taking her to #1 on the board - in fact she got fastest overall time too! Girl, you are AWESOME!

I think we can safely say CrossFitters make the most beautiful brides!

This is probably a familiar exercise. Are you ready? When I say "go," don't think about a pink elephant. GO! ... .... Whatcha thinking about? Is it big, prehistoric looking and pink?

When making significant lifestyle changes, it's easy to to get sucked into focusing on what you can't have. When I switched to paleo, I suddenly craved all sorts of ridiculous things that I never ate. Milk Duds, croissants, .... these are not things I ever craved or ate. I decided to have scheduled cheat days, but this lead to weeks focused in so hard on cheating, I functioned like an addict on a binge mission. Each cheat day left me two steps backward, not to mention very ill. When I finally decided to give up the cheat day and go full throttle, I still focused on the NO. What do you mean no sushi? No sushi EVER AGAIN?

The key is actually listening to your body and stop giving power to your inner toddler (... I want it, and I want it NOW). Ask yourself some key questions before you go melodramatic on your fridge. What are you craving? Do you actually want it? If so, what are the flavors or taste sensations you are actually craving? What are substitutes that will still satisfy? Want something sweet? Gotta have some pizza? Be creative, and you might succeed in killing the craving. You might even surprise yourself in the process.

All I wanted was a bite of chocolate pie.

So many questions pop up when making the paleo switch. One common question is the protein powder dilemma. I will leave it to paleo master, Mr. Robb Wolf, to address the issue.

NorCal CrossFit Regionals

Friday at the 10AM is the kick off for the CrossFit NorCal Regionals! The three day event should be packed with tremendous displays of athleticism from individuals and teams alike. We will be caravanning down to the arena at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds to show support and get some inspiration for CrossFit 2013 TEAM UB! Want to come and cheer with us? Want to carpool? Post to comments!

Level Up! Day 1

It's starting to get warmer. What does that mean? Fall! ... wait... well, it's unusually warm for late spring in San Francisco, but all the better! Level Uppers - today is day 1! Use it as an excuse to eat clean, WOD, sleep up, and take advantage of the beautiful outdoors!. If you signed up but did not receive the Level Up Day 1! email this morning, make sure to contact us ASAP! Are you in it to win it? Day 1 is well on its way, and the excited energy is contagious!

Get your stretch on!

Kelly Suzanne, our female Ambassador of Awesome, shares some of her favorite recipes, adapted from her pre-paleo foodie lifestyle in the second installment of the story of her journey to paleo.

Hey, guys! First, I'd like to thank all of you for positive responses to my first post. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by such a supportive community of athletes. You have all been very encouraging throughout my journey.

Those who have known me for a long while know I've always loved to cook. I am also interested in the diversity of the Bay Area food scene. It was definitely a challenge to adapt this love of food culture to my new lifestyle -- a lifestyle eliminating foods that so many of our city's fantastic restaurants, food trucks, and pop-ups incorporate into their dishes. I mentioned in my last post my initial reluctance to give up Tartine's croissants and the like, but with my new and improved positive attitude and iron will (Kelly 2.0), I decided to channel my love of food culture into finding new ways to "paleo-ize” my life. This included changing and adapting recipes of my favorite food blogs I had relied on for years for recipes and inspiration.

United Barbell has posted recipes from some fantastic paleo food blogs, many of which I turn to everyday for new paleo inspiration in the kitchen. The recipes I want to share with you today are three of my favorites from outside the paleosphere but can be easily and thoughtlessly adapted to be compliant with the paleo diet.

Zuni Café is a San Francisco institution and their roast chicken for two is the stuff dreams are made of. In the restaurant it is served with a bread salad but this can be easily eliminated for us gluten-free types. The recipe for you to make at home can be found on Deb’s Smitten Kitchen blog. It may look daunting to start, but it's actually the easiest, most fool-proof way to roast a chicken. Look at that bird! Gorgeous!

The next recipe I would like to share with you comes from April Bloomfield,chef and co-owner of The Spotted Pig in NYC. She has recently released a book “A Girl and Her Pig” and her recipe for lemon caper dressing has just been featured on one of my favorite blogs Food52. For the dressing you can eliminate the sugar for a pure paleo recipe. Just make sure the Dijon mustard you use doesn’t have sugar! A friend suggested using meyer lemons instead so that the dressing is naturally a little sweeter. Like the feature says, you’ll want to eat this with a spoon and put it on everything. It is SO GOOD.

The last recipe I’d like to share with you is also from Food52.com. It won the “best asparagus recipe” contest on the blog and although the recipe calls for butter I eliminate it and have not missed it. Throw in some duck fat or just use the paleo-friendly fat of your choice.

It's always exciting to experiment with my favorite recipes. I can’t deny living a paleo lifestyle requires a bit of thoughtfulness and preparation. I hope the recipes I have shared with you show you our city’s best restaurants and our country’s new favorite recipes can be incorporated into our clean living. Like I said before, you are not depriving yourself, you are rewarding yourself! Get out to the farmer’s markets and forage!

When an athlete possesses a dead lift north of 400 pounds, and back squats 315 like a warm up, a chip can usually be found resting on their over developed shoulder. But when you have the pleasure of chatting with this week's dose of awesome - strong man Xuan, you know that couldn't be further from the truth.

Xuan has only been part of the UB family for a short while, but his dedication is unparalleled. Coming from a football background, Xuan certainly had experience lifting heavy, but was never shown the technical finesse that can make or break a lift. Once he got a taste of it at UB, he was all in. He recently upped his weekly attendance, pulling the occasional double training day, and is always hungry for coaching. Xuan currently finds himself atop the UB leader board for the heaviest back squat -- next up? Breaking the 200 pound barrier for his strict press. With all this said, Xuan has barely scratched the surface of his CrossFit and strength potential.... But his overflowing awesomeness will always be sky high.

Watch out - Xuan's got his focus face on!

Last night we had a great turnout for our Level Up Yo Life! kickoff. For those of you who missed the meeting, you have until Friday to confirm your participation in the challenge. You can download the handout. Here is what you need to know:

Photos & Weigh-ins

Photos & weigh-ins will be on May 13th and 14th by appointment.

• For the photos, men will wear shorts, and women wear shorts & a sports bra
• You will need to commit to the diet you'll be following (Paleo, Primal, or Zone)
• Those of you who have 10 class passes or do PT will need to commit to a number of WODs per week.
• Bring your $60 buy in

Logging

Your food, sleep, workouts, and other activities will all be logged into private facebook group. As we check and tally your days, you will be able to watch everyone's progress in a private shared google document. Those setting the example for commitment and participation may earn motivational prizes and bonus points.. hint hint...

Supporting Each Other

We know you are in it to win it. However, supporting one another through this process can really make the difference in this being a lifestyle change. We recommend you buddy up with someone with similar goals, post photos, recipes, tips, to the facebook page. Two months can feel like a long time to stay focused, but as a team, it can be a fun and fulfilling process. If you have any questions on the logistics, make sure to let us know before Friday!