9.28.17// Broccoli

MetCon//

For time

30 Double Unders

21 Sumo Dead Lift High Pull

21 Burpees

30 Double Unders

15 Sumo Deadlift High Pull

15 Burpees

30 Double Unders

9 Sumo Deadlift High Pull

9 Burpees

Do you want to loose weight? Eat Broccoli. You don't like broccoli, like can't stand it, won't eat it? Then eat whatever you do like, that shares the same attributes of Broccoli. Green, Fibrous, Vegetable. No, broccoli doesn't taste as good as nachos or a blizzard, and I think sometimes that's peoples' hang-up on vegetables. "I don't like vegetables." Do you really not like vegetables? Or is it that vegetables aren't as good as doughnuts. Because if we're looking for all of our food to be comfort food worthy, our needing to improve our heath has much less to do with our genetics, or age, or thyroid and everything to do with our expectations. This becomes really clear whenever we get excited about a paleo doughnut or order the gluten free pizza. Like somehow a paleo doughnut isn't a doughnut. We all love doughnuts, eat doughnuts please! Pizza is my favorite, and I plan to eat it until the day I die. In the past 40 years though, more food items are labeled and advertised as healthy, yet obesity is booming. The key word in paleo doughnut is doughnut. There isn't a healthy option of your very favorite foods. Unless of course your favorite food is truly Broccoli, Wild Salmon, Huckleberries and a kale salad with crushed almonds and home-made olive oil vinaigrette. Whoa, that was a serious rant! Sorry if I ruined your day! Hopefully I can regain your trust! There may not be a healthy version of Mac and Cheese, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy Whole Foods.

Start with vegetables and fruit. They're colorful because they have phytonutrients, vitimins, and minerals. Vitimins, minerals and phytonutrients make your body work correctly, and they also make you feel awesome. Too much science to explain. The way they work in your body is already perfect and it can't be replicated in a pill. They're fibrous, filling, and you can't really over eat them. You can fight me until your face is blue, but they taste good, are satisfying, and you like them! If only because it's in your design to like them, yet processed food has been modified to be liked/craved even more. Take your dog for example. Sure they scarf the dog food you feed them, and it is fine, but they know where the good stuff comes from-- the treat jar, or your scraps. They'll always choose your scraps over the bowl. The seagulls on the boardwalk live exclusively on bread crumbs and trash, not the small fish they should be eating. The food we call our favorite is likely engineered to be tasty and irresistible to make money. So of course whole foods don't taste as good as processed foods when you're used to processed foods. A bag of Broccoli is only 5 bucks and lasts a couple of days, nobody is getting rich off that. Maybe you don't like vegetables, but it's likely that you just don't like the way your vegetables are prepared. This is what I recommend.

Choose a green vegetable. It can be one you already tolerate, one you want to like, or one you absolutely hate. Rather than trying to choke it down the same old way, only to hate it even more, try something new. This is how I prepare Broccoli and Cauliflower and I've learned to love it. 

- Chop off the stems. Nothing says that you gotta spend all day chewing some hard stems for broccoli to be healthy.

- 4 minutes In the microwave in a bowl with some water. Again, soften them up a little first! And while they cook in the microwave, melt some coconut oil, butter, olive oil, avocado oil etc. in a pan. 

- Drain the water from the bowl. Saute the broccoli (or cauliflower, or brussels sprouts, or whatever it is). Add Salt. 

- When you eat it, don't get all emotional because it doesn't taste like the Totinos Pizza Roll your kid is eating. It's Broccoli. 

When I'm tired, moody, not recovering well, it's often the same time when I'm lazy about getting in the veggies.

Especially for the low carb crowd, you just can't skip the veggies. Go too long without them, and you'll feel like dookie. What derails your eating plan faster than a bad mood? Nothing. Making sure you're eating plenty of veg and fruit can help you stay on track believe it or not. If you're afraid of a cup of cauliflower or an apple spiking your insulin, do you really in your heart think that a diet that frowns on literally the most nutritious foods is really what you want to adhere to?

Good nutrition makes you look your best, perform well, and feel awesome. If one of those things are missing or if you have to choose between any of those, something should change. And the change can be as small as eat broccoli. You don't have to choose between looking good, feeling good, and performing good.