For a paleo challenge coming up my gym may not allow yams/sweet potatoes pwo. Is there any alternative that under strict paleo would be just as good? Banana or other root vegetable? or are bananas too high glycemically?. thanks.

I checked out your post for PWO and noted that you love sweet potatoes PWO. I am pretty lean,and wouldnt mind getting a tiny bit leaner and stronger. Would adding sweet potato for breakfast and PWO be a trigger to put on fat? I am very active and do CF and strength 5 days a week. Thanks

I’m kind of a nutjob on the gluten thing so you will not likely see me ever endorse pasta.

Check out opt’s blog and get a sense of what they are up to with regards to leanness and PWO fueling.

I wonder how long a typical workout you’re talking about here? I sometimes do an hr of yoga right after WOD. My WOD is usually 15-20 mins. I’m afraid that by the time I finish with my yoga, that “window” has closed.

Dave

Creatine is great…if you are a responder. Some folks are not. Stick with the cheap mono-hydrate.

Jason Arp
CrossfitAddiction.com

As to the AA’s…meat is typically quite complete. Whether it works better than whey+BCAA’s etc…not so sure, but worth tinkering with!

Jason Arp

Your brother needs to figure out the glycemic index of foods. Then he needs to try this and actually speak from experience!

Bart-
If we are just ahmmering in the ATP/CP pathway (1-10 sec) we can replenish that stuff with just fat metabolism. And we will if we are nto insulin resistant. If we are stretching things out to 30-180 sec we are in the glycolytic pathway which is all glycogen fueled and thus REALLY benefits from a larger PWO carb intake.

If you want to be lean, and strong, I think you are doing WAAAAAY to much. Cut out the 5K’s, take more time off. Lift heavy, make sure you are sleeping. You will lean out AND get stronger. You will still kick ass at the 5K too

Matt-
I’m not sure I follow you…Like ratio of apples and SP? Totally up to you, I tend to just use the apples for flavor the SP, so it’s likely something long the lines of 2 blocks apples/6-10 blocks of SP…just guessing here, never really measured it.
Not sure on the sugar alcohols….I think some do elicit an insulin response, but they do NOT add to glycogen…erythritol is good for your teeth…not really my area of expertise!

Well…so you are essentially at base zone, just modified to a lower carb level, yes? 10 blocks total? How much strength work are you doing? How long has it been since a week off? let me know on that stuff.

Bart-
I’d assume differences between shakes, but my take-away from that study is that solid food just might be better than liquid food for many applications. Like you siad though, use what you can, especially if in an austere environment.

I just wanted to take the time to thank you for the wealth of information that you have made available. I have most definitely found your site and articles enlightening to say the least. Being an Indian male (of the South Asian variety) I have had a diet heavy in grains (particularly white rice) for most of my life, and I initially thought I had a good hold on most of this stuff being a personal trainer and an athlete (soccer). I have made an effort to be incredibly strict with diet even with my hectic college life schedule and it has certainly paid dividends. I’ve been blown away by the improvements I have seen from following the zone coupled with your advice and this is certainly evident in my performances on the Crossfit WODs. Now, if only I can get my parents to listen as type II diabetes runs in my family! Thanks again.

Chandra

Chandra-
Than you for the kind words…always good to know my ramblings are of benefit to folks!

The Type 2 diabetes situation is becoming very concerning in India…I believe it is increasing there even more rapidly than in the states. You have your work cut out for you with your parents…there is always the plea to “try it for one month…”
Good luck and thank you again for the kind words.

Peter-
There will be no hitting…today anyway! When I say cereal I’m thinking more processed cereal out of a box, you poor milk on it. It’s delicious, but Satan’s henchmen!

If the oatmel works for you, awesome. I just encourage people to try a gluten free approach, get those carbs from yams, fruit etc and see how you do. You have already discovered that a LOW carb diet will not make you good at crossfit…but one can find an optimum carb level without too much tinkering.

Thanks for the link, great stuff!

You say bananas are Ok. Does that mean that the Fructose content of a Banana is lower than that of other fruit (eg apples, oranges, pears)? Do they have the same weight gain around the mid section possibilities of other fruit? I’ve been mashing some sweet potato and eating that with some chicken after my workouts. A banana would often be mush more convenient as I wouldn’t have to heat it up and sometimes after a hard met con I really struggle to get the mash down.

I’d still prefer the Spotato PWO but play with the banana and just see how it goes.

YEP!!

PWO nutrition the lowly bananna is good to go. Give the Feeding The Machine series for some fire-breathers use of PWO nutrition. The Zone is not the end-all-be-all of nutrition.

Thanks,
Mike

First off love your site. Have read most of your CF articles on Zone and nutrition in general. This was a very helpful post, just have one question. I fast most days with a 5 hour window for food. Currently, my window is 2:00 – 7:00 pm, fits into my schedule well. However, my CF workouts are in the morning usually early, so in order to get the most from a PWO meal would it be wise to adjust my eating window? I’m not a fire breather and in general don’t have any complaints regarding my performance.

Thanks for your time.

Cheryl M.
CrossFit Oahu

Cheryl!
I’m going to tackle this in more depth in a PWO 2 post, but the bottom line is if we are REALLY focused on recovery and or performance that PWO meal is critical. If we have a bit more of a longevity and health bias I think the way you are doing it (or just a low carb PWO meal) is a better option. I’ll go into the why’s in that other post, but for now it sounds like you have a good system going, I’d run with that until you either want to tinker with things or feel like the current program is not meeting your goals.

Oh, wait…you did. And I didn’t pay attention all that time. Sorry, my bad…

All seriousness aside, it’s made a world of difference to follow your recommendations. I’m finally on my way to a respectable weight and decent performance. Thanks a bunch.

Tony

PS “Stevia is for hippies” – fantastic!

Now there’s a blast from the past! Great to hear from you Tony!

I tried to post this comment at lunch today, but it never posted, so I’ll try again. After workouts, I enjoy chocolate milk and a banana while I’m cooking my post WOD meal, which usually consists of eggs, sweet potatoes, and onions. What are your thoughts on the chocolate milk and banana? Should I ditch them?
Thanks,
Mike

Sorry for the tardiness getting back to the comments…just overwhelmed at times! I think that combo works great for some folks…I think it would knock me on my ass! If you are satisfied with your leanness, have no joint pain etc I think it’s good to go. You might try doing a “purely paleo” approach with protein, sweet potato/banana and see how that rolls. You just need to tinke rwith this stuff!

Also, Mark’s Daily Apple http://www.marksdailyapple.com/muscle-building-and-carbs/ recently had a post on PWO nutrition, but it seemed to emphasize protein and omega-3s PWO and didn’t like an overabundance of carbs. What is your take on this?

Thank you again for sharing your brain with us! We really appreciate your help and your precious time.

Kristy!!
I think the banana is fine. Obviously very convenient. Regarding Marks post, it’s a different emphasis. If we are really looking at performance, we have to do those PWO carbs…no two ways about it. This would be for someone following a CrossFit type program. I mentioned in another comment that we cna shift our emphasis to health/longevity and this can perhaps be better served by a low carb PWO meal. I’m going to look at these trade-offs in a follow-up post.

I assume eating bananas in my PWO meal is not ideal based on this guideline form above.

“Fruit should be used sparingly in this meal if one is focused on optimized glycogen repletion as fructose refills liver glycogen first, and once liver glycogen is full we up-regulate the lipogenic activity of the liver and start down the road towards fat gain and insulin resistance.”

Would oatmeal be a better choice?

thanks,
dave
Dave-
I think bananas work just fine.

I’ve been using my own post-WOD shake for ages but your comments are giving me pause for thought. I usually have something like blueberries, half a banana, shredded coconut, healthy fats and (more hippy food) hemp protein. I’m probably still around 7% BF these days so there’s no problem with fat storage but I’d be interested in trying the yam route post-WOD. The only thing is I’d prefer not to have to sit and chew after I’ve busted out a Fran or Helen so the smoothie seems more palatable. Any thoughts on my smoothie? It’s one of 2 or 3 I use regularly but fruit and hemp protein are the base for all 3.

Sounds like what you are doing is working great…you could always tinker with solid foods, but otherwise it’s just finding what works.

Does the PWO meal vary according to different types/intensity of workouts? I feel completely thrashed after a metcon, and carbs feel appropriate there, but I’m less sure about strength workouts like 5×5′s or even a climbing session, when my heart rate hasn’t gone up that much (relatively speaking) and I don’t feel as wasted. Is a high-carb meal still appropriate?

Thanks,
Daniel

Yep, you got it! match carbs to training volume/intensity. Strength work needds little above the baseline.

This was a great post, by the way. Love the specificity.

Hey girl!
Those other root veggies are perfect!

Jason

How do you feel about post workout protein bars? Since im in college quality food in short time is tough. The bars are gluten and sugar free. They have about 36 grams of carbs and 20g of protein. What do ya think? I wish sweet potatoes was an option, but it really is not. Any other sugesstions?

In a pinch you just need to run with what’s handy. You can however microwave the taters and tote them with…cna even mashc them. Obviously however, the bar is WAY easier.

Do you recommend a PWO meal after any CrossFit WOD? Or, should one adjust a PWO meal relative to the kind of WOD (strength, metcon, aerobic, or whatever). Don’t different kinds of workout have different affects on glycogen depletion?

Why not sweet potatoes with whey for a PWO mush?

Also, what about stevia for palatability and taste or does it throw off insulin?

Thx,
A

Yep, adjust according to training level. Whey & sweet potatoes sounds nasty, go for it if you like. Stevia is for hippies!

I was wondering what you should eat PWO if you’re strict Paleo (no sweet potatoes)? What types of Paleo foods do you recommend for recovery?

sweet potato is fine under paleo guidelines.