The 4 Horsemen will usher in a new age of fitness. The traditional versions of Conquest, War, Famine and Death are represented in our focus on Goals, Competition, Nutrition and Metabolic-conditioning. We firmly believe that strength, power and fitness are best achieved by utilizing CrossFit methods and the 4 Horsemen of Lifts: Squats, Presses, Deadlifts and O-lifts.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Foundation


When looking to maximize performance and most importantly health, you need to make sure what your eating is something that can be classified as food. If it needs to be fortified with vitamins to be "healthy" it is not food. People are so obsessed with fat, calories, and vitamins that they are totally missing the point. If you are eating properly those things should take care of themselves. Do you look at nutrition labels? Well then what your holding in your hand is not food! If you cannot kill or harvest it and have it on your plate in under an hour then you should not be, and were never meant to be eating it.

Human evolution has not kept up with the advances in agriculture and it has left us being the most overweight and unhealthy we have been in existence. We were never meant to eat wheat, nor were we meant to eat refined sugar or any other ingredients you see on the boxed foods that are unpronounceable.

What were we meant to eat?
Whole foods! Meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts & seeds, and leaves. Forget the low-fat, high carb diet unless you want; diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, cancer or any of the western diseases associated with a diet high in refined carbohydrates.

Escaping the western diet
It can certainly be a difficult change for some people, and for others just a bit of tweaking and your there. Here are some easy ways to escape the western diet and all the fun diseases that follow;
  • Eat a diet of; meats and vegetables, nuts & seeds, some fruit, little starch and NO SUGAR
  • Shop the peripherals of the grocery store.

  • Get out of the supermarket whenever possible, you won't find high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer's market.

  • Buy grass fed meat/eggs; you are what you eat eats!(Note: just because its free range does not mean it is grass fed, make sure it says grass fed).

  • Buy meat in bulk; cook extra for snacks and freeze what you don't cook. Buying in bulk is also much cheaper.

  • Be the kind of person that takes supplements; a fish oil capsule and a multivitamin can go along way.
What to stay away from;
  • All flour/grain products

  • All dairy; pasteurization destroys the milks genetic make-up, what your left with barely represents what it would look like if it came straight from the cow. Unless your getting your milk from a grass fed cow before it goes through processing, then it is fine. If not, you need to eliminate your milk consumption

  • No sugar or artificial sweeteners

  • No beans, lentils or legumes (we will leave the reasoning for another post)
These changes to your diet will drastically improve the way you look, feel and perform in all aspects of life. Proper nutrition is the foundation of human performance, health and longevity. What you doing isn't working, never has worked and never will. Acknowledge, accept and move on.

5 comments:

Sean B-H said...

good post Murph

What is your opinion of Rip's GOMAD? Did you try it? Does he ever mention how the zone and GOMAD fit together?

Sean B-H said...

when can i link to your page?

Ben Wheeler said...

Sean, I actually e-mailed Robb Wolf earlier today about GOMAD.He said and I quote "GOMAD is fucking legit" He said it may not be the healthiest option long turn, but told me to dedicate 2 months to it.

Michael Murphy said...

GOMAD or gallon of whole milk a day is basically a cheap/affordable way to get tonnes of calories into your diet. This way skinny scrawny kids like yourself can put on some serious muscle mass while strength training. Go for it!

Sean B-H said...

cool thanks guys....

murph you wish you had my six pack