Monthly: April 2011

John Daly of CrossFit BTB in Atlanta, Ga., has come a long way to compete in the Reebok CrossFit Games Open.

Two-and-a-half years ago he was 260 lb. He’s now 60 lb. lighter, and Daly says CrossFit has “really done a lot to improve my life.”

But it didn’t happen overnight. Daly says he was at first very intimidated by CrossFit.

“The first day I walked into the gym, everyone was doing the CrossFit Total,” he says. “The first thing that went into my mind after I walked in the door was I was going to turn around.”

After his first taste of two rounds of Cindy, Daly was sold. The weight gradually came off through lifestyle and diet changes that CrossFit spurred. For his diet, he made incremental adjustments.

“It was a progressive move. I didn’t give up everything all at once, so I think that’s why I was a little bit more successful,” he says.

According to Daly, a combination of Paleo-Zone works best for him, and he attributes his overall success to CrossFit.

“It basically changed my life in so many different ways,” he says.

10min 36sec

Additional reading: By the Numbers by Amy Santamaria and Tim Retzik, published Sept. 29, 2010.

If we have two things in our refrigerator – homemade sausage and eggs – we know it’s going to be good day. With those two ingredients we can whip up a scramble, an omelet, sausage patties with fried eggs or if we have just a little bit more time, a baked egg and sausage dish that can be eaten at the table or on the go.

What we like about baked eggs is that they can be sliced into finger food, which is great for adults who are rushing to work, teenagers who are rushing to school and kids who think eating with their hands is much more fun than using a fork. You can bake eggs up as a frittata, or give them a little more time in the oven in a square pan for a thicker, sturdier shape. Make this recipe for Sausage & Egg Breakfast Bites at night and the next morning just slice and go – the squares are just as good cold as they are heated up.

We like to make a big batch of sausage then freeze it in smaller portions that can be defrosted in the fridge for a single meal. Planning ahead like this make recipes like Sausage & Egg Breakfast Bites a snap. The homemade sausage adds enough flavor to the dish that you really don’t need any added salt or seasoning. Of course you can make this with just sausage and eggs, but try to sneak in a veggie, too. Eggs are a good vehicle for sautéed greens, like kale or swiss chard, but mushrooms, onions and bell peppers are tasty as well.

Simple, fast, convenient, healthy, delicious. What more can you ask for from your breakfast?

Ingredients:

Makes 4 large or 6 small squares

1 small bunch of dark greens, such as kale, Swiss chard, beet greens or spinach

1-2 cups of crumbled, uncooked sausage (try homemade http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-make-homemade-sausage/)

8-10 eggs

a small bunch of parsley or other fresh herb

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Slice the greens into thin strips (if using kale, removed the stems). Sauté in oil or butter over medium heat for several minutes, then add the crumbled sausage.

Continue to sauté until sausage is basically cooked, then turn off heat.

Whisk the eggs then stir in the parsley, kale and sausage.

Pour into a greased 8×8 pan. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Let cool slightly before cutting into squares.

Grab a copy of Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals for over 100 Primal Recipes You Can Prepare in 30 Minutes or Less

Related posts:

1. Primal Breakfast Casserole
2. Italian Sausage Meatballs with Fresh Herbs
3. Shrimp, Sausage and Summer Squash Casserole

The end of the Reebok CrossFit Games Open is in sight, and last week our East Coast athletes met up with Workout 11.5, a long triplet of power cleans, toes-to-bar and wall-balls.

“I don’t mind this workout at all. I like 20 minutes. I like long workouts,” Pat said one week after admitting he hated Workout 11.4.

Yosh was also ready to throw down, though he had a few questions about standards: “Is it OK to use one of those mini trampolines while I do wall-balls?”

Just as many other competitors discovered, Yosh and Pat decided it was smart to only do 11.5 once.

“It was a 20-minute grind-fest,” Yosh said. He was only slightly disappointed with a score just under 10 rounds, while Pat managed over 11 rounds and figured he had put himself in a good spot on the leaderboard.

Next week, both athletes will find out if regionals are in their future. Only one challenge remains in the opening round of the CrossFit Games: Workout 11.6, an escalating couplet of thrusters and chest-to-bar pull-ups.

Fran, anyone?

Video by Again Faster.

6min 20sec

Additional video: Update on the Open: Week 5.

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another dose of Primal Blueprint inspiration. Many thanks to Hank for taking the time to share how he lost nearly 100 lbs in just 6 months, and turned his life around in the process.

If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as you send them in. Thanks for reading!

–

Mark,

My name is Hank Garner and I am 39 years old. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. Except for a brief time in my young adulthood, I have always been over weight.

My wife and I were married 16 years ago. Over the 16 years, we were blessed with five beautiful children. The problem is that every time my wife would get pregnant, she gained weight, and so did I. After each baby was born, my wife went right back to the slim figure she has always maintained and I did not. As the years went by I got bigger and bigger. I am five feet six inches tall and in 2010 my weight reached almost 300 pounds. I am not exactly sure how heavy I actually got. We had a scale that went to 280 and after I started trying to weigh myself, it broke. Go figure. I was easily 300 pounds and I was miserable. I hated everything about myself. I hated knowing that I was not the man that I should be.

October 2010 – Holding My Niece

I started doing research and found that low carb eating worked well for me. I started losing a little bit of weight, but I wasn’t fully committed to it. I had successfully lost about 20 pounds, but I hadn’t committed to a lifestyle. I had a conversation with my wife in early Fall 2010, and told her that I was disgusted with myself and felt like I did not have control of my life anymore. My blood pressure was badly out of control. I had chronic asthma and after any physical exertion I had to use an albuterol inhaler. I watched over the past couple of years as family member after family member was diagnosed with either heart disease or diabetes or both. Some of them were very close to my age. It was time to make a change. I weighed in officially on October 15th at 276 pounds. I set a goal to be 180 pounds. I honestly did not know if I would make it to 180. It seemed like I was stuck being fat. I tried to lose weight many times, but I could never get below below 230 pounds. This time, I was determined, would be different.

I decided that I was going to change my life and to keep myself accountable, I would start a blog. I knew that I would follow some sort of low carb plan so I called it my low carb journey. I would post what was going on with me, the good, the bad and the uncomfortable. I started really digging into the science behind fat loss and discovered Primal living. A friend recommended I read “The Primal Blueprint”, which I did. This book made such sense to me. Everything that I knew deep down inside about nutrition and exercise was being validated. I wanted to learn all I could.

I had tons of questions to ask. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn, and the more I wanted to help others. I have a history in broadcasting and decided to use this as another way of learning for myself and educating others. I launched a podcast and sought out people that had information about fat loss and people that had made a big change in their own lives. During this time, I was applying what I learned and making a change in my life.

The first month of my journey I lost 37 pounds. I felt like a new man. I removed all sweeteners and dairy from my diet and the weight just kept coming off. I started only eating real food. I started moving more. I lifted weights and started running. As an asthmatic, any exertion was not fun. The more weight I lost I found that the asthma was no longer a problem. My blood pressure stabilized and became normal. I set a goal to run a half marathon. I do that in 2 weeks. I am already up to running 11 miles on my long weekend run.

This Friday, April 15th is my 6 month anniversary. I reached my initial goal of 180 pounds in under 6 months. I still have a few pounds to lose and I want to add some more muscle, but as you can see, I am not the same man that I was just 6 mouths ago.

April 2011 – A New Man

Follow Hank’s progress at his blog, My Low Carb Journey.

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Related posts:

1. You’re Not Going to Change Overnight
2. Dear Mark: Time Change
3. A Cereal Addict Goes Primal