San Antonio made for an enlightening road trip for the two of us. For one, it was the first time that Lindsey and I competed as a team. We were hesitant to test our sublime friendship by competing on a team together (winning is that important) but in the end, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and left excited for another opportunity to compete together. After the competition had run its course, I began thinking about other aspects of our visit to San Antonio. On our way there on Friday night, a teammate sent an email saying that she would drive in to the competition (from Austin) in the morning because it was too difficult to maintain a healthy eating pattern in San Antonio. Alamo CrossFit is located in a city that ranks number three on the scroll of Fattest American Cities. I had always assumed that Houston was worse off. I found it hard to believe that natural, whole foods and range-fed meats would be that difficult to find but before I tackled that issue, we had a competition to win.
More Americans are aware of San Antonio's abysmal health ranking than those that are aware of the historical significance of the Alamo.By the time we left San Antonio, my focus had diverted to the study of: the native San Antonian's eating practices, access to whole foods, number of fast food restaurants, lack of training facilities and other measures of a healthy community. I read Good Calories, Bad Calories, I watched Fast Food Nation I glanced over the census data but I still couldn't find any glaring differences between San Antonio and Houston.
A great way to gauge interest in a subject is to peruse the city's Examiner.com page and it was on their website that I found the problem. There isn't enough cohesive participation in the movement to change this beautiful city's habits. The San Antonio Examiner's writers only regurgitated national press and Biggest Loser updates. To my dismay, many of The Examiner's writers were seemingly disinterested in helping to solve the issues within their own community. In other instances, the writers were inaccurate in their assessments of the problem (See today's Do Kids Need Physical Education Class?) A photograph embedded in this article links the problem to food preparation, socio-economic distress, cultural preference and lack of food choice supervision. However, the article itself, blames the young generation's problems on a lack of physical education. Erroneous, the problem begins at the table.
What can the CrossFit community do to institute change in their city's nutritional culture? We need to embrace, educate and encourage our peers to push toward the finish line. In the aforementioned article in The Examiner, the following sentence is in bold: At the end of the day no healthy diet exists for a sedentary lifestyle. How far from the truth is that? In the context of their push for physical education, bravo, but a little bit of activity in school will not counteract poor nutrition. As CrossFit coaches, athletes and affiliate owners, we need to be aware of the message that we communicate as it pertains to food quality, alcohol, sugar-consumption and dietary shortcuts. As pillars in the struggling communities of Houston and San Antonio, our clients, enthusiasts and friends should be driven away from alcohol consumption, less-than-optimal food choices and the general idea that exercise, alone, keeps a person fit.
All and all, It was a great trip to a beautiful city and the competition was quite challenging. Away from CrossFit, we enjoyed some great paleo-friendly dinners at a nearby H-E-B Plus, Rio Rio and Landry's on the River Walk . For natives of the Alamo City, reducing or eliminating grains, axing refined sugars and shunning processed food products can and should be done. The result would be a lighter, healthier and more able city. With San Antonio's handful of influential CrossFit affiliates leading the way, San Antonio is bound to follow Houston's fall down the Fattest City List.
Please join us at Houston's Lululemon on November 19, 2009 at 7 PM for a free showing of Eric Schlosser's enlightening Food, Inc.
13 comments:
I followed your link to Alamo Crossfit's blog and here is what I found:
http://02b8879.netsolhost.com/crossfit/?p=391
Disappointing especially after reading "enthusiasts and friends should be driven away from alcohol consumption"
Dennis,
Good to hear from you, my friend (and I look forward to competing against you in Dallas). Like me, you are big on range-fed cattle, wild game and hormone/pesticide free fruits and vegetables. You seem to be an athlete that competes to win and continuously strives for the edge, whether in the gym or at the office.
That edge is gained by eating food of this quality. In all honesty, not everyone strives for the goal of optimal nutrition or elite fitness. I am not the best athlete, nor am I the naturally fittest person. I have to close that gap by cutting out alcohol and eating good food.
The idealist that I am, I often think, "What if everyone ate that way?" CrossFit would continue to ascend the ranks in awareness and relevance because the clientele would benefit from a sort of commitment to fitness and nutrition that is seldom seen.
Perhaps that blog post was for a laugh, it sure made me laugh. But if it wasn't, the idea of protein infused vodka is biochemically complex. Maybe even dangerous. In an age where the majority of food today didn't exist 20 years ago, this sort of mash-up doesn't surprise me.
The concept of consuming protein before a drinking session has been noted to stifle the insulin response and ensuing decrease in testoserone levels. The normal window that the body takes to return to anabolic recovery is 24 hours and this practice is said to reduce an athlete's time void of muscle recovery.
The idea of a simultaneous consumption of protein and starch/sugar based alcohol is thoughtful but should be avoided altogether if anyone seeks to achieve their highest possible level of fitness.
Good post, Webster. Way to keep it constructive.
I'd like to hear what Melissa Urban or Robb Wolf thinks about this topic.
I admit I was not considering what effect protein would have on the insulin response when drinking but I take offense to an affiliate claiming alcohol is healthy when their mission is to forge elite fitness.
On another note, I believe one way to mitigate America's obesity problem is to pass legislation that requires advertisers to portray the average user of their product in commercials. I am tired of seeing models eating burgers and drinking cases of beer. This might make people think a little more about their nutritional choices. In the meantime I'll stick to eating foods that don't advertise.
@ Dennis Sukholutsky
In that sense, I understand your frustration. I too only eat foods that don't advertise. Your legislative idea is pretty genius. I would like to see if we could do something with that.
Your diet is a major factor in your success in CrossFit. I hope to see you improve upon your 8th place regional finish, last May.
Webster,
You missed something important on San Antonio's Census data. Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin make up 58.7% of the population.
The Hispanic culture is highly relational. That translates to a greater frequency of social events, and in the Hispanic culture every event involves food and beer. We eat a lot, and unfortunately the food we eat a lot of is not healthy. This includes food cooked and eaten in the house and food eaten in community. It's cultural. Check these links out.
http://www.hispanic7.com/laredo_to_study_obesity,_diabetes_in_elementary_school_children.htm
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/113/5/546
http://www.ci.laredo.tx.us/CASS/Pres_Fed/content/health/institutionalize_bienestar_program.html
From the above link "Another striking fact is that 78.2% of the male population (18 and older) is either overweight or obese, compared with 72.2% of the female population. The statistics for children however, is alarming: 1 out of 4 is overweight and there is a disproportion rate of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) among Laredo’s youth."
The reason Laredo is relevant to the obesity epidemic in San Antonio is because, according to the 2000 census data, Laredo is 94.1% Hispanic.
Yo Webster, nice article about San Antonio it was nicely put! But with all the taqueria's and fast food restaurants here the people of San Antonio will probably never fall in the standings of largest cities. It will take another 10-20yrs before you start to see a change just like with the recycling(Go Green) movement. It is not till the kids of today grow up and become part of the professional world that you will start to see change.
I do wish there were a lot more health friendly restaurants in San Antonio, all in due time. Well see you in March or April, nice job last weekend!
@ Roberto Garza
Rob, that is some sobering information but thank you for putting it out there. The black community struggles in much the same way and I am hoping to find an influential means of striking a chord within my own community. Rob, share with us the ways of the G7. The Garza athletes are top-notch.
I hope that no one thinks that my goal is to undermine a certain culture while placating my own. I am still working on my mother and her poor health ways. I had a lot of bad cultural influences to overcome as athletics became more and more important in my life.
I encourage everyone to read "Chew on This", "Fat Land" and watch/read "Fast Food Nation"
The main issue here is that American culture associates fun with eating and drinking too much.
Struggling against fun is a losing battle. We need to show people that they can have fun without poisoning themselves.
At Crossfit we show people that they can have fun and be healthy at the same time. But many CrossFitters still subscribe to the carb and alcohol model of celebration outside of the gym.
It doesn't have to be this way. If you're interested, there's an article about the way CrossFit Monterey is celebrating the New Year with PR's instead of binge drinking here: http://evolveyourfitness.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-years-revolution.html
WEBSTER! Great stuff man -- I love reading intelligent, well-written and researched points of view. Can't wait for Dallas. Keep up the posts, and let's keep educating the populous on a better future driven by healthy lifestyle choices.
Web and Lindsey - It is an honor to have you guys participating in December. Thank you for putting the links up as well. You guys are awesome and we'll see you soon!
@ Adrian Thanks for the congrats! I certainly noticed the density of fast food chains but it is all about discerning good from bad and having the will to see it through! That is what CrossFit is all about, in my book.
@ Russ You are right about the difficulty that CrossFit has had shifting clients away from the social drinking and such. For me, my motivation is preparation for the 2010 CrossFit Games Qualifier, that keeps me straight. If we continue to focus on performance based fitness, my goals shouldn't be as foreign to the typical client. CrossFit can't become all about aesthetics, that is when people buy into the highly-potent marketing behind foods and alcohol. They think that they can still look good and they may, but alcohol and highly-processed foods are poison and they will affect a person's performance, without a doubt. New Year's Eve plans...Genius.
Thanks for reading!
@ Michael That meant a lot man, you know how much I enjoy writing! Anyhow, i'll keep them coming. I have a lot on my mind. See you this weekend, we'll be in Austin.
@ Spencer The honor is ours. We have been looking forward to this one for a while. I'll see you on Dec 5-6 as well, for the USA-W Cert. Keep cranking out athletes at Dallas CrossFit and on that note, tell Chase that I hope that he is in for the competition. See you in a few weeks!
So, I've been thinking of what insightful information I could add or share...again, I really liked the post man...then I started thinking what could be done to influence a community with CrossFit. I talked to my brother about it and I told him how hard it would be to change a community with CrossFit because CrossFit is a little expensive for the pocketbooks of some.
I also think that those with less money, or not enough to join fitness centers or gyms are those that are more likely to eat bad foods and subsequently be more overweight. The following article from Science Blog discusses this slightly, http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/correlation-between-obesity-and-poverty-health-people-2010-should-increase-attention-those-poverty-14046.html .
My brother's then told me that if you're doing a good enough job with a gym in your community, you should be influencing the entire community. This led me to thinking about CrossFit Central and the Movement. Going to that event, I saw how CrossFit is really changing lives.
What do you think? What are ways to take CrossFit into the impoverished neighborhoods and impact lives?
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