Todd West was at a crossroads with his health. He was overweight, plus he had high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease.
His doctor gave him an ultimatum: “You need to do something yourself or else I’m going to put you on medication.”
That mandate motivated West to make a change. But he loathed the thought of returning to the gym and the same exercise routines that had always failed to inspire him. Instead, he decided to try CrossFit, a high-intensity, communal-style workout that focuses on natural body movements such as lifting, climbing and running.
The first six weeks were brutal. “It was humbling,” says West, 40, a fundraising consultant for nonprofit organizations who lives in Lake Barcroft. But eventually he found himself starting to enjoy the burn, and the camaraderie of exercising in a group. When the club offered a six-week “paleo diet challenge,” he decided to sign up—even though he wasn’t quite sure what he was getting himself into.
As it turns out, he was committing to giving up sugar, dairy, wheat, rice and corn, among other foods.
That’s when things got real. Within a week or two of adopting the new diet, West says he began shedding weight. Within three months, he lost 15 pounds. After six months, he was down from 190 to 165 pounds. His cholesterol dropped by 30 percent and he took three inches off his waist. “I’ve had my pants taken in twice,” he says.
Alternately referred to as the “caveman diet,” “Stone Age diet,” or “hunter-gatherer diet,” paleo eating is based on the theory that our digestive systems haven’t evolved much since the Paleolithic era more than 10,000 years ago.
“The idea is to emulate and mimic the nutritional characteristics of diets from that time with contemporary foods,” explains Loren Cordain, founder of the diet and author of a series of books on the subject, including The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet Cookbook.
That means processed foods, sugar, dairy products, salt and cereal grains (all products of modern agriculture and manufacturing) are off limits. So are legumes, including peanuts.
“Those foods were never consumed by hunter-gatherers,” contends Cordain, a professor in the department of health and exercise science at Colorado State University. “When you replace those foods with real, living fruits, veggies, meats and seafood, the nutrient density of your diet increases exponentially.”
Many paleo proponents will tell you, however, that the diet alone isn’t the secret to weight-loss successes like West’s. It’s the combination of the diet, paired with regular workouts—CrossFit in particular. The two disciplines have enjoyed a bromance of sorts ever since Robb Wolf, a onetime Cordain disciple and author of The Paleo Solution, introduced the diet to the CrossFit community a little more than five years ago. Before then, many CrossFit devotees adhered to the Zone diet, which advocates a balanced intake of protein (30 percent), fat (30 percent) and carbohydrates (40 percent).
Though the paleo diet and CrossFit were developed completely separately, there is an interesting correlation between the two philosophies. Paleo restricts your diet to foods that were purportedly eaten by hunter-gatherers, while CrossFit’s stripped-down workouts seek to mimic the physical activities that cavemen engaged in for purposes of survival. You may not be hunting wild bison when you do CrossFit, but it can be just as challenging.
To better understand the phenomenon and the fuss, I decided to sign up for an introductory class at Potomac CrossFit, a gym (or “box,” in CrossFit parlance) located just a few blocks from the Court House Metro station. The program is led by the facility’s owner, Brian Wilson, a strapping ex-Marine who also owns Patriot CrossFit on Glebe Road.
“CrossFit is continually varied functional exercises,” explains Wilson, 34. “One minute you might be doing push-ups, the next minute squats, followed by pull-ups and short sprints.”
How hard can it be? I thought. I jog regularly and do Pilates, so I figured I was at least partially prepared.
The session starts out with four participants standing in a circle, doing rudimentary stretches. Then we begin the workout sequence: 10 standing squats, followed by 25 push-ups—basic stuff. Next we walk outside for a quick jog down a small hill and up another short slope. Back in the gym, we pick up barbells, swooping them between our legs and over our heads 10 times. I am sweating by this point, but feeling good.
Then Wilson looks at the clock. “All right, let’s see how many sets [of that sequence] you can do in 12 minutes,” he says. “Three, two, one, go.”
I start off the sequence strong, but quickly realize I am not used to this level of intensity. (I typically jog by myself, so it’s not a competitive endeavor; and in Pilates you only do a small number of repetitions of any one movement.)
By the middle of my second set—as I am making my way up that small hill that now feels like Mount Everest—I am just coherent enough to have an epiphany: I am not in CrossFit shape.
Panting heavily, I ask Wilson how it is that so many have survived this initiation period to become committed CrossFit junkies. “It’s miserable, but it’s fun,” he says. “So you bond with the people around you.”
Does CrossFit plus paleo equal the cure to all that ails us? The regimen certainly has its believers.
Among them are Arlington residents Liz and Ryan Powell, both 28, who adopted the lifestyle in late 2008. Ryan, now a CrossFit trainer at Potomac and Patriot, went cold turkey and adopted the paleo diet overnight. His wife took a more gradual approach.
“First, I removed my cereal in the morning, then my rice at dinner, and so on,” says Liz, who teaches beginner CrossFit classes for kids at Potomac and Patriot (she also runs the recipe blog Tasty Paleo Fun). “It was my 12 steps of seeing how I felt and how it adjusted to my lifestyle.”
Both claim to have garnered significant results. “I felt better,” Liz says. “I saw improvements in my health, attitude and energy. We both got leaner, though neither of us was overweight.”
Ryan had battled a severe case of irritable bowel syndrome for years, but once he changed his eating habits, he says, it vanished.
“Both of us are so happy with the choice…and have decided that this will be our lifestyle,” says Liz. “If we’re blessed enough to have children, we want to raise them paleo.”
Matt Finkelstein, who adopted CrossFit three years ago, also counts among the faithful. He says that after two years, his fitness level hit a plateau—until his coach recommended a paleo challenge.
“It was rough in the beginning, as my body was ramping off carbs and ramping up protein intake for energy,” says Finkelstein, 44, who lives in Arlington’s East Falls Church neighborhood and handles business development for a software company. “My workout performance initially went down noticeably. Then I hit a crossover point, where I was having more energy in the gym and stopped missing the things I wasn’t eating.”
At that point, Finkelstein says his CrossFit sessions got a turbo boost. The number of timed pull-ups and push-ups he could do went up by 10 percent, while his timed push presses increased by 20 percent. He also lost six pounds.
Rock Spring resident Brad Winkelmann claims even more dramatic results, having dropped more than 50 pounds since he adopted the caveman diet. From the beginning of the year to July, he went from 280 pounds to around 230.
“The biggest thing for me was my annual blood-work results,” says Winkelmann, 40, a former police officer who now owns a property management company in Arlington. “My bad cholesterol (LDL) plummeted and my good cholesterol (HDL) skyrocketed. My doctor said that they were the best he had ever seen.”
Believe it or not, Winkelmann says he achieved all of this with a daily breakfast that includes a pound of bacon and three eggs fried in pork fat.
Sounds a little like Atkins, right?
Stories like this worry cardiologists like Michael H. Goldman of Virginia Cardiovascular Care in Arlington. “That is very unhealthy,” he says of the fat-laden spread. “Our ancestors did not have fried bacon or eggs.”
In principle, Goldman endorses many of the ingredients that are central to paleo eating—including fruits, vegetables, wild grains and fish, with lean meats and non-processed carbohydrates eaten sparingly. And there’s certainly no harm in cutting out refined sugar and sodium.
But he’s not convinced that all patients who claim to eat paleo are moderating their intake of fatty foods that, while on the diet’s “approved” list, are considered bad for heart health when consumed in large quantities.
“Let’s take a giant step backwards,” Goldman says. “What’s reasonable and makes genetic and physiological sense? It’s very basic: Everything in moderation.”
Anne Mauney, a registered dietitian in Arlington and author of the blog fANNEtasticfood.com, is similarly skeptical, though her concern isn’t what the paleo diet allows, so much as what it leaves out. Dairy products, whole grains and legumes (all of which the diet prohibits) can be important sources of protein and dietary fiber.
“Any diet when you’re taking out entire food groups works well in the short term,” Mauney says, “but a more balanced approach is better for sustained, long-term healthfulness. People think paleo will solve all their problems in a day. The question is whether they can sustain the diet or will they yo-yo? Following fad diets leads to falling off the wagon.”
Other experts question the diet’s fundamental premise, arguing that the eating habits of our ancestors are virtually impossible to replicate (even grass-fed beef is domesticated, and the vast majority of the fruits and vegetables we consume are farmed, not wild).
“Even if you wanted to try to eat what people were eating a long time ago, the majority of those foods are simply not available,” evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk noted in a recent interview with Nutrition Action Healthletter, a publication of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “Early humans were not eating plants or animals that resembled very closely the plants and animals that we eat today.”
A professor at the University of Minnesota, Zuk is author of Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live.
“I’m not arguing with people who say, ‘I started eating this way and I feel great!’” Zuk continued. “But it’s also perfectly possible that people who eat in a variety of other ways, as long as they’re not subsisting on Coke and Cheetos, would be healthy as well.”
It’s hard to get a sense of just how many people adhere to the paleo diet—given that the community is diffuse and isn’t presided over by any governing body—although Cordain’s first book has sold well over 100,000 copies to date, and his cookbook quickly hit the New York Times best-seller list when it was published in 2010.
The primal diet certainly has its share of fans in Arlington, some of whom I find gathered one evening at Potomac CrossFit. They are there to taste-test a selection of new menu offerings from Power Supply, a local meal-delivery service specializing in paleo cuisine.
Launched in 2010 by co-founders Patrick Smith and Robert Morton, the company distributes roughly 3,500 premade lunches and dinners per week—each costing $11 to $15 or more— to a number of drop-off points in the area.
“We help our customers sustain their own cooking,” says Smith. “Our meals are a break from that routine and they’re a replacement for ordering in or dining out instead.”
Chef Rachelle Slotnick, a Culinary Institute of America graduate with a background in classical French cuisine (and now a part-owner of Power Supply), parades out a succession of entrées, offering a brief explanation of each dish. The four women and three men in attendance take bites and give their input. Cauliflower chicken curry with a creamy coconut sauce is a hit, but the shrimp salad gets some pushback.
“Is it a lunch or dinner?” asks a young woman dressed in skintight athletic gear, her hair pulled back into a cheery ponytail.
“Lunch,” replies Morton.
“Should you eat the shrimp warm or cold?”
“Warm is best,” says Slotnick.
“Why do you ask?” Morton questions.
“I don’t like heating up seafood at the office,” the woman explains. “I don’t want to be the girl with the smelly food.”
Slotnick nods while taking notes. “Where, when and how it’s eaten are all important,” she says. Then the group moves on to a turkey meatloaf covered with a sweet-savory pineapple marinara.
As is the case with so many new-age diets, paleo’s efficacy is hard for nutritionists and researchers to measure because so many followers interpret the rules differently and modify them to suit their own preferences (a practice often referred to as “modding” within the community).
Even the owners of Power Supply admit to cheating now and then. Smith, 44, has a fondness for ice cream, while Morton, 42—who says he lost 40 pounds on the diet in six months—still unapologetically puts cream in his coffee.
Furthermore, there are no regulations governing the use of the term “paleo” in food marketing, leaving the playing field wide open for entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lassiter, founder of Out of the Box Bakery, which caters to both the paleo and gluten-free crowds.
“I call what we do ‘paleo-lite’ or ‘paleo-friendly,’ ” Lassiter says, noting that some of her desserts include slightly sweetened chocolate, honey or agave syrup—all of which are technically paleo no-no’s.
She also offers a line of products that are strictly paleo, including buns and breads made with grain alternatives like almond flour and coconut flour. Power Supply includes these in its delivered meals.
During a visit to Lassiter’s kitchen (which she shares with Little City Gourmet on Westmoreland Street in East Falls Church), I sample a pair of power bars. One is dotted with dark chocolate, dates and walnuts; the other showcases apricots and pecans. Both are just slightly sweet with plenty of crunch, not unlike popular energy bars such as Larabar and Clif Bar. Out of the Box sells these and other goods at various CrossFit gyms around town, as well as through retailers such as Little City Gourmet, House of Steep and Java Shack.
For her part, Lassiter maintains moderate hunter-gatherer eating habits, but she isn’t a die-hard. “We’re an evolved society, but paleo has great tenets to follow,” she says.
Todd West agrees. These days, he’s sticking with CrossFit workouts four times a week and eating paleo approximately eight meals a week—a routine that has helped him keep off the weight he originally lost. But he’s far from religious about it.
“Sometimes I want a burger or pizza,” he says. “Just not all the time.”
Personally, I’m all-too-familiar with those cravings. It’s the joy I experience when I act on those urges that made me initially wonder why anyone would want to go paleo in the first place. But as I talked to people who say their lives have been transformed by the regimen, I understand why they do it. It makes them feel better and look better. What’s not to love about that?
“You hear that it’s a fad diet or a reset, but it’s not,” argues physical therapist Ann Wendel, whose Arlington-based company, Prana, offers paleo consultations. “It’s a realistic lifestyle, but it requires someone to really make a change. Paleo entails commitment, planning and preparation. It’s the latter two items where people usually fail.”
Wendel went paleo about three years ago with the hopes that it would relieve some of the muscle fatigue and joint pain she was experiencing after being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. “The results were dramatic. I went from not being able to exercise to being able to start rock climbing and weight lifting again,” says Wendel, who has since introduced more than 50 of her clients to the diet.
“I’ve had good results with everyone who has been committed to a paleo diet for at least 30 days,” she says. “I’ve seen some people lose 11 pounds in the first two weeks. Everybody feels better.”
After spending some time with these converts, I now find myself wanting to do a month-long paleo challenge to see what the diet does for me. But I’m with Todd West—there’s no way I could ever give up pizzas or burgers for life.
Paleo 101
YES
- Grass-fed meats and wild game
- Fish and seafood
- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Eggs
- Nuts and seeds
- Healthful oils, including olive, walnut, flaxseed, macadamia, avocado and coconut
NO
- Cereal grains
- Legumes, including peanuts
- Dairy
- Refined sugar
- Potatoes
- Processed foods
- Salt
- Refined vegetable oils
Inside the Box
A CrossFit facility isn’t your typical gym. The workout area, known as a “box,” is a bare-bones space outfitted with climbing ropes, free weights, pull-up bars and perhaps a few rowing machines. But you won’t find any electronic equipment. Though workouts are conducted in groups, each sequence can be scaled to a participant’s ability by moderating weight loads and the number of repetitions. To keep things fresh, no workout routine is ever the same. Participants often don’t know the exercise lineup until they’re told what to do by a coach. Here are some of the boxes in our area.
Ballston CrossFit, 1110 North Glebe Road, Arlington; 703-688-2238, Ballstoncrossfit.com
CrossFit Adaptation, 4144 South Four Mile Run Drive, Arlington; 571-643-8588, www.Crossfitadaptation.com
CrossFit Arlington, 2407 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-807-0342, www.Crossfitarlington.com
CrossFit Falls Church, 130 West Jefferson St., Falls Church; 571-733-7189, www.Crossfitfallschurch.com
CrossFit Rosslyn, 1100 Wilson Blvd., Arlington; 703-465-8129, Crossfitrosslyn.com
CrossFit South Arlington, 607 South Ball St., Arlington; 703-539-2058, www.Crossfitsoutharlington.com
Patriot CrossFit, 2130 North Glebe Road, Arlington; 571-207-5634, www.Patriotcrossfit.com
Potomac CrossFit, 1320 North Courthouse Road, Arlington; 703-493-0238, www.Potomaccrossfit.com
Nevin Martell is a committed omnivore, unabashed Pilates enthusiast and author of The Founding Farmers Cookbook: 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink, due out in October. Find him online at nevinmartell.com and on Twitter
@nevinmartell.