Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Kady: From Carb Queen to Paleo

Like so many others, Kady was a classic "Carb Loader" before Fuel-21.  After 21 days she went from using carbohydrates as fuel to using FAT instead.  Doing this allowed her to lose 4 pounds and 3% body fat, give her a boost in her performance and aided in her recovery time.  She is steadily becoming a CrossFit athlete to watch in the future!  

Before
After























"My name is Kady Allender and I have been an exercise enthusiast and active my whole life looking for challenges in the areas of cross country running, basketball, soccer, marathons and cross fit, my newest passion. Like most endurance athletes I always made sure to “carbo load” before any of my events or games. My family always joked that my diet consisted of the “3-C’s and P”; chicken, cheese, chocolate and potato. After completing my college degree in Kinesiology and making personal training my career I changed my diet up a bit but was still a carb queen. I got into CrossFit about 2 years ago and started training with Crystal Nelson in Austin, Texas in 2010. We addressed my nutritional ideas and how I needed to kick the “carbo load” theory. After many attempts of her checking my food log and still working in the sugars, I looked into Crystal’s Fuel-21 program and decided maybe I needed a kick start and would give it a try.  Besides I didn’t eat that much sugar, or so I thought.

 I’d have to say the first two days were hard! I had horrible headaches, felt dizzy at the end of the day and was just in a bad mood which was eye opening. I noticed after the 4th day that getting up at 5:30 am was not challenging anymore. My work schedule was still the same but I felt so energized when I woke up. It did take me awhile to figure how much to eat during the 21 days. The first week I felt like I was starving all the time and all I could think about was what and when I was going to eat again. Around day 11 on the program I noticed that my days no longer revolved around when I was going to eat again. I ate when I was hungry and sometimes I would completely skip a meal, which is a big for me.
One obstacle during Fuel-21 was celebrating my birthday. Like most families we celebrate birthdays with cakes or pies. Thinking no sweets was going to be my only obstacle; I was ready to take on my birthday. Birthday breakfast…. well, no cinnamon rolls, pancakes, muffins or donuts. My family made me a birthday omelet which was awesome! Everyone was going to take part since my diet was limited which made it easier for me. It is not easy putting a candle in an omelet so we resorted to putting one in a container full of almonds. Birthday lunch/dinner: I picked Texas Land and Cattle so that I could get a BIG steak. When I ordered and I had to drill the poor waiter to make sure my steak and veggies were not cooked in anything I wasn’t allowed to have on the program. “Yes I’ll take the grilled asparagus and side salad with no dressing, cheese or croutons.” My family made a point to put the yummy looking rolls on the far side of the table as to not tempt me to cheat. I successful made it through dinner! I have to say that was probably the hardest day during Fuel-21 but the fact that I stuck to it was very rewarding.

Four days before Fuel-21 was over I competed in CrossFit Central’s Fittest Games competition. I was extremely surprised at how well I felt during the competition and how fast my recovery was after. I felt very focused and energized the whole day despite the fact I completed four WODs throughout the day.
Overall I lost 4 pounds and dropped my percent body fat by 3.6%. I felt leaner, lighter and energized. My whole view on nutrition has completely changed, I had learned new ways of cooking foods and tried new foods I would have probably otherwise never tried. I plan on continuing to incorporate this methodology into my meals from here on out and share with anyone who is wanting to learn about the Fuel-21 program."

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