Category — Email Questions

Steve,

I have two questions about nutrition/diet:

I’ve been reading up on fish oil, namely Flameout on Tmuscle. It seems that Flameout’s superior nature comes from a greater amount of DHA than EPA; and I too haven’t found another brand with this composition. However, I heard you mention that Costco fish oil is legit. Is this a viable and productive choice as a daily supplement, or should Flameout be the product of choice? Also which Costco branded fish oil do you recommend, there seems to be a few.

Another question I think might be nutrition related. I am super tired every morning. My alarm is set for 8 hours of sleep, but I just turn it off and sleep another hour or more. It’s been this way for the last 2 weeks, in accordance with my routine Crossfit workouts. Any suggestions to help, because I’d like to attend 7am workouts if they start, but there’s no way I’ll be asleep by 10pm every night for my obligatory 9 hours.

Thanks,
James

Jimmy,
The first thing is the fish oil is a good start after the Zone/paleo is respected and consistent. That is primary.  Eat 5-6 times a day and every meal has all three macro-nutrients, protein, fat, and carbs (in that order of priority).  When you get zoned and add the fish oil it will do wonders for you.

I am taking the advice of Robb Wolf, Mark Twight, and Dan John and recommending Kirkland signature brand. Fish oil omega 3.  The reason being is purity and I trust these guys recommendations.

The price for flameout vs costco makes it a simple choice for me. I am taking flameout now only because I’m still on the v-diet until Wednesday, but I’m going to switch over to Costco as soon as I’m done with the current supply.  It’s like $9.00 for 400 capsules! 

As for sleep, my first question is going to be how’s your nutrition?  How much and when is you last caffeine hit?  What time and when is your last meal? Push those both up in the day. Caffeine cut off is 12pm. Last meal at least 1 hour before bed, and again zone/paleo will help too.  Your metabolism might be high right now too, your sympathetic nervous system is cooking right now with the change in diet, and CrossFit combo.  AM workouts might help with that.   

Next, think about blackout curtains. I’m going to pick some up this weekend myself. 

Next, recovery practices.  By working out you create an in-road into the muscle that requires energy and resources to repair and build on top of.  By eating right, rolling out and at least doing contrast showers you will speed the recovery process up.  There are others, but focus on those on a daily basis for right now. 

Lastly there are supplements that might work for you too, but these are secondary to the things listed above.  

So recap – paleo/zone your food, stay away from alcohol, caffeine and eating right before bed, get some black out curtains and workout in the AM and practice your recovery techniques daily.  Give that a couple weeks and see how it goes and then we can think about supplements and other alternative options.  

Hope that helps give you some ideas where to start.

Steve D. 

Please feel free to email me any questions you have!  

See you all soon.