Upper East Side

By Coach Nicole

EVF! I am so excited to be kickstarting the 2016 EVF Healthy Eating Challenge! This challenge was a huge success in prior years, and I am looking to forward to working with both EVF newbies and veterans to help clean up the most important aspect of fitness and health … our diets! If you haven’t heard it before, one of my favorite quotes is “abs are made in the kitchen.” I say that because we, as a fitness community, dedicate hours upon hours of self improvement inside the gym working hard. If the fuel (food) you are putting into your body is not optimal for your individual goals, the results from all those hours at the gym may be limited. And so, per the fitness pyramid below, you can see fitness starts with nutrition. Here is your opportunity to challenge yourself to clean up your fuel source — your diet —for 6 weeks.

Now that you are all fired up, here are some details.

This Challenge is not a “diet”; I can promise we will not prescribe a certain food regimen or diet like Whole30, Lurong or even Paleo that you must follow for 6 weeks. I can educate you on them (I’ve done almost every “diet”!), but I will not prescribe them. This Healthy Eating Challenge is a way for each participant to take a look at his or her current eating habits and make a few key changes to see improvements over these 6 weeks. The point is that every person’s goals are different, and we will help you kickstart your journey by giving you the tools and support you need.

The Challenge is now available for registration on Mindbody (under Services) and members need to register on or before Jan. 15. (If you need help signing up, please contact one of us.) There will be a kickoff meeting at 1 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Upper East Side. I encourage all participants to attend. Come ready to log your starting body measurements and do a WOD! We will be doing a benchmark workout, which will then be retested the last weekend of the Challenge. Final measurements will be completed the weekend of Feb. 27 — the commencement of the 2016 CrossFit Open! What better way to start the Open than after 6 weeks of dialing in the diet.

Prizes and other goodies? I thought you’d never ask.

There will be a first and second place winner for both male and female participants, which will be determined from Challenge results. Participants will also have the opportunity to attend seminars we have planned (dates coming soon!) and work with me individually to tailor the challenge to individual needs. We will be giving out some nutrition resources and special EVF goodies along the way.

Come join me and kickstart your 2016!