CrossFit Boston

Rigid pedantry is one reason I like Crossfit; giving definitions to ambiguous terms (fitness, for example) helps us have meaningful conversations about otherwise ambiguous subjects. But with some things there is just no having that. Diet. Its a nightmare to talk about diet. Its a worse nightmare to talk about it with most Crossfitters. Unlike the easy question, "What's your--insert random girl name here--time?", its much harder to answer (and tolerate the answer) to diet questions. Do you Paleo? Do you Zone? 80-20 Zone? Zone Paleo? Eat crap all day? Tried molecular baked? Aren't you part of a farm share? Carb load? Hormones? If she does is she faking it? Its enough to make anyone fret. However, it matters...a lot.

What's my beef?We don't have a very meaningful answer to: "Do you eat Paleo?"(This problem can also be traced to the fact that the question we ask is not the question we truly want answered. I think, within the Crossfit community at least, we really want to know if someone else is eating to maximize wellness and fitness. I digress.) I realize three main problems inherent in that question: (1) The Paleolithic Diet lacks a strict definition. (2) If it can be strictly defined it requires a single word answer in the negative or the affirmative. (3) If you all concede that the Paleo diet has no strict definition then every answer is one that varies by degree not kind, and EVERYONE eats Paleo. 

 Let's look at a hypothetical conversation between two average Crossfitters to see this at work:

Xander: Good morning Neal, you look lovely today

Neal: Why thank you Xander. You also look lovely with your new haircut. 

Neal: Gosh. What kind of diet do you do? Do you Paleo?

Xander: Well I do eat Paleo, but I cheat once a week and I also eat diary. 

Neal: So you are Paleo-ish?

Aside from establishing that Xander has a smashing new haircut, neither Elite Athlete said anything meaningful. Because neither hypothetical person actually knows just what concepts the other is talking about. Pause.       I understand that Neal asks and Xander answers in ways that are practical. We would never get anything accomplished if we spent all of our time trying to figure out the exact meaning of words. And, I will admit, we all have a functioning understanding of what Paleo and Paleo-ish imply. But I am still bothered.

So why does it matter?

Being more specific with our questions and answers matters not only up in the Ivory Tower, but also in the real world because words are powerful. Crossfit has a tendency to stigmatize noncompliance with things that don't make us better Crossfitters. I have seen the irksome reactions towards folks who answer, "I don't do paleo or zone". So we compromise our vocabulary in order to cheat our ways under the curve: "I eat paleo-ish", "I am 80-20 zone", etc. I worry that we finagle our answers because somewhere along the way we've moralized our diets. That's how unhealthy food relationships start. I have seen the horrible results of what happens when we label our food as good or evil. 

Furthermore, as a community bent on defining fitness and using observable, recordable, and repeatable data to better that fitness, we don't do ourselves favors by being fickle with answers like "Paleo-ish". "Paleo-ish" can take us far from the area of wellness and fitness while still sounding like something acceptable in the Crossfit community. Full disclosure isn't necessary but why lie? You wouldn't lie about your workout times... would you?

In the end.

This isn't a clarion call to stop saying "paleo-ish" or else end up bulimic. But merely its perfectly and (more importantly) pedantically acceptable to say,  "No, I do not follow the paleo diet". We may strive to, but few can validly say they eat only Paleo or Zone. I think there is little sense and benefit in living a fiction.