This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a seminar/workshop by Amy Kubal, MS, RD, LN hosted by CrossFit Twin Cities.  If you don’t know who Amy Kubal is, let me give you a little background info

Amy Kubal is a registered dietitian who specializes in paleo nutrition and fueling for performance.  She works with clients all over the world from regular joes/janes to elite athletes.  Amy also happens to be the consultant dietitian for Joe Friel’s TrainingBible Coaching, The Whole9, and Robb Wolf! Pretty impressive credentials if you ask me.  Obviously me being obsessed with everything nutrition (I am 1/3 of the way through my first class to become a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, after all) I was of course extremely excited to hear what Amy had to say.

Not only was Amy extremely knowledgeable and helpful, she was dynamic and funny as all get out making everyone laugh nearly the entire 5 hours we were there.  Some of my favorite quotes from Amy included the phrases “gheegaling” (like gargling, but with ghee, think Bulletproof coffee) “butt plug”, and “slamming nuts and munching on chicken skin.” She also openly swore which I find totally refreshing and it made me feel like her friend before I even got to talk to her at the end of the seminar.  I had a total fan girl moment afterwards when she suggested staying in touch and potentially working together in the future! It is SO much fun meeting other people in the paleo community, readers, bloggers, and paleo-celebrities alike. If you ever see me out and about you BETTER come say hello!

Some of the things I learned from Amy that I found really interesting or didn’t know before include:

– If your goals include leaning out or losing weight then you should only Eat Starchy Carbs (sweet potato, white potato, plantains, squash, white rice, etc) after a hard workout and with your last meal of the day. She says to eat them with dinner because it oftentimes helps people fall asleep faster and sleep better.

– It is better to eat Starchy Carbs over fruit after your workout because your muscles need glucose and fruit has to be converted from fructose to glucose before it can be used by your muscles

– Amy recommends that EVERY person eat 2-3 cups of veggies with EVERY meal meaning 6-9 CUPS of non-starchy veggies each and EVERY day. That’s a lot more than what I have been doing and is now something I am actively working towards.

– Don’t supplement with anything unless you know why you are taking it. Meaning, if you hear you should be taking some supplement from a blogger, friend, etc then don’t do so until you know exactly why you are taking it. It is always better to get that nutrition from Real Food anyways!

– Allow yourself 2 treats (not cheats, that’s not a great word to use in my opinion) per week. This doesn’t mean 2 entire meals can be treats. Amy also suggested that two alcoholic drinks would be considered a treat MEANING if you are drinking 4 drinks on a weekend night that counts are BOTH your treats… makes me think a lot harder about my relationship with drinking!

– Ketogenic (high fat, very low carb) diets can be great in the short term and are amazing therapeutically for certain individuals, but is NOT a good long term diet. The main reason is that the bacteria in our intestines need starch in order to do their job efficiently, so if you eat too low carb for too long things can get backed up

– When you eat sweet foods early in the day you set yourself up for increased sugar cravings all day. This is another reason Amy suggests eating starchy carbs or fruit with dinner, plus then instead of craving more sweets later you are sleeping!

I learned a WHOLE lot more than this and wish I could share the entire seminar with you guys.  If you ever have the chance to see Amy (at PaleoFX, a local seminar, etc) I highly recommend it.  If you are looking for additional support you can work with Amy directly as well! I also wanted to give a big shout out to CrossFit Twin Cities for inviting me to the seminar and for being such amazing hosts.  I met some awesome people on Saturday and want to thank Russ, Joe, and Jeff too!

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