Nutrition Focus - Identify your vice.

Crossfit and Nutrition go hand in hand, you will find that out soon enough, if you haven't already. Your diet plays such a large role in how you perform in the gym, how you feel during the day, your level of energy.....your entire well being hinges upon what you put into your body. I see a lot of people take what I call the "balls to the wall" approach to their dieting when first being introduced to Crossfit. They hear about Paleo, decide to give it a try, and empty out their pantry of all things sweet and unhealthy, and replace it with expensive grass fed beef, and organic vegtables from Whole Foods. The entire makeup of their diet went from a Quarter pounder with cheese and a Coke each day, to spinach smoothies, lettuce wrapped burgers, almonds, and salmon at the drop of a hat. No more cereal, no more bread,......no more happiness. It is really hard to take a cold turkey approach to your dieting. More often than not, you will embark on that journey with full steam for the first couple of days, but when the fatigue sets in....the headaches....the cravings......thats when it starts to go down hill. You revert back to your old ways, the organic beets have gone bad before you had a chance to grimace at their "fresh" taste..and you are forced to start over again.
 I have been down this road, and have found that the strategy that worked for me went a little like this:
I knew that Paleo was the ultimate goal. I was around a lot of people that ate this way, and their results were nothing short of outstanding. So, with my goal set, I began to develop a road map to get there. Smart planning, realistic planning. I knew that to make this work, I would need to develop habits that were hard to break, thus I would have to start eliminating vices....Now when I say eliminate, I mean it...not quit cold turkey, but slowly decrease my consumption, until they are gone...
For example: My top vices were
Bread: I ate a ton of it without thinking..Tons of rolls, toast, sandwiches, pastries, donuts... you name it, I loved it, and ate it regularly.
Cokes: as I said before, I drank a lot of them. I would say at least 2-3 a day.
Fast food: I travel for work and with three kids, the convenience of fast food was just too great.
Alcohol: Its poison, plain and simple, I still will enjoy the occaisional cocktail every once in a while, but limiting has been one of the best decisions of my life.

Now that I knew my problem areas, I began to decrease my consumption of each. Cokes were limited to 1 a day for the first week, and then one every other day the following week, and so on.
Sandwiches were eaten with only one piece of bread...cut the one piece in half and stack that meat and veggies high! Hamburgers were eaten without a bun at all. (It really isn't bad at all....wrap it in lettuce, or just eat it with a knife and fork.
Fast food, was limited to "better choices" when I visited these carb factories. Chili from Wendy's was pretty decent....Chic Fil A has grilled chicken sandwiches and strips that are really good....Taco Cabana has some killer Street Tacos........Dairy Queen.....well dairy queen still sucks. (THAT'S WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TEXAS)
 The point is, you have to start somewhere. I followed these habits for a month and kept progressing, eliminating more and more, until Paleo seemed pretty easy. I took the time to read and listen to people about their nutrition. Luckily my wife was just as excited as I was. Having a spouse to join you on this journey will make it 1000 times easier and more enjoyable.
Focus and learn about eating right. I am going to tell you right now, these weight loss drinks, get slim quick schemes will not work. You might see quick results but you will gain it back. Make the decision to make a permanent change. If you want to try one of the 24 day challenge cleanses do it.....but don't be the guy that does it 3 -5 times a year. Use something like that as a jump start to your nutrition focus, not a routine.
More to come! But, if you are new to dieting and nutrition, focus on the above. One of the biggest obstacles I had was to process all of the information at once, trust me, there is alot of information out there for you to read. Crawl before you walk! Don't get overwhelmed, take it slow if you have to, but progress EACH DAY!