One year ago today as I’m writing this is, I out-kicked my coverage by marrying an amazing woman, Charly, my lovely now-wife. Why mention this other than to get the ever-so-elusive brownie points? We first met through Crossfit Revoke in Houston, and have kept constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movement a central part of our lives ever since.
Like you, we understand the importance of restoring spent nutrients after a crushing, leave-it-all-on-the-floor workout. We follow the Paleo diet, which I’m sure you’re aware follows the menus of our non-processed-food-eating ancestors. Needless to say, along with plenty of vegetables and some good carbs we eat A LOT OF PROTEIN(S).
We, too, care a lot about what we put into our bodies. We care about where it comes from, how it was made, what’s in it, how far it traveled, and what our food was fed. Here’s the catch: for meat to be Paleo-friendly, it needs to be natural. Like the free-roaming game of the Paleolithic age, livestock should feed primarily on grass — not confined in warehouses on artificial surfaces fed unnaturally cheap foodstuffs nor rely on growth hormones and antibiotics. In other words, run-of-the-mill (pun intended) supermarket meat won’t cut it.
“These aren’t your typical gym guys, working out until they puke in the corner,” she says. “These people are paying a lot of attention to what they put in their bodies.”
Diana Rodgers
According to Diana Rodgers, farmer and Paleo nutritionist, CrossFit members could be vital for the future of ecologically-minded agriculture. “If every gym had its own food ambassador, a way of connecting with their local food source,” she says, “it could cut out so much consumption of industrial foods.”
Rodgers consults with CrossFit gyms all around Boston, preaching the gospel of Joel Salatin and Allan Savory (heavy lifters in the grass-fed meat movement). This may seem like brainy stuff for gyms full of brawn, but Rodgers says her pupil-athletes are eager. “These aren’t your typical gym guys, working out until they puke in the corner,” she says. “These people are paying a lot of attention to what they put in their bodies.”
This all boils down to two key people whom immediately stuck-out as prime targets – Jeremy Thiel and Carey Kepler. Each runs a branch of the well-known Crossfit Central boxes in Austin, TX. Both are also ambassadors for health food supplements as well as healthy lifestyle consultants. The fit for our products was a no-brainer.
See, while y’all are killing it in the gym with functional fitness, we’re out the boondocks of Elgin, TX exhausting ourselves with “productive fitness” – working up a soul-soaking sweat while producing from the earth. Each product we sell represents very real PR-type effort (ripped callouses and bruised shins alike!). We never seriously considered selling at farmer’s markets to random strangers who wouldn’t appreciate the clean, nutritionally dense bio-building blocks.
Crossfit athletes like y’all at Crossfit Central GET IT. You pay the membership fees. You put in the time DAILY. You GRIND til there’s nothing left. You’re betting it all on your health, and so are your farmers at Grass to Food Farm. That you can appreciate its value makes all of the farm WODs worth it.