In promoting the DWF, (daily workout and food) we follow the classic Crossfit 3 day on 1 day off. We work in a car park with just a dumbbell a kettlebell and a skipping room. In the square next door, we have access to some benches that we can step up onto or jump on.
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TODAY’S WORKOUT
You’ll need a watch in todays workout which is a fun 10 v sits, 50 meter sprint, 20 squat, rest 1 minute affair. Aim for 5 rounds. Try and keep it sharp and punchy. Sprint the sprin.
We train in our car park so we do a 30m fast run, turn around with a 30m all out sprint back to our exercise mat!
The sprint is useful as it’s short enough to actually build a different pace than the normal shuffle jogs people fall into.
TODAY’S FOOD
Thanks to Leanne for this veggie Feta salad meal: Not far off a 3 block zone meal
Well its Saturday, and day 2 out of this training block of 3 days.
Todays workout is 12 minutes of :
10 burpees, 5 dumbbell push press L, 5 dumbbell push press R
This is nastily crafted as yesterday you had the push up grind. Today you will really want to drive your hips on the push press and you’ll probably want more of a sprawl on the burpee.
Still, super compensation, aside, it was surprisingly yuk!
Enjoy.
Todays Healthy Food Option
To add more variety to this blog, I’m inviting guests into share their favourite meals. First up is a Cajun chicken dish from Fresh Fitness foods.
Chicken – P: 27.83 | C: 0.73 | F: 3 | Kcal: 141.24
Broccoli – [ P: 2.52 | C: 3.2 | F: 2.42 | Kcal: 35.66
Rice – [ P: 2.8 | C: 26.5 | F: 0.75 | Kcal: 123.5 ]
Cajun Chicken Ingredients
Method
Roasted Broccoli Ingredients
Method
Zesty Rice Ingredients
Method
If you want to try Fresh Fitness Food go here https://www.freshfitnessfood.com/ then use the discounts GABDOU10 for 10% off and GABDOU for £50 off your first order.
Have a great weekend, stay active, eat healthily, see you tomorrow, and join the mailing list
Well, it looked ok, but may I introduce you to a bit of tasteless beef.
So, its 4 block of tasteless beef ( lovingly slow roasted for 3 hours: that was a waste of electricity), 3 blocks of potatoes at 150g, and some nice cabbage with a block of extra butter (between the 2 of us) chucked in, otherwise Kate won’t eat it.
looked ok, tasted of nothing.
TODAYS WORKOUT
This mornings workout was 20 box jumps (or step ups) 20 push ups, 400m run . As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes.
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Today is a rest day. We have trained the previous 3 days, so day 4 is rest. You get stronger by resting and recovering from training, not training all the time. You only get stronger during the rest!
I had struggled to knock up the evening meal, as I’d run out of most things. I ended up with an onion, a pepper some garlic , some ginger a spoon of coconut milk, 200g of lamb from last night, gravy from last nights lamb, a tin of tomatoes , some curry powder and some bits of frozen chilli, some powdered coriander, and 3 frozen bits of spinach.
This blog isn’t meant to be a detailed cooking blog, just one that nudges you into the possibility of health eating by doing some basic cooking and following zone diet principle and trying to balance 40% carbs, with 30% protein and 30% fat.
But as a rough guide, fry the onions and pepper, garlic and ginger fry them, add a little bit of water add the curry powder, fry it all, throw in everything else and simmer
I have an ongoing battle with heat in curry so after last times “no heat curry” I thought I’d add a bit of chilli in a game of Chilli Roulette. A game that I had lost, so I had to hunt about to drag these bits out!
Now for future recipes I need a vegetarian to send me in some veggie meals that balance carb, protein and fat ( think 7g protein, 9g carb, 1.5g fat x 4). Email me your ideas to andrew@andrewstemler.com and I’ll post them with a big credit to you. See if you can send me photo of it and you .
In fact any good, healthy meals will be welcome !!!
If you crave something physical, it will probably be a good time to remind yourself that even on a rest day, you need 10,000 steps
Today, it looks like I’m in the gym in the morning, so I’ll probably do a basic deadlift, squat and press strength workout. Kate (my beloved) will either join me or go for a jog. Your choice, go to the gym, or go for a run ( or a mono structural cardio activity like a row, or a bike, or a Cross-trainer). btw, do go to the bottom of this post as there is a free kettlebell guide
The food I want to analyse is this spaghetti bolognese .
As a general point, when you decide to blend protein with other stuff ( be it a sauce or tomatoes or whatever), you’ll need to make judgement as how you divide the end product. So this is 255g of protein to be divided among 3 people( the zone block is 28g of beef , so Im slightly over allocating the required 84g to make 3 blocks). I’ve added a pepper, some garlic, some herbs, an onion, a glass of wine. I threw in a block of kidney beans (sorry, I had them, and I accidentally defrosted them). Ive not really counted in, but it is among 3 people. If I start obsessing about a pepper or onion, I think I’m screwed!
When I came to serve, i just divided it into 3 portions!
Here is the killer. Spaghetti is pure carb. To make 3 blocks I put in 36g of dried spaghetti, that I think gives me three blocks of carb.
Knowing how sparse this would be, Ive added some green beans ( and ignored the minimal carb content)
It was a nice meal, although kate demanded a sprinkle of cheese.
Back to the exercise component
I constantly use kettlebells in my morning workouts. This old guide I wrote years ago may be useful. Have it for free!!
[emaillocker] https://andrewstemler.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/7bcd3-kettlebell-crossfit-london.pdf [/emaillocker]
You have to learn to create manage and know your regular meals. Once a week we have this “fry up”
There is a bit of “rough and tumble” in my zone calculations my 2 eggs are 2 blocks, my 3 rashers of bacon is another block ( although Im going to get an exact gram measurement in the future) my fried bread is 2 blocks of carb and I define my 50g of black pudding as a carb block (9g of carb) and I sort of ignore the bit of protein floating about. After the photo, I sneaked a squirt of tomato ketchup and a cup of tea, so I’m probably unbalancing the block system and having a bit too much carb (so a possible insulin stimulating issuer) but its important that I give you an idea of what people do in the real world.
Im assuming the fried bread sucked up the balancing fat of 4 blocks
At the same time, I don’t mind the occasional 9g of carb mistake. Get your diet ok, not perfect.
Perfect is for losers.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE AWAY?
Most people have regular meals. You’ll have a favourite breakfast, or dinner or snack. You may have it everyday, you may, like my breakfast, have it once a week. Here is your task. Put it into block form or, at the least workout its calorie content and how to control that calories/portion size content next time you make it.
Slowly you can build a library of carefully planned meals you can make without stress. Ideally the ingredients can be stored in your freezer, and you take them out the night before. Make it easy, make it doable! Join the mailing list below for future hints, or drop me a line if you need some one to one help Andrew@andrewstemler.com
TODAYS WORKOUT
with a constantly running clock, 3 rounds of
1 minute squats
1 minute double under
1 minute lunge
1 minute kettlebell swing
1 minute rest
x 3
Feel free to only do 30, or 45 seconds out of each work period. Feel free to pick up the kettlebell and use it in the lunges and squats. Enjoy
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On this basic regime, its work for 3 days, rest on the 4th: ( btw DWF means “daily workout and food”)
Repeat.
I set the workouts based on the assumption that you have some dumbbells, a kettlebell and a slipping rope. Ideally you need to add dedicated strength workouts and gymnastics to your regime, but this workout aims to sling together enough elements to do a high intensity session. Often it’s the intensity of the session that will drive fitness results.
To be obvious , this regime doesn’t include pull ups, dips , olympic or power lifts, so it’s not a complete regime, but it gives your lower half, heart and lungs a time.
Each day, I try and give you some eating guidance based on the zone diet. Today, its some general information, a lazy cut and paste, about the zone diet (from the Crossfit Journal, issue 21)
“A block is a unit of measure used to simplify the process of making balanced meals.
7 grams of protein = 1block of protein 9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block of carbohydrate 1.5 grams of fat = 1 block of fat (There is an assumption that there is about 1.5 grams of fat in each block of protein, so the total amount of fat needed per 1 block meal is 3 grams.)
When a meal is composed of equal blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, it is 40 % carbohydrate, 30 % protein and 30% fat.
Pages 3 and 4 of the attached document
lists common foods, their macronutrient category (protein, carbohydrate or fat), along with a conversion of measurements to blocks.
This “block chart” is a convenient tool for making balanced meals. Simply choose 1 item from the protein list, 1 item from the carbohydrate list, and 1 item from the fat list to compose a 1 block meal. Or choose 2 items from each column to compose a 2 block meal, etc.
Here is a sample 4 block meal:
4 oz. chicken breast 1 artichoke 1 cup of steamed vegetables w/ 24 crushed peanuts 1 sliced apple
This meals contains 28 grams of protein, 36 grams of carbohydrate, and 12 grams of fat. It is simpler, though, to think of it as 4 blocks of protein, 4 blocks of carbohydrate, and 4 blocks of fat.“
Even if you are going to slop on the couch, see if you can sneak in a bit of better movement.
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Most days I’ll post a workout you can do with minimal equipment and no gym access. It be will be on a 3 day on, 1 days off rota
The “gym-less” workouts only assume you has access to 1) some dumbbells 2) a kettlebell 3) a skipping rope 4) a car park and some benches.
Obviously a full Crossfit or exercise regime requires more stuff and more variation, and ill encourage you to practice and train in weightlifting and gymnastics and other forms of cardio, but doing these workouts as bits of intensity (hard and fast) should help most people
So todays workout is
With a running clock set for 15 minutes as many rounds as possible of
20 lunges, 20 double under’s, 100m run.
Feel free to tweak everything: 10 lunges, 10 single skips, walk 50m for 7 minutes 10, or 12 minutes. If there is an exercise you cannot do or tweak, feel free to switch it with one you can do, or just leave it out and practice it later if you can.
If you are in chronic pain take it easy, feel free to limit the range of motion, feel free to rest if you must, but it’s simply about pushing you on a bit or a lot, depending on where you are
For food, ill be recommending the Zone diet . For now this is a TWO BLOCK snack, or “brunch” if you prefer.
This snack had 2 blocks of carb in the form of a slice of bread, 2 blocks of avocado (In the form of 2 (overly generous) teaspoons ) 42g of ham (as one block of protein) and 28g of cheese (as another block of protein).
I sneaked in a tea spoonful of chia seeds for extra fibre and a mini scrap of butter as an old habit
and ended up on toast like this
I’ll be explaining in great details how the zone block system works, but its intention is to ensure that each meal or snack has a balance of the main 3 macro nutrients: carbs protein and fat.
Ill be a launching a free ” how to zone course” some time in the next few months so do join my mailing list and ill tell you when you can get it
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Andrew Stemler 