$215 CrossFit Subscription Box Is Great if You Want to PR Your Meat Lifts
The first two words in CrossFit’s Manifesto are: “Eat meat.”
Which is weird because I really thought they were: “Do burpees.”
Now, CrossFit is further embracing the meat sweats by entering the world of subscription boxes.
The CrossFit Box — pun surely intended — is a $215 box of raw meat from Strauss Brands’ Free Raised Direct that you can get delivered to your door every month.
If you’d rather not sit on the couch and wait for your meat to arrive, Strauss will be stocking CrossFit-approved meat in select grocery stores across the U.S. later this year.
The United Steaks of CrossFit: What You Get for $215
CrossFitters are known to clean meat shelves and wrap perfectly good vegetables in bacon — all in the name of being “paleo.”
Paleo purists claim that not only should you deadlift your weight in meat but it should also be grass-fed because if we can’t have grains, neither should the cows!
Here’s what the CrossFit Subscription Box includes:
- Five packages of 6-ounce cage-free chicken breasts (10 pieces total)
- 3 pounds of grass-fed ground beef
- Four 5-ounce grass-fed tenderloin filets
- Four 10-ounce grass-fed ribeye steaks
- Four 10-ounce grass-fed strip steaks
- Two 6-ounce grass-fed sirloin steaks
- One package of grass-fed beef sticks
By the end of this box, you’ll gain over 14 pounds of animal carcass and about 1,500 grams of meaty protein. And you’ll pay just over 14 cents a gram for it.
PR Your Protein Snatch
While a physically active lifestyle definitely requires more protein, do you really need 50 grams every day? And can you pull up a cheaper price for it?
Sorry vegans: The Harvard Health Blog says you do need 50 grams of protein a day.
More specifically, a 50-year-old sedentary woman needs 53 grams per day. Athletes need even more.
And it turns out that if you are serious about eating lots of grass-fed organic meat, the CrossFit Box might be a good deal.
I found the Whole Foods equivalents of all these meats — subbing out jerky for beef sticks — and at the time of this writing, re-creating the box would cost $221. That’s without delivery and assuming your location carries all these cuts.
But don’t strict-press two Benjamins just yet.
The Harvard article also says “eat more protein” shouldn’t translate to “eat more meat.” People should include “sources low in saturated fat and processed carbohydrates and rich in many nutrients.”
Luckily, those sources are cheaper than fancy-schmancy beef.
A half-pound of ground turkey will get you 62 grams of protein. Three eggs, a single cup of edamame or lentils clock in at 18 grams each. And four tablespoons of natural peanut butter will get you 16 grams.
Plus, if you’re a paleo enthusiast but aren’t back-squatting $215, check out our tips for eating paleo on a budget, muscle up these low-cost paleo recipes, and nom on some of our favorite budget-friendly paleo snacks.
Jen Smith is a junior writer at The Penny Hoarder and pescatarian CrossFitter. She gives tips for saving money and paying off debt on Instagram at @savingwithspunk.
