Nutrition challenge starts tomorrow

 
 

The new year has come and gone. All those things you wanted for yourself this year can still be a reality, not just a wasted resolution. 

1. Write your goals down so you have a daily reminder. Set short term and long term goals.  For example, Fitting into a dress or losing 5#. 

2. Come up with an action plan that you can stick to.  This may cost money, but knowing yourself, that you havdcyroubke committing for the long term, you may need outside guidance to get you through the toughest times. 

3. Wait For the results. Patience. 

You can’t give up after a setback. It took you time to get to where you are, it can take months or years to reach your ultimate goal. The first couple weeks of making change are hard, but you’ll create new routines and habits that get easier day by day. 

Suck it up, buttercup?

This is what you need to know. Not every day is going to be a good training day. Not only that, but you need to accept it. My 1rm jerk is 185#; the picture I posted is 135#. I look like a newborn baby dear jerking for the first time. You can see my face and I know that everything about my body and the way it’s moving is wrong. My body was just simply saying no. I listened.

There’s a difference between quitting for bad excuses and quitting for good reasons. Today I had to stop for the sake of making it worse. I don’t feel like a quitter. I feel smart. It is important to ask yourself in times like these whether you are just being a pansy and suck it up, and when do you need to make smart decisions.

Whatever that decision is, commit to it.

A free introductory appointment was schedule with me yesterday for today; I accommodate this person’s schedule since we’ll be out of town next week.  Fast forward to today, I come in to get my workout done. I’m snatching on the minute every minute, distracted because I keep looking at the clock, and looking around the corner, waiting for this person to come in, ready for greeting!  5 minutes later, 5  minutes too late, I get an email with an apology.  I let this person know that as the owners of HCF, we’re disappointed when an appointment doesn’t cancel in a timely manner.  

Everyone has options.  You might have to be creative or ask questions or choose an option you don’t like.  But quitting is an easy option that way too many people take. Sometimes, someone else is affected.

I wanted to talk about this because sometimes it’s hard to face the truth on one side, and it’s hard to speak the truth on the other side.  Commit.  Commit to what you said you were going to do.  Find a way to make it happen when you feel a barrier makes it impossible.  Although you feel like you have good reasons, at the end of the day you’re letting someone down and if that person isn’t you, it’s someone else.

 It’s just like that old saying, “If it’s important you’ll find a way, If it’s not you’ll find an excuse.”

 

  

Surround yourself with others who have the same mission

Find a fitness routine that establishes a baseline for creating new habits and making better choices through community support, consistency, and nutrition.  Change begins with attending a gym where you surround yourself with those on the same mission as you: results. Everyone comes to HCF for a different reason, but what they all have in common is they want results and they work for it.  Now that you’ve committed to at least 3x/week, you’re feeling progress and don’t want it to go away! As much as you hate the thought of ditching your afternoon soda, you’ll know that you have to reflect on how you eat.  You will always hear that meat and vegetables, nuts/seeds, and fruit have anti-oxidant, vitamin and mineral fighting power to save your life from, literally, all disease and sickness.  You’ll never hear that low-fat, 0-carb, gluten free, [insert latest marketing scam here] will (even in the dark abyss that is the media).  Go paleo for 6-weeks, then, BAM! You’ll start getting PRs (personal records) on all of your CrossFit workouts.

 

 

“Get free from destination disease. You’ve reached a certain level. Now you’re coasting, but you weren’t created to stay there. Break out of the box and learn something new.” – Joel Osteen

Many people just go with the motions; you’re born, you go to school, you date, you get a job or play a sport, you go to college or get a job, get married, have kids and die.  Maybe sometimes you go on vacation and maybe you have some other milestones like your kid’s first hair cut. But, when did you stop an smell the roses, and furthermore, savor it? When have you reflected on what you really want out of your life? What is it that will make you happy in the long term?  We aren’t on this earth to work, stress, and struggle.  If you’ve been a part of my CrossFit classes you’ll also know this doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want without responsibilities.  Breaking out of the box begins at home with the people we love the most, and at work with the people we have to get along with. These daily stresses build up, and overtime, make us upset, sick, and  unhappy.

1. Communicate:  this is essential because women say too much (and often not to the right person, and often to more than one) and men don’t say enough.  This is how you fix it;  say your thoughts to the right person and talk about facts and feelings, not opinions with pointing fingers.  Explain why. Don’t let others fill in the gaps; they’ll often fill it with the wrong idea. Aint nobody got time for your drama!
2. Blaming: It’s easy to point fingers at everyone else for unfavorable situations and our society has largely accepted a lack of responsibility.  Not in my house! Responsibility relies on you; you have control in nearly all areas of your life, and the ones you can’t control, you have to have faith it was meant to be that way.  Don’t make decisions based on what you think someone else wants from you, then blame them when it wasn’t a favorable situation for you; did you slip and fall, blame your own legs and your own eyes for not watching where you were going!  Ain’t nobody got time for your drama!
3. Take the bull by the horns: Confidence is important, yet challenging.  Some people have a natural tendency to take over and it suppresses the people around you.  Remember, there’s no blaming. You have an option to stand up for yourself, talk to your boss, talk to his boss, quit, or start your own business.  If you don’t take the bull by the horns when you’re in an unfavorable situation, you’ll get trampled on. Do it with some professionalism, though.

To be honest I don’t get it. People continue to convince themselves that they should just accept who they are. Why is it so bad to NOT accept who we are? Couldn’t it help us become a better version of ourselves? Couldn’t this really help us be happier?

Obviously it is important that we are smart about accepting change into our lives. Don’t throw up to be skinnier. But, There are some things about our personality and characteristics that are not going to change; I’m a visual learner and will forget most of the things that come out of your mouth. It’s just a fact. I’m not changing it.

But let’s say that perhaps you have a weight problem or an anger problem or you’re stressed or you go home and you’re still unhappy with life. These are truly things that you can change. You just,instead, blame others or choose to complain, or accept it. To our patents dismay, Shaun and I both quit our full-time jobs, spent our entire life savings to chance that Hoosier CrossFit would work out. It just so happened that it did. And we are both happy being CEOs of our business 🙂

I actually don’t suggest you spend all your money, but the simplest taboo regards Not accepting your body. A love ot of ladies out there have trouble looking into the mirror, purchasing clothes , or feeling comfortable naked. Most of the time, friends, media, and social inspiration wants you to stay addicted to neglecting your health because they actually want you to be happy with what you see, while telling you to buy light yogurt. But you shouldn’t. If you are uncomfortable on airplanes, want to shop at certain stores, then do something about it. Change your lifestyle. If you’re trying to lose weight, throw all the shit out of your house, eat Only real food. Go find a gym that keeps you motivated for more than just two weeks. I suggest Hoosier CrossFit.

Vegetables around the clock!

These are a few things I hear about paleo but in general, the consensus is it’s hard. It can be and below are a few of many reasons why.

Expensive: healthy eating isn’t a sprint. It is a marathon. The success and money saving will be observed over a period of time. You won’t be buying as much food, nor food that you eat just because. When your body runs off calories from Fat instead of sugary carb loading, you are hungry less with energy for long. This means less snacking. If you are smooth with your budget and only buy what’s necessary, $50-75 per week is obtainable.

Another money-saving point is you’ll spend less time in the pharmacy department. You won’t need tums, pepto bismol, Advil, midol, or even most mainstream vitamins. The inflammation caused by grains, dairy, legumes, and processed foods in general will go away. Plus, the variety of veggies you eat with every meal give you illness fighting antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. You never hear about any grain that helps prevent serious sicknesses (probably because the part of the grain plant you eat is actually toxic to humans in its natural state), but you always hear about a vegetable that does.

Not enough food: it’s typical that you are hungry a couple hours after you eat because you had 1 egg, 2 bacon and a fruit smoothly for breakfast, a measly salad with some chicken for lunch… This is simply not enough food, especially if you are a CrossFitter, and your proportions are also off. You had no vegetables for breakfast and the amount of salad you ate at lunch is not even 1 serving of vegetable. It’s simply not enough food and you need more veggies. You will end up scavenging for anything you can find because if it. It all comes down to time management and good planning. When you’re making dinner the night before, simply make extras on purpose or make breakfast alongside dinner. Be sure to plan your meal around meat and vegetables. 1/3 of your plate is meat, 2/3 is vegetables. Plan for enough food for an afternoon snack (like a couple chicken strips and half of a Bell pepper)

You are not damaged goods

“Too many people are wearing a damaged goods label, focused on their mistakes. Take off that label; that loss, that failure, can’t stop you destiny.” Joel osteen

Whoa. How awesome is this post on Joel Osteen’s Facebook page. I hear too many people on Facebook continuing to label themselves as being too poor, having fat girl problems, and more. Label yourself what you want to be, and surround yourself with people just like you, and it will happen. If you always say you are poor, you’ll just stay poor. If you always say you have fat girl problems, well, they’ll stay that way.

You have choices; when you say you don’t have a choice, you really mean you don’t want to work extra hard to make it happen. You may go through unfavorable times, but as Joel states, sometimes a setback results in a set up in your favor! Maybe not tomorrow, of even in a few months, and may take years. but, a positive attitude, a goal, and a plan will get you there.

Do you know what happens when you go to the gym  and you don’t have a coach to hold you accountable? You don’t work hard enough.  Ive been a CrossFitter for 4 years.  When I workout alone, I STILL have to fight that little feeling inside.

Last week,  I had a great time being  alone at the gym.  I blasted the chickiest music, took my time doing a warm up and mobility, then moved on to Shoulder press and deadlift 3×5 strength.  These are easy things to do alone.  But, I couldn’t leave without getting my heart rate up.  I decided to do a little Tabata session with Deadlift, pushups, and TTB.  If you don’t know Tabata, it means I accomplish 20 seconds of each movement for 8 sets.  The only rest I get is a 10 second transition to the next movement.

Would you believe it… by round 3 I was trying to convince myself to stop at 4 rounds, thinking an intense 6 minutes was good enough.  I’m a seasoned CrossFitter, Trainer, and owner of a gym…. I considered quitting my workout. ACK!  Was it because I was bored? Fatigued? Unmotivated?  I have no idea, but it doesn’t really matter the reason.

The only thing that matters is that I shut my shit up.  I finished the workout with integrity and hard work.  I did over 50 deadlifts at 115#, over 60 pushups, and over 50 TTB.

 

Shut that shit up, and try again

In CrossFit, you win some and you lose some. There are days where a workout exposes your weaknesses to the max.  You leave feeling like you have so much more to work on.  Then, there are other days where nothing can get in the way of your happiness.

I started a lifting session with a positive mind. I did a few jerks at 75, then did 1 at 95, 105, 115, and 125.  At this point, I was wobbling, I could feel my muscles not adjusting the increasing weight.  My mind started to doubt that this was going to be a good lifting day. My old PR was 155#; if I was close to failing around 125#; I was thinking that matching 155# would be highly unlikely. I decided to de-load the bar to a lower weight and work my weight back up. The split jerk is one of my most favorite things to do in the gym; I was actually so mad at this point, I slammed the 2.5lb plate on floor as I was de-loading the bar (I’m a closet angry person). I focused on stretching and mashing my pec muscles and lat muscles because bar path and stability in the shoulder is crucial – I’m a small person at 125#. My technique and flexibility allow me to use all of the potential my little muscles can handle. 

I worked my way back up to where 125# felt comfortable, then continued by 10# at a time.  I was excited when I got a PR by 5# but something told me keep adding a little bit of weight.  When I got 170# locked out, I celebrated like a girl should.

The moral of the story is to hold your head high.  Our thoughts and doubts can either get in your way and prevent you from acheiving great things, or you can shut that shit up and try again.

I got on the bar. I hesitated. But I got back on and completed a successful lift at 170#.

 

 

My celebratory dance. The bar hasn’t even touched the ground yet.