New Year, new commitments

Wednesday dec 31 2014

Wod:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Deadlifts 185/135

20 double unders after each set

A word from coach Camille

Rediscovering mojo. Casting vision. Harnessing group motivation. Goal setting. Hitting the RESET. Finding what YOU really want and igniting that inner motivation to get there. Its time. It’s not the same for everyone. It wouldn’t be very interesting that way. What are YOUR goals? What is YOUR plan? What is YOUR deadline? It’s time to stop, assess, see where you want to go, plan how you’re going to get there and ready, set, GO!
ASSESSMENT: How are you ending the year? What worked and what didn’t work? Where are you now with your fitness/health and where do you want to be?
My own assessment didn’t take long. I’ve been in a slump! 2:00 on Christmas day I decided it’s time to pull out of it, set new goals and move forward. Look ahead. I heard a quote recently that said, “Why spend time looking back at who you once were when it’s time to become something you’ve never been?” (paraphrase).
GOALS: Talking to people at the gym, we all have benchmarks we are aiming for and it’s exciting to hear what everyone’s individual goals are. The commonality is we all NEED to SET a GOAL. Know why we are doing what we’re doing. Jill is going to run a 10K, Erin has strength goals she wants to reach, Heather wants to dial in her nutrition and hit new levels on overall fitness. What is YOUR GOAL? Name it. Write it down.
My personal goal is to lose 17 lbs. (of fat, not muscle!) and to maintain that weight loss through the end of 2015 (and beyond!).
PLAN: Give your goal LEGS! How are you going to get there? Rob (Roberto) has been doing the Whole 30 and has made great gains in fitness and how he feels because of it. Admirably, he stayed with it straight through the holidays and is starting off the year (finishing out his first year at CFL) feeling great. He’s also stayed with consistently hitting 5 WODs a week throughout the year. Ask him about it! Jenny has skyrocketed to new levels of fitness and performance as she has trained consistently and has kept a written log of her daily workouts and improvements. Everyone has a story of accomplishments they’ve made at the gym and in their fitness. None of us got there by accident. One thing is for sure, nothing of significant value happens accidentally. If you want to lose weight, what is your nutrition plan? You can’t out-train a bad diet and sugar is a wall keeping you from reaching the next level of fitness. What is your plan for frequency of workouts?
My personal plan is to eat primal with Zone portions. In my assessment and talking it through with someone who knows me (um Randy), my chief hurdle is portion control! I’ve gotten used to giving up grains and sugar (usually!) but portions are the area of required refinement. My workout plan is to do at least 5 workouts each week and to write them down. There are different ways of achieving weight loss through nutrition (or muscle gain for that matter!...PROTEIN!!!). It isn’t always a one size fits all program. Paleo, primal, Whole 30, Zone…The important thing is once you have decided on your plan, STICK TO IT! YES YOU CAN!
A word on each of these, for those who are interested in dialing in nutrition and aren’t sure what to do:
Paleo: The short definition is a way of eating that consists of lean meat (of all kinds) & eggs, vegetables, and fruit, nuts, and seeds in moderation. It is based on the idea of eating like our ancestors ate and cutting out processed foods that make our bodies inflamed and generally make us feel crappy. A few of my favorite websites for paleo eating are:
http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/ (Melissa Joulwan’swebsite—author of Well Fed. She has a cool story of how she has used paleo eating to help heal from a thyroid condition. And a ton of great food ideas.)
http://paleomg.com/ (for great food ideas)
http://robbwolf.com/
http://robbwolf.com/2013/01/06/ultimate-paleo-chili/(check out this link for the best chili I have ever made!)
There are many other great Paleo websites people like. We are definitely not short on resources.
Primal: Same as paleo but saturated fats and dairy are okay. This is the short answer. If you want to read more on this, here are some links:
http://www.primalpalate.com/about/the-paleo-diet/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/whats-the-difference-between-primal-and-paleo/#axzz3N88dZ246
Primal resource:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ (Mark Sisson’s website. He wrote the book “The Primal Blueprint” and coined the name Primal for this way of eating.
Whole 30: From the founders of the Whole 9 Life, Dallas and Melissa Hartwig have created this program to launch people into a paleo lifestyle, “slay your sugar dragon”, reset your body, dramatically reduce inflammation which makes people sick, and even to heal various ailments and reduce disease symptoms. The testimonials are pretty amazing. Here is the link for a complete outline of the Whole 30 rules:
http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/
There is a fantastic book that is worth the read (and the steak recipe in the back!) called “It Starts with Food” by Dallas & Melissa Hartwig.
The Zone: This is great for those of us who need help with portion control (as in, “I’ll eat a jar of almond butter because I eat paleo”). It keeps your intake to 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fats. There may be more updated resources but I have found this article from the CrossFit journal from 2004 to be enough to get me going on the Zone. http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/cfjissue21_May04.pdf
The downside of the Zone is that when you are trying it for the first time, there is weighing and measuring food involved for about the first two weeks. Once you get the visual of how much is a “block” you don’t have to weigh or measure as much. (As long as your portions don’t gradually get bigger and bigger). The upside is that it WORKS! Especially in conjunction with primal or paleo foods. One main thing to realize when you’re reading the article is that a block means one block of protein, one of carbs, and one of fats. So if a person (based on their size) gets 16 blocks per day, that means they get 16 blocks of protein, 16 of carbs, and 16 of fats. One little trick is that you can also trade 2 blocks of fats for one of carbs…not the other way around. So you can substitute fat for carbs, but not carbs for fats. You need to eat carbs! (veggies and fruits) but you can sub a few here and there. Also, it is worth mentioning I have still found weight loss can be achieved on the Zone with increasing the nut portions a bit…so, a small handful=2 blocks fat and a closed fistful=4 blocks fat.
A great follow-up resource for the Zone is this website that gives you the amount per block of common foods.
http://www.mitymous.net/weights/zoneblox.htm
The Zone may sound complicated but after 2 weeks you will get the groove. You just have to decide if this is what you need and gear up and go!
Simple Changes: Perhaps the above sounds like too much for where you’re at. If you’ve only recently started CrossFit and you’re still adjusting to an intense workout schedule, perhaps a tweak like this is in order:
Cut out SUGAR
Cut out SUGAR/GRAINS
Cut out Processed foods
Or some variation therein.
DEADLINE: By what date do you want to reach your goal?
My deadline is 4/1/15.
So whether your goal is to lose fat, gain muscle, get a pull-up, a muscle-up, run longer faster, lower your cholesterol, etc., NAME your GOAL, MAKE your PLAN, SET your DEADLINE, and SHARE it. The white board in the Box by the water dispenser will be set apart for us to share our goals, plans, and deadlines with one another and to update our progress. It will be ready and waiting for you to write it down and make it real.While our goals may be different, there is synergy in our community that is contagious and gives us the push and support to keep moving forward. We have our own goals to reach but we do it in the context of our one of a kind team environment!