Well we got about a foot of snow over the last couple of days and it has been fun. However, over last night and this morning we got freezing rain and that has fucked up all the snow and toppled countless trees. We lost power, along with 250,000 other people and the box was closed. But not all was lost, I am an active person and I don’t like feeling trapped in so it was time for a shovel WOD. Isn’t this what we CrossFitters train for anyway, functional fitness? So with shovel in hand I first hunted down the two closest storm drains and cleared those suckers. Then I started clearing tracks for my truck to make it up our hill. As I was clearing this heavy ice my back started feeling a little tired and I thought, WTF I am using pretty crappy form and I was supposed to deadlift today anyway so it was time to put my training to work. Dig in, set my back, lift, and dump to the side. Now i know this is not an exact substitute for a deadlift, be it sure helped and I pounded up to my destination with no problem. Also I must have inspired a couple of neighbors because they came out to help, this is a great community, sound familiar? Same reason I love CrossFit, the community always has your back, sometimes literally 
This was all typed on my phone, Thanks Windows 7 Phone, you are a life saver when then power is out.
If you did not see it or hear about it, CrossFit got some major national exposure yesterday via a Reebok commercial on network television. I will be honest, from the beginning I have not been fond of the CrossFit and Reebok partnership. It is the one sports apparel company that I did not even own one piece of clothing from. It has just never been my style, Reebok has pretty much always been pretty whack in my book. That being said I was going to give them another shot because in the long run CrossFit getting more exposure will be a good thing. But their track record to date has not been great, not enough stock at the CrossFit Games, t-shirt that look like they belong in Old Navy, high prices, consistent issues with shipping new product, I could list more, but you get the point. Putting all of that to the side, I think the kick off of these commercials is going to be GREAT. I am glad Reebok is spending some big money to help build CrossFit up. I know their main focus is making more money, but they are a company and that is what companies do. The great part is they are spreading the word about CrossFit and it is getting to millions of people, millions of people who desperately need to take a serious look at their health. On July 21st of 2011, the CDC reported that 33.8% of all adults in America and 17% of children are not considered obese. Those numbers are staggering and it is undeniable that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere. I don’t believe that 1/3 of adults are just making a conscious choice to be obese, I think it is all the crap people have been fed both literally and figuratively. Tons of different fad diets, commercials telling kids that chocolate milk and Lucky Charms with whole grains are healthy, label on food saying it is fresh and organic but there are still ingredients that are barely pronounceable, and almost zero healthy fast food joints. Then on top of all that, schools have been getting rid of physical education classes and after school sports because of budget cuts. Don’t get me wrong, I think academics are important and clearly there is improvement that needs to be done in the education system in the U.S. too, but having a bunch of smarter kids that are growing up into fat and sickly adults is not what is going to keep the U.S. as one of the world leaders. I love the fact that CrossFit is kinda underground and feels like a bit of a club, but so many more people can benefit from it. CrossFit is not just the gym you go to, but it is a lifestyle. Once you have fought through the tough first couple of months you slowly start getting why all the die hards act the way they do. It slowly creeps into your life and changes it for the better. I am just a better person in general, I am not only healthier, but I am happier as well. I feel great, have made fantastic friends, and my kids are reaping the benefits as well. Dad almost always has energy to go have some fun. I also want my kids to be active, so we have made it a priority to make sure our kids are always in some sort of activity as well. So do I think it is a good thing that CrossFit is going mainstream, definitely. I feel it is now my duty to let people know what the fuss is all about and am happy to be an ambassador to CrossFit. I don’t like to go out and preach about it, but if you start asking me questions I will talk your ear off. Hopefully as these commercials are played more and more I will get more and more people asking me about CrossFit. It is time to fight back for our live against the bombardment of bullshit information out there that is literally killing people.
Well, we are 8 days into the New Year now. Have you come up with any resolutions? Usually by the time I get to New Years Eve I already have a list, but this year I didn’t have anything. It wasn’t until I was at a party that night and people started talking about what resolutions everyone had. As usual I was with a bunch of CrossFitters, so we all immediately went to CF goals. Here are a few of mine to keep my honest: 1. 50 pull-ups in a row (currently at 41) 2. Do Nasty Girls Rx (just need Muscle Up stamina built up) 3. Press (strict) my body weight 4. Break 400 lbs for my dead lift (currently 393) 5. Snatch 135 lbs (stuck at 125, need work on my technique). Other than those CF related resolutions I want to: 1. Make sure my kids are in one outside of school activity at all times 2. Do at least 26 family days (we were awesome about planning one about every week for a while and the holiday season threw us for a loop) 3. Get birthday cards on time to all of my family members that don’t live in my house 
4. Get my Level 1 Certification 5. Get my Mustang back up and running. This is a lot of stuff, but I truly believe that I can do everything on this list. What resolutions have you made for the year? Are they specific? Make sure they are specific and measurable, sometime you may need to set several small goals that build up to meeting the big dog.
Next on the agenda is the good ol Paleo challenge that my box does every January. Technically the challenge does not start until tomorrow, but I started on January 1st. I am already feeling much better after all the crap I was eating in November and December. This being said you can expect more posts on recipes, how to eat paleo when you are eating out, and products that make it a little easier. For example I took the family out to the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie WA for breakfast today. This is a very notable place with AMAZING food. It would be super easy to cut loose and get a bunch of non paleo grub, but I stuck to my guns and got a fantastic omelet with Crab, onions, peppers, asparagus, and spinach. I also had their delicious coffee and it was a great breakfast out. Breakfast is probably one of the easiest meals to make sure you are eating paleo when you go out, so if you like to go out to eat breakfast is a great time to go if you have a hard tie sticking with it once you are out of the house.
Talk to you soon.
The magic of belief is a powerful and exciting thing. I am sitting here on the couch trying to decide where I will move Keith tonight for my kids to find him in the morning. Wondering who Keith is and why I may be moving him? If you have an Elf on the Shelf you may have been able to guess, but for those of you what are like, what the heck is that, The Elf of the Shelf is a little elf doll that comes with a story book you read to your kids. Most parents get the question of, how does Santa know if I have been good or bad and to answer that you can tell them, “Every year an elf watches over you in your house and reports back to Santa.” So you take out the little elf you got with the book and the kids get to name him and he is the little dude that keeps an eye out on their behavior. Every night after the kids go to bed we move him to a different location in the house and when the kids get up every morning the first thing they do is go try and find him and see where he magically flew to overnight. They LOVE it and truly believe that this little doll flies to Santa every night, gives him a report, and comes back to find a new place to hang out. They have stuffed animals, dolls, actions figures, all that kind of stuff and this elf looks just the same, but what is different about him is they believe he is different and Santa has provided him with actual magic to do a very important duty during the Christmas season. It is that type of belief that is important to keep instilled in kids as they grow up. I am not talking about trying to get them to keep believing in magical stuff like the elf or unicorns; I just mean the concept, that with hard work and dedication you can make big things happen. You know the old saying as well as I do, “You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up.” For the most part I whole heartedly believe that, along the way you just need to decide if the work, time, and sacrifices you have to make are worth it. Also, life isn’t fricken easy; even with a ton of hard work you don’t always get what you want very quickly, there will be failures along the way. But you have to believe that just because you have failed once, doesn’t mean that you will fail again or that your goal isn’t achievable, you have to believe in yourself and keep pushing ahead. I think now-a-days too many kids give up too damn easy; the good shit is almost never easy. Remember getting your first pull up, muscle up, Rx WOD, whatever it was for you that you really had to work hard to get, how did that feel when you got it? Badass right? Well, I want my kids to feel badass a lot in life. When there is tough stuff you are working through, big or small, show them that you recognize thing aren’t great right then, but that you believe that things will get better and that you might just have to work a little bit harder, longer, or faster to make it better, but it will be better. Not only is that a comfort to them, but they will carry that skill on with them into their adult lives too.
As I was sitting on the couch tonight watching some TV with my son, I watched him drift off to sleep. It started to make me think what an amazing little dude he his and that triggered something he told his mom two weekends ago. While I was competing at the Rainier CrossFit Strongman, my wife was doing the local Turkey Trot with my son and daughter. My daughter is 7 and my son is 3 1/2 and they were all running together. This was tough for my little guy and as he was turning the halfway point corner my wife looked down at him and asked if he wanted to take a break, he replied with, “Mom, I never quit.” Now, I like to attribute that to him seeing his mom and dad WODing almost everyday and pounding through whatever is put in front of us. At our box there is no quitting, if something becomes too unmanageable for whatever reason you can scale down, but never just throw in the towel. I am still so proud of my son for saying those four little words and if he can keep that attitude with him for the rest of his life he is going to be a very happy and succesful person. A couple other great things came from that comment as well, the first is it just reminds me that my kids are always watching me and seeing what I do and how I react to things, so I better walk the talk and portray the same qualities that I always try to verbally reinforce to them. The second is, I got to hear this story right after I was finishing my first Strongman WOD that day. To give you a little back story, some people from my box compete in the Rainier CrossFit Strongman the year before and it looked like a lot of fun. they had four different weight classes set up to ensure people would be competing in a group of their peers. This makes perfect sense for a Strongman competition. So this year I signed up and was excited to give this stuff a shot, well they decided to only have two weight classes this year and they were 200 and under and 201 and over. This does not bode well for me, I weighed in at 170 lbs fully clothed with shoes, cell phone, wallet and keys. Needless to say I was pretty nervous. The first WOD was a farmers carry and box jump couplet. The Farmers carry weight was 190 lbs in each hand and the box jumps were 30″ in height. I don’t remember the exact distance buy in the end you carried the weight around 100′ and had done 30 box jumps. After the event was over I was so gassed, it was worse than Fran by far for me. I took a few minutes and then called to check in with my wife to see how they did and let them know how I was doing. I was feeling pretty crappy at the time and was not sure how I was going to do the other two WOD’s, but then my wife to me the “I never quit” story and it flipped my attitude right around. I decided at that point that I was just going to remember to have fun doing all this stuff that I don’t normally do and if I get to something I couldn’t do, they I would just scale, but I was not going to quit. By the time the second WOD started my wife and kids had made it out to Rainier and I proceed to PR my deadlift at 393 lbs and it was with a fat bar that I don’t use or train with. The final WOD came around and I was concerned that the stone loads would zap that last amount of juice I had to do the muscle ups that came right after, but I rallied and knocked all three out in a row. and then proceed to finish another total round. I exceed my expectations that day by far and I don’t know if I could have done it or at least had fun doing it without the inspiration my son gave to me inadvertently that day. CrossFitters really do live in a unique world where anything is possible with hard work and the culture oozes with the never quit attitude. Live these qualities and lead by example for your kids, family, and friends.
It is nice to be back and please share this blog with your friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving.
Have any of you watched the show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution? It was on last season and he went to the most unhealthy city in the United States and tried to make some changes to people’s eating habits by starting in the schools. I remember watching last season and seeing the complete crap that is fed to kids at school on a daily basis. His goal was to help them learn how to make healthier food and try to keep costs down. This season, which just started last week, he is in LA. and the school district there will not let him in to even look at what they are making at the schools for lunch. He can’t even step foot inside a cafeteria, let alone the kitchen. They have been throwing out these crazy high obesity percentages for the L.A. area kids and it is just nuts. I think this is a great show and totally on board with revamping what our schools are trying to feed our kids. Now I will just continue to send my kids to school with homemade lunches, but that does not really solve the health problems we are having in the U.S. due to poor diet. I am going to start looking into how I can get more information about my children’s school district and what their food guidelines are. I want to make sure I am involved and trying to make changes to improve not only the live of my children, but all children. Even child deserves to be healthy. All this being said, most people reading this know that I eat predominantly Paleo and Jamie Oliver does not teach Paleo nutrition. I totally get that, but what he is teaching and doing to make school lunches better is fine with me for two reason. The first is, he is teaching about using quality meats and fresh ingredients, this is very important to me. The second is, even though he include some pasta and breads, it is still 100% better than what is available now. I think it would be unrealistic to try to start getting schools to go Paleo and much more doable to just get them to get rid of processed crap and tons of sugar. If you have never seen this show I would highly recommend it, even if you don’t have kids. It is on ABC and if you go to this link you can sign a petition to get better food in schools http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution/take-action Let’s start making a change here in the U.S. to turn around this epidemic of unhealthy and overweight people with diabetes, heart disease, and a myriad of other ailments. Everyone deserves a healthy life.
In CrossFit we have a very unique opportunity, that opportunity is the Reebok CrossFit Open. CrossFit has been growing by leaps and bounds, new boxes popping up, pro athletes saying they are going to try it, and business magazines saying that the Games just might be the next big thing. How long do you think something like the Open will be around, I suspect not too many more years before there will be an Open for armatures and an Open for sponsored athletes only. Right now we are all getting to compete with everyone, it is like getting to go play with your favorite pro sports team. We have the opportunity to experience what it is like to be in competition with the best of the best and on occasion maybe even top them. We should take advantage of this opportunity and just participate because we can be a part of something special. Whether you come in first place or last place doesn’t matter as much as how hard you worked to get to whatever place you end up in. Just remember that everyday is a new day and a new chance to do work harder and do better.
This is our time, it is our time to seize the moment and make it count. You can make the choice to put the bar down because the competitor next to you does or you can dig deep and hold on for dear life and pull ahead. There is no guarantee the guy that always beats you is going to do it today, today is your day. This is the day you refuse to stop when he just can’t keep going. This is a sport where heart can sometimes trump skill, but always gains more respect. This is CrossFit.
I sat down tonight on the couch and starting thinking about what I was going to write. There are several topics that have been rolling around in my mind that I wanted to address like, Kevin Daigle’s condescending article, how the Open is going so far, focus during a WOD, etc….. What I am choosing to write about instead is Family Day. Maybe it sounds kind of cheesy but this has turned out to be the best idea I have had in a long time and my most looked forward to day of the week. Family day is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, we just hang out and do stuff as a family. About 3 months ago I decided that we were going to choose one day a week that was going to be family day and find some activity to do or place to go. Then I started putting together a list of all the different ideas I had about things we could do and we have just been ploughing through it and adding more as we think of them. The reason why I think these days are so great is because on most days we are so busy with work, going to the box, doctors appointments, e-mail, Facebook, yard work, and every day life that we are not always fully engaged for long periods of time with our kids. But on family day the focus is on the family and carving out that time to bond and connect on that fully engaged level. At the end of these days I always think about what a great day it was and when I go to work on Monday I feel like I had a fantastic weekend that was packed full of awesomeness. Over the past few months Sunday has turned into our usual family day and this is an example of what we did today. First we took our time getting up and out of bed and then had a little breakfast together. Next we headed out to cheer on an Open competitor and in the process of that we got to watch our 3-year-old son demonstrate how to do a burpee box jump, so awesome. Then we went to go see the movie Hop and the best part about this was how my 6-year-old daughter wanted to hold my hand almost the entire time. It also just brought back a flood of memories from the first couple of movies my parents took me out to. Then I started thinking about how this silly sounding activity could be a memory they have for life. It really helped me put into perspective how important the little things are. After the kids did a great job at the movies we headed over to Whole Foods to have lunch, this gave us an opportunity to have a tasty and healthy lunch which brought up the topic of nutrition. And not by me or my wife, but my daughter. After lunch we hit Lululemon for a quick shopping trip and then started the trek home. Once we arrived it was time for everyone to have a little quiet time. Everyone choose their own thing to do for an hour to recharge. Next we were feeling a bit lazy, so we decided to go out to eat for dinner too. We all enjoyed a good meal and then headed home to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos together (one of the rare not cartoon shows we can all enjoy). Lastly it was time for the bed, which includes one on one time with each of the kids reading and snuggling in bed. Don’t get me wrong, this was a busy day and once the kids were in bed I was ready to just crash on the couch but it was fantastic. Our family days aren’t always this aggressive, sometimes it might mean just hanging out together at home and do stuff like making crafts, watching movies, art, or cooking together. That is part of the greatness, you can do whatever you want as long as you are all spending time together. I know these day are not only important to me because I have started getting questions from the kids on when the next one is and what we are going to do. It is crazy how different I feel if we have to miss a family day for some reason, it is like my weekend was just two more days of work and I did not get a break. If this is not something you already do, just start putting together a list of fun things you can do and start scheduling away to make sure you don’t forget or over book. I am already looking forward to next weekend
Tonight I completed WOD 11.4. I am exhausted and my back is a wreck right now, but I couldn’t head up to bed without getting something off my chest. I am happy with my performance overall because I know I gave it my all and I knew going into it that the Over Head Squats would be really heavy for me. So there I was in the box tonight standing with my bar laying in front of me, my coach to the left of me, and a gang of people all around ready to watch the WOD go down. Next I hear, “Coaches ready, athletes ready, 3-2-1-GO!” I start knocking out the burpees at a good pace and at one point I was thinking, when the heck are these going to be done. They felt pretty easy and I was anxious to get to the OHS. Finally the 60 burpees were done at about 4 minutes and it was time to try to knock out these OHS and hopefully make it to the Muscle-Ups. I gripped the bar, took a deep breath and cleaned it up, the pushed it up over my head to rest on my back, positioned my hands wider and jerked it up overhead. Great, arms locked, felt heavy but doable. I lowered down and push back up hard and then did it again. I dropped the bar and thought, wow that is really heavy, but I still had like 5 minutes and change left. Then I went for number 3 and that is when things get a bit foggy, can’t remember if I failed that one or got it up right away, but at some point around completing rep 4 or 5 I hear the most important words I heard all week, “Do Not Hang Your Head.” and then it was repeated again. That completely changed my attitude at that point, I didn’t even realize I was doing it. It was heavy, I was struggling, and whether I knew it or not I failed a couple reps and leaned over hands on knees and just hung my head. WTF I thought, I am no quitter, I am not going to give up, I can get one more, and I immediately grabbed that bar and went for another rep. To be honest I am not positive if that was the last rep I got, but either way I went down swinging. I have to thank my coach Tom for reminding me mid WOD that I don’t quit. Sometimes sh%t just gets hard and you can start feeling a little defeated, but that is your time to shine. How are you going to handle those rough spots, that is what counts. My kids where there tonight and I hear my son was cheering for me while I was at it and the last thing I want them seeing me do it quit. I haven’t got to where I am at today by quitting. What was it that I got from the words, do not hang your head? What I took from that was, you have no reason to hang your head, you should be proud of what you have done, and you got what it takes to get one more. Mikko Salo has SISU and now I have, Do not hang your head.
Am I excited for WOD 11.3? Good question. I am always excited about the Reebok Open WOD’s even if I don’t think I am going to do well. Why, just because it is a challenge. I love the competition. Does that mean I am super stoked if I don’t do well, heck no. But once the initial disappointment wears off I at least know that I gave it my all and have other people on my team that killed it. Then I can live through them and their achievements. That is the great thing about CrossFit in general and having teams for the Open, even if you don’t do well you really want others to do awesome and cheer them on like it was the Games or something.
Just incase you don’t know what the 11.3 WOD is yet, here it is:
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes of:
Squat clean (165lb / 75kg) Women’s weight is 110lb
Jerk (165lb / 75kg) Women’s weight is 110lb
Now this is more than my bodyweight, so it is going to be rough going but I like the fact that it is only 5 minutes. The reason I like that is, I feel like I can sustain a good amount of energy output for 5 minutes and since that clock is going to go quick I think I will constantly have that extra adrenaline rush like you get in the last 60 seconds of most WODs. This should be a very interesting (read painful) WOD for me because I am having a hard time estimating how many rounds I will be able to get. My last clean and jerk max was 185lbs, but maybe I have improved since that time??? What I am really going to focus on is form, form, and more form. I feel like if I can be efficient with my form, more than I have been in the past, I will be able to put out a number I am happy with. For those of you out there that are nervous about this WOD because this would be a PR for you, my recommendation is to work on your form every day this week. I firmly believe that if you are within 30 lbs of this weight with your last max, then you can knock out one full round to stay in the Open just by making sure you are utilizing the best form you can. Seek out your Box’s resident Oly stud and get some tips and have them watch you and get some good cues. Want it, visualize it, believe it, you can do this. And for you big mo fo’s out there, I can’t wait until we have to do pull-ups and handstand push-ups 3-2-1-GO!
