Friday 10/25/13
Friday 10/25/13
Mandatory Mobility
Spend 15 minutes mobilizing your body to recover from a tough week of workouts and prepare for today’s WOD
WOD
CrossFit Open 13.3
12 minute AMRAP of:
150 Wall Balls 20/14
90 Double Unders
30 Muscle-Ups
Basics
10 Minute AMRAP of:
10 Wall Balls
50 Single Unders
10 Pull-Ups
Okay, so here’s the scoop. Tomorrow is a very busy day, we have scheduled the following:
8-9 am, Blood Draw: This is the initial blood panel for the Paleo Challenge. Remember, you don’t have to do the Paleo Challenge to participate in this blood draw, and you don’t have to do the blood draw to do the Paleo Challenge. But, the blood work will give you invaluable data in regards to your blood work including, glucose levels, good/ bad cholesterol, and many more that we will go over individually when the data comes in. Cost, $30.
9-10:30, Paleo Challenge Clinic: This is where you will receive the nuts and bolts to the 2013 Paleo Challenge. Our schedule will roughly follow this schedule:
1. Intro: “What/Why Paleo?”
2. The Challenge: “Points, Points, Points!”
3. Support: “HELP!”
4. Q & A: “Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, Will, Is, Does, …?”
5. Data: “Baselines & Data Points”
It is advised to bring a friend, but a coach can also help with taking photos (profile, back, front), weighing, taking bicep, waist, and thigh measurements, etc…
11-1, “Franken-WOD” partner competition and costume contest. There will be prizes for best costumes (pair) and best performances (Rx), it will be loads of fun. You may bring your own candy, but we will have some for you as well. And for those of you on the Paleo Challenge, we will have honey that you can sub with!
1:30-3, “Baby Franken-WOD & Teenage Franken-WOD”. Kids, wear your costumes and we will have a blast with this WOD!
So, like I said, Saturday is a very busy day! Should be a lot of fun and energy in the box so feel free to come to whatever you can. Now, onto a serious blog post:
2013 Paleo Challenge
This is a very exciting time of year for me because I am so passionate about food, cooking, nutrition, etc… However, talking to some of our more senior athletes (the ones who were here last year for the challenge) about participating in the 2013 challenge, I stumbled upon an unfortunate phenomena. Many said they were not going to participate, or were reluctant to do it again this year. This was very sobering for me. This made me worry because as a coach I see the need for the “newbies” to have role models in the 2013 challenge. This isn’t to say those that don’t participate this year lack leadership, but instead our gym dropped the ball last year if we had people walk away after the 30 days, stressed, disappointed, or feeling that the experience was negative. So, what went wrong in 2012?
We learned a lot from reflecting back from the 2012 challenge. The main thread that passed through all of the doubters coming into the 2013 challenge was…stress. The 2012 challenge was too hard (or people were too hard on themselves). People went all out, trying to go 100% Paleo for 30 days (which after all is the ultimate goal of the challenge). This caused an atom bomb in people’s nutritional habits and became a major area of anxiety and stress. People went from a “typical American diet” to “100% Paleo” over night and it was a shock. People were withdrawing from sugar, caffeine, trying new recipes, foods, locating hard to find ingredients, reading blogs, cook books, you name it, people went for it. And, they felt guilty when they wanted to, or actually did “cheat”.
Our main focus for 2013 is to not present the Paleo Challenge (100% Paleo for 30 days), but rather to challenge people to improve their nutrition. For the long haul. This can be a small change; “I drink 2 sodas a week now instead of 5!”, or a larger one; “I am eating real food for breakfasts now!” But our main focus is, finding out what your goals are, using the challenge to start us on a successful path to accomplishing those goals, and finding fun and unity as a community in the process. We’ve made the 2013 Paleo Challenge more doable and realistic. It looks more like life, after the challenge. You like coffee? 1 black coffee a day is allowed! You like your sweets? Honey, agave nectar, maple syrup allowed! You like flavor? Cooking with ghee (clarified butter) is allowed! Need a “you can do this” mid-afternoon on hump day? Dark chocolate is allowed! Need to unwind from a hard work day? 100% agave tequila, red wine, mead, Barenjagar, and hard ciders are all allowed! Need support? We will help you along the way with recipe/meal swaps, official check-in discussion groups, fb groups, texs/emails/fb messages all availabile for questions, Paleo dinners, even group shopping trips if you’d like! Tell us how we can help you. Committing to the challenge is hard enough, we’ll make the rest easy. This year, don’t stress. If you want the doughnut on the break-room table, eat it. Just deduct the points and be over with it. Don’t stress!
I don’t think everyone should do the challenge. Yes, as a coach I want everyone to want to. But, not everyone at our box wants to change their nutrition. Some, are like I was a few years back, and feel that they either aren’t ready, or don’t need to eat any different. Good for them. They know what they want. Whatever works. If you on the other hand would like to improve your nutrition, then do the challenge. We’ve made it $20 for a reason. It’s cheap enough for everyone to afford and with enough people paying $20 we can generate some pretty bad ass rewards & prize packages! If you feel like you have a giant hole, or a small one, in your nutrition, the challenge can help. Just, don’t freak out and try to change everything at once! Remember, you have your whole life ahead of you and changing what and how you eat is a LONG term goal. Small steps can become habit forming and before you know it, you are a leaner, meaner, stronger, person. It should be a slow change.
Take each challenge one small step at a time. Last year, my biggest take-away from the 2012 challenge (good food-wise) was that I fell in love with herbal tea! Now, I use it as a coffee replacement some days and it’s stuck with me all year. I think it will be a permanent change. My last challenge, I took on beer. I LOVE a good pale ale, but knew that there were better options (gluten free options) for feeling the buzz. Now, I drink a lot less than I did before and I believe I will keep that up as well. That’s what it’s all about…habits. Kicking poor ones and picking up new ones. If in every challenge, you can fix one area of your nutrition, think how clean your fuel intake will be in 5 years, 10, 20! If you walk away from the 2013 challenge with a new healthy habit replacing an old unhealthy one, it was a job well done! Plus, we will make it fun and support you along the way!
Still on the fence? Come to the clinic and make your decision afterwards. 
Written by:
Just Paleo