Urban Gets Diesel

Looking for Urban Gets Diesel?

2010-01-01T05:00:00.001-05:00

Effective January 1, 2010... find all my good stuff over at www.whole9life.com. (Subscribe to W9 posts here... and thanks for your continued reading.)

The future of Urban Gets Diesel

2009-12-29T08:55:00.006-05:00

Based on a good conversation we had with the members of Potomac CrossFit during our nutritional seminar earlier this month, we decided to clarify our thoughts on peanuts, and peanut butter. You can read all about why we don't eat peanuts (and why PB is "out" for our Whole30 program) on the Whole9 site.

On that note... I've been thinking long and hard about how best to provide good information, share my own stories and answer reader questions in the coming year. I used to do everything through this blog, until we affiliated. Then, I split my time between the blog and the 603 site, posting articles in both places. Now, we've got the blog, our new CrossFit site and, most recently, our nutritional consulting site (Whole9Life.com).

Having to split my time between three web sites has proven difficult. In addition, Dallas has been writing more for the Whole9, and he and I have been collaborating on a ton of articles (like the recent "Sexy Met-Con" piece). And I've been stuck having to choose the best site to feature the piece while still trying to keep the others current. So what I've decided, sadly but definitively, is this...

It's time to retire the blog. Or, more accurately, it's time to transition everything I would be writing for UGD over to the Whole9 site. The stories, the articles, the training videos and workouts - the appropriate and inappropriate, the professional and the personal - all of it will move with me. I want readers to have ONE resource to find all of our thoughts on training, nutrition, health and fitness. I'd like you to have some continuity in format and location going forward. And frankly, I'd like a break from having to keep three web sites updated on a weekly basis. So we're consolidating efforts and building a bigger, badder, more complete site to house ALL of our good stuff.

On a few technical notes, the blog isn't actually going away. I'll leave everything here and up, so all the old back-links work. I've also imported all the posts to the W9 site, and will continue to monitor posts and comments here in case someone drops a note.

Finally, I assure you, I am not selling out. Sure, the W9 site looks pretty slick. We wanted something that was clean and professional, easy to navigate and nice to look at. But that doesn't mean all of our posts are going PC. The tone of my writing isn't going to change. The content isn't going to change, either... the next time I fall off my box jump, hit a deadlift PR or break a barbell cleaning, you'll hear about it. You can still ask questions, post criticisms, request training, nutrition or rehab advice. You can still share your stories, offer each other support and (I hope) continue to use us as one of your most trusted resources. And most importantly, we promise to continue speaking our mind about everything from chipper met-cons to the kipping pull-up, the Zone diet to our Healthy/F-Off scale, the CrossFit Games to 5x5 strength protocols.

I'll miss posting here - this blog has changed in so many ways in the last year, and I've loved participating in the community we've built. But, I assure you, none of that is changing. All I'm doing from a logistics standpoint is moving next door, and I'm really hoping all my readers here will follow. So please, check out the Whole9 site, and get familiar with our philosophies and methodologies. Update your links from UGD to the W9. Take a minute right now and subscribe to the 9 Blog. In exchange, we promise to update the site with new posts a few times a week, and continue to incorporate your suggestions, recommendations and requests.

So as of the new year, Urban is getting diesel over at the Whole9. And our first official article of 2010 is all kinds of appropriate after the debauchery of the Holiday season, so stay tuned for "9 things to do when you're all banged up." Hope to see you over at the W9, and Happy New Year, everyone.

Please post thoughts to comments... for the last time here.

New article up on the Whole9 site

2009-12-23T08:00:00.002-05:00

Visit www.whole9life.com for our most recent blog post, "Beware the Lure of the Sexy Met-Con".

Our official response to the Robb Wolf situation

2009-12-18T09:58:00.008-05:00

It's no secret that Dallas and I are Robb Wolf students and followers, and I've been asked many times to personally comment on the Robb Wolf de-affiliation. There's no reason to add fuel to the fire over here, which is why I've voiced my personal opinions in private. I will say, however, that it's a shame for all of us that the CrossFit community has lost two of its most valuable, educated and accomplished coaches. It's also a shame that we, as a group, have spent so much time following the drama - time that could have been spent training, coaching, mentoring and learning.

However, Dallas and I felt that as a registered CrossFit Affiliate, we needed take a formal position on recent events. We decided that Dallas would act as our official CrossFit Whole9 spokesperson, and issued a statement in response to Robb's de-affiliation announcement.

______________________________________

Dallas Hartwig

Posted December 16, 2009 at 7:12 am | Permalink

Robb,

You and Nicki have been good to us, and we appreciate that. We have and will continue to be vocal supporters of your training methods, professional conduct, and (science-based!) nutritional practices. You’d be proud – I ate ~4000 calories of good, clean, Paleo food between 7PM and bedtime last night. Greg’s programming is making me HUNGRY.

Robb Wolf

Posted December 16, 2009 at 8:07 am | Permalink

Dallas!
How the hell did you do that!? Give us a break down on the damage.

Thanks for the support WTW.

Dallas Hartwig

Posted December 16, 2009 at 12:40 pm | Permalink

Robb,

Here’s the breakdown from last night’s madness:

Post-workout Meal 1 (around 7:30): 6 egg whites, 1 whole egg, 2 medium-large sweet potatoes.

Meal 2 (half an hour later): 10 oz local, organic, grass-fed sirloin steak (rare, of course!), 12 oz broccolini, 4 oz almonds, 1 pear.

Meal 2.5 (dessert from Meal 2, really): 1 can (14 oz) coconut milk, 3 oz walnuts, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup frozen raspberries.

Meal 3 (about 90 minutes after 2.5): the second 10 oz sirloin steak I grilled for Meal 2, 2 Jazz apples with about half a jar of Sunbutter, and about 1.5 cups of sweet potato mash.

Meal 4: 5 hard-boiled eggs, 6 oz fresh blackberries, a big handful of brazil nuts.

Meal 5: 8 oz smoked salmon, half a honeydew melon (a DELICIOUS combination, BTW), and some sauteed zucchini/onions with fresh basil and lime juice.

“Meal” 6: an unrevealed (but very large) amount of Purely Decadent Mint Chip coconut milk “ice cream”. This stuff is CRACK. Be warned. Melissa introduced me to their Chocolate Explosion flavour, and we’ve been spreading the Decadent Love ever since.

And… I woke up RAVENOUS this morning.

Be well, my friend.

Robb Wolf

Posted December 16, 2009 at 1:17 pm | Permalink

dude…you are a MACHINE!! All hail The Dallas!!

Renee

Posted December 16, 2009 at 7:41 pm | Permalink

@Dallas: Try Coconut Bliss’ “Mint Galactica” next time. I prefer theirs to Purely Decadent.

Dallas Hartwig

Posted December 17, 2009 at 6:15 am | Permalink

@Renee,
I’ll try the Coconut Bliss, if for no other reason than they make a dessert with the word “Galactica” in the name. That’s just over-the-top enough to get my attention. Though, if it’s any better than the Purely Decadent, I might be in trouble. Thanks for the recommendation.

Robb, have you noticed how I’ve ever-so-subtly distracted folks from the un-fun discussion of HQ politics by talking about frozen desserts?

Robb Wolf

Posted December 17, 2009 at 6:31 am | Permalink

Yea dude, and they made haste in your direction. I nominate you for the next cult leader. This one will be based around ice cream.

I’m in.

Jesse

Posted December 17, 2009 at 9:19 am | Permalink

Ice cream cult? Brilliant! I’ve even got the Catechism right here!

We begin our profession of faith by saying: “I believe” or “We believe”. Before expounding the Church’s faith, as confessed in the Cream, celebrated in the Ice and lived in observance of Ice Cream’s commandments and in prayer, we must first ask what “to believe” means. Faith is man’s response to Ice Cream, which reveals itself and gives itself to man, at the same time bringing man a superabundant light as he searches for the ultimate meaning of his life of creaminess.

(I could go on, but I wouldn’t want any roman catholics out there to hate me too much)

Dallas Hartwig

Posted December 17, 2009 at 10:17 am | Permalink

Robb, let me say in this public forum that my Coconut Cult will learn to quantify their frozen desserts in a very precise manner. Or else. You still in?

Robb Wolf

Posted December 17, 2009 at 1:24 pm | Permalink

dude, it’s ICE CREAM. So long as I can weigh and measure by the litre I’m in. No smaller increments however.

Dallas Hartwig

Posted December 17, 2009 at 9:12 am |

I hereby decree that members of my Coconut Cult (”CocoNutties” – thanks Melissa) will quantify their frozen dessert ONLY by the litre. (Robb, I like the way you think.) If you are unable to commit your Dessert Soul to this worthy cause, you will be excommunicated and will bear the title of Dessert Infidel forever more. Jesse, apparently you instilled some potent (read: dangerous) religious fervor in me. Ha.

______________________________________

And therein lies our official position on recent events. What have we learned from this unfortunate situation? Dallas eats A LOT. Robb likes ice cream. Anything with "Galactica" in the title is probably delicious. And I am good at coming up with clever names for made-up entities like Dallas' new Coconut Cult. I hope you agree that this has truly been time well spent.

Author's Note: I'd like to add that, while Dallas' coconut dessert choice isn't technically "Paleo"... we also don't care. Sure, it's processed and includes some emulsifiers... but as a dessert choice, and as a dairy-free, gluten-free substitute for "real" ice cream, Turtle Mountain's "Purely Decadent" line is a winner all around. I recommend the Mint Chip, which gives Breyer's a serious run for its money. The ingredients are below - Grok may not have eaten it, but WE sure as heck will.

INGREDIENTS: ORGANIC COCONUT MILK, ORGANIC AGAVE SYRUP, CHOCOLATE FLAKE (BEET SUGAR, COCONUT OIL, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR, SOYA LECITHIN, VANILLA), CHICORY ROOT EXTRACT, CAROB BEAN GUM, GUAR GUM, MINT FLAVOR.

The Maureen Martone Rule

2009-12-17T05:00:00.005-05:00

A few times here on the blog, I’ve referenced “The Maureen Martone Rule.” (As in, “I haven’t dropped the f-bomb here since the inception of the Maureen Martone Rule”.) This story’s background proved to be one of the most important and defining moments in my life as a professional fitness coach, and one I’m happy to share here with you.

Some of you who have been reading the blog since the beginning (July 2008) may know a bit of the back-story. I had switched over to blog format from the CrossFit message boards, where all content was constantly monitored and censored. I wanted the blog mostly to track my own workouts, but I also liked to share funny stories and random musings. Trying to tell some of those stories on the message boards was frustrating, because the rules of posting limit both content and word usage. So I decided to move this party over to the free-for-all that is the internet… and I was determined to use the crap out of my freedom of expression.

I swore. A lot. My use of creative profanity was often excessive and gratuitous, but it didn’t seem to bother those of you who were, at the time, following along, and I was childishly excited to finally be able to speak my uncensored peace. I thought my colorful language added flair, and since I knew my in-person manner was professional and family-friendly, I figured my on-line alter-ego could afford to let loose a little. After all, we’re all grown-ups around here, right?

Fast forward to October 2008, when I met the Martone family (Jeff, Maureen, Kristina and Mike) at my first kettlebell certification. I spent a good deal of time with them that weekend, both socially and during the cert, and really enjoyed their company. Jeff and Maureen proved to be amazingly talented coaches, and when I asked them for some business advice during dinner, they were encouraging and supportive and not afraid to give it to me straight. I decided then and there to try to learn more from them in whatever form I could.

The very next weekend, I was working the gymnastics cert with Tucker at CrossFit Boston. Jeff and Mike Martone were also attending as participants, so we got to spend a lot more time together. Over dinner, I planted the seeds for an assistant coaching gig with Jeff, offering to come help him and Maureen at an upcoming local cert. I’m good at demonstrating, I love public speaking, and I’m professional and responsible – so I figured I had a good shot at scoring an assistant coaching spot.

And then Jeff mentioned that he’d been reading my blog.

I was flattered that he’d spent some time poking around on my site, and he was initially complimentary of the style, quality of writing and the community I was building. But then, without warning, he looked me straight in the eye and dropped the proverbial hammer. "You know what, Melissa? Gotta clean up the language if you want to come work a cert with me. It’s a family affair, y’know what I mean?"

I was shocked. I think I may have even blushed. I mean, sure, I swore on the blog, but I certainly didn't behave like that in person, especially not when working a certification. He could certainly see that from the weekend, as I worked the room helping Tucker coach, demonstrate and spot. I assured him my in-person coaching presentation was nothing but professional, but Jeff just shook his head. “I can see that, but if I just read your blog, I might have thought differently. I mean, my wife thinks you’re great, but I wouldn’t send Mo over there to read your stuff. She wouldn’t like that language at all.”

At that point, I was flat-out embarrassed. I liked Maureen an awful lot, and the thought of her reading my writing and being disappointed was an awful feeling… kind of like when you do something your Mom doesn’t approve of. And I was kicking myself, thinking that I may have lost my chance at participating in something amazing (assisting Jeff at a cert) because of the impressions I made via my blog. So I thanked Jeff for his candor, and went home to think long and hard about our conversation.

That conversation, and its implications for me as a coach, a mentor and a business professional within the fitness community, prompted a post called “A Public Apology to My Mom”. There was much discussion after that post, with people commenting things like, “It’s your blog, and if people are offended, too bad” to “I second the idea that you don’t have to swear to be edgy or funny.” I wondered at the time whether readership would drop, or whether I would have a hard time being as creative and entertaining without using profanity. But from that day forward, I was committed to reflecting a higher standard of professionalism in my writing.

It’s been over a year now. Readership continues to grow, affiliates continue to link… and when was the last time I dropped an f-bomb here? You’d have to dig way, way back, people, and I’m pretty sure I apologized for it up front. And now I’m proud to have a site that everyone – Maureen Martone included – can visit and reference.

The MMR is enforced as follows: If I write a questionable sentence or use a potentially offensive word, I say to myself, “Would I be comfortable with Maureen Martone reading this?” If the answer is no, I edit. So far, it’s worked beautifully – and although I haven’t spoken to Maureen in a few months, I have been working certs with Jeff. I asked him what he thought of the blog while coaching at North Shore CrossFit in August. His response? “I’ve been keeping tabs, Melissa. Good for you.” I’ve heard the same feedback from a few others, including Dallas’ Mum, who told him she’s glad I’ve cleaned up my act. You know what, Mrs. Hartwig? I am too.

Do you miss the colorful language around here? Did you even notice when it went away? Do you employ something similar to the MMR at your affiliate, or on your blog? Post thoughts to comments.

With the always classy Jeff and Maureen Martone

Whole30 Seminar at Potomac CrossFit

2009-12-14T20:53:00.010-05:00

While we were on the road waiting to hear about our Afghanistan trip, we decided to pop in and visit a few of our favorite mid-Atlantic affiliates. We'd kept in touch with Erika and Siddharth, trainers at Potomac CrossFit, since our gymnastics cert there in January 2009, so we invited ourselves over for a workout. Turns out, PCF was a gym in need of some nutritional motivation, with many CrossFitters just one week into their own version of a "Paleo Challenge". Dallas and I were happy to help out, and hosted a Whole30 seminar for 20 of their members on Friday night.

Normally, we travel to introduce our Whole30 program, and outline the plan for those affiliates looking to host a dietary clean-up using our guidelines. Since PCF was already into their nutritional challenge (and this wasn't most members' first nutritional rodeos), we spent most of our time answering questions and helping to clarify some of the more confusing aspects of diet for CrossFitters. We talked cortisol management, eating well on the road, why a Splenda habit is hurting fat loss efforts, the sneaky effects of dairy, and injury, inflammation and dietary factors. We spent almost two hours answering questions and offering our best advice on how to wrap your brain around this new way of eating.

As an aside... I haven't talked much about our consulting practice here, mostly because things over there have been on hold while we planned for Afghanistan. Our web site is still very much a work in progress, despite the fact that I'm linking to it all over the place. (It's the equivalent of having company over while you're renovating your kitchen. Don't mind the mess.) And our services are still not as defined as we'd like them to be - we're hard at work on new client questionnaires, weekend long intensive programs and developing smaller, more casual "boutique-style" sessions, held outside of a CrossFit gym. But we're working while we're figuring it out, and Potomac was the perfect gig - fun and casual, with some smart and motivated clients and dedicated trainers. (Special hello to LeAnn and Kassandra, both blog readers and frequent posters. Thanks for the warm welcome, ladies.)

The seminar was a success, and gave us a bunch of good ideas for blog posts. (Stay tuned for Dallas' tips and tricks for when you're all banged up.) We're also making some changes behind the scenes, to better integrate my blog with what we're doing over at the Whole9. I know things have been quiet around here, and I don't like it any more than you do. I'm looking forward to some fun posts, regularly scheduled training and working on the new consulting stuff.

So a special thanks to Erika and Siddharth for organizing and Brian for hosting - we really enjoyed our time with you. And to all the PCF members who hit our seminar - how's your challenge coming along? Keep us posted!

Dallas, Erika and I, getting our gymnastics on at PCF.

Operation Iron Cross update

2009-12-08T20:04:00.004-05:00

After a very stressful and uncertain week, I am really sad to report that our trip has been called off. The entire scenario was out of our hands, and the way things played out couldn't be helped. Here's the background.

Our flight out was dependent entirely on the Air Force, and ensuring we could secure a plane to get all seven of us and our cargo to Bagram. That having been said, as we were told several times... it ain't like flying commercial. Planes come when they come, and they're used for what is most important - and all of that can change at the drop of a hat.

The original departure date we were given was November 23rd, just before Thanksgiving. A week prior, we were told our flight had been bumped out to December 3rd, give or take a few days. We proceeded with that date in mind, collecting donations, supplies and equipment to make the 3rd deadline. And then last Tuesday, President Obama announced the Afghanistan troop surge, and we were told that our departure was now set for December 8th. Or 9th. Or 10th, at the latest.

While it stretched all of us a bit thin to leave that late, at that point we were all en route, and so invested in the trip that we decided to wait it out, and hope that our flight came earlier rather than later. And then, a few days later, the final word came... planes were needed for people (soldiers) more important than us, and our flight out was bumped to December 18th, at the earliest.

At that point, none of us were able to make the journey. Tucker has certs booked in Japan and New Zealand late in December, which doesn't leave him enough time to make the trip to Afghanistan and return in time to keep his committments. As for the rest of us... we all had jobs that we put on hold for a week, hoping to catch a flight out. To stretch our leaves to the end of the month was simply impossible. So we made the difficult decision to cancel the trip at this time, and try to reschedule our visit for after the New Year, when transportation would be easier.

Here's the good news... the care package we put together (including the TIBs, rings, bands, jump ropes, Paleokits, kettlebell DVDs, coffee and gymnastics supplies) is still heading over to the troops on the 18th. It'll be like a CrossFit Christmas present for the men and women serving away from home, and all of the new soldiers who will soon find their homes at Bagram. The materials are being coordinated by personnel at Fort Bragg and Bagram Air Base, and we'll soon have some pictures and stories to show you. We still plan to publicize our efforts in the CrossFit Journal, and plan to get ourselves in country next year to properly train the 7th Special Forces Group as we originally intended.

To say we are disappointed is an understatement. We all worked so hard, putting in so much effort, to pull this trip and these donations off in a very short period of time. We got SO close to our departure, and to be told at the very last moment that we were unable to complete our mission was devastating for all of us. The worst of it is thinking of the men and women we have to disappoint... those already registered for the cert, and so looking forward to the training. That's the worst part by far. But after the disappointment wore off, we took stock of our efforts, and what we were able to accomplish. We still collected an enormous amount of equipment, supplies and donations, we're still sending them over to the soldiers in time for Christmas. And we'll get back over there as soon as we can, to do what we promised to do. So I'm trying not to be too bummed. I'm still, however, pretty bummed.

The only ray of sunshine in this entire week has been the affiliate tramping we were able to do while waiting to hear about the trip. We held a Whole30 Nutrition Seminar at Potomac CrossFit in Arlington, VA on Friday, and hit our Oly at CrossFit Full Circle with Jason Struck on Saturday. We didn't have time for anything else, but I'll write more later this week about the awesome reception that PCF gave us, and how Struck won the old man division of his BJJ tournament. (It was awesome.) Until then, I'm going to head towards home and send my thoughts and wishes to the men and women at Bagram. I miss them already.

Operation Iron Cross update... and some affiliate tramping

2009-12-01T12:56:00.005-05:00

We have been super busy with the final details of this trip - here is an update on where we stand.

All donations of supplies and equipment are packaged up and ready to go! We're sending them over to Fort Bragg to have them prepared for transport. Tucker and crew has built some special containers to leave with the troops - they're called "TIBs" (The Iron Box). They're 6' x 2' x 2', and built to withstand all kinds of weather conditions, keeping the equipment inside dry and sand-free. They hold everything from bumpers to rings to chalk and tape, but that's not the best part. Flip the lid and the box becomes a giant box jump for up to 6 people... remove the lid and it becomes a narrow but stable platform for jumping rope, pressing, squatting, etc. We've stenciled the lids of the TIBs with "Operation Phoenix", as a reminder of everything the organization has done to support these efforts.

Inside the TIBs, we've got all the equipment from Again Faster (rings, bands and speed ropes), all 500 Paleokits from Steve's Club, and the chalk, grips and tape from Rage Fitness. We've also been lucky enough to score some material from Jeff Martone's Tactical Athlete! Jeff personally dropped off some H2H and Tactical Athlete t-shirts and DVDs for the troops. Thanks to Jeff (CrossFit's kettlebell SME) for the support.

Finally, we've got TEN sets of the new EXF Rings from Tyler Hass at RingTraining.com. I've been working with a set of these rings for about a month now, and love the grip design and easy set-up. (My false grip pull-ups are so much easier on the rubberized grip. Muscle-up, here I come.) I brought a pair with me to one of the last gymnastics certs I coached, so the participants could test them out. Tucker said, and I quote... "I like the shit out of these." So we were psyched to score a few sets from Tyler and RingTraining. Thanks so much for the donation!

Last but not least, Operation Phoenix also donated money for us to build 15 sets of parallettes to take with us. The men and women at CrossFit Fort Bragg worked their tails off to get these built in time for the trip - well done! Check out what the full booty looks like here:

I'm glad we managed to get everything organized in time, although it looks a though our flight out MAY be delayed for a day or two... which means we may be doing some affiliate tramping around the mid-Atlantic while we wait for the Air Force to show up. We'd like to visit CF Potomac and Oldtown on our way down, and maybe see our boy Struck in Richmond too. It's all up in the air right now, but we're hitting the road tomorrow as planned, just in case the plane shows up on time.

We discovered that once we arrive, we'll be coaching literally around the clock, to accommodate everyone working the day and night shifts. I've never coached gymnastics at 2 AM... I hope my pajama pants don't get all tangled in the rings. Holy crap. We don't expect to sleep much while on base, but that's A-OK. We're there to run as many men and women through these certs as possible, and if that means long hours, we're all up for it. It's an honor and a privilege we don't take lightly, and we'll do whatever we can to serve while we're on base. I'm especially excited to talk nutrition while I'm there - I know how hard it can be to eat well while deployed, and I'd like to take a crack at putting together some Good Food meal plans for the soldiers while I'm sitting next to them in the dining hall.

That's all I have time for today - more updates as they become available. Thanks again for all of your support. The comments and emails I've been getting mean a lot to me, and to the entire crew heading overseas.

Rage Fitness, and some disjointed ramblings

2009-11-24T12:00:00.001-05:00

I'm happy to announce that Paleokits are on their way to Fort Bragg - all 500 of them. We'll be able to pack them up and bring them over with us next week, thanks to the generous contributions from of all of YOU!

My company (the insurance shop who gets me from 9 - 5 Monday through Friday) is also sponsoring my efforts, covering my vacation time and making a donation to Operation Phoenix and Steve's Club. I'm happy to be able to give a little something back to both of these groups, whose support will be greatly responsible for making this trip a success.

Of course, we can't conduct gymnastics training without the appropriate gymnastics supplies too. As most of you know, things like pull-ups, skin the cats and muscle-ups are pretty tough on your hands, wrists and forearms. We wanted to bring materials over to keep these soldiers in good working order - chalk, tape and hand protective gear. Enter Rage Fitness Supply, a CrossFit affiliate and equipment supplier based out of Denver, CO. Todd Halderman and Tamera Smith immediately rose to the challenge, writing:

"We are happy to make a donation to support our troops! We will be donating three cases of tape, one case of chalk, and 15 sets of gymnastics grips.

Rage Fitness is honored to contribute training equipment to this incredible group of people. It makes us feel closer to our troops abroad knowing that we are all training together. The big difference is that at the end of our day we are back in our cozy homes, while our troops are out there in the field defending our country. That is why we are happy to support these amazing men and women however we can."

A big thank you to Todd, Tamara and the folks at Rage Fitness Supply for their support. And another big thank you to you, the CrossFit community, for your continued reading, comments and support of this effort.

________

On a personal note, I'm stressed about the logistics of a trip of this magnitude, worried about how it's all going to work, and excited about the amazing opportunities we'll have to work with these men and women. (Mostly the last part, although every time I review the paperwork we have to complete, I revert back to stressed and worried.) We've been so busy completing all the requirements for obtaining clearance from the Army that none of us have had time to think about the practical stuff. What's the weather like? (Kind of like New Hampshire, actually.) What should we wear? (Hiking-style gear is acceptable, normal training clothes for coaching, bring plenty of warm stuff, and yes, there's laundry.) What stuff haven't we thought of? (Ambien and ear plugs for the plane ride over.)

I've also been in touch with some men and women stationed at Bagram, to ask some questions about how the base works and what we should know before our visit. I'm mostly interested in what else we could bring that would make a difference. I've heard requests for everything from calling cards to sunflower seeds, but we've also received plenty of requests for tobacco products. I have some objections to a volunteer mission based around health and fitness showing up with a suitcase full of Kodiak. Sorry, but not my suitcase.

I think I expected the base to be more... rustic. But apparently, we have heated barracks, nice shower areas and laundry facilities. I've heard there's even a Subway and a Dairy Queen on base. Huh. There are also computer facilities, which is good because I'd really like to blog every day and keep a record of what we're doing at the certs, and what I'm learning from the soldiers.

That's it for now... not my usual put together post, but we're all scrambling to get two months worth of work done in two weeks time. Stay tuned for more updates, and to hear more about some of the cool gear we're bringing over with us as the result of generous sponsor donations.

Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier SUCCESS!

2009-11-20T06:30:00.007-05:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Because of your efforts, in just ONE WEEK we have raised $2,700.... enough to purchase 500 large Paleokits for soldiers stationed at Bagram Air Base! A special thank you goes out to Get Built Chattanooga CrossFit, for their generous donation last night.

Steve's Club is busy putting the order together now. We need to have these on base at Fort Bragg by Thanksgiving, so he's expediting shipping... and probably putting his other customers' orders on hold for a day or two to get this done for Operation Iron Cross.

On that note, if we have any extra in the fund, I'd like to donate whatever we have left back to Steve's Club. Because of the generous discount they are giving us, Steve's Club charity wasn't planning to take or keep any proceeds at all from this giant sale. That just doesn't sit right with me - one charity taking a hit in order to support another. So I'm happy to report that any extra funds collected will go right back to Steve's Club, as a small token of our thanks.

Now that the Paleokits have been arranged, I can take some time to tell you more about some of our awesome sponsors! We'll be featuring Tyler Hass of Ring Training, CrossFit equipment suppliers Rage Fitness, Jeff Martone's Tactical Athlete and more next week.

I'm also going to take a break from the business end and talk about what it's like to participate in a trip of this nature. There is so much behind the scenes work involved, and it's been an absolute roller coaster of "Yes, we've done that", "Oh, I guess we need to do that again" and "Crap, we didn't know we had to do that". I'll pass some of that along, and a few notes I've received from men and women stationed overseas (and their loved ones), in the coming week.

Again, on behalf of the men and women of the 7SFG... THANK YOU for your generosity. This community never ceases to amaze me, and I am honored to be a part of it.

Update on the Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier program

2009-11-19T08:37:00.004-05:00

Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to the Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier program. We've raised $2,200 so far in our efforts to purchase 500 Paleokits for the men and women stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Steve's Club is working hard to pull together this large order, and will need a few days to prepare and ship the Paleokits down to CrossFit Fort Bragg. As such, we need to send our order by the end of this week! Which means that we only have a few more days to collect the additional donations needed.

For those affiliates who have re-posted this effort on your web site, THANK YOU! If you are a CrossFit gym who would like to contribute, feel free to link to the post, or republish the post in its entirety on your web site.

It is amazing that we have been able to raise this much money in such a short period of time. Thank you again to everyone who has donated, promoted this effort, and encouraged others to contribute. From me, Dallas, the Whole30 program, and the soldiers... THANK YOU.

Operation Phoenix and Again Faster

2009-11-17T10:58:00.013-05:00

First, an update on the Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier program. We've raised almost $2,000 to date - an amazing accomplishment, considering the program has only been active for a few days! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated. I'd especially like to recognize Becky Strahan, CrossFitter, yoga instructor and owner of The MAT Yoga Studio in Richardson, TX. Becky and her husband Bill have been a huge supporter of this initiative, and I can't thank them enough for their encouragement, and generous contribution.

Today, I'd like to feature two prominent sponsors of Operation Iron Cross - CrossFit's own Operation Phoenix, and CrossFit Whole9's favorite equipment supplier, Again Faster.

Operation Phoenix is a CrossFit initiative that raises funds to equip the entire United States Marine Corps with functional fitness equipment to increase combat preparedness, reduce injury, and strengthen unit cohesion. This effort is accomplished through non-profit sales, corporate sponsorships, and individual donations. Every penny raised goes directly to "America's Fighting Force," the USMC.

We contacted Operation Phoenix last week, and asked them if they could assist with our Afghanistan efforts in any way. We immediately received a note back, asking for an equipment and supply "wish list", and cost estimates. Within just a few days, we had approval to purchase EVERYTHING on our wish list - all fully funded by Operation Phoenix. Rings, assistance bands, parallettes, t-shirts, speed ropes, and more... everything we needed to run several gymnastics certs and then some, all 100% donated.

Enter our favorite equipment supplier, Again Faster. We contacted Jon Gilson and asked if there was anything HE could do to assist us in our efforts. As expected, we received a response that very same day. Not only is Again Faster scrambling to gather every last requested item, they also offered to donate all of their profits on all equipment sales to Operation Iron Cross.

Working together, Again Faster and Operation Phoenix are providing the majority of the supplies and equipment necessary to run several full-scale gymnastics certs for the men and women of the 7SFG, right on base. How amazing is that?

Thank you to Operation Phoenix and Again Faster, on behalf of the 7FSG, Vance Camp and the Operation Iron Cross crew. We quite literally could not hold these certifications without your contributions. You (my readers) can learn more about out Operation Phoenix and support their cause by purchasing some of sweet Op Phx gear. And if you want some insider information on those gymnastics tricks and skills, visit the Again Faster Mic'd Instructor and learn how to perform movements like skin the cat and the back lever.

Stay tuned here for more featured Sponsor Profiles, and updates on our Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier initiative. We're not done collecting funds yet, so click here to sponsor a soldier today!

The Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier Program

2009-11-15T09:15:00.006-05:00

In the process of organizing donations and supplies for Operation Iron Cross, Dallas and I began to brainstorm things we could take over with us that would make a difference to the soldiers of the 7SFG. CrossFit equipment was a given, since we're hoping to get about 100 people through the certifications, but we wanted to get a little more creative and think outside the gymnastics box. Given the nutrition focus here on the blog and in our nutritional counseling practice, we thought about how we could help the 7FSG Eat Good Food. And I immediately thought back to my conversations with Karl Schirrmacher, a Staff Soldier in the Army deployed in Iraq. In "Karl's story", he talked about being stationed overseas, and the limitations he had to work around when trying to complete his Whole30 program.

All of which led us to the conclusion, "We need to bring some Good Food over to these guys", and the creation of the Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier program.

Enter Steve's Club, a non-profit organization offering young athletes (and non-athletes) of Camden, NJ world-class coaching, community and training techniques used by elite and professional athletes worldwide to help strengthen the foundation of our future. (You can read more about Steve's Club in this free CrossFit Journal article.) Steve's Club is the creator of Paleokits, portable, high quality, delicious Paleo food (jerky, dried fruit and nuts) in perfect Zone proportions. And founder Steve Liberati was more than willing to take time out of his own charitable efforts to help our cause.

We'd like to bring 500 Paleokits to Afghanistan. Steve's Club is going to donate one Paleokit for every four purchased, but we need your help to make this happen.

We've set up a PayPal link for donations. You can donate as little as $5 to purchase one Paleokit for an active duty soldier. Send $20, and Steve's club will donate an extra kit on your behalf. If you're an affiliate or larger organization, you can sponsor an entire certification's sustenance at snack time. Go as big as you can - but every single dollar helps.

Now, let's chat for a minute.

I haven't ever asked my blog audience for anything. I write, you read, we have a good time, and things are easy. I don't inundate you with ads, I don't push products or services on you, and I've certainly never asked you for money. Today, I'm asking. This is important to me, to Dallas, and to this CrossFit operation. This is especially important to the men and women serving our country in one of the most dangerous and unstable areas in the world. So today, I'm asking.

Donate via this link. I'll be updating you daily as to our efforts, and keeping track of each and every person, affiliate and group who contributes to the cause. And on behalf of me, and the Whole30 program, and Dallas, and the soldiers... THANK YOU.

Operation Iron Cross

2009-11-15T08:00:00.002-05:00

I have pretty much the most exciting news in the history of Urban Gets Diesel.

At the invitation of the United States Army, CrossFit is sending a small group of trainers to Afghanistan, to run the men and women from the 7th Special Forces Group through a series of CrossFit Gymnastics Certifications.

We'll be flying out of Pope Air Force Base (in NC) on a C-17, with an estimated departure date of December 3rd. Three days later, we'll arrive at Bagram Air Base, and Vance Camp. We'll spend about a week in-country, running as many men and women of the 7SFG through the certs as humanly possible. And we've unofficially given this trip a bad-ass nickname: Operation Iron Cross.

A camera crew from Again Faster will be coming along to document the entire operation for the CrossFit Journal, and Dallas (my business partner and CrossFit Whole9 co-owner) is taking time off from his physical therapy practice to act as an assistant coach at the certs. Finally, proceeds for the majority of equipment and supplies necessary for a project of this nature have been donated by CrossFit's Operation Phoenix, an initiative that raises the necessary funds to equip the United States Marine Corps with functional fitness equipment to increase combat preparedness, reduce injury, and strengthen unit cohesion.

My preparatory role for the operation is especially rewarding - and especially challenging, given our timetable. I am in charge of organizing supplies, equipment and donations for the soldiers stationed at Vance Camp. To run these certs, we need a certain amount of specialized equipment - rings, parallettes, assistance bands, etc. In addition, we'd like to bring the soldiers as many "tastes of home" as we can - things that any CrossFitter would appreciate, but that CrossFitters stationed far from home in service of their country would truly cherish. I'll be trying to organize donations of everything from affiliate t-shirts to Paleo food supplies - and we'll have to move fast, as all donations must be secured and en route to CF Fort Bragg by Thanksgiving.

We've currently lined up several sponsors who are generously donating their time and equipment, including Again Faster, Tactical Athlete, RingTraining.com, Rage Fitness, and Misha's Coffee. Dallas and I are especially excited about the "Whole30 Sponsor a Soldier" program we'll be rolling out, in conjunction with Steve's Club - more information on that tomorrow. But we still need help - and I'm confident that those who read my blog and are active in the CrossFit community will answer the call.

In the coming weeks, I'll be keeping you updated on all of our Operation Iron Cross efforts, and giving you the behind-the-scenes of what it's like to organize a trip of this nature. We'll also be featuring sponsor profiles, letting you know who has contributed to this effort, and how their donations are making a difference.

To say this is an amazing opportunity is an understatement. This will be a life-changing event for those of us privileged enough to participate in this special operation. Stay tuned for more information, and get rolling on ways you (and your affiliate) can contribute to this very worthy CrossFit cause. And if you're stationed at Vance Camp, check out the gymnastic cert dates as posted along the right side of the CF Main Site. Looking forward to seeing you there.

The Whole30 Hits the Road

2009-11-13T05:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, and welcome to your Whole30 check-in. We'll be hitting CrossFit LIC this weekend, helping Tucker at another gymnastics cert and participating in the Operation Pull for Hope event taking place on Saturday night. The cert is sold out, but if you're local to NYC, make a donation to Hope for the Warriors and come meet tons of CrossFitters, do a muscle-up, or just cheer Gillian on.

Before I hit the road, I'm making a stop at the local Whole Foods-style store to load up on portable Good Food for the weekend. I always bring a ton of food to these certs - eating out for three meals a day gets expensive, and you can't always make the best food choices. I'd much rather bring snacks with me and be as prepared as possible in case I get stuck.

Today's Whole30 topic is travel food. What do you do when you hit the road? What kinds of foods do you bring, how do you keep things fresh, and how do you avoid eating nothing but jerky, fruit and nuts while traveling? Post your best tips, tricks, travel-friendly recipes and other Good Food guidelines to comments today.

Cortisol Management for CrossFitters

2009-11-11T08:56:00.005-05:00

Once again, today's post is coming from readers' emails and comments. In my recent Derailed post, I wrote the following:

In it for the long haul? Here’s where you have to triage – and listen to me carefully. Eating well and sleeping enough come first. Just focus on that, and if that’s all you can do, that’s okay. Eat only Good Food, sleep as much as you can, and supplement for cortisol management. Those are your top priorities, and if you can keep those up, you’ll maintain an awful lot of your general “health”.

I received more than a few emails following that statement, asking about cortisol management, and steps you can take to help you manage your cortisol levels. Now, I'm not an expert on adrenal fatigue by any means, but I'm pretty good with Google, so I've pulled some basics together for y'all. I also checked in with Dallas and Mathieu Lalonde to see what their giant science-y brains could add. One word of caution - I've given you some supplement links as reference, but common sense should tell you to do your own research before you start taking anything new, right?

Let's hit the basic background principles first. The adrenal glands produce many of the body's hormones, including epinephrine (adrenaline) and cortisol. The function is to help us under stress - the release of certain hormones puts us into "fight or flight" mode, to help us deal with crisis situations. Trouble is, when you are under constant stress, the glands are working overtime, pumping out these hormones. The excess cortisol wreaks havoc on your metabolism, and seriously circumvents the processing of fat, protein and carbohydrates and fat loss efforts.

You can help to manage cortisol levels with the following supplements and common sense tips.

Supplements:

BCAA (branch chain amino acids). A general recommendation is to take 5g of mixed BCAAs per dose, 3-4 times a day, especially post work-out, and on an empty stomach.

Dallas adds that L-glutamine has been found to have immune-stimulating properties, and can help with muscle recovery when training hard. Supplement with 10 grams, twice daily on an empty stomach, with one of those servings taken right before bed. Powdered forms are inexpensive and easily mixed into a few ounces of water.

Phosphatidyl serine. Studies have shown that 800mg/day can significantly suppress cortisol, but this can get expensive.

ZMA supplements (zinc-magnesium-aspertate) or any other supplement that has zinc, magnesium and/or calcium, along with vitamin C supplements or Emergen-C Lite. Those should help with immune function and DNA repair during stressful times.

Avoid all NSAIDs (like Advil). Dallas explains that these anti-inflammatories not only negatively affect cortisol, but they decrease protein synthesis rates. This means that your body's acute response to the stress of high-intensity exercise is diminished, which potentially could slow recovery/adaptation. Stick to fish oils for their anti-inflammatory properties.

Training:

Perform your workouts but reduce the intensity. Exercise does reduce stress. However, excessively long bouts of training or too many intense workouts deliver too much stress to an already-stressed body, and will increase levels of cortisol.

M@ adds that intense met-cons should be no greater than 30 minutes, and ideally much less than that. Monostructural cardio at high intensity (running, rowing, cycling, swimming) should be less than 45 minutes. Weightlifting workouts should also be less than 45 minutes in total.

Sleep:

Get plenty of sleep, but it does not have to be all in one chunk. Don't freak out if you sleep for a little while, wake up, then go back to sleep (as you've been doing), or get up and take a nap later in the day. Research has shown that it is not the total amount of sleep hours that matters, but the number of sleep cycles achieved while sleeping.

Here’s something from the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies: "Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy." It turns out that short afternoon naps (75-90 minutes) are very productive sleep-cycle wise. So go ahead and get your sleep in whenever you can - it doesn't have to be a whole 8 to 9 hour block.

Nutrition:

With respect to your overall diet, we've more than got that covered, don't we? However, be sure to abstain from caffeine and other stimulants. M@ also adds that you may want to abstain from alcohol and fructose as well.

A small (no more than 2 blocks of whatever macronutrient combination suits your goals) PWO meal will help lower cortisol levels after exercise.

So now you've got a few options for helping you manage your cortisol levels, including some that come from a bottle. One obvious word of caution - this does NOT mean you can supplement your way out of stress and its negative effects on your health and fitness. Employing good life stress-management skills are going to do more for your efforts to manage cortisol than any combination of supplements. A little extra help never hurts, however, so add the above to see you through the stressful times.

The new math

2009-11-06T08:00:00.007-05:00

Note: Today's Whole30 check-in is also a CrossFit 603 update. It's all related, so use today's comments to check in with your 30 day adventure, provide feedback or suggestions for the program or weigh in on the changes going down over at the 603.

Now that we've got our ducks (goats?) more in order, here's a preview of what's going on over at CrossFit 603. First, and most importantly, we're changing our affiliate name to CrossFit Whole9.

I know, right? Kind of a big deal, and a little scary for us. But we thought long and hard about our new direction, and realized that an identity change had to happen. Rolling your eyes? Is this a little too "Prince-who-changed-his-name-to-a-symbol-and-then-back-to-the-Artist-Formerly-Known-As Prince" for you? Bear with me while I explain.

The 603 had an amazing run, with group classes in Tilton and Dallas' five-day-a-week programming for our local and long-distance clients. We've been known primarily for our innovative workouts, gymnastics and Olympic lifting focus and the heavy strength bias in our programming. Our new business model, however, has us branching out beyond just daily WODs. Our primary focus is still training people in the CrossFit methodology, sure. But we plan to incorporate everything CrossFit teaches and preaches into our program, from nutrition to quality sleep to stress management. Dallas' physical therapy background also allows us to bring injury prevention, active recovery techniques and rehabilitation into our scope of services. We're trying to offer CrossFit from a systematic, whole-body perspective... which is so much bigger than simply programming workouts for the 603.

So we made the difficult decision to retire the 603, and re-brand ourselves to better represent our new direction and focus. Enter, CrossFit Whole9. (Which is why the "Whole30" moniker works so well... get it?) The name really does fit what we're doing, and our manifesto (soon to come) explains everything from what we do and how we do it to exactly how the "9" fits in.

So what does this 603-slash-9 change mean for you? Well... not much, from a technical perspective. We're signing paperwork with CrossFit HQ to make the name change official, so you'll see us listed now as "CFW9" on the Affiliate Blog. The 603 site as it stands will go away, and the Whole9 site will go up in its place. (We're keeping all the 603 posts, though, and all the old links will still work.)

But as for you, well, we'll be giving you the same good stuff we always have... just more of it. (And who doesn't like more?) Whereas the old 603 site just included WODs and rest day post, the new CFW9 will have original articles on everything from nutrition to strength training to what it's like to run a CrossFit affiliate. We're filming kettlebell video tutorials, programming new custom workouts (with math!), and sharing our take on everything from nightshades to cortisol reduction to map-and-a-flashlight met-cons. And as always, we'll continue to provide high quality, personalized coaching and training in the CrossFit methodology, from a broad and inclusive perspective. Same Dallas and Melissa, same quality information, same cheeky monkey attitude... just a new name, and a much broader scope of practice.

Whew. That wasn't so bad, was it? Hang in there with us as we go through this transition, because we promise good things will follow. And in the meantime... you'd better get your 603 gear while you still can, because as soon as the name change is official, we'll be all CFW9, all the time.

If you should be in the kitchen, you'd better visit our store soon!

That covert yogurt: When food gets sneaky

2009-10-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Today’s Whole30 check-in topic comes from a reader’s post. Heather wrote:

“I am currently in the testing part of Whole30 (completed 30 days, and am now reinserting certain foods back in to see how they affect me). One thing I gave up during the Whole30 was my morning organic, sugar-free yogurt with salt-free almonds and sugar free granola. I am now eating Paleo except for this breakfast so I can test the way I feel and my performance during WODs.

I had my first one yesterday and another one today. Physically, I feel good, and I performed well and felt good during yesterday's WOD... so I would like to know when I can declare my yogurt breakfast okay?”

Heather brings up an important question. You’ve followed the Whole30, and you’re reintroducing foods in a smart, scientific manner, one food group at a time. (Heather skipped the “one food group at a time” part of the reintroduction guidelines – but that’s not the point.) Pretend you’ve chosen dairy as your first test food group. You eat a small bowl of all-natural ice cream two days in a row, and feel no side effects. Your stomach isn't puffy, you still feel good and you PR'd your deadlift an hour after your second bowl. The dairy hasn’t appeared to impact how you look, feel or perform… so why can’t you just start working a Paleo + Ice Cream diet?

Warning: I’m about to burst your Breyer’s bubble.

First, and most importantly, because some foods are sneaky. Say you’re practicing temperance while eating off the reservation (limiting consumption to once every week or two, and eating “bad” foods in moderate quantities). After eating those foods, you may not notice an immediate reaction in any of your body's systems. However, your body is still experiencing some, if not all, of the negative internal effects associated with those foods, such as inflammation, gut irritation, and insulin spikes.

Dallas explains, “"Even infrequent consumption of foods (or food products) that contribute to elevated levels of insulin, cortisol, or the pro-inflammatory eicosanoids will set you up for inflammation-driven disease processes. Most of us already know the effect that chronic consumption of processed carbohydrates has on the development of Type II Diabetes, but this is only one example of how a previously asymptomatic ("silent") inflammatory process can manifest itself as overt disease. Unfortunately, just eating a bagel and a yogurt for breakfast once a week is enough to trigger grain- and dairy-related inflammation, causing an uptick in all the inflammatory processes in your body for days or even weeks afterward. You might not be able to feel a bagel and yogurt invading your system, but you cannot avoid the pro-inflammatory effects of those foods."

So Heather’s multi-cheat meal of dairy, grains AND artificial sweeteners (strike one) are each silently attacking her bodily systems from all angles... without her awareness. Sneaky, sneaky, in a very disconcerting manner, right? It gets worse. See, on top of the sneaky factor, the effects of these incidents are cumulative, especially if your “cheats” occur on a frequent basis. (Strike two for Heather’s breakfast routine.) Even if you're not noticing the negative effects of your dietary transgressions now, there's a good chance you'll start feeling the effects after a two or three weeks of regular "cheat food" intake. That old knee or shoulder pain may start acting up again, your skin doesn't look as clear, your digestive tract is less than happy, and your energy levels aren’t as consistent as they used to be. At that point, however, it's too late to put an immediate halt to the negative effects - your body is already hurt, and in distress mode. The fix? Spend another 30-60 days going cold turkey Whole30 to reverse the effects – reduce the inflammation, allow your digestive tract to heal, restore insulin sensitivity. Essentially, start over.

Finally, a potential strike three for Heather’s breakfast: Eating off the reservation on a regular basis, especially if incorporating multiple “cheat” food groups, may begin to trigger those old thought processes and behaviors that led you to crave sugars or sweets, over-eat, under-eat or artificially prop up your energy levels with carbs and caffeine. Remember, a primary goal of the Whole30 is to break old habits and overcome mental hurdles as related to food, eating and satisfaction. Now that you’ve graduated, don’t get too lax in your habits – those old thoughts and patterns are persistent, and may be just as sneaky in their invasion as the cheat foods you’re eating.

In summary, if Heather is digging her breakfast, I am all for her partaking of that particular combination once in a while. But making that a daily occurrence is a bad idea, for all of the above reasons. The good news is that there is nothing in that meal – no nutrients, vitamins, minerals or energy sources - that she can’t get from eating other, better, healthier foods. So put that meal on your F-Off list, Heather, but for the sake of your health and performance, base the majority of your breakfasts on quality food choices.

My recommendation to all of you is to follow these Cheat Smart guidelines when coming off the Whole30, and eat off the reservation only when you need to, to satisfy those mental cravings and quality of life requirements. Dallas wraps it up nicely, saying, "Don't be fooled if you don't have immediate, obvious symptoms when you reintroduce one or more of these 'non-Paleo' foods after completing the Whole30. Minimizing the intake of inflammatory food groups like grains, dairy, and legumes is always the smartest and safest way to maximize your performance and minimize the risk of chronic disease."

Post thoughts, observations, and recent cheat experiences to comments.

Back to gymnastics... come play at CrossFit LIC!

2009-10-28T15:40:00.004-04:00

Feedback on the Whole30 rocks, and I LOVE how you've all adopted the title so quickly. Thanks for jumping on the bus with that one - I'm glad it caught on. We've been hard at work on the web site redesign, and we've got some local nutrition stuff in the works, so stay tuned for more developments.

This weekend, however, I'll be doing nothing but PLAYING. I'm heading to CrossFit USA in Berlin, CT, to help at Tucker's sold-out gymnastics cert. This is my fourth cert with Tucker, and they just keep getting better. He's constantly refining his material, adding new and innovative techniques to make you a better athlete. And his perspective on CrossFit, gymnastics and the role of strength and technique should not be missed. (Warning: don't you dare mention a kipping ring dip in his presence. Shudder.) You'll hear "build the strength, learn the movement" so often, you'll start repeating it in your sleep - as you should be - and he'll teach you how to incorporate that mantra into your daily training in a safe and effective manner.

I'll also be heading to my friend Vadim's box - CrossFit Long Island City in New York - on November 14th and 15th to help Tucker at another cert. That one is not yet sold out... and there's another reason that weekend will be a special one. Gillian Mounsey is staging a charity event that evening at CrossFit LIC, hosted by Tucker and attended by all the CrossFit superstars. (There's a rumor that Coach Glassman himself will be up in the spot.) So sign up for the cert, donate $25 to "Hope for the Warriors" and spectate the charity event on Saturday night - it's a double-fun weekend. (Triple, if you count the fact that I'll be there.) Register through the Main Site, and if you're heading to either cert, drop me a comment and let me know you're coming.

This week's upcoming Whole30 check-in (to be posted on Friday at noon) comes from a reader's comment on the site earlier this week. I love pulling your questions and comments into my posts, so keep them coming.

The Whole30

2009-10-23T10:55:00.006-04:00

I am super happy to announce that the "Change your life in 30 days" program now has an official name! The 30 day program will hereafter be known as the "Whole30".

When I wrote that original post back in July, I never dreamed the program would take off the way it did. With hundreds of participants (and even entire gyms!) joining up every month since, I've realized that this thing has a real place in our affiliate future, and Dallas and I are happy to promote and support it on a permanent, go-forward basis. I'm also especially excited because this ties in beautifully with the training, coaching and consulting practice that we are developing. While those changes are still under wraps, our concepts, business practices, list of services and "manifesto" have been finalized... and the Whole30 program is an integral part of everything we are trying to do for our community.

The "whole" concept also tie in with many of the recent posts from veteran 30 day'ers. For example:

Oh, what have I done? wrote, "I did the 30 day thing and at the end of 30 days went to a 80% paleo daily effort. I continue to feel pretty good, and continue to do well in my WODs... The 30 days was easy to follow and I was super dedicated, but after that length of time and no weight loss, I decided the effort was not worth it. What kind of advice do you give to people like me who want to optimize health, but don't really see or feel any big changes when being really strict with diet? It is a confusing position to be in when the advantages are not glaringly obvious."

And Angie wrote, "It (the 30 day program) has changed me for the better. I have stuck with the Paleo lifestyle of eating since July. I felt better, more energetic, etc... I had a lot of inflammation in my back and that has greatly improved. I will say though that I haven't really noticed a weight or fat loss. Its just that I would have expected to see some sort of change after giving up all the junk and I haven't."

And this is where the "Whole" part of the Whole30 comes in. See, optimal health and fitness requires more than just a perfect diet. Sure, most people experience positive changes in how they look, feel and perform just by following the plan as outlined. But there are a whole host of other factors that contribute, and often compete with one another. As I've mentioned before, it doesn't matter how hard you train if you're not getting adequate sleep, and as some of you have recently commented on "Derailed", even a 100% Paleo diet isn't powerful enough to overcome the negative physical and mental effects of high stress.

These factors must be evaluated and triaged as a WHOLE. They all relate, and they're all an integral part of your current level of health and fitness. Which is exactly where we're taking our CrossFit training and coaching program - with the Whole30 acting as the foundation of the nutritional piece of the puzzle. Start there and you'll experience the same positive results that others posting here have seen. But when cleaning up your food quality isn't enough to get you where you want to be - looking, feeling and performing your best - that's where we come in.

Stay tuned for more details, but in the meantime... the Friday afternoon Whole30 check-in is live and direct, so let's hear what you've got to say.

Special thanks to Adam Kayce, web designer and creative genius, who actually came up with the new "30 day" name.

An (administrative) word from your sponsor

2009-10-22T11:38:00.006-04:00

Here's a little bit about what's been going on behind the scenes, why the 603 has been quiet these last few weeks, and some follow-up on the "Derailed" post.

CrossFit 603/30 Day News:

First, we are in the process of creating a permanent home for our 30 day program. Which needs a real name, because (a) every time someone calls it a "challenge", I swear under my breath, and (b) calling it "Urban Gets Diesel Change Your Life in 30 Days" is kinda long, and (c) "That 30 Day Thingy" isn't exactly snappy. We're working on it. Until the 603 site gets a redesign and the whole 30 moves over there, every Friday on UGD will be dedicated to 30 day'ers. Welcome back, kids.

We are H.A.R.D. at work redesigning the 603 to better reflect the broader scope of training-related services we now offer. Until we're ready to relaunch, the 603 will be on hiatus. We're hoping to have things wrapped up in another few weeks, but that depends on how much time Dallas and I can devote to the effort. We're moving as fast as we can.

In the meantime, keep an eye here for the usual posts - training, nutrition and random musings.

Derailed follow-up:

Thanks to all of you who posted and emailed about your own "derailment", and how you are coping. That's the kind of thing we're going for with our new consulting and training program... fitness is more than just your training PRs, perfectly measured diet or zinc-and-magnesium induced sleep regimen. There are so many factors that play into health and fitness, and you need to treat them all as a WHOLE to keep moving forward. Sounds like you are all back on a good track as well - and if you're not, it's not too late to 'fess up, ask for help and state your case here. You've got plenty of support from me and the readers.

My PTP program is off to a good start -deadlifts and presses are light, but that's the whole point. (If you haven't read Dallas' intro to the program, you really should. It explains everything, including why he's a genius for programming this under our official CrossFit umbrella. In my opinion, CrossFit needs way more of this and way fewer map-and-a-flashlight met-cons*.)
*Map-and-a-flashlight met-cons are those excessively detailed, multi-round, multi-exercise, convoluted rep scheme chippers that require a map and a flashlight to follow along. It's a disturbing affiliate programming trend... more on that in a future post (that's probably going to get us in trouble).
I'm eating squeaky clean until Thanksgiving (my own 30-plus day program), and taking extra rest days when I need them, which is often, because (a) I'm still a little stressed out, and (b) my body can't take a serious beating more than two days in a row just yet. But as my Dad said in an email to me yesterday:

"You can’t fix it all at once, but you can fix one small part. You succeed. Success feeds on itself and you begin to climb out of the hole you were in. So here it is again: ‘Adversity is the forge that character is built on’.

Right on, Captain Tom. Need a kick in the pants to start changing your own life, one small part at a time? Recommit to the 30 day program. Do it tomorrow. We'll all be there, waiting for you.

Derailed

2009-10-19T13:19:00.010-04:00

I am 100% ready to return to my regularly scheduled blog-writing here at UGD, but first, a little insight as to why my personal posts have been few and far between lately. See, up until recently, my life has been pretty steady. My days looked a lot the same – I do enjoy a bit of the Groundhog Day, so I tend to find a routine and stick with it. Wake, gym, my 9-5 job, coaching or writing for the blog or 603 site, early to bed, get up again the next morning and do it all over again. I liked my routine, and it afforded me the ability to eat well, sleep as much as I needed to and train five days a week, without fail.

This summer, my Fitness Train derailed when Life Stuff hurled itself across my tracks. I found myself skipping meals, missing workouts, sleeping nowhere near enough. Once I realized my tracks weren’t going to clear anytime soon, I did the best I could to run my own Health and Fitness trauma center. I triaged Life factors carefully, knowing most would survive, but accepting there would be some casualties along the way. Sleep and food came first. If I didn’t eat enough, I at least ate well. If I didn’t sleep enough, I at least took naps. Training only happened when I was well fed and well rested. Those days were sparse, but if I didn’t train at all, I at least kept moving.

As of today, my casualties are high. I haven’t trained consistently since July. I’ve lost a ridiculous amount of hard-earned strength, a ton of met-con capacity and, based on yesterday’s snatch grip deadlifts, most of my kinesthetic awareness for movements that I used to be able to perform in my sleep. My deadlift is down by almost 30#, my front squat is back where it was at the beginning of the year and I’ve lost a couple of dead hang pull-ups.

It was a Fitness train derailment of the most spectacular fashion, and there’s not a damn thing I could have done about it.

If you’re like me, health and fitness is one of the most important efforts in your life. You’ll do anything for the sake of your diet, exercise and sleep - working out while on vacation, bringing your own food to business meetings, cutting out of social occasions early because you’re training the next morning. But no matter how bad you want it, no matter how hard you try… sometimes Life Stuff hurls itself across your tracks. You get sick, your kid gets sick, work blows up, school blows up, families have crises and friends need help. It happens, and the only thing you can do is ride it out as best as you can, generating as few casualties as possible.

So how do you manage around a Fitness Train derailment, and how do you get moving again when your tracks are finally clear? Here’s my best advice, based on my own recent experience. First, when Life Stuff comes up, do your best to maintain your normal routine for as long as you can. You can juggle a lot for short periods of time, so if you can already see light at the end of the tunnel, suck it up, abandon extraneous activities and just stick to the basics. Deal with Life, eat well, sleep well and train. Narrow your scope for a few days to preserve what's important until the crisis passes.

In it for the long haul? Here’s where you have to triage – and listen to me carefully. Eating well and sleeping enough come first. Just focus on that, and if that’s all you can do, that’s okay. Eat only Good Food, sleep as much as you can, and supplement for cortisol management. Those are your top priorities, and if you can keep those up, you’ll maintain an awful lot of your general “health”.

If you’re eating and sleeping well, get to the gym when you can. Here, you’ve got two options. If you’re feeling good and up for training with some intensity, then get to it… but make those workouts count. Screw the Filthy Fifty – your only priority is maintaining strength. Met-con capacity is cheap and dirty – it goes fast and comes back faster, so save your "cardio" for better days. Instead, deadlift. Press. Squat. Do some clean and jerks. Hit the big stuff hard and heavy. But what if you're not feeling up for deadlifts? Mat Lalonde reminded me of a very important point a few weeks ago. Exercise, even at a slow and easy pace, is extremely effective in helping to manage stress and cortisol. So if you’re not able to train with your normal intensity, just do something. Walk your dog, swing a kettlebell or play with your kids. If nothing else, keep moving, because in terms of triage it’s better than nothing.

Once you put the Life Stuff behind you, now it’s time to get back into your routine. I am just this week ready and able to start fresh – and I’ll be the first to tell you it’s not easy. I did the best I could with what I was working with, but I hate that I had to let so much go in the process. I feel weak, uncoordinated, more tired than I should. And I’m so far off my routine that I’m having a hard time climbing back on board. So here’s what I’m doing to get back on the train to Dieselville.

First, I spent my first ten minutes in the gym yesterday doing nothing but complaining. “My deadlift feels awful. I’ve pulled way more than that with better form. I can’t remember how to snatch at all. My pull-ups are way too hard. Everything is sore, and I’m breathing too hard, and this totally sucks.” As unproductive as that might sound, I needed to get that out. I mean, come on… it DOES suck. Being as fit as you were and then having to start even a little bit over SHOULD make you want to pitch a tantrum of exit-gate-at-Disney-at-6PM proportions. So it's okay to complain. Take a few minutes and let it all out, because once you’re done - you’re DONE. Not one more word out of you on the subject of “used to” or “should be” or any other brand of self-pity, anger or bitterness. You simply leave all that behind and GET GOING.

Find your routine again. Make fitness your top priority for a few weeks. Get to the gym at all costs, eat good food no matter what it takes, kill your TV to get that nine hours of sleep. Get yourself back to that place where this is just what you do, where it doesn’t feel forced (even if you have to force it at first).

In terms of training bang for your buck, get your muscles back. I can't afford to care about my met-con just yet – what I need right now is STRENGTH. Dallas is starting me back on Day One of the 603 PTP program, deadlifting and pressing four days a week for the next eight weeks. Follow along if you like – there are hybrid met-cons, skill days and the occasional track day to break up the programming, but if you’re just starting out again and want to get stronger faster, this is the way to do it.

Don’t try to do everything all at once, either. The temptation may be to pile strength day upon skill day upon met-con upon “extra” cardio to get back in shape even faster. Uh, that won’t work. You’re probably still over-stressed, your body isn’t in peak physical condition as it is and if you push it too hard, too fast, you’ll end up over-trained, or worse, injured. Don’t be greedy – remember that it will take time to get back to previously enjoyed levels of health and fitness. Be patient, choose a program (whether it’s the 603 PTP, Catalyst Athletics workouts or the CrossFit Main Page) and just stick with it. Make each workout count, but make each rest and recovery period count just as much.

Finally, take your ego out of the picture. Yesterday, part of my complaining included the low deadlift numbers on my whiteboard. Dallas responded, “I don’t care what the number is, I just want them to be HARD. Are they hard?” Uh, yeah. They were hard. And we moved on. The lesson is, don’t spend any time thinking about where you SHOULD be, because that doesn’t make a lick of difference. This is where you ARE, so suck it up, stay in the moment, make your training sessions hard and stick with it. Rewards will come fast, and provide their own motivation to continue.

I’ll keep you posted here as to how my own training is progressing. I’m not a total lost cause – I’ve still got a bunch of dead hangs, my back squats are coming back fast and I pulled a 100# hang clean last weekend that practically flew up. But I’m checking my ego at this very public door in an effort to remind you that you are more than the sum of your one rep maxes… and that no matter how long Life Stuff gets in the way, it’s never too late to start fresh.

Are you stuck in Life Stuff right now, just coming back from a training hiatus or “fully recovered” from your last health and fitness break? Post thoughts and your best tips to comments.

Blog maintenance

2009-10-13T14:54:00.003-04:00

The blog may be up and down a little over the next few days. I'm attempting to change the web address from "Byers" to "Urban" without losing any of my back-links, and that involves a lot of tech-y stuff with numbers and letters and settings that I don't understand. Which is why I've hired Adam Kayce, Web ninja, CrossFitter, and 30 Day participant, to do all our internerd work. You can check out Adam's stuff over at Bright Coconut - he's got mad coding skills AND the keen ability to translate tech-talk to English so us normal people can keep our sites updated all by ourselves. (He also specializes in Wordpress themes for CrossFit affiliates... very cool.)

Anyway, once we're done, you shouldn't notice any interruption in service or lose any of your links. I'll keep you posted as to our progress.

Community sound-off

2009-10-10T18:36:00.016-04:00

This is another administrative-ish post - I'll return to actual content soon. But first, our "no box box" concept generated a lot of positive feedback. Thanks to everyone who contributed, and who sent me your thoughts via email. I was especially happy to receive encouragement from other affiliate owners - I think there's a whole lot of referral potential in both directions, considering our nutritional clients live all over the country, and a huge part of our program will involve getting their training in line. There are still a whole lot of kinks to work out, but we're excited and moving forward with the new concept. Which brings me to today's administrative topic.

I've been thinking about the big-picture direction of the blog, specifically as it relates to my "30 Day" program. To rewind for a moment, I first posted the '30 day' idea in July, and kept up a month-plus of posts exclusively tailored to that concept. After about six weeks, however, I decided to move on and write about other topics. To my surprise, however, (a) people continue to use whatever topic I post as a mechanism for their 30 day efforts, (b) there are still people jumping on the 30 day bus for the first time (hello, CrossFit Austin!), and (c) as Jake commented this weekend, some of you original 30 day'ers are coming back for rounds two and three.

So clearly, there still people out there following along. And that got me thinking about the program in general, and all the participants. What happened when you got through your first cycle? Did you abandon, re-up for another 30, learn from the experience and settle somewhere in the middle? Are you missing the community here, missing the support, wanting to ask more questions or get more advice but feel like you no longer have a venue? And THOSE questions got me thinking about what to do here on the blog, and/or over at the 603 site.

First and foremost, does this 30 day thing need a permanent (or long-term, at least) home, with weekly posts dedicated solely to the program? I can do that (and moderate, offering advice and answering questions), as long as I leave room for other good posts relating to nutritional, training, etc. On that note, what else do you want to see around here? Maybe you'd like to read more random, fun posts like "The Maureen Martone Rule" (coming this week!), or maybe I include some Q&A where I answer emails on the main page, or maybe you want more behind the scenes stories of affiliate ownership, or any combination of ideas.

In summary, I'd like to tailor the blog (and the 603 site) to what the community needs, and what it's currently missing. I want to make ALL of our stuff easy to follow, easy to keep up with and easy for readers to contribute and interact. So help me figure out where to take this, because things are moving quickly and I don't want to miss any opportunities here. I know, I know... you're used to ME telling YOU what to do. But I'm HAPPY to take some direction from the only people who matter - the people who read my stuff. So sound off. I'm listening. And thanks, because without you, it would just be me and my Dad reading this post. (And he has a genetic obligation to read whatever I write.)

Administrative Announcement

2009-09-27T20:45:00.004-04:00

Quick administrative announcement.

Byers is now URBAN. Yep, the name change bus pulled up, opened its doors and let off the coolest last name on the planet - one which I am reclaiming as my own. So get on the bus, people... because now it's Urban Gets Diesel. Need some help wrapping your head around this one? Here's a handy primer.

What: Uh, try and keep up. It's now "Urban Gets Diesel."
When: Effective immediately, so please use "Urban" for all future links, references and general giving of props.
Where: For now, I'm keeping the same web address. I'll be registering Urban Gets Diesel soon, though. The transition will be seamless, as soon as I figure out how to be all geeky and forward my page and stuff.
Why: Don't you worry your pretty little heads about that.
How: Done and done - I waved my Moxy-Boss wand and it is so.

Finally, as a request, if you've got my page linked on yours, please change my name and/or the site title when you get a chance. (I mean, Robb Wolf has already done it, and he's a busy, busy dude, so...) As always, thank you for your cooperation, consideration and continued readership. This bus couldn't do it without you.

Big Ups - Dallas vs. The Koffin

2009-09-24T05:00:00.017-04:00

**Special shout-out... Happy Birthday, Dallas!**

Here is the final installation in the CrossFit 603 "Big Ups" series. As some background... we traveled from Sacramento to San Francisco CrossFit with our friends Matt and Donna of MaD CrossFit to meet Adrian Bozman (Coach Boz) and take the Koffin's lunch money. When we arrived, Boz told us the creator of the Koffin - Larry Gallagher himself - was on site building some plyo boxes. How. Cool. Is. That?

The Koffin is essentially two big boxes, the top of which slides down over the bottom. They've built peg holes into both pieces, with brackets that slide into the holes from the outside. You raise and lower the top to adjust the height, and hold it in place with the brackets. At its highest, the Koffin measures 58"... just shy of 5 feet. It's... tall. And until we got there, only four people in the whole world had managed conquer its highest setting. (The requirements of "conquering" the Koffin are simple - jump from the ground, land with both feet on the box and stand all the way up at the top. They don't care if you run, skip or pas de bourrée your way up to the thing - just get UP there.)

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll let you watch the video to see how it all transpired. A big thank you to Coach Boz and San Francisco CrossFit for their hospitality, and to Larry Gallagher for some damn fine craftsmanship.

Big Ups - Five Oh Edition

2009-09-16T17:13:00.017-04:00

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Maine Man Detained Outside Local CrossFit Gym, Charges Still Unclear

By Melissa Byers
Chief Correspondent, The CrossFit 603 WORD

CHICO, CA (AP) – A Maine man found wandering outside a local CrossFit gym was held for questioning after alleged “mischievous conduct” involving a California Highway Patrol vehicle, although the police admit they are still not sure what charges technically apply.

According to a the California Highway Patrol (CHP), on Tuesday, September 6, 2009, Dallas Hartwig (a resident of Brunswick, ME) was taken in for questioning for allegedly disturbing the peace and endangering the welfare of a police cruiser. Mr. Hartwig was accused of repeatedly jumping on the roof of the vehicle, causing a public commotion and damaging state property.

One witness (who wished to remain anonymous) described the event. “There was this guy just, like, stalking this cruiser. It was weird, he kept walking up to it, bouncing up and down and then sprinting around the parking lot.” She described the suspect as a white male, 6’ 4” tall, with dark hair, wearing a light blue t-shirt and black board shorts. “He was just hanging out looking sketchy, and then he suddenly just, like, JUMPED on the car. Just jumped right up on the roof. From the ground. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Police immediately reclaimed their cruiser and detained Hartwig for questioning. However, further inspection of the vehicle showed no damage whatsoever, weakening the department's case. A CHP officer who asked not to be named added, “Uh, we’re not really sure what he did was illegal. Truth be told, we don’t know what the heck to charge him with. There’s always ‘criminal mischief’… but that’s just something we made up to use when we can’t think of anything better.” The officer goes on to say, “I’ve seen the video... it was pretty cool, actually. I wonder if I we can swing by my house on the way to the station so he can show my kids. They’d love it.”

Hartwig was released without being charged after several hours of questioning and a lesson in box jumping for members of the CHP Ball-Busters, the department’s co-ed recreational basketball team. Upon his release, Hartwig refused to comment, saying only, "I'm coming for you, Boz."

Later in the week, a suspect matching Hartwig's description was recorded jumping on a Sacramento city cruiser, leading the CHP to put out an all-points bulletin for his arrest. A CHP representative stated, “The guy’s got ups, that’s for sure, but he’s got half the force running around the parking lot trying to jump on their cars. It’s like Jackass, only with tasers and guns. Loaded guns. Someone’s gonna get hurt.”

Melissa Byers
The CrossFit 603 WORD

Big Ups - Fun With Lu Edition

2009-09-15T05:00:00.001-04:00

About two months ago, CrossFit 603 got really into jumping on stuff. Or over stuff, or across stuff... jumping, in general. Dallas set his sights on San Francisco CrossFit's Koffin, and I set my sights on, well, anything over 24", because that was as high as I've ever tried to jump. (I'm not a good jumper. No, I'm a TERRIBLE jumper. It's an evil, evil Goat.) So we've been practicing, hitting 60.5" box jumps (Dallas) and 34" car jumps (me - see blog header).

Fast forward to last week, as Dallas managed to jump his way across two states on our Affiliate Tramp through Oregon and California. We enlisted the help of Lu Crenshaw, owner of CrossFit Allegiance and our shared CrossFit Crush. Seriously - Lu can out-up me by 10"... and she's only 5' 3" tall. So she was all too happy to jump around with us for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning.

Everyone loves a good montage, right? Here are some successful (and not so successful) jumps shot during our morning of fun at XFA. Also, in case you were wondering, tires are not soft, people - as you may be able to tell by the look on my face after some of those fails. Hey, we should all be working our Goats, right? (Even if our Goats make us look awkward and uncoordinated in front of hundreds of blog readers. At least my socks are cute.)

Stay tuned later in the week for the "Big Ups - Five Oh Edition"... and the final results of Dallas v. The Koffin.

Affiliate tramping - NorCal edition

2009-09-14T09:10:00.003-04:00

Good morning! I spent all of last week in Oregon and northern California, affiliate tramping and working on some fun and exciting new projects. We went to visit Matt and Donna Dyson (MaD CrossFit) before their big move to New Zealand at the end of the month, and ended up doing a whirlwind tour of the area. I put 4" on my box jump (and a whole host of bruises on my shins) with Lu Crenshaw at CrossFit Allegiance in Medford, OR, worked the box squat and snatch with Nicki Violetti at NorCal Strength and Conditioning (Robb Wolf's joint), nailed some pretty 93# cleans from the high hang at CrossFit East Sac and watched Dallas jump on the Koffin at San Francisco CrossFit.

More on all of these shenanigans later in the week - I'm trying to shake the effects of a red-eye, a time change and a momentary lapse of good judgment (when I told Dallas I'd go 30 days caffeine-free with him). In the meantime, congratulations to all you 30 day-ers who are still holding strong. There are still people jumping on the bus, so keep posting to comments and keep encouraging, supporting and inspiring.

Mischief at CrossFit NorCal... stay tuned to see what brought the CHPs.

Go green

2009-09-02T09:17:00.010-04:00

Here's a blanket statement that I feel extremely confident making, right here, right now, in a public setting. You need to eat more vegetables. Yes, you. ALL of you. Today's post is all about going green - green, leafy vegetables, that is.

The "CrossFit dietary prescription", Dr. Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet and Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint all have one thing in common... after the number one recommendation - "eat meat" - comes the second most important edict - "eat vegetables". Everyone knows vegetables are good for you - but why, across the board, is there so much focus on the green leafy stuff? Here's a short (obligatory, if not boring) list, to reinforce what we already know. Nothing here should be a surprise, and it's all taken from Dr. Cordain's FAQ.

Nutrition. Fresh vegetables are high in beneficial nutrients, such as soluble fiber, antioxidant vitamins, phytochemicals, and low-glycemic carbohydrates.

Insulin sensitivity. Most veggies are of a low-glycemic index, meaning that they cause slow and limited rises in your blood sugar and insulin levels. (An we all know how important it is to get your insulin situation in check.)

Health. The nutrients in vegetables not only promote good health, but exclude all of the "traditional" carb ingredients (refined sugars, grains, salt, and processed additives) that frequently cause weight gain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and numerous other health problems. In addition, the high soluble-fiber content of vegetables will improve most diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Alkalinity. Because vegetables are alkaline in nature, they promote a healthy acid/base balance. Diets too heavy in acidic foods can contribute to a host of health issues, including inflammation, osteoporosis, kidney stones, hypertension, stroke, asthma, and insomnia.

So assuming we're all on board with the Science-y reasons you should eat copious amounts of vegetables every day, the obvious question is... why aren't you? The excuses I am given are endless, but can be summed up in a few categories:

I don't like them

I don't know how to cook/prepare/eat them

Fruit is both easier AND tastes better

Let's tackle these one at a time. First, I don't care that you don't like them. Sometimes, grown-ups have to do things we don't like because it's for our own good. Eating vegetables is one such thing. Do you think I'd rather eat a bag of spinach with my eggs instead of fresh berries covered in coconut milk? No contest. But I eat the spinach because it's the best choice, and contributes more positively to how I look, feel and perform. Suck it up, people. You are no longer allowed to tell me you don't like (fill in vegetable here), because for every vegetable that you don't enjoy eating, there are 17 more out there that would do you just as good. Which brings me to point #2...

Learn how to shop for, prepare and cook vegetables properly. There are probably a whole HOST of vegetables out there that you do, in fact, like... if you only took the time to seek them out and learn how to cook them. So do your homework. Talk to your local Farmers' Market vendors, call that friend of yours who would know exactly what to do with all that rutabaga or surf the web and let Emeril, Oprah or that hot Italian lady from the Food Network show you what's what in the produce section. Experiment. Try new things. Put the effort in, because if you're going to comply with point #1 (eat them, even if you don't like them), wouldn't it be easier if you DID, in fact, like them?

And finally... fine. I can't argue with the fact that fruit DOES, in general, taste better. Who wouldn't take a fresh mango over, say, mashed cauliflower? But... if you refer back to point #1, end of discussion. So let's address the "fruit is easier" part. Sure, fruit can be eaten raw and on the go, but so can vegetables. Carrots, snow peas, sugar snap peas, red/yellow/green pepper, cucumber and celery are just as portable and crunch-able as fruit. Try swapping out that side of fruit with your lunch with carrots or a red pepper... same crunch, same sweet taste - it's like sneaking in your vegetables when your taste buds weren't looking.

Please understand, I do have some sympathy. For those of you who are REALLY having a hard time getting your vegetables in, I'm willing to make some concessions. If you MUST dip your veggies in hummus, salad dressing or some other non-compliant dressing, I'm okay with that. In this case, the benefits (you eating your vegetables) outweighs the potential negative consequences of the dressing. Just be smart about it, and use as little as possible to satisfy your taste buds. I'm also okay if there isn't as much variety here as there should be. If you're like my friend Brandon, and I can get you to go from NO vegetables at all to carrots and green beans every day... I'll take it. I'd prefer that he branches out a bit more, but for now, I'm just happy he's eating SOMETHING green.

And for those of you about to blast me for recommending snow peas and sugar snap peas (technically legumes, and not okay on a strict Paleo diet)... if you try to tell me "Grok wouldn't eat those", I will literally come to your house and kick you in the shins for missing the bus. As Dallas says, "Green beans, sugar snap peas and snow peas are far more 'pod' than 'bean'." And, again, if those are the only vegetables you'll eat, then I am more than happy to give you my blessing. They're VEGETABLES, people. How bad can they be for you?

Finally, in a last ditch effort to get you to eat your greens, I'm busting out my secret weapon... Melicious' Sunshine Sauce. This spicy Thai dressing is 100% Paleo compliant, easy to make, doesn't need to be refrigerated and one of the Top Three Most Delicious Things To Ever Come Out of My Kitchen. Mix up a batch - it's easy to scale the recipe - and slather it over every one of your vegetables. I guarantee it will make even the most hard-core veggie hater fall in love.

Now I'm off to Google "rutabaga", because while it's a really fun word to say, I'm not entirely sure what to do with it now that it's sitting in my refrigerator.

Welcome home, Karl

2009-09-01T10:25:00.003-04:00

I'd like to take a minute to welcome Karl Schirrmacher home from Iraq. Karl is a Staff Sergeant in the Army and recently returned to his wife, family and friends in California safe and sound.

We're glad you're home, Karl.

The serious business of sleep

2009-08-26T20:24:00.013-04:00

I've been giving a lot of thought to the role sleep plays in our overall health and fitness pursuits. It's a factor often discounted, placed well behind training and diet. We weight and measure our food, we diligently count reps and record times, but we get home and put bedtime off for a few hours in favor of watching our favorite TV show or surfing the internet. I've been guilty of it myself - staying up late writing blog posts but still dragging my butt out of bed at 5 AM for a workout. I would think, "Suck it up - once you get up and slam a coffee, you'll feel much better." And I prided myself on my discipline and motivation that early in the morning.

Let's face it - our Western society encourages this. I won't even get into our long work weeks, self-created family demands, or the technology distractions that keep us up late and wake us up early. No, I'll just wrap all of that up by saying that somehow along the way, functioning on less sleep has become a point of pride, and a trait to be admired. You shake your head in awe at the guy who claims he runs just fine on five hours of sleep a night. He's a superhero, the model of efficiency, a Person Who Gets Things Done. I'm here to tell you, he is also sorely mistaken. NOBODY runs really, truly well on five hours of sleep a night. He may think he's doing just fine, but Google "lack of sleep" + "(insert disease here)" and you'll quickly realize that sleep deprivation will smuck up a whole host of bodily systems, and contributes (in part) to stress, inflammation, cancer, heart disease and diabetes. As one University of Chicago researcher puts it, "Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body... (and) we have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior."

And here's where I hit all your 30 day'ers where it hurts. I'm not just talking about sleep affecting your recovery from training, or reducing your stress... no, I'm pulling out the big guns. While diet plays a crucial role in body composition, sleep also plays a significant role... specifically, in fat loss. There are all kinds of studies relating sleep to insulin resistance, leptin levels and cortisol levels... all related to fat loss. Robb Wolf also has a great post on the effects of sleep on those pesky love handles - read the article and all the comments for the details. And here is a quick abstract that gives you yet another reason why getting that 8-9 hours of sleep a night is CRUCIAL to fat loss. (Have I said "fat loss" enough? Do I have your attention?)

So, it looks like we've been missing the bus here. Sleep is more than just lovely - in fact, from everything I've been reading and researching, my working theory is that getting good sleep is the second most important success factor in your health and fitness pursuits. That's right, NUMBER TWO... just behind cleaning up your diet, and AHEAD of perfecting your training routine. I've been preaching sleep to my clients for a few weeks now, and I'm about to step up my game with the rest of you blog readers. Think of sleep as a factor JUST as important as whether you're eating grains and dairy, or how often you're picking up heavy stuff. Experiment, just as you did with some dietary factors. Try getting 8+ hours of sleep every single night for two weeks, and see how you feel. And don't tell me you can't, because you have some special circumstance that the rest of us don't. We all work, we all have families, and friends, and outside pursuits, and stress. Figure out how to make it happen, because it's as worthy a pursuit as changing every aspect of your diet was more than thirty days ago. Easier said than done, I'll give you that, but Mercola has some good tips on how to improve the quality of your sleep. And consider getting the book Lights Out - Sleep, Sugar and Survival for what I have heard is a good read on the subject. (I just ordered it, in an effort to educate myself a bit more about the importance of sleep as a factor in nutritional and performance coaching.)

By the way - I AM taking my own advice, I assure you. Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 5 AM for the gym. It was a less than stellar night, however, as I was up tossing and turning until after 11 PM. So I turned my alarm off and slept until the sun woke me up at 7:20. My "training" that day consisted of eating really well, taking all my fish oil and getting a massage to help me de-stress. THAT'S what I did to take care of myself, and I know it did me far more good than dragging my bleary-eyed butt out of bed for some mediocre met-con action.

So do your homework, plan ahead and turn the lights out nice and early tonight. And if anyone does take me up on my two week Sleep-A-Palooza, let me know how it goes.

How to win friends and influence Paleo

2009-08-18T19:58:00.009-04:00

Welcome to the new people who are just jumping on board now. In fact, all of you newcomers inspired today's post... better late than never, right?

Today, I'd like to talk about one of the first struggles you'll most likely hit when you start practicing this new way of eating. No, I'm not talking about the cravings, or the energy fluctuations, or even the grocery bills. I'm talking about the negative reactions of your friends and family. "You're eating all that fat? That can't be good for you." Or, "That's like Atkins, right? That's just a fad diet." Or, "It so restrictive - you can't eat anything!" I'm sure you've all heard these statements and then some since you began your 30 day period. And Oprah knows, it can be tough enough to stick out the 30 days on your own, never mind if you have to defend yourself against the negative reactions, doubts and criticisms of your spouses, friends and co-workers. So what's a 30 day'er to do? Here are some of my best tips for dealing with the nay-sayers (in a way that won't get you divorced, de-friended or fired).

Lead by quiet example. This one is first for a reason, people, and it's your most powerful ally. Your results will speak for themselves. After 30 days, when your energy is rockin', your skin is clear, your aches and pains are gone and you've shed some fat or built some muscle, people will notice, and they will ask you what you've been doing. It's kind of hard to doubt the method when the results are right there in front of them. So let your experience shine through, answer questions if asked but don't waste your breath trying to convince, cajole or persuade others before they're ready. Just be a living example of what this way of eating could potentially do for them.

Pick your battles. I guarantee on thing - you can make people feel bad about themselves just by rolling up to the lunch table. The way you eat may very well remind people that they aren't eating the way they should, or could, or might want to. As such, they're on the defensive the minute you plop your salmon and vegetables next to their Lean Cuisines. Now is not the time to point out the dangers of grains, or comment on the study you just read linking diet soda to obesity. Keep your lunch to yourself, and encourage others to do the same by not responding to blatant pokes, jabs or attacks on your "weird diet". If someone is truly interested, have the conversation away from the crowd, when you can speak privately and not be interrupted by the haters.

Educate yourself. You know you'll have to deal with questions, comments and straight-up challenges from time to time, so you'd better be prepared. If I asked you right now, "Why don't you eat dairy?", how many of you would have an immediate answer for me? That answer could range from the documented inflammatory properties to the fact that as soon as you stopped, your skin cleared up - anything from reference to personal experience. The point is - you'd better have an answer - and it can't just be, "Because Byers said so." (Although I really like that answer.) So, do your homework. Figure out the difference between Atkins and Paleo. Learn why certain foods are excluded. Understand how a diet high in good fats helps promote body fat loss. Prepare some remarks based on your own experience. Just don't show up empty-handed, because if you do, you'll lose any chance you may have had to get the other party to buy in. (And if that other party is your Mom who shops for all the food, your husband who cooks all the food or your roommate who pays for half the food, you really can't afford to lose that chance.) On that note, however...

Refer to "scientific evidence" cautiously. I'm not saying you shouldn't research and cite information from the likes of Loren Cordain, Robb Wolf or Gary Taubes. What I am saying, however, is that for every science-y article you find that talks about, say, why dairy is bad... there are a hundred just as science-y articles that will say the exact opposite. My recommendation? Unless you're totally on the ball with scientific references (and able to smartly refute the opposing side on the fly), don't let the scientific research be the only leg you choose to stand on. Refer back to point #1 - lead by example, and cite REAL people who have had REAL results. Hell, point 'em here. We're not a clinical study - we've got thousands of comments (literally) from real people who can attest to the real benefits of eating this way. Kind of hard to argue with all that, you would think. Which brings me to my final point...

When outnumbered, fall back. You may very well find yourself stuck in a battle that you just can't win. It's a family dinner, your parents, siblings and children are at the table and you're being hammered with doubts, skepticism and outright criticism. Take a deep breath, smile and simply fall back. In the end, the only person whose health and wellness you are responsible for is YOU. And while it may pain you to see the unhealthy behaviours exhibited by your friends and family, ultimately, they are responsible for their own lives, and their own choices. So rather than spark a bitter feud or ruin a birthday party, swallow your ego, your pride and your frustration and simply say, "Well, this is actually kind of working for me right now, but I hear what you're saying and I really appreciate your thoughts. Now let's get back to enjoying this delicious meal!" Sometimes, that's all you can do... and that's okay. Refer back to point #1... if people are open to change, eventually THEY will come to YOU, and you'll get that opportunity to help them.

I hope some of these ideas clear a wider path for your 30-day and beyond journey. I'm sure some of you have also arrived at your own strategies for dealing with negative reactions to all of the wonderful and healthy changes you are making in your life. Share them here with us, so that we can all learn and benefit from some of the difficult and painful conversations you may have had along the way. And, as always, thanks for reading, and thanks for contributing. My community rocks, and I'm super proud to be your hostess.

Karl's Story

2009-08-14T05:34:00.003-04:00

Let's end the week on an inspirational note. I've been chatting with Karl Schirrmacher, a Staff Sergeant in the Army and currently deployed in Iraq. Karl wrote to tell me about his efforts to change his diet, and the specific challenges he faces as a result of his deployment. After reading his note, I will never again bitch about having to drink my coffee black. Karl wrote:
________

Melissa,

Our adventure started while surfing a CrossFit forum where I stumbled upon a link to the blog. I dug. I read. And I found an attitude and approach that I really appreciated--sprinkled with f-bombs. Fanfreakintastic! (Note from the Author: We haven't dropped the f-bomb since the inception of the the "Maureen Martone Rule" almost a year ago.) I was hooked and I wanted in. I printed the "Change your life in 30 days" page, and one of our other Team Sergeants wanted in too. We started right there and then.

The tough part is that we are currently deployed in Iraq. That means we have some limitations to the "super strict, no cheat, by the book, Paleo" concept. We are limited, for the most part, to what we find at the Dining Facilities (DFACs) and PX where we live and work. So, that means we have to cope with the following:

Little or no control over the cooking process. Our control comes in our choice of what goes on our plate, but we don't cook it; little men from Sri Lanka, India, and the Phillippines do.

We still have to live with vegetable oil. Olive oil is available in squeeze bottles to add to veggies and such, but nothing is cooked in it--it's all industrial vegetable oil.

No access to anything raw, organic, or grass-fed. We have lots of fruits and vegetables, but again it's all industrial grade picked and prepped by little men from Sri Lanka, India, and the Phillippines.*

Limited on meat, nut, and seeds options. We only get big brand almonds and cashews at the PX, and we are at the mercy of the DFAC on what meat is available every day.

But, we can hold to eliminating dairy, legumes, grains, and sweeteners from our daily intake. Alcohol is taken care of by General Order Number One (no alcohol in theater), so it's not even a temptation. But the temptation to cheat is a constant, as at every meal we see piles of burgers, fries, chicken fried steak, desserts, ice cream shakes, and... it's everywhere. Most military people eat terribly. We have resolved to do otherwise.

When we looked at the calendar to figure our 30 day window, we realized we would finish the cycle just as we get back to the United States (we're at the end of our tour). So our countdown to completing the challenge is also our countdown to the end of a very long year filled with suicide bombers, grenade attacks, politics, heat, and dust. I can't think of a better way to set ourselves up for continued success. Again, Melissa, thank you for opening this up to us.

Feel free to hit me up with questions (email, blog comments, wherever). Otherwise, I'll be keeping up on regular check-ins with the rest of the community.

Regards,

SSG Schirrmacher, Karl M.

________

I can't thank Karl enough for his note. In an environment as stressful as his, with challenges as life-threatening as they get, I would imagine it would be all too easy to abandon something as "trivial" as trying to stick to a strict Paleo diet. However, Karl has made it a priority for his health and wellness, and is choosing every day to do the best with what he's got. It sounds like you'll be coming home soon, Karl - until then, stay safe and keep leading by example. I'm honored to have you as part of my little community.

Question and answer-penance

2009-08-11T05:00:00.001-04:00

I have fallen behind in my own blog. Shameful. I can't keep up with all the good comments, questions and answers and stories! I go away for one little weekend and I'm hopelessly behind. Thanks to all of you for keeping the 30-day ball rolling. You've done a fantastic job here.

To those of you who said you were PLANNING dietary Armageddon on Day 31, but have since rethought that strategy (Dan from my kettlebell cert...) virtual high five. You've just saved yourself a few days of unhappiness and feeling like crap. Trust me - I've been there. We've ALL been there. Way to take the smarter route.

For those of you whose idea of "cheats" have changed from weekends full of pizza, booze and ice cream to the occasional sweet potato, something covered in maple syrup and one microbrew while out with friends - I'll cheers to that. My cheats are now hummus, a small amount of Soy creamer in my coffee and the occasional Junior Mint. (Swear to Mary Kate and Ashley, those things are so delicious they should be illegal. I suggest you have a friend dole them out, just to make sure you don't get carried away.) And I enjoy my "cheats" more, because (a) I know they're not going to make me feel like crap because they don't include ingredients I don't tolerate well, (b) I'm not eating anywhere near enough in a single sitting to have a negative impact on how I look, feel or perform, and (c) I have them infrequently, so they're more special when I do eat them.

So, back to my serious weekend slacking. For those of you just getting started and having a hard time wading through all the comments, posts and information on the site, I'll give you a day of grace. Feel free to repost questions here, and I'll make efforts today and tomorrow to answer all of them. (Veterans - feel free to jump in and help out too!) This is just a way to get some quick questions answered without hearing the obligatory "we've already covered that..." response.

Note: Please do not ask me to analyze your diet block by block. I really don't have time to get into everyone's business at that level. However, I'm feeling guilty for being away all weekend, and as a recovering Catholic, guilt is a powerful motivator. Take advantage and post questions now, people.

Fishing follow-up. (You did me proud.)

2009-08-07T07:00:00.004-04:00

Happy Friday! This week could not have been more crazypants. I gave a huge presentation at work yesterday (which sucked up my 9-5 all damn week), and decided to take off for the weekend early, so today I'll be prepping for that all day. I've been neglecting my Paleo People... but from the sounds of it, you are all taking really good care of each other. Sweet.

Everyone did a FANTASTIC job with answering my three questions from Monday. You, collectively, hit the nail on the head on all three. Way to go! All I'm going to do here is repeat YOUR advice in my own words. So, for those of you heading into (or a few days past) the big Three-Oh...

1. If your tastes haven't changed yet, if you are still craving all your "old" foods or if you haven't noticed a reduction in body fat or improvement in performance... please consider sticking with this whole super-strict thing for a little while longer. You've already put in thirty long, hard days of reconditioning your body. And I bet, if you're in this stage right now, you're trying to counteract twenty or thirty YEARS of eating poorly. That damage doesn't always come undone in thirty days. There is no magic number. But what I can promise you is that it will, at some point, come undone. At some point, you will notice a reduction in cravings, a shift in body composition, an improvement in energy level. Guaranteed. So stick with it, as long as it takes. You owe it to yourself,and you owe it to your body. But let's also address one really important point right here.

This is not just about your body. This is about resetting your BRAIN. If there is one thing I've learned from my experiences coaching and running the blog, it's this... food is emotional. It's comfort, it's celebration, it's punishment and it's reward. Food is often the ONLY thing people come together over. It's used to establish common ground, form a bond, smooth over rough personal interactions. And you cannot take that piece out of this equation. (I addressed this to a degree in my Zone Gone Bad CrossFit Journal article, but I think this topic deserves more attention. Look for a write-up on this next week.)

So if you're still feeling the same way about food after your initial 30 days... hang in a little longer. Allow your body and your mind to catch up to this new way of eating, this new way of BEING. I promise you, things will change, and you owe it to yourself to be patient.

2. Cheating smart, in a nutshell. You've dropped grains, dairy, legumes and maybe nightshades from your diet. But every once in a while, you'd still like to drink a beer, have some ice cream, slather a piece of toast with peanut butter. And if you've read my H/FO Scale, you'll know I am one hundred dollars on board with that. So let's use the last 30 days as a springboard for approaching this Smart. Be patient with your cheating, too.

Introduce these foods back into your diet one group at a time. One night, have a bowl of ice cream. Then, evaluate how you feel that night, and the next day. Stomach feel like you're about to birth an alien? You may need to limit your dairy consumption to very small quantities - or, like, me, you may decide it's simply never going to be worth it. Another night, have some grains. See how you feel that day, the next day. Get the picture? Don't waste the last 30 days! You've spent valuable time cleaning out your system and allowing your body to heal. Use that platform to identify what foods are okay to cheat with and what foods may not be so much fun anymore.

Note, I am not telling you where to draw that line. Maybe ice cream makes you sick for the next three hours, but you REALLY love ice cream, so you decide it's worth it for you. That's entirely your call. But don't you at least appreciate KNOWING how it affects you, so you don't have a bowl of ice cream before, say, a big workout or while out on a date? Cheat smart.

3. Three was kind of a trick question. On a go-forward basis... apply this knowledge however you damn well please. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life and eat your food. You've worked your own process, so all I'll ask is that you spend some time thinking about if and how you want to incorporate these principles into your daily life.

For me, I decided to stay strict a vast majority of the time. My "cheats" turned into maple syrup and hummus - both not technically allowed on a super strict diet, but still pretty damn clean "cheats". I reintroduced new food groups one at a time, and figured out that grains and sugars in small-ish quantities are totally okay, and dairy in ANY quantity is not. So when I cheat, I have, for example, one piece of french toast covered in Nutella. Not a plate of french toast, and not french toast and pancakes and a big sandwich at lunch and pasta for dinner. Just a small amount, here and there, to satisfy those mental cravings and eat something delicious.

What it comes down to is - work your own program. Just don't treat the last 30 days as something disposable - something you muscled through and can now forget about while you get back to your regularly scheduled life. Learn from the last 30 days, and figure out for yourself how to carry that with you. And, I might propose... carry that to others. (But that's another topic entirely.)

Stay tuned for Karl's story on Monday (I dare you to feel bad for yourself while struggling to eat clean after reading about Karl) and some more thoughts about the ties between food and emotion, and breaking those unhealthy strings. Have a great weekend, everyone.

Teaching you to fish

2009-08-04T09:50:00.004-04:00

Okay, kids... I have a ridiculously busy week - morning, noon and night, my "real" job, my CrossFit job and my personal life are all packed full of activity. Right now, I simply don't have time to compose a thoughtful, well crafted, detailed post about what to do if your 30 days are up. But I will NOT leave you hanging. We've come too far for that, I assure you. So, instead...

Let's play a game.

You've been working this with me - and the group - for the last month. You've been posting questions, posting your thoughts, researching and reading and experiencing these concepts for yourself. You must have learned SOMETHING in the last month, right? So, answer your own questions.

What do you think I'm going to tell you if, at the end of your 30 days, you're still craving McDonald's, jelly donuts and stuffed crust pizza? (Like, all you can think about at the zero hour is loading up on as much junk food as possible and having an entire weekend full of decadent "treats"?)

What if you're not having those extreme cravings, but are still looking forward to relaxing your diet on your 31st day? How would I recommend you approach that?

How do you think I would advise you to proceed on a go-forward basis, applying everything you've learned during this 30 day process into your "real life", for long-term success?

Answer any one of the above questions in comments, or take a crack at all three. I'll jump in where I can and provide direction, but I'm confident at this point that you already know what you need to do, and how to do it. Prove me right and make me proud.

The Weekend Check-In

2009-07-31T09:29:00.003-04:00

Happy Friday. I'm off to coach the CrossFit Kettlebell Instructor Certification, down at North Shore CrossFit. (That's my boy Danny Vee's joint, which is what is going to make this gig extra fun.) Vee and I will be helping Martone sling some 'bells and teach some stuff all weekend, which means the blog will be without parental supervision until Monday. You kids better behave yourselves.

Also, I know there are a bunch of you coming up on your 30 day mile marker. I'm drafting a post now about what NOT to do when those 30 days are up, but I won't have time to get it up on the site until Monday or Tuesday. So, for those of you whose 30 day period may be up before then... wait for me. Seriously - what's another day or two? You really don't want to waste the last 30 days, and I'm going to help you make the most of them. But I'm busy, and I can't do it this weekend. So... wait. That's an order. No complaining, either.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Jesse's Story

2009-07-29T23:51:00.003-04:00

Here's another email I received, from Jesse Richards. Jesse has been with us from the start, beginning his 30 days on July 5th. He shared his experience with me as a testament to how this process is about so much more than just your diet. For Jesse, this really has changed his life. Read, and be inspired.

_____

Dear Melissa,

I just had to tell you how wonderful this Paleo journey has been for me, and what a great impact it has had. I've been doing CrossFit since January and have gotten stronger, faster, and better at everything, but I was still gaining weight. Life has been really stressful for me the past several months, and doing this challenge has helped me put myself on the path to a better me. I started on July 5th, and as of today I've lost 17.5 pounds. I'm down from 241.5 (the highest I've weighed in several years) to a much healthier 224. I feel wonderful! I look better as well, which I know isn't the point of the challenge, but it certainly has helped me stay focused. Finally, there has not been a single workout that I haven't PR'd while I've been doing Paleo. This first week or so I had some problems with recovery, but then I upped my fat, and everything has been taking care of itself. I put 25 pounds on my deadlift last week alone (375, heck yeah)!

However, the single biggest thing for me has been that I have re-evaluated how I interact with food. I no longer feel cravings for something whenever I walk by. My friends can be having my favorite pizza, brownies, and cookies and I'll just watch them and eat my tasty meat and veggies or fruit. I am no longer bound by my past habits, and after a little over three weeks, I'm not even looking forward to that perfect cheat meal that I planned and savored to get me by in week one. I don't want to cheat anymore. This isn't a challenge to me. It's just how I eat now. For a guy who has been overweight his entire life, after 23 years I'm the one who is in control. Not the food.

So keep the tough love, sassy fun, and good information flowing! You've started something really great. I can't wait to see where it goes. Stay awesome Moxy-Boss!

Sincerely,
Jesse

_____

The last few highlighted lines make me want to hug Jesse, wherever he is. I GET what he is saying, and I am so glad that particular light bulb came on for him, as it did for me, and as it can for you. Thanks for sharing your story, Jesse. If you promise to keep us posted as to how things are going - I will make a giant flippin' announcement here the day you pull 4 bills off the floor. Deal?

Paleo check-in, Monday 27 July

2009-07-27T10:24:00.004-04:00

Good morning! It was a busy weekend, and I didn't have a lot of time to check in. For those of you still holding strong 20-plus days in, I'm happy to hear that some of the original concepts are now starting to click. It's not a diet. It's not a challenge. It's a new way to think about food and your health. It's a new, better way to take good care of yourself. For some, that's starting to make a lot more sense a few weeks in.

For Jessica, and Robbie, who had a rough weekend and fell into old patterns of behavior... take a moment to think about what thought process led you there, and how you felt during your indulgences, and how you felt after. And then, once you've thought about it, BE DONE with it. The past is the past, and all that counts is what you do today. If your self-described poor choices didn't make you feel better, didn't make you feel healthier, then learn from that. The next time you are tempted to make those choices again, remember how the end result you hoped to get from those choices (satisfaction, comfort, enjoyment) never materialized. And then make a different, better choice, and find satisfaction, comfort and enjoyment elsewhere.

Start over. Welcome back.

Alex's story

2009-07-23T05:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Thursday. I wanted to share with you an email I received from someone about 2/3 of the way through this 30 day process. It pretty much made my day. I like hearing about all the good things that you are making happen as a result of your hard work and dedication, so keep the comments coming.

_____

Melissa,

I just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks. In January of this year, I was hovering around 200 lbs. Then in March I hit 205 and I had, so I started a modified Zone diet. This modified Zone plus some basic exercise got me down to 169. Not bad... but I did not learn anything about what got me to that number.

Eighteen days ago, I stumbled onto your blog by way of CrossFit NYC. I was going to start on August 1st, but then my partner said, "Start now. Don't wait." So I did. Here is what has happened in the past 15 days.

I gave up my addition to caffeine, along with a very harmful attachment to Splenda.

I learned how to read labels - who knew that a basic plum tomato in a can contains sugar and salt?

I've learned to love veggies (something I have never done)

I am down to a lean 158 pounds

Being a creature of habit, I always ate the same thing for breakfast and lunch. Now I am searching out new things and new textures. Can you believe I have never had a blueberry or an avocado before last week?

I follow your instructions to the 'T' and shake my head when I hear questions about cocoa powder and coffee with cream.

Thank you very much for leading this journey. I am looking forward to the second half of MY journey.

Alex

_____

Thank you so much for the note, Alex. I am so happy for you, and for the positive changes you are making. Keep up the strong work, and keep me posted as to how things are going.

Best to all of you.
Moxy-Boss

Paleo check-in, Monday 20 July

2009-07-20T09:21:00.004-04:00

Happy Monday! Lots of comments on the last post, and we've got people just now getting on board with their 30 days. Welcome to all the new people. Spend some time reading old posts and comments. There's a wealth of information to be found - from the community, for the community. And repeating questions that have already been asked and answered is boring.

To answer a few recently asked questions:

1. At this point in your 30 day period, what do you THINK I'm going to say about any recipe involving cocoa powder?

Edit: The same applies to booze of ANY kind. I don't care if it's "Paleo", it's missing the bus in a giant way. Good lord, people.

2. Be patient. This process takes TIME to work. Do the work, and wait for it. It's worth it.

3. At this point in your 30 day period, don't worry about saturated fat, or your Omega-3 and Omega-6 intake. Just eat what I tell you to eat. Don't try to make it any harder than it has to be.

4. To be clear, the prescription is, "Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, SOME fruit..."

5. It's not your job to tough love each other, although you are certainly welcome to throw your two cents in anywhere you like. But don't feel like you ever need to play the bad guy. That's my responsibility here. Your role is to support, encourage, motivate and inspire. And you are all doing a fantastic job of that.

Paleo Check-In, sponsored by Melicious + Moxy-Boss

2009-07-16T07:41:00.006-04:00

I had to put up a new post a day early, considering Monday's check-in has almost 150 comments. As my friend David said, this blog is practically writing itself these days. Sweet.

If you've read all the comments, you must have noticed my girl Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan by now. She's been a faithful devotee to this effort, posting recipes, meal ideas, food suggestions and general encouragement. She's also been offering up some sweet-as-Larabar butt kickings. (Didn't notice those? That's because she's so good, you didn't even realize you were getting your butt kicked.) But there's another reason why you should be paying attention to what Melicious has to say.

This superfit, dressed-to-kill, glossy-haired, tart-tongued, rock-n-roll, hard-boiled RollerGirl GETS IT. She's been successfully living this effort with me as her nutrition coach for the last seven weeks. Which means she's about five weeks ahead of you. Which, in this effort, is a LONG TIME. And to say her results have been amazing is an understatement. She looks better. She feels better. Her performance is better. And, according to her, any unhealthy ties she may have had with food and eating have all but disappeared. So when she posts, listen to her. Read her comments, try her recipes, follow her example. She's walking, talking bombshell proof that this effort really CAN change your life.

And for a little fun and inspiration, cruise over to her blog (linked above). She is pretty much the coolest girl I've ever met, and her blog is full of hilarious observations, smart musings and honest introspection. And her Texas RollerGirl history is FASCINATING. I had no idea that sub-culture even existed... but after reading her book, I've become inspired to adopt a RollerGirl persona. I'm thinking "gym teacher gone to hell". Short shorts, tall socks, wrist bands and pigtails... which may sound like my normal training attire, but the way I'm picturing it in my head, it's more "Mark's Showplace" than "CrossFit 603". I've even got a RollerGirl name - Moxy-Boss. Which is what Melicious christened me when I started coaching her. (I didn't make a big deal out of it, but secretly I love it so much I've been signing all my check requisitions that way at work.)

SO... keep up the hard work, and take advantage of the resources you've all been sharing here. And a big thanks to Melicious for being such a big part of this effort.

Paleo check-in, Monday 13 July

2009-07-13T10:05:00.002-04:00

Happy Monday. Sounds like everyone's weekend went well - I'm happy to see the Paleo ball rolling so fast for everyone! For those of you just joining, welcome. Spend some time reading the past week's posts and comments. There is a TON of good information in there from the community. (I'm sort of just the conductor here - y'all are the orchestra. And you sound GOOD.)

Today, I want everyone to commit to trying one new vegetable this week. Choose something you've never had before, or maybe had once and then abandoned because you weren't sure how to cook it. Share what you'd like to try, and maybe someone can offer advice or tips for how to prepare it. We've got some damn good cooks around here - my girl Melicious has all kinds of good recommendations, both here and on her blog. In fact, she's a bit of an inspiration all around... stay tuned for more on her special brand of Superstar later this week.

Weekend motivation

2009-07-11T07:50:00.002-04:00

I'm throwing up a weekend post because it sounds like some of you are feeling the pressures right about now. The newness of your shiny new Paleo toy may be wearing off. You're a little cranky these days, aren't you? You're JUST far enough into this experiment to be FEELING like you should be feeling great, but you're still having some unhappy side effects (headaches, cravings, trouble recovering). Which, I assure you, is totally normal, but still... Grrrr. And now, events over the weekend (parties, cookouts, dinners out) may be tempting you to take just the tiniest little break from your initiative.

You listen to me right now - all of you. You are NOT going out like that. You will NOT cave to buffalo wings so processed, they're not even chicken. The lure of a sugar-bomb pancake or waffle at breakfast has nothing on your rockin' energy level and clear-headedness. And a cocktail at this point will both make you feel like super-extra crap in the morning AND make you mad at yourself for giving in to something so cheap and dirty.

So rally, people. You've got this. I'll help... Take a minute today and list, here, one thing that is significantly BETTER now than it was a week ago, thanks to your diet. Maybe it's your energy, maybe it's a flatter stomach, maybe you've PR'd on a workout or maybe you're happy coming here and seeing 100 comments from people who UNDERSTAND what it is you are trying to do. Share something, and remind yourself why you are doing this, and how important it is to push through these difficult times. Because, trust me... once you get over that hill and things start clicking (and THEY WILL, I promise you that), you'll be so, so glad you stuck with it.

Motivate now, and then get out there and enjoy your weekend.

Paleo check-in, Thursday 9 July

2009-07-09T07:22:00.008-04:00

It's not you. It's us.

We're doing a check-in today (instead of tomorrow) so I could draw your attention to the CrossFit 603 site, and our Dairy Manifesto. Dallas summarized his rationale against consuming dairy products in a concise, not-too-science-y three part format. Interestingly enough, the often cited "lactose intolerance" reason doesn't even make his list. (By the way - everything I learned about diet and nutrition, I learned from Dallas first. His thoughts are my thoughts, which is why I asked him to help me out with this topic.)

One word of caution... there is a LOT of information out there. Some of it doesn't seem to fit together very well - and some of it is straight-up conflicting. It's easy to become confused, frustrated, paralyzed with information overload. So, again, I caution you to use your heads. Educate yourself. Gather information from sources you trust. Process that information against your own experiences. And then make up your own damn mind. How do you do that? BY TAKING ACTION. Is dairy a good thing or a bad thing for your health, wellness and performance? Despite his vast personal experience, all his years of formal and informal education and the many clients and patients through which he's drawn his conclusions, Dallas can't decide that for you. So figure it out for yourself. Stop eating dairy for a while (like you're doing now). Then, reintroduce it and see how you feel. That's the only way to know for sure, right?

At some points along your health, wellness and fitness path, it's okay to do stuff just because someone you trust tells you to. But there comes a time when you need to take a stand, based on your own experience. And that is part of what you are doing here. So read our Dairy Manifesto,
and post questions, thoughts or your own experience to the 603 site.

Does this feel TOO easy? Read on...

2009-07-08T09:39:00.007-04:00

I could not be more surprised - or more thrilled - at how this adventure has taken off. I am in awe of how many people are taking this concept, this change, to heart. We've got entire GYMS working this 30 day program! And the level of support you are giving each other in the comments is amazing. AMAZING. It brings me joy - and I say that in all seriousness . Thanks to everyone who is posting, sharing, encouraging and generally holding each other accountable.

Now, for a word of caution... the first few days - the first two weeks, even - are always easy. You're fired up, you're committed, you're a part of something bigger than yourself. You get caught up in the excitement of this new, shiny, life-changing toy, and so you cruise along with practically no effort at all. You should have done this YEARS ago! It's really not that hard.

I would like to think that the positive experiences you are all having right now are going to carry you along through the whole month. It's hard to argue with looking, feeling and performing better - why wouldn't you want to keep it up? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. There are plenty of other factors, and stressors, that can influence this process. Two weeks from now, when this is no longer a new, shiny toy, and it is perhaps not quite as exciting, and you're being faced with more challenge and more temptation - it may not be this effortless. You may start to struggle. You may think maybe it's not worth it. You may think you've done enough, and what's the harm in relaxing just a little? You've earned it. You deserve it. What's the big deal? You may start to slack off in posting comments, asking questions, offering support. I will warn you of this, right now, so that there are no surprises... Changing your life will not always feel as easy as it feels right now.

So remind yourselves now of the commitment you've made here, to yourselves and and to each other. Be aware that there may be challenges ahead. Plan for them. Mentally prepare for them. Set yourselves up for success, if things start to get harder. Use this forum and each other for support. It's nice to have someplace to go, where you KNOW people understand. Rely on this, because I suspect at some point, you'll need to.

Keep sharing your experiences. Encourage us. Motivate us. Inspire us. Because someone, somewhere, will need that to carry them through.

Paleo check-in, Monday 6 July

2009-07-06T06:35:00.003-04:00

Happy Monday. How did everyone survive the 4th of July weekend? I gave myself the weekend off, so I have a LOT of comments to review and questions to answer. I'm working on them.

One word of advice. For the next 30 days, your ONLY job is to eat clean. That's it. Don't even THINK about trying to incorporate some new dietary strategy like Intermittent Fasting (IF) at this point. IF is a relatively "advanced" dietary concept. You don't start playing around with fasting and feeding until your food quality, quantity and macronutrient proportion are good and dialed in. At this juncture, especially for those of you having some trouble adapting to this new way of eating (headaches, lethargy, crankiness, etc.) IF would place a significant amount of stress on an already stressed system. Not a smart choice, at this juncture. Just focus on your food.

I'm going to call in the troops for the headache questions. I've skimmed the responses, but I owe this one some time, so give me a day or two to pull something together. In the meantime, stick with it. Drink plenty of water. Make sure you're eating enough. Get plenty of rest. To quote Robb Wolf, if you eat a Paleo diet, sleep 8 hours per night and exercise, I’d be shocked if the rest of your life does not dramatically improve.

Paleo check-in, Friday 3 July

2009-07-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

Let's talk about sticking with Paleo during all the 4th of July festivities.

The good news is, cookouts are your best friend. Burgers, chicken and steak on the grill, plus a side of salad, vegetables or fresh fruit and you're good to go. Not sure what your friends will be serving? Bring your own side dish - something you KNOW you can eat. Skip the beer in favor of mineral water with a slice of lime. And bring some snack back-up in case you get stuck... fruit, nuts, jerky.

Not sure what to say when someone pushes you on your food choices? "Oh, come on... you can have ONE beer!" or "What, you don't eat bread now?" can be tough to handle in social situations. These three little words will be your best friend in the next 30 days.

No, thank you.

That's all you have to say. Just keep repeating it, politely, with a smile, over and over, until the person takes the hint. No, thank you. Or, I just don't want any. Or, I'm good, thanks. Any variation of the phrase should do. If you feel the need to say something else and you think the person is receptive, you can try explaining what you're doing, and why. Or you can tell them that you're allergic. Or you can tell them that your (very expensive) nutrition coach would kick your a** if she found out you snuck a beer. Whatever works. Just don't let people pressure you into second-guessing your choices. You're tougher than that.

Post thoughts, questions and your best holiday weekend strategy recommendation to comments.

Paleo Resources

2009-07-02T08:54:00.004-04:00

First, for those of you committed to changing your life... sweet. Welcome. Don't make me tough love you. Just do what you need to do for the next thirty days.

Here are some basic Paleo resources to get you started. You may need to search around on these sites to find specific information, but these are all resources I trust, and follow myself.

Dr. Loren Cordain's site (author of the Paleo Diet for Athletes - check out the FAQ and Nutritional Tools on the left)

Robb Wolf's blog (start with the FAQ)

Good Harvest Market's shopping list (a simple, detailed, by-the-book list of foods to eat and foods to avoid)

Nightshades (for those of you choosing to opt out of this food group, remove all these listed foods from the above shopping list)

A Paleo introduction (a nice, general summary of the Paleo lifestyle - not sure who put this out, but it provides a lot of information and links)

For the next 30 days, Byers Gets Diesel is hereby known as Byers Goes Paleo. No, the site address won't actually change. But for the next 30 days, all my posts on the blog will be nutrition related, and the rest of the posts will be devoted to you and your awesome adventure. You'll have a chance to check in as often as you like for the next 30 days to post your progress, ask questions and share results. Even if you're not officially joining us, you should still keep an eye on how things are going around here. Maybe you'll learn some stuff... but at the very least, you WILL be inspired.

Also, I know I am behind in my review of the PR Party Playlist! I'm not ignoring the songs... in fact, I've hit a BUNCH of new PRs thanks to your tracks. But I have so many songs to go through, and I've decided to test drive them all personally, so I'm not all the way through the shuffle yet. I'm going to take another month with these and report back at the end of this Paleo thing. So if you haven't yet downloaded your tracks... you still have time. Rock on.

Change your life in thirty days (The Whole30)

2009-07-01T14:00:00.012-04:00

In Part II of my Guide to Eating Dirty, I recommend cheating smart – indulging in those foods that aren’t going to knock you out of energy, wellness and performance commission for days on end. The concept sounds pretty easy, and it is… as long as you know how various food groups like gluten, dairy and legumes affect you. So how do you figure out what foods are okay to cheat with, and what foods will never be worth it?

I can tell you where it STARTS... strip out all the crap from your diet and let your body heal and recover from whatever effects those foods may be provoking. What, exactly, does that mean? Super strict, no cheat, by-the-book Paleo for the next 30 days. Cut all the foods that could be kicking you in the crotch without you even knowing it for the next 30 days, and see how that feels. (To be clear – this is NOT a “30 Day Challenge”. This is so much bigger than that. And it's not really even about cheating. I kind of tricked you there. I'm not sorry. Read on, please.)

Why?

First and foremost, it will change your life. I cannot possibly put enough emphasis on this simple fact. This. Will. Change. Your. Life. It will change the way you think about food, it will change your tastes, it will change your habits and your cravings. It could, quite possibly, change the emotional relationship you have with food, and with your body. It has the potential to change the way you eat for the rest of your life. I know this because I did it, and it changed my life, and it changed the way I eat on a very permanent basis.

I promised you some cheat-tips, so here's how this ties in. The only way you are going to know if something is having a negative effect on how you look, feel or perform is to take it out for a while, then try it again with a fresh perspective. Think of it this way – if you’re allergic to pollen, and you are exposed to pollen every day, that means every day your nose is a little stuffy and your head is a little achy. You probably don’t even realize how crappy you feel, because a stuffy nose and achy head is just normal. Now, take a vacation somewhere pollen-free. Allow your body to experience a month without that irritant. Then… come home. Imagine how aware you would be of your allergy then. Your first few days back, you would be miserably in tune with how your allergy is affecting your everyday life.

Same concept here. Dairy, gluten, lectins and alkaloids may be provoking a similar autoimmune response in your body today – and you don’t even know it. Certain sugary foods may send you running for the nearest candy bowl, while others may satisfy you with just a small amount. So take a vacation from those food groups. Give your body a break, and then, if you so choose, come back to them with a fresh perspective. You’ll be able to immediately see if – and how – they really do impact how you look, feel and perform.

There are other reasons for doing a super strict 30 day Paleo program. For one, there’s an excellent chance that this little adventure will jump start fat loss. And I’ve seen really good results, especially in women, of body shapes changing just by eliminating these foods. Does your stomach look flat in the morning and chubby by day’s end? Try cutting dairy. You’d be surprised how an irritated digestive tract can manifest into a muffin-top over those low rider jeans in just a matter of hours.

What?

So what does strict Paleo mean? You'll get a different answer depending on who you ask, but this is the plan I followed back in April.

Eat real food – meat*, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, oils (like EVOO or coconut). Eat foods with very few ingredients, all pronounceable ingredients, or better yet, no ingredients listed at all because they're fresh and natural.

Do not eat dairy. This includes butter, cheese (hard and soft), yogurt (even Greek) and milk (including cream in your coffee**).

Do not eat grains. This includes bread, rice, pasta, corn (I count corn as a grain), oatmeal, and all of those gluten-free pseudo-grains. That's not real food, right?

Do not eat legumes. This includes beans of all kinds, lentils, and peanuts. (No peanut butter, kids.)

Do not eat sugars*** of any kind, real or artificial. No maple syrup, honey, agave nectar, Splenda, Truvia, Stevia, etc.

Do not eat processed foods. This includes protein shakes, processed bars (like Zone bars), dairy-free creamers, etc.

Do not drink alcohol, in any form.

If you have serious inflammation issues like arthritis, you may want to consider avoiding nightshades for 30 days as well.

*I ate organic chicken sausage during my 30 day period. They are nitrate, dairy, gluten and casein-free and all natural. I did not eat bacon, but I’d be okay with bacon if it didn’t have any nitrates or other crap in it.

**I drank coffee in moderate amounts. Since I was drinking it black, I really didn’t want that much anyway. If you really want to go hard core and reset your body’s tolerance to caffeine, skip the coffee for the 30 day period as well.

***I used reason when avoiding sugars. For example, my Sunbutter includes some cane juice, which means there are 3g of sugar in each serving. Since it’s such a fantastic fat source and the only other ingredient is sunflower seeds, I was okay with that.

How?

So now that you have the basic plan, you need to know how to implement it. I’ll help you.

Start now. Today. This minute. Count out thirty days, go immediately to your grocery store and stock up on things you can eat, and begin. Cold turkey, just start. It’s the only way to do it. Give yourself excuses, reasons to put it off, and you may never begin. Do it now.

The only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days. Anything less and you are selling yourself, and your results, short. You may start to see and feel improvements within just a few days, but according to Robb and Matt, the healing process takes significantly longer. And... no cheating. Just ONE cheat could irritate your digestive tract, promote an inflammatory response, upend your insulin sensitivity and send you running for the nearest Dunkin Donuts. It will ruin the effect of the “reset button” you are trying to push. This isn’t me being a hard-ass, or insisting that you tough it out to prove to yourself you can do it. This is a fact – the only way this will work is if you give it the full thirty days, no cheating.

Where?

Right here. Come to my house, sign up for the month and then post back here as often as you like. I’ll provide the forum, every Monday and Friday, for the next 30 days. Post your progress, your results, share good recipes, ask questions. Tell us how good you look, how much better you feel, how much energy you have. Inspire each other. Support each other. Fist bumps all around for those of you who finish out the full 30 days. Right here, right now. Let’s do this.

Tough Love

Here comes the tough love. This is for those of you who are considering taking on this life-changing month, but aren’t sure you can actually pull it off, cheat free, for a full 30 days. This is for the people who have tried this before, but who “slipped” or “fell off the wagon” or “just HAD to eat (fill in food here) because of this (fill in event here)”. This is for you.

It’s not that effing hard. (Yes, I wanted to throw an f-bomb in there.) Don’t you dare tell me this is hard. Giving up heroin is hard. Drinking your coffee black is. Not. Hard. Substituting Sunday morning French toast in favor of a giant omelet and side of crispy bacon is not hard. Eating fresh, delicious fruits and vegetables every day is not hard. So I don’t want to hear one single complaint. You won’t get any coddling from me on this one, you won’t get any sympathy for your “struggles”, and you won’t get any second chances. Not in my house. It’s thirty days, and it’s for the most important cause on earth – the only physical body you will ever have in this lifetime. So shut up and do it.

Don’t tell me you “slipped”. Unless you physically tripped and your face landed in a box of Krispy Kremes, you DID NOT SLIP. You made a choice to eat something of poor quality. It’s always a choice, so do not phrase it as if you had an accident. You make a poor choice, even once, you’re out. You don’t get to re-start, you don’t get to keep posting. Commit here, 100%, for the full 30 days, or go somewhere else.

Don’t lie to me. Don’t even try.

You never, ever, ever HAVE to eat anything you don’t want to eat. You’re all big boys and girls. Toughen up. Learn to say no. Learn to stick up for yourself. Just because it’s your Mom’s birthday, or your best friend’s wedding, or your company outing does not mean you “have” to eat crappy food. It’s always a choice, and I would hope that you stopped succumbing to peer pressure in 7th grade.

This does require a bit of effort, people. If you’re cutting grains and dairy for the first time, you have to replace those calories with something. You have to make sure you’re eating enough, that your vitamins and nutrients are balanced, that you’re getting enough protein, fat and carbohydrates. Don’t expect me to fill in the blanks for you. Figure it out. There are a ton of good resources out there. I’ll list some in my next post, to get you started. But take responsibility for your own plan. Improved health, fitness and performance doesn’t happen just because you’re now taking a pass on chocolate milk.

Summary

So there you have it – my thoughts on changing your life in 30 days. If just one person makes this happen – just one – this entire four page post will be well worth my time and energy. It’s that important. I believe in it that much. It changed my life, and I want it to change yours too.

Post questions to comments so I can answer them for everyone. Post your commitment, if you’re up for it. Just make sure you re-read the Tough Love portion again before you sign up. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Byers Guide to Eating Dirty (Part II)

2009-06-26T12:00:00.002-04:00

If you haven't read yesterday's Part I post yet, do that now. You really do need the background to understand where the below recommendations are coming from. If you're all caught up, let's continue with The Byers Guide to Eating Dirty.

1. Eat cheat meals or snacks throughout the week, instead of having a full cheat day. For one, it’s more practical and sustainable in real life. Opportunities for good food and socializing come up at different times. So allow yourself to have a drink on Tuesday night, a slice of cake on Friday afternoon and French toast with Nutella on Saturday morning. Think about this… if you eat/snack 4-5 times a day, and incorporate four cheat “meals” or “snacks” a week, you’re eating clean almost 90% of the time. Good lord, I’ll take that. In addition, your insulin sensitivity, GI tract and mental health and wellness will take far less of a hit if you eat clean, slip in a bowl of ice cream and then go back to eating clean… versus an entire day of Carb-a-Palooza. You’ll recover from your cheat faster, and you’ll feel better about yourself if you surround your cheat with good, clean eats.

2. Eat something because you want it, and because it's special... not just because it’s there. Say someone brings donuts in to the office. I look at the plate and think, donuts are here. I could eat a donut. But I can have donuts any time I want. So if I really want one in an hour, or a day, or next week… I’ll just go get one. The fact that it's sitting there does not make it special enough for me to go off-diet. But if my Mum (or anyone else, for that matter) shows up with freshly made snickerdoodles, I’m eating one. Or three. Those are SPECIAL, and I will really WANT one. So the next time you mindlessly pop a bagel, slice of pizza or piece of candy in your mouth just because it’s there... Pause. Think, do I really WANT this? If the answer is no, pass it up. If the answer is yes, proceed to numbers 3 and 4.

3 (to be performed in conjunction with 4). Eat only as much as you must to satisfy your craving. If you are dreaming about chips and salsa, break out the blue corn chips and get some. But now go back to #2, because you don't have to eat the whole bag just because it is there. In addition, if you are also properly working step #4, you should have plenty of notice that your mental fix has been achieved. When it has, stop eating. Maybe that's four peanut M&Ms. Or maybe that's an entire pint of Chubby Hubby. Both are okay, as long as you are mindful of the process.

4. When you do go off-diet, SAVOR IT. There’s nothing worse than filling up a bowl with Blue Bell chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and then hoovering it mindlessly in front of the TV. That is a shameful waste of a cheat. So when you finally get that drool-inspiring forbidden food in front of you, spend some time with it. Take small bites. Enjoy the flavor. Make it last. Since we cheat as a means of providing mental satisfaction, squeeze as much satisfaction as possible out of what you are eating.

5. Finally, a more complicated recommendation - cheat smart. There are off-diet foods you can eat with little perceived negative physical effect, and there are others that will absolutely wreck you if you eat even the tiniest amount. The catch is, these things are different for everyone. For me, French toast (grains) and syrup (sugar) in reasonable amounts (one good sized piece) are 100% okay. Last weekend, I ate my Nutella French toast, and immediately hit the gym and pulled a 10# clean PR. But had I eaten just a few bites of goat cheese (dairy) in an omelette, I would have had a stomachache for hours. Mathieu Lalonde tells a similar story. “After eating strict Paleo for two months, I cheated with a pizza for dinner. I woke up the next morning with a huge headache, blurry vision, and lethargy. I wondered if the insulin spike from the white bread and cheese was the problem or if there was something else involved. The next time I cheated, I ate a banana split and a pint of ice cream. I woke up feeling a little bit fuzzy the next day, but nothing compared to the gluten hangover from the pizza.” So, cheat smart. Figure out what foods are okay, and what are not. You will eventually figure out that the not okay foods are simply never, ever going to be worth it. Stay away from those cheats, and find other foods to satisfy those cravings.

How do you figure out what foods are okay for you, and what foods are not? I’ll tell you exactly how to do that... next week. I’ll give you an easy to follow, step-by-step plan to cleaning out your dietary closet and cheating smart. But be prepared… this helpful advice comes with a healthy dose of Tough Love. You’ve been warned.

So there you have it – my official and decidedly opinionated Guide to Eating Dirty. Post questions, responses or controversies to comments. I’m off to cover something in syrup.

My Nutella-fueled 115# clean PR, at Guerrilla Fitness CrossFit Montclair. (Photo courtesy of Gregg Arsenuk.)

The Byers Guide to Eating Dirty (Part I)

2009-06-25T15:34:00.012-04:00

This weekend, I discovered Nutella. Yes, Nutella – that chocolate hazelnut spread that the jar assures you can be a part of a balanced, healthy breakfast. Now, Nutella marketing people, come on. I’ve read the label. I know there is nothing about Nutella that is balanced OR healthy. But damn if it isn’t delicious between two pieces of French toast. (Put that on the label.) Yes, this weekend I “cheated” on my diet with grains, sugars and processed foods. And that’s the subject of the day – eating dirty.

If you’re reading this blog, we probably have one thing in common. We all try to eat well. We eat Zone proportions or Paleo quality or some other mechanism that we would call a “clean” diet. We know the difference between Real Food and Stuff You Can Eat. We eat real food, natural food, nutrient-dense food. We avoid foods that require additives to be “healthy”, high-tech fabrications designed to replace real food, and food-like products made from ingredients we cannot pronounce. And we do this, day in and day out, for the vast majority of our meals and snacks.

But most of us don’t eat like that ALL the time. A 100% strict diet is mentally taxing, socially restrictive and just plain not fun. So, we “cheat”. We go off diet, eat things that we normally wouldn’t, indulge in things that taste good and satisfy our urges. But on the Healthy/F Off Scale, we still want our diets to tip well to the Healthy side. Which means we need to think long and hard about how we cheat, what we choose to eat and drink during these cheat periods and how often we go off diet.

Let’s first define what we mean by “cheat”. I’m going out on a limb and saying 99% of the time, cheat = high carb, processed, sugary foods and drinks. What else do we cheat with? Certainly not fat. Fat is not only allowed, it’s encouraged. No, we cheat with dirty, dirty carbs. Beer and pizza, nachos and tequila, cinnamon swirl French toast slathered with Nutella. We cheat with insulin spiking, sugar rushing, energy crashing CARBS. (Can I get an "amen" from my Brooklyn boys?)

Now that that's settled, in this next section, we’ll talk about the physiological benefits of cheating. Surely, you’ve heard that cheat meals or cheat days are a necessary part of your fitness program? They “shock the body”, “keep it guessing”, “jump start your metabolism”, right? So this next section will discuss the science-y details of how going off diet and cheating with things like pizza, pasta, cake and cookies has a positive impact on your physical health, fitness and performance.

This section is short.

IT DOESN’T.

To be perfectly clear, a cheat day does not have a single significant, long-term positive effect on your metabolism, your body composition or any other internal science-y factors, despite what you read on the internet. Mathieu Lalonde can step into comments and explain all the reasons that a single cheat day negatively impacts how you look, feel and perform for the next two weeks... but I’ll shoot down some common arguments here.

First… for those of you who eat a bowl of Breyer’s every night before bed and suddenly notice you’re looking leaner… that’s not the Breyer’s. It is, however, a sure sign that you have not been eating enough. The ice cream is giving you a caloric boost, and has jump started your metabolism. Which is great, short term. But keep eating ice cream every night for months on end and tell me how that’s working out for you. Or, I’ll argue, how much better would your fat loss and performance be if you instead ate more almonds, chicken and/or sweet potatoes to get those extra fat and calories in? In short, the “cheat” may have helped short term, but it’s a bad long term solution, and you could do better. (Pay attention to that last part. You’ll hear it again.)

Second, you may pass off your cheats as preventing metabolic slow-down. Serious calorie and carb restrictions decrease the release of the hormone called leptin. Leptin is important to keeping up your body’s metabolic rate. Increasing food intake drastically, even for a short period of time (like with a cheat day), will prevent the drop in leptin that occurs when dieting. But most of us aren’t seriously “dieting”, are we? We’re CrossFitting, so we are at least eating enough to support performance. We may have a slight caloric deficit to prompt fat loss, but we are NOT in starvation mode. Not even close. Our metabolisms should be chugging away like a super-powered bullet train. So, if we are already eating for performance, do we really need to “mix it up” and “jolt our metabolisms” with chili cheese fries and an ice cream sundae? (That's rhetorical, kids.) And if for some reason you are on a seriously calorie-restricted diet... again, I'll say that you can pull off a better metabolic shock-and-awe with a higher volume of good, clean carbs than you can eating crap.

How about the idea of “loading” or “refeeding” – essentially, replenishing glycogen stores? Glycogen (the carbs stored in the muscles and liver) is the primary fuel source for intense physical work. When your glycogen stores are low, you won't be able to train as hard as when you're fully loaded. For that reason, it's a good idea to periodically give the body a shot of carbohydrates to keep glycogen stores at least somewhat full. (We do this in the form of a post workout meal.) But again, it comes back to this. You can “refuel” with ice cream and candy… or you can refuel with sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Ice cream supports the basic, fundamental requirement of replenishing glycogen stores… but also messes with a whole host of other body processes, like insulin sensitivity, fat stores and autoimmune responses. Again, you could do better.

So there you have it – a cheat meal or a cheat day does nothing for your physical health and well being that couldn’t be done better with good, clean food. But there are a whole host of reasons to cheat that I DO support - and those are all mental. Your taste buds crave things that taste good. Your brain rebels against the rigidity of “can have” and “can’t have”. Your emotions needs a break from the isolation and social pressures of being the weird eater, the difficult dinner party guest, the one who makes everyone else feel bad about the way they eat. You need a mental break, which means you need to stray from your diet. And I am more than okay with that.

So we’ve established that we want our diets to weight in on the side of Healthy, but that there are mental and emotional reasons that mean it is absolutely necessary that we go off-diet from time to time. And as you might imagine, I have a few thoughts as to how you do that. Tomorrow, I'll publish my advice for how to strike the best balance possible while still preserving your mental sanity.

Stay tuned for The Byers Guide to Eating Dirty (Part II) on Friday.

I'm sorry... artificial sweeteners WHAT?

2009-06-15T19:52:00.011-04:00

A guy has celery sticking out of one ear, lettuce out of the other, and a zucchini up his nose. He goes to the doctor and asks him what's wrong. The doctor tells him, "Well, for one thing, you're not eating right."

The CrossFit Nutrition Cert with Robb Wolf and Matt Lalonde was eight hours of science-y diet goodness. And the best part was that I learned nothing new. Okay, that's not true at all. I learned LOTS of new stuff, like why artificial sweeteners are bad (because they cockblock fat loss - that's a quote, people), what high triglycerides indicate (insulin resistance) and how to translate Zone blocks to calories (you don't, actually, which is kind of the point). But I didn't learn any brand new concepts. Nothing jumped out at me as startling information, and there was no point where I thought, "Holy shit, I have not been doing that." Which is a very good thing, for both me and the people who pay me to tell them what to do.

I did manage to ask a few of your questions directly. The "cheat day" question actually deserves its own post - I'm drafting one up now. I am picking Matt's brain about the scientific value of incorporating "cheats" into your diet, and I'm going to lay my own theories and concepts out there to help give you a better strategy to maximize the effective of your nutritional plan while still maintaining a happy balance.

As for Karen's question: "I seem to remember in Mathieu's Science is Hot post, he recommended that some people should NOT have a post workout (PWO) meal to maximize insulin sensitivity. When would he recommend to a client to NOT have a PWO meal, and what would be the criteria for determining this?" Karen, you're right. Matt did say during our first interview that a PWO meal isn't necessarily for everyone. And I got the chance to ask him this question in the middle of his Zone lecture. I'm responding below with the information he presented to the group.

If your client is pretty dialed in with their diet - they've been eating Paleo or Paleo-Zone for a while, their quality is good and they have, for the most part, regained insulin sensitivity, then a PWO meal is a great way to put their carbs to work for them and maximize performance and recovery. But not everyone is a great candidate for shoving that many carbs into one meal. For clients with a long history of insulin resistance due to a high carbohydrate, low fat diet, restoring insulin sensitivity is priority number one. You want to focus on food quality (eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar) first, and minimize any potential for insulin spikes. For these people, you'd want to do everything possible to get their insulin response back in line... and a post workout meal (where you're sticking half your carbohydrate intake for the whole day) is not the best way to accomplish that goal. In addition, a PWO meal is designed to help you perform and recover better. These clients - overweight, undernourished, carb-addicted and unhealthy based on scientific biomarkers of health - aren't going to be able to perform at ALL until you get their metabolism running again.

So, Karen, it depends on where you or your client is in the process. If regaining insulin sensitivity is priority number one - then skip the PWO meal, for now, and focus on minimizing the insulin response with good food quality and managing proportions and quantity. Once that sensitivity has been regained and new dietary habits have been firmly established (meaning, the person could potentially eat a cup or two of sweet potato and not want to jack a Dunkin' Donuts), then you can start to introduce the concept of a PWO meal. Make sense? Feel free to post follow-up questions, if you've got them.

Penty and Sean, I was not able to ask questions on leptin or hormones (like estrogen or progesterone) that bugger up fat loss. There was so much material to cover, and I couldn't go too far off the rails with 70 people in the room all waiting to get their questions in.

Renee, as far as the acid/base balance goes... I'm not sure if my response helped, and we didn't really delve into the topic at the cert. Send me an email if you have more questions and I can try to sort out the information for you. Dallas is really good with this subject, actually, so I can tap him to help.

So there you have it - I've got a piece of paper that says all the stuff I've been doing - and telling you to do - is, in fact, pretty good stuff. Obviously, they couldn't fit all that on the certificate, of course. Which is a shame. Actually, what I wish it would say is, "Melissa Byers, CrossFit Nutrition Certified. Just do what she tells you." Maybe I'll send Kelly Moore a note about that...

I have a hot date with Robb Wolf

2009-06-12T08:34:00.003-04:00

This Sunday, Dallas and I are headed to CrossFit Boston for Robb Wolf's CrossFit Nutrition Certification. This makes Sunday pretty much the best day of my life. It's not just that I have a crush on Robb. I mean, I do. He's smart and funny and he called me a "hot little biscuit" on his web site, which made me straight-up giggle when I read it. (If you know me, you know I do not giggle.) But our relationship goes deeper than just clever banter and mutual flattery. I like Robb for his INFORMATION.

If you've read my blog, posts on the CrossFit Message Boards or emailed me to ask if you are, in fact eating enough... you're already familiar with Robb Wolf. In summary, Robb is The Man when it comes to diet, nutrition, rest, recovery and a whole host of other health and fitness topics. His articles and advice are based on both science and practical application. Plus he's got a style not unlike my own - irreverent and cheeky - and he brings the tough love like nobody's business. (Seriously - how many people have I emailed that linked post to? Raise your hands.)

I've had the good fortune of spending time with one of Robb's protégés, Harvard chemist and CrossFitter Mathieu Lalonde. I've been getting some of Robb's good stuff by proxy, with a healthy dose of Matt's unique brand of genius thrown in. Which also means I am a very lucky girl, because between these two and Dallas (my trainer/business partner), I've received a truly fantastic education in all things diet and nutrition. I've been able to apply that education to both my OWN program, and the programs of those I've been nutritional coaching. This weekend, however, I am excited to hear Robb's information in a more structured format, and have the opportunity to ask questions and receive answers based on my specific experiences, and those of my clients.

So I promise to take good notes, and share what I learned back here on the blog next week. And if you have any questions that you'd like me to consider while I'm there, post them to comments. Let's be clear, though... I will not, and Robb will not, analyze your diet block-by-block. There are a ton of resources out there to help you do that. But if you have something big picture, something theoretical, something science-y that's above my head... post to comments. If I get the opportunity to ask, I most certainly will.

The Carrot Train to Crazytown

2009-06-07T16:07:00.007-04:00

I was having a conversation with my new friend Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan via email last week. We were talking about post workout food, and she asked for some sample meals. I suggested a few things - salmon and sweet potato, a chicken breast and butternut squash, egg whites and a banana.

She responded with the following: "A banana?! Are you f*cking kidding? I haven't had a a banana in a year and a half. I'm, like, over the moon with the prospect of eating a banana tomorrow after my workout. I could weep, seriously. It feels like I'm doing something naughty even considering a banana. How f'ed up is that?"

Um, that is very f'ed up, Mel.

And it reminded me of my now-infamous Carrot Confrontation. I was participating in a discussion on a message board when someone asked what I eat in a typical day. I replied with a list of things I had eaten that morning - chicken, radishes, egg whites, spinach, olives... and carrots. I mentioned I had eaten almost an entire bag of baby carrots. At which point, another poster responded, "You should be careful about eating so many carrots. Carrots are pretty high in sugar."

This response made me wish I had more middle fingers.

Because the day you tell me that CARROTS AREN'T THAT GOOD FOR ME is the day I give you the finger. Maybe even both. Which brings me to the following rant - get off the Carrot Train to Crazytown and think about it for a minute. I'll start you off. They're CARROTS, people.

I could get all science-y here, and talk about glycemic index versus glycemic load. I could talk about how the all natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables are nothing like the mutated, processed sugar-like substances found in soda, Starbucks Frappuccinos and "healthy" whole bran muffins. I could also talk about how the "sugar" in carrots comes bundled with an amazing assortment of valuable vitamins and minerals.

But I'm not going to get all science-y here, because I'm trying to prove a point. Amidst the ridiculous volume of nutritional information floating around out there, the confusing statistics like glycemic index and potential renal acid load, all of the books and diet plans and recommendations and suggestions, it's easy to lose the beta-carotene forest through the trees. So I'm going to recommend one simple thing.

Take a step back and use your head.

In the big picture, carrots are not "high in sugar." Are they higher in sugar than, say, spinach? Sure. Should you eat five bags a day? Probably not. I wouldn't recommend you eat five bags of ANYTHING a day, frankly. But if you feel like something sweet, I will applaud you for your healthy choice if you grab a carrot. If you want something crunchy to mindlessly gnaw on, I'm more than okay if you plow through an entire bag of carrots. If you don't like vegetables at all, but can somehow manage to choke down a serving of carrots... I'm thrilled, because one vegetable is better than no vegetables.

If you read my stuff, you'll know I am all for reviewing, analyzing and tweaking your nutritional plan. And I understand the fact that, when both choices are good, one might be more good. For example, I might counsel someone to cut back on dried fruit and eat the real stuff instead, for two reasons. One is simply practical - you can have more of the real stuff. (For the same number of carbs, you can have 1/4 cup of dried cranberries, or three cups of fresh strawberries.) A more pressing reason relates to those people who are in that initial "getting off the crack" nutritional phase. If you are trying to right a very upended insulin sensitivity, you don't want to trick your taste buds into craving "bad" sweets with something like dried fruit (which has a higher concentration of sugar and the sweetness of candy). For those people, I may be a little more strict with fruit and vegetable choices - but only for the first few weeks, until their tastes reset a bit. But unless eating carrots are going to tempt you into a box Krispy Kremes, I am not going to worry about your intake. (And I seriously doubt a bag of carrots is going to be any kind of gateway vegetable.)

So let's not be too quick to jump on the Carrot Train to Crazytown. Take a step back and think about your food choices from a rational perspective. Eating mostly meat, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits? You're doing better than 99% of the general population. Want to take it further? Try to balance your fruits and vegetables on a bigger scale. Eat plenty of color, get plenty of variety, and fill every plate with leafy greens. But, like, you want a banana? Eat one. Want some peas, or a sweet potato, or some carrots? Have them. Because in the whole scheme of things, fruits and vegetables are still, as far as I know, good for you.

Except for corn, of course.

The Snatch Horse

2009-06-01T18:55:00.012-04:00

If you've been reading for a while, you might have picked up on the fact that I am not very coordinated. I'm more coordinated than I used to be, thanks to CrossFit, but no one would ever call me "graceful". I fall down a lot, trip over stuff, hit my head and fall off things. Which is all normally kind of funny, and good fodder for the blog. But last week while Olympic lifting, I actually had a pretty serious accident.

On Monday after the Albany Qualifiers, our group decided to hit the gym for some 603/MaD cross-affiliate training. Matt was going to teach my sister Kelly to deadlift, and Dallas and I planned to work the snatch under Donna's watchful eye. It didn't take long for me to warm up and hit the platform... where (unbeknownst to me) a series of unrelated events was about to culminate into what shall henceforth be known as The Perfect Snatch Storm.

Factor One: The Bar. I'm used to warming up with my women's bar, and since I don't have training plates, my snatch pulls go from the hang at 33# to full snatches from the ground at 53#. Les than ideal, but it's all I've got. Donna, however, has both a 15# training bar AND nice wooden "plates". So I get in front of the bar, which LOOKS like my bar and is set up off the ground like my bar... but is, in fact, a full 38# lighter than what I would normally pull off the ground.

Factor Two: The Set-Up. I've been playing around with my set-up, and specifically, my head position. I know I look too far down - EC told me that during our training session. So, trying to make a good impression on Donna, I specifically dropped my hips and looked up a bit, which put me in a more advantageous pulling position. And also got me far more vertical than I am used to in my set-up. (The fact that truly WAS a better pulling position is, in fact, irrelevant.)

Factor Three: I'm New At This. This was only my third time snatching, like, ever. My mental rehearsal isn't very good yet - I still have too many cues in my head and not enough muscle/CNS memory to make them all happen. And the one thing EC kept reminding me when I first learned was "slow off the ground". She said that over and over, because that was the common error in all my lifts.

In summary, I set up on a bar that was WAY lighter than I was anticipating, in a better but unfamiliar more vertical set-up position, and failed to consider all the cues that I am supposed to when completing the lift. As a result, I ripped that snatch off the ground like it was on fire. Given the aggressiveness of my pull, the light bar and my vertical set-up, I simply could not pull my head out of the way in time. I smashed myself in the face with that barbell so hard, I almost knocked myself over. It came straight up into my bottom lip, and continued right on up past my top lip into my nose.

I was stunned. And then I was bleeding. And the garage was SILENT, waiting for me to react. I believe I said, "Oh, shit. I just totally nailed myself in the face." I sniffed, ran my tongue over my teeth, put my hand over my mouth, hesitantly touched my nose. "But I think I'm okay." And then I carefully and calmly lay down on the platform. Matt, Donna, Dallas and Kelly all took my cue and went back to their workouts, checking in with me every few minutes.

I lay there for a really long time, bleeding and taking a more thorough inventory of my facial features to make sure everything was still in order. (It was, for the most part.) And when I was done with the bleeding, I stood up, wiped my hands on my pants, nodded at Donna and said, "Let's snatch."

Now, I've had bumps and bruises before, and I've had my share of CrossFit mishaps. But I have never, ever hurt myself like this. I had a massive headache, and a hole in my bottom lip. My top lip was one giant bruise and I'm pretty sure I broke my nose. IT HURT. But more than that, an accident of that nature, of that severity, at this point in my life...

It scared me. A lot. To the point where the thought of snatching again made me want to just sit on the platform and cry. I mean, as a kid, you wreck yourself all the time. It never phased me - I remember flipping off my Big Wheel once, scraping up my face and my elbows and my knees, and impatiently pulling at my horrified mother because I wanted to get back out there and have a re-race down the big hill. As a kid, you're used to banging yourself up. But as an adult, it's totally different. I can't remember the last time I hurt myself this seriously, especially not from an activity I chose to perform. And being hurt like that... I'm not embarrassed to admit that it shook me in a serious fashion.

In those 15 minutes I spent bleeding on the garage floor, I thought about never snatching again. I didn't want to do it. I was scared to pick up that barbell. I thought, who cares if I never snatch again? I can still clean and jerk. I won't miss it. I don't HAVE to do it. But then I thought about what happened out there on the platform. I smashed myself in the face, sure... but I smashed myself in the face while OLYMPIC LIFTING. How many 35 year old women could say that? I know people my age who have thrown their back out picking up their child, or pulled a shoulder muscle while changing the water cooler bottle, or hurt their knees while kneeling in the garden. I hear plenty of those stories from friends, family and co-workers. But lying there on that platform, bleeding and hurt-y, I thought to myself, I am NOT going out like that. If I'm going to incapacitate myself, put myself through that much pain, blacken both my eyes and subject myself to an inordinate number of startled glances and stupid questions... then I WANT TO GO OUT SNATCHING. And I knew right then and there that I had to get back on the Snatch Horse.

So I did. I stood up, shook it off, and picked up the bar. Carefully, tentatively, and probably with not fantastic form. But I did it. Donna coached me through some light snatches, helping me with my pull and my drop under the bar. All in all, we probably did about five sets of doubles and triples before calling it good. And then, because I needed to do something I felt really good about, we picked some heavy stuff up off the ground a bunch of times.

My sister Kelly said it was the most bad-ass thing she's ever seen me do - hurt myself to that degree, and then get right back under that barbell. The thing is, it wasn't bad-ass. I didn't do it to be a tough girl, or to prove a point, or to be able to have a better story to tell. I did it because, for those of us who choose to ride the Snatch Horse, this is just what we do. We hurl our bodies underneath a heavy barbell because it makes us stronger. We drive ourselves past the point of comfort because it makes us tougher. We fall down, and we pick ourselves right back up, because to do anything different would mean defeat. And that would put me one step closer to having to ask for help changing the water cooler bottle at work.

And I am not going out like that.

The author, in her usual state of grace.

What's so exciting about a 2K row?

2009-05-29T04:13:00.023-04:00

The CrossFit Games Northeast Qualifier (NEQ) Day One workouts were announced a week ahead of time, on the Albany CrossFit site. The first included thrusters and burpees - an evil combination that I have programmed myself many times. Maybe not the sexiest of CrossFit exercises, but certainly classics. And, again, brutally effective in their capacity to leave you sweating and panting and broken on the ground. But the second workout of the day stole all the attention, and not in a good way. Just five little letters was all it took for the virtual crowd to start buzzing.

Row 2K.

I'm not going to talk about the NEQ organizers' strategy in programming this workout. I won't even begin to speculate the science-y analysis that went into choosing the movements, the reps, the distance. What I will say is this... what I heard on Saturday morning, was, "BORING." The crowd at Albany thought the idea of rowing 2,000 meters as one of only three qualifying events was, well, kinda boring. I mean, you just row. No heavy weights, no range of motion criteria, there isn't even any counting involved. Athletes strap in and, like, row for a few minutes. Between, maybe, six and nine minutes, which is kind of a long time to watch the same damn movement. So from what I gathered, spectators weren't thrilled about the prospect of watching people row. The general crowd consensus was that Saturday afternoon would bring heat after heat of the CrossFit equivalent of watching paint dry. Boring.

I'm here to tell you, people... it was ANYTHING BUT. The row was, for me (and I think many of my fellow spectators), the most exciting part of the qualifiers, hands-down. The. Most. EXCITING.

We rolled 20 C2 rowers into the competition arena and lined them all up in two rows, facing each other. As an athlete, should you so choose, you could look directly into the face of your competition as you battled for points. To have so many competitors in such a small space, all lined up in order, meant that the crowd could watch the field as a whole. It was kind of like a horse race - one clumped mass all moving fast and hard, straining to come in one meter ahead of the next guy over. The athletes' tension was palpable, and the crowd fed off the perceived intimate competition - athlete squaring off, literally head to head, against athlete.

At the beginning of each heat, the competitors stepped up, strapped in, grabbed the handles... and then waited, tense and twitchy, like shirtless, sweaty thoroughbreds at the starting gate. Their coaches stood behind them, just as anxious, waiting for the signal to begin. And in that moment, the crowd was quiet.

The horn would blow and the athletes would begin to pull. And it was clear, immediately, who could actually row. Because the event was more than six minutes long, it gave the crowd a chance to walk around, checking out each competitor. Technique flaws were readily apparent. Pacing mistakes were easy to spot. (I don't know a lot of people who can maintain a 1:20 pace for a full 2,000 meters.) But for those athletes that got it right... it was poetry in motion. Literally.

There were a few rounds where I was just a spectator, not judging. Dallas, my sister and I scoped out different vantage points during one of the women's heats. I stopped him at one point, and pointed to a ridiculously fit woman wearing a green bandana. (Edit: I have since discovered she is Jessica Dunn, a trainer at Albany CrossFit.) "Um, Dallas... what, exactly, is she doing?" Her technique was so different than anything I'd yet to see that day. She was moving, for lack of a better word... slow. It was the opposite of what EC Synkowski calls the "CrossFit Hustle", that rowing motion that takes you backandforth-backandforth as fast as humanly possible. She was... slow. Her recovery was slow. Her drive, while the perfect display of the legs-body-arms that EC taught us, was also kind of slow. But then, Dallas pointed out one thing. This woman had a MONSTER pull. Her technique wasn't slow. It was efficient as hell, because she was producing so much power with each movement. The longer I watched, the more inspired I became. She was, in a word, gorgeous. She made me want to be stronger. She made me want to be a better rower. She made me want to be HER. And she made me want her to WIN.

Because of the way this event was organized, we had the perfect opportunity to stay put and watch our girl while still monitoring the rest of the pack. Before the event, the organizers gave all the judges four different colored cards, each signifying a different meter mark - one when the athlete was down to 1,000 meters, the next when they reached 500. They instructed us to hold each card up in turn as the athletes got closer and closer to finishing the event. The last card was to signify the final 250 meters, as a signal to the crowd that the athlete was almost done.

I thought this was really dumb. I mean, I'm supposed to remember which card to hold up, and the crowd is going to be able to figure out what each color signified? Dumb. Except IT WASN'T. The crowd went wild each time a judge's hand went up, signifying a new milestone in the row. We watched breathlessly through a sea of pink cards, waiting for the first hand to come up blue. It told us who to watch, how close they were to finishing, who was in contention for winning the heat. The card system allowed the crowd to fully participate no matter where they were standing, and gave us incentive as spectators to fully invest our cheering potential in "our" athletes. It was brilliant, and I'm sorry that I called it dumb, Jason, David and Neal.

Anyway, back to my new girl crush Jessica. We were able to monitor where she was in the field because of the card scoring system, which meant I could stay right where I was and just watch her row. She was, in my mind, flawless. Her technique never deviated, her pacing was rock solid and damn if she didn't make every hard-fought meter look HOT. With the last 250M to go, her pacing sped up a little, but the power of her pulls never diminished. I whooped as her blue card was raised, watched as Caitlin Fabian pulled in first, and then yelled myself hoarse for the green-bandana-clad Jessica to finish strong. In the end, she pulled her 2K in 8:02, and finished sixth out of all the women for that event. She may not have won, but as a spectator, she made that heat. And as both a spectator and a judge, the 2K row was the most exciting part of my weekend.

I did not hear one rumbling of "boring" when that event was done. Not one. The crowd was charged, amped, pumped. Everyone was talking about how exciting it was, how much energy was packed into one small event area, how each heat, start to finish, was non-stop screaming and cheering. And if the crowd felt it, I know the athletes felt it, and I'd like to think that helped to drive some PR-worthy performances. So I don't know if a 2K row was the best choice to test a well-rounded athlete. I don't know if it perfectly balanced the demands of the other workouts, or if it truly measured enough of the ten aspects of fitness in an appropriate manner. But I do know it was as exciting as hell. If you were there with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you weren't... you missed out on some of the best that CrossFit has to offer, from an athletic perspective and a community perspective.

Also, have I mentioned CrossFit New England's Bern fell off his rower mid-event? He swears it's okay if I talk about it in this very public forum. And it's a story worth re-telling, so I'm going to check in with Bern to make sure I've got the details right first... but you'll hear all about it next week.

Addendum: Make sure you read NEQ Organizer David Osorio's comment regarding the thought process behind programming a 2K row as one of the events. I love that he dropped that particular brand of genius on us. Thanks, David.

Unfortunately, I can't find a single picture of Jessica actually rowing. Not that it would have done her justice. Trust me, she was beautiful. (Photo courtesy of Albany CrossFit.)

Our weekend with MaD CrossFit

2009-05-28T08:48:00.002-04:00

Quick post today - check the CrossFit 603 site for some of the fun weekend events OUTSIDE of the Qualifiers. (We got to hang with Matt and Donna Dyson of MaD CrossFit all weekend long. It was pretty awesome.)

More NEQ thoughts to come...

Byers Judges the Northeast Qualifiers

2009-05-26T09:36:00.012-04:00

Me with the deserving first place finisher James Hobart of CrossFit Boston. James is, in my opinion, the sweetest, cutest man in all of CrossFit, and I was SO proud of him for quietly and cheerfully kicking SO much ass.

First, I am super behind in all things internet... email, blog posts, Facebook, 603 comments. But it was worth it to totally unplug for the weekend and just enjoy the craziness that was the CrossFit Games Northeast Qualifiers. I'm going to write up a few different posts about the NEQ from my perspective - today I want to talk about what it meant to "judge" an event of this nature.

I went to Albany as a volunteer, as I have no interest in ever competing. Ever. At all. (Just to be clear, for all the people who asked, "So maybe next year?") But I wanted to participate and represent the 603, so I volunteered to judge the events. I had no idea what that entailed, or how much work it involved, or how serious that task would turn out to be. I just though it sounded fun, and a way to be right in the middle of the fray without actually competing.

The first element of judging was understanding the workouts, and the movement standards. As a trainer, I'm used to evaluating the way someone moves - range of motion, body mechanics, flexibility, limitations. But for an event such as this, the movement standards mean everything. An inch makes the difference between a rep that counts and a rep that does not - and one rep can mean the difference between first place and second place. The movement standards were serious business, and we (as judges) spent a lot of time reviewing, observing, questioning and practicing our evaluations.

During each heat, after I introduced myself to my athletes, the next words out of my mouth were exactly the same for every single competitor. "When it comes to the movement standards, do not make me guess. You will not like it if I have to guess." We looked at one rep of every movement before each heat, to make sure everyone was on the same page with what "full extension" looks like and what "behind the ears" means. I told my athletes that I would cue them with the standards if they were getting close to a foul, but that there would be no free passes. And then (since I only judged the men), I put on my most charming, most persuasive girl persona and told my boys that I would feel truly awful making them do even one rep over, and please don't do that to me. I got a few very earnest, very cute boys shaking their heads and reassuring me, "Oh no, I won't, really" to that one.

The second element of judging - and equally as important - was counting. Yep, just counting. Not even counting to high numbers - we never got above ten. But damn if that pre-school skill wasn't one of the toughest parts of the job. I am not a good counter. In a met-con, anything higher than the number 6 poses a problem. I lose track all the time in my own workouts, and you know when in doubt about the numbers, you do the extra rep. Except this weekend, losing count was not an option. Clearly. My athletes needed me to keep track of where they were in the workout. How many burpees, how many cleans, how many rounds. So that was my job. I counted, out loud. If they fouled, I called it and told them why, and then re-counted the rep when they did it right. I told them how many they had done, how many they had left and how many rounds they had completed. I counted like it was my full time job, because this weekend, it was.

The third aspect of my job was to treat my athletes as if they were a famous celebrity - like Paris Hilton, who you know damn well expects someone else to do pretty much everything but breathe and pee for her. When athletes showed up at my station, that is how I wanted to take care of them - like they were Paris Hilton, only shirtless, sweaty and picking up heavy shit. So I asked all of them what they needed from me. If they wanted me to, I yelled at them, encouraged them, coached them. I gave them round updates and time updates. I told them what they were doing, how many they had left, and where to go next. I cued them on the movement standards and reminded them to jump or get their ass down or hit the bar. For those 12 - 15 minutes, I literally ran their lives, and I seriously hope that approach helped them to focus on what they needed to do - move the weight.

The judges had more responsibility than just those 12-15 minute heats, but those workouts were the bulk of how I spent my weekend. It was surprisingly physically exhausting - there was little time to sit, and we spent hours rounding up rolling barbells, adjusting plates and swapping out weights. I must have deadlifted 155# more than I would in a month's worth of WODs, making sure competitors' barbells were where they needed them to be for the next round. And I worked most every heat in a squat or a crouch or a lunge, watching for chest to deck or hips below parallel or chest hitting the bar. I spent a very uncomfortable half hour on the foam roller on Saturday night, just to get my shoulders, hips and hamstrings functional again.

But aside from the physical demands, the mental demands were perhaps the most taxing. I had to be "on" for every single second that I spent in that event area. There was no relaxing, no drifting off for a moment, no allowing yourself to be distracted by the crowd or another competitor or the barbell bouncing hard in your direction. And that was hard to do - there was SO much going on all at once, and it's natural to want to take a step back and see what else was happening. But the job demanded that I give my entire focus and all my energy to my athletes, one at a time. And after two full days, I found that was the most exhausting component of the weekend.

My athletes were all amazing competitors. They worked so hard, and dug deep to pull off one more round, one more lift. They were all exceedingly polite, and the epitome of good sportsmanship. A few of them even came around after their heats to thank me for the coaching or counting or general support, which was unnecessary, but made me feel really good. So to all the men I yelled at, cued, counted for and stole reps from... I am impressed with your gentlemanly conduct, your mental toughness and your strong work. Thank you for making my job that much easier.

There is so much more to talk about - the fun blog stalkers (I mean, readers) I finally got to meet, the amazing vibe and flow and energy of the weekend (thanks in no small part to the organizers), our fun weekend OUTSIDE of the events, thanks to our hosts Matt and Donna Dyson of MaD CrossFit, how Bern from CrossFit New England fell off his rower mid WOD #2... so many stories. Stay tuned for more thoughts from the Northeast Qualifiers.

Judging Jason "Rhabdo" Kaplan in WOD #2, which he completed in just over 11 minutes. This boy is a power clean and pull-up machine.

Explaining movement standards to competitor Patrick Byrnes. (Yes, I tricked my judge's t-shirt out. Would you expect any different?)

I also want to thank Samantha Aurelio for these awesome photos. Sam has a really cool blog of her own, with lots of cool pictures and random musings. Nice to finally meet you, Sam!

The Elevator Pitch

2009-05-18T18:32:00.004-04:00

This past Sunday, my BFF Jenn (J. Spice, to all you 603'ers) and I had a deliciously girly day. We had a fantastic breakfast at this cute little cafe in Nashua, then drove down to Burlington to do some shopping. (There's a Nordstrom, and a Lululemon, and a Sephora at the Burlington Mall. It's pretty much Girly-Girl Heaven.) We hit Lulu last, figuring we might be there a while.

So I'm in the dressing room, and I hear Jenn outside, talking to the Lulu-lady. The lady asks Jenn, "Do you do yoga, or..." and Jenn replies, "No, we CrossFit. Melissa owns a CrossFit gym in NH." And the woman says, "I've never heard of that. What's CrossFit?"

Long pause.

And then I hear Jenn doing her very best to try to describe CrossFit to the Lulu-lady. Now, Jenn's been CrossFitting with me since before we even opened the affiliate. She knows CrossFit - hell, like the rest of us, she lives CrossFit. But the Lulu-lady had about six other customers... and perhaps she was only being polite in asking, but she was still patiently waiting for a quick response. And damned if Jenn wasn't slightly stumped at having to come up with an on-the-spot CrossFit Elevator Pitch.

The concept of an Elevator Pitch comes from the business world. Wiki defines it as, "An overview of an idea for a product, service, or project." The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (maybe thirty seconds, and no more than 100-150 words). Say you find yourself riding in the elevator with the big boss at your office. You've had this great marketing idea for a while now, and here's your shot to finally pitch it! You'd better be able to impress him - and get the outline of your plan across - before those doors open, right?

As a new affiliate owner, I find myself having to give the CrossFit Elevator Pitch all the time. Friends, family, co-workers and potential clients all want to know what this CrossFit thing is all about. And in those three tiny words, "What is CrossFit?", lies my challenge. I need to be able to get the key elements of CrossFit and my affiliate across in just a few concise sentences. I mean, no one is going to stand there while I read from the CrossFit Journal's "What is Fitness" article, right? But I can't be so brief and vague in my description that I make CrossFit sound like every other fitness program out there. The last thing you want to hear after your Elevator Pitch is, "Oh, so it's kind of like my Zumba class?"

Plus, I'm trying to keep it brief, which means I need to choose my words carefully. Start tossing out things like "handstands" and "clean and jerks" and most women (and lots of guys) will immediately write it off as too advanced. And there are so many overused buzzwords in the fitness industry these days - make the mistake of using one of them carelessly and I guarantee you'll lose your audience. Take "functional fitness", for example. Functional movements are clearly a big part of CrossFit, but people's eyes glaze over when you mention the words, because they've heard them used to describe everything from Swiss ball crunches to bicep curls on a stability board. Now you're starting to see the dilemma. Be brief, but not too brief. Be descriptive, but not so technical that it's scary. Tell the story, but avoid cliches and jargon. Whew. Tall order, huh?

You don't have to be an affiliate owner or a trainer to face this issue. Everyone who CrossFits is asked, at one time or another, "What's that crazy workout stuff you do?" And most of us are so passionate about the program and the results that we want to share it with everyone. So it's important for all of us to be able to get the concept across, without fumbling for words, speaking in riddles or scaring the daylights out of a potential gym buddy.

I've given this a lot of thought, and I've had a lot of practice so far, but my own Elevator Pitch still isn't perfect. Still, the more I say it, the better it gets, and I'd be a terrible blog hostess if I didn't at least share with you what I've come up with so far. So here it is, as best as I can document it:

CrossFit is a fitness program designed around the things you do in the real world. Every day, you bend down and pick things up, you put things over your head, you squat down, you stand up, you run after your kids or jump over a puddle. CrossFit prepares you for all that and then some by performing those exact movements in our workouts. We borrow exercises from things like weightlifting, gymnastics, and track and field, and we mix it up a lot, so your body is always adapting, getting stronger, faster, better conditioned. And the key to the whole program is that you work really, really hard... so you get fit really, really fast.

Now, that's pretty watered down, and certainly doesn't encompass all the principles of CrossFit. But I've covered "functional exercises", "constantly varied" AND "high intensity", given a few examples of some of the things we do, and closed with a sweet little carrot... Come train with me. Get really fit.

Things I haven't addressed include the group classes and the sense of community, the infinitely scale-able aspect of the programming, the ten components of fitness and our focus on safety, technique and intensity. But those are all things I can hit on pretty quickly if the person shows some interest. If I get a bite on my Elevator Pitch, then I can start really selling, based on exactly who I'm talking to. As just an opener, however, I've found this standard Pitch works pretty well.

So here's my question. Have you thought about your Elevator Pitch? What do you say, what key elements do you address, what do you purposefully leave out so as not to overwhelm or scare the person off? Do you vary it based on who you're talking to, or do you open with the same lines, regardless of who's asking? Is your pitch too short, too long? Do people stay interested, ask follow-up questions, seem to "get it"? And finally, what do you think MY pitch is missing?

Consider this homework, people, and post thoughts to comments. You'll thank me for it, the next time someone asks you, "How'd you get so fit, anyway?" In the meantime, I may have to go back to Lululemon to ask the Lulu-lady how Jenn did with her CrossFit Elevator Pitch. In the interest of research, of course. It has nothing to do with buying that gray pair of Boogie shorts that I reluctantly put back on the shelf.

Roll with the 603

2009-05-15T05:00:00.003-04:00

First thing's first - the PR Party thread is still going strong, with more than 70 comments so far. Keep them coming - if you're a lurker here but have yet to drop some props, now is the time to make yourself heard.

Now, on to the topic of the day. A few of you who posted songs to the PR Party thread added as a bit of a disclaimer, "I'm not a 603'er, but here's my favorite track." Interesting. The first thing I'll say it does not matter if you're not a 603'er. Good music is good music, and I'd like to get 70 more people to contribute to this gold mine of lyrical magic.

But the next thing I'll say is, why aren't you a 603'er? I mean, I know you most likely do not live within practical driving distance of Tilton, NH, and therefore cannot physically come and train with us. Too bad - we'd love to have you. But that doesn't mean you can't still check out our stuff and play along from time to time.

See, at the 603, we do all our own programming. And I may be biased, but I'd like to think our stuff is pretty good, thanks in no small part to Dallas (the evil genius behind 90% of our WoDs). Our workouts are heavy on the Oly, kettlebells and gymnastics, and have a serious strength bias. We like to mix things up in ways you may not have seen before. And we make you think about your training - your strengths and weaknesses, your skill level, and your degree of mental toughness. All of which means our workouts are an awful lot of FUN. Well, fun-ish. I mean, you've seen our tag line. (Also, even we'll admit that the math is not fun. Nobody likes math.)

The thing is, we've got CrossFitters from all over regularly doing our workouts and posting to comments. Jonathan in the UK, Kristin and Jay in North Carolina, Andy at Dartmouth, Addi in Nebraska, Nik in Maine, Tony from... um, Tony, where are you from, anyway? And Matt, originally from NH but currently deployed in Afghanistan. So not all 603'ers actually train WITH us (although, again, we wish they could).

So if you're ever stuck for a workout, or bored with what you've been doing, or just feeling like kicking your own ass in a totally new and uncomfortable manner... check us out. Scroll through our WoDs, and if you see something you like, give it a go. That goes for you affiliate owners and trainers out there too - feel free to borrow, sample or straight-up snatch any one of the 603 WoDs. We only ask one thing of you... if you give our stuff a whirl, sound off in our comments! We appreciate hearing feedback on our programming, and we love seeing what other people are able to do with our stuff.

Come roll with the 603, even if it's just for a day. You can start here, if you like... the met-con I am now calling The Workout of Which We Do Not Speak. Or, my personal favorite - our version of a CrossFit classic called Stand Up, Linda. See, Constantly Varied drops in on us all the time, so no matter what day you choose, you're bound to try something new, and have a little fun while you're at it. (Well, fun-ish. Right.)

Our long-distance trainee, Kristin Schulz, passing our version of the Sissy Test with flying colors.

It's a PR party, and everyone's invited

2009-05-13T05:00:00.002-04:00

First of all, thanks to all of you who contributed to the "Superstitious" thread. On that note, y'all are certifiably bananas. Kyle with the sunglasses, Melicious with the backwards reps and Sherrill with the perfect alignment of bar to ceiling rafters? But hey, I am not in any place to judge. If there's one thing I believe, it's this... WHATEVER WORKS. Seriously - if sunglasses, counting backwards, and good feng shui lead to faster met-cons, bigger lifts and significant PRs, then I'll throw on the shades, line my shit up and 3,2,1 my way through every workout.

A really interesting thing that came from that thread, though, are the specific connections you made to your gym music. I've written about this once before, how music is as much a part of my training as chalk, iron and rubber. But I didn't realize how many of you are just as particular about what you listen to, and when. I GET that. I appreciate that. And reading some of your playlists (and your anti-playlists, Michael with the Nine Inch Nails) gave me another idea.

I've been looking for some new gym music. I have about 250 tracks on my CrossFit playlist, and another 150 on my Oly playlist, and I'm bored with all of them. And I could spend a few hours poking around iTunes for some new stuff... But maybe I don't need to do that. See, you all seem pretty convinced that YOUR music is the BEST music for big lifts, fast met-cons and PR parties. So here's what I propose.

Post your best/favorite/most guaranteed to work musical track (artist and song title) to comments.
You only get to post ONE SONG, so choose carefully. No changing your mind, one post per person.
I'll download every single one of your tracks and put them in a new PR Party playlist.
I'll make sure to hit each track at some point over the coming weeks, whether it's in my own workout or during one of the 603's group W0Ds.
In the meantime, you guys can see what other people are listening too, get some ideas and maybe make your own new playlists too.
We'll regroup back here on June 1st to discuss which tracks worked for us during which workouts, and (hopefully) share some cool "I PR'd to this song" stories.

Here's the deal - I promise to download, play, and keep an open mind about EVERY song you post. So Bee, if you get all fired up to "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy", throw it out there and I'll find just the right time to crank it up. Also, I am not opposed to profanity in my music, either. Clearly.

I'll kick this PR Party off with MY song (something I haven't referenced yet)... J Squad's "ttbz Anthem". It's perfect for a weighted met-con... there's something about the beat that just makes me want to, as Jenn puts it, hit my swagger.

So, you in? Post your song to comments - let's make some magic, people.

Very superstitious

2009-05-11T05:00:00.005-04:00

This past Saturday morning, I'm running Chad through his third Elements class, which focuses on the posterior chain and exercises like the deadlift, kettlebell swing and box jump. I'm loading up the bar for some progressively heavier deadlifts while Chad is taking notes.

Chad: How much weight was that last one?

Me: That was 205#.

Chad: Cool, got it. And (pen poised above paper) how much weight are you putting on now?

Me: NOOOO! You never, EVER write the weights down before you pull them!

Chad: Um, really?

Me: NO. That's bad juju. Write AFTER, Chad. Always AFTER.

At this point, Chad is looking at me kind of funny. Then he says, "You sure do have a lot of rules about gym stuff."

Uh, really? Chad THEN reminds me of the previous week, as we were loading up the bar for his back squats. He went to put a plate on with the numbers facing OUT, and I just about had a seizure. "NOOO! You never, EVER put the numbers facing out, Chad. IN. Always IN."

Huh. I mean, the plate thing is pretty common knowledge, I thought. Everyone knows that bad things happen when the plates face out. My hairdresser's cousin knew a girl who got pregnant because her boyfriend lifted with the plates facing out. True story. So I don't consider that one especially weird, but it got me thinking... what else do I do in the gym that might be considered superstitious?

The recording of the numbers is a big one. Writing down the weights or reps before you've actually pulled them is just asking fate to kick you in the crotch. I may have an IDEA of what weights I'm going to use for the whole workout, but until they actually leave the ground, they DON'T go in the book.

I also know I am VERY particular about my music, especially on PR attempts. For example, there is one song which has been banned from all playlists, anywhere I train. It's Saliva's "Click, Click, Boom", which is a shame, because it is a very good song. I gave that song a chance - I really did. But I have NEVER had a good pull to that song, ever. Deadlift attempt - tragic. Clean and jerk attempt - fail. Press PR attempt - close, but no go. So I've done the only logical thing there is to do - I've banned that song from the gym. (On the opposite hand, Flyleaf's "I'm So Sick" and Seether's "Remedy" have always given me big, strong lifts, so I pull those out when I need them the most.)

I also have special gym clothes for certain occasions, which might just be a girl thing. I save my pink short-shorts for the toughest met-cons, because pink is traditionally a "princess" color, and looking at the shorts while I'm sweaty and panting and covered in chalk reminds me there is no room for princesses here. I also purposefully don't match my clothes when I have a really hard workout. Matching makes me feel far too coordinated and pretty to get down to serious business. Not matching makes me feel tougher. And that sounds SO dumb on paper, but I'm going to keep it out there because it's true. I also have several various articles of clothing printed with skulls and crossbones. If I show up for an Oly session wearing my skulls and crossbones, you can be damn well sure it is ON. (I credit my latest jerk PR 86% to Dallas' coaching and the rest to my grey and black striped skull and crossbone socks.)

Finally, if I'm doing unilateral exercises, I ALWAYS start with my left. Even if the rest of the class starts with their right... I'm on the left. That is non-negotiable.

So maybe I do have a few superstitions, but they're rooted in my own delusions of cause and effect. And as long as they keep working in my favor, I'm happy to throw on my pink shorts with an orange tank top and crank up the Seether before my Fight Gone Bad. If you have any weird gym-related things, feel free to drop them to comments. I can't be the ONLY superstitious one... and maybe you'll have something I can adopt. Because nothing's too crazy to try, when it comes to a PR attempt.

CrossFit 603 apparel

2009-05-07T15:00:00.002-04:00

In the interest of getting our designs out there without having to worry about taking and filling orders ourselves, we've decided to start off with our very own CrossFit 603 Spreadshirt shop. We're pretty sure these shirts will add 10# to your deadlift! (And if they don't, at least you'll look good tryin'.)

All our products (save a few special women's designs) are printed on American Apparel goods. We like American Apparel's Made-in-the-USA promise, and their products are a superior quality, with a slim and flattering fit. (No Hanes Beefy Tees for the ladies of the 603!)

Our designs are a combination of our kick-ass 603 logo, the mischievous kettlebell and the oh-so-true "our fun is not fun" tag line. Tees are printed in full color, and most have graphics on the front and back. We have a good selection of designs, styles and colors, but if you want something in particular, send me an email and I'll probably be able to make it for you.

Special 603 bonus! If you send me a picture of you doing something cool in your 603 tee, I'll make you famous-ish here on the blog. Get creative... but we do have one hard and fast rule around here. No public handstands. I know CrossFitters loooove them some public handstands, but that is just not how we roll. On the other hand, special priority goes to photos that also feature tall socks, pit bulls, and/or people picking up heavy stuff and putting it overhead. Because that IS how we roll.

The 603 tees in action, sort of. (We were doing stuff in 'em earlier, we promise.) EC, we'll get you one soon.

Hot Chicks Doing Pull-Ups: KrisFit

2009-05-06T05:00:00.003-04:00

After I posted the first "Hot Chicks" video, I received a note from Kristopher Germain, CrossFit Certified Level I Trainer, owner of KrisFit and a recently approved CrossFit affiliate. Kris wrote, in part:

"I really love training women - the soccer mom and the weekend warrior, the ex-athlete who's thirty but thinks she is too "old" to be exceptionally fit. Women are strong, so much stronger than anyone tells them. Where the crap did the partial push-up come from? Who thought women were so weak they couldn't learn to do a strict push-up? Women training with me reach "bad-ass benchmarks" by getting real push-ups and real pull-ups. They're at the on-ramp to bad-ass with one push up and one pull up; and reach authentic bad-ass status if they can do 20 strict push-ups and 5 dead hang pull-ups.

I literally point all my women to your site so that they understand you can be an authentic bad-ass in the gym, with iron and bumper plates, and clouds of chalk hanging in the air, but still be hot and feminine. Which leads me into my next point... I've got bad-ass hot chicks doing pull-ups!! I've got one post with my client Randi getting 5 pulls for the first time, and today I filmed two other clients, Maria (first time getting 4) and Roxy (first time getting 5). Let me know if you would be interested in showcasing my girls in your celebration of chicks and pull-ups."

Hells, yes, I am interested in featuring your ladies! For one, these are some strong women, going for some lofty strength goals. But more importantly, I love meeting trainers and affiliate owners who are so dedicated to getting their women strong, fit and confident in their abilities. So it would be my pleasure to introduce you to the Women of KrisFit in this week's edition of "Hot Chicks". From the KrisFit blog:

Grinding out a Goal

We’re back!!! And this video is long overdue. Early in December, Randi Barnes announced that she was tired of sitting on a pull up personal best of 4. She set a goal of getting that 5th rep before the new year. Cut to two weeks later…

Girls Are Strong.

This post is going to be part of an ever expanding page that I am creating for this site. It will be dedicated to functional movements performed with a prejudice for strength and control, throughout a full range of motion. You will not see a partial push up. We will award strength, power, intensity and grace.

Girls are strong. Most of them just don’t know it.

We’re going to show you some who do.

And finally, though she's not doing pull-ups, check out KrisFit's Jenny Atkinson, cranking out 20 strict push-ups and pulling a 185# deadlift PR... on her birthday, no less. Rock on, sister.

HOW sturdy are those parallettes?

2009-05-04T05:00:00.001-04:00

I've written a few times about my experiences at the CrossFit Gymnastics Certifications - everything from an analysis of the skills taught to my own experience conquering my handstand fears. Last weekend, my friend and Brooklyn Boy Justin Algera (otherwise known as Thor) attended his first gymnastics cert, a little bit at my behest. (Translation: I might have bullied him into it, at first.) Here's a fresh new review of the cert, from Justin's unique perspective as a big guy, an Oly guy and a CrossFit Brooklyn coach.

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Ever since I started CrossFitting in 2005, the gymnastics stuff has always been a big ol' goat of mine. It's not that I didn't like the sport - fact is, I’ve always been a fan of gymnastics. My wife and I used to go to the University of Florida women's gymnastics meets, since it was cheap (and fun) entertainment. But watching and doing are two different things, and doing has always been a struggle for a big guy like me.

I will admit, though, for some of the movements, I just didn’t see the value in doing. Let’s take handstands, for example. Sure they are hard. But just because something is difficult doesn’t mean we have to do it as exercise. Hell, marathons are hard too, but I’m not doing that shit either. I mean come on, I'm trying to be fit here, not join the Cirque Du Soleil. I'm not so much scared to be upside down, but being 240 lbs. inverted on parallettes just reeks of "bad idea". To me these moves were for (a) people who have trained for them since before they could walk, (b) Romanians, or (c) petite men and women, NOT guys who weigh 240 lbs.

But when the gymnastics cert showed up on South Brooklyn’s website, I thought what the hell, why not? For one, if I’m going to be a good coach, I need to have a wide variety of tools in my tool box, and two, it should provide plenty of entertainment for the rest of the participants. So I signed up. Now I’ll be honest, even up to the day before, I thought, “Why not just postpone and get out of this cert and you can save it for some other time”. But I could hear Byers in my head, calling me out… so I sucked it up and went.

All I can say now is I am SO glad that I went. I learned a great deal in those two days, and feel that I would have lost out as a coach, had I skipped out. First and foremost, I would have missed out on the chance to work with Jeff Tucker and Jason Malutich. That alone was worth the money for the cert. These guys more than know what they are doing, and whether you are a strong CrossFit bad-ass, or someone who has little in the way of a strength-to-weight ratio, they will have you doing stuff you never thought possible. Not only did they have me inverted on rings (and yes, doing handstands on parallettes), but I was even doing a back lever with spotters. At this point in my CrossFit career, I don't get excited too often about "fitness" accomplishments, but this one definitely put a big smile on my face.

Beyond that, I now have a better appreciation of why these moves are important to us, not only as CrossFitters, but as people who were meant to move. I truly believe now that just working on the basics of these moves will benefit anyone who wants to get serious about their fitness. Just look at all the shoulder flexibility and range of motion limitations that seem to be so common in CrossFit. Learning how to properly warm-up, stretch, and open/close the shoulder girdle (skin-the-cat anyone?) would really help anyone looking to improve their Olympic snatch or jerk.

And learning how to properly introduce and scale the movements was invaluable to me as a coach. I would feel comfortable taking my mother-in-law (who is just starting off in her quest to get fit and lose weight) through many of the basics we did this past weekend. Does that mean I have to keep working on everything that we went over? No, of course not. But at least now I can see the benefit of the movements, and if someone wanted to be trained in these movements, I feel pretty confident that I could help them learn.

I feel like I’m a much better coach now, in general, for having gone through the cert. Tucker has a unique perspective on the CF community and the way he feels these moves should be performed and learned. It is a perspective that I share completely, and to hear it, learn it, and put it into practice with my own abilities and ideas as a coach only serves to make me that much better to my clients and those who come to me for help. And finally, I am now excited to work on these movements a lot more now in my own training. I’m still probably not going to do shit on parallettes (because I just know at some point, they will snap), but I’ll be damned if I am going to stop trying to get that unassisted back lever.

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Justin Algera (Thor) is a CrossFit Certified Level I Trainer, and has completed his CrossFit Olympic Lifting and Gymnastics Certifications. He has been training CrossFit since 2005, and began training with CrossFit NYC in 2006. In his own words, "I truly believe that CrossFit and its ideology are the best way to get into the greatest shape of your life, and there is no better place to learn these principles than here at the Black Box."

Thor, stretching at the Gymnastics Cert, and in perfect extension in his natural habitat.

Science is Hot: Fat Loss Edition

2009-04-30T03:00:00.001-04:00

This is the second post is our "Science is Hot" series, featuring Mathieu Lalonde, a chemist with a lifelong interest in nutrition and human performance. As a reminder, Matt obtained his bachelor's degree in science with a concentration in chemistry from the University of Ottawa (Canada), and a PhD in organic chemistry at Harvard University. He is currently pursuing post-doctoral studies in inorganic chemistry at Harvard. (Translation: Matt is scary Smart.) In addition, Matt has a real gift for translating complicated and highly technical concepts into practical, applicable advice tailored specifically for CrossFit athletes.

Our first Science is Hot post came from some conversations I had with Matt while hanging out at the Science Exercise Certification in January. Over the course of the next few weeks, that post received more hits than any other entry in the history of this blog. Because of the response, and as a result of the huge number of questions I've been responding to lately about performance, nutrition and fat loss, the second post in this series deals specifically with that subject.

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Let’s talk about fat loss. Isn’t it just a matter of “calories in, calories out?”

“Calories in, calories out” belongs on the shelf of flawed hypotheses, right next to “a calorie is just a calorie”. Gary Taubes does a good job of debunking these myths in his book entitled 'Good Calories Bad Calories'. The "calories in, calories out" hypothesis arises from the application of thermodynamics to the human body. Energy conservation tells you that:

ΔE= Ein – Eout

Where ΔE is the change in energy, Ein is the energy intake (typically in units of calories), and Eout is energy expenditure. From this simple equation, it appears that weight loss should occur if energy expenditure exceeds energy intake. In other words, a caloric deficit (i.e. ΔE is negative) must be created in order for weight loss to occur. Wouldn’t it be great if it were that simple?

The problem with “calories in, calories out” is that Ein and Eout are assumed to be independent variables - that you can reduce Ein without changing Eout. In reality, the two variables are somewhat dependent. For example, if an individual consumes an amount of calories that is near or below starvation levels, the individual's basal metabolism will decrease in an attempt to conserve energy. In this case, reducing Ein led to compensatory decrease in Eout. (This is why diet and exercise are such a powerful combination; exercise allows one to increase Eout.)

But even then, things aren’t that simple, right?

Right. Treating the human body like a motor completely ignores all of endocrinology; the hormones involved in the mechanisms of energy storage and release. Therein lies the real flaw of the “calories in, calories out” hypothesis. When endocrinology is ignored, it is easy to think that fat people are fat because they don't exercise or they eat too much. For some folks, that is true. But for people with metabolic syndrome who suffer from chronically elevated insulin levels and insulin resistance, the opposite is true. Taubes' genius lies in the fact that he was able to properly identify the cause and the effect. If someone has chronically elevated insulin levels or insulin resistance, fat stores are not accessible for energy. In this case, fat people don't exercise because they are fat, or eat too much because they are fat. Obesity is the cause; lethargy and hunger are the effect. Everything gets turned on its head.

So what about “a calorie is a calorie”?

"A calorie is a calorie" is simply incorrect because it also ignores endocrinology; in this case the food’s effect on human hormones. The source of the calories is just as important, if not more, than the total number of calories itself. A common cause of insulin resistance and elevated levels of insulin in the bloodstream is excess consumption of refined carbohydrates. If individuals with chronic insulin resistance try to lose weight by simply cutting calories or exercising without changing their diet, they will end up losing muscle mass as opposed to fat. On the other hand, if someone with a diet consisting mainly of insulin-spiking foods (sugar, starch, bread, dairy, etc..) switches to a diet consisting mainly of lean meat, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar, no grains, no dairy, no legumes ("Paleo"), then weight loss may occur even if the diets are isocaloric (i.e. have the same amount of calories).

This becomes apparent when high-carbohydrate low-fat diets are compared to isocaloric high-fat low-carbohydrate diets. People on 1,500 calorie high-fat, low carbohydrate diets lose weight and feel better than people on the same calorie high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets. In fact, cases of severe dementia as the result of 1,500-calorie low-fat high-carbohydrate diets have been documented, while people on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet have excellent biomarkers of mental and physical health.

Why is a higher fat diet so important if you’re trying to lose body fat?

Fat makes it much easier to live on a caloric deficit. The consumption of fat causes the release of various compounds that tell your brain you are no longer hungry. Fat consumption also changes the expression of a gene that synthesizes adropin, which plays a role in energy homeostasis and lipid metabolism.

In addition, fat consumption triggers the release of N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine, which inhibits food intake, and foods that are high in fat also have a much lower insulin response when compared to foods high in carbohydrates. This is why Robb Wolf recommends cutting out carb blocks and replacing them with fat blocks for people who are always hungry on the Zone. Not only does subbing fat for carbs prevent hunger, but it also increases the caloric content of the diet.

Fat is also responsible for the synthesis of a variety of hormones. Interestingly, it has been shown that high fat diets have a vitamin sparing effect compared to high carbohydrate diets. Most importantly, as long as fat is available for fuel, the body will not catabolize muscle for energy. So the consumption of fat also has a muscle sparing effect.

But we do need SOME carbs.

Yes. Ideally, one would only want to consume enough complex carbohydrates to be able to perform optimally during exercise, with the remainder of the calories consisting of protein and fat. Eating only as many complex carbohydrates as absolutely necessary is especially true if the carbohydrates are coming from insulin spiking sources such as bread. (You shouldn’t have to worry about your intake of vegetables, however.)

So what’s going on with CrossFitters who write to me, saying they CrossFit 3/1 and are only eating 1,400 calories a day… and STILL don’t seem to be losing fat?

There could be a lot going on here. First and foremost, what are these CrossFitters eating? If it’s high carb, low fat, then I’m not surprised. If they are eating Paleo (meat, vegetables, low fruit, with plenty of healthy fats), then the problem might be elevated cortisol levels due to too much stress. Stressors include one or a combination of too few calories (i.e. starvation), too much exercise, not enough sleep, as well as a variety of other work or life related factors.

Assume a CrossFitter is already on a solid Paleo diet. How do they know if they need to eat MORE or LESS to jump-start fat loss?

It all depends on how much they were eating to begin with – this one is trial and error. If they were eating too much, caloric restriction might see them leaning out and performance could improve. If they were eating the right amount of food and cut more calories, they might get sluggish and become more likely to over train (or under recover). The problem isn’t necessarily one of basal metabolism, which tends to slow down when a significant caloric deficit is created, but rather of energy stores. If food intake is insufficient for replenishment of muscle and liver glycogen, intense bouts of exercise such as CrossFit may become somewhat more challenging. That is because the amount of glycogen used by the body increases with the intensity of the exercise. The glycogen stores of someone on a low calorie diet may not be able to supply sufficient quantities of glucose to maintain a high level of intensity for the duration of the workout. The same can be said of individuals who have to resort to a very low carbohydrate diet (i.e. just meat and vegetables) in order to lose body fat.

Low glycogen stores aside, burning fat for energy (Krebs cycle) requires more oxygen than burning glucose. When oxygen demand is high, such as during most CrossFit workouts, the body will shift energy sources in order to use oxygen as efficiently as possible. If glucose, from glycogen, is not available, fat will be burned for fuel… but less oxygen will be available to the muscle. (As an aside, the purpose of a post workout meal consisting of complex carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes is to replenish spent glycogen stores.)

So if you’re eating to lean out, can you still maintain performance? Or is there always a trade-off?

It depends on food quantity and quality. If you have a small caloric deficit, your performance might actually improve as you lose body fat. This has been shown time and again by many who follow ‘The Zone Diet’ or ‘Paleo/Zone’. Unfortunately, ‘The Zone Diet’ doesn’t work for everybody. In the case, a ketogenic cyclic-low-carbohydrate diet is typically the way to go. Decreased performance is almost a guarantee here, however, given that the point of the diet is to deplete glycogen stores to allow fat to be burned for fuel. The cyclic nature means that you gorge on complex carbohydrates at specific meals and specific times in order to replenish spent glycogen stores. A male CrossFitter on a Paleo diet with an already low body fat level between 10% and 15% can further decrease his body fat level with a ketogenic cyclic low carb diet, but performances will suffer to some extent. You can find a great description of a CLC diet in Rob Faigin’s Natural Hormonal Enhancement.

How do I figure out how much I need to eat to cut body fat without sacrificing muscle?

If you exercise regularly and your protein consumption is adequate for the amount of exercise that you perform, it is unlikely that you will lose a significant amount of muscle mass. The amount of food required will be found through trial and error, sticking with each “phase” for two weeks to one month before evaluating the effectiveness and making changes. Exercising during this whole process is key. Here is what I would recommend.

1. Use the Zone Calculator to determine your protein intake. Have protein at every meal to meet this intake and use lean meat (preferably grass-fed), fish and sea food, poultry and wild game as well as eggs as your main sources of protein.

2. Eliminate highly refined and sugar laden foods from your diet. Replace some of the calories with foods containing good fats like olives, avocados, coconut, nuts and seeds.

3. Eliminate foods made from grains or grain-like substances (such as buckwheat). Breads, cereals and pasta are the number one targets here.

4. Eliminate dairy.

5. Eliminate legumes.

6. Eliminate dried fruit and fruit juice. Try to eat more vegetables than fruit. If you eat fruit, make it fresh fruit.

7. If you are down to lean meat, eggs, fish and seafood, poultry, vegetables and good fats and still not losing body fat, then slowly cut the calories from fat until you start to lose weight.

__________________

In summary, food quality ("Paleo") is both the most important factor in your diet - and also where you'll see the most bang for your buck. Fat is your friend. The Black Box is important - get your quality in line, then start playing around with quantity and macronutrient proportions. Change things one at a time, so you'll know what's working and what isn't. And recognize that for most of us, in the quest for fat loss and the perfect six pack, at some point, there ARE performance trade-offs.

Post any follow-up questions to comments. Matt will do his best to answer them, but is leaving on Friday for the Eastern Canadian Qualifiers. If I can, I'll pick up where he left off, or I'll recruit Dallas to help out (since almost everything I know about diet and nutrition, I first learned from him).

Best of luck this weekend, Matt, and thanks for dropping more of your Science-y genius on us.

Easy for you to say

2009-04-28T05:00:00.005-04:00

As you know, I've been talking about diet an awful lot lately. I'm posting my thoughts here, responding to emails and doing some nutritional coaching for a few folks. I'm in danger of becoming the "Eat More Girl", I'm afraid, as it seems like that's what I start 90% of my conversations with. But I honestly wouldn't be giving out that advice if the Adidas Sambas didn't fit.

People are responding positively, especially when they take my advice and it works. But I'm also getting a little bit of the, "Easy for you to say..." too. As in, "Easy for you to say, you're already lean." Or, "Easy for you to say, you're not trying to lose weight." So I'd like to set one thing straight here, and hopefully provide a little tough love inspiration.

This diet stuff was NOT easy for me to say. I did not start off with the perfect diet, I did not start off lean, and I did NOT start off strong. I started off, as Dallas puts it, "Really weak and skinny fat". My muscles were non-existent, I thought 10# dumbbells were heavy and believed bagels with light cream cheese to be a good breakfast food. Getting started on a diet that would support CrossFit was NOT easy for me, nor is it going to be easy for YOU. In general, your diet is HARD WORK. It requires constant attention, evaluation, refinement. It requires research, education, dedication. And it requires the patience of a hungry, cranky, information-overloaded saint.

I started improving my diet in small steps. At Dallas' urging, I began eating vegetables, tried to get in more regular meals and upped my overall calories. I hung out there for a while, until that felt comfortable and I started to feel and see some positive effects. That motivated me to do some more research, and ask Dallas for more help. I started eating more "real" food, started cutting back on the grains and sugars and began to eat some good fat. Making those quality improvements led to fast results... but I had so much success (dropping fat and building muscle) that I became a little overzealous. I got mixed up in all that Zone Gone Bad nonsense and backslid for a few months. I was eating too little and training too hard, and I got scary skinny and lost a bunch of strength. NOT the progress we were looking for.

I regrouped, and started over. Grains, sugars and dairy - gone. More vegetables. LOTS more fat. My quality was dialed in, but I was a little off in my proportions. I was eating too much fat, and after a month, I started getting soft. But my lifts were better, and I felt better, so I stayed there until I rid my brain of its "six pack" obsession. Then, I started experimenting again. I cut my fat back a little, upped my protein and started slowly cutting back on carbs. I hung out there for a while, tweaking my proportions gradually. I leaned out a little, and continued to gain strength.

Then, I started bonking on some workouts, and noticed some energy flags throughout the day. So I started adding more fat (again), and implementing IF a few days a week. I played with my meal times and fast times, made sure I got all my calories in every day and hung out there for a while. (Noticing a trend here?) IF seemed to pull it all together. My lifts kept getting better, I was happier with my new, more filled-out frame and my energy was super consistent all day. I stayed there for a LONG time.

But, of course, there is no stasis. My body continued to change - more muscle, more weight - and eventually, my gym performance showed me that my food intake and macronutrient proportion were no longer "ideal". Time to rework it... again. My latest plan includes more fat, higher quality protein, a reduction of IF days, and the introduction of a higher carb post-workout meal. I'm a week into it, and will stay here for another week or two and see how things go.

See where I'm going with this? None of this has been "easy". It's hard work, and an awful lot of effort. I black box on myself CONSTANTLY, to figure out what's going to work and what isn't. There are so many factors - dairy or no dairy? More fat or more carbs? More calories, or less calories? It can, and frequently does, get overwhelming, and it would be so much easier to throw up my hands and just EAT. But my diet allows me to perform, and be healthy, and be fit, so I put in the constant effort.

If you CrossFit, you are no stranger to hard work and effort. A few months ago, I wrote about putting that same hard work and effort into your recovery... and today, I'm writing about putting it into your DIET. I'm not saying you have to weigh and measure, track and analyze. But I am saying you need to educate yourself, be patient and be prepared for an awful lot of trial and error before you find the exact combination that works for you. And even then, be prepared to repeat the cycle ad nauseam, because things are always changing.

I'm happy to answer your questions, and REALLY happy to be able to help you skip some of the mistakes I made with my own diet by pointing you in a better direction. But as for any of this being "easy for me to say", I assure you, there's a lot of grief, frustration and more than a few mistakes behind every last piece of advice I'm dropping on you. But I'll also say this... When you get it right, and things just click, it's like you won the lottery. So stick with it. Be patient. Keep experimenting, slowly, tweaking one thing at a time. You'll get there. And when you do, for a while at least, it WILL feel easy.

Hot Chicks Doing Pull-Ups: Laney and Rachel

2009-04-27T05:00:00.001-04:00

I've got a ton of video on deck, but today I'm going to feature just two very special hot chicks doing pull-ups... lots of 'em.

Laney Coyne is a CrossFitter, Parkourista (how cool does that sound?) and trainer from Portland, OR. She found my blog and linked back to me, which is how I found her blog, where she says: "... (got some) inspiration from my new favorite pseudo-friend (basically, a girl I came across online, she has no idea that I exist, but I wish we were friends) Melissa Byers and her blog Byers Gets Diesel." I thought that was hilarious, because that's pretty much how I felt about all MY fitness girl-crushes (like the fabulous Fawn Friday). So I got in touch with Laney and now we are friends for real.

Laney sent me this note, after my first "Hot Chicks" post: "What up sister~ Love the post on hot chicks doing pullups... the ladies definitely deserve props for accomplishing this! As a trainer I strive to make women believe that getting their pullup is possible! When I started CrossFit in October 2007 I could do one very lame semi-strict deadhang pullup. Last month I tested my max and did 9. Yep 9. I was stoked. Here's a video of my second max set that same day - taken at CrossFit Portland - and I did 8."

Check her hotness below...rock on, Laney-girl!

Next up, we have a girl I've been a fan of for quite some time, and not just because her boyfriend (Brian DeGennaro) is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Rachel Izzo is a CrossFitter turned Oly chick who's been blogging about her training - and making the tough transition to Olympic lifting - since May 2008. (Her site is titled, "Rizzzzo's World. Workouts. Mostly Oly ones. Unless I'm bad and do CrossFit.") Rachel drops some serious Girl Power inspiration on a daily basis, snatching, cleaning and jerking weights that I can only dream about. But when she heard about my CrossFit "Hot Chicks" series, she sent me this note:

"Hey! So I was inspired by your dead-hang post and decided to do a max set today. First set I did 10 (only 6 of which were caught on video) and because of the failed video attempt, I did another set of 10. This is my second set of 10 (which was recorded!). An all-time record for me!"

This makes me proud and jealous all at the same time. My goal is ONE set of ten... watch Rachel make her second set of the day look EASY.

More Hot Chicks Doing Dead Hangs to come, so stay tuned.

I'll take that

2009-04-23T05:00:00.005-04:00

Dallas and I spent last Sunday working the barbell snatch with EvaClaire (EC) Synkowski, of CrossFit Boston. This was my first exposure to snatches, besides the 15 minute PVC tutorial I got at my Level 1 Cert. Dallas is way further along, but still hadn't received much formal coaching. We have been working our Olympic lifting a lot lately, though. It's Dallas' first love, and the 603 programming is going to have a heavy Oly slant. And I've found that I really like the explosive nature of the lifts - coming from kettlebells, I like to use my hips. So Dallas and I have been meeting once a week to work on the lifts, starting with my cleans.

Dallas has a plan of action to get me proficient with cleans, but he warned me that we can't enact the plan all at once. I can only handle a few cues at a time, a few corrections at a time, and certainly a limited number of lifts before I move past the point of improved performance and into burnout. So Dallas has me work on one thing at a time, and deliberately overlooks certain form flaws for the sake of the overall plan. I sometimes have difficulty being patient, because I like to learn everything - and do it well - all at once. But with a new movement - and certainly a movement as complicated as an Olympic lift - I understand that you have to focus on form elements a few at a time. So I kind of understood where he was going, and I was more than willing to play along and just do what he told me. But after training with EC, I really understand why good coaches create this kind of a training plan for their beginners.

EC had us warm up to the full snatch with a TON of assistance drills. She kept saying, "I know this is boring, but stay with me". Far from boring, these drills were getting our bodies and brains ready for the bigger pulls ahead. Working with just PVC pipe, we drilled the overhead squat, pressing snatch balance, heaving snatch balance, snatch balance and the full Burgener warm-up. This took almost an hour, and helped with both our confidence and muscle memory when we finally started working from the hang and the floor.

Once we put some weight on the bar, we took turns pulling two or three attempts while EC provided feedback. Her cues were great - she would review the cue, and then give us a few short words to help us remember. Like with keeping the bar close - she'd talk about why I wanted to do that, and show me how I could do that better, and then right before my next pull, she'd throw out one of her favorite Coach B. cues, "Feel the steel!" Those cues stuck with me, and each pull improved. But what really stayed with me were the comments she would make outside of specific cues. When we executed a solid lift, she would say things like, "I'll take that," or "Yeah, that'll do." She didn't say that on every attempt, but I seemed to hear it on all the lifts that felt good. That specific feedback brings me right back to my original point... a good coach has a long-term plan of action, and will sacrifice short-term elements for the sake of the big picture.

EC's comments conveyed a very specific message - what you are doing isn't perfect, but I'm happy with where you are for your current level of training. And that is as much as a good coach can ask for with a beginner and a new movement. I wouldn't expect to get all the finer points down right away, and I would hope my coach wouldn't expect that of me either. And yet I've had experiences with trainers in my past life (pre-CrossFit) that continue to provide criticism after criticism, in an effort (I assume) to do just that - make me perfect. It's is an impossibility, and all it does is frustrate both the trainee and the coach. I've also been trained by some who, in an effort to make me feel good about my efforts, provide nothing BUT positive encouragement. "Great job, that's perfect, yes!" Uh... pretty sure my third snatch ever wasn't actually "perfect", and unless you tell me what to focus on next, it sure isn't going to get any better. So that approach doesn't work for me either.

EC's feedback and comments struck the perfect balance between direction, encouragement and realism. I knew what I was supposed to be focusing on based on her cues, I was happy to be making improvements, and I felt like EC was happy with my progress... but no one was blowing air up my skirt, making me think I was some kind of snatching prodigy. And it helped me understand why having a plan - and keeping the big picture in mind - is the sign of a really good coach. Coaches like EC and Dallas will sacrifice some of the short term finer points to promote the big picture. They provide honest feedback to keep me encouraged and confident without falsely inflating my sense of abilities. And they keep me moving towards virtuosity by adding elements one at a time, in a careful and structured manner.

I'm posting my first attempts at the barbell snatch here, as a starting point to measure my progress. Hopefully a few months from now, I'll be able to post something that shows much improved form and heavier weights. But for now - just watch the video and admire my snatch. (Come on, I've been SO good up until now...) What I'm saying is, no feedback or criticism on my form, please. My coaches are good, and they've got a solid plan in place for me, and I trust them to get me there. So while this video doesn't show perfect technique... EC says she'll take it. And if EC will take it, I sure as hell will.

The Bacon Diaries, Part II

2009-04-21T05:00:00.001-04:00

This is the second post in my series of Delicious Things You Can Do With Bacon. This week, we're focusing on vegetables. See, I've talked to a lot of you recently about your diets. And one thing I'm hearing from a lot of people is that you don't really like vegetables. To which I reply, "Yes, you do. You just have to find a different way to prepare your vegetables." So last week, I experimented with a recipe involving one of my new favorite vegetables - Brussels sprouts.

There may be no other vegetable out there with as bad a rap as Brussels sprouts. They're constantly referenced as the dreaded food that kids refuse to eat. And far as produce goes, they are just about the farthest thing from sexy. Eggplant are soft and luscious, tomatoes are plump and juicy, peppers are hot and spicy... But Brussels sprouts are small, and plain, and boring looking. Plus they can taste and smell bitter if you cook them wrong.

But there's a lot of good to be had in that tiny little package. They're a cruciferous vegetable of the cabbage family, related to collard greens and kale. (Also decidedly un-sexy foods.) They contain good amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fiber, and are believed to protect against colon cancer. But they're easy to overlook amongst all the bigger, colorful vegetables, and you probably don't know how to prepare them anyway. So you avoid them. And I'm here to tell you that you are totally missing out.

Last week, I roasted a pound of Brussels sprouts with some pine nuts and... wait for it... crispy bacon. And ate the whole thing in two sittings, it was so delicious. Here's the general recipe - you can decide on the amounts. Just be careful not to overcook the sprouts. When overcooked, they release a sulfuric taste and smell - that's the bitterness that you hear about. Just saute them until they're a bit tender, and if your kitchen starts to smell like burning, yank 'em from the heat fast.

INGREDIENTS

Bacon
Butter
Pine nuts
Brussels sprouts

DIRECTIONS

Cook the bacon until it's crispy. Set aside.
Leave a thin coating of bacon grease in the pan. Throw in some butter and pine nuts, stir until browned.
Add Brussels sprouts and cook over medium heat until sprouts are tender, 5-10 minutes.
Crumble bacon over the top before serving, salt and pepper to taste.

I eat one new vegetable a month - something I've never tried before. And surprisingly, if I prepare them just right, there really isn't a veggie out there that I don't like. So this week, it's your turn. Try some Brussels sprouts and let me know how they turn out. I mean, seeing as everything is better with bacon, I'm kind of certain you'll dig 'em.

And as soon as Dallas and I decide we've had enough of our super-strict Paleo thing, those bacon cookies that Melicious posted are SO next on deck.

This is my actual delicious bowl... half of it, anyway. A pound is a LOT of Brussels sprouts.

The Sunday snatch

2009-04-20T08:29:00.007-04:00

Back from a super fun weekend in Boston, doing lots of affiliate tramping and CrossFit stuff. I got back late last night, so here's a quick update and a preview of fun things to come on the blog this week.

We had dinner with Mathieu Lalonde (Science is Hot) on Friday night, and got caught up on his training and diet and qualifiers prep. We also got a sweet tour of his labs at Harvard. I think I'm still high from all the ether. We also talked a lot about diet and nutrition, as I wanted to do a follow-up to his last interview. I received so many comments from people trying to lean out and drop fat that I focused mostly on that topic. It will take me a while to compile our discussion, but I hope to have it up by the end of the week.

Spent Sunday morning hanging out at CrossFit New England with Ben Bergeron and Heather Keenan, and some out of town guests (Jay Ross, Micah MacBeth and their friend Holly) from Philly. Jay was in my KB cert in NYC, and his crew is in the process of affiliating right now. I see a Philly road trip in my future... We also watched Heather run a CrossFit Kids class. I don't normally like kids, but I REALLY like kids who power snatch and drag tires. It was super fun to watch, and something I'd love to implement at some point waaaay down the line with our box.

Headed over to CrossFit Boston in the afternoon to meet up with Zach Singer, from CrossFit NYC. Zach was also in my NYC KB cert, and we kept in touch. He's been having some problems with his shoulder and back lately, so he drove up to hang with some Boston friends, get in some training and (primarily) have Dallas work his PT magic. They spent about an hour evaluating his issues and working rehab drills. I'm lucky to have a physical therapist as my trainer and affiliate partner. Which means our 603 trainees (and trainees by proxy, like Zach) are lucky, too.

And finally, the Main Event... Dallas and I spent two hours working on snatches with EC Synkowski, of CrossFit Boston. I had yet to learn to snatch, but I'd been working my clean and jerks hard. EC promised that after snatching, the cleans would come easy. We hit all kinds of progressions and training drills before moving to the bar. I worked up to 40#, and Zach was nice enough to take lots of pictures and video. More on my Olympic snatching later this week.

Please take note of how CAREFUL I was to phrase that last bullet point. While snatch jokes never get old, EC complimenting my snatch is NOT the point of this post. Although she did, at one point. Which was pretty awesome. Also, those hand prints on her pants are her own. That's our story, at least.

Hot Chicks Doing Pull-Ups: The Urban Edition

2009-04-17T05:00:00.003-04:00

I can't tell you how many emails I've received since the "Hot Chicks Doing Pull-Ups" post. I now have footage of dozens of fit ladies doing gorgeous dead hangs... everything from chin-ups to overhand, from weighted pull-ups to ten rep PRs. Because I have so many clips, and because hot chicks doing pull-ups is just SO FLIPPIN' COOL, I'll be featuring these videos over the next few weeks on the blog. If you've sent me a video or a link, it WILL go up. I'll do my best to give you a heads-up, too.

Today, however, is special. Today, I get to feature my sister Kelly and HER pull-ups. Kelly (of Spicy Goulash! fame) has been really getting into CrossFit, both on her own and at CrossFit Brooklyn. She's getting leaner, stronger and approaching some of my strength maxes in an alarmingly quick fashion. Kelly got her first dead hang pull-up while home training with me in February 2009, and has been working a grease-the-groove style program that got her up to FIVE in just a few months. She credits both her obsessive compulsive disorder and myopic fitness goals to increasing her numbers so quickly. "Plus," she says, "I like to do things that boys can do. And that my sister can do." When Kelly read the 'Hot Chicks' post, she wrote to me right away.

Kelly: I’m trying to find the courage to get someone to take video of me doing pull-ups at the gym. I desperately want to be on your blog kicking that pull-up-bar’s ass.

Me: Oh my god. That would be the POST OF THE CENTURY. Here's what you do. Bend over to "tie your shoe" and grab the first guy who leers at you. Tell him that you are about to make internet blog history by being the hottest girl ever featured on Byers Gets Diesel. And then you give him the camera and tell him not to drool on it. Seriously, get that shit on tape and SEND IT TO ME ASAP.

The very next day...

Kelly: I shot two videos for you. In one video I rock five pull-ups, but I fight hard for the last one. It looks like a mash-up of restless leg syndrome and a bad case of Tourette's. In the other video I do four, but they're all legit. Also, I’d like my own write-up. I don’t want to be bucketed in with other hot chicks doing pull-ups. As your sister, I have a genetic right to my own post.

You got it, sister. Now, I reviewed both videos... she DID do five, but we at CrossFit 603 generally discourage kicking like an epileptic kangaroo to get your chin over the bar. So here's Kelly Urban, my FAVORITE hot chick, doing four gorgeous dead hang pull-ups. And check out those guns. I guess this answers the, "So what do you do for biceps?" question, huh?

Thanks to all who have sent videos and links. I'll be proud to feature 'em here. And Kelly... start working that overhand grip now. Ha.

Eat more.

2009-04-14T20:00:00.007-04:00

I’ve been talking diet and nutrition a lot lately. Now, I’m not a nutritionist. I have no background in food science (is that even real?) and I have no track record of coaching athletes to elite status. None of the above, just so we’re clear. But through trial and error, I’ve made my own diet work pretty well, and I’ve helped a few friends tweak their diets with good results.

The sum of my diet advice to almost everyone who asks for it comes down to two little words. Eat more. This is especially true of women. I don’t know how the hell some of you are up and walking around – never mind CrossFitting – on the tiny amount of food you are consuming on a daily basis. (Which is another post entirely.) But it can be hard to wrap your head around the idea that you need to eat more and train less, when all your naughty little instincts are telling you to do the exact opposite. So today, I want to tell you a story about one such CrossFitter, and what happened when she started eating more. Like, a LOT more.

Becky Strahan is a CrossFitter and yoga instructor from Plano, TX. She was training three days a week at CrossFit Richardson, and teaches five yoga classes week. She’s built a lot like me – tall, small build, leans out quickly and good at met-con, but has a hard time putting on muscle and building strength. Becky wanted to take her CrossFit performance to the next level, and gets great coaching from John Marshall (owner of CF Richardson), but she wasn't sure how to get her diet where it needed to be. She tried just plain eating more, but felt a little lost with what to eat, and exactly how much, and when.

So two weeks ago (after making sure John was okay with me helping out), I began working with Becky on her diet. We started with her food journal - she journals everything, which made my job really easy. I was able to look back through her food intake for the last few weeks and see what she’s been eating, and when, and how much. And immediately, I spotted the problem. Becky was eating pretty clean, high quality, good food. But on a good day, she was still only eating about half of what she needed to. My first official correspondence as her nutrition coach started off like this:

“Hi Becky! You are not eating enough. At all.”

Not the most scientific – or specific – response, but it got my point across. Before we started tweaking her exact proportions or making picky food choices, we needed to up her intake. Significantly. So much so that I thought she’d balk when I told her where I wanted to her to be. But I soon discovered that Becky is one determined woman. She read all four pages of my instructions, studied our new plan, wrote back with four more pages of questions… and then immediately got down to the business of eating.

I told her she’d have to be patient, because I wanted to stick with this plan for two weeks before reevaluating. I warned her that she might feel worse before she felt better, given how significantly we were shifting both her quantity of food and proportion of macronutrients. We talked about her training – John was on board with her doing more strength work and less light-weight met-con. And we had one final rule... no scales, and no body composition measurements. All I wanted were her stats from the gym, and how she was feeling during the day.

In the last two weeks, Becky has reported the following:

A push-press PR, up 5#
A kipping pull-up PR with the light assistance band – 10 consecutive, in the middle of “Helen”, no less
Her first Fran, sub-7:00, with only a light assistance band
A 40 second PR on the CF Richardson Baseline WOD
A new 5x5 back squat max, at her previous 3 rep max

That's right... with excellent coaching from John, the weight that she was only able to move THREE times during her last squat workout, she moved FIVE times last week. REPEATEDLY. Holla!

On top of these measurable performance improvements, Becky also writes, “I notice this week that I’m itching to go to CrossFit today, even though it’s my rest day. In many previous weeks, by Wednesday I’m tired, about to drop, and ready for a break. So that’s really different. Also, I’m noticing my soreness is dramatically less since we’ve changed my eating. On every workout I’ve been stronger in some aspect… either lifted more weight, gotten more unbroken pull-ups, or a faster time… something was improved and nothing decreased. And I've been training CrossFit five days a week instead of three! With that, it seems I’d certainly be sore, but I’m just not. A little tight and tired in places, but definitely not the ridiculously sore, barely able to walk stuff that I’ve had the previous few weeks. Overall, I think my recovery has improved dramatically. Yay!”

Now, I can't PROVE that eating more is the direct link to these performance and recovery improvements. And two weeks doesn't make a trend. But I can say that so far, we have changed only one major thing with Becky’s diet - quantity of food. And her performance has improved. And she’s feeling better, which, although subjective, is certainly significant. I share this story, with Becky’s permission, because I’ve been telling so many of you that you need to eat MORE. And that good things – performance gains, fat loss, busting through training plateaus – are all possible, probable even, when you up your intake. Becky’s story is, I hope, an example of the good things that come when you are properly fueling your body for the tasks at hand.

Congratulations to Becky for kicking so much booty these past two weeks, and props to John and CrossFit Richardson for coaching her through some awesome PRs. Stay tuned for more on Becky's progress in the coming weeks, too. Now go eat something. Yes, you.

Nobody told me there was gonna be math

2009-04-14T05:00:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was the first day of the 603's new programming. Dallas sent me a preview of the week on Friday. I didn't even get all the way through Monday's workout before I was swearing at him. See, my programming is pretty good. He taught me well. But he just puts things together in a manner that I wouldn't even consider. In fact, there are some workouts that I look at and think, "I don't get that at ALL". Then I try to do it, and THEN I get it. He's really, really good.

Day one was nothing but overhead squats. These, in general, are at the top of my Goat List, but I was at least excited to work on some more strength stuff. Until I read these two little words... "for time". Ah, crap. From the CrossFit 603 site:

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"Overhead squat (OHS) a total of 20 x your body weight (BW), for time.

For example, at a BW of 180#, that’s 80 reps with a 45# bar, or 20 reps with 180#, or any combination in between. Sorry for the complex math (no, not really). Here’s the equation: (20 x body weight) / OHS weight = # Reps. Do ‘em. Fast. Record BW, weight on the bar, and time."

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Damn. At a body weight of 135#, that means I have to move 2,700#. I was planning on hitting a few reps here and a few there, working up to the last few reps at my previous 1RM. But clearly, that wasn't going to get me done with this workout fast, so I had to rethink. See, the weight I move is going to be the same no matter what rep scheme I use. I can move 45# x 60, or I can move 65# x 40. Either way, it's still 2,700 pounds, but I have to figure out how to do that in the most efficient manner. Which means I can't work with a weight that I'm going to dump a bunch of times... but I also can't work with a weight so light I have to do a stupid number of reps to get through. As Gant put it, "If you lower the reps, the weights get too high. If you lower the weight, the time under tension is too high." The part of my brain that handles math and logic hurts.

Despite giving this some consideration up front, I still didn't play this one right. I knew I should have stuck with just the bar, because I knew I could do sets of 10-12 at that weight with little rest in between. (Gant agrees, saying, "Between 8-12 reps is a good target... 4 sets of 10 is a good scheme for something like this.") But I decided to start at 50#, thinking 5# isn't enough weight to make much of a difference. Wrong. I got through 17 reps at 50#, and it took me around 4:00. I was doing 5-6 at a time, but with the overhead squat, every time you stop, the "get the bar back up there" process is both time consuming and physically tiring. Finally, I took time to drop the plates and started working with just the bar. And the remaining 41 reps went just as fast as the first 17.

I finished in just over 9:00, but if I did this workout again tomorrow, I would cut my time in half, just knowing how to play it. And it's a good lesson to learn, because we're going to have a LOT of these types of workouts in our programming. I'm not sure what to call them. They're for time, but not really a met-con, because rarely will cardio capacity be your limiting factor. They're muscularly fatiguing, but not pure strength work, because you have to create a manageable, sustainable load for yourself. It's certainly not a brand new concept, as CrossFit programs these types of workouts as well. But I've never worked the Main Page, so this is kind of a new challenge for me. High five, Constantly Varied.

If you're looking for something to do this week, give this one a shot. You can find the full program (including today's buy-in and cash out) on the 603 site. Let us know how you do - and what your strategy was going into it. As for me, I still moved 2,700 pounds overhead squatting, so I'm okay with a little bit of strategy melt-down. But you can bet your booty that the next time this one comes up (and it WILL come up again) I'll be ready.

My OHS form still needs serious werk...

Hot Chicks Doing Pull-Ups

2009-04-13T05:00:00.003-04:00

Since my Got Pull-Up post, I've received a LOT of emails from women, sharing their own pull-up adventures. I've been thrilled to hear so many "first" stories - I know my first dead hang is still, to this very day, my proudest CrossFit accomplishment. I've been telling these ladies, "Send me a video so I can show you off on my blog". So today, I bring you the first installment of Byers Presents: Hot Chicks Doing Dead Hang Pull-Ups.

First up is Marianne Urbanski, from Meriden, CT. Here, Marianne does not one, but TWO gorgeous, overhand grip dead hangs. She wrote on the CrossFit Boards, "Now I will continue to work these to develop my strength and continue to use the kipping pull-ups in the workouts... I look forward to developing my strength with the dead hang so I can do ALL the workouts as Rx'd". Rock on, sister.

Next up is Katie Emery, from CrossFit Portland. Katie made a video charting her pull-up progress. She wrote, "I wanted to let you know I enjoyed your post about pull-ups. You make some great points that I hope to use with clients at our affiliate, CrossFit Portland. I also wanted to send you a video we put together. I got my first dead hang pull-up in January. What a feeling!" I love the happy dance at the end... hot stuff, Katie!

And finally, CrossFit 603'er and Lakes Region Fitness owner Andrea Byron got her first dead hang pull-up during our Saturday class. In fact, she did two! No video, but this is clearly chin over bar. I see lots of pull-ups in Andrea's future, and plenty more girls (and guys) joining the 603 Pull-Up Club.

Are you a hot chick with a solid dead hang? (That's full extension to chin over bar, ladies... but feel free to choose your own grip.) Send pictures or a video, and I'll make you famous-ish. And congrats to Marianne, Katie and Andrea!

Wordpress and CSS, bitches

2009-04-12T05:00:00.001-04:00

I finally feel like I'm getting a huge chunk of my life back, and it could NOT have come soon enough. Getting CrossFit 603 up and running has been my whole life for the last six weeks, and the most time consuming thing of all, at least in the beginning, was creating our web site.

The 603 site was the bane of my existence for a solid month. Servers, databases, FTPs, CSS and PHP. Graphics, templates, sidebars and widgets. And Wordpress. Frickin' Wordpress. But I slaved away on the thing for nights on end, because our web site was the most important non-training project we had on deck. After all, as an affiliate owner, your web site often makes your very first impression. And people have short attention spans these days - you only have a few seconds to capture their interest and keep them hanging on your page. Plus I expect my 603'ers to check the site every single day... so they'd better like what they see.

Your web site should be clean, simple, easy to read and easy to navigate. It should be functionally efficient, properly coded for search engines and workable across all browsers. And it should look HOT. It should reflect your affiliate's culture, your attitude, your personality. But all of this magic has to be created through a bunch of coded letters, numbers and symbols that might as well be Cyrillic, for all I know. No wonder so many of us need help.

I could have paid someone to help me, but I'm stubborn. And, at times, Dumb. I was insistent on figuring it all out all by myself... which is why the site took about fourteen times as long to create as it probably should have. And why I found myself on the CrossFit Boards early one morning, begging someone on the Wordpress thread to help me with the LAST THREE THINGS I wanted to do but could NOT figure out.

Enter Adam Kayce, the Wordpress Man and my personal high-tech hero.

In about 30 minutes, Adam had fixed all three site flaws - things I had been trying to figure out for weeks. And he gave me a bunch of good recommendations about site improvements, code fixes, widgets and plug-ins. I wish I had talked to him in the beginning... I would have saved myself an awful lot of late nights.

Adam and I have since been talking about his idea for a Wordpress virtual class, JUST for CrossFitters who need to build a web site (either for their affiliate or for their own personal use). I thought it was a great idea, and since he helped me fix my site up so quickly and effectively, I am happy to spread the word about Adam's CSS kung-fu to my fellow CrossFitters. Check it out below - the next class starts on April 22nd.

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Is the idea of having, managing, or creating a website—or (gulp) hiring someone to create a website for you—a bit overwhelming? Well, if it's not, it should be.

If you want to have a great site that your clients, friends, or fellow CrossFitters actually enjoy using, WordPress is a great way to go about it. The problem is, knowing how to tweak it to be the site of your dreams can be harder than a 250 pound split snatch.

Not any more.

You don't have to settle for an ugly site. Or a simple one. Or a stock template that everyone's sister is using to broadcast her love of American Girl.

By taking the essential principles of CrossFit (say it with me... "Constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity!") and using them to teach web design and development principles, you can learn how to be your own website expert, and save the endless back-and-forth, endless sinkhole of money that goes along with relying on a designer.

This next round of WebFit, which starts on April 22, is open only to CrossFitters. That way we can specifically address the needs and concerns of CrossFit sites, with a population that speaks the same language. (It doesn't matter if you're an affiliate owner, trainer, or enthusiast... as long as you CrossFit, you're good to go.)

Interested? Curious? Check out http://monkatwork.com/webfit/ for more details.

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So for those of you thinking about hiring someone to help you with your web site... talk to Adam. He'll get you up and running, and teach you how to keep it up all by your own educated self.