Crossfit Nation ~ Another Level Fitness LLC

The Holidays are coming

Fall changing to winter and the arrival of the holidays always seem to throw a huge monkey wrench into everyones quest for fitness.  There are lots of hurdles to jump over this time of year.  First of all it's getting cold and dark much earlier.  We feel the need to hunker down and hibernate.  Fill our bellies and be lazy.  Depression is rampant this time of year.  Now more than ever do we need exercise.  We need to get out of the house, bundle up and breathe the fresh air. 

Go to a local park and walk around in the woods.  Mosquitos and ticks are done for the year after those first few frosts.  Might want to wear some blaze orange and watch out for hunters though :-).  Make it a point to get outside and do something everyday. 

Yard work this time of year is great for you.  Raking leaves, chopping wood, not only have you accomplished something visible but it makes you feel better in the process.

The hard part is the food this time of year!  Good food everywhere and lots of it.  From Halloween on it seems the treats take over.  Candy and cookies and cakes oh my.  Feasts of Thanksgiving and Christmas, mac and cheese, stuffing, mashed potatoes.  Theses staples of the holiday dinner have you looking at your butt in the mirror come January and wanting to cry. 

Simple things can make a huge difference.  Load your plate with meat and veggies first then just take a sample of the bad but oh so good stuff.  Stay away from the buffet line or table.  Go in the other room to have conversations, mindless eating is a killer.  After your meal chew on some gum, it will help you to not put anything else in your mouth.

Finally, don't give up your routine.  I know we get very busy but you have to keep putting yourself first.  Get your workout in no matter what.  Don't stress out, the holidays will be over in a blink of an eye and what you didn't get done doesn't really matter come January.  Sticking to your guns will make you proud of yourself and oh so happy!

The Snatch

The snatch is one of the two olympic weightlifting events (the other being the clean and jerk).

The essence of the event is to lift a barbell from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement. The barbell is pulled as high as the lifter can manage (typically to mid chest height) (the pull) at which point the barbell is flipped overhead. With relatively light weights (as in the "power snatch") locking of the arms may not require rebending the knees. However, as performed in contests, the weight is always heavy enough to demand that the lifter receive the bar in a squatting position, while at the same time flipping the weight so it moves in an arc directly overhead to locked arms (the quick drop). When the lifter is secure in this position, he rises (overhead squat), completing the lift.

The lift requires not only great strength but also a high degree of shoulder flexibility, excellent balance, and speed.

Sabotage

Why do family and friends try to sabotage  our diet and exercise goals?  You would think the ones that love us the most would want to support us in our quest for optimum health.  I would say that most times you find quite the opposite.   There is a reason for the saying "misery loves company".  People don't like being alone in their misery, they will pull you in if you let them. 

Our journey into optimum fitness has many roadblocks along the way.  We of course have our own baggage to deal with and get past.  Our own ingrained ideals of diet and exercise.  Then we add in our friends and families and wow we have a fight on our hands.  Keep up the good fight!  It's worth it.

Stephanie keeps fighting the good fight!! I'm proud of you girl!

What I Believe

Crossfit HQ and affiliate owner extraordinaire Lisbeth Darsh asked fellow affiliate owners to list 10 things they believe.  I believe many things and I will not bore you all with all my beliefs, but I will list my top 10 Crossfit beliefs.

1.  I believe at any time, in any condition, one can start Crossfit, stick with it, and improve your life tenfold.

2.  I believe lifting heavy weights is not only fun but empowering.  Also essential.

3.  I believe you are what you eat and what you eat eats.  Educate yourself on the food you eat.  It's about quality, not quantity.

4.  I believe if you don't take care of yourself, no one else will and you have no room to complain if you don't take control of your health.

5.  I believe life is exceptional, fun, beautiful, sad, emotional, fantastic, heart breaking, hard, and worth every moment.  Learn to experience it fully.

6.  I believe in having the most fun you can possibly have in any given situation.

7.  I believe everyone should be able to squat, run, jump, do a pull up, climb a rope, do real push ups, and lots of burpees!!!!

8.  I believe there are no magic little pills.  It takes hard work to get anything you really want.  If you're not willing to put in the work you are not entitled to the prize.

9.  I believe America needs to get their asses off the sofa, quit listening to the news and living in fear, quit watching other people live their lives and start living their own.

10. I believe a persons will is their strongest asset.  Use it, it will take you further than you could ever imagine.

These are just a few things that I believe.  Be strong, be empowered.  Take control of your situation.  Life is all choices.  You chose your destiny.  You chose your path.  Don't be a victim.  Be a warrior!!

Focus

Finding focus and being present in your workout makes all the difference.  Sure you can get a workout on that treadmill while reading the paper or watching TV, not feeling what your body is doing.  People have gotten very good at seperating themselves from thier bodies.  Sometimes it is easier not to feel than to feel.  People do not like to feel pain.  Ever wonder why drug companies have gotten away with drugging us and our children?  It's so much easier to be numb, but is it worth the toll it takes on your mind and your body?  We are meant to feel, it's all part of being alive.

  What makes Crossfit different is we force you back into your body, you suddenly become aware of your muscles, your sweat, your breathing.  You can feel your limits and push past them.  When we are in our bodies we are aware of what that fast food meal does to us.  We can feel what those heavy squats have done to our legs and glutes.  We feel alive.  This translates into everyday life.  You suddenly have more control of how you want to feel.  Bottom line is that you have the power to feel how you want.  Use it!

Jamie pushing past the point of comfort.

Eating Well

 Eating well is probably the best thing that you can do for yourself, and hey if you want to help out our planet too, the best way to vote is through your pocket book!  When you choose to eat well you start putting value on your body and health.  Eating well is not the latest diet craze, or the box of cereal that says it reduces heart disease.  Eating well is buying food without packaging, from local markets and farmers.  Real food, not something that was dreamed up in some lab in Kansas. 

What is happening is we have shifted from quality to quantity and it is killing us and our planet.  In order to make so much food like substances they have to rape our farms and our fields.  What were once lush healthy fields of the family farm, are now row after row after row of hybridized, insecticide, pesticide, fertilized, fields of corn and soy beans.  It's cheap, easy to grow and very very profitable for a select few companies.  The price we are paying is too high.  As our waistlines expand our rates of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are sky high and still climbing.  The run off from the fields are creating huge algae blooms sucking all the oxygen from the Ocean and killing everything in it's path.  But it is so much easier to buy everything prepackaged, premade, throw it together and voila.  At what price is this worth it to you? 

Be consious of what you put in your mouth.  Be aware of how that food came to be.  Was there love in the process of making that food, from the farmer to the table?  Or was it processed in a cold unfeeling plant, an assembly line of disease.  Why do you think E Coli, and mad cow disease among many others are so prevalent?  The way food is processed now is unnatural and everything always goes back to balance.  It's natures way of saying this is fucked up and I'm not going to take it anymore!  It's your turn to say this is fucked up and I'm not going to take it anymore!  You have complete control of your decisions.  Free will is a beautiful thing when exercised.

Crossfit 101

Thank you Kelley and Steve for having us to your great box!!  What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.  Surrounded by dedicated, smart, strong people with a common goal in mind.  To better themselves and to better everyone who comes in contact with them, this is a common thread throughout the Crossfit community.  Crossfitters are amazing people and an amazing man has found a way to bring us all together.  Coach Greg Glassman is an inspiration to us all and I feel very fortunate to have met his aquaintance again.  He is a smart and funny man with the biggest heart.  Thank you.

I can't.........

I can't.  If I have heard this once, I have heard it a million times.  I hate this phrase because you CAN!  The human will is undeniable.  We can do anything.  There are no limits to what we can accomplish if we want something bad enough.  That is where the problems start.  How bad do we want it?  Are we content with mediocrity?  Why do some people strive for more and better while others are content to believe they are not worthy to be in the game, to sit it out on the sidelines?  You see,  we are all made for greatness and all have the ability in us.  Close your eyes and think of you wildest dreams.  What comes to mind?  When you were a child what did you want to be when you grew up?  What were your dreams and aspirations?  As we grow up and get more and more percieved responsibility.  Our dreams begin to fade.  It's time to rediscover what we are made of and made for.  Live your life.  The only restrictions are self imposed.  It's a wonderful wild world out there with unlimited possibility.  Get some!!!

Carol working on her overhead squats. She always shows determination to improve and gain!

Food

Many cultures have rituals that revolve around food.  We as Americans,shove food in where ever and when ever possible.  We don't even have to get out of our cars to get it.  We can pay people to bring it right to our front door.  Food has become a way to satisfy some need and not to do what it is intended to do, fuel you, nourish you.  As many times as you hear it, it's true.  You are what you eat.  Eat crap, well guess what.......you feel like crap! 

We are so hurried and tired that dinners are no longer dinners.  We stand around or sit in front of the television eating microwaved, prepackaged, easy shit.  There is no thought to our meals.  Whatever is convenient.  If we changed dinner into a ritual instead of a chore maybe we would eat a little more consciously.  Have the family help prepare meals, talk about the day while you chop veggies.  Grill up some meat, prepare a nice salad(watch that dressing most are all sugar), or steam some veggies.  Eat real food, avoid anything that comes in a box.  Of course everyone is different and what works for one won't necessarily works for another.  You have to find what works for you.  Your health and your families health is in your hands.  Only you can control how you feel.  Food is huge.  It makes all the difference in the world.

Two weeks ago I started the Paleo diet.  In a nutshell the only food I eat is meat, veggies, fruit, nuts and seeds.  No dairy, no wheat, no beans, no potatoes.  Very limited to say the least.  The first week was horrible!  I went through withdraw from beer, caffeine, and sugar.  Wow, talk about rough.  I was not easy to live with.  I'm better now.  Actually I am great.  I feel so fantastic!  Unlimited energy, my mind is clear.  It's a wonderful feeling.  It was hard to get here though.  I had to fight the cravings.  Foods I don't eat anyway I wanted.  Candy bars, donuts, cheesecake!!  Wow talk about a challenge.  But I did it and so happy that I did.  I'm going to attempt this for 2 months strictly then I will mostly stick to it but if I want a pizza...... I will have a pizza.   There is nothing wrong with the 80/20 approach.  I realize there are many temptations out there.  Who is perfect all of the time?  NO ONE! We are human after all.  But what you have to realize is that when you eat badly you don't have to stop eating healthfully.  Just start again the next day, or next meal.  This has to be a change for life, not for a couple of weeks. 

Figure out what works for you.  I promise you you will be thankful you did.  Life's too short to feel like crap all the time.  Start changing your life around.  Take control, it's work but oh so worth it.

Passion

Passion can be expressed as a feeling of unusual excitement, enthusiasm or compelling emotion towards a subject, idea, person, or object. A person is said to have a passion for something when they have a strong positive affinity for it. A love for something and a passion for something are very similar feelings.(wikipedia)

Emotions are a gift.  We need to learn to utilize our feelings and emotions to make us stronger, better people.  We are so intent in numbing ourselves.  Be it food, alcohol, drugs.  Let reality pass us by, hoping to notice it as little as possible.  Life is so mundane for so many, wake up tired, go to work at a job they hate, come home tired, eat a crappy dinner, watch TV, got to bed and start all over again.  No wonder we want to be numb! 

What I say is find your passion.  Use your emotions to drive you.  What do you want out of life?  Are you content to sit on the sofa and watch other people do what you want?  Start to feel again.  It's time to wake up from this trance and begin to live.  Come back into your body, see how it feels to be in your skin.  Tired, lethargic?  Pills are not going to fix this.  Begin to change your diet.  Eliminate soda completely this week!  Start buying more fruits and vegetables next week.   Baby steps.  You have to move, your body wants this.  Push your limits.  Prove to yourself you can do it, because you can.  Once you prove it to yourself everyone else believes you too!  What a boost that is!!    You can't change your entire lifestyle over night and expect it to stick.  You have to change it forever, there are no 6 week quick fixes! 

If you take the steps to do this the world is open for you.  I believe that you can absolutely have anything you want, you just have to want it bad enough.  The possibilities are endless.  

Crossfit started out of passion.  It permeates the boxes that everyday people have turned into thier life.  Affiliate owners are perfect examples of people utilizing their emotions for the greater good.  We collectively want to change the world.  Use common sense and a whole lot of knowledge to make you better, stronger, faster, fitter, healthier than anybody else.  We care about you.  We care about your health, we care about your life.  We are a community built on the betterment of all.  To strive for perfection because if you shoot for the moon you will at least land amoung the stars.