A New Sky

"The important thing is this: To be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." Charles Dubois

I have reached that moment in my life where the above quote fits perfectly. Thank you to all those who have supported me through this transition period. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to follow my heart. I am truly grateful to have so many encouraging people surrounding me.

My new home:
CrossFit Deep Ellum
215 Henry St.
Dallas, TX 75226
www.crossfitdeep.com

Hit me up. I'd love for anyone that reads this to come stop by.

Grand Opening Party - 10/24/09 - 7PM - Food, Beer and CF Dodgeball.

Love Like a Sunset

I love quotes. My freshman year in college, I printed off all the quotes that motivated me and put them up all over my room. I have a couple at my desk around my computer at home and the office. You can never have too much wisdom. I'm going to share some of my favorites and explain a little about how they relate to me, and hopefully they can bring some meaning to your life. One of my great friends, Anthony has a really great concept of printing off the quotes and putting them in his wallet. Pretty genius idea.

"There is nothing more with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming." - Soren Kierkegaard

Pretty obvious how this can be applied to anything we do in life. I'd even think that most of the time the person getting in our way is our self. Regarding CrossFit, do you tend to slow it down a little bit and then think later that you should have went faster or used more weight?

"Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge

How true is this?!?! How often do we see talented individuals fail when they don't understand persistence? Hard work works. It's great to see people stick with something that's challenging and be able to reap the benefits of persistence. Rome wasn't built in a day. Don't quit early.

"Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports." - Greg Glassman

Great stuff! Following this will make you a healthy individual. However, what is the most common thing that gets looked over in this? The last sentence. When was the last time you tried something new? What are you spending all this time training for if you don't get to go play? Go play people, go play.

Post some good quotes to comments or hit me up e-mail style, koy@crossfitdeep.com

Spect

Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare

Traveling means vacation and time away from work. That is kick-ass, but what about all this Paleo eating and working out? How is that going to play into my travels?
Stress sucks and stressing out about vacation is even worse. So to avoid as much extra stess as possible, Lindsey and I planned ahead and are going to TRY to be as healthy as possible. We are going to Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah for 5 days. 2 day work week, holla!

We are going to try to hit up 2 different CrossFit gyms. We are going hiking, kayaking and are going to explore some of the nice parks in the area. Who knows, I might even get her to run with me.... And let's not forget the lovely burpee. No equipment needed and can be done in small spaces. Oh lovely burpee, you are perfect for traveling.

Regarding food, we scoped out Yelp for some good nutritious choices. We can eat as close to Paleo at any location; some just tend to be better than others. Burger+salad-bun-fries = pretty damn Paleo. I do plan on having a couple of cheat meals so the weeks leading up to and after the trip = very few, if any cheats. Some IF will happen; it won't really be planned, but it will happen.

The trip will be pretty stress free; no blackberry, lots of sleep, lots of activity and good times with a lady I love. Can't beat that.

Lisztomania

Sorry for being absent for a month. It won't happen again. Pinky swear.
I have had more free time lately so I was able to check out a couple other CrossFit boxes. Here is a brief review:

CrossFit Strong in Addison. VERY large facility. Coaches were top notch, and athletes there were super friendly. We spoke with every person there. CrossFit communities are awesome. Wod was tough but fair. Running inside was quite the experience.

CrossFit Mansfield in Mansfield. Sweet box. Smaller than what we are accustomed to but still a great place. Awesome pull up bars and great coaches. Also another great community. Everyone was super friendly. Wod was 40+minutes of toughness. Gotta love those long draining workouts. Good for the mental game.

CrossFit Windy City in beautiful Chicago. Guess what? Also a great community. We were welcomed with open arms. We were able to hit their place up a couple of times for some good workouts. Programming is solid there, and they have some legit fire breathers. Strong stuff going on there.


Some great places, and I'd recommend a visit if you are in the area.



D33P

24 Hour IF

So as most of you know, I like to IF(Intermittent Fasting). I usually IF twice a week anywhere from 14 to 19 hours. On the rare occasion, I will fast for 24 hours and I've decided to make that happen today/tomorrow.
So I had my last meal @ 9 something but we will say I started this fast @ 10pm. Gonna update this throughout the day to see how I'm feeling and maybe help people understand what its like to IF. It's 11:30 and it's late for me but I'm about to go to bed. Will update in the morning.

8:30 ish - Have my first cup of coffee w/ a dash of cinnamon. Cinnamon knows how to kick it. .

10:00ish - Finished my first glass of H20. Starting to feel a little surge of energy and mental clarity. I'm about to own some work.

11:00ish - Second glass of high quality H20, added some Lemon in the bad boy. This is IF approved and is great for your liver. And despite popular belief, it won't be bad today just consuming water and coffee. :)

1:00ish - Still going strong with the water and lemon. Lemon also knows how to kick it. 9 more hours to go. Going to be interesting doing a workout and then training for a couple hours after.

2:00ish - Energy is like whoa and mental clarity is all sorts of win.

4:00ish - 6 more hours to go and the thoughts of doing this for 36 hours are running around in my head. I'll be training in an hour so lets see how I feel later tonight.

5:30ish - 5 sets of 5 reps on deadlift. Fail. Wow. Um yeah, probably not the smartest time to workout. I get a strange cramp in my stomach on my right side.

6:30ish - It suddenly occurs to me that fasting is easy but working out at the tail end of a fast isn't a way to PR for this guy.

8:00ish - I have to redeem myself for the workout so lets do some workout at home.

8:30ish - Man this workout shouldn't be this tough, I'm completely out of gas. I finish, feel defeated but body feels fine.

9:00ish - 1 more hour and I'm going to kill some food. I get antsy and start thinking of what I'm going to make.

10:00ish - Break fast with 4 eggs, 2 large strips of bacon, about 8 strawberries, 2 handfuls of blueberries, 2 handfuls of almonds, 1 handful of walnuts, 1/2 can of coconut milk, and a little dark chocolate.

11:00 - Pass out!

Woke up with a massive headache though. Not excited about that.

Swimming in The Flood

Sorry for being inconsistent with the blog posts, peepz. Have a lot of stuff going on. Next time, holler at me to give you folks some reading material.

I was at the doctor's office earlier today getting my wrist checked out, and I got a little depressed seeing all the people that are overweight and/or older and have limited mobility. It had me thinking about functional movements and how A LOT of people need to be doing more of them. It also had me thinking about how Crossfit and proper diets are not only about the short-term benefits but, more importantly, the long-term benefits. It's easy to forget about the long term when we are so focused on getting a heavier lift or faster time in a workout. Let's all take a step back and be thankful that we are all going to be better off in 10 years because we are building strong bodies and strong minds. Don't be afraid to spread the gospel of a proper diet and a proper workout program. People need to hear it.

Always Strapped

Stress - Even typing the word out can cause you to tense up a little bit. What do you stress out about? What added stresses do we add to ourselves? Why do we add stress when we know we shouldn't? Do you let peer pressure add stress to your life? For example, you are out partying with your friends and they are having beers. Do you cave and have a beer, knowing full well that you will regret it in the morning? On the flip side, do you have that beer knowing you eat super clean and you aren't going to let one or two beers stress you out? Are you trying so hard to have your snacks every couple of hours and busy trying to figure out what you are going to eat? Is your diet adding stress to your life?

What's the answer to the madness? I know what I have to do to eliminate my added stress. What do you do to eliminate yours?

How I deal with it is simple:

• I eat Paleo as often as possible
If I'm not hungry, I don't eat
If I have a bad meal, no worries; I fast the following day
I don't measure food anymore
Play - Have fun; do something you enjoy; find someone to laugh with
We are all trying to be fit so apply it to the real world; go play with your family in the pool; go to the lake; go to the park; take your dog for a sprint; ride your bike
I love my friends but they know I eat the way I do and they can't change that
Read some good books
Do nice things for random people
Don't be a bustah