Kettlebells, Kettlebells, Kettlebells!!!

Ok so have to say this weekend was an amazing experience! I can offically say I am CrossFit Kettlebell Certified!!

All I can say, is if you are in CrossFit and haven’t taken this certification, then its a must, no brainer, you have to sign up! Jeff is an amazing coach and I can honestly say I’ve learned from the best! You get to learn the basics of a kb deadlift all the way to performing a kb snatch knowing you are not only doing it properly but can go through and teach others the progressions!

Amazing weekend and can’t wait to implement it in our programming!

Fish and Veggies…

So i’m changing up the way I’m eating this week… keeping the paleo, but for this week i’m doing only fish and veggies! Will most definetly need ideas on the fish, as I am not a chef and it seems as if Salmon tastes just about the same, no matter how I try to cook it differently. I’ve heard by eating in this fashion, its a form a detox and at this point with my eating habit, figured it was probably a pretty good idea!

Again… its only day two… so far i’ve been able to do plan Salmon with some Veggies and Salmon Tacos (of course wrapped in cabage) Any ideas… ???

Let’s Help Kelley get to the CrossFit Games!

http://hennigangamesbound.eventbrite.com/

Need some help with some ideas.. have a girl going to the CrossFit Games, she made 3^rd in the South Central Region, so we are putting on an event to help cover the costs of going to the games. Airfare, Hotel, Vehicle Rental, etc…. so needs some ideas for a silent auction, raffle prizes, or anything else you can think of to raise money would be awesome!!

This is what we have so far!

12:00-2:00	Basic Gymnastics Seminar by Kelley Hennigan herself
2:00-2:15	Community WOD Registration!!!
2:15-3:00	Community WOD
3:00-3:15	KIDS WOD Registration!!!
3:15-4:00	KIDS WOD
4:00-8:00	Live Music / Food & Drinks for purchase
4:00-4:30	Food is served and available for purchase
4:30-5:30	Volleyball Tournament
5:30-6:00	Live Music – by Summer & Brad
6:00-6:30	Horseshoes, Washers, Fishing
6:30-7:00	Basketball Roundoff
7:00-8:00	Music … Relax … Hang Out

Registration and Donations can be made at  http://hennigangamesbound.eventbrite.com/

Any ideas or donations are extremely appreciated!!!

Your Mission!

The ultimate mission!

I may not have a lot of friends but I am blessed to have the ones I do!!!

Take a look around you, do you surround yourself by those people you could call good friends? That’s the one thing that I’ve really had my eyes opened wide to lately. If I really need something, I mean really need something, are they going to be there for me when I need them? I can honestly say yes! I haven’t trusted many people growing up, been extremely guarded, and very careful with who I open up to, but those people that I’ve been spending the majority of my time with are ones that I can call good friends. I can get a great wod in, get all nasty, sweaty, gross, and then get all cleaned up and go out with the same great group of people!

Living day by day…

I sat in my crossfit class last night and listened in on our head coach giving a foundations class to a couple new people trying it out. As he went through the explanation it dawned on me how right he was, he went through and starting to explain the basic foundations, meaning of crossfit, how it effects your everday life, and that’s where it got me. It does effect your everyday life. Look at who you surround yourself with, who you want to hang around and spend the majority of your time with.

For me its CrossFit Athletes! The saying you are who you hang around is true, if you surround yourself with people that would rather go out and drink every night or every weekend, that then takes a toll on your lifestyle, that begins to be all you do. But if you surround yourself around people that would rather get a WOD in and go out and eat a paleo meal then that’s what you’ll find your spending your time doing. I would rather be around those people. Take a look at the people you surround yourself with, are those the people you should surround yourself with, do you have the same interests, beliefs, and are they challenging you to be better, whether its being a better person, better athlete, or living the life you want to live? I’m not saying drop all your friends, I’m just saying look at who you’re hanging around and take a step back to see if that’s where you want to be. I know for me, it is!!!

The Yoga Experience

As you are aware, I’m in love with CrossFit, completely and utterly crazy about it, but all in the same time know I should branch out and try other fitness activities. One of which is yoga. All I keep thinking to myself is, is yoga for me, can I hold the pose and become passionate about this as well?

I went ahead and gave it a try, showed up at my local Lululemon Store, of which hold a free yoga class each Tuesday. Every month a new instructor comes in and teaches the class. I have to say the overall experience was interesting. I would typically think yoga as being the relaxing, boring, and slow, and surprisingly this extremely relaxing, however remained challenging all at the same time.

CrossFit is not an easy sport, it take hard work and dedication in order to complete the movements properly, now that I’ve experience a very intro version into yoga, it has really opened my eyes up in seeing the benefit of branching off and trying new fitness activities. Yoga is something that’s a must to be continued, the relaxation and stretching in your body is extremely important for a recovery process and of which is a great activity to do as well. It now has become a goal of mine to do yoga at least twice a month, preferably in a class setting but we’ll see how this plays out!

Why Paleo… Lets start a 24 day challenge!

If you look at our world today, you drive down the road and there’s a fast food restaurant on every corner, at every red light, and the amount of processed foods we typically indulge and put in our body has begun to disgust me. It’s easy, you are what you eat, so when you think about it in those terms the breakdown of food becomes something easy to understand.

Lets make this simple… what is the paleo diet? Lean Meats, Vegetables, Fruits and Healthy Fats (aka: Nuts and Seeds). These are unprocessed, natural foods in which your body can digest properly.  Do you really want to put something in your body that has been altered from its original state and something that has a completely pointless nutritional value to your body? The answer is simple… No!

So what is it that you stay away from? This list is easy to remember… No Grains, Legumes, or Dairy, and limited sugars! I could go through all the negative side effect and lost half the readers by posting more details on how they contain lectins, phytic acid, protease inhibitors, or I can leave it simple and say… its simply just bad for you! Someone very close to me explains it to others as this… “You are what you eat, so what do you want to be? You want to be fluffy… then eat a roll cause that’s what they are, fluffy. You want to be strong and lean, then you eat real food… you eat meat!”

My challenge for you is this… get rid of the processed foods you’ve been putting in your body and lets feed your body with healthy real foods. I challenge you to a 24 day challenge of eating this style for you to see yourself the benefits you will have in the end. For some this will be an easy process and transition. For others if you need to take it step by step I highly recommend doing this as well. If you can’t completely remove Grains, Legumes, and Dairy from your diet, then this week only remove the grains, we can take this one step at a time and get your body not only better nutritionally but also in better shape and begin feeling better in the day to day activities.

Hope this is a great motivation and challenge to get started… lets track it together as my 24 day challenge begins NOW!

Release the frustration

One of the best things about crossfit is the release of frustrations, anger, and life’s issues. No matter whats going on in your personal life you get to take an hour out of the day and clear your head, get rid of all the worries and just focus on the workout and have at that moment. This time is used to challenge yourself and forget about everyone else in the world.

We’re all going through a bunch of stuff in life, all have our good day, and bad days. But it never fails we all need our time to blare the rain, scream at the top of our lungs, punch the bag, or even go out to the shooting range to release that frustration of whatever it is your going through in life… Couldn’t think of a better way to do it… Get in a wod! Take your hours workout and get something out of it in the end, see the results, make friends in the mean time, and find those friends that count, get rid of that anger, and find your happy place in life and where you want to go from here.

That’s what crossfits done for me… Its allowed me to find myself and take time to focus on myself, if crossfit isn’t for you, that’s fine, just find that something that makes you happy and gives you time to clear your head and find that peace and happiness!!!

Eating Healthy… Paleo Style!

I’ve been eating the Paleo style for a couple months now, of course we all fall off the wagon every now and then, all have to get that small amount of cheat in to cure the cravings we are having, but have to try to focus and not go off course 100%. That’s what’s awesome about Paleo… its an 80/20 rule, 80% Paleo with the remaining 20% allocated to cheat foods (aka: unhealthy cravings). After switching over to this style of eating I personally have found I have more energy, feel refreshed throughout the day, have toned up in my percentage of body fat.

I had a client tell me the other day that she was going to splurge on mother’s day, planned on eating cake, pie, fried chicken… you name it, it was on her list. Now keep in mind she’s been eating paleo for about a month, not 100% strict but definitely following the 80/20 rule. She walked up to me yesterday before the wod and told me, “you’d be happy to know, we got sick, really sick, it was good but dang we felt bad afterwards!” This is a prime example after you cleanse your body, it becomes extremely difficult to fill it with junk and expect to still feel great! People these days fail to understand what they are putting in there body when they eat. You wouldn’t eat dirt off the ground cause its gross and has value to you, so why would you put something else in your mouth that does just the same?

Try and eat healthy, do a 24 day challenge of eating nothing but healthy foods… and just see how much better you feel afterwards, the physical rewards are awesome too!