Sunday, November 22, 2015

My Top 5 Posts Of My First 100 Posts!



When I hit publish the other day I couldn't believe it was my 100th post! Wow! And I couldn't believe that people have actually read what I wrote, commented on it and shared it! Thanks y'all!

To celebrate, I wanted to go back and find my top 5 posts, based on number of views. I've linked each post so you can go back and check them out. Here we go!

5th Most Viewed: 
I did a series on If It Fits Your Macros and Flexible Dieting, and Part 2 was the 5th most popular post I've written. Lol, why didn't y'all like the other parts?

4th Most Viewed:
I was hot and bothered when I wrote this post about being Commit-O-Phobes! We are all busy so we should really get over it!

3rd Most Viewed: 
This was one of my favorite posts to write and I'm so happy so many people got to share the experience of winning Bronze at the Worlds Masters Cup Weightlifting Championships with me!

2nd Most Viewed:
Dana is a former client who completely rocked her nutrition plan and reaped (and still is reaping) huge results from dialing in her nutrition! In this guest post, she reflected on how she felt during a recent competition as the "bug" in the proverbial "sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield" metaphor.

1st Most Viewed:
This was not a fun one to write. Here I had just completely blown a big weightlifting competition and was trying to come to grips with the failure.

Thank you all so much for following along on my crazy journey! I feel like I wear a lot of hats. Mom, Wife, CrossFitter, Weightlifter, coach, nutrition coach, Tupperware Lady, organizer and planner.... I appreciate you all listening to me ramble about the randomness of my thoughts!

Stay tuned as I have plans to add another hat to my head soon..... :) :) :)


Stay Strong Y'all!

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

What I Ate Wednesday AND it's my 100th blog post!

As a nutrition coach, you might think that I eat only raw, organic, free-range tofu.

But you'd be way wrong.

I eat based on a few principles.


  • Hit my protein gram goal.
  • Hit my carb gram goal.
  • Hit my fat gram goal. 
  • Hit my fiber goal.
  • Get most of my micro nutrients from meat, veggies and fruit.
  • Supplement with a multi vitamin and fish oil. 
  • Eat fun stuff after all that.

If I'm cutting for a weightlifting meet, I'm very, very strict. If I'm just living life, I'm fairly strict, but I enjoy more freedom to wiggle with the macros. 

So in honor of #WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday), here's my day, no holds barred!


Breakfast #1
It doesn't look amazing, but it tastes pretty darn good! It's 30 grams oatmeal, 5 grams chia seeds, 5 grams of flax, 60 grams pumpkin, 10 grams raisins, 8 grams crunchy peanut butter, 1 scoop Progenex Belgian Chocolate More Muscle. Oh, and because I have a problem, the oatmeal was made with a bit of coffee (errrr....or a lot of coffee). 


Breakfast #2
Quest S'more Bar and two S'more Candy Corns. Because, yum. 




Pre-Workout
BCAA's & Creatine



Post-Workout/Lunch
One bag of California Blend Veggies, 40 grams Libby's Pumpkin, 3 ounces chicken breast & siracha. I don't normally pumpkin it up like crazy, but once you open a can, you have to eat it!



Pre-Workout #2 Snack
1/4 Cliff Bar and a few milk chocolate chips


Afternoon Snack/Post Workout/Lunch 2
Starkist Tuna Creations Pouch and a banana


Dinner
Taco Bell Chicken Cantina Power Bowl. Sorry the picture is horrible, I was in the truck, in the dark and they got a little heavy with the Cilantro Ranch Sauce. If you haven't had one of these, they are AWESOME! Chicken, rice, black beans, lettuce, tomato, cheese, quacamole and cilantro ranch. It also comes with sour cream, but I don't like sour cream. 


Evening Snack Part 1
Hard boiled egg



Evening Snack Part 2
24 grams Kroger Natural Chunky Peanut Butter, 10 grams of raisins and sprinkles.



From a previous post, you may already know I have a drinking problem. No, not that kind! I just REALLY like caffeine and diet soda. It's a vice and one I may have to contend with soon. In the spirit of transparency, here's what I drank today. 

2 cups coffee
1 Absolute Zero Monster
1 32 oz Dt. Dew
1 large McDonald's Dt. Sweet Tea
1 gallon of water (yes, an entire gallon)
1 cup decaff

So there you go. That's my day. And that is pretty much every day as I don't like to cook.

OH WAIT! I just discovered this is my 100th blog post! I would say 80% has been complete rambling on my part, but the other 20% was/is some high quality, informative reading! I'm looking forward to continuing this little project and have some awesome ideas for down the road!

Stay Strong Y'all!

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Not only will you be able to keep up with all my random thoughts, I'll send you my weekly planner printable! 






  



Tuesday, November 17, 2015

26 Facts About Me!

Twenty-six things about me... 

A- Age: 37

B- Biggest Fear: Small spaces, snakes, aliens

C- Current time: 7:27 AM

D- Drink you last had: Coffee

E- Every day starts with: Coffee

F- Favorite song: "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley 

G- Ghosts, are they real?: Maybe...

H- Hometown: Hazel, Ky/Puryear, TN

I- In love with: Jeremy

J- Jealous of: eh, nobody really

K- Killed someone? Not yet

L- Last time you cried? Saturday

M- Middle name: Dawn

N- Number of siblings: 7 including halves,steps and in-laws!

O- One wish: People would be kind to others

P- Person you last called: The insurance lady

Q- Question you've always asked: How has evolution not weeded these people out? (I know, not kind)

R- Reason to smile: Even on our bad days, we still have it really, really great!

S- Song last sang: "Unlock The Swag" by Rae Sremmurd (terrible, but catchy)

T- Time you woke up: 6:51

U- Underwear color: N/A

V- Vacation destination: Warm, beautiful beach!

W- Worst habit: Anxiety

X- X-Rays you've had: Foot & abdomen

Y- Your favorite food: Cheesy pasta, gas station food, peanut butter & chocolate

Z- Zodiac sign: Aquarius

What are your 26? Post and share!

Stay Strong Y'all!

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Quantity Vs Quality

My November goal was to blog every day.

I didn't blog yesterday.

Oops.

It's not that I didn't remember to do it, it's just that I didn't have anything profound to say. So I made the executive decision to not say anything at all.

Which led me to mull over the question of quantity vs quality.

In Blogging

Most bloggers and internet entrepreneurs tell conflicting stories. One will tell you it's all about volume at first so that you have content and credibility. Another one will tell you that it's both. You have to put out a lot of really good content. And others will tell you it's about really great content and to not waste readers' time.

For this November goal, I was going to try to do both. But I just wasn't feeling it yesterday and didn't want to waste bandwidth ranting about people that turn left from the go right lane. Or jabbering about how banded back squats can kill you. They can. I almost died yesterday. Thanks J for saving me!

I could have written about the lovely play my daughter was in last night, A Permanent Signal. It was really good and she (as usual) was amazing! As she gets older, the quality of the productions she is in keeps improving and becoming more and more enjoyable. I don't know why I didn't go ahead last night and write about that, but I think I had subconsciously decided to not write already.

The final decision then, is that for November, quantity may trump quality. I'll share the good ones and quietly hit "publish" on the meh ones. After that, we will see!

In Food

I struggle with this one! I'm a grazer and a half and I love to just eat and eat and eat! I love gas station food and Taco Bell, so obviously I'm not a quality snob! I think quantity wins on this one, though I do try to eat high quality in large quantities as well!

 I like to partition my macros so that I get the most amount of food, think small portions, multiple times. A few ounces of chicken and veggies here. A handful of nuts and raisins there. A little bowl of oatmeal and bananas.

When you watch the cooking shows and they present their "entree" to the judges and it is one jumbo shrimp on a quarter cup of polenta with two green beans, I'm like, "What the hell?!"  I get that it is high quality foo-foo food, but if I'm paying $$$$ you better flippin' bring me more than what I can cram in my mouth at one time!


Since I got to pondering this QvQ thing, I've come up with other areas you could apply it to, so stay tuned to part 2!

Stay Strong Y'all!






Thursday, November 12, 2015

#tbt November 12, 1994

No big post today. Enjoying a day of R&R with my husband of 21 years! 
Stay Strong Y'all!

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Watching Athletes Grow

       The last two nights at work have made my heart swell with pride as I have been reminded of how awesome my job is. Of course, it is super fun to hit your own PRs (Personal Records), but it is just as much fun to watch an athlete that you coach hit their own PRs or do something they were physically unable to do before.

       When "Betty" started with us she could barely squat and she definitely couldn't lunge. She would step forward, lower down and either completely fall or get down and be stuck. I can't tell you how many times she fell on her butt squatting or fell over lunging.

        One of the first times she attempted a 12 inch box jump, I held her hand and told her she wouldn't fall and that if she did, I would catch her. Well, that was a coaching-fail for me as not only did I let her fall, I went down with her and landed on top of her. Oops.

       Betty's jump rope ability wasn't that great either.

        The last two nights I got to watch Betty PR her squat snatch, her ten rep back squat, do double-unders and lunge 200 meters! We laughed about how we wished we had videos of her first few weeks of CrossFit so that everyone could see her huge improvements! Her husband bragged on her as well when he told me about them moving a basketball goal and how it was super heavy, but she was able to easily help him load it in the truck.

       We have a new CrossFitter, "Suzie" that came on a Bring A Friend Saturday a few weeks ago. The WOD had jumping pull ups and Suzie did them, but awkward doesn't begin to describe how they looked and must have felt. Suzie would donkey kick her legs, lay back a bit and never really get her chin over the bar. Then she came back the next Saturday and has since joined in on 5 more classes.

       Tonight she did jumping pull ups again. Wow, what a difference! Her chin went over the bar each time because now her movement and energy were all generating and driving up! I know to her, that little bit of progress may not seem like much, but it made me grin ear-to-ear! I love watching people learn to use their bodies!

     In CrossFit Kids Monday, I told the kids we would do a pistol challenge on the following Monday. We spent a few minutes practicing and if you can imagine what 8 to 10 year-olds look like trying to do one legged squats, add even more giggling, wiggling, falling and rolling and you have an accurate picture.

   Today we practiced again for a few minutes and the improvement was huge! I could tell they were trying their hardest and that some of them had been practicing at home. I can't wait to see what a weekend of practice will bring.

    We all love to watch people lift big weights and do crazy stunts on the rings, but sometimes it is the small victories that mean the most. And those small victories snowball into huge victories. I am happy I get to be a part of them.

    Stay Strong Y'all!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

A Random Assortment Of Thoughts

This is going to be a free flowing post about things floating through my head, bullet style.

*Squats- Yesterday got crazy (see below) and I had to make a decision to either do my heavy squats at home at 10 PM or wait and do them today. I was just not feeling it last night so I did them today. They were not fun, nor the prettiest. I don't generally use my belt anymore for squatting, but today I did because the core was just not holding up. I didn't want to sacrifice the leg work by dropping weight so I belted. 

*Blessings Disguised As Stress- Yesterday was hectic in a very good way and while the hectic-ness drove my overly planned and scheduled self nuts, I couldn't help but smile because it was an awesome kind of hectic. Yes, my workout schedule got messed up, but it was all because of very good things!

*Double Unders- Here's an amazing fact you might not know. If you make people attempt double unders, they figure out how to do double unders. 

*Tired Of Not Being100%- I've been a bit under the weather the last week and the meds are helping, but slowly. The meds are also making me slightly nauseous and I'm getting dizzy easily which makes working out super fun.  Box jump overs?  Let's go up and down and spin around! Blech. GHD sit ups. Ain't happening. 

*I Ran A Mile Today!!! I know that's not a big deal for many, but I rarely am able to actually run a whole mile. I didn't walk at all today, woop woop!

*I Don't Understand Hunger Strikes- Seriously. How does someone choosing not to eat affect anyone else? If I choose to not eat to protest something, who am I hurting except myself? On the flip side, if you choose to not eat to protest something I'm doing, why should I care? 


Stay Strong Y'all!

Monday, November 9, 2015

Life Goals: Food Edition

Today was super packed with amazing stuff and I've really had no time to process any profound ideas so here are two of my life goals.

1) Order everything on the Taco Bell $1 menu and eat it. Maybe not all of it, but at least try all of it.

2) Purchase one of each Sammons' Donuts to definitely decide which is my favorite.

Stay Strong Y'all!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Find Your Candlepower

"I hope my story inspires people to find their own "candlepower", that ability to keep the candle burning bright no matter how hard the wind blows. Whether they're having a tough day, trying to build something, start a company, move up in their own business, or just do something cool for their family, I want people to realize that they are capable of more than they could ever imagine." - Kat Cole President of Focus Brands (Cinnabon, McCallister's Deli, Auntie Ann's, etc)

I wish I had said those words, instead, I'll just have to co-op them from Kat. That's the way I feel about everyone I work with and that's how big I want my life to be. 

Happy Sunday! 

Stay Strong Y'all!


Saturday, November 7, 2015

Campfire workout!


Last night after work, J and I pulled the camper down to Turkey Bay and I was very excited for a weekend of decompression. 
The first thing I did was unpack my backpack and plan all the fun things I would read and write. I 'may' have a notebook problem. 

I stayed up until midnight reading and taking notes! #nerd

Yes, I woke up like this. 

And I woke up to this! 

Thank goodness J cooks while we camp. He earns mega points for boiling water so that I could have coffee! I don't care that it was instant, it was coffee!


After breakfast it was time to get my workout on. I brought a dumbbell with me, but could have easily just used a water jug. No excuses to miss a workout folks! 

Warm up: a ten minute trail run

WOD: Turkey Bay 250

For time:

50 Goblet Squats
50 Sit Ups
50 Dumbell Snatches
50 Push Ups
50 One Armed Overhead Squats

Every two minutes run to the creek bed and back. 

This was fun and being on the leafy, non level ground made it even more challenging! The 30# dumbell was great, but a sloshy gallon of water might have been more challenging, especially on the one arm overhead squats. 

Accessory work: bent over rows, one leg Romanian deadlifts, and one arm over head carries. 


And now we lunch!

Stay Strong Y'all!

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Friday, November 6, 2015

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Rest Day = Eat Everything Day? 7 Ways To Beat The Binge



#feedmeseymore

According to all the research on physique development, rest days should be lower in calories and lower in carbohydrates than training days, especially if one is losing or maintaining their weight.

Logically I know this, but my body disagrees. 

It seems that every rest day my body screams at me, "You beat me up all week! Feeeeeed meeeeeee!"


Combine that with the fact that I'm mostly off work on rest days and you get a lot of laziness combined with massive inhalation of food. And I'm not talking steamed broccoli and chicken breast.

My brain on rest days:

PB&J? Yum! 

Cliff bars are sorta healthy, right?

Banana and peanut butter!

What is that in the back of the freezer? Cinnamon Toaster Strudel? Cinnamon Toaster Strudel!

Oh, I've eaten a lot of carb. I should balance that with some protein....

I know, I'll mix protein powder and PBFit and spread it on raisin bread!

CANDY CORN! CANDY CORN! CANDY CORN!

I know there is a chocolate bar around here somewhere!!


Nothing listed above is forbidden or "bad". In fact, a lot of it is a pretty decent choice for healthy eating. The problem is I'll eat all that stuff and have 70% carb, 28% fat, and 2% protein at the end of the day. Not exactly a recipe for good body composition and performance.

(Sidenote: Sitting down with a BOWL of peanut butter, banana(s), candy corn, marshmallows and chocolate chips is rarely a good idea)

Some days lately I win the rest day battle. Other days I don't. If I overeat on sugary, carb-y stuff like the stuff above, I feel really bloated and sluggish the next day and my workouts are torturous.

The days I win I use the tips below.


  1. Plan your meals the day before.
  2. When you get the urge to eat something off plan, do something else. Do a load of laundry. Go for a walk. Play a game.
  3. Time your meals. If your brain tells you to raid the pantry, ask yourself how long it's been since you had a meal. If it's been 3 hours or so, you might actually need real food. If it was 30 minutes ago, you are bored, not hungry.
  4. Honestly, I'm more likely to overdo it when I have just been to the grocery store, so try not to grocery shop the day before rest day. 
  5. Text an accountability buddy and tell them you are about to eat a 1 pound bag of M&M's all by yourself.
  6. Better yet, take a picture of it and post it on social media. Tell the world you are about to eat the whole thing. Would that make you stop and reconsider?
  7. Ask yourself two questions. One, will eating this help me reach my goals? Two, how will I feel 30 minutes after eating it? If the answers are NO and CRAPPY, don't do it. 

If nothing helps and you have an 'OH MY GOD I ATE EVERYTHING DAY', so be it. Move on and accept that it will hinder your goals a bit, but it doesn't have to stop all progress. No guilt and no beating yourself up. Draw a line in the sand and step over. 

Just because you got a flat tire, there's no need to slash the other three.

Come see me tonight at 7 PM at Flex Fitness! I'll be talking nutrition and doing a little Q & A!

Stay Strong Y'all!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Speaking at MSU yesterday was great!

My November goal is to blog everyday and I intend to reach it. So is it cheating if today's blogpost is actually a CrossFit Murray post?


Because I did blog over there! I wrote about how important it is to know your lifting maxes.

Lol, I'm calling it cheating.

Yesterday I was honored to be asked to speak at MSU to a group of Physical Education majors about owning your own fitness business. We discussed the pros and cons of owning your business versus working for someone else. They asked excellent questions about how to improve their skills once they enter "the real world" and how to value their time and knowledge level when deciding to market themselves.

My favorite part is always when I'm asked to tell about how we started CrossFit Murray. There is a lot of backstory, but the gist is this. We sold nearly everything we owned to get cash, including my car! Jeremy drove a Toyota truck from the mid 80s that we bought at a yard sale and I drove our mid nineties Chevy truck.

The reason we found the truck at a yard sale was because we were getting up on Friday mornings and going to yard sales and buying everything that we thought we could make a buck on. We were never rude or insulting and paid a fair price for a yard sale. Then we got up early on Saturday and set up at flea markets to sell the stuff. We also had a booth at Peddler's Mall where we put the nicer items. Many locations have flea markets on Monday mornings, so it was common for Jeremy to leave the house at 3:30 AM on those days to set up in a prime spot. This hustle allowed us to open CFM with no debt and confident that we could make it on just my salary as a teacher. And if it didn't go well, we could walk away and be no worse off.

I know a lot of people get aggravated when they have a yard sale and people show up early and buy "all the good stuff." I know some people get aggravated that those same people turn around and sell it for more at a flea market. And that is exactly what we did. Rather than using my words to possibly persuade those folks to change their mind, I like the explanation given here by Dana White at A Slob Comes Clean about why you shouldn't worry about who buys your stuff and what they are going to do with it.

You never know, you could be fueling a young couple's dream or putting food on a widowers table.

Thank you so much Tawnya for inviting me to speak! I love to encourage people to achieve their dreams!

I'm also speaking at Flex Fitness in Paris tomorrow night. Come see me! It's a St. Jude fundraiser and a $10 donation is suggested.

Oh and I PR'd my clean yesterday! WOOP WOOP!

Stay Strong Y'all.


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

November 3rd

Since I promised myself I would blog everyday in Nov, I will. However, today's will be short and spastic.

1) My diet is helter-skeltzer right now. Gotta get it back on point. on track. Reoriented toward a new goal.

2) Excited about dressing up in real clothes and speaking at MSU tonight!


3) "To be as an effective leader as possible, you have to have good discipline."- Hugh Culver

4) "We must all suffer one of two pains. The pain of discpline or the pain of regret." - Jim Rohn

5) If Skittles and M&Ms had a baby, Candy Corn M&Ms would be the love child. 
Stay Strong Y'all!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Manic Monday/Speeding Eclipse

This morning when my alarm went off, I didn't want to get out of bed. Surprise surprise, right? Who wants to get out of their warm comfy bed at 5:26 AM? I hit snooze a couple of times.

When I got up, it was closer to 5:45, but that still gave me plenty of time to get ready and get to the gym. I like to leave myself a lot of cushion and I was reminded of why I do that this morning. 

Coming out of Hazel, a little town I drive through, the speed limit goes 35 to 45 and then 55. As I drove into the 45, I got passed by a little Eclipse. My immediate thought was to look at the clock, see that it said 6:54 and assume that he must have to be at work at 7.

As fate would have it, Mr. Eclipse and I caught up with each other again in just a mile or so because we were behind a school bus that was going at that lovely school bus pace. Then,  Mr. Eclipse surprised me by whipping out and passing the car in front of him as we are all breaking for the school bus to pick up a kid.

Poor Mr. Eclipse. What must you be feeling? Frustration at the situation? Indignation that you were going to be late because of a school bus? Panic that you weren't going to make it to work on time? Rage? Fear?

Whatever he was feeling, Mr. Eclipse whipped out again and proceeded to pass a car and a semi-truck AS THE SCHOOL BUS RED LIGHTS WERE FLASHING! The children were standing on the side of the road. All the cars and the bus were stopped, and Mr. Eclipse is picking up speed in the oncoming late.

What the hell is this idiot doing? Kids, you better be paying attention! Bus driver, be checking your mirrors! This could end badly.

Mr. Eclipse whips into the line behind the bus and everyone's breathing returns to normal. As soon as he can, Mr. Eclipse whips off onto a side road with intentions (I suppose) of driving 80 down back roads to Murray.

I get it, don't you? We've all been there! Overslept. Can't find keys! Going to be late! Oh shit, a school bus!

But that should be the extreme anomaly. Not an everyday occurrence. And judging by Mr. Eclipse's stunts today, I would wager this wasn't his first crappy morning commute.

Now think about how his day is going to go. Rushing out the door, getting stuck behind traffic, passing cars, coming close to causing injury to children, rage, adrenaline, aggression and frustration all built up. He's probably still going to be late. His boss will be pissed. It's Monday morning and his day is going to suck. And honestly, tomorrow and the rest of the week will probably go the same way.

Would could he do different? Well, one simple solution is to get up earlier. I know it sucks. I hate mornings also. But if getting up 15-20 minutes earlier gives me time to just slowly go about my morning routine and leave 5-10 minutes early, I call it a win.

Yeah, I would have preferred to not get stuck behind a school bus. But I had plenty of time and was listening to a great podcast. I was heading to a place I love to work at. My Monday started off stress free, thanks to just dragging my arse out of bed a bit earlier than I wanted to.

Mr. Eclipse can blame whoever he wants for his shitty Monday, but I'd wager it started when he didn't get his butt out of bed.


Because I wasn't in a rush, I fixed my oatmeal this morning and enjoyed it while sitting behind the school bus. Lol, I know I look like crap. It's Monday morning, what do you expect?

Stay Strong Y'all!