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!

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!

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!

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!

Linked up at:

The Power of the P's recap!

Trying something new (cheating) .....

Stay Strong Y'all!

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!

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.