Crossroads - Crossfit on the fly! Free and Convenient WODs!

 One fact that is most likely universally true for everyone is that life can get crazy, sometimes unpredictable, and even occasionally uncontrollable. So how do you make sure you get your crossfit WOD in when traveling, away from home, or just too busy to make it to your home box (crossfit term for gym). There are tons of options and online resources to help ensure that you get that fitness fix for the day. Some of these are also great alternatives if affording the expensive box membership is an issue. In this post I'll just talk about one of these great resources, but never fear there's more where this comes from and will continue to share soon.

            In this last year, life for me has become significantly more insane and I have often found myself away from my home box, out of state with limited free time, and out in the middle of a third world country. This past summer I went on a medical mission trip to Cambodia for three weeks and of course one of the first things to come to my mind was….”Are there crossfit boxes in Cambodia?” For those of you racking your brain over this question, the answer is NO, there are definitely no crossfit gyms in Cambodia, not where we were anyways, which was out in makeshift clinics in churches in the middle of rice patties. Panic ensued….three weeks of no crossfit, no sticking to my paleo diet, and eating rice and French baguettes with every meal. Just thinking about the deconditioning, losing all the strength I had built back up after my back injury, and of course the potential weight gain were all subjects contributing to my angst. Luckily I found the solution I was looking for…The Traveling WOD! This site is great because it has TONS of workouts posted that you can pick and choose from, making it easy to get a quick workout in when you happen find yourself somewhere with no or limited workout equipment, like at your home/apartment, at a hotel, or at a bungalow in the middle of Kampot, Cambodia. They post daily WODs if this is something that you want to follow long-term at home or for extended travel, but personally I just used their travel WOD library so that I could make my workout fit my environment each day. Of course having the most amazing boyfriend who knew and understood my concern for going three weeks with not being able to adhere to my current workout and diet regimen surprised me with my very own workout care package for my trip, which only increased my workout options even more.

            

I would highly recommend slowly (or all at once) investing in at least some of these items just because of the variety it could add to your WODs and strength building movements that can apply to your Oly (Olympic) lifts and gymnastic skills when you are able to make it to a box. Some ideas include: an abmat for sit-ups and handstand pushups, rings and straps for ring dips, ring pull ups/ring rows, ring pushups, muscle-up progressions, muscle-ups themselves, and toes to rings, a jump rope for a good cardio alternative to running, and of course resistance bands and a roller for mobility and recovery. There are obviously other accessories that could be useful for traveling by road, but all of the things I named were able to fit in my gym bag and were not too cumbersome to take with me to the other side of the planet. Where there’s a will, there’s a way so check out this link and make fitness and crossfit work for you and whatever life throws your way!   

http://www.thetravelingwod.com/p/traveling-wods.html

Rings hanging from the second story railing at the Natural Bungalows, our home for the 2 1/2 weeks we stayed in Kampot, Cambodia....they also look great hanging from rafters!  The resistance band can be used to assist in ring dips until you build enough strength to do multiple ring dips in a row.

Handstand pushups with an abmat at the resort we visited one weekend in Kep, Cambodia. Definitely had to rearrange the furniture to get the space we needed, but you do what you gotta do!

Don't forget that you can use nature, which is always free, to get a good workout. While in Kep we hiked several miles of mountainous terrain to see the temples that had been built at the top. Very awesome and obviously lots of hard work and sweat went into to this adventure. 

On Rabbit Island in Kep, Cambodia getting ready to kayak in the Gulf of Thailand. Kayaking is an awesome core and upper body workout as much as it is cardio and renting kayaks are usually fairly inexpensive.

Until next time, keep calm and crossfit! hnh

Sometimes you feel like a Nut...tasty, yet easy Paleo Granola!

One of my guilty pleasures since starting Crossfit and changing my diet has become nuts, particularly almonds and cashews. I don’t know if something has changed about my metabolism or what, but I used to NEVER eat them, like ever, and now I’m fairly certain that I could live off of them alone. Tree nuts contain a good bit of fat, but it's a healthy fat so I suppose it's better to binge eat on almonds than Twinkies. This is one of my down falls though, because although they are healthy and completely Paleo/Whole30, I still believe that you should practice some self-restraint and only eat them in moderation (something I tend to epically fail at). I’ve even read in some places that you should only eat them in amounts equivalent to a topping, like for your salad or other meals, rather than eating them in handfuls on their own as a snack. On the other hand, I have read or know of many athletes who will have a palm full of nuts with breakfast or lunch, so as always you just have to figure out what amount works for your body and your level of workout intensity.

I have to admit that I haven’t had time to finish reading “Paleo Solution” by Robb Wolf, but I hope to sometime in the relatively near future and I will hopefully be able to give you a little more insight on this topic when I do. Dallas and Melissa’s book, “It Starts with Food,” contains a table that is helpful to decide which nuts (and seeds) are better for you when you do choose to eat them. The best nut choices include cashews, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts. The middle category contains almonds, brazil nuts, pecans, and pistachios. Flax seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts make up the lowest tier of this type of food.

            A big mistake that I made shortly after starting crossfit, but before my Whole30 challenge was that I would have peanuts as a mid-day or pre-workout snack from time to time. Contrary to their name, peanuts are NOT nuts! Peanuts are considered legumes, a food group that includes beans and lentils; and legumes are not Paleo or Whole30. The argument against legumes, and therefore peanuts, is that they act similar to how grains affect your gut, whole separate topic for a  future blog.

            Nonetheless, granola (when eaten in moderation) can make for a delicious, yet, healthy and filling snack. My favorite is to eat it like cereal with almond milk and maybe some fresh sliced fruit or berries, but it’s just as good on its own! Here is the original recipe, but I made a few changes: http://lexiscleankitchen.com/2013/05/25/paleo-granola/ (I get a lot of my recipes from “Just Eat Real Food” on facebook…they post a lot of great stuff, but be sure to read the ingredients because I have found some non-Paleo stuff on there and some of it is Primal instead of Paleo; you can also pin this stuff to your pinterest which is what I do…feel free to follow me there as well!).

Ingredients:

•   2 cups nuts (I used cashews, raw slivered almonds, hazelnuts and chopped pecans- pulsed in magic bullet to break into to small pieces, but not ground completely)

•   1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (I used desiccated, but shredded would work as well)

•   1/2 cup sunflower seeds

•   2 tbsp flaxseed meal

•   2 tbsp sesame seeds (I used pumpkin seeds instead)

•   1 tbsp cinnamon

•   1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional and I used apple pie spice because I didn’t like pumpkin pie when I last tried it so I figured pumpkin spice granola may not be my favorite either)

•   Dash of salt

•   3 tbsp coconut oil

•   3 tbsp honey (I was running short on honey when I made this last so I substituted the difference with pure maple syrup)

•   1 tsp vanilla extract

•   2 tbsp pure maple syrup (can sub agave/or omit)

•   1 tbsp almond butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. In a large bowl combine nuts, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, flaxseed meal, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, pumpkin/apple pie spice, and a dash of salt.

3.  In a pan on the stove combine coconut oil, honey, vanilla extract, pure maple syrup, and almond butter; Let boil.

4. Once boiling, pour over dry mixture in the bowl. Mix thoroughly.

5. Pour onto baking sheet. A lot of times I'll double the recipe, but regardless be sure to spread the mixture well so there's only a thin, even layer otherwise you may end up with the thinner parts burned and the thicker sections a little undercooked. Bake at 350, stirring occasionally, until slightly brown (watch carefully to ensure that it doesn’t burn!)

6. Let cool and then break apart and its ready to eat or be stored!

Enjoy!
~ Hailey ~

Live, Love, Crossfit!

As my first real blog I thought I would just outline some things about the way I choose to workout. I don’t know how familiar people are with crossfit and many times when people ask me what I do they’re response is cross-what? My goal is to provide you with a non-biased, objective description of this style of training, but it’ll be hard since there are so many things that I love about what I do. So what is crossfit?...now that could be a fully-loaded question! For me personally, it’s the best of many aspects of working out: Olympic lifting, fast pace cardio, gymnastics movements, body-weight exercises, sometimes high rep, sometimes low rep, sometimes heavy weight, and sometimes not as heavy weight. One of my favorite things about crossfit is that I never get bored. There are so many WODs (Work out of the Day) and movement combinations that if you never wanted to do the same workout twice, you probably could. Although repeating the same WODs and lifts from time to time will allow you to measure your progress objectively. Switching from one movement to the next helps me to think less about how tired I am or how out of breath I am and more about pushing myself to get through this movement, this rep, this round, and before you know it….you’ve finished the workout! Because there are so many movements, there are always challenges and always things that you could be better at. If WODs start getting easier, do it faster or add more weight. While I don’t feel that anyone could say, “I have mastered the sport of crossfit,” it is also 100% scalable. If you’re just starting crossfit or maybe just starting to workout period, you can customize the WODs to your level of comfort and still get an awesome workout by scaling (aka lowering) the reps, the rounds, and/or the weight. For most of the movements there are even scaled movements, movements that can be substituted for those who can’t yet do prescribed movements whether it be for lack of strength, comfort, or due to injury. Periodically I will post links to specific crossfit programming sites and try to post scale down movements for those who are just starting crossfit, working up to Rx movements, or trying to do WODs at home with limited equipment. I would also encourage you to keep track of your workouts because it always feels good to look back at the last time you went for a one-rep max on a lift or did a WOD so you can see your progress!

When starting this blog, I asked for feedback about what all I should include. One of the common answers I received was about what the lifestyle of a crossfitter is like and how I make it fit into my schedule. Just like the WODs we do, you can commit to as much or as little of the “crossfit” lifestyle as you want….although just like anything else, you’ll only get out what you put in. Many crossfitters eat Paleo, some are more strict than others. Most crossfitters believe in scheduled rest days, some play their workout schedule by ear by listening to when their bodies tell them that they need rest. Everything you do must work for you, and what works for you may not work for someone else so most of what my boyfriend and I do has been determined by trial and error. We eat mostly paleo with a max of 3 cheat meals per week. Every morning we both have a protein shake for breakfast. The protein that we use is the only non-paleo item that we consume on a daily basis (and we don’t count this toward our cheat meals). I have my protein mixed with water or almond milk after every workout as well. We take 2 rest days every week. Thursday is our strict rest day…we usually do nothing as far as exercise. Sundays are usually our second rest day, but is most often, but not always, more of an active rest day….we’ll typically go for a family run with our furchild or maybe hiking. Being committed to working out almost everyday makes for a busy week for us. James and I usually get up around 4:30-5:00am, fix our shakes and coffee, take care of our dog, and start our day at work and at the hospital, respectively. We get home at varying times depending on the day, but usually between 4 and 5pm. We get ready and go workout around 5-5:30pm and are there until 7:30 or 8pm. Then its hurry home, fix and eat dinner, shower, and get in bed to do it all again tomorrow. My schedule varies depending on what rotation I am on and how much I have to study, which in turn determines how much time I allow myself to stay in the gym. During my third year when my days were longer and I had to study more, I limited my workouts to an hour and usually just did my box’s (crossfit terms for my gym) daily WOD. Now in my fourth year when my schedule is a little more lax and all my board exams are done, for now, I let myself stay at the gym longer (although this may change soon as I’m preparing for an away rotation in a couple weeks and getting ready to dive head first into interview season). Needless to say that with days like these, how do we also find time to prepare a healthy dinner rather than giving into the convenience of unhealthy fast food? My solution is plan ahead! Quick and easy meals and crockpot dinners have also become my best friends (so get excited about all the recipes that will be coming very soon)!

I think that the some of the most important things to keep in mind in regards to your health is:

1.                     We are not gingerbread cookies, therefore, there are no universal cookie cutter programs or diets that will work for everyone. I hope that when you read my blogs and other information on this topic that you take the information and make it your own…tweak it to fit your body and your lifestyle.

2.                     As my amazing boyfriend always reminds me: “Hailey, focus on the little victories!” You will not go from a couch potato to giving Rich Froning and Samantha Briggs (the winners of the 2013 Crossfit Games) a run for their money overnight. If you’re not active at all right now, focus on getting up and moving because something is better than nothing. If you are active, maybe you’ll get a PR (personal record) today, or this week, or maybe this month, but maybe not so concentrate on progress! So you couldn’t hit more weight on your lift, but you looked stronger and more solid and had better technique this time or maybe you got a few seconds faster or a couple more reps in on a WOD than you did last you did it.  

3.                     Read labels, know what you’re putting in your body! You’d be surprised to know what items have sugar and other nastiness added to them (more to come on paleo/whole30) J

4.                     Love what you do. I feel better, physically and mentally, when I eat paleo, which is why I chose to do it. I feel better and see more results when I crossfit and work on my Oly lifts so that’s what I do predominantly, but I also run and do yoga sometimes too. If you don’t love what you do, what you eat, and the way you feel then you won’t stick to any plan no matter how good it is or how much data there is to support that it works.

5.                     Abs are made in the kitchen. You can work out from sun up to sundown, but nothing substitutes for eating right. I see the biggest changes in how lean my body does and does not look when I look at what I’ve been eating. Just because you workout doesn’t mean you can pig out!

I promise my next blog won’t be so long and will be something you can apply, a workout or a yummy recipe! J Please feel free to post any questions, feedback, and/or constructive criticisms in the comments below! 

New Contributors!

New Week, New Name.

I'd like you welcome some new contributors!  I want to create a well-rounded resource for people looking to include new workouts and recipes into their arsenal.  I figured the best way to accomplish that would be to invite some new authors.

I'm going to let them introduce themselves below.  Shout out your welcome in the comments!

Geoff
Hello all and thank you so much Becky for inviting me on here!  I have always wanted to do a fitness/workout blog but never had the drive of my own to sit down and actually do one so kudos to you.

A little back ground history for those who don't know me:
Name: Geoff
Occupation: Engineer
Athletic Interest: NCAA soccer player, marathon / half marathon runner, and gym junkie
Age: 26
Nickname: Nerd in the weight room

So as I said, i was really excited when Becky said she was going to be adding some new contributors to her blog and couldn't wait to be a part of it.  She then went on to ask what I would like to contribute to the blog and this was a harder question to answer than expected.  I have always been a huge fitness junkie.  With soccer all through college, I then became a crazy marathon runner and have now transitioned into a weight lifting regiment.  With all that said, I decided it would be best to share with you my experiences whether it be in the weight room, on the running path, on the soccer pitch, or even in the kitchen.  There is a TON of information out there, and not all of is correct as well as most of it is taken out context.  I look forward to sharing my experiences and all that I have learned along the way.  So get ready to sweat, learn, and most importantly, eat.

Hailey

Hello everyone! I am very excited that Becky has asked for my input for this blog. I've considered blogging about my fitness and diet adventures before, but never really had time and didn't know how to get started. I am a 4th year medical student currently applying to OBGYN residency programs. I have always been very active and began cheering competitively and tumbling in middle school, competed on two cheerleading teams throughout all four years of high school, and continued to cheer in college, although no longer competitively. I also got some experience with olympic-style lifting and traditional weightlifting programs during college. January of my first year of medical school I started running and ran my first 10K that May, several 5Ks after that, and finally my first half-marathon February of 2012. I also started going to a bootcamp at a local gym around that time. July 2012 I moved to a new clinical campus for my last two years of school and it was then that I started crossfit.

I have tried several different strategies with my diet, from portion control to strict calorie counting. In January 2013, I decided to participate in a Whole30 challenge with my crossfit gym. I stuck to Whole30 for 31 days, then continued to eat strict Whole30 during the week with breaks on the weekends for another several months until I switched to Paleo. Now I eat about 60-70% Paleo.

I am looking forward to sharing what I've learned along my personal fitness journey and my experiences with crossfit and Whole30/Paleo/Primal (including some amazing recipes), but I'm also very excited to see what other people have to share about their experiences as well!


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As a final note, I want to highlight a recent article in the British Medical Journal that touts exercise as equal to medicine in preventing death from a second heart attack, and perhaps better than medicine at preventing stroke-related mortality.  As if you needed another reason to get off the couch and move!


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