You can keep your Sexy Metcons.

Ok this post has been brewing in me for a while. First of all, I want to say that I love CrossFit. I love everything about it. It makes me stronger, faster, better not just physically but mentally so this is by no means a bash on CrossFit. I'm irritated though. For anybody that doesn't know, I have been a part of the CrossFit community for a while now. I did my first ever CrossFit WOD back in 2007 at Body Armor in San Antonio. I didn't really get serious about it until 2009 and since then I have been coaching and competing continuously. Before CrossFit I was a powerlifter and collegiate volleyball player. Yeah I've been doing cleans, back squats, front squats, snatches...you name it since I was 14! For anybody whose counting that's 13 years of barbell work and 3 solid years of CrossFit. What does this have to do with me being irritated?
I just want to emphasize that I've been at this a long time and there are many new trainers, new affiliates who can't boast this kind of track record. And those are the people that are making me irritated.
In my gym we have spent the better part of our 4 years honing and evolving our programming to give our community the best combination of strength, speed, power, endurance, etc. that we can. Our programming is precise. It has purpose. It's simple and it's really effective. We have taken good athletes and made them great and we do it without any frills and with very few "sexy met-cons". Look people, I get it. Chippers like the Filthy Fifty and the WODs that got thrown out at Regionals..they're fun! They're awesome! I mean come on, which looks cooler to you? A complicated multi-bar WOD with hang cleans and push presses and HSPU and like 7 different movements....or Deadlift 3-3-3-3??? But which one is going to actually make you a better athlete? Which one are you going to be able to sustain for years and years?
When I went to my first L-1 Cert., Pat Sherwood said something about programming that has stuck with me. He said good CrossFit programming can be described in less than 20 words. "Live your life in Couplets and Triplets. Lift Heavy. Sprint once in a while." That's it. That's the heart of quality CrossFit that can last over the years and will continue to make you better. I look at some of these newer affiliates getting sucked into the Sexy Met-Con. One affiliate in the area in the last three weeks has programmed 6 days of metcons using over 3 different barbell movements just for one WOD...some of these WOD's had three different barbell weights as well. Now it is very hard to properly coach three different barbell movements, test out how much weight is appropriate for people and effectively and safely implement it into a WOD and yet they are doing this multiple times a week. Now, I am not saying that this is impossible. Maybe you are sitting there reading this and thinking, well she must not be a very good coach then if she can't do that....and you'd be wrong. We will periodically throw in a complicated multi lift met-con with say hang cleans and front squats and push press in it. But we do these WOD's maybe once every 3 months. We don't do them twice a week. Another thing that irritates me is the over abundance of 1 Rep Maxing. 1 Rep maxes don't do anything but test how much strength you've gained. When you do 5 different one rep maxes in three weeks with zero days of multi-rep strength, you get nowhere. And I'm not talking about lifting in a met-con. I'm talking tried and true 5X5, 3X3 lifts. Most of our athletes do not have 10+ years of barbell strength under their belts. They need to continue to do these simple movements to build a base of strength. CJ Martin over at CrossFit Invictus has his competition athletes doing strength sets every day that they train right now and he's arguably one of the best trainers/programmers in the country. But the thing I think that makes me the most irritated is that I don't expect new CrossFit athletes to know any of this. I expect their coaches to know it and often times, they don't! It's our job as coaches to keep our clients safe, to teach them properly, to build them up... and most importantly, to keep them CrossFitting. The fastest way to break someone down and sideline them from overuse is through the Sexy Met-Con. I want all my athletes to be in the gym CrossFitting for years to come and that's exactly what I tend to do. So you can keep your Sexy-Metcon, I've got some 5X3 Deadlifts to get to.....

Book Review: It Starts With Food

As some of ya'll know, CrossFit Katy is a Whole 9 Nutrition Partner and, much to my excitement, a few weeks ago we received an advanced copy of Melissa and Dallas' new book, It Starts With Food, to review! So this past weekend I finally got down to digging into this gem and WOW! It is probably the most well-written and relevant book on Paleo Nutrition and Health since Robb Wolf's The Paleo Solution. I hate to actually use the term Paleo when reviewing this book because one of the big messages that Dallas and Melissa try to make is that it's not about "Paleo". It's about food choices and lifestyle choices, period. It's about what makes you a healthier, more vibrant human being and what doesn't. Like the title says, it all starts with the food you put on your plates and in your body.

So I'm kind of a closet nerd...ok maybe I'm just a nerd. Who am I kidding? People know me. :) Anyway, I was really psyched and impressed with how much science Dallas and Melissa were able to cram into this book without making me feel like I'd just sat though a mind-numbing freshman biology class. The science was easy to understand and made so much sense. Now I know that having a background in Nursing and working as a Paleo Nutritionist gives me a little leg up with regards to the "science-y" stuff but I promise, anyone can understand and apply the principals put forth in It Starts With Food. And there are definitely some analogies that I will be applying in my own practice. I absolutely love the break down of the four Good Food Standards and the explanation as why certain food groups do or don't fit into the Good Food Standards.

As far as real-life food management, It Starts With Food scored a home run. Their Mealsimple Template and comprehensive chapters on proteins, veggies, and carbs make it easy to create healthy, well-rounded meals. No weighing or measuring necessary because, let's be honest, we're not going to carry around food scales everywhere we go AND we don't have to! And of course this book wouldn't be complete without an extensive introduction to the Whole 30. I have completed 3 Whole 30's myself and I think the first one would have been a lot easier had I had It Starts With Food at my disposal.

Overall, It Starts With Food is a must to add to your ever-growing nutrition/health/paleo library. So get your copy here and enjoy!

Hold On

"I can't remember all the times I've tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass..."-Adam Duritz.

This is probably one of my favorite quotes. It doesn't hurt that it's from my favorite band of all time, Counting Crows. But besides that, it has such a powerful message. I know that I have written a million times that I have resolved to blog more and every night I put it off, and the next thing I know, I've blinked and it's June! I feel like in the past four months I have been swimming, swimming, swimming and haven't had a chance to come up for air yet. When life gets crazy like that, it's easy to let things pass you by, but tonight, I am taking a moment to hold on...

Here's a little recap on what's happened in the past four months.

1) CrossFit Games South Central Regionals 2012:
This year, CrossFit Katy took San Antonio by storm! Our team entered the South Central Regionals ranked 12th after our performance as a gym in the CrossFit Games Open. At the end of the weekend we emerged in 8th place! It was an amazing weekend and I am so grateful to be a part of such an incredible gym. This year left me proud of what I was able to accomplish and motivated to become an even better athlete and teammate!

2) Neal and I got engaged!
After a little over three years together, Neal surprised me on bended knee at the Houstonian on a mini "stay-cation" weekend. We celebrated with a sushi dinner and took in a Radiohead concert (Neal's favorite). The date is set for October 2013 and I'm sure I'll have a lot more to post about it as the time gets closer.

3) We're in the process of expanding the gym....again!
Yep, CrossFit Katy is about to go to 5200sq feet which is incredible! The new space will allow us to change even more lives by bringing the best fitness program in Katy to more people and our current members can enjoy more space, more equipment and a continued devotion to bringing out the best in all of them!

4) I have a new baby sister!
Orli Leal Goldstein was born on May 17th which means there are now 7 combined Goldstein/Ramsey/Peitsch kiddos in this melting pot of a family! Pretty awesome and more than just a little bit crazy!

5) Neal and I may finally be moving into a house!
Yep, as long as all goes well on Tuesday with our inspection, Neal and I will enter the scary and exciting new world of homeownership! This is one of the most exciting things on my mind right now because it marks such an enormous step for us as a family. I am so proud of what Neal has accomplished in these last four years. I doubt that many people know how hard he has worked to get this far. And though I have been an integral part in growing the gym, I feel that I have been able to do so much more of the "fun stuff" while he has shouldered the burden of the actual business decisions. Words cannot describe how much I love him and how proud I am of him.

Wow! That list is pretty crazy. It's hard to believe that all of this has happened in less than 6 months! 2012 has been one incredible year so far. It's half way over and I hope to accomplish just as much in the next 6 months. Glad I took the time to stop, reflect, and hold on...

Fittest Games Recap and On to Sectionals!

Though my efforts at keeping this blog updated have been minimal, I am happy to announce that it's because I have sooo many good things happening in my life right now (which I will most definitely share with all of you in the coming weeks)! Nonetheless, I have been absent for too long so here's to getting back on track.

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Austin with the rest of my CrossFit Katy fam and took on the 5th Annual Fittest Games. As always, the crew at CrossFit Central put on an incredibly competition. Everything ran smoothly and the competition was fierce. This year they had the competition broken down into to two division, Pro's and Amateurs. The only requirement to compete in the Pro division was that you had to have qualified as an individual to compete at Regionals last year. That meant the top 60 men and the top 60 women from our Region could compete. Last year I finished up 27th in the Region so I put on my big girl panties and registered for the Pro Division even though I knew there were still so many things that I needed to work on.

When the WODs came out on Friday night, they didn't disappoint and promised to push me to the limit. At packet pick up, we were required to weigh in because one of the WOD's had max bodyweight overhead squats in it.....that's right bodyweight! Ugg! The kicker though, was that we were not going to be allowed to take the weight from a rack. We first had to clean it, then put it on our backs, then push jerk it overhead, then squat it! When I weighed in, I was 156.8 which bumped up my bodyweight squat to 160#! I have never overhead squatted that much weight in my life. When that WOD came up, I had no problem cleaning 160# or putting it on my back, but I couldn't jerk under it which meant no bodyweight overhead squats for me!

There was one WOD that I was really looking forward to though. WOD #3 was a descending/ascending ladder of Muscle-Ups and Thrusters. I have been working on my muscle ups pretty steadily since Regionals last year when we had Team Amanda and I've gotten pretty good at them. The thruster weight was pretty light for me considering the heaviest weight was 135# and last year at Regionals I got 155#. But muscle ups are tricky, you never know when you're going to have an off day. Before that WOD, we were given 3 minutes to adjust our ring heights and I didn't make mine high enough. I have a massive kip when I do muscle ups and without enough leg room, I can't swing as hard as I need to. This ended up really affecting my ability to string together multiple muscle ups and time ended up ticking away before I could finish my last muscle up and thruster.

The final WOD was a triplet that had 225# deadlifts in it. Now I will be the first to admit that I have been avoiding the deadlift for probably the last year and a half. I was always good at deadlifts. I'm strong and have powerful legs, so I have been spending the majority of my time working on the skills that I wasn't good at...like chest to bar pull ups and muscle ups. Let me tell you, when you start to ignore a lift (or a skill) it WILL come back to bite you! BIG TIME! I got completely crushed by this lift and ended up dead last on this WOD! I think this is the first time I have ended up last in a WOD at a competition EVER!

Now, looking back and reading this post, it's pretty evident that I got my ass handed to me! But...

"An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it."

So I will be spending the next 3 months leading up to Regionals working on my errors and hopefully I will come out on top once again!

This is Your Life

I saw this video on fellow blogger, Melissa Joulwan's website The Clothes Make the Girl. Not only is she a fantastic writer but she's also a Paleo enthusiast with a bad ass new cookbook out. If you haven't gotten your hands on a copy of Well Fed, you should! I loved this video so much, I had to put it up also. Holstee makes clothing, recycled wallets and other items but their message is way beyond that...

Getting Back to It and Fittest Games

Well I'm officially 11 days into January and 10 days into my 3rd Whole 30. I have to say that this go-round is a piece of cake really. I am not doing that great of a job as far as portion control and snacking are concerned but I haven't even really had the urge to cheat. I take it back, the other day I was really craving a root beer but it passed quickly. Random, I know. What's so fantastic about this Whole 30 though is that there are so many people who are joining me. People from the gym, people from lululemon, family members and friends. They probably don't know, but all of the people who are looking to me for support and guidance are actually helping me accomplish my goals. It's a huge responsibility to lead a group and I am holding myself to an even higher standard because of it.

I have been saying for the past few months that come January, I was really going to get my ass in gear as far as my training and nutrition are concerned. The nutrition is 100% in control and I have to say that the training is really coming along. In November and December, when my nutrition was horrible and I was juggling 3 jobs, getting my own workouts in seemed much more like a chore than a joy. I am happy to say that after a few lifestyle changes and with wholesome, Paleo foods fueling me, I have felt pretty amazing during all of my workouts. I am still struggling with my strict handstand push ups. I have so far gotten a few, but all of the work has made my kipping handstand push ups much easier. I still have my muscle-ups and now I just have to work on linking them. The most I've ever done in a row is 5 and I'm hoping to get 10! The only thing that isn't really progressing is my endurance. I still get pretty beat-down by long, light, cardio metcons, but CrossFit Katy's very own endurance expert Niki Bellnoski is going to be starting up CrossFit Katy Endurance Running again soon so hopefully those workouts will help me in those types of WODs.

It's almost time for The Fittest Games again and I am really excited and kind of nervous. Last year I ended up 9th but there was a gamut of talent missing from that competition last year. This year, I have signed up in the "pro division" which simply means I qualified as an individual for the South Central CrossFit Regionals last year. There are some amazingly studly women in this group and I am pretty stoked just to be able to compete with them. The Fittest Games has always been an incredibly well-run competition with great WOD's and an even better atmosphere. This year is sure to be no different. This year, CrossFit Katy is bringing a pretty large group of competitors and hopefully a rowdy bunch of cheerleaders. Should be an amazing time!

A Different Kind of Whole 30

A while ago, the folks over at Whole 9 Life challenged their readers to do a totally different kind of Whole 30. They wanted everyone to try and go 30 days without watching TV! While this may have nothing to do with nutrition, it most definitely has everything to do with health as a whole. Whole 9 Life isn't just about nutrition, they're about balancing life, taking the correct steps to becoming the best version of yourself. I didn't participate in the 30 Day No-TV Challenge because I don't really feel like TV is a major part of my life anyway. I enjoy at times but don't really feel like I "need" it. The thought of turning off my TV for 30 days didn't make me nervous, but I have thought of a little challenge that does!

As my friends, family, and even members of my gym will tell you, I have a little problem that involves shoes and nice athletic-wear! It seems like every time I turn around there's a new product that I have to have or a shiny new pair of kicks. Back in September when I was asked to write out my goals for lululemon athletica, I put down that I wanted to save 50% of all my paychecks. I am currently living rent-free and have minor bills to pay so this is the perfect time to sock away as much cash as possible until the not so distance future when Neal and I hope to get into a house. I did an excellent job up until December when it was time to buy presents for Hanukkah/X-Mas. I have managed to spend most of that extra savings that I worked so hard for on gifts...and not all of them were for other people! (oops!)

For the past few years, I have definitely been living in the mind-set that I don't need to worry about saving tons of money because what I make is not that significant and when I finally get that "big girl job" I will have more than enough time to make up for it so why not enjoy myself now right? News flash, I have my dream job....but it's not making me the kind of bucks that my original career had the potential to offer. So, its high time to really get a handle on my finances. Now, I haven't been completely irresponsible up until now, but I definitely have huge room for improvement. So here goes...for the entire month of January, I will be completing not only a Nutritional Whole 30 but I will also be abstaining from making any unnecessary purchases. No new apparel, no new footwear, no dining out for lunch while at work, no daily Starbucks purchases. Reading this, it seems like such a simple task, but I know it will be a challenge for me and it's something I need to do to put my life back in balance.

Now that I've got my two major tasks for the month of January planned out, its time to re-evaluate and post the rest of my yearly goals! Stay tuned!