Gratitude, Reflection and Pause on Thanksgiving. RIP Justin.

A great man left this world on Monday. Justin, a friend and one hell of a person passed away this week. He was my girlfriend's brother and I ache for his loss as well as his family's. The questions in my mind have been rolling out by the moment; how did it happen, who was there, what were the circumstances? But in the end, the answers to those questions won't change the fact that he is gone now. The answers to those questions won't let him sit down and eat Thanksgiving dinner today. The answers won't let him take more breaths or hold his nephew and niece.

At a time when you experience loss, I find it important that we allow time for serious, focused reflection in our own lives. Are we where we want to be and doing the things we want? Are we living a life to be proud of, one that makes our ancestors and loved ones proud of us? Are we being true to ourselves? Are we cherishing each precious moment or are we just moseying around in life without being present and relishing in the joy of now.

So on a day when my heart aches for such a terrible loss, and on a day when tears and hugs can not ease the pain - I wish to be grateful for the moment I live in now. Here is what I am grateful for on Thanksgiving:

My Graditude List for Thanksgiving 2014

1. My two daughters; a walking example of living in the moment and who teach me to relish the small things in life. Yesterday at Whole Foods, we found the bubble button where the kids can push the button and bubbles fall from the ceiling. My girls you would have thought had just met Santa and the easter bunny - they screeched and smiled bigger than I've ever seen as they tried to pop the bubbles and let them fall on their heads. Those moments of pure joy will be etched in my mind forever and it's my privilege to be surrounded by two girls that can offer that joy to me. I'm a lucky Mom.
   
2. For a hubby who can keep me focused and on track when I start slipping. Rick is my rock - how he can always stay on track with my crazy shenanigans astounds me regularly. He has always been able to see the big picture- when I can sometimes only see one step ahead somehow he sees the stars. He has amazing clarity. And it is Rick who can make me laugh as hard as my Dad does- and that's no easy task.
   
   
   
   
3. For the ability to LOVE and to FEEL LOVE. Also for the ability to breath and have control of my body. The ability to feel raw emotions no matter how good or bad.
   
4. For being blessed in a body that let's me do the things I love. And a body that has dealt with years of mistreatment and too much judgment. A body that let's me learn new skills. Our bodies are amazing machines I am honored to be able to tap into its abilities.

And for today, on Thanksgiving, it's my goal to enjoy each moment, live inside each moment and give big tight hugs to those I love. To eat and not feel guilt about the foods I chose to enjoy. To get subsistence from the people I will be surrounded by today instead of trying to get it  from food. Keeping food as the "icing on the cake" and letting my loved ones be my cake. Happy Turkey Day, make a it good one folks!

The Stomach Flu. You Should Be So Lucky.

Though I did not intentionally get the stomach flu, I have several reasons you might wanna go out and get some. It began with my 3-year old daughter, and got passed to every person in our house, and now Grandpa, a cousin and my brother-in-law all have it. Yes, my family has mastered spreading our love through the gut.

Stomach Flu Incentives:

1. For the first time in my life I have a super power:  Super Power Burps! These burps are so frightening, no one will come close.
   Stand back evil-doers.
2. My weekend was spent in my PJ pants. Did YOU get to do that? I even had a tiny bit of puke on my pant bottoms, but did I let that bother me...nope. I was dwelling in my jammies guilt free.
3. Catching up on all your reading. 574 trips to the bathroom will do that for you, too. The gift of more leisure time
4. A complete new start. Weight loss guaranteed. Those expensive detox programs have nothing on mama nature! 
5. Carbs on Carbs on Carbs. Eat to your hearts content because everything will be kicked out momentarily. Treat this as carbohydrate martial law.
6. Clean sheets! There are perks to having vomit in your bed

I suggest you time your stomach flu wisely. Mine occurred on Halloween night. I considered it a gift from the switch witch. She took all the evil, rotten candy I ingested, twirled it around in her wicked little brew bowl and magically expelled it  from my gut. Thank you switch witch. Although, I think maybe thanksgiving might have been a better choice looking back. Well, I guess any gluttonous holiday will do. Go get yours.  

"Its Not Called Gym-nice-stics!" Movie Quote Trivia

Oranche, owner at Awaken Gymnastics

Remember when you were a kid holding money for the ice cream truck and you stood there looking at the ice cream pictures, deciding which one you would devour. You knew whatever you got would be yummy and you couldn't lose! That's how thrilled I am to find an adult gymnastics facility only 15min away from me. There I am last week looking at Awaken Gymnastics knowing it's going to be delicious! A place where back flips, muscle ups, hand stand walks and the human flag are on the agenda, ummm.. hell ya, bring it.

It All Starts With Goal Assessment...  What an opportunity to share my biggest fitness intentions in a structured class! Goals assessment class is mandatory for everyone starting off. We also got to show off a few of our skills, or in my case our almost-skills. This is also when the coaches get to watch specific movements and identify mobility issues. There were a lot of shoulder, ankle and hip issues that could limit full expression of the moves. Oranche (Awaken owner) and his team were there to call out those weak spots. My shoulder issue was no exception, it could hide no more.


Genius concepts introduced during my first visit:

Totally Busted. My shoulder issue can hide no more

1. Hip/Shoulder Prehab - When my wayward shoulder was pointed out during the goal assessment, they didn't send me away with instructions to contact my local chiropractor. Instead I was given an order for mandatory shoulder pre-hab which will help mend my rogue shoulder and prep it for my new gymnastics skills
2. Deloading - Their weeks are structured by varying levels of intensity. Each week gets more difficult until deload week comes along and reduces your reps to keep you out of the red zone  (prevents you from getting adrenal fatigue and injured)

My goals? Oh, so glad you asked. Is a double back flip too huge of a goal? Nothing wrong with aiming high. I am interested in all of it! Back flips, muscle ups, ring handstands, and the beautiful and the all-powerful, strong and flexible gymnastics body. Bring it! 

"Stick It"

Now for your movie quote trivia...It's from a gymnastics movie called "Stick It" which I had never watched until last week. It all started when I was partial to a conversation at Crossfit and they discussed the movie. Someone I know (not naming names!) is the husband of a stunt double for one of the actresses. I felt like the outsider in the conversation (total dork) because I had never seen the movie which was made in 2006. So I made it a point to watch it, so I could be part of the cool kids group. However, after I watched it, I realized I might have become even more of dork for watching it because it was really something special. My 3-year old daughter watched the movie also and wanted to watch it a second time, if that properly rates the movie for you.  Still, a good movie for some intense gymnastics moves and glad I watched it just to get to use the quote above as my title. 

Here's to my gymnastics world which just opened up, stay tuned for updates. Maybe the Olympics in my future? Never know. Maybe I'll work on my back flips first.

Masters Training To Whip Me Into My Place: Crossfit

In Crossfit, you are considered a Master based on your age. 35 years and up means your workouts might be catered a little differently than the standard WOD (workout of the day). In other words, they are modified for masters by a minuscule amount. This means I am two years away from the downhill... I felt like hugging random strangers when I saw my old Crossfit gym (Front Range Crossfit) was starting a new training program - Masters-only training on Saturdays (for age 30+ only). This meant I could have someone push me past my limits and be surrounded by 30 year olds+ while doing it. Yep. Sign me up. 

We had two coaches for class. One was Scott Olson, 1st place Crossfit Games Masters winner and Rhonda who both drilled me some spot-on coaching advise.  To start us off, Scott prepped us with the outline for the 2 hour training. He said double unders would be in our WODs, plus rowing practice. I actually stopped listening (and breathing) when he said double unders because I was hit in the gut with intense fear.

Double Unders and I have a history. And while I have recently been able to link some of them- my double unders are a complete debacle. Luckily, I wasn't the only one who had a double under dilemma, so I wasn't holding anyone back. Instead, I realized that, self-respect be damned, it was the perfect class for me because I got to improve my skills! I ended up getting more double under links than I ever have (IN MY WHOLE LIFE!) And just to brag a little bit, Scott told me that I am extremely close to becoming very efficient at double unders. And to think I almost peed my pants for nothing!

Masters Training Class Schedule:

• Warming up
• Rowing technique - Jon Kissick Team US Rowing to critique our rowing skills
• Double Under and thrusters instruction
• WOD #1 - 5 KB thrusters - 10 Double Unders - 150 Meter Run -
  EMOM (every min on the min.) 12 Min.
• Rest/Recover
• WOD #2 - 300Meter Row, 20 Double Unders, 10 Barbell Thrusters (95# male-65# female)
  4 Rounds on the 6:00 Interval

Double Under Fail. Look where the rope is

If you are asking yourself what a double under is, let me explain briefly. It's where you are jumping rope and you have the rope come under your feet twice while you only jump up once. So it's a fast rope movement with a high, slow jump. It requires practice, patience and coordination. I am completely convinced there has been a conspiracy against me being able to link them. One of the best things Scott taught us is that you want to make your double unders so effortless that when they are in a workout, they become a rest period for you. This is exactly what I want, I am done with them leaving me exhausted.

Current Double Under face

The rowing critique was helpful, it's my second time taking a class from Jon Kissick and I think he's full of amazing information. Jon rowed for the US Rowing team and even won a gold medal...Totally famous. My form was brought up a lot in class for all different mistakes but I enjoyed applying better methods and seeing the improvements on my rowing screen. Here's what I remember:

1. My food pads need to be at #2 station because my knees were coming over my toes (I have super flexible hamys- thanks Yoga!)
2. I was not leaning forward enough on the front end, need to wind all the way to 11:00 (like I'm about to pull a heavy load)
3. I was pulling back on the rower before my legs fully finished their pull. This gives me less power because I start using littler muscles like my back instead of my legs
4. I was retracting after the pull, and allowing my knees to bend before the bar. I need to bar to go past my knees before I bend my knees

So many fun tricks and manipulations to help you row better! It's so thrilling to see notable improvements in a skill set.  I saw huge drop offs in my split time when I hinged forward more so I was elated to see that.

Common rowing errors video here!

Our last WOD completely KILLED me:

300 Meter Row

20 Double Unders

10 Barbell Thrusters (95# male-65# female)
4 Rounds on the 6:00 Interval

 4 Rounds of this shenanigans was insane. It reminded me that I'm made of steel and I haven't been pushing myself hard enough in the gym to value that steel-made self. I Love you Crossfit. Back to the story, I finished each round between the high 2:00 min mark and low 3:00 min mark. I think officially my last time was 3:12min. which was my worst time, I can easily blame the exhaustion. I was able to do the thrusters unbroken and I rowed in 1:58/500m splits but the double unders were what slowed my roll. Hopefully not for long, Double Unders are beginning to become my bitch. Considering all the whip marks I have received from double unders, it's about time I take control back from the rope!

Stay tuned for more training!

The Hormonal Games, Your Troubleshooter. Part 6 of Making Your Meat Suit Habitable

Making Your Meat Suit Habitable, Part 6...Hormonal Games 

Our hormones are like an orchestra; intended to play beautiful music together, but things can get wacky when one trumpet tries to go solo and the other instruments try to cover him, ending in a musical disaster. Be aware that hormones need to all play together to the same sheet music, with the same conductor, in the same room, on the same night. You absolutely CAN NOT man-handle one hormone without instigating changes to another.

When your hormones are out of sync, you could suffer from depression, brain fog and other less-than-exciting emotions, plus you are more apt to...drum roll please... store fat. The great part is you can lovingly (and naturally) down play hormones we need less of while offering some TLC to the hormones we want more of. Let's work to orchestrate your masterpiece.

The holy grail of your body fat storage: THE BODY FAT MAP, FOUND HERE:

Want to know what hormones your body needs help with? 

Check out the body fat storage map

Not who you want conducting your hormones. I like the guy in the middle's expression

Making Your Meat Suit Habitable part 1  - Setting the Wheels in Motion
Making Your Meat Suit Habitable part 2 - Your Liver
Making Your Meat Suit Habitable part 3 - Body Fat Map
Making Your Meat Suit Habitable part 4 - Exercise

THYROID. Ya, I Got A Dud.

NAME: THYROID
BODY FAT AREA: ARMPITS/AXILLARY AREA
ACCOMPLICES: MAJOR PLAYER WITH ALL YOUR HORMONES

Disorderly thyroids are all around us. There are low and high functioning ones, goiters and Hashimotos (which is the majority of low thyroid cases.) If you don't know already, Hashimotos is where your body treats your thyroid hormone as poison (and yep, I got that one!) Blame the rebel in me, but I actually resisted taking any medication for my thyroid for a full year. It was finally when I was so tired my bedtime was as soon as I got home from work. Plus, I was seriously considering shaving my head because I barely had any hair on it.


Your thyroid regulates a large portion of your bodily functions and being born with a dud initially made me feel victimized to no end. Instead of letting the victim mentality wage an ugly war on my control, I instead decided to do everything I could to help my thyroid naturally. Besides that, I also pop a thyroid compound pill every morning, 30 minutes before breakfast, and try to eat sushi and seaweed more often and get natural morning sunlight. I have proven I am in control of my weight but I do think sometimes I have to work a little harder than some. That's OK, I know it's worth it to me and that others have to work even harder than I do. In life, you work with what you're given and try to make it damn good.
 






How to Help Your Thyroid Naturally

1. Get outside in the morning and look in the direction of the sun, not directly at it. Do this for 15 minutes daily
2. Sprinkle kelp on salads and or use it as a salt replacement
3. Go Gluten free. That stuff is NOT your thyroid's friend
4. Heavy on the proteins, they will send the thyroid hormone to necessary body parts
5. Cook your calciferous veggies - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and the like need to be cooked. Raw can interfere with thyroid function
6. Eat salmon, tuna, eggs, broccoli
7. Avoid soy - this is in almost all processed foods if you check the labels you will see eating crap foods is destroying your thyroid function thus your ability to lose weight

What I have learned is that if your thyroid is not functioning where it should your other hormones will not either. They are interplay off each other. It's like a party, how one person can come in and dominate the room with positive, lively energy. Or their nemesis can come in and bring down the mood of the room. Thyroid controls so much, so treat it well because you don't want to try to lose weight, feel good, or have hair without your thyroid.