Ron and Briar will be a part of CrossFit Works history because outside of the clients that came here with us, they were our first official members. Briar gave us the impression that it would be miraculous if Ron actually kept coming back. Seemed like a good challenge. Oh, and at this point Ron was Briar’s fiance (or vice versa). Many weeks later (and Ron never missed workouts), Briar mentioned they would be out of town for a few days as they were going to Vegas and might be getting married…Cool, so now they are married and Briar starts teaching yoga for us and Ron now runs 400m like nada as well as gets his kipping pull ups, several in a row. But the best part is this little story that Briar emailed me,
"So Ron and I were going to the Billy Joel and Elton John concert last week and we had rented a hotel that said it was "next to the Arena" but it was a lie. When we got there we only had a half hour to get from the hotel, 8-10 city blocks from the arena. If we walked we could probably get there just as the concert was starting. We go to the parking lot outside of the hotel and it has a wall with a fence at the top. It looked like we were going to lose even more time going back through the hotel when Ron told me, "Hey, we're Crossfitters, lets scale it." So we did. Then he just took off running! He pretty much sprinted every block and rested while we waited for the lights but we made it there in 10 minutes! The amazing thing is that this NEVER would have happened a year ago, not only would I have been to lazy to do it but I don't think Ron would have been able to. When we got out of the concert we ran back, passing one of the pedicabs on our sprint. She yelled at us that we were making her look bad! Thank you so much for being a part of our health!"-Briar
The best thing about this is that it’s not like they just made it a little more quickly to the concert because they were fitter. It was a whole new vision of themselves. I see new careers as stunt people on the horizon. The other cool thing about Briar is that she probably looked as gorgeous and graceful as ever even after she climbed a wall and sprinted 10 blocks, like a Bond Girl. My problem is that once I got to the concert no one would’ve wanted to sit near me because I would’ve torn my dress, fell in the mud and my hair would be a wild mess. You guys are cool and inspirational.
Our first Paleo-Zone Challenge is coming to a close, tomorrow is the final official day. You all are so inspiring you made the www.crossfit.com Affiliate blog post yesterday! I know that pride is a sin, but I’m proud of you all anyway. Here is my dinner from the other night:
A grilled, grass-fed burger, thick slice of grilled red onion, tomato slices, and a saddeningly small scoop of guacamole (did Dr. Barry Sears really regularly eat 3T of guacamole?), and a giant heap of Hot Orange Purple Slaw. Here is the recipe:
Shred one small head purple cabbage. Use a carrot peeler to completely peel 4 large carrots (or grate them). Without peeling them first, thickly slice 3 large oranges. Then tear the skin of each slice and open it up and the little triangles of orange will be separate for you (do this over your bowl so the orange juice will drip onto the salad). Combine carrots, orange and cabbage in a large dish. In a separate bowl mix 1/4c raw apple cider vinegar, 1 big spoonful of Dijon, tiny amount (1/4t of chipotle pepper puree-a necessary Paleo-life condiment in my opinion), if you like raw garlic you can mash a clove or two, and plenty of sea salt. Now, I will tell you that the original recipe for this is from a book called The Vegetarian Planet (well, vegetarians do know their salads, everyone has something to teach us) and it included honey in the dressing. We, of course, are beyond needing honey in a salad that includes fresh oranges, right? I’ll leave it up to you. The original dressing also includes olive oil, but it doesn’t really change the salad and I’d rather eat guacamole. This salad is awesome as leftovers for a few days which is why I make so much at once.
Thanks Jen, our lives have really changed for the better since we met you and Carl. It extends outside of the gym and into our whole existence as a family. Im so glad we found you two!
Speaking of yoga on Sunday the 24th I will begin having a hot yoga class at the gym for the summer(by hot I mean no air conditioner, doors open in this heat). It will be from 4-5 free to Crossfit members and by donation for anyone else. So if you told me the reason you haven’t made it to class was 1. the time was too early 2. you’re not flexible 3. you dont want to twist up like a pretzel, this is the class for you. The heat is designed to warm up your muscles and help them be more flexible. The sequence will be the same each week so there will be no surprise pretzel poses. And it will be perfect timing in the afternoon on your active rest days. Did I miss any other excuses? I will post additional information about the benefits of a hot class on the crossfityoga.com website soon.
ok so what am I eating today? I will be working a lot and away form the house the next 2 days so I wanted to make a bunch of things to get me through til Tuesday.
Dish one: a version of Jen’s curried cabbage, double batch with a few modifications including using some beet greens and ends I had. It came to 13 C and 13 F blocks, because I am a bit anal and coming off of a year or more counting weight watcher’s points, I will weigh the entire thing when done and divide by 13 to get how many ounces per 1C + 1F.
Dish 2: the Arugula grapefruit salad a poseted the other day, minus the raisens plus 1C of celery and 1C of cucumber
Dish 3: carrot beet salad. Finely grated 3 beets and about 7 carrots. For the dressing I vitamixed ( a food processor would work as well) a large hunk of ginger (1.5 inches I would say), 1/2 of a lemon including peel, 1/4 c fresh basil, 1T cumin powder, 2T rice vinegar, 1/4 water and some sea salt. Poured it over the salad and let sit for a few hours for yummiest results. 3/4 c + 1C, feel free to add olive oil.
I have a bunch of different protein options to mix and match with these meals- chicken sausages, angus burgers and some chicken breast.
Speaking of counting- JEN, how do you count the hot orange slaw, sounds so yummy????
Jenny- how about giving us the yummy rib recipe you talked about the other day and we can see how we can make it paleo? I have been thinking of them for days
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See you at the gym. I seem to be as good as knew so watch out no more modified workouts for this girl!
S
That is so awesome Jen that we made the affilaite blog
. And you go Briar and Ron, look at you up on those rings, wow!
Hi all, just a status report. Jenna and I did real well on the challenge. Jenna was a bit more disciplined than me as twice I was jonesin’ for some chips and gave in to several handfulls. Other than that, we measured everything and ate our 40/30/30 blocks at every meal. I ate more like 15 blocks a day instead of the prescribed 17 and Jenna ate about 9-11 a day.
The times that I had the chip relapse was when I waited too long to eat lunch and my brain started to panic for more power and forced my hands into the bag of chips. I was absolutely powerless and felt like a crack addict getting his fix.
On Sunday (yesterday), we celebrated Jenna’s birthday and totally let go- we had tons of ice cream and other crap and both felt pretty bad (sick) afterwards. But for the 2 weeks prior, we ate almost perfect Paleo-Zone and we were both feeling energized and at a higher level of functioning- thinking, emotions, body, etc.- WE FELT GREAT! So we agreed that, going forward, we’ll stick with the P-Z lifestyle and allow for a little (not as much as yesterday) variance or slight indulgence on Saturdays.
OTHER NOTES- I’ve experimented with this before but never gave up dairy- I felt fine w/o it. I really didn’t crave or miss much- maybe a little sugar at first and some crap carbs like chips and crackers. My stomach shrunk and I’m seeing my abs coming back- I have a 4-pack now, another month and I’m sure I’ll start seeing that 6-pack again!
Thanks to Jen and Carl and everyone else who did the challenge and for the posts- I read them every day.