CrossFit Revolution

Post Holiday - Primal Diet Challenge

Want to lean out for the spring? Get healthier and win some cash and contribute to a good cause? Then its time to take the primal challenge. Here is a description of what must take place in order to comepete:

-7 weeks long (Less than 2 months!!  Anyone can do this)

-1 hour Lecture on Paleo/Primal eating: Being held on Sat. Jan. 1st, 2010 @1pm
- Cost is $20.00 (cash) to be put into a kitty
- The kitty is divided in 2 for a FEMALE winner and a MALE winner (w/ 50% before split going to the USAW fund)

-In order to win, Food Logs must be maintained and submitted each week via  logwod.com; examples of Food Logs below
-3 ‘Before’ pictures taken: front view, side view and back view. Men are in shorts; Women are in shorts and sports bra/bikini top (you must take these on your own in private)

-3 ‘After’ pictures taken within 2 days of the finish of the Challenge, no exceptions
-Trainers pick the top man and top woman whose body composition changed the most (based on pictures only)
-The 2 winners each win half of the kitty
-The pictures taken are PRIVATE. Unless permission is given to publish.

PICTURES ONLY:

People have asked why we don’t weigh participants and take body fat measurements, along with other vitals.  There are several reasons.  In regards to weighing, some people don’t actually loose that much weight but the change to their body is significant.  Again, people want to look good naked and pictures don’t lie.  How the participant looks is what matters to them and determines the winner. Body fat measurements can be very inconsistent and it takes more time.  Other vitals take time and money as well. The health benefits everyone receives from eating better is a given and will be numerous.  No amount of tests can sum up these benefits and changes.

It’s important to emphasize the privacy of the pictures that are taken, especially these days.   I can send every participant’s Before and After pictures to them via their email address.  I keep the pictures on a private computer.

FOOD LOGS:

A good idea is the sharing of individual food logs on logwod.com.  This is a great place for people to ask questions and share ideas.

The Food Logs have several great side benefits.  One of them being that all those doing the Challenge can see what others are eating and get great ideas from it.  Almost everyone gets stuck in a rut and seeing what someone else is eating for breakfast can often help them break out.  The accountability that the Food Log offers should not be underestimated.  Some folks said the Food Log was a more motivating factor for them than the pictures.  Yes, some people will not write everything down or be totally honest.  That’s okay.  The pictures don’t lie.

We kept the food log requirements very simple.  If people want to be really exact in describing what they eat, they can.  Or they could be fairly general.  Everything they eat, though, had to be written down, including beverages.  People will fall off the wagon big time.  This WILL happen and it’s okay.  Just get right back on again.

Several people told us they wanted to do the Challenge but they couldn’t give up this or that.   We dont care.  Even if you make one change, such as cutting out high-fructose corn syrup, thats good enough for us.  Often, once people start writing down what they eat, it’s only then that they can see for themselves the changes they need to make.

For each Challenge we’ve found that there are a few people who will jump into the Challenge by starving themselves.  They come into the gym and report dizziness and that they feel awful.  This is where the Food Log is really handy. You arent eating  enough.

We’ve also found that there are few people whose body will not switch into a fat-burning mode very quickly. Hence, they do not see any results for weeks.  This can be very discouraging and makes it hard for these people to stick with the Challenge.  Encourage these folks to hang in there.   The changes will come. 

Below are two Food Log examples from our 2009 Fall LEANing Challenge.  Both of these people had excellent results – though one greater than the other.

First Example:

Monday (date)

-2 oz chicken breast, 1 apple, 6 almonds.

-12 almonds, 7 oz carrots, Omelet: 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, 1/3 of a bell

pepper, 1/4 cup mushrooms, 3/4 cup salsa

-4 oz chicken breast, 1 apple, 21 almonds, 2.5 cups steamed collard greens

-2 oz chicken breast, 24 almonds

-4 oz chicken breast, 1 apple, 12 almonds, 2.5 cups of rhutabaga

-1 peanut butter cookie

Tuesday (date)

-12 almonds, 1/2 orange, Omelet: 4 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, 1/3 of a bell

pepper, 1/4 cup mushrooms, 3/4 cup salsa, sausage from buffet

-2 oz chicken breast, 7 oz carrots, 6 almonds

-4 oz chicken breast, 1 apple, 21 almonds, 2.5 cups steamed collard greens

-2 oz chicken breast, 24 almonds

-Arby’s large roast beef sandwich (no bun), 1 apple, 30 almonds

Second Example:

Monday (date):

Breakfast:

2 hard-boiled O3 eggs

1 can smoked trout

banana

Snack:

1 Tootsie Roll

Dinner:

bison burger w/ guacamole and salsa

mushrooms

1 Coke Zero

Snack:

turkey sausage bits

grapes

Snack:

2 oz cashews

avocado

Tuesday (date):

Breakfast:

hard-boiled O3 egg

banana

1 can smoked trout

Snack:

turkey sausage bits

avocado

3 mint chocolate discs

Lunch:

beef jerky

2 oz cashews

grapes

1 Coke Zero

Dinner:

2 chicken sausages w/ mustard

cucumber salad w/ rice vinegar

1 Coke Zero

Snack:

turkey salami

I stole a lot of this info fron Cf Seattle via Robb Wolf's blog...I think its a great idea and want to give the proper credit. Thanks guys.

Merry Christmas

Crossfit Revolution and the Auciello family would like to wish you all a merry Christmas. Thank all of you for your support, friendship and hard work in 2009.

Excuses? You don't have any!

 Wasn't it enough that a sniper bullet missed, by centimeters, his head on an Easter morning in Fallujah? And wasn't it enough that weeks later he had to watch two of his fellow Marines get blown up when their Humvee ran over an IED, the same IED that his Humvee had avoided, seconds earlier? And wasn't it enough that he was nearly killed two months later when the Humvee he was in this time didn't miss an IED, and Keith Zeier—a perpetual-motion 20-year-old—was left with a left leg with virtually no sensation from knee to hip? Wasn't that enough anguish and pain?

No, Keith Zeier, will tell you, that wasn't enough. "Survivor's guilt," he says. "I'm alive and a bunch of my friends aren't. That keeps me motivated."

So last May, Zeier ran a 100-mile race from Key Largo to Key West, Florida. His mission: to raise money for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides financial assistance to wounded soldiers and college tuition to children of service men and women killed in action. Twenty-four hours aft er Zeier announced his attempt online, the foundation received $50,000 in pledges, the most ever in a one-day span. In total, Zeier, now 23, has raised $85,000, all with a leg he may have amputated one day.

Denise Zeier, Keith's mom, remembers her son was always in a rush as a kid. To soccer practice. To track meets. And to graduate from his Long Island high school so he could join the Marines. "He was 17, and he needed me to sign his papers," says Denise, a single mom. "Otherwise, the Marines won't take you until you're 18." But ever since September 11, 2001, all Keith wanted to be was a Marine. On that day, Lt. John Crisci of the New York City Fire Department, his best friend's dad and a father figure to Zeier, died in the World Trade Center. "Mr. Crisci would always be there for me," says Zeier, who's now hoping to join the FDNY. "He invited me wherever he and his sons went—soccer games, hockey games. After he died, I decided I wanted to be in the Special Operations. It was the least I could do."

Members of Special Operations are trained to undertake the most challenging operations. Zeier made Special Ops on his first attempt. But on July 17, 2006, less than five months into his Iraq deployment, his military career came to a crippling end with the roadside bombing. Shrapnel tore through his upper left thigh, severing nerves and causing massive bleeding. He had three operations in Fallujah, and then was transported to National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, for more surgery. A 12-inch scar is the external remnant of his troubles. Internally, "even though I have no sensation in my thigh," he says, "the rest of my leg hurts 24 hours a day."

Doctors told him to expect to use a cane the rest of his life. But after 20 months of physical therapy, Zeier attempted his 100-miler. By mile 75, following 21 hours of running, he lay on a Florida road being treated for dehydration and exhaustion. EMT officials recommended that he be taken to a hospital. Zeier wouldn't hear of it, signing a waiver refusing such treatment. Moments later, he started back up again. "Even if my legs weren't working," he recalls, "I was going to crawl to the finish." He finished the race in 31 hours, three minutes. "The mental aspects that got me through that day are the ones my buddies portray every day," he says. Then, remembering his buddies who will never return from Iraq, Zeier adds, "How could I quit on my friends who made the ultimate sacrifice?"

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-243-408--13342-0,00.html

Pretty much says it all

Joel and Heather Hitting the WOD