As we bring in the last Monday in May take some time to think about the hard work you have put into making yourself strong and fit. How hard you work to become and maintain healthy and vibrant.
You are a fighter for your body and your livelihood. However, all the effort and sweat you burn pushing yourself through a work out, the pain is only temporary.
Many of our country’s fighters give that sweat and effort for the livelihood of our country. The defenders of our nations wellbeing feel a pain too. And some of our men and women in uniform lose their life. A dedication of service that can’t be matched.
Politics aside, I love my country and the people that fight for it. Thank you for all you do!
Memorial Day Burner
100 squats
100 push ups
100 sit ups
I’m too tired. I’m too fat. I’m too old. I’m too weak. I’m too busy.
These are the top five EXCUSES I hear from people.
Excuses really piss me off. Not only can I smell an excuse coming from a mile away, I can read it on your face and hear it in the way you breath.
Next time you find yourself swimming in a pool of self pity and horribly lame excuses think about the people that are rooting for you and lose the ‘tude dude.
So what is an excuse?
An excuse is means to be forgiven from doing something you don’t want to be responsible for doing.
I don’t like running for example, my excuse: I have short legs and it’s not easy for me to do. That’s BS, if anything I should be thankful for the ability to run, for the lovely weather and for all the people that look up to me to actually get up and move. Why waste time pouting about something that’s not going to change (the length of my legs) and focus on something that is going to change like my mile time after I get off my butt and start training. Don’t get caught up talking yourself out of things, every minute you do is a minute you wasted training or getting better.
Sometimes an excuse is something you tell yourself so you can prepare yourself for failure.. If you tell yourself you can’t then it’s no surprise when you can’t.
People say I can’t lose weight, I can’t do a pull up, I can’t blah blah blah… Stop with the pity party it’s annoying. The fact is you probably can, you just don’t want to deal with trials and tribulations of achieving a difficult goal. You don’t want to put in the time and you more importantly doing want to put in the effort. Effort it trying, failing and overcoming. Effort is getting over the embarrassment of having an obstacle like being overweight, being older, or being out of shape. Effort is being independent from the excuses.
Effort is an attitude. Ya, things don’t happen overnight. Ya, you are going to have a challenges ahead. But the journey can be fun and successful. Embrace the fact that you can confront the funk that your in and get out of it. Be at peace with who you are and love every step you take in the direction to getting healthier and stronger.
Are you making one of those excuses? Replace it with one of the responses below and believe it and commit to it. If you can do that you have overcome the obstacle that stops the majority of people from taking control and making a change in their life.
I’m ready and committed to do this. I’m going to lose weight. It’s never too late for me. Watch me get stronger. I’m going to make time for me and my health.
It’s as simple as that! You have to train mentally just like you have to train physically. Ronnie Coleman is a two time winner of Mr. Olympia an international body building title. While I’m not so much into body building myself it takes a lot of dedication and hard work. Ronnie has the right attitude here is a video of his outlook and training style. Ya Buddy! Ain’t nothing but a peanut!
This summer is shaping up to be an awesome adventure.
I’ve got a couple of exciting plans in the mix, one of the most exciting being Ragbria, a 471 mile bike ride across the great state of Iowa.
Bill Oliver the president of Oliver Winery is sponsoring a team of riders including myself and two of my girls, Ellen and Molly.
I am excited for the challenge and pumped to have a goal to work towards, as I have been feeling sluggish lately and slightly unmotivated.
With training I am going to focus more on endurance and stamina with not only biking but with running, rowing and cider drinking.
We will be promoting our 5 awesome flavors of Bean Blossom Ciders and will have a blast doing it. yes, I know the picture below only shows 4 lovely ciders but we just released a blueberry, yum!
Note to self: find a bike that is light enough for me to overhead press like the chick below. OR just start doing powerlifting only with my clunker. More info on Ragbria to come. Sorry for not posting in awhile! More coming soooooon.
Goooood morning!
After 9 and a half hours if pushing around straw at the vineyard I can barely move.
They set all the straw that was insulating the vines on fire. It was wild to watch, hopefully we will get some rain to put it out.
Here is the Wednesday WOD:
3 rounds
100m Run (just approximate this)
50 jumping squats
25/25 lunges (25 each leg)
Low impact alternative:
3 rounds
2 minute bicycle run
50 arm pit push ups
25 sit ups
I will post a video of the low impact alternative a little bit later today. It’s going to be an core shredder. Post those times when you complete the work out. I will be able to tell if you been slacking when classes resume Monday.
Below is the work out I plan to do today.
No excuses.
Try to warm up for at least 10 minutes. Leg swings, pikes, frog jumps, or a jog around the block are all good things.
Grab your cellphone or kitchen timer set it to sound an alarm 15 minutes after you start it. You have that 15 minutes to do this sequence of movements. This is going to be an AMRAP, or as many rounds as possible of the following movements:
20 push ups
15 pikes
10 dips
5 hand stand push up (yup, again)
If you have trouble scaling the handstand push up or dips call/email me for some options. I am going to try to post a video for this tomorrow… But we will se how that goes. Good luck! Post your number of rounds in the comment box below, do it.
UPDATE
WHOOOOAAA I made a video. It really is one of my first times making a video. So go easy on me. I dont know how to edit so I just shot it without stopping. Sorry its so long…
I am just trying to give you a resource you can have anywhere to understand the movements above. You better post your frickin times ladies or I am gonna find you!
WOW! I can’t believe the awesome response I got from everyone about getting the row machine. Together we have already raised over $300 for the machine. I just can’t thank everyone enough for supporting the garage gym so much. Seriously, it means the world to me and I am forever grateful.
$300 is a good chunk. With another $300 I can match the rest. The machine is gonna cost around $1100 bucks. I am going to be selling shirts for $30 or so to gather up some cash. The problem is that I am re-branding the gym.
That’s right, no more garage grape… too close to garage rape. I don’t know what to name it. I’m terrible at names. I don’t want to make the shirts until I have a new name so we are going to have to settle on something pretty soon.
More on that later, also, this week is going to be a little different.
ALL CLASSES ARE CANCELLED FOR SPRING BREAK
I am going to post work outs that you are going to be able to do at home for the next week. Mostly body weight stuff. Starting Monday. For now imagine your butt on the rower.
Gotta love a slice of some comfort food like Shepards pie… but when rustic potatoes just dont cut it switch them out for sweet potatoes! I’m not sure if sweet potatoes are paleo… I think its a controversial subject. Anyways…
Ingredients
Haha I love how it bright orange. This is the finished product here.
(2) Big ole sweet tatter
1.5lb Ground Beef
2 Cloves Garlic
(1/2) Large onion
(1/2) cup carrot
(1/2) cup brocoli
(1/2) cup red pepper
(1/3) veggie broth
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1tbsp olive oil
pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350 F
Bake time: 35 minutes (or until browning occurs on the edges of the potato topping)
Potato Topping
Put large pot of water on boil. Cut up the sweet potatoes into inch cubes and put into boiling water until a fork can easily stab them. Drain them and mash them up. You can add garlic to the potatoes or cracked black pepper. Add a little coconut milk if you want a creamer taste.
Filling
Chop all the veggies into small pieces but not so small, they will turn to mash. You can have fun and mix up veggies which veggies you want to use, spinach might be good or a celery crunch. Once you decide on veggies you should cook the meat first. Brown the ground beef on a medium/low heat. Use a spatula to break it up into little pieces while it cooks. Continue to break up the big chunks as the meat and veggies cook.
I brown the beef while the sweet potato boils. Then mash the tatters while the veggies cook.
Add the carrots in shortly after. They will take the longest to cook. Then add the broth and the garlic, broccoli and pepper. Add the onions last. Cook until the onion is clear and add the seasoning. Pour the beef and veggie mix into a pie dish. Then take potato topping and spread it over the top using a knife.
I made two little pies because I think miniature things are adorable and because I made them with pesto. I mixed the pesto in instead of italian spices. You can also grade up some Parmesan cheese and put it into the potatoes but then its no longer paleo, omg….
Ive never had this by the way, Im vegetarian, but its one of my favorite things to make and Brandon always seems to like it. Happy Friday!!!
Morning is when the wick is lit. A flame ignited, the day delighted with heat and light, we start the fight for something more than before. ~Jeb Dickerson
Jen and Rachelle watch the sunrise, post work out
4 Rounds
5 Deadlift
25 Squats
5 Deadlift
200m Run
Say goodbye to your legs! My morning girls came through and crushed this. They are so awesome, gotta love Rachelles “Hannah swagger” after she has burned through some heavy days. I’m not 100% sure but I think “Hannah swagger” is when you walk funny because you are sore and stiff.
A lot of the girls kill the work out but don’t spend a lot of time recovering. Go to:
Figure out some things that you can do on your own on your rest days. Or after a WoD! I expect everyone to be able to do the full splits in 3 weeks. Ok, maybe not but still, try and take care of yourself post wod.
$2 Snack
I’m a big grab and go gal. Yeah, its awesome to have an extravagant meal prepared for you
$2 Snack, Delish and easy!
but realistically its the easy and accessable junk food that gets you in trouble. Why not grab a bag of chips at the gas station. Candy bar out of the vending machine. Coke from the cooler. Damn, I just threw away my entire work out for a snack that lasted me 3 minutes and had absolutely no nutritional value.
When I was training at Crossfit Bloomington, a groovy chick, Katie H, turned me on to The Larabar. Most of them are gluten free and paleo (if you are into that). They are on sale this week at Kroger for $1 and so are Pure Almond packs. For 2 bucks you have have an awesome alternative to a coke and chips and candy bar. Its inexpensive so don’t use that as an excuse.
