Get a Six-Pack in 7-days. What?!

"Flat abs, firm butt, killer legs! Click to read more"

"Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks from walking"

"Get bikini ready in 30 days"

How many times do you see articles with these claims? Maybe it's in magazines, from some email mailing list you are on, or in your Facebook newsfeed.

While some tips can be positive and insightful, and often times, the 7, 21 or 30-day plans can be motivating and inspirational, the titles can bring a false or unrealistic hope of success.

Often times the message is, "do "X" and you'll get killer legs" or "do Y and you'll lose 10 pounds in two weeks."

The truth is, hitting your health and fitness goals takes work and dedication. Plus...all of us will have a different journey.

Work. This will be different for every individual. You may have a goal to lose 100 pounds; and you may be starting from a sedentary lifestyle, ordering food out everyday. If that's you, understand that your goals are going to be different than someone who exercises 4-5 days a week, eats a healthy balanced diet, and wants to improve their time for their next marathon. In the first scenario, goal #1 may simply be to walk for 10-minutes a day, everyday for a week, and not change anything else at first. In scenario #2, the first goal may be to do a planned set of sprint intervals directed at improving speed. In both of these scenarios, the goal setter will move forward toward the big goal. Guess what? Both are good!

The secret is, don't compare yourself to someone else or their goals. Your goals are your goals. Develop a game plan that makes sense for YOU, not a plan that makes sense for your co-worker, your best friend, or even your spouse.

Dedication. This is somewhat universal. To hit your goal, if it's a stretch, you are going to have to be dedicated on some level. For some it may be simple. A seasoned college athlete, who is given a new directive and workout plan by a coach, may find it simple to get the work in, because he/she already has workout slots planned during the day AND he/she is already in the mode of improving physically AND understands the benefit of doing so.

If you are new to exercise, you may not know these benefits (or you may not believe them just yet). You may not have a specific time (or dedicated hours) to workout or cook in order to hit your goals. It may take more dedication from you.

You must determine what you are willing to put in.

What you are willing to give, no matter what your neighbor, your spouse, the woman you pass running on the street everyday.

How dedicated are you to your goal?

When it comes to what we all read and see everyday from the media, or hear from our friends... use the grocery store approach. When was the last time you went in the grocery store and bought every single product that was available to you? Some products are right for you, and some aren't. Some are appealing, some aren't. Some of us love mustard, some don't.

Use the same philosophy when you are considering your health/exercise/food plan. Keep searching til you find something right for you. And then when you find it, don't get swayed by other plans that sound better or give you a false hope of quicker, immediate results.

For the last several years, I have known that I love CrossFit. While the program and interest is growing rapidly, it's not for everyone. For example, my dad, who is very active, hikes and walks all the time, has no interest in seeing what CrossFit is all about. Does that make him or I better than one another? No. It's a difference in preference. If I told my dad that he was wasting time hiking and that CrossFit was the only way to achieve health, would that make him better or worse? We are all different in our workout preferences. Don't give up til you find yours.

Use media, magazines and other articles for inspiration, but don't let them sway you from your game plan. Hook up with a partner who can give you feedback with regard to your plan and help keep you accountable to it's completion.

Keep it real when it comes to YOUR goals, where YOU are at. Don't compare your worst to someone else's best. Compare your best to where you are now. Let someone come into your life and show you how you can do more than you think you can, in the arena that you want to play in.

In health and prosperity,
Monica

Practice Takes Humility

Today was the close of the 2012 CrossFit Open challenge, a 5-week event which allows athletes world wide, at any level to participate.  In other words, it's an opportunity to "see whatcha got" or to progress to a regional event, if you are elite. The workouts demand stamina, strength, and willpower. Each challenge was fair and well thought out to allow participation at any location that houses barbells, a wall, and a bar to hang from. 

This year marked my self re-initiation into CrossFit, a world which I had taken for granted and forgotten how much I love it. Last year, after the Open, I decided to train for and run a marathon, "it's time to test my limits and do something different," is what I rationalized. Really I think that I just needed to step away in order to have a yearlong journey of athletic attempts and challenges, which would re-instate the appreciation that I have for CrossFit. It's all about finding your strength. By strength I mean, what gets you going; what makes you excited to perform; and what keeps you coming back. See I signed up for the marathon because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I actually trained for the marathon more out of fear (of race day!). I knew I could run it, even with minimal training, because of willpower. But...I also knew it would be crazy and hurt really bad to not train for it. The Navy SEAL motto is "the only easy day was yesterday." If a SEAL can live everyday with this attitude, then, as an abled bodied athletic chick,  I can run 1 marathon. And I did.

Ok, back to the 2012 CrossFit Open.

I competed with CrossFit DC (CFDC), where my CrossFit life began. Have you ever had an experience, gone somewhere, met someone, did something, tried something; and knew your perspective would never be the same? July of 2007, I hadn't found my workout groove yet. After the workout, I laid on my floor for a couple of hours, completely spent; but exhilirated. ("If I could only move, I'd go celebrate") Like so many CrossFitters, I was totally hooked after that first workout.

After the marathon, I didn't feel that way. I felt relief; "thank goodness it's over, maybe I'll do another in 5 years." With CrossFit, it's a different story. I can't wait for the next workout, no matter how brutal of a workout the current day brings.

Competing with CFDC there was a wide variety of athletes, ranging from seasoned veterans to newer model CrossFitters. Although their were many levels represented, but there were 2 unifying factors:

Encouragement and support....no matter what

You could complete 3 reps of a workout (my personal performance in workout 12.5) and the team is there to high-five, say "good job, you did awesome"....and guess what? They mean it. It's not a pity good job. It's a good job, you fought for it, I'm glad to be in the gym with you.

Practice takes humility

In workout 12.4, you had 12-minutes to get through as many reps as possible of 150 wallballs, 90 double unders, and 30 muscle-ups. For real, I thought I would fly through the wallballs with a couple minutes to spare and make a big dent in the double unders; but I completed 113 reps. Coach Chris (who holds each athlete to a high standard), called "no rep" on me probably 25-30 times. If I used profanity, this would have been the workout for it. But I don't. Even with the "no reps" I still wouldn't have made 150 wall balls. It was humbling (to say the least!). Chris is a great coach and I appreciate that he holds me to a high standard with each workout. I don't want to skate by or kid myself into thinking I'm better than I am. In this case, the tough coaching really translates to belief; it's not bringing me down (nor should it bring you down), its showing you that you can do better. Humility is powerful and it can drive you to be better.

Another part of support and encouragement is that everyone expects you to:

Do more than you think you can

Love this. It's like in week two. The workout was to proceed through a sequence of snatches (for girls: 30 reps @ 45#, 30 reps @ 75#, 30 reps @ 100#) and complete was as many reps as you could in 10 minutes.  I knew the 45# wouldn't be a problem, but I had never snatched 75# before, only 65.. Before my heat, Sara made a huge point to set me up with plates for the 100#, because she was convinced I would get through the set of 75#. Now I knew I wouldn't, but because she believed in me, I knew I had to snatch that 75#. And I did. Thank you Sara.

The last principle I will cover today is the will to:

Push yourself

In workout, 12.1, we were called to do as many burpees as possible in 7-minutes. My goal was 70 (10 per minute). Coach Tom Brose, founder of CrossFit DC was my judge on this one and I still remember his coaching, "trust me, don't stop on the ground, pause after the jump," "don't stop" (this was probably recurring!) This was brutal, and the first time I have really felt burpees in the legs, because it was so continuous. I was able to do 72 (actually surpassed the goal!). I believe that the coaching to "push myself" had a lot to do with this. Seven minutes is a really long time to continuously do burpees. On my own, 72 would not have happened. Thank you Coach Tom!

There are so many other stories and inspirations from CFDC folks and other affiliates. I would love to hear them! 

Alright, let's apply this to life (my favorite part!)

The focus today is "practice takes humility." I consider the above a great testament to this. It would have been so easy not to participate in the open, because I knew my fitness level was not at it's best. But guess what? I decided to suck it up (hard to do), be a little bit humble (harder to do), and just do my best, for the moment I am in. It wasn't pretty. It was even frustrating at times. But today, now, after this 5-week experience, I must say, I am stronger mentally and physically, and can't wait for the next challenge (in life, in business, in workout, whatever).

Apply this to what you do, who you are, and what you want to get better at. Have you opened yourself to show the weak side and dedicate yourself to getting stronger? I know there are areas of my life that I haven't applied this too..yet. Being humble is really a showcase of strength. It's a statement (maybe just to yourself), that you accept where you are, but you make a commitment to drive forward to be better. To get what you want.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "the calm before the storm"

Humility is the calm, success is the storm

(a good storm: strong, dynamic and forceful). Sorry Oklahoma & Kansas roots; I love storms :)

Can you be humble in one area of your life this week? It's not easy, but it's worth it.

In health & prosperity,
Monica

Almost Doesn't Cut It

Today was a fun day at the gym. It was week three of the CrossFit Open.  I have to admit, I want to have this type of challenge 52 weeks a year, and am thankful for the upbeat and encouraging environment at CrossFit DC.

Today's workout was an 18-minute workout, for as many rounds as you can of 15 box jumps, 12 push press, and 9 toes to bar.

Toes to bar is just like it sounds, you basically hang from a pullup bar, and touch your toes to that bar. Going into it, I knew that toes to bar would be the biggest challenge for me, as I have never really properly done them, nor practiced them much. To be honest, in the past, I have kind of let myself slide a bit with it, convincing myself that I don't need to get good at them.  Why? Because the are really really hard for me. This is a silly reason, one I'll put my hand up and admit, move on, and then go conquer them.

So you're probably thinking that I'm now going to tell you, I started the workout, had an amazing performance, and hit all my toes to bars. Nope. 

I watched a lot of other people rock the workout, speeding through 5, 6, 7 rounds. I did the box jumps and the push press, and then a fun16-minutes and 50-seconds of attempted toes to bar. Not a round! It was hard work too. Somehow I created 2 blisters (small ones), and opened up a callus (for the first time during a workout) on both my hands. I attempted who knows how many of those toes to bars. A LOT of them were close, like less than an inch from completion, and I  was going all out.

The workout wasn't frustrating, because the way my perspective is, I got 16-minutes and 50-seconds of straight coaching on how to get better at this exercise! Admittedly, the box and barbell looked a little lonely, and it would have been so much more fun to jump and push press, but this was needed.

It was also good that Chris didn't let me slide through with "almost toes to bar." I got 5 full ones. A few that were literally 1/4 inch away from the bar, he didn't count. For real, I am thankful for that. In 2011's CrossFit Open, either toes to bar or knees to elbows (a little easier) appeared in one of the workouts. I can't remember which, because I didn't even do knees to elbows; it was like "feet off ground; good." Skating by doesn't teach you anything, nor does it help you get better. It teaches you that you can skate by.

"Almost" doesn't cut it (even in the little things).

"I almost got that job" or "I almost paid my cell phone bill" or "honey, I almost want to marry you." Can you imagine?!

It's easy to forget that accomplishing something is a process. That instant success (at anything!) is kind of silly and not really long term. You can have instant success at something, get excited, and then forget about it, because it didn't  really change you. If you could already do it, or it wasn't hard, it's forgettable and eventually it doesn't mean much. In a great book called The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson, he says that doing things that will make you successful are easy to do AND easy not to do. Let's all agree to just do the hard stuff and get it over with. 

Today was not a failure in the bad sense of the word failure. It is a chance to learn, improve, and get inspired to do better. Just this week, I was reading about Sara Blakely, the creator of SPANX and now America's youngest female billionaire at 41. She says that growing up, every night at the dinner table, her dad would ask her what she failed at that day. Doing this, he took away the fear of the failure, and encouraged her to seek out failure, in order to be successful. She did pretty good with that advice!

What Do You Say To Yourself?

"It's what you wear from ear to ear...and not from head to toe....that matters" You may recognize this line from the classic musical, Annie. I used to sing this song ALL the time growing up and it always perked me up! Let's go a step further and declare, it's way you SAY and HEAR from ear to ear that really matters.

It's what you think about.
It's what you think about what you're thinking about.
It's thinking...period.
It's about thinking good thoughts.
About having positive and great expectations for the outcomes of your situations.
It's about building yourself up.
It's about speaking that you are capable. And worthy.
It's about telling yourself YES I CAN.
And...I WILL.
It's all about what you tell yourself.

This topic actually greatly summarizes the purpose and meaning of "the well with all." What you speak about yourself not only to yourself, but to others can greatly affect outcomes and opportunities in your life.

A couple of weeks ago, I was training a friend. We were doing a 1-arm push press with a dumbbell. I handed her a 15 pound dumbbell (which we had never done before) and said, do as many as you can. She did 18 (and really she stopped because she had counted 15). We had both underestimated her capabilities. On the second set, I gave her a 20lb dumbbell with the same instruction. She struggled and couldn't seem to even press one rep. I said, "just get in 6 (reps)." All of a sudden she was superwoman and did it right away, with perfect form. I asked her why? She said, "I thought I had to do 15 again and I didn't think I could do it, but 6 seemed possible." Wow.. how often do we limit ourselves, based on how hard we think something is going to be?

On Saturday, we had workout 12.2 in the CrossFit Open. You did 3 sets of 30 snatches, increasing the weight with each set, and a timecap of 10-minutes. The second set prescribed a weight that I had previously never accomplished with this particular exercise.

Prior to my heat, one of the girls, whom I've seen grow into a suberb and determined athlete over the last couple years, seemed to believe that I would get to the third round. For some reason, I was being compared to these super-strong girls, and placed in a similar category. Now whether they were doing this too encourage me that I could definitely make head on the second set, or if they actually believed I could get to the third, I am not sure.

My brain was saying, "Have you seen me lately. I'm not exactly super-athlete material right. You are seeing something I am not right now."

But it did motivate me and encourage me that I will be better as I continue to get back in gear with my training (I will admit, I am SO much less sore this week than I have been in the past few weeks!)

Got through the first set no problem. 
Got 1 rep at the second weight and was thrilled.
Failed over and over for the next 2-3 minutes.

It was frustrating, because I knew I could do it and I knew my own mind was getting in my way.

Suddenly, I had a revelation and this is literally the conversation I had silently with myself:

"Monica, you said you could get one and that was your goal. So you got 1. You're failing now, because you only set the bar at 1. Other people think you can do 30. You know you can do more than what you are doing. Picture it, get set, go."

Guess what??!!

I hit the next rep.

Amazing, you might say. But truthfully, not really. I just got my mind right.

So my message today is well and simple:

If you are failing and you don't know why, check what you are telling yourself about yourself. Are you speaking victory over your goals, or defeat. Pour the right information into your brain and it will drown out the negative and the nay-say that might try and tell you--you can't.

Founding Farmer's and Paleo

Tonight I went to Founding Farmer's for dinner with my dear friends, Laurie and Jeff (blogger @ amireallyborntorun.blogspot.com)

Founding Farmer's is new to the Rockville/Potomac, MD area. They also have a location off Pennsylvania Ave in DC that is wildly popular. We went to the Park Potomac location on a Monday night and it was packed like a weekend. It was a lively scene with great service, and special touches, like silverware with horseshoes (reminds me of my upbringing!) and soda made from scratch (will be mimicking this soon!). The menu is "heartland inspired" and full of fun dishes like "Straw and Hay"-- handmade pasta with asparagus and beets. The menu was full of comfort food like Lobster Mac & Cheese and Low Country Shrimp & Grits, but also has healthier options like the Farmers Salad-- made with baby lettuce, avocado, dates, tomato, red grapes, almonds, parmesan cheese and champagne vinegarette and daily caught fish like rockfish and flounder (today's specials).

Today also marks day 1 of Coca CrossFit's 25 day Paleo Challenge and my own personal challenge: 25 Days of CrossFit & Paleo.  The timing just happened to workout perfectly!  I decided to participate in the Paleo challenge with a couple of goals: 1) understand what the Paleo diet is and how it affects the body, specifically athletic performance and 2) reset myself to eat more protein, and plan my meals in advance.

It was kind of fun to order with my Paleo goals in mind. All of the pasta dishes, cheese and flatbreads were out. Otherwise, I would have without a doubt ordered the Prosciutto, Fig, Mascarpone flatbread (who wouldn't?!). For apps we ordered Fried Green Tomatoes (and boy were they deep fried) and classic Deviled Eggs (Paleo approved--pretty sure). I ate the tomato and left the breading-- a typical choice whether Paleo or not and enjoyed a deviled egg.  For an entree I chose Mussels with Sausage and Pesto. I absolutely love mussels (and muscles--just saying), so this was an easy choice and the most Paleo approved on the menu. It came is a blazing iron skillet and was WAY more than I could eat in one sitting. There was just a little bit of sausage, guessing this was really in there for the fat to cook in the sauce, and I'm not sure I would pin point pesto, but the flavors were a sure win. Would recommend it if you like brothy mussels.

Mussels as served (with 3 huge crostini!)

As I ate them ( I did sneak 1/2 pc of bread)

Earlier today, I did a 1-1 session at CrossFit Done Right in Rockville, MD. If you are in the MD area and looking to join a CrossFit, Done Right really does do it right! Highly recommend you check it out! Before you take classes, you go through a series of 1-1 training sessions where the coaches break down various basic strength moves like the deadlift, or more dynamic moves like the snatch or clean. They really know what's up; I learned a ton and now have better form after the sessions. You also go through a typical CrossFit "metcon" workout, to test your skills and gain a starting point. Today part of my workout included wallballs and burpee box jumps. To finish it off, you stretch and let me tell you, this may be one of the most valuable parts. For a couple months, I had been struggling with lower back pain after working out (didn't matter what the workout was). During my first session, Rob (CrossFit Done Right coach), noticed that I had tight hamstrings, and showed me some stretches to do, and he assured me that this would help my low back. Well, I listened and did the stretches 1-3 times a week and in just a couple of weeks, my back pain was gone, and it hasn't been back since. So...I highly recommend the coaches at Done Right!

Stay tuned for an update on 25 Days of CrossFit and Paleo!

In health, Monica

P.S. I specifically didn't link to a specific paleo website, because there are so many out there! Google and research if you're interested!

CrossFit & "The Principle"

"Team Chill" @ Balance Gym CrossFit Bowl 2012

Today I lived and acted out a principle I have believed in for years. A principle that I even define as the core of my business practices and coaching. It was a principle that I had almost forgotten in my own life, until today. The principle is:

You can always do more than you think you can (and you can do even more when you are mentally prepared)

Just today, I competed in a CrossFit competition with CrossFit Balance. It was intended for all levels, with the ability to scale weights, so the competition ranged from elite to newer athletes. It was a team competition compiled of 2 guys and 2 gals. My team was 2 of my trainer colleagues, Duncan and Will, and a new friend, and strong competitor, Rachel. It was also amazing to see so many CrossFit DC friends whom I haven't seen in a couple of years, running this event and competing. It was electric.

We competed in 3 workouts:

1. 8-min AMRAP (as many reps as possible) with Deadlifts. All 4 of us competed, with 4 different weights. One person reps at a time, going for as many as they can unbroken. We had to switch out the weights as we went on. Our team performed flawlessly & efficiently, placing us at the top, after the first event.

2. Will & Rachel performed this one (thank goodness!). It was 3 rounds a piece of 12 hand release burpees, 24 situps on an ab mat, and about a 50-foot bear crawl (my least favorite exercise of all time!)

3. This one was me & Duncan. Another 8-min AMRAP, we had to press a bar over head from chest level, as many times as we could and then run 8 sprints, before the other could shoulder press. The sprints counted for nothing, only the overhead reps contributed to the score, so speed was key, as well as strategy. With this event we finished in the top 3, which was awesome!

Confession time. Leading up to this event and for the last 2 months or so, I have kind of let myself go a bit with my workouts. These are not excuses, but I think my career transition/focus & my move to a new apartment took up a lot more mental & physical energy than I was prepared for. When Duncan told me we were doing this (I don't think I actually had a choice!), I was super nervous. I didn't want to be the weak link and hold everyone back. I knew I had let myself go a bit, and basically just didn't want to suck.

All week leading up, I prepared myself mentally. I spoke words of victory, strength, and encouragement. So did others around me.

There were a ton of strong strong women at this competition, lifting way heavier weights than me, including my teammate. It was inspiring to see what I could do if I focused on it!

Before the first workout, I prayed for strength and stamina. And boy, did He give it to me. During the deadlift workout, I repped out 16 in the first set (that's 6 more reps than my previous rep max at this particular weight back when I was actually in CrossFit shape!), AND I could have kept going, but I thought pacing would be better, since I'd have to do it again. My original goal (what I thought I could do was 6-8 reps per set!) Exhiliration does not even begin to describe how I felt after accomplishing this.

In the third workout, again, I outperformed my own expectation again, because I didn't limit myself during the workout, based on what I had "planned" to do. I am pretty sure I yelled a bit for the first time ever, in a workout! It also helped that Duncan went before me and repped out 30 at his weight, so I kept pushing to 20 reps, in the first round.

How?

Mental preparedness, a will not quit attitude, and an awesome team around not only supporting me, but doing the work too! In my opinion, this trifecta makes you unstoppable in any area of life.

I had forgotten this. Or maybe just not experienced it in a while. So here's the message:

1) Do not limit yourself to what you think you can do
2) Do not call yourself weak, don't tell yourself that you've let yourself go, or that you suck...it may actually come true if you speak that on yourself 
3) Put yourself in situations outside your comfort zone. I promise, you will feel alive and exhilirated if you do!
4) Punch out the ceiling. Who says you can't, shouldn't, won't. Just do it anyway!