5/4 May the Fourth be with You

May the Fourth be with you today. The fourth is always with the 9am class:-)
Simms Fishing Products has created an official team for the 2016 Spring Whole Life Challenge and asked Coaches James and Leslie to lead their team. Simms has graciously invited True Spirit Crossfit & Yoga members to join them for the May 7 - July 1 Whole Life Challenge. Click here to join! 
Many of us have completed one (or more) Whole Life Challenges. The WLC is more than a nutrition challenge. It's about changing your lifestyle, one small step at a time. Every day, for 56 days, you keep score on the lifestyle choices you made with respect to the WLC 7 Daily Habits.  It’s important to understand that the Whole Life Challenge is not just a “nutrition challenge” or an “exercise challenge”—it truly is about your entire lifestyle. Sleep, Hydration, Reflection, Mobility, and the Lifestyle Practice are all as important as Nutrition and Exercise. 
At the beginning of the challenge you will take your waist and hip measurements and do a workout. The workout can be the official WLC workout, walking or running, or any repeatable measurable workout of your choice (e.g. one mile walk or run for time, 10 mins of burpees, etc.). 
Yes, it's a challenge, and yes, you earn points. But, more importantly, it helps you learn about YOU. It's an 8 week journey that will teach you what kind of person you are...on the inside. Do you rally when things get tough? Do you crumble at the first mis-step. Here’s a bit more about the 7 Daily Habits. 
The 7 Daily Habits are:
1. Nutrition—worth 0-5 points each day
2. Exercise—worth 5 points each day
3. Mobility—worth 5 points each day
4. Hydration—worth 5 points each day
5. Sleep—worth 5 points each day
6. Lifestyle Practices—worth 5 point each day
7. The 7th Daily Habit, and the final element of your daily score, is your “Reflection,” a short, public journal entry you'll post about your progress in the Challenge. Posting a reflection is worth 5 points. You do not have to post a reflection to submit your score.
You can earn a maximum of 35 points each day.
Enter your daily score on the “Daily Play” tab at the close of each day, beginning on DAY 1. You will have from 8pm each day until midnight the following night (28 hours) to record your score for the day.
Rules for each category are:
Nutrition (0-5 points)
You will begin each day with 5 points. You will subtract a point anytime you eat a food that is non-compliant (based on your nutrition level: Kick Start, Lifestyle or Performance). When you record your score, enter the number of points you have remaining out of 5 at the end of the day.
Click HERE to for a comparison of the levels as well as a complete list of what is allowed and prohibited in each of the 3 Nutrition Levels of the Whole Life Challenge. A general rule of thumb: If you don’t know whether something is allowed, don’t eat it.
REMINDER: Losing points for food choices during the Challenge is normal and expected. Making choices like this is part of life. Don’t choose perfection over your happiness or quality of life. If you’re at your best friend’s wedding, drink the wine and eat the cake! Losing the points is worth it. As far as we’re concerned, learning how to make choices that result in long-term health, happiness, and well-being is much more important than earning a perfect score.
Exercise (0 or 5 points)
The Whole Life Challenge emphasizes daily activity. The requirement for giving yourself credit for daily exercise is 10 minutes of activity each day. We recommend between 3-5 "workouts" each week with the remaining days consisting of more restful activities like hiking, walking, pick-up games, or even riding your bike or walking to work or on errands.
How does the Whole Life Challenge define “exercise?” We let you decide. If walking around the block is exercise to you (and it takes you at least 10 minutes), then you have met this daily requirement. Generally speaking, if your heart-rate is elevated and you are doing something to build your strength, endurance, stamina, flexibility, speed, power, balance, coordination, agility, or accuracy, then we’d call it exercise.
For those of you that like to train hard, remember that active recovery counts too, so go out and have fun, play Frisbee, kick a soccer ball, take a walk, ride a bike. Sometimes, “playing” is as important as going hard for your overall well-being.
Mobilization (0 or 5 points)
The requirement for earning 5 points for this habit is 10 minutes of accumulated mobilizing time, meaning it can happen all at once or broken into chunks over the course of your day. What is mobilizing?  It means taking an action that increases your range of motion in a muscle or joint. This can include any sort of stretching, yoga, rolling on a foam roller, dynamic stretching. What doesn't count? Anything that requires the work to be done by someone else - getting a massage, going to physical therapy, etc.  If you need some ideas, check out our day-by-day stretching videos here. 
Hydration (0 or 5 points)
Calculate 1/3 of your bodyweight in pounds and drink this amount each day in ounces of water (22 mil per kg of bodyweight) to earn 5 points for this daily habit. Water, coconut water, and herbal tea count towards your daily requirement. Coffee, other caffeinated beverages, and alcohol do not.
Sleep (0 or 5 points)
At the beginning of the Challenge, determine for yourself an amount of sleep that you will earn your 5 daily sleep points for. There is no fixed calculation for sleep hours (we generally recommend at least 7 hours per night, but that might not be possible for you). Choose the number of hours/minutes that is close to what you're averaging now, and represents an amount that you would be happy about achieving each day. Think "small stretch", and remember that a small, incremental improvement each day, multiplied out over months and years will lead to huge benefits. The number should be both believable and achievable.
Lifestyle Practices (0 or 5 points)
Each week, we will introduce a new Lifestyle practice. You will earn 5 points for incorporating this habit into your daily life. These lifestyle habits will range from physical health practices like getting more sleep to practices with more intangible benefits like meditation or taking 10 minutes for yourself. Each new practice begins on Saturday and will be announced in advance.
Reflections (0 or 5 points)
When posting your daily score, you will have a chance to earn 5 points by posting a “Reflection,” or a short recap of how the Challenge is going, what you've noticed, what you're learned, or what you are going to change. Think of your reflections as a public journal. It will be visible to teammates and other players in the Challenge, and other players will be able to comment on your reflection with support, motivation, or suggestions.
The WLC starts Saturday May 7th, we hope you'll join our Simms & True Spirit CrossFit team!
Today's Workout
DT
5 rounds for time of:
12 Deadlifts 155/105#
9 Hang Power Cleans 155/105#
6 Push Jerks 155/105#
Compare to May 22, 2015.