The Four AgreementsAs part of our personal and professional development, all of the True Spirit CrossFit coaches read one leadership book a quarter. A couple of years ago we read The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
I have read and re-read this book many times. It is one of my favorites for actionable personal and professional development. It's just 4 steps and will show you the difference between easy and simple. The Four Agreements are simple and not easy. Let's look at the First Agreement: Be Impeccable with Your Word. Be impeccable with your words means to not use your words to harm yourself or others. It means to not gossip, complain, blame, or otherwise use your words to guilt, shame or harm yourself or someone else. It means to take responsibility when you miss the mark. It means to speak the honest truth, and recognize the power your words have. As your coach it means we will not talk about our clients (you:-) in front of others. It means we will give positive cues to help you move better. It means we will be deliberate and focused when helping you become the athlete you were born to be. As an athlete it means you will talk to yourself as if you were talking to your best friend. What are the words you say to yourself when you see the WOD? Is it a stream of negativity? What if you changed the story you tell yourself? Instead of saying "I can't" or "I don't like" or "I'm not good at," try reframing your words into "I get to" or "I will" or "I'm curious to see how this will be for me." Whether we speak the truth or not, words have power. What does being impeccable with your word mean to you? Tell us in the comments.
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Last Wednesday I explored how to make your protein shake into a super shake. This week I explore how to EAT more protein and how to track it. During our Summer Check-in, all of you had your lean body mass and body fat percentage calculated. Eating your lean body mass in grams of protein is an excellent way to ensure you have enough protein to repair and build your muscles and to control your weight. Protein is one of three macronutrients, the other 2 are carbohydrates and fat. Protein is the building blocks of muscle, carbohydrates fuel our activities and fat is vital for brain functions, energy storage and it protects our internal organs. All three macronutrients contain calories which our bodies use to fuel our metabolism and activities. Counting macros means to consume a precise amount of each macronutrient according to your macro plan. Through counting macros, calories are controlled for weight loss or weight gain. (There are 4 calories per 1 gram of protein and 1 gram carbohydrate and 9 calories per 1 gram of fat.) CrossFit, unlike other types of exercise, is a strength and conditioning program which means you'll develop muscle mass in addition to cardiovascular endurance and stamina. Developing stamina and strength requires a higher amount of protein than just developing cardiovascular endurance alone. A good guideline for CrossFitters is to consume protein in grams equal to your lean body mass. This is why I measure your body fat when you join and every time you have a check-in with me. If you've done a check-in with me you can find you lean body mass in your weigh-in history on BTWB. Your lean body mass is the weight of your muscles and bones excluding the weight of your body fat. For example, if you weigh 200 lbs and have 20% body fat you have 160 lbs lean body mass. Based on these measurements a CrossFitter might aim for 160g of protein every day. For most of us, eating our lean body mass in grams of protein is a challenge, which is why you see so many of us supplement with whey and casein protein or collagen peptides. Drinking a protein shake or eating a protein bar is an easy way to reach your protein goals. Whey protein is easily digestible by almost everyone. Most whey protein supplements provide 20-40g of protein per serving and the recommendation is to consume post-workout. Casein is a slower digesting protein which is why it's commonly consumed in the evening. Collagen peptides can be consumed anytime. I supplement with all 3 types of protein since my protein goal is higher than I can consume by meat and eggs alone. I put 2 scoops of collagen peptides in my coffee every morning for 20g of protein. The collagen peptides I use are unflavored and don't affect the flavor of my coffee. Within one hour post-workout I drink a whey protein shake which provides another 20g of protein. After dinner I eat a delicious casein protein pudding which provides another 20 g of protein. If I'm low on protein for the day I make the casein pudding with Darigold Fit Milk or Core Power. When calculating the amount of protein in your food, you'll need to measure or be pretty good at estimating the quantity you're eating. Here's where it gets confusing, the weight your food in grams it DOES NOT equal the grams of protein in that food. Weight in grams is a measure of the mass of your food, whereas the amount of protein in grams of food is a measure of that macronutrient only. Weight in grams does not equal grams of protein. Let's look at two common examples. Tuna fish is a delicious source of lean protein. The convenience of eating tuna is that is comes in a package that tells you exactly how much protein you get with each serving. According to this nutrition label the serving size is 56g and the protein amount is 11g. There are 2 servings per container, so if you eat the entire package you get 22g of protein. Foods that don't come in packages with nutrition labels require a bit more sleuthing, and everything you need to know can be found online. The resources I like best are https://nutritiondata.self.com/ or My Fitness Pal or the Macros feature of BTWB. Let's say you eat skinless boneless chicken breast for lunch. One cup of diced chicken, or 140g of diced chicken, provides 43.4g of protein. Let's add this up with our 3 types of protein supplementation and see where we end up. Collagen peptides: 20g Post-workout whey: 20g 1 cup diced chicken: 43.4g Casein pudding: 20g TOTAL Protein: 103.4g To make the goal of 160g of protein we need to eat about 60g between breakfast and dinner. If you eat 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast you get 12g of protein (1 egg has about 6g of protein). Now you'll need to eat 48g of protein for dinner. Grilled pork chops are on the menu? Fantastic, you'll get about 52g of protein in one (180g) chop. As you can see, it's difficult to eat enough protein to meet your needs as a bad-ass CrossFitter, that's why protein supplementation is important. Once you start eating protein equal to your lean body mass you'll find that you're better recovered from each workout. You'll find yourself getting stronger and leaner. If you want a more customized nutrition plan, book a consult with Coach Audy. Anne, Why do You do CrossFit?What was your fitness life like before you started training with True Spirit CrossFit? I was and still am very into body weight exercises and mobility. I danced ballet as a hobby on and off for years and when I discovered barre, I loved the similarities and compliments to dance. But I came the point where I wanted to do more strength training and cardio HIIT circuits. CrossFit never crossed my mind as an option since I had always thought it was for “super athletes” – those totally ripped gym-rats who went hard and heavy. Being that my background was limited to studio work, I didn’t think that my inexperience around equipment would be that welcome. What brought you to True Spirit CrossFit in the first place? Wanting to challenge myself beyond barre, I signed up for a few regional Spartan races, and knowing that I would need some help training, I was delighted to see that True Spirit CrossFit offered an OCR specific workshop series. It was perfect! – until COVID happened. Even though everything was cancelled, I decided to enroll in the foundations course just to see what the gym was about. It turned out that True Spirit’s flavor of CrossFit had been exactly what I was craving! What was your first impression? Has that changed? I was and remain truly impressed with how welcoming and helpful Leslie and the other coaches are. Having never touched a barbell prior in my life, I was extremely intimidated by them and had no idea how to move with one. But every time the barbells come out for class, the coaches are wonderful about teaching the technique and, more importantly, correcting form for that various movements. And it isn’t only the coaches that have impressed me; the culture within True Spirit is one of encouragement and celebration. It’s an absolute joy to cheer on my fellow classmates and to in turn hear them as I fight through an exercise. This isn’t something that I’ve encountered often within gyms and I think it is very special. What was the first thing fun or positive thing you experienced while training with us? Barbells, barbells, BARBELLS!!! I am in LOVE with lifting!! Learning to lift and refining my technique, all as I slowly progress in weight, has been my absolute favorite thing. Are you working on any special CrossFit related skill now? I am coming for that strict pull-up! I am also working toward being able to clean my body weight. That goal is a little farther off than the pull-up, but one day, I’ll get there – one more rep and/or pound at a time. How has you life changed since training with TSCF? I have certainly seen an improvement in my physical strength and a change in my body composition, but for me, the mental benefits have been even more impactful. CrossFit and the lifts especially have helped me to further affirm that my body is an agent of action. It has given me more confidence to own my space; few things are as empowering as the thunder of a barbell as it drops to the floor after a PR. CrossFit has taught me there is no reason for me to always yield or to hold myself back from my potential. The assertive, bold, and sometimes loud, movements have forced their way into concept of self, and I embrace it. What's your favorite True Spirit CrossFit memory? The 31 Heroes work out was absolutely brutal. But I loved it. I love pushing my threshold and I was particularly proud of how long I was able to go on the RX'd rope climbs. I remember the rope climb from gym class as a kid and I could never do it. But they also never taught us the technique – work smarter, not harder! Do you know someone who wants to get stronger, lose weight, or be ready for ski season? Forward this blog to them and tell them to contact Coach Leslie. September Showdown Week 3 - It's Showtime!Wow! Are you enjoying our September Showdown? What did you think of the Crippler? Is it aptly named? How many of you were crippled by those squats? This week we are taking a break from the barbell, don't worry it will return for the final workout. Here's how WOD Slayers, once again, dominated last week. Simply put, they lifted more of their bodyweight than the Rig Shakers. Here is how it all shook out last week: WOD Slayers: 211 RIG Shakers: 177 17 WOD Slayers completed WOD 2 and 16 Rig Shakers completed it. 7 WOD Slayers were top finishers and 4 Rig Shakers were top finishers. 3 WOD Slayers got a PR and 5 Rig Shakers did. 100% BW = 4 WOD Slayers & 4 Rig Shakers 75% BW = 8 WOD Slayers & 2 Rig Shakers 50% BW = 4 WOD Slayers & 5 Rig Shakers 25% BW = 0 WOD Slayers & 4 Rig Shakers As you can see, the number of WOD Slayers and Rig Shakers to lift 100% of their bodyweight was equal. The WOD Slayers pulled ahead this week by have 8 of their team lift 75% of their BW compared to only 2 Rig Shakers. This is a 24 point difference. That is A LOT of ground to make up and the Rig Shakers need lots of top 3 finishers this week to have the slightest chance of gaining on the WOD Slayers. OR they need to rally their ENTIRE team to do the Showdown WOD. Good Luck to BOTH teams this week. The workout is a scaled version of one of the 12 Linchpin Tests. 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