Parenting and Exercise

I’m going to shield myself with a thick skin before I hit “Publish” on this post.

You see, I’m going to talk about parenting. And I’m going to be critical. And what I have to say is going to ruffle some feathers. Too bad. Sometimes the truth hurts. Or is, at the very least, a little uncomfortable.

One of the most common excuses I hear from people for not exercising is that ” I don’t have the time.” This phrase is usually quickly followed by, “I want to spend time with my kids.” You see, when people use spending time with their children as an excuse, they think they’re safe from reproach. After all, who would call bullshit on someone spending time with their kids?

Me.

This is because I have a firm belief that 1) it is your parental obligation to stay fit so that you can be around for your children and 2) you can kill two birds with one stone: spend time with your children while working out.

Of course because I am a CrossFitter, I think that CrossFit is the best way to share an exercise session with your kids. But guess what? If CrossFit isn’t your cup of tea, then do SOMETHING ELSE! Get involved with krav maga or mountain biking or yoga. But start moving. Set a good example and set your children up for a lifetime of a healthy relationship with exercise and their bodies. 

Stop hiding behind your children and using them as an excuse to be lazy. When they hear you using them as an excuse to avoid exercise what message do you think you’re sending to them? That they are the reason you’re not healthy. And when you have a heart attack or are diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic, they are going to think it’s because of them. Trust me, kids are egocentric. Here’s what they’re little brains will hear: You have diabetes because you didn’t exercise + you didn’t exercise because of you kids = your kids caused your diabetes (or insert the appropriate illness here).

Even if your children manage to avoid internalizing blame for your illness, they will pay for your laziness in other ways. You won’t be able to practice playing ball with them and they won’t make the team. You can’t make it to their high school graduation because you’re too sick. Maybe you will be dead by the time they get married or have their first child. Perhaps you will be so helpless that you will need help with daily tasks, forcing your children to become your caregivers, perpetuating caregiver burnout of the sandwich generation. Any way you slice it, you’re going to leave a lasting, negative impression on your kids’ lives. 

What’s worse is that as your children grow older, they will follow in your footsteps. If nobody breaks the cycle, generations of your family will avoid exercise and fall into a life of disease and immobility, reliance on others and on medication to keep slogging through their life, the quality of which is questionable.  

So fulfill your parental obligation. Do your duty. Turn off the t.v., the xbox, the videogames and get involved in a sport or exercise regimen with your kids. Spend time with them while teaching them some healthy habits and set them up for success in the future.

 

NEW YEAR, NEW YOU!

Gladys is back attacking her goals for the new year. And as she left, she said to me, “Nothing’s going to change for me if I don’t get out of bed and get here!” Wise woman, that Gladys Hall is! 

She is right. Nothing will change by simply wishing for things to be different. You have to get in here and bust your butt. You have to sweat. You may have to bleed, and maybe there will be some tears. But at the end of the day you can look in the mirror and be proud of what you’ve accomplished. You beat the odds. You got one step closer to your goal.

So, set your alarm far away from your bed in the morning. Put your gym bag in your car so you don’t go home after work and get stuck on your couch. Do what you have to, but like Gladys said, nothing’s going to change if you don’t get here!

LOOK AHEAD!

While 2012 brought us amazing experiences, sweet successes, and sometimes bitter disappointment and sorrow, today is the day to look forward.

What do you want to accomplish in 2013? What are your goals? And what steps are you willing to take to attain those goals?

Remember, the key to accomplishing goals is having realistic, specific goals that are backed up with a plan of action. And it takes 30 days to make an action a habit. So today, while you have the time and your goals and motivation are fresh, write down your goals and under each goal, outline what specific steps you’re going to take to achieve them. Write down WHY these goals are important to you. Are they to better your health so you can spend more quality time with your loved ones? Are they to improve your standard of living? Are they to experience different things in the world? Having a “why” attached to your goals can be a powerful motivator to continue.

Making dreams a reality takes more than wishful thinking. It takes hard work, discomfort, struggle and frustration. You may be distracted. You may be tempted to abandon your dreams because the path is bumpy. Don’t! Go back to the goals you’ve written down and remember why you are on this road. Look ahead.

 

 

CrossFit Endurance

Faye and Dusty at the end of their 10k TT. Think you need to spend hours putting in Long, Slow Mileage to be a great endurance athlete? Think again! Efficiency is king. Learn to run, bike, or swim farther and faster in a quarter of the time with fewer injuries.
Faye and Dusty will be heading up CrossFit Endurance coming soon for single and multisport athletes.

Happy New Year!

Looking back on 2012, what are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

Resolutions

res·o·lu·tion  

/ˌrezəˈlo͞oSHən

Noun A firm decision to do or not to do something. December 27th. That’s usually the day when I start to hear talk about New Year’s Resolutions.  You see, we can’t discuss it on the 24th or the 25th, not even on the 26th, when we’re reveling and making merry. We’re in the belly of the beast then, stuffing ourselves with cake and cookies, pie and wine, chocolate and candy canes. No, we definitely CANNOT talk about resolutions then. We can’t even see straight from sugar and alcohol let alone make any firm decisions about anything. But then the dust settles, the stomach aches disappear, the haze clears and reality sets in. Our pants won’t button and our shirts feel a bit tight in the midsection. We start admitting to ourselves that perhaps we went a bit overboard and it’s time. After all, we only need to make it through one more night – New Year’s Eve- and then we’re in the clear. Then it’s time to face that word. That idea. The idea that alternately strikes the hope of heaven and the fear of God in our hearts: RESOLUTIONS! So with the turning of the year, out with the old and in with the new, we agree to usher in a new “me.” This “me” will go to the gym everyday. The new “me” will eat healthy, not partake in dessert EVER, turn down beer and wine in favor of expensive but disgusting imported Italian water. (Does anyone actually like that stuff or do we drink it in an attempt to feel better about just drinking water?) The new “me” will get into all those old jeans and reduce not only our pants size but our blood sugar. The new “me” will become a Paleo nazi and will weight and measure everything like a true Zone princess should. Wait…didn’t we go through this last year? Didn’t we all “make a firm decision” to create a new “me” last year? So what happened? Why did we need to make another firm decision about THE SAME THINGS this year? How firm was that decision we made December 27th-January 1st last year. Not very, apparently. Otherwise we wouldn’t be making the same firm decision this year. So, I have a resolution for you. Your resolution should be life itself. To live it with the best possible quality for as long as you can. And despite what many would have you believe, this doesn’t involve being perfect. It doesn’t involve forcing yourself into a size “2” jeans. It doesn’t involve never enjoying yourself ever again. What it means is this: you make your list of priorities. You decide what you need to do to keep that list in the order it started in. You make sure that the list is realistic for what YOU can accomplish. Don’t make your list based on what you think someone else wants it to be. Don’t make your list based on someone else’s lifestyle/budget/needs. Don’t sell yourself short.  And don’t forget to include “fun” on the list.

God, Not Guns

IF YOU POST COMMENTS TO THIS I WILL NOT RESPOND. I AM NOT INTERESTED IN DEBATING ANYONE. I BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE AND NOTHING ANYONE POSTS HERE WILL CHANGE THAT. YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE AND I AM NOT GOING TO CHANGE THAT. I AM MERELY POSTING THIS TO AVOID HAVING TO RESPOND TO 20 DIFFERENT POSTS REGARDING MY OPINIONS AND TO CLARIFY MY POSITION.

Despite the fact that I made it extremely clear that I didn’t want to debate gun control on my Facebook page, I have literally been verbally assaulted by people demanding to know how, as a former Marine, I could support gun control. After all, I wrote a blank check and signed it with my life in order to defend our Constitution. 

What I have come to realize in the 12+ years since I got out of the Marines is that I am a Christian above all else. My faith-identity supersedes my identity as a citizen of both the U.S. and Norway; my identity as a wife; a mother, a sister, a daughter; a Marine. 

And because this is the case, my beliefs, and my actions based on those beliefs, must follow what I recognize as my ultimate guiding principle: God’s love for us through His Son, Jesus.

So, despite the fact that I believe the Constitution is a noble and important document that is necessary to guide our actions and moral decision-making, I do not think it establishes ultimate law for me. The Bible, specifically the New Testament, is my ultimate law. Therefore, I cannot turn a blind eye to Christ’s commandment to us to love our neighbors and to live in peace with one another I cannot accept that someone’s right to bear arms is more important than a child’s God-given right to life AFTER CONCEPTION AND BIRTH.

Let me clarify here. I am not anti-Constitution. I am not anti Second Amendment rights. But I don’t believe you need an AR-15 or other semi-automatic weapons in your home. I believe that if you have good intentions and are a law-abiding citizen with a sound mind, you will have no issues with having more stringent safety measures and checks in place before you can buy a weapon.

Here is the part where people start furiously typing about how people kill people, guns don’t kill people. To that I say: Bullshit. If the gunman responsible for the Newtown shootings, or the Columbine shootings, or the Aurora shootings had had a bow and arrow as their weapon, the bodycount would’ve been a quarter of what it was, or an eighth even. If the weapon had been a knife, this disturbed boy wouldn’t have been able to shoot his own private entrance into the school in Connecticut. The theater goers in Aurora could have banded together and perhaps overpowered the perpetrator. But an AR-15 assault rifle? I don’t care if there are 100 people, nobody is taking that guy down.

This is because it doesn’t require any skill to hit someone with a semi-automatic weapon. It’s just point and spray. The perfect weapon for a psycho looking to inflict maximum damage on a group of sitting duck 6 year olds. Or families and friends in a theater. 

Which leads me to my next point: When the original forefathers drafted our Constitution it was a very different time. The rights bestowed upon us were drawn up in a very different social context. There were no semi-automatic weapons. Mental illness wasn’t as prevalent, or perhaps it was, but it was kept contained by the family. There were no malls, theatres or district-wide schools capable of gathering hundreds of people in one place to make perfect fodder for a mentally deranged individual. There were no violent video games. Weapons were respected as tools of survival and there was severe and swift punishment for abuse of a rifle. 

Fast forward to a modern age where kids are left unsupervised for long periods of time, playing horribly graphic video games that harden them to the effects of violence. Parents are often absent or more interested in being their children’s best friends than their parents. Chemical-laden foods and prescription drugs taken while a child is in utero affect our children’s developing brains and medication is often handed out like candy with little to no understanding of the effects. (I sold Zyprexa, an antipsychotic, to primary care doctors who would often consult ME about patients mental state.I had a degree in Art History).

Add to this mix pathetically lax gun laws and it’s a recipe for disaster. I’ve seen many comments about gangs having access to fully automatic weapons obtained illegally and how are we going to protect ourselves without guns. The Newtown shootings, the Aurora shootings, the mall shootings, were all carried out with legally purchased firearms. In addition, I was married to a gang member from the One Ways in Norwalk. Pretty badass dudes. Guess what? For all the horrible damage they inflicted on each other, I never heard of a gang member opening up on a mall, or a school, or a theater. For the most part, they kept their violence contained to their gang business. 

For the people who claim they need guns for self defense, I would love to see how you react when you wake up in the middle of the night with the intruder standing right over you as you lay helpless in your bed. Do you have your gun under your pillow? Even if it’s in your nightstand, I doubt the intruder will allow you to reach for it. And if you have children, how will you ensure they don’t kill themselves, a sibling, or you? If it’s locked up, you most likely will not have time to unlock the safe and load the rounds before the crook is upon you, especially when your adrenaline is coursing through your veins, exaggerating every movement you try to make. See, I’ve been here too. I have awoken with my disturbed ex-husband standing over me in bed. I even if I had a gun, loaded and ready to go, I was so terrified (despite being extremely comfortable with handguns after many years of exposure via the military) he probably would’ve been able to take my own gun away from me and use it against me. 

Let’s assume you get the gun out of it’s hiding or non-hiding place, and you are ready for the son-of-a-bitch when he comes through the door. Let’s assume the front office staff at Sandy Hook Elementary had been armed, as so many people have been saying they should’ve been. Do any of you have any idea how much tactical training it takes to shoot a moving gunman armed to the teeth, strengthened by his psychosis? Do you have any idea what it feels like to point a loaded gun at someone, knowing that you are taking a human life? I don’t care who you are, you hesitate the first time that happens. Unless, of course, you are sociopath. 

Unless you have had significant time using your weapon under pressure, you are going to hesitate. You are going to be shaking. You are going to be freaking out. 

I don’t believe in gun abolishment. I believe in gun control. I believe that if you are a law-abiding citizen with good intentions, you will have no problem having a stricter safety checks in place before you can purchase a weapon. (Good God, it’s harder to buy medical marijuana than it is to buy a gun. Last I checked, no stoner killed 20 kids). I believe that certain conditions or situations in your family or home should preclude you from being able to own a gun. I believe that life must be valued above guns. 

 

BE YOUR OWN SUPERHERO: CROSSFIT!

OLY AND 6:30 CANCELLED ON 10/31!

WEAR A COSTUME FOR HALLOWEEN WODS OR ELSE!

Comfort vs Progress

This has been a week of discomfort. Actually, last week was too. Come to think of it, so was the week before. Do you see a trend here? We joke in the WODs to new people that “this never gets easier. You just push harder.” But it’s true. Sure, it could get easier. If you slowed down. If you used less weight. If you never pushed outside of your comfort zone. If you never took a risk. If you never took the time to do it right. If you accepted the status quo and just rested on your laurels CrossFit would get easier. The burning sensation in your lungs would stop, the burning sensation in your muscles would cease, the soreness would never come. Your heart would pound at an acceptable rate rather than pound out of your chest through your ears.

But we aren’t after easy. We aren’t after comfortable. We welcome the burning in our muscles, the searing in our lungs. We love to hear our hearts in our ears. Why? Because it makes us better. Every time we survive a WOD, every time we realize that despite our ragged, uneven breathing and our pounding hearts that we won’t die, we move forward.

And that’s what it’s all about!

GOIN’ TO THE CHAPEL…

CONGRATULATIONS TO KENNY AND SARAH WHO GOT ENGAGED TODAY!

DON’T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR THE SMR SEMINAR 10/20!
TAKE CARE OF YOUR TISSUE AND IT’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU!

CONGRATULATIONS TO KENNY AND SARAH WHO GOT ENGAGED TODAY!