• Turn off all electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.  Yes, that’s right.  Get off the computer, leave the phone in the charger, turn off the television, and dim the lights in your house.  Read a book, pet the dog, talk to your spouse, or tuck in the kids.  This helps your body to unwind and prepare for rest.

• Allow at least eight hours for sleep.  Yeah, I know, that’s a hard one for me, too.  We’re all busy, but sleep is more important than you realize.  Would you skip a meal?  A workout?  Don’t cheat your body on rest.

• Sleep in a pitch-black, cool room.  This is how our bodies are designed to rest.  I leave my cell phone in another room and cover up my alarm clock with a towel.  Seriously.

Sometimes I still have a lot of trouble falling asleep.  My work day often feels like a WOD of life stuff – go, go, go, no time for rest.  As soon as my head hits the pillow, my mind starts racing and making “to-do” lists for the next day.  Here are a few things that help me relax at night:

• Epsom Salt.  Soak in the tub right before bed with a cup or two of epsom salt dissolved in your bath water.  It will help with muscle recovery, and you'll fall asleep more easily.

• Valerian Root.  I have a tea with valerian root in it.  A cup of that and a good book in a dimly-lit room and I'm out in no time.

• Sleep Works.  This AdvoCare product works great as well.  Ask Ben or your coach about it sometime.

As you’re getting into your spring routine, try to establish some new habits of rest.  See how much good rest affects how you feel.  Then see if you can rest less during that WOD.

When it’s time to go, GO.  But don’t forget to take time for proper rest.

in-flam-ma-tion

noun. redness, swelling, pain, tenderness, heat, and disturbed function of an area of the body, especially as a reaction of tissues to injurious agents.

As with stress, it’s important to distinguish between acute inflammation and chronic or systemic inflammation.  Acute inflammation is easy enough to understand: you twist your ankle, it swells.  We all know that, with an injury, you have to let the injury heal.  If you keep running on a sprained ankle, it will stay inflamed.

So what kind of inflammation is it that can lead to heart disease?  It’s the same inflammation that can leave you vulnerable to other diseases and conditions, from acne to obesity to cancer.  If you eat foods you're not designed to eat, you will live with chronic, systemic inflammation.  The kind that affects your internal organs, blood stream, hormones, joints, and digestion.  This is systemic inflammation caused by poor diet.  Yes, I’m going to tell you that -in most cases- any abnormal condition you are experiencing can be controlled with lifestyle, starting first and foremost with food.

Let’s talk about normal.  There are many things that are very common, but are not normal.  Diabetes, obesity, heart disease.  These are all frighteningly common today, and these conditions are affecting younger and younger populations.  None of these things is normal.  It is not normal to have to take insulin, to be excessively over-fat, or for your heart to have trouble pumping blood.  Our bodies are pretty darn remarkable, and when we fuel them properly, they will function properly (for the vast majority of us).

So... what is normal?

Personality quirks aside, “normal” will look something like this:

Clear skin
Stable energy and mood
Strong immune system
Deep sleep
Good digestion
Appetite (not “cravings”)
Healthy levels of body fat (I’m not going to open this can of worms right now.  Just know that there is such a thing as too much -and too little- body fat)

And, of course, any disease or condition is an indication that something is amiss.

So what are the inflammatory foods that cause poor digestion, unstable blood sugar, heart disease, etc.?  Your hint is in the title of this post.  Anyone know what "JERF" stands for?

Stay tuned for Part II - coming soon to a web page near you.

There’s always something we can be doing to better ourselves.  Maybe it’s just being more consistent with nutrition.  Maybe it’s putting more weight on the bar at the gym.  What about the rest of life?  What do you suck at?  What sucks you in?  

Check out that little cartoon over there.  What's in that "Pit of Despair" for you?  It might be television or video games or even an unhealthy relationship.

I challenge you this week to look for something negative in your life that you can remove.  It could be avoiding a negative person at work or even just avoiding that chocolate chip cookie that knows your name.  Or perhaps you could ADD some positive behaviors.  Read for 15 minutes before you go to bed at night.  Go for a quick walk outside on your lunch break.  I bet you’ll be surprised how a few seemingly small behaviors can affect your overall mood.

Most of all, always accept that it’s a choice.  No one makes you do anything.  Even if there are circumstances beyond your control, you always choose how you respond.  You choose your behavior, you choose your mood, and you choose your life.  Choose not to suck at it.

My horn at the Riverwalk. At least I got a good photo, right?

Sitting is evil.  Let me tell you why.

Right now I’m sitting on my couch icing an old back injury.  When did it flare up?  The day after I sat on my butt for too long.

Last week I had a performance at the TMEA Convention in San Antonio.  I wanted to be be able to teach as much as possible that week, so I chose to make the trip in a day.  Yep.  That’s 6+ hours in the car, trapped in the same position.  It really didn’t feel too bad that day - walking around San Antonio in the sunshine made me feel better after the first leg of the trip, and I stretched a bit when I got home that night.  But Friday morning’s back squats did me in.  The weight wasn’t particularly heavy for me, and I wasn’t getting sloppy on form.  My posterior chain just wanted to express its opinion of my car trip.

So enough about my booty.  Do you sit on yours too much throughout the day?  One of the worst things about our modern lives and conveniences is how much we sit.  Really.  Take a minute and calculate how much time you spend on your butt.  It might be easier to think about how much time you spend on your feet and subtract that from 24...

We know there’s the hour of CrossFit.  Do you sit at your job during the day?  Sit for meals, maybe catch happy hour, watch t.v. in the evening, etc.?  There have been tons of studies lately on how we sit a lot more than we used to, how bad it is for us, and how even daily exercise can’t always counteract the negative effects of a mostly sedentary lifestyle.  Rather than posting all of that data for you, I’m going to challenge you to a little n=1 experiment: Sit less this week.  Here are some ideas for you:

1) Take a break every hour to at least stand up.  Walk down the hall to get some water, walk up and down a flight of stairs, or heck, just bang out some air squats at your desk.

2) When you see your smoking co-workers go out for their “break”, walk outside and get a few minutes of sunshine while they suck on a cigarette.

3) Do as much work as you can standing up.  Make yourself a standing work station.  Walk around and gesture when you talk to people.  They’ll pay more attention to you, and you’ll get off your booty.

4) Take a walk on your lunch break.  The sunshine will improve your mood (and immune system), and the light movement should improve your digestion.

5) Stand during meetings.  Take a clipboard so you can still take notes if you need to.

6) Take a walk in the evening after dinner.  Turn off the t.v. and do some chores around the house.

7) Park far away.  Forget how to operate elevators and escalators.

8) Drink water throughout the day.  If nothing else, you’ll have to make a bathroom trip every couple of hours.

Pick a few things that fit your work and life situation and try them out this week.  See if you feel better.  If you must make a long car trip, be sure to stop frequently, take a foam roller, and maybe wedge a lacrosse ball between you and the seat on any of your known problem spots.  Whatever you do, don’t just sit there!!

I have to say that I hate the way most people apply these phrases.  How many times have you seen someone use the above sentiments as an excuse to behave irresponsibly?  They rationalize eating poorly, skipping workouts, and spending more than they earn by saying “life’s too short...”.  Do you know what Chris Rock has to say about that?

“You know, some people say life is short and that you could get hit by a bus at any moment and that you have to live each day like it’s your last.  Bull****.  Life is long.  You’re probably not gonna get hit by a bus.  And you’re gonna have to live with the choices you make for the next fifty years.”

My application of the “carpe diem” sentiment is to always look at the big picture.  Where you are right now in your life is the result of a series of choices.  Sometimes small, seemingly insignificant choices add up to a big change in the direction of your life.  Think about it for a minute.  Your career, your family, your financial situation, your health... all of these are the direct result of a series of daily choices you have made.

Health is a biggie for me.  I see so many people “seizing the day” by carpe-ing too much beer-em and pizza.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I love pizza and beer, too.  I also think it’s ok to kick your heels up once in a while and do some dietary off-roading... as long as it’s only once in a while.  Those little dietary choices add up over the course of a week, a month, a year... 

I follow Lindsey Valenzuela on facebook, and I remember right after the 2012 Games, she was posting about her cheat meals.  I only saw two... maybe three posts about the junk she ate, and in her final post she exclaimed, “I only do this once a year!”  How many of us take off a meal or two every week??  Now, most of us aren’t Games athletes, but think about that for a minute.  We think we’re being healthy if we only ‘cheat’ once a week.  She cheats once a year.  Next time you complain about your (lack of) athletic progress, think about that again.

Alright, so most of us aren’t going to be competitive at that level, so what’s our motivation?  Well, have you looked around at the sorry state of most people’s health in this country?  Young, old, fat, thin... most Americans are just plain sick.  Tired, weak, depressed... never mind obese, diabetic, etc.

So look at it a different way.  When you’re choosing between meat and veggies or pizza and beer, remember that you only live once.  What do you want your life to look like?  What do you want your health to look like?  Most diseases that plague modern humans are 100% controllable with lifestyle.  I’m not exaggerating.  What you eat and how you move will affect whether your life is filled with medical procedures, prescription meds, chronic pain, and lethargy... or energy, vitality, health, and good moods.  So, seize the day.  Eat and move with purpose, and do your part to fill your life with as much good as possible.  Do something today your future self will thank you for.  After all, you only live once.

‘Twas the night before CrossFit, and all through the box
not a creature was stirring, none with long socks.
The rings were all hung on the pull-up bars with care,
In hopes that St. Pukie would NEVER be there;
The athletes were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Power Cleans danced in their heads;
And Coach in his hoodie preparing to leave,
Had just writ’ a WOD that’d make athletes heave.
He sprang to the board to write it in a snap,
Picked up a marker, and threw off the cap.
“Now Box Jumps, Now Snatches, Now Rowing and Pull-ups!
On Deadlifts, On Wall Balls, and Ten Handstand Push-ups!
To the top of the bar, to the bottom of your squat!
Now Sprint away!  Sprint away!  Give it all you’ve got!”
The coach looked with pride at the WOD he had writ,
He knew it’d take muscle, speed, and some grit.
And when morning did come and the timer did glow,
The coach yelled with glee, “Now 3, 2, 1, GO!!”

Inspired by “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore.

We’ve all heard it, right?  “Be careful of the company you keep.”  Or, as Jim Rohn said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”  Think about that for a minute.  Does that make you want to be more selective about your friends, or which co-workers you’ll hang out with?

Here’s a great blog post from CrossFit Lisbeth on this topic.  “You will survive bad lifts, bad loves, and foolish choices.”  None of us is perfect.  We’re all going to struggle, do stupid things, and hit a wall.  When those tough times come up, how will the people around you respond?  Will they tell you to pick yourself up and keep going?  Or will they shake their heads in pity and leave you on the ground?  I hope we’ve all experienced by now that the most powerful thing about CrossFit is that your WODmates will not only encourage you to pick up and keep moving, but they’ll also get dirty with you.  How many of you have had someone run your last lap with you, or do your last few burpees with you?  Where else in life does that happen?

Now let’s take a second and turn that around.  Are you the kind of person whom someone else would want to be like?  Do you think your friends read something like “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” and count YOU as a benefit?  Remember, life isn’t just about what YOU can get from others.  What are you contributing?  Are you an asset to your family, friends, and community?  Do you encourage your fellow CrossFitters, or slip out the door as soon as your score is posted?

I believe in the physical philosophy of CrossFit - the “functional movements executed at high intensity” and all that.  But most of all, I believe in the community.  As Greg Glassman put it, “Most of the problems with the bodies and minds of the folks occupying the current culture involve an unwillingness to do anything hard, or anything that they’d rather not do. I applaud your resolve, and I welcome you to the community of people who have decided that EASY will no longer suffice.”

As you visit the box day after day, take full advantage of the community of hard workers.  It will absolutely push you to accomplish things you never thought possible.  But don’t forget the other side of the coin.  Pay that encouragement forward.  No matter where you are as an athlete, you can absolutely inspire someone else to work harder, lift heavier, or even just finish that workout, no matter how long it takes.  Be someone worth being around.