New evening hours as of Jan 30, 2012.

Monday through Friday Intermediate class - 5p and 6p.
MWF only will be an additional 4p class.

There wil be no changes to any other classes.  

Also, online sign ups are now going to be mandatory.  This is pretty common in the CrossFit world.  We've been fortunate enough to have enough space and equipment, but now the client to trainer ratio is just too big.  In an effort to keep the quality high, we're going to cap classes.

First off, you’re doing great.  I know how hard it is, been there.  It gets easier.  Promise.  Keep going.  You can do it.  If you’ve fallen off, restart.  Now.  Don’t wait for a special day, a full moon, or your personal chef to lower their prices.  Carpe diem!  (ok, that was a little cheesy.) 

First off, remember everyone is different.  We all have our own unique genetics, diets, backgrounds, sleep, stress, whatever.  This all plays a part.  Everyone is affected in different ways.  Because so and so is losing 20 pounds and you aren’t doesn’t mean you are doing something wrong.

Cravings.  How’s that going for you?  Yea…sucks.  I know.  Here’s what is going on.  Your body is craving sugar.  You might want a glass of wine (Harjit and Krissy, how ya doing?) or you could want a pizza.  It’s all a sugar craving.  If you give in and have a piece of chocolate those cravings will continue.  Do you offer a recovering alcoholic a beer?  How about a gambler, offer to bet on the game?  Same thing here. Stay strong, get through it, and keep it as short as possible.  My advice is to grab some approved jerky, fruit, or nuts to satiate brain.

Energy levels.  It will probably get worse before it gets better.  Expect your energy levels to be low, and even lower during workouts.  This is normal.  Your body is trying to find the old energy pathways it was designed to use.  You've built up years of carb addiction.  You are literally trying to force your body to switch and now use fat for fuel, or ketosis.  Good stuff.  Not to be confused with ketoacidosis.  Completely different and very hard to do for anyone who still produces insulin.  Most doctors will get this wrong.  

Digestive system.  You could be having issues.  Also normal.  You are probably putting a lot more vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. into your system so some of the nasty is coming out.  In addition, a lot of the flora and fauna in your gut which used to thrive on sugar is dying.  Also good.  This stuff is the reason people push probiotics.

Carb Flu.  Expect to get the sniffles.  There is a lot of toxins being pushed around and flushed out.  Your immune system is going crazy trying to beat them all back and get them out of the system.  It doesn’t have time to fight off the cold your kid brought home.  If it isn’t that serious, stay away from the anti-biotics.  Anti-biotics kill everything in your gut, good and bad.  You need that stuff to digest the good food you are putting in.

Body weight.  Stay off the scale.  And the real the reason for the post.  You are hopefully finally giving your lean body mass the fat and protein is needs.  Some folks will actually put on a little size as the body is taking all the good stuff and sticking it into starving muscles, but hasn’t figured out to burn off the fat yet.  If you are getting dunked this weekend, I support it.  If you think it will derail your mental state, either don’t do it, or ask him to give the results directly to us.

Seeing results could take a week, it could take six.  The good news is, once you get to ketosis, it will continue to burn fat as long as you stay there.  No weird cravings, life is much simpler.  A normal sized cheat meal a week, and you’ll be fine.  Trust us, it only gets easier.  If you don't trust us...ask Liz or Chuck.  They have done it successfully twice before, and are on round three.  For some of you, the magic won't kick in until week four or longer.  Just go with it.  

Hey folks, let me ask you something.  Who would you rather be?  A five-hour marathon finisher, or a 5 minute miler?  Think about it for a sec...and make sure.  Now this one in rhetorical.  Who would you rather be, the person who does Fran prescribed and finishes in 30 minutes, or the person who scales the thrusters back and does it in 5 minutes?  These two examples really are the same thing in my mind, and only one has any real training value and the other is more of a bucket list.

Intensity is the difference.  I can not stress enough how important this factor is.  Remember that whole, constantly varied, high intensity, functional movement thing?  Your body will make more adaptations exponentially faster if you keep the intensity high.  This is the difference between every other training program and CrossFit.  This is why CrossFit is sweeping the world.  This is why you see the differences in yourself so quickly.  

Your goal is this.  Finish at roughly the same time as the best athletes in the gym.  The way you get there is to properly scale your load (or volume) appropriately to achieve it.  You should know what you can do through experience and looking back through your training journal.  (You are logging your workouts, right?)

Also, do not be afraid to adjust the load/volume down in the middle of the workout.  We are completely ok with this.  If we have a 21-15-9 rep scheme and you can’t make it through at least 15 on the first set, you are too heavy.  If you make it through the entire workout unbroken you were too light, but don’t adjust up.  Crush it, log it, go heavier next time.

If you go heavy and have to constantly rest, you could also being doing more harm than good.  Heavy has it’s place, and it isn’t in your conditioning workout.  Your form is going to crap, which means you are over stressing your joints, ligaments, and tendons.  So even if you are living the rest of your life in recovery mode, you are setting yourself up for injury, stress, and constant set backs.  You might even see your fitness go down.  Don’t bring your ego in the gym.  Everyone is different.  You will see your best results by adjusting for you, not by trying to keep up with (insert arch-enemy here.)  Save the heavy for the strength-specific work.  We do enough of it in here, you get plenty of work. 

Now back to the two examples.  If you work hard to be a five minute miler, I can absolutely guarantee you, a 5 hour marathon finish will be a breeze.  If you work hard to check that marathon off the bucket list, you’re never going to hit a five minute mile.  Fran is the same way.  If you want a sub-five minute Fran, prioritize high intensity and low times, and you’ll get there a lot faster than trying to go prescribed and decreasing your time.  

2 cups raw walnuts (I added a little more)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 (12 oz) jar of roasted red-peppers - drained (I used a 16 oz jar)

1/2 tsp of salt (about 4 twists from my salt grinder)

2 garlic cloves (I added 5 cloves)

4 Tbls EVOO (I added 5 because it looked a little dry)

2 Tbls fresh parsley (more like a handful)

2 tsp lemon juice (I squeezed in 1 whole lemon)

Step 1.  In a food processor (I used my Vitamixer), combine the walnuts, cumin and salt until walnuts are finely ground.

Step 2.  Add everything else, and mix until smooth, like the consistency of hummus.

Amazing!!  Like I said, this stuff makes the Whole 30 very bearable!  Try it!

Also, I made the Walnut Pesto (page 172) for the grilled chicken breasts. (Thanks again to Krissy for the great idea!)

Anyhow, if you have questions, just shoot me an email.  Happy cooking!  ~Souther

Are you a current member and constantly get asked what you’ve done to get leaner, stronger, and more positive?  Would you like to spread the news AND get some benefit for it?  Just need something to talk to your friends about at a party?

January is referral month!  MISERY LOVES COMPANY!

For new clients:

• $75 for one month of Unlimited membership (50% off)
• $58 punch card (54% off)

For current members

• Every person you refer, you receive $25 off your February membership.
• Prizes for the most referrals: 1st place - Free month, 2nd place - Free sweatshirt, 3rd place - free T-shirt.
• Everyone who refers one person gets a decal.

The fine print:  This offer can not be used with past offers.  A new client must start their membership by February.  

A lot of our clients are going to start the food program called "The Whole 30."  This is strict paleo for 30 days.  No measuring, no counting calories, just eat.  Here is the link.

If it is recipes you need...

• Everyday Paleo
• Foodee
• Mark's Daily Apple Primal Recipes
• Robb Wolf's Recipe List

We would also suggest picking up a copy of Paleo Comfort Foods.

All of you who still have Groupons, please know we will be scheduling Intro classes next month.  They will be available for registration after the 25th.  It will appear on the left side of this page, below the calander.  

We also want to give you a little heads up on our holiday schedule.  

Due to the competition this weekend...
Saturday, Dec 17 No open gym, yoga at 8a is still on.
Monday, Dec 19 - No 6a class.

And our holiday schedule...

Friday Dec 23 through Sunday Dec 25 - Closed

The week of Dec 26 - 30 we will only be doing two intermediate classes and the evening foundations class.  We are going to run a 945a and our 545p classes along with our 6p foundations for the entire week.

We'll be closed New Years weekend, opening back up for normal business on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 6a.

The Black Friday Wrap Up.  We hope all the folks who spent a part of their Black Friday with us had a great time.  The workouts and the heats were ready and we were rolling pretty quick.  Each athlete was assigned to be a judge for an athlete in another heat.  In this way, we had plenty of judges and everyone had their own personal cheerleader.  We did ‘up’ the standards for the day, just to make judging easier on everyone.  The day started off with one rep max press.  Each athlete had a five minute warm up, then five minutes to find their max press.  We had more than a few personal records (PR) even with the short time frame.  The athletes then had a ten minute break before Helen (Three rounds of 400m run, 21 kettle bell swings, 12  pull ups).  We put everyone on the small rig while the later heats continued on the press.  Even climbing and hanging from nine feet up, more personal records.  Last up, a birthday chipper.  We introduced the new climbing wall and pulled out a new exercise or two.

At the end of the day, I can safely say everyone gave it their all.  This competition was really about competing against oneself.  No awards ceremonies, no trophies, just a sense of pride in what they can do in just a few hours.  (And maybe a little slice of gluten-free birthday cake.)  We’re very proud of all of you.  

Next up for the gym competition team, Ashley, Liz, Spencer, and Jason are headed to the Wod Gear Team Series.  Sunday, December 18 at Occidental College we’ll be competing against some pretty serious folks.  No matter where we place, we’re going to have a good time, push hard, and represent you folks as best as we can.  So if you happen to be on your way to Disneyland on Monday (because no one in their right mind goes on the weekend), stop by, say hi, yell at us.  Good times