Every 3 minutes for 21 minutes:
20 Jumping lunges, bear hugging a medball, 20#(14#)
100 Meter sprint
*Score = slowest time to complete the the 20 lunges and sprint
Post score to comments and BTWB
Ahhh yes, the holiday season is upon us. The season of work parties, family get togethers, homemade desserts, endless bottles of wine, and a varietable buffet of appetizers. It’s the time of year we love because it brings families together but unfortunately it’s a time of year many of us hate because we fear our inability to say no, our inability to show minor restraint, and our inability to consume in moderation. Here are actual things I’ve heard people say in the past few weeks leading into the holiday season:
“I’m going to stop worrying about my diet. Why? Because it’s the holidays, I already know I can’t keep up with it.”
“I guess we’ll see how my body (speaking about it’s physique) holds up through the holidays.”
And my recent personal favorite, the Facebook call out after announcing the Body Fat Test would be coming to Verve on December 3rd. . .
“The week after Thanksgiving- brutal.”
Brutal? Really? I’m about to lay a truth bomb on you all right now. . . if you have spent a considerable amount of time paying attention to what you put in your pie hole throughout the year, on top of which you come to Verve consistently to get your daily WOD on, what can you possibly think you can do to your body in one evening of consumption that it will all suddenly be undone?
I’m going to drop an additional truth bomb on you. . . stop using the holidays as an excuse. Yes, there will be parties, yes there will be desserts and adult beverages. . . but those things will not be placed in front of your face 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the next 4 weeks. We are talking about single meals in a day. We can all make plans throughout the rest of the day that set us up for success when we get to the party and want to throw down at the open bar and buffet. Knowing that we may have a fairly hefty, unhealthy meal in the evening doesn’t mean we should just throw caution to the wind and eat with reckless abandon the whole day. There is no need to say to one’s self “screw it, it’s the holidays.” Unless of course you want to. Maybe “the holidays” is your CrossFit Games. Maybe this is what you have been training for all year. If that’s the case, godspeed my friend, and may the force and all delicious pastries, be with you.
But if you are one of those people that says “screw it” but come January 3rd you hate yourself, you hate your body, and you utter one of my favorite phrases of all time. . .”Alright, now I’m gonna get back on it”, how about you just stay on it. . . don’t leave it. As I said earlier, if you already pay attention to what you eat and you workout constantly, staying as close to on track as possible won’t leave you with nearly as much damage control at the end of this time of year. You don’t need total restraint, a minor to moderate amount of restraint will still leave you in pretty good shape. Here are a few tips/ thoughts:
1) Don’t skip meals. Your body is a machine that must be fueled throughout the day. If you were driving a car and knew you were about to take it on a long haul, would you stop putting gas in it until that time? It needs to run to get you through all the minor trips along the way. So eat, throughout the day, just as you would any other day. Don’t show up to the family dinner starving because you wanted to “save” all your calories for the big meal. It doesn’t work like that.
2) Since you are going to eat throughout the day, the best things to eat are lean proteins. I think we all know that when we get to the party all we want to shove in our faces are all the sweet, delicious, scrumptious carbs. Which carbs? All of them. The alcoholic kind, the mashed kind, the baked kind. . . no one is walking to the dinner table wondering where that delicious side of lean chicken breast is, we want the dinner rolls. So focus on those wonderful protein choices earlier in the day.
3) Drink plenty of water. In general many of us have a feeling of being hungry when in actuality it’s really us being dehydrated. It helps you feel full and helps with the hang over, so drink up.
4) It would be easy to say those cliche tips like, “keep your hands full so you won’t be able to grab food”, “stay an arm’s length away from munchies”, “eat before you get to the party”, “bring your own healthier food”. . . yada, yada, yada. But none of that is fun and the reason we work so hard to be healthy throughout the year is to allow room for fun. So have fun. . . but keep the fun to one meal a day. Or to one day of the week. Try to avoid the mindset of “screw it”. You work hard, don’t give up so easily. It’s only food.
Now go forth and enjoy the holidays.
