Woman, Nourish Yourself

One of the most important aspects of taking care of yourself is making sure you eat right, or for starters make sure you eat at all. We women fill many roles in life. And we keep ourselves so busy within these roles that we neglect ourselves, especially when it comes to eating a thing for lunch or dinner.

In my personal experience, the largest role I fill is that of housewife and mom. As a mom I am normally so busy helping with school work, trying to keep up with laundry, chasing a toddler, continually filling the dishwasher, errands, volunteer work, school meetings, (notice I didn't say actually cleaning my house), etc.... that it's common for me to look up at the clock to realize it's already late afternoon, and my stomach is telling me it needs some attention! And not only my stomach, my brain is also a bit fuzzy because it too is in need of some fuel.

I make sure my kids get a decent lunch, but often neglect to stop and sit myself down to eat.

Whatever role you are filling today, there's a very good chance that you have neglected yourself once again by not eating a decent lunch. And most likely you'll have a not so good dinner.

Maybe your role is as an office worker, compelled to stay at your desk by a large pile of files in your inbox. Or your role is in the medical profession, kept busy by the constant demands of patients and their lack of time management. Or your role is caretaker, caring for a sick or elderly relative, and constantly putting their needs before your own.

Woman, you need to take care of yourself. You need to make sure you get a break in the day and eat some lunch. No, a can of slim fast is not going to cut it. And no, a soda and a corn dog from the convenience store isn't going to cut it either.

Eating a good lunch or dinner will help make sure you have the fuel your body needs to make the necessary energy for the rest of the day. Without it, you most likely can't give he best you can give to whatever you are doing. If you don't love yourself enough to take care of yourself, how can you truly love others in your life?

A good nutritious lunch doesn't have to be complicated. But it helps if you do a little planning and a little prep work ahead of time. This way you're not hitting your lunch break on Wednesday, wondering what you're going to eat, and end up grabbing something from the snack machine because it's close at hand.

For example...

A quick mid week salad is easy to toss together if you take a few minutes to wash, dice, and slice a variety of veggies early in the week. Cook a whole turkey for dinner (or buy deli meat) and portion the leftover meat into zip lock baggies for a quick grab protein (freeze what you can't use within a few days, and just grab baggies out of the freezer as needed). Hard boil a dozen or two eggs for snacks throughout the week. Steam and mash several pounds of sweet potatoes for an easy lunch heat and eat side dish .

A good nutritious lunch doesn't have to be complicated.

Taking just a little time to take care of yourself in this way will go a long way in your effort to help others in your life.

The CrossFit approach...

"The CrossFit approach is to embrace, study, practice, and train for functional mastery. CrossFitters at every level are on the same path - moving from functional competence to functional dominance. Our almost complete reliance on functional movements is vital to the potency of the CrossFit protocol. We say, "The magic is in the movements."'

Greg Glassman
CrossFit founder and Coach

Rest Day Musings - Excuses and reasons

Excuses.

We all have them.

You know, those things you tell yourself as to why you can't workout today. Like "My kids/spouse/neighbours woke me up last night." or "I have dirty dishes in my sink.", or "Everyone will look at me and think I'm weird!" Most of the things we tell ourselves are really excuses to cover up the fact that we are stalling on doing the workout because
A) We are lazy.
B) We don't like the workout for the day.
C) We are afraid we can't do the workout of the day.
D) We are lazy and don't want to exert ourselves on the workout of the day.
(Did I mention we are lazy as one of the things our excuses cover up?)

But there are instances where we are telling ourselves things as to why we can't do the workout of the day, and they are not covering up laziness, or fear of the workout. They are legitimate reasons. They can include anything from injury, to emotional fatigue, to life throwing you a big curve ball, to not having mastered proper movement form to keep from killing yourself.

It's ok to have legitimate reasons to skip a workout, modify a workout, or do a different workout all together. Just don't let your reasons turn into excuses to keep you out of the game.

But how can you keep this from happening?

First, you have to really know yourself and be totally honest with yourself. You have to know what your fears are, your weaknesses are, and what your strengths are. If you consistently pass on workouts that have movements you are weak on or don't like, and substitute for a workout that has movements you are strong in, you will never strengthen your weaknesses.

Second, Hold yourself accountable! Keep yourself accountable to someone who knows you well. And who values your friendship or life enough to give you a swift kick in the fanny if you need it. Some one who knows you this well and values you can help you sort out the excuses from the reasons.

Third, eliminate all the excuses, or ignore them. So what if everyone looks at you and thinks you're weird? I'm sure someone else looks at them and things they are weird as well. Dirty dishes in the sink? They will still be there when you walk back in the door.

Fourth, take care of your reasons. Get sleep, eat right, listen to your body and don't workout if it's really telling you it needs rest. Haven't mastered the proper form of a movement? Get a good coach for a week or two of intensive one on one training. Whether you workout in a box or workout at home. Injured? Modify the movement or the workout.

Just for fun, here's a video Eva T did a while back of excuses heard frequently at CrossFit SantaCruz Central. See how many you can remember saying to yourself.

And please know I am totally preaching to myself on this subject. I've done pretty good this past week, but who knows about next week!

Be Blessed