I get all fired up and excited around the Crossfit Open. I think all of us Crossfitters do. There is something about the anticipation of the announcement of the open workout each Wednesday that has me waiting by the computer to find out the workouts and watch them. I had a pretty awesome moment with my 7-year-old daughter yesterday. She walked by my computer while workout 13.2 was about to start. As Annie Thorisdottir and Lindsey Valenzuela started hammering away at Shoulder to Overheads, Deadlifts and Box Jumps, my daughter’s eyes lit up. She was asking a million questions, “was that our gym?”, “is that the the Olympics”, “I love her socks, will you get me some like that?” and, “wow they are strong!” .

It got me thinking about the shirt that Lindsey Valenzuela was wearing that said in the interview prior to the workout that said, “strong is the new skinny”. I grew up playing all kinds of sports. But, as a young girl, the only female athletes I remember are Mary Lou Retton, Peggy Fleming and Martina Navratilova (yes I am THAT old). Don’t get me wrong, all those women are incredible athletes and great role models. But, I think I was taller than Mary Lou Retton by the time I was 10, (probably weighed more than her too), and I was never interested in figure skating or tennis. It wasn’t until junior high that I remember really looking up to women who were competitive athletes.

I realize it was probably a dorky mom moment, but I was so excited about sharing those few minutes with my daughter yesterday. And, she has been exposed to Crossfit (she’s taken classes from Bre and Heather and loves coming to the gym, by the way) in all these different ways. As a parent, you worry about how your actions impact your kids, and about all the things they are exposed to. One trip to the grocery store and they get bombarded with several celebrity females that I would argue are not the best role models. So, the opportunity to see women kicking butt in a setting we never would have imagined 20 years ago is pretty awesome.

There are many things I love about San Carlos Crossfit, but one of them is that my kids are always welcome. They get to see me, and a lot of other awesome women and men, running, jumping, doing pull-ups, handstands, climbing ropes, lifting weights, etc. And, yesterday, I saw a glimpse of my daughter understanding the more competitive world of Crossfit. Now, whether she remembers Annie Thorisdottir’s name in 30 years is another story, but for today I’ll take it!

Steven (on the right) and his older brother Ryan Scott who, among many other talents, was a contestant on Bravo TV's Top Chef season four in Chicago.

Hey SCCF athletes, Thanksgiving is coming, a season for giving.   As you know, many are not as fortunate as the majority of us are.  Among our awesome members, Steven Scott, is a Firefighter with the City of Belmont,  he became member of SCCF since just after the doors opened.  He and his family have started a charity and we think it is a perfect opportunity for us to contribute and help the needy.   Steven wrote an assay describing his charity and the their needs.. Please read it below:

 “Six years ago my family started an annual charity that feeds 5,000 bay area homeless on Thanksgiving Day. The charity is called Harvest From The Heart (harvestfromtheheart.com) and is the brainchild of my older brother Ryan Scott who, amongst many other talents, was a contestant on Bravo TV's Top Chef season four in Chicago.  Additionally he owns two restaurants in San Francisco called Market and Rye, has a weekly radio show on Saturdays on KGO 810 from 4-6pm called Cooking With Ryan Scott, and his own national TV Show on ABC-7 The Live Well Network called Food Rush.   As I previously stated this year 5000 of the Bay Area's less fortunate will be fed a great home-style bagged lunch on Thanksgiving Day that includes a delicious Turkey sandwich, a scrumptious bean salad, a freshly made cupcake, a hand written Thanksgiving Day card from a local grade schooler, a bottle of water, and a brand new pair of socks (overwhelmingly the number one request by meal recipients in year one of the charity). This year, however, because we upped the number of meals from 3,000 to 5,000 we are short a few thousand dollars and a couple thousand pairs of new socks. $20 feeds 10 people, and although they may never know your name or where the food came from, you'll know that you helped someone in need, and for many of us it'll be someone local. Please go to Harvestfromtheheart.com today and give a little back. Unfortunately we are all booked as far as volunteers for the year, but there's always next year and we could really use your generous donations.  The website has paypal, or you may drop off a bag of new socks at San Carlos Crossfit by noon on Wednesday the 21st.  And yes this is a government recognized 501c(3) charity and you may write your donation off of your taxes if you so choose.  Believe me, if you could see the appreciation on the faces on Thanksgiving Day you'd give a lot more than $20"

We hope that SCCF athletes will step up and donate on line at harvestfromtheheart.com, we will also have a box at the gym where you can bring new socks to donate.    Please consider a donation to this awesome cause.

We're working on getting the calendar updated, but in the meantime here are our Holiday hours. Mark your calendars for  our Holiday Party on December 7th!

One of the misconceptions about crossfit is that it is hardcore elite fitness.  Just the description in the main page about how it was developed for the British elite forces really makes “regular” people afraid of what it might be.    But what if you are not a member of the elite armed forces, a member of the swat team or gifted athlete..   What if you, like the 99% of us, are a regular guy, a mere mortal?..     What if you are suffering from a disease that is actually threatening your life, your well being, whether it is diabetes, a brain tumor, cancer etc.   Could you CrossFit?

The short answer is yes… the long answer is OOOHHYYYEEAAA!!

I have seen remarkable transformations at SCCF over the last two years, including my own. People have come to SCCF completely out of shape and now they are incredible athletes.   Do you remember your first workout?  How did you feel about it?  How do you feel about it now?.   Most importantly, I have experienced or I am experiencing an unexpected bonus.

As you know, I am a brain tumor survivor and just recently had my regular checkup..  it turns out that my brain tumor is back and in a week, I will have  yet another brain surgery.    But here is the bonus, the size of the tumor is big that it should have given me some major symptoms by now, yet I am experiencing none. Why?… because I am in good health, and I push myself physically all the time.   It was as if the brain scan wasn't mine…  and I wish it wasn't… CrossFit will not only get you in the best shape of your life,  it will also keep you there.

I saw a video about “what is your excuse” and it really hit home because we usually have a million excuses for not working out.   And I truly believe that our health and happiness have no price and we should put them in the front line   Being fit and happy is the best thing you can do for yourself, and for the ones you love. Being fit and happy will affect the way you feel, the way others feel about you and most importantly….  It will keep you healthier.

It does not matter where you are right now; keep challenging yourself and you will experience what I have experienced….   Happiness, fitness and health…

For an unathletic, self professed nerd, I have made a great amount of improvements in my physical life. Going from never exercising to exercising every day, I feel awesome, I feel healthy (more on that on a later post) and I feel thankful.

I don’t think I will on the cover of men’s fitness anytime soon, but I have learned a bit about what it takes to get in shape and most importantly remain in shape.  Although anybody will tell you that eating right and exercise will do the job there is a third component that nobody is talking about.

I call it the hidden treasure and together with diet and exercise, it forms what I call the CrossFit holy Trinity.   What is it you might ask?  It is attitude.  (A settled way of thinking or feeling typically reflected in a person’s behavior).   What does that mean?   It means that for your transformation to become complete, you must exercise, you must eat right, and finally you must have the right attitude.   You combine those three and you have found the recipe for success.

Have you seen those people, I call them downers, who, even when things go well for them, manage to find something to complain about?  There are people who say, "No I can’t" even before they try something.  There are people who find something wrong with everything and everyone.  Don’t be one of those people,  or I’ll hide you from my Facebook feed.

The point of this post is to make sure you work on your nutrition and your gym skills. Attaining the right mind set is just as important. All together these will make you a better person, a better athlete a better friend, husband, wife, partner, parent, etc.

As people, our lives are influenced and shaped by a bunch of factors. Relationships are definitely at the top of the list.  Our values, habits, behaviors, passions and attitudes are definitely learned by association with others.   Therefore, if you want to change your attitude, hang out with people you want to emulate.

Eat right, work out hard, and get in the right mindset-that is the CrossFit Holy Trinity!!

In more than one occasion you probably heard me saying “you are stronger than you think you are”  or “when you think you can’t go any longer, you actually can”.  Those two have been my mantras since….. well… since my brain tumor (but that is another story).  CrossFit actually is a culture that allows us to see our potential, to see how far we can go.  I have heard many things yelled by a lot of people during workouts, including but definitely not limited to the traditional four letter words and or the grunts that come with them… you know what I am talking about.  We all have heard them and have made us laugh or shake our heads.

A couple of days ago,  I had an epiphany about CrossFit and how it has helped me to build my mental toughness,  “I can do another set”,  “I can lift another few pounds”, “I can actually go faster”, “I am stronger that I think I am”.  I have been lucky enough to see people transform their bodies and their attitude after started to train with us.   It has been inspiring and I ask myself:  do you know how strong you are?   When you come to the gym, what is your mental attitude?  I doubt that you come thinking I’ll lift as little as possible or I’ll try harder next time I come.

Think about that, for a moment, next time you are in the middle of a WOD,  or anything for that matter,  think about that.  Think how far you have come and how far you still have to go. Think about when was the last time someone (outside of your CrossFit friends) pushed you to be better, to be stronger, and to be awesomer!!  Take advantage of that encouragement and aim higher.

I have a few friends that go to a “traditional” gym and simply pretend to workout and assume that that is the norm.  I get the feeling that a lot of my friends outside of the CrossFit culture are OK with that.   That, it is Ok to aim low, it is OK to cheat on your reps, that it is ok to go to the gym and read a magazine while riding a bike and call it a “workout”.  It is NOT OK at SCCF, we are really not interested in making the WOD easier for you, but we definitely will modify the WOD so you work as hard as you can.

Just remember, you are stronger than you think you are.   With that attitude you will change your own expectations and deliver more.  You will surprise yourself…

Ok SCCF boys and girls…  this is the time to look back at the ending year and think about what you would like to accomplish in the new year…  yes…  your “new year’s resolutions” ...you got that right…  the ones that most people make, the ones that we might share with a few people, stick to them for a few days, weeks and perhaps one or two months but they eventually fall to the side and get forgotten.

I think it is time to redefine and be different this year.   You can keep your Personal resolutions to yourself… things like (cook more, watch less tv, talk more to your spouse, STOP SMOKING). However, I would like to challenge you to stop going to the box “Just Because”.   Everyone that comes through SCCF doors should have a goal that want to achieve or something they want to change.  Of course no goals is too big or too small, No one’s goal is any more important or valid than anyone else’s goal. They come from many different places. Some goals come from pride and a desire for a new personal best at something. Some come from family and not wanting to suffer a preventable death like that of a loved one. Some from vanity…who doesn’t want to look better naked? The bottom line is that they are very personal and extremely important to the individual.

Let’s have everyone in SCCF take a few days and really think about why you are here, what keeps you working so hard here, and what do you want from this.

We encourage you to pick up a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the goals you want to reach. Look at each goal and evaluate it. Make any changes necessary to ensure it meets the criteria for a SMART goals:

• S = Specific
• M = Measurable
• A = Attainable
• R = Realistic
• T = Timely

“I Want to look good naked” is a great goal but tough to quantify and measure. Goals can range from races you will run, weights you will lift, weight you will lose, anything you want as long as it fits into the above categories.

So remember,  you are at SCCF because you want to achieve something.  It is time to get specific about it.  Write them down, share it with your coach, mentor or friends and get busy achieving them.

Please post your Your Goal to the comments section if you dare!!

This is one of the dishes we served in my recent wedding: Meat and Veggies...it was Yummy!!

As many of you know, I was a vegetarian for a very long time.  After years of eating tofu, avoiding meat and consuming incredible amounts of soy milk, I had no doubt I was doing something right.  I was above all of you “meat eating individuals”, both morally and health wise.  I am all about saving the environment, and reducing my carbon print in this world.  I am also totally against the current practices of industrial farming.  I think it is wrong and inhumane to grow animals in those conditions.

I grew up in home where we would grow our own food including our own chickens, sheep and cows  During my long years of vegetarianism, every vacation I took and headed home, my mom would try to do two things:    a) Get me to eat meat again and b) find me a nice hometown girl to marry.  She never succeeded at neither of those two.

I turned vegetarian long before I became an endurance athlete and I didn’t know the difference animal protein would have in my body.   I always ate plant base protein and that is how I rolled. Branden kept nagging me about changing my eating habits.  It really got annoying.  I was a vegetarian, damn it, and it worked well for me.  However, he planted a seed of change.  I started to read about the paleo diet and it all started to make sense, from a physiological point of view.  But it didn’t make much sense, to me at least, from a moral stand point of view.   Animals are living entities that we need to respect and protect.  I finally realized that I should have one priority and one priority only, my health.  After tons and tons of reading about the paleo diet, I decided to give it a try.   I won’t go into the details here. Please talk to me if you want to know more.

In all of my readings about paleo,  I noticed that most of the examples where people shared success stories dealt with seriously unhealthy and overweight people.  The claims that going paleo yielded incredible results had me seriously questioning the validity of this. Wouldn't just getting off the couch and into the gym make an incredible difference?  I consider myself a fit individual and I didn’t have any serious issues with my diet, so why make the change?

I would avoid Branden and his constant nagging about me going paleo. But, I saw people having incredible results because of CrossFit and their “paleo” lifestyle so after a year and a half of CrossFit, I decided to give it a try.

I wanted to track the changes I might undergo, so I went to see my doctor and explained to him what I was about to do.  We talked about the possibilities that my body and my digestive system would go crazy if I introduced meat at once.  I also decided to take some blood markers and see where my cholesterol, calcium, etc was and compare it after going paleo for 30 days or so.  The doctor was also very curious about what we would find.             That afternoon, I ate meat for the first time in many years.  Oliver and Jim took me to a steak house and my first meat dish was a prime rib.  It took me a few minutes to get the courage to do what I was about to do.  I grabbed my fork and knife and went at it; it didn’t feel gross or anything like that. It felt fine and it was so freaking delicious.  That night, I went paleo cold turkey and after dinner I headed home and tossed the bread, tofu, soy milk and … just like that, I was on paleo.  It has been a few months now already and I haven't looked back.

 Here are the differences I have found:

·Energy level. It has gone pretty high.  I am always doing something and my energy level has increased tremendously.

·Better sleep. For many years, I thought waking up a couple of times at night and going to the bathroom every night was normal.  It does not happen now.  I go to bed and I don’t wake up until the next morning.  I actually sleep through the night now and it feels great.

·Recovery.  I do recover faster now.  For those who don’t know me, I am an ultra athlete. In the past, it would take me a few days to recover from a race or a hard workout.   I would be sore all over for days. I feel much better now.

·Memory.  During my vegetarian years, I had to take vitamin B12 and other supplements as I often forgot things.   It scared the hell out of me because as you know, I have a brain tumor and memory loss was one of the first symptoms I experienced when I was diagnosed.   It turns out that after many years of vegetarianism, I needed to supplement my diet with vitamin B complex.  Going Paleo, my brain is sharper and I am not taking any supplements anymore.  It is incredible!

·Allergies. I can sum the results with three words "they are gone".     I used to be on a cocktail of stuff all the time, Allegra B in the morning, Claritin at night and nasal sprays among others . After I started paleo,  I forgot about renewing my prescriptions,  I don't need them anymore.

·Fitness.  My God, where do I start here?  This is something amazing. Before I went paleo, I never did RX weights or did them seldom.  After I went Paleo,  RX weights is not a big deal anymore.  I might not be fast, but I am actually doing them.  That is the most amazing marker I have encountered.  I am stronger and fitter.  I am doing an Ironman in two weeks and I am curious as to see how I will do on my first ironman as a meat eating athlete.

·Feel good.  This is by far the most important difference in my paleo experiment.   I feel good, I feel healthy and I feel stronger.

Overall I believe that Paleo diet in combination with a rigorous CrossFit regime will change the way you feel and most likely will change the way you look,  I guarantee it.  🙂