7 years does not feel like 7 years.

I miss my friend. As I sit on my balcony in perfect beachfront southern California weather, I miss my friend. Is that selfish? I hope not, I hope with so many 'I's' in this blog that, that thought is not selfish. I want to see him. I want to talk to him. I want to hear his mocking tone again. Most of all I want to talk about life with him. Maybe it's selfish, maybe it's not. I never shared a legal beer with him, I never was able to give him advice on this, or have him tell me that I am being irrational on that. I never will be able to share the experiences I have had, and the people that have affected me, or my ability to have (hopefully) positive influences on the people I see everyday. What do we know at 19?  

It has been seven years, and still I will never forget the transformation that my friend Brian's (Bubba) death brought me, brought us. He was known by many, and loved by the dozens. He was killed at the age of 19, 19. The one that everyone loved, adored, and went to for help, whatever the need may be. He was the guy. Besides my parents he was the oldest and one constant in my life. 

I am twenty-six now, and to this day my life has felt as if I have lived two parts. A life prior to his death and one after. When I learned of his passing, I sat in silence for probably 5-10 minutes, I sat alone not really knowing how to respond. I was 19, ambivalent to the notion of death and at one enraging moment I punched the wall. That was my emotion, anger. Again, maybe thats selfish but thats how I left. However, I will never forget my time before this death, the moment of, and the time after. The moment of having to embrace his father, hug him, and share a disconnect followed be an emotional reconnect is something that imprinted itself on my brain forever. 

This is not about me, however, I feel that out of the experience that this is I can reach back for guidance and knowledge of life's lessons. Money problems, relationship problems, and other issues that matter not, really are small dips in the road. What are we doing? Working for a means to an end? Do we affect people and make the community around us better? The job I currently hold carries a strong ability to affect people in the randomness and most awesome ways. I sometimes take it for granted because at points I am selfish. I slept poorly, I managed my time incorrect and am running a bit late, or did not get to do the things I wanted to do during the day. All of those are not excuses but just what they are, excuses. My job has the ability to change peoples minds, to get rid of their negative feelings about themselves and change their life for the better. It is an empowering notion of self-improvement. It is beautiful actually, and to me if I can facilitate that, it brings about accomplishment that I can share with others and that makes me feel right.

I never got to share this with Brian. He was a beautiful person and made people around him better. I hope when I pass, or when I leave peoples lives that people can respond with 'I was better for knowing him', because I am better for knowing Brian. He was my best friend and cared for me when others didn't. I will never forget him and never let pass the emotions I feel on a constant basis, especially on the 28th of August. 

I love you and miss you.

Growth.

As a crossfit coach, I get many members and outsiders who assume too much. I am guilty of it myself at times, however too often I see gyms and the community get to wrapped up in the 'sexy met con'. Light weight met cons which is another form of circuit training. Doing light weight met cons all the time, is not how you get better (broad domains right?). There is a place and time for everything and 95# thrusters will always just be 95# thrusters if we don't attempt to improve our conditioning or strength in the areas we fall short.  I love Crossfit for what it can be. It is a tool to make people move better, faster and longer, if done right. What the community needs to understand is that we do the best job to our ability to create an atmosphere that can promote growth, mentally and physically, but we have to be met half way. Meeting us half way involves showing up and putting out you best effort (if you do not know what that is, look in the mirror and ask if you put it all out there), writing down daily what you do (weights, reps, sets, time, etc), listening to your body (if you have extra stress at home, sleeping bad, moody, maybe today isn't the day to come in, or maybe it is and you just want to hang out and see people). That is meeting us half way. With that being said, I often hear some people behind the scenes with some grumblings about 'programming' and relating it to their lack of gains (looking leaner, getting stronger).  We have to remember that we are here for workouts. The reason is this; a crossfit class is not a strength and conditioning class, it is a workout for the masses. NFL players have designed workouts on individual basis', not because of their large amounts of money but because they have different needs than you and I, just as a program designed for NFL players will differ from position to position.  You can only call it training if in fact you are training for something. Be a sponge when you have a good coach around. Listen to him/her and if you truly appreciate them, attempt to emulate the areas in which you want to aspire too. Pick your coaches' brains, if they are good, it can only be positive for the community. With that being said, if you aren't feeling the results you desire, talk. 

We cannot have it all. We cannot have continual fat loss with continuing strength gains. First we have to define what we want, there needs to be a plan, just as in strength and conditioning, there needs to be a direction. You cannot get better at running a 5k, snatching, and hand stand pushups all at the same time. Thats why in off-season sports programs (the good ones), it goes through progressions. Randomness will never get you better. Just as having a plan in training will get you to your goal, diet is the same way. 800m sprinters, olympic weightlifters, and Hockey players all eat differently, just as A 28 year old male at 8% body fat competing in the Crossfit Games eats differently then your 50 year old female doing a crossfit class 4 times a week. I hope you understand what I am getting at. We that do crossfit classes to 'look good naked' are eating for aesthetics, not performance. So when I hear complaints about paleo not working, I always tell them bluntly 'because you are doing it wrong'. I have never heard of anyone not loosing weight eating a steady diet of meat, vegetables, and healthy fats. 

Here are 10 things you need to be eating regardless if you are eating for performance or aesthetics:

10 things you must consume: (in no particular order)

1. Water, if you don't you will die (seriously). A gallon a day will help detoxify your body.

2. grassed beef - The fat in grassfed beef is not as high in omega-6(inflammatory fat) along with on the other side, fat from cows fed corn and soy their whole life along with antibiotics, have incredibly disgusting hormones and disease causing particles.

3. coconut - meat, butter, oil, water, in that order. Crack a coconut open and drink the water and scoop out the meat, put real coconut milk in your coffee is a creamer, and spoon some coconut butter for a perfect snack.

4. wild fish - if not consuming wild caught salmon, mackerel, or other fatty fish like these, fish oil should be taken.

5. blueberries, rasberries, and blackberries

6. eggs - pastured eggs are a great source of protein and fat and cheap.

7. leafy green veggies - kale and spinach need to be eaten on a daily basis. Lightly steam them, throw them in eggs (don't over cook them as nutrient density will diminish) or make a salad.

8. olive oil - Put EVOO on salads, on meats, on eggs, drink it even.

9. supplements - vitamin c (at least 3,000mg), b5(panothenic acid), and a b-complex. Hormones are the gateway to changing our body composition, b vitamins help with our adrenal glands which regulate many hormones in our body.

10. avocados - high in good fats, potassium (more than a banana per grams) and b-vitamins

Eat unlimited amounts of 1,2, 4, 7, and 8. Limit 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10.

10 things you are doing wrong with your diet/fitness (in no particular order)

1. You are not pushing yourself to the limit in your workouts. When is the last time you failed? When is the last time where you broke down in a class, mentally? Without failure, we will not know our limits.

2. You got sick, back squat max went down, and did not sleep well all week but continued to come to the gym. We only get better with rest, not work. If this is you, keep having bad numbers, crappy form and feeling bad. STAY OUT OF MY GYM (and rest of course)

3. You read about paleo and how you can eat unlimited amounts of meat fruit, nuts and veggies. The problem is the unlimited amounts of fruit and nuts. Guess what fruit is? It is sugar. Guess what happens when you eat sugar? Insulin spikes. Guess what happens when your insulin spikes and you are trying to loose weight? You do not loose weight, you store fat. Guess what that means? Limit insulin spikes. How do I limit insulin spikes? Eat meats, veggies, coconut, and olive oil. No nuts, and not a lot of fruit. Again if you are 7%body fat its different, if you are 27%body fat its different. Stop saying you eat paleo if you have fruit and almond butter for breakfast and lunch.

4. Calories matter to an extent. 3,000 calories of table sugar and 3,000 calories of broccoli will affect your body differently.

5. People hear me say that and think they can eat 10,000 calories a day of the above list, read number 3 everyday. Calories do count.

6. You ignore sleep. Sleep is when our body recovers.

7. You aren't lifting heavy enough weights. Lifting heavy weights (75% and above of your max) will not make you look like a body builder, it will make you look like an athlete. Compare 100m sprinter vs. a marathon runner. Guess what the first one does? Sprints, power lifts, and oly lifts. Guess what the marathon runner does, runs long slow distances. Guess what we do in crossfit?

8. You worry about finishing first vs putting out 100% effort with great form.

9. You eat too many 'paleo baked goods'. Eating almond flour and sweat potatoes with honey is gateway to fat. Limit this as a treat, just as you do other sweat things. Stay away from 'foods' like that. They are not food. 

10. Research intermittent fasting, I know many who have tried with great results. Large windows of fasting with smaller windows of feeding. If decided to do this, your food intake needs to be timed and well planned out