Show Your Love in February
Welcome February, the month of love. Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day has a bloody and blurry past. According to Walks of Italty.com, "Saint Valentine of Valentineâs Day was one of two guys preaching the good word in Rome in the third century. One of these two was martyred on February 14th 269, thus giving us the date for his eponymous day."
Oh my! Fast forward 1,755 years and we a have holiday celebrating love and all things pink, red and glittery. Roses, chocolate, wine and sweets have their moment in the spotlight in 2 weeks. This is a challenge for some of us who are still trying to course correct from a sideways food choices in December and January. I propose that we try something new for this year's celebration of love. Why not turn it into a FUN 30 day challenge of love and gratitude? I came across this super fun 30 day challenge when I purchased my new Commit30 planner. I love all the creative ideas for showing the people in our lives how much we appreciate them. Of course, if you have no one for acts 5, 12, 23, 29, and 30, you can opt to give a big hug to your coach:) âYou could, of course, complete the challenge by doing these acts of kindness for anyone in your life. Let's spread the love this month! Let me know in the comments if you plan to take on the Commit30 Show Your Love Challenge:)
Femme Fatale Week is Feb 12-17!
0 Comments
Your Period is Your Super Power
Last year I completed Dr. Stacy Sims online Menopause course. I learned SO MUCH about female hormone cycles. Dr. Sims asserts that women are not small men and what I learned in the course certainly emphasizes that!
Obviously, the biggest difference between men and women are our hormones. We women have an amazing and fantastic super power, it is the regular hormonal shifts of our menstrual cycle. It really is a source of POWER and not a curse! There are four distinct phases to our menstrual cycle. Tracking your cycle can help you harness your super power and understand what is happening to you in each phase. Week One: Early Follicular or Menstrual Phase - sex hormones are low and we adapt especially well to training. This is when we are actively bleeding. This is a great time to set new PRs and lift heavy shit. Here are Dr. Sims's tips for this phase. Performance tips: Take advantage of your hormonal profile and be sure you're well fueled and go for it. Even with heavier bleeding and cramping, a few sets of 20s sprints will help promote a boost in growth hormone and anti-inflammatory responses, to help get through these few days; but if you feel like you need to rest, go for it; listening to your body is key
Week Two: Ovulation and Mid-Follicular Phase - When you ovulate you get a surge of estrogen, an anabolic hormone, which means we build all the muscle and get STRONG during this phase. Here are Dr. Sims's performance tips for this phase. â
Performance tips: Some women may feel flat around ovulation and then bulletproof a day later; others feel the opposite. Take advantage of this bulletproof feeling and nail your lifts. Sleep has a performance boost here too. Your core temperature is at its lowest point when estrogen surges, which can help you get into a deep, restorative sleep
Week Three: Early-Luteal Phase - The body prepares for a potential pregnancy by increasing both estrogen and progesterone. This reduces our training adaptations and we may experience low energy. This is a good time to not push the lifting PRs and go for moderate intensity in our workouts. Showing up is a win in the early-luteal phase. Here are Dr. Sims's performance tips for this phase.
Performance tips: Progesterone's main job is to shuttle glucose and amino acids away from the liver and skeletal muscle to build a lush endometrial lining. This increases your energy needs slightly, so you may feel you need to eat more. Make sure you fuel well in and around your training to keep out of a low energy state, and to signal muscle synthesis, not breakdown!
Week Four: Mid-Luteal Phase - This is HIGH PMS time! Bloating, cramping and all the other symptoms are making life challenging. This is a great time to allow yourself to work on technique and reduce intensity. Give yourself permission to go at 70% effort during this phase. Here's what Dr. Sims advises:
Performance tips: If you experience significant PMS symptoms, you can try countering the inflammatory responses that create these: taking 250mg magnesium, 45mg zinc, 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acids, and 80mg aspirin or white willow bark
If you still have a monthly cycle lucky you! You can track it on your Whoop or with a Period Tracking App. By knowing your hormonal shifts you can learn WHY you feel the way you do and make appropriate decisions about your training. You can also give yourself some GRACE!
For those of us in menopause we have a wholly different hormonal shift and I'll explore that in the weeks to come. â
Click here to read the entire article on understanding your menstrual phase.
Here's to being informed and being a women in total control of herself:) â âPoop Health
Pooping, the frequency, the volume, the consistency, etc., has been a concern of folks for a long time. Did you know that enema use, according to the Lavage Wellness Center, "is 'one of the oldest medical procedures still in use today.' Tribal women in Africa, and elsewhere, routinely use it on their children. The earliest medical text in existence, the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, (1,500 B.C.) mentions it."
No Shit:) Talking about poop makes most of us giggle. Great, laugh away. But, no body laughs when you haven't pooped in days. Or your poop is suddenly a pressing problem. Your poop is an important indicator of your health and there a boat load of things that impact it. I recently came across this great post by the brilliant duo of women doctors behind the Unbiased Science podcast. Have you experienced an epic coffee poop or period poop? Here's some info on why these things turn you into a smooth operator. â Coffee: while not fully understood, there are some working theories. First, coffee (caffeinated and decaf) contain chlorogenic acid. This leads to secretion of gastrin in the stomach, which stimulates smooth muscle contractions in the GI tract, called peristalsis, to move stool through the gut. However, caffeinated coffee has a greater impact than decaf, so there is likely a contribution from caffeine. Data suggest that caffeine relaxes smooth muscles in the GI tract, which promotes BMs.
I want you to pay attention to your poop. I give a $h!t about you, and I want you to give a $h!t every day and pay attention to it.
Your poop can give you a big insight into your health. It's shape, smell, consistency and frequency can clue you in to the affect of your lifestyle choices. Here is a great infographic about poop health from the Precision Nutrition folks.
Now that you know what you're paying (poo-ing?) attention to, I challenge you to keep track of your poo for the next week. Starting today, I want you to note the frequency, consistency and aroma of your poop. You can keep a handwritten poo-journal next to your toilet, or you can step into the future and download a poop-tracking app for your phone. YES! They exist. You can find one that fits your poop-lifestyle here: The Best Poo Tracking Apps. Good luck!
Consistency Creates Momentum and Momentum Creates MotivationIt's natural at an auspicious transition time, such as the New Year, to commit to a resolution or try to establish a new habit. Most research shows that the second Friday in January is the fateful day when most of our annual commitments start to crumble. Holy Moly! That means most of our best intended "This Year I will..." statements we made on New Year's Day will fail by this Friday, Jan 112. Surely there must be a way for us to stick to our resolutions? Yes, there is. For one, you can make better goals. Check out this blog post on this very subject. You can also harness the positive power of MOMENTUM to help you stay motivated. Many folks erroneously believe that those who successfully lose weight, or quit drinking, or quit smoking, or stick to a fitness routine have some deep well-spring of intrinsic motivation. Nope, successful people create small, consistent wins that help them build a streak to keep them motivated. Consistency creates momentum and momentum creates motivation. Think about it, when you are starting something new, a small success feels so good that you want to continue. This is true for everything in life. All you need is one small win, then another, then another, string together a bunch of consistent small wins and you're on your way baby! That's the idea behind a very cool app called Habit Share. Habit Share helps you create daily wins and celebrates your success. It's available for Android and iPhone users. A bunch of us in the gym are using it for our 75 (Not so) Hard. You can see that I have created 4 daily and 1 weekly habits for which I want to create a winning streak. At the end of each day, or whenever I complete the habit, I check it off in Habit Shares and I get rewarded. The longer my streak continues the more I feel like I'm winning. I also like how Habit Share tells you the percentage of time you've completed your habit. Sometimes we just need to get a 70% streak for something to become established.
You can use Habit Share for daily, weekly or monthly habits. You can also set it up to help you break bad habits like smoking, gambling, etc. You can set reminders and totally customize it for your life. It's pretty darn cool. I have also shared my habits with the other folks in the gym who are also doing a 75 (Not so) Hard. We've shared our habits and get alerts when each checks in. By sharing our habits we are being accountable to each other. We can encourage each other and provide support. What are the habits you're working on for 2024? Share with us in the comments or via Habit Share. |
Special EventsRecord your WOD on Beyond the Whiteboard.
Do you need CrossFit or yoga gear? Click on the links below to buy through our GORUCK, Reebok, Rogue or Affiliate share sale programs. These are affiliate links and our gym will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.
Check out our Flickr page!
Categories
All
Archives
April 2024
|