Sunday Story…Detox

It’s that time of year when I hear people talk about detoxing and cleansing. And how they are going to take this or that potion or magic formula that will erase the last few weeks or months of immoderate living. Here is a news flash…although those things may make you feel better, they aren’t going to have your body detox any faster than it would anymore.

Your liver and your kidneys are miracle workers in the detox field. It is what they were designed to do…detox your body. Now, if you abused their workload and crippled their ability you may have to wait for them to get back up to speed. So if you have been eating poorly and hitting the bar more often than you should, you are going to need to get your body on a track to help those organs back to optimal functionality.

It is simple. Stop eating crap and quit drinking alcohol. Let me put it in the positive…eat high quality natural food and drink lots of water. As you wake up now in the morning you know you don’t feel as good as you could. This is your body trying to get out from under the workload of poor diet and excess alcohol. If you want to get up in the morning feeling like you can attack the day something has to change.

There is no magic pill. There is no potion, no magic formula that is going to override dissolute and habitual poor choices. You already know this. It doesn’t stop any of us from looking but we all know in our hearts and our heads that we are on our own. And the path is known…eat real food, drink fresh water, sleep well, get off your butt and get moving.

You can’t out exercise a poor diet and you can’t eat your way to fitness. You have to do both and do them diligently. Do that and you will detox naturally and without potions or poisons.

Get back on track. You can do it. I can help. Let’s get it done.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Writing

Writers write. Runners run. Artists make art. If you want to be good at something you need to do that thing.

This Sunday Story thing has been a project since 2008. Every week (except the summer of 2013) I have posted a story. That calculates to something over 300 posts. You can find most of them here:
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
Originally I had a goal of 1000 words for each post but a while ago someone told me the briefer was better. That I should see if I could say what I wanted to say in as few words as possible. So I cut the goal down to 500. And then I stopped worrying about it. If the message could be out in 100 words then so be it. I have never been able to do that…I guess I am just too verbose!

I also try to hit certain numbers on a reading scale. This scale tells me how easy what I have written is to read. So this one is 253 words and a 75.4 ease (Reader’s digest is 65! And larger is easier to read) score on a 5.3 grade level just in case you were wondering!

So:
Shorter…simpler…more direct and to the point…pithy and poignant, if you will.
Yet:
Inspiring, informative, entertaining, thought provoking, humorous, and transformative.

I get a fair amount of feedback and always welcome more.

Thanks for reading, thanks for being out there for me.

A writer, writing.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Work it

You’ve got goals…lose 10 pounds, drop 5 inches from your middle, improve your back squat by 10 percent, start a new business, or write the great American novel. You’ve made them S.M.A.R.T…specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. You are ready to go to work. This is your year; you are going to crush all of your goals this time. But…how?

You need some help, a program, a coach. You need a road map. You need to find people who have done something similar to what you want to do and then follow them. And finally you need to pull on your big boy pants and go to work.

I know how smart you are. I know you know all this stuff about what you want to do. I know you are different and you are a special situation. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard something like one of the following:
“I know what I need to do. If I do __________, ____________, and ________ I will ___________ (fill in goal here).”
“That doesn’t work for me because my _________ is different.”
“I’ve tried ___________ before and it didn’t work.”
Yet here is an expert who has taken many an expedition down the same river you want to travel. But you are going to do it your way because you know better. The question is this…How has that worked in the past? You have been saying that nonsense for a long time. Here’s an idea…give all that up, put yourself in the hands of an expert, do exactly what they tell you to do, when and how they tell you to do it. No more…that doesn’t work for me (because you are special); no more…I know what I am doing (because I read up on it on the internet); no more…I tried it that way and it didn’t work (because you really didn’t).

Take the program and do it exactly. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work and you are exactly where you are now (which is where you are going to be anyway if history has any bearing). You can always try it a different way after giving the program a legitimate attempt. And by legitimate I mean a 100 percent all in, no questioning, just do it attempt.
You have goals. You have a road map. You have a friendly native guide. Now you need to trust your guide and put in the work. Get up in the morning knowing exactly what you are going to do that day to move yourself forward. Tomorrow do the same thing. Repeat until the goals are reached or it is obvious the program is the wrong one for you and your purpose.

You have to do the work, the hard work, after you have set goals. You must get up in the morning and approach your goals like you a professional would…in other words you do it with 100 percent focus and energy even on the days you don’t want to.

Plan your work, work your plan.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Alcohol and CrossFit

Don’t mix.

Ho hum. We all know that being fit and putting poison in our bodies is a bad idea. We all know that having a glass of wine or two is probably not going to kill us unless it’s a 16 oz glass or two every day. And I am pretty sure we could all agree that having beer and burpee contest would be a recipe for bad things happening.

That isn’t what I am talking about here. Yes you can a have an occasional glass of wine or a beer or a cocktail. If you are healthy it probably isn’t going to kill you.

No, this problem is much more insidious than just a simple little drink. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed before anymore athletes end up with a very big-stop training-for a few weeks sort of problem.

Here is the back story…You started CrossFit. Maybe you weren’t in great shape, maybe you wanted to get some of that collegiate fitness back, maybe you just wanted to lose a couple pounds and have some fun. Then you got serious. The inches came off, the pounds got lost, you got strong, really strong, and CrossFit became something bigger than just another exercise thing you did.

You shared your experiences, you instagramed photos of you and your box-buddies moving weight and sweating and smiling. You were all in. You could do things you forgot you could do. Your coach told you about all of this fitness stuff being functional and being able to do things outside the gym walls. You bought it all.

So…you took your big bad fit self out with some friends and had a few drinks. Maybe a few more than you are used to or than you should have. But you can handle it…you CrossFit. And someone says…”let’s race to that telephone pole” and they say it with that look…you know the look I am talking about…the one that says you can’t do it, the one that doesn’t believe you are really an athlete. Without another thought to your footwear (inappropriate), your warm up (non-existent), or your field conditions (it’s dark), you pick up the gauntlet. Someone says 3-2-1 Go! And just like Pavlov’s dog you are ON IT! Maybe about ½ you realize your hamstring is a little tweaky but you go anyway, or you slip on a rough patch and twist your knee (blowing out your acl), or you fall and skin your knee. You finish…first of course…but you know something ain’t right.

When you get up the next morning and realize what you have done…because you fall out of bed on that missing acl, or your hamstring is blown, or you have rocks and glass embedded under your skin…you are faced with an awful truth:
CrossFit and Alcohol don’t mix.

Be safe out there this holiday season. Don’t let this sad tale be yours. We love you and want you to keep wodding forever.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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