Sunday Story…Start to be Great

Every person who walks through the door at CrossFit Odyssey is an athlete. Outside the door they may be a Doctor or Lawyer, mom or dad, brother or sister but once they grace our door they become an athlete.

You might think of yourself as weak or out of shape but in here you are an athlete. In here you are unpolished marble waiting to be molded into something amazing. You are meant to move. You are a human aligned with the natural world…top of the chain baby.

You might get up in the morning and put on your uniform for your designated job but once you step in here your job is simple…be an athlete. And that translates to world changer.

When you change yourself you change the world. It is that simple. Are you going to drag the world down by sitting on the couch all day long? Or will you lift us up with your positive attitude and kind words, your hair on fire enthusiasm and no obstacle too large thought process?

It is never too late to get up and get going. You can always be more than you were just a moment ago. You can always choose to change your attitude. You can always choose to be better. You can always decide to be benevolent and give people the benefit of the doubt. Life is a series of choices.

You walked in my door today. Some of you did so literally…you showed up here in the box and did work. Some of you did it ethereally…you opened this email and read the words. And I am standing in front of you telling you can do this…you can change the world by changing yourself. You can be bigger, more powerful, more charitable, friendlier, stronger, healthier, more fit…if you would only just start.

You don’t have to be great to start.
You do have to start to be great.

Walk through the door, put on the uniform of athlete, great parent, model employee and get started. Don’t worry about doing everything right…you won’t, mistakes will occur. Don’t worry you aren’t good enough…you are doing battle and it is the one in arena who matters, not the critic, not the nay-sayer.

Get dirty, hot, sweaty, and if necessary bloody literally or metaphorically. But get in the fray. Do not allow yourself to be beaten by negativity, by disbelief, by poor attitudes. You are great. You walked through the door.

Fall down seven. Get up eight.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…5 answers to healthy eating

You notice I didn’t say diet. You notice I didn’t say 5 ways to lose weight fast or get the pounds off for the holidays. This isn’t about any of that. And it is all about that. These are the 5 answers you must have to successfully shift your eating from unhealthy (it’s killing you) to healthy (it supports your life.)

#1…Know where you are.
What do you weigh? What is your body composition? What are your measurements?
If you don’t know where you are how on earth will you know if you have gone anywhere?
Suck it up, get on the scale, get your fat percentage measured, get the tape out and get it around your hips but get those baseline numbers. And the more numbers you have (data) the more comparisons you will have to measure your progress.

#2…Know how much and what you are eating.
What are you eating? When do you eat it? How much are you eating? If you don’t know the answers we can’t make changes. If you are taking in 2000 calories and I adjust your eating to say 2000 calories we probably won’t see much movement on the metrics.
Keep a food journal, use an app to measure stuff but do it now. Once you write it down it becomes real and you will begin to understand exactly what you are doing that isn’t life enhancing.

#3…Know how much you are moving.
What are you doing for exercise or training? You better know if you are walking or running those 3 miles. What is your time? How much weight did you lift? How many pushups did you do? Again we can’t tell you to more if we don’t know how you are moving now.
Keep a training log. Again write it down or use an app to track it but do it one way or another.
#4…Understand the process.
You won’t proceed directly to your goals without some side trips. You will have some time where it feels like nothing is happening. You will have setbacks and fails on your way to healthy eating. There are going to be hurdles to get over and setbacks to endure. And the answer isn’t going to be more, harder and faster.
Looking at your progress and making adjustments is a critical part of this process. What worked in the beginning is going to change over time, be ready with your data and be ready to analyze it.

#5…Be in it for the long haul.
This isn’t a 30 day trip or a 90 day plan to a new you. This is a commitment to your life and health and that doesn’t end in 6 weeks. That is the beautiful part of this trip, once you are on the path the destination is there for you to grab every day. You are arriving all the time at better health, more clarity, and a happier attitude.

It is simple. Not easy but worth it. There is lots of help out there but get it from people who want you to be healthier for the rest of your life, not just lose 20 pounds in 20 days.

You can have everything but if you haven’t your health you have nothing. And health starts with the food you eat.

Namaste

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

I have frequent conversations with people that start something like this…” I want to lose some weight.” Or, often, “I need to tone up and lose…” Rarely does this conversation start with the sentence like”I want to gain a better understanding of food, or “I need to gain some strength.”

We are, as a society, conditioned to have a love-hate relationship with the losing things, especially weight. What you weigh always seems to always be the question. I have seen very healthy people obsess over 10 pounds on the scale. Frankly, unless you are participating in an event where you must “weigh-in” to compete in a specific division, what you weigh shouldn’t matter on a day to day basis.

The real question is should be what do you want to gain? Not what you want to lose. Losing is a problem. Whatever it is we are trying to lose is going to fight tooth and nail to stay. Your mind has us doing battle against those last 10 pounds or that image we have of ourselves as that fat uncoordinated kid in the 3rd grade. Your mind and your body are going to hold on to those things…they are invested in keeping the things we want to lose…and getting them back once they are gone.

What you need to gain is a healthy relationship to food.
What you need to gain is a better health.
What you need to gain is better mobility.
What you need to gain is more strength.
What you need to gain is the ability to move how you want when you want.
What you need to gain is a self image that says it’s OK to be strong (and not skinny).
What you need to gain is a thought process that says failure is just a learning process.
What you need to gain is the feeling of joy that comes from movement.
What you need to gain is happiness at learning something new.
What you need to gain is an appreciation for your victories.
What you need to gain is happiness for the accomplishments of your friends and neighbors.
What you need to gain is a willingness to ignore years of social conditioning about your weight.
What you need to gain is the ability to look in the mirror and love what you see.

Honestly I don’t care if you come in here to lose weight. I’m going to just nod and smile while I start plotting how to get you to gain whatever it is you really need to gain.

Get strong. Get healthier. Get fitter. Get better. Get happier. Get transformed.

Get in here.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…Your ‘Tude, dude

In “Man’s Search for Meaning” Viktor Frankl states the only true freedom we have is the freedom to choose our attitude about what happens to us. We can be locked up, beaten, everything taken from us but we can still choose our attitude.

I had the good fortune last week to have dinner with a friend who is the living embodiment of this freedom. Wendy Tustin and I go way back…probably close to 30 years. We have seen our kids grow and start their own families. We have had ups and down and times when we didn’t always speak or see eye to eye. Our friendship was forged on martial arts mats and cemented through the bonds of shared suffering, sweat, and strife.

Wendy is battling cancer. She has beaten it back a couple times but her opponent is unrelenting. Given enough time I don’t doubt she will beat it in the end. In the meantime she fights the fight with a smile and an attitude of hope and good fortune. Her spirit is strong. She is never going to be defeated even when it looks as if the battle may be lost. She is having the most fun she can have, laughing and crying, giving her friends the strength to face the small things in their lives with aplomb.

We all have stuff in our lives; stuff that gets us down, things that make us blue. Sometimes it feels like that stuff is too much, sometimes we think we just can’t take any more, that we have reached our limit of calamities in our lives. We feel sad and angry and hopeless over all the crap heaped upon us.

When you get to that point it is time to change your attitude. It is time to look over and see Wendy laughing and smiling and enjoying everything life is giving her. Yes, you read that correctly…everything. She says “it could be worse. I’m still here and I’m still fighting and living.” Whatever I am facing in my life is nothing compared to the road she is traveling.

Life is as hard as you make it. It is going to have ups and downs. It is up to you to decide the attitude you approach it with. You can take a look and decide you can’t handle it and life sucks and you don’t want to deal with the pain. Or you can take a look and decide to smile and go full steam ahead. Your attitude will decide your mental state from moment to moment. As Henry Ford once said…”if you think you can or think you can’t, you are probably right.” If you think life sucks it probably does. If you think life is grand it probably is.

So Change your attitude and Change your life. Now go out make your life be what you want it to be.

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…3 reasons you get hurt at CrossFit

There is a huge amount of bad press about CrossFit hurting people. I hear about Doctors and physical therapists who claim CrossFit bought them a new Porsche or a new boat. I am going to let you in on a big secret…CrossFit doesn’t hurt people. CrossFit doesn’t cause injuries. CrossFit is a benign being. As my friend Kelly Starrett says,” CrossFit is a laboratory for finding and fixing bad movement patterns.”

Injuries are part of life. At least a life lived off the couch and out in the world. Here’s a partial list of mine…torn meniscus (Brazilian jiu-jitsu exacerbated by running), broken (displaced) finger (snowboarding), boxers break (hand) (fighting), dislocated thumb (martial arts), several non-displaced finger and toe breaks (martial arts), at least 10 concussions (football mostly & snowboarding & car accidents), cauliflower ears (BJJ, boxing, wrestling), and some more I don’t remember. This does not count any of the multitudes of sprains, strains, pulls and tweaks. Notice anything about this list? CrossFit did not cause any of my injuries. Now that I have said that I can say that my current shoulder and elbow issues are CrossFit related but they come under the tweak category and have not required surgical or medical diagnostic intervention. They are also most likely related to one the 3 reasons listed below.

But if CrossFit doesn’t hurt people, how come we read about all these injuries on various forums?
It’s simple really…and here are my top 3 reason people get hurt doing CrossFit:

You are a bleeding idiot.
You don’t know how to do a movement but you see someone else do it and now you are an expert. So you load the bar up, jump up on the rings and give it a whirl. And Bam, the whip comes down, your shoulder is torn or your back is tweaked. I mean watching someone jump off a cliff on snowboard doesn’t make you an expert does it? You haven’t been off the couch in a decade and now you are going to try giants on the high bar? Really? Don’t be that guy.

Your coach is a bleeding idiot.
If someone’s idea of a good work out is to leave you on the floor puking your guts out, run don’t walk out the door. If the instruction consists of a really strong and fit dude or dudette doing an exercise 3 times and then walking off and telling you to go for it…get out now. If the “coach” is paying all his or her attention to the hottie in the first row, get your feet moving.

The community is made up of bleeding idiots.
They all have one speed…all out. The all want to “win” the wod or see how close they can get to Froning or Khalipa’s time. The want you to prove your worthiness before they will acknowledge your presence. The programming is designed to break you down and spit you out…day after day. The work outs really are random; there is no rhyme or reason to how they move you towards your goals.

So…here is how you don’t get hurt at your CrossFit Box…
Be smart. Understand your limitations and your fitness level. You aren’t as fit as you are going to be and you are nowhere near as fit as you remember being.

Be Coachable. Listen to what the coach (qualified and caring) is telling you. Ask questions and correct bad movement patterns. Just because someone else can do it doesn’t mean you are ready to do it. Progress up to the movement before you hop into the middle of a train wreck you just created.

Find like minded people. Find people like you who want the same things you do out of a workout. Find a tribe you can commune with, people you want to hang out with, folks you like.

Scale your work. Make it fit into your fitness level and abilities. There is always a work around when you have mobility or mechanical limitations. Don’t assume that you have to do it just the way it is written.

Have fun. Get Fit. CrossFit is for everyone…if you, your coach and your community all work together to get you the results you want. 3,2,1…GO!

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…3 things to have more money, more success, more sex

Now that got your attention, didn’t it? The big 3…money success and sex…always gets your ears to perk right up. So sorry to bait and switch you like this but this post is not about money, success, or sex. Besides everyone knows the answer is squats, more squats solve all the problems of the universe.

I am going to be on a radio show this week. The hosts want me to give their listeners 3 tips to start getting in shape, more fit, healthier. So I thought I would distill my thoughts here on paper for you.
1. Eat Real Food
2. Move
3. Sleep
That’s it. It is really that simple. It doesn’t take a degree in advanced rocket science; it doesn’t take a personal chef, a million dollar gym membership, or special immersion sleep tank.

You already know what to do. The real question is why aren’t you doing it? You know drinking 6 cans of soda a day isn’t good for you (you do don’t you?) So why don’t you stop?

You know sitting around all the time and not moving is hurting your health. So why don’t you get off the couch and start moving? (Ask your doctor if getting off your a#s is right for you.)

You know going to bed earlier will have you feel better in the morning. So why don’t you do it?

Our entire world is beset by diabetes and obesity. We are a society that is over fed and under nourished. We work ourselves into early graves. We eat ourselves into early graves. We are tired all the time.
Yet in the face of all that we don’t change. We rarely begin and even more rarely do we continue. So what is up with that? Is it that hard to eat real food, move, and rest?

The simple answer is this: (no, it isn’t squats) it is easy. Are those three things hard? Not really but it is easier to eat crap, sit on your butt and spend endless hours surfing 500 channels on TV or watching cat videos on the computer. We want to take the path of least resistance. We want it to be one pill and the problem is fixed. Sorry to burst your bubble.

There is no magic pill. The path of least resistance is the one that has you sliding, fat, dumb and smiling into the grave. Skipping one night of drinking isn’t going to end your world. Walking up the stairs won’t be the end of the world and you aren’t going to have a heart attack if the TV gets turned off once in a while.

Decide the pleasure is going to be greater than the pain of letting old habits go. The pleasure of being healthy and fit is so much greater than you realize. You will never know how good you could feel since you don’t know how bad you feel now. Your energy levels could double or triple with proper rest, nutrition and exercise. All the little things we lay on the doorstep of getting older could disappear or dissipate by finally implementing those 3 little steps.

Eat Real Food
Move
Rest
Go get some.

Namaste

John Mariotti

www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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Sunday Story…When was…

The last time you did something for the first time? I heard this phrase yesterday at the start of the Dallas Tough Mudder. It reminded me of the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt…”do something every day that scares you.”

So really…When was the last time you did something for the first time?

I’m waiting…waiting…waiting…been a while hasn’t it? Many of you are taking on new things this fall…eliminating alcohol or sugar for 30 days for instance. Or eating clean or making sure you get to the gym 4 days a week. These things count. They don’t have to be huge, earth shattering things. Just do things you have never done.

Here is the challenge…can you do something for the first time every week for the next 52 weeks? Maybe culminate the 52 weeks with a really big scary thing like sky diving or a marathon or a Tough Mudder?

Getting out of your comfort zone is a habit and a good one to develop. Growth happens outside of your comfort zone. You can’t change and develop into something new using the same thoughts and activities that you used to get where you currently are. You must utilize new thought patterns and do different things and the only way to do that is step out of the box you are living in. The box confines you. The box defines you. The box keeps you safe and secure.

Getting out of the box allows you to become something more, something new, and something that hasn’t existed before. Yet you will still be you. Just a bigger you…a you with the habit of trying new things and new experiences. It’s going to be a little scary, I admit. It’s going to be a little dangerous. Things might go wrong. They might not turn out quite the way you planned. No matter what happens…you will learn things, you will grow, and you might even have a little fun along the way.

You have to try. You have been trying new things all your life. Walking, running, and talking were all new things at one time. We want our kids to try new foods. Maybe you should too? Don’t like eggplant? Find a new recipe and try some. Afraid of running? Of lifting weights? Of what? Why? Fear is unreasonable and usually unfounded on anything in reality. It is usually a reaction to something we anticipate happening…which may never happen.

Go do something you haven’t done before. Brush your teeth with the other hand. Jump off the high dive at the pool. Take a new route on your run. It really doesn’t matter what it is…it will develop the habit of doing new things.

See you out of the box!

Namaste

John Mariotti
www.crossfit-odyssey.com
www.martialartsnevada.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
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