If you're a feminist, you should be doing CrossFit!

If you're a feminist, you really should be doing CrossFit and so should everyone you know!
If you listened to radio 4 last night, you would have heard a program about implicit bias.  This is where your unconscious brain is bombarded with images and scenarios that it links together with neural pathways to create a subconscious picture of the world.  You may be the most liberal-minded of people but if you are constantly shown images and news reports that paint the world or groups of people in a certain way, your unconscious brain makes links according to those images that then affect the choices you make and the behaviours you exhibit.


The media shows us regularly that men are leaders and women need rescuing.  It often portrays women as image-obsessed cleaners, cooks and child carers. The media tell us that while we should aspire to having everything: a career, children, a sparkling social life, a beautiful, organsied home, delicious, healthy meals, perfect hair and flawless skin we are never quite going to measure up.  While men can skip through life only having to worry about which beer goes with their facial hair before buying a new strimmer.

However emancipated be believe we are, we cannot help therefore but have implicit bias implanted in our brains. Assumptions are made subconsciously that women are less able to do certain tasks, they are to be less trusted in positions of power or rank. The world may be changing but we are a generation whose brains already have a neural network deeply embedded that says women are not as good as men.

And this is where CrossFit comes in!

In any CrossFit gym in any country around the world, you will find strong, single-minded, confident, competent women, easily out-performing some men, deftly demonstrating movements and lifts and techniques that, to everyone in that CrossFit gym, just seem normal.


People who do CrossFit are regularly exposed to these powerfully positive images and scenarios where women are respected as strong, independent and competent - equal to men.  

These versions of the world are creating neural pathways where we have a chance to even out our subconscious bias and genuinely become more broad minded and open to new ideas.  These are the images I want my kids to be bombarded with!

CrossFit delivers a positive image of everyone who takes part - be they thin or fat, tall or short, old or young, black or white, male or female.

If you are a feminist, you should be doing CrossFit and so should everyone you know! 

Building on what to eat and how to be successful...
do this for life-changing results:

Eat clean:
No sugar, check all ingredients. No alcohol. No wheat - pasta, bread, cakes, pastry and biscuits. No fizzy drinks or squash.
Each meal (3 a day) made up of:
Eat a palm sized amount of protein.
Eat two or three fingers of fat.
Rest of your plate a rainbow of veg and a little fruit.

Move more.
Build towards CrossFit between 3 and 6 times a week
Walk more - fast
Sit less.

Sleep well.
7 hours at least - 8 hour preferable. Dark room. 

Get outside.
Spend time with trees to feel better about everything.

The Ultimate Secret to Success!

What if I could tell you the secret to unlocking success in everything you do? What would you do with this secret?

Would you use it to be more productive at work?  Would you use it to get more out of your time in the gym?  Would you use it to develop stronger relationships with family, friends and colleagues?  

The secret is really simple.  

The secret is you.

'But that's not fair,' you say. 'There are loads of things in my life that are out of my control!  I cannot be the secret to my own success while that success relies on the opportunities offered me by others or while my success relies on the competence or incompetence of others... The universe just conspires against me.  I'm too unfit, I'm too scared, I'm not qualified, I'm too busy, I have too many other responsibilities to focus on my own success!'

And breathe!

While there may be many elements in the universe over which you exercise no control, you are 100% in control of how you respond to them!

YOU are in control of every thought you allow to manifest in your mind so be careful what you think, because you are listening!  Take control of that inner voice!   

I'm not suggesting this is an instant fix.  You may be the sort of person who is able to quiet the negative thoughts almost overnight. It may take you weeks, months or even years; it may be a constant battle in your life until the very end but battle it you must!

The secret to your success is YOU.

Try these 5 tips to help turn around a less than positive mindset and start becoming more successful in all that you do.

1 - Smile  - as often as you can, even if you have to fake it.  Smiling releases endorphins and genuinely makes you feel better and instantly makes others feel better too!

2 - Nod - in the face of adversity. Don't sigh and shake your head; nod and tell yourself you can do it!  You don't even have to believe this, you just have to do it to create more positive pathways in your brain.

3 - Imagine you are 90 years old and have been allowed to come back for the day - list the things you would appreciate.

4 - Imagine you have been told you have 2 months to live - what small stuff would suddenly cease to be important? That stuff right there is not important!  That doesn't mean you have to stop doing or acknowledging whatever it is, just stop placing so much value on it.

5 - Allow yourself to feel afraid.  It's OK to feel anxious and nervous and even terrified about things.  It's not OK to allow these perfectly normal and rational feelings to stop you doing things!  Feel afraid - acknowledge the fear and push through anyway! 

Be careful what you think - because YOU are listening.

Live life like you mean it! 

Help - what should I eat?

At this time of year, there are a lot of coaches, trainers and nutritionists out there vying for your attention.  They want you to believe that what they have to say on the matter makes them more knowledgeable than the next guy.  You'll hear all kinds of phrases bandied around that make it sound like their particular method is THE method that will finally put all the pieces of the puzzle together and get you the body you want.

I'm not suggesting I am more qualified or knowledgeable than the next guy on matters of nutrition but as with everyone else, I have my own personal take on all things nutrition related. 

Here are my thoughts on nutrition.

Calories

Of course, it goes without saying (although, funnily, still needs to be reiterated often)
if you consume more calories than you expend, you will get fatter!

That being said, not all calories are created equal.

It must also go without saying that 1000 calories of McDonalds cannot possibly be as good for you as 1000 calories of ethically raised, grass-fed beef and vegetables. 

For an elite athlete (probably not you, definitely not me) you are going to need to keep right on top of your calorie intake in order to ensure you stay lean enough to make gymnastics easier, muscly enough to lift the heavy loads and to ensure you have sufficient energy to fuel your workouts. 

For a lot of people this is unnecessary bollocks that clouds the real issues (you are eating the wrong stuff and probably too much of it, you eat too much sugar and you drink too much alcohol).

Macros

You will hear all about macros form the 'health professionals'.

Your body does have an optimal requirement of unprocessed fat, protein and carbohydrate: macros.

An elite athlete (remember, that's probably not you, however awesome at CrossFit you are and it's definitely not me) is going to need to make sure that their macros are on track to make sure that they are optimising how their bodies use the nutrients they ingest.

For the average Joe, this close control is superfluous fluff that clouds the real issues (see above).

Supplements

If you are eating a wide variety of unprocessed food and you don't have a medical issue that requires you to take supplements, you are unlikely to need them. 

I understand that as a CrossFit 'athlete' it looks kind of cool to have a special shaker filled with the latest protein powder, a pre-workout and a post workout and supplement this and supplement that but it's much easier (and cheaper) to eat well.  Supplements are not a replacement for a nutritious diet.

There's a lot of other stuff out there, intermittent fasting, low carb diets (these annoy me as they aren't low carb per se, they are low starch....all vegetables are carbohydrate!) etc etc.  I'm not going to go into all that as I want this to be simple.

So what should you do?

This advice is for everyone but if you need to lose a considerable amount of fat, you are going to need to be way, way stricter than someone who just wants to maintain or be more healthy or lose a little bit of Christmas tub. 

• Do some research, take responsibility for achieving your goals and make this a learning opportunity.  

• Eat a palm sized amount of protein with each meal (3 meals a day)
• Have a 2-3 fingers of fat (healthy fat - avocado, nuts, home-made mayonnaise, cream, butter, olive oil, coconut oil etc) with each meal
• Fill the rest of your plate with a colourful mixture of vegetables and fruit
• drink a glass of water with each meal

• Do not eat anything with a list of ingredients - this cuts out all things with added sugar
• Limit or avoid (play around with this to see how it makes you feel) white potatoes and white rice
• Eliminate completely (and this is harder, I know) bread, pasta, pastry, cakes and biscuits
• Limit or avoid alcohol (this could also be hard but you may be genuinely surprised by the long list of benefits) 

• If you feel hungry between meals, either you aren't eating enough at meal times or you are still eating sugar and wheat.  If you need snacks in between, try mixing a small amount of protein with carbs - one egg and an apple or a handful of nuts and a banana or a tablespoon or two of full fat Greek yoghurt and a squirt of honey, a tablespoonful of cooked chicken and a rice cake....etc....
• If you genuinely want to lose fat and feel better, this isn't going to happen by getting your calories and macros from ice-cream and burgers.  It isn't going to be achieved through saving up your calories and macros for a Saturday evening binge of Budweiser and chips!  Don't be a dick about it.

• If you find your workouts suffer (or you are more tired or lack energy) because this way of eating has drastically cut your caloric intake, make sure you add in a little starchy carbs to the meal you eat before you train - so if you train in the evening before dinner, have a sweet potato for lunch, if you train in the morning before breakfast, have some rice perhaps with your evening meal etc.

• If you aren't losing weight and you think you are eating well, this might be why: 

1. you are lying or mistaken about what you are actually consuming - try keeping a private and brutally honest food diary for a week).
2. you are eating too much - think more carefully about your portion sizes - are you having too much in each meal or too many meals?
3. Your meals aren't balanced enough so you are eating more snacks between meals.
4. you haven't stopped drinking alcohol.
5. you haven't stopped eating sugar.

• Realise it might be hard work.  But do it anyway.

Avoid like the plague everything that allows you to still eat crap and lose weight - you will learn nothing and just end up miserable.  Do not use anything that claims to get you slim and healthy through soups, shakes, bars, pills, powders or other such bollocks.


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