Kara Saunders makes a baby sized announcement

Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up. Today’s edition is fueled by FNX, the official supplement sponsor of the Morning Chalk Up.

FNX is trying to change the world by doing an Ice Bucket Challenge! For each video submitted on Instagram using their hashtag #fnxicebucketchallenge they are donating a gallon of water to a village in Ghana! Click the link to see how it’s getting started. Anyone can join, get dowsed and tag five friends to pass it on as well! Let’s see how much water the community can account for.

“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” — Pema Chödrön

The Thing That Everybody on Twitter Missed in CrossFit’s Tweets

Some background.

Three weeks ago, CrossFit made a series of tweets detailing CrossFit’s stance on nutrition .

The CrossFit dietary prescription is as follows:

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar. To get to the same endpoint, these are effective nutritional strategies for avoiding heart disease, death and misery.

They followed up with a few more details, stating:

• If it has a food label on it, it is not food. You do not see that on the chicken. It is not on the tomatoes. But it is on the chips and cookies.
• If it is not perishable, if it says “Best if used before 2019,” it is not food.
• If you could not have harvested it out of your garden or farm and eaten it an hour later, it is not food.
• Shop around the perimeter of the grocery store, and do not go down the aisles.

And out came the Twitter trolls…

To be fair, there are some problems with the wording here, which Twitter’s finest were happy to point out. “Please help! My pear has a label on it! Also, these Brussel sprouts can’t be grown in my garden due to seasonality.  Should I throw away? Please advise,” wrote Andrew Doherty, RDN.

Another person tweeted, “I’m in the hospital today and they’ve given me water with a label on it,  should I throw it out?”

Another also pointed out that the Official Beverage Sponsor of the CrossFit Games comes in a can, with a label and sold down a middle aisle next to other beverages.

But here is the point that everybody missed.

CrossFit has made it no secret lately that they have reignited the campaign to educate the public on what constitutes a healthy diet. And a healthy diet is real, actual food. It is not food that comes from a box with a label that reads “Added Nutrients” or “Low Fat.” It is just as CrossFit states in their first tweet, “meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.”

The public, as a whole, is fundamentally misinformed regarding what constitutes a healthy diet. Walk down any aisle in the grocery store. Walk down the “health food” aisle of your local market. We see snack bars that are mostly chocolate with added fiber and an ingredient list that is as long as wallpaper. You see nutritional beverages with the top ingredient listed being some variation of sugar. Kids chug flavored sports drinks with more sugar in them than a milkshake.

We’ve been duped into believing that these things are healthy. They are not. And CrossFit is doing the hard work to reveal this. They did this when they announced they’d uncovered that both the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to disclose the sources and amounts of donations they received, which turns out were from big soda companies. CrossFit did this when they called out companies for marketing high-sugar “healthier” options to children.

So yes, Twitter had a field day and CrossFit didn’t exactly make it hard for the trolls to troll, but let’s not miss the larger point. CrossFit, rightfully so, is calling into question everything they thought they knew about nutrition.

So, what do we do now?

We go to the grocery store. We shop the perimeter. We eat real food, food that actually spoils. What does that look like? It looks like meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.

That’s where we start.

FEATURED VIDEO.

Lift Up for Kim Murray

In our first feature video we meet Kim Murray, a CrossFit athlete at 12 Labours CrossFit who fell on hard times after a brain aneurysm left her medically incapable of working. With bills mounting, Kim struggled to take care of her family and her three kids and she became homeless for a time.

“The hardest thing is being a disabled single mom,” Murray said. “I don’t have money even with resources I have to feed them. My kids don’t deserve that.”

Currently living in a one bedroom apartment, the single mother is struggling to make ends meet. That’s when her 12 Labours CrossFit family stepped in to help.

Coffee Break Conversations

What to say to your friend who has a hard time with commitment…

We get it. It’s really hard to stick with one thing for like, ever. But, turns out, long term commitment is the secret to good things…even when it comes to nutrition. It’s no secret that establishing healthy habits for the long haul will get you the results you want. So, to start, here are five habits of highly successful eaters. Maybe that long term commitment to nutrition will rub off elsewhere, my dear.

Things To…

WATCH: Jared Enderton’s Road to the Games, Part One

Jared Enderton made his rookie debut at the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games. In this Road to the Games series, Enderton profiles his journey to the CrossFit Games. Watch how Enderton eats, trains, and recovers as he prepares.

HE PUKES IN A LAKE.

HEAR: Building Teams and Trust

On this episode of the Chasing Excellence podcast, Ben Bergeron outlines all the steps CrossFit New England uses to build their coaching team, how he builds trust as a leader, and why being consistent is key. 

KNOW YOUR CORE VALUES.

KNOW: 11 Bad Habits Stopping You from Lifting Heavier

Olympic weightlifting takes years of practice to perfect, and along the way you might have developed a few bad habits. Here are 11 quick fixes you can start doing today to fine tune your snatch and clean and jerk and start moving more weight.

GET THE GUIDE.

EAT: Bigos Hunters Stew

A polish recipe to keep you warm in the woods, there’s usually kielbasa, maybe some bacon, or pork shoulder, whatever hunks of stew meat you happen to have leftover. Cabbage, sauerkraut, potatoes, carrots, and onions add some vegetable variety. It’s a hearty and humble stick-to-your-ribs dish that feeds a crowd.

VARIOUS MEATS FRIENDS. 

BUY: RP Party Recipes

If you love warming up your home with a great get-together, you’ll love the latest RP cookbook, Let’s Party! Get 50 brand new, never-before-published, RP diet-friendly recipes that are perfect for parties, special events, or spicing up your meal prep this holiday season.

PARTY TIME, EXCELLENT.

Today’s edition of the Morning Chalk Up is fueled by

Chalk Up Community

• THREE DANES HELPS DOVER — October 22nd, a fire went through Dover, NJ and destroyed a large part of the city, causing 40 families to lose everything. Three Danes CrossFit is running “Get Fit and Give to Dover” for the month of November. For anyone that joins this month, Three Danes will donate their entire first months membership fee to the ongoing rebuilding effort being made to get these families back on their feet.
• NEW BOX COMING — CrossFit Goose Creek is coming to Franklin, TN with a grand opening in January 2019. 
• THE BRAVE ONE OPENS — The Brave One Gym in Clive, IA, owned by James Townsend, is officially open for business. They are hosting a Grand Opening celebration this Saturday.
• 24 HOURS OF HEROES — MVMT Strength is hosting a fundraiser for Wounded Warriors and National Service Dogs to help veterans and first responders get help for PTSD. 24 Hours of Heroes begins November 10th and runs for 24 hours straight, finishing with Remembrance Day ceremonies. 

CHALK UP IN 2 MINUTES (a highlight reel around social media of CrossFit pros and average joes)

Happy Birthday Clay Corwin • Khan Porter does a PVC mobility challenge • Happy birthday Tia Wright • Congratulations to Brandon Wanless of CrossFit Big Dane who won the Masters 35+ Division at the GameDay Championships in MN • Congratulations to Julian on his first muscle-up • Annapolis won the 21st Annual Maritime Republic of Eastport Tug Of War • More than 140 affiliates came together in France.

Kara Saunders to Tommy Marquez on her future in the sport of CrossFit…“I love competing. So I’m sure I’ll be back out there in some capacity in no time.”

Roster Update — Over the weekend, Paul Tremblay (22) and Josh Gervais (40) withdrew from the Dubai CrossFit Championship, citing work conflicts. Lazar Dukic and Tyler Tosunian have been invited to replace them. You can see the full, updated roster here.

Confirmed…So Far — Josh Bridges, Margaux Alvarez, Kristi Eramo, Jason Khalipa, Cole Sager, Ben Smith, Christy Adkins and Matt Chan are all confirmed invites for the Rogue Invitational. 

Team USA at International Weightlifting Federation 2018 World Championships — Here’s who’s up for Tuesday and how to watch them: Jordan Cantrell (89 KG) Tuesday at 1:25 AM PT, Mattie Rogers (71 KG) and Meredith Alwine (71 KG) at 4:25 AM PT, Nathan Damron (96 KG) and Jason Bonnick (96 KG) at 11:00 PM PT.

Monday was a stellar day for Team USA:

— Harrison Maurus went 6/6 with a 157kg/346 pounds snatch and 200kg/440 pounds clean and jerk. He battled lift for lift for the new Jr World Record clean and jerk with Team China’s Li Fabin, who took it with his third attempt. 

— Mattie Sasser made her 94kg/207 snatch and her 97kg/214 pounds snatch, but missed her third attempt of 100kg/220 pounds. Her first clean and jerk at 120kg/265 pounds was redlighted but 121kg/267 pounds was good. She missed 125kg/276 pounds for a total of 218kg/481 pounds.

— Hunter Elam made 90kg/198 pounds, missed 93 kg/205 pounds and 94 kg/207 pounds but she made 114kg/251pounds clean and jerk, missed 116kg/256 pounds, and made 117kg/258 pounds for a 207kg/456 pounds total.

Saudi Arabia’s First CrossFit Community of Women — Speaking from al-Khobar, east of Saudi Arabia, CrossFit athlete and founder of Saudi Arabia’s first CrossFit gym, Amal al-Shahrani, shared how the sport “is an expression of life, activity and vitality.”

“The sport is one of many that has been attracting Saudi women of all ages. This gym has been established entirely for CrossFit, which has seen a boom and an increase in popularity,” she said. 

“Dozens of young Saudi women can be seen lined up at the gym to master the fundamentals of CrossFit training, starting with warm-up exercises, fast jumps and weight-lifting exercises.

“The amount of members at the gym have doubled recently, as the sport also boosts their confidence.”

How to Fix Anything, Part 2: “I’ve Done That,” by Dr. Sean Pastuch, Morning Chalk Up 

When you’re in pain for months and it’s not changing, you can become very antsy to get some solutions going. I definitely was. Maybe I was wrong about massage. So, the first thing I decided to do was to go and get a massage.

I figured there might have been some residual inflammation left even though my body no longer needed the inflammatory process. So, I asked for effleurage, the type of massage that is meant to move stagnant fluid towards the heart, assisting with the waste-clearing mechanism of circulation. It hurt in a good way, but it did not solve any of my problems. I tried it three times, and I was still in just as much pain when I left.

My next thought was that maybe I was wrong about icing. Maybe ice is valuable, after all. So I began an icing routine. Fifteen minutes on (my arm would go numb by this point and I didn’t want frostbite, so I stopped there) followed by an hour off for two to three sets.

I did this for a week. Zero change, except that my clothes were wet and I was uncomfortable for 30 to 45 minutes a day during the icing.

I tried the fix that I hate most when I see it online: smashing. I used a soft tissue manipulation tool with deep pressure and I also used it to “scrape” the area.

I always say these things are only valuable if an area doesn’t have good blood supply, but maybe I was wrong. When they didn’t work at all except to mildly worsen my condition, I figured I would give some deep tissue work a shot.

Maybe there was some muscle adhesion that needed to be broken down. I did both deep tissue and ART work, but both hurt badly, and both made my symptoms significantly worse during the days following.

11/9: Veteran Games ABQ (Albuquerque, NM)

11/10: The Battle at Branded One (Las Vegas, NV)

11/10: Emerald Coast Honor Games (Destin, FL)

11/10: Patriot Games (Rochester Hills, MI) 

11/10 – 11/11: Extreme Games (Piauí, Brazil)

11/10 – 11/11: South Loop Games (Chicago, IL)

11/10- 11/11: Southie Showdown (Boston, MA)

11/10 – 11/11: Florida Grid League Championship (Fort Myers, FL)

11/10: Metcon 4 Hope (Reno, NV)

11/10: Best of the Wurst (New Braunfels, TX)

11/10: Warrior Affiliate League Delta Force (Duarte, CA)

11/10: USA Powerlifting Veterans Day Championship (Philadelphia, PA) 

11/10: Blue Cooler Throwdown (Deland, FL)

11/10: Bromageddon 2018 (Chandler, AZ)

11/10: Garage Games Masters Tour 2018 (McKinney, TX)

11/10: First Annual Sergeants Fitness Patriot Games (Caldwell, ID)

11/10: Boobs and Bells (Schaumburg, IL) 

11/10 – 11/11: 24 Hours of Heroes (London, Canada)

11/11: Bonsai Brawl (Philadelphia, PA)

11/11: CFF Team Marathon Row 2018 (Metuchen, NJ)

11/15: Push Pull for Pancreatic Cancer @ Hybrid Athletics Bridgport (Bridgeport, CT)

11/16 – 11/17: Veterans Day Bash at CrossFit Wild West (Lubbock,TX)

11/17: MetCon Mashups CrossFit Lubbock (Lubbock,TX)

11/17: CrossFit TIG Turf Wars (Brighton, MI)

11/17: 2018 Energy Games (Houston, TX)

11/17: MetCon Mashups (Tulsa, OK) 

11/17: Green Valley Clash of the Fittest (Green Valley, AZ)

11/17: Push Pull for Pancreatic Cancer @ Invictus Boston (Boston, MA)

11/17: North County Fall Brawl (Watertown, NY)

11/17: BCF for Homeless Kids Kettlebells4Kids Fundraiser (Derry, NH)

11/17: Team SuperFit Charlotte (Charlotte, NC)

11/17: 2nd Annual Well Seasoned Masters Competition (Burlington, MA) 

11/17: Guardian Games National Championship (Ashland, VA)

11/17: Femme Royale (Raleigh, NC)

11/20: Ben Marconi Memorial WOD (San Antonio, TX)

11/25: Carpathian Games II (Kosice, Slovakia)

11/30 – 12/2: Rogue Winter Classic (Cleveland, OH)

12/1: Rock It CrossFitMas Classic (Fort Worth, TX) 

12/1: The Annhilation Games (Katy, TX)

12/8: Fittest Alive in the 845 (Poughkeepsie, NY)