“A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong.”- Tecumseh
LIFESTYLE
2023 Challenge: Do Not Do Another Nutrition Challenge
New year, new goals, new you! Sound familiar?
January is a month filled with new marketing in the health industry about all the magic pills and quick fixes that supplement and health companies want you to buy. Along with all those gimmicks come nutrition challenges!
You’ve heard it before. The 30 day quick fixes, the magic bullet, the build the best booty and skinniest waist in six weeks or less? Or my favorite, the three day detox cleanse you didn’t know you needed?! The idea that you can have everything you want and all the happiness you’ve been searching for on the other side of an “x” amount of days you’ll find your best self? Yeah.. right. Shoot, I’ve tried it all at one point or another! They make it all sound so easy and lowkey really magical.
As someone in the space looking to create change the intention of this article is to simply encourage those to first continue to commit to yourself and your health and once you finish reading this article I hope you feel better and more equipped to make the right decisions to help you reach your own personal health goals.
Let’s start with the positives of challenges:
“I think nutrition challenges can serve a really great purpose of helping folks get motivated and start to build healthy habits and credibility with themselves of sticking to something”. – Preslie Hirsch, Senior Content Manager at Morning Chalk Up
The community: Something about tackling a goal with others can bring out a type of competition in you that you didn’t know you had. Along with the competition aspect, there is a feeling of accountability and once you’re really loud about your goals, people who care about you can help you reach those too.
Commitment to bettering yourself: Not everyday you decide to sign up for something to change your habits for the better. The fact you recognize you can do better and want to do something about it, that’s arguably the hardest part.
Making your health a priority: You are unknowingly forced to prioritize healthy habits when you commit to something like a challenge. You find yourself thinking about your decision making more and even being mindful of your own behaviors. Who can complain about that?
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In case you missed it: Morning Chalk Up’s Lauren Kalil spoke to Emma Cary and Matt Torres at the TYR Wodapalooza podcast stage after Cary placed third in the Elite Individual Division.
Comp update: Registration for the Madrid Championship, which will take place Sept. 7-10, is now open. 🇪🇸
Shirt drop: Marcus Hayward rocked a “Men of Quality do not Fear Equality” shirt at TYR Wodapaloooza and its now available online.
By the numbers: CrossFit HQ has dropped some interesting stats on which boxes around the world are leading 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Open registration, and shout out to CrossFit Bison.
Get some: Rogue’s next challenge, The Echo Hammer Challenge, ends today so get your scores in for the prize and infinite glory.
Local love: Great story in the Times-Tribune about CrossFit 606 in Corbin, KY and stories from the box’s members and how the sport changed them.
More local love: A new non-profit named in honor of former fitness coach and athletic trainer Jeff Giosi, Forgiven Warrior, has launched at CrossFit Morgantown, WV.
PROFILE
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Michelle Merand Almost Missed Her CrossFit Games Ticket in Her Spam Folder
As Michelle Merand received a host of congratulatory messages on social media in the summer of 2019, she had no clue why. People seemed to think she was heading to the CrossFit Games, but that couldn’t be the case, could it?
The South African went to her emails, searched her spam box and found a message informing her she had qualified for the big dance. Merand had missed The Open due to injury, and came fifth in her semi-final.
She did not realize that the first four women had already qualified for the Games via other routes meaning she was in line to take the next qualifying position.
Morning Chalk Up’s Lauren Kalil caught up with Tal Short, the Senior Product Manager of Reebok’s training footwear, to get a first look at the newest Nano, the X3. The two discussed what’s new in this version, how it was built to run and squat, and how you can get your hands on a pair.
NASCAR Drivers and CrossFit Enthusiasts Take on David Goggins Challenge
The week of January 2, multiple NASCAR drivers took part in a grueling challenge. They normally do CrossFit and CrossFit-style workouts, but they took on the David Goggins 4x4x48 Challenge. This tested their mental toughness as they tried to overcome the elements and balance the runs with their work and personal lives.
Remind me: The David Goggins 4x4x48 Challenge is straightforward – participants have to run four miles every four hours for 48 hours. An alternate version for those that don’t run often is to exercise for 45-60 minutes once per four-hour leg.
Many people that participate use the 4x4x48 Challenge to raise money for a charity of their choice. This particular group did not have the opportunity due to how quickly everything came together, but they have the goal of doing future challenges with a focus on raising money.
The group: There were several people involved in this challenge. Two-time Xfinity Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr.–a noted CrossFit and NOBULL enthusiast–hosted the event at his Slide Job Ranch in North Carolina. His trainer, Second 2 None Fitness owner Ryan Von Rueden, joined him for all 48 hours.
The list of participants for the full challenge also included Craftsman Truck Series driver Lawless Alan and Nate Brown, a member of the Golf Guys Tour which features Stenhouse and other NASCAR drivers.
“So, initially, I was like, ‘Hey, we should do four for four for 24 hours,’” Von Rueden said. “And everybody was like, ‘Yeah, that’s kind of cool.’ And I had known that the Goggins one was 48 hours but thought that might be a tough sell for a lot of people, including myself even.”
A week before the event, Stenhouse had a discussion with Von Rueden about the decision to do 4x4x24. The NASCAR driver suggested that they do the full Goggins challenge.
There were several others that could not complete the full challenge due to time constraints or work obligations. Instead, they did what they could while adding in extra miles when possible.
This list included Xfinity Series driver Riley Herbst, Cup Series driver Harrison Burton, Cup Series driver Todd Gilliland, Brown’s father, and Truck Series driver Jack Wood. Von Rueden’s wife also completed the 4x4x24 challenge, but she did so at their home. Cole Custer, another Xfinity Series driver, could not participate. He had a wedding and needed to be able to walk down the aisle.
Burton had a jam-packed schedule. He had a racing simulator session at 7 AM on Wednesday. He could not miss this, so he started the challenge at 11 AM on Tuesday and added extra miles to finish a full marathon with the 3 AM run. Burton then went home, showered, ate, and headed to the race shop to prepare for his sophomore season at NASCAR’s highest level.
Bare Performance Nutrition Founder and YouTube Star Nick Bare Talks New CEO and Slogan to Kick off 2023
“I’m going to make a million dollars this first year,” Nick Bare, founder of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) told his father back in 2012. “And he said, ‘Nick, if it was that easy, everyone would do it.’ And those words still ring very true, because that first year in revenue, we did $20,000…we missed the mark significantly — I was humbled very early on.”
Bare started BPN out of his college apartment in Pennsylvania using a handful of core ingredients: a pinch of a military loan, a scoop of trial and error, a dash of free help from friends and a sprinkle of not having any idea of what he was doing.
“(It was) ignorance of what it was actually going to take to build a company of the size that I wanted to build and also ignorant of how hard it was going to be,” Bare recalls.
The nutrition student would buy raw ingredients in bulk, measure them on a food scale that only weighed in one-gram increments, scoop the mixtures into baggies and sell them out of his dorm room for $5 a pop (obviously not alarming). As the blends caught on, Bare enlisted a friend to build their website for free, another to design the labels, and he himself dieted down to take marketing photos.
Following stagnant growth of sales from 2012-2016, Bare decided to make the leap, get out of the US Army and go all in on his entrepreneurial venture in 2017, which turned out to pay off — literally.
“We did seven figures in revenue. But, it was the hardest year of my entire life because it was three of us: me, my brother, and our friend Joe, who’s still in the business — he’s our Director of Operations. And we were getting our ass kicked because we didn’t know how to manage inventory. We didn’t know how to manage cash flow. We had no line of credit, we had no loans. We had nothing,” Bare said. “There were many, many nights where we had very little money left in the bank account and rent was due the following week. So it was a great year. It was a pivotal year for the brand, but it was one of the most stressful years of my life.”
However, as anyone who’s built something great knows, there’s a particular magic in those challenging growing-pain seasons.
“The only way to describe it is every single day waking up felt like Christmas when you’re ten years old, because you’re so excited for that day and what you’re going to experience, and there’s no blueprint for what you’re about to do — you’re just figuring it out as you go. It was so exciting.”
Focusing on muscle growth and working certain muscle groups can be challenging when functionality is the goal. Adopt this mantra and you will find training a whole lot easier.
Why Athlete Tia Wright Trusts Her Nutrition to Rootine
"With Rootine I have no doubt that I’m giving my body what it needs," said athlete Tia Wright. "I feel a difference in my sleep, my joints, my level of soreness, and other little health signs. I hope that everyone trusts Rootine with their next level of nutrition.” Ready to take your nutrition to the next level?
Is your workout wardrobe black mixed with other shades of black? NOBULL's new neon collection includes any footwear style you may need, from runners to trainers, so you can train efficiently and be the best dressed in the gym.
Jordan Jester from CrossFit Staunton in Staunton, VA takes on the wall-ball burpee challenge. Think you can do it?
Another CrossFit trick… Jon Rasch performs double-unders and box-jumps with a wall-ball between his feet (please don’t try this at home).
CrossFit Teen athlete Rebeckah Devine hits a 185 pound/84kg hang squat snatch.
Check out the many faces of Underdogs Athletics from TYR Wodapalooza.
CrossFit Ripcord in Columbus, IN donated 1,410 nonperishable food items and hygiene products to Love Chapel food bank with their “Buy a Burpee, Feed a Belly” fundraiser. CF Ripcord coaches committed to one burpee per item donated split amongst the staff, which they completed last Sunday, January 15.
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