Click here to view the embedded video.

Think about it.  You are free to drink alcohol until you can’t walk and, though it is illegal, drive home incapacitated.  No one is raiding Budweiser or harassing Jim Beam out of business.  People binge drink with no repercussions to the alcohol community.  We look at those who kill others while drunk and state that the individual is responsible for their actions, not the alcohol.

Yet individual responsibility is not considered in the government’s argument against raw milk.  It is the small dairy farmer who is to blame.

Have I taken a leap here in logic?  Yep.  Alcohol is known to impair individual’s abilities and potentially cause death to the drinker or those around them.

Here’s less of a leap. Foods that are supposed to be ‘safe’ but make us ill any way are out there in the food chain, supported by the government with companies in business without harassment.  Recalls of commercial food products in 2010 thus far (and not including the egg recall) are listed here on the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service website: RECALLS

MSNBC reported on salmonella in a flavor enhancer, hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

Marie Callender’s frozen dinners, Spaghetti-O’s, freshway lettuce, Walmart Alfalfa Sprouts,  etc. all recalled and most of these for salmonella or E.coli according to this article in the Huffington Post.

Food for human consumption is not the only area having a tough time not killing their consumers this year.  Pet food recalls abound as well:  News article, pet food recalls

These food producers are still in business.  These business owners are not having their personal property gone through, computers and paperwork seized, children’s computers taken as evidence.

Let’s hit this argument about abuse of governmental power and misguided public safety concerns from another direction…police officers are being used to raid these “illegal” businesses (dairy farms) and their highly dangerous contraband when there are real problems out there to deal with:

Cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, etc.
Prescription drugs doled out legally and abused.
Tobacco and the aforementioned alcohol

If our safety is really the reason for the farm raids and disproportionate energy spent by the government against raw dairy farmers then that same energy should be spent in efforts shutting down all possible things, foods, individuals who could/would do us harm.  These people are not interested in saving us.  What’s going on in this country?

According to the post, women shouldn’t lift more than 3 lbs or eat more than 800 calories/day.  Ok.  I don’t know this woman’s life or her financial situation but her ideas about the capabilities and capacities and demands on women are just a skosh off the mark.  My purse weighs more than 3 lbs!  And the focus on being a particular body type (lean dancer body) is off the mark.  I understand the desire to look a certain way, I do, but you can only do what you can with the frame, genetics and basic structure that you were born with.  Your height is what it is.  Shoulder width, too.  Where you easily put on fat or muscle (these are different cells and not interchangeable!) as well.  For all those tall, naturally slender women this is a maybe goal…looking tall, slender and like a dancer.  For the rest of the population, you are a chance to make some excellent money trying to morph your body into something it is incapable of.  WHAT!?  I know…I know…in this everyone gets a participation trophy world we think that there are no limitations to our desires and dreams but that’s wrong.  Get over it.  Instead of trying to be the next Gweneth Paltrow, how about trying to be the healthiest, most fit you?

Btw, healthy and fit are not accomplished by eating just 800 calories per day.  That kind of “dieting” will only set you up for failure as that is no where near a survivable amount of calories.   Maybe if you just sit all day and don’t move…one…little…bit.  Eat clean and only enough to support lean muscle but eat!   The blanket prescription for a person to eat no more than such and such calories with no accounting for types or quality of foods much less ratios of fats, protein or carbs is ignorant at best.  The quality of what you eat is more important than the quantity.  If you wanted to waste your daily 800 caloric allotment on potato chips you would lose weight and be woefully worse off for it health-wise.  I’ll give the diet the benefit of the doubt and say that it probably is very controlled in its sources of those calories.  Still.  800 calories.  Really.

Speaking of Gweneth Paltrow and this particular diet and exercise program, her name was dropped as a previous or current follower.  I can tell you that the girl lifts more than 3 lbs daily.  She has kids.  Little ones.  There is NO WAY she isn’t picking them up when they extend those little arms and ask to be held.  Forget it!   And there’s the funniest thing of this whole thought process.  Anyone who has ever walked into a traditional big box gym has seen this before.  Women hovering around the end of the light weights on the dumbbell racks.  5 lb, please.  No, I don’t lift 15s.  They make your muscles too bulky.  Same for the light barbells if they use them at all.  Worse still are the ones who never venture into the free weights but stay on the machines that mimic human movement poorly and on one plane only at one time only and with light weight only.  Whew!  No heavy weights for me.  I want to stay looking feminine.  (We’ll leave out the female body’s lack of testosterone for the sake of confused logic here)  Once they’ve finished up that last movement they head to the nursery where they pick up their 35 lb. kid with their delicate arms and sling that 10 lb. diaper bag over their shoulder and head out to their car.  Thank goodness they didn’t lift heavy and risk getting bulky.  If anyone needs to be strong and lift heavy its women.  Every day.

3 lbs and 800 calories.  Craziness!

Anyway…Kelly mentioned at the time that he was going to have a Mobility WOD going soon.   AND HE DOES!!  It’s fantastic!

http://mobilitywod.blogspot.com/

Check it out and fix your stuff!

It is a wonderful thing that food is so cheap.  It is a horrible thing that food is so cheap.  Excess weight has to be supported via food intake.  If you spend more money on the quality food with its higher cost of production coming from its better, more time-consuming productions you end up with much more nutrient dense food sources which means eating LESS food.  This means that, yes, the price per bite of food goes up but fewer bites are needed because each bite is much, much more nutrient dense.

For a visual of what you are eating with your egg dollars, check out this short piece from the NYTimes.  A Hen’s Space to Roost and by the numbers of the chickens and their product.

Educate yourself.

During a Continuing Education course that Nancy had recently finished, the instructors had gone over the antibiotic Levaquin (levofloxacin).  It is primarily used for the treatment of bronchitis, sinusitis, urinary tract infections and more.  Bacterial infections, basically.  The reason that she was bringing this particular drug to mine and Matt’s attention is that Levaquin is this response that is prominently noted on any and all websites related to this product…

Fluoroquinolones, including LEVAQUIN^®, are associated with an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture in all ages. This risk is further increased in older patients usually over 60 years of age, in patients taking corticosteroid drugs, and in patients with kidney, heart, or lung transplants.

Nancy’s advice straight away was to have some other, any other antibiotic, prescribed for whatever infection one would be prescribed this drug.  There are other drugs out there that do this same job without risk of a tendon rupture.  And this is just one of the warnings associated with this antibiotic!

This blog post isn’t going to cover all of the joys associated with this FDA approved and supported drug as it is a long list.  That list and the lists of warnings/side effects/residual effects/etc that go along with so many of the chemicals that we ingest on a daily basis (Tylenol, aspirin, oral contraceptives, antacids, etc ) with little to no thought or concern stood out is such stark contrast to the alarm and concern from our government in regards to the consumption of raw milk products.  For example, an organic grocery store in Venice, CA was raided by officers from the LA County District Attorney’s office, with guns drawn, enforcing safety laws and protecting us from raw milk.  Interestingly enough, the story linked in the LATimes above is slanted against raw food – ” despite research outlining the dangers of consuming raw milk and other unprocessed foods…” – and is written more from the perspective that folks who would be so ignorant as to consume unprocessed food should be allowed to do crazy things without government intervention.  Thanks.  I think.

The point of this post, again, is that the FDA happily supports drug companies and puts their stamp of approval on products that cause spontaneous tendon ruptures, bleeding ulcers, liver damage, Reyes syndrome, indigestion, vomiting, tinnitus, severe head aches, blurred vision, diarrhea, nausea to name a few listed, known and approved side effects…  I am not in any way saying that there is not a place for medications or drugs.  However, the furor over raw milk and raw food in general by the government makes one wonder what the REAL cause of their concern is.

The government protests too much about the dangers of raw milk for the true reason to be our safety when they support so many other much more wildly dangerous things.

From Level 4: CrossFit Seattle – The Story of Jules Marsh

Why Does Our Government Hate Raw Milk?

On the note of paleo food choices being better for you…a paleo approved video.  Funny.

Statistics from the NY Times 2009 Almanac [2006 Statistics.] This information was obtained from Get Fit Through Gardening

Rank Causes of death                                                                                     All persons

1. Diseases of heart                                                                                              629,191
2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer)                                                                  560,102
3. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)                                                           137,265
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases                                                          124,614
5. Unintentional injuries (Accidents)                                                            117,748
6. Alzheimer’s disease                                                                                           72,507
7. Diabetes Mellitus                                                                                               72,507
8. Influenza and pneumonia                                                                              56,247
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis (Kidney Disease)44,791
10. Septicemia, Sepsis (blood poisoning)                                                     34,031
11. Suicide                                                                                                                  32,185
12 Chronic Liver Disease                                                                                     27,299
13 HTN and hypertension                                                                                    23,985
14 Parkinson’s Disease                                                                                           19,660
15 Homicide                                                                                                               18,029
16 All Other Causes                                                                                              455,333
Total:                                                                                                                      2,425,901

Again, I am NOT making light of folks getting sick from drinking raw milk but I am saying that given how much more dangerous the rest of life is I think that the worry and concern from the governor may be a touch out of touch.

2 weeks ago, I went to Austin to hear and learn from Kelly Starrett how we can be active in our own injury prevention and health.  Aches and pains, poor posture and poor mechanics in movement all add up to first, small aches and discomforts and then bigger problems until you’re not comfortable or able to do a movement in that new ‘sport’ that you’re doing over there at CFC.   The problem isn’t CrossFit, not to say that CrossFit or all trainers in CrossFit are infallible.  The problem is most often that CrossFit points out or highlights your problems.  It finds the weak point in your game, the hole in your armor.  That slumped forward position that you’ve had ever since you first started to sit at a computer for hours on end per day is damaging to your shoulders when you then attempt to take a bar over your head with regularity.  Believe it or not, but your thumbs are not supposed to point at each other when you stand.  Weird!  And swayed backs are not okay, even after carrying children or running for miles on end.

Getting functional and into top shape takes a multi-pronged approach to fix.  Firstly, if the issue is something that is a gross imbalance/tightness/weakness then there needs to be professional help in getting you out of the hole.  We, Matt and myself, have had dramatic improvement with Airrosti treatments with Dr. Doug Pendegrass.   As any of the CFC athletes who have worked with Dr. Pendegrass can attest, his is not a relaxing kind of massage help but a much more aggressive type of soft tissue therapy.  The plus to what he does is get in and get on with the fixing.  This leads to the second part of the fix – you HAVE to be a partner in your own healing.  You have to do your best to straighten up and walk tall and move smoothly.  Each workout should be preceded by and then followed by stretching, foam roller and lacrosse ball work.  The warm up and cool down processes listed on the board at the gym are the bare minimum.  If you do any of the prescribed movements and don’t feel truly stretched or warmed up then you need to do something…more.  Something bigger, different, greater than the prescribed warm up and stretches in order to make the improvements in your flexibility that you need to.  Each of us has different needs in every area and flexibility is no different.  Hunt for the tight muscle group and stretch it!  Static stretches shouldn’t be the only method that you use to increase your flexibility.  Utilize the foam rollers.  If you don’t know how to use them just ask!  Rest/skill days would be great for this.  Short workout days would be great for this.  Every day is great for this!  If the foam rollers aren’t doing the trick then get in that knotted muscle with a lacrosse ball.  Those are the hard, yellow balls usually residing in the red shelves.  If you can’t find them then ask where they are.  This isn’t rocket science folks.

Our bodies, as we age and as we push them harder and farther than generations before us need to be taken care of or they will shut us down.  Do your part for your health!

These past couple of months have been crazy busy in both business and family life.

Business-wise, we were very busy with prep work building up to the 2010 CrossFit South Central Regional Qualifier held at GSX Athletics in Ft. Worth, TX.   Jeff Tucker, owner of GSX, had called many months ago to see if we’d be interested in managing the volunteers, judges and judging standards.  That sounded easy enough.  WOW!!   There were loads of emails, data lists of who could help out, who wanted to judge, who wanted to volunteer, who was qualified for either, who had registered with me, who had registered via the Games website and then all the way up to the day of the event who couldn’t pitch in any longer.  What we ended up with on game day was an outstanding crew of judges and volunteers.  A volunteer or two or three got pushed into judging and they did fantastic (they each had the required experience and certs but had requested to be volunteers instead)!  Jerry Hobbes of County Line CrossFit was pulling in fresh recruits for volunteering all weekend long and I love him for it!  The energy, tenacity and endurance of the judges and volunteers was amazing!  I was maybe a little overzealous in my defense of them at the event but really they were doing so much for CrossFit and us that it was necessary and I’d do it again.  Some really great feedback came about from these folks that, I hope, will be used in future events to make them flow better and allow for a better experience for everyone from the athletes and spectators to the judges and volunteers.

In our gym, we had the Legion of Max Effort going on and MUCH was learned running this event as well.  Running these challenges is, well, challenging.  There are so many areas in which to judge improvement and each person’s improvement will be so different.  I was disappointed that the spirit of the challenge was not the primary driver for all teams and that there were outright and whispered criticisms of movement standards not being adhered to by all of the competitors.  Some major changes and improvements have already been made for the next event.  Overall, though, the gym as a whole pulled together and became even more of a community through this thing and that’s what’s most important.  We’ll do it again soon but not in this format.  Lots of folks made huge progress towards their goals in health and performance.  They met new people that they had never had the opportunity or reason to meet due to working out at different times during the day.  Can’t wait for the next CFChampions get together!

Speaking of having to type out Champions…that’s because we’re joining forces with our long time friends and trainers Darlene Thomas and Mike and Tami Thomas in opening CFCypress in the 290 area!!  The second CFC location will have the same programming and training options but the feel and personality of the Thomas crew will definitely be out there en force!  They are three passionate crossfitters and it will show in their gym and in everything that they do.  Good times all around starting with Controlled Chaos II on Saturday July 10th from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at CFCypress’ new location – 14216 Cypress N. Houston, Cypress, TX 77429!

ALSO…Yonder Way Farm has added another delivery day for us at CFChampions!  They ROCK!

We’re still settling in at the gym.  Adding equipment, putting up the flags and banners and signs, keeping chihuahuas out and generally having a great time of it!  Our team of trainers couldn’t be stronger and more unified.  Its about danged time.  Naysayers, doubters and rabble-rousers need not apply.

Life is good at CFChampions.  Very busy.  But good.