Holiday Movement

Winter Break is upon us and the pull to sit around and do nothing can be strong.  Please don't waste the gains you have made over this past semester.  You need to pick out a couple of days over the break and move.  It does not have to be a full blown workout, but some form of movement.  Think of some form of quick mobilization, possibly a body weight complex, or some sprint intervals, find a hill near you, a playground where you can do the monkeybars or pull-ups, a local trail to run on, etc.  The options are endless, just make sure sitting around doing nothing is not one of those options. 

For this weeks blog I want you to think about what you have available to you in or around your house and plan 2 movement sequences that you can do over the break.  Let me know what those are and what day's you plan on doing them.  You may not stick to that schedule but at least it will be written down.
Have a great Break!

Keeping the goal the goal!

 "The goal is to keep the goal the goal."  Dan John

We have started our three week workout programs and I have talked to you about keeping the goal the goal.  Remember often times we fail at reaching our goals simply because we forget to keep the goal the goal.  For this weeks blog I want you to write down your goal or goals for the next three weeks.  Remember they must be specific and measurable.  You should already have these on your goal and assessment sheet that I will be collecting on Dec. 21st

Potential

The following essay was written by a young man named Blair Morrison who I had the pleasure of competing with at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Qualifier for the CrossFit Games in 2009. He finished 2nd in the regional and went on to finish 7th at the games. He has since opened up his own CrossFit Gym and has written several quality essay's on his blog. This one spoke to me and I hope it does you. 

Fitness Is...

Potential.

Everybody has it. Few reach it.

It’s easy to assume that people despise mediocrity because the world is littered with evidence of humanity’s desire to excel—our obsession with talent, our reverence for heroes, even our love of money. It’s easy to assume that everyone wants to be his or her physical best because everywhere there are those wishing for a better body type or a better lifestyle. They fill our virgin ears with a symphony of sincerity and aspiration, but listen closer. They clamor with empty voices.

The truth is that 90% of people just want to get by. We pretend our ultimate goal is to be the best version of ourselves, reading the right literature, quoting the right sources, joining the right gyms; but the reality is far less compelling. If we are truly honest we will admit that the level to which we might possibly rise is rarely our chief concern. More important is reaching the level where we can merely survive or, at the very least, mock survival. Getting there is much easier. Getting there requires less time, less pain, and less effort. Getting there is too often there enough.

I was speaking with my father the other day about a friend of ours whose son wanted to be a college football player. He had good size and natural talent, but he was a little slow and lacked the explosive quality most big programs look for in an athlete. One evening while having dinner with this family my dad suggested that the kid hang a bell at the top of the hill abutting their property and ring it every morning before going to school. Not only would sprinting up the hill begin to build the explosive power needed for speed and acceleration but the sound of the bell would become a symbol of his dedication to the goal. I wish I could say the kid went out and rang that bell every day, or committed himself to some other program in its place, but this isn’t that kind of story. He, like many others like him, chose instead to remain a card-carrying member of that mediocre 90%.

Why? Because greatness is HARD. Our bodies don’t care about potential. They were built to survive, not to excel, and survival has gotten pretty easy as of late. Our bodies don’t know that by being stronger and faster and leaner the likelihood of illness, disease, and injury drop dramatically. Our bodies only know that it hurts like hell getting there. It takes supreme physical and mental fortitude and an unflinching, genuine ambition to overcome these hurdles. Most of us lack this and it shows.

In this story his ability wasn’t being measured against theirs or any others, only against his own potential as an individual. He claimed that he wanted to be the best that he could be, to give himself the best chance to be a college football player. But when faced with the reality of what it would take to reach that goal he balked, exposing his ambitions as half-hearted and insincere, and his athletic future to be one ridden along the tired road to the middle. This is an all too common tragedy.

After hearing this story, I sat for a minute and observed my father. He was visibly disappointed by the kid’s inability to commit himself to his goal. Yet I knew for a fact that my dad had wanted to lose weight for years and failed to commit himself to doing so in much the same way. This struck me as a prevailing irony, not just in this conversation but in our culture in general, so I decided to ask him when was the last time he “rang the bell.” He was lost for a second, then smiled wryly as he got my meaning. “Too long,” he replied.

Sadly, it seems that our praise of greatness and our distaste for mediocrity is an appreciation and expectation reserved for others. We expect Jordan or Tiger or Ronaldo to reach their potential every time they compete and we shake our heads when they fall short. But we shrug off our love handles and that occasional chocolate cake as acceptable losses. We cry for the children growing up without physical opportunities, yet lie on the couch and amicably waste ours away. We claim we’re too old, too fat, too injured, or too tired. The truth is we’re too obsessed with getting by.

The good news is that physical potential does not expire. It has no shelf life. Whatever state you’re in at whatever moment, you can always be better. SO BE BETTER. Too often people try to do this by setting a number to hit, a person to beat, or a mirror to impress, implicitly attaching a finite quality to the process. This focus is flawed. As you change and improve, so too should your potential grow and your ambition swell. Remember that fitness is a goal inadvertently attained through the systematic overestimation of yourself in all fields. It’s a byproduct of setting the bar too high, of striving for perfection and falling just short. It’s knowing that you’ll never get there but trying your damndest nonetheless. It’s constantly pushing your limits in every direction regardless of your skill. It’s finding a way to keep ringing the bell.

 

 

For this weeks blog, you need to leave two comments.  First comment on what the essay means to you and then you have to comment on another students comment.  Remember that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and to keep disscussion civil and appropriate as this is a school assignment.

Sleep

So far this semster we have looked at ways to get our body stronger, how to eat to support that strength, and way's to help deal with soft tissue and mobility issues.  The final piece to our healthy living puzzle has to do with sleep.  Please read the following article from the National Sleep Foundation on teens and sleep as well as the WTOP article on changing the starting time for the high schools and answer the questions at the bottom of the page.

Sleep is food for the brain. During sleep, important body functions and brain activity occur. Skipping sleep can be harmful — even deadly, particularly if you are behind the wheel. You can look bad, you may feel moody, and you perform poorly. Sleepiness can make it hard to get along with your family and friends and hurt your scores on school exams, on the court or on the field. Remember: A brain that is hungry for sleep will get it, even when you don’t expect it. For example, drowsiness and falling asleep at the wheel cause more than 100,000 car crashes every year. When you do not get enough sleep, you are more likely to have an accident, injury and/or illness.

FACTS:

• Sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage the stress of being a teen.
• Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence -- meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm.
• Teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep each night to function best (for some, 8 1/2 hours is enough). Most teens do not get enough sleep — one study found that only 15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights.
• Teens tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week — they typically stay up late and sleep in late on the weekends, which can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep.
• Many teens suffer from treatable sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea.

CONSEQUENCES:

Not getting enough sleep or having sleep difficulties can:

• Limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. You may even forget important information like names, numbers, your homework or a date with a special person in your life;
• Make you more prone to pimples. Lack of sleep can contribute to acne and other skin problems;
• Lead to aggressive or inappropriate behavior such as yelling at your friends or being impatient with your teachers or family members;
• Cause you to eat too much or eat unhealthy foods like sweets and fried foods that lead to weight gain;
• Heighten the effects of alcohol and possibly increase use of caffeine and nicotine; and
• Contribute to illness, not using equipment safely or driving drowsy.

SOLUTIONS:

• Make sleep a priority. Review Teen Time in this toolkit and keep the Teen Sleep Diary. Decide what you need to change to get enough sleep to stay healthy, happy, and smart!
• Naps can help pick you up and make you work more efficiently, if you plan them right. Naps that are too long or too close to bedtime can interfere with your regular sleep.
• Make your room a sleep haven. Keep it cool, quiet and dark. If you need to, get eyeshades or blackout curtains. Let in bright light in the morning to signal your body to wake up.
• No pills, vitamins or drinks can replace good sleep. Consuming caffeine close to bedtime can hurt your sleep, so avoid coffee, tea, soda/pop and chocolate late in the day so you can get to sleep at night. Nicotine and alcohol will also interfere with your sleep.
• When you are sleep deprived, you are as impaired as driving with a blood alcohol content of .08%, which is illegal for drivers in many states. Drowsy driving causes over 100,000 crashes each year. Recognize sleep deprivation and call someone else for a ride. Only sleep can save you!
• Establish a bed and wake-time and stick to it, coming as close as you can on the weekends. A consistent sleep schedule will help you feel less tired since it allows your body to get in sync with its natural patterns. You will find that it’s easier to fall asleep at bedtime with this type of routine.
• Don’t eat, drink, or exercise within a few hours of your bedtime. Don’t leave your homework for the last minute. Try to avoid the TV, computer and telephone in the hour before you go to bed. Stick to quiet, calm activities, and you’ll fall asleep much more easily!
• If you do the same things every night before you go to sleep, you teach your body the signals that it’s time for bed. Try taking a bath or shower (this will leave you extra time in the morning), or reading a book.
• Try keeping a diary or to-do lists. If you jot notes down before you go to sleep, you’ll be less likely to stay awake worrying or stressing.
• When you hear your friends talking about their all-nighters, tell them how good you feel after getting enough sleep.
• Most teens experience changes in their sleep schedules. Their internal body clocks can cause them to fall asleep and wake up later. You can’t change this, but you can participate in interactive activities and classes to help counteract your sleepiness. Make sure your activities at night are calming to counteract your already heightened alertness.

If teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep to do their best and naturally go to sleep around 11:00 pm, one way to get more sleep is to start school later.
Teens' natural sleep cycle puts them in conflict with school start times. Most high school students need an alarm clock or a parent to wake them on school days. They are like zombies getting ready for school and find it hard to be alert and pay attention in class. Because they are sleep deprived, they are sleepy all day and cannot do their best.
Schools that have set later bell times find that students do not go to bed later, but get one hour more of sleep per school night, which means five hours more per week.
Enrollment and attendance improves and students are more likely to be on time when school starts. Parents and teachers report that teens are more alert in the morning and in better moods; they are less likely to feel depressed or need to visit the nurse or school counselor.

There is currently a push in the county to change the start time of high schools.  Here is an article from WTOP.

Montgomery petition calls for later school bells

Sunday - 11/4/2012, 1:29am ET

ROCKVILLE, Md. - Thousands of people across Montgomery County have signed a petition calling for later start times for high schools, which often start class before 7:30 a.m.The Washington Post reports more than 7,000 people have signed the petition since it was launched Oct. 15. It will be presented to the school board this month.Supporters point to research showing that lack of sleep is linked to academic performance, absenteeism and increased risk of depression and car crashes.Parent Shelly McGill of Bethesda says it's not safe for students to be out before the sun rises. A student was fatally struck by a car this week at 7:03 a.m. on her way to Seneca Valley High School.While a later school start sounds good to teens and many parents, it could have a domino effect. School buses in Montgomery County do double or triple duty, driving teens first, then middle schoolers and finally the youngest kids. Buying more buses to accommodate the time change for teens would be cost-prohibitive. Later start times would also conflict with after-school sports.Mary Carskadon, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, says the teenage brain needs eight and a half to nine and a half hours of sleep per night. A teenager in Montgomery County would have to be in bed by 9 p.m. to get the right amount and still be on time the next morning - a bedtime many teens are unwilling to adopt. Joshua Starr, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools, has promised to take another look at the question. The petition goes to the school board in November. Fairfax County also has early start times. But Arlington and Loudoun counties start school later.WTOP's Rosemary Frisino Toohey and Heather Brady contributed to this report.Follow WTOP on Twitter.

For this weeks blog, answer the following questions on the Sleep Foundation Article and the WTOP article.

1. How much sleep on average do you get each night and how does that compare to the recommended amounts in the information above?
2. What are some of the consequences of not getting enough sleep?
3. Which strategies listed above would help you to get more sleep
4. Do you think starting high school later is a good idea?
5. What issues do you see developing if high school start times are pushed back?

Troubling Trends

Please read the article below and answer the questions at the end.

Obesity cuts U.S. children's life expectancy short January 13, 2011

For the first time in history, the next generation will not live longer than their parents.                                                          
“Diseases such as Type II diabetes, high blood pressure, heart conditions and joint deterioration - what were once considered ‘adult’ diseases - are regularly being diagnosed in children, due to the prevalence of obesity,” said Jessica Bartfield, MD, internal medicine and medical weight-loss specialist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, part of the Loyola University Health System.“What is particularly tragic is that studies have suggested that obesity in children today may contribute to a two- to five-year decline in their life expectancy, shorter than that of their parents, due to obesity-related diseases that are largely preventable,” said Dr. Bartfield, who is part of Gottlieb’s medically supervised weight-loss program involving physicians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists and behavioralists. She said obesity has many causes, including environment and culture. Genetics and parental weight status also plays a role.“If one parent is obese, a child has a 50 percent likelihood of being obese, and if both parents are obese, that skyrockets to 80 percent likelihood,” she said. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 80 percent of obese children between the ages of 10-15 continue to be obese at age 25. Furthermore, the earlier obesity develops in children, the more severe it tends to be as an adult. Besides health implications, there are psychological and social effects as well.“In addition to decreasing years of life, obesity decreases the quality of life through social ostracism, bullying, social isolation, and poor self-esteem, which can lead to poor performance in school, in jobs and in life,” she said.

Top Five Ways We Can Reverse the Obesity trend.

Trend 1 – Parents take charge. “Focus on getting the family healthy, not putting someone on a diet,” she said. “Monitor and take accountability for what the family is eating. Plan meals, set limits and take the team approach.”

2 – Involve the Kids. “As a family, create a weekly meal plan, look up calorie counts, make a grocery list, read product labels, choose fresh rather than packaged and get everyone’s participation,” Dr. Bartfield said. “Everyone has to get on board to be successful.” google_protectAndRun

3 – Add fresh fruits and vegetables. “Replace apple sauce for oil in baked goods, add carrots, broccoli and kale to soups and omelettes, cut up fresh fruit as a side dish,” Dr. Bartfield said. “Even if it is dipped in a little low-calorie whipped topping or low-calorie salad dressing to make the fruit or vegetable more appealing to kids.”

4 – Cut liquid calories. “Soda, flavored milk, fruit punches and fruit -flavored beverages are loaded in sugar and empty calories,” Dr. Bartfield said.

5 – Prioritize breakfast and keep meals consistent. “Eating within the first hour of waking up powers the brain and jump-starts the metabolism for the rest of the day,” Dr. Bartfield said. “Choose protein and fiber in breakfast foods to boost endurance.” Establish set meal times, and calories per meal, and stick to them, with defined healthy options for snacking.

Keeping It Real“In overweight children with medical complications or obese children, strive for a one-pound individual weight loss per month,” said Dr. Bartfield, who uses guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Focus on weight maintenance for overweight kids without medical complications. As kids continue to grow in height, their percentage Body Mass Index (BMI) on the growth chart will decrease.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2011-01-obesity-children-life-short.html#jCp

For this weeks blog I want you to answer the following questions.

1. How could you incorporate the "5 ways" into your life?

2. It has been said that people who are obese are lucky, in the sense that they have an outward sign of a problem.  Does that statement make sense to you?  Explain.

Blog #7 Macronutrients

The purpose of the last blog was to just get you thinking about what you eat.  In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives we often become disconnected with our food and that was evident in many of your posts.  Several people said they do not eat breakfast because they do not have time or eat whatever is around for an after school snack.  This lack of attention paid to what we are putting in our bodies has had a dramatic affect on our overall health as a society.  We will get into the scary statistics in a future post but just just know that the quality of the food you put into your body has a direct influence on your overall health.  The problem is we do not always see those affects immediately, it is a gradual process over time.

Food is made up of calories and calories are energy.  We need energy to support our efforts throughout the day so we need food.  Every food that you eat can be classified as one of three macro nutrients.  You have probably heard of them before they are Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins.


Carbohydrates provide energy for the body's cells including the brain.

Proteins are required for tissue maintenance, replacement, function, and growth, but in the absence of carbohydrates and Fats can also be used to provide energy.

Fats are required for tissue growth and hormone production, as well as regulating body temperature.  They are also a source of energy for the body.

Common sources of carbohydrates - starchy foods (like grain, bread, cereals and potatoes), fruits, milk, and yogurt. Other foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and cottage cheese contain carbohydrates, but in lesser amounts.

Common Sources of proteins meats, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, nuts, legumes, and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables.

Common Sources of fat meat, poultry, nuts, milk products, butters and margarines, oils, lard, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and coconut oil.

Your body needs all three macro nutrients in order to function optimally.  Recommendations for how much of each macro nutrients individuals need vary based on several factors and are the topic of much debate and we will discuss this more.

For this weeks blog, I want you take a look at the day of eating you posted last week and use the information about macro nutrients above to break your day of eating down into its macro nutrients. 

Your post should be in percentages, based on you meals throughout the day.  For example, my daily macro nutrient profile usually looks something like this.

Carbohydrates: 35%
Proteins: 35%
Fats 30%

Fueling Your Work

We are starting to get the hang of many of the lifts we are doing in class and will continue to put them to work, both as strength moves and in our interval training/metcon days.  What we have not looked at yet is how you fuel your body to perform the hard work you are doing in class and more importantly your overall health.  Your body is like a machine, think of it as a race car.  If you put cheap fuel in a race car it will still go but will not perform up to it's capabilities.  However, if you load that car up with high octane fuel, it will perform.  Your body is the same way.  You can live off of pop tarts and hot pockets, but they will not allow your body to perform up to it's full potential.

Over the course of the semester we are going to define what "high octane" foods are and try to help you shift your current eating habits to help support what you are doing in the weight room and ultimately make you more healthy.

For this weeks blog I want you to be honest and write out for me what you eat in a normal day.  You can just write down what you had yesterday or if yesterday was not a normal day let me know what you normally eat.  I want to know what and how much of everything you eat in a day.  Break it down into breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks.  If you normally skip a meal let me know that as well.

Deadlift Form Check

This week we are going to take a look at the deadlift.  This blog will be a summative assessment worth 10 points.  You have been working hard to get your form right because done incorrectly the deadlift can cause issues with your back.  Take a look at the video below and let me know if you think his form is perfect or needs some work.  If you think the form needs work, what does he need to fix and how would you help him fix it?

Air Squats

Take a look at the video below.  For this weeks comment let me know what you think of her squat.  Is it perfect?  Is there anything you would clean up?  Don't forget to leave your name with your comment and feel free to comment on others comment.

Muscle ID Quiz

This blog is a test of following dorections as well as what you know about the muscles of the body.  As we said in class the body has several hundred muscles that control all of our various functions.  No one really knows the exact number, but most agree on more than 600!  We will focus on 10 muscles or muscle groups in class this semester.  Their numbers are listed below the chart.  Use the following diagram to name the muscle groups identified by the ten numbers listed below. 

#11
#12
#13
#14
#17
#22
#23
#41
#49
#52

Safety in The Weight Room

For this weeks blog we are going to review the safety practices we talked about last week. In 20 years of teaching weight training, 95% of the injuries I have seen in the weight room can be directly attributed to failure in complying with basic safety practices and good common sense. For this weeks blog I want you to provide me the answer to the following multiple guess questions. You do not need to write the question or the answer out just give me the number of the question and the letter of the correct response.

Do not forget to include your name with your post.

Weight Training Safety Quiz

 

1. What is rule # 1 in the weight room?

A. No Horseplay                                 B. No food

C. No Jewelry                                     D. Use Spotter

 

2. Weight training can be beneficial for all of the following except.

A.  Increase bone density                   B. Increase flexibility

C. Rehabilitate injuries                        D. Prepare for a sport

 

3. Most injuries in the weight room occur because of failure to use this.

A. Common Sense                              B. Safety Collars

C. Spotters                                          D. Belt

 

4. The muscle building process can best be described as what kind of process?

A. No pain no gain                              B. Rip and Burn

C. Tear down Build Up                      D. Muscle failure

 

5. What is the first thing you should do if a piece of equipment should become stuck or broken?

A. Try to fix it.                                    B Tell the teacher

C. Use something else                         D. Kick it

 

6. Which kinds of injuries need to be reported to the teacher?

A. Severe injuries                                B. Nagging injuries

C. Normal injuries                               D. Any injuries

 

7. Which type of exercise requires a spotter?

A. Machine work                                B. Abdominal work

C. Stretching                                       D. Free weight

 

8. What should each individual have before entering the weight room?

A. Protein shake                                  B.  Goal

C.  Soda                                              C.  Belt           

 

9. Which of the following would be considered appropriate shoes?

A. Flip-flops                                        B. Athletic Shoes

C. Slippers                                           D. Shoes with heels

 

10. Each time your lift a weight it is called this.

A. Rep                                                 B. Set

C. Turn                                                D. Go

Welcome Back!

I hope you had a great summer ane are ready to work hard this semester.

I am excited to be teaching all weight training classes for the first semester and will handle the blog a bit differently than I have in the past.  There will only be one blog each week for all of the classes.  You will leave you comment on that blog and will be able to see and respond to the comments of others in other classes.

For your first blog I just want to know that you know how to reply to the blog correctly.  Click the comments box type in your name and tell us all something interesting about yourself.  Remember the blog is a classroom activity and as such all rules for language and respect apply.  Then clip submit.

I will give you an example on the first comment.

What's wrong with processed foods?

What's wrong with processed foods

Here is a great explanation I found on line you can find out more at Link: http://greenwithbetsy.com/

Processed foods are foods that have been altered from their natural states in order to extend their shelf life.  Foods that come in a box, can, bag or carton are processed.  They are often poor quality and usually cheap.  About 90% of the money Americans spend on food is used to buy “edible foodlike substances” as Michael Pollen, well-known author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and professor, calls them.

Processed foods have been implicated in most of today’s chronic diseases and health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.  What makes processed foods so bad?  Many processed foods contain trans fats (or hydrogenated) a dangerous type of fat, which raises the bad cholesterol and lowers the good.  Most processed foods are extremely high in salt, which is also not good for the heart and addictive.  Have you ever tried to eat just one potato chip?!  Another addictive ingredient you'll find in processed foods is high fructose corn syrup, linked to obesity and diabetes.  Sugar is burned and turned into energy; high fructose corn syrup turns into fat. Potato chips and French fries often contain Acrylamide, a carcinogenic substance that forms when foods are heated at high temperatures, such as during baking or frying.

Processed foods also contain a lot of additives. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a list of over 3,000 chemicals that are added to the processed food supply to add color, stabilize, texturize, preserve, sweeten, thicken, etc.  Some of these additives have never been tested for safety and require no government approval.  They belong to the FDA's "Generally Recognized as Safe" list.

So what should we eat?  As with anything moderation is the key, so limit your intake of processed foods and eat whole foods.  As Michael Pollen says, keep it simple - don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.  Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans, not corporations. Always read the label and choose wisely. 

For this weeks blog, I want you to analyze the bright spots in your current eating.  No one said they eat 100% processed foods so you should be able to find some good things.  For this weeks blog, I want you to tell me what you are currently eating that is not processed and how you could increase your consumption of non processed foods.

Blog # 2 All Classes Nutrition

We are going to spend the 4th quarter looking at our nutrition.  Think of your body as a high performance car.  It will perform it's best when given the best fuel.  Nutrition is the fuel that powers your body and I would argue, it is the most important aspect of your training.  At your young age your can get away with eating crap and still make some gains in the weight room, but that does not mean damage is not being done or that you would not be performing better with better nutrition.

Over the next few weeks we are going to look at several aspects of nutrition but for today's post, I want you to think about how many processed foods you eat each day.  Processed foods are foods that have been altered from their natural state.  Sometimes this is done for safety to prevent the food from breaking down too quickly and to preserve nutrients, but it mostly done for convenience as in packaged foods that can sit in a pantry for months on end.  Ultimately, we pay a price for this convenience with poor performance in our training or health problems down the road.

For this weeks post, I want you to think about what you eat on a regular basis and what percentage of your current eating is comprised of processed foods.

Some examples of processed foods are

• Canned foods
• Breads and pastas
• Packaged high-calorie snack foods such as chips and candies
• Frozen fish sticks and frozen dinners
• Packaged cakes and cookies
• Boxed meal mixes
• Sugary breakfast cereals
• Processed meats - deli meats, hot dogs, bacon, etc.
• Nutrition bars and shakes