Supplements

I frequently get asked my thoughts on supplements. For the most part I think you can save your money. But there are a few that I think are worth the money.

What you should save your money on: protein powders, creatine, energy drinks/formulas, fish oil, and multivitamins.

By and large most protein powders are cheap per shake if you buy a bulk container. However flavored protein powders are packed full of artificial sweeteners and fortified vitamins. I am a huge advocate for avoiding artificial sweeteners, they have not been tested long enough for us to know the true effects of them on our bodies. My theory is don’t eat non-foods; artificial sweeteners are NOT food, they are chemicals. Unless you are trying to stack on mass amounts of muscle, it is best to eat your protein in the forms of eggs, meat, fish and Greek yogurt.

We’ve all seen that douche that walks around carrying his protein bottle everywhere making a big deal out of the fact that they are “bulking”. They’ve got some magic shaker full of some red or purple liquid that they slurp down between “lifts” (and I use that term loosely to describe their efforts on the lat pull down….who knew you could kip on the lat pull down?). Then they are refilling that shaker bottle full of another powder – all in dramatics and theatrics for the young new gym goer to stop and ask. And then they spout off their deep knowledge of Muscle Fitness’ latest article on Muscle Milk (that was paid for by said company). If you pay particular attention to this said gym douche you never see them exercise anything much more than their mouth and air lats. A hard gainer is usually a poor trainer.

Creatine; this is a sticky one. In about 20 percent of people creatine will have immediate and measurable results, but for the rest of us creatine provides no remarkable results other than slight bodyweight increase from water retention but no performance gains. My personal opinion is it is over marketed – some people swear by it, I swear it is mental – but sometimes that placebo affect makes a difference.

Energy drinks/shots are chock full of too much caffeine and a vitamin b complex. Caffeine shots are full of artificial sweeteners and the energy drinks have a ton of sugar. (Eight ounce of: Red Bull has 26 grams of sugar; Monster has 27 grams; Amp has 29 grams…oh and try and find a can of Amp or Monster at 8 ounces) Caffeine at 10 grams is lethal. Most of us don’t get anywhere near this amount in a day. There is about 200mg in an eight ounce cup of coffee (this of course varies on brand). Most coffee cups that you use in your house are 12 ounces and the smallest size of coffee at Dunkin Donuts is 10 ounces. If you start adding energy drinks/shots to your coffee consumption you could experience eye twitching, heart palpitations, nervousness, and sleeplessness.

Fish oil; I was guilty of this until just recently. There was a fancy chart and everything that told you how much fish oil you should take by weight. But the really confusing part was which one should you buy? They ranged from cheap to really expensive and the fancy chart told you that you should take somewhere around 9 capsules a day! So this got to be expensive. The next thing was the ones worth a shit had a short expiration date; so you had to pay attention to that upon purchase. But new evidence suggests you should get your fish oil from fish, who knew. The reason fish oil was suggested was to help with inflammation, most of the inflammation was coming from a diet too high in Omega 6 (corn and vegetable oils). Now we are told to get our Omega 3s (fish oils) from eating fish and to keep our diets low in Omega 6. Please note that flax seed oil and seeds are high in Omega-3 but they also are an irritant to the gut. Win-lose. Eat fish.

Multi-vitamins. My take on a multi is eat a good diet and you don’t need a multi. Especially one that has a shelf life of several years and note that most minerals do not have a shelf life; so they are null and void. Add in the preservatives and coloring and you get a non¬-food. Most importantly the type of vitamins and minerals that are put into a multi do your body no good and are frauds. For example, niacin, in a multi they put niacinamide and it is NOT niacin at all. Vitamin C in a multi comes in the form of ascorbic acid; again this is garbage. You want a Vitamin C with flavonoids. The magnesium is magnesium oxide which is cheap but not well absorbed by the body. The best form of magnesium is magnesium aspartate or chelated magnesium. Chromium as chromium oxide, again a cheap form not well absorbed – a better form is chromium picolinate. Zinc in the form of zinc oxide but again the better form is Zinc mono aspartate. Okaaaaayyy…you get the picture here, right? Multi’s are garbage.

So what supplements do I use and recommend?

#1 – Niacin. This is the best pre-workout supplement out there. When I say Niacin, I mean niacin. The stuff that makes you flush like a ginger in the Florida sun. If you have never taken Niacin before I recommend starting with 250 mg. Then moving up to 500mg. No better motivation than popping a 500mg of niacin if you don’t start moving your body you will become very uncomfortable. Niacin opens up all the capillaries in your body and lets the blood flow better; basically you warm up faster. Other supposed properties are stabilizing blood sugar levels and increasing the good cholesterol.

#2 – Probiotics. Buy in the powder form and the good ones have to be refrigerated. Gut health is essential to health.

#3 – GABA – this is an amino acid that promotes relaxation. This is perfect before bed. Much better than melatonin. GABA does some fancy stuff with the electricity in your body – I don’t know look it up.
#4- Vitamin C – Flavanoids. The boost to the immune function is still in question; however it does help control cortisol. So it makes a perfect supplement for when you are stressing, and post workout.

#5 – Magnesium aspartate – Magnesium deficiency can cause lots of problems including muscle soreness, muscle cramps, and impaired contraction of the smooth muscle tissue. Basically if you work out and you feel like you are getting extremely sore after the workout or you are getting Charlie horses you need some magnesium.

#6 – Iodine – I buy the liquid and draw a circle on my stomach and let my skin absorb it. Iodine is needed for proper function of the thyroid. America has become salt-phobic and iodine deficiency is on the rise – slow thyroid, goiters and all.

So folks there is my list of my personal essential supplements. Hope you find it useful. I’d love to hear supplements you use and how they work for you.

Fit2Fat2Fit

Fit2Fat2Fit. Have you all seen this? Personal Trainer, Drew, is going on a six month adventure to become obese and then will trim down again. He is almost at the end of his journey of obesity having packed on 70#s. This has become a national sensation. He is on the Today Show, Jay Leno, various websites to include Yahoo and of course his blog and Facebook.

This is almost like a train wreck. Most people are following along to see if Drew fails to lose the weight. Some people are truly inspired by this and are hoping they can mirror his efforts to lose their weight and have success themselves. And some obese people are taking a strong abhorrence to Drew’s efforts.

I have been following Drew’s adventure the last two weeks. He makes a comment on Facebook about trying to find clothes for his television appearance on Jay Leno and gets 267 comments ranging from hostility, kinship and awareness to the plight of obese people trying to find clothes that are descent. You get off colored comments that the fashion industry doesn’t encourage obesity that is why there aren’t any fashionable clothes for heavier folks, to shop at Big Dog or Wal-Mart they expect everyone to be fat. I have been fascinated by Drew’s dedication to be able to identify with his obese clients. I thought wow, here is a man dedicated to his job. I could never do that. I wouldn’t want to risk my health, put undue stress on my skin, ligaments and bones, and I just don’t want to be fat. Period. That simple.

The more I read his posts and the comments the more it got me thinking. I think Drew’s intentions are good and I do think he will help some people out with his journey back to fit. And I have no doubt that he won’t get back to his previous fit form. He has a lot of media attention now, what great motivation! But the comments people are making about Drew’s attempt to appreciate the struggles of someone who is obese are misguided.
America has become the celebration of mediocrity. We celebrate everything: Kindergarten graduations; Tumble with mom medals; graduating elementary school to middle school; t-ball ceremonies. And then we go overboard with celebrations like drug rehab and, weight loss (think Kristie Alley and Oprah). Last time I checked you are expected to make it through kindergarten and elementary school (I actually think there is a law requiring it) t-ball isn’t anything but kids digging in the dirt, chasing bugs, wondering what is for snack and the chance hap that one of them catches the ball and throws it in the right direction. We aren’t supposed to get fat or do drugs. Why are we celebrating so hard? We don’t celebrate when kids don’t get addicted to heroin. We don’t celebrate that stay-at- home- mom who has four kids and a rocking body – most of the time she is ridiculed! We have our priorities wrong people.

Hands down to Drew, but I have to wonder if he just succumbed to the pressure. What pressure am I referring to? Well this is the pressure that people who are obese have already given into. Look around you – there are ads for McDonald’s during the Olympics, Krispy Kreme and Girl Scout Cookie fund raisers, the office donut mess, commercials telling you that high fructose corn syrup is ok for you, Tony the Tiger tells you Frosted Flakes are GRRRRReat and will help you win that soccer game, Gatorade replenishes electrolytes for sports games (and it also sports more calories and sugar than soda), grocery stores with buy one get one free hamburger helpers, or buy one get one free bags of chips, the FDA telling us if your bread is whole wheat and brown it is good for you. I am not saying that Drew just wanted to eat to his heart’s desire for six months, I think he gave into the peer pressure of his overweight clients telling him he doesn’t know what it’s like. And to that he should have told them HORSE SHIT.
If you are in shape you know exactly what it is like to have cravings for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Cap ‘n Crunch, Lucky Charms, calzones, French fries, a Dr. Pepper. Unless this said fit person has lived in a cave their whole life they have partaken in these foods. And yes, sometimes these foods at the right time of the day or the right moment of stress can be a better release than sex.

But fit people make a conscious choice not to eat these foods but in an extreme once in a while (we are talking a few times a YEAR…none of this moderation shit) because we recognize the rat hole these foods will take us down. Diabetes, hypertension, clogged arteries, high cholesterol, heart attack, cancer, arthritis, sleep apnea, lupus, acne, irritable bowel syndrome, and all kinds of weird and strange aliments.

If you are obese and you think a fit person, and I am not saying a skinny person, the kind of skinny that thinks they can put on weight by being a garbage disposal, an actual fit person like Drew was, is an easy life to travel you are hugely mistaken. There are internal battles that rage constantly. Being the odd man out at the morning coffee table when everyone else is indulging in a liquid candy bar from Starbucks and a big old boston cream donut; opting out of football pizza, nachos and, beer party fun with friends every Sunday, being the only person on a business road trip who is concerned about what time they go to bed, where the nearest gym is and not hitting the bars every night with your colleagues. There is the I can’t relate to any of my kids friends parents and they all think I’m freaky. The everyday explanation to your kids why their friends make poor food choices and why they shouldn’t.

Yeah, I am sure if you are obese and you are reading that last paragraph you are rolling your eyes and saying oh poor woe is me, Angela. And that is fine. But here is the thing, these are the hard choices I decide to make the right choice about and if you are obese or overweight you didn’t make that hard choice. You chose the easy way. Well everyone else is having a 2000 calorie coffee and another 2000 calorie donut that has about 109 grams of sugar in it I will too. Or well my husband wants pizza to watch football so I’ll just eat that too. Or my friends are all going out partying and staying up late, I’ll just skip the gym and sleep and go along. An obese/overweight person made the easy choice. I’m not saying the easy choice has easy rewards. Quite the contrary. Having discipline to do the right thing at all the right times is hard. And the fact that I do that every time I need to and an obese/overweight person chooses not to doesn’t make my life easier than yours. It DOES make my life happier than an obese/overweight person. It DOES make my health better than the obese/overweight persons. It DOES let me enjoy my life better than the obese/overweight persons.

I don’t think that someone that is obese/overweight should be pointing fingers at people that are fit, such as Drew and saying, “but you don’t understand, you don’t know what it is like.” That’s HORSE SHIT. I don’t need to walk a mile in someone that is obese/overweight’s shoes to recognize they have health problems ranging from nagging to severe, that they can’t find clothes that are fashionable, that children point at them and laugh, that they are discriminated against at the work place. I KNOW this. I don’t need to be obese/overweight to know this.

What the obese/overweight person needs to know is that it is time to start being disciplined and stop whining how no one understands. Time to stop having that liquid candy bar for a coffee, time to stop having regular meals at Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King and the like. It’s time to make the right decision and get up and get moving even when you just don’t feel like it. When there is something on television that you want to watch or you just want to relax after a long day at work. Relaxing is an easy choice. Television is an easy choice. Subway, Pizza Hut, Burger King, liquid candy bar coffees (CARBS) ARE THE EASY CHOICES. It’s time to stop crying that “you don’t know what it’s like” because you make the easy choice all the time. There are more times that I do not want to work out than I do and there are more times than not that while I am working out I just want to scale it back and take it easy. But I don’t. I know that I have to work out, that I have to train hard. I know that I have to make a good healthy dinner for my family, and pack lunches for all of us that are the right foods. No one wants spinach and chicken with a side of mashed cauliflower! But these are the right and hard choices.

And don’t expect results in a few weeks. It took you awhile to become obese/overweight it will probably take you twice as long to get fit. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard and even when you get fit it will still remain hard. Because making the right choice is always the harder road to travel. We live in a world with many luxuries, many affordable luxuries, it’s hard to say no to them, especially if you take on the attitude that you are somehow entitled to a luxury because you work, or raise a family. Carry the attitude that you are entitled to work hard and then work really hard and you will never be disappointed in your health, life or body shape.

So hats off to you Drew, I wish you luck and I wish your followers luck.

Barefoot Running

It’s official! I have officially been training with minimal shoes for two years. The only thing I can say about it is….wow, time goes by a helluva fast.

When I first switched over to minimal running I bought a pair of Vibram’s Five Fingers (VFFs). I should’ve invested in some $8 pool shoes from Wal-Mart. They are virtually the same thing, without the longevity of the Vibram sole, but @ $8 you can afford a few pairs.

I really liked my VFFs but then (and this is a pretty common theme with me) I broke myself. My training wasn’t at all different from what I do now, heavy lifting with sprint intervals and an occasional “long” run which is nothing over 2.6 miles. Back in October 2009 I strapped my VFFs on and after about five minutes I got each of my toes in the correct hole, for some reason my baby toe LOVES to share toe holes with the toe beside her, I was off and running like a gazelle. I felt like a chimpanzee (kinda looked like I had their feet….man are these shoes effin ugly!) I was leaned forward, heels kicking up, break neck pace. This, my dear friends, was. Awesome!

I decided it would be a good idea for me to do an actual long run, my good friend Aimee was getting ready to bust out her first marathon and I used her for inspiration. Now I pride myself at being able to judge distance pretty good, I can’t judge pace for shit, but distance I am almost spot on. I took off and when I mapped out the course in my mind I thought it was about four miles….um yea, not so much. I was feeling really good, there were a lot of hills in the course and I loved the challenge, I would lean into them and up I’d go. There was some off-roading and it felt awesome to run on the grass, I was able to literally dig my toes into the ground and push forward. At what I gauged as mile four I realized I was still pretty far from home. Hmmmm…well this can’t be good I thought. But being the bone head that I typically am I said oh well, suck it up, keep running….there will be no walking Marine. I noticed my steps weren’t as light and airy as when I took off on the last mile stretch home and I really tried focusing on pulling my heels up and landing softly. By focusing on pulling your heels up vice how you land, your foot generally produces the correct foot landing.

I finally get home, and I have pain in my right foot on the top. Nothing real bad just a tweak, nothing I shouldn’t expect for having just ran six miles.

Over the next few months I proceeded to train: heavy lifting with sprints and varied running intervals.: one mile sprint, rest, another mile, rest, another mile, stuff like that. The pain in my foot started to increase, I iced it and ignored it. I wasn’t going to stop training over a little “top of the foot pain”. Fast forward to March….I can barely walk. No shoes are comfortable. Not flip flops, not sneakers and certainly not high heels. I can’t walk barefoot, I can’t walk in shoes. I basically cannot walk comfortably. My little nuisance of “top of the foot pain” turned into a full blown stress fracture. Fun, huh!?

I recognize I am not real smart, but like my dad says if you are going to be stupid you have to be tough.

We were visiting my in-laws in Florida and of course there is lots of walking around, we went to the zoo, the aquarium, did an Easter egg hunt, and I even went for a run (I NEVER said I was smart). Now I went out for this run in my regular running shoes. I figured if I stomped my way through it I’d numb it out and get the run done. Which worked really good for me…until I got back and took my shoe off. Game over, folks.

It took me 12 weeks of taping, minimal running, icing, lots of motrin and a lot of swallowing tears before the pain started to back off. In the meantime, I ran across a ton of websites, mostly forums discussing how to break yourself into barefoot/minimal running….oh good, I thought TOFP (top of foot pain) has a cool acronym because it is super common! Dulp!
After this I decided to be a tad smarter – I started running actually barefoot on my treadmill. You see skin has this wonderful way of gauging how much barefoot running you can do at one time. You get cool blister and burn patches when you’ve gone as far as you should. I know this still sounds over the top – but it has been the single greatest change I have made in my workouts in the 18 years I have been doing this. Bold statement. True Statement.

I recommend everyone go barefoot for their runs. But just that BAREFOOT. Not cool shoes – the cool shoes come later; to start invest in those $8 pool shoes at Wal-mart or if you are too snobby for Wal-Mart go to Target. I myself go to Wal-Mart every once in awhile to remind myself “things could be worse” I could be married to a guy who feels the need to go transvestite when stepping into Wally World.

And I can’t tuck my boobs into my pants yet.

And damn it I actually wished I had a goat – not sure I would take it to Wal-Mart though.

Back to barefoot running…..First you need to adapt, and there is no better way to do this then actually being barefoot. I am not suggesting you go to the local grocery store without your shoes – I guess you could go to Wal-Mart without your shoes….hell I don’t even recommend you go to Sport and Health without your shoes (apparently that is frowned upon in these establishments). But walking around your house, or when you are doing yard work is a great place to start. And of course purchasing a pair of pool shoes and wearing them to walk the dogs, or a short and I mean SHORT run. Like if you are going out for a 3 miler, wear your regular shoes out and a quarter mile from the finish stop and put on your minimals (or go bare).

I was actually told one time at the Pentagon Athletic Center that it is unsanitary for me to run barefoot. I thought that was precious – I mean this guy was totally right my feet that have been in socks all day are totally more disgusting than the guy running around in here with dog shit and gum stuck to his shoe. Really?... MY feet have a better chance of getting something off the floor that I see Jose (that’s really his name…I’m not being racist!) washing with a bucket of what appears to be Potomac slime. Let’s be honest…he’s not “cleaning” anything.

I have also been asked if I am nervous I am going to drop a weight on my barefoot. Let’s be honest if you drop a weight on your foot, sneakers aren’t going to help much. This is Chris’ foot after he dropped a 25# plate on it with shoes on. Chris, did your shoes protect your feet?

The best thing I love about barefoot running is I no longer have flat feet or ITB pain. I have been plagued with flat feet, or what I realize is now atrophied feet muscles since I was 11 years old. I even got orthotics at the age of 11 and went to a special foot doctor when I was 24 who was going to slice my foot open and put a piece of silicone in there to hold the bones up. He said he could only do one foot at a time, the recovery was two weeks completely off the foot then eight weeks in an air cast and then he’d slice open the other one. I had two toddlers at home, was active duty and a husband that was on night shift, it was a tad unrealistic and seemed a little extreme so I opted out….boy am I glad I did!!!

I am two years into this game and I still get the occasional top of the foot pain but I have been squatting for 18 years and still get muscle pain from that….it is expected and I can tell it isn’t an “oh shit, I broke myself again” pain. I definitely recommend everyone run barefoot or minimal. One of the things I see the most in my clients is flat feet or they explain they don’t run anymore because of knee pain. Sprints give you a great looking ass and that is what most of them are paying for. So chuck the shoes and sprint! But for the love of your feet…..Go. Sloooooooooowwwwwww.

I am Angela

I haven’t had a desire to share what’s on my mind lately. My thoughts have been consumed with frustration. My frustration has caused the usual suspects to show up envy/turmoil/insecurity/crazy expectations, etc. I was totally pissed off and really no one wanted to hear my thoughts. And I didn’t want to blog on a “I am Paleo” blog anymore.

One thing that constantly plagues me is self-doubt. If you know this about me then you are probably my husband or my dad, no one else really gets that this is something about me. Most people think I am a cocky fuck, who thinks she knows everything and it’s my way or the highway. But the things I am certain of I make sure I research, test and verify before I push like a hobo shoving his piss can at you for spare change. Everything else is a mystery to me and until I figure it out in my thorough approach my peace is in upheaval. I’m not a fan of eating crow.

So why was I in turmoil this time? What was I trying to figure out that had me so perplexed I was praying for a zombie invasion to clean up the population and seclude me with my family?

Crossfit Envy and a lack of Paleo bonding. You see I have this dream that someday I’ll be able to quit my DoD job, take off my suit and wear compression itsy-bitsy shorts and a sports bra, vice sitting at a desk I’ll get to walk around and when the mood hits pound out 10 burpees for fun, chuck the computer…hmmm, I guess I’d have to keep that…but you see where I am going.

I felt that Crossfit is the up and coming fad that would be my ticket out of the desk. There are no Crossfit gyms in my hometown and it’d be ideal to live close to my siblings and dad again and get out of the city and live in a rural area.

I started to have doubts in the way I was running The Gym Cellar. I only have about five clients and that wasn’t going to get me to where I wanted to go – DoD free.

Someone very smart told me just because you do circuit training and Olympic lifts doesn’t mean you are doing Crossfit. I was reminded that I did this sort of training before I knew what Crossfit was. I was also reminded that I only have five clients for a very specific reason.

And if I didn’t believe in Crossfit I wouldn’t be able to sell it in Altoona, PA or anywhere. I have my doubts about Crossfit, but I was willing to sell my soul to get out of the suit.

My Paleo drama. First I hate labels. So it was kind of hokie when I decided to label myself Paleo. I was already putting too much pressure on myself. You see I like heavy whipping cream in my coffee, I like bacon and sausage, I like red wine and beer, I also like potatoes and corn. I cannot afford free range meat or range free eggs. I don’t eat potatoes or corn often maybe once or twice a month. I don’t drink beer or wine often, maybe once a week, when it’s either a beer or sell the children or a celebration with a good friend. But I have heavy whipping cream in my coffee everyday sometimes more than once, I have bacon or sausage everyday too. I still don’t eat wheat, sugars, or beans though. They mess up my glucose levels and stomach. And that is what is important to me.
I visit quite a few blogs and have a few feeds on my Facebook page from various Paleo and Primal people. And someone made a comment that feeding a kid McDonald’s is child abuse. Now I think this person in particular is a 22-year old inexperienced in everything, never had a job, stumbled on to Mark Sisson’s Daily Apple blog, fell in love with it and turned into Single White Female with Mark, BUT it sparked a upraised eyebrow with me and got me thinking.

We DO live in the 21st century, it is just a fact I’d love to clue some of these nuts into. It’d be great if we could all shed our suits and shoes and run around in the wild, hunting wild boars, camp fires, fresh plucked berries, baths in the river….and then on Sunday night and we get to go home to air conditioning, toilets, showers, and clean sheets. We evolved for a reason other than marketing a new book and workout scheme. Not everything we evolved to is great – pharmaceutical drugs and most of our medical community, politics and television. But I love my creature comforts and I’m not ready to give them up! I also love that I have a car and can live 300 miles away from my mother!

Then I started paying attention to the Primal/Paleo workout ethic. And I though this is garbage. Jumping over picnic tables in a park, or scaling a 6 foot wall, or crawling like a bear across the yard is just cardio and isn’t going to give you beautiful muscles. These are great exercises to add to intervals after lifting heavy ass weight. I think Parkour is awesome and impressive; but most of the guys that do it are 5’5” 145# guys without jobs. I like my men a tad more manly (even if they are only 5’5”!) and employed. And I want pretty muscles. You can say to me that you don’t want to be bulky and you just want to be tone. But what you are really telling me is you don’t want to be fat, you want to be lean. Please stop spouting this tone shit – a muscle is a muscle. It’s either developed and you are lean enough to see its beautiful developed shape or you aren’t. Adding muscle to your body will make it healthy and feel good. Fat is a metabolic poison and will disease every organ , adding muscle cures you of this disease instantly. Tone is another marketing word that drives me up a wall.

Marketing is amazing. It has a majority of the population convinced if they buy the shake weight, or ab roller, ab lounge, ab rocker, ab horse, ab blaster and anything with Acai in it, that you will lose weight. Most of these products are $40 or more. I’d love for someone to explain how the ab horse is going to make your calves look like pretty little upside down hearts in a pair of high heels. I’d also love for someone to explain to me how we lost weight prior to a berry found in a remote part of the world and is only available through extreme extraction.

I’m just amazed at the logic in this and how anyone could believe it. I really am. I guess I am too simple. I have zero marketing skills. The sad part is that folks are so used to spending their hard earned money on a gimic book, video, supplement one right after another that they have fallen into a zombie pattern of thinking if they spend the money the results will come. (hmmm…I guess that zombie invasion did happen after all) If you come to The Gym Cellar you will be asked to work hard. You will be expected to hold yourself accountable. You will make yourself a priority or I won’t. For me that is the only thing that works. Working. Really. Hard.

I personally love lifting weights, and not just Olympic lifts. I love skull crushers and bicep curls, dips, and stuff on the pulley. And when I was following some Crossfit workouts I wasn’t doing any of these exercises and I can tell you first hand my triceps look like shit right now. It doesn’t seem to matter how much weight I can press, these puppies will only v out if I dip and crush my skull like a mo’fo. That’s just how it is for me.

And that leads me to my other conclusion. Crossfit athletes that make it to the games are all athletes in another sport. Olympic gymnastics, collegiate baseball, tri-athletes, Olympic level biking, the list goes on. Now as sweet as that would be, I am a 33 year old mom, I am not going to be able to commit to a Olympic level of training any time soon and there are more folks out there like me then there are 40 year old former Olympians or 21 year old collegiate athletes. And the folks that are out there that are looking to lose weight and get in shape and aren’t sure how to do it because of the awesome marketing skills of the shake weight and Acai berry have them confused on what they should spend their money on need me, need my approach.

There is a difference between being smart and being successful and combining the two. And that is what I would have to do if I want to be successful in opening my own gym someday. I have to offer what I am good at, what I know 100 percent works. And Crossfit and Paleo don’t work for me.

I am good at Angela’s lifestyle. I have a lot to offer in the knowledge that I have and I continue to learn something new every day. I will never say I know it all, but what I do know I know inside out. So if I shove my cocky, know it all advice at you because you asked for it…..just remember you asked for it.