Worrying
Marina is back with a little guest blogging to get you through your Friday.
Worrying for the sake of…worrying?
As a crossfitter, I fancy myself a practical person- how can I get the most bang for my buck in the hour I work out? And really, how little do I have to do to get the results I want 😉 Same thing with my approach to paleo- I’m a firm believe that life should be enjoyable…which not only includes feeling good (from a healthy diet) but also appreciating what I put in my mouth. So sometimes that means, how much can I get away with diet wise and yet still maintain those basic principals that I know keep me at my best. What this ends up looking like is a couple glasses of wine several days a week, the occasional piece of dark chocolate, taco truck tacos w/ corn tortillas (if I don’t eat it every day, corn doesn’t bother me too much)- is this strict, 100% clean paleo- nope! Am I trying to lean out? Nope! Am I having a great time and mostly feeling amazing- you bet!
So when I found myself awake at 3am last week- mulling over all the potential problems in my foreseeable future- at the same time berating myself for 1) being awake and 2) worrying because I knew I was releasing cortisol and this would make it harder for me to sleep and be healthy, I had this ‘aha!’ moment- what the heck was I doing, and how was all this worrying helping me? The answer to those questions, respectively, was that I was being extremely foolish, and in no way, shape or form was any of this worrying making me better! Just last night I was having a conversation with a dear friend (and fellow crossfitter!) and she too had ambitions to reduce her worrying in this new year. She had come to the same conclusion that worrying in general doesn’t actually make things better. More times than not, it doesn’t ‘fix’ the situation, it doesn’t make us feel better, and it certainly doesn’t motivate or encourage us to reach our goals (fitness or otherwise).
With all this being said, if you take one thing away from this post, it’s to be kind and reasonable with yourself. This doesn’t mean slacking off, forgetting what inspires you, or making endless excuses as to why you can’t work out or eat well. It’s about being practical- which some weeks might mean taking the week off and letting your body recover, and other weeks pushing yourself and not automatically saying ‘I can’t’ the moment you read what the WOD will be for the day. If you’re worried, or stressed out, ask yourself if there’s anything you can do to make the situation better, and if the answer is no, worrying or stressing will only make you feel worse. As for me, my plan is to work on ‘turning off my brain’ as all those automatic (and usually negative) thoughts start popping up (especially in the middle of the night) and save my impracticality for my 4 inch heels that I love so much!
-Marina
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Friday’s WOD
Power Clean – find 1rm
Death by power cleans:
with a continuously running clock, perform 1 clean the first minute, two the second minute, three the third minute and so on until you cannot complete the number specified by the round in the minute.
Use 65%-70% of 1rm
Compare to 2/15/11
2012 01 12