Learning to Dance in the Rain

There are many lessons to learn in life. Nobody has the same story and no one deals with anything the exact same way. There are all these quotes and maxims out there to live by, but some are pretty contradicting. For example some people say “look before you leap,” while others say “he who hesitates is lost.” Confusing right? There’s a right time to use both depending on the situation and the person. What I’m trying to say here is that almost nothing is set in stone and when it comes down to it we make our own decisions.

The one thing I am sure of is that every life on this earth is filled with tragedy and suffering. Everyone dies; most likely you are going to lose loved ones at some point in your lifetime. Most likely you will have to deal with things you don’t want to deal with. As Rocky puts it, life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

The difference between the people who are successful and the people who sit at home depressed is how they react. Successful people realize that sometimes life sucks, but if you can find positivity and opportunity in the ugliest of days you can rise above it. If you can always find things to be thankful for,  you can rise above it. The people who sit around depressed are the ones who look at the suck and say “nothing good can come of this, and I can’t do anything about it.” They throw a pity party and hopelessly mope around for a couple of days.

I’ve been there, I’ve done that. What I am starting to realize is that life really is what you make it. No one will be there for you in the end, except yourself. Yes, you may have close friends and family who you can trust and are very supportive, but in the end they can’t make your decisions for you. Your life is completely up to you; the more situations that you are able to find opportunity and positivity in the better off you will be.

The most successful and happy people have lived tragic lives filled with repeated failures, setbacks, illnesses, deaths, etc... They all have one thing in common though, they’ve learned how to dance in the rain.

For the Love of the Sport

The bar stares me in the face. It is cold, rough, and stiff as I place my calloused hands around it. Today I will do the same thing I have done everyday for the past year: snatch and clean & jerk.

I do some box jumps and and a couple double unders to get the blood pumping to my legs. The room is cool, with some chill music playing softly in the background. It’s just another day at the gym.

After stretching and warming up I slide on my high knee socks that will protect my shins from the wrath of the bar, and next my bright red adidas shoes. I tape my thumbs, tighten my wrist wraps, and slather chalk all over my hands. My coach threatens to make me clean the gym, so I put down the chalk bucket and get ready to lift.

Starting with the tens I do a couple quick reps. This is my chance to fix any technical errors before the bar gets heavy. As the weight goes up, I have to get into more of a routine before each lift. I take a sip of water, chalk my hands, shrug my shoulders, and stomp my feet out as if catching an imaginary bar. My hands grip the bar and my back tightens. There is no doubt in my mind that I will make this lift. I raise my head and find a focal point to stare at.

Shoulders tight, back tight, and heels pushing hard against the floor I start to pull the bar. The bar doesn’t want to move, so I add more force. The bar scrapes my shins and out-turned knees on its way up. It gets to my hip crease, and I hesitate a second longer before I begin the second pull under the bar. The bar is motionless; it sits in the air right where I left it.

My feet move out with a bang and I dive under the bar to catch. My chest is parallel with the wall and my shoulders are flexed. The bar is solid in my grip and I will not let it go. As I stand up I let out a breath relief. The bar stays above me a second longer, before I slam it to the ground with a satisfied grin on my face. My coach walks over and gives me a high five before telling me what I need to fix for next time.

The battle continues everyday with that barbell. It never gets lighter, I just get stronger. Some days the bar defeats me and I leave with my head hanging low. Some days I reign victorious, beating my own personal records and doing what I never imagined I could. Either way, every time I walk out of the gym I leave motivated to be better the next day.

Weightlifting is a metaphor for life. The whole point is to overcome obstacles and better yourself in the process. The goal isn’t to know everything, or to be able to lift all the weights in the world; the goal is find your physical and mental limits then to push past them!

It is a lifelong pursuit to become the greatest you can be.

Bomber Strong: Scott Safe on High School Weightlifting

Liz - interviewer

Scott - interviewee

So how long have you been in the sport of Olympic Weightlifting?

I think 18 years. Longer with powerlifting, but for weightlifting I think 18.

So you have a big powerlifting background then?

That’s what I was. I was a powerlifter, then I converted to weightlifting because that was much better for athletics. My kids were coming up and I wanted them to do what was the best, so that’s when I made the switch.

How did you get involved in the high school weightlifting program?

We started it. I knew that when my kids were coming up I wanted them to have fun with weightlifting in a high school environment. So when my son, Nathan, and I were deer hunting one year, we were talking about this sitting in the woods, and I said “We’re going to make this weightlifting association up with high schools,” and he thought “Yeah, that’d be cool dad,” and that’s actually how it started. So I got with Roger Sydecki, and the NSCA (Scott Sully), the NFC people, and the USA weightlifting people. We called a meeting, and I said I wanted to run these high school meets, it would be for high school only, with high school state championships. They all kind of laughed at me, but said “Yeah, lets try.” That was the start of it, and I think this is the seventeenth high school state championships. That was seventeen years ago, and that’s kind of how it started.

So, just follow your dreams then right?

It was! It was something where we just had a plan and it worked out.

Can you tell me more about the program? Like how often are the meets and more about the season.

The meets start in December, after volleyball and football are finished. We like to be finished before track and baseball get started. So we’re kind of a winter sport. We follow the model of Texas with powerlifting and that, but the reason they did that is because more high school coaches are accepting of that. We’re not interfering with their sport seasons too bad, we’re just taking up one sports season, and that’s the one we picked; the winter.

How does this program benefit the students?

Physically, weightlifting is by far the best and as an athlete I think mentally it’s awesome. It’s all about hitting PRs (personal records), and building self-esteem. All kinds of good character-building things. Weightlifting is good in many ways, so I think it’s a beautiful program for kids.

Do you have any ideas for how to spread the program to other schools?

We try every year to bring new schools in, and so we’re always talking to schools. Not just myself, but Scott Sully does, a lot of guys do. Also now USA weightlifting is flying me around and we are going to other states trying to build the same kind of program in hopefully all 50 states. We need to get more weightlifters.

What do you see for the future of the program?

It’s very bright. I don’t think many people know how cool it is, but they’re finding out and as they find out, for every good experience that a youngster has that youngster and his parents tell other people. So I think the future is very bright, it’s a great sport that not enough people know about.

How do you think we could make it more entertaining?

Part of that is that we just need it to continue to grow like it is now. Nationally, weightlifting is growing because of the influx of crossfitters. That helps because there’s more interest, more money, more gear, and more people doing it. The more people do it, the more they like it, so it’s kind of like the chicken and the egg. You don’t grow unless you got more people, but you don’t get more people unless you grow. We’re kind of in that, but I think every time we can hook another school in, we bring another whole group of people; parents, kids, coaches, etc. I think we need to continue to just keep on doing that.

Any ideas to get weightlifting on the media?

The entertainment part is a good question. That’s a toughie, because we still need to get through six attempts with everybody. Cooler singlets are fun, people like that. Streaming live, like today, so people can watch from home is good. It’s a long day and I don’t think we can ever get away from that totally, because everybody gets six attempts. They need their six attempts. That is something we have to keep working on though; figuring out how to make it more acceptable to the TV audience.

Last question, what’s the most important thing in weightlifting?

Desire. If you’re really going to be the top of the top certainly there’s a tremendous amount of just physical talent. At the very very top of the heap you do need a big amount of talent, but I think passion more than anything. People with a lot of passion for it, they continue to train even when they don’t get maxes. You just keep on and keep on. I think passion is #1.

 The Cannon Falls weightlifting team. Each one medaled at the
 state championships. Coach Scott Safe is pictured to the far left.

Scott says none of his lifters are pure weightlifters, most of them participate in other sports such as volleyball, football, and basketball. If you are interested in the high school weightlifting program go to www.mnweightlifting.org.

You Are Good Enough

What is that feeling that leads so many people to depression, cutting, eating disorders, bullying, suicide, drinking, abusing sex, and drugs? We all know it, we’ve all felt it before. It’s made us feel tiny, unwanted, and unloved.

It’s the feeling of not being good enough.

It comes from the pain of our past, the fear of our future. We were abused, misused, misled, misunderstood. No one cared. We were rejected. We were forgotten and we were yelled at for our mistakes and our differences. There is so much pain and hurt inside all of us.

Pain is inevitable.

In this life you will feel pain. Loved ones will die, parents will divorce. Things do go wrong at some point. The thing with pain though, is that you can carry it around with you, weighing you down or you can let it go and recalculate your path in life.

The first step to letting go, as Natasha Bedingfield would put it, is to open up your dirty window. Realize that the past is the past, there’s nothing you can do to erase it. Most people run from their past, letting it define who they are and how they act. There is another path, that is much more difficult, it will lead you to happiness.

Let go of your past and learn from your mistakes.

Stop running. Just stop. Take a second and think; what can I do in this moment to become a better person and lead a better life? Take all the lessons that you have learned, all the experiences that you have gone through and let them help you make better decisions in your future. Embrace who you are, your imperfections and all. Somebody loves you.

I just want you to know that you are good enough.

Scare Yourself

I keep telling myself that I am fearless. I repeat to myself “You’re not scared of anything, the worst that could happen is that life goes on.” There’s a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” It sounds easy, but trust me, it’s not. I used to think I did things that scared me all the time, but then when I really took a second and reflected on my life I realized that every time I had backed out of something it was because I was scared.

The thing that scares me the most is social judgement and being vulnerable; people judging me for the way I look or act, and using what they know about me against me. Social judgement is a common fear, especially for people with introverted personalities. You want people to like you for who you are, but if they don’t you immediately find yourself trying to mold your personality into something better. Maybe you don’t know how to talk to people, or maybe you never have the right thing to say.

For me personally, I have good days and bad days. Some days I make it a point to say hello to everyone I see, but some days I avoid people like its my job. Lately I’ve been trying to do things that scare me and not backing out. I hate school dances; I’m going to a school dance this Saturday. I hate being vulnerable; I started a blog and poured my feelings out, then shared them with the internet. I’m scared of getting fat; I started eating like a weightlifter to prove that eating more doesn’t necessarily make you fat. I’m scared of being in front of people in a skin-tight singlet; I signed up for a weightlifting meet and didn’t have a choice.

And the list goes on. I hope you get my point by now. Everyone has fears, and we can try to overcome those fears by scaring ourselves a little bit everyday. You will be surprised at how good you feel when you overcome your personal fears. Maybe you have social anxiety, body image problems, irrational fears, or you are afraid of heights. Finding your fears and conquering them will make you a stronger person.

Search for Happiness

Not too long ago I read a book about Buddhism. I’m not a religious person, but I was raised going to church on Sundays. In school I’d learned about the eightfold path and the search for enlightenment, so I decided to look more into Buddhism. I was hoping that after I read the book I would have all the answers, and my life would be perfect within a few days of practicing this new religion. That’s not the case, but this is what I choose to take from the book:

- Always have friendly thoughts about people and all other forms of life.

This and the next few are from the Eightfold Path. According to the Buddha these are the morals one must live by to overcome the craving for earthly pleasures.

- Speak kindly and truthfully while avoiding bitter words against anyone or anything.

We’ve all done it before; spoke ill of someone behind their back or maybe even to their face. We know it’s wrong, but we do it anyway. However, avoiding saying negative things to or about people will help you be more positive and think positive thoughts.

- One’s time should be used for self-improvement.

Don’t waste your time with negative self-talk or other self-harming activities such as drinking, doing drugs, cutting, etc. Instead try to find small ways to better yourself each day. I know I have a ton of things to work on like being more positive, letting things go, and not taking things personally.

- Earn a living in a way that will not harm others and doing what you love (I added that part).

Don’t let the world tell you who you have to be. Take what you love to do, practice it a little bit everyday, and don’t stop when it gets frustrating. At first you might suck, even if it is something you love to do, but if you keep going your work will become better quality and you will eventually find a way to make a living by doing what you love.

- Keep the right state of mind; self-awareness and compassion.

Practicing compassion towards others is a huge step in bettering yourself. People will want to talk to you and be around you if you act compassionately. Saying hello, remembering people’s names, and giving your full attention are just a few ways to practice compassion.

- Practice meditation.

Zen Stones

Meditation is a great way to heal the mind. I don’t know about you, but my mind is constantly busy with a million different things: my homework, to-do list, blog ideas, books to read, movies to see, who I want to be, what I want to be like, how to get better at this and that… Meditation is an easy way to give it a rest and let it have time to heal. Just like our bodies need rest, so do our minds. It won’t be easy at first, but it is recommended to meditate for at least 20 minutes a day. Clear your mind and focus on nothing, or try repeating your mantra over and over in your head. It is harder than it sounds!

I wrote this as a way to organize my thoughts. Take what you want from it, and I hope it will help you on your search for happiness.

-Liz

Eliminating Bad Food

I eat pretty healthy, which is odd for a teenager. Most people my age eat whatever is available or whatever seems most tasty; nutritional value does not usually come into play. I often get asked why I don’t eat certain things, and sometimes I don’t have the answer. Sometimes I have just read the science behind it in a book, but I don’t fully understand why. In understanding why certain foods are eliminated from my diet I can inform others; maybe even persuade them to look at what they are putting into their body. By writing this blog I hope to clarify why I don’t eat certain things, also to help myself & others understand how certain foods affect our overall health.

Why I choose not to consume artificial sugars or sweeteners:

• super normally stimulating without any nutritional value
• promote insulin resistance (insulin keeps blood sugar levels balanced, high blood sugar can lead to damage in many vital organs)
• promote leptin resistance (leptin keeps body fat stores and energy levels in check, high amounts of leptin can cause over consumption and a screwed up appetite)
• promote intestinal permeability (a leaky gut can let in foreign substances which cause inflammation and lead to chronic illnesses, also very stressful on your immune system)

Why I choose not to drink alcohol:

• I’m under the age of 21
• more empty calories
• it’s an addictive substance for some people
• interferes with normal glucose functions
• known to be neurotoxic (kills neurons that send messages to the brain - which is why people think and react slower when under the influence)

Why I choose not to eat or cook with seed oils:

• contain high proportions of polyunsaturated fat (PUFAs) and omega-6 (good for brain function, but not in large amounts) which promote systemic inflammation
• PUFAs go rancid through oxidation when exposed to light, heat, and air which then causes free radicals to form (too many free radicals can damage cells and DNA)
• contain antioxidants to protect fats from oxidation but not many, so some oxidation still occurs (too many oxidized fats can cause damage to liver & toxic byproducts)
• least stable of all oils - there are many healthier options like olive or coconut oils

Some common seed oils are: canola, chia, corn, cottonseed, flax, grape seed, hemp, palm kernel, peanut, rice bran, safflower, sesame, soybean, sunflower.

Why I choose not to eat grains (even whole grains):

• most fibers, vitamins, and minerals are removed in the refining process
• water is sucked out - sugar, salt, & fat are added to increase palatability
• effect they have on hormones leads to overconsumption, elevated blood sugar levels, reliance on glucose for fuel, increase in body fat, and increased triglycerides in the blood

Whole grains:

• lower glycemic index (GI) than regular grains which means that it raises blood glucose levels slower than regular grains, but a lower GI is irrelevant to good food choices (for example watermelon has a rather high GI of 72, while M&M’s have a lower GI of 33)
• don’t contain a single vitamin or mineral that can’t be found in fruit and veggies (fruit and veggies also both contain higher amounts of fiber than whole grains)
• contain a phytate (antinutrient) that holds on to minerals so they can’t be absorbed and used by our bodies
• contain proteins that can’t be digested properly which then cause inflammation (inflammatory effects include allergies, asthma, celiac disease, lupus, chronic fatigue, and the list just goes on and on…)

*Even gluten free grains contain problematic proteins which is why some people still have unexpected immune reactions to gluten free grains. So gluten is not the only problem with grains.

Why I choose not to legumes:

*Legumes include beans (not green beans), peas, lentils, and peanuts.

• contain large amounts of phytate (the antinutrient that makes nutrients unavailable to us)
• contain short chain carbs (sugars) that aren’t absorbed completely in our small intestine - they act as food for bacteria, the bacteria ferment these carbs which cause gas and bloating

Peanuts (which are not actually considered nuts):

• contain lectin which is toxic when raw, lectin is not destroyed by heat like other legumes are so when lectin gets into the blood it causes an unhealthy immune response

Why I choose not to eat foods containing soy:

• soy contains isoflavones which are a type of phytoestrogen (phyto=plant, estrogen=female sex hormone), our bodies recognize isoflavones as a female reproductive hormone which does not create a healthy hormonal response

Why I choose not to eat or drink dairy products:

• contain bioactive substances that promote aggressive growth (which is intended for young mammals)
• contains biological messages intended for offspring of the same species to double or triple body weight in a short amount of time (human milk intended for infants, cow milk intended for calves)
• casein (makes up 80% of milk protein) causes a specific immune reaction which can lead to headaches, GI upset, asthma, and allergies
• whey (which is a blend of immunoglobulins, insulin like growth factor 1, and estrogen) causes the release of large amounts of insulin when consumed
• Insulin like growth factor 1 is a growth promoter in children, but for adults is associated with the promotion of various cancers
• contains lactose which causes bloating and gastrointestinal upset when not digested properly

*You can find enough calcium in meats, nuts, seafoods, and veggies that you don’t necessarily need milk for calcium. Also the amount of calcium that your body can actually absorb is more important than the amount of calcium in your diet. If you eat too many phytates (antinutrient) you will not be able to absorb as much calcium; but eating good fats and proteins will promote the absorption of needed vitamins and minerals such as calcium.

In conclusion eating unnatural sugars, processed carbs, beans, legumes, and dairy all builds up to cause a leaky gut, autoimmune disease, and sensitivity to certain foods. If you don’t want these negative effects I suggest trying to avoid the majority of these foods as much as possible. The only way to find out how these foods affect you is to eliminate them for a period of time then reintroduce them one at a time. Not everyone will react the same to any one of these food groups. Also I’m not saying that they aren’t ok every once in a while, but why eat foods that make you feel less than optimal when you could eat tons of delicious foods that make you feel great? The only reason to eat something unhealthy is because it tastes amazing, not to fuel your daily processes and not to make you feel better after a stressful day at work. Hopefully this persuaded you to make some better food choices and maybe even gave you some answers to why you haven’t been feeling or performing your best lately. Try eliminating these foods a little at a time and I guarantee that you will be feel more energized, happy, and relaxed in no time.

Bibliography

Hartwig, Dallas, and Melissa Hartwig. It Starts with Food. Las Vegas: Victory Belt Pub., 2012. Print.

This entire blog is based off of the information in their book and the information I have gathered through reading various blogs/articles as well as participating in the Whole Life Challenge.