Whole Life Challenge

I am participating in my second Whole Life Challenge and this time it’s really sticking with me. The Whole Life Challenge is where you give up eating any processed foods for 56 days and you get weekly challenges designed to better your well-being. So one week it might be meditation and the next it may be sleep. It’s all beneficial to your health even if you fail, and in the process you get to do an experiment on your body to find what works best for you.

Most kids my age do not really worry about how much Vitamin D and how many grams of fat they are consuming, but I find it fascinating to know how food affects my performance and my mental state. What I am learning during this challenge is that when I put only clean foods into my body I feel more confident. I feel confident enough to rip my shirt off during a workout and not give a crap what anyone thinks. I feel pride in knowing that what I am putting into my body will be entirely beneficial to my goal of the going to the Olympics.

It’s a crazy thing, but when you eat clean whole foods your mind clears up too! Not only can it be a confidence booster and a natural performance enhancer, but it can help you achieve clear skin and a clear mind. Now that this has been proven to me through personal experience I will never be able to go back to the way I used to eat. I can stop lying to myself and saying that I eat “good enough.” I encourage anyone and everyone to give the Whole Life Challenge a try. It really is an eye opener and a game changer, especially for athletes.

Confidence is Key

One day I was lying on the floor after a really tough workout and something just hit me. I realized that people are going to judge each other no matter what.

If you like to wear pajamas to school some people might think you are extremely lazy, but others might look at you and think that you’re just a person who likes to relax and wear comfy clothes. Maybe the real reason you wore pajamas is because that’s the only clean outfit you had or you just thought it was stylish.

This is a really bad example, but my point is that no one except you know the real reason why you are or aren’t doing something and no one else really needs to know. You do what makes you feel confident and then you won’t care that everyone is constantly judging you. We are all judging each other, it’s just human nature and it helps us make decisions.

I love being strong and some people see that as just plain wrong. They think that a woman should never be stronger than a man, but others see that as inspiration and as something to shoot for. If we listened to the people who put us down no one would ever be successful. Confidence is the key to loving yourself.

Muscle Inflammation vs. Food Inflammation

The definition of inflammation is the body's protective reaction to tissue irritation, injury, or infection. There are three stages of inflammation: the acute phase, the granulation phase, and the remodeling phase. The first phase (acute inflammation) is 100 hours long, and this is where the cells break open and get to work cleaning out any bacteria so no infection occurs. After this stage is complete phase two (granulation) will begin. This stage lasts about 10 days. Macrophage cells will come to the injury site to break down damaged tissue and release hormones that will bring more cells to the injury site. These macrophage cells will also stimulate the growth of new cells to heal the injury. The third phase (remodeling stage) is when the growth of new tissue will occur, this can take up to a couple months.

Now that type of inflammation has a positive outcome: your cell tissue heals and becomes stronger, but inflammation of the digestive tract has a much different outcome.

When you eat foods that have certain ingredients such as soy, wheat, grain, or gluten they can cause chronic (aka systemic) inflammation. Many processed foods are scientifically modified or changed in some way to where our bodies don’t recognize the ingredients and this causes an inflammatory response. These processed foods such as cookies and granola bars are also designed to be addictive so most people end up eating them on a regular basis. Now what happens when your immune system is constantly trying to heal the irritated tissues? It starts to weaken because it doesn’t have any chance to recover and repair itself. Pretty soon the immune system stops doing its job. This is where you are at a greater risk for asthma, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, Crohn’s disease and many other chronic illnesses. Soon the body is no longer able to fight off disease and infection because it’s too busy trying to repair inflamed cells within the digestive tract. The quickest way to reduce systemic inflammation is to eat “whole” foods (vegetables, fruit, and meats, nuts) and leave out the processed foods (grains, dairy, etc.). To find out which foods are whole you should always check the ingredients. If there are things in there such as artificial colors, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, MSG, dextrose, or any other chemicals it is best left on the shelf. If the ingredients are all things you would find in a garden, on a tree, or get from an animal you should be fine.

See the difference between these two Marinara sauces:

Rao’s Homemade ingredients: Italian tomatoes, Italian olive oil, fresh onions, fresh garlic, fresh basil, black pepper, oregano

Prego ingredients: tomato puree, diced tomatoes, corn syrup, vegetable oil, salt, onion powder, basil, oregano, dehydrated garlic, citric acid, and dehydrated parsley. It also lists “other spices” to keep the recipe a secret. Who knows what else is in there?

Can you guess which one will cause inflammation? Yep, Prego. It has corn syrup, vegetable oil, and dehydrated spices. Those are all scientifically modified foods that aren’t meant to be put into our bodies.

In conclusion, inflammation can be both a good thing and a bad thing. It just depends on where in the body it is occurring and what is causing it. I hope this clears up some confusion about how inflammation can affect the body.

Sources:

http://www.diagnose-me.com/symptoms-of/torn-weak-or-stretched-ligaments-or-tendons.html, http://healthletter.mayoclinic.com/editorial/editorial.cfm/i/163/t/Buzzed%20on%20inflammation/

http://www.womentowomen.com/inflammation/causes-of-inflammation/

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-truth-about-seven-common-food-additives?page=5

http://www.shopwell.com/raos-marinara-sauce/pasta-sauce/p/4747906401

http://susanmacd.hubpages.com/hub/Prego-Ingredients

What have you done to change the world?

Everyone tells me not to drop out of school. “It’s your key to the future,” “Don't be stupid,” “I won’t talk to you anymore,” “ You won’t make anything out of your life.” Well this all may be true, here's my opinion about the school system.

I feel like the way that the school system is set up is just terrible. We sit on our butt for literally 7 hours a day 5 days per week! No wonder the obesity rates are going up. They teach us that there is no blue ribbon for failure or creativity. They give pills to the kids who can’t sit still and they fill us with the past when we should be creating our future. Everything we need to know is on our iPhones. The skills we need to be successful are already instilled within our minds, they just need to be opened. So how do you open up your mind? You go out and explore. You take risks, you fail, you get back up and try again. You watch movies and read books and talk to people. You meet new people and get new ideas. You EXPERIENCE the world.

The system is not set up so kids will get to experience the world. The system is set up to take all of the money we don’t have and then make us feel like we should have tried just a little harder. Cramming our heads with facts all day and making us memorise things just to pass the test is such a waste of time. Once you are out of highschool all you have is what they taught you in school. All you have is what someone else wanted you to know. It’s not what is going to help you be successful like knowing how to manage money, be creative, open your mind, find your passion, succeed, and take care of yourself! They teach us math, english, reading, and science. If you do well in science they tell you to go be a scientist, do well in math they tell you to go be a mathematician. They tell you what to do and who to be, in some kids’ minds that is their only option if they want to be successful. That is all that you leave high school with, and college you leave with tons of debt, wasted time, and still not a single clue what you really want to do with your life. You haven’t had time to create yourself because you’ve been going through the system.

After college you get a lousy 9-5 job just like everyone else to pay off your debt. You get a car that you probably can’t afford and you live off of ramen noodles and McDonalds for the next couple years. Have you done anything to create yourself? Have you done anything to change the world? Are you ever going to? By the time you realize how much time you wasted in school it is already too late. You can’t go back and save all that money for something else, like traveling the world. You can’t go back and choose a different path because what you were taught is all you know. You never had time to create and to explore. All you had time to do was study and work. Now you have kids, and you want them to have a better life than you ever did. But you don’t know how to make it better for them, so you send them to school just like everyone else. You put them through the system. You watch them do the same shit that you did, and they grow up to be just like you. That’s all they ever knew and nothing has changed. You didn’t change the world and neither will your children. You didn’t experience the world and neither will your children. You played it safe and stayed in your little bubble, your entire life has gone by with little to show. I don’t want to be like you. I want to go out and change the world. I want to do everything that anyone has ever told me I wasn't capable of. I want to have fun and do what I love, then share it with other people. I want to inspire people. When I’m dead I want to be remembered as the one who followed her dreams, not just another mediocre life with little to show. So stop telling me what to do. Get off your ass and go experience the world. The clock is ticking.

Slamming Bars

I believe that it is ok to slam the bar at weightlifting meets because I think that expressing your emotions makes the sport more interesting, the equipment is guaranteed to last a lifetime, and there’s really no damage that can be done by following a bar down with momentum.

Eleiko competition barbells are made out of Swedish steel that is guaranteed to last a lifetime. They test these bars with 1500 kilos of pressure then repeatedly perform drop tests on them before they ship them out to customers. Do you really think that slamming a couple hundred kilos will harm the barbell?* I’ve never heard of a bar breaking at a competition. Ever. In the history of weightlifting a bar has only been broken once or twice and weightlifters have been slamming bars since the very beginning.

People don’t love to watch weightlifting like they love to watch other sports. It’s just not interesting enough, and with each person taking six attempts weightlifting meets can get pretty drawn out. The most exciting things at a weightlifting meet are maybe that someone has a really cool singlet on or there’s a close battle between two (or more) athletes. Maybe having a little bit of extra excitement would make it more appealing to the general public.

You may disagree and say that it is disrespectful to slam bars, but it really isn’t unless the owner of the gym or some other person of authority asks you not to. I also feel the need to point out that respect is the last thing that is going to be on someones mind after lifting a heavy-ass weight that could potentially paralyze them over their head. When you think about how hard you’ve trained to make the lift and adrenaline is pumping through you, sometimes its hard to control yourself in the moment. Respect is a choice, and making a rule that doesn’t allow people to the slam the bar will just upset certain individuals to the point where you will have more to deal with than just bar slams.

Overall I think that their is no harm in allowing athletes to slam the bar at weightlifting competitions. There is a lot of controversy about this topic and this is just my opinion. I choose to slam bars.

*Assuming that all competition sets are made out of quality steel.

Does this really look disrespectful?

Breaking Down

Training gets hard. Should you listen to your body? No. What I mean by that is not to ignore pain, but just don’t let the pain stop you. I say don’t listen to your body in the way that when you feel terrible and everything is hard and you want to take a couple weeks off, you shouldn’t. There is always something in the gym to work on and if you really want to be the best you need to realize that every minute you aren’t in the gym one of your opponents is.

The body breaks down during hard training and that is when a lot of people quit.There is a point where everything just sucks and it hurts to walk and you’re most likely not making any progress for a really long time, then you see these people that you compete with hitting PRs on Instagram and you just really feel like crap. It’s hard because you know that you have to listen to your coach and believe in his programming even when nothing feels good anymore. Those massages that were once relaxing now feel like you’re being poked with needles and you can’t even tell the temperature difference in those contrast showers you take. People at school and work start to question why you always walk around like you’re constipated.

   But that is the part where you really become a better athlete both mentally and physically. You are breaking your muscles and your nervous system down to build them up stronger later on. Sometimes when you put so much stress on your body you can do some pretty amazing things, because your body goes into a certain response mode where in order to do anything strenuous it has to recruit literally all of your muscle fibers because that is just how broken down you are. As Jillian Michaels puts it "Your legs aren't giving out, your head is giving up!" You must continue to push through the tough training and you must believe that you can or you will fail. Don't you dare tell yourself that you can't do it.

Then after that terrible break down period if you were eating enough and sleeping enough you should come back and make some really great progress. After you start to taper for a competition or max out week you should feel 10x stronger and worth a million bucks. The weights should shoot up and you should be able to walk up the stairs without cringing in pain. This is the fun part of training. It doesn’t come without cost though, you must work for it. Breakdown periods can last for weeks or even months, and it may take more than a week for your body to fully recover from them so you can start to hit big weights again. Thats just all part of the game of weightlifting. Whatever you do when training starts to suck, don’t quit.

Training with a Broken Wrist

It has sparkles too✨ 

  I injured my wrist the week before Junior Nationals doing a max effort clean. Immediately I knew something was wrong and I worried that I wouldn’t be healed in time to compete. I downplayed the pain and pushed through training. Junior Nationals came and I bombed out. A month later, after two x-rays, an ultrasound, and an MRI they finally put me in a cast for six weeks.

Did I stop training? Heck no. Each injury is an opportunity to kill a weakness. My biggest weakness is front squats. I can’t really do front squats with a cast, but I sure can do some other terrible form of them (zombie squats). My coach put me on a crazy program where you basically try to max out every day (every three weeks is a recovery week). I’ve had time to focus on the importance of breathing properly and I believe that this has made all the difference for me. I was complaining that I hadn’t maxed out on my back squat for 6 months, but last week I put 20 lbs on my back squat and 15 lbs on my zombie squat.

Squats cover lower body strength, now what about maintaining upper body strength? I found some painless exercises for my shoulders/upper back and I’ve added them into my daily regimen. Basically you lay on the floor and squeeze your shoulder blades then bring your arms off the floor. I do 20 reps in each position: T, W, and Y (literally you just shape your arms like the letters). Of course now I also have all the time in the world for core and mobility. I have a 30 minute mobility/warm-up routine. Three minutes of each exercise on both sides: quad floss, hamstring floss, super couch stretch, and splits. After that you sit in a squat for 10 minutes and do Ido’s Squat Routine. I’ve noticed a huge improvement on my ankle and hip mobility after doing this routine consistently.

     If I could go back and change anything I would have stopped lifting immediately after getting injured. A lot of athletes make the mistake of pushing through pain (not just soreness, but actual pain!). Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture and realize that letting it heal now will be a lot faster than pushing through it and making it worse. I wish I could have understood this concept a little earlier, but hey life goes on. For all the athletes out there: listen to your body and make the smart choice! For example if your knees are sore, then focus on upper body movements for the next couple of days and try some new lower body stretches.

Basically just train smart and try to see injuries as another opportunity to better yourself as an athlete!

Thanks for reading.

Do's and Don'ts the Week before a Weightlifting Meet

Learning some tips from Glenn Pendlay

I’ve heard stories, made my own mistakes, and seen some pretty crazy things happen at weightlifting meets. Hopefully these tips will help you avoid making the same simple mistakes, so your experience at an Olympic Weightlifting meet is filled with personal records.

Here are some things to be aware of before a competition:

#1 - If you are traveling long distance make sure you have enough time to adapt before you compete. Personally I like to do a workout in the warm-up area the day before, so I know what it feels like to lift in that particular atmosphere with those particular barbells and weights. For a general rule of thumb try to arrive at least 24 hours before you compete.

#2 - Know your weight. Nothing sucks more than arriving at the venue and finding out you are more than a couple kilos overweight. Some meets have saunas, some don’t. So don’t depend on a sauna for cutting weight. You should have a plan ahead of time and know how your body reacts weight-wise to certain foods. The best plan is to just not cut weight. Cutting weight for more than a couple days before a meet will suck all the energy out of you and your lifting will suffer.

#3 - Stay hydrated. The week before a meet you should slowly increase your water intake, up until the night before. From then on cut back on water intake until after you weigh-in. Immediately after weigh-ins you should rehydrate with water and gatorade or pedialyte (something with electrolytes). It’s also wise to get some extra carbs in before you lift and in between the snatch and the clean & jerk.

#4 - Sleep. A lot. Extra sleep is always a bonus. You will feel more refreshed and energized, plus it will help keep your hormones in balance. It also gives you less time to think about your lifting. Don’t be fooled by excitement and nerves, you really do need extra sleep. It’s exhausting to be filled with adrenaline and surrounded by a roaring audience along with thunderous bar slams. I know that if I don’t get enough sleep the night before a competition I start to have anxiety attacks.

#5 - Don’t try anything new. Keep your routine the same and treat warm-ups just like a max out training day. This way your body will be primed to lift heavy. If you have a pre-workout routine, keep it the same. If you take any pre-workout supplements or drinks do the same on competition day. I heard a story about a lifter who usually took C4 protein powder before training, but on competition day he decided to mix red bull with coffee and assault protein powder. He ended up throwing up and having to pull out of the competition. That is a unique situation, but nonetheless always stick to your usual pre-workout ritual.

#6 - Listen to your coach and no one elses. Remember you don’t want to change anything right before a meet. Most likely your coach has a few mental cues that you are used to hearing. They work for you and your brain knows exactly what to do when your coach uses those cues. When a new coach tells you to fix something it messes with your routine. If people do try to fix your technique just nod politely and continue doing what you were doing. This is just weightlifting etiquette.

#7 - Breathe. Sounds like common sense, but for some people forgetting to breathe leads to missing lifts and passing out. Before you lift it is useful to take deep diaphragmatic breaths to calm yourself. Also when you are coming up from a clean, breathing out is extremely important, because it just isn’t possible to hold your breathe for the amount of time it takes to do a clean and jerk. When I was on stage at Junior Nationals I remember cleaning an easy weight then my vision going fuzzy, my hearing disappearing, and my mind going blank. One of the scariest experiences of my life was trying to find my way off that stage without falling over. Afterwards it was quite comical, but it could have been avoided if I had just remembered to breathe.

#8 - Don’t forget to have fun!

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.