COT

Took a lap to warm the soul.

Suprised everyone with a PHOP style Gear workout at the Easgles Nest. Entered into the Circle of gear with Kettle Bells, Sledge hammers, Ammo Cans and Concrete blocks!

Tabada timer and Martin Garix gave us 45 sec to push it and 15 sec of rest at each station. We started off the workout with some Jimmy Buffet on Pandora but once “One Love” from the Marley band came on we had to get a more motivating genre going.

Cool down stretching!

COT

BOOM!

COT

Took a lap to warm the soul.

Entered into the Circle of gear with Kettle Bells, Sledge hammers, Ammo Cans and Concrete blocks!

Tabada timer and Martin Garix gave us 45 sec to push it and 15 sec of rest at each station.

Cool down stretching!

COT

WHEN: 3/15/2016

QIC: RealTree / TURBINE

THE PAX: Apache, Dry Dock, Drifter, Chappie, Lego Land, Bull, and Nunchuck

YHC was honored to lead with RealTree this morning in the gloom. A balmy 55 degrees was absolutely perfect weather to introduce the PAX to a couple of new friends….hot lumber and cold steel!

THE THANG-

RealTree began with the warm up:

• SSH
• Buckets
• MNC
• Merkins
• Then we took a little mosey to the Dragon obstacle course.
• 20 Dips then down the hill
• 20 Merkins then up the hill
• 20 Dips then down the hill
  • DRAGON CRAWL
• 20 Diamond Merkins then up the hill
• 10 Dips then down the hill
• 20 staggered Merkins, 10 each side

REALTREE TO TURBINE HANDOFF- NICE WARM UP BY #HIM

Mosey to rear parking lot

• Parking lot Thirds
  • 1/3 BKickers
  • 1/3 Lunge Walk
  • 1/3 HKnees
  • 20 Derkins
• Mosey to the loop past the Cougar
• Grab some lumber, take a 4 corners lap while holding lumber over your head!
  • Corner 1: 40 Squats
  • Corner 2: Irkins (feet on the board)
  • Corner 3: 20 Bombjacks
  • DRAGON CRAWL 
  • Corner 4: 20 Merkins on the board
• RECOVER
  • YHC gave a brief word on the support of our M’s and mentioned Galatians 6:9 – “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. Our M’s put up with a lot of CSAUP stuff we do. Thank Them, Hug Them, and Never Neglect Them as the small stuff to us is greatly important to them.
• BACK AT IT
• More friends to introduce: FNK’s- friend new kettlebells!! (THX BOGEY!!)
• The PAX teamed up in 3 teams of 3s
  • THE SET UP:
    • PAX-holding board w FNK hanging on it-PAX-holding board w FNK hanging on it-PAX
• This was repeated 3 times to ensure each PAX had a chance to meet the steel.
• THE COOLDOWN:
• 1 Final lap around the loop
• Mosey to AO….we had 1 minute left for some extra SSHs!
• Oh wait!!! for the appropriately timed THIRD DRAGON CRAWL that finished up the morning.

Praise for Chappie and his future opportunities upon his recent meeting.

Prayers raised up for the Davis family, Limp Bizcuit and family, and High Pockets.

I was honored to lead these men this morning. Observation from YHC; many strengths in “3s” today.

Challenge: Identify the strengths in 3s today around yourselves.

A few of mine:

• The Holy Trinity
• 3 Teams of 3 PAX this morning
• 1) My M, 2) our boys, and 3) myself make up our family unit.
  • Had to get stronger today, as we experienced 3 Dragon Crawls

Great job by all.

TURBINE out!!

Please read the whole Pre-Blast, but here is the gist of it all:

1.     Sign up here as an individual:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/f3-spring-mud-run-2016-f3-only-tickets-22178583741  Choose Fort Mill, SC as your region

2.     Email Spider-man with: Team Name and the F3 Name, Hospital Name and the Email Address of each man on the team here: jeffparker1978@gmail.com

This preblast contains all The Fort PAX need to know about the 2016 Spring Mud Run.

What: The Ultimate Challenge Mud Run is the F3 Nation “Super Bowl,” only better because it happens twice a year. The course is around 6 miles with 30 some obstacles. Obstacles are pretty evenly spread out throughout the course with obstacles about every 1/5^th of a mile.

When: Saturday, 30th April, 2016 at the Leatherneck course near Columbia, SC.

How: 1. Go to the main eventbrite to register https://f3mudrunspring2016.eventbrite.com to register. Individuals register on your own – not as a team. Register by March 20, 2015. Select Fort Mill, SC as your region. Registration is $55. We are still working out the details on the transportation. It normally runs $35- $40 per person. Sundries and drinks for the bus ride are on your own (no hard liquor please). The F3 Beer Boat will be at the race.

Registration is considered a “hard commit” with no guarantee of refund should you be unable to compete, even if your slot is filled by a free agent (see below). If you register and cannot meet your commitment, it’s your responsibility to your team and your Region to find a replacement.

2. Once you have registered, send YHC an email at jeffparker1978@gmail.com letting me know if you are part of a full four-man team already or if you need help forming a team. The email should include your Team Name and the F3 Name, Hospital Name and the Email Address of each man on the team. Note: If your team has an FNG, use the F3 name “FNG”.

YHC will be maintaining a Free Agents list to assist will building 4 man teams.

As with anything F3, if there is no Backblast, it didn’t happen, so I present to you the 2016 The Fort Fuel Challenge Backblast. Before I go further, a disclaimer is warranted:

I am not a professional… I don’t do nutrition for a living, but I do like to eat and try to eat healthy. Also, the title “Omnivore’s Dilemma” is from an excellent book by Michael Pollan. Like most things F3, we don’t create, we simply take what works, modify as needed, and throw away what doesn’t.

Omnivore’s Dilemma

Now that we have that out of the way, what is the Omnivore’s Dilemma? Let’s take it in reverse with an illustration. A Koala bear’s diet decisions are easy… He lives and breathes eucalyptus leaves. He knows his mission in life is to find a nice Koala babe and a lush field of eucalyptus trees to be set up for retirement. A Koala doesn’t have to make decisions on his diet, either the current tree has leaves or he moves on to the next.

Now, we humans are omnivores and we get to enjoy amazing variety of food. This is a great benefit to us, but at the same time a huge problem. What is good for you to eat? What will give you the fuel to make it throughout the day but not have adverse side effects?

What to eat? What is ok? What is not?

I personally believe that the base program is reasonably solid. No Fast Foods, No Fried Food, No Processed Snacks, No Dessert, No Soda/Sweet Tea, No Cheese (i actually have a problem with this one), and No Cream Based Dressings. All of these with the exception of the cheese, have at least one thing in common: Junk Calories. Cutting the junk means you have more room for the good. But the biggest problem people seem to have is with the “Definition of Processed Foods”. My initial response is “If it has ingredients you cannot confidently pronounce, then it is probable processed”. Someone else had an even better approach that was discussed over the span of the challenge: “Stay on the walls of the grocery store”. Meats, Veggies, Perishables. All these are typically on the outside wall of the Grocery Store…. sounds like a good habit to continue.

Sustainability

Buzz-word alert… but I think it is applicable here. Here is a quote from High Life:

“I admit to slacking every couple of days on the challenge (in small doses), but it’s part of my strategy to make this a sustainable change long-term. I was starting to feel too restricted on a day-to-day basis, so I allowed myself small amounts of banned substances. This has given me the ability to manage without feeling like I am going insane.”

I will second this, by even going so far as to feeling extremely guilty when I had a cheat (yes it did happen), to the point where I started to wonder if this is what people with Eating Disorders feel like.

This type of program is “fine” for 6 weeks but is not sustainable. It may be obvious, but I feel I still need to say it: “This is not a long term diet”. Professional Athletes and Actors going through grueling training to get a certain body type may be able to stick to this sort of diet, but they have incentive (7 figure salary?) that we don’t have and even for them it has to end at some point (the movie is over, or the offseason, etc).

The main point here is that you set yourself up for failure if you think this is a standard that can be kept in perpetuity. Again, read the disclaimer above.

I will comment that personally for me the last two weeks were the hardest. Not because of the things that were removed, but just that I could hardly force myself to eat more chicken. While I realize it is a “First world problem”, variety is necessary.

On the same note of sustainabily, there were a few bonus challenges that I threw out there that I know some of the PAX participated in. I will leave with one statement: Intermittent Fasting seems to make a difference, but it sure is hard.

NMM

So, I definitely feel there was impact, which I personally felt in two ways.

First, I did feel stronger and healthier. I could tell that my energy level increased. My mental clarity improved. Others reported similar findings and I think most everyone would agree that cutting out the junk is going to make a difference (again, read the disclaimer).  This is the “Queen” to the “King” S3T2.

Second, the last two weeks were incredibly tough. Personally I think the primary reason is that there was less chatter about the challenge, which made it a personal struggle instead of a group struggle. I supposed I could have marketed more, but I can only yell Food Challenge into the Twitter void with no answer so many times before I become a Fuel Nazi. Bottom line, this, like many things in life, is not easy when you do it alone.

Lastly, I want to thank all the PAX who showed up with Family for the last minute planned 2ndF at my place. It was a most excellent time and I hope we can have another one soon #glue.

If/When we do this again, I think we will overhaul the whole thing… but I am not ready for that yet.

Honor to serve.