Congratulations to Jimmy!! Jimmy has been accepted for a slot. It is an extremely competitive selection process, and we couldn't be prouder and happier! Way to go Jimmy!! Justin starts his training soon, and Jimmy will follow!
It is truly an honor to train with all of our cadets and military personnel! It's our job to get them in the best shape possible so they can in turn do their job to the best of their ability. Thank you one and all!
Here's a great recipe that you can tailor to your specific palettes...We just buy a bunch of different root veggies and add in a few of our favorite green veggies...just chop them, add some salt and pepper, toss in good olive oil or lard and roast in the oven at 400 degrees until golden brown. We had this over the weekend with Pecan-Crusted Salmon. It was outstanding!
Pecan-Crusted Salmon (a version adapted from Epicurious...)
2 lbs. Sockeye Salmon
1 1/2 C. finely chopped pecans
Salt/Pepper
1/2 stick organic butter (optional but the fish is much moister with it...)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 can coconut milk plus seasonings of your choice...
Mix all ingredients except for salmon and coconut milk together into a paste. Lightly salt and pepper the fish; spread the paste over the fish (skin side down) and put into a lightly oiled roasting pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes - start broiler and broil fish just until the crust has browned slightly. Boil the coconut milk in a separate pan and add your favorite seasonings - I used garlic and onion powder and spanish paprika. This serves as the sauce for the fish. Serve and enjoy!
Farm Raised vs. Wild Caught Salmon
Written by Tabitha Stine
Salmon is good for you. Zone, Paleo, or just plain eating well supports the regular consumption of salmon as a great lean protein packed with omega 3’s. The problem is that about 80% of the salmon on the market today is not wild caught but rather raised in a farm. In January 2004, the journal Science warned that farm raised salmon should only be eaten once a month, perhaps every two months as they pose cancer risks to the human beings.
The many reasons to eat wild caught salmon rather than farm raised include a much higher concentration of Omega-3s and that natural pink color from the carotenoids rather than synthetic pigments. However the greatest risk to our health posed by farm raised salmon is in what they eat. Rather than being able to swim freely and eat a natural diet of other fish, farm raised salmon are fed dried food pellets highly contaminated with a cancer causing agent called Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). PCBs are mixtures of individual chlorinated compound that were used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment. They are either oily liquids or solids that are colorless to light yellow. Although manufacturing of PCBs stopped in 1977 because of the harmful effects, PCBs are still present in the environment today and the fishmeal fed to farm raised salmon is full of them. PCBs are stored in fat and since farm raised salmon are confined they are generally fattier and therefore contain more PCBs. In July 2003, the Environmental Working Group EWG released a report stating that farm raised salmon purchased in the United States contain the highest level of PCBs in the food supply system. In the report, EWG reported that farm raised salmon have 16 times PCBs found in wild salmon.
A little freaked out about the salmon you had for dinner two nights ago? Hopefully not because you’ve all been feasting on the wild caught Alaskan variety. It’s a bit more expensive than farm raised but the health benefits are numerous. If you find the fillets you purchased are farm raised, practice the following when preparing your salmon dinner:
> Trim the skin and the visible fat as PCBs are store in the fat portion.
> Prepare your salmon to reduce a significant portion of fat such as grilling and broiling.
> Try canned salmon as almost all of them are wild salmon.
Does anybody have a disco ball we can hang in the lounge?! It really needs one!
A lot of you were able to get a workout in and tour the additional space yesterday. We hope the rest of you will be in over the next few days to check it out! With the new space come a few changes. First, the "main" entry door is now the furthest one down from the big parking lot. Please use this door as the entry/exit point. It enters directly into The Lounge, where all of the journals are kept. If there is another class in session when you arrive, please respect their time, and leave the floor to them. If you need to change or use the bathroom, stay along the whiteboard walls and use the new access point.
The back room, past the lounge, is still a work in progress. At this point, it is still full of construction materials. Eventually, it will be a mult-purpose room - but it's not ready yet!
The expanded workout area gives the room a very different feel. Be carefull of the pole in the middle of the room. It will be painted to make it stand out - just don't run into it!
All is set with the expansion, and we're ready to rock and roll! There are still some cosmetic details to work out, but everything's nice and clean. Please be patient as we figure things out in the new space ... I'm sure there are going to be various iterations of everything! And again, thanks to Tony, Andrew, JLo, Jared, Ryan, Cassidy, Mitch, Kaja, and Lopez for their work on Sunday. Super-duper thanks to Sean BVo, Carol, and Neil ... I honestly didn't think it was going to happen, and I'm glad that you proved me wrong. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
We're taking pre-orders on sweatshirts this week. We have samples available at the gym. We're going to be getting Anvil, with options of a regular hoodie and a zip hoodie, with colors black, chocolate, charcoal, and city green available. The left front will have the kettlebell logo, and the back will have the "distressed" logo on the lower back. We'll post drafts as soon as we get them. The cost should be around $50 ... this will be determined by how many people order which kind of sweatshirt. We'll be submitting the order on Friday, so if you want one, let us know via email or in person.
Shelby from Bayou City CrossFit is not about to let a torn achilles tendon get between her and Fight Gone Bad. Do you have that dedication? Do you get it? Not enough of us do ...
What a weekend! Thank you so much to everyone who came out over the weekend! All the walls that are coming down are down, most of the painting is done - but there is still a lot of cleaning and organizing left to be done.
Unfortunately, that means we won't be ready for classes on Monday. If you can't make all of your classes for the week bacause we're closed tomorrow, just let us know and we'll figure out a make up time. Thanks for your understanding - the end result will be a better CrossFit experience for everybody!
The first wall between the "old" and "new" spaces came down yesterday. It was a small section, next to the shower door, but it already gives a different feel! The rest of the walls will be coming down this weekend. The work party will be on Sunday at 10 AM, and will include a bonus WOD for those who are there to help out We need 6 -10 folks on Sunday to help knock out sheet rock, clean and paint and socialize! Shoot us an email or let us know when you're in if you can come for a while on Sunday.
Thanks to all of you for getting us to this stage of needing more space. Taking over the whole building in ... should we start a pool?!
Sean & I just got back from a 5 day hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail along the TN/NC border. This is an annual trip I've been doing for a number of years with a bunch of college buddies. In the past, food was always Lipton noodle packages, bagels, cheese, oatmeal, etc. Cheap & easy, but a ton of junk!! So this year was the first doing a completely (other than bourbon!) paleo trip!
Surprisingly it wasn't very difficult. Breakfast was a carrot cake we called Lembas - after the elves in Lord of the Rings. Sustains you over long journeys! Any recipe that calls for a dozen eggs has got to be good! A little beef jerky, and we were on our way. During the day I used the constant grazing approach. Homemade Lara Bars, nuts, trail mix, jerky. Sean also included sardines and some broccoli. For dinner, I had a pack of broccoli slaw, tuna in olive oil, and some peppers and stuff from the olive bar. I used some oil and water to cook the slaw a bit, added the tuna, some precooked sausage, and peppers, heated for a minute and supper was ready!
It took a little extra planning, but it wasn't difficult at all. If we can do it on the trail...
The girls also loved the Lembas I left at home - which is the ultimate taste test! Follow the link and try it!
Goal setting is really important in life. Most people set goals at the beginning of the calendar year, and they usually fall by the wayside. Any time is a good time to set goals, be they health or fitness, educational, financial, or interpersonal related. Here are some guidelines to help you out.
Be specific with your goals. "I want to be more flexible" doesn't quite cut it. "I want to be able to touch my toes" is a better framework. Set challenging, yet realistic goals for yourself. Say you have a GED. Making a goal of earning your PhD in Biochemistry in 5 years isn't realistic. That's setting the bar too high. Yet setting a goal of attending one college-level class in the next five years is too easy, and it's too big a time frame for such a small (time-wise) goal. I currently have a back squat of 215#. Shooting for 250# by the end of the year isn't realistic, unless I focussed all of my energy on achieving that goal (and losing a lot of other gains in the mean time). Yet setting a goal of 220# for one year from now is a bit too easy.
We have a goal board up at the gym. Think about it, and jot something down. You don't need to publicize all of your goals, but having some accountability is always good! Spend some quiet time thinking about it, and set those goals! Better now than in a post-New Year's Eve haze!!
As most of you know, October is breast cancer awareness month. I've always thought it odd that there be certain designations of months, but they didn't ask me. Anyway, there are a lot of opportunities around for folks to get involved and help raise money for breast cancer research.
But where else, other than CrossFit, can you find a fundraiser entitled Barbells For Boobs? Brickhouse CrossFit, in Roanoke, is going to be hosting a fundraiser on 30 October. The workout is going to be Grace (very fitting!). You need to register online to participate in this workout. It's only $35, and you get a Tshirt. We'll be helping Brickhouse by provide some bars and bumpers for the event.
Here's the kicker ... we're planning on making our own CF Blacksburg Tshirts for the event. Erin P found an online shop that sells "Feel Your Boobies" Tshirts with a custom logo on the back. We'll need to pre-order them, so we need to get your $ up front by Friday. They'll be pink ... yes, I think you guys are man enough to wear a pink shirt! We're thinking of design #2 - let us know what you think. We won't know the exact price until we order, but it will be between $12 and $15.
So what's up with Barbells For Boobs? It's a way to raise money for Mammograms In Action, a program that provides mammograms to low-income and uninsured women. A measley $35, multiplied by a lot, can provide mammograms for a lot of women.
Both of my sisters-in-law are breast cancer survivors, and I'll be doing this workout thinking of them and how thankful I am that they're still in my life!!
Nice work from everyone who attended the Wilkes Olympic Weightlifting Seminar yesterday ... Marsha, Allie, Erin, Becky, Cassidy, Andrew, Jimmy, Sean G, Fred, Mike, Jose, Ben, and Jesse all seemed to learn a lot, and have a great time! I bet their traps are going to be sore tomorrow, but it's all good.
Please, please be sure to communicate with your coach if you're having any "issues" that affect your performance in the gym. We at CrossFit Blacksburg pride ourselves on quality coaching, but we are not psychic! I can't tell, just from looking at you, that your calf has been giving you problems lately. As I say in all of the intros that I conduct, "I will push you and I will push you hard. But I am not a mind-reader and you are always in charge!" And that's true. I don't want you to get hurt, so if you're feeling "something," tell us.
On the flip side of that discussion is the somewhat common thought among our "less young" clientele that they know exactly what they can and cannot do, and that they are doomed forever to have knee aches, or whatever. Bull-oney! Heck, if you've had knee aches for the last 20 years, and have never done a squat properly, why say you can't squat? Obviously what you've been doing for the last 20 years isn't working for you! What not try something new?!? Same goes for nutrition, but that's a different post! Quit complaining about "I can't" and give it a go. Do the best you can, make adjustments, ask advice, and get moving! And don't be so damned stubborn. Please, check your ego at the door, and listen to your coach when it comes to scaling. You come for us for fitness and strength training expertise. I go to you for your superior plumbing skills or website design. I trust you in your field of expertise, you need to trust us in ours!
