Challenging the Paleo Challenge

If you know me, you know I like to eat. Not really eat a lot, but eat all the time (which, over the course of a day can constitute a lot...). I can't really say I'm a horrible eater - as in eating a ton of junk food - but I'm not the best eater in the world. I've been trying to grasp the whole primal/paleo lifestyle and working towards eating better, but I just can't quite get there. So, when Black Hills CrossFit decided to do a 30-day Paleo Challenge, I thought "here's my chance to finally take the plunge!"

Let me start at the beginning...Over the last nine months of my CrossFit Journey, I've learned a lot about myself and what I can (and can't) do. I'm not really one who's had many "life changing" moments, but CrossFit has definitely been one of the best things I've ever done for myself. Through CrossFit, I've learned that you can wake up sore seven days a week, yet still make it to the gym and (wobble) through a workout because, after round three, you just don't feel anything anymore. I've learned that, after doing 150 lunges and 150 squats, it hurts really, really bad to stand up after sitting for any period of time - therefore, it is important to time your bathroom breaks so you are ensured access to the handicap stall. I've also learned that, even if I don't think I can do something, but someone else tells me I can, I will do it. One of the biggest strengths I have is my stubbornness, I do not enjoy being the last one to finish a WOD, but even worse than that would be failing to finish it. In the gym, you are competing against other athletes and just going through the motions would be letting them down as competitors - CrossFit has taught me that "just doing" a task is not acceptable. When you show up, the trainers and other CrossFitters expect 100% from you. And when you leave, you feel ashamed of yourself if you have not given 110%.

December is going to be a difficult month, on many counts. First, it's holiday season, which says enough in itself. Second, it's winter and cold as ever out, which makes it hard to get outside and do long hikes with the pup. Third, it's the first ever 30-Day Paleo Challenge at the gym. I'm not going to go into details, but I'm excitedly nervous to embark on my next journey. I'm not saying it won't be hard or that I am 100% certain I will never fall off the wagon, but I am going to give it my all to be successful.

So, where does what I have learned at CrossFit fit in with the Paleo Challenge? Some of it is the pride I've learned through CrossFit and wanting to be part of something not everyone does. Some of it is actually having a solid reason to start my primal journey. But most of it is because I want to prove to myself that I can. I can have self restraint (not eating a donut when someone brings them into the office). I can cook (not start the grill on fire and having my steak well-done on the outside and rare in the middle). I can improve. But most important...I can be happy with who I am and where I am going. Because wherever I wind up in life, I want to say I did everything I had to do to get there. And I'm happy.

Realization is Like a Slap in the Face

I have always been a positive person until recently (recently being the last few years). Something happened and my life went from 100% optimistic to 100% uncertain. I can't call myself a pessimist, but I am definitely not the happy-go-lucky person I used to be. They say you don't notice changes when you are around someone all the time, which proves to be the case here. I never realized how much of a party-pooper I have become and how negative I have turned out to be until I was reading about the primal lifestyle and surrounding yourself with positive people to make yourself a positive person. As all great things happen and realization sets in, this became a stout reality when this really great guy decided I wasn't the one for him. I have been kicking myself for weeks trying to figure out what happened. And then it hit me. Like a slap in the face by a wet snowball on a cold day.


I was sort of seeing this guy; he was everything I was looking for and had a completely laid back lifestyle, something I am completely jealous of. I am the kind of person who is busy during almost every waking moment and he is the same way. But what I realize now, our definitions of busy are two completely different things...his busy was doing what he loved because he loved to do it. My busy was doing what I loved because it was what was needed to get the job done. I realize now that, what I loved has become work and the fun gets taken away when it becomes work. And that is why he didn't want to hang out with me anymore...because my lack of fun is contagious and, like anyone with some sense, he didn't want to catch it. I don't blame him. Just call me Negative Nancy.


I teach survival skills as part of a new recruit orientation. The number one necessity for survival? Ranking above air, water, and food? Positive Mental Attitude. It even deserves a TLA (three letter acronym) like all good things that need to be remembered. PMA is the utmost important thing to survival in any situation. "Think and therefore you are" has never made more sense than it does right now. If you think positive, you will be a positive person. If you think happy, then you will be happy. Likewise, if you think negative, then you will be a negative person. This is something we preach in survival, but why don't we practice it in real life, in everyday situations? You are more proficient at what you have practiced, so do it every day and enjoy the naturalness of being a positive person.


So, here is to a good PMA. Next time that snowball is coming my way, it's going to be because there is 12" of snow on the ground and I'm ready to fire back.


TsS

Irrational Fears

Shortly after I moved into my new house, I found a bunny rabbit in the window well. My father, being the loving, compassionate man he is, told me to jump in there and get it out. After I looked at him like he was crazy, I reluctantly climbed down in the well and started doing one of my first "homeowner duties". While I was down there, I found three mice. I was terrified the mice were going to run up my pant leg and the bunny was going to jump out of my hands into my face.  As Dad and Koda stood on the outside looking in, I grabbed the bunny and half tossed/half catapulted the poor thing out, then got the mice out. Dad stood at the top and laughed at me the whole time while I was shrieking and squealing. After my daring rescue, I climbed out of the hole and preceded to haul butt into the house and wash my hands and arms although I had thick leather gloves on.


Since then, whenever I get my mail, I check the window well to see if anything has fallen in (I have yet to get window well covers, which would solve the majority of the problem). When I look in, I stand about three feet away from the edge and peer into it with one foot in front of the other, so, if necessary, I can make a quick retreat. I have this horrible fear that there will be a mad bunny rabbit in there and it will (somehow) jump out at me when I look in. As irrational as it is, I am fairly certain the family of the bunny who fell in there last year is out for revenge. 


Where do these fears come from? Is it something in our past that triggers an alarm reaction and, from that point forward, we just associate that reaction with a situation? I've never actually had a bunny jump out at me, but the possibility is very real in my head. I'm sure I could get some kind of therapy to make my "condition" go away, but I'd rather just peer over the edge and keep my neighbors wondering what is so interesting in my window wells.

Not JUST a Volunteer...

I was in Nevada last summer visiting some fellow firefighters. We did the customary fire station tour and I met their Operations Chief. We chatted about the differences in fire departments throughout the region. I told him a little about our area and that I was with a rural fire department near Rapid City. He asked how many calls we did in a year and I answered with “right around 100, we’re just a volunteer department.” He looked at me with his eyebrows raised. “Just a volunteer department?”

At the time, it didn’t mean much to me, but then I started thinking about my response. Why are we just a volunteer department? When people introduce me as a “firefighter,” I usually follow it with the same statement: “I’m just a volunteer.” Why is that? Am I being modest? Well, very few firefighters I know are modest, so I ruled that out right away. Am I ashamed to be a firefighter? No, it’s just the opposite. So what is the deal?

I started looking at our training and the time volunteers put into the fire department. Most volunteers spend nearly five hours a week at the fire station, which may not sound like much, but that is in addition to the 40-some hours worked during the week and spending time with family and friends; going to concerts and ball games, picking up groceries, cooking dinner. Between business meetings, trainings, calls, other meetings, going to classes, and the time spent at the station, one would assume we get paid to do what we do. But, we don’t. So why is it that we are just volunteers?

 The majority of the country is protected by volunteers, which is evident in South Dakota. We leave dinner with our family to go take a sick neighbor to the hospital; miss a birthday party to go fight a fire in the next county; spend Christmas in a blizzard rescuing people who ignored the road closures. We also use our weekends to take classes to further our knowledge and better ourselves as firefighters. Our training is top notch; we go through the South Dakota Certified Firefighter Course, complete NWCG wildland classes and task books, take National Fire Academy classes, and we travel around the state going to district fire schools.

We wear our department “colors” with pride (aka, jackets, shirts, hats), drive our trucks in parades, support local community events, and have open houses where we let kids climb in our trucks and turn on the lights. We defend our neighboring department when someone says it took them 20 minutes to get on scene. Most importantly, we stand beside what we believe in. Not in front of it, not behind it, but beside it. Whatever it is that drives us to do what we do – we stand beside it; because it is what makes us not a volunteer, but a firefighter. It is what makes us a team, provides that common link between all firefighters – regardless of your colors, your status, or your position on the department. When we respond to emergencies as firefighters, not just as volunteers. People do not care what you are called, as long as you are there to help them get through their emergency. Firefighters are a public icon – heroes in the American world. So, next time someone introduces me as a firefighter, I will respond with a smile, and proudly say “Yes, I am a firefighter.”

As the saying goes…fire does not care if your truck is red or yellow, if you are male or female, if you are career or volunteer. It’s how you fight the battle that determines victory in the war. 

Who I am...

I'd like to say I'm a unique person with many wild and crazy interests leading some NCIS-style life, but, in reality, I am a small town girl growing up in a small town world.
My dad always said I have the gift of gab and, those of you who personally know me, know he is right on. I will talk to pretty much anyone about pretty much anything, except about myself (which is somewhat counterintuitive, considering most bloggers talk about themselves). That being said, I'm sure, in the coming months, you'll recognize I talk more about "stuff" than myself. I'd like to be that person who says "if you want to know anything about me, just ask!" but that would be leading you astray. So, as boring as it is, this is the first of many ramblings....welcome to my life!